a city of Sicily, in the Val-di-Mazara, with an archbishop's see and a large harbour. "This city (says Mr Hill *) , which is the capital of Sicily, is * Travel of great antiquity; and if a conjecture may be formed through Sicily and Calabria, from its ancient name Panormus, which signifies an universal harbour, it was formerly in a very flourishing condition. By whom it was founded is uncertain, nor have we any authentic accounts of its inhabitants till it became a colony of the Phœnicians, after which it passed into the hands of the various nations that became masters of this island. The present city principally consists of two wide, uniform, and well built streets, each about a mile in length, crossing each other at right angles in the centre, where there is a small octagon space, ornamented with four statues." Most of the cities of Sicily have surnames; Palermo is denominated the happy. It has gained this epithet, no doubt, on account of the advantages of its situation. It has two harbours: in the one, which is very large, and in which there is a mole 1300 paces in length, ships lie at anchor; in the other their cargoes are laden and unladen. Both the harbours open to the west: there is also a superb quay which extends a mile from west to east, in a rectilinear direction, and is called La Marine. The prospect is, on the one side, lost in the wide expanse of the ocean, and on the other confined by the walls of the city; the walls appear adorned with pilasters, and crowned with a row of balustrades through which the eye discovers a long range of palaces. These objects altogether form a delightful spectacle. Indeed nothing can be more picturesque than the bay of Palermo. It forms a large amphitheatre, with the capital of Sicily in the centre; surrounded for some miles by a most delightful country, and enclosed by romantic rocks and mountains. The town was formerly surrounded by a strong wall; but the fortifications are now entirely neglected, except towards the sea, where there are still a few weak works. The quay is the principal public walk here. Palermo is embellished all around with avenues of trees, and has four principal entrances, facing the four cardinal points, which are at the extremities of the two spacious streets which cross each other. The most frequented of these two streets is called Cassero. It begins where the quay ends, with the north gate called Porta Felice, the happy gate; and terminates on the south, at the new gate, which opens on the road to Montreale. Near the last of these gates, this city, which so well merits the attention of a lover of the arts, exhibits a large square, round which stand some extensive monasteries, the palace of the archbishop, and the palace of the viceroy. Directly opposite to the palace of the viceroy stands, on a pedestal richly ornamented with a variety of figures, a statue of Philip IV. The statue, the pedestal, and the ornaments are all of marble.

Palermo is quite filled with public monuments, churches, monasteries, palaces, fountains, statues, and columns. These are not all eminently beautiful; for they have not been all erected under the reign of good taste; but every one of them shows that the nation is fond of the arts, and possesses a genius for decoration. Spring waters are very copious in this city. Not a quarter in Palermo but is liberally supplied with fountains, Palermo, tains, most of which are marble, all of them adorned with pieces of sculpture, and all afford large quantities of water.

The situation of this city is truly happy; the sea, the hills, the lofty mountains, present on all sides beautiful and striking prospects, which render it one of the most favourable situations for the genius of the artist, whose object is to copy the beauty and sublimity of nature. Freed from the fetters of the Inquisition, the abolition of which was procured by the marquis of Caraccioli, and from the influence of some other unfavourable institutions, which are rapidly declining, Palermo must become one of the finest cities in the world; and the island, of which it is the capital, being all cultivated like a garden, one of the most enchanting spots on the face of the earth. Nature has denied none of her best spots to Sicily. It was the benignity of nature, which, in the happy ages of antiquity, when the political circumstances of the Sicilians were not such as to repress their genius, prompted and enabled them to erect so many illustrious monuments. "Adjoining to the town, and near the sea, is a public garden or promenade, planted with orange and lemon trees, formed into arcades, and now loaded with fruit*; the stems of the trees stand in furrows, and are continually watered by a small stream. In the middle is a fountain, on which stands a colossus of white marble, surrounded by four grotesque temples, in two of which are canary birds. Among the oranges is a kind called sanguiueti or bloody, which are stained in the middle with red, and have usually the finest flavour. Some of the lemons are sweet, but very flat, tasting like sugar and water. The citrons grow to an immense size; the rind, which occupies at least three-fourths of the bulk of the fruit, is eaten with sugar; the juice is sharper than the sourest lemon. Indian figs in very great abundance grow wild in the fields and hedges, to the height of twelve or fourteen feet: of these there are three kinds, one with large spines, another with smaller, and the third almost smooth. Their fruit is cooling and delicious, 10,000l. worth of which is sold annually to the poor people in the neighbourhood of this city. Another plant, very common in this country, is the aloe, which usually blossoms every fifth or sixth year. Of these there are five or six species, which grow mostly in the hedges, and together with the Indian figs, form a most impenetrable fence.

"The palace, which is an indifferent old building, is situated in a square, near the south gate of the city, and commands a delightful prospect of the adjacent country. At the top is an observatory, inhabited by an ingenious old priest who has been in England, and brought from thence several astronomical instruments constructed by Ramsden." Neither the structure, situation, nor architectural ornaments of the palace are such as to merit any extraordinary praise. It is, like many others, an assemblage of buildings erected in various ages, as need of accommodation or fancy suggested; and, of consequence, it must unavoidably be defective in architectural order and beauty. The chapel is the only part of it that merits any attention. It was founded by the Counts Roger, the Norman conquerors of Sicily. Within, it is decorated with beautiful pieces of marble and porphyry, and of mosaic work in gold and various colours. It is in the same taste with the cathedral of Monreale. It is built on the same plan with common churches, only on a smaller scale. The nave is encircled with pillars; on the right and the left are two narrower openings, called lateral or low passages: the choir and sanctuary are at the end of the nave. Among all the pillars which enclose the nave, it would be hard to find two exactly of the same form and workmanship. Opposite to a channeled column stands another on which the graving tool has made no such impressions; several have neither astragal, nor base, nor scale: they are formed of various kinds of marble, and are of different orders and unequal in height. The walls, the arcades, and the arches, are covered with mosaic work, in gold and colours, representing angels, and male and female saints.

Over the entrance into the choir, and fronting the nave, there is an Eternal Father of a huge size; the design of which has, in all probability, been to impress the beholder with a sufficiently awful idea of the greatness of God. Such representations of the deity, however improper, not to say impious, occur pretty commonly in the churches of Sicily. The cathedrals of both Monreale and Palermo display the Divine Majesty with equal dignity. Over the walls of the chapel there are many pieces of granite, porphyry, and serpentine, cut into a round, or a square, or some other form, and set like panes of glass. Their edges are encircled with various draughts in gold and colours; decorations unquestionable expensive, as they are indeed very finely executed in their kind. But it is amazing that such irregularity of design was admitted in a building of such magnificence and raised at such an enormous expense. The pavement of the chapel has been originally laid, and still consists in part of large blocks of tin, porphyry, and serpentine. Most of these are round; ornamented with compartments of draughts, and covered over, as well as the walls, with incrustations of coloured mosaic work. The seat designed for the viceroy is of the same kind, and highly ornamented. The candlestick intended to receive the wax lights at the festival of Easter is of white marble. All the riches of sculpture are lavished on it with such profusion as renders it a prodigy of labour; but in a fantastic unnatural taste.

In a long gallery in the palace of the viceroy, stand two figures of rams in bronze, concerning which we find the following tradition.—Archimedes is said to have long ago erected in one of the public squares of Syracuse four columns with a brazen ram upon the top of each. He is said to have placed them there in such a posture, as that some one of them always indicated which of the four principal winds was blowing; and it is added, that they were fabricated with such art, that the wind caused them to utter sounds exactly similar to the bleating of sheep; and whenever any one of the four bleated, he thereby gave notice that the wind was blowing from that quarter towards which he stood. It is certain (as travellers inform us) that the two brazen rams in this gallery are perforated with small holes in their flanks, close to their thighs, and in other places over their bodies; and that by blowing through those holes a sound is produced pretty much like the bleating of sheep. The wind appears to pass through the holes, and to pass out at the mouth: there might, however, be other holes in the pedestal on which the ram stood, or in other parts of the body, which might contribute to produce produce the bleating; for travellers agree in saying, that those which they could observe do not appear to be sufficient to produce the effect. The prince of Torre Muzza, one of the most enlightened men in Sicily, informed M. Houel, that these two rams were dug up from among the ruins of Syracuse in the fourteenth century: as they were buried under ground, they had probably lain there for many centuries. They were bought by the Marquis Geraci, of the family of Ventimiglia, and lay long in his castle. About the end of the 13th century they were brought to Palermo, and placed in the palace of the viceroy. It is not known what is become of the other two. They are probably buried in some ancient ruins, and may be one day or other discovered in digging for the foundation of some new building. The proportions of these two rams are larger than nature. They are pieces of very fine workmanship: both the heads and the horns are formed with taste, delicacy, and truth; the wool is not so well executed; the forms all together are not absolutely the finest that might be selected from among the whole species.

The cathedral of Palermo is dedicated to St Rosalia. The Sicilians, though so exceedingly devout, have however neglected to repair it; and it is at present in a most miserable state, as the interior parts appear to be falling into ruins. Proposals have been made for rebuilding it, and various plans have been shown.

The present church appears to have been built by the Counts Roger. The external parts are in a Gothic taste, and very heavy: within, it has been at different periods repaired and embellished. The pillars of the nave are adorned with pilasters of the Corinthian order: these are joined by arches through which you pass to the sides of the building. In some places it is overloaded with ornaments, in others but very poorly ornamented: viewed all together, it is so destitute of order or proportion, as to be absolutely ridiculous.

In a chapel on one side of the cathedral are four Gothic tombs of the same period. They have been originally sarcophagi; and having escaped the fate of most of the other works of antiquity, have been spoiled by attempts to repair or improve them, and have been set up here to preserve the remains of some of the kings of Sicily. The only thing about them that can deserve attention is the beauty of the stone; they are of a fine red porphyry.

In the same chapel there is a fine large tabernacle; the whole of which, when viewed without distinction of the parts, resembles the dome and the front gate of the Val-de-grace at Paris. It is of rich lapis lazuli, of the very finest colour. The whole of it is plated, and the pillars are said to be solid. All its ornaments are of gilt brass; and on the whole it is extremely beautiful.

Around the church are several statues of saints by Gusgini, the celebrated sculptor. On the way from the cathedral down the Cassero there is, on the right hand, a small square, at the entrance of which stands a pedestrian statue of Charles V. in bronze. Near the place where the two great streets cross stands the senate house, in a small court, before which there is a fine marble fountain; there are besides about this edifice many curious fragments of antiquity. It would extend this article beyond all proportion if we were to mention all the curiosities which are to be found in Palermo. We shall now endeavour to give our readers an idea of the internal government of the place, which we shall do in the words of Mr Hill.

"The magistrates appointed to preserve the order of society in this city are, first, the supreme judge, to whom belongs the administration of justice in criminal cases; he is the head of the nobility, and immediately follows the viceroy in all the solemn functions. Secondly, The praetor, who regulates the affairs of the city. He is the perpetual deputy of the kingdom; chief in parliament of the order to whom appertains the right of regulating the king's demesne, and possessed of the prerogative of captain-general during the absence of the viceroy. Thirdly, The praetorian court, which consists of three judges, citizens of Palermo, who are chosen annually by the king. They assist the supreme judge in the decision of criminal affairs, and the praetor in the deliberations upon the finances; these two officers, however, have neither vote nor signature, except the praetor, in the business respecting the public bank and first fruits. Fourthly, The senate of Palermo, composed of the praetor and six practitioners of the law, named by the king, who wear the toga after the manner of the ancient Roman senators, and principally inspect the police which regards the grain and provisions. There are besides seven great officers of state, to each of whom is assigned a peculiar employment. First, Il Maestro Portelano, to whom is committed the care of the public granaries, and who manages the sale of the corn both at home and abroad. The imposition of a tax upon this commodity has nearly proved the ruin of agriculture, especially as the exportation of it is prohibited to all those who are not able to pay an exorbitant price for that privilege. The quantity of corn annually produced in the island does not at present amount to more than a tenth part of what was collected in former years. Secondly, The auditor general, who passes judgment without appeal upon all offences committed within the precincts of the palace. Thirdly, The high admiral, whose jurisdiction extends over the marine. Fourthly, The chancellor, who overlooks all the notaries of the kingdom, prepares all official patents, reads the propositions when the parliament assemble, and at the time of a coronation tenders the oath of fidelity to the people, and also proclaims that of the monarch, who thereby binds himself to maintain and defend the privileges of the city of Palermo. The same ceremony takes place upon the installation of a viceroy. Fifthly, The protonotary of the queen's chamber, who has the inspection of the demesnes of six cities, viz. Syracuse, Lentini, Carlentini, St Filippo, Mineo, and Siracusa, which were formerly appropriated to the queens of Sicily. Sixthly, The chief secretary, who presides over the officers appointed to receive the taxes and duties in the places of their respective jurisdictions. And, seventhly, The lieutenant of the royal exchequer, who has the administration of all effects that have been sequestered or confiscated.

"Palermo is the principal residence of the greater part of the Sicilian nobility; and as it is not the custom for any gentleman to walk in the streets, at least 1000 carriages are said to be kept in the town. They are for the most part in the English taste, very elegant,..." shown to the greatest advantage, with beautiful horses richly caparisoned, and as many footmen in splendid liveries as can be crowded together behind. Every evening all the people of rank drive about in this manner on the grand public terrace by the sea side. There are also very convenient hackney coaches, covered and open, waiting all day in their respective stations."

It is very remarkable, that the dead in Palermo are never buried. Captain Sutherland gives the following account of this circumstance in his Tour to Constantinople. The dead bodies are carried to the Capuchin convent, which is one of the largest in Italy; "where, after the funeral service is performed, they are dried in a stove heated by a composition of lime, which makes the skin adhere to the bones. They are then placed erect in niches, and fastened to the wall by the back or neck. A piece of coarse drab is thrown over the shoulders and round the waist; and their hands are tied together, holding a piece of paper with their epitaph, which is simply their names, age, and when they died. We of course (says Captain Sutherland) visited this famous repository; and it is natural to suppose that so many corpses would impress one with reverence and awe. It was nearly dusk when we arrived at the convent. We passed the chapel, where one of the order had just finished saying vespers, by the gloomy glimmering of a dying lamp. We were then conducted through a garden, where the yew, the cypress, and the barren orange, obscured the remaining light; and where melancholy silence is only disturbed by the hollow murmuring of a feeble waterfall. All these circumstances tuned our minds for the dismal scene which we were going to behold; but we had still to descend a flight of steps impervious to the sun; and, these at last, conveyed us to the dreary mansion of the dead. But (will you believe me?) notwithstanding the chilling scene through which we had passed, notwithstanding our being in the midst of more than a thousand lifeless bodies, neither our respect for the dead, nor for the holy fathers who conducted us, could prevent our smiling. The physiognomies of the deceased are so ridiculously mutilated, and their muscles so contracted and distorted in the drying, that no French mimic could equal their grimaces. Most of the corpses have lost the lower part of the nose; their necks are generally a little twisted; their mouths drawn awry in one direction; their noses in another; their eyes sunk and pointed different ways; one ear perhaps turned up, the other drawn down. The friars soon observed the mirth which these unexpected visages occasioned; and one of them, as a kind of memento, pointed out to me a captain of cavalry, who had just been cut off in the pride of his youth: but three months ago, he was the minion of a king—the favourite of a princess—Alas! how changed! Even on earth there is no distinction between him and the meanest beggar. This idea in a moment restored my reflection; and I felt with full force the folly of human vanity. I turned to the holy father, who gave me this lesson. His eyes were fixed on what was once a captain of horse.—'I saw in them,' Read this, titled pomp, and shrink to thy original nothingness. Hie thee to my lady's chamber; tell her, though she paint an inch thick, to this must she come at last—make her laugh at that.'

The relations of the deceased are bound to send two wax tapers every year for the use of the convent; in default of which, the corpse is taken down and thrown into the charnel house. Were it not for the number of vacancies occasioned by the nonpayment of this stipend, the Capuchins would be unable to find niches for the number of men who must die every year in so populous a city as this. Women are dried as well as the men, but are not exposed. Nobles are shut up in chests."

The number of the inhabitants is above 200,000; and the harbour, though very large, is not so commodious as might be expected, and the vessels that ride therein are not always very safe. There is a magnificent castle built near the sea side, wherein the viceroy resides six months in the year; and his presence draws a great number of nobility to this place. This city has suffered greatly by earthquakes, particularly in 1693; and it was greatly damaged by fire in 1730, when a magazine of powder was blown up, containing 400 tons. It stands in a pleasant fruitful country, on the north-east coast of the island, and at the bottom of the gulf of the same name. E. Long. 13. 23. N. Lat. 38. 15.