· Oa

the dear author of our free condition. Out of gratitude to him, and for the honor of God, this memorial-chapel was erected." either fide ftand lines to this effect:

"If we be juft, united, and good, our freedom will stand safe. "Thankfully think of that time, when ye became a free people.” • Above the altar, has been painted the dial of a clock with the hand pointing at I. in allufion to unity under it are the words "Our freedom will last long, if we be always at one." "

Many and many a fine poem, wearing on its forehead the feal of immortality, has affected me lefs than the noble sense couch'd in the rude language of thefe fimple rhimes. How free from all arrogance, from all proud affertion of confcious ftrength however juftifiable, from all vaunt of that courage against which mighty armies were shattered -are thefe infcriptions! They do not mention those heroic deeds. They recommend reliance only on union and on justice. To these nobleft of the virtues, and to the God from whom cometh every good and perfect gift, from whom courage, and union, and juftice, and freedom defcend, thefe people choose to afcribe a liberty fo dearly bought with the blood of their forefathers.

The Shacre, a violent mountain torrent, rushes with impetuofity through Bürgli: it overflowed foon after Tell fhot the tyrant, and did much damage. Tell was contriving the means of removing this grievance alfo, when the ftream caught him. He only faw the dawn of better times.'

• Geneva, 16 October 1791. Sixteen years ago, when I first vifited Geneva, the republican (why not the calviniftical?) fpirit tolerated no ftage-plays. In the year 1782, while the ariftocratic party prevailed, the influence of France introduced theatrical exhibitions. Cards, too, fince that period, are become more general. Thefe amusements remain, although the antient conftitution has been reftored both will divert the attention of the citizens from the interefts of liberty.

Larive,the great actor from Paris, has been here fome days, and laft night played Tancred. He was certainly born with great talents. His attitudes, his countenance, the expreffion of his eyes, are mafterly: his voice is fine, and entirely at his command. According to French preconceptions, he is certainly a capital performer: but thou knoweit how wide from nature appears to me the manner of the French school.

Unfortunate nation! which by its philofophers, its poets, and its actors, has ever been led afide from truth by cold conventional rules; among which even the tender fenfibility of Racine's foul was fo often untuned; which now thinks itself animated with the fpirit of true freedom, and is prating of moral and political regeneration, while, mindlefs of Fenelon, and of Montefquieu, it is suffering Voltaire to be deified by its legislature.'

Rome, 7 January 1792, We began with a ruin of the middle age of which the hiftory is fingular: with the remains of the palace of Nicola Gabrino di Lorenzo, commonly called Rienzo, who in the fourteenth century ruled for a while under the name of a Tribune of Rome. This man was of low birth, but of high fpirit. The per

* See his Life, Review, vol. xii. p. 27.

ufal

ufal of the antients inflamed him with the love and with the defire of liberty. He was diftinguished early, and was fent by the inhabitants of Rome to Avignon, in company with the celebrated Petrarch, to invite back Clement VI. Neither the fongs of Petrarch, nor the eloquence of Rienzo, could prevail with the Pope. Rienzo on his return was created by the Romans, who were angry with Clement, Tribune of the People. In the year 1347 he collected the people without arms, had mafs performed at Saint Angelo, and in the morn ing conducted the multitude to the Capitol. There he ftaked three banners adorned with the fymbols of peace, of juftice, and of liberty, and ordered fifteen regulations to be read aloud, which were to form the ground-work of a good conftitution. He then proceeded to the election of a new council, which he called the chamber of juftice and peace. He harangued against all evil-doers, murderers, adulterers, robbers, &c. of whom he fent fome to execution, and fome into exile.

He collected an army of twenty thousand men, and invited all princes and free ftates to enter with him into the bond of well-being; (del buono ftato,) that is, to recognize him. The emperor Louis of Bavaria, Louis the First king of Hungary, and queen Joan of Naples, fent him ambaffadors. With a little more caution and moderation, Rienzo would have fubverted for ever the temporal power of the popes: but placed as he was on the pinnacle of fortune, he grew giddy. He convoked independent princes before his judgment-feat. The grandees of Rome grew diffatisfied, and excited the people against him. Rienzo refigned the tribuneship, retired towards Naples, and lived during two years a hermit. Then he returned to Rome, made a new but fhort impreffion on the people, and found it necessary once more to withdraw. He now went to Prague, was discovered, feized by the emperor Charles IV. one of the princes whom he had cited before his tribunal, and fent to Avignon, where Clement VI. imprifoned him. After the death of that pope, the pacific Innocent VI. fet Rienzo at liberty and made him a fenator at Rome. One Baronetti was then Tribune, in opposition to whom Rienzo a third time obtained this honor: but the nobility rofe on him, and he fell during the infurrection, pierced by many daggers. He had affumed the titles of Nicolas, the mild and firm, deliverer of the city, vindicator of Italy, knight of the Holy Ghoft, love of the world, the mighty Tribune.

Rienzo had built for himfelf a palace, partly of collected remains, partly in the taftelefs architecture of the age. After his ambition had coft him his life, the hatred of the popes purfued his memory, gave him the nick-name of Pilate, and called his palace the palace of Pilate. In time, the name of Rienzo was effaced, and the palace affumed that of Pontius Pilate. Ignorance went ftill farther. It was faid that Pontius had brought with him from Jerufalem not only his furniture, but a marble stair-cafe, up and down which our Saviour had walked. Sixtus V. placed this ftair-cafe of Rienzo's in the Lateran, where it fiil ftands, a holy relique, and is afcended kneeling.'

Rome, 23d January 1792. We next faw the gladiator, as it is called. This is one of the nobleft works of Grecian art. It must

improperly

improperly have been named the gladiator. The more skilful connoiffeurs agree in thinking it a Hero. The figure is perfectly beautiful, not idealized, but as Nature fashions in fortunate moments those whom she deftines for the great and beautiful in action. With all the elegance of perfect nature, with all the vigour of blooming life, with all the courage infpired by ftrength, it ftands, ftrong as a man, agile as a youth. The body leans forwards fupported by the right leg, and ftretching or trailing the left from far behind. In the left hand is a finall round fhield; in the right, which is drawn backwards, a fhort fpear. The station is an attitude of vigorous movement, a pofition that cannot laft. How could the artist steal from nature the evanefcent movement of such a motion? No man could stand a minute in fuch a pofition, as a model to a painter :-but how could Raphael paint the angels winged with heavenly hafte in his Heliodorus ? they tread the earth with the tip of the foot, and the hair flies back in fames: here again can have been no model. Had the maker of this ftatue not infcribed his name on the work, we should discern in it a Grecian hand, a Grecian fpirit. It would be interefting to know the time in which he flourished: he was called Agafias the fon of Dofitheos, and was of Ephesus *.' —

Rome, 28 January 1792. The celebrated Apollo of Belvedere is but half-known from copies in plafter. The godlike countenance, fublimely indignant, lofes in the imitation much of its Olympic grace; and yet O Greece!-and yet this flatue appears to be no more than a copy of fome Grecian original; for it is of Carrara marble. It was found in the ruins of Nero's villa at Antium.

One of the finest pieces of fculpture is the Antinous, as it is called. A well-trained eye would difcover a hero, where so many have seen an Antinous. A copy of this ftatue having been found with wings on the feet, the learned Abbé Visconti maintained it to be a Mercury. Winckelman fancied it a Meleager. The antiquary Hirt is of opinion that it is a Perfeus. Thus the wings on the feet of the copy are equally well explained. It fhould be added that the feet of the original have been knocked off, and joined on again, probably in order to come at the brazen wings; for brafs was a great object of booty to the barbarians, particularly to the Vandals.'

Naples, 11 February 1792. A great city is a great evil: it devours the population of a country; it is the grave of good morals, and exhales to a great diftance its peftiferous influence. Naples is very great and very populous: it contains 4 or 500,000 persons : yet fuch is the fertility of the neighbouring foil, that provifions abound, and are very cheap. Among thefe, are reckoned ices, and a fcarcity or dearth of them would occafion popular disturbances. In food and drink, the common Napolitans, and indeed all Italians, are very temperate. They would rather forego the conveniences of life than earn them by labor. This appears to me natural. In a hot climate, what convenience can vie with reft in the fhade? The repeated astonishment of travellers at the floth of this people favours of a fuperficial, if not of an ill-tempered, obferver. That the conte

With fome the flatue pafles for a Chabrias,

quences

quences of idleness may be corruptive is perhaps true: but that the man, who in order to procure fome artificial conveniences works feveral hours the longer, fhould be preferable to another who fatisfies the most natural of all tastes, the love of repofe in the heat, is what I cannot discover. Whatever the Napolitan wants is thrown into his lap by the bounty of nature, almoft without his flirring a finger. Moderate in eating and drinking, needing few clothes and no fuel, he fcarcely covets a houfe. The number of Lazaroni who have no habitation, who fleep in the open air, and, in bad weather, under a portico or a penthoufe, is faid to amount to 40,000. They do not willingly undertake any work, while they have a halfpenny left. For to-morrow they take no thought. The fame mild fky, which here fertilizes the lap of the ever-teeming and ever-fuckling earth, also bestows a chearful fpirit. A light blood flows in their veins, and they know no care. Propofe to fuch men a jobb, when they are not pressed by want, they whisk the back of the hand across the chin and throw back the head in fign of rejection, too lazy even to speak. If any thing ftimulates them, (I do not mean their paffions, which, like ftraw-fires, blaze up and extinguish, but fome feebler motive,) no men are more loquacious and gefticulative. These people have wives and children. There is a man among them of confiderable influence, whom they call capo de gli Lazaroni. He goes barefoot and in tatters like the others. He is their spokesman, when they have to addrefs the government. He prefents himself on thefe occafions usually to the Eletto del Popolo, a popular magiftrate, or tribune of the people, as far as fuch an one can exift under an unlimited monarch: fometimes he applies to the king in perfon. The claims of the Lazaroni are moderate; they have an internal sense of right and wrong, which the multitude seldom wants when left to itfelf. It would be dangerous to flight a just representation from this quarter, or to refufe their demands without affigning a reafon. They love the present king, and would, I am affured, in cafe of need, lend him the fupport of their arms but he has no fuch preffure to fear.

Last year, before the king fet off on his journey to Germany, Nicola Sabbato, the prefent chief of the Lazaroni, addreffed him to this effect. He lamented that the king fhould be about to quit his people for a time, but faw no reason to object to a tour which had for its object the amufement of a monarch who willingly faw his people made glad. "We are (faid he) thirty thousand of us, who meanwhile will watch over the tranquillity of the land. You have certainly nothing to apprehend: but, fhould any one have the rafhnefs to betray rebellious defigns, we have fworn to tear him into as many pieces as we are perfons, and we will each fmoak a mammock of him in our pipes." During the king's abfence, this Nicola Sabbato ufed to call on the princes and princeffes, in order, as he said, to have news of the king's welfare to carry to the people. He also frequently called upon the prime minifter Acton. Once he went to him in a great ferment, and required audience. "I have feen (fays he,) a man clad as a pilgrim in the market place, who diftributes French hand-bills, which I and my fellows do not understand; and who offers a stone to be kissed which is a remnant of the Baftille. No doube

he

he means to excite infurrection. We were about toffing him into the fea, but I chose to hear your opinion firft-it will be right, won't it? to fling him into the fea." The minifter had much difficulty in convincing him that examinations would firft be neceffary. He perfifted in the propriety of hurling the infurgent into the fea. When the minifter faid that he would fend foldiers to conduct the man to prifon, Sabbato anfwered: That I take upon myfelf;" and in fact the foreigner was led to gaol by Lazaroni. The hand-bills were full of incendiary matter; and the diftributor of them was one of those missionaries whom the over-weening zeal of the French clubs fent out into Europe, in order to enlighten, to ameliorate, to blefs the nations: he had affumed the difguife of a pilgrim. According to the received. law of nations, his life was forfeited: but the government was contented to banish him to the island Maritima, off the western coaft of Sicily.

To the prefent fovereign the Lazaroni are much attached. A troop of many thoufands, who have nothing to lofe, may be very formidable; may keep a tyrannic prince in wholefome awe. A defpotic conftitution needs fuch an antidote to counterpoife the danger of its blind force, by a force equally blind:-but a free conftitution requires order; for freedom can only be founded on order. In a nation truly free there are no attroopments of house-lefs Lazaroni, as at Naples; nor of Megæra-like fith-women, as at Paris.'

Naples, 19 April 1792. The people of that ifland (Capri) are lively and gefticulative. An old woman was excited, by the fresh complexion and flaxen locks of my fon, to a comic degree of transport. She danced round and round him, flung her arms into the air, and, as fhe had no tabor, imitated its rhythm by fnapping her fingers, finging all the while as if infpired: Quanto e bello! Sopra bello, fotto bello, tutto bello! o quanto bello!

Indeed it appears natural to the women of this country, when they dance with paffion, to hold the arms aloof; and dancing foon hurries them into an impaffioned ftate. Paffion too will make them dance. Here at Naples I once faw a woman furiously angry with another. After a ftream of harsh invective, fhe began on a fudden with uplifted arms to dance-bringing to my mind the terrible graces of whom fome antient fpeaks. She danced with the infpiration of a Bacchanal. At one time the sprang repeatedly aloft with unwearied ftrength on the fame fpot; at another, the whirled with facility inimitable round the very brim of the circle, which the bye-flanders had formed about her; then fhot like an arrow towards her antagonist, flood a while pouring forth with vehement gefture her thrilling invective, and then began anew her dance. Under our rough northern fky, the limbs are not fo fupple, the blood is not fo fervid, the paffions are not fo irritable.'

Borletta, 4 May 1792. By Horace's advice, we took bread with us from Cerignola, and did well: nam Canusi lapidofus. The bread of Canoffa is in fact ftill gritty. This has been afcribed no doubt rightly to the deficient hardness of the mill-ftones: but is it conceivable that, for more than 1800 years, the inhabitants should never have thought of fending elsewhere for their mill-ftones ?—

• Tarento,