tugal, on gala or festival days, to sit at their windows, where they display all their finery; and during the carnival, they amuse themselves with pelting the passers-by with stones, dirt, and squirting water; one lady had a squirt made large enough to knock down a person with the water discharged therefrom.

ROME, VENICE, GREECE, &c.

THERE is a very excellent foundation established at Rome, for the purpose of portioning out poor girls. A girl is at liberty to sue for her portion, without having a husband. If her request is countenanced, she receives only a written assurance of 30, 40, or 50, scudi, but the money is paid the day after marriage. All the girls thus portioned must, on a certain day, and in a peculiar dress, form a procession, in order to show their obligations before the eyes of every body; whence many a good girl is debarred from having a husband.

Notwithstanding the fondness of amorous intrigue so prevailing among the Italian ladies, their favourite passion is treated in, a methodical

manner only at Rome. How would it be possible to procure husbands to such an immense number of poor girls in a city which abounds with unmarried inhabitants, were not all the powers of art and stratagem exerted! Many foreign artists have fallen into these snares, and got a wife against every expectation. Accidents of this nature happen daily; parents permit their daughters to look all day out of one of the windows, and, whilst in other countries love affairs are concealed from the knowledge of their mothers, these become in Rome the confidants of their daughters, and assist them with their advice, ripened by experience. When the girl is looking out of the window in her fine dress, it makes an impression upon a man passing by, and he wishes for her acquaintance: he may know whether his wishes will be granted by staring in the girl's face, and greeting her at some distance, in order that the neighbours may take no notice of it. If she do not thank him, he has no hopes; but if the compliment be returned, it is a good sign, and he may boldly venture a letter. Time and place are appointed for a conversation; and though the lover be unable to support himself, and still less a wife, or

his rank be above any thought of such an alliance, still will the "beggar girl" plainly ask him, "Will you marry me?" If the gallant finds the proposal againt his liking, the girl, in concert with her mother, tries every art possible, and often the two lovers are surprised, by the parent and other witnesses, in a posture which is not equivocal. Then the dupe has no other choice than to pay a large sum of money fixed by law, to embrace matrimony, or go to the gallies.

Notwithstanding the laxity of moral so prevalent at this time in Italy, and the little attention that is paid to the fidelity of the marriage vow, it is considered so sacred by the ancient Romans, and as a tie of so indissoluble a nature, that for five hundred and twenty years after the foundation of the city, a divorce was not known to have happened; this offers a strong proof of the private virtues of the inhabitants of the ancient" mistress of the world."

It is a common practice among the Italians of the present day to allow their grown daughters to sleep in the same bed with their parents, which is the more improper and indelicate, as from the warmth of the climate they can bear but a very

slight covering on them in bed, and they are in consequence very frequently in a state of nudity.

It is customary among the Italians, when there is more than one son in a family, only the elder may marry, and take the title and estate; the others have inferior pensions assigned them. The same rule is observed with daughters: several are thrown into convents in order to make a large fortune to spare for the favourite; on which account parents are obliged to have a strict eye over them, that they do not frustrate their designs by intriguing.

The Cecisbeat, a custom observed all over Italy, is no where carried to a more ridiculous and extravagant degree than in Genoa. With the day of the nuptials ceases every public intercourse between husband and wife; they must not even be seen together, neither walking, nor at the playhouse, nor in company; in short, no where but at home. In other cities many a husband puts himself above that foolish usage, out of love to his spouse, and has nothing else to fear, than to be looked upon as an unfashionable husband; but here the most united couple must not think of such a thing. To be forsaken by all friends, derided by enemies, insulted by

the mob, are unavoidable consequences, if they are ever seen together in public.

In some of the Italian States, marriages are not permitted between persons professing different religions. A woman of 40 years of age is not permitted to be united to a man under 30; if she exceeds 40, her husband must at least be 35; a man above 60 is not to marry a woman whose age is less than 30. A widow is not allowed to alter her condition in less than six months after her widowhood.

In VENICE, they have a very singular cere-. mony which takes place every year on Ascen sion Day, and is called the Marriage of the Doge of Venice to the Sea. Early on the morning of that day, all the senators, dressed in their robes, assemble together in a large apartment in the Doge's palace, where musicians attend with all kinds of music. About ten o'clock his Serene Highness comes from his palace preceded by the music and banner; on one side of him is the Pope's nuncio, and on the other the bishop or patriarch of Venice. The senators, foreign ambassadors, and great numbers of the nobility in their black robes, follow, the music playing before them; in this order they walk to the sea➡