magistrates in vain endeavoured to stop the effusion of blood, till at length an officer, who had formerly commanded in the fleet, and who was much beloved by the sailors, interfered, and by his influence succeeded in calming the tumult. The reputation he acquired by this act excited the alarm of the inquisitors. He was secretly seized, and never afterwards seen. In the same manner a Venetian, who, during a time of scarcity, distributed corn to the poor, was committed to the cells of the state prison.

Mrs. Piozzi has illustrated the severity of the Venetian government by an anecdote not devoid of interest.— "Some years ago, perhaps a hundred, one of the many spies who ply this town by night, ran to the state inquisitor with information, that such a nobleman (naming him) had connections with the French ambassador, and went privately to his house every night at a certain hour. The Messer grande, as they call him, could not believe, nor would proceed without better and stronger proof against a man for whom he had an intimate personal friendship, and on whose virtue he counted with very particular reliance. Another spy was therefore set, and brought back the same intelligence, adding the description of his disguise; on which the worthy magistrate put on his mask and bautta, and went out himself, when his eyes confirming the report of his informants, and the reflection on his duty stifling all remorse, he sent publicly for Foscarini in the morning, whom the populace attended all weeping to his door. Nothing but resolute denial of the crime alleged could, however, be forced from the firm-minded citizen, who, sensible of the discovery, prepared for that punishment which he knew to

be inevitable, and submitted to the fate his friend was
obliged to inflict, no less than a dungeon for life, that
dungeon so horrible that I have heard Mr. Howard was
not permitted to see it.
lamentations were vain.

The people lamented, but their
The magistrate who condemned

him never recovered the shock; but Foscarini was heard of no more, till an old lady died forty years after in Paris, whose last confession declared that she was visited with amorous intentions by a nobleman of Venice, whose name she never knew, while she resided there as companion to the ambassadress. So was Foscarini lost! so died he, a martyr to love and tenderness for female reputation!"

In the later years of the republic, the government sometimes endeavoured by stratagem to preserve that reputation for omniscience and omnipresence, which it had acquired at an earlier period. Not long before the dissolution of the republic, two strangers arrived at an hotel in Venice. Scarcely had they comfortably settled themselves before they were waited upon by the messer grande, or head of the police, who inquired whether they had not two trunks in their possession. It was in vain to deny the fact. The trunks were produced, and the trembling travellers were ordered to deliver up certain papers, which were accurately described to them. Travellers and trunks were then seized by the officers and carried away, to the infinite dismay of the spectators, who were left trembling and amazed at the vigilance and knowledge of the government. The travellers were never seen again, and of course were supposed to have visited the bottom of the canal Orfino. They were in fact agents of the government, disguised as strangers, and having played their parts were privately dismissed in the night.

Tendon Pub Oct 28 '829. by Robert Jennings o? Cheapside & Geralta bovinet Gall ric Vivienne laris.