Amidst the Apennines, far removed from the ordinary track of tourists, is
the diminutive republic of San Marino, which boasts never to have been
subjugated. Whether it has escaped invasion because it has escaped notice,
or because burglars never attack an empty cottage, is a point which I shall
not stop to discuss. Few travellers visit it, but the trouble of doing so
would be amply repaid. The situation is highly romantic; and the view from
the summit of the bold escarpment, upon which the town is perched, extends
over a wilderness of mountains.
The population of the territory is said not to exceed 6,000 or 7,000 souls.
Its whole income is derived from a moderate duty on tobacco; and its
standing army (for it possesses this indispensable incident to political
independence) is chiefly employed in vain attempts to prevent the evasion
of that duty.
Among the greatest and most highly esteemed curiosities of the place, is a
statue of Christ on the cross, with a head of real hair, which is cut twice
a year, and always grows again! This faculty of reproduction is as
profitable as it is wonderful; for, besides the resort of pious visitors,
drawn by the capillary attractions of such a miraculous piece of sculpture,
the locks that are cut off are stated, by the ecclesiastical functionaries
in charge of the statue, to be a sure preservative against all harm to the
wearer, and are of course in request as an article of commerce. My object
in communicating to you these notes, is to introduce to you a copy, which I
transcribed myself, of one of the state papers preserved in the archives of
the republic. It appears to be a letter of encouragement, addressed by the
Priors and Gonfaloniere of the republic of Florence to that of S. Marino,
during a siege that the latter was undergoing. Perhaps some of your readers
may be able to point out the precise occasion that called for the letter.