DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.55699#0031
VENICE.
13
tributed still more to the changes on the eve of taking
place, and which were to reduce the once magnificent
Venice to the lowest rank among nations. The de-
gradation of the nobles at the commencement of the
eighteenth century may be proved by the fact that the
Ridotto, an immense building devoted to games of hazard,
was the privileged resort of the patricians. Seventy or
eighty tables were placed in its vast halls, at which the
nobles only had the right of playing. Seated there, clad
in their robes of state and with their faces uncovered,
the especial privilege of these honourable gamesters, they
not only played for themselves, but were the capitalists
of others, who wished to engage in such enterprises,
and were paid either by the year, month, or hour for
the accommodation they thus rendered to inferior specu-
lators.
Such was the state of manners in Venice when it had
to meet the shock of the French revolution. For many
years past, the favourite maxim of its statesmen had
been, to preserve peace at any sacrifice, and they had
in consequence suffered their fortifications to decay,
their arsenal to remain without defence, and their fleet
in the same condition as when they had to fear no
enemy or rival. When the war between France and
the other states of Europe commenced, they would fain
have acted on the maxim they had thus devoutly em-
braced, and determined to preserve a strict neutrality.
But they were quickly undeceived in their hopes ■, and
Verona and Padua had no sooner yielded to the French
than they saw them approach within sight of their own
shores. On the 30th of April, 1797, a memorable day
13
tributed still more to the changes on the eve of taking
place, and which were to reduce the once magnificent
Venice to the lowest rank among nations. The de-
gradation of the nobles at the commencement of the
eighteenth century may be proved by the fact that the
Ridotto, an immense building devoted to games of hazard,
was the privileged resort of the patricians. Seventy or
eighty tables were placed in its vast halls, at which the
nobles only had the right of playing. Seated there, clad
in their robes of state and with their faces uncovered,
the especial privilege of these honourable gamesters, they
not only played for themselves, but were the capitalists
of others, who wished to engage in such enterprises,
and were paid either by the year, month, or hour for
the accommodation they thus rendered to inferior specu-
lators.
Such was the state of manners in Venice when it had
to meet the shock of the French revolution. For many
years past, the favourite maxim of its statesmen had
been, to preserve peace at any sacrifice, and they had
in consequence suffered their fortifications to decay,
their arsenal to remain without defence, and their fleet
in the same condition as when they had to fear no
enemy or rival. When the war between France and
the other states of Europe commenced, they would fain
have acted on the maxim they had thus devoutly em-
braced, and determined to preserve a strict neutrality.
But they were quickly undeceived in their hopes ■, and
Verona and Padua had no sooner yielded to the French
than they saw them approach within sight of their own
shores. On the 30th of April, 1797, a memorable day