HALL OF GREAT COUNCIL, DOGE'S PALACE, VENICE  :  THE stern and gloomy semblance of the Ducal Palace is no bad emblem of the severe character of the ancient government, and of the dark deeds that were done within this great and costly edifice.  Its air and aspect are aristocratical, its history a series of tales of terror; nor has change of government, or loss of splendour, even yet succeeded in obliterating the feelings of horror with which it is contemplated. Had the omens been recorded upon the foundation of this place of tyranny, they would, undoubtedly, have augured ill for generations then unborn. Marino Faliero, the doge who commenced the building, was beheaded on a charge of treason; and Filippo Calendario, the architect, was hung as a conspirator:—every circumstance connected with its history is romantic, mysterious, extraordinary. " A palace, and a prison on each hand," it is a most unnatural combination,—it is the association of pleasure with pain, of happiness with misery, of life with death. The ceremonial apartments are numerous, richly decorated with carvings and stuccoed work, and adorned with noble specimens of art. In the Hall of the Pregadi, surrounded by emblems of wealth and civilization, a council of two hundred and thirty members held their meetings, and exercised the prerogative of royalty, by decreeing peace or war.