which was shortly afterwards received from a member of the Executive Directory, through the channel of the Venetian minister at Paris. We shall at present only observe, that one of the members of the Directory proposed, upon the condition of receiving a valuable consideration (a bribe), to secure to the Venetians the integrity of the republic. We shall take another occasion to advert to this singular proposition.

We are now arrived at the last scene of this ancient republic. As we have already stated, perhaps too minutely, some of the transactions which paved the way for the catastrophe, we shall present our readers with only a concise outline of the events which immediately preceded its subversion.

In spring 1797, the Venetian islands and Lagunes were put in a respectable state of defence. An attempt was at this time made, by a small French ship of war, to force through, contrary to the laws of the republic, a passage into the Lagunes. Repeated, but unavailing intimations, were made to the commander, that if he persisted in the attempt, his ship would be fired upon by the Venetians. Notwithstanding this caution, he obstinately persisted. His vessel was immediately exposed to a tremendous fire, and destroyed. To explain this occurrence,-to justify the proceedings of the Senate,-to discover, if possible, whether any part of their territory had been sacrificed to the Emperor of Austria by the treaty recently concluded at Leoben,-and to maintain a friendly understanding with the French republic, two deputies were sent to Bonaparte. The conference, however, proved in every respect unsatisfactory; and the deputies entirely failed in every one of the objects of their mission.

In the mean time, the French armies drew close round the capital. On the 27th April they published a proclamation, inviting. the town and province of Vicenza to shake off the authority of their old government; and, on the following day, a similar proclamation appeared in Padua. In both towns, provisional municipalities were formed; and in Padua, almost all the nobles signed an approval of the change. The safety of Venice became every hour more precarious. The sittings of the Senate were suspended; and its authority superseded, by a conferenza, which was held in the private chamber of the Doge. The conferenza assembled on the 30th of April 1797, and was proceeding to consider in what manner a communication should be made to the Great Council on the actual state of the republic, when they received intelligence that the French were making preparations, along the shores of the Lagunes, for an attack upon the capital. Consternation seized the Council; and several members proposed immediately to treat with Bonaparte for the surrender of Venice.

At

At length, they determined that a proposition should be made to the Great Council to send two deputies to Bonaparte, in order to treat with him for a modification in the form of the Venetian goThe Great Council assembled on the 1st of May, and the proposition of the conferenza was carried almost unanimously.

vernment.

On the ift of May, Bonaparte, at laft, iffued a formal declaration of war against Venice. It confifted of fifteen charges, for any one of which it would be difficult to discover any real foundation. The deputies defpatched to him were very unfavourably received. He declared that he would liften to no negotiations, until the affaflination of his foldiers had been avenged, by the death of the three Inquifitors of State, and the commander of the veffel that had fired upon and funk the French fhip of war. If this demand was not complied with, Venice, he declared, fhould be in his power within fifteen days; and the nobili fhould escape death only to wander on the earth, like the nobleffe of France. The only point in which the deputies fucceeded, was in obtaining an armiftice of five days, which was afterwards prolonged, but only to prepare for the bloodlefs but humiliating reception of the French armies into the capital of the republic. On the 4th of May, the Doge was guilty of the criminal weakness of propofing to the Great Council a compliance with Bonaparte's preliminary demands; and the Great Council was guilty of a still bafer criminality, in voting, almoft unanimoufly, for the arrestation and trial of the three Inquifitors of State, and the commander of the galliot.

The conferenza held various meetings, in one of which the Doge offered to renounce the ducal dignity, and to depofit the reins of government in the hands of thofe who had been instrumental in promoting a revolution. It was alfo determined, that the 11,000 Sclavonians, who had been originally brought to Ve nice for its defence, fhould be fent away; and that, in order to prepare for the reception of the French, the capital and the Lagunes fhould be difarmed. Meanwhile, new fears were diffused among the members of the conferenza. It was reported, that unless a change in the government were immediately effected, 16,000 confpirators (who in reality did not exift) would proceed to the maffacre of all the patricians; and Villetard, the French minifter, took upon him to propofe, as neceffary preparations for the establishment of the new government, that the tree of liberty fhould be planted in Venice; that the arms of the republic fhould be publicly burnt; and that this event should be celebrated by the performance of Te Deum in the church of St Mark.

On the 10th and 12th May, the agents of the revolutionary

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faction, after conferring with the French minifter, communicated two letters to the Doge. The first was infidiously defigned to a Jarm him with every fort of apprehenfion. They infifted on the exiflence of an internal confpiracy, and on the infidelity of the Sclavonians; and (tated it to be the opinion of Villetard, that the confequences of an internal explosion could be prevented only by anticipating the defigns of Bonaparte, in the immediate eftablishanent of a reprefentative government. In the fecond, they com mmunicated an extract of a letter, which they pretended the French minifter had juft received from a perfon in the confidence of Bonaparte, who ftated it to be the determination of the latter, that a reprefentative government fhould be immediately established on the ruins of the old ariftocracy. The Doge repaired to the Great Council, laid before them thefe letters, and propofed to them an abdication of their functions. The question of abdication was carried with a fhameful unanimity; and the diffolution of this fovereign body immediately fucceeded. For the prefervation of internal tranquillity, however, the chief members of the government continued provifionally in office.

On the 16th of May 1797, the revolution was completed. The French armies entered the capital, They exacted oppreflive con tributions; they pillaged the library, the arfenal, and the church and palace of St Mark; and, finally, in lefs than four months, this regenerated republic, notwithstanding its clofe alliance with France, was transferred, under the treaty of Campo Formio, to the House of Auftria; to deliver it from which, Bonaparte declared, in the proclamation which he iffued in May 1796, when he first entered on the Venetian territory, was the chief object of his operations,

Such was the inglorious end of a republic, whofe exiftence had been preferved for thirteen centuries and a half. All the energy and wifdom which had laid the foundation of its power, and extended and confolidated its dominion, had long vanished from its councils; and when it ultimately perifhed, it may be doubted whether an impartial fpectator would feel more deteftation for the perfidy of its deftroyers, or contempt for its weakness and selfdefertion. Had it not been overthrown by the French, it would probably have speedily diffolved in the maturity of its own corruptions. All feelings of patriotifm had long been extinct in the higher claffes; and the only individuals who manifefted any attachment to the antient government, was found among that populace, over which its fway was apparently fo fevere. This extraor dinary ftate of things may, perhaps, be partly explained, by a fhort inquiry into the ftate of the government as it exifted recently before its fubversion,

It seems to be generally admitted, that, for a confiderable time, a narrow and tyrannical oligarchy had been gradually ufurping the whole functions of the fovereign. The Savi, the Council of Ten, and the Inquifitors of State, had encroached fo much on the authority of the Doge, that he had long ceafed to be effectively the chief magiftrate of the State. Rex in purpura, Senator in curia, in urbe captivus, extra urbem privatus-had become the true definition of this potentate. The Great Council had the power of electing to the most important offices of government; but the pcverty of the greater part of the patricians, reduced them to a tate of dependence on a few opulent nobles, and forced them to confer on their wealthy patrons the chief employments of the State. The fame oligarchy directed, in a great degree, the proceedings of the Senate, and withheld, as we have feen, in the. most important inftances, the communication of thofe defpatches, upon which, by the conftitution of the republic, it was their. right to decide. The exertions of this body were still further reftrained by a fyftem of avowed intimidation, which rendered it dangerous to Senators, efpecially to thofe deftitute of fortune, to difclofe abuses, queftion the policy of measures, or propose the adoption of others. Such a ftep infallibly expofed them to the risk of a vifitation of inquifitorial power. By thefe, and by other means, the College of Savi, or Privy Council, as it may be termed, had acquired fo much power, that the office had almost become hereditary in a few families. Though they exercifed, in most cafes, their authority in rotation, they acted upon a concerted system of ufurpation. Scarcely lefs arbitrary and illegal were the civil and judicial proceedings of the Council of Ten; and thofe of the Inquifitors of State have been charged with cruelty, tyranny, and oppreffion, in many cafes, while, in others, a corrupt relaxation of the laws liberated the guilty, and deprived juftice of her demanded victims.

In the provinces, the fame vices exifled which prevailed in the capital. The public functionaries practifed extortion without fear of punishment. The rich, trufting to the venality of the judicial tribunals, violated the laws with impunity. In feveral provinces, the vineyards and agriculture were neglected, and the peasants reduced to mifery and ruin. The practice of granting, for money, the privilege of wearing arms, led to an incredible number of homicides and affaffinations. With all thefe fymptoms of decay and incurable corruption, concurred the diforder and failure of the finances. After feventy years of peace, the revenue proved unequal to the expenditure. The regular army was both inconfiderable in number, and inefficient from being held in flight estimation. Indeed, fo little encouragement was given to military talents, that

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many of the best and most enterprizing officers were driven, like the Catholics of Ireland, to feek employment and diftinction in foreign fervice: and, in the very important point of liberty of fpeech and of the prefs, the Venetians had always been more hardly dealt with than any other European people. That there should have been no very great exertion made for the support of fuch a government, may easily be conceived; but it seems difficult to explain, how the lower orders fhould have made fome efforts for its prefervation, even after it was deferted by their rulers. Perhaps the oligarchy, by diminishing the number of their tyrants, had made their yoke more tolerable;-or perhaps their tumultuous movements arofe only from a certain blind feeling of nationality, and an instinctive attachment to objects which they had long been accustomed to reverence.

The editor of the Raccolta, though a decided advocate of the old fyftem of government, yet admits the exiftence of many fundamental abuses, which menaced the ftate with fubverfion.

E' fuor di dubbio,' he oberves, che dovea questa Repubblica la lunga e felice sua durazione alla mirabile organizzazione del suo Governo, riguardato con sorpresa dall' Estere Nazioni. Non prio tuttavia dissimularsi, che molti sconcerti, e gravissimi disordini non si possero in esso introdotti mercè la caducità delle umane istitutioni. Noi accenneremo quelli soltanto, che influivano nel regime suo politico, e che furano senza contrasto una delle prossime cagioni delle sue sventure, e della sua caduta. All' esterna decadenza, di cui si è finora parlato, ben tosto la lunga pace, ed il continuo ozio accoppiarono gravi disordini, i quali indebolivano le pubbliche deliberazi oni. In fatti un certo Egoismo, sempre fatale alle Repubbliche, un riflessibile raffredamento di quel zelo patrio, che tanto distinse gli Aristocratici de passati secoli, una falsa clemenza nei Triburali, onde rimanevano i delitti senza il castigo dalle Leggi prescritto, una certa facilità di propalare i Secreti del Senato, sorpassata con indolenza dagl' Inquisitori di Stato, un serpeggiante strayizzo, una non cu. ranza delle cose sacre e religiose, un immoderato spirito di passatempi, una scandalosa impudenza nelle donne, un libertinaggio portato per così dire in trionfo negli nomini, erano fra gli altri i disordini, che dominavano in una parte de' Patrizi, e de' Cittadini d'ogni ceto e condizione, si in Venezia, che nello Stato. Ne fanno fede gl' interni sconvolgimenti degli anni 1762, e 1780, e la Loggia de Liberi Muratori scoperta nel 1785, in cui alcuni rispettabili soggetti avevano ingresso. Queste furono la cagicni estrinseche, che disponevano l'edifizio ad un imminente pericolo di crollare.' Vol. I. p. 16, After pointing out thefe fymptoms of national decline, he exhibits a concife statement of fome of the leading political errors and internal abuses which led to the diffolution of the government, This ftatement is by no means exaggerated; its truth, on the contrary