preferred to fiction and the shadows of poetry and painting.. Wine.. ounces 3 6 .... the salm. 70 the quintal. 0) the ro tolo of 2 0 30 o. Beef with the bone..2 The Niches-Are very numerous, all cut in the rock, of various depth and size, according to the age, and it should seem the rank and circum- Prices of certain Articles and Labour. stances of the person whose body they were intended to preserve. "Baths and other Curiosities.-A House Bath, lately discovered, ele. gant and entire in all its parts, pleased us extremely, and led us to remark, that if cleanliness is so necessary every where, it must be more so at Syracuse, where the heat is excessive. Indeed, it is to be hoped that cleanliness begins to prevail more here, at Augusta and Catania than formerly; and if this most laudable custom gains ground, it will in time get the better of a very disgusting malady (the itch) complained of in these parts. The Venus,-Lately found in the midst of certain ancient columns, is a most exquisite specimen of the art of sculpture, and although it is without a head, that serves, instead of lessening its value, to raise it in the estimation of the passionate admirers of reverend antiquity. The Arethusa,-Of which the poets have fabled so much, is a spring of little importance, that flows within the town near the sea; its waters are not drinkable, except in cases of great necessity. "We paid a visit to it in company with many other gentlemen; and meeting upon our return with one of the Naiads I have already described, a bale looking damsel, a youth of our party, by his smiles, as he pointed to her, gave us to understand how much reality is to be of wine and 3 0 Day labour of a "The Syracusans of condition, and who have received a good education, have the credit of being clever, ingenious, cheerful, and courteous; but the people at large are thought, I know not for what reason, to be of a moody, capricious temperament, and much disposed to idleness. "On the fifth we directed our steps towards Catania by the seaside, bidding adieu to Syracuse, with an earnest wish for an opportunity of contemplating more at leisure its former pretensions to power and magnificence, and most grateful for the attentions of our friends and acquaintance, more particularly the Marquis Castellentini and the canon Scrofano. SICILIAN "A SICILIAN PEASANTRY. [From the same.] "Caltagirone, Sep. 10, 1810. T two o'clock I arrived at Caltagirone, which is a large and fine town, of 20,000 inhabitants; but as it has been described by other travellers, and I know you are better pleased to hear of people than things, I will tell you, that upon my arrival in the market place, I was surrounded by a crowd, with cries of Viva l'inglese,'-all anxious to hear the news from the coast, at this interesting period-for it is inconceivable how little intercourse of information there is to the inland towns of Sicily, that are not immediately in the high road from the capital to Messina, &c. I conceive there is the same sort of information of what is doing at Petersburgh, in the deserts of Siberia-that is to say, by the arrival of a traveller, who says what he pleases. They absolutely know nothing-there are no newspapers published in Sicily, where the press is severely restricted, except the Gazetta of Palermo, which has only a few extracts from foreign papers, and no domestic news whatever, except the arrival and departure of the royal family; and the Gazette Britannica,' established lately at Messina, since the English have been there, which of course only gives military and circumscribed details, modelled by the hopes and wishes of the writer, which are truly patriotic. At length a spokesman advanced, to beg my Eccellenza (for we are all Eccellenzas), to tell them whether it was true that 10,000 French had lately landed, 5,000 of whem were taken prisoners, and the rest cut to pieces by the English and peasants? As soon as I had qualified this news so as to leave them in perfect good humour, and particularly with the efforts of their countrymen, the peasants, I hastened to my locanda, which is even here bad, and dirty, and was ushered into a room by a robustious periwig-pated landlady, a woman of forty, dressed to the life, with the voice of a Stentor, who, if she was not perfectly qualified for a queen of the Amazons, could exhibit most formidable and prominent pretensions as Chief of the Staff and while my baggage was bringing in, she ran through her history with surprising volubility; that she was overjoyed to see me, and delighted in the English; that she was an unfortunate woman, from having married a dolt, and a native of one of the provinces, by which she was condemned, though a native of Palermo, to pass the flower of her days in a wretched country town; but she was not without her hopes of getting there in the winter!" And where is your husband, Donna amabile ?' said 1- Behold him) !' said she-' Come forward, Don Pietro;' and at the door I beheld a miserable looking creature, Sicilian Peasantry." make yourself useful,' said his amia- have heard what we can bie help-mate. scarcely "When I sat down to my chick-It is perfectly true-we have believe, that you have not any wine?' vines that bear fruit; but the sun in our climate is not sufficiently strong, which must be broiling, as it is here, to produce any wine.' deuce do you do? I told them, - Then, Jesu Maria how the that, notwithstanding, we got on pretty well-that we had some decent sort of mutton, and very toletry was thought eatable, and our rable looking beef-that our poulbread pretty good-that instead of the wine, we had a thing they call ale, which our people, here and there, seemed to relish exceedingly en, this interesting creature very coolly took a chair within a yard of the table, and on the opposite side sat a sleek-looking priest, such as you see familiar in every house throughout the country; who had taken up that position, by way of asking a few questions of the Cavaliere Inglese-and after many apologies for the liberty he was taking, he begged to converse with me upon the subject of England, which the people of these parts were very anxious to hear about; and the opportunity of inquiring so seldom occurred; and by the time I had dined I observed half a dozen people collected round the door, with their eyes and mouths open, to hear the examination.-' And pray, signor is it true what we are told, that you have no olives in England 'Yes, perfectly true. Cospetto! how so? Cospet tone!' said the landlady. Our climate is not propitious to the growth of the olive. But then, signor, for oranges? We have ་ no oranges neither.'- Poveretto!' said the landlady, with a tone of compunction, which is a sort of fondling diminutive of Povero,' Poor creature;' as you would say to your child, Poor little mannikin! But how is that possible, signor said the priest; have you no fruit in your country?'We have very fine fruit; but our winters are severe, and not genial enough for the orange tree. That is just what they told me,' said the lady, at Palermo; that England is all snow, and a great many stones. But then, signor! we and that by the help of these articles, a good constitution, and the blessing of God, our men were as hardy and as loyal and brave, and virtuous and handsome, as any other our women as accomplished and people, I believed, under heaven. Besides, Mr. Abbate, I beg leave to ask you, what cloth is your coat of Cospetto! it is English,' (with an air of importance. And your hat? Why that's English.' And this lady's gown, and her are English !'-' All English-Then bonnet and ribbons? Why they you see how it is; we send you, in exchange for what we don't grow, half the comforts and conveniencies you enjoy in your island Besides, Padrona mia gentile! (my agreeable landlady), we can never regret that we don't grow intercourse with a nation we esthese articles, since it insures us an teem! Viva!' said the landlady, and Bravo!' said the priest; and between Bravo and Viva, the best friends in the world, I escaped to my lettiga!' GENERAL "THE GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF MALTA. [From MR. GALT's Voyages and Travels.] as regulated by the established rules of good taste; nevertheless, the picturesque effect is grand; and one meets, occasionally, with vistas that seem more like the concep→ tions of a painter than the limited realities of an inhabited town. "Inn.-There was no tolerable hotel in Malta while I happened to be there; but ove, sufficiently spacious, was preparing, and has since, I understand, been opened. The house, in which I obtained lodgings, had formerly been a tavern; but the owner was induced to give it up for a singular reason. When it was an inn,' said the waiter, a Sicilian, who spoke English, it was so full of noises, that there was no living in it. The officers of the men of war came making noises. They went to the play, and came back making noises. Then there were the stranger gentlemen, all English, making noises-sitting up in the night, singing, roaring, jumping on the tables, breaking glasses. O, my God! what terrible noises! So we put down the sign from the wall; and, if there be less money now, we have no noises.' HE entrance to the harbour of Valetta is truly grand. On each side, and in front, the fortifications rise in stupendous masses, with a watch-tower perched here and there on the corners. The buildings and domes above them have also a very noble appearance. Not a particle of smoke sullies the atmosphere; and every edifice looks as if it were only just finished. The internal appearance of the city corresponds to the magnificence of its exterior. The landing-place is an extensive crescent; from which a gentle ascent, partly excavated in the rock, leads towards a gate. The one side of this way is occupied with the stalls of dealers in fish, fruits, and other necessaries. Immediately in front of the drawbridge is a handsome fountain, ornamented with a bronze statue of Neptune; and, on entering the gateway, the stairs, which conduct to the upper part of the town, immediately commence, making the entrance, in some respects, more like the vestibule of a great mansion, than the portal of a city. Nothing can be more striking than the streets which are first ascended" Monopoly of Grain.-The bread after passing this gateway. They in Malta is the worst I ever tasted; are, in fact, so many vast staircases; and I was not a little surprized, and the buildings that rise pro- when I learnt the reason. spectively in the ascent, are orna- government, as in the time of the mented with cornices and pro- knights, still monopolizes the sale jections, so buge, that the archi- of corn; and the profit derived from tecture seems to have been de- the trade is one of the principal signed to correspond in strength sources of the revenue appropriated and durability with the fortifica- to defray the expense of the civil tions. establishment. The simple statement of this fact, is, certainly, not calculated to convey a very favourable "The domestic architecture of the Maltese cannot be considered The vourable impression of the wisdom of the government. But there are peculiarities in the condition of Malta, which, perhaps, justify the monopoly, and render it necessary that the public sustenance should not, as in other countries, depend on the ordinary motives of private interest. In an island, the produce of which is inadequate to support its population above a few months, though the land is culti vated to the utmost, and where the foreign supplics are liable to be intercepted, it might be hazardous to trust a mercantile speculation only. The government, therefore, considers it prudent to have always a large quantity of wheat in store, and the oldest is regularly the first sold to the bakers. The granaries are not the least curiosities of the island. They are excavations in the rock, and are formed along the ramparts, and, in some places under the streets. At the mouth, they are not more than three or four feet in diameter, widening, however, to the extent of twenty and upwards, at the bottom, each capable of containing four hundred to above a thousand quarters. "Characteristics.-The Maltese, in their figure, are rather sinewy than muscular. They are, uniformly, more slenderly made than the English, and have a certain columnar appearance in the body, which I have never observed in any other people. Their national features are rather regular than pleasant, and their complexion is much darker than that of the Sicilians. In their habits, they are singularly frugal a little garlick, or fruit, with a small piece of bread, is their common repast. Butcher-meat is a luxury of which they seldom partake. Their language is a dialect of the Arabic; but many speak In Valetts, Italian and French. the young men, generally, understand English, of which the sounds accord, in some degree, with those of their native language. "The great amusement of the Maltese is the enjoyment of conversation, sitting, in family parties, at their doors, after sunset. In speaking of national peculiarities, my observations chiefly refer to the practices and customs of the common people. There is but little difference between the genteel manners of one christian nation and those of another; all well-educated Europeans having now a great similarity in their domestic habits. "When the magnitude of the Maltese public works, and the general character of the people, are considered, it is impossible not to draw a conclusion favourable to the government of the knights; who, whatever may have been the extent of their alleged licentiousness as individuals, must have ruled with wisdom, to form a people so comfortable and orderly, and, with their comparatively limited means, to construct works which rival the greatest monuments of the Roman empire. The population of the island, when the knights arrived, was reckoned only at twelve thousand; when it fell into the hands of the French, it exceeded a hundred thousand. I have been told, that the Maltese speak with regret of the reign of the knights, or, as they call it, of the time of the religion. This I was sorry to hear. The British have much difficulty in familiarizing themselves to foreigners. The contempt with which we are accustomed to regard every other nation, enables the French, by the practice of their habitual politeness, often to acquire a superior influence, even in those countries |