But von Thurn seems to have relied largely on the gratitude which this
neglected province would feel for the introduction of Austrian
improvements. The happy-go-lucky Venetian methods were no longer to
disfigure the country. Those people were logical indeed who did not
care for a government which did not care for them. No such reproach
should be levelled against the Austrian Government, if he could avoid
it; for in Dalmatia it would now be by the side of its new subjects
from their getting up in the morning until they lay them down at
night. Henceforward there would be a set of reasonable rules for
everything, and if anyone remarked that this was too much in the
spirit of the late Joseph II. who made the Kingdom of Prussia his
model--what more excellent model could one imagine? Those people who
had hitherto been troubled in their minds because they did not know
how many flower-pots they might instal outside their windows, to those
people it would be a boon to have a new list of detailed and complete
regulations as to every aspect of this matter. People who had until
now been nervous lest they would be punished if they started lotteries
at Zadar, all these people would be glad to know that lotteries were
legal if each person who manipulated one paid for the upkeep of a
hundred lanterns in the streets. People had been bastinadoed in the
past, not knowing if they would be smitten hard or gently; but the
Austrian Government was far too civilized to leave such matters in the
hands of chance. With regard to those who persisted in public smoking,
von Thurn probably borrowed the rules which Baron Codelli, the mayor
of Ljubljana, was elaborating at this time. "In the streets of the
town and the suburbs," says the Baron, "smoking has become of late a
general practice. The pleasure of smoking tobacco, which its partisans
can sufficiently enjoy in their abodes, by the river and in the
fields, makes them forget what is seemly, and, moreover, they
disregard the peril that may arise from conflagrations, especially
when their pipes are not shut. Several fires, due to this
pipe-smoking, which is contrary to the police regulations, have not
sufficed to lead the culprits back to the respect and precaution which
they should preserve for the goods and property of their
fellow-citizens. To satisfy the general well-being and to satisfy the
police with regard to fires, it is forbidden to smoke tobacco, and
especially cigars, in the streets and squares of this town and the
suburbs, with the penalty of losing the pipe if a police-agent catches
anyone with it in his mouth, and in the case of a repeated offence the
penalty will be more serious."