And loveliest and last, lo! a sweet maiden came, 4. Glad danced all the damsels-their long flowing hair More lovely they look'd, and their eyes glanced more killing, The waves leap'd and sang, and seem'd with the meek lute 5. Now nigh came the sister barks-nigher and nigher- And side-looking, as still was her wont, she drew nigh. 6. "Heaven bless thee!" I said,-even while I was speaking, Called on Him that's on high-to his meek Son, I pray'd: Many birds, particularly the dove, first lift the left wing to fly, and school-boys cut the tip of that wing alone to preserve their pet-doves from roaming. The spectre bark shook-'neath my knees seem'd to run And thrice round the shallop has flown the fiend-flame; Swift his spirit flew down and rebuked the sea-wave, It dissolve-I gazed seaward in terror and awe ; But never may landsman or mariner more Muse in hallowmass eve on that haunted sea shore; The Travels and Opinions OF EDGEWORTH BENSON, Gentleman. No. II. THE PASSAGE ON VENICE, SUPPLEMENTARY TO THE LAST ARTICLE: I AM tempted to add a few words more of Venice, before leaving her to her unfortunate fate. A lady of rank, now living there, the fascination of whose manners is equalled by the hospitality of her receptions, is in possession of the famous ring with which the Adriatic used to be wedded, and I had an opportunity of looking upon this remarkable historical relic. The reader knows that this pledge of union was dropped into the sea, as a symbol of " having and holding;" he may therefore wonder how it should happen now to be separated from the spouse to whom it had been solemnly made VOL. III. over. The explanation of this circumstance will illustrate the progress of the decline of human institutions, from the time of their vigour and efficacy, when their influence is provided for by their intimate association with popular sympathy, and their forms are substantial sources of strength, corresponding with the impulses of the social mind and feeling. After this period is passed, various are the stages of degeneracy: men gradually become too knowing to respect their old customs without being wise enough to do without them: the upper classes are still anxious to enforce them upon the P lower as restraints, but the spectacle of obedience waxes interrupted, vulgar, and inconsistent, when it is felt as a mark of inferiority, either of intellect or condition. What the champion at the coronation of George the Fourth will be, that had the husband of the Adriatic become ;-a name, a figure of mock-representation, a mere affectation in the eyes of the principal performers in the ceremony, a tawdry raree-show to the gazing crowd. The curse of Europe now is, that, almost every where, the opinions of men have removed from the legal and political institutions; that moral harmony between them is at an end. Prescription and coercion, have taken the place of credence and veneration, and the secret has transpired that the disbelief of the individuals who enforce the maxims and rules of the state, is quite as gross as the disobedience of those on whom they are enforced. There must be a restoration of harmony, in this respect, effected, by some means or other, before public stability and tranquillity can be considered as ensured. The marriage of the Adriatic was originally a ceremony, whose real signification was at least equal to its parade. Its forms were imposing, because they suggested facts that made the Venetians proud: the ring was dropped into the bosom of the water, and, while the sea continued faithful to the republic, no hand would have dared to disturb the pledge: it was guarded by the religion of patriotism,-it lay in the deep a small talisman of mighty effect. But when the inefficacy of the rite was proved by the repeated experience of reverses, it was degraded from its original elevation in the fancy, and came to be considered as a mere matter of show and curiosity. The ring was then no longer thought of as an anchor of glory, sunk in the waves, but as a bauble of vanity, which might gratify the childish caprice of the opulent; and divers were stimulated by sums of money, in offering which the great families of Venice outbid each other, to plunge after it, and bring it up from the bottom after a temporary immersion, to become the prize of the vainest and wealthiest competi tor. When the ring could be thus disturbed in its hymeneal bed, and dragged forth by coarse and irreverend hands to be chattered over at evening parties, it was but too plain that the marriage was no longer a sacrament, but an empty form: the age of Venetian heroism might then be said to be gone; but worse remained behind. Some of the divers got drowned in the course of their greedy annual adventures; and as the rite itself had dwindled into utter insignificance, the senators of Venice, who still continued the practice of their dungeons "under the leads,' and their secret executions in the lagune, became touched with humanity for these unfortunate ragamuffins, who risked, and occasionally lost, their lives in committing sacrilege for a few pistoles. If the apparatus for restoring the drowned had been then invented, they might probably have contented themselves with ordering a resuscitation-establishment to be placed on the nearest sandbank; but the devices of modern philanthropy and morality were then less elaborately comprehensive than they are now; even England, a country richer in preventatives of vice and misery, and more abounding in both, than any other country of Europe, had not then thought either of fire-escapes, humane-society-ladders, or safety-coaches. The Venetian government not possessing our present advantages, contented itself with preventing, in a very summary way, the occurrence of the accidents in question. It was enacted by a solemn order of senate, that the marriagering should be no longer actually consigned from the deck of the Bucentaur, to the heaving bosom of the ever ready bride; but that it should be simply suffered to touch the water, attached to a string,-by means of which, the first magistrate might surely recover it, carry it back in his pocket, and preserve it for acting again in the next yearly farce!-The ring, thus recovered, passed from the hands of the Doge Mont Cenigo-in whose family palace Lord Byron resided-into those of the last of the republican chiefs, who held the bauble of power when the state of Venice was broken up by the French bayonets. From him it fell into the possession of the Countess Bensone, whose conversation and manners still represent the ancient elegance and hospitality of Venice; and whose son sustains the reputation of her ancient genius, by poetical compositions, sweet and melancholy as the scene around him. At length this progressive degeneracy of spirit reached so low, that the sentence of national ruin started forth, like the hand writing on the wall, on the eyes of many who had been hitherto blind. At this moment there was something like a rousing of heart shown, and, with natural alarm, a disposition to re-kindle the energies of the republic. This stirring, however, was chiefly perceptible amongst the middle and lower orders; the higher called it insubordination, and dreaded its effects more than they feared the .consequences of the public disorganization and pusillanimity. A valet to one of the noblemen about this time, being in the room when his old master exclaimed in the style of former days, which had then become mere cant "the walls have, ears in Venice," had the spirit to reply-" that is pastmen now have neither eyes nor ears. When the French please to come, come they will, and cut your lion's wings for you." A political observer, whose opportunities of information, and power of improving them, are of the very highest order, remarked to me that it was evidently the intention of the Austrians, the present masters of Venice, to reduce the place and territory to nothing in ten years, said he, if their power continues, she must be absolutely ruined. Knowing their footing in Italy to be, after all, precarious, their object is to establish the prosperity of Trieste on the absolute destruction of Venice. Although governors equally of the Milanese States and the Venetian, they have put a line of custom-houses between the two, owing to which measure of rank absurdity, the Milanese find it more advantageous to take their sugar (for instance) from the people of Genoa, under a foreign government, than from their fellow subjects. The cruelty of this piece of dullness will appear in its proper light, when it is noted that the re fining of sugar constituted one of Still the Emperor of Emperor's journey in Italy, this contrast followed to torment him, until it was ordered, to avoid its unpleasantness, that his daughter, the Archduchess of Parma, should travel a day in the rear!-it was upon this occasion, in the theatre of Venice, that Maria Louisa made particular inquiries, which was Lord Byron's box; it was pointed out to her, together with his Lordship himself, who was then in it. A hint was afterwards, I believe, given, from a quarter near her person, that our noble poet's solicitation of an introduction would be well received; but the hint was not taken. Lord Byron, no doubt, felt, that the interview would either be unmeaning or painful, and would therefore be better avoided. The personal oppressions now experienced in Venice, correspond with the public ignominy of her condition. It enters within my own knowledge that an Italian officer, who solicited the necessary permission to marry from the Emperor himself, and who received it, was, after this, absolutely defied to contract the engagement by the local minister, who thought himself slighted, in consequence of the application going directly to the sovereign, instead of through his hands. The officer durst not, or thought he durst not, conclude the marriage in the teeth of this menace! - The Austrians, having taken possession of the duty on eatables, which was collected by the municipality for the purpose of defraying the charges of lighting the city, and providing the other accommodations of this nature usual in large places, it became necessary to impose a second tax, equal in amount to the first, on the articles of provision: it thus happens that there is a difference, to the disadvantage of the Venetians, of six sols on the pound, between the price of meat at Venice, and at Padoua. In the time of the French, four thousand men were employed in the arsenal; the Austrians had not, when I visited it, seven hundred at work. The French expended the money drawn from the inhabitants within the state; and some say, added thereto a sum of twelve millions of francs (480,000): the Austrians annually send treasure to Vienna. When the Emperor was at Venice, he had several meetings with the Chamber of Commerce, through the medium of which the merchants preferred various petitions for relief in regard to certain measures, the effects of which they experienced in the total decay of trade. Upon no one point, it was understood, was concession made to the applicants; and it was on these occasions chiefly, that his Imperial Majesty took his Italian subjects to task for not loving him. He strongly expressed his indignation, at their daring to harbour discontent with the system of order established in Europe by himself and his allies he referred to that system as immutable; and professed, at the same time, to consider himself almost exonerated from the duty of regarding, in any degree, the interests of those whose allegiance was forced, not voluntary. To this imperial, or rather imperious mode of reasoning, the poor Venetian merchants could only oppose shrugs, and protestations of loyalty, affection, and gratitude! The president of the Chamber of Commerce, informed the Emperor that the preparation at Venice of certain foreign wine, chiefly from the Levant, for the Russian and other markets, was almost the only source of profit that remained to the city, after so many murderous decrees; but that now this also was driedup by a recent ordinance. The Emperor replied, that, in general, the commercial regulations affecting Venice, had issued from the councils of his ministers; that he took, however, all the credit, due for the last, to himself that he himself had recommended it,-thinking it highly improper that manufactured wine should be drank instead of genuine. In this instance, his imperial Majesty may have shown good taste in one respect; but what would our wine merchants say, to adopting this genuine principle in commercial legislation?-All this betokens a sad change for Venice from the past time: it was then famous for its silk manufactures, which were the object of great encouragement by the republican government. The House of Cavanessia was the first in this line, and it employed four hundred workmen; the reader, by comparing this number with the extent of some of our Lancashire esta 3 |