Venice quite impossible; and the reader,
though he will find the Ghetto sufficiently
noisome and dirty, will not find an oppressed
people there, nor be edified by any of those
insults or beatings which it was once a large
share of Christian duty to inflict upon the
enemies of our faith. The Catholic Vene-
tian certainly understands that his Jewish
fellow-citizen is destined to some very un-
pleasant experiences in the next world, but
Corpo di Bacco! that is no reason why he
should not be friends with him in this. He
meets him daily on exchange and at the Cas-
sino, and he partakes of the hospitality of
his conversazioni. If he still despises him,
-- and I think he does a little, -- he keeps
his contempt to himself; for the Jew is gath-
ering into his own hands great part of the
trade of the city, and has the power that be-
longs to wealth. He is educated, liberal,
and enlightened, and the last great name in
Venetian literature is that of the Jewish his-
torian of the Republic, Romanin. The Jew's
political sympathies are invariably patriotic,
and he calls himself not Ebreo, but Venezi-
ano. He lives, when rich, in a palace or a
fine house on the Grand Canal, and he fur-
nishes and lets many others (I must say at

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