ticks of Calabria, with flowers and garlands in their hats, march to the labours of the field, with a musician at their head, and stop occasionally on their way to dance; and I have, at this moment, present to my imagination, the scenes and country festivities which I have witnessed in Tuscany, which might have furnished Milton with the smiling images of his Allegro. A Neapolitan Lazzaroni, if he be not stimulated by hunger, when required to work, will spurn your offer, and, pointing to his mouth and stomach, will explain by his gestures, that his appetite is satisfied, and that he has no farther use for money. This effect of climate, when not counteracted by moral or political institutions, produces a character capable of great virtues and great vices. In Naples, the Lazzaroni go half naked, and are represented as entirely destitute of the sense of shame. The existence of a state of savagism in the midst of a great capital, is a phenomenon that has attracted the attention of every philosophick traveller. In America, something similar takes place on the borders of the frontier States. There we often see individuals renouncing the steady, but unvaried occupations of regular industry, and preferring to the pleasures of civilized society, the wandering and romantick life of the savage. In the ecclesiastical

States the peasantry not unfrequently relinquish the labours of the field, and, disguising themselves, mix with troops of Banditti; and after a season, laying aside their predatory habits, return and resume the character and occupations of peaceful villagers. A more efficient government would remedy this evil in Romagna; for a mode of life, where the mind is kept in a state of perpetual excitement by the vicissitudes of hope and fear, is not unpleasant,* and laws are necessary to prevent men from falling into it.

The moral and intellectual character, particularly of the southern Italian, like that of the savage, is passive; but he is not like the savage roused to action by the impulse only of the animal appe

*"Dans ce pays, ou la plupart des hommes se sont "abandonnes à une mollesse si efféminée, quelques-uns "secouant le joug de la société, pour s'abandonner sans "réserve à leurs passions, ont vécu en guerre avec l'or"dre public, et n'ont jamais pu être forcês a l'obeissance "par les gouvernemens pusillanimes, dont ils avaient "secoué le joug. A la fin du seizième siècle, un duc "souverain de Monte Mariano, Alfonse Piccolomini,

se fit chef de brigands, et continua plus de dix ans cet "étrange métier. Plus fréquemment, les gentilshommes "du pays de Naples ont fait de leurs fiefs et de leurs "châteaux l'asile des bandits, qu'ils employaient pour "leurs querelles privées."-Sismondi, de la Literature, du Midi.

tites. Living in a country where there remain so many splendid vestiges of civilized man, and where there exists such a variety of objects to exercise the imagination, and furnish a perpetual source of enjoyment to the most refined taste, his passions and desires have a range as unbounded as the objects of society. The artificial restraints of polished life, operating however with less force upon the Italian, suffer all the natural beauties and deformities of their character to appear. The same stimulus which rouses them to crime, often displays itself in acts of generosity and beneficence. In them, caprice is the parent of the most lovely, as well as of the most cruel and vindictive passions; and their unforced gaiety,--their acts of liberality and kindness, interest the affections far more than that strained mirth, and that dull and measured hospitality, which is the effect of a system of social intercourse, less indulgent to the genuine expression of the heart.

In this country we are too apt to confound in, one general idea, the Italian and the French character. We inadvertently transfer to the former, the heartless gaiety of the latter. From want of opportunities of making a fair and just comparison, we slightly discriminate some ana

logous traits in the characters of the two nations, which may be, and are, indicative of moral qualities totally different. Both, it cannot be denied, are equally advanced in moral corruption. But better hopes may be entertained of a people, whose moral sensibilities, though depraved, are not destroyed; than of one, among whom there prevails a system of society-at war with ingenuousness of character,-which has a tendency to chill the glow of imagination, and to extinguish that juvenile fire of the soul, from which the more exalted virtues derive their birth and nourishment. The sceptical vivacity of the Frenchman, deadens his heart to every glowing image of virtue, and leads him to reject as fallacious, every conclusion in which may be discovered the slightest tincture of sensibility or enthusiasm. The gaiety of the Italian is not incompatible with the most intense and profound emotions of the heart. It is not the product of art, but the boon of nature. It is the overflowing of a mind, warmed by generous feelings or excited by images of happiness --Almost all the virtues and vices of the French character' may be traced to the principle of vanity. A passion for distinction of some kind or other, pervades, in France, all classes of the community. Her philosophers, her poets, and her

statesmen, feel and obey this powerful incentive. Cardinal Richelieu envied the great Corneille his reputation; and was more desirous of being thought a bel esprit, than the first politician of his age. It was a petty ambition of singularity, that led Rousseau to publish a recapitulation of all the mean and senseless acts of his past life, and to unveil to the world the moral diseases of his nature.-This nation, too, has been remarkable under all its forms of government for combining the most brilliant valour, with the most elegant polish, and even effemiпасу of manners. The French officers, at the call of honour, fly from the toilet and drawingroom to the camp, and rush from the silken softness of a court life, amidst the toils and asperities of war. Their passion for personal decoration, for cockades, stars and ribbands, is proverbial; and it is well known with what efficacy Buonaparte employed these playthings, to strengthen the foundation of his power.

If this vanity is sometimes the source of great and shining qualities, it is the parent, too, of that refined coquetry which is so prejudicial to the integrity of the heart. There is no country in the world, where the exteriour decencies of life are more systematically taught, than in France; nor