iron with his own hands. Villehardouin, also, in his account of the first assault, says: 'Wonderful prowess must now be told. The Duke of Venice, who was old and saw not at all (goutte ne voyait), armed at all points on the prow of his galley, the standard of St. Mark before him, was heard crying to his men to put him on shore.' He was landed accordingly, and was carrying all before him, when his victorious course was arrested by the necessity of supporting the French. He was nominated to replace the dethroned Emperor, but declined or was set aside for reasons of policy which the Venetian electors were the first to appreciate, and he died in little more than a year after the completion of the conquest (June 14, 1205), having lived long enough to be proclaimed 'Despot of Romania'-a title annexed to that of Doge, and used by his successors till the middle of the fourteenth century with what Gibbon terms the singular though true addition of Lord of one-fourth and a half of the Roman empire.'* The difficulty of maintaining such an extent of dominion became so pressing that, according to two chroniclers, a project was actually brought forward by the Doge, in 1223, for abandoning the city and transferring her household gods to Constantinople. His argument in support of this proposal, with those of Angelo Faliero in reply, are reported in the manner of Thucydides; and we are assured that it was only negatived by a majority of one voice, which was termed the voice of Providence. The Venetians wisely abandoned, or granted as fiefs, such of their acquisitions as were not available for ports or commercial depots. If, then,' concludes Daru, 'it be asked what was the fruit of this conquest, we must acknowledge that the result was most important for the Venetians, since it assured the splendour of their republic in giving it the empire of the seas; but for Europe this result was the useless loss of many brave men, the burning of Constantinople, the destruction of precious monuments, the fall of an empire, and a dismemberment which facilitated its speedy conquest by barbarians. The only fruit that Europe appears to have derived from this great revolution is the introduction of millet, some grains of which were sent by the Marquis of Montferrat to his Italian States.' It is not exactly correct to say that the Fourth Crusade assured the empire of the seas to Venice: during more than two hundred years that empire was bravely contested by the Genoese, who more * Dominus quartæ partis et dimidiæ imperii Romani. The correct reading is, imperii Romania-of the empire of Romania. Daru, Sismondi, and the able author of 'Sketches of Venetian History,' have fallen into the same mistake as Gibbon. A quarter of Constantinople, and half of the rest of the imperial dominions, were, in fact, allotted to Venice. than than once reduced the Venetians to the same humiliating position in which the English were placed by the Dutch when Van Tromp sailed up the Thames with the typical broom at his masthead. When, in the war of Chiozza (1378-1381), the Genoese admiral, Doria, reviewed his fleet whilst waiting for orders, he was received in passing from ship to ship with shouts of To Venice! To Venice! Viva San Giorgio!' Nor was this a vainglorious boast, like the French cry of 'To Berlin! To Berlin!' The Genoese fought their way victoriously to the verge of the chief lagune, when the Doge hastened in person to sue for peace, bringing with him some Genoese prisoners, whom he proposed to deliver without ransom, presenting at the same time a blank paper to be filled up with any terms, provided the independence of the Republic was respected. 'You may take back the prisoners,' was the haughty reply of Doria; 'ere many hours I hope to deliver both them and their companions. By God above, ye Signors of Venice, you must expect no peace from the Lord of Padua or from our Republic till we ourselves have bridled the horses of your St. Mark. Place but the reins once in our hands and we shall know how to keep them quiet for the future.'* Driven to desperation, the Venetians made good their defence, and after various alternations of fortune consented to a peace which left them entirely denuded of territory on the mainland. Yet it was Genoa, not Venice, whose decline was accelerated by the contest. The Doge of Venice was bearing himself as bravely as ever amongst monarchs, when the Doge of Genoa was giving up his sceptre and sword to the ambassadors of Charles VI. of France in token of vassalage. During the interval between the decline of Genoa and the rise of the other maritime Powers, Venice very nearly monopolised the carrying trade between Europe and the East, and had become the greatest commercial emporium in the world. Besides a mercantile marine of more than three thousand vessels, the private property of the citizens, the Government sent annually squadrons of five or six large galleys each to call at all the principal ports within the known range of navigation. In the sixteenth century, the arsenal of Venice contained 16,000 workmen and 40,000 sailors. It could turn out a fleet of 85 galleys at the shortest warning. One of the spectacles with which Henry III. of France was entertained, was the building, launching, and equipping of a galley in one day. At the battle of Lepanto, *Sketches of Venetian History' (Murray's 'Family Library), vol. i. p. 314. The writer relies on the authority of Chinazzo. Daru has divided the speech between Doria and the lord of Padua (Carrara), who was in league with the Genoese. Vol. 137.-No. 274. 2 G the the Venetians had 134 ships, of which 70 were galleys and 6 galeasses. The galley carried from 15 to 20 guns: the galeasse from 60 to 70 of very heavy calibre. It was the six galeasses that decided the battle. So overpowering did the Venetians esteem this class of vessel that the captain's instructions were not to decline an engagement with 25 ordinary ships of war. Their land forces were considerable. The army which they set on foot in 1509, when menaced by the League of Cambrai, amounted to 30,000 foot and 18,000 horse. There were 5000 soldiers on board their Lepanto fleet. The population of the city never amounted to 200,000; and the question arises where they got men enough for fleets, armies, colonies, commerce, and manufactures. The islands supplied sailors; Dalmatia, soldiers. Italy abounded in mercenary troops who flocked to the standard of the most liberal paymasters: high wages lured the best workmen, as high profits attracted and accumulated capital. The Venetian system was protective and restrictive. They were no believers in free trade, and their duties on exports and imports by foreigners were in effect prohibitory. We are told of a King of Servia, who, on his departure from Venice, was so startled by the sum he was required to pay for export duty on his purchases, that he solicited the citizenship in order to be excused from paying them. As regards the carrying trade of the Adriatic, when the patriarch of Aquila requested permission to import in a ship of his nation a quantity of wine which he had bought at Ancona, the Republic refused, but offered to carry his wine for him gratis. The Venetians had become so necessary to the Italians, that Robert, King of Naples, was obliged to make peace with them, because his subjects declared themselves too impoverished to pay taxes since the Venetians had discontinued their trade. When, towards the end of the sixteenth century, the English began to trade direct with the Levant, the Venetians took alarm, and requested the interference of the French ambassador at Venice, who writes: These Signors are excessively displeased that the Queen of England should establish herself in this quarter, since their traffic will be much diminished, as well in the commodities they export as in those they bring back in exchange.' Thus did Venice rise, Thus flourish, till the unwelcome tidings came, This This is historically true. It was from their ambassador at Lisbon that the Venetians received the first intelligence of the discovery of the new passage (1497), and the arrival round the Cape of Good Hope of vessels loaded with the richest products of the East. On hearing this news,' says Cardinal Bembo, 'the Republic saw that the most important branch of her commerce was slipping away. When she learned that the Portuguese were forming establishments on these coasts, and that they, becoming masters of all the merchandise of Asia, would soon deliver them in Europe at a lower rate than those which arrived by the Red Sea, by the Euphrates, or the Tanais, this jealousy was converted into fury.' They soon afterwards received another heavy blow from the Emperor Charles V., who imposed a duty of 25 per cent. on their imports and exports throughout his dominions, and formally closed his ports against them except on condition that they abandoned their direct trades with Africa, and brought to his town of Oran all the merchandise they had to sell to the Moors. In fact, before the end of the sixteenth century, they were no longer able to exert the right of the strongest; they were driven from market after market by the rising maritime Powers of the North; and, jostled between the powerful monarchies into which Europe had settled down, they could only maintain a precarious independence by adroit trimming. The doctrine of the balance of power was thenceforth the sole salvation of the proud Republic till she fell. We must not forget to mention that the Bank of Venice, which dates from the twelfth century (1157), was by much the oldest establishment of the kind, and that its operations included loans to foreign nations and princes as well as the ordinary business of a national bank. Here, again, its close imitator and rival was Genoa. The Jews were permitted to establish a bank at Venice-which, by the way, broke-but their condition was pretty nearly such as it is described by Shakespeare. They were compelled to wear a badge, to pay exceptional taxes, to inhabit a particular quarter, to be shut up in it from sunset to sunrise, and might be spat upon with impunity by a patrician. The palaces and public buildings show that the patricians of Venice, collectively and individually, were amongst the earliest *"It is very singular," I replied, " that the mercantile transactions of London citizens should become involved with revolutions and rebellions." "Not at a', man, not at a'," returned Mr. Jarvie; "that's a' your silly prejudications. I read whiles in the lang dark nights, and I hae read in 'Baker's Chronicle,' that the merchants o' London could gar the Bank of Genoa break their promise to advance a mighty sum to the King of Spain, whereby the sailing of the Grand Spanish Armada was put off for a hail year."-Rob Roy. The Bank of Genoa was established in 1407. and most munificent patrons of the fine arts. The country seat of the Barbaro family was built by Palladio, and the walls and ceilings were painted in fresco by Paul Veronese. With the exception of Florence, no Italian State did more for the revival and encouragement of learning, literature, and science. Venice was one of the claimants of the invention of printing, and, within a few after it became known, 160 printing presses were at years work in the city alone. Giving her credit for the University of Padua, of which she became mistress in 1405, she could boast of having protected and pensioned Galileo, besides employing Sarpi as her advocate and Bembo as her historiographer: Petrarch was residing at Venice when Boccaccio came to visit him: and although Tasso was born in the kingdom of Naples, he was the son of a Venetian citizen and educated at the Venetian university. Freedom of thought was rigidly proscribed: no political allusion was safe: Dante, banished by Florence, would have been drowned or strangled at Venice; but she was tolerant of religious speculation and permitted no tyranny except her own. Even the Inquisition was kept within bounds; very fortunately for art, as may be collected from one of M. Baschet's discoveries, -the procès-verbal of a sitting (July 18, 1573) at which Paul Veronese was interrogated touching one of his pictures of the Last Supper: 'Q. In this picture of the Supper of our Lord, have you painted people? A. Yes. Q. How many have you painted, and what is each doing?-A. To begin,-Simon, the master of the hotel; then, below him, an upper servant, whom I suppose to have come there for his amusement and to see after the disposition of the table. There are several other figures of which I have no distinct recollection, considering that it is a long time since I painted this picture. Q. What is the meaning of the figure whose nose is bleeding?-A. It is a servant whose nose has been set bleeding by an accident. Q. And those men armed, and dressed in the German fashion, with halberds in their hands?—A. It is here necessary that I should speak a score of words. Q. Speak them.-A. We painters take the same license as the poets and the jesters, and I have represented the halberdiers eating and drinking at the bottom of the staircase, all ready, moreover, to discharge their duty; for it appeared to me becoming and possible that the master of the house, rich and magnificent, as I have been told, should have such attendants. Q. And that one dressed as a buffoon, with a parrot on his wrist,-with what view have you introduced him into the picture?-A. He is there as an ornament, as is customary. Q. Who are those at the table of our Lord?-A. The Twelve Apostles. Q. What is St. Peter, who comes first, doing?-A. He is carving the lamb to be passed to the other part of the table. Q. And the one next to him?-A. He is holding a plate to receive what St. Peter may |