tentions; but may it not
also be considered, and with more probability, as the result of an
endeavor to do justice in an age of violence?--the only means by which
Law could establish its footing in the midst of feudalism. Might not
Irish juries at this day justifiably desire to conduct their proceedings
with some greater approximation to the judicial principles of the
Council of Ten? Finally, if we examine, with critical accuracy, the
evidence on which our present impressions of Venetian government are
founded, we shall discover, in the first place, that two-thirds of the
traditions of its cruelties are romantic fables: in the second, that the
crimes of which it can be proved to have been guilty, differ only from
those committed by the other Italian powers in being done less wantonly,
and under profounder conviction of their political expediency: and
lastly, that the final degradation of the Venetian power appears owing
not so much to the principles of its government, as to their being
forgotten in the pursuit of pleasure.

Sec. CXXIX. We have now examined the portions of the palace which contain
the principal evidence of the feeling of its builders. The capitals of
the upper arcade are exceedingly various in their character; their
design is formed, as in the lower series, of eight leaves, thrown into
volutes at the angles, and sustaining figures at the flanks; but these
figures have no inscriptions, and though evidently not without meaning,
cannot be interpreted without more knowledge than I possess of ancient
symbolism. Many of the capitals toward the Sea appear to have been
restored, and to be rude copies of the ancient ones; others, though
apparently original, have been somewhat carelessly wrought; but those of
them, which are both genuine and carefully treated, are even finer in
composition than any, except the eighteenth, in the lower arcade. The
traveller in Venice ought to ascend into the corridor, and examine with
great care the series of capitals which extend on the Piazzetta side
from the Fig-tree angle to the pilaster which carries the party wall of
the Sala del Gran Consiglio. As examples of graceful composition in
massy capitals meant for hard service and distant effect, these are
among the finest things I know in Gothic art; and that above the
fig-tree is remarkable for its sculptures of the four winds; each on the
side turned towards the wind represented. Levante, the east wind; a
figure with rays round