lord's power, while the leafe goes to heirs general, and it may run through as many hands this way, as if it were permitted to pass to affigns. Even the difpofition of the original tenant may change during the courfe of a tack, and a greater alteration of conduct may be experienced, than what would have proceeded from the introduction of a third perfon.

In a word, we confider it as found and equitable doctrine, that if a perfon has not renounced a right to fubfet, he is, according to the principles of justice, upon which law is certainly founded, entitled to the exercise of that right. If, on the contrary, he

has specifically bound himself not to exercise it, he of courfe is not enticled to complain, as he has made a law for himself; but upon the general question, whether it would be found policy to allow every tenant to alienate his leafe, in the fame manner as is done with every other species of property, we are clear that fuch a liberty would not prove prejudicial to the landed intereft, while the public good would be greatly benefited, and improvements forwarded with increafed rapidity.

I am,

Your's, &c. A Friend to Improvements.

THERE is not a country in Italy which nature has fo richly endowed with all the properties that have an influence on the happy for mation of man as Tufcany. It is bounded towards the north and eaft. by the Apennine mountains, which not only fhield it from the frofty winds, but water it with rivers and ftreams and falubrious fprings. Ever verdant hills and dales in alternate undulations form the furface of the country from one end to the other, becoming thus alone one scene of delight both to the bodily and the mental eye. This charming interchange of elevation and defcent, of hills and vallies, is every where richly productive of all for which the leffer Afia and the ifles of Greece are fo cele. brated, as affording the moft valua ble nutriment to mankind; and as to the wines, they are partly improved. What elfe may be wanting to the comfort of life is fupplied by induftry and commerce.

As the inhabitants of this favoured climate neither breathe the watery exhalations of the flimy Po, nor the teams of Vefuvius, fo keeping

the mean betwixt the fluggish dul nefs of the Lombards, and the fiery enthufiafm of the Neapolitans, they are fitted by nature for whatever requires understanding and dexterity. As far as hiftory reaches, they have ever taken the lead of all other European nations in arts and fciences. To the Romans they taught religion, the theatrical art, manufactures and commerce; and, on the return of light, after a universal darkness of feveral ages, not only the imitative arts, but likewife hiftory, poetry, and rhetoric, mathematics and phyfics, here found their first restorers.

Florence is both the centre and the capital of this renowned nation. He that traverses Italy, and furveys: this city, with its circumjacent territories, is immediately convinced that a totally different genius here prevails among mankind. Regulari. ty, ornament, and fine tafte, pervade. their public places, Atreets, and villas,. the ftatues, libraries, and galleries both in public and private edifices. The people are every where civil ; and though, in their expreffion, one hears a difagreeable afpiration, more

or

or lefs, according to the various diftricts of the state; yet their speech itfelf is fo genuine and regular, fo full of ingenious proverbs and happy phrafes, that, with all the corruptions which the reading and imitation of French writings have introduced, it may still be confidered as the beft living fource of genuine language.

The Florentine loves employment, is very diligent and induftrious. Where he has a profpect of but a fmall gain, or of advantageously reaching his aim, he is not to be difcouraged by the method he must purfue or the pains it may coft him ; no de lay, no obstacle can make him flacken his induftry or abate his ardour, though he fee with his keen percep. tions the improbability of fuccefs. He then defits as readily and with out murmuring, from the farther profecution of his project, as he is inge. nious in the invention of fome other procefs. To this industry of the Florentines we are indebted for the rife of experimental philofophy; and their opulence in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries was a signal effect of it.

They are contented with a little, and are immoderately disposed to joy. Half a dozen of wretched ponies, or a couple of old-fashioned chaifes running a race, or a match at tennis, is a grand spectacle at Florence, and fufficient to make the town elate with pleasure. Happy the prince who has fuch a people to govern! It cofts him but little to attain his wishes, and to change every difcontent that may a rife among them into pleasure and fatisfaction.

Among fo contented and induftrious a people great crimes are exceedingly rare. A man must have refided many years in Florence and in general in Tuscany, if he can fpeak of three or four murders or confiderable robberies. Nothing feems more ufe lefs here, fays the famous count Carli, in his Saggio politico ed econo

4

mico fopra la Toscana, than the offi cers of juftice; and nothing does fo much honour to the wifdom and benignity of the reigning grand duke, as the abolition of capital punish ments among fo tractable a people.

The difference remarked by Plato between Athens and Thebes in Greece, holds good in fome measure in Tuscany between Florence and Pifa. Perhaps this may be partly attributed to the vapours arifing from the numerous canals and dikes that run through the plains of Pifa; perhaps too the weft-winds, fo prevalent here, and blowing from the islands that abound in iron, may con. tribute to it. Certain it is, that the Pifans are very diftinguishable from the Florentines by a certain ferocity and hardness apparent on all occafions. Throughout the whole of the Florentine hiftory no inftance can be fhewn of fuch an extraordinary cruelty as that with which the Pifans. destroyed count Ugolino della Ghe rarde fca, with his innocent children. They have often given evident proofs of their hard difpofitions, fince the fea-fight off the tower of Melora, in their well-known bridge-plays or rather murderous games, which are happily now abolished. The fpirit and rage of party, they used to exhibit on thefe occafions, was of a peculiar nature. For more than a month, as long as the preparations and the play lafted, hufbands parted from their wives, and fathers abandoned their fons, whenever they adhered to different parties. Completely armed in a coat of mail, and with a fwinging bludgeon in their hand, they came upon the bridge across the Arno, one party at one end and the other at the other, both infpired with a furious thirst of flaughter; and whoever did not fubmit or yield by force of heavy blows, was either felled to the ground, or caft headlong into the river. It frequently happened that the combatants could not

hear

hear the voice of them that yielded, for very fury; and then the blows were repeated by the victors till the vanquished gave up the ghoft. Such a cafe actually happened, when the reigning grand duke was for the firft time prefent at this favage fpectacle. Siena, the capital of a particular Juchy, is extenfive, thinly peopled, and poor. Yet the pure air of the hills on which it ftands, infpires its inhabitants with a chearful and lively Spirit. Plays and games of chance, diverfions, and dancing, leave them no leifure for thinking on their po. verty or repining at their wretchednefs. Poetry, metaphyfics, and works of ingenuity, have ufurped the place of the spirit of commerce, of arts and manufactures, of courage and wealth, for which they were formerly fo confpicuous. They ftill boaft of the imaginary phantom of their ancient greatnefs. To be a member of their grand council, to bring into the world a handfome poem, or to folve an ingenious queftion, can fo inflate the imagination of a Sienefe, that he fhall actually conceive himself to be a great and happy being.. Hence arofe the taunting proverb, aver bevuto a fonte branda, to have an overweening imagination. Lippifings, in his poem, Malmantile racqui ftato," canto iv. 26. relates of a Sienefe, of the name of Perlone, that he almoft thought himself to be dead, and accounts for it thus:

"Perch' egli e un di quei matti alla Saneft,

Ch' han fempre mefcolato del cattivo. Siena has, notwithstanding, produced in all ages men of great fame in literature, in the army, and in the church; and it cannot be denied, that its inhabitants excell many other nations of Italy in intellectual capa city, and mental endowments. Count Richecourt, who many years governed this country in the name of the late emperor, used to fay, that for forming a perfect fpecies of mankind,

he could wish, that the Sienese women would marry with men of Pisa, and the Pifanefe women take hufbands from the men of Siena.

The rest of the towns, containing mines, in Tufcany, fuch as Volterra, Arezzo, Cortona, had nothing distinguishing enough for rendering them famous and rich, before they were defpoiled of their liberty by the Florentines. Nature has endowed these people with an eminent capacity for arts and agriculture. If they had only proceeded, as they began, to profit by the advantages their wife law-giver granted them for the encouragement of agriculture and trade, they would have had no need to pal-. liate their fplendid indigence by the ftudy of Etrufcan antiquities and uselefs genealogies.

Peftoia, Prifcia, Prato, and this whole valley, nourish an industrious people, who beneficially employ themfelves in agriculture and manufactures. All the other districts of Tuf. cany increafe the materials of the national commerce by the culture of land, vineyards, and filk, and in every corner people are found, expert in promoting the particular and the general welfare.

To what a height of profperity might not fuch a country arife, the inhabitants whereof are fitted and difpofed to the particular arts of life! where the nobility, who in the other ftates of Italy are only employed in contriving how they may waste their lives in idleness and fleep, contribute their utmost to the general profperity!

The Tufcan nobility is very numerous. They do not here confine. themfelves merely to the peculiar ufe of a peerage in all governments, in being the intermediate clafs between the prince and the people, in promoting arts, manufactures, and commerce by their luxury, in ferving as a reftraint upon the people by their dignity and the reverence that is paid them, and in providing fuch perfons

for

rished towns of Volterra, Arezzo, Cortona, and Siena. Nothing is more natural than for him to blame the

fluggishness of the inhabitants of thefe cities in not profiting by their vicinity to this productive golden mine. But he might perhaps be mistaken. The evil lies by no means in the inactivity of the inhabitants, but in the ancient conftitution of the country, which it was ever the aim of Duke Leopold to abolish by degrees.

Tuscany, as every one knows, was formerly, as it were, a forest of republics, who were inceffantly at war, and had nothing more in view than how one could get the afcendant over the other. Each diftin&t republic or city, nay every village almost, conducted itself by its own laws and ftatutes, which in regard to politics were as contrary as poffible to the interefts of their neighbouring rivals. Hence arose innumerable burdens and taxes, which were laid on perfons and commodities paffing through the narrow confines of these free-tates. After thefe petty ftates had fallen under the dominion of the Florentines, it became necessary to the general welfare, to treat the conquered territories as members of the aggregate body, and by the abolition of the ancient ftatutes and customs, to open the way for the due circulation of commerce through the various channels from one end of it to the other. But this did not fucceed, and it has been at a stand for two centuries and a half. Thus the cities ftill remained engaged in a kind of war among themselves, and obftacles were thrown in the way of the communication of commerce almoft at every step. Thus for example, before a clothier of Cor tona receives a bale of wool of 500 pounds weight from Leghorn, which

is about 112 miles diftant, it will have been ten times thoroughly fearched on the road, and have paid forty-four toll duties, which together amount to the fum of 31 lires (if the bale be reckoned at 260 lires, at 12 per cent.) To this must be added the pay of the tranfport, and the delays of the toll-gatherers, the liberties they take, the tricks they put in practice to extort bribes, before they will give the neceffary documents and paffes, and a number of other grievances. We must alfo take into the account, that the clothier is obliged to pay juft as many dues on fending the stuffs or cloths wrought from this bale of wool, for fale to Leghorn; by this means the price amounts to fo much, that, from the competition of other cheaper woollens, no purchafer is to be found. Thus the affair ftands in all the cities and towns in Tuscany; and therefore it is no wonder that they reap but little or no fruits from the vicinity of Leghorn.

The grand Duke Leopold, who thoroughly and without prejudice examined into all matters with the eye of a philofopher, and as foon as he was convinced of the truth, refolutely encountered and conquered every difficulty, broke most of the bonds which ignominiously confined the hands of his fubjects, and even in fome measure remedied this complaint by the abolition of pernicious statutes. The communication between one town and another is no longer ob. ftructed or retarded by any grievous impediment; every Tufcan carries the fruit of his labour, fubject to fmall duties, to market at Leghorn, and manifeft proofs of the rapid growth of arts and agriculture are every where feen.

ORIGINAL