We had twice the honour of an audience, and both times, every reason to be gratified with our reception. If our good wishes can possibly be of any avail, the venerable Doge will pass the evening of his honourable life in glory, and close it in tranquillity!

If in my observations on Genoa I have passed over some objects of curiosity noticed by most other travellers, such as the catino or celebrated plate of emerald, the beak of a Roman galley, &c. the reader will remember that the French had been for several years masters of the city, and that the articles alluded to were either seized by them, or removed previous to their first arrival by the proprietors, and still kept, and indeed likely long to remain, in a state of concealment.

Some anecdotes also may perhaps be expected relative to the character and proverbial cunning and dishonesty of the Genoese. It is a misfortune to a nation as well as to an individual to be branded by a great and popular poet with the imputation of vice, or even held up to ridicule. The stain is indelible, and the Ligurian deceitful, dum fallere fata sinebant, will be repeated in every school, and echoed from pole to pole as long as men shall read, or Virgil be understood. Yet supposing this imputation to have been applicable to the ancient, it is not fair to conclude from thence that it is equally so to the modern Ligurians.

The character of a nation is the result of climate, soil, religion, government, and numberless other circumstances, most of which are liable to various modifications, and of course not always regular in their effects. Now of all these causes the two first

alone remain unaltered. The Ligurians still live under the same genial sky, and still inhabit the same rugged mountains; in every other respect they differ essentially from their forefathers. These had long struggled with enemies more powerful, more numerous, and better disciplined than themselves. Art and stratagem became their principal weapons, and the fastnesses of the mountains were their only retreats. Thus, necessity first broke, and long habit inured them both to patience and to deceit, and made these two qualities the prominent features of their national character. The modern Ligurians enriched by commerce smile at the sterility of their soil, and blest for ages in the enjoyment of liberty, they have defended it as it deserves to be defended, with courage and open force. They have met their enemies in array, and obtained many a glorious victory by skill and intrepidity. Stratagem does not seem to have entered into their tactics, nor do we hear that even in their negotiations and treaties they have been remarkable for subterfuge or duplicity. I need not observe the influence which christianity must have over the national character, and the improvement which must inseparably accompany the universal adoption of a morality that commands strict justice, not in deeds only and external transactions, but even in thought and desire. This influence I acknowledge is sometimes counteracted, and with regard to some very perverse or very ignorant individuals may now and then be totally suspended, yet with regard to the public mind it is too generally felt and acknowledged, to admit of such constant habitual contravention as can make dishonesty and theft a feature of the national character.

To these considerations we may add, that Genoa subsists entirely by commerce, and that the essential interests of such

a nation compel it necessarily to cultivate good faith and honesty as prime and indispensable virtues, nor has it ever, I believe, been heard that the bankers and merchants in Genoa have been deficient in these qualities. When I say bankers and merchants, I include many of the nobles, and almost all the opulent and respectable part of the community, that is, the portion which gives life, colour, and energy, or in other words, character to a people. As for the mob, it would be very unfair indeed to form an estimate of the worth of any nation from their ignorance and vices; for, though they may have several qualities in common with the higher orders, yet as they are less under the influence of moral restraint, their vices more frequently predominate. Not that I mean to insinuate that the populace of Genoa are in any respect more vicious than the same class in other capitals, but such they have been represented, at least with regard to pilfering; and as a proof, we are told by strangers even at Genoa, that the merchants, in order to avoid the losses occasioned by their dishonesty, employ as porters men from Bergamo, a strong bodied honest race, to the total exclusion of their own countrymen. The fact may be admitted, but the motive is not quite so clear. All the chairmen in London are Irish, almost all the watchmen of the same nation; therefore some sagacious foreigner may infer, that the English people are too weak for chairmen, too thievish and dishonest for watchmen. We should smile at the absurdity of such a reasoner. As for the habits of over-reaching, cheating, and deceiving strangers, they are too common in every country, to be characteristic of any in particular, so general indeed are they that I should find it difficult to fix upon the spot where they are most prevalent. We may therefore be allowed to hope that the Genoese, though they

are Ligurians, may be exempt from the vices of their ancestors, and that religion, liberty, and opulence may have eradicated propensities which arose from oppression and misery.

Saturday the eighteenth of September, we took leave of our friends of the Medusa, saw the ship under weigh, and then set out for Milan.

CHAP. XIII.

PASSAGE OF THE BOCCHETTA-NOVI-MARENGO-TORTONA-THE PO-THE TESINO-PAVIA, ITS HISTORY, EDIFICES AND UNIVERSITY--THE ABBEY.

ABOUT half a mile from the gate of Genoa is the village or rather suburb of San Pier d'Arena; its situation on the coast, and close to the Polcevera, rendered it once a place of great resort, and many palaces and villas remain as monuments of its magnifi-cence. The Villa Imperiale is its principal ornament; it is said to have been planned by Palladio, and has two regular rows of Corinthian and Ionic columns, an arrangement both simple and majestic. But this superb edifice is neglected, and like many others around it, apparently falling to ruins.

We next entered the valley of the Polcevera, so called from the torrent (Porcifera) that intersects it. This stream had disappeared, and left no traces but its broad rocky channel; it is said however to return sometimes with such rapidity as to carry off travellers crossing its channel, and loitering in the passage, a circumstance which occasioned many disasters when the road lay in the very bed itself of the river. The Austrians,