162 JOURNAL. 



lieved the people from a heavy tax, but then it has curtailed their 

 accustomed amusements ; and in a climate such as this, where con- 

 stant labour is not necessary to support life, some consideration 

 ought to be had to the necessity of amusement for those classes, es- 

 pecially where purely mental entertainment is nothing. The festival 

 of St. Peter, peculiarly adapted to a maritime place, should not, I 

 think, have been abolished. On his day, his statue, kept in the 

 Iglesia Matriz, used to be solemnly brought out and placed in an 

 ornamented goleta, decked with flags and ribbons, and gilding, and 

 attendant images. The goleta, manned by fishermen, was rowed 

 round the harbour, followed by all the fishing boats and canoes. 

 Bands of music were stationed on each point bounding the bay ; and 

 when the goleta reached them, rockets and guns saluted it. 



I have often admired the wisdom of Venice with regard to its 

 festivals ; there was scarcely one of the church that was not converted 

 into a national monument. On the feast of the Purification, was cele- 

 brated the seizure and recapture of the brides of Venice, under the 

 name of the Marias, which has furnished the subject of tales and poems 

 in all languages. The ceremonies of the last day of the carnival com- 

 memorated the suppression of an internal division in the city. But 

 among a thousand others, the greatest, in every sense, was that cele- 

 brated on the day of the Ascension, when the doge, proceeding in the 

 Bucentaur to the open sea, solemnly espoused the Adriatic, in com- 

 memoration of the triumphant return of the Doge Urseoli on the 

 day of the Ascension, after having subjected the whole of the Adriatic 

 to Venice. * It may be said, that to engraft the sacred feelings of 

 patriotism thus upon the stock of superstition, only fosters the latter ; 

 and that the enlightened policy of this age, ought to be superior to 

 the temporising spirit which such a union demands. But the people 

 are, perhaps, nowhere sufficiently enlightened to be altogether in- 



* See the " Origine delle Feste Veneziane," by one whom I am proud to have seen and 

 known, whose knowledge, as displayed in her work, is the least of her merits, but whose 

 truly patriotic feeling for her ruined country must find an echo in every breast. Need I 

 add the name of Justin a Renier Michiele? 



