ROTES.

11

source of Venetian grandeur, Lave Loth expir-ed. • Most of the patrician mansions are de-serted, and would gradually disappear, Lad notthe government, alarmed by the demolition otseventy-two,, during the last two years, expresslyforbidden this sad resource of poverty. Manyremnants of the Venetian nobility are now scat-tered and confounded with the wealthier Jews upon the banks oftheBrcnta, whose palladianpalaces Lave sunk, or are sinking, in the ge-neral decay. Of the « gentil uomo Yeneto,”the name is still known, and that is all. Heis but the shadow of Lis former self, but he ispolite and kind. It surely may be pardonedto him if he is querulous. Whatever mayhave been the vices of the republic, and al-though the natural term of its existence may bethought by foreigners to have arrived in the duecourse of mortality > only one sentiment can heexpected from the Venetians themselves. At notime were the subjects of the republic so unani-mous in their resolution, to rally round the

i ,»NonmtUornm c nobilitate iromensae sunt, opes ,fcdeo ut vix arslimari possint; it quod t'ilms c rib us•ritur* parsiuionia, cormueroio , otque iis emolument!*,quae e Repub percipiuui, quae banc ob enusam diuturnaTore crf«littr.“ — See de Priucipalibus Italiae, Tract.ilus.edit. iG3i.