THE REPUBLIC OF SAN MARINO.
Amidst the Apennines, far removed from the ordinary track of tourists, is the diminutive republic of San Marino, which boasts never to have been subjugated. Whether it has escaped invasion because it has escaped notice, or because burglars never attack an empty cottage, is a point which I shall not stop to discuss. Few travellers visit it, but the trouble of doing so would be amply repaid. The situation is highly romantic; and the view from the summit of the bold escarpment, upon which the town is perched, extends over a wilderness of mountains.
The population of the territory is said not to exceed 6,000 or 7,000 souls. Its whole income is derived from a moderate duty on tobacco; and its standing army (for it possesses this indispensable incident to political independence) is chiefly employed in vain attempts to prevent the evasion of that duty.
Among the greatest and most highly esteemed curiosities of the place, is a statue of Christ on the cross, with a head of real hair, which is cut twice a year, and always grows again! This faculty of reproduction is as profitable as it is wonderful; for, besides the resort of pious visitors, drawn by the capillary attractions of such a miraculous piece of sculpture, the locks that are cut off are stated, by the ecclesiastical functionaries in charge of the statue, to be a sure preservative against all harm to the wearer, and are of course in request as an article of commerce. My object in communicating to you these notes, is to introduce to you a copy, which I transcribed myself, of one of the state papers preserved in the archives of the republic. It appears to be a letter of encouragement, addressed by the Priors and Gonfaloniere of the republic of Florence to that of S. Marino, during a siege that the latter was undergoing. Perhaps some of your readers may be able to point out the precise occasion that called for the letter.
Sydney Smirke.
"Magnifici viri amici ñri carmi, Habbiamo vedato la lettera vi scrive il Governatore, et habbiamo inteso la voluntà dello exercito della Chiesa. Dovete essere di buono animo et stare constanti et fermi: et perdere la vita insieme con la libertà che è meglo allo huomo uso a essere libero, essere morto che essere servo. Iddio a chi piace la libertà vi aiutera difenderai: et noi et la ñra lega non vi manchera: havete inteso le provisioni facte et di denari et di gente ad Arimino; et faremo delle altre tante che saranno abastanza. Valete. Ex palatio ñro die viij. Junij, M.CCCCLXVIIIj.
"Priores libertatis et
Vexillifer Justitiæ
Populi Florentinj. "Barth. Scala.
"Magnificis Viris hominibus terræ Sā Marini amicis ñris carmis."
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"Priores libertatis et Vexillifer Justitiæ | Populi Florentinj. |