VENICE.

See Venice rise with endless beauties crown'd,

And as a world within herself is found:
Hail, Queen of Italy; for years to come
The mighty rival of immortal Rome!

SANNAZARO.

To the eye of the stranger the aspect of Venice first presents itself like some vision of the deep, while her history fills the mind with awe and wonder at the stern and fearful realities and heroic recollections with which it abounds. She stands alone and unparalleled in the annals of Italy's tempestuous republics,-those hypocrites of liberty, which recoiled from foreign despotism only the more effectually to exalt themselves, by harassing and oppressing each other. While torn by internal factions and successive revolutions, the rest of Italy wielded at will their fierce democracies, Venice preserved unshaken her "high and palmy state," based on the deep, invisible foundations of her more than Machiavellian system,-the combination of petty tyrants, which, unlike that of slaves, seldom fails to accomplish the objects it has in view.

The splendour and the power of aristocracy were never more terribly developed than when the noon-tide of Venetian prosperity brought into serpent vigour and activity the policy of her secret tribunals, and carried terror into the hearts at once of her children and her foes. To the inquiring and philosophic reader no government supplies

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more singular materials for speculation: a government in which poets, painters, orators, and historians, vied with its statesmen and its warriors in carrying patriotism to the loftiest mark of ambition and renown.

In youth she was all glory, a new Tyre,—
Her very by-word sprung from victory,
The "Planter of the Lion," which through fire
And blood she bore o'er subject earth and sea;
Though making many slaves, herself still free,
And Europe's bulwark 'gainst the Ottomite;
Witness Troy's rival, Candia! vouch it, ye
Immortal waves that saw Lepanto's fight!
For ye are names no time nor tyranny can blight.

Thus, distinct alike in its political as in its natural features from all other cities of the earth, Venice—the "Rome of the Ocean"-might well awaken the admiration and enthusiasm of England's noble poet. Its devoted love to Tasso, and its having afforded a sanctuary to the great Dante, were sufficient in his eyes to make it hallowed ground. He gazed upon her lofty towers, her spires, her palaces, with those splendid cupolas, seen rising from the bosom of the waves, with a degree of veneration that seems to have been early inspired :

I loved her from my boyhood-she to me

Was as a fairy city of the heart,
Rising like water columns from the sea,

Of joy the sojourn, and of wealth the mart;

And Otway, Radcliffe, Schiller, Shakspeare's art,
Had stamp'd her image in me, and even so,
Although I found her thus we did not part,
Perchance even dearer in her day of woe

Than when she was a boast, a marvel, and a show.

Nor was the actual grandeur of her edifices, or the imposing

effect of their pictorial embellishment, less in unison with the associations which history and romance had conferred upon her in Byron's eyes. All that is most magnificent, heroic, or appalling; the Rialto, St. Mark's, and its brazen steeds, and the Bridge of Sighs, have been commemorated in his immortal verse. But these are familiar to our readers; and we now proceed to present them with a rapid view of some of the most memorable events and achievements in Venetian story.

The Venetians arrived at their highest national glory when the capital of the eastern empire acknowledged them its conquerors. The wealth which that event poured into their treasuries made them the richest people in Europe the fame which they acquired by it made them the most respected and renowned. But it is doubtful whether it was not the forerunner of the worst disasters which the republic was destined to suffer. In less than a century after this triumph, which rendered it in the eyes of Europe the great barrier against the power of the infidel, it had to support three sharp and bloody contests with the increasing strength of the Turks, and had suffered a disheartening defeat in all.

The celebrated Selim the First, and his son, Soliman the Second, carried on successful wars with both native and foreign enemies; and the Ottoman power, every year acquiring fresh force, began more imminently to threaten the proud republicans. After forcing them to pay tribute for Cyprus, Selim the Second conceived the project of regaining entire possession of that rich and valuable island. While he was carrying on preparations for this enterprise, the Venetians were still further discomfited

by the explosion of their arsenal, which, in the night of September 13th, 1569, tore up their walls and towers, part of their streets, and four churches. The nobles, astonished, and not knowing the cause of the frightful tumult, ran to arms, and the whole population of the city believing that an enemy had forced and thrown down the fortifications hastened to secure themselves by flight.

The storm at length broke forth, and the Venetians found themselves opposed to the whole strength of the Moslem, whose forces were seen covering the neighbouring shores of the gulf. The siege of Famagouste immediately followed, and the noblest spirit of the republic was manifested in the defence. After a desperate conflict, Bragadino, the chief of the garrison, having neither the means of subsisting his people, nor of supporting any further attacks, accepted the capitulation offered by Mustapha, the Ottoman leader. A few days were spent in settling the preliminaries; and the Moslem, expressing his high admiration of the Venetian captains, invited them to his tent. Bragadino accordingly, and several of his officers, proceeded one evening to the entrenchment; the former on horseback, clad in the scarlet robes of a Venetian magistrate, and shaded by a parasol of the same colour. The pacha received them with great courtesy, but demanded hostages to secure the fulfilment of the capitulation. The chief haughtily replied, that the honour of Venice might be well trusted in; on which Mustapha, in a burst of fury, instantly ordered several of the officers to be strangled, only sparing Bragadino for greater cruelties. After the unfortunate captain had been forced to see the execution

of his friends, his ears were cut off, and he was led through the town as a malefactor. He was then placed on a scaffold, fastened to a stake, and flayed alive, the infamous Mustapha enjoying the spectacle from a balcony, and afterwards causing the skin of the brave Venetian to be stuffed and paraded about the streets with all the insignia of the magistracy.

The battle of Lepanto shortly followed this event, and modern history records few engagements which it does not surpass in celebrity. It was in the same situation that the fate of Rome was decided by the battle of Actium; and though the latter was productive of the most important consequences, and the former was followed by none, it is doubtful to which warlike fame would give the greater glory. Certainly never had greater courage or skill been displayed in naval warfare than in this engagement. During the chief part of the day the combined Venetian and Spanish forces and the whole strength of the Ottoman fleet were opposed in close and incessant combat, and when the latter fled from the strife, it had lost near two hundred vessels and thirty thousand men. Venice, whatever glory she had acquired by this victory, reaped no advantage from it, and finding that the confederacy she had formed would not effectually aid her in the principal object she had in view, the government made peace with the Ottoman, and ceded the disputed possessions.

In mentioning this peace with the Turks, we are reminded of the strict line of policy which the Venetians invariably pursued, in spite of the opinions which were at the time prevalent among their neighbours. The wor