us alternative for a nation to
choose a big protector. It was characteristic of the Republic that from
1790 to 1798 its "policy" was to remain neutral. The crisis in regard
to Corsica came immediately after Smollett's visit, when in 1765, under
their 154th doge Francesco Maria Rovere, the Genoese offered to abandon
the island to the patriots under Paoli, reserving only the possession
of the two loyal coast-towns of Bonifazio and Calvi. [See Boswell's
Corsica, 1766-8.] At Paoli's instance these conciliatory terms were
refused. Genoa, in desperation and next door to bankruptcy, resolved to
sell her rights as suzerain to France, and the compact was concluded by
a treaty signed at Versailles in 1768. Paoli was finally defeated at
Ponte Novo on 9th May 1769, and fled to England. On 15th August the
edict of "Reunion" between France and Corsica was promulgated. On the
same day Napoleon Buonaparte was born at Ajaccio.

After a week at Genoa Smollett proceeded along the coast to Lerici.
There, being tired of the sea, the party disembarked, and proceeded by
chaise from Sarzano to Cercio in Modenese territory, and so into
Tuscany, then under the suzerainty of Austria. His description of Pisa
is of an almost sunny gaiety and good humour. Italy, through this
portal, was capable of casting a spell even upon a traveller so
case-hardened as Smollett. The very churches at Pisa are "tolerably
ornamented." The Campo Santo and Tower fall in no way short of their
reputation, while the brass gates so far excel theirs that Smollett
could have stood a whole day to examine and admire them. These agremens
may be attributable in some measure to "a very good inn." In stating
that galleys were built in the town, Smollett seems to have fallen a
victim, for once, to guide-book information. Evelyn mentions that
galleys were built there in his time, but that was more than a hundred
years before. The slips and dock had long been abandoned, as Smollett
is careful to point out in his manuscript notes, now in the British
Museum. He also explains with superfluous caution that the Duomo of
Pisa is not entirely Gothic. Once arrived in the capital of Tuscany,
after admitting that Florence is a noble city, our traveller is anxious
to avoid the hackneyed ecstasies and threadbare commonplaces, derived
in those days from Vasari through Keysler and other German
commentators, whose genius Smollett is inclined to discover rather "in
the back than in the brain."

T