The Express.
London, England, 1866-05-22 00:00:00

[STAMPED, ld. ADDITIONAL.]

VENICE AND TRLESIR

(molt ova OWN

TRUSTE, KAY 'it.
Even given a perfect temperature and an Italian
sky, which is all that an Italian sky should be,
there comes a time when one feels satiety, even of
eating ices at Florian's—who does not know
Florian's, where
_is gathered the crime of the society
which frequents the Piazza of St. Mark, which has

been well called " le Salon de Venice" 7—and of lie-

tening in the cool of the evening to the strains of

the Austrian band—that band which for more than

half a century has piped to the Venetians and they
have not danced. There comes a time when, even
under a cloudless sky, one wearies of pacing the
Piazza and Piazzetta by moonlight, and of admiring
over and over again their exquisite symmetry ; of
looking through the bars at the Hungarian or Oros-
tian guard, and of waiting for those guns, planted
I so ominously in readiness beneath the arches of the
Doge's palace, to open fire on a defenceless mob ;
I of wondering why the Croata do not act up to their
I proverbially savage nature, and begin their throat-
cutting, or at least committing some kind of out-
rage, which shall furnish the unhappy cor-
respondent with that sensational matter, without
I which his letters will be thought insipid, and the
I writer a mere walking-gentleman.
If when the weather is moat propitious one still
after a time may feel satiety of these things, in
rainy weather—and for all Murray may assert to
the contrary, the days when the sky is cloudless ,
are the exception at Venice in April and May,
and the days when the rain pours down are apt to
be neither few nor far between—the lounging life
which all the world leads at Venice at once loses
all its charm. Crouching under an umbrella, which
you can hardly hold up for the wind, in a gondola,
is a very poor amusement, and making pilgrimages
to outlying churches in dripping clothes to see the

Titiansor Tintorettos there seems like crowding
several wet Sundays into one. During a considerable
portion of my stay at Venice we were in a chronic
state of thunder, lightning, and of rain—which
lamentable state of things, combined with a long-
ing to go up a hill and look upon a wood and a
green field once more, inspired me with a desire
to be off, and seek some spot on that terra firma,
which is so much talked of at Venice, where the
rain would at least by falling have the opportunity
of doing the good of laying the dust, and making
green things grow, instmd of wasting its energies
on making the stones of Venice slippery.
Accordingly, during a deceptive lull in a thunder
storm with which Venice was visited on Saturday
last, I was induced by the calmer aspect of the
heavens to secure a place in the steamer which was
to leave for Trieste the same evening. I need
hardly add, that no sooner had I taken my ticket
than the sky again became threatening, and the
storm and wind arose in a fashion which made me
more than half repent of the rash step I had taken.
Soon after 10 p.m. we got under weigh, and pro-
ceeded to steam slowly and cautiously through the
shallows and islands, which render the navigation
of the lagoons so difficult, towards the mouth of
the shallow harbour at the northern extremity of
the Lido. Even within the lagoons the water
had been considerably agitated, but no sooner had
we passed between the forts of St. Andrew and St.
• Nicolo del Lido into the open sea than it became
evident that we were in for a night of it. And a
night of it we had. Whether we, in our stuffy
cabin, or the scantily clad recruits on the fore
deck, over which the waves and the spray washed
continually, had the worst of it, is perhaps an open
question ; but I liked the experience so little, that
I do not care if I never repeat it again.
On approaching Trieste in the early morning
we received a most chilling and inhospitable greet-
ing from its celebrated " Bora," the most cruel
and cutting wind that blows anywhere. Those
unhappy Mexican volunteers who have been
lying these eight days out in the harbour, waiting
for permission to sail, will perhaps one day be re-
minded of the " Bora" of Trieste by that " Norte" of
the gulf of Mexico, which, if less cutting, is own
brother to it in point of fury and destructiveness.
On landing at Trieste, the first thing that struck
me was the number of Croats who at the present
moment swarm like bees in the streets. As the
Greek church happens to be close to my
hotel, and I observed that the main stream
of these far-famed savages was pouring in
to attend the service, which .was just commencing,
I could not resist the opportunity of following them,
with the object of watching Croats at their devo-
tions. Wilder and more uncouth-looking fellows
than most of them were you could hardly imagine ;
but for the whole hour and a half during which
the service lasted they behaved with the most ex-
emplary propriety, and crossed themselves conti-
nually, with an amount of fervour which I never
saw surpassed in any part of Christendom. When
the plate was handed round at the end of the ser-
vice, every Croat scrupulously put in his mite. If
the Croats only behave half as well out of church
as they behave in, they are a much maligned race.
All the regular troops have been sent towards the
Italian frontier, and here they have been replaced
by Croats, who are required to do garrison duty
in troublous times.

THE CHOLERA.—Though three more fatal cases
are reported since our last, it is satisfactory to know that
the cholera is gradually subsiding at Liverpool and Milken-
head. One of the deaths is that of a female nurse at the
Tranmere Hospital.
MELANCHOLY ACCIDENT.—It I. with the deepest
regret that we record the occurrence of an accident, by
which the only son of Richard Turner, Esq., surgeon, has
lost his life. The deceased was a remarkably fine, high-
spirited, handsome boy of five years and a half old. It
would appear that on Sunday afternoon he was playing
with two young gentlemen in the garden, at the rear of
his father's house ; hie uncle and aunt being also in the
garden, and his father on the balcony above, which
commanded a view of it. Shortly after 4 o'clock the
unfortunate child and one of his companions
went to the spot where the garden roller is placed
and drew it out. The deceased
.requested his companion
to leave bold of the roller, saying he could drag it him-
self, and continued to draw it down the garden towards a
steep declivity of several feet. The accident was not
actually witnessed by anyone, but it is conjectured that,
on reaching the declivity, the child was overpowered by
the roller, which pushed him before it, and dashed him
with great force against some strong iron railings guarding
the area at the bottom. His poor father beard the
crash, and upon looking over the balcony saw his
son doubled up near the railings, and within • few
feet of the instrument which had oecasioned him a
mortal injury. He immediately carried the child, bleed-
ing and senseless, into the surgery, and despatched his
brother for J. Macrae, Esq., his partner, who went imme-
diately, and arrived at the house within five minutes of
the time the accident occurred. He found the deceased
bleeding from the nostrils and the right ear, and there
could be no doubt that he bad sustained an extensive
fracture of the base of the skull with
was rupture of some
large vessel of the brain. Everything donettcal still could suggest, and at one time, Mr. Macrae hav-
ing succeeded in administering a little brandy, the de-
ceased slightly rallied, but only for a few minutes. lie
gradually sank and died at a quarter to 8, three hours and
a half after the accident occurred.—Surrey Standard.

[TWOPENCE