traveller, who, with an amiable enthusiasm in literature and science, roams over the traces of fallen magnificence, and explores the fragments of departed greatness, must experience the most lively sensations; and those feelings are increased by the contrast, which he is often forced to draw between the MEN who must originally have erected those structures, and the poor beings who now only crawl and vegetate around them.

In these two points of view, few countries offer more curious and striking scenes than Istria and Dalmatia; a region which on one side displays the skeleton of the Roman Empire, and on the other a people degraded to an almost savage state. Here we contemplate the proud remnants of the masters of the world, there the obscure penury of a few ignorant tribes: -here we see the broken columns and pediments of palaces belonging to the Caesars, there the smoky huts of the worthless Heyduks: here we view the luxurious bath of the Roman Patrician, and there the filthy pallet of the Dalmatian boor. Thus, continues the editor, if we study the Antiquities, we call to our recollection the crimes and the errors of a great people if we study the present inhabitants, we are depressed with scenes of misery and stupidity; and the heart sighs on finding man in all ages a stranger to happiness.

Such are the reflections by which we are prepared for ac companying M. CASSAS in his tour: but, before we actually embark with him, the editor entertains us with a sketch of the geographical and political history of the countries which we are about to visit.

Istria is a peninsula in the northern part of the Adriatic gulf; and, reckoning from Paris, it is situated between 110 55 and 12° 30′ of longitude East, and between 44° 55′ and 45° 50' of latitude.

Dalmatia, including the number of small islands which be long to it, forms, with the contiguous parts of Hungary and Turkey in Europe, that district which by antient geographers was called Illyricum, Illiris, or Illyria. It is situated towards the Eastern shore of the Adriatic, and extends from 12° 10' to 16° 40′ of longitude East, and from 42° 25′ tó 45° 35′ of latitude but its figure is very irregular; and though it is much larger than Istria, it would not measure so much in square miles as this statement might lead persons to suppose.

Of the history of these countries, little is known before the time of the Romans; who, irritated by the murder of their ambassadors, sent to Teuta, the queen-mother, to complain of the piracies committed by her subjects; then invaded Illyria; inflicted signal vengeance for this cruel breach of the law of nations; and, after having deprived the queen of her power, and

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received the city of Dyrrachium and some of the islands, to remunerate them for the expences of the war; proclaimed the rest of Illyria tributary to the Republic. From this event, its history is included in that of Rome; of which empire it now formed a part. We shall not, however, pursue the detail here given of the various fortunes of Dalmatia, under Augustus, Tiberius, and the succeeding Emperors: but, as Dioclesian was born in this province, and retired to it after he had thrown off the imperial purple, and as some stupendous remains of his magnificence still exist, we must not entirely pass over the sketch of his character which here occurs.

If (it is remarked) education had refused to him the amiable virtues of a Trajan and the philosophy of Marcus Aurelius, nature had lavished on him, as on them, the qualities requisite for a ruler.The memory of Dioclesian has been aspersed: but it is singular that he has never been accused of the only crime which may be clearly proved against him, viz. an indifference to his country; or rather a positive enmity towards it, for such in fact was his assignment of it to Galerius Cæsar, the vilest of men. How much to be pitied is that man, whose eyes, during the course of a long life, are never turned with tender emotion towards the place where they first saw the light! and how criminal is that sovereign, who, when elevated to a throne, docs not cause the streams of his bounty to flow towards those citizens who were the companions of his youth! Dioclesian thought not about Dalmatia, till old age, infirmities, and misfortune, made him remember that he was a man before he was an emperor; and he came, in his distress, to seek an asylum in those regions which he had forgotten in the hour of his grandeur. This was his crime. To his native country, however, after having abdicated the empire and resumed the situation of a private citizen, he at last retired; and then he shewed himself greater than he had been on the throne. Hither he brought the same taste for building, which he had so much indulged during his reign; and he who had covered Nicomedia with circuses, palaces, and temples; who had surrounded the empire with fortresses; and who had erected in Rome those celebrated Baths, the very ruins of which at the present day excite our admiration; when he had relinquished the reins of the Government of the World, built the immense Palace of Spalatro, of which the walls, after the lapse oổ so many ages, are still standing, and form an area too vast for the city which they inclose. It was in that palace, the last of his works, that this man, truly great and heroical, starved himself to death, at the age of sixty-cight, to escape the poniards of his successors, whom he himself had raised to the summit of fortune.'

The character of Constantine obtains no partial delineation from the present writer. He is of opinion that this much extolled Emperor was governed merely by the love of singularity; that he embraced Christianity for no other reason than because his predecessors were Pagans; that he hated philosophy,

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philosophy, because Trajan, Marcus Aurelius, and Antonine had been philosophers; and that he removed the seat of em. pire to Constantinople, less from resentment to Rome than because that city had enjoyed this honour for a thousand

years.

As a component part of the Roman dominion, the history of Dalmatia is carried down to the lower Empire, and through the middle ages, till it fell into the hands of the Venetians, and lastly of the House of Austria; and the chief object of the editor, in relating the changes which this province underwent, is to account for the degeneracy of its present inhabitants. He supposes that the antient race of Dalmatians is entirely extinct; and that, by admixtures with Goths, Scythians, and others, they have been degraded to their present condition, which bears no feature of resemblance to men who once nobly contended with the Romans.

Passing over the account of the Heyduks, who live in the mountains and deserts, and who form one class of the present miserable inhabitants of this part of the globe, we shall exhibit a more pleasing, though still far from enviable, picture of the Morlachians.

• These people carry the virtue of hospitality to an excess. If a stranger brings with him the slightest recommendation, he is sure of being received by them as a brother; they not only lavish on him all that their house affords, but, if apprized of his coming, they meet him on the road with their horses and an escort; and on his depart ure they present him with provisions for his journey, accompanying him to a certain distance with their children and servants. The poor as well as the rich give the same warm reception to strangers; and the only difference consists in the value of the entertainment.

This hospitality is still more actively exerted if the guest be their countryman. When a Morlachian arrives at the house of a Morlachian, the mother of the family, and her eldest or last married daughter, go before to embrace him; a favour which the stranger does not obtain; since custom requires that, on the contrary, the females should be concealed from his sight during his visit. A Morlachian is never under the necessity of begging. He enters his neighbour's house, sets himself down at his table, eats, stays as long as he likes, and never wearies the cordiality of his host. Having no anxious thoughtfulness for the morrow, they will consume in one day, with their friends and visitors, what would suffice for months; and it is not unusual on the road to see shepherds, farmers, and workmen, voluntarily presenting to the traveller their own daily provisions. They appear not to know what economy is, except in their clothes, where it is most ridiculously displayed. If they have to pass any dirty spot, they will take off their shoes to save them; and if caught in a storm, they will strip themselves of their coats and bonnets to prevent them from being wetted. • To

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To generosity and disinterestedness, they add unusual fidelity in the fulfilment of their engagements. The word of a Morlachian is sacred, and there is no instance of its being violated. If he contracts a debt, and finds himself unable to discharge it at the appointed day, he always makes a present of nearly equal value to his creditor, merely as an acknowlegement for the delay: never failing afterward to repay the whole amount, Nor is their honour only apparent in matters of business; in their friendships they display the warmest enthusiasm. This sentiment, so noble and amiable, is with them a point of religion, and is consecrated by particular ceremonies. When a friendship is formed between two of either sex, they present themselves in the church, accompanied by their different relations; and there the priest blesses the union, which is from that moment inviolable. Women thus united are called Posestrima; men, Pobratimi. They are inseparable for the remainder of their lives; all is in common with them; and there is nothing which the Pobratimi will not share with his companion, and the Posestrima with her friend. The sacrifice of life often evinces the strength of these attachments. If a disunion take place between two Pobratimi, it is regarded as a public calamity, and as a sigual of some national judgment, In antient times, indeed, such a breach was without example: but for two or three ages past, the intercourse of the Italians has changed the purity of their manners; and the introduction also of spirituous liquors having led to drunkenness and quarrels, the Pobratimus has not always been distinguished from another man.'

The resentments of these people, however, are as ardent and as unchangeable as their friendships; and we find that, where the rights of hospitality have not been invoked, the Morlachian is an expert and audacious thief. Some of the Morlachians belong to the Greek, and others to the Romish church; and in both the priest alike avails himself of their ignorance and credulity. Accounts are given of their superstitions, with the ceremonies which precede their marriages, and the subsequent wretchedness of the female; of their dress, manners, and mode of life; of which an idea may be formed from the picture of their houses:

• Their houses, or (to speak more properly) their cottages or huts, are entirely blackened on the inside by smoke, which rises from the fire made in the middle, and which has no way of escape but by the door. Their furniture is simple and clumsy. They are rarely so rich as to possess a bed; and they sleep on straw, with coarse coverings over them which they obtain from Turkey. The women invariably sleep on the bare boards, or on the ground; and it is not unusual for the whole family, after having supped around the fire, to fall asleep and pass the night where each had been sitting. In the summer season, they are fond of sleeping in the open air. They lodge with their cattle, and are separated from them only by a partition of reeds. The walls of their cabins are for the most part made of clay intermixed with straw. Instead of oil, they employ butter in

their lamps, which is thick and stinking. In short, their clothes, persons, and food, emit such a stench, that to strangers it is insupportable.'

Such is the state of society and manners, among the people inhabiting the country which it was M. CASSAS's object to explore; and whither we are now to accompany him, by entering on the Second Part of this Volume, which is employed in detailing the particulars of his tour.

At the solicitation of a society composed of amateurs of the fine arts, M. CASSAS performed the journey which is the subject of the remainder of the work, and to which the numerous plates refer. Leaving Rome, where he happened to be when the plan was proposed to him, on the 10th of May 1782, he proceeded to Ancona, embarked at Pesaro, and with a favourable wind reached Venice on the 17th. Here the childish ceremony of the Doge's marriage with the Adriatic (a puerility of which the French have taken good care that the Venetians shall not be guilty in future,) affords him an opportunity for indulging his ridicule. Of the city, however, he does not at tempt a description. After having associated with himself a few Frenchmen and Milanese, who were charmed with the project and agreed to accompany him in his voyage, (which he purposed to prosecute to greater extent than the original design of his employers embraced,) he freighted a small felucca with provisions and other necessaries, and sailed on the 27th of May. On the 29th at day break, they came in sight of the coast of Istria, and in the evening entered the port of Trevigno, or Rovigno, a small city situated on a rock in a peninsula on the western coast of Istria. At this place, which is elegantly built with stone, and contains a magnificent Gothic cathedral, constructed after the same design as St. Mark's at Venice, the travellers stayed only a few hours; and, re-embarking, skirted along the coast in order to reach Pola: the approach to which is obstructed by rocks and small islands, though the road, at the bottom of which the city stands, is spacious, commodious, and so well sheltered that vessels are safe in the severest storms. On entering the harbour of Pola, the eye is attracted by the sight of a magnificent amphitheatre, the most entire and beautiful which antiquity has bequeathed to us. The majesty of this colossal pile, the pleasing verdure of the shores which it seems to crown, the calm of the sea which almost washes its walls and reflects its stupendous image, the religious veneration which the hand of time impresses on edifices that have triumphed over the efforts of ages, all contribute at this view to excite in the mind those mingled sentiments of pleasure

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