shameful death, or of escaping from the hands of a vic torious enemy.

They conform to the general custom of the country in commemorating their deceased parents and relations, by placing all sorts of provisions, both raw and dressed, on a table provided for that purpose; and by monthly or anniversary dinners, to which are invited the family and friends of the deceased, who all appear in their best garments, having previously washed and purified themselves, for three days, during which they abstain from lying with their wives, and from every thing held to be impure.

They celebrate no other festivals, nor pay any respect to the gods of the country. Being formerly suspected of favouring the Christian religion, they are obliged to have each an idol, or at least the name of one, put up in a conspicuous and honourable place in their houses, with a flower-pot and censer before them; but in their public schools is hung up the picture of Confucius. This sect was formerly very numerous, Arts and sciences were cultivated among them, and the most enlightened part of the nation was of that profession; but the dreadful persecution of the Christians greatly weakened it, and it has been declining ever since: the extreme rigour of the imperial edicts makes people in general cautious of reading their books, which were formerly the delight and admiration of the nation, and held in as great esteem as the writings of Socrates and Plato are in Europe.-Payne,

CHAPTER XXXIV.

VENICE.

The same cause which overthrew the Roman empire, gave existence to Venice. About the middle of the fifth century, the Venetii, a people inhabiting a small district

of Italy, a few Paduans, and some peasants on the banks of the Po, to escape from the fury of Attila, repaired to the marshes and small islands which lay on the western coast, at the bottom of the Adriatic gulf. All the inhabitants they found here were some fishermen, who had erected a few huts on one of those islands, which had received the name of Rialto. Soon after, the city of Padua sent a colony thither, and appointed some of their citizens to act as magistrates, who held their dignity for a year, and were succeeded by others. On the taking of Aquileia by the Huns under Attila, a vast resort of wretched fugitives increased the population of the place, and in the year 452 the city of Venice was founded. The Paduans, considering that little settlement as having been established by their patronage, claimed a right of sovereignty, which was soon disputed by the new state, and shortly after renounced on the part of the claimants, through inability to enforce their pretensions. The Venetians then became an independent republic, and, such is the vicissitude of states, became in a few years masters of the territories of Padua. Even the commotions which agitated, in a greater or less degree, most parts of the continent of Europe, during the three centuries which succeeded its establishment, so far from involving Venice in wars, or endangering its security, signally promoted its wealth and its power. The genius of the people, stimulated by unparalleled advantages of situation, prompted them to commercial pursuits, and they soon became the greatest maritime state on the globe.

Its original form of government was purcly democratical magistrates were chosen by a general assembly of the people, who gave them the name of Tribunes: one of whom was appointed to preside on each island, but to hold his office only for a year; then another general election was made; and each tribune was account. able for his conduct while in office, to the general assembly of the people. This form of government subsisted for about one hundred and fifty years; it then appeared expedient to make choice of a chief magistrate, and on

him the title of Duke was conferred, which has since been corrupted to Doge: this dignity was elective, and held for life: he was even entrusted with the power of nominating to all offices, and of making peace and declaring war. Paul Luke Anafesto was the first duke, who was elected in the year 697. Such was the confi dence which the people reposed in their duke, that he was at liberty to use his own discretion how far he would avail himself of the advice of the citizens. In the councils which he called on any matters of importance, he sent messages to those citizens for whose judgment he had the greatest esteem, praying that they would come and assist him with their advice. This form was retained by succeeding doges, and the citizens so sent for were called Pregadi (from the Italian word pregare, to pray.) The third doge, whose talents for war had proved successful in extending the power of the republic; at length meditated to assume a more absolute sway, and to ren der the supreme authority hereditary in his family; but such conduct excited a general alarm in the people: he was assaulted in his palace, and there put to death. This event caused the government of Venice to be new modelled, and a chief magistrate, who was now called "Master of the Militia," was elected annually; but his power whilst in office was the same as before.— Such form of government continued only five years, when the title of doge was revived, A. D. 730, in the person of the son of him who had been assassinated.

About the latter end of the twelfth century, when every other part of the Christian world was seized with a frantic rage for recovering the holy land, the Venetians were so far from contributing any forces for the crusades, that they did not scruple to supply the Saracens with arms, ammunition, and every other necessary. As the power of the state augmented by the acquisition of Istria, and many parts of Dalmatia, the jealousy of the people towards their doge became stronger. At that time the only tribunal at Venice consisted of forty judg es; these were called "The Council of Forty;" but in

the year 1173, another doge, named Michieli, being assassinated in a popular insurrection, the council of forty found means to new model the government, by gaining the consent of the people to delegate the right of voting for magistrates, which each citizen possessed, to four hundred and seventy persons, called Counsellors, who received the appellation of "the grand council;" and acting as delegates of the people, became what the general assembly of the people until that time had been. By this artful innovation (which the people were cajoled into an acquiescence with, by retaining the right of electing these counsellors annually) the democracy became presently subverted; and an aristocracy, in its fullest and most rigid form, was introduced, by restricting the power of the doge, and instituting a variety of officers (all of whom were, in a short time, chosen from among the nobility) which effectually controlled both the prince and the people.

Ziani was the first doge elected after the government had received, what the event proves to have been, its permanent modification; and during his administration the singular ceremony of espousing the sea, which has been annually observed ever since, was first adopted, and took its rise from the assistance which the Venetians gave to Pope Alexander III. when hard pressed by the emperor Frederic Barbarossa, and the signal victory they obtained over a formidable fleet under the command of Otho, son of Frederic, in which the admiral and thirty of his ships were taken. Alexander, with the whole city of Venice, went out to meet Ziani, the conqueror, on his return; to whom his holiness presented a ring, saying, "Use this ring as a chain to retain the sea, henceforth, in subjection to the Venetian state; espouse her with this ring, and let the marriage be solemnized annually, by you and your successors, to the end of time, that the latest posterity may know that Venice has acquired the empire of the waves, and holds the sea in subjection, in the same manner as a wife is held by her husband."

The Venetians having extended their territories into Lombardy, Istria, and Dalmatia, became masters of many of the islands in the Archipelago, particularly the large and important one of Candia; they were masters of the Morea; and, in the beginning of the thirteenth century, Dandolo, their doge, when more than eighty years of age, in conjunction with the French, took Constantinople from the Turks. About which time they engrossed the lucrative trade in the manufactures and productions of the East Indies, which they procured at the port of Alexandria, and conveyed to every market of Europe.

Under Marino Morosini was introduced the present form of electing the doge, and at this jun ture jealousy and envy occasioned the war with Genoa, which, after continuing a hundred and thirty years, was at last concluded by a treaty in 1381. During this war, doge Peter Gradonigo procured a law to be passed in 1296, that none but the nobility should be capable of having a seat in the grand council; and thus the government became altogether aristocratical.

Thus has the republic of Venice continued upwards of thirteen hundred years, amidst many foreign wars and intestine commotions; its grandeur was chiefly ow ing to its trade, and, since the decline of that, its strength and power have suffered a considerable diminution. No. republic in the history of the world has subsisted for so long a space of time; and, as its independence was not founded on usurpation, nor cemented with blood, so its descent from that splendor and power which it had once attained, to its present contracted state, instead of degrading, reflects the highest honour on the government as well as the people. None of the causes which subverted the famous republics of antiquity effected the decline of this state. No tyrants enslaved, no demagogues deluded, no luxuries enervated them. They owed their greatness to their industry, bravery, and maritime skill; and their decline, to the revolutions which successful pursuits of science had produced in the nations of Eu