or indecent, there is scarcely a character of any rank who scruples to
tell lies; and the truth is not to be found in works intended to school
the public to virtue. The ingenious old playwright's memoirs are full of
gossip concerning that poor old Venice, which is now no more; and the
worthy autobiographer, Casanova, also gives much information about things
that had best not be known.

As the Republic drew near its fall, in 1797, there was little left in its
dominant class worth saving, if we may believe the testimony of Venetians
which Mutinelli brings to bear upon the point in his "Annali Urbani," and
his "History of the Last Fifty Years of the Republic." Long prosperity and
prodigious opulence had done their worst, and the patricians, and the
lowest orders of the people, their creatures and dependants, were
thoroughly corrupt; while the men of professions began to assume that
station which they now hold. The days of a fashionable patrician of those
times began at a little before sunset, and ended with the following dawn.
Rising from his bed, he dressed himself in dainty linen, and placed
himself in the hands of the hairdresser to be combed, oiled, perfumed, and
powdered; and then sallied forth for a stroll through the Merceria, where
this excellent husband and father made tasteful purchases to be carried to
the lady he served. At dinner, which he took about seven or eight, his
board was covered with the most tempting viands, and surrounded by needy
parasites, who detailed the spicy scandals of the day in payment of their
dinner, while the children of the host were confided to the care of the
corrupt and negligent servants. After dinner, the father went to the
theatre, or to the _casino_, and spent the night over cards and wine,
in the society of dissolute women; and renewed on the morrow the routine
of his useful existence. The education of the children of the man of
fashion was confided to a priest, who lived in his family, and called
himself an abbate, after the mode of the _abbes_ of French society;