the burthen some nature of some late taxes, and the insolent and oppressive manner in which they are gathered. The natural productions of this fertile country must occasion a considerable commerce, by the exportation of grain, particularly rice; cattle, cheese, and by the various manufactures of silken and velvet stuffs, stockings, handkerchiefs, ribbands, gold and silver laces, and embroideries, woollen and linen cloths, as well as by some large manufactures of glass, and earthen ware in imitation of china, which are established here. But I am told monopolies are too much protected here, and that prejudices against the profession of a merchant still exist in the minds of the only people who have money. These cannot fail to check industry, and depress the soul of commerce; and perhaps there is little probability that the inhabitants of Milan will overcome this unfortunate turn of mind while they remain under German domi LETTER LXXX. Cham berry. We made so short a stay at Turin that I did not think of writing from thence. I mall now give you a Iketch of our progress since my last. We left Milan at midnight, and arrived the next evening at Turin before the shutting of the gates. All the approaches to that city are magnificent. It is situated at the bottom os the Alps, in a fine plain watered by the Po. Most of the streets are well built, uniform, clean, straight, and terminating on some agreeable object. The Strada di Po, leading to the palace, the finest and largest in the city, is adorned with porticoes equally beautiful and in good repair, and the citadel is reckoned one of the strongest in Europe. The royal palace and the gardens are admired by some. The apartments display neatness rather than magnificence. The rooms are small, but numerous. The furniture is rich and elegant; even the floors attract attention, and must peculiarly strike strangers who come from Rome and Bologna; they are curiously inlaid with various kinds of wood, and kept always in a state of shining brightness. The pictures, statues, and antiquities in the palace, are of great value; of the former there are some by the greatest masters, but those of the Flemish school predominate. No royal family in Europe are more rigid observers of the laws of etiquette than that of Sardinia; all their movements are uniform and invariable. The hour of rising, of going to mass, of tak» ing the air; every thing is regulated like clock-work. Those illustrious persons must have a vast fund of natural good-humour, Under such a continued weight of oppress five formality. We had the satisfaction of feeing them all at mass; but as the Duke of Hamilton grows more impatient to get to England the nearer we approach it, he declined being presented at court, and we left Turin two days after our arrival. We stopped a few hours, during the heat of the day, at a small village, called St. Ambrose, two or three posts from Turin. I never experienced more intense heat than during this day, while we were tantalized with a view of the snow on the top of the Alps, which seem to overhang this place, though, in reality, they are some leagues distant. While we remained at St. Ambrose there was a grand procession. All the men, women, and children, who were able to crawl, attended; several old women carried crucifixes, others pictures of the Saint, or flags fixed to the ends of long poles ; they seemed to have snmc slJflFIrnlfv in wiplslintr tVipm ir*»t t-Vi*» |