sits down to his macaroni, and imme. diately after dinner returns to his bed, where he continues till six, when, rising, he again visits the promenade, and forms the necessary assignation with his mistress; then bounds to the opera, or some private conversazione. A suite of rooms are attached to the Carolina, for the reception of those who wish to play Faro: these are invariably preferred to the opera, and always crowded at an early hour, when about one hundred people, men and women, sit down round a large table, and continue playing until two in the morning, when they return to supper, and keep it up till after four; ladies of the first rank only attend the Carolina conversazione, and numbers, both young and old, are seen at it nightly. There is no person in Sicily who does not gamble, for it is one of those customs which the most reserved and prudent character never thinks of avoiding, so general has this ruinous disposition become all over the island. At Messina there is a prince whose palace is literally converted into a gambling house, and open every night in the year, Sundays not excepted, for the reception of his countrymen, and British officers, many of whom have been ruined by their perseverance in, and attachment to, play in that town.

The general treatment of servants in Sicily, particularly those in the higher circles, is another proof of how much want of principle there is a mongst them. These unfortunate people are kept up night and day, and are only allowed about one shilling per diem; they are, moreover, very seldom paid, and innumerable instances of ill treatment towards them are in circulation at Palermo.

We find Mr. B. expressing himself with considerable severity (Vol. i. p. 199.) on the selfish conduct of the Sicilian clergy. They appear,' he says, altogether to have forgotten the example of our Saviour and the

apostles; and, in utter contempt of the injunction to regard things of this world as stale and unprofitable, they have absorbed, in religious foundations, not less than a third of the whole landed property of the island. The farms belonging to them are let on short leases of three or four years; which, in other words, is making it the interest of the tenant to exhaust the land with all imaginable industry. The revenues of the bishoprics are ample, and several abbeys even yield an annual rent of two or three thousand pounds sterling. These are in the King's patronage, and are conferred, of course, on ecclesiastics who chance to be in favour at court. The influence of the clergy, high and low, on the different ranks of the community, is such as would startle the unbelieving Protestant. Mr Blaquiere states, that the bishops, by communicating the wishes of the church, or of the government, to the subordinate preachers, are enabled to effect, in the course of a single week, a very considerable change in the state of popular feeling. Auricular confession is maintained as a principal engine in the support of this sweeping ascendancy; and the credulous flocks are taught to look up to the clergy as empowered to absolve them from crimes, at the slender sacrifice of a few prayers, a few fasts, and a pecuniary forfeit. In this country, we have difficulty in believing that any people, above the scale of barbarism, can contemplate with favour a practice which has the effect of directly encouraging a repetition of crime, and of making sin emanate from the authority of religion: yet all ranks of society in Sicily hasten to the auricular chairs; and, having disclosed their iniquities and undergone the slight penance prescribed, they proceed to run over again the course which they have so lately professed to abjure.

A Sicilian land-holder scarcely

ever visits his estates, and is contented to consign the management of them to a steward; who retains in store an extensive stock of corn, the product of the preceding harvests.— This corn has been forestalled on different occasions, according to his views of emolument for his patron, and is sold from time to time, either wholesale or retail, to the highest bidder. The tenants are kept in the most abject dependence, by the necessity of purchasing their seed-corn from the steward, and they are even obliged to negotiate with him for ploughs and oxen to turn up the ground; so that it often happens, in consequence of the avarice or caprice of these unworthy representatives, that a delay of several weeks is incurred in ploughing or sowing the cornlands. Few of the peasantry being allowed to keep cows, their families must be subsisted on goats and poultry. Their corn grows unprotected by inclosures; and no sooner is it cut and deposited in the granaries, than officers go round to enforce the Revello, an ordinance obliging every person to declare the exact amount of his crop, and prohibiting him from selling any part of it until the pleasure of the high tribunal, called the Real Patrimonio, be known. After the reports from all parts of the island have been collected, the tribunal in question determines the quantity required for home-consumption, and fixes an arbitrary price on it.The land-holder, meanwhile, takes care to enforce the payment, in kind, of his rent and advances: after which come the tax-gatherers, who, by a perverse application of all principle, are directed to levy duties on the necessaries of life, such as flour, oil, wine, and slaughtered cattle, &c. These taxes fall directly on the lower orders; as may be said indeed of the Revelle, which the higher ranks contrive to evade by the timely interposition of a bribe; and they are thus

enabled to hoard up their corn, which they retail at an advanced price, after having spread throughout the island a general alarm of scarcity. The peasant, on taking a sack of corn to the mill, is obliged to pay a fresh tax for grinding; and no kind of food can be said to be exempt from impost. Year after year passes over the poor man's head in this unhappy state, and has at last the effect of rendering him callous and hopeless. Many tracts of land, formerly populous, now exhibit the aspect of desolation; and the traveller, in proceeding through the interior of Sicily, observes houses unroofed, bridges broken down, villages abandoned, and numbers of males and females without employment.

The COSSACS at HAMBURGH.

(From SEMPLE's Travels through Germany.)

IT was a curious spectacle to see

these Scythians from the Tanais, welcomed as deliverers on the borders of the Elbe. A party of more than two hundred, who had recently arrived, were stationed on the outside of the Altona gate, and the citizens were carrying them provisions. Their horses were picketed in rows, their slender pikes, of about twelve feet in length, and with a thong at the end, were stuck upright in the ground opposite, and they themselves forming into groups of eighteen or twenty, to receive their dinner. Their appearance was various, but martial. Some wore beards, others none. Here features regular, and even handsome, were contrasted with others, harsh, mean, and ferocious. The true Cossack appeared to me distinguished by little eyes, obliquely placed, and a countenance conveying the idea of being contracted by extreme cold, and the constant dazzling of snow.—

Among

Among the rest were mixed a few Calmucks. Their high cheek-bones, small uolique eyes, and general fea tures, strongly recalled to mind my early tri nas, the Hottentots; but on agar scale, they being in general the tallest and stoutest men of the party. Sa wore a dress of sheep-skin, others over that the jackets of French soldiers, esecially such as were disti d by any finery. Among arms and accoutrements, were Tish, Russian, and French pistols, many French sabres, and some sad dles. Before dining, most of them took off their caps, crossed themselves, and repeated a short prayer. They ate without voracity, but asked ea. gerly for spirits, under the common German name of Snaps. After eating, some played at cards, some read let

the

ters, at which I was surprised, some conversed in groups, and others, stretched along the ground, placed their heads in their comrades' laps, who performed with their fingers the operation of combs. In general, they were stout men, of the ordinary height. Their horses were ragged, and neglected as to outward appearance, but shared in every other respect with the Cossack himself; small, but spirited, and kept under admirable discipline. When any disturbance took place: among them at their pickets, the whip was immediately employed upon the offender. They tremble at the sound of it, when joined to the angry voice of their master; but in return they partake of his bread, and receive correction and food from the same hand.