The dialect spoken in the Milanese has a harsh nasal accent, to my ear peculiarly disagreeable. Pure Italian or Tuscan is little spoken here, and that only to foreigners. French, on the contrary, is spoken a good deal; but the Milanese, male and female, among one another, speak invariably the _patois_ of the country, which has more analogy to the French than to the Italian, but without the grace or euphony of either. I have visited likewise the _Zecca_, or Mint, where I observed the whole process of coining. They still continue to coin here Napoleons of gold and silver, with the date of 1814, and they coin likewise crowns or dollars with Maria Theresa's head, with the date of the last year of her reign. The double Napoleon of forty _franchi_ of the Kingdom of Italy is a beautiful coin; on the run are the words, _Dio protegge l'Italia_. It may not be unnecessary to remark that in Italy by the word _Napoleone_, as a coin, is meant the five franc piece with the head of Napoleon, and a twenty franc gold piece is called _Napoleone d'oro_. At the _Zecca_ I was shown some gold, silver and bronze medals, struck in commemoration of the formation of the Lombardo-Venetian Kingdom, under the sceptre of Austria. They bear the following inscription, which, if I recollect aright, is from Horace: Redeunt in aurum Tempora priscum,[54] but this golden age is considered by the Italians as a very leaden one; and it seems to bear as much analogy to the golden age, as the base Austrian copper coin, daubed over with silver, and made to pass for fifteen and thirty soldi, has to the real gold and silver _Napoleoni_, which by the way are said to be fast disappearing; they are sent to Vienna, and Milan will probably be in time blessed with a similar paper currency to that of Vienna. Napoleon seems to be as much regretted by the Milanese as the Austrian Government is abhorred; in fact, everybody speaks with horror and disgust of the _aspro boreal scettro_ and of the _aquila che mangia doppio_, an allusion taken from the arms of Austria, the double-headed Eagle. I have visited the ancient Ducal, now the Royal, Palace; it is a spacious building, chaste in its external appearance, but its ulterior very magnificent; its chiefest treasures are the various costly columns and pilasters of marble and of _jaune antique_ which are to be met with. The _salle de danse_ is peculiarly elegant, and in one of the apartments is a fine painting on the plafond representing Jupiter hurling thunderbolts on the Giants. Jupiter bears the head of Napoleon. Good God! how this man was spoiled by adulation!