cotemporary praises, and are perhaps more likely to be just in proportion as the causes of love and hatred are the farther removed. This appeal had, in some measure, been made before the above remarks were written; for one of the most respectable of the Florentine publishers, who had been persuaded by the repeated inquiries of those on their journey southwards to reprint a cheap edition of the Classical Tour, was, by the concurring advice of returning travellers, travellers, induced to abandon his design, although he had already arranged his types and paper, and had struck off one or two of the first sheets. The writer of these notes would wish to part (like Mr. Gibbon) on good terms with the Pope and the Cardinals, but he does not think it necessary to extend the same discreet silence to their humble partisans. AFTER the frank avowal contained in the prefatory address, it may appear somewhat a presumption to attempt the task which is there formally declined as above the means of the author who writes, and of the friend to whom he addresses, the letter. In fact it had been the wish of Lord Byron, and of the compiler of the foregoing notes, to say something of the literary and political condition of Italy, and they had made preparation of some materials, the de liberate rejection of which was the orgin of the above confession. Time and opportunity have, however, very much increased those materials in number, and it is believed, in value, and the consequence has been the appearance of a short memoir on Italian literature, at the end of the Historical Illustrations of the IVth Canto, and the commencement of a longer treatise, which will be published separately in the course of the present year. This latter work will attempt a survey of the revolutions of Italy, from the French invasion in 1796 to the present day. It is compiled from information on which the author believes he may implicitly, rely, and it contains a series of facts and portraits which, he presumes, are for the most part unknown to his countrymen. |