SAN MARINO.

Evening Post, Volume LXXIV, Issue 138, 7 December 1907, Page 12

SAN MARINO.

OLDEST REPUBLIC IN 1 THE WORLD. INSTALLATION OP ITS RULERS. Twice a year, on Ist April ''and Ist October San Marino, the old'jst 'republic in the world, changes its rujjts, or, to give them their proper names, its "capitani reggenti," The two who have filled that office, as representing and expressing the sovereign 'will of the people,' invest their successors with the insignia of state, andthe event provides San. Marino with a holiday each spring and autumn.' The ceremony is a quaint one, judging from _tho following description supplied by the Rome correspondent of a London paper:— •. • We were just in time, on reaching the little square before the Government House, to see the troops of San !Mairino headed by their band go down in state to escort tlie newly elected "regents"! from their homes to the council- .chmnber. Here they were awaited by one of -their predecessors, his colleague being incapacitated by illness. The procession was more than brilliant — it was gol-geous. No macaw ever, wore feathers of. such dazzling brightness as is .concentrated in the uniforms of San Marino. Sjoldiers in ultramarine, a noble guard in blue and orange, a select cohort in red and helmets of green, wearing all of them feathers and cockades of varied hues. In the midst of all this magnificence walked side by side two figures iD~- doublet and hose of sober black, with capes of black velvet and soft caps of the same bound with ermine. Broad black shoes, a belt and a- rapier, completed a costume ,bf such perfect comeliness that one • asked why_ mortal man ever came to dress himself in such gear asjtrousers and cylinder hats. ' CAPTAIN REGENTS.^ '" These were tho "captain-regents." In a few minutes the procession left the Government House agaiu, this time for the church, whore room Avas'also found lor the following crowd. The bands •men had. the nave pretty well to themselves, the. congregation spreading-them-selves about tho aisles and behind the altar, or mounting the pulpit-stairs or the steps of the side 'altars, whence they might • better see the ceremonies • which went forward in the sanctuary.-. These were extremely brief. A venerable priest read a low Mass at a simply-decorated i altar, while a, throne on the left was occupied by tho retiring regent, the place of his sick colleague remaining vacant. Lower down, >on his right, were -placed chaivs and kneeling-desks for the newlyclectedi Some twenty minutes were occupied by this service, almost the only music being furnished by. the military musicians, who played tho lutemiczMi from ''Cavalleria Husticana" as an elevation piece. At the end of Mass a special prayet 'was offered for the new governois of the republic, who then, led' By their predecessor, and surrounded by their Coiirt and the general public,. once more entered the ' Government House,- crossing tho little piazza to tho sound of 1 music. Every man, woman, and, child followed upstairs into the Council Chamber, a. hall of fine proportions and beautifully frescoed. There the ceremony of the day j was prefaced by an oration in which the speaker recalled the blessings of the ! special form> of government enjoyed by the Republic of San Marina, finding in it tho most perfect expression of liberty and popular representation. ' The speech over, the newly-elected stepped forward to the council table, before which the outgoing regent had been sitting in his chair of state. Erom this he now lose, and taking the broad blue-and-white ribbon with the insignia ot office from his own neck he passed it over the head of one of his sucoessois, the other' receiving the insignia of the second retiring regent from, an official delegated for the duty. The procession formed once again to conduct the new regents to their official residence in one of the streets below, from which they presently issued forth in the hundruin everyday overcoats and tall hats, which amid the mediaeval surroundings looked thoroughly out of place! THK ROCK AND THE PLAIN. The setting of the gay little scene was about the most beautiful that Nature could provide. Tho now Government House, inaugurated thirteen years ago by Carducci, is a fine, dignified building, raised upon almost the highest point of the towering rock on which San Marino is situuted. From its lev: aces, you look on a glorious green and fertile landscape, through which wind roads like white ribbons crossing tho serpentine path of the river bed, at this season nearly dry. Only a few miles separate it from tho Apennines, which tower, tier behind tier, into invisible distance. CiosS to the other side and you gaze on miles of' broad, undulating lands which gradually slope into tho plain skirting the town' of Knnini. Beyond them is the vast seaboard of tho Adriatic, deep blue on this autumn day, though shading to black where the on-coming storm looms over tho waters. l*ou find timo beforo you leave to visit the three loweis which uppeaT ,on the arms of San Marino, and to gaze from their giddy height on to the pretty town of Borgo Maggiore, nestling under tho cliff which ribts a sheer 1000 ft and moreabove its roois. An impregnable fortress, it would seem. San Marino's Republic is 1600 years old. To-day it has renewed its youth. Ne.w blood made its influence felt in its councils a year ago, and' manhood suffrage is now the rule. It is for the present somewhat out of the world's way. This will hardly continue for ever. No one can visit it without envying the inhabitants the pure air which is borne to them from sea and mountain. Made more easily accessible, it .shoulvl ho sought by those who for a time need absolute reposo from the turmoil of the woild. A spot mm s robustly beautiful can hardly be imagined. AVh.it if some day o woild attiaccd by the blessings of its fotm of government should beck rest and holiday under the bheltec of the little Republic* and swell tho number of its subjects, who to day are a mere 'handful of 11,000.