340 FOSCARI FOSSANO man for Boston, who pays the Albany man his fee for bringing it to New York, and takes it to Boston. The expressman between Bos- ton and New Bedford pays the New York man what he paid, and also the fare from New York to Boston, and takes it to New Bedford ; and the consignee when he takes the parcel pays the man who gives it to him all he has paid, and in addition his fare from Boston to New Bedford. Now, if the parcel did not arrive safely, but was lost somewhere on the route, is each one of these expressmen liable for the whole ? We should say this must de- pend upon what each one undertakes to do. If the Albany man advertises that he takes goods to New Bedford, he is liable as far as New Bedford as carrier. If he advertises that he carries parcels to Boston, he is so liable to that place ; if only to New York, he is lia- ble as carrier only to New York, and as for- warding merchant at New York, and there his liability ends ; and so of all the rest. Express- men now not uncommonly insert in their bills of lading or receipts which they give their cus- tomers a clause to this effect : " This company is responsible only as forwarders, and only for the negligence or other default of persons em- ployed by them ; and this is a part of our con- tract with all whose goods we carry." But the law is now settled that while a common carrier may make a valid special bargain with his cus- tomer, a mere notice or declaration upon a ticket or bill of lading does no constitute such a bar- gain, unless assented to by the customer. FOSCARI, Francesco, doge of Venice, born about 1373, died Oct. 31, 1457. Elected doge in 1423, the whole period in which he gov- erned the republic was one of war and tu- mult. The sultan Amurath II. laying siege to Salonica, Foscari despatched troops thither, who repelled the Mussulmans. He then en- gaged in hostilities with the duke of Milan, Filippo Maria Visconti, and subjected to the republic the territories of Brescia, Bergamo, and Cremona, making the Adda the boundary of the Venetian dominion. The war was soon renewed with various success, nearly all the Italian cities taking part in it ; but the doge, supported by Cosmo de' Medici and by Fran- cesco Sforza, marquis of Ancona, still further extended his power by a treaty concluded in 1441. New wars, involving extensive leagues though little bloodshed, followed soon after; but in his old age Foscari had made peace with all the enemies of Venice, including Mohammed II., the successor of Amurath, when Jacopo, the last survivor of his four sons, was brought a second time before the council of ten, falsely charged with the assassination of its chief. The tribunal, jealous of the power and popularity of the doge, condemned his son first to torture and then to exile in Candia. The young Fos- cari, whose mind was disordered by suffering, wishing after long banishment to see his coun- try again at whatever peril, effected his return thither, but being condemned again, had scarce- ly reached the place of exile when he died. This event is the subject of Byron's tragedy, "The Two Foscari." For the old doge one other humiliation remained. He had twice asked leave to resign his office, but the council had obliged him to retain it. He was now de- posed, through the machinations of his ene- mies, and died a few days after in a spasm as he heard the bells of St. Mark announce to Venice the election of a new ruler. FOSCOLO, Nicolo Ugo, an Italian poet and mis- cellaneous writer, born in the island of Zante, of a Venetian family, Jan. 26, 1777, died at Turnham Green, near London, Sept. 14, 1827. He was educated in Venice, and at the univer- sity of Padua. His first tragedy, Tieste, was produced at Venice in 1797, and was so unsatis- factory to the author that he himself published the severest criticism of it. When Venice was surrendered by Bonaparte to Austria he retired with. other patriots to Milan, and wrote a politi- cal romance called Lettere di due amanti, after- ward republished under the title of Le ultime lettere di Jacopo Ortis. In 1799 he volun- teered in the Italian contingent of the French army, took part in the defence of Genoa under Massena, and returned to Milan. When in 1802 Napoleon assembled the consulta of Ital- ian deputies at Lyons to provide a new con- stitution for the Cisalpine republic, Foscolo was appointed to report upon the state of the country ; and in an elaborate discourse he con- trasted the abuses of the military government which had been established with the free gov- ernment which had been promised. In 1808 he was appointed professor of Italian eloquence in the university of Pavia, but the political in- dependence evinced in his lectures soon caused his chair to be suppressed. At this period he published his beautiful lyric poem I sepolcri, his tragedy of Ajace, and an Italian translation of Sterne's " Sentimental Journey." On the fall of Napoleon he retired to Switzerland, and in 1816 to England. He wrote for the reviews articles on Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio, and other Italian authors, delivered lectures on Italian literature, published an " Essay on Pe- trarch " in a separate volume (1823), and edit- ed the Divina Commedia of Dante (1825). His Epistolario (3 vols.) and a new edition of his Poesie were published at Florence in 1856. His remains have been removed from Chis- wick, England, to the church of Santa Croce, Florence. FOSSANO, a town of Piedmont, Italy, on the left bank of the Stura, in the province and 13 m. N. N. E. of the city of Coni, and 34 m. S. by E. of Turin ; pop. about 7,000. It is an antique, dismal, but regularly planned town, built on a high hill, surrounded by walls, and defended by a strong fortress which commands the val- ley of the Stura and the road into France by the Col d'Argentiere. The houses are built upon arches over the footpaths, and the pas- sages in many places are so low that a tall person can hardly walk upright in them. It
