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part are faulty in the outline, or insuperably difficult in the execution, and certainly there is none that can compare in efficacy and importance to that of drying up their unwholesome and sterile marshes, and thus render a large portion of their land capable of irrigation, in imitation of the rich and luxuriant fields of Lombardy.'

Antiquities.-The Theatre is in Neapolis; and of it there remains only an outline of the form and the seats shaped out of the living rock; which, however, do not partake of the grand. According to the most patient calculations of an intelligent English traveller, it was found that it might have contained 40,000 people: considering all the circumstances of the Greek Sicilian republics, such a capability in the theatre was a proof of a very large population; but not the enormous and inconceivable number of millions, as some learned men, too much inclined to the marvellous, have attributed to the ancient Syracuse.The Amphitheatre has been lately discovered, tolerably spared by the destructive hand of time, so that the seats may be distinctly observed, and they resemble those of the theatre.-The Vomitories, the doors and entire portico, with the façade, yet remain, &c.---We contem. plated it with great attention and interest, but without pleasure; for our imaginations pourtrayed to us the painful scenes that were here exhibited from the horrid ferocity of the Romans, in the less happy times of this republic.

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Catacombs. These dark and frightful caverns intended for the sepulture of dead bodies, so extend themselves, and are so deep in the bowels of the earth, that it is difficult, without considerable practice, to find the way out. The hermit established there and others assured us that they are cool in the summer, and always warm in winter; which may be explained by saying, that the air there communicating little or at all with the external air, preserves nearly the same temperature all the year round as is observed in the celebrated caves at Paris.-A House Bath, lately discovered, elegant and entire in all its parts, pleased us extremely, and led us to remark, that if cleanliness is so necessary every where, it must be more so at Syracuse, where the heat is excessive.- The Venus, lately found in the midst of certain ancient columns, is a most exquisite specimen of the art of sculpture. The Arethusa, of which the poets have fabled so much, is a spring of little importance, that flows within the town near the sea; its waters are not drinkable, except in cases of great necessity.'

Catania is believed to contain forty-five thousand inhabitants; there are five principal streets, spacious, straight, and handsome. Its palaces are noble, and such a quantity of private houses and buildings, that it may justly be ranked with the gayest and most magnificent cities of Italy. For private houses of a splendid style of architecture, it is so lined with them, that more are to be seen in proportion than in the capital itself; whence arises the vulgar saying, that "the Catanese can only build palaces ;" and they seemed better pleased to undertake these and leave them unfinished, than to begin and finish houses of more circumscribed dimensions. Notwithstanding all these and other fine buildings, the finely paved streets, the quantity of carriages, the abundance of provisions and merchandize of all sorts, with a certain sort of traffic in natural productions, and the handsome style of life of the inhabitants altogether, observations present themselves

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to the intelligent traveller, which obscure these advantages, and place Catania in the class of cities less advanced in civilization. There are not, for example, more than four or five coffee-houses, and those dirty and ill furnished with the necessary articles. There is not in the town a carriage for hire. Excepting the five principal streets above-mentioned, all the rest are very narrow, without trade or inhabitants, and so many nests of poverty and filth. Almost all the country in the environs of the town is squalid and black, and naked, almost to frighten one. The Marina is narrow, shapeless, and dismal in appearance; and finally, what is scarce to be believed, there is not without the town the length of a furlong of good carriage road.' They have lavished, or rather thrown away, immense sums of money in the construction of a mole; but I cannot refrain from hinting the consideration, that the internal commerce of this place is of infinitely more importance than even the external; and it would be more suitable to those engaged in it to think of facilitating the communication to the interior and with other districts of the island, before they take into consideration the means of establishing it with foreign nations at a distance.

• Catania has a rich bishopric, and a numerous clergy; and is only exceeded by Palermo itself in the number of its princes, dukes, marquisses, and other noblemen and gentlemen, who possess large manors and estates.'

After having given an idea of the labours of the Abbate, it is time to take notice of the share which Mr. Vaughan has had in this motley collection. His compositions begin rather abruptly (Appendix, p. 27.) with what he styles An examination of the Volunteer System. The author of this system in Sicily was the Prince of Butera, one of the most affluent noblemen of the island; who had the condescension, as Mr. Vaughan informs us, to explain it to him personally in all its parts. The island was divided into districts, a census of the population was taken, and, out of the whole number, 46,000 men were ordered to embody themselves under the title of volunteers. The measure, however, proved little more than nominal; the government possessing neither the means nor, perhaps, the wish to render the volunteers an efficient force. The cause of this inefficiency arises in no degree, in Mr. Vaughan's opinion, from the disposition of the inhabitants, who are actuated by a strong attachment to our countrymen and a cordial hatred of the French. He recommends the introduction of a certain number of English officers to the command of the natives, and points out the saints' days as the proper times for exercise. He treats the subject with considerable minuteness, and appears to expect that it might be made to lead to essential co-operation on the side of the natives with our troops.-The next part of Mr. Vaughan's contribution to the volume consists in extracts from his private letters, written in Sicily to a friend in England. According to the random manner in which the whole book

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scems to have been put together, it appears that the publication of these extracts was not determined till the rest of the work was in the press. The readers of the volume, however, will be disposed to regard the letters as the least exceptionable part of the whole; since they contain several amusing descriptions of the manners of the people, and of the striking objects in the island. Of these the following passages may serve as specimens:

Four hours and a half-for, travelling in Sicily, you never go out of a walk-brought me to Fiume Di Nissi, eighteen miles from Messina; where the muleteer informed me there was an excellent inn. It consists of an immense range of open stalls for the mules, and wretched lofts above, they call rooms. The supper-room you are shewn into, is a division of the stable; with a fire on the ground, or rather bare earth-a bed for the family-some casks full of wine-a pig lately killed, swinging from the rafters-and a table and bench. Upon the ashes they toast you a slice from the pig; with two or three-eggs, and a bottle of wine; and that forms your supper. The chamber for sleeping is a wretched-looking garret, with a mattras, en suite; shutters, for windows; and a door that won't shut. Were an English lady's maid shewn in to such a place, at the worst inn on the road, she would immediately swoon. And take this for a picture of every locanda in Sicily, except in great towns, or the immediate beaten tract from one English post to another.'

You would be much amused at the fancy dances which are frequent throughout Sicily, particularly at Catania; where the noblesse, who they calculate at three hundred, have a weekly ball, and, by constantly dancing together, have arrived at great perfection in the performance. The figures are ingenious, and certainly, when well danced, a very great improvement of the English country-dance. The mode of building in Sicily is particularly well adapted to display the grand suite of apartments. The doors are opposite to each other, in the centre of the different partitions throughout (originally designed for a free ventilation of the air in the hot months ;) so that, upon entering, you have a full view of the whole range of rooms at once, in which there is little furniture, except chairs and tables, or slabs against the wall; as furniture harbours flies and musquitoes (not to mention fleas) with which they are much tormented. The floors are all of a species of glazed tile, resembling coloured porcelain, in the best houses; and in others, the common flat tile or stucco. There are no boarded floors.'

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Nothing is more annoying to an Englishman, at first, than the total want of ceremony as to times and seasons, of Sicilian visitors. Whether breakfast or dinner, the foreign visitor walks in without feeling de trop; and even while you are dressing, if you happen to have a foreign servant, he thinks nothing of the matter-your visitor. is let in; who continues to talk, while you continue your operations, till you are perfectly at a stand. Such is the difference of custom.

Upon making a visit to any house of distinction, you are, accordingto the etiquette, ushered through the whole suite of apartments, and find the owner, probably, in a small but handsome room at the

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extremity; perhaps the bed-chamber of the lady of the house, who, if indisposed, receives her visitors in form, upon the bed. In winter, coffee; in summer, iced water is brought in. Upon taking leave, it is usual for the master of the mansion to attend you, and bow out through the whole suite of these rooms; and it requires a little drilling for strangers to go through the ceremony adroitly.

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Although earthquakes have been often described, we are induced to copy the ensuing account, because it conveys, in a small compass, a striking idea of that awful visitation:

While the impressions are yet strong upon my recollection of the most horrid visitation to which this earth is exposed, let me endeavour to give you some idea of an earthquake.—Î had lately changed my place of abode in Messina, to the upper suite of rooms (which is preferred, from better air in the summer) in the Palazzo Di Stagno*; and which, however grand it may sound, as being a palace, is now an usual quarter for English residents. The rooms are very spacious, and high from the ground;-which I mention chiefly to shew, that probably we felt the effects of the shock in all its fulness; since tall and large houses, from their height and length of beam, are supposed to rock more, and be less safe, than the lower and more compact.I had returned from dinner about eight in the evening; Mrs. was working in the principal room, where my two little girls (being hitherto unsettled) were sleeping upon a sofa. I was pacing up and down the room, sometimes in conversation, and at the moment in a deep reverie. On a sudden a new and extraordinary noise assailed my ears, which in the first hasty impression of it seeming like the trampling or jumping of a number of people at once over my head, or rather all around me, I exclaimed with surprise," Are these people mad?"-While the words were yet upon my lips, a magical concus sion, with a hollow and terrible sound, shook the whole fabric to its very foundations. The doors burst open; the windows rattled in their frames; the lights tottered upon the table; and the instant conviction of what it was, flashed upon the mind; but what words can convey an idea of the vital damp that strikes, with that conviction, upon the heart!In an instant, Mrs. sprang from her seat, with, "Oh, my God, an earthquake!"—I ran, I knew not how, to seize my children, and flew with them to the window, as I called out aloud, "To the window !" (For under the arches of windows and doors, and where the firmness of thick walls may afford shelter from the mass that falls in from above, in serious earthquakes, the only safety is supposed to be found).--By the time we got there, all was still. An awful settled silence followed the fearful noise, more re, sembling the crushing sound of a fire-engine passing under an arch, but muffled and dull, than any thing I know to compare it to.-My Italian servant, followed by the women, presently appeared, "pale as their smock ;" and our neighbour the Duchessa sent up, to know how

* In Messina, the different stories are inhabited by different families — the stables and coach-houses, or shops, on the ground

floor.'

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we did, telling us, that below, the shock was so violent, a lamp had fallen from her table ;-but they never fail to exaggerate the effects in each particular house. By this time the bells in the monasteries had began to ring, and the people to flock out and run to their churches, together with all the usual consequences of dismay at a smart shock of an earthquake; the first of which is, to desert their habitations and assemble in the open squares, awaiting the event of a second, which is most to be dreaded, in trembling and prayer. None happened this night, at least sensibly to us; for it happened that a few days before I had taken a small casino, or country-house, a mile from the town, for the benefit of sea-bathing. To resolve upon it at once, to crowd into the carriage, and set forth for this place, was the work of a moment; and while the bells of alarm yet tinkled in our ears, we left the town, all in uproar; and for that night at least, however figuratively a cottage may in general be coupled with happiness, it afforded us more reality of comfort than a palace. With the first tremulous dawning of light I was at my window. All was calm and silent-not a breath, not a murmur interrupted the tranquillity of that charming scene. This was not called a very severe shock. In serious ones, such as took place in the 16th century, they are dreadful indeed, and in 1693 it was most horrible as well as fatal. In the month of January the earth shook four minutes, and buried in ruins almost all the towns on the east side the island. Half the inhabitants of Syracuse, Augusta, and Catania were destroyed. It was calculated that 60,000 persons lost their lives upon that occasion.'

The last shock I felt was in May 1810, at twelve at night. It was slight. Upon going into the town, however, I found the inhabitants assembled in the squares, the ladies sitting quietly in their carriages, awaiting a second. In very slight shocks, they are little alarmed: : upon the present occasion, approaching a carriage, to condole with a lady, with "Is it not shocking?" I was answered, "It is indeed very shocking-You were not at the Opera"

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Such passages as these are calculated to give Mr. Vaughan's readers a more favourable idea of his powers than his hasty and inaccurate labours as a translator would excite. Among the other topics discussed in his letters, is the danger (p. 60.) to which the southern coast of Sicily remains exposed from the incursions of Barbary pirates; and a reprobation of the base practice of assassination, which is still common (p. 75.) among the Sicilians. In describing the ruins of Agrigentum, (Girgenti,) of which the population is now only 14,000, he enlarges, with great animation, on the beautiful synimetry of the Temple of Concord. The order is Doric, like that of all the temples in the neighbourhood; no building can convey a more complete idea of proportion; and its lightness and grandeur are equal to the fairest picture that imagination can conceive. At no great distance stands the Temple of Juno, of somewhat larger dimensions, but not quite so perfect. The temple of Jupiter Olym

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