male character, than any other class of women: They escape from this gloomy prison to the world, without having formed a taste for any rational pursuits or domestic pleasures; are married to some man chosen for them by their parents, and to whom they must consequently be indifferent ;-and what better can be expected from them?

The exclusion of young unmarried women from society in this country, deprives it of one of its greatest charms. I am ready, indeed, to own, that too many young ladies, just come out, weigh at times somewhat heavily on a party in our own country; but conceive what a blank the absence of the whole would make, and you will better understand the variety, and interest, and animation they give to it!

Though the fair sex in this country are generally extremely ignorant, there are certainly many very learned women in Italy; so learned, that here, where there is no literary Salic law, the chairs in the universities have often, both in past and present times, been filled by female professors. Signora Tambroni, late Professor of Greek, in the University of Bologna, only died within these few months, though she retired from her situation a few years ago; nor was she less remarkable for her piety and excellence, than for her uncommon attainments.

With a few bright exceptions, however, it unfortunately happens that the class of literary women in Italy, are too violently literary. The blues are too deep a blue. They are either wholly un

learned, or overpoweringly learned. A taste for li

terature is not generally diffused and intermingled with other pursuits and pleasures, as in England; it is confined to a few, and reigns in them without controul. Neither does the love of letters, exclude the love of adulation. Their vanity is of a different cast, but not less insatiable than that of the other fair Italians. They entertain you too much with talking of their books, or repeating their own compositions; and their houses are generally infested with a herd of male scribblers, who make large demands on the patience and applause of their auditors, by reading or reciting their various works in verse or prose, and be-praise each other, that they may be praised themselves.

I have spoken, somewhat too much at length, perhaps, on the character of the higher classes; and I am sorry I cannot say much for the morals of the middle and lower ranks, among whom truth, honesty, and industry, are rare and little prized. They will cheat if they can, and they sometimes take more pains to accomplish this, than would have enabled them to gain far more by fair dealing. When detected in falsehood and imposition, they shew a wonderful degree of coolness and carelessness. I have met with honest and excellent Italians in all ranks; but I must say, knavery, meanness, and profligacy, are far more common.

Their indolence, however, is, to an Englishman, the most extraordinary feature of their character. I have frequently, in asking for goods at a shop in Rome, been answered with a drawling "non c'e," even when I saw them before my eyes; and once

was actually told they were too high to reach! Nay, a shoemaker, after getting through the labour of taking my measure, resigned my future custom, rather than send the shoes home at the distance of two streets. Another, three months ago, agreed to make me two pair, and still continues to promise them "next week."

The women of these classes are indolent, useless, and vain. They never seem employed about domestic cares; in fact, the small matter of cleaning, which is bestowed upon a house, is generally done by men. It is they who make the beds, and dust out the rooms. They cook; they milk; and sometimes even make gowns. I never shall forget my astonishment at Naples, on sending for a dressmaker, when a man appeared; but he professed his capacity for the undertaking. I was in haste, and he sat down in company with my maid, and finished me a very superb ball-dress before night.

In Rome, however, I think the dress-makers, and all the washer-women, are of the female gender. But the Roman females are really generally a useless indolent set. Slovenly and dirty in their persons and dress at home, and tawdrily fine when they go abroad. Their virtue, I fear, cannot be much boasted of, and, like their superiors, few of them are without their lovers and their intrigues. I know the handsome wife of a substantial shopkeeper, who, with the consent of her husband, has been the mistress of three successive noblemen, Italian and foreign, and lived with them. The last scnt her back in disgrace, on discovering, that even

in his house, she had contrived to receive her own favoured lover. The husband took her back, and they are now living together.

Another tradesman makes over his wife at this moment to a nobleman, for a certain annual compensation, and yet these men do not seem to be despised for it. These facts I know to be true, beyond the possibility of doubt; and in spite of their grossness, I mention them, because you cannot otherwise conceive the state of morals in this country.

The celibacy of the clergy is another cause of the want of virtue among the women; for, by the perverse and unnatural institutions of the church, those who ought to be the guardians, are too often in secret the corrupters of morals. They thus strike at the root and bond of all morality; for the virtue of a community will always be found to be in proportion to the chastity of the women.

But I began about the Blessing of the Horses, and I have been led, I know not how, into a long disquisition on the morals and manners of the Italians.

Much more might be said upon them, but the subject is not particularly pleasant, where we find so much to censure, and so little to approve.

LETTER LXXXI.

THE CARNIVAL.

THE Romans, in throwing off the shackles of moral restraint, do not seem to have gained much gaiety or pleasure by their release. Nothing is more striking to a stranger than the sombre air which marks every countenance, from the lowest to the highest, in Rome. The faces even of the young are rarely lighted up with smiles; a laugh is seldom heard, and a merry countenance strikes us with amazement, from its novelty. Rome looks like a city whose inhabitants have passed through the cave of Trophonius. Yet, will it be believed that this serious, this unsmiling people, rush into the sports of the Carnival with a passionate eagerness far surpassing all the rest of the Italians? They are madly fond of this Catholic Saturnalia ; and, by a strange annual metamorphosis, from the most grave and solemn, suddenly become the most wild and extravagant people in the creation. It seems as if some sudden delirium had seized them. All ranks, classes, ages, and sexes,-under the