T I C 



431 



T I C 



with paintings by Luvini, a pupil of Leonardo da Vinci, 

 some large mansions or palaces, as they are called in Italy, 

 an hospital, a theatre, manufactories of silk, paper, 

 tobacco, leather, and iron and copper works, and 4500 in- 

 habitants. There are at Lugano many merchants, it being 

 one of the great hia;h roads between Switzerland and Italy. 

 The fair, which is held in the month of October, is well 

 attended. Lugano has a college under the direction of 

 the Fathers Spmaschi, which is attended by more than one 

 hundred pupils, several elementary schools, a school of 

 drawing, a reading-room, and three newspapers in the 

 Italian language. The country around Lugano is planted 

 with \incs, olives, and other southern trees, and full of 

 country-houses. 2, Bcllinzona, a walled town situated 

 in the valley of the Ticino, on the high road of the St. 

 Gothard. has a very fine church, a college, an arsenal, and 

 about 1500 inhabitants. There are several rained castles 

 of the middle a<res in the neighbourhood. 3, Locarno, a 

 small town with a fort on the Lago Maggiore, in a ro- 

 mantic situation, has several churches worthy of notice, a 

 castle, which is now the government-house, and about 

 1700 inhabitants. It was once a thriving town with 5000 

 inhabitants, but many of the principal families, bcins; 

 banished about the middle of the sixteenth century, for 

 having unbraced the doctrines of the Reformation, carried 

 away their fortunes and their industry to Zurich and other 

 places, and Locarno has never since recovered from the 

 blow. The families of Orelli and Muralt, long established 

 at Zii originally from Locarno. 4, Mendrisio, a 



town of 1700 inhabitants, in a fertile country, and on the 

 hiirh road to Como and Milan, has a college, s> 

 churches and convents, a printing-press, and some silk 

 manufactories. 5, Capolago, at the southern extremity of 

 the lake of Lugano, known lor its printing-press, where 

 many Italian works are printed to avoid the censorship of 

 the government of Italy. 



The valleys and highlands of which the canton of Ticino 

 consists were inhabited in the antc-Romantimes bytheLe- 

 pontii and other aboriginal tribes of mountaineers, who were 

 finally reduced to subjection under Augustus. After the 

 fall of the empire, the Longobards spread their dominion 

 over the country. After several more vicissitudes in subse- 

 truent centuries, we find the country partly under the 

 dominion of the Visconti, dukes of Milan, and partly under 

 the feudal barons of Sax and other Kh;i-tian lords, till the 

 fifteenth century, when the Swiss of the Forest cantons 

 conquered the YU Leventina, and soon after acquired Bel- 

 linzona and the country north of Mount (,'enere by a formal 

 cession from the barons of Sax. In the Italian wars of 

 Louis XII., at the bet;innin<r of the sixteenth century, the 

 S \vi-s obtained possession of Locarno, Lugano, and tin: 

 rest of the country, which they formed into several Land- 

 vogteyen, or bailfiages, some of which were under the ex- 

 clusive dependence of the three Forest cantons, and others, 

 such as Lugano and Locarno, were subject to -the whole 

 tion. This state of things continued till 

 the French invasion of Switzerland and the dissolution of 

 the old confederation in 1798 ; the Cisalpine republic at- 

 tempted to annex them by force to its territory, but the 

 people of Lugano stood firm to their Swiss connection and 

 repulsed the Cisalpines, and took i'rom them several stand- 

 which are still seen in tht> church of San Lorenzo of 

 Lugano. The distinction between sovereign and subject 

 i having at the same time disappeared from Switzer- 

 land, the whole district was united into one canton of the 

 new Swiss confederation by the name of Ticino, and as 

 such it was acknowledged by Bonaparte in his Act of Me- 

 diation, and afterwards by the allied powers in yH4. In 

 June, 1830, the canton of Ticino changed its constitution 

 and adopted one by which the franchise is (riven to all 

 natives of the canton not younger than twenty-five years, 

 and who are burgesses of a commune and are possessed of 

 real property or capital placed at interest of the value of 

 at least 300 francs. The qualification required for mem- 

 bers of the Great Council is four thousand francs. The 

 mcil, or legislature, consists of 114 members, 

 elected for four years, and appoints the members of the 

 Little Council, or Kxecutive, as well as the judges of the 

 \ari<. In ecclesiastical matters the canton of Ticino 



depends partly mi the bishop of Como and partly on the 

 archbishop of Milan. The public revenue amounts to 

 about 800,000 francs, derived chiefly from customs, stamps, 



salt monopoly, and other taxes. There is a public debt of 

 about four millions of francs. New codes have been 

 lately framed, but much remains to be done to ensure the 

 proper administration of justice in the canton, where 

 venality, corruption, and infractions of the laws are evils of 

 antient date, and still of not unfrequent occurrence. The 

 standard of the intellectual and moral condition of the 

 people in general is considered to be lower than that of 

 most other cantons of Switzerland. Yet the canton of 

 Ticino has produced several distinguished men in various 

 branches, such as Professor Soave, the Abbe Fontana, 

 Franscini, who is still living, the architects Fontana, Borro- 

 niini, Maderna, Albertolli, and Bianchi, several sculptors 

 and painters, several members of the family of Quadn, one 

 of the principal families in the canton, and others. The 

 people of Ticino are not deficient in intelligence, but they 

 want instruction. 



(Leresche, Dictionnaire Geographiqite Statistique de la 

 Suisse ; Franscini, Stalistica delta, Svizzera, and his more 

 especial description of his native canton.) 



TICINO, River. [Po, BASIN OF THE.] 



TICKELL, THOMAS, an English poet of unblemished 

 mediocrity. He was bom in 168G, at Bridekirk in Cum- 

 berland. He was sent to Queen's College, Oxford, and he 

 took his degree of Master of Arts in 1708. Two years after- 

 wards he was chosen fellow of his college, and as he did 

 not comply with the statutes by taking orders, he obtained 

 a dispensation from the crown for holding his fellowship, 

 till he vacated it by marrying in 17'2G. 



His praises of Addison were so acceptable that they pro- 

 cured him the patronage of that writer, who ' initiated 

 him,' says Johnson, ' into public affairs.' When the queen 

 was negotiating with France, Tickell published ' The Pro- 

 spect of Peace,' in which he raised his voice to reclaim the 

 nation from the pride of conquest to the pleasures of tran- 

 quillity. This, owing perhaps to AddisOn's friendly praises 

 of it in ' The Spectator,' had a rapid sale, and six editions 

 were speedily exhausted. 



On the arrival of King George I. Tickell wrote ' The 

 Royal Progress,' which was printed in the ' Spectator.' 

 Johnson says of it that ' it is neither high nor low,' a very 

 equivocal criticism, considering Johnson's habitual tastes. 



The translation of the first book of the ' Iliad ' was the 

 most important thing in Tickell's poetical career, having 

 been published in opposition to Pope's ; both appeared at 

 the same time. Addison declared that the rival versions 

 were both excellent, but that Tickell's was the best that 

 was ever made. This praise ceases to surprise us when 

 we find strong suspicions of Addison himself being the 

 translator, as Pope, Young, and Warburton asserted. Dr. 

 .Johnson says, ' To compare the two translations would be 

 tedious ; the palm is now universally given to Pope. But 

 I think the first lines of Tickell's were rather to be pre- 

 ferred ; and Pope seems since to have borrowed something 

 i'rom them in connection with liis own.' 



During the dispute on the Hanoverian succession Tickell 

 assisted the royal cause with his ' Letter to Avignon,' of 

 which five editions were sold. Addison now employed 

 him in important public business, and when, in 1717, he 

 himself rose to be secretary of state, he made Tickell under 

 secretary. On Addison's death, Tickell published his works, 

 to which he prefixed an elegy on the author, which John- 

 son pronounces to be equal to any funeral poem for 

 sublimity and elegance in the English language. Con- 

 sidering that we have the ' Lycidas' of Milton, this sounds 

 oddly : on turning to this elegy, we are forced to admit, with 

 Steele, that it is only ' prose in rhyme,' and very bad prose 

 too. Such lines as 



' O'er my dim eyeballs glance Uie smUli-n tears ' 



indicate the substitution of sound for sense, which writers 

 like Tickell delight in. He never asked himself whether 

 it was his eyeballs that were dim or whether tears glanced 

 all he knew was that dim, eyeballs, glance, tears, were 

 common poetical phrases, and therefore suited his purpose. 

 In 1725 Tickell was made secretary to the Lords Just ires 

 of Ireland, a place of honour in which he continued till 

 his death, on the 23rd April, 1740. 



(Johnson's Lives of the Poets ; Campbell's Specimens of 

 British Pnets.} 



TICKHILL. [YORKSHIRE.] 



TICONDERO'GA. [NEW YOKK.] 



