"The other corps, towards, Prevasa, Arta, and Chimera, followed the example of the main body, and reached Yanina in great haste. So great indeed was their panic, that none of them stopt till they got within the walls of the city, thinking they were still pursued by the Suliotes. for a general attack, which was a which was a great acquisition to general slaughter: the ambuscade them.. preventing and returning. They were in every part exposed to the fire of the Suliotes, who were covered by the rocks or the trees, and from the second tower Bogia made great havoc. The women from the heights rolled down great stones, which for that purpose are always piled up. The enemy defended themselves, when the Suliotes came "In the mean time, the commuout to meet them, with great ob- nication being opened with the stinacy; they were, however, all Chimæriotes, the Sulian army inkilled, except 140, who surren- creased in two days so much, that dered themselves prisoners. Among they found themselves strong ethem was a son of Soliman Ciapar, nough to offer the pasha battle in and many officers. The Suliotes the open plains. They marched had fifty-seven killed and twenty- to an estate of the pasha's near Yaseven wounded. Giavella was nina, and took possession of it, among the slain. After shooting from the ambuscade a great number of the enemy, he sallied out with some of his friends, to avenge the supposed death of his son, and to fight till all the enemy were kiled, or he himself fell. After making a great havoc among the enemy; into the thickest of whose ranks he had ran forward with desperate valour, he fell, covered with wounds, and surrounded by heaps of slain. "The bodies being thrown down from the rocks into the Turkish camp, struck the remainder of the army with such a panic that they filed with great precipitation towards Yanina, and abandoned the pasha. Bogia profited of their disorder to send 200 men, who, falling on the rear, cut off great numbers. The pasha himself escaped with difficulty, and killed two horses before he got back to Yanina. All the baggage, ammunition, arms, provisions, and the pasha's treasure, fell into the hands of the Suliotes, besides four large cannon, which they drew up to the Tripa, and whence they sent him a letter, threatening to take him prisoner in his haram. They pursued the Paramathians into their country, where they cut down the trees, and drove away vast herds of cattle and flocks of sheep to Sulli. "The pasha, apprehensive for the safety of his capital, sent a bishop to propose peace to the Suliotes. It was concluded on the following conditions : "1st. That the pasha cedes to the Suliotes all the territory as far as Dervigiana (six leagues from Yanina) inclusively. "2. That all the Suliotes, who were prisoners, should be set at liberty. (Then Giavella's son returned safe to Sulli.) "3. The pasha should pay 100,000 piastres as a ransom for the prisoners the Suliotes had made. "With the Paramathians they concluded a separate peace, as they are not dependent on the pasha. "The conditions were, that they should in future be allies, and that they should on all occasions succour E 4 the the Suliotes, both with men, arms, and provisions, when they were at war. "Returned home to their mountain, the Suliotes divided the booty, and the 100,000 piastres, into five parts one was destined to the repair of churches, which the Turks had damaged, and to build a new one on the Tripa, dedicated to the holy virgin; the second part was put into the public box for the service of the community; the third was equally divided among all the inhabitants, without distinction of rank or age; the two other parts were distributed to the families of those who had lost men in battle. "This peace was soon broken by the pasha, who was twice afterwards defeated, and the Suliotes gained still greater honour. there are ten Greeks to one Turk; "It was afterwards discovered, that the French consul, Mr. de la Salas, had advised the pasha to get possession of Sulli and Chimæra, as then he would have nothing to fear from the porte, if he threw off all obedience; and that the French could then supply him with artillery and ammunition, &c. Mr. de la Sala was one day shot dead in the street at Prevasa by a captain of "The writer of this journal further says, that in this country Lambro's fleet." CHARACTER and present CONDITION of the TUSCANS. [From the first Volume of SELECTIONS from the MOST CELEBRATED FOREIGN LITERARY JOURNALS.] HERE is not a country in Thaly which mature has so change of elevation and descent, mental eye. This charming inter richly endowed with all the properties that have an influence on the happy formation of man as Tuscany. It is bounded towards the north and east by the Apennine mountains, which not only shield it from the frosty winds, but water it with rivers and streams and salubrious springs. Ever-verdant hills and dales in alternate undulations form the surface of the country from one end to the other, becoming thus alone one scene of delight both to the bodily and the of hills and vallies, is every where richly productive of all for which the lesser Asia and the isles of Greece are so celebrated, as affording the most valuable nutriment to mankind; and as to the wines, they are partly improved. What else may be wanting to the comfort of lite is supplied by industry and commerce. "As the inhabitants of this favoured climate neither breathe the watry exhalations of the slimy Po, nor the streams of Vesuvius, so keep keeping the mean betwixt the sluggish dulness of the Lombards, and the fiery enthusiasm of the Neapolitans, they are fitted by nature for whatever requires understanding and dexterity. As far as history reaches, they have ever taken the lead of all other European nations in arts and sciences. To the Romans they taught religion, the the atrical art, manufactures and commerce; and, on the return of light, after a universal darkness of several ages, not only the imitative arts, but likewise history, poetry, and rhetoric, mathematics and physics, here found their first restorers. "Florence is both the centre and the capital of this renowned nation. He that traverses Italy, and surveys this city, with its circumjacent territories, is immediately convinced that a totally different genius here prevails among mankind. Regularity, ornament, and fine taste, pervade their public places, streets, and villas, the statues, libraries, and galleries both in public and private edifices. The people are every where civil; and though, in their expression, one hears a disagreeable aspiration, more or less, according to the various districts of the state; yet their speech itself is so genuine and regular, so full of ingenious proverbs and happy phrases, that, with all the corruptions which the reading and imitation of French writings have introduced, it may still be considered as the best living source of genuine language. "The Florentine loves employment, is very diligent and industrious. Where he has a prospect of but a small gain, or of advantageously reaching his aim, he is not to be discouraged by the method he must pursue or the pains it may cost him; no delay, no obstacle can make him slacken his industry or abate his ardour; though he see with his keen perceptions the improbability of success. He then desists as readily and without murmuring, from the farther prosecution of his project, as he is ingenious in the invention of some other process. To this industry of the Florentines we are indebted for the rise of experimental philosophy; and their opulence in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries was a signal effect of it. "They are contented with a little, and are immoderately disposed to joy. Half a dozen of wretched ponies, or a couple of old-fashioned chaises running a race, or a match at tennis, is a grand spectacle at Florence, and sufficient to make the town elate with pleasure. Happy the prince who has such a people to govern! It costs him but little to attain his wishes, and to change every discontent that may arise among them into pleasure and satisfaction. "Among so contented and industrious a people great crimes are exceedingly rare. A man must have resided many years in Florence and in general in Tuscany, if he can speak of three or four murders or considerable robberies. Nothing seems more useless here, says the famous count Carli, in his Saggio politico ed economico sopra la Toscana, than the officers of justice; and nothing does so much honour to the wisdom and benignity of the reigning grand duke, as the abolition of capital punishments among so tractable a people. "The difference remarked by Plato between Athens and Thebes in Greece, holds good in some measure in Tuscany between Flo rence rence and Pisa. Perhaps this may be partly attributed to the vapours arising from the numerous cauals and dikes that run through the plains of Pisa; perhaps too the west-winds, so prevalent here, and blowing from the islands that abound in iron, may contribute to it. Certain it is, that the Pisans are very distinguishable from the Florentines by a certain ferocity and hardness apparent on all occasions. Throughout the whole of the Florentine history no instance can be shewn of such an extraordimary cruelty as that with which the Pisans destroyed count Ugolino della Gherardesca, with his innocent children. They have often given evident proofs of their hard dispositions, since the sea-fight off the tower of Melora, in their wellknown bridge-plays or rather murderous games, which are happily now abolished. The spirit and rage of party, they used to exhibit on these occasions, was of a peculiar nature. For more than a month, as long as the preparations and the play lasted, husbands parted from their wives, and fathers abandoned their sons, whenever they adhered to different parties. Completely armed in a coat of mail, and with a swinging bludgeon in their hand, they came upon the bridge across the Arno, one party at one end and the other at the other, both inspired with a furious thirst of slaughter; and whoever did not submit or yield by force of heavy blows, was either felled to the ground, or cast headlong into the river. It frequently happened that the combatants could not hear the voice of them that yielded, for very fury; and then the blows were repeated by the victors till the vanquished gave up the gost. Such a case actually happened, when the reigning grand duke was for the first time present at this savage spectacle. "Siena, the capital of a particular duchy, is extensive, thinly peopled, and poor. Yet the pure air of the hills on which it stands, inspires its inhabitants with a cheer. ful and lively spirit. Plays and games of chance, diversions, and dancing, leave them no leisure for thinking on their poverty or repining at their wretchedness. Poetry, metaphysics, and works of ingenuity, have usurped the place of the spirit of commerce, of arts and manufactures, of courage and wealth, for which they were for merly so conspicuous. They still boast of the imaginary phantom of their ancient greatness. To be a member of their grand council, to bring into the world a handsome poem, or to solve an ingenious question, can so inflate the imagination of a Sienese, that he shall actually conceive himself to be a great and happy being. Hence arose the taunting proverb, aver bevuto a fonte branda, to have an overweening imagination. Lippisings, in his poem, "Malmantile racqui stato," canto iv. 26. relates of a Sienese, of the name of Perlone, that he almost thought himself to be dead, and accounts for it thus: Ch' han sempre mescolato del cattivo.' Perch' egli è un di quei matti alla Sanese, Siena has, notwithstanding, produced in all ages men of great fame in literature, in the army, and in the church; and it cannot be denied, that its inhabitants excell many other nations of Italy in intellectual capacity, and mental endowments. Count Richecourt, who many many years governed this country in the name of the late emperor, used to say, that for forming a perfect species of mankind, he could wish that the Sienese women would marry with men of Pisa, and the Pisanese women take husbands from the men of Siena. "The rest of the towns, containing mines, in Tuscany, such as Volterra, Arezzo, Cortona, had nothing distinguishing enough for rendering them famous and rich, before they were despoiled of their liberty by the Florentines. Nature has endowed these people with an eminent capacity for arts and agriculture. If they had only proceeded, as they began to profit by the advantages their wise law-giver granted them for the encouragement of agriculture and trade, they would have had no need to palliate their splendid indigence by the study of Etruscan antiquities and useless genealogies. "Pestoia, Priscia, Prato, and this whole valley, nourish an industrious people who beneficially employ themselves in agriculture and manufactures. All the other districts of Tuscany increase the materials of the national commerce by the culture of land, vineyards, and silk; and in every corner people are found, expert in promoting the particular and the general welfare. "To what a height of prosperity might not such a country arise, the inhabitants whereof are fitted and disposed to the particular arts of life! where the nobility, who in the other states of Italy, are only employed in contriving how they may waste their lives in idleness and sleep, contribute their utmost to the general prosperity! "The Tuscan nobility is very numerous. They do not here cou fine themselves merely to the pecu liar use of a peerage in all govern ments, in being the intermediate class between the prince and the people, in promoting arts, manufactures, and commerce by their luxury, in serving as a restraint upon the people by their dignity and the reverence that is paid them, and in providing such persons for the administration of affairs as may be of eminent service, more from ambition than interest, either in war or in peace; but they are here of great advantage besides, by bu sying themselves in commerce.The Tuscan nobility are not of that idle opinion, that trade contaminates noble blood. They make not the least hesitation to study it in the compting house of the merchant, and afterwards to carry it on in their own names. The Florentines, who have for so many ages past been greatly advanced beyond the rest of Tuscany in ingenuity and industry, have herein transcended the bounds of the common origin of nobility, by making it a law, that no family can be admitted among the nobility, who cannot bring proof that they have heretofore been enrolled in the guildregister of the silkmen or clothiers. This particular trait is of itself sufficient to give a perfect insight into their character. How happy would it be for the useless nobility of oppressed nations, if they had but the courage to introduce so advantageous a maxim! "The only instance whereby the nobility of Tuscany has hitherto given a considerable wound to the public weal, is the right of primogeniture, and the fidei-commisses. In a country which can only attain to its utmost degree of prosperity by means of commerce, the goods and capitals should neither be |