marriages, placarded in a very prominent manner on the various churches. Over many of the doors are religious inscriptions requesting the prayers of the faithful, and at nearly every street-corner a Virgin and Child, with a lamp in front, so that both may be seen in the evenings. The most deplorable part of all that I have seen in Genoa is the number of lottery houses. Every street seems to have an office as a Government lottery. There is something rotten in the state of Genoa and of Italy, when Governments can resort to such methods to raise public funds. For the benefit of future travellers, I may add that Genoa is about 130 miles from Milan or Turin, by the direct line of railway. LETTER IX. LEGHORN. LEGHORN, April 5th.-We arrived here this morning between five and six o'clock, after a sail about which I can tell you very little, and my companions not much more. I sailed to please them, having no faith in my stomachical arrangements, even on the lake-ish looking Mediterranean. I went at once to my cabin-bed, and indulged in sleep till five o'clock, fondly hoping that my fellow-travellers were enjoying the blue sky, the starlight night, and the etcetera, etcetera, which poets attribute to the great inland sea. But fortune was against them. They saw the lovely city and harbour, decked with many thousand lights, fade in the distance. They saw the rain-clouds gather over the sky-blue horizon; they felt the sputter of an incipient shower; they tried umbrellas, topcoats, and good resolutions. Having nothing else to do, and darkness alone being visible, they set to thinking of their journey so far-of the rich groves of olives, the dark cypresses, the prickly pear-shaped cactuses, and the large spiky aloes we had passed on our way to Marseilles-of the aloes, mulberries, fig-trees, lemons, oranges, &c., seen on the way to Genoa, much of which unfortunately I did not appreciate as they did. Having done so, and got cold and wet, they followed my example-left the Mediterranean and the stars to pursue their ordinary avocations, and went to bed. A pail of water and a cup of coffee put us all right about the break of day, and amid a drizzling shower we landed in small boats at Leghorn, had a sham examination of our luggage made in pursuit of tabac, and then got housed in the "Washington”—a first-class hotel-where we had every attention during our short but pleasant stay. We were neither expected there, nor at Genoa, nor at Marseilles; yet we found Mr. Cook's tickets at once recognized, and every attention paid to us. Curtains, towels, and floors are all we could wish. Water plentiful, basins large, and a very necessary institution-named "cabinet" in France, No. 10,000 in Italy, and w.c. in; England-all that could be desired. We may meet with worse accommodation; we never can with better. Neither now nor on my other Continental visit have I had cause to complain; but we know not what may be before us. The politeness of the waiters, inn porters, inn clerks, &c., is very marked. They are not only polite, they are goodhumoured. We have all aired our French, and when at a loss for a word the waiters seem instinctively to know it. At Cannes I was pulled up. I inquired of the railway official if the present Lord Brougham lived there. He shook his head. I don't know if he did not even scratch it. But there was nothing in it. Perhaps I did not pronounce it Broom enough. I must not omit to add, and thus save myself many questions on my return, that our bedrooms are carpeted, that they have tiny firegrates, made to burn wood, of which there is a little stock at hand.-Now we are off for a drive. [Noon.] We have had a drive round Leghorn, and willingly admit that it is a charming place. Its past history is interesting, though not ancient. Like Liverpool, it has grown up out of a swamp in less than 300 years. It has a coral fishery of considerable value, and deals much in straw, glass, paper, and soap. With a population of 100,000 it shows as many squares, statues, and fine churches as we have yet seen, in proportion to population. Its streets are very clean; its two harbours very agreeable to the eye; its lighthouse picturesque, and 170 feet high, and its lazaretto the finest in Europe. The duomo, or cathedral, is Gothic-a style, I hear, not to be seen in Rome. The inhabitants are very mixed; SO much so that there are two Greek churches, chapels for the English, Dutch, Germans, Armenians, and Arabs, and a synagogue for the Jews. Need we wonder why Roman Catholicism holds its sway? England has a hundred religions and only one sauce. -melted butter said a witty Frenchman. May not the Livornians be pardoned for not seeing their way to a purer faith at a more rapid rate than they do? We leave Leghorn, or Livornia as the Italians call it, with regret. As a free port it bothered us with opening our baggage, but as the old commercial capital of Tuscany, as a rising town, as the resting place of Smollett and other Englishmen of fame, we cover over this custom-house peccadillo. I had almost forgotten to tell you of the very fine marble monument. in the square to Cavour, and the one to Ferdinand I. of Tuscany, at the quay. A covered water-tank is an object of much interest, from its enormous size, and the marvellously clear water which it contains. Our two hours' drive round the outskirts was pleasantly spent, and now we are buying odds and ends in the antiquity way-some would call it the |