THE STATE OF VENICE.

Otago Witness, Issue 481, 16 February 1861, Page 6

THE STATE OF VENICE.

The following is an extract of a letter received from Venice : —

" Having just traversed Venetia from one extremity to the other, from the Mincio to the ! Alps, I must inform you that fancy can scarcely picture the heart-rending impressions of that tour. The fair cities of Venice, Padua, Vicenza, and Verona, once so thriving and populous, now seem huge deserts, where scarce a sound strikes on the ear, save the clank of the Austrian sabre, and not a face of the remaining inhabitants but hears the impress of the deepest anguish. Nothing casts such a gloom over a community as the entire absence of the youths of the population, whose intelligence, life, and gaiety are the best features of a city. Now, with the exception of some few labourers tied down to their inland farms, one might conclude that the present generation had been wholly swept off by some deadly plague. Since the peace of Villafranca, 50,000 of the Venetian youths have emigrated from their homes, exclusive of the '25,000 volunteers enrolled in the Central Italian army, Venetia alone having furnished 7000 or 8000 to Sicily. And to these the lawless arrests, the countless deportations, without trial or form whatever, and then picture to yourself the moral conditions of these populations Venice is now but an entrenched camp ; nightly convoys •of seventy or eighty carriages, crowded with fresh troops, arrive at the station of Casarsa, to be : stationed along the coast, from Grado to the mouth of the Piave. Latisana, Porto, Granaro, &c, &c, swarm with tropps, and as a landing along the coast is dreaded, the weakest points are incessantly fortified. The fetid miasmas of the marshes make fearful havoc amongst these troops, who are intended to support the two centres of Trieste and Venice for the f defence of the coast ; on all sides batteries and fortifications are starting up, and Prince Al-r brecht is daily awaited to assume the supreme command of the army, of Italy. The Hun? garian troops are' despatched off to Poland and the German -Austro provinces,' owing to the spirit of nationality' and insubordination they manifest, In Italy there are only Poles, Croats Styrians, and XJarinthians. The officers are insolent t and blustering,, and openly discuss 'their entrance into Rome and Milan. 5 her misfortunes ; & 'fjjjfiHjfljL vails, and they regard their deliverance as a

i mere t quQ9tion of time, otherwise this afflicted > country wo^uld become a vast necropolis. Not ,a family but mourns some absent member, i happy when these are not martyrs or victims."