Page:Littell's Living Age - Volume 125.djvu/334

320 at present this idea is to a slight extent carried out by conducting some of the waters which flow into the Val di Chiana northwards to the Arno. Among the evil omens that foreshadowed the fall of Otho is recorded an inundation which bore death and destruction into the higher districts, before deemed secure from such visitations, and produced that terror of Roman rulers, — a scarcity of food among the common people.

Such were the constantly recurring disasters when Roman power was at its greatest height. In the confusion of the Middle Ages, the only barriers raised against inundation were the ruins of the city, and even in our own day, any attempt to protect Rome by embankment would in all probability be but a postponement of calamity. The scheme now brought forward seems likely to give free passage to the waters, and to avoid the winding reaches which in the existing channel must seriously impede the hurrying flood. To the antiquarian, this question is peculiarly interesting, for who knows what treasures of bronze and of marble, what relics of pomp or war, lie hidden in those reaches of the Tiber between the Ponte St. Angelo and the Marmorata?

To the commercial world the third object proposed — the construction of a ship-canal to Rome — will especially commend itself, and the co-operation of Prince Torlonia will greatly facilitate its realization. He undertakes to aid in reopening the port which Claudius constructed to take the place of the still more ancient port of Ostia, and he will drain the lake of Trajan. The preparation of the necessary plans is said to have been already entrusted to an English firm, and it is hoped that the works will be commenced at an early date. But the port must not only be reopened, — it must be kept permanently clear. The old mouth of the Tiber has long been rendered useless by the vast accumulation of sand. The coast-line has grown two miles beyond the port of Trajan. The work to be undertaken is great, and will entail watchful care for the future. While answering to their leader's call, the Italians should give heed to his advice to imitate the steadfastness of England.

 

  interesting facts about the woodcarving industry of the Bernese Oberland are given in a recent official report from Mr. Jenner. This industry, which does not date further back than 1815, now furnishes employment for upwards of two thousand workmen, and within the last few years the sales have risen to an average of nearly 80,000l. These sums have sufficed to spread ease over districts the inhabitants of which were formerly much pinched by want; the work, too, is of such a nature that it does not interfere with many other avocations. The cowherd and shepherd tending their flocks in the Alpine pasturages, the charcoal-burner watching his fires, and the peasant families sitting round their stoves, during the long winter evenings, can, at the expense of but little physical exertion, add greatly to their store of comforts by means of some little skill in carving. A very large proportion of the cheaper articles are actually produced in this manner. The wages of regular workmen range from one to eight francs a day. Almost every variety of timber may be utilized; fir, lime, walnut, oak, pear, and apple trees have all their special applications, and of late years the most renowned makers have taken to carve "palissandre" or rosewood, mahogany, cedar, &c. Side by side with the wood-carving industry, but greatly surpassing it in pecuniary results, is the manufacture of parquets, which is of still more recent introduction. This trade is carried on in eighteen out of the twenty-two cantons of Switzerland, and is now in the most flourishing condition. As nearly as can be ascertained, the annual production of the twenty odd establishments which carry it on reaches the value of 8,000,000 francs (320,000l.). Scarcely a Swiss house with any pretension to comfort is now built without a parquet in at least one of its rooms.

is a singular sketch from Winstanley's "Lives of the Most Famous English Poets; or, the Honor of Parnassus," 1687: "John Milton was one whose natural parts might deservedly give him a place among the principal of our English poets, having written two heroick poems and a tragedy, namely 'Paradise Lost,' 'Paradise Regain'd,' and ' Sampson Agonista.' But his Fame is gone out like a Candle in a Snuff, and his Memory will always stink, which might have ever lived in honourable Repute, had not he been a notorious Traytor, and most impiously and villanously bely'd that Blessed Martyr King Charles the First."