rigour of this blockade is not generally known; so effectual did it prove, that numbers of the native inhabitants, particularly of the lower orders, such as gondoliers, absolutely perished through famine.
On the Isle di Murassi, already mentioned, are a number of houses, of a pretty enough appearance at a distance, but miserable on a nearer view; they are inhabited by fishermen, who, with their wretched and squalid wives and children, flock around a stranger, begging with deplorable looks and tones of penury and want. The great Laguna, or shallow lake, also already mentioned, varies in depth from half a foot to three and four feet and more. From the eastern termination of the pier at the Bocco del Porto, the course of the deeper channel, accessible to very large vessels to the port of Venice, is marked out by wooden stakes, or beacons, placed at short distances.
The long continued blockade of the English annihilated the commerce of the port, and proved very disastrous to the Venetian vessels, many of which became ruinous, and have been found incapable of repair. For some days during September last (1816), only two vessels cleared out at the custom-house—one for Constantinople, and another for Corfu. About half a dozen of small craft, Swedish, Danish, Dutch, and Italian, were then lying at the births, waiting for cargoes, but with little expectation of obtaining them. During the war, capital was wasted, and mercantile spirit extinguished; it is not surprising, therefore, to find the commerce of Venice at the lowest ebb. The merchants are now endeavouring to obtain from the Austrian government some advantages, at the expense of the rival ports of Leghorn and Trieste, but with slender hopes of success; and it is not perhaps without reason, that the Venetians have begun to despair of any signal revival of the commerce of this ancient and once celebrated emporium to which Europe, it may be remarked, was indebted for the invention of public banks.
ON THE CONSTITUTION AND MORAL EFFECTS OF BANKS FOR THE SAVINGS OF INDUSTRY.
MR EDITOR,
Among the numerous modern discoveries, by which the limits of human power have been extended, and the condition of the lower orders of society ameliorated, a very conspicuous place ought to be assigned to the establishment of Saving Banks. They have originated in a spirit of pure benevolence—placed within the reach of the lowest and most helpless portion of the community the means of a secure and profitable deposite, of which they are now eagerly availing themselves—and in proportion as they are multiplied and extended, so must necessarily be the industry, the frugality, the foresight, and the comparative independence, of the lower classes. What is no small recommendation—no complicated or expensive machinery is required for either their formation or their management; the time of the contributors needs not be wasted in discussions and arrangements to which their knowledge and habits are but ill adapted; and no opportunity is afforded for combination. Every one may lodge and withdraw his little hoard according to his convenience, instead of the time and amount being prescribed and enforced by penalties, by which the savings of many years may, without any delinquency which it was in the contributor's power to avoid, be suddenly transferred to his less needy or more fortunate associates. To give facility and encouragement to the labourer to save a little when it is in his power to save, with the most perfect liberty to draw it back, with interest, when his occasions require it, is the primary object, and ought to be the sole object, of this institution. Much of the distress of the lower orders may thus come to be relieved from their own funds, instead of their having recourse to poor rates or private charity.
It does not seem necessary to enter into the details of these establishments, which are now sufficiently numerous to furnish room for selection, whatever may be the local circumstances in which it may be proposed to introduce them. Nor is it consistent with my present purpose, and the limits to which this letter must be confined, to examine the rules by which their business is conducted. Little, that is of real utility on this head, can be added to what has been already laid before the public, in the numerous pamphlets and reports which this interesting
