d subjected you to wars of longer duration than
you would otherwise have experienced; descending to particulars in
justification of your Sublimity.' Whereupon one of them replied, '_Isti
Veneti sunt piscatores._'[64] Marvellous was the command I then had over
myself in not giving vent to expressions which might have proved
injurious to your Signory; and with extreme moderation I rejoined, 'that
had he been at Venice, and seen our Senate, and the Venetian nobility,
he perhaps would not speak thus; and moreover, were he well read in our
history, both concerning the origin of our city and the grandeur of your
Excellency's feats, neither the one nor the other would seem to him
those of fishermen; yet,' said I, 'did fishermen found the Christian
faith, and we have been those fishermen who defended it against the
forces of the Infidel, our fishing-boats being galleys and ships, our
hooks the treasure of St. Mark, and our bait the life-blood of our
citizens, who died for the Christian faith.'"

I take this most interesting passage from a volume of despatches
addressed from London to the Signory of Venice, by the ambassador
Giustiniani, during the years 1516-1519; despatches not only full of
matters of historical interest, but of the most delightful every-day
description of all that went on at the English court. They were
translated by Mr. Brown from the original letters, and will, I believe,
soon be published, and I hope also, read and enjoyed: for I cannot close
these volumes without expressing a conviction, which has long been
forcing itself upon my mind, that _restored_ history is of little more
value than restored painting or architecture; that the only history
worth reading is that written at the time of which it treats, the
history of what was done and seen, heard out of the mouths of the men
who did and saw. One fresh draught of such history is worth more than a
thousand volumes of abstracts, and reasonings, and suppositions, and
theories; and I believe that, as we get wiser, we shall take little
trouble about the history of nations who have left no distinct records
of themselves, but spend our time only in the examination of the
faithful documents which, in any period of the world, have been left,
either in the form of art or literature, portraying the scenes, or
recording the events, which in those days were actually passing before
the eyes of men.

10. FINAL APPENDIX.

The statements respecting the dates of Vene