language now so generally studied that we shall involved by removal from the water; and the cradle be doing several of our readers a kindness in truck, upon which each will be placed during the pointing out to them the existence of this work, transit, must be constructed with the same view. since our own language has no substitute for it. The*** At the terminus on the Nile, and at the masterly paraphrases of Mr. Hookham Frere and head of the sea of Suez, an inclined plane must be Mr. Mitchell are often useless to any but the run out, under suitable shelter, to a distance to admit of the steamers being readily hauled upon merely English reader, and they only comprise a the rails. It might be carried into deep water at small portion of Aristophanes. Herr Müller's an inclination of one foot in forty or fifty, and a version is to comprise the whole in three volumes: truck upon wheels sent down to it so as to be brought the first of these lies before us, and is preceded by beneath the floating vessel. This truck must be a succinct but excellent history of the Grecian cradle-shaped, and so constructed as to receive the drama. When the publication is completed we shoulders of the vessel, and thus afford her adequate way return to it in a more special manner. support when she rides high and dry. By means of a stationary engine both the vessel and the truck must then be drawn up the incline, so that the first, sinking upon the second, will be raised upon the railway along which it is to travel. Project for Transporting Laden Merchant Vessels "I propose," he says, "to construct a class of narrow steam-vessels, of about 800 tons burthen, suited for freight, and to transport them across the Isthmus of Suez upon trucks, by means of locomotive engines of adequate size and power. The vessel must be built upon the plan that will best serve to counteract any additional strain upon the sides "The locomotive engine required to draw a laden vessel of 800 tons burden across the desert of Suez, need not possess above three times the power of those ordinarily used upon an English railway, and the increased disposable breadth for the machinery will render this power one of easy acquisition." The masts of the vessel must be so constructed as to fold over and lie flat, during the transit, in order to prevent any action of the wind upon them; and a moderate width between the rails will then be found sufficient. A station to admit of vessels on their trucks passing each other must be constructed in the centre of the line; and as the entire distance of eighty-four miles could tween Suez and Cairo might be daily held each be accomplished in six hours, communication beway upon a single line of rails. "The expense that would attend the construction of such a railroad, with inclined planes, stationary and locomotive engines, carriages and trucks, may be estimated within a million sterling." FOREIGN CORRESPONDENCE. FLORENCE, February 25th, 1845. THE chronicle of our doings on this side of the Alps since Christmas, Mr. Editor, would, I fear me, afford but little to interest your purely literary readers. With you, in busy bustling England, gaieties and gravities go hand in hand. Life is found to be too short to devote any portion of it to the exclusive pursuit of one object. Thus in the high tide of your London season, Murray is by no means idle because Gunter is in full action. Colburn and Collinet run neck and neck. Brougham and Bunn make play at the same time. It is the harvest time of fashionable chapels and missionary societies, as well as of opera houses and concert rooms. The energies and amplitude of mighty London suffice for everything at once. Not so with us easy-going inhabitants of la bella Italia. One thing at a time,' is our principle; and the one thing to which the whole attention and energy of every soul in Italy from Christmas to Shrove-tide is devoted, is amusement, jollity, and carnival foolery of all sorts. Like the sailor, who expended the three wishes granted him on as much rum as ever he could drink, as much tobacco as ever he could smoke, and thirdly-menaced by its dangerous inmate, the Po. At why, a little more rum; so we Florentines seem to bound our carnival wishes to as many balls as it is possible to dance through, as many suppers as it is possible to eat, and then-a few more balls. We have private balls and public balls, city balls and court balls, noble balls and snoble* balls, fancy balls and masked balls; to which may be added this winter (to the great disgust of those English wanderers who fancied that the bel cielo d'Italia knew no winter), snow-balls. carry on our balls, flirtations and dissipations, nearly as hard as ever, while Italy does penance for her excesses. I have not written to you, I think, since the flood. This is the era from which we calculate our dates now at Florence. Our Florentine flood, I mean, which occurred on the 3d of November, A.D. 1844. All the particulars of the disaster, as far as regards the consequences thereof, your readers have of course long since seen detailed in the newspapers; including sundry circumstances, of which those same monstrous London ‘quid-nuncs' gave us also the first intimation. Our attention here, however, has been more seriously occupied in considering the causes of the mischief, and the question is almost as difficult a one as it is interesting and important. In truth, the present state and progressive modifications of the condition of nearly all the great rivers of Italy, have for some time past been giving considerable uneasiness to men of science, and to the more enlightened among the rulers of the Peninsula. The subject becomes from day to day a more urgent and alarming one. The whole of the great valley of Lombardy is Well! Dulce est desipere in loco. And of all places for playing the fool in, commend me to the classic banks of Arno. And, believe me, our grave, beef-fed, sensible, Saxon countrymen, are by no means laggards in Folly's Carnival race. Far from it! Not a sallow-faced Signor of them all keeps his Carnival so religiously, so hardworkingly and unshakingly, as your Englishman in Italy. And if a prize of a model partner in silver were awarded, as it ought to be, to the young lady who had accomplished the greatest number of polkas, waltzes, cotillions, mazurkas and quadrilles during the Carnival, I would back some of our English lasses ten to one against all Italy. But Carnival once ended, the Italians and the English part company. One thing at a time' is, as we have said, the Italian's motto; and having eaten up his fat during Carnival, he fairly and honestly betakes himself to his lean during Lent. Not so our countrymen. Carnival is all very well; but Lent is popish superstition. So we *Snobili' is a classical Italian word, meaning the reverse of nobili;' and yet it is not the parent of our classical English 'snobs.' What a trap for the etymologists of a thousand years hence! Ferrara, the ordinary level of the water in that river is said to be higher than the summit of the highest steeple in the city! And every passing season adds to the alarming evil. The immense quantity of earthy materials, which the river brings down with it from the hills and upper valley, and deposits in its channel during its passage across the plain of Lombardy, has been for centu ries gradually raising the bed of the river; a change which has been met by the populations, through which it flows, by a proportionate embankment. The two operations have proceeded pari passu together, until the mighty and threatening stream may almost literally be said to be conveyed across the rich plains of Lombardy in an artificial conduit, raised above the surface of the country. It is but too evident that this condition of things cannot continue indefinitely. And not a year passes, but partial breakages of the embankment, involving inundations more or less extensive and destructive, warn those, who think for the morrow as well as for to-day, that the period is not far distant, when some great and radical change in the circumstances of the river must be attempted, if Lombardy is to be saved from almost total inundation. It is, of course, clear enough now, that if a system of dredging had been pursued, instead of that of continually building up embankments, all would have been well. Various schemes have been suggested for the remedy of the mischief, all more or less attended by great and discouraging difficulties. But the evil is pressing, and increasing, and something must shortly be done. Many other rivers of Italy are giving their neighbours cause for uneasiness, though none, perhaps, to the same degree, and certainly none of so mighty a power as the Po. The subject is an ] sufficed to block up its passage towards the Tibe interesting one; but any satisfactory examination entirely, to cause the whole valley of the Chiana of it, or detail of the remedial plans that have been to become a pestiferous n ar sh, no longer traversaproposed, would lead me far beyond the limits of ble by the road; and, finally, to throw its overthis letter. But there are some peculiar circum-flowing waters into the Arno. This was the state stances that complicate the question, as regards of things till towards the end of the last century. the Arno and its valley, which, as they are very At that time the celebrated Fossombrone, who died curious, and have been recently occupying every but a few months since at Florence, a nonagenaone's attention here, I shall endeavour to explain rian, was appointed, by the late grand duke, govto your readers in a few words. ernor and manager of the Val di Chiana. In 1790, From the Arno near Arezzo to the Tiber near he published an octavo volume on the subject, conOrvieto, stretches among the surrounding Apen-taining an exceedingly interesting account of the nines a low, flat valley, called the Val di Chiana. former condition and successive modifications of Now, the whole of this remarkable valley is so the state of the Chiana and the Arno, and detailing flat, so nearly level, that a very small matter- his views of the measures to be adopted for reeither a weir raised by art, or a deposit of earth claiming, and rendering salutary and productive, brought down by a torrent from the adjacent hills this hitherto pestilential district. In this enterprise -would be sufficient to cause its waters to drain he succeeded to an almost unhoped-for extent. off northwards into the Arno, or southwards into the Tiber, at the pleasure of man, or at the caprice of the elements. The waters of this district, therefore, which are very abundant, used to be nearly stagnant. The whole valley was a marsh, and the Val di Chiana was one of the most pestiferous of all the dominions of the foul fiend Malaria. Its waters ran partly into the Arno, and partly into the Tiber. And it is curious, that so far back as the reign of the Emperor Tiberius, orders were issued by the senate of Rome, in consequence of the city having suffered from inundations of the Tiber, that embankments should be raised in the Val di Chiana, so as to throw all its waters into the Arno. Upon which the municipality of Florence, and the inhabitants of the lower Val d'Arno, sent deputies with a petition to Rome, begging that they might not be exposed to the certain destruction by inundation, which would await them were such a plan carried into execution. The main feature of the operations adopted was briefly this:-by draining off the waters of the Chiana into the Arno pure, after they had by temporary detention been caused to deposit the earthy materials they carried with them, to raise the entire bottom of the valley, and thus to make the torrents themselves the means of reclaiming the lands they were destroying. Recently, a few years before the death of Fossombrone, other schemes of further reclamation and improvement, in which the grand duke was greatly interested, made it desirable to obtain for the main stream of the Chiana a greater fall, and more rapid course. With this view it was proposed to pull down, or at least considerably lower, the great dam that was built under the Medici. This Fossombrone most warmly opposed; predicting the inundation of Florence at no distant day as the certain result of such a measure. The question was eagerly disputed among the engineers and men of science; and eventually the opinion of the younger men prevailed. Old Fossombrone was deemed behind the present point reached by hydraulic scienceold-fashioned in his notions-and a croaker, as old men are apt to be. It was decided to pull down a part of the old dam; and Fossombrone declared that he should thenceforth keep a boat on the first floor of his house in the Borgo Ognisanti in Florence. It is to be presumed that their remonstrances had the desired effect. For there is no reason to think that the operations of nature, with regard to the waters of the Val di Chiana, were in any way interfered with before the times of the Medici. Under the last of those princes extensive works were undertaken, with a view to guarantee Florence and the Val d'Arno from the frequently recurring inundations, caused in a great measure, or at all events aggravated, by the waters of the Chi- Death came in time to save the nonagenarian A huge weir was erected under the superin-engineer from the necessity of using his boat, and tendence of Dutch engineers, for the purpose of from seeing his prediction verified. But many of regulating and retarding at will the discharge of the the inhabitants of the Borgo Ognisanti, which lies Chiana into the Arno. For though there are no along the bank of the river, would have been very traces of any ancient works constructed for the glad, last November, if they had followed the old purpose of changing the course of the Chiana wa-man's example, and had boats ready in their ters, it is clear that in the course of ages great houses; for the water was eight or ten feet deep changes have taken place in the hydraulic condi- in that street. ana. tions of this district. It should seem that the Under these circumstances it may easily be Chiana was once a river rising near Arezzo and imagined how earnestly and eagerly the different flowing into the Tiber; now the majority of the views and arguments of the rival engineers are waters of the valley are discharged into the Arno. canvassed. Fossombrone's book has been repubThe old road from Rome to Florence in the days lished. Counter statements have been put forth, of the Roman emperors-the Via Cassia-ran and the question, a most important one to the futhrough this Val di Chiana, avoiding thus the ture prosperity of Florence, is occupying the ranges of the Apennine which the present road thoughts and conversation of all. traverses; and it is clear that this road was passa- In the meantime, everything seems to indicate a ble towards the year 1000 of our era. The proba- degree of prosperity, which will every day more bility, therefore, is, that gradually the deposits of and more make fair Florence the foremost of Itaearthy matter which the Chiana dropped into its lian cities in the race of modern civilisation and bed, in greater and greater quantities, as its stream, progress. Material and moral improvement is on from the same cause, grew slower, at length all hands the order of the day. New buildings are rising rapidly within and without the city. New | It is the honestly and industriously executed work villas in addition to the already almost innumera- of a learned, conscientious, and laborious man. ble residences, which, crowning every eminence The Cavaliere had spared no pains in searching and vantage ground of the lovely environs, led out and bringing together the materials of Tuscan Ariosto to declare that in his day the villas around history, and of these he has raised a huge, masFlorence would make two Romes, are nestling sive pile. But such an edifice as history should themselves into each unoccupied nook of the hills be elegant, delighting, symmetrical, critically beauwhence a view of the incomparable Val d'Arno tiful--this he has not accomplished, nor apparently below may be obtained. One of the finest of the either attempted or conceived. In fact, is a deepold villas has recently been purchased, together ly-learned and long-practised antiquary the most with the large estates belonging to it, by a coun- likely man to become a satisfactory and successful tryman of ours, who intends to make it his resi- historian? It is to be feared not. It is to be andence. This is the celebrated Villa Salviati, the ticipated that the acquisitiveness which has been property of that turbulent family whose conspiracy educated into excessive development by the long against the Medici is one of the best known epi- habit of picking up and accumulating as treasures sodes of Florentine history. The fine old castle, all sorts of odd scraps of fact and forgotten inforwhich had become the property of the Borghese, mation, will have become so strong as to exclude who sold it to the present possessor, has in its criticism and judgment. The antiquary is omniday been the scene of many a transaction celebrat- vorous. The historian should be dainty, and of ed in Tuscan annals, and is rich in reminiscences choice palate. Then the antiquary is but too apt and associations grave and gay, romantic and chi- to consider his work done precisely at the point valresque. When the improvements external and where the true historian's should begin ;-when internal, which the present proprietor is now en- facts and dates, that is, have been ascertained and gaged in executing shall be completed, it will collected, and are now to be reasoned on and reassuredly be one of the finest residences in Italy. duced into their legitimate relative positions of Within the city we have new streets built, cause and effect. Your readers, therefore, Mr. building, and projected in all directions. In one Editor, will know what to expect, and what not fine open quarter within the walls an entire new to hope for from our learned Cavaliere's history district is about to be created. A square is to be of Tuscany. built larger than our boasted Belgrave square. It is probable that one of the stimulating causes of all this movement may be the now proximate probability of railroad communication from Calais to Marseilles; and the great additional influx of English and French which would unfailingly result therefrom. We have already a railroad open from Leghorn to Pisa, and the line thence to Florence is in the progress of construction; so that, ere long, the entire journey from London hither will be accomplished in four or five days entirely by railroad, with the exception of a few hours' | steam-voyage from Dover to Calais, and from Marseilles to Leghorn. All this is only a little foretaste of what may and will be accomplished for Italian progress, improvement and civilisation, by that great nineteenth-century civilizer, railroad communication. And now what have I to give you of literary gossip proper? But little, for the reasons set forth at the beginning of my letter. Cavaliere Inghirami's History of Tuscany has been brought to its termination in fourteen post octavo volumes. This work, which has been its author's favourite occupation for several years since the completion of his great work on Etruscan Antiquities, has been, like that, printed at his own press, and published on his own account. So that he has been author, printer, and publisher of it. The Cavaliere Inghirami's reputation was raised deservedly high by his former work, entitled Monumenti Etruschi o di Etrusco Nome, disegnati, incisi, illustrati e publicati dal Cavaliere Francesco Inghirami.' It is admitted to be the best, most extensive, and most accurate work on the difficult and obscure, but highly interesting subject, which it treats. But we fear that the learned Cavaliere's history of his country is not calculated to place his reputation as a historian on a level with that which he has earned as an antiquary. Not that the work is other wise than creditable and respectable-far from it. One other little bit of news is too curious, and too indicative (though but of straw-like importance) of the way in which the wind is blowing, and is likely to blow in this part of the world, for me to conclude this gossiping letter without communicating it. Eugene Sue's Juif Errant,' the successive volumes of which are pouring themselves in tens of thousands of copies and multitudes of editions, legitimate and pirated, over the four quarters of the globe and Polynesia, is a forbidden book in Italy. The first two volumes were permitted to come. But the church then took the alarm. The Jesuits, once again dear to Rome, felt the arrow in their vitals and cried aloud. So Rome growled forth its penny-trumpet thunder; and Tuscany obediently, as in the case of Nicolini's Arnaldo da Brescia,' prohibits the book. But the prohibition of 'Arnaldo' was followed by the sale of a large edition of the work; and the Tuscan government has forgotten to prohibit the 'Constitutionnel,' in whose feuilleton the Juif Errant enters daily without molestation, let, or hindrance, and is daily read in every café and reading-room in Florence. Is it possible for Tuscany to speak its own wishes and tendencies on such subjects more plainly? Nor, as there is good reason to hope, is the time far distant when she will be able to follow the dictates of her own more enlightened sense in such matters, and lead rather than follow the steps of the most benighted portion, not of Italy only, but of Europe. tending the publication of Signor Balbo's book is, | that it is not prohibited in the dominions of the King of Sardinia. The writer was ill-informed. The book was, and is, so far prohibited here, that it is neither publicly sold nor advertised, nor can it be otherwise obtained than upon an application in writing or as it is here called sotto cautela. In short, my book is tolerated here in the same way, as the very facts produced by your correspondent prove, that it is or was tolerated in Tuscany, in the same way that Niccolini's Arnaldo' was tolerated there; and as he is permitted to live peaceably there, so am I here. Neither I nor any author, however superior to me, could have the authority so to do. Public opinion alone could make such a proposal or declaration, and I doubt not that it will do so, to the immortal glory of whichever of our princes boldly takes the lead in the path which I pointed out, but which all perceive. But here I will venture further than I did in my book: I will confess my earnest desire that the King of Sardinia may be the one who takes the lead of all the rest, both because he is my sovereign, and because he is better placed for so doing than any other. And to accomplish this desire, I would willingly give not only my poor and often wrongly interpreted words, but the last drop of my blood and that of my six children. All who know my social position, and I may say my personal character, must be aware likewise, that I am not exactly the man to write a Sir, my book, of which (in spite of the difficulbook either at the command or suggestion of ano- ties it has encountered from opposite quarters) ther. And yet, if an Italian prince had command- nearly 3000 copies are circulating in Italy, could ed such a book as mine, very willingly would I be neither criticised nor mentioned in the Italian have written it, but I would have acknowledged papers. Several of my countrymen residing out that I had written it at his command; and I believe of Italy have there attacked me harshly, less for many millions of Italians would have rejoiced that what I said than for what I did not say, and even an Italian prince had thus declared himself willing for what I did say in quite a contrary sense. I to prepare the day of independence in the way am grateful for the former criticisms; sincere dispointed out by me; that is, treading the path of cussion is useful to our country, and one of my universal progress, and always walking therein aims was to excite it. I should perhaps have before the foreign ruler, and not fearing to continue answered the other criticisms in the same periodiin those paths as far as political liberty. But un-cals, in order to prove their inaccuracy; but some fortunately, such was not the case, and my book of the latter were not worth the trouble, and others was neither commanded nor suggested, but merely tolerated. It is, however, the first serious publication on the present political condition of Italy that has been written in this country since the year 1814, by an author continuing to reside here. I know not whether this be creditable to the author tolerated, but it certainly does honour to the prince who tolerates him. Nor did I, in my book, propose this or any other prince to Italy as the Captain of her hopes.' | have the bad habit of not admitting discussions on MISCELLANEOUS INTELLIGENCE. Political Refugees in Belgium.-The new Among the few that have preferred remaining, are "Confession of Faith," which Freiligrath has Count Arivahene, Signor Cebritti, and the Abbé made by the act of withdrawing across the frontier, Gioberti, who has lately become celebrated for has, it is supposed, given more offence at Berlin his work on religious ethics, Del primato morale than his previous one in print. Whether he really e civile degli Italiani,' published at Brussels; for had any cause for apprehension, may be question- he had been compelled to preach his fiery political ed: but, considering the fate of some political Evangile' in a foreign land. His writings have offenders in Germany, it is not surprising that he been prohibited in Italy, but they are not the less has thought it best to be on the safe side of the eagerly disseminated, for, in this instance, they are border. The number of refugees residing here has passed from hand to hand under the protecting greatly diminished of late, notwithstanding the mantle of the church. The object of his aspirations hospitality exercised towards them-for Belgium, is no less a one than a union of all Italy, under the small as its revenues are, has extended to these dominion of the Papal Chair. Rome, as the ally helpless people the same support as its wealthy of Austria, must, of course, officially condemn such neighbours, England and France. Since the amnesty published at his coronation by the Emperor of Austria, most of the Italians have returned home. a doctrine; but Rome, once the seat of Gregory VII., and, up to this hour, the centre of the most diligent and far-reaching Propaganda, is in her |