260 Travels in Italy 



ners of different nations than in the idea of shame annexed to 

 certain necessities of nature. In England a man makes water 

 (if I may use such an expression) with a degree of privacy, and 

 a woman never in sight of our sex. In France and Italy there 

 is no such feeling, so that Sterne's Madame Rambouillet was no 

 exaggeration. In Otaheite, to eat in company is shameful and 

 indecent; but there is no immodesty in performing the rites of 

 love before as many spectators as chance may assemble. There 

 is between the front row of chairs in the pit and the orchestra, 

 in the Venetian theatre, a space of five or six feet without floor : 

 a well-dressed man, sitting almost under a row of ladies in the 

 side boxes, stepped into this place, and made water with as much 

 indifference as if he had been in the street; and nobody regarded 

 him with any degree of wonder but myself. It is, however, 

 a beastly trick: — shame may be ideal, but not cleanliness; for 

 the want of it is a solid and undoubted evil. For a city of not 

 more than 150,000 people, Venice is wonderfully provided with 

 theatres; there are seven; and all of them are said to be full 

 in the carnival. The cheapness of admission, except at the 

 serious opera, undoubtedly does much to fill them. 



^th. Another tour among palaces, and churches, and pictures ; 

 one sees too many at once to have clear ideas. Called again on 



, and had another conversation with him, better than a score 



of fine pictures. He made an observation on the goodness of 

 the disposition of the common people at Venice, which deserves, 

 in candour, to be noted: that there are several circumstances 

 which would have considerable effect in multiplying crimes were 

 the people disposed to commit them : ist, the city is absolutely 

 open, no walls, no gates, nor any way of preventing the escape 

 of criminals by night, as well as by day: 2nd, that the manner in 

 which it is built, the narrowness and labyrinth-direction of the 

 streets, with canals everywhere, offer great opportunities of 

 concealment, as well as escape: yd, the government never re- 

 claims of any foreign power a criminal that flies: 4th, there is 

 no police whatever ; and it is an error to suppose that the system 

 of espionage (much exaggerated) is so directed as to answer the 

 purpose : 5/A,for want of more commerce and manufactures, there 

 are great numbers of idle loungers, who must find it difficult to 

 live: 6ih, and lastly, the government very seldom hangs, and it 

 is exceedingly rare otherwise to punish. — From this union of 

 circumstances it would be natural to suppose that rogues of all 

 kinds would abound; yet that the contrary is the fact; and he 

 assured me he does not believe there is a city in Europe of equal 



