Children," would have
appeared nothing short of perfection, had I not seen the Didone
Abbandonata at Milan. But they have no actress here like the graceful,
the expressive Pallerini; nor any actor equal to the AEneas of the
Scala.

* * * * *

The Austrians, who are paramount here, allow masks only twice a week,
Sundays and Thursdays. The people seem determined to indemnify
themselves for this restriction on their pleasures by every allowed
excess during the two days of merriment, which their despotic
conquerors have spared them. I am told by M** and S**, our Italian
friends, that the Carnival is now fallen off from its wild spirit of
fanciful gaiety; that it is stupid, dull, tasteless, in comparison to
what it was formerly, owing to the severity of the Austrian police. I
know nothing about the propriety of the measures which have been
resorted to for curbing the excesses of the Carnival: I think if
people _will_ run away instead of fighting for their national rights,
they must be content to suffer accordingly--but I meddle not with
politics, and with all my heart abhor them. Whatever the gaities of
the Carnival may have been formerly, it is scarce possible to conceive
a more fantastic, a more picturesque, a more laughable scene than the
Strada di Toledo exhibited to-day; the whole city seemed to wear "one
universal grin;" and such an incessant fire of sugar-plums (or what
seemed such) was carried on, and with such eagerness and mimic fury,
that when our carriage came out of the conflict, we all looked as if a
sack of flour had been shaken over us. The implements used in this
ridiculous warfare, are, for common purposes, little balls of plaster
of Paris and flour, made to resemble small comfits: friends and
acquaintances pelted each other with real confetti, and those of the
most delicious and expensive kinds. A double file of carriages moved
in a contrary direction along the Corso; a space in the middle and on
each side being left for horsemen and pedestrians, and the most exact
order was maintained by the guards and police; so that if by chance a
carriage lost its place in the line it was impossible to recover it,
and it was immediately obliged to leave the street, and re-enter by
one of the extremities. Besides the warfare carried on below, the
balconies on each side were crowded with people in gay or grotesque
dresses, who had _sacks_ of bon-bons before them, from which they
showere