It is to this immortal Prince that we are indebted for the revival of the fine arts, and for the foundation of the Gallery of Florence, which each of his descendants increased and improved. The dukedom remained in their line for the space of near two centuries, when the Medicis being extinct by Duke Gaston dying without issue, it revolved to the Emperor, and is now governed by his brother.
The arts and sciences suffered no loss from this change. Peter Leopold is their most distinguished patron; and the Gallery is as much indebted to him as to the most elegant of his predecessors.
Formerly, people of humble fortunes were secluded from the view of these treasures, by the extortion of the attendants; but their salaries have been lately increased, and they are prohibited from accepting presents, on pain of losing their places. The poorest peasant has now a right to amuse himself at his leisure in every part of the Gallery, and admittance is refused to nobody but servants. It affords matter of surprise to an Englishman, that valets de chambres, and footmen, who have so much influence every where else, are here excluded from places that are open to the lowest of every other tribe.
I have not troubled myself about the private character of Peter Leopold; but the face of his country, the industry and morality of his subjects, and the pleasing signs of an happy and increasing population, prove him a great and a good Prince. The morals of his people are one of his principal objects, in which he has so happily succeeded, that, in the general free mart of Leghorn, where formerly the trade of a harlot was as much permitted and in as high repute as any other, the houses of ill fame are reduced to a very small number; and, in a short time, prostitution will be as completely rooted out there as it already is out of every other part of Tuscany.
By a law, as uncommon as it is just, a breach of modesty is as severely punished in the male as in the female sex; and a seducer, be his rank what it will, is obliged to marry the object he has polluted. None of either sex are permitted to shut themselves up in convents; and marriage is highly encouraged. Such, indeed, is this Prince's success in promoting morality, and preventing vice among his people, that, different from most capitals, the women are innocent and healthy, as well as beautiful; and assassinations and robberies are here no longer heard of.