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LETTER VIII.

Miscellaneous Remarks-Travelling Anec

dotes.

AMERICUS Vesputius, the reputed

Discoverer of the Western Conti

nent, who has had the honour to give his name to the New World, to the prejudice of Columbus (whose comprehensive genius had already penetrated with an Eagle's eye, the western horizon) was a native of Florence.

The Academia della Crusca boasts among its Members many persons of distinguished eminence, in learning and the arts; and the salutary institutions of the Grand Duke, Leopold, afterward Emperor

peror of Germany, however disgraced by his bigoted prohibition of Protestant doctrines, entitle him to rank with Howard, Rumford, Lownes, and other benevolent Individuals, in Europe, and America, who have reduced the theories of philanthropy to National practice; and displayed to the World the encouraging example of successful experiment, in the temperate correction of idleness and vice.

During the reign of Leopold, no Florentine could be imprisoned for debt, though his Creditors might seize his property to satisfy their demands; and no offence whatever was punishable with death, though murder incurred a sentence more dreadful to hardened villany -perpetual labour in the gallies. By Ꮓ these

these and other political measures, such as the protection of the Jews, those active agents of Commercial enterprise; the abolition of sanctuaries, so mischievously privileged to shelter crimes; and the absurd or rapacious penalty of confiscation of Family Property, which punishes the Innocent for the sins of the Guilty; together with the natural progress of things in the Eighteenth Century, Tuscany was cleared of robbery and murder, and the happy Subjects of the Grand Duke were increased from a Million to twelve hundred thousand Souls.

Florence has always been remarkable, even among the cities of Italy, for the most superstitious attachment to Monks and Friars. Churches and Convents accordingly abound, and painted Madonnas,

the

the usual marks of popular devotion, are not wanting at the corners of the streets.

The ignoble custom, so often remarked by Travellers, of keeping a wine cellar in the Palaces of the first Nobility, where wines are retailed by the flask, is still continued at Florence, to the great accommodation

Among the observables of the place, I cannot resist noticing a method of preventing the incommodity, often suffered in populous towns, from public stopping places-though my Protestant Readers will be scandalized by the devotion of their Catholic Brethren. At such corners the Inhabitant of the House that is incommoded makes the sign of the cross, in broad black strokes. On seeing this the next Passenger, pressed by necessity, goes further up-The Citizen makes another cross. The Catholic Passenger follows, as close as his conscience will permit—and the edifying game is sometimes played till the whole side of the house has been progressively consecrated. The Passenger now, driven to extremities, no longer observes the rules of decorum; and the determined Housekeeper having proved the inefficacy of the cross, to guard his premises from pollution, even in the Catholic city of Florence, has recourse, in despair, to the mediation of the Virgin, by fixing up a Madonna at the fragrant corner, under which his vexation breaks out, with laughable simplicity, in characters of the most passionate dimensions: Rispetto! por Maria Santissima!

accommodation of those who love a glass of the pure juice of the grape, which is here particularly luscious. The petty negociation takes place in the open street, at an obscure window on the ground floor, to the astonishment of English dignity, and the utter confusion of German etiquette.

The dialect of the Italian tongue that is spoken in Tuscany is the most favourable of any for that exertion of rhyming promptitude, described by most Travellers, the Practitioners of which are here called Improvisatore. The interesting

Writer who has favoured the World with a View of Society and Manners in Italy and France mentions one of them, named Corilla, that he had heard himself.She was so eminent an Improvisatrice

that

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