The native American., 1838-12-29
LETTERS ON ITALY.
BY AID GUERATLT.
Translated for the Natire american.
VENICE, SEPT. 26, 1898

VENICE, SEPT. 26, 1888.
Venice has been strong and powerful, but is SO
no longer And why be aslonshed! Is not
hers the common destiny of all human things! l.
not history rife with ruined empires and nations
in decav? And is it Gota fact well known, that life,
strength and power, have been measured out to
nations as we'll as 10 individuals? That when .
people have accomplished their allotted time, they
must perish, and that the sovereignty which has
passed from them, must be transmitted TO a race
younger and more worthy of empire than them
selves! Where now are Niniyah and Babylon,
Tyre and Carthage, and so many other cities oi
DID, so powerful, formerly mis,resses, like Venice.
of the commerce and navigation of their epochs
and whose sites the learned of our days, after
thousand profound commentaries and ingenious
conleciures, are not even certain of having discov
cred! Venice has suffered the same fate-whv be
surprised at the result +?
| confess with all due humility that this philo-
sophical explanation does not, in my opinion.
give satisfactory reason for this slow agony.
which extinguishes, by degrees, every vital prin-
ciple in Venice, which dries up the sources o.
prosperity and activity, and which dcc;nates the
population in such way, that il has been cacula-
ted that sixty years would make Venice an unin-
habited heap of stones, ruin such as the inunda-
wars of exterminat on. This violent and complete
death Of an entire people, was possible in the days
of antiquity, when, next to civilized Italy. stood
barbaric Germany when the lights of civilization
transmitted by tradition, or through rare and per.
istable manuscripts, might perish or be lost in !,
warlike cataclysm. and replunge for ages a nation
into It's primal darkness. But at present. amid
the lncessam exchange Of ideas and knowledre
with this proNlmit:- and perpetual communications
OF all civilized nations, how explain the absolute
death OF people! Most assuredly can conceive
how the nationality of people can perish; | can
understand the effects Of conquest; | can imagine
how several small republics NAV lose their names
by merging them in an association more exicn-
siye; understand the fall of the republic of We
nice, a fact commonplace and naura but that
the city Of Venice should die, that its riches
should perish, that It's population should decrease
so as 10 threaten speedy failure that its palaces
should fall into ruins, that the last remnants Of
old patrclan families should be reduced 50 low as
to receive per diem from Austrian charity the ,
aims OF Swansigger ~ French sous) without
another arlstocracy rising on its ruins, without
the commercial commonaity ever having conceiv-
ed the idea felevatlng itself in its place, without
Austria ever having dreamed of profting bv its
conquest, is what appears TO me difficult to com
v
change Of possession and domination, is not all
Italy at hand to give us similar examples? Genoa
also, the rival OF Venice, las fallen from her rank
as sovereign republic; but Genoa, Piedmon-
tese city, is yet one Of the most 1ourishng ports
OF the Mediterranean. Milan and Florence afford
us similar examples And Holland which held
for time the sceplre Of the seas, which balanced
the maratlme ProWess OF England, which strug-
gled VIGOROUSLY with the fleets of France. Hol-
land, too, has it not fallen from its oldcn power?
Holland has fallen, but is no, dead; she has no
longer the supremacy of the seas; but she encou-
RACES commerce, is rich nourishes her inhabi-
tans, and keeps her rank among navigating ma
tions. Whence then proceeds this sad exception
in the of Venice, Whence this complete,
annlhilstlon which has spared nothing, which has
stihed even hope in the bosons of its inhabtants!
Whence comes it that this city which is diving.
and which Is aware Of lis situation, makes no.
an ehort TO escape It's destiny? Whence comes !
II .ia' 'he vessels which enter lis port return well
laden without having left at Venice ton of mer
chandise, and without voice bcinr sent forth
from this sepulchre, to invite the sociude of ro-t
vernment 10 position so much ia ba re,,-a,,ol2 |
The discovery Of tive Caoe of Good Homo i !
the Leading cause, Justly assigned bv common
consent, Tor the decline Of the renubEc 'rbo |
commerce OF India, which until then ha;l crossol
b.
Asia over land, and Of which the Venitians wern
the factors and Porters, flowed into the new chan
mel opened by the daring geni1s of Vasco d,.
Cana About the same epoch, Columbus enlar-
ged the world by the addition of an entire con,-
nent. and the Mediterranean, which, until then
had been The whole commercial world de,hroncd
by the Atlantic and Indian oceans occup;ed only
a secono:ry place in mercantile speculations.
'oon Candit and Cyprus escaped from Venice.
l he PeiaponcsHs. the conquest Of which had
b the last effort oCits power is taken from il
at the baginnin' Of tic seventeenth century. bv the
pesace OF passa ~ovitz. Thus deprived Of lis re-
me- lining possessio rs in the Mediterranean, Venice
kn wing 10 longer how to occupy her vessels
he came discouraged; the merchants who had ycn-
tur sd their capitals in inayatime commerce, with
drew them hy degrees. End bought landed esta,cs
on the continent When city located as is Ve-
nice, and whose strength consists ~ naviraton
deyo es 1tse - agriculture il is clear hat all is
lost. In effect it is yell known with what ease
Generas FonoPo:te efTaced from the poiic,l chart
this republic of old, so powerful. II nGcr,d no
resistance; ii confessed lrconcroycd from th2