ther, that calls him its Preferver. In the Doge's palace, are the rooms, where the great and little Council with the two Colleges hold their affemblies; but as the State of Genoa is very poor, tho' feveral of its Members are extreamly rich, fo one may obferve infinitely more fplendor and magnificence in particular perfons houses, than in those that belong to the publick. But we find in most of the states of Europe, that the people how the greatest marks of poverty, where the governors live in the greatest magnificence. The churches are very fine, particularly that of the Annunciation, which looks wonderfully beautiful in the infide, all but one corner of it being covered with ftatues, gilding, and paint. A man would expect, in fo very ancient a town of Italy, to find fome confiderable antiquities; but all they have to fhow of this nature is an old Roftrum of a Roman fhip, that ftands over the door of their arfenal. It is not above a foot long, and perhaps would never have been thought the beak of a fhip, had not it been found in fo probable a place as the haven. It is all of Iron, fashioned at the end like a Boar's head; as I have feen it represented on medals, and on the Columna Roftrata in Rome. I faw at Genoa Signior Micconi's famous collection of fhells, which, as Father Buonani the Jefuite has fince told me, is one of the belt in Italy. I know nothing more remarkable, in the government of Genoa, than the Bank of St. George, made up of such branches of the revenues, as have been fet apart, and appropriated to the discharging of several fums, that have been borrowed from private perfons, during the exigencies of the commonwealth. Whatever inconveniencies the ftate has laboured under, they have never entertained a thought of violating the publick credit, or of alienating any part of these revenues to other ufes, than to what they have been thus affigned. The administration of this bank is for life, and partly in the hands of the chief citizens, which gives them a great authority in the state, and a powerful influence over the common people. This bank is generally thought the greatest load on the Genoese, and the managers of it have been reprefented as a fecond kind of Senate, that break the Uniformity of government, and deftroy, in fome measure, the Fundamental conftitution of the state. It is however very certain, that the people reap no small advantages from it, as it diftributes the power among more particular members of the republick, and gives the commons a figure: So that it is no fmall Check upon the Aristocracy, and may be one reason, why the Genoefe Senate carries it with greater moderation towards their fubjects, than the Venetian It would have been well for the republick of Genoa, if she had followed the example of her fifter of Venice, in not permitting her Nobles to make any purchase of lands or houfes in the dominions of a foreign prince. For at present the Greateft, among the Genoefe, are in part fubjects to the monarchy of Spain, by reafon of their eftates that lye in the kingdom of Naples. The Spaniards tax them very high upon occasion, and are so fenfible of the advantage this gives them over the republick, that they will not fuffer a Neapolitan to buy the lands of a Genoefe, who must find a purchafer among his own countrymen, if he has a mind to fell. For this reason, as well as on account of the great fums of mony which the Spaniard owes the Genoefe, they are under a neceffity, at prefent, of being in the intereft of the French, and would probably continue so, though all the other States of Italy entered into a league against them. Genoa is not yet fecure from a Bombardment, though it is not fo expofed as formerly; for, fince the Infult of the French, they have built a mole, with fome little ports, and have provided themselves with long guns and mortars. It is eafie for those that are strong at fea to bring them to what terms they please; for having but very little arable land, they are forced to fetch all their corn from Naples, Sicily, and other foreign countries; except what comes to them from Lombardy, which probably goes another way, whilft it furnishes two great armies with provifions. Their Fleet, that formerly gained fo many victories over the Saracens, Pifans, Venetians, Turks and Spaniards, that made them mafters of Crete, Sardinia, Majorca, Minorca, Negrepont, Lesbos, Malta, that fettled them in Scio, Smyrna, Achaia, Theodofia, and several towns on the eastern confines of Europe, is now reduced to fix gallies. When they had made an addition of but four new ones, the King of France fent his orders to fupprefs them, telling the republick at the fame time, that he knew very well how many they had occafion for. This little fleet ferves only to fetch them wine and corn, and to give their ladies an airing in the fummer-feafon. The republick of Genoa has a crown and fceptre for its Doge, by reafon of their conqueft of Corsica, where there was formerly a Saracen King. This indeed gives their ambaffadors a more honourable reception at fome courts, but, at the fame time, may teach their people to have a mean notion of their own form of government, and is a tacit acknowledgment that Monarchy is the more honourable. The old Romans, on the contrary, made use of a very barbarous kind of politicks to inspire their people with a contempt of Kings, whom they treated with infamy, and dragged at the wheels of their triumphal chariots. PAVIA, MILAN, &c. ROM Genoa we took chaife for Milan, and by the way stopped FR at Pavia, that was once the metropolis of a kingdom, but is at prefent a poor town. We here faw the Convent of Austin Monks, who about three years ago pretended to have found out the Body of the Saint, that gives the name to their Order. King Luitprand, whose ashes are in the fame church, brought hither the corps, and was very industrious to conceal it, left it might be abused by the barbarous nations, which at that time ravaged Italy. One would therefore rather wonder that it has not been found out much earlier, than that it is difcovered at last. The Fathers however do not yet find their account in the discovery they have made; for there are Canons regular, who have half the fame Church in their hands, that will by no means allow it to be the Body of the Saint, nor is it yet recognized by the Pope. The Monks fay for themselves, that the very Name was written on the Urn where the afhes lay, and that in an old record of the convent, they are faid to have been interred between the very wall and the altar where they were taken up. They have already too, as the Monks told us, begun to juftifie themselves by miracles. At the corner of one of the cloifters of this convent are bury'd the Duke of Suffolk, and the Duke of Lorrain, who were both killed in the famous battel of Pavia. Their Monument was erected to them by one Charles Parker, an Ecclefiaftic, as I learned from the infcription, which I cannot omit tranfcribing, fince I have not seen it printed. Capto a Milite Cafareo Francifco I. Gallorum Rege in agro Papienfi Anno 1525. 23. Feb. inter alios proceres, qui ex fuis in prælio occifi funt, occubuerunt duo illuftriffimi principes, Francifcus Dux Lotharingia, et Richardus de la Poole Anglus Dux Suffolcia a Rege Tyranno Hen. VIII. pulfus regno. Quorum corpora hoc in cœnobio et ambitu per annos 57. fine bonore tumulata funt. Tandem Carolus Parker à Morley, Richardi proximus confanguineus, Regno Anglia a Regina Elifabetha ob Catholicam fidem ejectus, beneficentiâ tamen Philippi Regis Cath. Hifpaniarum Monarcha Invictiffimi in Statu Mediolanenfi fuftentatus, hoc qualecunque monumentum, pro rerum fuarum tenuitate, chariffimo propinquo et illuftrif fimis principibus pofuit, 5. Sept. 1582. et poft fuum exilium 23. majora et bonorificentiora commendans Lotharingicis. Viator precare Quietem. This pretended Duke of Suffolk was Sir Richard de la Poole, Brother to the Earl of Suffolk, who was put to death by Henry the eighth. In his banishment he took upon him the title of Duke of Suffolk, which had been funk in the family ever fince the attainder of the great Duke of Suffolk under the reign of Henry the fixth. He fought very bravely in the battel of Pavia, and was magnificently interr'd by the Duke of Bourbon, who, tho' an enemy, affifted at his funeral in mourning. Parker himself is bury'd in the fame place with the following inscription. D. O. M. Carolo Parchero à Morley Anglo ex illuftriffima clariffima ftirpe. Qui Epifcopus Des, ob fidem Catholicam actus in Exilium An. xxxI. peregrinatus ab Invictif. Phil. Rege Hifpan. honeftiffimis pietatis et conftantiæ pramiis ornatus moritur Anno a partu Virginis, M. D. C. x1. Men. Septembris. In Pavia is an university of seven colleges, one of them called the college of Borromée, very large, and neatly built. There is likewise a statue in brass of Marcus Antoninus on horseback, which the people of the place call Charles the fifth, and fome learned men Conftantine the Great. Pavia is the Ticinum of the ancients, which took its name from the river Ticinus which runs by it, and is now called the Tefin. This river falls into the Po, and is exceffively rapid. The Bishop of Salisbury fays, that he ran down with the ftream thirty miles in an hour, by the help of but one rower. I do not know therefore why Silius Italicus has reprefented it as so very gentle and still a river, in the beautiful description he has given us of it. Caruleas Ticinus aquas et flagna vado fo Smooth and untroubled the Ticinus flows, And through the chrystal stream the fhining bottom fhows: Scarce Scarce can the fight difcover if it moves; Within its gloomy banks the limpid liquor glides. A Poet of another nation would not have dwelt fo long upon the clearnefs and transparency of the stream, but in Italy one feldom fees a river that is extremely bright and limpid, most of them falling down from the mountains, that make their waters very troubled and muddy, whereas the Tefin is only an outlet of that vaft lake, which the Italians now call the Lago Maggiore. I faw between Pavia and Milan the convent of Carthufians, which is very fpacious and beautiful. Their church is extremely fine, and curiously adorned, but of a Gothic structure. I could not ftay long in Milan without going to fee the great church that I had heard fo much of, but was never more deceived in my expeEtation than at my first entering: For the front, which was all I had feen of the outfide, is not half finished, and the infide is fo fmutted with duft, and the smoke of lamps, that neither the marble, nor the filver, nor brassworks fhow themselves to an advantage. This vaft Gothic pile of building is all of marble, except the roof, which would have been of the fame matter with the reft, had not its weight rendered it improper for that part of the building. But for the reason I have juft now mentioned, the outfide of the church looks much whiter and fresher than the infide; for where the marble is fo often washed with rains, it preferves it felf more beautiful and unfullied, than in those parts that are not at all' exposed to the weather. That fide of the church indeed, which faces the Tramontane wind, is much more unfightly than the reft, by reafon of the duft and smoke that are driven against it. This profufion of marble, though astonishing to strangers, is not very wonderful in a country that has fo many veins of it within its bowels. But though the ftones are cheap, the working of them is very expensive. It is generally faid there are eleven thousand statues about the church, but they reckon into the account every particular figure in the hiftory-pieces, and feveral little Images which make up the equipage of those that are larger. There are indeed a great multitude of fuch as are bigger than the life: I reckoned above two hundred and fifty on the outfide of the church, though I only told three fides of it; and thefe are not half fo thick fet as they intend them. The statutes are all of marble, and generally well cut; but the most valuable one they |