Burlington free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1827-1865, 1858-11-19
Correspondence Of the Free Press
LETTERS FROM EUROPE.
NO. LII.
Trieste.
TRIESTE

Trieste.
TRIEsTE.-
had expected t. find Trieste pronounced
Treest) beautiful place, but the present
reality far exceeds my antcpalions. | don't
know where you can so and find more to ad-
mire Tin so small q city, than in this. Its
streets are SO wide and beautifully built up;
the public buildings and public squares SO
really tasteful and distinguished in appear
ance, its compact streets of shops and its cx-
hbitons ofmcrchandizc so snowy, entcrpriz-
ing and attractive, and all Il speak of the
new and larger part of the town. 50 new, 50
fresh, SO bright and cheerful and prosperous
and happy in appearance, as to surprise me
here in the old world 1t is the Austrian
seaport and is an interesting instance of the
effect Of favored comm rec in fartilizing
what must otherwise be II barren spot. The
hotel where we stopped had spacious and
airy bedrooms, its floors Of beautiful mar
quetre, its dining room spacious and bcauti-
fully frescoed and furnished, and its table
furnished with rich plate and porcelain, in
all its appointments quite the finest hotel we
have met since we left America. 1t is owned
bya joint stock company If my plans
would have permitted should have had quite
n stay here, to rest and refresh ourselves IN its
balmy breezes, its beautiful surroundings, and
its dreamy and quiet outlook towards Italy
retracing my earnest and curious steps on the
land of the Gaul and the Italian, in contem
plative, analytical and comparative mood,
and drawing more pleasure and profit from the
reflection which such retrospect could not
fail to suggest, than had derived from iso
lated and local observations on tho spot, as
TT yelled
Certainly there is no place where one
could look down through 50 many and 50
various and so long vistas of the past all
crowded with every thing that the world
knows of the eighteen centuries of our era, to
say nothing Of the more ancient ages of pagan
civilization and glory. Look back over the
trail of the Huns and Of the G1ths, the great
est of all conquering and commanding races
Here, for the first, enter their vast domin-
ions, for although Trieste has been by turns
subject to Franco and Venice and Austria,
and may properly enough be called an Itll-
ian city, still she has always been ethnologi-
cally, as she is now politically, portion of
tie great Gothic Empire In their old poems,
says Tacitus, they give it out as high point
that they are the direct descendants from the
god Tuisto (hence called Teutons) and his
son Mannus (hence man. as though they
united in themselves the great characteristics
of God and Of man, (henco, perhaps, Teuman,
the name Of the great Hun Of 1000 years ago.
What story is that of their sweep Nc over
Europe from the Baltic to southern Italy and
from the Black Sea to the Rhine and how
the wild savages have grown into the great
German family! Look back upon the
growth of ancient pagan Rome, in the Italian
peninsula, yonder, spread out before you.
She planted her eagles all along the Mcditerra-
mean and the Atlantic coast, AMI cJlonized
the British islands, while, throned on her
seven hills, she ruled the world And the
Italian republics ofthe middleages-you seem
here to be looking right at them. and to see
their strifes with the Gaul and the Guelph
and the Ghibeline. And papal Romc-you
can hardly raise your eyes without seeing her
triple crown, her priestly power, her armies,
her armor, her knotty scourg5 and her keys,
as she passed up through ages to the culm-
nation the power of the pope as King of
Kings, under liildebrand, and down again
to the vassalagc Of Plus Ninth, all the time,
as her temporal power increased her spiritual
just of her temporal power that placed in the
chair of ST. Peter ambitious, corrupt and
blood thirsty men, and took to tho battle
field ambitious sons of her church, even Bish- |
ops, to mingle in and direct the bloodiest
carnage. 1t was Gothic King, believe,
who having taken in battle a Bishop in ar
NOR, kept him prisoner of war, and in reply
to the Pope's demand of the privilege of the
church for the discharge of his son sent the |
Bishops armor with the pertinent and cut
ting question "Know now whether this be |
thy sons coat" His Holiness now sits in |
and submission in his sacerdotal .
palaces and says his prayers with christian
humility and forgiveness, while have just |
now seen conscript youngsters OF the French
army ofsurvellance skylarking under almost
The eve-droppings of St. Peter'sat Rome, and
tho cavalry Of the Austrian army of occupa
lion galloping insolcnty round tho Mont
agnuola of Bologna. The Goth and the Gaul
ire again masters of Rome-kingly Rome.
But | must content myself with n brief
ook at Trieste and hurry
Onward where the rude Carinthan boor
"A ;hinst the houseless stranger shuts the door,
Trieste is the Tergeste of the ancients. She
las been the victim OF I don't know how
many distractions, and has been sacked and
Numbered by the great conqucrors, all along
through tho ages. The Huns and tho Goths
nd the Francs and the Lombards and the
lures have, in their turn, treated little
trieste, when hardly more than a village, as
{ great importance, and have conquered her