The Cass County Republican. [volume] (Dowagiac, Mich.) 18??-1880, 1859-07-14
MILB-N.

| CITY alone has Witnessed SIauuci An"s@
tons of power in Southern Europe !;
and even Rome has not borne her age
as well as glorious Milan.
Most of what is called Austrian-ltaly
long ago fell into the hands OF the
reigning house of the Austrian EN-
pire. Venice and the Grison districts
are the exceptions in regard to time,
they having been granted to Austria
by the treaty of 1878. II
At the time of the breaking out of
the war, there were two governments
in Germanic Italy-the one located at
Venice, the other at Milan. The two
provinces have been subdivided into
seventeen delegations.
The celebrated Duchy of Milan may
be said to have been founded in the
latter part of the fourteenth century.
1t could easily be dated many ages
earlier, as it had beer the regular pos
session of the renowned family of Wis
cont. 1t was, however, but an hum
bic dependency of the dominion to
which it was regularly attached as
Duchy by the Emperor Wenceslaus,
who created its ruler, John Galeazzo
Visconti, Duke of the Empire in
1895.
The history of Milan, during the
last four hundred years, has been one
of political terrors. The Duchy seems
to have been the particular apple of
discord, and the question of its pos
session furnished employment, during
W 70 fho
ereigns and the largest armies Of Eu-
rope. The intermarriage of the reign
ing house of Austria and the Orleans
dynasty prepared the way for the flu
ture claims of a French monarch.
Francis the First, the illustrious ruler
of France, was the first, we believe, to
attempt the establishment of the fam
lily claim. The wars between him and
the celebrated German Emperor, Chas.
the Fifth, were long and desperate, but
resulted in the triumph of the latter.
About the close of the sixteenth GEN.
fury, and after the utter overthrow Of
the French, Charles constituted his son
Phillip ruler of the Duchy. The same
Phillip afterward reached the giddy
height of the Spanish throne, and Mi
Ian, of course, accompanied him as his
hereditary possession. For more than
century Milan continued a division
of the kingdom of Spain; in 1914,
however, by treaty, it was remanded
like fugitive to the sway of Austria.
In 1886 Austria consented to the cree
ton of Milan into a Cisalpine Repub-
lie, and formally renounced the control
of it. After the decisive battle of
Waterloo, in 1915, the allied powers
revised the map of Europe, and the
fated Duchy was again awarded to Aus
tria.
Milan, the capital of the Milan
Duchy, is one Of the most beautiful
cities in the world. Its ancient his
torieal associations, its treasures of art,
and the magnificent public edifces, are
among the wonders of the modern
eras. The moss of ages has grown
upon it; but it knows nothing of de-
cay; it is golden link connecting the
ancient and modern world, the pitiless
storms OF twenty-five hundred years
have preyed upon it; Carthage, that
lifted herself in Tyrian purple, and
Ph9nician power against republican
Rome, is no more Athens has littleto
show beside the labors of Pericles:
even the seven-hilled-city has bowed
before the tempest; "the Scipios' tomb
contains no ashes now" "the very sep
ulchers lie tenantless of their heroic
jewellers" Milan-beautiful Milan
alone can boast the splendid mosaic of
classic antiquity, the Gothic eras, and
the nineteenth century,
Milan dates back to the fourth GEN.
fury before Christ. Its population is
23O, 900, or about that of Cincinnati to-
day. 1t has been regularly besieged
by armies no less than forty-six times;
twenty-four of these sieges only were
successful. On four occasions Milan
was terribly mutilated, though not, as
many historians carelessly assert, de-
The city has more than 1000 fine
statues; its celebrated Gothic churches
have formed the favorite study of the.
artists of modern times; the Cathe-
dral of Milan is an amazing monument
of human skill; though not so inn
POSiuS al ITO piOpOidOuS dS 81. L eter s
church at Rome, it is even in some re-
spects more chaste and beautiful; its
libraries are rich In the contributions
of every accessible age and cline; its
charities are of a scale COM
mensorate with the wants of Italy.
Milan is not remarkable for its mill
tary defenses, and the faustrians by at
after the battle of Magenta.
to retain possession of it, would only
have placed the army of Napoleon un-
der the stern necessity of undertaking
a work of devastation which would
have outraged the genius of civilization
itself. The modern French batteries
could not have visited the ''fire of help
upon the magnificent city for forty
eight hours, without seriously damag-
ing, if not destroying, edifces which
fifteen generations Of unrivaled arti
sans had successfully labored to adorn.
In the course of the war, the Swans
of Vienna and Paris will no doubt
unite in protesting against the desc
Grafton of Milan Gin. Times.
az The German Republicans OF