salutes shall be fired in Venice, and a proper number of red, white, and
green lights displayed. It inscribes revolutionary sentiments on the
walls; and all attempts on the part of the Austrians to revive popular
festivities are frustrated by the Committee, which causes petards to be
exploded in the Place of St. Mark, and on the different promenades. Even
the churches are not exempt from these demonstrations: I was present at
the Te Deum performed on the Emperor's birthday, in St. Mark's, when the
moment of elevating the host was signalized by the bursting of a petard in
the centre of the cathedral. All this, which seems of questionable
utility, and worse than questionable taste, is approved by the fiercer of
the Italianissimi, and though possibly the strictness of the patriotic
discipline in which the members of the Committee keep their fellow-
citizens may gall some of them, yet any public demonstration of content,
such as going to the opera, or to the Piazza while the Austrian band
plays, is promptly discontinued at a warning from the Committee. It is, of
course, the Committee's business to keep the world informed of public
feeling in Venice, and of each new act of Austrian severity. Its members
are inflexible men, whose ability has been as frequently manifested as
their patriotism.

The Venetians are now, therefore, a nation in mourning, and have, as I
said, disused all their former pleasures and merry-makings. Every class,
except a small part of the resident _titled_ nobility (a great part
of the nobility is in either forced or voluntary exile), seems to be
comprehended by this feeling of despondency and suspense. The poor of the
city formerly found their respite and diversion in the numerous holidays
which fell in different parts of the year, and which, though religious in
their general character, were still inseparably bound up in their origin
with ideas of patriotism and national glory. Such of these holidays as
related to the victories and pride of the Republic naturally ended with