Alps, extending from the Mediterranean at Nice round to the mountains bounding the bottom of the gulf of Venice. By the Alps Italy is separated from France, Switzerland, and Germany: on all other parts it is surrounded by the sea, stretching in a south-east direction from north latitude 46°, 40', on the borders of Switzerland to Cape Spartivento, the southern extremity of Calabria, in latitude 37°, 50', a distance of about 660 geographic or 760 English miles. The breadth is very unequal; the extent of the great plains of Piedmont, Lombardy, &c. from the Alps to the gulf of Venice, being about 220 geographic miles, while in Tuscany, the distance from sea to sea is only about 90 miles, in the centre of the Papal dominions about 120, and at the bay of Gaeta, towards Naples, about 70 miles.

Population. The continent of Italy alone has been estimated to contain about 11,500,000 inhabitants, alloting 3,500,000 to the great plains watered by the Po, 3,000,000 to the central districts, and 5,000,000 to the kingdom of Naples. The northern division formerly comprehended a number of separate states subject to various sovereigns, such as Piedmont, belonging to the king of Sardinia; the republic of Genoa, the duchies of Milan, Mantua, &c. belonging to the emperor of Austria; the republic of Venice, the duchies of Parma and Modena, the territories of Ferrara, Bologna, &c. then a part of the Papal dominions. By late arrangements, however, Piedmont and Genoa are united to the French empire; and all the remaining divisions of the Lombard plains, including the Venetian dominions, have been formed into a new state, called the kingdom of Italy.

The chief towns of these extensive tracts are, Turin, a strong and very handsome city on the Po, containing about 80,000 people. Genoa, delightfully situated on a fine bay, and containing many magnificent buildings, is a place of great trade, with a population equal to that of Turin. Mi

lan,

lan, a very large town, in the midst of a fertile and well cultivated plain, contains about 120,000 inhabitants, and is the capital of the new kingdom of Italy. Pavia, in the neighbourhood, is celebrated for its university. Mantua, in a strong position inclosed by a lake formed by the river Mincio, although much decayed from its former splendor, is a strong town, with about 12,000 people. Verona, noted for its amphitheatre and other vestiges of antiquity, Vicenza, distinguished for the buildings erected by the celebrated architect Palladio, and Padua, one of the most renowned universities in Europe, and near to which was born the Roman historian Livy, these towns were once the ornaments of the territory of Venice, a town in many respects without a parallel in the world. It is built on a cluster of islands, or rather mud-banks, on the verge of the Adriatic sea, three miles out from the land, and accessible only by boats; some of the channels between the islands are of sufficient depth to receive large vessels, but they are gradually shallowing. The churches and palaces of Venice present many admirable specimens of modern art, in architecture, sculpture, and painting: the population is estimated at 160,000. Parma, Modena, and Bologna are considerable towns, the latter containing about 60,000 inhabitants.

The centre division of Italy comprehended the republic of Lucca, a town of 25,000 people: the grand duchy of Tuscany, now called the kingdom of Etruria, the ancient name of the country, of which the capital is Florence, one of the most magnificent towns in Europe, in the midst of the rich and beautiful vale of the Arno, with a population of 80,000: Leghorn, (an absurd corruption of the genuine name Livorno, from the ancient Portus Liburnus,) is a strong and much frequented port belonging to Tuscany, containing upwards of 40,000 people: Pisa, once the head of a powerful commercial state, although now much decayed,

cayed, is still a large and well built town, with about 18,000 inhabitants.

In the centre of Italy lie also the Pope's dominions, or the ecclesiastical state, of which the chief town is ROME, once the mistress not only of all Italy, but of the greater part of the civilised world. This most interesting city occupied a number of small, low eminences, along the eastern bank of the Tyber, to which was added a large suburb on the opposite bank; the eminence where the famous capitol stood, is only 118 feet above the surface of the river. The circuit of the present walls, repaired and partly extended under the emperor Aurelian, towards the year 270, is about 15 English miles; but the town occupies now only about one-third of the inclosed space. The stupendous amphitheatre of Vespasian called the Coliseo, the theatres, temples, triumphal arches, historic columns, obelisks, the pyramid of Cestius, the sepulchral monuments, the public baths, the bridge, the aqueducts, and other vestiges of antiquity; the matchless fabric of St. Peter's, the other churches and palaces in which, until lately, were assembled the most valuable specimens of ancient sculpture, exhibiting, at the same time, the most masterly productions of modern times in every branch of the fine arts: -these, which barely to enumerate would require a volume, are some of the attractions presented to the scholar, the antiquary, and the connoisseur, in Rome and its immediate environs. By French invasions, and spoliation, many admirable statues and paintings have been withdrawn; but the antiquities, the classic ground on which it stands, the memory of heathen and of christian Rome, are immovcable, and must for ever command the attention and the respect of enlightened mankind. The population of Rome is computed to be about 162,000.

The southern portion of Italy is occupied by the kingdom of Naples, a tract supposed to contain about five mil

lions of inhabitants. Naples the capital is, after London and Paris, the most populous city in Europe, containing about 370,000; and is charmingly situated on the southern slope, and along the foot of a range of richly cultivated hills, commanding the view of a noble bay 15 miles in breadth, bounded on the east by Mount Vesuvius, on the south by the lofty picturesque mountains of Sorrento, and on the west by the islands of Capri, Ischia, Procida, &c. which separate this bay from the Mediterranean. The interior of Naples does not well correspond to the beauty of its exterior, the greater part of the streets being narrow, steep, and inconvenient; the environs, however, present objects of the most curious and interesting nature; the grand volcano of Vesuvius, whose slopes extend to the eastern parts of the town; the vestiges of Pompeia and Herculanum, buried ages ago, the former by the ashes, and the latter by the quified metals discharged from that mountain; the volcanic ground on the westward of the town, presenting various mouths still throwing forth sulphureous vapours and streams of boiling water; the remains of Roman inagnificence which once adorned the bay of Pozzuoli; the inexhaustible fertility of the surrounding country;—such are a few of the objects of instruction and curiosity, in addition to the monuments of modern art, and the antiquities drawn from the two ruined towns already mentioned, with which Naples furnishes the intelligent inquirer.

Of the other towns of this part of Italy, the most remarkable are Brindisi and Taranto: the former once a celebrated port on the gulf of Venice, but now much fallen off, its harbour never having recovered the injury sustained in the daring, although unsuccessful, attempt of Cæsar, to inclose within the town his rival Pompey: the latter, in early times, a match in power for Rome itself, but now limited to the surface of a small island, forming a secure haven

VOL. II.

U

haven for coasting vessels in the deep recess of the southern extremity of Italy.

Climate and soil.-These, in a country of such extent in Jatitude, are naturally very various; but excepting in some low watery tracts, as towards the mouths of the Po, and the Arno, the Pontine marshes on the road between Rome and Naples, and some districts along the bottom of the Adriatic, the climate is mild and salubrious: even at Naples the heats of summer are tempered by the regular sea and land breezes which blow alternately during the day in that

season.

Many parts of Italy have, from the earliest times, been celebrated for their fertility; and indeed nothing can exceed the productiveness of the vast plains extending along the Po, between the Alps and the Appenuines. The vales and cultivated hills of Tuscany abound in every thing requisite for the comfort of the numerous inhabitants, whose appearance gave evident proofs of the solid and essential happiness of their situation under the late grand dukes of the House of Austria. Although the immediate environs of Rome present a scene of general neglect and depopulation, yet many parts of the papal territories, such as the districts of Bologna, &c. and the coasts of the Adriatic, are equally fertile, well cultivated, and well inhabited. The country round Naples was already noted for its singular riches in producing the most valuable crops; and the greater part of that finely situated kingdom waits only for the fostering care of the government to become, as in days of yore, a rich mine of vegetable wealth and human happi

ness.

Mountains.-The northern frontier of Italy is formed by the Alps, the most considerable range of mountains in Europe. They begin on the Mediterranean near Nice, and run northerly to the lofty summit of Mont Blanc, where

turning