Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1891-08-12

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had been fain to give uD in despair
the truth of the Walpolian doctrine
that every man has his price The
Earl of O. had his; but it was ter
ribly long one, and not within the
Walopian power TO grant. Do you
know that eXquisltely pretty story
which Rascal Casanova tells about Lord
Stair and the mistress he loved SO pas
sionately? They were walking in a
garden at Paris one very balmy starlit
night; and the young woman, as women
will do when they feel sentimental
the fit does not last long; they speedily
become as hard as nails, and begin to
prate about the butchers bill-was
pointing out one particular star to her
| lover. and expatiatlug, in charming
chat, on its soft brilliancy. How
cruel, how wickedly cruel you arer
quoth my lord with Il Sigh. why
fancy that star? You knOU / cannot
give IL TO yOu.' Lord O-'s desire
was nearly as untransferable by earthly
donor as high Aldeboran' or shiny
Cassiopeis's chair Mundane stars
and garters, gold sticks and silver
sticks, he could have them oil for the
asking; but not that. That Sir Robert
couldn't; that the Queen couldn't; /;
Lady Suffolk, King George himself, ID.
g. r. b., couldn't. Nobody on earth
but the Grand Duke Cosmo of Tuscany
could; and the Grand Duke Cosmo
wouldn't. Lord O. longed to be the
possessor of the Venus de- Medici.
She was his Star, she was his price.
but pearl, alas. beyond it.
The Earl of O. was fifty years of
h1y h. 1y,Akg
not unversed III arts, man of TASTE,
wit, and-when his rage OF Aphrodite
was not in the way-of Judgment. He
was unmarried, and a gallant without
being prodigate. His manner of life
was sumptuous; he was lavish with his
money. and gave it away to the poor.
or paid it to painters and sculptors, or
lost it at play with equal affability. He
was quite the rage at the court of the
Grand Duke COsmo; and when he came
abroad on the Lung Arno in the grand
family coach and six horses, with Mr..
Puggchops and Watfles and Shuiftes in
their state liveries hanging on behind,
the Florentines would fling up their
hands, and cry: 'EccO IL NObH UOmO.
EccO IL Principe BJ'itdliHicO. EccO
IL Gran DEl0rdO Inqlese' Carlo
hld LObtidI
carved his bust. There was a rage for
Gilettdnte academies in Italy just then !;
and Lord O. was elected an hon
orary member of the 4bGRdOnati
COnfusi of Bologna; the IIidOm miti aud
Pesgertinj of Genoa; and the Agitat,
the AHerati, the Unidi, the SOnHO lin
ii, the Fttrfurati, the HlfOcQti. and the
great DeILa Crusca itself of Florence.
n h. g ha
rest, for there we're hundred and fifty
academies in all in the Italy of that
time; and l think the Gran Milordo
Inglese' must have beeen affiliated to
above three-fourths of the entire num-
ber. A monstrously queer Italy 1t
was. Real art was dying. Real poetry
was dead. Prose babbled of green
baize gaming tables. Skulking truth
had fed to her old cavern, mountains
of casuistry heaped DER her head.
Philosophy had shrunk to her Second
Cause. Morality had unawares eX-
pired. liberty was choking in the
throes of acute bronchitis, and the oc-
currence OF the catastrophe fore
shadowed IN the D,mci0d seemed
imminent. Yet it was the same Italy
which had produced Dante and
Petrarch, and Raffaele and Michael
Angelo. Beccaria was alive; Alfieri
was alive; and Volta and Galvani and
Canova were on the eve of being born.
Nay, in certain island, hard by Sar-
dinia, there was speedily 10 see the
light man-child of old Italian stock
the child of Carlo Buonaparte and
J titia Ramolini, aud to be named
Napoleone. Meanwhile, ere the cur
tain drew mp for the Grand Historic
Melodrama, the fiddlers and the mines
and the mummers-the man who beat
gong aud the wench in spangleI
trousers who stood on her head-ysre
having it all their own way. From
CalabrIa to Piedmont all seemed one
great masquerade. Rouge, plaster,
wigs, masks, false noses, penny
trunpets, and the squeak of Punch
were everywhere. The Pope played
at cards with the Dean of the Sacred
College, and didn't mind cheating a
little: and his Holiness read the Sophia
of Crebillon MS instead of his breviary.
Half the Senators of Venice were pawn
brokers, and other half were panders.
The Reverend Laurence Sterne was at
Radicofsni making scurril Joke, and
leering, a satyr in a cauitiower wig and
black-silk small clothes, at the waiting
maids and the cOntddiHc; and the
Young Pretender, grown old and fat,
was getting drunk aud beating his vile
Amidst all this tohu 6Ohu of corrup-
ton, debauchery, lying, swindlIUg,
dancing, and going to the play and the
deuce, in this land OF Uz there was
seemingly one just Man, and that was
the Grand Duke Cosmo OF Tuscany,
who obstinRtely refused to sell the
Venus de Medici to the crazy connois-
seur who longed for her.
Lord O-was OF the most intimate
terms with his Serene Highness, and
was aware that the grand-ducal tinanc-
es were in anything but a hourishIng
condition. Still the embarrassed pos
SCISSOR OF so many art-treasures could
not be persuaded to part with his
Venus. When | say that Lord O.
offered one hundred thousand pounds
for the statue. the price, viewed In re-
lation to the sums which are cheerfully
given nowadays by English, Russian,
and especially by American amateurs
for works of art, may not appear very
evtravagant one. Still, a hundred
thousand pounds, especially when
translated into Tuscan scudi, did seem a
prodigIous lot of money. And Lord
o was ready to pay the amount
down on the nail. She grand-ducal
treasurer was sorely distressed at the
infiexibility of his master. One might
do, he pointed out, so many useful
things with hundred thousand pounds.
The Pitt was tumbling to pieces for
lack of repairs; the Boboli gardens
we're degenerating into wilderness;
and Count Beccaria, the John Howard
of Tuscany, was elamoring for assis-
tance wherewith to build new Jail on
improved principles. Il wonder if
thero be any truth in the wicked story
that while this lIlustrious humanitar-
ian was engaged in the composition of
his work against capital punishment,
he prosecuted with the most merciless
severity a servant who had stolen his
watch. and did his utmost to get the