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the Swiss into the duchy, with great ceremony and pomp, in 1512, and held it for threeyears. The battle of Marignano gave it into the hands of Francis I. ; and Maximilian issaid to have thanked the conqueror for delivering him at once from the arrogance of theSwiss , the rapacity of the emperor, and the artifices of the Spaniards. The battle ofPavia, in February, 1525, in which the French monarch lost all but his honour, wasfollowed by the temporary establishment of Francis Sforza, the brother of Maximilian, inthe duchy of Milan ; but the detection of an intrigue in which he was implicated, whichhad for its object to overturn the emperor’s power in Italy, afforded Charles a fairoccasion for depriving him of the nominal sovereignty. In 1584, he invested his son ,Philip II., with the duchy; and it continued to be attached to the crown of Spain till1706, when the Spanish branch of the house of Austria became extinct. It then revertedto the German emperor, and continued to be governed by Austrian viceroys, till thebattle of Marengo rendered the French once more the masters of Northern Italy .

In 1796, Lombardy received from the conqueror a constitution modelled on republicanforms; and Milan was declared the capital of the Cisalpine republic . Re-conquered andheld for a few months by the imperialists, it was soon recovered by the French ; and in1800, the form of a free government was restored, with the title of the Italian Republic .The name of Republic was soon set aside by another change, when the Emperor of theFrench assumed the iron crown; and Milan became the capital of the new kingdom ofItaly, and the residence of the viceroy, Eugene Beauharnois. On the fall of Napoleon ,Milan once more came under the house of Austria , and it is still the seat of government,as the capital of the Lombardo-Venetian kingdom.

The present city must be considered as dating from the twelfth century, and its generalarchitecture bears the marks of its importance in the middle ages. The old palaces,vast and rude, indicate their purpose as the domestic fortresses of turbulent times. Ofits Roman antiquities, only the sites of thermae and temples, and a fine portico called theColonnade of Saint Lorenzo, remain. Under the viceroys of the Spanish and Austrian governments, the city gained nothing, and lost much. Churches and convents multiplied,but its magnificent cathedral remained unfinished: its noble canal, the wonder of the agein which it was constructed, was choked and fell to ruin. The military edifices, raised forthe subjugation of the people under Charles , fell or stood, as time spared, or storms demo-lished them. The palace, inhabited by the delegated sovereigns from Madrid or Vienna ,remained, down to the Revolution, much as the Sforzas had left it. The higli-walledgardens of monasteries choked the suburbs, and impeded ventilation. Cemeteries in theheart of the city frequently produced contagious maladies. Markets rose in the courtsof the noblest palaces. The relics of Roman antiquities were suffered to perish fromneglect; and the old narrow streets, which, by their original construction, excluded lightand air, were still further impeded by sheds erected at pleasure before the shops. Atnight, they were ill-lighted by paper lanterns, few and far between. But, under theemperor,” continues his zealous panegyrist, Lady Morgan , “ streets were cleared, avenuesopened, palaces raised, and cleanliness and general accommodation universally promoted.”This representation may be a little tinged with the writer’s partiality; but it is at leasttrue, and not a little remarkable, that it was reserved for Napoleon to complete the facadeof the sumptuous temple, founded by the first duke, continued by the munificence ofSt. Charles Borromeo, and still unfinished when Milan became the second capital of thesovereigns of France and Italy .

Of all the buildings, ancient or modern, the Cathedral is, unquestionably, the mostremarkable. The present building was founded in 1385, by order of John Galeazzo,first Duke of Milan . He died in 1402, and it is probable that most of the old work wasperformed during this interval. This church Was not, however, consecrated till 1418,when the ceremony was performed by Pope Martin V. About the middle of the