From Sardinia our author proceeded to Sicily. He was landed by the Malta packet at Girgenti, and lost no time in putting down his remarks on the ruins of Agrigentum. With these it should seem he is considerably disappointed; for though they be the monuments of Agrigentum, the sight of them is hardly worth a sabbath day's journey.' p. 17. As this is the commencement of Mr. Galt's classical speculations, we should be glad to say something in their behalf, and are sorry therefore that we cannot compliment him either on their accuracy or good taste. The temple of Concord,' he remarks, is in fine condition, as an antiquary would say, the parts having been collected and replaced on each other!' The temple of Juno has been re-edified in the same manner!' And then the church of St. Martin's in the fields is larger than both put together, and infinitely more magnificent!' This unfortunate kind of association follows him every where. Sometimes the lanes of Edinburgh are the objects of his compara tive eulogy at another the Grecian porticos remind him of our metropolitan tea gardens; and, at a third, when contenplating the Hebrus, his attention is irresistibly drawn to the Thames at Putney Bridge.

On arriving at Palermo, Mr. Galt presents his readers with the following remarks, which we think are entitled to some praise.

All the descriptions that I have seen of the capital of Sicily are rather defective than incorrect. Only the finest things are brought into the picture: the great masses of mean and slovenly objects, which every where offend the eye in the original, are excluded, by the prejudices of the taste of travellers. Palermo, notwithstanding the number and architectural magnificence of its palaces and churches, has an air of tawdry want, such as cannot be distinctly described. Poverty seems really to be the ordinary condition of the people from the top to the bottom. The ground stories of the noble edifices in the Via Toledo, as well a in the other great streets, would never have been converted into shops and coffeehouses, could the princes and dukes above stairs have easily done other

wise.

It is the custom here for tradesmen of all sorts to carry on their respective employments in the open air. The number, in particular, of shoemakers and tailors at work in the Via Toledo is inconceivable. Indeed the crowd of persons in the streets is much beyond any thing that I have elsewhere seen; certainly much greater than in London. But, consider ing the extent of the city, only four miles within the circumference of the walis, it is impossible to be believed that the population is so great as the Sicilians allege. They talk of three hundred thousand inhabitants; a number, notwithstanding that the people swelter by dozens together in very small apartments, not to be credited. The population of Palermo may be equal to that of Dublin.

It appears to me, that it is not only the practice of the Sicilian trades,

men to work in the streets, but that particular streets in Palermo are, in some degree, appropriated to certain occupations: not that each trade exclusively attaches itself to any one part of the town, but, generally speaking, it has a local situation, where it may be considered predominant. The Via Toledo seems to be the grand emporium of all the professions dependant on fashion. Another street is almost entirely occupied with brasiers; and there is perhaps not a more noisy spot in all Europe. Our thin tinned iron scarcely seems to be known here; but considerable quantities of block tin are used in the manufacture of lamps, forks, and other culinary and table utensils. In a third street I observed a number of fe male children, in almost every house, employed in tambouring and embroidering muslin. The manufacture of muslins has been introduced some time, and succeeds so well that it already consumes the principal part of the cotton raised in the district of Terra Nova. The chief estab lishment is at Caltanisetta, an inland town, rather distinguished for its linen trade. The latter branch is much indebted to the war, which has raised the price of German linen so high, that the Sicilians are obliged to have recourse to the productions of their own looms. The women are the weavers their wages are about 9d per day. The same quantity and kind of gools which were sold in the year 1792 for a dollar, are increased in value to above a dollar and a half. In the neighbourhood of the tambourers' street there is a lane entirely occupied by chair-makers and bed-smiths. It may be necessary to explain what the latter profession is; which, I think, does some credit to the Sicilians, if it originated with them. The climate of this country is peculiarly congenial to the engendering of bugs aud other anti-dormists; and the inhabitants, in consequence, I imagine, have renounced bedsteads of wood, and adopted iron ones. Were the frames made of cast metal, they might be rendered ornamental, and could be procured, I should think, much cheaper than the hammered iron, which is the only kind at present in use.'

Our author's observations on the Jesuits and clergy, do not strike us as being very satisfactory. The number of mendicants, he states, to have visibly increased within the last twenty years; and he ascribes it to the gradual disuse of the customary largesses to the poor at the gates of the convents. Among the higher classes there has been a falling off in point of state, and shew: but this is amply compensated by the introduction of comfort and convenience. There is, he says, in general, an evident imitation of British customs; and the suburbs of Palermo begin to indicate something like the formation of that middle class which is the pre-eminent boast and distinction of England. Of the nobility, this writer, like Mr. Leckie, speaks most contemptuously, representing most of them as in debt, and many of them in as a state of absolute beggary. All classes are passionately addicted to gaming.

So general and habitual, indeed, is the passion for play, that it manifests itself in situations where, previously, one should not expect to meet with it: it is the ruling passion of the Sicilians. In going one morning

to the tribunal of justice, I saw a groupe of card-players sitting on the landing-place of the great staircase, earnestly occupied with their game, although the bustle around them was almost as great as that of the Royal Exchange of London at high change time. On the Marina, when the

weather will not permit boats to put to sea, I have frequently seen the fishermen at cards; nor is it unusual to observe bands of idle boys sitting on the steps of the church doors engaged in the same spendthrift occupation.' P. 30.

Nothing can well be more striking in the policy of the Sicilian government, than the total exemption of articles of luxury from taxation. While adverting to this subject, our author gives the following sprightly and characteristic pas

sage.

The quantity of Indian figs, or prickly pears, as they are sometimes called, consumed in Sicily, is almost incredible. In every part of the country you meet with plantations of Indian figs. In every village, stalls are seen covered with Indian figs. At every corner of every street in Palermo are piles of Indian figs. If a Sicilian be observed eating any thing, it is certainly Indian figs. If he be carrying a basket, it is full of Indian figs. Every ass that is seen coming into the city in the morning is loaded with Indian figs. Every peasant that is seen in the evening counting his copper money on a stone, is reckoning the produce of his Indian figs. If an article be bad, it is said not to be worth an Indian fig; and there is nothing in this world better than an Indian fig. It is the only luxury that the poor enjoy; and, like all other luxuries, it is exempted from taxation.' Pp. 27-28.

The trade of Palermo (which is much less considerable than might be expected from its wealth and population') appeared to our author to be chiefly in the hands of the British, while the Americans engrossed the supply of colonial produce. As this is a subject on which Mr. Galt seems well informed, we receive his subsequent observations on this arrangement with respect. How unfortunate that he should proceed to tempt his fate, by entering the Academy of Painting! I only know,' he affectedly remarks, what pleases myself.'

Mr. Galt's observations on the court of Naples, in which he attempts something like a vindication of the first female personage, are, in our humble opinion, remarkably superficial and inconclusive; and we are glad, therefore, when he finds it convenient to quit Palermo, on the tour of the Val de Mazarra, the western district of Sicily. We cannot pretend, however, to trace his route minutely, and shall merely transcribe two insulated facts-the one relating to agriculture, and the other to the vintage.

Soon after leaving the temple of Segesta, I observed a very interesting specimen of Sicilian agricultural industry. On one field, eleven

pairs of oxen were dragging eleven ploughs, driven by eleven men, all in a line, one behind another, and yet not making a deeper impression on the soil than a good English harrow would have done. The Sicilian plough, notwithstanding the antiquity of its form, is really a very humble instru ment. Owing, in a good measure, to the wretched state of the plough, the fertility of the Sicilian soil is never properly brought into action. The mere surface of the ground is only, as it were, scratched. Is it, therefore, surprising, that the produce is scanty, or that the harvest is seldom more than adequate to the support of the inhabitants; although it might be rendered sufficient to maintain more than three times their number?' p. 60.

of

⚫ On entering the village, 1 observed the labour of the wine-press going on: a process of which a faithful account might enforce the precepts temperance. The grapes are thrown into a large square vessel, somewhat like a brewer's cooler, but deeper. It is elevated about eighteen inches from the ground, and round it are several apertures, with vessels under. In this theatre a number of bare-legged peasants, with clumsy shoes, were bellowing and treading out the juice, which squirted against their unwashed limbs; and I saw, with consternation and horror, that the finger and thumb had been made for other ends, in case of need, than to snuff candles.' p.75.

It was on his return to Palermo, late in the evening, that Mr. Galt was so highly delighted with the thought, that, but for the saints and their lamps, the streets of Palermo would be utterly dark after the shops are shut,'-and then follows the brilliant observation we have already noticed in a preceding page, about the church being, in this respect, a light to the path of the Palermitans! How long he stayed for the purpose of repeating this ingenious idea is not deposed. We learn, however, that his next excursion was to Messina, and that on arriving there he found it, unlike any other town in Sicily,' wearing an appearance of great prosperity, and not the less agreeable for being the residence of British troops. The contrast of character between our free-spoken coun trymen and the Sicilians appeared very striking.

Leaving Messina, Mr. Galt took the direction of Syracuse, with the intention of hiring a boat for Malta. We do not ob serve any thing remarkable in his progress, unless indeed an exception should be made in favour of the reflections suggested by a sight of Etna.

The fable of the rape of Proserpine, is, probably, an allegory, de scriptive of the destruction of the cultivated land, by an eruption of the mountain. Much of the classic mythology is, evidently, allegorical; and few of its subjects are susceptible of so simple an explanation. The single-eyed Cyclops are, certainly, only the personification of volcanos, Those parts of Homer's works which relate to them, have, perhaps, had the distinct features of the allegories defaced by his correctors. When the history of the Iliad and Odyssey is considered, it is impos sible to believe that they are now the very works which Homer com

posed. It is not credible, that, from the collection of the parts of the Iliad by Lycurgus, down to the translation by Pope, it was copied, without improvement; though not to the extent that Pope has improved on Chaucer, in his Temple of Fame-probably, in some similar inanner.' pp. 91, 92.

Perhaps, also, the same indulgence should be extended to the following highly ornamented description of a Sonata, played upon a truly exquisite' organ at Catania. The stately and sonorous sentence which concludes the passage cannot be too strongly admired.

It [the sonata] begins with a sweet little trilling movement, like the sound of waters trickling in a far remote pastoral upland. The breadth of harmony increases, and the mind is excited to activity, while the introduction of a delightful echo suggests the images of a rapid stream, and bands of huntsmen, with horns and hounds, coursing the banks. Continuing still to rise and spread, the music takes a more regular character, and fills the imagination with the notion of a Thames, covered with moving vesels, flowing through a multitudinous city. Occasional military movements gradually open all the fountains of the instrument; and the full tide, deepening and rolling on, terminates in a finalé so vast, so various, so extraordinary an effusion of harmony, that it can be compared only to the great expanse of the ocean agitated by a tempest, and the astonishing turbulence of a Trafalgarian battle.' p. 94.

No account is given of the passage to Malta, nor is the reader detained very long upon the island. Our author duly celebrates the magnificence of the fortifications, and the elegance and external neatness of the domestic buildings, every edifice looking as if it were just finished. He complains bitterly of the bad bread; but for this the government must answer, which monopolizes the sale of corn, and deals out that first, which has been longest in the granaries. This government indeed, offers several points for Mr. Galt's rebuke; the greatest abuses being tolerated, he says, merely because it is only regarded as provisional during the war. There has been no formal recognition of trial by jury, even for British subjects, and no formal abrogation of the priviledge of sanctuary. On the subject of trade he gives his observations at some length, strenuously recommending that the freedom of direct intercouse with Malta should be granted to our planters, who under proper encouragements would be able in a great measure to exclude the Americans from the Mediterranean markets, and probably engross the principal share of supplying Turkey with colonial produce.

The next station where we find our traveller, is at Serigo; an island with about 8000 inhabitants; about fifty miles in circumference; and the residence of a British consul and, for se

Veral years past, of a British garrison. After a short stay