4l8 OF THE REPUBLIC OF GENOA. 



The city of Genoa is not fo very populous as the 

 magnitude and the number of the palaces and the 

 crouded ftreets mould feem to promife ; for numbers 

 of the fpacious edifices give lodging to very few peo- 

 ple, and to fill the narrow ftreets no very great multi- 

 tude is requifite. Befides, in a commercial and mari- 

 time city, like Genoa, a great part of the inhabitants 

 are always walking the ftreets. They are reckoned all 

 together to amount only to 80,000 fouls. The popu- 

 lace are covetous, cheating, quarrelfome, and re- 

 vengeful. When a foreigner flrfr. arrives at Genoa, he 

 immediately has fome fmall proof of the character of 

 the people. At the door of the inn where he alights 

 he is furrounded by a parcel of the rabble. Every one 

 of them is eager to carry his baggage into the houfe. 

 There prefently arifes a fharp fcuffle with frits ; and 

 whoever gets the better carries the trunks into the inn. 

 The nobility, who here think it no difgrace to engage 

 in mercantile affairs, are, like all capital merchants, 

 polite and hofpitable : commerce is the fource of their 

 wealth, and this way of thinking redounds much to 

 their honour. ' Their gains and their favings they lay 

 out in elegant buildings either in the city or the coun- 

 try, or put it by for the exigencies of the ftate. Their 

 parfimony, which is too fharply cenfured by other 

 Italians, is directed to the nobleU: purpofes, and is 

 changed into magnanimity and liberality whenever a 

 foreigner that is recommended to them, is to be enter- 

 tained, or an opportunity occurs in which they can do 

 honour to their family and their country. They would 

 receive even kings in a royal ftyle. They fo well know 

 how to dignify nobility by commerce, and commerce 



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