THE ROMAN QUESTION

by

E. ABOUT

Translated From The French By H. C. Coape

New York:D. Appleton and Company, 346 & 348 Broadway

1859

PREFACE

It was in the Papal States that I studied the Roman Question. Itravelled over every part of the country; I conversed with men of allopinions, examined things very closely, and collected my informationon the spot. 

My first impressions, noted down from day to day without any especialobject, appeared, with some necessary modifications, in the _MoniteurUniversel_. These notes, truthful, somewhat unconnected, and sothoroughly impartial, that it would be easy to discover in themcontradictions and inconsistencies, I was obliged to discontinue, inconsequence of the violent outcry of the Pontifical Government. I didmore. I threw them in the fire, and wrote a book instead. The presentvolume is the result of a year's reflection. 

I completed my study of the subject by the perusal of the most recentworks published in Italy. The learned memoir of the Marquis Pepoli, and the admirable reply of an anonymous writer to M. De Rayneval, supplied me with my best weapons. I have been further enlightened bythe conversation and correspondence of some illustrious Italians, whomI would gladly name, were I not afraid of exposing them to danger. 

The pressing condition of Italy has obliged me to write more rapidlythan I could have wished; and this enforced haste has given a certainair of warmth, perhaps of intemperance, even to the most carefullymatured reflections. It was my intention to produce a memoir, --I fearI may be charged with having written a pamphlet. Pardon me certainvivacities of style, which I had not time to correct, and plungeboldly into the heart of the book. You will find something there. 

I fight fairly, and in good faith. I do not pretend to have judged thefoes of Italy without passion; but I have calumniated none of them. 

If I have sought a publisher in Brussels, while I had an excellent onein Paris, it is not because I feel any alarm on the score of theregulations of our press, or the severity of our tribunals. But as thePope has a long arm, which might reach me in France, I have gone alittle out of the way to tell him the plain truths contained in thesepages. 

May 9, 1859. 

CONTENTS

CHAPTER

 I. THE POPE AS A KING

 II. NECESSITY OF THE TEMPORAL POWER

 III. THE PATRIMONY OF THE TEMPORAL POWER

 IV. THE SUBJECTS OF THE TEMPORAL POWER

 V. OF THE PLEBEIANS

 VI. THE MIDDLE CLASSES

 VII. THE NOBILITY

 VIII. FOREIGNERS

 IX. ABSOLUTE CHARACTER OF THE TEMPORAL POWER OF THE POPE

 X. PIUS IX

 XI. ANTONELLI

 XII. PRIESTLY GOVERNMENT

 XIII. POLITICAL SEVERITY

 XIV. THE IMPUNITY OF REAL CRIME

 XV. TOLERANCE

 XVI. EDUCATION OF THE PEOPLE

 XVII. FOREIGN OCCUPATION

XVIII. WHY THE POPE WILL NEVER HAVE SOLDIERS

 XIX. MATERIAL INTERESTS

 XX. FINANCES

 CONCLUSION

CHAPTER I. 

THE POPE AS A KING. 

The Roman Catholic Church, which I sincerely respect, consists of onehundred and thirty-nine millions of individuals--without countinglittle Mortara. 

It is governed by seventy Cardinals, or Princes of the Church, inmemory of the twelve Apostles. 

The Cardinal-Bishop of Rome, who is also designated by the name ofVicar of Jesus Christ, Holy Father, or Pope, is invested withboundless authority over the minds of these hundred and thirty-ninemillions of Catholics. 

The Cardinals are nominated by the Pope; the Pope is nominated by theCardinals; from the day of his election he becomes infallible, atleast in the opinion of M. De Maistre, and the best Catholics of ourtime. 

This was not the opinion of Bossuet; but it has always been that ofthe Popes themselves. 

When the Sovereign Pontiff declares to us that the Virgin Mary wasborn free from original sin, the hundred and thirty-nine millions ofCatholics are bound to believe it on his word. This is what hasrecently occurred. 

This discipline of the understanding reflects infinite credit upon thenineteenth century. If posterity does us justice, it will be gratefulto us therefor. It will see that instead of cutting one another'sthroats about theological questions, we have surveyed lines ofrailway, laid telegraphs, constructed steam-engines, launched ships, pierced isthmuses, created sciences, corrected laws, repressedfactions, fed the poor, civilized barbarians, drained marshes, cultivated waste lands, without ever having a single dispute as to theinfallibility of a man. 

But the busiest age, the age which the best knows the value of time, may be obliged for a moment to neglect its business. If, for instance, it should remark around Rome and its Bishop a violent agitation, whichneither the trickery of diplomacy nor the pressure of armies cansuppress; if it perceive in a little corner of a peninsula asmouldering fire, which may at any moment burst forth, and intwenty-four hours envelope all Europe, this age, prudent from a senseof duty, on account of the great things it has to accomplish, turnsits attention to the situation of Rome, and insists upon knowing whatit all means. 

It means that the simple princes of the middle ages, Pepin the Brief, Charlemagne, and the Countess Matilda, behaved with great liberalityto the Pope. They gave him lands and men, according to the fashion ofthe times, when men, being merely the live-stock of the land, werethrown into the bargain. If they were generous, it was not becausethey thought, with M. Thiers, that the Pope could not be independentwithout being a King; they had seen him in his poverty moreindependent and more commanding than almost any monarch on the earth. They enriched him from motives of friendship, calculation, gratitude, or it might even be to disinherit their relations, as we sometimes seein our own time. Since the days of the Countess Matilda, the Pope, having acquired a taste for possession, has gone on rounding hisestate. He has obtained cities by capitulation, as in the case ofBologna; he has won others at the cannon's mouth, as Rimini; whilesome he has appropriated, by treachery and stealth, as Ancona. Indeedso well have matters been managed, that in 1859 the Bishop of Rome isthe temporal sovereign of about six millions of acres, and reigns overthree millions one hundred and twenty-four thousand six hundred andsixty-eight men, who are all crying out loudly against him. 

What do they complain of? Only listen, and you will soon learn. 

They say--that the authority to which, without having either asked oraccepted it, they are subject, is the most fundamentally absolute thatwas ever defined by Aristotle; that the legislative, executive, andjudicial powers are united, confounded, and jumbled together in oneand the same hand, contrary to the practice of civilized states, andto the theory of Montesquieu; that they willingly recognize theinfallibility of the Pope upon all religious questions, but that incivil matters it appears to them less easy to tolerate; that they donot refuse to obey, because, all things considered, man is not placedhere below to follow the bent of his own inclinations, but that theywould be glad to obey laws; that the good pleasure of any man, howevergood it may be, is not so good as the _Code Napoléon_; that thereigning Pope is not an evil-disposed man, but that the arbitrarygovernment of one man, even admitting his infallibility, can never beanything but a bad government. 

That in virtue of an ancient and hitherto ineradicable practice, thePope is assisted in the temporal government of his States by thespiritual chiefs, subalterns, and spiritual _employés_ of his Church;that Cardinals, Bishops, Canons, Priests, forage pell-mell about thecountry; that one sole and identical caste possesses the right ofadministering both sacraments and provinces; of confirming little boysand the judgments of the lower courts; of ordaining subdeacons andarrests; of despatching parting souls and captains' commissions; thatthis confusion of the spiritual and the temporal disseminates amongthe higher offices a multitude of men, excellent no doubt in the sightof God, but insupportable in that of the people; often strangers tothe country, sometimes to business, and always to those domestic tieswhich are the basis of every society; without any special knowledge, unless it be of the things of another world; without children, whichrenders them indifferent to the future of the nation; without wives, which renders them dangerous to its present; and to conclude, unwilling to hear reason, because they believe themselvesparticipators in the pontifical infallibility. 

That these servants of a most merciful but sometimes severe God, simultaneously abuse both mercy and justice; that, full of indulgencefor the indifferent, for their friends, and for themselves, they treatwith extreme rigour whoever has had the misfortune to become obnoxiousto power; that they more readily pardon the wretch who cuts a man'sthroat, than the imprudent citizen who blames an abuse. 

That the Pope, and the Priests who assist him, not having been taughtaccounts, grossly mismanage the public finances; that whereasmaladministration or malversation of the public finances might havebeen tolerated a hundred years ago, when the expenses of publicworship and of the papal court were defrayed by one hundred andthirty-nine millions of Catholics, it is a widely different affairnow, when they have to be supported by 3, 124, 668 individuals. 

That they do not complain of paying taxes, because it is a universallyestablished practice, but that they wish to see their money spent uponterrestrial objects; that the sight of basilicas, churches, andconvents built or maintained at their expense, rejoices them asCatholics, but grieves them as citizens, because, after all, theseedifices are but imperfect substitutes for railways and roads, for theclearing of rivers, and the erection of dykes against inundations;that faith, hope, and charity receive more encouragement thanagriculture, commerce, and manufactures; that public simplicity isdeveloped to the detriment of public education. 

That the law and the police are too much occupied with the salvationof souls, and too little with the preservation of bodies; that theyprevent honest people from damning themselves by swearing, reading badbooks, or associating with Liberals, but that they don't preventrascals from murdering honest people; that property is as badlyprotected as persons; and that it is very hard to be able to reckonupon nothing for certain but a stall in Paradise. 

That they are made to pay heavily for keeping up an army withoutknowledge or discipline, an army of problematical courage and doubtfulhonours, and destined never to fight except against the citizensthemselves; that it is adding insult to injury to make a man pay forthe stick he is beaten with. That they are moreover obliged to lodgeforeign armies, and especially Austrians, who, as Germans, arenotoriously heavy-fisted. 

To conclude, they say all this is not what the Pope promised them inhis _motu proprio_ of the 19th of September; and it is sad to findinfallible people breaking their most sacred engagements. 

I have no doubt these grievances are exaggerated. It is impossible tobelieve that an entire nation can be so terribly in the right againstits masters. We will examine the facts of the case in detail before wedecide. We have not yet arrived at that point. 

You have just heard the language, if not of the whole 3, 124, 668people, at least of the most intelligent, the most energetic, and themost interesting part of the nation. Take away the conservativeparty, --that is to say, those who have an interest in thegovernment, --and the unfortunate creatures whom it has utterlybrutalized, --and there will remain none but malcontents. 

The malcontents are not all of the same complexion. Some politely andvainly ask the Holy Father to reform abuses: this is the moderateparty. Others propose to themselves a thorough reform of thegovernment: they are called radicals, revolutionists, orMazzinists--rather an injurious term. This latter category is notprecisely nice as to the measures to be resorted to. It holds, withthe Society of Jesus, that the end justifies the means. It says, ifEurope leaves it _tête-à-tête_ with the Pope, it will begin by cuttinghis throat; and if foreign potentates oppose such criminal violence, it will fling bombs under their carriages. 

The moderate party expresses itself plainly, the Mazzinists noisily. Europe must be very stupid, not to understand the one; very deaf, notto hear the other. 

What then happens?

All the States which desire peace, public order, and civilization, entreat the Pope to correct some abuse or other. "Have pity, " theysay, "if not upon your subjects, at least upon your neighbours, andsave _us_ from the conflagration!"

As often as this intervention is renewed, the Pope sends for hisSecretary of State. The said Secretary of State is a Cardinal whoreigns over the Holy Father in temporal matters, even as the HolyFather reigns over a hundred and thirty nine millions of Catholics inspiritual matters. The Pope confides to the Cardinal Minister thesource of his embarrassment, and asks him what is to be done. 

The Cardinal, who is the minister of everything in the State, replies, without a moment's hesitation, to the old sovereign:--

 "In the first place, there are no abuses: in the next place, if there were any, we must not touch them. To reform anything is to make a concession to the malcontents. To give way, is to prove that we are afraid. To admit fear, is to double the strength of the enemy, to open the gates to revolution, and to take the road to Gaeta, where the accommodation is none of the best. Don't let us leave home. I know the house we live in; it is not new, but it will last longer than your Holiness--provided no attempt is made to repair it. After us the deluge; we've got no children!"

"All very true, " replies the Pope. 

 "But the sovereign who is entreating me to do something, is an eldest son of the Church. He has rendered us great services. He still protects us constantly. What would become of us if he abandoned us?"

"Don't be alarmed, " says the Cardinal. "I'll arrange the matterdiplomatically. " And he sits down, and writes an invariable note, in adiplomatically tortuous style, which may thus be summed up:--

 "We want your soldiers, and not your advice, seeing that we are infallible. If you were to show any symptom of doubting that infallibility, and if you attempted to force anything upon us, even our preservation, we would fold our wings around our countenances, we would raise the palms of martyrdom, and we should become an object of compassion to all the Catholics in the universe. You know we have in your country forty thousand men who are at liberty to say everything, and whom you pay with your own money to plead our cause. They shall preach to your subjects, that you are tyrannizing over the Holy Father, and we shall set your country in a blaze without appearing to touch it. "

CHAPTER II. 

NECESSITY OF THE TEMPORAL POWER. 

 "For the Pontificate there is no independence but sovereignty itself. Here is an interest of the highest order, which ought to silence the particular interests of nations, even as in a State the public interest silences individual interests. "

These are not my words, but the words of M. Thiers: they occur in hisreport to the Legislative Assembly, in October 1849. I have no doubtthis Father of the temporal Church expressed the wishes of one hundredand thirty-nine millions of Catholics. It was all Catholicity whichsaid to 3, 124, 668 Italians, by the lips of the honourable reporter:

 "Devote yourselves as one man. Our chief can only be venerable, August, and independent, so long as he reigns despotically over you. If, in an evil hour, he were to cease wearing a crown of gold; if you were to contest his right to make and break laws; if you were to give up the wholesome practice of laying at his feet that money which he disburses for our edification and our glory, all the sovereigns of the universe would look upon him as an inferior. Silence, then, the noisy chattering of your individual interests. "

I flatter myself that I am as fervent a Catholic as M. Thiers himself;and were I bold enough to seek to refute him, I should do it in thename of our common faith. 

I grant you--this would be the tenor of my argument--that the Popeought to be independent. But could he not be so at a somewhat lesscost? Is it absolutely necessary that 3, 124, 668 men should sacrificetheir liberty, their security, and all that is most precious to them, in order to secure the independence which makes us so happy and soproud? The Apostles were certainly independent at a cheaper rate, forthey did nobody harm. The most independent of men is he who hasnothing to lose. He pursues his own path, without troubling himselfabout powers and principalities, for the simple reason that theconqueror most bent on acquisition can take nothing from him. 

The greatest conquests of Catholicism were made at a time when thePope was not a ruler. Since he has become a king, you may measure theterritory won from the Church by inches. 

The earliest Popes, who were not kings, had no budgets. Consequentlythey had no annual deficits to make up. Consequently they were notobliged to borrow millions of M. De Rothschild. Consequently they weremore independent than the crowned Popes of more recent times. 

Ever since the spiritual and the temporal have been joined, like twoSiamese powers, the most August of the two has necessarily lost itsindependence. Every day, or nearly so, the Sovereign Pontiff findshimself called upon to choose between the general interests of theChurch, and the private interests of his crown. Think you he issufficiently estranged from the things of this world to sacrificeheroically the earth, which is near, to the Heaven, which is remote?Besides, we have history to help us. I might, if I chose, refer tocertain bad Popes who were capable of selling the dogma of the HolyTrinity for half-a-dozen leagues of territory; but it would be hardlyfair to argue from bad Popes to the confusion of indifferent ones. Think you, however, that when the Pope legalized the perjury ofFrancis the First after the treaty of Madrid, he did it to make themorality of the Holy See respected, or to stir up a war useful to hiscrown?

When he organized the traffic in indulgences, and threw one-half ofEurope into heresy, was it to increase the number of Christians, or togive a dowry to a young lady?

When, during the Thirty Years' War, he made an alliance with theProtestants of Sweden, was it to prove the disinterestedness of theChurch, or to humble the House of Austria?

When he excommunicated Venice in 1806, was it to attach the Republicmore firmly to the Church, or to serve the rancour of Spain againstthe first allies of Henry IV. ?

When he suppressed the Order of the Jesuits, was it to reinforce thearmy of the Church, or to please his master in France?

When he terminated his relations with the Spanish American provincesupon their proclaiming their independence, was it in the interest ofthe Church, or of Spain?

When he held excommunication suspended over the heads of such Romansas took their money to foreign lotteries, was it to attach theirhearts to the Church, or to draw their crown-pieces into his owntreasury?

M. Thiers knows all this better than I do; but he possibly thoughtthat when the spiritual sovereign of the Church and the temporalsovereign of a little country, wear the same cap, the one is naturallycondemned to minister to the ambition or the necessities of the other. 

We wish the chief of the Catholic religion to be independent, and wemake him pay slavish obedience to a petty Italian prince; thusrendering the future of that religion subordinate to miserable localinterests and petty parish squabbles. 

But this union of powers, which would gain by separation, compromisesnot only the independence, but the dignity of the Pope. The melancholyobligation to govern men obliges him to touch many things which he hadbetter leave alone. Is it not deplorable that bailiffs must seize adebtor's property in the Pope's name?--that judges must condemn amurderer to death in the name of the Head of the Church?--that theexecutioner must cut off heads in the name of the Vicar of Christ?There is to me something truly scandalous in the association of thosetwo words, _Pontifical lottery_! And what can the hundred andthirty-nine millions of Catholics think, when they hear theirspiritual sovereign expressing, through his finance minister, hissatisfaction at the progress of vice as proved by the success of thelotteries?

The subjects of the Pope are not scandalized at these contradictions, simply because they are accustomed to them. They strike a foreigner, aCatholic, a casual unit out of the hundred and thirty-nine millions;they inspire in him an irresistible desire to defend the independenceand the dignity of the Church. But the inhabitants of Bologna orViterbo, of Terracina or Ancona, are more occupied with national thanwith religious interests, either because they want that feeling ofself-devotion recommended by M. Thiers, or because the government ofthe priests has given them a horror of Heaven. Very middlingCatholics, but excellent citizens, they everywhere demand the freedomof their country. The Bolognese affirm that they are not necessary tothe independence of the Pope, which they say could do as well withoutBologna as it has for some time contrived to do without Avignon. Everycity repeats the same thing, and if they were all to be listened to, the Holy Father, freed from the cares of administration, might devotehis undivided attention to the interests of the Church and theembellishment of Rome. The Romans themselves, so they be neitherprinces, nor priests, nor servants, nor beggars, declare that theyhave devoted themselves long enough, and that M. Thiers may now carryhis advice elsewhere. 

CHAPTER III. 

THE PATRIMONY OF THE TEMPORAL POWER. 

The Papal States have no natural limits: they are carved out on themap as the chance of passing events has made them, and as thegood-nature of Europe has left them. An imaginary line separates themfrom Tuscany and Modena. The most southerly point enters into thekingdom of Naples; the province of Benevento is enclosed within thestates of King Ferdinand, as formerly was the Comtat-Venaissin withinthe French territory. The Pope, in his turn, shuts in that Ghetto ofdemocracy, the republic of San Marino. 

I never cast my eyes over this poor map of Italy, capriciously rentinto unequal fragments, without one consoling reflection. 

Nature, which has done everything for the Italians, has taken care tosurround their country with magnificent barriers. The Alps and the seaprotect it on all sides, isolate it, bind it together as a distinctbody, and seem to design it for an individual existence. To crown all, no internal barrier condemns the Italians to form separate nations. The Apennines are so easily crossed, that the people on either sidecan speedily join hands. All the existing boundaries are entirelyarbitrary, traced by the brutality of the Middle Ages, or the shakyhand of diplomacy, which undoes to-morrow what it does to-day. Asingle race covers the soil; the same language is spoken from north tosouth; the people are all united in a common bond by the glory oftheir ancestors, and the recollections of Roman conquest, fresher andmore vivid than the hatreds of the fourteenth century. 

These considerations induce me to believe that the people of Italywill one day be independent of all others, and united among themselvesby the force of geography and history, two powers more invincible thanAustria. 

But I return _à mes moutons_, and to their shepherd, the Pope. 

The kingdom possessed by a few priests, covers an extent, in roundnumbers, of six millions of acres, according to the statisticspublished in 1857 by Monsignor, now Cardinal, Milesi. 

No country in Europe is more richly gifted, or possesses greateradvantages, whether for agriculture, manufacture, or commerce. 

Traversed by the Apennines, which divide it about equally, the Papaldominions incline gently, on one side to the Adriatic, on the other tothe Mediterranean. In each of these seas they possess an excellentport: to the east, Ancona; to the west, Civita Vecchia. If Panurge hadhad Ancona and Civita Vecchia in his Salmagundian kingdom, he wouldinfallibly have built himself a navy. The Phoenicians and theCarthaginians were not so well off. 

A river, tolerably well known under the name of the Tiber, watersnearly the whole country to the west. In former days it ministered tothe wants of internal commerce. Roman historians describe it asnavigable up to Perugia. At the present time it is hardly so as far asRome; but if its bed were cleared out, and filth not allowed to bethrown in, it would render greater service, and would not overflow sooften. The country on the other side is watered by small rivers, which, with a little government assistance, might be rendered veryserviceable. 

In the level country the land is of prodigious fertility. More than afourth of it will grow corn. Wheat yields a return of fifteen for oneon the best land, thirteen on middling, and nine on the worst. Fieldsthrown out of cultivation become admirable natural pastures. The hempis of very fine quality when cultivated with care. The vine and themulberry thrive wherever they are planted. The finest olive-trees andthe best olives in Europe grow in the mountains. A variable, butgenerally mild climate, brings to maturity the products of extremelatitudes. Half the country is favourable to the palm and the orange. Numerous and thriving flocks roam across the plains in winter, andascend to the mountains in summer. Horses, cows, and sheep live andmultiply in the open air, without need of shelter. Indian buffaloesswarm in the marshes. Every species of produce requisite for the foodand clothing of man grows easily, and as it were joyfully, in thisprivileged land. If men in the midst of it are in want of bread orshirts, Nature has no cause to reproach herself, and Providence washesits hands of the evil. 

In all the three states raw material exists in incredible abundance. Here are hemp, for ropemakers, spinners, and weavers; wine, fordistillers; olives, for oil and soap makers; wool, for cloth andcarpet manufacturers; hides and skins, for tanners, shoemakers, andglovers; and silk in any quantity for manufactures of luxury. The ironore is of middling quality, but the island of Elba, in which the verybest is found, is near at hand. The copper and lead mines, which theancients worked profitably, are perhaps not exhausted. Fuel issupplied by a million or two of acres of forest land; besides which, there is the sea, always open for the transport of coal fromNewcastle. The volcanic soil of several provinces produces enormousquantities of sulphur, and the alum of Tolfi is the best in the world. The quartz of Civita Vecchia will give us kaolin for porcelain. Thequarries contain building materials, such as marble and pozzolana, which is Roman cement almost ready-made. 

In 1847, the country lands subject to the Pope were valued at about£34, 800, 000 sterling. The province of Benevento was not included, andthe Minister of Commerce and Public Works admitted that the propertywas not estimated at above a third of its real value. If capitalreturned its proper interest, if activity and industry caused tradeand manufactures to increase the national income as ought to be thecase, it would be the Rothschilds who would borrow money of the Popeat six per cent. Interest. 

But stay! I have not yet completed the catalogue of possessions. Tothe present munificence of nature must be added the inheritance of thepast. The poor Pagans of great Rome left all their property to thePope who damns them. 

They left him gigantic aqueducts, prodigious sewers, and roads whichwe find still in use, after twenty centuries of traffic. They left himthe Coliseum, for his Capuchins to preach in. They left him an exampleof an administration without an equal in history. But the heritage wasaccepted without the responsibilities attached to it. 

I will no longer conceal from you that this magnificent territoryappeared to me in the first place most unworthily cultivated. FromCivita Vecchia to Rome, a distance of some sixteen leagues, cultivation struck me in the light of a very rare accident, to whichthe soil was but little accustomed. Some pasture fields, some land infallow, plenty of brambles, and, at long intervals, a field with oxenat plough, this is what the traveller will see in April. He will noteven meet with the occasional forest which he finds in the most desertregions of Turkey. It seems as if man had swept across the land todestroy everything, and the soil had been then taken possession of byflocks and herds. 

The country round Rome resembles the road from Civita Vecchia. Thecapital is girt by a belt of uncultivated, but not unfertile land. Iused to walk in every direction, and sometimes for a long distance;the belt seemed very wide. However, in proportion as I receded fromthe city, I found the fields better cultivated. One would suppose thatat a certain distance from St. Peter's the peasants worked withgreater relish. The roads, which near Rome are detestable, becamegradually better; they were more frequented, and the people I metseemed more cheerful. The inns became habitable, by comparison, in anastonishing degree. Still, so long as I remained in that part of thecountry towards the Mediterranean, of which Rome is the centre, andwhich is more directly subject to its influence, I found that theappearance of the land always left something to be desired. Isometimes fancied that these honest labourers worked as if they wereafraid to make a noise, lest, by smiting the soil too deeply and tooboldly, they should wake up the dead of past ages. 

But when once I had crossed the Apennines, when I was beyond the reachof the breeze which blew over the capital, I began to inhale anatmosphere of labour and goodwill that cheered my heart. The fieldswere not only dug, but manured, and, still better, planted and sown. The smell of manure was quite new to me. I had never met with it onthe other side of the Apennines. I was delighted at the sight oftrees. There were rows of vines twining around elms planted in fieldsof hemp, wheat, or clover. In some places the vines and elms werereplaced by mulberry-trees. What mingled riches were here lavished bynature! How bounteous is the earth! Here were mingled together, inrich profusion, bread, wine, shirts, silk gowns, and forage for thecattle. St. Peter's is a noble church, but, in its way, awell-cultivated field is a beautiful sight!

I travelled slowly to Bologna; the sight of the country I passedthrough, and the fruitfulness of honest human labour, made me happy. Iretraced my steps towards St. Peter's; my melancholy returned when Ifound myself again amidst the desolation of the Roman Campagna. 

As I reflected on what I had seen, a disquieting idea forced itselfupon me in a geometrical form. It seemed to me that the activity andprosperity of the subjects of the Pope were in exact proportion to thesquare of the distance which separated them from Rome: in other words, that the shade of the monuments of the eternal city was noxious to thecultivation of the country. Rabelais says the shade of monasteries isfruitful; but he speaks in another sense. 

I submitted my doubts to a venerable ecclesiastic, who hastened toundeceive me. "The country is not uncultivated, " he said; "or if it beso, the fault is with the subjects of the Pope. This people isindolent by nature, although 21, 415 monks are always preachingactivity and industry to them!"

CHAPTER IV. 

THE SUBJECTS OF THE TEMPORAL POWER. 

On the 14th of May, 1856, M. De Rayneval, then French ambassador atRome, a warm friend to the cardinals, and consequently a bitter foe totheir subjects, thus described the Italian people:--

 "A nation profoundly divided among themselves, animated by ardent ambition, possessing none of the qualities which constitute the greatness and power of others, devoid of energy, equally wanting in military spirit and in the spirit of association, and respecting neither the law nor social distinctions. "

M. De Rayneval will be canonized a hundred years hence (if the presentsystem continue) for having so nobly defended the oppressed. 

It will not be foreign to my purpose to try my own hand at thispicture; for the subjects of the Pope are Italians like the rest, andthere is but one nation in the Italian peninsula. The difference ofclimate, the vicinity of foreigners, the traces of invasions, may havemodified the type, altered the accent, and slightly varied thelanguage; still the Italians are the same everywhere, and the middleclass--the _élite_ of every people--think and speak alike from Turinto Naples. Handsome, robust, and healthy, when the neglect ofGovernments has not delivered them over to the fatal _malaria_, theItalians are, mentally, the most richly endowed people in Europe. M. De Rayneval, who is not the man to flatter them, admits that they have"intelligence, penetration, and aptitude for everything. " Thecultivation of the arts is no less natural to them than is the studyof the sciences; their first steps in every path open to humanintellect are singularly rapid, and if but too many of them stopbefore the end is attained, it is because their success is generallybarred by deplorable circumstances. In private as well as publicaffairs, they possess a quick apprehension and sagacity carried tosuspicion. There is no race more ready at making and discussing laws;legislation and jurisprudence have been among their chief triumphs. The idea of law sprang up in Italy at the time of the foundation ofRome, and it is the richest production of this marvellous soil. TheItalians still possess administrative genius in a high degree. Administration went forth from the midst of them for the conquest ofthe world, and the greatest administrators known to history, Cæsar andNapoleon, were of Italian origin. 

Thus gifted by nature, they have the sense of their high qualities, and they at times carry it to the extent of pride. The legitimatedesire to exercise the faculties they possess, degenerates intoambition; but their pride would not be ludicrous, nor would theirambition appear extravagant, if their hands were free for action. Through a long series of ages, despotic Governments have penned theminto a narrow area. The impossibility of realizing high aims, and thewant of action which perpetually stirs within them, has driven them topaltry disputes and local quarrels. Are we to infer from this thatthey are incapable of becoming a nation? I am not of that opinion. Already they are uniting to call upon the King of Piedmont, and toapplaud the policy of Count Cavour. If this be not sufficient proof, make an experiment. Take away the barriers which separate them; I willanswer for their soon being united. But the keepers of these barriersare the King of Naples, the Grand Duke of Tuscany, Austria, the Pope, and the rest. Are such keepers likely to give up the keys?

I know not what are "the qualities which constitute the greatness andpower of other nations"--as, for example, the Austrian nation, --but Iknow very few qualities, physical, intellectual, or moral, which theItalians do not possess. Are they "devoid of energy, " as M. DeRayneval declares? I should rather reproach them with the oppositeexcess. The absurd but resolute defence of Rome against the Frencharmy, may surely be regarded as the act of an energetic people. Wemust be extremely humble, if we admit that a French army was held incheck for two months by men wanting in energy. The assassinationswhich occur in the streets of Rome, prove rather the inefficiency ofthe police than the effeminacy of the citizens. I find, from anofficial return, that in 1853 the Roman tribunals punished 609 crimesagainst property, and 1, 344 against the person. These figures do notindicate a faultless people, but they prove little inclination forbase theft, and look rather like a diabolical energy. In the same yearthe Assize Courts in France pronounced judgment upon 3, 719 individualscharged with theft, and 1, 921 with crimes against the person. Theproportion is reversed. Robbers have the majority with us. And yet weare rather an energetic people. 

If the Italians are so also, there will not be much difficulty inmaking soldiers of them. M. De Rayneval tells us, they are "entirelywanting in military spirit. " No doubt he echoed the opinion of someCardinal. Indeed! Were the Piedmontese in the Crimea, then, wanting inthe military spirit?

M. De Rayneval and the Cardinals are willing to admit the courage ofthe Piedmontese, but then, they say, Piedmont is not in Italy; itsinhabitants are half Swiss, half French. Their language is notItalian, neither are their habits, the proof of which is found in thefact, that they have the true military and monarchical spirit, unknownto the rest of Italy. According to this, it would be far easier toprove that the Alsacians and the Bretons are not French; the first, because they are the best soldiers in the empire, and because they say_Meinherr_ when we should say _Monsieur_; the second, because theyhave the true monarchical spirit, and because they call _butun_ whatwe call _tabac_. But all the soldiers of Italy are not in Piedmont. The King of Naples has a good army. The Grand Duke of Tuscany has asufficient one for his defence; the small Duchies of Modena and Parmahave a smart regiment or two. Lombardy, Venice, Modena, and one-halfof the Papal States, have given heroes to France. Napoleon rememberedit at St. Helena; it has been so written. 

As for the spirit of association, I know not where it is to be found, if not in Italy. By what is the Catholic world governed? By anAssociation. What is it but an Association that wastes the revenue ofthe poor Romans? Who monopolizes their corn, their hemp, their oil?Who lays waste the forests of the State? An Association. Who takepossession of the highways, stop diligences, and lay travellers undercontribution? Five or six Associations. Who keeps up agitation atGenoa, at Leghorn, and, above all, at Home? That secret Associationknown as the Mazzinists. 

I grant that the Romans have but a moderate respect for the law. Butthe truth is, there is no law in the country. They have a respect forthe Code Napoléon, since they urgently ask for it. What they do notrespect is, the official caprice of their masters. I am certainly noadvocate of disorder; but when I think that a mere fancy of CardinalAntonelli, scribbled on a sheet of paper, has the force of law for thepresent and the future, I can understand an insolent contempt of thelaws, to the extent of actual revolt. 

As for social distinctions, it strikes me that the Italians respectthem even too much. When I have led you for half an hour through thestreets of Rome, you will ask yourselves to what a Roman prince canpossibly be superior. Nevertheless the Romans exhibit a sincererespect for their princes: habit is so strong! If I were to conductyou to the source of some of the large fortunes among myacquaintances, you would rise with stones and sticks against thesuperiority of wealth. And yet the Romans, dazzled by dollars, arefull of respect for the rich. If I were to--But I think the Italiannation is sufficiently justified. I will but add, that if it is easilyled to evil, it is still more easily brought back to good; that it ispassionate and violent, but not ill-disposed, and that a kind actsuffices to make it forget the most justifiable enmities. 

I will add in conclusion, that the Italians are not enervated by theclimate to such a degree as to dislike work. A traveller who mayhappen to have seen some street porters asleep in the middle of theday, returns home and informs Europe that these lazy people snore frommorning till night; that they have few wants, and work just enough tokeep themselves from one day to another. I shall presently show youthat the labourers of the rural districts are as industrious as ourown peasants (and that, too, in a very different temperature), aseconomical, provident, and orderly, though more hospitable and morecharitable. If the lower orders in the towns have become addicted toextravagance, idleness, and mendicity, it is because they havediscovered the impossibility, even by the most heroic efforts and themost rigid economy, of gaining either capital or independence orposition. Let us not confound discouragement with want of courage, nortax a poor fellow with idleness, merely because he has had themisfortune to be knocked down and run over by a carriage. 

The Pope reigns over 3, 124, 668 souls, as I have already observed morethan once. This population is unequally distributed over the surfaceof the country. The population in the provinces of the Adriatic isnearly double that in the Mediterranean provinces, and moreimmediately under the Sovereign's eyes. 

Those pious economists who insist upon it that all is for the bestunder the most sacred of governments, will not scruple to tell you:--

 "Our State is one of the most populous in Europe: _therefore_ it must be one of the best governed. The average population of France is 67 ½ inhabitants to the square kilomètre; that of the States of the Church 75 7/10. It follows from this that if the Emperor of the French were to adopt our mode of administration, he would have 8 2/10 inhabitants more on each square kilomètre!

 "The province of Ancona, which is occupied by the Austrians, and governed by priests, has 155 inhabitants to the square kilomètre. The Bas-Rhin, which is the fourth department of France, has but 129, consequently it is evident that the Bas-Rhin will continue to be relatively inferior, so long as it is not governed by priests, and occupied by the Austrians. 

 "The population of our happy country became increased by one-third between the years 1816 and 1853, a space of thirty-seven years. Such a grand result can only be attributed to the excellent administration of the Holy Father, and the preaching of 38, 320 priests and monks, who protect youth from the destructive influence of the passions. [1]

 "You will observe that the English have a passion for moving about the country. Even in the interior they change their residence and their county with an incredible mobility; no doubt this is because their country is unhealthy and badly administered. In the El Dorado which we govern, no more than 178, 943 individuals are known to have changed their abode from one province to another: _therefore_ our subjects are all happy in their homes. "

I do not deny the eloquence of these figures, and I am not one ofthose who think statistics prove everybody's case. But it seems to mevery natural that a rich country, in the hands of an agriculturalpeople, should feed 75 inhabitants to the square kilomètre, under anysort of government. What astonishes me is that it should feed no more;and I promise you that when it is better governed it will feed manymore. 

The population of the States of the Church has increased by one-thirdin thirty-seven years. But that of Greece has trebled between 1832 and1853. Nevertheless Greece is in the enjoyment of a detestablegovernment; as I believe I have pretty correctly demonstratedelsewhere. [2] The increase of a population proves the vitality of arace rather than the solicitude of an administration. I will neverbelieve that 770, 000 children were born between 1816 and 1853 by theintervention of the priests. I prefer to believe that the Italian raceis vigorous, moral, and marriageable, and that it does not yet despairof the future. 

Lastly, if the subjects of the Pope stay at home, instead of movingabout, it may be because communication between one place and anotheris difficult, or because the authorities are close-fisted in thematter of passports; it may be, too, because they are certain offinding, in whatever part of the country they move to, the samepriests, the same judges, and the same taxes. 

Out of the population of 3, 124, 668 souls, more than a million areagricultural labourers and shepherds. The workmen number 258, 872, andthe servants exceed the workmen by about 30, 000. Trade, finance, andgeneral business occupy something under 85, 000 persons. 

The landed proprietors are 206, 558 in number, being aboutone-fifteenth of the entire population. We have a greater proportionin France. The official statistics of the Roman State inform us thatif the national wealth were equally divided among all the proprietors, each of the 206, 558 families would possess a capital of £680 sterling. But they have omitted to state that some of these landed proprietorspossess 50, 000 acres, and others a mere heap of flints. 

It is to be observed that the division of land, like all other goodthings, increases in proportion to the distance from the capital. Inthe province of Rome there are 1, 956 landed proprietors out of 176, 002inhabitants, which is about one in ninety. In the province ofMacerata, towards the Adriatic, there are 39, 611, out of 243, 104, orone proprietor to every six inhabitants, which is as much as to saythat in this province there are almost as many properties as there arefamilies. 

The Agro Romano, which it took Rome several centuries to conquer, isat the present time the property of 113 families, and of 64corporations. [3]

CHAPTER V. 

OF THE PLEBEIANS. 

The subjects of the Holy Father are divided by birth and fortuneinto three very distinct classes, --nobility, citizens, and people, orplebeians. The Gospel has omitted to consecrate the inequality of men, but the law of the State--that is to say, the will of thePopes--carefully maintains it. Benedict XIV. Declared it honourableand salutary in his Bull of January 4, 1746, and Pius IX. Expressedhimself in the same terms at the beginning of his _Chirografo_ of May2, 1853. 

If I do not reckon the clergy among the classes of society, it isbecause that body is foreign to the nation by its interests, by itsprivileges, and often by its origin. The Cardinals and Prelates arenot, properly speaking, the Pope's subjects, but rather his ghostlyconfederates, and the partners of his omnipotence. 

The distinction of class is more especially perceptible at Rome, nearthe Pontifical throne. It gradually disappears, together with manyother abuses, in proportion to their distance from their source. Thereare bottomless abysses between the noble Roman and the citizen ofRome, between the citizen of Rome and the plebeian of the city. Theplebeian himself discharges a portion of the scorn expressed by thetwo superior classes for himself, upon the peasants he meets atmarket: it is a sort of cascade of contempt. At Rome, thanks to thetraditions of history, and the education given by the Popes, theinferior thinks he can get out of his nothingness, and becomesomething, by begging the favour and support of a superior. A generalsystem of dependence and patronage makes the plebeian kneel before theman of the middle class, who again kneels before the prince, who inhis turn kneels more humbly than all the others before the sovereignclergy. 

At twenty leagues' distance from Rome there is very little kneeling;beyond the Apennines none at all. When you reach Bologna you find analmost French equality in the manners: for the simple reason thatNapoleon has left his mark there. 

The absolute value of the men in each category increases according tothe square of the distance. You may feel almost certain that a Romannoble will be less educated, less capable, and less free than agentleman of the Marches or of the Romagna. The middle class, withsome exceptions which I shall presently mention, is infinitely morenumerous, more enlightened, and wealthier, to the east of theApennines, than in and about the capital. The plebeians themselveshave more honesty and morality when they live at a respectful distancefrom the Vatican. 

The plebeians of the Eternal City are overgrown children badly broughtup, and perverted in various ways by their education. The Government, which, being in the midst of them, fears them, treats them mildly. Itdemands few taxes of them; it gives them shows, and sometimes bread, the _panem et circenses_ prescribed by the Emperors of the Decline. Itdoes not teach them to read, neither does it forbid them to beg. Itsends Capuchins to their homes. The Capuchin gives the wifelottery-tickets, drinks with the husband, and brings up the childrenafter his kind, and sometimes in his likeness. The plebeians of Romeare certain never to die of hunger; if they have no bread, they areallowed to help themselves from the baker's basket; the law allows it. All that is required of them is to be good Christians, to prostratethemselves before the priests, to humble themselves before the rich, and to abstain from revolutions. They are severely punished if theyrefuse to take the Sacrament at Easter, or if they talkdisrespectfully of the Saints. The tribunal of the Vicariates listensto no excuses on this head; but the police is enough as to everythingelse. Crimes are forgiven them, they are encouraged in meanness; theonly offences for which there is no pardon are the cry for liberty, revolt against an abuse, the assertion of manhood. 

It is marvellous to me that with such an education there is any goodleft in them at all. The worst half of the people is that which dwellsin the Monti district. If, in seeking the Convent of the Neophytes, orthe house of Lucrezia Borgia, you miss your way among those foulnarrow streets, you will find yourself in the midst of a strangemedley of thieves, sharpers, guitar-players, artists' models, beggars, _ciceroni_, and _ruffiani_. If you speak to them, you may be sure theywill kiss your Excellency's hand, and pick your Excellency's pocket. Ido not think a worse breed is to be found in any city in Europe, noteven in London. All these people _practise_ religion, without theleast believing in God. The police does not meddle much with them. Tobe sure they are sent to prison now and then, but thanks to afavourable word in the right quarter, or to the want of prisonaccommodation, they are soon set at liberty. Even the honest workmentheir neighbours occasionally get into scrapes. They have made plentyof money in the winter, and spent it all in the Carnival--as is thecommon custom. Summer comes, the foreign visitors depart; no more workand no more money. Moral training, which might sustain them, is whollywanting. The love of show, that peculiar disease of Rome, is theirbane. The wife, if she be pretty, sells herself, or the husband doeswhat he had better leave undone. 

Judge them not too harshly. Remember, they have read nothing, theyhave never been out of Rome; the example of ostentation is set them bythe Cardinals, of misconduct by the prelates, of venality by thedifferent functionaries, of squandering by the Finance Minister. Andabove all, remember that care has been taken to root out from theirhearts, as if it were a destructive weed, that noble sentiment ofhuman dignity which is the principle of every virtue. 

The blood which flows in Italian veins must be very generous, or sonotable a portion of the plebeians of Rome as the people of the_Trastevere_, could never have preserved their manly virtues, as isnotoriously the case with them. I have met with men in this quarter ofthe city, coarse, violent, sometimes ferocious, but really _men_; niceas to their honour, to the extent of poniarding any one who is wantingin respect to them. They are fully as ignorant as the people of theMonti; they have learnt the same lessons, and witnessed the sameexamples; they have the same improvidence, the same love of pleasure, the same brutality in their passions; but they are incapable ofstooping, even to pick anything up. 

A government worthy of the name would make something of this ignorantforce, first taming, and then directing it. The man who stabs hisfellow in a wineshop might prove a good soldier on a battle-field. Butwe are in the capital of the Pope. The Trasteverini neither attack Godnor the Government; they meddle neither with theology nor politics; nomore is asked of them. And in token of its appreciation of their goodconduct, a paternal administration allows them to cut one another'sthroats _ad libitum_. 

Neither the people of the Trastevere nor of the Monti give the leastsign of political existence, whereat the Cardinals rub their hands, and congratulate themselves upon having kept so many men in profoundignorance of all their rights. I am not quite certain that the theoryis a sound one. Suppose, for example, that the democratic committeesof London and Leghorn were to send a few recruiting officers into thePope's capital. An honest, mild, enlightened plebeian would reflecttwice before enrolling himself. He would weigh the pros and the cons, and balance for a long time between the vices of the government, andthe dangers of revolution. But the mob of the Monti would take firelike a heap of straw at the mere prospect of a scramble, while theTrastevere savages would rise to a man, if the Papal despotism wererepresented to them as an attack upon their honour. It would be betterto have in these plebeians foes capable of reasoning. The Pope mightoften have to reckon with them, but he need never tremble before them. 

I trust the masters of the country may never more be obliged to fightwith the plebeians of Rome. They were easily carried away by theleaders of 1848, although the name of Republic resounded for the firsttime in their ears. Have they forgotten it? No. They will longremember that magic word, which abased the great, and exalted thehumble. Moreover, the hidden Mazzinists, who agitate throughout thecity, don't collect the workmen in the quarter of the _Regola_ topreach submission to them. 

I have said that the plebeians of the city of Rome despise theplebeians of the country. Be assured, however, the latter are notdeserving of scorn, even in the Mediterranean provinces. In thisunhappy half of the Pontifical States, the influence of the Vaticanhas not yet quite morally destroyed the population. The country peopleare poor, ignorant, superstitious, rather wild, but kind, hospitable, and generally honest. If you wish to study them more closely, go toone of the villages in the province of Frosinone, towards theNeapolitan frontier. Cross the plains which malaria has made drearysolitudes, take the stony path which winds painfully up the side ofthe mountain. You will come to a town of five or ten thousand souls, which is little more than a dormitory for five or ten thousandpeasants. Viewed from a distance, this country town has an almostgrand appearance. The dome of a church, a range of monastic buildings, the tower of a feudal castle, invest it with a certain air ofimportance. A troop of women are coming down to the fountain withcopper vessels on their heads. You smile instinctively. Here ismovement and life. Enter! You are struck with a sensation of coldness, dampness, and darkness. The streets are narrow flights of steps, whichevery now and then plunge beneath low arches. The houses are closed, and seem to have been deserted for a century. Not a human being at thedoors, or at the windows. The streets, silent and solitary. 

You would imagine that the curse of heaven had fallen on the country, but for the large placards on the house-fronts, which prove thatmissionary fathers have passed through the place. "_Viva Gesù! VivaMaria! Viva il sangue di Gesù! Viva il cor di Maria! Bestemmiatori, tacetevi per l'amor di Maria!_"

These devotional sentences are like so many signboards of the publicsimplicity. 

A quarter of an hour's walk brings you to the principal square. Half-a-dozen civil officials are seated in a circle before a café, gaping at one another. You join them. They ask you for news ofsomething that happened a dozen years ago. You ask them in turn, whatepidemic has depopulated the country?

Presently some thirty market-men and women begin to display on thepavement an assortment of fruit and vegetables. Where are the buyersof these products of the earth? Here they come! Night is approaching. The entire population begins to return at once from their labour inthe fields; a stalwart and sturdy population; the thew and sinew ofsome fine regiments. Every one of these half-clad men, armed withpickaxe and shovel, rose two hours before the sun this morning, andwent forth to weed a little field, or to dig round a few olive-trees. Many of them have their little domains several miles off, and thitherthey go daily, accompanied by a child and a pig. The pig is not veryfat, and the man and his child are very lean. Still they seemlight-hearted and merry. They have plucked some wild flowers by theroadside. The boy is crowned with roses, like Lucullus at table. Thefather buys a handful of vegetables, and a cake of maize, which willfurnish the family supper. They will sleep well enough on thisdiet--if the fleas allow them. If you like to follow these poor peoplehome, they will give you a kindly welcome, and will not fail to askyou to partake of their modest meal. Their furniture is very simple, their conversation limited; their heads are as well furnished as theirdwellings. 

The wife who has been awaiting the return of her lord, will open thedoor to you. Of all useful animals, the wife is the one which theRoman peasant employs most profitably. She makes the bread and thecakes; she spins, weaves, and sews; she goes every day three miles forwood, and one and a half for water; she carries a mule's load on herhead; she works from sunrise to sunset, without question or complaint. Her numerous children are in themselves a precious resource: at fouryears old they are able to tend sheep and cattle. 

It is vain to ask these country people what is their opinion of Romeand the government: their idea of these matters is infinitely vagueand shadowy. The Government manifests itself to them in the person ofan official, who, for the sum of three pounds sterling per month, administers and sells justice among them. This individual is the onlygift Rome has ever conferred upon them. In return for the greatbenefit of his presence, they pay taxes on a tolerably extensivescale: so much for the house, so much for the livestock, so much forthe privilege of lighting a fire, so much on the wine, and so much onthe meat--when they are able to enjoy that luxury. They grumble, though not very bitterly, regarding the taxes as a sort of periodicalhailstorm falling on their year's harvest. If they were to learn thatRome had been swallowed up by an earthquake, they certainly would notput on mourning. They would go forth to their fields as usual, theywould sell their crops for the usual price, and they would pay lesstaxes. This is what all towns inhabited by peasants think of themetropolis. Every township lives by itself, and for itself; it is anisolated body, which has arms to work, and a belly to fill. Thecultivator of the land is everything, as was the case in the MiddleAges. There is neither trade, nor manufactures, nor business on anyextended scale, nor movement of ideas, nor political life, nor any ofthose powerful bonds which, in well-governed countries, link theprovincial towns to the capital, as the members to the heart. 

If there be a capital for these poor people, it is Paradise. Theybelieve in it fervently, and strive to attain it with all their might. The very peasant who grudges the State two crowns for his hearth-tax, willingly pays two and a half to have _Viva Maria_ scrawled over hisdoor. Another complains of the £3 per month paid to the Governmentofficial, without a murmur at the thirty priests supported by thetownship. There is a gentle disease which consoles them for all theirills, called Faith. It does not restrain them from dealing a stab witha knife, when the wine is in their brains, or rage in their hearts;but it will always prevent them from eating meat on a Friday. 

If you would see them in all the ardour of their simplicity, you mustvisit the town on the day of a grand festival. Everybody, men, women, and children are rushing to the church. A carpet of flowers is spreadalong the road. Every countenance is glowing with excitement. What isthe meaning of it all? Don't you know?--It is the festival of Sant'Antonio. A musical Mass is being performed in honour of Sant' Antonio. A grand procession is being formed in honour of that Saint, probablythe patron of the place. There are little boys dressed up as angels, and men arrayed in the sack-like garment of their brotherhoods: herewe have peasants of _The Heart of Jesus_; here, those of _The Name ofMary_; and here come _The Souls of Purgatory_. The procession isformed with some little confusion. The people embrace one another, upset one another, and fight with one another--all in the name ofSant' Antonio. But see! The statue of the worthy Saint is coming outof the church: a wooden doll, with flaming red cheeks. _Victoria_! Offgo the petards! The women weep with joy--the children cry out at thetop of their shrill voices, "_Viva Sant' Antonio_!" At night there arefireworks: a balloon shaped in the semblance of the Saint ascends amidthe shouts of the people, and bursts in grand style right over thechurch. Verily, unless Sant' Antonio be very difficult to please, suchhomage must go straight to his heart. And I should think the plebeiansof the country very exacting, if, after such an intoxicating festival, they were to complain of wanting bread. 

Let us seek a little repose on the other side of the Apennines. Although the population may not be sufficiently sheltered by a chain, of mountains, you will find in the towns and villages the stuff for anoble nation. The ignorance is still very great; the blood everboiling, and the hand ever quick; but already we find men who reason. If the workman of the towns be not successful, he guesses the reason;he seeks a remedy, he looks forward, he economizes. If the tenant benot rich, he studies with his landlord the means of becoming so. Everywhere agriculture is making progress, and it will ere long haveno further progress to make. Man becomes better and greater by dint ofstruggling with Nature. He learns his own value, he sees whither he istending; in cultivating his field, he cultivates himself. 

I am compelled in strict truth to admit that religion loses ground alittle in these fine provinces. I vainly sought in the towns of theAdriatic for those mural inscriptions of _Viva Gesù! Viva Maria!_ andso on, which had so edified me on the other side of the Apennines. AtBologna I read sonnets at the corners of all the streets, --sonnet toDoctor Massarenti, who cured Madame Tagliani; sonnet to youngGuadagni, on the occasion of his becoming Bachelor of Arts, etc. , etc. At Faenza, these mural inscriptions evinced a certain degree offanaticism, but the fanaticism of the dramatic art: _Viva la Ristori!Viva la diva Rossi!_ At Rimini, and at Forlì, I read _Viva Verdi!_(which words had not then the political significance they haverecently attained, ) _Viva la Lotti!_ together with a long list ofdramatic and musical celebrities. 

While I was visiting the holy house of Loretto, which, as all theworld knows, or ought to know, was transported by Angels, furnitureand all, from Palestine, to the neighbourhood of Ancona, a number ofpilgrims came in upon their knees, shedding tears and licking theflags with their tongues. I thought these poor creatures belonged tosome neighbouring village, but I found out my mistake from a workmanof Ancona, who happened to be near me. "Sir, " he said, "these unhappypeople must certainly belong to the other side of the Apennines, sincethey still make pilgrimages. Fifty years ago we used to do the samething; we now think it better to work!"

CHAPTER VI. 

THE MIDDLE CLASSES. 

The middle class is, in every clime and every age, the foundation ofthe strength of States. It represents not only the wealth andindependence, but the capacity and the morality of a people. Betweenthe aristocracy, which boasts of doing nothing, and the lower orderswho only work that they may not die of hunger, the middle classadvances boldly to a future of wealth and consideration. Sometimes theupper class is hostile to progress, through fear of its results; toooften the lower class is indifferent to it, from ignorance of thebenefits it confers. The middle class has never ceased to tend towardsprogress, with all its strength, by an irresistible impulse, and evenat the peril of its dearest interests. A great statesman who must bejudged by his doctrines, and not by the chance of circumstances, M. Guizot, has shown us that the Roman Empire perished from the want of amiddle class in the fifth century of our era, and we ourselves knowwith what impetuosity France has advanced in progress since the middleclass revolution of 1789. 

The middle class has not only the privilege of bringing about usefulrevolutions, it also claims the honour of repressing popularoutbreaks, and opposing itself as a barrier to the overflow of evilpassions. 

It is to be desired, then, that this honourable class should become asnumerous and as powerful as possible in the country we are nowstudying; because, while on the one hand it is the lawful heir of thetemporal power of the Popes, on the other, it is the natural adversaryof Mazzinist insurrection. 

But the ecclesiastical caste, which sets this fatal principle oftemporal power above the highest interests of society, can conceivenothing more prudent or efficacious than to vilify and abuse themiddle class. It obliges this class to support the heaviest share ofthe budget, without being admitted to a share in the benefits. Ittakes from the small proprietor not only his whole income, but a partof his capital, while the people and the nobility are allowed allsorts of immunities. It demands heavy concessions in exchange for thehumblest official posts. It omits no opportunity of depriving theliberal professions of all the importance they enjoy in othercountries. It does its best to accelerate the decline of science andart. It imagines that nothing else can be abased, without its beingproportionately elevated. 

This system has succeeded (according to priestly notions) tolerablywell at Home and in the Mediterranean provinces, but very badly atBologna, and in the Apennine provinces. In the metropolis of thecountry the middle class is reduced, impoverished, and submissive; inthe second capital it is much more numerous, wealthy, and independent. But evil passions, far more fatal to society than the rationalresistance of parties, have progressed in an inverse direction. Theypredominate but little at Bologna, where the middle class is strongenough to keep them under; they triumph at Home, where the middleclass has been destroyed. Thence it follows that Bologna is a city ofopposition, and Rome a socialist city; and that the revolution will bemoderate at Bologna, sanguinary at Rome. This is what the clericalparty has gained. 

Nothing can equal the disdain with which the prelates the princes, theforeigners of condition, and even the footmen at Rome, judge themiddle class, of _mezzo ceto_. 

The prelate has his reasons. If he be a minister, he sees in hisoffices some hundred clerks, belonging to the middle class. He knowsthat these active and intelligent, but underpaid men, are for the mostpart obliged to eke out a livelihood by secretly following some otheroccupation: one keeps the books of a land-steward, another those of aJew. Whose fault is it? They well know that neither excellence ofcharacter nor length of service are carried to the credit of the civilfunctionary, and that, after having earned advancement, he will beobliged either to ask it himself as a favour, or to employ theintercession of his wife. It is not these poor men whom we shoulddespise, but the dignitaries in violet stockings who impose the burdenupon them. 

Should Monsignore be a judge of a superior tribunal, of the _SacraRota_ for instance, he need know nothing about the law. His secretary, or assistant, has by dint of patient study made himself anaccomplished lawyer, as indeed a man must be who can thread his waythrough the dark labyrinths of Roman legislation. But Monsignore, whomakes use of his assistant's ability for his own particular profit, thinks he has a right to despise him, because he is ill paid, liveshumbly, and has no future to look forward to. Which of the two is inthe wrong?

If the same prelate be a Judge of Appeal, he will profess a mostprofound contempt for advocates. I must confess they are to be pitied, these unfortunate Princes of the Bar, who write for the blind, andspeak to the deaf, and who wear out their shoes in treading theinterminable paths of Rotal procedure. But assuredly they are not mento be despised. They have always knowledge, often eloquence. Marchetti, Rossi, and Lunati might no doubt have written good sermons, if they had not preferred doing something else. 

Between ourselves, I think the prelates affect to despise them, inorder that they may not have to fear them. They have condemned some ofthem to exile, others to silence and want. Hear what CardinalAntonelli said to M. De Gramont:--

"The advocates used to be one of our sores; we are beginning to becured of it. If we could but get rid of the clerks in the offices, allwould go well. "

Let us hope that, among modern inventions, a bureaucratic machine maybe made by which the labour of men in offices may be superseded. 

The Roman princes affect to regard the middle class with contempt. Theadvocate who pleads their causes, and generally gains them, belongs tothe middle class. The physician who attends them, and generally curesthem, belongs to the middle class. But as these professional men havefixed salaries, and as salaries resemble wages, contempt is throwninto the bargain. Still the contempt is a magnanimous sort ofcontempt--that of a patron for his client. At Paris, when an advocatepleads a prince's cause, it is the prince who is the client: at Rome, it is the advocate. 

But the individual who is visited by the most withering contempt ofthe Roman princes is the farmer, or _mercante di campagna_; and Idon't wonder at it. 

The _mercante di campagna_ is an obscure individual, usually veryhonest, very intelligent, very active, and very rich. He undertakes tofarm several thousand acres of land, pasture or arable as may be, which the prince would never be able to farm himself, because heneither knows how, nor has the means to do so. Upon this princelyterritory the farmer lets loose, in the most disrespectful manner, droves of bullocks, and cows, and horses, and flocks of sheep. Shouldhis lease permit him, he cultivates a square league or so, and sows itwith wheat. When harvest-time arrives, down from the mountains troop athousand or twelve hundred peasants, who overrun the prince's land inthe farmer's service. The corn is reaped, threshed in the open field, put into sacks, and carted away. The prince sees it go by, as hestands on his princely balcony. He learns that a man of the _mezzoceto_, a man who passes his life on horseback, has harvested on hisland so many sacks of corn, which have produced him so much money. The_mercante di campagna_ comes, and confirms the intelligence, and thenpays the rent agreed upon to the uttermost baioccho. Sometimes he evenpays down a year or two in advance. What prince could forgive suchaggravated insolence? It is the more atrocious, since the farmer ispolite, well-mannered, and much better educated than the prince; hecan give his daughters much larger fortunes, and could buy the entireprincipality for his own son, if by chance the prince were obliged tosell it. The cultivation of estates by means of these people is, inthe eyes of the Roman princes, an attack upon the rights of property. Their passion for incessant work is a disturbance of the delightfulRoman tranquillity. The fortunes they acquire by personal exertion, energy, and activity, are a reproach by inference to that stagnantwealth which is the foundation of the State, and the admiration of theGovernment. 

This is not all: the _mercante di campagna_, who is not nobly born, who is not a priest, who has a wife and children, thinks he has aright to share in the management of the affairs of his country, uponthe ground that he manages his own well. He points out abuses; hedemands reforms. What audacity! The priests would cast him forth asthey would a mere advocate, were it not that his occupation is themost necessary of all occupations, and that by turning out a man theymight starve a district. 

But the insolence of these agricultural contractors goes stillfurther. They presume to be grand in their ideas. One of them, in1848, under the reign of Mazzini, when the public works were suspendedfor want of money, finished the bridge of Lariccia, one of the finestconstructions of our time, at his own expense. He certainly knew notwhether the Pope would ever return to Rome to repay him. He acted likea real prince; but his audacity in assuming a part which was notintended for his caste, merited something more than contempt. 

I, who have not the honour to be a prince, have no reason to despisethe _mercanti di campagna_. Quite the contrary. I have solid ones foresteeming them highly. I have found them full of intelligence, kindness, and cordiality: middle-class men in the best sense of theterm. My sole regret is that their numbers are so few, and that theirscope of action is so limited. 

If there were but two thousand of them, and the Government allowedthem to follow their own course, the Roman Campagna would soon assumeanother aspect, and fever and ague take themselves off. 

The foreigners who have inhabited Rome for any length of time, speakof the middle-class as contemptuously as the princes. I once made thesame mistake as they do, so my testimony on the subject is the moreworthy of acceptation. 

Perhaps the foreigners in question have lived in furnished lodgings, and have found the landlady a little less than cruel. No doubtadventures of this kind are of daily occurrence elsewhere than inRome; but is the middle-class to be held responsible for the lightconduct of some few poor and uneducated women?

Or they may have had to do with the trade of Rome, and have found itextremely limited. This is because there is no capital, nor anyextension of public credit. They are shocked to see the shopkeepers, during the Carnival, riding in carriages, and occupying the best boxesat the theatres; but this foolish love of show, so hurtful to themiddle-class, is taught them by the universal example of those abovethem. 

Perhaps they have sent to the chemist's for a doctor, and have fallenupon an ignorant professor of the healing art. This is unlucky, but itmay happen anywhere. The medical body is not recruited exclusivelyamong the eagles of science. For one Baroni, who is an honour at onceto Rome, to Italy, and to Europe, you naturally expect to find manyblockheads. If these are more plentiful at Rome than at Paris orBologna, it is because the priests meddle with medical instruction, aswith everything else. I never shall forget how I laughed when Ientered the amphitheatre of Santo Spirito, to see a vine-leaf on 'thesubject' on which the professor was going to lecture to the students. 

In this land of chastity, where the modest vine is entwined with everybranch of science, a doctor in surgery, attached to an hospital, oncetold me he had never seen the bosom of a woman. "We have, " he said, "two degrees of Doctor to take; one theoretical, the other practical. Between the first and the second, we practise in the hospitals, as you see. But the prelates who control our studies, will not allow a doctor to be present at a confinement until he has passed his second, or practical examination. They are afraid of our being scandalized. We obtain our practical knowledge of midwifery by practising upon dolls. In six months I shall have taken all my degrees, and I may be called in to act as accoucheur to any number of women, without ever having witnessed a single accouchement!"

The Roman artists would endow the middle-class with both fame andmoney, if they were differently treated. The Italian race has notdegenerated, whatever its enemies and its masters may say: it is asnaturally capable of distinction in all the arts as ever it was. Put apaint-brush into the hands of a child, and he will acquire thepractice of painting in no time. An apprenticeship of three or fouryears enables him to gain a livelihood. The misfortune is, that theyseldom get beyond this. I think, nay, I am almost sure, they are notless richly gifted than the pupils of Raphael; and they reach the samepoint as the pupils of M. Galimard. Is it their fault? No. I accusebut the medium into which their birth has cast them. It may be, thatif they were at Paris, they would produce masterpieces. Give themparts to play in the world, competition, exhibitions, the support of agovernment, the encouragement of a public, the counsels of anenlightened criticism. All these benefits which we enjoy abundantly, are wholly denied to them, and are only known to them by hearsay. 

Their sole motive for work is hunger, their sole encouragement theflying visits of foreigners. Their work is always done in a hurry;they knock off a copy in a week, and when it is sold, they beginanother. 

If some one, more ambitious than his fellows, undertakes an originalwork, whose opinion can he obtain as to its merits or demerits? Themen of the reigning class know nothing about it, and the princes verylittle. The owner of the finest gallery in Rome said last year, in thesalon of an Ambassador, "I admire nothing but what you French call_chic_" Prince Piombino gave the painter Gagliardi an order to painthim a ceiling, and proposed to pay him by the day. The Government hasplenty to attend to without encouraging the arts: the four littlenewspapers which circulate at remote periods amuse themselves bypuffing their particular friends in the silliest manner. 

The foreigners who come and go are often men of taste, but they do notmake a public. In Paris, Munich, Düsseldorf, and London, the publichas an individuality; it is a man of a thousand heads. When it hasmarked a rising artist, it notes his progress, encourages him, blameshim, urges him on, checks him. It takes such a one into its favour, isextremely wroth with such another. It is, of course, sometimes in thewrong; it is subject to ridiculous infatuations, and unjust revulsionsof feeling; yet it lives, and it vivifies, and it is worth workingfor. 

If I wonder at anything, it is that under the present system suchartists are to be found at Home as Tenerani and Podesti, in statuaryand painting; Castellani, in gold-working; Calamatta and Mercuri, inengraving, with some others. It is a melancholy truth, however, thatthe majority of Roman artists are doomed, by the absence ofencouragement, to a monotonous and humiliating round of taskwork andtrade; occupied half their time in re-copying copies, and theremainder in recommending their goods to the foreign purchaser. 

In truth, I had myself quitted Rome with no very favourable idea ofthe middle class. A few distinguished artists, a few advocates oftalent and courage, some able medical men, some wealthy and skilfulfarmers, were insufficient, in my opinion, to constitute a middleclass. I regarded them as so many exceptions to a rule. And as it iscertain that there can be no nation without a middle class, I dreadedlest I should be forced to admit that there is no Italian nation. 

The middle class appeared to me to thrive no better in theMediterranean provinces than at Rome. Half citizen, half clown, thepeople representing it are plunged in a crass ignorance. Having justsufficient means to live without working, they lounge away their timein homes comfortless and half-furnished, the very walls of which seemto reek with _ennui_. Rumours of what is passing in Europe, whichmight possibly rouse them from their torpor, are stopped at thefrontier. New ideas, which might somewhat fertilize their minds, areintercepted by the Custom House. If they read anything, it is theAlmanack, or by way of a higher order of literature, the _Giornale diRoma_, wherein the daily rides of the Pope are pompously chronicled. The existence of these people consists, in short, of a round ofeating, drinking, sleeping, and reproducing their kind, until deatharrive. 

But beyond the Apennines matters are far otherwise. There, instead ofthe citizen descending to the level of the peasant, it is the peasantwho rises to that of the citizen. Unremitting labour is continuallyimproving both the soil and man. A smuggling of ideas which dailybecomes more active, sets custom-houses and customs officers atdefiance. Patriotism is stimulated and kept alive by the presence ofthe Austrians. Common sense is outraged by the weight of taxation. Thedifferent fractions of the middle class--advocates, physicians, merchants, farmers, artists--freely express among one another theirdiscontent and their hatred, their ideas and their hopes. TheApennines, which form a barrier between them and the Pope, bring themnearer to Europe and liberty. I have never failed, after conversingwith one of the middle class in the Legations, to inscribe in mytablets, _There is an Italian Nation_!

I travelled from Bologna to Florence with a young man whom I at firsttook, from the simple elegance of his dress, for an Englishman. But wefell so naturally into conversation, and my companion expressedhimself so fluently in French, that I supposed him to be afellow-countryman. When, however, I discovered how thoroughly he wasversed in the state of the agriculture, manufactures, commerce, laws, the administration, and the politics of Italy, I could no longer doubtthat he was an Italian and a Bolognese. What I chiefly admired in himwas not so much the extent and variety of his knowledge, or theclearness and rectitude of his understanding, as the elevation of hischaracter, and the moderation of his language. Every word he utteredwas characterized by a profound sense of the dignity of his country, abitter regret at the disesteem and neglect into which that country hadfallen, and a firm hope in the justice of Europe in general and of onegreat prince in particular, and a certain combination of pride, melancholy, and sweetness which possessed an irresistible attractionfor me. He nourished no hatred either against the Pope or any otherperson; he admitted the system of the priests, although utterlyintolerable to the country, to be perfectly logical in itself. Hisdream was not of vengeance, but deliverance. 

I learnt, some time afterwards, that my delightful travellingcompanion was a man of the _mezzo ceto_, and that there are many moresuch as he in Bologna. 

But already had I inscribed in my tablets these words, thricerepeated, dated from the Court of the Posts, Piazza del Gran' Duca, Florence:--

_"There is an Italian Nation! There is an Italian Nation! There is anItalian Nation!"_

CHAPTER VII. 

THE NOBILITY. 

An Italian has said with pungent irony, "Who knows but that one ofthese days a powerful microscope may detect globules of nobility inthe blood?"

I am too national not to applaud a good joke, and yet I must confessthese "globules of nobility" do not positively offend my reason. 

There is no doubt that sons take after their fathers. The Barons ofthe Middle Ages transmitted to their children a heritage of heroicqualities. Frederick the Great obtained a race of gigantic grenadiersby marrying men of six feet to women of five feet six. The children ofa clever man are not fools, provided their mother has not failed inher duties; and when the Crétins of the Alps intermarry, they produceCrétins. We know dogs are slow or fast, keen-scented or keen-sighted, according to their breed, and we buy a two-year-old colt upon thestrength of his pedigree. Can we consistently admit nobility amonghorses and dogs, and deny it among men?

Add to this, that the pride of bearing an illustrious name is apowerful incentive to well-doing. Noblemen have duties to fulfil bothtowards their ancestors and their posterity. They must walk uprightlyunder the penalty of dishonouring an entire race. Tradition obligesthem to follow a path of honour and virtue, from which they cannotstray a single step without falling. They never sign their nameswithout some elevated thought of an hereditary obligation. 

I must admit that everything degenerates in the end, and that thepurest blood may occasionally lose its high qualities, as the mostgenerous wine turns to molasses or vinegar. But we have all of us metin the world a young man of loftier and prouder bearing, morehigh-minded and more courageous, than his fellows; or a woman sobeautiful and simple and chaste, that she seemed made of a finer claythan the rest of her sex. We may be sure that both one and the otherhave in their blood some globules of nobility. 

These precious globules, which no microscope will ever be powerfulenough to detect, but which the intelligent observer sees with thenaked eye, are rare enough in Europe, and I am not aware of theirexistence out of it. A small collection of them might be broughttogether in France, in Spain, in England, in Russia, in Germany, inItaly. Rome is one of the cities in which the fewest would be found. And yet the Roman nobility is surrounded with a certain prestige. 

Thirty-one princes or dukes; a great number of marquises, counts, barons, and knights; a multitude of noble families without titles, sixty of whom were inscribed in the Capitol by Benedict XIV. ; a vastextent of signiorial domains; a thousand palaces; a hundredpicture-galleries, large and small; a considerable revenue; a prodigaldisplay of horses, carriages, servants, and armorial bearings; somealmost royal entertainments in the course of every winter; the remainsof feudal privileges; and the respect of the lower orders: such arethe more remarkable features which distinguish the Roman nobility, andexpose it to the admiration of all the travelling cockneys of theuniverse. 

Ignorance, idleness, vanity, servility, and above all incapacity;these are the pet vices which place it below all the aristocracies inEurope. Should I meet with any exceptions on my road, I shall considerit my duty to point them out. 

The roots of the Roman nobility are very diverse. The Orsini and theColonna families descend from the heroes or brigands of the MiddleAges. That of Caetani dates from 730. The houses of Massimo, Santa-Croce, and Muti, go back to Livy in search of their founders. Prince Massimo bears in his shield the trace of the marchings andcounter-marchings of Fabius Maximus, otherwise called Cunctator. Hismotto is, _Cunctando restituit_. Santa-Croce boasts of being anoffshoot of Valerius Publicola. The Muti family counts Mutius Scævolaamong its ancestors. This nobility, whether authentic or not, is atall events very ancient, and is of independent origin. It has not beenhatched under the robes of the Popes. 

The second category is of Pontifical origin. Its titles and fortuneshave their origin in nepotism. In the course of the seventeenthcentury, Paul V. , Urban VIII. ; Innocent X. , Alexander VII. , ClementIX. , and Innocent XI. Created the houses of Borghese, Barberini, Pamphili, Chigi, Rospigliosi, and Odescalchi. They vied with oneanother in aggrandising their humble families. The domains of theBorghese house, which make a tolerably large spot on the map ofEurope, testify that Paul V. Was by no means an unnatural uncle. ThePopes have kept up the practice of ennobling their relations, but thescandal of their liberalities ceases with Pius VI. , another of theBraschi family (1775-1800). 

The last batch includes the bankers, such as Torlonia and Kuspoli, monopolists like Antonelli, millers like the Macchi, bakers like theDukes Grazioli, tobacconists like the Marchese Ferraiuoli, and farmerslike the Marchese Calabrini. 

I add, by way of memorandum, strangers, noble or not, as may be, whopurchase an estate, get a title thrown into the bargain. A short timeago a French petty country gentleman, who had a little money, woke upa Roman Prince one fine morning, the equal of the Dorias, Torlonias, and of the baker Duke Grazioli. 

For they are all equal from the hour when the Holy Father has signedtheir parchments. Whatever be the origin of their nobility and theantiquity of their houses, they go arm in arm, without any disputes asto precedence. The names of Orsini, Colonna, and Sforza, are jumbledtogether in the family of a former _domestique de place_. The son of abaker marries the daughter of a Lante de La Rovère, granddaughter of aPrince Colonna, and a Princess of Savoie-Carignan. There is no fearthat the famous quarrel of the princes and dukes, which so roused theindignation of our stately St. Simon, will ever be repeated among theRoman aristocracy. 

To what purpose should it be, gracious Heavens! Don't they wellknow--dukes and princes--that they are all alike inferior to theshabbiest of the cardinals? The day that a Capuchin receives the redhat, he acquires the right to splash the mud in their faces as herides past in his gilded coach. 

In all monarchical States, the king is the natural head of thenobility. The strongest term that a gentleman can make use of, inalluding to his house, is that it is as noble as the King. _As nobleas the Pope_ would be simply ludicrous, since a swineherd, the son ofa swineherd, may be elected Pope, and receive the oath of fidelityfrom all the Roman princes. They may well then consider themselvesupon an equality among themselves, these poor grandees, seeing thatthey are equally looked down upon by a few priests. 

They console themselves with the thought that they are superior to allthe laymen in the world. This soothing vanity, neither noisy norinsolent, but none the less firmly rooted in their hearts, enablesthem to swallow the daily affront of conscious inferiority. 

I am quite aware of the points in which they are inferior to theupstarts of the Church, but their affected superiority to other men isless evident to me. 

As to their courage. Some years have elapsed since they had theopportunity of proving it on the field of battle. [4]

Heaven forbids duelling. The Government inculcates the gentlervirtues. 

They are not wanting in a certain ostentatious and theatricalliberality. A Piombino sent his ambassador to the conference atVienna, allowing £4, 000 for the expenses of the mission. A Borghesegave the mob of Rome a banquet that cost £48, 000, to celebrate thereturn of Pius VII. Almost all the Roman princes open their palaces, villas, and galleries to the public. To be sure, old Sciarra used tosell permission to copy his pictures, but he was a notorious miser, and has found no imitators. 

They practise generally the virtue of charity, in a somewhatindiscriminate manner, from the love of patronage, from pride, habit, and weakness, because they are ashamed to refuse. They are by no meansbadly disposed, they are good--I stop at this word, lest I should gotoo far. 

They are not wanting in sense or intelligence. Prince Massimo isquoted for his good sense, and the two Caetani for their puns. Santa-Croce, though a little cracked, is no ordinary man. But what awretched education the Government gives them! When they are not thechildren, they are the pupils of priests, whose system principallyconsists in teaching them nothing. Get hold of a student of St. Sulpice, wash him tolerably clean, have him dressed by Alfred orPoole, and bejewelled by Castellani or Hunt and Roskel, let him learnto thrum a guitar, and sit upon a horse, and you'll have a Romanprince as good as the best of them. 

You probably think it natural that people brought up at Rome, in themidst of the finest works of art in the world, should take a littleinterest in art, and know something about it. Pray be undeceived. Thisman has never entered the Vatican except to pay visits; that one knowsnothing of his own gallery, but through the report of hishouse-steward. Another had never visited the Catacombs till he becamePope. They profess an elegant ignorance, which they think in goodtaste, and which will always be fashionable in a Catholic country. 

I have said enough about the heart, mind, and education of the Romannobility. A few words as to the fortunes of which they dispose. 

I have before me a list which I believe to be authentic, as I copiedit myself in a sure quarter. It comprises the net available incomes ofthe principal Roman families. I extract the most important:--

 Corsini . . . . . . . £20, 000 Borghese. . . . . . . 18, 000 Ludovisi. . . . . . . 14, 000 Grazioli. . . . . . . 14, 000 Doria. . . . . . . . . . 13, 000 Rospigliosi. . . . 10, 000 Colonna. . . . . . . . 8, 000 Odescalchi. . . . . 8, 000 Massimo. . . . . . . . 8, 000 Patrizi. . . . . . . . 6, 000 Orsini. . . . . . . . . 4, 000 Strozzi. . . . . . . . 4, 000 Torlonia. . . . . . . Unlimited. Antonelli. . . . . . . Ditto. 

It is not to be supposed that Grazioli, for instance, has himselfalone nearly as large a gross income as Prince Borghese and his twobrothers Aldobrandini and Salviati together. But the fact is that allthe more ancient families are burdened with heavy hereditary charges, which enormously reduce their incomes. They are obliged to keep upchapels, churches, hospitals, and whole chapters of fat canons, whilethe nobles of yesterday are not called upon to pay for either the fameor the sins of their ancestors. 

At all events the foregoing list proves the mediocrity as to wealth, as in everything else, of the Roman nobility. Not only are they unableto compete with the hard-working middle classes of London, Bâle, orAmsterdam, but they are infinitely less wealthy than the nobility ofRussia or of England. 

Is this because, as with us in France, an equitable law is constantlysubdividing large properties? No. The law of primogeniture is in fullvigour in the kingdom of the Pope, like every other abuse of the goodold times. They provide for their younger sons as they can, and fortheir daughters as they please. It is not parental justice that ruinsfamilies. I have even heard it said that the elder brother is notobliged to put on mourning when the younger dies; which is a clearsaving of so much black cloth. 

This being the case, why are not the Roman princes richer than theyare? It is to be accounted for by two excellent reasons, --the love ofshow, and bad management. 

Ostentation, the Roman disease, requires that every nobleman shouldhave a palace in the city, and a palace in the country: carriages, horses, lacqueys and liveries. They can do without mattresses, linen, and armchairs, but a gallery of pictures is indispensable. It is notthought necessary to have a decent dinner every Sunday, but it is tohave a terraced garden for the admiration of foreigners. Theseimaginary wants swallow up the income, and not unfrequently eat intothe capital. 

And yet I could point out half-a-dozen estates which could suffice forthe prodigalities of a sovereign, if they were managed in the English, or even in the French fashion, --if the owner were to interferepersonally, and see with his own eyes, instead of allowing a host ofmiddlemen to come between him and his property, who of course enrichthemselves at his expense. 

Not that the Roman princes knowingly allow their affairs to go toruin. They must by no means be confounded with the _grands seigneurs_of old France, who laughed over the wreck of their fortunes, andavenged themselves upon a steward by a _bon mot_ and a kick. The Romanprince has an office, with shelves, desks, and clerks, and devotessome hours a day to business, examining accounts, poring overparchments, and signing papers. But being at once incapable anduneducated, his zeal serves but to liberate the rogues about him fromresponsibility. I heard of a nobleman who had inherited an enormousfortune, who condemned himself to the labor of a clerk at £50 a year, who remained faithful to his desk even to extreme old age, and who, thanks to some blunder or other in management, died insolvent. 

Pity them if you please, but cast not the stone at them. They are suchas education has made them. Look at those brats of various ages fromsix to ten, walking along the Corso in double file, between a coupleof Jesuits. They are embryo Roman nobles. Handsome as little Cupids, in spite of their black coats and white neckcloths, they will all growup alike, under the shadow of their pedagogue's broad-brimmed hat. 

Already are their minds like a well-raked garden, from which ideashave been carefully rooted out. Their hearts are purged alike of goodand evil passions. Poor little wretches, they will not even have anyvices. 

As soon as they shall have passed their last examinations, andobtained their diplomas of ignorance, they will be dressed in thelatest London fashions, and be turned out into the public promenades. They will pace for ever the pavement of the Corso, they will wear outthe alleys of the Pincian Hill, the Villa Borghese, and the VillaPamphili. They will ride, drive, and walk about, armed with a whip, eye-glass, or cane, as may be, until they are made to marry. Regularat Mass, assiduous at the theatre, you may see them smile, gape, applaud, make the sign of the cross, with an equal absence of emotion. They are almost all inscribed on the list of some religious fraternityor other. They belong to no club, play timidly, rarely make a paradeof social irregularities, drink without enthusiasm, and never ruinthemselves by horse-racing. In short, their general conduct is beyondall praise; and the life of dolls made to say "Papa!" and "Mama!" isequally irreproachable. 

One fine day they attain their twenty-fifth year. At this age, anAmerican has already tried his hand at a dozen trades, made fourfortunes, and at least one bankruptcy, has gone through a couple ofcampaigns, had a lawsuit, established a new religious sect, killedhalf-a-dozen men with his revolver, freed a negress, and conquered anisland. An Englishman has passed some stiff examinations, beenattached to an embassy, founded a factory, converted a Catholic, goneround the world, and read the complete works of Walter Scott. AFrenchman has rhymed a tragedy, written for two newspapers, beenwounded in three duels, twice attempted suicide, vexed fourteenhusbands, and changed his politics nineteen times. A German hasslashed fifteen of his dearest friends, swallowed sixty hogsheads ofbeer and the Philosophy of Hegel, sung eleven thousand couplets, compromised a tavern waiting-maid, smoked a million of pipes, and beenmixed up with, at least, two revolutions. 

The Roman prince has done nothing, seen nothing, learnt nothing, lovednothing, suffered nothing. His parents or guardians open a cloistergate, take out a young girl as inexperienced as himself, and the pairof innocents are bidden to kneel before a priest, who gives thempermission to become parents of another generation of innocents likethemselves. 

Probably you expect to find them living unhappily together. Not atall. And yet the wife is pretty. The monotonous routine of her conventeducation has not so frozen her heart that she is incapable of loving;her uncultivated mind will spontaneously develope itself when it comesin contact with the world. She will not fail, ere long, to discoverthe inferiority of her husband. The more her education has beenneglected, the greater is her chance of remaining womanly, that is tosay, intelligent, tender, and charming. In truth, the harmony of theirhousehold is less likely to be disturbed at Rome than it would be atParis or Vienna. 

Yes, the huge extinguisher which Heaven holds suspended over the cityof Rome, stifles even the subtle spark of passion. If Vesuvius werehere, it would have been cold for the last forty years. The Romanprincesses were not a little talked of up to the end of the thirteenthcentury. Under the French rule their gallantry assumed a militarycomplexion. They used to go and see their admirers play billiards atthe Cafè Nuovo. But hypocrisy and morality have made immense progresssince the restoration. The few who have afforded matter for thescandalous chronicles of Rome are sexagenarians, and their adventuresare inscribed on the tablets of history, between Austerlitz andWaterloo. 

The young princess whom we have just seen entering upon her marriedlife, will begin by presenting her husband with sundry little princesand princesses; and there is no rampart against illicit affection likeyour row of little cradles. 

In five or six years, when she might have leisure for evil thoughts, she will be bound hand and foot by the exigencies of society. Youshall have a specimen of the mode in which she spends her days duringthe winter season. Her morning is devoted to dressing, breakfasting, her children, and her husband. From one to three she returns thevisits she has received, in the exact form in which they were paid toher. The first act of politeness is to go and see your acquaintance;the second, to leave your card in person; the third, to send the samebit of pasteboard by a servant _ad hoc_. At three, all the worlddrives to the Villa Borghese, where there is a general salutation ofacquaintances with the tips of the fingers. At four, up the Pincio. Atfive, it files backwards and forwards along the Corso. Everybody whois anybody is condemned to this triple promenade. If a singlewoman--who is anybody--were to absent herself, it would be inferred, as a matter of course, that she was ill, and a general inquiry as tothe nature of her complaint would be instituted. 

At close of day all go home. After dinner another toilette, and outfor the evening. Every house has its particular reception-night. And apure and simple reception indeed it is, without play, without music, without conversation; a mere interchange of bows and curtsies, andcold commonplaces. At rare intervals a ball breaks the ice, and shakesoff the _ennui_ generated by this system. Poor women! In an existenceat once so busy and so void, there is not even room for friendship. Two who may have been friends from childhood, brought up in the sameconvent, married into the same world, may meet one another daily andat all hours, and yet may not be able to enjoy ten minutes of intimateconversation in the whole year. The brightest, the best, is known butby her name, her title, and her fortune. Judgments are passed on herbeauty, her toilet, and her diamonds, but nobody has the opportunityor the leisure to penetrate into the depths of her mind. A reallydistinguished woman once said to me, "I feel that I become stupid whenI enter these drawing-rooms. Vacancy seizes me at the very threshold. "Another, who had lived in France, regretted, with tears, the absenceof those charming friendships, so cheerful and so cordial, that existbetween the young married women of Paris. 

When the Carnival arrives, it mingles everything without unitinganything. In truth, one is never more solitary than in the midst ofnoise and crowds. Then comes Lent; and then the grand comedy ofEaster; and after that the family departs for the country, whichmeans, economizing for some months in a huge half-furnished mansion. In short, the romance of a Roman Princess is made up of a certainnumber of noisy winters, and dull summers, and plenty of children. Ifthere be, by chance, any more exciting chapters, they are doubtlessknown to the confessor. 

"Ce ne sont pas là mes affaires. "

You must go far from Rome to find any real nobility. Here and there inthe Mediterranean provinces some fallen family may be met with, livingpoorly upon the produce of a small estate, and still looked up to witha certain respect by its wealthier neighbours. The lower ordersrespect it because it has been something once, and even because it isnothing under the present hated government. These little provincialaristocrats, ignorant, simple, and proud, are a sort of relic of theMiddle Ages left behind in the middle of the nineteenth century. Ionly mention them to recall the fact of their existence. 

But if you will accompany me over the Apennines, into the gloriouscities of the Romagna, I can show you more than one nobleman of greatname and ancient lineage, who cultivates at once his lands and hisintellect; who knows all that we know; who believes all that webelieve, and nothing more; who takes an active interest in themisfortunes of Italy, and who, looking to free and happy Europe, hopes, through the sympathy of nations and the justice of sovereigns, to obtain the deliverance of his country. I met in certain palaces atBologna a brilliant writer, applauded on every stage in Italy; alearned economist, quoted in the most serious reviews throughoutEurope; a controversialist, dreaded by the priests; and all theseindividualities united in the single person of a Marquis ofthirty-four, who may, perhaps, one of these days play an importantpart in the Italian revolution. 

CHAPTER VIII. 

FOREIGNERS. 

Permit me to open this chapter by recalling some recollections of thegolden age. 

A century or two ago, when old aristocracies, old royalties, and oldreligions imagined themselves eternal; when Popes innocently assuredthe fortunes of their nephews, and the welfare of their mistresses;when the simplicity of Catholic countries regilt annually thepontifical idol; when Europe contained some half-million ofindividuals who deemed themselves created for mutual understanding andamusement, without any thought of the classes beneath them, Rome wasthe Paradise of foreigners, and foreigners were the Providence ofRome. 

A gentleman of birth took it into his head to visit Italy, for thesake of kissing the Pope's toe, and perhaps other local curiosities. He managed to have a couple of years of leisure, --put three letters ofintroduction into one pocket, and 50, 000 crowns into the other, andstepped into his travelling carriage. 

In those days people did not go to Rome to spend a week there and awayagain; for it was a month or two's journey from France. The crack ofthe postilions' whips used to announce to the Eternal City in generalthe arrival of a distinguished guest. _Domestiques de place_ flockedto the call. The luckiest of them took possession of the new comer byentering his service. In a few days he provided his master with apalace, furniture, footmen, carriages, and horses. The foreignersettled himself comfortably, and then presented his letters ofintroduction. His credentials being examined, the best society at onceopened its arms to him, and cried, "You are one of us!" From thatmoment he was at home wherever he went. He was a guest at every house. He danced, supped, played, and made love to the ladies. And of course, in his turn, he opened his own palace to his liberal entertainers, adding a new feature to the brilliancy of a Roman winter. 

No foreigner failed to carry away with him some recollection of a cityso fertile in marvels. One bought pictures, another ancient marbles, this one medals, that one books. The trade of Rome prospered by thiscirculation of foreign money. 

The heats of summer drove away foreigners as well as natives; but theynever went far. Naples, Florence, or Venice offered them agreeablequarters till the return of the winter season. And they had excellentreasons for returning to Rome, which is the only city in the world inwhich one has never seen everything. Some of them so entirely forgottheir own countries, that death overtook them between the Piazza delPopolo and the Piazza de Venizia. If any exiled themselves to theirnative land, they did it in sheer self-defence, when their pocketswere empty. Rome bade them a tender adieu, piously keeping theirlikeness in its memory and their money in its coffers. 

The Revolution of 1793 somewhat disturbed this agreeable order ofthings; but it was a mere storm between two fine summer days. Neitherthe Roman aristocracy, nor its constant troop of guests, took thisbrutal overthrow of their elegant pleasures in earnest. The exile ofthe Pope, the French occupation, and many similar accidents, weresupported with a noble resignation, and forgotten with the readinessof good taste. 1815 passed a sponge over some years of very foulhistory. All the inscriptions which recalled the glory or thebeneficence of France were conscientiously erased. It was evenproposed to do away with the lighting of the streets, not only becausethey threw too strong a light upon certain nocturnal matters, butbecause they dated from the time of Miollis and De Tournon. Even now, in 1859, the fleur-de-lis points out what is French property. A marbletable in the church of San Luigi dei Francesi promises indulgence tothose who will pray for the king of France. The French convent of theTrinità dei Monti--that worthy claustral establishment which sold usthe picture of Daniel di Volterra and then took it back--possesses theportraits of all the kings of France, from Pharamond to Charles X. There you see Louis XVII. Between Louis XVI. And Louis XVIII. ; but inthis historical gallery there is no more mention of Napoleon or ofLouis-Philippe, than of Nana-Sahib or Marat. 

A city so respectful to the past, so faithful to the worship of bygonerecollections, is the natural asylum of sovereigns fallen from theirthrones. It is to Rome that they come to foment their contusions, andto heal the wounds of their pride. They live there agreeably, surrounded by the few followers who have remained faithful to them. Aminiature court, assembled in their antechamber, crowns them inprivate, hails them on rising with epithets of royalty, and poursforth incense in their dressing-room. The Roman nobility, andforeigners of distinction, live with them in an unequal intimacy, humbling themselves in order that they may be raised; and sowing agreat deal of veneration to reap a very light crop of familiarity. ThePope and his Cardinals, upon principle, are lavish of attentions whichthey would perhaps refuse them on the throne. In short, the king whohas been the most battered and shaken by his fall, and the mostill-used by his ungrateful subjects, has but to take refuge in Rome, and by the double aid of a vivid imagination and a well-filled purse, he may persuade himself that he is still reigning over an absentpeople. 

The reverses of royalty which ended the eighteenth and commenced thenineteenth centuries, sent to Rome a colony of crowned heads. Themodifications which European society has undergone have more recentlybrought many less illustrious guests, not even members of thearistocracy of their own country. It is certain that for the lastfifty years, wealth, education, and talent have shared the rightsformerly belonging to birth alone. Rome has seen foreigners arrivingin travelling carriages who were not born great, --distinguishedartists, eminent writers, diplomatists sprung from the people, tradesmen elevated to the rank of capitalists, men of the world whoare in their place everywhere, because everywhere they know how tolive. The best society did not receive them without submitting them tocareful inquiry, in order to ascertain that they brought no dangerousdoctrines; and then it seemed to say to them: "You cannot be ourrelations--be our masonic brothers!"

I have said that the Roman princes are, if not without pride, at leastwithout arrogance. This observation extends to the princes of theChurch. They welcome a foreigner of modest condition, provided hespeaks and thinks like themselves upon two or three capital questions, has a profound veneration for certain time-honoured lumber, and cursesheartly certain innovations. You must show them the white paw of thefable, if you wish them to open their doors to you. 

On this point they are immovable. They will not listen to rank, tofortune, or even to the most imperious political necessities. IfFrance were to send them an ambassador who failed to show them thewhite paw, the ambassador of France would not get inside the doors ofthe aristocratic _salons_. If Horace Vernet were named director of theAcademy, neither his name nor his office would open to him certainhouses where he was received as a friend previously to 1830. And why?Because Horace Vernet was one of the public men of the Revolution ofJuly. 

Do not imagine, however, that paying respect to Cardinals involvespaying respect to religion, or that it is necessary to attend Mass inorder to get invited to balls. What is absolutely indispensable is, tobelieve that everything at Rome is good, to regard the Papacy as anarch, the Cardinals as so many saints, abuses as principles, and toapplaud the march of the Government, even though it stand still. It isconsidered good taste to praise the virtues of the lower orders, theirsimple faith, and their indifference as to political affairs, and todespise that middle-class which is destined to bring about the nextrevolution. 

I conversed much with some of the foreigners who live in Rome, and whomix with its best society. One of the most distinguished and the mostagreeable of them often gave me advice which, though I have notfollowed, I have not forgotten. 

"My dear friend, " he used to say, "I know but two ways of writing about Rome. You must choose for yourself. If you declaim against the priestly government, its abuses, vices, and injustice; against the assassinations, the uncultivated lands, the bad air, the filthiness of the streets; against the many scandals, the hypocrisies, the robberies, the lotteries, the Ghetto, and all that follows as a matter of course, you will earn the somewhat barren honour of having added the thousand and first pamphlet to those which have appeared since the time of Luther. All has been said that can be said against the Popes. A man who pretends to originality should not lend his voice to the chorus of brawling reformers. Remember, too, that the Government of this country, though very mild and very paternal, never forgives! Even if it wished to do so, it cannot. It must defend its principle, which is sacred. Don't close the gates of Rome against yourself. You will be so glad to revisit it, and we shall be so happy to receive you again! If you wish to support a new and original theme, and to gain fame which will not be wholly unprofitable, dare to declare boldly that everything is good--even that which all agree to pronounce bad. Praise without restriction an order of things which has been solidly maintained for eighteen centuries. Prove that everything here is firmly established, and that the network of pontifical institutions is linked together by a powerful logic. Bravely resist those aspirations after reform which may haply urge you to demand such and such changes. Remember that you cannot disturb old constitutions with impunity; that the displacement of a single stone may bring down the whole edifice. How do you know, that the particular abuse which most offends you is not absolutely necessary to the very existence of Rome? Good and evil mixed together form a cement more durable than the elaborately selected materials of which modern utopias are made. I who tell you this have been here many years, and am quite comfortable and contented. Whither should I go if Rome were to be turned topsy-turvy? Where should we establish our dethroned sovereigns? Where would a home be found for Roman Catholic worship? You have no doubt been told that some people are dissatisfied with the administration: but what of that? They are not of _our_ world. You never meet them in the good society you frequent. If the demands of the middle class were to be complied with, everything would be overturned. Have you any wish to see manufactories erected round St. Peter's and turnip fields about the fountain of Egeria? These native shopkeepers seem to imagine the country belongs to them because they happen to be born in it. Can one conceive a more ridiculous pretension? Let them know that Rome is the property in copartnership of people of birth, of people of taste, and of artists. It is a museum confided to the guardianship of the Holy Father; a museum of old monuments, old pictures, and old institutions. Let all the rest of the world change, but build me a Chinese wall round the Papal States, and never let the sound of the railway-whistle be heard within its sacred precincts! Let us preserve for admiring posterity at least one magnificent specimen of absolute power, ancient art, and the Roman Catholic religion!"

This is the language of foreign inhabitants of Rome of the oldstamp, --estimable people, and sincere believers, who have gone on yearafter year witnessing the ceremonies of St. Peter's, and the _Fête desOignons_ in the St. John Lateran, till they have acquired anecclesiastical turn of thought and expression, a habit of seeingthings through the spectacles of the Sacred College, and a faith whichhas no sympathy with the outer world. I do not share their opinions, and I have never found their advice particularly useful; but theyinterest me, I like them, and I sincerely pity them. Who can tell whatevents they are destined to witness in their time? Who can foresee thespectacles which the future reserves for them, and the changes thattheir habits will be made to undergo by the Italian revolution?Already their hearing is distracted by the locomotives that rushbetween Rome and Frascati; already the shriek of the steam-blast dailyand nightly hisses insolently at the respectable comedy of the pastbetween Rome and Civita Vecchia. Steamboats, another engine ofdisorder, furnish the bi-weekly means of an invasion of the mostdangerous character. Those dozens of travellers who throng the streetsand the squares are about as much like our good old foreign tourists, as the barbarians of Attila were like the worthy Spaniard who came toRome on purpose to see Titus Livius. 

Examine them carefully; they are of every possible condition; for nowthat travelling costs next to nothing, everybody is able to affordhimself a sight of Rome. Briefless barristers, physicians withoutpractice, office-clerks, poor students, apprentices, and shop-boysdrop down like hail on the Eternal City, for the sake of saying thatthey have taken the Communion in it. The Holy Week brings every year aswarm of these locusts. Their entire _impedimenta_ consist of acarpet-bag and an umbrella, and of course they put up at a hotel. Infact hotels have been built on purpose to receive them. When everybodyhired houses, there was no need of hotels. The 'Minerva' is the typeof the modern Roman caravansary. Your bed is charged half-a-crown pernight; you dine in a refectory with a traveller at each elbow. Thecharacter of the travelling class which invades Rome about Easter isillustrated by the conversation which you hear going on around you atthe _table d'hôte_ of the 'Minerva. ' The following is a specimen:--

One says triumphantly, "I have _done_ two museums, three galleries, and four ruins, to-day. "

"I stuck to the churches, " says another, "I had floored seventeen byone o'clock. "

"The deuce you had! You keep the game alive. "

"Yes, I want to have a whole day left for the suburbs. "

"Oh, burn the suburbs! I've got no time to see them. "

If I have a day to spare, I must devote it to _buying chaplets_. "[5]

"I suppose you've seen the Villa Borghese?"

"Oh yes, I consider that in the city, although it is in fact outsidethe walls. "

"How much did they charge you for going over it?"

"A paul. "

"I paid two--I've been robbed. "

"As for that, they're all robbers. "

"You're right, but the sight of Rome is worth all it costs. "

Shades of the travellers of the olden time--delicate, subtle, genialspirits--what think you of conversations such as this? Surely you mustopine that your footmen knew Rome better, and talked more to thepurpose about it. 

Across the table I hear a citizen of London town narrating to acurious audience how he has to-day seen the two great lions ofRome, --the Coliseum, and Cardinal Antonelli. The conclusion he arrivesat is, that the first is a very fine ruin, and the second a veryclever man. 

A provincial dowager of the devotee class, is worth listening to. Shehas toiled through the entire ceremonies of the Holy Week. She hasknelt close to the Pope, and declares his mode of giving theBenediction the most sublime thing on earth. The good lady has sparedneither time nor money in order to carry home a choice collection of_relics_. Among other objects of adoration she has a bone of St. Perpetua, and a real bit of the real Cross. Not satisfied with these, she is bent on obtaining the Pope's palm-branch, the very identicalpalm-branch which his Holiness has carried in his own sacred hand. This is with her a fixed idea, a positive question of salvation. Thepoor old soul has not the smallest doubt, that this bit of stick willopen for her the gates of Paradise. She has made her request to apriest, who will transmit it to a Monsignore, who will forward it to aCardinal. Her importunity and her simplicity will, doubtless, movesomebody. She will get the precious bough, and she is convinced thatwhen she arrives at home with it, all the devotees in the provincewill burst with envy. 

Among these batches of ridiculous travellers, you are certain to findsome ecclesiastics. Here is one from our own country. You have knownhim in France. Does not he strike you as being somewhat changed? Notin his looks, but his manner. Beneath the shadow of his own churchtower, in the midst of his own flock, he used to be the mildest, themeekest, and most modest of parish priests. He bowed low to the Mayor, and to the most microscopic of the authorities. At Rome, his hat seemsglued to his head. I almost think--Heaven forgive me!--it is a triflecocked. How jauntily his cassock is tucked up! How he struts along thestreet! Is not his hand on his hip? Something very like it. The reasonof this change is as clear as the sun at noon. He is in a kingdomgoverned by his own class. He inhales an atmosphere impregnated withclerical pride and theocratic omnipotence. Phiz! It is a bottle ofchampagne saluting him with the cork. By the time he has drunk all thecontents of the intoxicating beverage, he will begin to mutter betweenhis teeth that the French clergy does not get its deserts, and that weare a long time in restoring to it the property taken away by theRevolution. 

I actually heard this argument maintained on board the steamer whichbrought me back to France. The principal passengers were PrinceSouworf, Governor of the province of Riga, one of the mostdistinguished men in Europe; M. De la Rochefoucauld, attached to theFrench embassy; M. De Angelis, a highly educated and reallydistinguished _mercante di campagna_; M. Oudry, engineer of the CivitaVecchia railway: and a French ecclesiastic of a respectable age andcorpulence. This reverend personage, who was nowise disinclined toargumentation, and who had just left a country where the priests arenever wrong, took to holding-forth after dinner upon the merits of thePontifical Government. I answered as well as I could, like a manunaccustomed to public speaking. Driven to my last entrenchments, andcalled upon to relate some fact which should not redound to the Pope'scredit, I chose, at hazard, a recent event then known to all Rome, asit was speedily about to be to all Europe. My honourable interlocutormet my statement with the most unqualified, formal, and unhesitatingdenial. He accused me of impudently calumniating an innocentadministration, and of propagating lies fabricated by the enemies ofreligion. His language was so sublimely authoritative, that I feltconfounded, overpowered, crushed, and, for a moment, I asked myselfwhether I had not really been telling a lie. 

The story I had related was that of the boy Mortara. 

But I return to Rome and our travellers in the trumpery line. Those weoverheard before are already gone. But their places have been quicklyfilled. They follow one another, like vapours rising from the ocean, and they are as much like one another as one sea-wave is to itspredecessor. See them laying-in their stocks of Roman _souvenirs_ atthe shops in the Corso and the Via Condotti. Their selections areprincipally from the cheap rosaries, coarse mosaics, and giltjewellery, and generally those articles of which a lot may be had fora crown-piece. They care little for what is really good in its way;all they want is something which can be bought nowhere but at Rome, and which will serve to their descendants as the evidence of theirvisit to the Eternal City. They haggle as if they were at market, andyet, when they get back to the 'Minerva, ' they wonder they have solittle to show for their money. 

If they took home nothing worse than their cheap rosaries, I shouldnot find fault with them; but they carry opinions and impressions. Don't tell them of the abuses which swarm throughout the kingdom ofthe Pope. They will bridle up, and answer that for their parts theynever saw a single one. As the surface of things is smooth, at leastin the best quarter of the town--the only quarter these good folks arelikely to have seen--they assume, as a matter of course, that all iswell. They have seen the Pope and the Cardinals in all their glory andall their innocence at the Sistine Chapel; and of course it is not onEaster Sunday, and in the eyes of the whole multitude, that CardinalAntonelli occupies himself with his business or his pleasures. WhenMonsignore B---- dishonoured a young girl, who died of the outrage, and then sent her affianced bridegroom to the galleys, he did notselect the Sistine Chapel as the theatre of his exploits. 

You must not attempt to extract pity for the Italian nation from theseforeign pilgrims of the Holy Week. The honest souls have marked theuncultivated waste which extends from Civita Vecchia to Rome, and theyhave at once inferred that the people are idle. They have beenimportuned for alms by miserable-looking objects in the streets, andthey conclude that the lower class is a class of beggars. 

The cicerone who took them about, whispered some significant words intheir ears, and they are persuaded that every Italian is in the habitof offering his wife or his daughter to foreigners. You would astonishthese profound observers immeasurably, if you were to tell them thatthe Pope has three millions of subjects who in no way resemble theRoman rabble. 

Thus it happens that the flying visitor, the superficial traveller, the communicant of the Holy Week, the guest of the 'Minerva, ' is aready-made foe to the nation, a natural defender of the clericalgovernment. 

As for the permanent foreign visitors, if they be men enervated by theclimate or by pleasure, indifferent to the fate of nations, strangersto political chicane, they will, in the natural order of events, become converted to the ideas of the Roman aristocracy, between aquadrille and a cup of chocolate. 

If they be studious men, or men of action, sent for a specific object, charged to unravel certain mysteries, or to support certainprinciples, their conversion will be undertaken in due form. 

I have seen officers, bold, frank, off-hand men, nowise suspected ofJesuitism, who have allowed themselves to be gently carried away intothe by-paths of reaction by an invisible influence, until they havebeen heard swearing, like pagans, against the enemies of the Pope. Even our own generals, less easy to be caught, are sometimes laid holdof. The Government cajoles them without loving them. 

No effort is spared to persuade them that all is for the best. TheRoman princes, who think themselves superior to all men, treat themupon a footing of perfect equality. The Cardinals caress them. Thesemen in petticoats possess marvellous seductions, and are irresistiblein the art of wheedling. The Holy Father himself converses now withone, now with the other, and addresses each as "My dear General!" Asoldier must be very ungrateful, very badly taught, and have fallenoff sadly from the old French chivalry, if he refuses to let himselfbe killed at the gates of the Vatican where his vanity has been socharmingly tickled. 

Our ambassadors, too, are resident foreigners, exposed to the personalflatteries of Roman society. Poor Count de Rayneval! He was so petted, and cajoled, and deceived, that he ended by penning the _Note_ of the14th of May, 1856. 

His successor, the Duke de Gramont, is not only an accomplishedgentleman, but a man of talent, with a highly cultivated mind. TheEmperor sent him from Turin to Rome, so it was to be expected that thePontifical Government would appear to him doubly detestable, first, from its own defects, and then by comparison with what he had justquitted. I had the honour of conversing with this brilliant youngdiplomatist, shortly after his arrival, when the Roman people expecteda great deal of him. I found him opposed to the ideas of the Count deRayneval, and very far from disposed to countersign the _Note_ of the14th of May. Nevertheless, he was beginning to judge theadministration of the Cardinals, and the grievances of the people, with something more than diplomatic impartiality. If I were to expresswhat appeared to be his opinion, in common parlance, I should say hewould have put the governors and the governed in a bag together. Iwould wager that, three months afterwards, the bag would contain nonebut the governed, and that he would think it only fit to be flung intothe water. Such is the influence of ecclesiastical cajoleries overeven the most gifted minds. 

What can the Romans hope from our diplomacy, when they see one of themost notorious lacqueys of the Pontifical coterie lording it at theFrench Embassy? The name of the upright man I allude to is Lasagni;his business is that of a consistorial advocate; we pay him fordeceiving us. He is known for a _Nero_, --that is, a fanaticalreactionist. The secretaries of the embassy despise him, and yet arefamiliar with him; tell him they know he is going to lie, and yetlisten to what he says. He smirks, bends double, pockets his money andlaughs at us in his sleeve. Verily, friend Lasagni, you are quiteright! But I regret the eighteenth century--there were then suchthings as canes. 

CHAPTER IX. 

ABSOLUTE CHARACTER OF THE TEMPORAL POWER OF THE POPE. 

The Counsellor de Brosses, who wished no harm to the Pope, wrote in1740:--"The Papal Government, although in fact the worst in Europe, isat the same time the mildest. "

The Count de Tournon, an honest man, an excellent economist, aConservative as to all existing powers, and a judge rather too muchprejudiced in favour of the Popes, said, in 1832:--

 "From this concentration of the powers of pontiff, bishop, and sovereign, naturally arises the most absolute authority possible over temporal affairs; but the exercise of this authority, tempered by the usages and forms of government, is even still more so by the virtues of the Pontiffs who for many years have filled the chair of St. Peter; so that this most absolute of governments is exercised with extreme mildness. The Pope is an elective sovereign; his States are the patrimony of Catholicism, because they are the pledge of the independence of the chief of the faithful, and the reigning Pope is the supreme administrator, the guardian of this domain. "

Finally, the Count de Rayneval, the latest and least felicitousapologist of the Papacy, made in 1856 the following admissions:--

 "_Not long ago_ the ancient traditions of the Court of Rome were faithfully observed. All modifications of established usages, all improvements, even material, were viewed with an evil eye, and seemed full of danger. Public affairs were exclusively managed by prelates. The higher posts in the State were by law interdicted to laymen. In practice the different powers were often confounded. The principle of pontifical infallibility was applied to administrative questions. The personal decision of the Sovereign had been known to reverse the decision of the tribunals, even in civil matters. The Cardinal Secretary of State, first minister in the fullest extent of the term, concentred in his own hands all the powers of the State. Under his supreme direction the different branches of the administration were confided to clerks rather than ministers. These neither formed a council, nor deliberated together upon the affairs of the State. The public finances were administered in the most profound secrecy. No information was communicated to the nation as to the mode in which its revenues were spent. Not only did the budget remain a mystery, but it was afterwards discovered that the accounts were frequently not made up and balanced. Lastly, municipal liberties, which are appreciated above all others by the Italians, and which more particularly respond to their real tendencies, had been submitted to the most restrictive measures. _But from the day on which Pope Pius IX. Ascended the throne_" etc. Etc. 

Thus we find that the _not long ago_ of the Count de Rayneval is anexact date. It means, in good French, "before the election of PiusIX. , " or again, "up to the 16th of June, 1846. "

Thus also M. De Brosses, if he could have returned to Rome in 1846, would have found there, by the admission of the Count de Raynevalhimself, the worst government in Europe. 

And thus the most absolute of governments, as M. De Tournon calls it, still existed in Rome in 1846. 

Up to the 16th of June, 1846, Catholicity owned the six millions ofacres of which the Roman territory consists; the Pope was theadministrator, the guardian, the steward; and the citizens of theState seem to have been the ploughmen. 

Up to this era of deliverance, a systematic despotism had deprived thesubjects of the Pope, not only of all participation in public affairs, but of the simplest and most legitimate liberties, of the mostinnocuous progress, and even--I shudder as I write it--of recourse tothe laws. The whim of one man had arbitrarily reversed the decisionsof the courts of law. And lastly, an incapable and disorderly castehad wasted the public finances without rendering an account to anyone, occasionally even without rendering it to themselves. All thesestatements must be believed, because it is the Count de Rayneval whomakes them. 

Before proceeding, I maintain that this state of things, now admittedby the apologists of the Papacy, justifies all the discontent of thesubjects of the Pope, all their complaints, all their recriminations, all their outbreaks previous to 1846. 

But let me ask this question. Is it true that, since 1846, the PapalGovernment has ceased to be the worst in Europe?

If you can show me a worse, I will go and announce the discovery atRome, and I rather fancy I shall considerably astonish the Romans. 

Is the absolute authority of the Papacy limited in any way but by theindividual virtues of the Pope? No. 

Does the Constitution of 1848, or the _Motu Proprio_ of 1849, setlimits to this authority? No. The first has been torn up, the secondnever observed. 

Has the Pope renounced his title of administrator, or irresponsibleguardian of the patrimony of Catholicism? Never. 

Is the management of public affairs exclusively in the hand ofprelates? As much so as ever. 

Are the higher posts in the State still by law interdicted to laymen?Not by law, but in fact they are. 

Are the different powers still confounded in practice? More so thanthey ever were. The governors of cities act as judges, and the bishopsas public administrators. 

Has the Pope abandoned any portion of his infallibility as to worldlymatters? None whatever. 

Has he deprived himself of the right of overruling the decisions ofthe Courts of Appeal? No. 

Has the Cardinal Secretary of State ceased to be a reigning Minister?He reigns as absolutely as ever; and the other ministers are more likefootmen than clerks to him. They may be seen any morning waiting inhis antechamber. 

Is there a Council of Ministers? Yes, whereat the Ministers attend toreceive the Cardinal's orders. 

Are the public finances publicly administered? No. 

Does the nation vote the taxes, or are they taken from the nation? Theold system still exists. 

Are municipal liberties at all extended? They were greater in 1816than they are at present. 

At the present day, as in the days of the most extreme pontificaldespotism, the Pope is all in all; he has all; he can do all; heexercises a perpetual dictatorship, without control or limit. 

I own no systematic aversion to the exceptional exercise of adictatorship. The ancient Romans knew its value, often had recourse toit, and derived benefit from it. When the enemy was at the gates, andthe Republic in danger, the Senate and the people, usually sosuspicious, placed all their rights in the hands of one man, andcried, "Save us!" Some grand dictatorships are to be found in thehistory of all times and all peoples. If we examine the differentstages of humanity, we shall find almost at every one a dictator. Onedictatorship created the unity of France, another its militarygreatness, and a third its prosperity in peace. Benefits so importantas these, which nations cannot acquire alone, are well worth thetemporary sacrifice of every liberty. A man of genius, who is at thesame time an honest man, and who becomes invested with a boundlessauthority, is almost a God upon earth. 

But the duties of the dictator are in exact proportion to the extentof his powers. A parliamentary sovereign, who walks in a narrow pathtraced out by two Chambers, and who hears discussed in the morningwhat he is to do in the evening, is almost innocent of the faults ofhis reign. On the contrary, the less a dictator is responsible for hisactions by the terms of the Constitution, the more does he become soin the eyes of posterity. History will reproach him for the good hehas failed to do, when he could do everything; and his omissions willbe accounted to him for crimes. 

I will add, that under no circumstances should the dictatorship lastlong. Not only would it be an absurdity to attempt to make ithereditary, but the man who should think of exercising it perpetuallywould be insane. A sick patient allows himself to be bound by thesurgeon who is about to save his life; but when the operation is overhe demands to be set at liberty. Nations act in a like manner. Fromthe day when the benefits conferred by the master cease to compensatefor the loss of liberty, the nation demands the restoration of itsrights, and a wise dictator will comply with the demand. 

I have often conversed in the Papal States with enlightened andhonourable men, who rank as the heads of the middle class. They havesaid to me almost unanimously:--

 "If a man were to drop down from Heaven among us with sufficient power to cut to the root of abuses, to reform the administration, to send the priests to church and the Austrians to Vienna, to promulgate a civil code, make the country healthy, restore the plains to cultivation, encourage manufactures, give freedom to commerce, construct railways, secularize education, propagate modern ideas, and put us into a condition to bear comparison with the most enlightened countries in Europe, we would fall at his feet, and obey him as we do God. You are told that we are ungovernable. Give us but a prince capable of governing, and you shall see whether we will haggle about the conditions of power! Be he who he may, and come he whence he may, he shall be absolutely free to do what he chooses, so long as there is anything to be done. All we ask is, that when his task is accomplished, he shall let us share the power with him. Rest assured that even then we shall give him good measure. The Italians are accommodating, and are not ungrateful. But ask us not to support this everlasting, do-nothing, tormenting, ruinous dictatorship, which a succession of decrepit old men transmit from one to another. Nor do they even exercise it themselves; but each in his turn, too weak to govern, hastens to shift a burden which overpowers him, and delivers us, bound hand and foot, to the worst of his Cardinals!"

It is too true that the Popes do not themselves exercise theirabsolute power. If the _White Pope_, or the Holy Father, governedpersonally, we might hope, with a little aid from the imagination, that a miracle of grace would make him walk straight. He is rarelyvery capable or very highly educated: but as the statue of theCommendatore said, "He who is enlightened by Heaven wants no otherlight. " Unfortunately the _White Pope_ transfers his politicalfunctions to a _Red Pope_, that is to say, an omnipotent andirresponsible Cardinal, under the name of a Secretary of State. Thisone man represents the sovereign within and without, --speaks for him, acts for him, replies to foreigners, commands his subjects, expressesthe Pope's will, and not unfrequently imposes his own upon him. 

This second-hand dictator has the best reasons in the world forabusing his power. If he could hope to succeed his master, and wearthe crown in his turn, he might set an example, or make a show, of allthe virtues. But it is impossible for a Secretary of State to beelected Pope. Not only is custom opposed to it, but human natureforbids it. Never will the Cardinals in conclave assembled agree amongone another to crown the man who has ruled them all during a reign. Old Lambruschini had taken all his measures to secure his election. There were very few Cardinals who had not promised him their voices, and yet it was Pius IX. Who ascended the throne. The illustriousConsalvi, one of the great statesmen of our age, made the same attemptwith as little success. After such instances it is clear that CardinalAntonelli has no chance of attaining the tiara; and therefore nointerest in doing good. 

If he could at least hope that the successor of Pius IX. Would retainhim in his functions, he might observe a little caution. But it hasnever yet happened that the same Secretary of State has reigned undertwo Popes. Such an event never will occur, because it never hasoccurred. We are in a land where the future is the very humble servantof the past. Tradition absolutely requires that a new Pope shoulddisgrace the favourite of his predecessor, by way of initiating hisPapacy with a stroke of popularity. 

Thus every Secretary of State is duly warned that whenever his mastertakes the road heavenward, he must become lost again in the commonherd of the Sacred College. He feels, therefore, that he ought to makethe best possible use of his time. 

He has, moreover, the comfortable assurance that after his disgrace, he will not be called upon for any account of his past deeds; for theleast of the Cardinals is as inviolable as the twelve Apostles. Surely, then, he would be a fool to refuse anything while he has thepower to take it. 

This is the place to sketch, in a few pages, the portraits of the twomen, --one of whom possesses, and the other exercises, the dictatorshipover three millions of unfortunate beings. 

CHAPTER X. 

PIUS IX. 

Old age, majesty, and misfortune have a claim to the respect of allright-minded persons: fear not that I shall be wanting in suchrespect. 

But truth has also its claims: it also is old, it is majestic, it isholy, and it is sometimes cruelly ill-treated by men. 

I shall not forget that the Pope is sixty-seven years of age, that hewears a crown officially venerated by a hundred and thirty-ninemillions of Catholics, that his private life has ever been exemplary, that he observes the most noble disinterestedness upon a throne whereselfishness has long held sway, that he spontaneously commenced hisreign by conferring benefits, that his first acts held out the fairesthopes to Italy and to Europe, that he has suffered the lingeringtorture of exile, that he exercises a precarious and dependent royaltyunder the protection of two foreign armies, and that he lives underthe control of a Cardinal. But those who have fallen victims to theefforts made to replace him on his throne, those whom the Austrianshave, at his request, shot and sabred, in order to re-establish hisauthority, and even those who toil in the plague-stricken plains ofthe Roman Campagna to fill his treasury, are far more to be pitiedthan he is. 

Giovanni-Maria, dei Conti Mastai Ferretti, born the 13th May, 1792, and elected Pope the 16th June, 1846, under the name of Pius IX. , is aman who looks more than his actual age; he is short, obese, somewhatpallid, and in precarious health. His benevolent and sleepycountenance breathes good-nature and lassitude, but has nothing of animposing character. Gregory XVI. , though ugly and pimply, is said tohave had a grand air. 

Pius IX. Plays his part in the gorgeous shows of the Roman CatholicChurch indifferently well. The faithful who have come from afar to seehim perform Mass, are a little surprised to see him take a pinch ofsnuff in the midst of the azure-tinted clouds of incense. In his hoursof leisure he plays at billiards for exercise, by order of hisphysicians. 

He believes in God. He is not only a good Christian, but a devotee. Inhis enthusiasm for the Virgin Mary, he has invented a useless dogma, and disfigured the Piazza di Spagna by a monument of bad taste. Hismorals are pure, as they always have been, even when he was a youngpriest: such instances are common enough among our clergy, but rare, not to say miraculous, beyond the Alps. 

He has nephews, who, wonderful to relate, are neither rich norpowerful, nor even princes. And yet there is no law which prevents himfrom spoiling his subjects for the benefit of his family. GregoryXIII. Gave his nephew Ludovisi £160, 000 of good paper, worth so muchcash. The Borghese family bought at one stroke ninety-five farms withthe money of Paul V. A commission which met in 1640, under thepresidence of the Reverend Father Vitelleschi, General of the Jesuits, decided, in order to put an end to such abuses, that the Popes shouldconfine themselves to entailing property to the amount of £16, 000 ayear upon their favourite nephew and his family (with the right ofcreating a second heir to the same privileges), and that the portionof each of their nieces should not exceed £36, 000. 

I am aware that nepotism fell into desuetude at the commencement ofthe eighteenth century; but there was nothing to prevent Pius IX. Frombringing it into fashion again, after the example of Pius VI. , if hechose; but he does not choose to do so. His relations are of thesecond order of nobility, and are not rich: he has done nothing toalter their position. His nephew, Count Mastai Ferretti, was recentlymarried; and the Pope's wedding present consisted of a few diamonds, worth about £8000. Nor did this modest gift cost the nation onebaioccho. The diamonds came from the Sovereign of Turkey. Some tenyears ago the Sultan of Constantinople, the Commander of the Faithful, presented the commander of the unfaithful with a saddle embroideredwith precious stones. The travellers in the restoring line, who usedto flock to Gaeta and Portici, carried off a great number of them intheir bags; what they left are in the casket of the young CountessFerretti. 

The character of this respectable old man, is made up of devotion, simplicity, vanity, weakness, and obstinacy, with an occasional touchof rancour. He blesses with unction, and pardons with difficulty; heis a good priest, and an insufficient king. 

His intellect, which has raised such great hopes, and caused suchcruel disappointment, is of a very ordinary capacity. I can hardlythink he is infallible in temporal matters. His education is that ofthe average of cardinals in general. He talks French pretty well. 

The Romans formed an exaggerated opinion of him at his accession, andhave done so ever since. In 1847, when he honestly manifested a desireto do good, they called him a great man, whereas in point of fact hewas simply a worthy man who wished to act better than his predecessorshad done, and thereby to win some applause from Europe. In 1859, hepasses for a violent re-actionist, because events have discouraged hisgood intentions: and above all, because Cardinal Antonelli, whomasters him by fear, violently draws him backwards. I consider him asmeriting neither past admiration nor present hatred. I pity him forhaving loosened the rein upon his people, without possessing thefirmness requisite to restrain them seasonably. I pity still more thatinfirmity of character which now allows more evil to be done in hisname than he has ever himself done good. 

The failure of all his enterprises, and three or four accidents whichhappened in his presence, have given rise to the popular belief thatthe Vicar of Jesus Christ is what the Italians call _jettatore_--inother words, that he has the _evil eye_. When he drives along theCorso, the old women fall down on their knees, but they snap theirfingers at him beneath their cloaks. 

The members of the Italian secret societies impute to him--though forother reasons--all the evils which afflict their country. It isevident that the Italian question would be greatly simplified, ifthere were no Pope at Rome; but the hatred of the Mazzinists againstPius IX. Is to be condemned in all its personal aspects. They wouldkill him to a certainty, if our troops were not there to defend him. This murder would be as unjust as that of Louis XVI. , and as useless. The guillotine would deprive a good old man of his life, but it wouldnot put an end to the bad principle of sacerdotal monarchy. 

I did not seek an audience of Pius IX. ; I neither kissed his hand norhis slipper; the only mark of attention I received from him was a fewlines of insult in the _Giornale di Roma_. Still, I never can hear himaccused without defending him. 

Let my readers for a moment put themselves in the place of this tooillustrious and too unfortunate old man. After having been for nearlytwo years the favourite of public opinion, and the _lion_ of Europe, he found himself obliged to quit the Quirinal palace at a moment'snotice. At Gaeta and Portici he tasted those lingering hours whichsour the spirit of the exile. A grand and time-honoured principle, ofwhich the legitimacy is not doubtful to him, was violated in hisperson. His advisers unanimously said to him:

 "It is your own fault. You have endangered the monarchy by your ideas of progress. The immobility of governments is the _sine quâ non_ of the stability of thrones. You will not doubt this, if you read again the history of your predecessors. "

He had had time to become converted to this belief, when the armies ofthe Catholic powers once more opened for him the road to Rome. Overjoyed at seeing the principle saved, he vowed to himself neveragain to compromise it, but to reign without progress, according topapal tradition. But these very foreign powers who had saved hiscrown, were the first to impose on him the condition of advancing!What was to be done? He was equally afraid to promise everything, andto refuse everything. After a long hesitation, he promised in spite ofhimself; then he absolved himself, for the sake of the future, fromthe engagements he had made for the sake of the present. 

Now he is out of humour with his people, with the French, and withhimself. He knows the nation is suffering, but he allows himself to bepersuaded that the misfortunes of the nation are indispensable to thesafety of the Church. Those about him take care that the reproaches ofhis conscience shall be stifled by the recollections of 1848 and thedread of a new revolution. He stops his eyes and his ears, andprepares to die calmly between his furious subjects on one hand, andhis dissatisfied protectors on the other. Any man wanting in energy, placed as he is, would behave exactly in the same manner. The fault isnot his, it is that of weakness and old-age. 

But I do not undertake to obtain the acquittal of his Minister ofState, Cardinal Antonelli. 

CHAPTER XI. 

ANTONELLI. 

He was born in a den of thieves. His native place, Sonnino, is morecelebrated in the history of crime than all Arcadia in the annals ofvirtue. This nest of vultures was hidden in the southern mountains, towards the Neapolitan frontier. Roads, impracticable to mounteddragoons, winding through brakes and thickets; forests, impenetrableto the stranger; deep ravines and gloomy caverns, --all combined toform a most desirable landscape, for the convenience of crime. Thehouses of Sonnino, old, ill-built, flung pell-mell one, upon theother, and almost uninhabitable by human beings, were, in point offact, little else than depots of pillage and magazines of rapine. Thepopulation, alert and vigorous, had for many centuries practised armedrobbery and depredation, and gained its livelihood at the point of thecarbine. New-born infants inhaled contempt of the law with themountain air, and drew in the love of others' goods with theirmothers' milk. Almost as soon as they could walk, they assumed the_cioccie_, or mocassins of untanned leather, with which they learnedto run fearlessly along the edge of the giddiest mountain precipices. When they had acquired the art of pursuing and escaping, of takingwithout being taken, the knowledge of the value of the differentcoins, the arithmetic of the distribution of booty, and the principlesof the rights of nations as they are practised among the Apaches orthe Comanches, their education was deemed complete. They required noteaching to learn how to apply the spoil, and to satisfy theirpassions in the hour of victory. 

In the year of grace 1806, this sensual, brutal, impious, superstitious, ignorant, and cunning race endowed Italy with a littlemountaineer, known as Giacomo Antonelli. 

Hawks do not hatch doves. This is an axiom in natural history whichhas no need of demonstration. Had Giacomo Antonelli been gifted at hisbirth with the simple virtues of an Arcadian shepherd, his villagewould have instantly disowned him. But the influence of certain eventsmodified his conduct, although they failed to modify his nature. Hisinfancy and his childhood were subjected to two opposing influences. If he received his earliest lessons from successful brigandage, hisnext teachers were the gendarmerie. When he was hardly four years old, the discharge of a high moral lesson shook his ears: it was the Frenchtroops who were shooting brigands in the outskirts of Sonnino. Afterthe return of Pius VII. He witnessed the decapitation of a fewneighbouring relatives who had often dandled him on their knees. UnderLeo XII. It was still worse. Those wholesome correctives, the woodenhorse and the supple-jack, were permanently established in the villagesquare. About once a fortnight the authorities rased the house of somebrigand, after sending his family to the galleys, and paying a rewardto the informer who had denounced him. St. Peter's Gate, which adjoinsthe house of the Antonellis, was ornamented with a garland of humanheads, which eloquent relics grinned dogmatically enough in their ironcages. If the stage be a school of life, surely such a stage as thisis a rare teacher. Young Giacomo was enabled to reflect upon theinconveniences of brigandage, even before he had tasted its sweets. About him some men of progress had already engaged in industrialpursuits of a less hazardous nature than robbery. His own father, who, it was whispered, had in him the stuff of a Grasparone or a Passatore, instead of exposing himself upon the highways, took to keepingbullocks, he then became an Intendant, and subsequently was made aMunicipal Receiver; by which occupations he acquired more money atconsiderably less risk. 

The young Antonelli hesitated for some time as to the choice of acalling. His natural vocation was that of the inhabitants of Sonninoin general, to live in plenty, to enjoy every sort of pleasure, tomake himself at home everywhere, to be dependent upon nobody, to ruleothers, and to frighten them, if necessary, but, above all, to violatethe laws with impunity. With the view of attaining so lofty an endwithout exposing his life, for which he ever had a most particularregard, he entered the great seminary of Rome. 

In our land of scepticism, a young man enters the seminary with thehope of being ordained a priest: Antonelli entered it with theopposite intention. But in the capital of the Catholic Church, youngLevites of ordinary intelligence become magistrates, prefects, councillors of state, and ministers, while the "dry fruit[6] isthought good enough for making priests. "

Antonelli so distinguished himself, that (with Heaven's help) heescaped the sacrament of Ordination. He has never said mass: he hasnever confessed a penitent; I won't swear he has even confessedhimself. He gained what was of more value than all the Christianvirtues--the friendship of Gregory XVI. He became a prelate, amagistrate, a prefect, Secretary General of the Interior, and Ministerof Finance. No one can say he has not chosen the right path. A financeminister, if he knows anything of his business, can lay by more moneyin six months than all the brigands of Sonnino in twenty years. 

Under Gregory XVI. He had been a reactionist, to please his sovereign. On the accession of Pius IX. , for the same reason, he professedliberal ideas. A red hat and a ministerial portfolio were therecompense of his new convictions, and proved to the inhabitants ofSonnino that liberalism itself is more lucrative than brigandage. Whata practical lesson for those mountaineers! One of themselves clothedin purple and fine linen, actually riding in his gilt coach, passedthe barracks, and their old friends the dragoons presenting arms, instead of firing long shots at him!

He obtained the same influence over the new Pope that he had over theold one, thus proving that people may be got hold of without stoppingthem on the highway. Pius IX. , who had no secrets from him, confidedto him his wish to correct abuses, without concealing his fear ofsucceeding too well. He served the Holy Father, even in hisirresolutions. As President of the Supreme Council of State, heproposed reforms, and as Minister he postponed their adoption. Nobodywas more active than he, whether in settling or in violating theconstitution of 1848. He sent Durando to fight the Austrians, anddisavowed him after the battle. 

He quitted the ministry as soon as he found there were dangers to beencountered, but assisted the Pope in his secret opposition to hisministers. The murder of Count Rossi gave him serious cause forreflection. A man don't take the trouble to be born at Sonnino, inorder to let himself be assassinated: quite the contrary. He placedthe Pope--and himself--in safety, and then went to Gaeta to play thepart of Secretary of State _in partibus_. 

From this exile dates his omnipotence over the will of the HolyFather, his reinstatement in the esteem of the Austrians, and theconsistency in his whole conduct. Since then no more contradictions inhis political life. They who formally accused him of hesitatingbetween the welfare of the nation and his own personal interest arereduced to silence. He wishes to restore the absolute power of thePope, in order that he may dispose of it at his ease. He prevents allreconciliation between Pius IX. And his subjects; he summons thecannon of Catholicism to effect the conquest of Rome. He ill-uses theFrench, who are willing to die for him; he turns a deaf ear to theliberal counsels of Napoleon III. ; he designedly prolongs the exile ofhis master; he draws up the promises of the _Motu Proprio_, whiledevising means to elude them. At length, he returns to Rome, and forten years continues to reign over a timid old man and an enslavedpeople, opposing a passive resistance to all the counsels of diplomacyand all the demands of Europe. Clinging tenaciously to power, recklessas to the future, misusing present opportunities, and day by dayincreasing his fortune--after the manner of Sonnino. 

In this year of grace 1859, he is fifty-three years of age. Hepresents the appearance of a well-preserved man. His frame is slightand robust, and his constitution is that of a mountaineer. The breadthof his forehead, the brilliancy of his eyes, his beak-like nose, andall the upper part of his face inspire a certain awe. His countenance, of almost Moorish hue, is at times lit up by flashes of intellect. Buthis heavy jaw, his long fang-like teeth, and his thick lips expressthe grossest appetites. He gives you the idea of a minister grafted ona savage. When he assists the Pope in the ceremonies of the Holy Weekhe is magnificently disdainful and impertinent. He turns from time totime in the direction of the diplomatic tribune, and looks without asmile at the poor ambassadors, whom he cajoles from morning to night. You admire the actor who bullies his public. But when at an eveningparty he engages in close conversation with a handsome woman, the playof his countenance shows the direction of his thoughts, and those ofthe imaginative observer are imperceptibly carried to a roadside in alonely forest, in which the principal objects are prostratepostilions, an overturned carriage, trembling females, and a selectparty of the inhabitants of Sonnino!

He lives in the Vatican, immediately over the Pope. The Romans askpunningly which is the uppermost, the Pope or Antonelli?

All classes of society hate him equally. Concini himself was not morecordially detested. He is the only living man concerning whom anentire people is agreed. 

A Roman prince furnished me with some information respecting therelative fortunes of the nobility. When he gave me the list he said, "You will remark the names of two individuals, the amount of whose property is described as unlimited. They are Torlonia and Antonelli. They have both made large fortunes in a few years, --the first by speculation, the second by power. "

The Cardinals Altieri and Antonelli were one day disputing upon somepoint in the Pope's presence. They flatly contradicted one another;and the Pope inclined to the opinion of his Minister. "Since yourHoliness, " said the noble Altieri, "accords belief to a _ciociari_[7]rather than to a Roman prince, I have nothing to do but to withdraw. "

The Apostles themselves appear to entertain no very amicable feelingstowards the Secretary of State. The last time the Pope made a solemnentry into his capital (I think it was after his journey to Bologna), the Porta del Popolo and the Corso were according to custom hung withdraperies, behind which the old statues of St. Peter and St. Paul werecompletely hidden. Accordingly the people were entertained by findingthe following dialogue appended to the corner of the street:--

_Peter to Paul_. "It seems to me, old fellow, that we are somewhatforsaken here. "

_Paul to Peter_. "What would you have? We are no longer anything. There is but James in the world now. "

I am aware that hatred proves nothing--even the hatred of Apostles. The French nation, which claims to be thought just, insulted thefuneral procession of Louis XIV. It also occasionally detested HenriIV. For his economy, and Napoleon for his victories. No statesmanshould be judged upon the testimony of his enemies. The only evidencewe should admit either for or against him, is his public acts. Theonly witnesses to which any weight should be attributed are thegreatness and the prosperity of the country he governs. 

Such an inquiry would, I fear, be ruinous to Antonelli. The nationreproaches him with all the evils it has suffered for the last tenyears. The public wretchedness and ignorance, the decline of the arts, the entire suppression of liberty, the ever-present curse of foreignoccupation, --all fall upon his head, because he alone is responsiblefor everything. 

It may be alleged that he has at least served the reactionary party. Imuch doubt it. What internal factions has he suppressed? Secretsocieties have swarmed in Rome during his reign. What remonstrancesfrom without has he silenced? Europe continues to complainunanimously, and day by day lifts up its voice a tone or two higher. He has failed to reconcile one single party or one single power to theHoly father. During his ten years' dictatorship, he has neither gainedthe esteem of one foreigner nor the confidence of one Roman. All hehas gained is time. His pretended capacity is but slyness. To thetrickery of the present he adds the cunning of the red Indian; but hehas not that largeness of view without which it is impossible toestablish firmly the slavery of the people. No one possesses in agreater degree than he the art of dragging on an affair, andmanoeuvring with and tiring out diplomatists; but it is not bypleasantries of this sort that a tottering tyranny can be propped up. Although he employs every subterfuge known to dishonest policy, I amnot quite sure that he has even the craft of a politician. 

The attainment of his own end does not in fact require it. For afterall, what is his end? In what hope, with what aim, did he come downfrom the mountains of Sonnino?

Do you really believe he thought of becoming the benefactor of thenation?--or the saviour of the Papacy?--or the Don Quixote of theChurch? Not such a fool! He thought, first, of himself; secondly, ofhis family. 

His family is flourishing. His four brothers, Filippo, Luigi, Gregorio, and--save the mark!--Angelo, all wore the _cioccie_ in theiryounger days; they now, one and all, wear the count's coronet. One isgovernor of the bank, a capital post, and since poor Campana'scondemnation he has got the Monte di Pietà. Another is Conservator ofRome, under a Senator especially selected for his incapacity. Anotherfollows openly the trape of a monopolist, with immense facilities foreither preventing or authorizing exportation, according as his ownwarehouses happen to be full or empty. The youngest is the commercialtraveller, the diplomatist, the messenger of the family, _AngelusDomini_. A cousin of the family, Count Dandini, reigns over thepolice. This little group is perpetually at work adding to a fortunewhich is invisible, impalpable, and incalculable. The house ofAntonelli is not pitied at Sonnino. 

As for the Secretary of State, all who know him intimately, both menand women, agree that he leads a pleasant life. If it were not for thebore of making head against the diplomatists, and giving audienceevery morning, he would be the happiest of mountaineers. His tastesare simple; a scarlet silk robe, unlimited power, an enormous fortune, a European reputation, and all the pleasures within man's reach--thistrifle satisfies the simple tastes of the Cardinal Minister. Add, bythe bye, a splendid collection of minerals, perfectly classified whichhe is constantly enriching with the passion of an amateur and thetenderness of a father. 

I was saying just now that he has always escaped the sacrament of HolyOrders. He is Cardinal Deacon. The good souls who will have it thatall goes well at Rome, dwell with fervour on the advantage hepossesses in not being a priest. If he is accused of possessinginordinate wealth, these indulgent Christians reply, that he is not apriest! If you charge him with having read Machiavelli to goodpurpose; admitted--what then?--he is no priest! If the tongue ofscandal is over-free with his private life; still the ready reply, that he is not a priest! If Deacons are thus privileged, what latitudemay we not claim who have not even assumed the tonsure?

This highly-blest mortal has one weakness--truly a very natural one. He fears death. A certain fair lady, who had been honoured by hisEminence's particular attentions, thus illustrated the fact, "Upon meeting me at our rendezvous, he seized me like a madman, and with trembling eagerness examined my pockets. It was only when he had assured himself that I had no concealed weapon about me that he seemed to remember our friendship. "

One man alone has dared to threaten a life so precious to itself, andhe was an idiot. Instigated by some of the secret societies, this poorcrazed wretch concealed himself beneath the staircase of the Vatican, and awaited the coming of the Cardinal. When the intended victimappeared, the idiot with much difficulty drew from beneath hiswaistcoat--a table-fork! Antonelli saw the terrible weapon, andbounded backwards with a spring which an Alpine chamois-hunter mighthave envied. The miserable assassin was instantly seized, bound, anddelivered over to justice. The Roman tribunals, so often lenienttowards the really guilty, had no mercy for this real innocent. He wasbeheaded. The Cardinal, full of pity, fell--officially--at the Pope'sfeet, and asked for a pardon which he well knew would be refused. Hepays the widow a pension: is not this the act of a clever man?

Since the day when that formidable fork glittered before his eyes, hehas taken excessive precautions. His horses are broken to gallopfuriously through the streets, at considerable public risk. Occasionally, his carriage knocks down and runs over a little boy orgirl. With characteristic magnanimity, he sends the parents fiftycrowns. 

Antonelli has been compared to Mazarin. They have, in common, the fearof death, inordinate love of money, a strong family feeling, utterindifference to the people's welfare, contempt for mankind, and someother accidental points of resemblance. They were born in the samemountains, or nearly so. One obtained the influence over a woman'sheart which the other possesses over the mind of an old man. Bothgoverned unscrupulously, and both have merited and obtained the hatredof their contemporaries. They have talked French comically, withoutbeing insensible to any of the delicate niceties of the language. 

Still there would be manifest injustice in placing them in the samerank. The selfish Mazarin dictated to Europe the treaties ofWestphalia, and the Peace of the Pyrenees: he founded by diplomacy thegreatness of Louis XIV. , and managed the affairs of the Frenchmonarchy, without in any way neglecting his own. 

Antonelli has made his fortune at the expense of the nation, the Pope, and the Church. Mazarin may be compared to a skilful but rascallytailor, who dresses his customers well, while he contrives to cabbagesundry yards of their cloth; Antonelli, to those Jews of the MiddleAges, who demolished the Coliseum for the sake of the old iron in thewalls. 

CHAPTER XII. 

PRIESTLY GOVERNMENT. 

If the Pope were merely the head of the Roman Catholic Church; if, limiting his action to the interior of temples, he would renounce thesway over temporal matters about which he knows nothing, hiscountrymen of Rome, Ancona, and Bologna might govern themselves aspeople do in London or in Paris. The administration would be lay, thelaws would be lay, the nation would provide for its own wants with itsown revenues, as is the custom in all civilized countries. 

As for the general expenses of the Roman Catholic worship, which inpoint of fact no more _specially_ concern the Romans than they do theChampenois, a voluntary contribution made by one hundred andthirty-nine millions of men would amply provide for them. If eachindividual among the faithful were to give a halfpenny _per annum_, the head of the Church would have something like £300, 000 to spendupon his wax tapers and his incense, his choristers and hissacristans, and the repairs of the basilica of St. Peter's. No RomanCatholic would think of refusing his quota, because the Holy Father, entirely separated from worldly interests, would not be in a positionto offend anybody. This small tax would, therefore, restoreindependence to the Romans without diminishing the independence of thePope. 

Unfortunately the Pope is a king. In this capacity he must have aCourt, or something approaching to it. He selects his courtiers amongmen of his own faith, his own opinions, and his own profession:nothing can be more reasonable. These courtiers, in their turn, dispose of the different offices of state, spiritual or temporal, justas it may happen. Nor can the Sovereign object to this pretension asbeing ridiculous. Moreover he naturally hopes to be more faithfullyserved by priests than laymen; while he feels that the salariesattached to the best-paid places are necessary to the splendour of hisCourt. 

Thence it follows that to preach the secularization of the governmentto the Pope, is to preach to the winds. Here you have a man who wouldnot be a layman, who pities laymen simply because they are laymen, regarding them as a caste inferior to his own; who has received ananti-lay education; who thinks differently to laymen on all importantpoints; and you expect this man will share his power with laymen, inan empire where he is absolute master of all and everything! Yourequire him to surround himself with laymen, to summon them to hiscouncils, and to confide to them the execution of his behests!

Supposing, however, that for some reason or other he fears you, andwishes to humour you a little, see what he will do. He will seek inthe outer offices of his ministers some lay secretary, or assistant, or clerk, a man without character or talent; he will employ him, andtake care that his incapacity shall be universally known and admitted. After which, he will say to you sadly, "I have done what I could. " Butif he were to speak the honest truth, he would at once say, "If youwish to secularize anything, begin by putting laymen in _my_ place. "

It is not in 1859 that the Pope will venture to speak so haughtily. Intimidated by the protection of France, deafened by the unanimouscomplaints of his subjects, obliged to reckon with public opinion, hedeclares that he has secularized everything. "Count my functionaries, "he says:

 "I have 14, 576 laymen in my service. You have been told that ecclesiastics monopolize the public service. Show me these ecclesiastics! The Count de Rayneval looked for them, and could find but ninety-eight; and even of those, the greater part were not in priests' orders! Be assured we have long since broken with the clerical _régime_. I myself decreed the admissibility of laymen to all offices but one. In order to show my sincerity, for some time I had lay ministers! I entrusted the finances to a mere accountant, the department of justice to an obscure little advocate, and that of war to a man of business who had been intendant to several Cardinals. I admit that for the moment we have no laymen in the Ministry; but my subjects may console themselves by reflecting that the law does not prevent me from appointing them. 

 "In the provinces, out of eighteen prefects, I appointed three laymen. If I afterwards substituted prelates for those three, it was because the people loudly called for the change. Is it my fault if the people respect nothing but the ecclesiastical garb?"

This style of defence may deceive some good easy folk; but I think ifI were Pope, or Secretary of State, or even a simple supporter of thePontifical administration, I should prefer telling the plain truth. That truth is strictly logical, it is in conformity with the principleof the Government; it emanates from the Constitution. Things areexactly what they ought to be, if not for the welfare of the people, at least for the greatness, security, and satisfaction of its temporalhead. 

The truth then is that all the ministers, all the prefects, all theambassadors, all the court dignitaries, and all the judges of thesuperior tribunals, are ecclesiastics; that the Secretary of the_Brevi_ and the _Memoriali_ the Presidents and Vice-Presidents of theCouncil of State and the Council of Finances, the Director-General ofthe Police, the Director of Public Health and Prisons, the Director ofthe Archives, the Attorney-General of the Fisc, the President and theSecretary of the _Cadastro_ the Agricultural President and Commission, are _all ecclesiastics_. The public education is in the hands ofecclesiastics, under the direction of thirteen Cardinals. All thecharitable establishments, all the funds applicable to the relief ofthe poor, are the patrimony of ecclesiastical directors. Congregationsof Cardinals decide causes in their leisure hours, and the Bishops ofthe kingdom are so many living tribunals. 

Why seek to conceal from Europe so natural an order of things?

Let Europe rather be told what it did when it re-established a prieston the throne of Rome. 

All the offices which confer power or profit belong first to the Pope, then to the Secretary of State, then to the Cardinals, and lastly tothe Prelates. Everybody takes his share according to the hierarchicalorder; and when all are satisfied, the crumbs of power are thrown tothe nation at large; in other words, the 14, 596 places which noecclesiastic chooses to take, particularly the distinguished office of_Guardia Campestre_, a sort of rural police. Nobody need wonder atsuch a distribution of places. In the government of Rome, the Pope iseverything, the Secretary of State is almost everything, the Cardinalsare something, and the priests on the road to become something. The_lay nation_, which marries and gives in marriage, and peoples theState, is nothing--never will be anything. 

The word _prelate_ has fallen from my pen; I will pause a moment toexplain its precise meaning. Among us it is a title sufficientlyrespected: at Rome it is far less so. We have no prelates but ourArchbishops and Bishops. When we see one of these venerable mendriving slowly out of his palace in an old-fashioned carriage drawn bya single pair of horses, we know, without being told it, that he hasspent three-fourths of his existence in the exercise of the mostmeritorious works. He said Mass in some small village before he wasmade the cure of a canton. He has preached, confessed, distributedalms to the poor, borne the viaticum to the sick, committed the deadto their last narrow home. 

The Roman prelate is often a great hulking fellow who has just leftcollege, with the tonsure for his only sacrament. He is a Doctor ofsomething or other, he owns some property, more or less, and he entersthe Church as an amateur, to see if he can make something out of it. The Pope gives him leave to style himself _Monsignore_, instead of_Signore_, and to wear violet-coloured stockings. Clad in these hestarts on his road, hoping it may lead him to a Cardinal's hat. Hepasses through the courts of law, or the administration, or thedomestic service of the Vatican, as the case may be. All these pathslead in the right direction, provided the traveller pursuing them haszeal, and professes a pious scorn for liberal ideas. Theecclesiastical calling is by no means indispensable, but nothing canbe achieved without a good stock of retrograde ideas. The prelate whoshould take the Emperor's letter to M. Edgar Ney seriously, would be, in vulgar parlance, done for; the only course open to him would be--tomarry. At Paris, a man disappointed in ambition takes prussic acid; atRome, he takes a wife. 

Sometimes the prelate is a cadet of a noble house, one in which theright to a red hat is traditional. Knowing this he feels that themoment he puts on his violet stockings, he may order his scarlet ones. In the meanwhile he takes his degrees, and profits by the occasion tosow his wild oats. The Cardinals shut their eyes to his conduct, so hedoes but profess wholesome ideas. Do what you please, child ofprinces, so your heart be but clerical!

Finally, it is not uncommon to find among the prelates some soldiersof fortune, adventurers of the Church, who have been attracted fromtheir native land by the ambition of ecclesiastical greatness. Thiscorps of volunteers receives contingents from the whole Catholicworld. These gentlemen furnish some strange examples to the Romanpeople; and I know more than one of them to whom mothers of familieswould on no account confide the education of their children. It hashappened to me to have described in a novel[8] a prelate who richlydeserved a thrashing; the good folks of Rome have named to me three orfour whom they fancied they recognized in the portrait. But it hasnever yet been known that any prelate, however vicious, has givenutterance to liberal ideas. A single word from a Roman prelate's lipsin behalf of the nation would ruin him. 

The Count de Rayneval has laboured hard to prove that prelates, whohave not received the sacrament of Ordination, form part of the layelement. At this rate, a province should deem itself fortunate, andthink it has escaped priestly government, if its prefect is simplytonsured. I cannot for the life of me see in what tonsured prelatesare more laymen than they are priests. I admit that they neitherfollow the calling nor possess the virtues of the priesthood; but Imaintain that they have the ideas, the interests, the passions of theecclesiastical caste. They aim at the Cardinal's hat, when theirambition does not soar to the tiara. Singular laymen, truly, and wellfitted to inspire confidence in a lay people! 'Twere better theyshould become Cardinals; for then they would no longer have theirfortunes to make, and they would not be called upon to signalize theirzeal against the nation. 

For that is, unhappily, the state at which things have arrived. Thissame ecclesiastical caste, so strongly united by the bonds of alearned hierarchy, reigns as over a conquered country. It regards themiddle class, --in other words, the intelligent and laborious part ofthe nation, --as an irreconcilable foe. The prefects are ordered, notto govern the provinces, but to keep them in order. The police iskept, not to protect the citizens, but to watch them. The tribunalshave other interests to defend than those of justice. The diplomaticbody does not represent a country, but a coterie. The educating bodyhas the mission not to teach, but to prevent the spread ofinstruction. The taxes are not a national assessment, but an officialforay for the profit of certain ecclesiastics. Examine all thedepartments of the public administration: you will everywhere find theclerical element at war with the nation, and of course everywherevictorious. 

In this state of things it is idle to say to the Pope, "Fill yourprincipal offices with laymen. " You might as well say to Austria, "Place your fortresses under the guard of the Piedmontese. " The Romanadministration is what it must be. It will remain what it is as longas there is a Pope on the throne. 

Besides, although the lay population still complains of beingsystematically excluded from power, matters have reached such a point, that an honest man of the middle class would think himself dishonouredby accepting a high post. It would be said that he had deserted thenation to serve the enemy. 

CHAPTER XIII. 

POLITICAL SEVERITY. 

It is admitted that the Popes have always been remarkable for a senileindulgence and goodness. I do not pretend to deny the assertions of M. De Brosses and M. De Tournon that this government is at once themildest, the worst, and the most absolute in Europe. 

And yet Sixtus V. , a great Pope, was a still greater executioner. Thatman of God delivered over to the gallows a Pepoli of Bologna, who hadbestowed upon him a kick instead of a piece of bread when he was amendicant friar. 

And yet Gregory XVI. , in our own times, granted a dispensation of ageto a minor for the sake of having him legally executed. 

And yet the punishment of the wooden horse was revived four years agoby the mild Cardinal Antonelli. 

And yet the Pontifical State is the only one in Europe in which thebarbarous practice of placing a price upon a man's head is still inuse. 

Never mind. Since, after all, the Pontifical State is that in whichthe most daring crimes and the most open assassinations have thegreatest chance of being committed with perfect impunity, I willadmit, with M. De Brosses and M. De Tournon, that it is the mildest inEurope. I am about to examine with you the application of thismildness to political matters. 

Nine years ago Pius IX. Re-entered his capital, as the father of afamily his house, after having the door broken open. It is not likelythat either the Holy Father, or the companions of his exile, wereanimated by very lively feelings of gratitude towards the chiefs ofthe revolution which had driven them away. A priest never quiteforgets that he was once a man. 

This is why two hundred and eighty-three individuals[9] were excludedfrom the general amnesty recommended by France and promised by thePope. It is unfortunate for these two hundred and eighty-three thatthe Gospel is old, and forgiveness of injuries out of date. Perhapsyou will remind me that St. Peter cut off one of the ears of Malchus. 

By the clemency of the Pope, fifty-nine of these exiles were pardoned, during a period of nine years, if men can be said to be pardoned whoare recalled provisionally, some for a year, others for half a year, or who are brought home only to be placed under the surveillance ofthe police. A man who is forbidden to exercise the calling to which hewas bred, and whose sole privilege is that of dying of starvation inhis native land, is likely rather to regret his exile sometimes. 

I was introduced to one of the fifty-nine privileged partakers of thepontifical clemency. He is an advocate; at least he was until the daywhen he obtained his pardon. He related to me the history of thetolerably inoffensive part he had played in 1848; the hopes he hadfounded on the amnesty; his despair when he found himself excludedfrom it; some particulars of his life in exile, such, for instance, ashis having had recourse to giving lessons in Italian, like theillustrious Manin, and so many others. 

"I could have lived happily enough, " he said, "but one day the home-sickness laid my heart low; I felt that I must see Italy, or die. My family took the necessary steps, and it fortunately happened that we knew some one who had interest with a Cardinal. The police dictated the conditions of my return, and I accepted them without knowing what they were. If they had told me I could not return without cutting off my right arm, I would have cut it off. The Pope signed my pardon, and then published my name in the newspapers, so that none might be ignorant of his clemency. But I am interdicted from resuming my practice at the Bar, and a man can hardly gain a livelihood by teaching Italian in a country where everybody speaks it. "

As he concluded, the neighbouring church-bells began to sound the _AveMaria_. He turned pale, seized his hat, and rushed out of my room, exclaiming, "I knew not it was so late! Should the police arrive at myhouse before I can reach it, I am a lost man!"

His friends explained to me the cause of his sudden alarm: the poorman is subject to the police regulation termed the _Precetto_. 

He must always return to his abode at sunset, and he is then shut intill the next morning. The police may force their way in at any timeduring the night, for the purpose of ascertaining that he is there. Hecannot leave the city under any pretence whatever, even in broad day. The slightest infraction of these rules exposes him to imprisonment, or to a new exile. 

The Pontifical States are full of men subject to the _Precetto_: someare criminals who are watched in their homes, for want of prisonaccommodation; others are _suspected persons_. The number of theseunfortunate beings is not given in the statistical tables, but I know, from an official source, that in Viterbo, a town of fourteen thousandsouls, there are no less than two hundred. 

The want of prison accommodation explains many things, and, amongothers, the freedom of speech which exists throughout the country. Ifthe Government took a fancy to arrest everybody who hates it openly, there would be neither gendarmes nor gaolers enough; above all, therewould be an insufficiency of those houses of peace, of which it hasbeen said, that "their protection and salubrity prolong the life oftheir inmates. "[10]

The citizens, then, are allowed to speak freely, provided always theydo not gesticulate too violently. But we may be sure no word is everlost in a State watched by priests. The Government keeps an accuratelist of those who wish it ill. It revenges itself when it can, but itnever runs after vengeance. It watches its occasion; it can afford tobe patient, because it thinks itself eternal. 

If the bold speaker chance to hold a modest government appointment, apurging commission quietly cashiers him, and turns him delicately outinto the street. 

Should he be a person of independent fortune, they wait till he wantssomething, as, for instance, a passport. One of my good friends inRome has been for the last nine years trying to get leave to travel. He is rich and energetic. The business he follows is one eminentlybeneficial to the State. A journey to foreign countries would completehis knowledge, and advance his interests. For the last nine years hehas been applying for an interview with the head of the passportoffice, and has never yet received an answer to his application. 

Others, who have applied for permission to travel in Piedmont, havereceived for answer, "Go, but return no more. " They have not beenexiled; there is no need of exercising unnecessary rigour; but onreceiving their passports, they have been compelled to sign an act ofvoluntary exile. The Greeks said, "Not every one who will goes toCorinth. " The Romans have substituted Turin for Corinth. 

Another of my friends, the Count X. , has been, for years, carrying ona lawsuit before the infallible tribunal of the _Sacra Rota_. Hiscause could not have been a bad one, seeing that he lost and gained itsome seven or eight times before the same judges. It assumed adeplorably bad complexion from the day the Count became my friend. 

When once the discontented proceed from words to actions you mayindeed pity them. 

A person charged with a political offence summoned before the _SacraConsulta_ (for everything is holy and sacred, even justice andinjustice), must be defended by an advocate, not chosen by himself, against witnesses whose very names are unknown to him. 

In the capital (and under the eyes of the French army) the extremepenalty of the law is rarely carried out. The government is satisfiedwith quietly suppressing people, by shutting them up in a fortress forlife. The state prisons are of two sorts, healthy and unhealthy. Inthe establishment coming within the second category, perpetualseclusion is certain not to be of very long duration. 

The fortress of Pagliano is one of the most wholesome. When I walkedthrough it there were two hundred and fifty prisoners, all political. The people of the country told me that in 1856 these unfortunate menhad made an attempt at escape. Five or six had been shot on the rooflike so many sparrows. The remainder, according to the common law, would be liable to the galleys for eight years; but an old ordinanceof Cardinal Lante was revived, by which, God willing, some of them maybe guillotined. 

It is, however, beyond the Apennines that the paternal character ofthe Government is chiefly displayed. The French are not there, and thePope's reactionary police duty is performed by the Austrian army. Thelaw there is martial law. The prisoner is without counsel; his judgesare Austrian officers, his executioners Austrian soldiers. A man maybe beaten or shot because some gentleman in uniform happens to be in abad temper. A youth sends up a Bengal light, --the galleys for twentyyears. A woman prevents a smoker from lighting his cigar, --twentylashes. In seven years Ancona has witnessed sixty capital executions, and Bologna a hundred and eighty. Blood flows, and the Pope washes hishands of it. He did not sign the warrants. Every now and then theAustrians bring him a man they have shot, just as a gamekeeper bringshis master a fox he has killed in the preserves. 

Perhaps I shall be told that this government of priests is notresponsible for the crimes committed in its service. 

We French have also experienced the scourge of a foreign occupation. For some years soldiers who spoke not our language were encamped inour departments. The king who had been forced upon us was neither agreat man nor a man of energy, nor even a very good man; and he hadleft a portion of his dignity in the enemy's baggage-waggons. Butcertain it is that, in 1817, Louis XVIII. Would rather have come downfrom his throne than have allowed his subjects to be legally shot byRussians and Prussians. 

M. De Rayneval says, "The Holy Father has never failed to mitigate theseverity of judgments. "

I want to know in what way he has been enabled to mitigate theseAustrian fusillades. Perhaps he has suggested a coating of soft cottonfor the bullets. 

CHAPTER XIV. 

THE IMPUNITY OF REAL CRIME. 

The Roman State is the most radically Catholic in Europe, seeing thatit is governed by the Vicar of Jesus Christ himself. It is also themost fertile in crimes of every description, and above all, of violentcrimes. So remarkable a contrast cannot escape observation. It ispointed out daily. Conclusions unfavorable to Catholicism have evenbeen drawn from it; but this is a mistake. Let us not set down toreligion that which is the necessary consequence of a particular formof government. 

The Papacy has its root in Heaven, not in the country. It is not theItalian people who ask for a Pope, --it is Heaven that chooses him, theSacred College that nominates him, diplomacy that maintains him, andthe French army that imposes him upon the nation. The SovereignPontiff and his staff constitute a foreign body, introduced into Italylike a thorn into a woodcutter's foot. 

What is the mission of the Pontifical Government? To what end didEurope bring Pius IX. From Gaeta to re-establish him at the Vatican?Was it for the sake of giving three millions of men an active andvigorous overseer? The merest brigadier of gendarmerie would have donethe work better. No; it was in order that the Head of the Church mightpreside over the interests of religion from the elevation of a throne, and that the Vicar of Jesus Christ might be surrounded with royalsplendour. The three millions of men who dwell in his States areappointed by Europe to defray the expenses of his court. In point offact, we have given them to the Pope, not the Pope to them. 

On this understanding, the Pope's first duty is to say Mass at St. Peter's for 139, 000, 000 of Roman Catholics; his second is to make adignified appearance, to receive company, to wear a crown, and to takecare it does not fall off his head. But it is a matter of perfectindifference to him that his subjects brawl, rob, or murder oneanother, so long as they don't attack either his Church or hisgovernment. 

If we examine the question of the distribution of punishments in thePapal States from this point of view, we shall see that papal justicenever strikes at random. 

The most unpardonable crimes in the eyes of the clergy are those whichare offensive to Heaven. Rome punishes sins. The tribunal of theVicariate sends a blasphemer to the galleys, and claps into goal thesilly fellow who refuses to take the Communion at Easter. Surelynobody will charge the Head of the Church with neglecting his duty. 

I have told you how the Pope defends and will continue to defend hiscrown, and I have no fear of your charging him with weakness. IfEurope ventured to allege that he suffers the throne on which it hasplaced him to be shaken, the answer would be a list of the politicalexiles and the prisoners of state, present and past--the living andthe dead. 

But the crimes and offences of which the natives are guilty towardsone another affect the Pope and his Cardinals very remotely. Whatmatters it to the successors of the Apostles that a few workmen andpeasants should cut one another's throats after Sunday Vespers? Therewill always be enough of them left to pay the taxes. 

The people of Rome have long contracted some very bad habits. Theyfrequent taverns and wine-shops, and they quarrel over their liquor;the word and the blow of other people is with them the word and theknife. The rural population are as bad as the townspeople. Quarrelsbetween neighbours and relatives are submitted to the adjudication ofcold steel. Of course they would do better to go before the nearestmagistrate; but justice is slow in the States of the Church; lawsuitscost money, and bribery is the order of the day; the judges are eitherfools or knaves. So out with the knife! its decisions are swift andsure. Giacomo is down: 'tis clear he was in the wrong. Nicolo isunmolested: he must have been in the right. This little drama isperformed more than four times a day in the Papal States, as is provedby the Government statistics of 1853. It is a great misfortune for thecountry, and a serious danger for Europe. The school of the knife, founded at Rome, establishes branches in foreign lands. We have seenthe holiest interests of civilization placed under the knife, and allthe honest people in the world, the Pope himself included, shudderedat the sight. 

It would cost his Holiness very little trouble to snatch the knifefrom the hands of his subjects. We don't ask him to begin over againthe education of his people, which would take time, or even toincrease the attractions of civil justice, so as to substitutelitigants for assassins. All we require of him is, that he shouldallow criminal justice to dispose of some few of the worst characterswho throng to these evil haunts. But this very natural remedy would beutterly repugnant to his notions. The tavern assassin is seldom a foeto the Government. 

Not that the Pope absolutely refuses to let assassins be pursued; thatwould be opposed to the practice of all civilized countries. But hetakes care that they shall always get a good start of their pursuers. If they reach the banks of a river the pursuit ceases, lest theyshould jump into the water and be drowned without confession andabsolution. If they seize hold of the skirts of a Capuchin Friar--theyare saved. If they get into a church, a convent, or a hospital--savedagain. If they do but set foot upon an ecclesiastical domain, or upona clerical property (of which there is to the amount of £20, 000, 000 inthe country), justice stands still, and lets them move on. A word fromthe Pope would reform this abuse of the right of asylum, which is astanding insult to civilization. On the contrary, he carefullypreserves it, in order to show that the privileges of the Church areabove the interests of humanity. This is both consistent and legal. 

Should the police get hold of a murderer by accident, and quiteunintentionally, he is brought up for trial. Witnesses of the crimeare sought, but never found. A citizen would consider himselfdishonoured if he were to give up his comrade to the natural enemy ofthe nation. The murdered man himself, if he could be brought to life, would swear he had seen nothing of the affair. The Government is notstrong enough to force the witnesses to say what they know, or toprotect them against the consequences of their depositions. This iswhy the most flagrant crime can never be proved in the courts ofjustice. 

Supposing even that a murderer lets himself be taken, that witnessesgive evidence against him, and that the crime be proved, even then thetribunal hesitates to pronounce the sentence of death. 

The shedding of blood--legally--saddens a people; the Government hasno fault to find with the murderer, so he is sent to the galleys. Heis pretty comfortable there; public consideration follows him; sooneror later he is certain to be pardoned, because the Pope, utterlyindifferent to his crime, finds it more profitable, and lessexpensive, to turn him loose than to keep him. 

Put the worst possible case. Imagine a crime so glaring, so monstrous, so revolting, that the judges, who happen to be the least interestedin the question, have been compelled to condemn the criminal to death. You probably imagine that, for example's sake, he will be executedwhile his crime is yet fresh in the popular recollection. Nothing ofthe sort. He is cast into a dungeon and forgotten; they think itprobable he will die naturally there. In the month of July, 1858, theprison of the small town of Viterbo contained twenty-two criminalscondemned to death, who were singing psalms while waiting for theexecutioner. 

At length this functionary arrives; he selects one out of the lot anddecapitates him. The populace is moved to compassion. Tears are shed, and the spectators cry out with one accord, "_Poveretto!_" The factis, his crime is ten years old. Nobody recollects what it was. He hasexpiated it by ten years of penitence. Ten years ago his executionwould have conveyed a striking moral lesson. 

So much for the severity of penal justice. You would laugh if I wereto speak of its leniency. The Duke Sforza Cesarini murders one of hisservants for some act of personal disrespect. For example's sake, thePope condemns him to a month's retirement in a convent. 

Ah! if any sacrilegious hand were laid upon the holy ark; if a priestwere to be slain, a Cardinal only threatened, then would there beneither asylum, nor galleys, nor clemency, nor delay. Thirty years agothe murderer of a priest was hewn in pieces in the Piazza del Popolo. More recently, as we have seen, the idiot who brandished his fork inthe face of Cardinal Antonelli, was beheaded. 

It is with highway robbery as with murder. I am induced to believethat the Pontifical court would not wage a very fierce war with thebrigands, if those gentry undertook to respect its money anddespatches. The occasional stopping of a few travellers, the clearingout of a carriage, and even the pillaging a country house, are neitherreligious nor political scourges. The brigands are not likely to scaleeither Heaven or the Vatican. 

Thus there is still good business to be done in this line, andparticularly beyond the Apennines, in those provinces which Austriahas disarmed and does not protect. The tribunal of Bologna faithfullydescribed the state of the country in a sentence of the 16th of June, 1856. 

 "Of late years this province has been afflicted by innumerable crimes of all sorts: robbery, pillage, attacks upon houses, have occurred at all hours, and in all places. The numbers of the malefactors have been constantly increasing, as has their audacity, encouraged by impunity. "

Nothing is changed since the tribunal of Bologna spoke so forcibly. Stories, as improbable as they are true, are daily related in thecountry. The illustrious Passatore, who seized the entire populationof Forlimpopoli in the theatre, has left successors. The audaciousbrigands who robbed a diligence in the very streets of Bologna, a fewpaces from the Austrian barracks, have not yet wholly disappeared. Inthe course of a tour of some weeks on the shores of the Adriatic, Iheard more than one disquieting report. Near Rimini the house of alanded proprietor was besieged by a little army. In one place, all theinmates of the goal walked off, arm-in-arm with the turnkeys; inanother a diligence came to grief just outside the walls of a city. Ifany particular district was allowed to live in peace, it was becausethe inhabitants subscribed and paid a ransom to the brigands. Fivetimes a week I used to meet the pontifical courier, escorted by anomnibus full of gendarmes, a sight which made me shrewdly suspect thecountry was not quite safe. 

But if the Government is too weak or too careless to undertake anexpedition against brigandage, and to purge the country thoroughly, itsometimes avenges its insulted authority and its stolen money. When bychance the Judges of Instruction are sent into the field, they do nottrifle with their work. Not only do they press the prisoners toconfess their crimes, but they press them in a thumbscrew! Thetribunal of Bologna confessed this fact, with compunction, in 1856, alluding to the measures employed as _violenti e feroci_. 

But simple theft, innocent theft, the petty larceny of snuff-boxes andpocket-handkerchiefs, the theft which seeks a modest alms in aneighbour's pocket, is tolerated as paternally as mendicity. Officialstatistics give the number of the beggars in Rome, I believe, somewhatunder the mark; it is a pity they fail to give the number ofpickpockets, who swarm through the city; this might easily have beendone, as their names are all known to the authorities. No attempt ismade to interfere with their operations: the foreign visitors are richenough to pay this small tax in favour of the national industry;besides, it is not likely the pickpockets will ever make an attemptupon the Pope's pocket-handkerchief. 

A Frenchman once caught hold of an elegantly dressed gentleman in theact of snatching away his watch; he took him to the nearest post, andplaced him in the charge of the sergeant. "I believe your statement, "said the official, "for I know the man well, and so would you, if you were not very new to the country. He is a Lombard; but if we were to arrest all his fellows, our prisons would never be half large enough. Be off, my fine fellow, and take better care for the future!"

Another foreigner was robbed in the Corso at midnight, on his returnfrom the theatre. All the consolation he got from the magistrate towhom he complained was, "Sir, you were out at an hour when all honestpeople should be in bed. "

A traveller was stopped between Rome and Civita Vecchia, and robbed ofall the money he had about him. When he reached Palo, he laid hiscomplaint before the political functionary who taxes travellers forthe trouble of fumbling with their passports. The observation of thisworthy man was, "What can you expect? the people are so very poor!"

On the eve of the grand fêtes, however, all the riffraff are bound togo to prison, lest the religious ceremonies should be disturbed byevil-doers. They go of their own accord, as an amicable concession toa paternal government: and if any professional thief were by chance toabsent himself, he would be politely sent for about midnight. But inspite even of these vigilant measures, it is seldom that a Holy Weekgoes by without a watch or two going astray; and to any complaint thepolice would be sure to reply:

 "You must not blame us; we have taken every necessary precaution against such accidents. We have got all the thieves who are inscribed on our books under lock and key. For any new comers we are not responsible. "

The following incident occurred while I was at Rome; it serves toillustrate the pleasing fraternal tie which unites the magistrateswith the thieves. 

A former secretary to Monsignor Vardi, by name Berti, had a goldsnuff-box, which he prized highly, it having been given him by hismaster. One day, crossing the Forum, he took out his snuff-box, justin front of the temple of Antoninus and Faustina, and solaced himselfwith a pinch of the contents. The incautious act had been marked byone of the pets of the police. He had hardly returned the box to hispocket ere he was hustled by some quoit-players, and knocked down. Itis needless to add, that, when he got up, the precious snuff-box wasgone. 

He mentioned the affair to a judge of his acquaintance, who at oncetold him to set his mind at rest, adding, "Pass through the Forum again to-morrow. Ask for _Antonio_; anybody will point him out to you; tell him you come from me, and mention what you have lost. He will put you in the way of getting it back. "

Berti did as he was desired; Antonio was soon found. He smiledmeaningly when the judge's name was mentioned, protested that he couldrefuse him nothing, and immediately called out, "Eh! Giacomo!"

Another bandit came out of the ruins, and ran up to his chief. 

"Who was on duty yesterday?" asked Antonio. 

"Pepe. "

"Is he here?"

"No, he made a good day of it yesterday. He's drinking it out. "

"I can do nothing for your Excellency to-day, " said Antonio. "Comehere to-morrow at the same hour, and I think you'll have reason to besatisfied. "

Berti was punctual to the appointment. Signor Antonio, for fear ofbeing swindled, asked for an accurate description of the missingarticle. This having been given, he at once produced the snuff-box. "Your Excellency will please to pay me two scudi, " he said; "I shouldhave charged you four, but that you are recommended to me by amagistrate whom I particularly esteem. "

It would appear that all the Roman magistrates are not equallyestimable; at least to judge from what happened to the Marquis deSesmaisons. He was robbed of half-a-dozen silver spoons and forks. Heimprudently lodged a complaint with the authorities. Being asked foran exact description of the stolen articles, he sent the remaininghalf-dozen to speak for themselves to the magistrate who had charge ofthe affair. It is chronicled that he never again saw either the firstor the second half-dozen!

The malversations of public functionaries are tolerated so long asthey do not directly touch the higher powers. Officials of everydegree hold out their hands for a present. The Government ratherencourages the system than the reverse. It is just so much knocked offthe salaries. 

The Government even overlooks embezzlement of public money, providedthe guilty party be an ecclesiastic, or well affected to the presentorder of things. The errors of friends are judged _en famille_. If aPrelate make a mistake, he is reprimanded, and dismissed, which meansthat his situation is changed for a better one. 

Monsignor N---- gets the holy house of Loretto into financial trouble. The consequence is that Monsignor N---- is removed to Rome, and placedat the head of the hospital of the Santo Spirito. Probably this isdone because the latter establishment is richer and more difficult toget into financial trouble than the holy house of Loretto. 

Monsignor A---- was an Auditor of the Rota, and made a bad judge. Hewas made a Prefect of Bologna. He failed to give satisfaction atBologna, and was made a Minister, and still remains so. 

If occasionally officials of a certain rank are punished, if even thelaw is put in force against them with unusual vigour, rest assured thepublic interest has no part in the business. The real springs ofaction are to be sought elsewhere. Take as an example the Campanaaffair, which created such a sensation in 1858. 

This unfortunate Marquis succeeded his father and his grandfather asDirector of the Monte di Pietà, or public pawnbroking establishment. His office placed him immediately under the control of the FinanceMinister. It was that Minister's duty to overlook his acts, and toprevent him from going wrong. 

Campana went curiosity mad. The passion of collecting, which hasproved the ruin of so many well-meaning people, drove him to hisdestruction. He bought pictures, marbles, bronzes, Etruscan vases. Heheaped gallery on gallery. He bought at random everything that wasoffered to him. Rome never had such a terrible buyer. He bought aspeople drink, or take snuff, or smoke opium. When he had no more moneyof his own left to buy with, he began to think of a loan. The coffersof the Monte di Pietà were at hand: he would borrow of himself, uponthe security of his collection. The Finance Minister Galli offered nodifficulties. Campana was in favour at Court, esteemed by the Pope, liked by the Cardinals; his principles were known, he had proved hisdevotion to those in power. The Government never refuses its friendsanything. In short Campana was allowed to lend himself £4, 000, forwhich he gave security to a much larger amount. 

But the order by which the Minister gave him permission to draw fromthe coffers of the Monte di Pietà was so loosely drawn up, that he wasenabled to take, without any fresh authority, a trifle of somethinglike £106, 000. This he took between the 12th of April, 1854, and the1st of December 1856, a period of nineteen months and a half. 

There was no concealment in the transaction; it certainly wasirregular, but it was not clandestine. Campana paid himself theinterest of the money he had lent himself. In 1856 he was paternallyreprimanded. He received a gentle rap over the knuckles, but there wasnot the least idea of tying his hands. He stood well at Court. 

The unfortunate man still went on borrowing. They had not even takenthe precaution to close his coffers against himself. Between the 1stof December, 1856, and the 7th of November, 1857, he took a furthersum of about £103, 000. But he gave grand parties; the Cardinals adoredhim; testimonies of satisfaction poured in upon him from all sides. 

The real truth is that a national pawnbroking establishment is of nouse to the Church, it is only required for the nation. Campana mighthave borrowed the very walls of the building, without the PontificalCourt meddling in the matter. 

Unluckily for him, the time came when it answered the purpose ofAntonelli to send him to the galleys. This great statesman had threeobjects to gain by such a course. Firstly, he would stop the mouth ofdiplomacy, and silence the foreign press, which both charged the Popewith tolerating an abuse. Secondly, he would humiliate one of thoselaymen who take the liberty to rise in the world without wearingviolet hose. Lastly, he should be able to bestow Campana's place uponone of his brothers, the worthy and interesting Filippo Antonelli. 

He took a long time to mature his scheme, and laid his train silentlyand secretly. He is not a man to take any step inconsiderately. WhileCampana was going and coming, and giving dinners, and buying morestatues, in blissful ignorance of the lowering storm, the Cardinalnegotiated a loan at Rothschild's, made arrangements to cover thedeficit, and instructed the Procuratore Fiscale to draw up anindictment for peculation. 

The accusation fell like a thunderbolt upon the poor Marquis. From hispalace to his prison was but a step. As he entered there, he rubbedhis eyes, and asked himself, ingenuously enough, whether this move wasnot all a horrible dream. He would have laughed at any one who hadtold him he was seriously in danger. He charged with peculation! Outupon it! Peculation meant the clandestine application by a publicofficer of public funds to his private profit: whereas he had takennothing clandestinely, and was ruined root and branch. So he quietlyoccupied himself in his prison by writing sonnets, and when an artistcame to pay him a visit, he gave him an order for a new work. 

In spite of the eloquent defence made in his behalf by a youngadvocate, the tribunal condemned him to twenty years' hard labour. Atthis rate, the Minister who had allowed him to borrow the money shouldcertainly have been beheaded. But the lambs of the clergy don't eatone another. 

The advocate who had defended Campana was punished for having pleadedtoo eloquently, by being forbidden to practise in Court for threemonths. 

You may imagine that this cruel sentence cast a stigma upon Campana. Not a bit of it. The people, who have often experienced hisgenerosity, regard him as a martyr. The middle class despises him muchless than it does many a yet unpunished functionary. His old friendsof the nobility and of the Sacred College often shake him by the hand. I have known Cardinal Tosti, at once his gaoler and his friend, lethim have the use of his private kitchen. 

Condemnations are a dishonour only in countries where the judges arehonoured. All the world knows that the pontifical magistrates are notinstruments of justice, but tools of power. 

CHAPTER XV. 

TOLERANCE. 

If crimes against Heaven are those which the Church forgives theleast, every man who is not even nominally a Catholic, is of course inthe eyes of the Pope a rogue and a half. 

These criminals are very numerous: the geographer Balbi enumeratessome six hundred millions of them on the surface of the globe. ThePope continues to damn them all conformably with the tradition of theChurch; but he has given up levying armies to make war upon them herebelow. 

Things are improved when we daily find the Head of the Roman CatholicChurch in friendly intercourse with the foes of his religion. Hepartakes of the liberality of a Mussulman Prince; he receives aschismatic Empress as a loving father; he converses familiarly with aQueen who has abjured Catholicism to marry a Protestant; he receiveswith distinction the aristocracy of the New Jerusalem; he sends hisMajordomo to attend upon a young heretic prince[11] travelling_incognito_. I hardly know whether Gregory VII. Would approve thistolerance; nor can I tell how it is judged in the other world by theinstigators of the Crusades, or by the advisers of the Massacre of St. Bartholomew. For my own part, I should award it unbounded praise, if Icould believe it took its source in a spirit of enlightenment andChristian charity. I should regard it differently, if I thought it wasto be traced to calculations of policy and interest. 

The difficulty is to penetrate the secret thoughts of the SovereignPontiff; to find a key to the real motive of his tolerance. Naturalmildness and interested mildness resemble each other in their effects, but differ widely in their causes. When the Pope and the Cardinalsoverwhelm M. De Rothschild with assurances of their highestconsideration, are we to conclude that an Israelite is equal to aRoman Catholic in their eyes, as he is in yours or mine? Or are we toconclude that they deem it expedient to mask their real sentimentsbecause M. De Rothschild has millions to spare?

This delicate problem is not difficult to solve. We have but to seekout a Jew in Rome who is _not_ the possessor of millions, and to askhim how he is considered and treated by the Popes. If the Governmentreally make no difference between this citizen who is a Jew, andanother who is a Catholic, I will say the Popes have become tolerantin earnest. If, on the contrary, we find that the administrationaccords this poor Jew a social position somewhere between man and thedog, then I am bound to set down the fine speeches made to M. DeRothschild, as proceeding from calculations of interest, and asinferring a sacrifice of dignity. 

Now mark, and judge for yourselves. There were Jews in Italy beforethere were Christians in the world. Roman polytheism, which toleratedeverything except the kicks administered by Polyeucte to the statue ofJupiter, gave a place to the God of Israel. Afterwards came theChristians, and they were tolerated till they conspired against thelaws. They were often confounded with the Jews, because they came fromthe same corner of the East. Christianity increased by means of piousconspiracies; enrolled slaves braved their masters, and became masterin its turn. I don't blame it for practising reprisals, and cuttingthe pagans' throats; but in common justice it has killed too manyJews. 

Not at Rome. The Popes kept a specimen of the accursed race to bringbefore God at the last judgment. The Scripture had warned the Jewsthat they should live miserably till the consummation of time. TheChurch, ever mindful of prophecy, undertook to keep them alive andmiserable. She made enclosures for them, as we do in our _Jardin desPlantes_ for rare animals. At first they were folded in the valley ofEgeria, then they were penned in the Trastevere, and finally cribbedin the Ghetto. In the daytime they were allowed to go about the city, that the people might see what a dirty, degraded being a man is whenhe does not happen to be a Christian; but when night came they wereput under lock and key. The Ghetto used to close just as the Faithfulwere on their way to damnation at the theatre. 

On the occasion of certain solemnities the Municipal Council of Romeamused the populace with _Jew races_. 

When modern philosophy had somewhat softened Catholic manners, horseswere substituted for Jews. The Senator of the city used annually toadminister to them an official kick in the seat of honour: which tokenof respect they acknowledged by a payment of 800 scudi. At everyaccession of a Pope, they were obliged to range themselves under theArch of Titus, and to offer the new Pontiff a Bible, in return forwhich he addressed to them an insulting observation. They paid aperpetual annuity of 450 scudi to the heirs of a renegade who hadabused them. They paid the salary of a preacher charged to work attheir conversion every Saturday, and if they stayed away from thesermon they were fined. But they paid no taxes in the strict sense ofthe word, because they were not citizens. The law regarded them in thelight of travellers at an inn. The license to dwell in Rome wasprovisional, and for many centuries it was renewed every year. Notonly were they without any political rights, but they were deprived ofeven the most elementary civil rights. They could neither possessproperty, nor engage in manufactures, nor cultivate the soil: theylived by botching and brokage. How they lived at all surprises me. Want, filth, and the infected atmosphere of their dens, hadimpoverished their blood, made them wan and haggard, and stampeddisgrace upon their looks. Some of them scarcely retained thesemblance of humanity. They might have been taken for brutes; yet theywere notoriously intelligent, apt at business, resigned to their lot, good-tempered, kind-hearted, devoted to their families, andirreproachable in their general conduct. 

I need not add that the Roman rabble, bettering the instruction ofCatholic monks, spurned them, reviled them, and robbed them. The lawforbade Christians to hold converse with them, but to steal anythingfrom them was a work of grace. 

The law did not absolutely sanction the murder of a Jew; but thetribunals regarded the murderer of a man in a different light from themurderer of a Jew. Mark the line of pleading that follows. 

 "Why, Gentlemen, does the law severely punish murderers, and sometimes go the length of inflicting upon them the penalty of death? Because he who murders a Christian murders at once a body and a soul. He sends before the Sovereign Judge a being who is ill-prepared, who has not received absolution, and who falls straight into hell--or, at the very least, into purgatory. This is why murder--I mean the murder of a Christian--cannot be too severely punished. But as for us (counsel and client), what have we killed? Nothing, Gentlemen, absolutely nothing but a wretched Jew, predestined for damnation. You know the obstinacy of his race, and you know that if he had been allowed a hundred years for his conversion, he would have died like a brute, without confession. I admit that we have advanced by some years the maturity of celestial justice; we have hastened a little for him an eternity of torture which sooner or later must inevitably have been his lot. But be indulgent, Gentlemen, towards so venial an offence, and reserve your severity for those who attempt the life and salvation of a Christian!"

This speech would be nonsense at Paris. It was sound logic at Rome, and, thanks to it, the murderer got off with a few months'imprisonment. 

You will ask why the Jews have not fled a hundred leagues from thisSlough of Despond. The answer is, because they were born there. Moreover, the taxation is light, and rent is moderate. Add that, whenfamine has been in the land, or the inundations of the Tiber havespread ruin and devastation around, the scornful charity of the Popeshas flung them some bones to gnaw. Then again, travelling costs money, and passports are not to be had for the asking in Rome. 

But if, by some miracle of industry, one of these unfortunate childrenof Israel has managed to accumulate a little money, his first thoughthas been to place his family beyond the reach of the insults of theGhetto. He has realized his little fortune, and has gone to seekliberty and consideration in some less Catholic country. This accountsfor the fact that the Ghetto was no richer at the accession of PiusIX. Than it was in the worst days of the Middle Ages. 

History has made haste to write in letters of gold all the good deedsof the reigning Pope, and, above all, the enfranchisement of the Jews. 

Pius IX. Has removed the gates of the Ghetto. He allows the Jews to goabout by night as well as by day, and to live where they like. He hasexempted them from the municipal kick and the 800 scudi which it costthem. He has closed the little church where these poor people werecatechized every Saturday, against their will, and at their ownexpense. His accession may be regarded, then, as an era of deliverancefor the people of Israel who have set up their tents in Rome. 

Europe, which sees things from afar, naturally supposes that under sotolerant a sway as that of Pius IX. , Jews have thronged from all partsof the world into the Papal States. But see how paradoxical a scienceis that of statistics. From it we learn that in 1842, under GregoryXVI. , during the captivity of Babylon, the little kingdom of the Popecontained 12, 700 Jews. We further learn that in 1853, in the teeth ofsuch reforms, such a shower of benefits, such justice, and suchtolerance, the Israelites in the kingdom were reduced to 9, 237. Inother words, 3, 463 Jews--more than a quarter of the Jewishpopulation--had withdrawn from the paternal action of the Holy Father. 

Either this people is very ungrateful, or we don't know the wholestate of the case. 

While I was at Rome, I had secret inquiries on the subject made of twonotables of the Ghetto. When the poor people heard the object I had inview in my inquiries, they expressed great alarm. "For Heaven's sakedon't pity us!" they cried. 

 "Let not the outer world learn through your book that we are unfortunate--that the Pope shows by his acts how bitterly he regrets the benefits conferred upon us in 1847--that the Ghetto is closed by doors invisible, but impassable--and that our condition is worse than ever! All you say in our favour will turn against us, and that which you intend for our good will do us infinite harm. "

This is all the information I could obtain as to the treatment of thispersecuted people. It is little enough, but it is something. I foundthat their Ghetto, in which some hidden power keeps them shut up justas in past times, was the foulest and most neglected quarter of thecity, whence I concluded that nothing was done for them by themunicipality. I learnt that neither the Pope, nor the Cardinals, northe Bishops, nor the least of the Prelates, could set foot on thisaccursed ground without contracting a moral stain--the custom of Romeforbids it: and I thought of those Indian Pariahs whom a Brahmincannot touch without losing caste. I learnt that the lowest places inthe lowest of the public offices were inaccessible to Jews, neithermore nor less than they would be to animals. A child of Israel mightas well apply for the place of a copying-clerk at Rome as one of thegiraffes in the Jardin des Plantes for the post of a Sous-Préfet. Iascertained that none of them are or can be landowners, a fact whichsatisfies me that Pius IX. Has not yet come quite to regard them asmen. If one of their tribe cultivates another man's field, it is bysmuggling himself into the occupation under a borrowed name; as thoughthe sweat of a Jew dishonoured the earth. Manufactures are forbiddenthem, as of old; not being of the nation, they might injure thenational industry. To conclude, I have observed them myself as theystood on the thresholds of their miserable shops, and I can assure youthey do not resemble a people freed from oppression. The seal ofpontifical reprobation is not removed from their foreheads. If, ashistory pretends, they had been liberated for the last twelve years, some sign of freedom would be perceptible on their countenances. 

I am willing to admit that, at the commencement of his reign, Pius IX. Experienced a generous impulse. But this is a country in which good isonly done by immense efforts, while evil occurs naturally. I wouldliken it to a waggon being drawn up a steep mountain ascent. The jointefforts of four stout bullocks are required to drag it forward: itruns backwards by itself. 

Were I to tell you all that M. De Rothschild has done for hisco-religionists at Rome, you would be astounded. Not only are theysupported at his expense, but he never concludes a transaction withthe Pope without introducing into it a secret article or two in theirfavour. And still the waggon goes backwards. 

The French occupation might be beneficial to the Jews. Our officersare not wanting in good will; but the bad will of the priestsneutralizes their efforts. By way of illustrating the operation ofthese two influences, I will relate a little incident which recentlyoccurred. 

An Israelite of Rome had hired some land in defiance of the law, underthe name of a Christian. As everybody knew that the Jew was the realfarmer, he was robbed right and left in the most unscrupulous manner, merely because he _was_ a Jew. The poor man, foreseeing that beforerent-day he should be completely ruined, applied for leave to have aguard sworn to protect his property. The authorities replied thatunder no pretext should a Christian be sworn in the service of aJew. Disappointed in his application, he mentioned the fact tosome French officers, and asked for the assistance of the FrenchCommander-in-Chief. It was readily promised by M. De Goyon, one of thekindest-hearted men alive, who undertook moreover to apply personallyto the Cardinal in the matter. The reply he received from his Eminencewas, "What you ask is nothing short of an impossibility. Nevertheless, as the Government of the Holy Father is unable to refuse you anything, we will do it. Not only shall your Jew have a sworn guard, but out of our affection for you, we will select him ourselves. "

Delighted at having done a good action, the General warmly thanked theCardinal, and departed. Three months elapsed, and still no sworn guardmade his appearance at the Jew's farm. The poor fellow, robbed morethan ever, timidly applied again to the General, who once more tookthe field in his behalf. This time, in order to make the matter sure, he would not leave the Cardinal till he held in his own hand thepermission, duly filled up and signed. The delighted Jew shed tears ofgratitude as he read to his family the thrice-blessed name of theguard assigned to him. The name was that of a man who had disappearedsix years back, and never been heard of since. 

When the French officers next met the Jew, they asked him whether hewas pleased with his sworn guard. He dared not say that he had noguard: the police had forbidden him to complain. 

The Jews of Rome are the most unfortunate in the Papal States. Thevicinity of the Vatican is as fatal to them as to the Christians. Farfrom the seat of government, beyond the Apennines, they are less poor, less oppressed, and less despised. The Israelitish population ofAncona is really a fine race. 

It is not to be inferred from this that the agents of the Pope becomeconverts to tolerance by crossing the Apennines. 

It is not a year since the Archbishop of Bologna confiscated the boyMortara for the good of the Convent of the Neophytes. 

Only two years ago the Prefect of Ancona revived the old law, whichforbids Christians to converse publicly with Jews. 

It is not ten years since a merchant of considerable fortune, named P. Cadova, was deprived of his wife and children by means as remarkableas those employed in the case of young Mortara, although the affaircreated less sensation at the time. 

M. P. Cadova lived at Cento, in the province of Ferrara. He had apretty wife, and two children. His wife was seduced by one of hisclerks, who was a Catholic. The intrigue being discovered, the clerkwas driven from the house. The faithless wife soon joined her lover atBologna, and took her children with her. 

The Jew applied to the courts of law to assist him in taking thechildren from the adulteress. 

The answer he received to his application was, that his wife andchildren had all three embraced Christianity, and had consequentlyceased to be his family. 

The Courts further decreed that he should pay an annual income fortheir support. 

On this income the adulterous clerk also subsists. 

Some months later Monsignore Oppiszoni, Archbishop of Bologna, himselfcelebrated the marriage of M. P. Cadova's wife and M. P. Cadova'sex-clerk. 

Of course, you'll say, P. Cadova was dead. Not a bit of it. He wasalive, and as well as a broken-hearted man could be. The Church, then, winked at a case of bigamy? Not so. In the States of the Church awoman may be married at the same time to a Jew and a Catholic, withoutbeing a bigamist, because in the States of the Church a Jew is not aman. 

CHAPTER XVI. 

EDUCATION OF THE PEOPLE. 

All the world knows, and says over and over again, that education isless advanced in the Papal States than in any country in Europe. It isa source of universal regret that the nation which is, perhaps, of allothers the most intelligent by God's grace, should be the mostignorant by the will of priests. This people has been compared to athorough-bred horse, reduced from racing to walking blindfolded, roundand round, grinding corn. 

But people who talk thus take a partial view of the question. Theydon't, or they won't, see how entirely the development of publicignorance is in conformity with the principles of the Church, and howfavourable it is to the maintenance of priestly government. 

Religions are founded, not upon knowledge, or science, but upon faith, or, as some term it, credulity. People have agreed to describe as an"act of faith" the operation of closing one's eyes in order to seebetter. It is by walking with faith, --in other words, with one's eyesshut, --that the gates of Paradise are reached. If we could take fromafar the census of that locality, we should find there more of theilliterate than of the learned. A child that knows the catechism byheart is more pleasing in the sight of Heaven than all the fiveclasses of the Institute. The Church will never hesitate between anastronomer and a Capuchin friar. Knowledge is full of dangers. Notonly does it puff up the heart of man, but it often shatters by theforce of reasoning the best-constructed fables. Knowledge has madeterrible havoc in the Roman Catholic Church during the last two orthree hundred years. Who can tell how many souls have been cast intohell through the invention of printing. 

Applied to the industrial pursuits of this sublunary sphere, scienceengenders riches, luxury, pleasure, health, and a thousand similarscourges, which tend to draw us away from salvation. Science cureseven those irreligious maladies wherein religion used to recognize thefinger of God. It no longer permits the sinner to make himself apurgatory here below. There is danger lest it should one of these daysrender man's terrestrial abode so blessed, that he may conceive anantipathy to Heaven. The Church, having the mission to conduct us tothat eternal felicity which is the sole end of human existence, isbound to discourage our dealings with science. The utmost she canventure to do is to let a select number of her most trustworthyservants have free access to it, in order that the enemies of thefaith may find somebody whom they can speak to. 

This is why I undertake to show you in Rome a dozen men of highliterary and scientific acquirements, to a hundred thousand who don'tknow their ABC. 

The Church is but the more flourishing for it, and the State by nomeans the less so. The true shepherds of peoples, they who feed thesheep for the sake of selling the wool and the skins, do not want themto know too much. The mere fact of a man's being able to read makeshim wish to meddle with everything. The custom-house may be made tokeep him from reading dangerous books, but he'll be sure to take thechange out of the laws of the kingdom. He'll begin to inquire whetherthey are good or bad, whether they accord with or contradict oneanother, whether they are obeyed or broken. No sooner can he calculatewithout the help of his fingers, than he'll want to look up thefigures of the Budget. But if he has reached the culminating point ofknowing how to use his pen, the sight of the smallest bit of paperwill give him a sort of political itching. He will experience anuncontrollable desire to express his sentiments as a man and acitizen, by voting for one representative, and against another. And, gracious goodness! what will become of us if the refractory sheepshould get as high as the generalities of history, or the speculationsof philosophy?--if he should begin to stir important questions, toinquire into great truths, to refute sophisms, to point out abuses, todemand rights? The shepherd's occupation is assuredly not all rosesfrom the day he finds it necessary to muzzle his flock. 

Sovereigns who are not Popes have nothing to fear from the progress ofenlightenment, for their interest does not lie in the fabrication ofsaints, but in the making of men. In France, England, Piedmont, andsome other countries, the Governments urge, or even oblige the peopleto seek instruction. This is because a power which is based on reasonhas no fear of being discussed. Because the acts of a really nationaladministration have no reason to dread the inquiry of the nation. Because it is not only a nobler but an easier task to governreflecting beings than mere brutes, --always supposing the Governmentto be in the right. Because education softens men's manners, eradicates their evil instincts, reduces the average of crime, andsimplifies the policeman's duty. Because science applied tomanufactures will, in a few years, increase a hundredfold theprosperity of the nation, the wealth of the State, and the resourcesof power. 

Because the discoveries of pure science, good books, and all thehigher productions of the mind, even when they are not sources ofmaterial profit, are an honour to a country, the splendour of an age, and the glory of a Sovereign. 

All the princes in Europe, with the single exception of the Pope, limit their views to the things of the earth; and they do wisely. Without raising a doubt as to a future existence in another and abetter world, they govern their subjects only with regard to thislife. They seek to obtain for them all the happiness of which man iscapable here below; they labour to render him as perfect as he can beas long as he retains this poor "mortal coil. " We should regard themas _mauvais plaisants_ if they were to think it their duty to make forus the trials of Job, while showing us a future prospect of eternalbliss. 

But the fact is that our emperors and kings and lay sovereigns are menwith wives and children, personally interested in the education of therising generation, and the future of their people. A good Pope, on thecontrary, has no other object but to gain Heaven himself, and to dragup a hundred and thirty millions of men after him. Thus it is that hissubjects can with an ill grace ask of him those temporal advantageswhich secular princes feel bound to offer their subjectsspontaneously. 

In the Papal States the schools for the lower classes are both few andfar between. The government does nothing to increase either theirnumber or their usefulness, the parishes being obliged to maintainthem; and even this source is sometimes cut off, for not unfrequentlythe minister disallows this heading in the municipal budget, andpockets the money himself. In addition to this, secondary teaching, excepting in the colleges, exists but in name; and I should advise anyfather who wishes his son's education to extend beyond the catechism, to send him into Piedmont. 

But on the other hand, I am bound to urge in the Pope's behalf thatthe colleges are numerous, well endowed, and provided with ample meansfor turning out mediocre priests. The monasteries devote themselves tothe education of little monks. They are taught from an early age tohold a wax taper, wear a frock, cast down their eyes, and chant inLatin. If you wish to admire the foresight of the Church, you shouldsee the procession of Corpus Christi day. All the convents walk inline one after the other, and each has its live nursery of littleshavelings. Their bright Italian eyes, sparkling with intelligence, and their handsome open countenances, form a curious contrast with thestolid and hypocritical masks worn by their superiors. At one glanceyou behold the opening flowers and the ripe fruit of religion, --thepresent and the future. You think within yourselves that, in defaultof a miracle, the cherubs before you will ere long be turned intomummies. However, you console yourselves for the anticipatedmetamorphosis by the reflection that the salvation of the monklings isassured. 

All the Pope's subjects would be sure of getting to Heaven if theycould all enter the cloisters; but then the world would come to an endtoo soon. The Pope does his best to bring them near this state ofmonastic and ecclesiastical perfection. Students are dressed likepriests, and corpses also are arrayed in a sort of religious costume. The Brethren of the Christian Doctrine were thought dangerous becausethey dressed their little boys in caps, tunics, and belts; so the Popeforbade them to go on teaching young Rome. The Bolognese (beyond theApennines) founded by subscription asylums under the direction of layfemale teachers. The clergy make most praiseworthy efforts to reformsuch an abuse. 

There is not a law, not a regulation, not a deed nor a word of thehigher powers, which does not tend to the edification of the people, and to urge them on heavenward. 

Enter this church. A monk is preaching with fierce gesticulations. Heis not in the pulpit, but he stands about twenty paces from it, on aplank hastily flung across trestles. Don't be afraid of his treating aquestion of temporal ethics after the fashion of our worldlypreachers. He is dogmatically and furiously descanting on theImmaculate Conception, on fasting in Lent, on avoiding meat of aFriday, on the doctrine of the Trinity, on the special nature ofhell-fire. 

 "Bethink you, my brethren, that if terrestrial fire, the fire created by God for your daily wants and your general use, can cause you such acute pain at the least contact with your flesh, how much more fierce and terrible must be that flame of hell-fire which ever devours without consuming those who . . . Etc. Etc. "

I spare you the rest. 

Our sacred orators for the most part confine themselves to preachingon such subjects as fidelity, to wives; probity, to men; obedience, tochildren. They descend to a level with a lay congregation, andendeavour to sow, each according to his powers, a little virtue onearth. Verily, Roman eloquence cares very much for virtue! It isgreatly troubled about the things of earth! It takes the people by theshoulders and forces them into the paths of devotion, which leadstraight to Heaven. And it does its duty, according to the teachingsof the Church. 

Open one of the devotional books which are printed in the country. Here is one selected at random, 'The Life of St. Jacintha. ' It lies ona young girl's work-table. A knitting-needle marks the place at whichthe gentle reader left off this morning. Let us turn to the passage. It is sure to be highly edifying. 

 "_Chapter V. --She casts from her heart all natural affection for her relations. _

 "Knowing from the Redeemer himself that we ought not to love our relations more than God, and feeling herself naturally drawn towards hers, she feared lest such a love, although natural, if it should take root and grow in her heart, might in the course of time surpass or impede the love she owed to God, and render her unworthy of him. So she formed the very generous determination of casting from herself all affection for the persons of her blood. 

 "Resolved on conquering herself by this courageous determination, and on triumphing over opposing nature itself, --powerfully urged thereto by another word of Christ, who said that in order to go to him we must hate our relations, when the love we bear them stands in the way, --she went and solemnly performed a great act of renunciation before the altar of the most holy Sacrament. There, flinging herself on her knees, her heart kindling with an ardent flame of charity towards God, she offered up to Him all the natural affections of her heart, more especially those which she felt were the strongest within her for the nearest and dearest of her relations. In this heroic action she obtained the intervention of the most holy Virgin, as may be seen by a letter in her handwriting addressed to a regular priest, wherein she promises, by the aid of the holy Virgin, to attach herself no more either to her relations, or to any other earthly object. This renunciation was so resolutely courageous and so sincere that from that hour her brothers, sisters, nephews, and all her kindred became to her objects of total indifference; and she deemed herself thenceforth so much an orphan and alone in the world, that she was enabled to see and converse with her aforesaid relations when they came to see her at the convent, as if they were persons utterly unknown to her. 

 "She had made herself in Paradise an entirely spiritual family, selected from among the saints who had been the greatest sinners. Her father was St. Augustin; her mother St. Mary the Egyptian; her brother St. William the Hermit, ex-Duke of Aquitaine; her sister St. Margaret of Cortona; her uncle St. Peter, the Prince of the Apostles; her nephews the three children of the furnace of Babylon. "

Now here is a book that you, probably, attribute to the monkish ages;a book expressing the isolated sentiments of a mind obscured by thegloom of the cloisters. 

In order to convince you of your error, I will give you its title anddate, and the opinion concerning it expressed by the rulers of Rome. 

 "Life of the Virgin Saint Jacintha Mariscotti, a professed Nun of the Third Order of the Seraphic Father St. Francis, written by the Father Flaminius Mary Hanibal of Latara, Brother Observant of the Order of the Minors. Rome, 1805. Published by Antonio Fulgoni, by permission of the Superiors. 

 "Approbation. --The book is to the glory and honour of the Catholic Religion and the illustrious Order of St. Francis, and to the spiritual profit of those persons who desire to enter into the way of perfection. 

 "Brother Thomas Mancini, of the Order of Preachers, Master, ex-Provincial, and Consultor of Sacred Rites. 

 "Imprimatur. Brother Thomas Vincent Pani, of the Order of Preachers, Master of the Sacred Apostolical Palace. "

Now here we have a woman, a writer, a censor, and a Master of thePalace, who are ready to strangle the whole human race for the sake ofhastening its arrival in Paradise. These people are only doing theirduty. 

Just look out into the street. Four men of different ages are kneelingin the mud before a Madonna, whining out prayers. Presently, fifteenor twenty others come upon you, chanting a canticle to the glory ofMary. Perhaps you think they are yielding to a natural inspiration, and freely working out their salvation. I thought so myself, till Iwas told that they were paid fifteen-pence for thus edifying thebystanders. This comedy in the open air is subsidized by theGovernment. And the Government does its duty. 

The streets and roads swarm with beggars. Under lay governments thepoor either receive succour in their own homes, or are admitted tohouses of public charity; they are not allowed to obstruct the publicthoroughfares, and tyrannize over the passengers. But we are in anecclesiastical country. On the one hand, poverty is dear to God; onthe other, alms-giving is a deed of piety. If the Pope could make onehalf of his subjects hold out their hands, and the other half put ahalfpenny into each extended palm, he would effect the salvation of anentire people. 

Mendicity, which lay sovereigns regard as an ugly sore in the State, to be healed, is tended and watered as a fair flower by a clericalgovernment. Pray give something to yonder sham cripple; give to thatcadger who pretends to have lost an arm; and be sure you don't forgetthat blind young man leaning on his father's arm! A medical man of myacquaintance offered yesterday to restore his sight, by operating forthe cataract. The father cried aloud with indignant horror at theproposal; the boy is a fortune to him. Drop an alms for the son intothe father's bowl; the Pope will let you into Paradise, of which hekeeps the keys. 

The Romans themselves are not duped by their beggars. They are toosharp to be taken in by these swindlers in misery. Still they puttheir hands into their pockets; some from weakness or humanity, somefrom ostentation, some to gain Paradise. If you doubt my assertion, try an experiment which I once did, with considerable success. Onenight, between nine and ten o'clock, I begged all along the Corso. Iwas not disguised as a beggar. I was dressed as if I were on theBoulevards at Paris. Still, between the Piazza del Popolo and thePiazza di Venezia, I _made_ sixty-three baiocchi (about threeshillings). If I were to try the same joke at Paris, the_sergents-de-ville_ would very properly think it their duty to walk meoff to the nearest police-station. The Pontifical Governmentencourages mendicity by the protection of its agents, and recommendsit by the example of its friars. The Pontifical Government does itsduty. 

Prostitution flourishes in Rome, and in all the large towns of theStates of the Church. The police is too paternal to refuse theconsolations of the flesh to three millions of persons out of whomfive or six thousand have taken the vow of celibacy. But in proportionas it is indulgent to vice, it is severe in cases of scandal. It onlyallows light conduct in women when they are sheltered by theprotection of a husband. [12] It casts the cloak of Japhet over thevices of the Romans, in order that the pleasures of one nation may notbe a scandal to others. Rather than admit the existence of the evil, it refuses to place it under proper restraint: lay governments appearto sanction the social evil, when they place it under the control ofthe law. The clerical police is perfectly aware that its noble andwilful blindness exposes the health of an entire people to certaindanger. But it rubs its hands at the reflection that the sinners arepunished by the very sin itself. The clerical police does its duty. 

The institution of the lottery is retained by the Popes, not as asource of revenue only. Lay governments have long since abolished it, because in a well-organized state, where industry leads to everything, citizens should be taught to rely upon nothing but their industry. Butin the kingdom of the Church, where industry leads to nothing, notonly is the lottery a consolation to the poor, but it forms anintegral part of the public education. The sight of a beggar suddenlyenriched, as it were by enchantment, goes far to make the ignorantmultitude believe in miracles. The miracle of the loaves and fisheswas scarcely more marvellous than the changing of tenpence into twohundred and fifty pounds. A high prize is like a present from God; itis money falling from Heaven. This people know that no human power canoblige three particular numbers to come out together; so they rely onthe divine mercy alone. They apply to the Capuchin friars for luckynumbers; they recite special prayers for so many days; they humblycall for the inspiration of Heaven before going to bed; they see indreams the Madonna stuck all over with figures; they pay for masses atthe Churches; they offer the priest money if he will put three numbersunder the chalice at the moment of the consecration. Not less humblydid the courtiers of Louis XIV. Range themselves in the antechamber hewas to pass through, in the hope of obtaining a look or a favour. Thedrawing of the lottery is public, as are the University lectures inFrance. And, verily, it is a great and salutary lesson. The winnerslearn to praise God for his bounties: the losers are punished forhaving unduly coveted worldly pelf. Everybody profits--most of all theGovernment, which makes £80, 000 a year by it, besides the satisfactionof having done its duty. 

Yes, the holy preceptors of the nation fulfil their duty towards God, and towards themselves. But it does not necessarily follow that theyalways manage the affairs of God and of the Government well. 

 "On rencontre sa destinée Souvent par les chemins qu'on prend pour l'eviter. "

La Fontaine tells us this, and the Pope proves it to us. In spite ofthe attention paid to religious instruction, the sermons, the goodbooks, the edifying spectacles, the lottery, and so many other goodthings, faith is departing. The general aspect of the country does notbetray the fact, because the fear of scandal pervades all society; butthe devil loses nothing by that. Perhaps the citizens have the greaterdislike to religion, from the very fact of its reigning over them. Ourmaster is our enemy. God is too much the master of these people not tobe treated by them in some degree as an enemy. 

The spirit of opposition is called atheism, where the Tuileries arecalled the Vatican. A young ragamuffin, who drove me from Rimini toSanta Maria, let slip a terrible expression, which I have oftenthought of since: "God?"--he said, "if there be one, I dare say he's apriest like the rest of 'em. "

Reflect upon these words, reader! When I examine them closely, I startback in terror, as before those crevices of Vesuvius, which give you aglimpse of the abyss below. 

Has the temporal power served its own interests better than it hasthose of God? I doubt it. The deputation of Rome was Red in 1848. Itwas Rome that chose Mazzini. It is Rome that still regrets him in thelow haunts of the Regola, on that miry bank of the Tiber, where secretsocieties swarm at this moment, like gnats on the shores of the Nile. 

If these deplorable fruits of a model education were pointed out tothe philosopher Gavarni, he would probably exclaim, "Bring up nations, in order that they may hate and despise you!"

CHAPTER XVII. 

FOREIGN OCCUPATION. 

The Pope is loved and revered in all Catholic countries--except hisown. 

It is, therefore, perfectly just and natural that one hundred andthirty-nine millions of devoted and respectful men should render himassistance against three millions of discontented ones. It is notenough to have given him a temporal kingdom, or to have restored thatkingdom to him when he had the misfortune to lose it; one must lendhim a permanent support, unless the expense of a fresh restoration isto be incurred every year. 

This is the principle of the foreign occupation. We are one hundredand thirty-nine millions of Catholics, who have violently delegated tothree millions of Italians the honour of boarding and lodging ourspiritual chief. If we were not to leave a respectable army in Italyto watch over the execution of our commands, we should be doing ourwork by halves. 

In strict logic, the security of the Pope should be guaranteed at thecommon expense of the Catholic Powers. It seems quite natural thateach nation interested in the oppression of the Romans should furnishits contingent of soldiers. Such a system, however, would have theeffect of turning the castle of St. Angelo into another Tower ofBabel. Besides, the affairs of this world are not all regulatedaccording to the principles of logic. 

The only three Powers which contributed to the re-establishment ofPius IX. Were France, Austria, and Spain. The French besieged Rome;the Austrians seized the places of the Adriatic; the Spaniards didvery little, not from the want either of goodwill or courage, butbecause their allies left them nothing to do. 

If a private individual may be permitted to probe the motives uponwhich princes act, I would venture to suggest that the Queen of Spainhad nothing in view but the interests of the Church. Her soldiers cameto restore the Pope to his throne; they went as soon as he wasreseated on it. This was a chivalrous policy. 

Napoleon III. Also considered the restoration of the Pope to atemporal throne necessary to the good of the Church. Perhaps he thinksso still--though I couldn't swear to it. But his motives of actionwere complicated. Simple President of the French Republic, heir to aname which summoned him to the throne, resolved to exchange histemporary magistracy for an imperial crown, he had the greatestpossible interest in proving to Europe how republics are put down. Hehad already conceived the idea of playing that great part of championof order, which has since caused him to be received by all Sovereignsfirst as a brother, and afterwards as an arbitrator. Lastly, he knewthat the restoration of the Pope would secure him a million ofCatholic votes towards his election to the imperial crown. But tothese motives of personal interest were added some others, ifpossible, of a loftier character. The heir of Napoleon and of theliberal Revolution of '89, the man who read his own name on the firstpage of the civil code, the author of so many works breathing thespirit of new ideas and the passionate love of progress, the silentdreamer whose busy brain already teemed with the germs of all theprosperity we have enjoyed for the last ten years, was incapable ofhanding over three millions of Italians to reaction, lawlessness, andmisery. If he had firmly resolved to put down the Republic at Rome, hewas not less firm in his resolution to suppress the abuses, theinjustice, and all the traditional oppressions which drove theItalians to revolt. In the opinion of the head of the French Republic, the way to be again victorious over anarchy, was to deprive it of allpretext and all cause for its existence. 

He knew Rome; he had lived there. He knew, from personal experience, in what the Papal government differed from good governments. Hisnatural sense of justice urged him to give the subjects of the HolyFather, in exchange for the political autonomy of which he robbedthem, all the civil liberties and all the inoffensive rights enjoyedin civilized States. 

On the 18th of August, 1849, he addressed to M. Edgar Ney a letter, which was, in point of fact, a _memorandum_ addressed to the Pope. _AMNESTY, SECULARIZATION, THE CODE NAPOLEON, A LIBERAL GOVERNMENT_:these were the gifts he promised to the Romans in exchange for theRepublic, and demanded of the Pope in return for a crown. Thisprogramme contained, in half-a-dozen words, a great lesson to thesovereign, and a great consolation to the people. 

But it is easier to introduce a Breguet spring into a watch made whenHenri IV. Was king, than a single reform into the old pontificalmachine. The letter of the 18th of August was received by the friendsof the Pope as an "insult to his rights, good sense, justice, andmajesty!"[13] Pius IX. Took offence at it; the Cardinals made a jokeof it. This determination, this prudence, this justice, on the part ofa man who held them all in his hand, appeared to them immeasurablycomical. They still laugh at it. Don't name M. Edgar Ney before them, or you'll make them laugh till their sides ache. 

The Emperor of Austria never committed the indiscretion of writingsuch a letter as that of the 18th of August. The fact is, the Austrianpolicy in Italy differs materially from ours. 

France is a body very solid, very compact, very firm, very united, which has no fear of being encroached upon, and no desire to encroachon others. Her political frontiers are nearly her natural limits; shehas little or nothing to conquer from her neighbours. She can, therefore, interfere in the events of Europe for purely moralinterests, without views of conquest being attributed to her. One ortwo of her leaders have suffered themselves to be carried somewhat toofar by the spirit of adventure; the nation has never had, what may becalled, geographical ambition. France does not disdain to conquer theworld by the dispersion of her ideas, but she desires nothing more. That which constitutes the beauty of our history, to those who take anelevated view of it, is the twofold object, pursued simultaneously bythe Sovereign and the nation, of concentrating France, and spreadingFrench ideas. 

The old Austrian diplomacy has been, for the last six hundred years, incessantly occupied in stitching together bits of material, withoutever having been able to make a coat. It does not consider either thecolour or the quality of the cloth, but always keeps the needle going. The thread it uses is often white, and it not infrequentlybreaks--when away goes the new patch! Then another has to be found. 

A province is detached--two more are laid hold of. The piece gets rentdown the middle--a rag is caught up, then another, and whatever comesto hand is sewn together in breathless haste. The effect of thisstitching monomania has been, to keep constantly changing the map ofEurope, to bring together, as chance willed it, races and religions ofevery pattern, and to trouble the existence of twenty peoples, withoutmaking the unity of a nation. Certain Machiavellic old gentlemensitting round a green cloth at Vienna, direct this work, measure thematerial, rub their hands complacently when it stretches, snatch offtheir wigs in despair when a piece is torn, and look on all sides foranother wherewith to replace it. In the Middle Ages, the sons of thehouse used to be sent to visit foreign princesses: they made love totheir royal and serene highnesses in German, and always brought backwith them some shred of territory. But now that princesses receivetheir dowers in hard cash, recourse is had to violent measures inorder to procure pieces of material; they are seized by soldiers; andthere are some large stains of blood upon this harlequin's cloak!

Almost all the states of Italy, the kingdom of Naples, Sardinia, Sicily, Modena, Parma, Placentia, and Guastalla, have been in turnstitched to the same piece as Bohemia, Transylvania, and Croatia. Romewould have shared the same fate, if papal excommunications had notbroken the thread. In 1859 it is Venice and Milan that pay foreverybody, till it comes to the turn of Tuscany, Modena, and Massa, tobe patched on in virtue of certain reversionary rights. 

What must have been the satisfaction of Austrian diplomatists whenthey were enabled to throw their troops into the kingdom of the Pope, without remonstrances from anybody! Beyond all doubt, the interests ofthe Church were those which least occupied them. And as for taking anyinterest in the unfortunate subjects of Pius IX. , or demanding forthem any rights, or any liberties, Austria never thought of it for amoment. The old Danaïde only saw an opportunity for pouring anotherpeople into her ill-made and unretentive cask. 

While the French army cautiously cannonaded the capital of the arts, spared public monuments, and took Rome, so to speak, with glovedhands, the Austrian soldiers carried the beautiful cities of theAdriatic--_à la Croate_! As victors, we treated gently those we hadconquered, from motives of humanity; Austria, those she had conquered, brutally, from motives of conquest. She regarded the fair country ofthe Legations and the Marches as another Lombardy, which she would bewell disposed to keep. 

We occupied Rome, and the port of Civita Vecchia; the Austrians tookfor themselves all the country towards the Adriatic. We establishedour quarters in the barracks assigned to us by the municipality; theAustrians built complete fortresses, as is their practice, with themoney of the people they were oppressing. For six or seven years theirarmy lived at the expense of the country. They sent their regimentsnaked, and when poor Italy had clothed them, others came to replacethem. 

Their army was looked upon with no very favourable eye; neither indeedwas ours: the radical party was opposed both to their presence andours. Some stray soldiers of both armies were killed. The French armydefended itself courteously, the Austrian army revenged itself. Inthree years, from the first of January, 1850, to the 1st of January, 1853, we shot three murderers. Austria has a heavier hand: she hasexecuted not only criminals, but thoughtless, and even innocentpeople. I have already given some terrible figures, and will spare youtheir repetition. 

From the day when the Pope condescended to return home, the Frencharmy withdrew into the background; it hastened to restore to thepontifical government all its powers. Austria has only restored whatit could not keep. She even still undertakes to repress politicalcrimes. She feels personally wronged if a cracker is let off, if amusket is concealed: in short, she fancies herself in Lombardy. 

At Rome, the French place themselves at the disposal of the Pope forthe maintenance of order and public security. Our soldiers have toomuch honesty to let a murderer or a thief who is within their reachescape. The Austrians pretend that they are not gendarmes, to arrestmalefactors; each individual soldier considers himself the agent ofthe old diplomatists, charged with none but political functions:police matters are not within his province. What is the consequence?The Austrian army, after carefully disarming the citizens, deliversthem over to malefactors, without the means of protection. 

At Bologna, a merchant of the name of Vincenzio Bedini was pointed outto me, who had been robbed in his warehouse at six o'clock in theevening. An Austrian sentinel was on guard at his door. 

Austria has good reasons for encouraging disorders in the provincesshe occupies: the greater the frequency of crime, and the difficultyof governing the people, the greater is the necessity for the presenceof an Austrian army. Every murder, every theft, every burglary, everyassault, tends to strike the roots of these old diplomatists more deepinto the kingdom of the Pope. 

France would rejoice to be able to recall her troops. She feels thattheir presence at Rome is not a normal state of things: she is herselfmore shocked than anybody else at this irregularity. She has reduced, as much as possible, the effective force of her occupying army; shewould embark her remaining regiments, were she not aware that to do sowould be to deliver the Pope over to the executioner. Mark the extentto which she carries her disinterestedness in the affairs of Italy. Inorder to place the Holy Father in a condition to defend himself alone, she is trying to create for him a national army. The Pope possesses atthe present time four regiments of French manufacture; if they are notvery good, or rather, not to be relied upon, it is not the fault ofthe French. The priestly government has itself alone to blame. Ourgenerals have done all in their power, not only to drill the Pope'ssoldiers, but to inspire them with that military spirit which theCardinals carefully endeavour to stifle. Is it likely that we shallfind the Austrian army seeking to render its presence needless, andspontaneously returning home?

And yet I must admit, with a certain shame, that the conduct of theAustrians is more logical than ours. They entered the Pope'sdominions, meaning to stay there; they spare no pains to assure theirconquest in them. They decimate the population, in order that they maybe feared. They perpetuate disorder, in order that their permanentpresence may be required. Disorder and terror are Austria's best arms. 

As for us, let us see what we have done. In the interest of France, nothing; and I am glad of it. In the interest of the Pope, verylittle. In the interest of the Italian nation, still less. 

The Pope promised us the reform of some abuses, in his _Motu Proprio_of Portici. It was not quite what we demanded of him; still hispromises afforded us some gratification. He returned to his capital, to elude their fulfilment at his ease. Our soldiers awaited him witharms in their hands. They fell at his feet as he passed them. 

During nine consecutive years, the pontifical government has beenretreating step by step, --France, all the while, politely entreatingit to move on a little. Why should it follow our advice? Whatnecessity was there for yielding to our arguments? Our soldierscontinued to mount guard, to present arms, to fall down on one knee, and patrol regularly round all the old abuses. 

In the end, the pertinacity with which we urged our good counselsbecame disagreeable to his Holiness. His retrograde court has a horrorof us; it prefers the Austrians, who crush the people, but who nevertalk of liberty. The Cardinals say, sometimes in a whisper, sometimeseven aloud, that they don't want our army, that we are very much intheir way, and that they could protect themselves--with the assistanceof a few Austrian regiments. 

The nation, that is the middle class, says, our good-will, of which ithas no doubt, is of little use to it; and declares it would undertaketo obtain all its rights, to secularize the government, to proclaimthe amnesty, to introduce the Code Napoléon, and to establish liberalinstitutions, if we would but withdraw our soldiers. This is what itsays at Rome. At Bologna, Ferrara, and Ancona, it believes that, inspite of everything, the Romans are glad to have us, because, althoughwe let evil be done, we never do it ourselves. In this we are admittedto be better than the Austrians. 

Our soldiers say nothing. Troops don't argue under arms. Let me speakfor them. 

 "We are not here to support the injustice and dishonesty of a petty government that would not be tolerated for twenty-four hours with us. If we were, we must change the eagle on our flags for a crow. The Emperor cannot desire the misery of a people, and the shame of his soldiers. He has his own notions. But if, in the meantime, these poor devils of Romans were to rise in insurrection, in the hope of obtaining the Secularization, the Amnesty, the Code, and the Liberal Government, which we have taught them to expect, we should inevitably be obliged to shoot them down. "

CHAPTER XVIII. 

WHY THE POPE WILL NEVER HAVE SOLDIERS. 

I paid a visit to a Roman Prelate well known for his devotion to theinterests of the Church, the temporal power of the Popes, and theAugust person of the Holy Father. 

When I was introduced to his oratory I found him reading over theproof-sheets of a thick volume, entitled _Administration of theMilitary Forces_. 

He threw down his pen with an air of discouragement, and showed me thetwo following quotations which he had inscribed on the title-page ofthe book:

 "Every independent State should suffice to itself, and assure its internal security by its own forces. "--_Count de Rayneval; note of 14th May_, 1855. 

 "The troops of the Pope will always be the troops of the Pope. What are warriors who have never made war?"--_De Brosses_. 

After I had reflected a little upon these not very consoling passages, the Prelate said, "You have not been very long at Rome, and your impressions ought to be just, because they are fresh. What do you think of our Romans? Do the descendants of Marius appear to you a race without courage, incapable of confronting danger? If it be indeed true that the nation has retained nothing of its patrimony, not even its physical courage, all our efforts to create a national force in Rome are foredoomed to failure. The Popes must for ever remain disarmed in the presence of their enemies. Nothing is left for them but to entrench themselves behind the mercenary courage of a Swiss garrison or the respectful protection of a great Catholic power. What becomes of independence? What becomes of sovereignty?"

"Monsignore, " I replied, "I already know the Romans too well to judge them by the calumnies of their enemies. I daily see with what intemperate courage this violent and hot-blooded people gives and receives death. I know the esteem expressed by Napoleon I. For the regiments he raised here. And we can say between ourselves that there were many of the subjects of the Pope in the revolutionary army which defended Rome against the French. I am persuaded, then, that the Holy Father has no need to go abroad to find men, and that a few years would serve to make these men good soldiers. What is much less evident to me is the real necessity for having a Roman army. Does the Pope want to aggrandise himself by war? No. Does he fear lest some enemy should invade his States? Certainly not. He is better protected by the veneration of Europe than by a line of fortresses. If, by a scarcely possible eventuality, any difference were to arise between the Holy See and an Italian Monarchy, the Pope has the means of resistance at hand, without striking a blow; for he counts more soldiers in Piedmont, in Tuscany, and in the Two Sicilies, than the Neapolitans, the Tuscans, and the Piedmontese would well know how to send against him. So much for the exterior; and the situation is so clear, that your Ministry of War assumes the modest and Christian title of 'the Ministry of Arms. ' As for the interior, a good gendarmerie is all you want. '

 "Eh! my dear son, " cried the Prelate, "we ask nothing better. A people which is never destined to make war does not want an army, but it ought to keep on foot the forces necessary for the maintenance of the public peace. An army of police and internal security is what we have been endeavouring to create since 1849. Have we succeeded? Do we suffice for ourselves? Are we in a position to ensure our tranquillity by our own forces? No! no! certainly not. "

 "Pardon me, Monsignore, if I think you a little severe. During the three months I have loitered as an observer in Rome, I have had time to see the pontifical army. Your soldiers are fine-looking men, their general appearance is good, they have a martial air, and, as far as I can judge, they go through their manoeuvres pretty well. It would be difficult to recognize in them the old soldier of the Pope, the fabulous personage whose duty it was to escort processions, and to fire off the cannon on firework nights; the well-to-do citizen in uniform who, if the weather looked threatening, mounted guard with an umbrella. The Holy Father's army would present a good appearance in any country in the world; and there are some of your soldiers whom--at a little distance--I should take for our own. "

"Yes, " he said, "their appearance is good enough, and if factions could be kept down by mere appearances, I should feel tolerably easy. But I know many things respecting the army that make me very uncomfortable--and yet I don't know all. I know there is great difficulty in recruiting not only soldiers, but officers; that young men of good family scorn to command, and ploughboys to serve, in our army. I know that more than one mother would rather see her son at the hulks than with the regiment. I know that our soldiers, for the most part drawn from the dregs of the people, have neither confidence in their comrades, nor respect for their officers, nor veneration for their colours. You would vainly look to find among them devotion to their country, fidelity to their sovereign, and all those high and soldierly virtues which make a man die at his post. To the greater number the laws of duty and honour are a dead letter. I know that the gendarme does not always respect private property. I know that the factions rely at least much as we ourselves do on the support of the army. What good is it to us to have fourteen or fifteen thousand men on foot, and to spend some millions of scudi annually, if after such efforts and sacrifices, foreign protection is now more necessary to us than it was the first day?"

"Monsignore, " I replied, "you place things in the worst light, and you judge the situation somewhat after the manner of the Prophet Jeremiah. The Holy Father has several excellent officers, both in the special corps and in the regiments of the line; and you have also some good soldiers. Our officers, who are competent men, render justice to yours, both as regards their intelligence and their goodwill. If I am astonished at anything, it is that the pontifical army has made so much progress as it has in the deplorable conditions in which it is placed. We can discuss it freely because the whole system is under examination, and about to be reorganized by the Head of the State. You complain that young gentlemen of good family do not throng to the College of Cadets in the hope of gaining an epaulette. But you forget how little the epaulette is honoured among you. The officer has no rank in the state. It is a settled point that a deacon shall have precedence of a sub-deacon; but the law and custom of Rome do not allow a Colonel to take precedence even of a man having the simple tonsure. Pray, what position do you assign to your Generals? What is their rank in the hierarchy?"

 "Instead of having our Generals in the army, we have them at the head of the religious orders. Imagine the sensations of the General of the Jesuits at hearing a soldier announced by the honourable ecclesiastical title of _General_!"

"Well! there's something in that. "

 "In order to have commanders for our troops, without at the same time creating personages of too much importance, we have imported three foreign Colonels, who are permitted to perform the functions of General. They even appear in the disguise of Generals, but they will never have the audacity to assume the title. "

 "Capital! Well, now with us there is not a scamp of eighteen who would engage in the army if he were told that he might become a Colonel, but never a General; or even a General, but never a Marshal of France. Who, or what, could induce a man to rush into a career in which there is at a certain point an impassable barrier? You regret that all your officers are not _savants_. I admit that they have learnt something. They enter the College without competition or preliminary examination, sometimes without orthography or arithmetic. The first inspection made by our Generals discovers future lieutenants who cannot do a sum in division, a French class without either a master or pupils, and an historical class in which, after seven months of teaching, the professor is still theologically expounding the creation of the world. It must indeed be a powerful spirit of emulation which can induce these young men to make themselves capable of keeping up a conversation with French officers. You are astonished that they allow the discipline of their men to become somewhat relaxed. Why, discipline is about the last thing they have been taught. In the time of Gregory XVI. An officer refused to allow a Cardinal's carriage to pass down a certain street. Such were his orders. The coachman drove on, and the officer was sent to the castle of St. Angelo, for having done his duty. A single instance of this sort is quite enough to demoralize an army. But the King of Naples shows the Pope his mistake. He had a sentry mentioned in the order of the day, for giving a bishop's coachman a cut with his sword. You are scandalized because certain military administrators curtail the soldiers' poor allowance of bread; but they have never been told that peculation will be punished by dismissal. "

 "Well, the scheme of reorganization is in hand; you will see a new order of things in 1859. "

 "I am glad to hear it, Monsignore; and I will answer for it that a judicious, well-considered reform--slowly progressive, of course, as everything is at Rome--will produce excellent results in a few years. It is not in a day that you can expect to change the face of things; but you know the gardener is not discouraged by the certainty that the tree he plants to-day will not produce fruit for the next five years. The morals of your soldiers are, as you say, none of the best: I hear it said everywhere that an honest peasant thinks it a dishonour to wear your uniform. When you can hold out a future to your men, you need no longer recruit them from the dregs of the population. The soldier will have some feeling of personal dignity when he ceases to find himself exposed to contempt. These poor fellows are looked down upon by everybody, even by the servants of small families. They breathe an atmosphere of scorn, which may be termed the _malaria_ of honour. Relieve them, Monsignore; they ask nothing better. "

 "Do you think, then, the means are to be found of giving us an army as proud and as faithful as the French army? That were a secret for which the Cardinal would pay a high price. "

 "I offer it to you for nothing, Monsignore. France has always been the most military country in Europe; but in the last century the French soldier was no better than yours. The officers are pretty much the same, with this difference only, --that formerly the King selected them from the nobility, whereas now they ennoble themselves by zeal and courage. But a hundred years ago the soldiery, properly so called, consisted in France of what it now does with you--the scum of the population. Picked up in low taverns, between a heap of crown-pieces and a glass of brandy, the soldier made himself more dreaded by the peasantry than by the enemy. He seemed to be overpowered beneath the weight of the scorn of the country at large, the meanness of his present condition, and the impossibility of future promotion; and he revenged himself by forays upon the cellar and the farmyard. He had his place among the scourges which desolated monarchical France. Hear what La Fontaine says, --

 "La faim, les créanciers, _les soldats_, la corvée, Lui font d'un malheureux la peinture achevée. "

 You see that your soldiers of 1858 are angels in comparison with our _soudards_ of the monarchy. If, with all this, you still find them, not absolutely perfect, try the French recipe: submit all your citizens to a conscription, in order that your regiments may not be composed of the refuse of the nation, Create--"

"Stop!" cried the prelate. 

"Monsignore?"

 "I stopped you short, my son, because T perceive that you are getting beyond the real and the possible. _Primo_, we have no citizens; we have subjects. _Secundo_, the conscription is a revolutionary measure, which we will not adopt at any price; it consecrates a principle of equality as much opposed to the ideas of the Government as to the habits of the country. It might possibly give us a very good army, but that army would belong to the nation, not to the Sovereign. We will at once put away, if you please, this dangerous utopia. "

"It might gain you some popularity. "

"Far from it. Believe me, the subjects of the Holy Father have a deepantipathy to the principle of the conscription. The discontent of LaVendée and Brittany is nothing to that which it would create here. "

"People become accustomed to everything, Monsignore. I have metcontingents from La Vendée and Brittany singing merrily as they wentto join their corps. "

"So much the better for them. But let me tell you the only grievanceof this country against the French rule is the conscription, which theEmperor had established among us. "

"So you negative my proposal of the conscription. "

"Absolutely!"

"I must think no more about it?"

"Quite out of the question. "

"Well, Monsignore, I'll do without it. Let us have recourse to thesystem of voluntary enlistment, but with the condition that you securethe prospects of the soldier. What bounty do you offer to recruits?"

"Twelve scudi; but for the future we mean to go as high as twenty. "

 "Twenty scudi is fair enough; still I'm afraid even at one hundred and seven francs a head you won't get picked men. Now, you will allow, Monsignore, a peasant must be badly off indeed when a bounty of twenty scudi tempts him to put on a uniform which is universally despised? But if you want to attract more recruits round every barrack than there were suitors at Penelope's gate, endow the army, offer the Roman citizens--pardon me, I mean the Pope's _subjects_--such a bounty as is really likely to tempt them. Pay them down a small sum for the assistance of their families, and keep the balance till their period of service has expired. Induce them to re-engage after their discharge by promises honourably and faithfully observed; arrange that with every additional year of service the savings which the soldier has left in the hands of the state shall increase. Believe me, when the Romans know that a soldier, without assistance, without education, without any brilliant action, or any stroke of good fortune, by the mere faithful performance of his duty, can, after twenty-five years' service, secure an income of £20 or £25 a year, they will snatch at the advantage of entering the ranks; and I warrant you, the personal interest of each will attach them more firmly to the Government, as the depository of their savings. When the house of a notary is on fire you will see the most immovable and indifferent of shopkeepers running like a cat on the tiles, to put out the fire and save his own papers. On the same principle, a Government will always be served with zeal in proportion to the interest its servants have in its security. "

"Of course, " said the Prelate, "I understand your argument perfectly. Man requires some object in life. A hundred and twenty scudi a year is not an unpleasant bed to lie upon after a term of military service. At this price we should not want candidates. Even the middle class would solicit employment in the military as much as it now does the civil service of the state; and we should be able to pick and choose our men. What frightens me in the matter is the expense. "

 "Ah! Monsignore, you know a really good article is never to be had cheap. The Pontifical Government has 15, 000 soldiers for £400, 000. France would pay half as much again for them: but then she would have the value of the extra cost. The men who have completed three or four terms of service, are those who cost the most money; and yet there is an economy in keeping them, because every such man is worth three conscripts. Do you then, or do you not, wish to create a national force? Have you made up your mind on the subject? If you do wish for it, you must pay for it, and make the sacrifices necessary to obtain it. If, on the contrary, your Government prefers economy to security, begin by saving the £400, 000, and sell to some foreign country the 15, 000 muskets, more dangerous than useful, since you don't know whether they are for you or against you. The question may be summed up in two words: safety, which will cost you money; or economy, which may cost you your existence!"

"You are proposing an army of Prætorians. "

"The name is not the thing. I only promise you that if you pay yoursoldiers well, they'll be faithful to you. "

"The Prætorians often turned against the Emperors. "

"Because the Emperors were silly enough to pay them ready money. "

"But is there no motive in this world nobler than interest? And ismoney the only lasting tie that binds soldiers to their standard?"

 "I should not be a Frenchman, if I held such a belief. I advised you to increase your soldiers' pay, because hitherto your army has been recruited by money alone; and also because money is that which it costs you the least to obtain, and consequently that which you will the most willingly part with. Well then, now that you have given me the few millions I required for the purpose of attaching your soldiers to the Pontifical Government, furnish me with the means of raising them in their own estimation and in that of the people. Honour them, in order that they may become men of honour. Prove to them, by the consideration with which you surround them, that they are not footmen, and that they ought not to have the souls of footmen. Give them a place in the state; throw around their uniform some of the _prestige_ which is now the exclusive privilege of the clerical garb. "

"Do you know what you are asking for?"

 "Nothing but what is absolutely necessary. Remember, Monsignore, that this army, raised to act in the interior of the Pontifical States, will serve you less frequently by the force of its arms, than by the moral authority of its presence. And pray what authority can it possess in the eyes of your subjects, if the Government affect to despise it?"

 "But, admitting that it obtain all the pay and all the consideration that you claim for it, still it will remain open to the remark of the President de Brosses, 'What are warriors who have never in their lives made war?'"

 "I admit it. The consideration accorded by all Frenchmen to the soldier, takes its source in the idea of the dangers he has encountered or may encounter. We behold in him a man who has sacrificed his life beforehand, in engaging to shed every drop of his blood at a word from his chiefs. If the little children in our country respectfully salute the colours--that steeple of the regiment--it is because they think on the brave fellows who have fallen round it. "

 "Perhaps, then, you think we ought to send our soldiers to make war, before employing them as guardians of the peace?"

 "It is certain, Monsignore, that whenever one sees an old Crimean soldier who has strayed into one of the Pope's foreign regiments, the medal he wears on his breast makes him look quite a different man from any of his comrades. The corps of your army which the people has treated with the greatest respect, is the Pontifical Carabineers, because it was originally formed of Napoleon's old soldiers. "

 "My friend, you do not answer my question. Do you require us to declare war against Europe for the sake of teaching our gendarmes to keep the peace at home?"

 "Monsignore, the government of his Holiness is too prudent to go in search of adventures. We are no longer in the days of Julius II. , who donned the cuirass, and buckled on the sword of the flesh, and sprang himself into the breach. But why should not the Head of the Church do as Pius V. , who sent his sailors with the Spaniards and Venetians to the battle of Lepanto? Why should you not detach a regiment or two to Algeria? France would, perhaps, give them a place in her army; they might join us in advancing the holy cause of civilization. Rest assured that when those troops returned, after five or six campaigns, to the more modest duty of preserving the public peace, everybody would obey them courteously. Vulgar footmen would no longer dare to make use of such expressions as one I heard yesterday evening at the door of a theatre, --'Stick to your soldiering, and leave servant's work to me!' They who despise them now, would be proud to show them respect; for nations have a tendency to admire themselves in the persons of their armies. "

 "For how long?"

 "For ever. Acquired glory is a capital which can never be exhausted. And these regiments would never lose the spirit of honour and discipline which they would bring back from the seat of war. You know not, Monsignore, what it is to have an idea become incarnate in a regiment. There is a whole world of recollections, traditions, and virtues, circulating, seen and unseen, through this band of men. It is the moral patrimony of the corps; the veterans don't carry it away when they retire from the service, while the conscripts inherit it from the day of their joining the regiment. The colonel, the officers, and the privates, change one after the other, and yet it is the same regiment that ever remains, because the same spirit continues to flutter amid the folds of the same colours. Have four good regiments of picked men, well paid, properly respected, and that have been under fire, and they will last as long as Rome, and Mazzini himself will not prevail against their courage. "

 "So be it! And may Heaven hear you!"

 "The business is half done, Monsignore, when you have heard me. We are not far from the Vatican, where sits the real Minister of Arms. "

 "He will urge another objection. "

 "What will it be?"

 "That if he send our regiments to serve their apprenticeship in Africa, they will bring back French ideas. "

 "That is an accident, impossible to prevent. But console yourself with the reflection that it is perfectly immaterial whether the French ideas are brought into your country by your soldiers or by ours. Besides, this is an article which so easily eludes the vigilance of the custom-house, that the railways are already bringing it in daily, and you will soon have a large stock on hand. And after all, where's the great evil? All men who have studied us without prejudice, know that French ideas are ideas of order and liberty, of conservatism and progress, of labour and honesty, of culture and industry. The country in which French ideas abound the most is France, and France, Monsignore, is in good health. "

CHAPTER XIX. 

MATERIAL INTERESTS. 

"For my part, " said a great fat Neapolitan, "I don't care the value of a bit of orange-peel for politics. I am willing to believe we've got a bad government, because all the world says we have, and because our King never dare show himself in public. All I can say is, that my grandfather made 20, 000 ducats as a manufacturer; that my father doubled his capital in trade; and that I bought an estate which, in my tenants' hands, pays me six per cent. For the investment. I eat four meals a day, I'm in vigorous health, and I weigh fourteen stone. So when I toss off my third glass of old Capri wine at supper, I can't for the life of me help crying, 'Long live the King!'"

A huge hog which happened to cross the street as the Neapolitanreached his climax, gave a grunt in token of approbation. 

The "hog" school is not numerous in Italy, whatever superficialtravellers may have told you on that head. The most highly-giftednation in Europe will not easily be persuaded that the great end ofhuman existence is to eat four meals a day. 

But let us suppose for an instant that all the Pope's subjects arewilling to renounce all liberty, --religious, political, municipal, andeven civil, --for the sake of growing sleek and fat, without any higheraim, and are content with the merely animal enjoyments of health andfood; do they find in their homes the means of satisfying their wants?Can they, on that score at least, applaud their Government? Are theyas well treated as beasts in a cage? Are the people fat and thriving?I answer, No!

In every country in the world the sources of public wealth are threein number: agriculture, manufactures, and commerce. All governmentswhich do their duty, and understand their interests, emulate oneanother in favouring, by wholesome administrative measures, the farm, the workshop, and the counting-house. Wherever the nation and itsrulers are united, trade and manufactures will be found clinging roundthe government, and increasing even to excess the population of thecapital cities; while agriculture works her greatest miracles in thecircuit which is the most immediately subject to the influence ofauthority. 

Borne is the least industrious and commercial city in the PontificalStates, and its suburbs resemble a desert. You must travel very far tofind any industrial experiment, or any attempt at trade. 

Whose fault is this? Industrial pursuits require, above all things, liberty. Now in the States of the Church all the manufactures of anyimportance constitute privileges bestowed by the government upon itsfriends. Not only tobacco and salt, but sugar, glass, wax, andstearine, are objects of privilege. Privilege here--privilegethere--privilege everywhere. An Insurance Company is established, ofcourse by special privilege. The very baskets used by thecherry-vendors are the monopoly of a privileged basket-maker. TheInspector of the Piazza Navona[14] would seize any refractory basketwhich had failed to pay its tribute to monopoly. The grocers ofTivoli, the butchers of Frascati, all the retail dealers in thesuburbs of Rome, are privileged. The system of privileges andmonopolies is universal, and of course commerce shares the common lot. 

Commerce cannot flourish without capital, facilities of credit, easycommunication, and, above all, personal safety. I have shown you whatthe roads are as to safety. I have not yet shown you how wretchedlybad and insufficient they are. Now for a few facts. 

In June, 1858, I travelled through the Mediterranean provinces, takingnotes as I went along. I established the fact that in one township thebread cost nearly three-halfpence a pound, while in another, sometwelve miles off, it was to be had for a penny. It follows that thecarriage of goods along twelve miles of road cost a farthing a pound. At Sonnino bad wine was sold for sevenpence the _litre_, while thesame quantity of passable wine might be had at Pagliano, thirty milesoff, for twopence halfpenny; so the cost of carrying an articleweighing some two pounds for thirty miles was fourpence halfpenny. Wherever governments make roads, prices naturally find their level. 

I may be told that I explored remote and out-of-the-way districts. Ifwe approach the capital, we find the matters still worse. The nearestvillages to Rome have not roads fit for carriages from one to theother. What would be said of the French administration, if peoplecould not get from Versailles to St. Germain without passing throughParis? This, however, has been for centuries the state of things nearthe Pope's capital. If you want a still more striking instance, hereit is. Bologna, the second city in the Pontifical States, is in rapidand frequent communication with the whole world--except Rome. Itdespatches seven mails a week to foreign countries--only five to Rome. The letters from Paris arrive at Bologna some hours before those fromRome; the letters from Vienna are in advance of those from Rome by aday and a night. The Papal kingdom is not very extensive, but it seemsto me even too extensive, when I see distances trebled by thecarelessness of the Government and the inadequacy of the public works. As to railways, there are two, one from Rome to Frascati, and one fromRome to Civita Vecchia; but the Adriatic provinces, which are the mostpopulous, the most energetic, and the most interesting in the country, will not hear the whistle of the locomotive and the rush of the trainfor a long time to come. The nation loudly demands railways. The layproprietors, instead of absurdly asking fancy prices for their land, eagerly offer it to companies. The convents alone raise barricades, asif they thought the devil was trying to break in at their gates. Theerection of a railway station in Rome gave rise to some comicaldifficulties. Our unfortunate engineers were utterly at a loss for themeans of effecting an opening. On all sides the way was blocked up byobstructive friars. Black friars--white friars--grey friars--and brownfriars. They began with the Lazarists. The Holy Father personally cameto their rescue. "Ah, Mr. Engineer, have mercy on my poor Lazarists!The good souls are given to prayer and meditation; and yourlocomotives do make such a hideous din!" So Mr. Engineer is fain totry the neighbouring convent. New difficulties there. The next attackis made upon a little nunnery founded by the Princess de Bauffremont. But I have neither time nor space for episodical details. It sufficesfor our purpose to state that the construction of railways will be aterribly long-winded affair, and that in the meantime trade languishesfor want of crossroads. The budget of public works is devoted to therepair of churches, and the building of basilicas. Nearlyhalf-a-million sterling has already been sunk in the erection of avery grey and very ugly edifice on the Ostia road. [15] As much morewill be required to finish it, and the commerce of the country will benone the better. 

Half a million sterling! Why the entire capital of the bank of Rome isbut £400, 000; and when merchants go there to have their billsdiscounted, they can get no money. They are obliged to apply tousurers and monopolists, and the governor of the bank is one. Rome hasan Exchange. I discovered its existence by mere chance, in turningover a Roman almanack. This public establishment opens _once a week_, a fact which gives some idea of the amount of business transactedthere. 

If trade and manufactures offer but small resources to the subjects ofhis Holiness, they fortunately find some compensation in agriculture. The natural fertility of the soil, and the stubborn industry of thosewho cultivate it, will always suffice to keep the nation fromstarvation. While it pays away a million sterling annually for foreignmanufactures, the surplus of its agricultural produce brings back some£800, 000. Hemp and corn, oil and wool, wine, silk, and cattle, formits substantial wealth. 

How do we find the Government acting in this respect? Its duties arevery simple, and may be summed up in three words, --protection, assistance, and encouragement. 

The budget is not heavily burdened under the head of encouragement. Some proprietors and land stewards, residing in Rome, ask permissionto found an Agricultural Society. The authorities refuse. In order toattain their object, they steal furtively into a HorticulturalSociety, already established by authority. They organize themselves, raise subscriptions, exhibit to the Romans a good collection of cattleand distribute some gold and silver medals offered by Prince Cesarini. Is it not curious that an exhibition of cattle, in order to betolerated, is obliged to smuggle itself in under the shelter ofcamellias and geraniums?

Lay sovereigns not only openly favour agriculture, but they encourageit at a heavy cost, and do not consider their money thrown away. Theyare well aware that to give a couple of hundred pounds to the inventorof a good plough, is to place a small capital out at a heavy interest. The investment will render their kingdom more prosperous, and theirchildren more wealthy. But the Pope has no children. He prefers sowingin his churches, in order to reap the harvest in Paradise. 

Might he not at least assist the unfortunate peasants who furnish thebread he eats?

An able and truthful statistician (the Marchese Pepoli) has provedthat in the township of Bologna, the rural proprietors actually paytaxes to the amount of £6. 8s. 4d. Upon every £4-worth of taxableincome. The fisc is not content with absorbing the entire revenue, butit annually eats into the capital. What think you of such moderation?

In 1855 the vines were diseased everywhere. Lay governments vied witheach other in assisting the distressed proprietors. Cardinal Antonelliseized the opportunity to impose a tax of £74, 680 upon the vines; andas there were no grapes that year to pay it, the amount was chargedupon the different townships. Now which has proved the heaviestscourge--the _Oidium_ or the Cardinal Minister? Certainly not the_Oidium_, for that has disappeared. The Cardinal remains. 

All the corn harvested in the _Agro Romano_ pays a fixed duty oftwenty-two pauls per rubbio. The rubbio is worth, on an average, from80 to 100 pauls; so that the government taxes the harvest to theamount of at least 22 per cent. Here is a moderate tax. Why it is morethan double the tithe. So much for the assistance rendered to thegrowers of corn. 

Every description of agricultural produce pays a tax on export. Thereare governments which give a premium to exporters: one may call thatencouraging the national industry. There are others, and they arestill more numerous, which allow a free export of the surplus produceof the land: this is not merely to encourage, it is to assist thelabourers. The Pope levies an average tax of 22 per thousand on thetotal amount of exports, 160 per thousand on the value of imports. ThePiedmontese government is satisfied with 13 per thousand on exports, and 58 per thousand on imports. Of the two countries, I should preferfarming in Piedmont. 

Cattle are subject to vexatious taxes, which add from twenty to thirtyper cent. To their cost. They pay when at pasture; they pay nearlytwenty-three shillings per head at market; they pay on exportation. And yet the breeding of cattle is one of the most valuable resourcesof the State, and one of those which ought to be the most assisted. 

The horses raised in the country pay five per cent. On their valueevery time they change hands. By the time a horse has passed throughtwenty different hands, the Government has pocketed as much as thebreeder. When I say the Government, I am wrong; the horse-tax is notincluded in the Budget. It is an ecclesiastical prebend. Cardinaldella Dateria throws it in with general episcopal revenues. 

"The good shepherd should shear, and not flay his sheep. " These arethe words of an Emperor, not a Pope, of Rome. 

And now I dare not ask of the Holy Father certain protective measureswhich could not fail to double the revenue of his crown and the numberof his subjects. 

According to the statistical returns of 1857, the territorial wealthof the Romans is estimated at £104, 400, 000. The gross produce of thiscapital does not reach more than £116, 563. 11s. 8d. , or about ten percent. This is little. In Poland, and some other great agriculturalcountries, the land pays a net revenue of twelve per cent. , whichrepresents at least twenty per cent. Gross. The Roman soil wouldproduce the same if the Roman government did its duty. 

The country is divided into cultivated and uncultivated lands. Theformer, that is to say those planted with useful trees, enriched bymanure, regularly submitted to manual labour, and sown every year, liechiefly in the provinces of the Adriatic, far beyond the ken of thePope. In this half of the States of the Church (the most worthy ofattention, and the least known) twenty years of French occupation haveleft excellent traditions. The system of primogeniture is abolished, if not by law, at least in practice. The equality of rights among thechildren of the same father necessitates the subdivision of propertyso favourable to agricultural progress. There are some large landedproprietors here, as there are everywhere; but instead of abandoningtheir estates to the rapacity of an intendant, they divide them intodifferent occupations, which they confide to the best farmers. Thelandlord supplies the land, the buildings, and the cattle, and paysthe property-tax. The tenant supplies the labour, and pays the othertaxes, and the produce is equally shared between the landlord and thetenant. The system answers well, and the Adriatic provinces wouldhardly seem deserving of pity, if it were not for the brigands, theinundations of the Po and the Reno, and the crushing taxation I havedescribed. 

These taxes are lighter on the other side of the Apennines. There areeven in the neighbourhood of Rome some landowners who pay scarcely anyat all. In 1854 the _Consulta di Stato_ valued the privileged lands at£360, 000. But we will turn to the subject of the uncultivated lands. 

Towards the Mediterranean, north, east, south, and west of Rome, andwherever the Papal benediction extends, the flat country, which coversan immense extent, is at once uninhabited, uncultivated, andunhealthy. Various are the modes in which experienced persons haveattempted to account for the wretched condition of this fine country. 

One says, "It is uncultivated because it is uninhabited. How can you cultivate without men? It is uninhabited because it is unwholesome. How can you expect men to inhabit it at the risk of their lives? Make it healthy, and it will populate itself, and the population will cultivate it, for there is not a finer soil in the world. "

Another replies, "You are wrong. You confound cause with effect. The country is unhealthy because it is uncultivated. The decayed vegetable matter accumulated by centuries ferments under the summer sun. The wind blows over it, and raises up a provision of subtle miasma, imperceptible to the smell, and yet destructive to life. If all these plains were ploughed or dug up three or four times, so as to let the air and light penetrate into the depths of the soil, the fever which lies dormant under the rank vegetation would speedily evaporate, and return no more. Hasten then to bring ploughs, and your first crop will be one of health. "

A third replies to the two first, "You are both right. The country is unhealthy because it is uncultivated, and uncultivated because it is unhealthy. The question lies in a vicious circle, from which there is no escape. Let us therefore leave things as they are; and when the fever-season arrives, we can go and inhale the fresh mountain air under the tall trees of Frascati. "

The last speaker, if I am not greatly mistaken, is a Prelate. But havea care, Monsignore! Frascati, once so renowned for the purity of itsair, now no longer deserves its reputation; and I may say the same ofTivoli. The quarters of Rome most remarkable for healthiness, such forinstance as the Pincian, have of late become unhealthy. Fever isgaining ground. It is equally worthy of observation that at the sametime the cultivation of the land is diminishing; and that the estatesin mortmain--that is to say, delivered into the hands of thepriesthood--have been increasing at the yearly rate of from £60, 000 to£80, 000 a year. Is _mortmain_ indeed the hand which kills?

I submitted this delicate question to a very intelligent, veryhonourable, and very wealthy man, who farms several thousand acres ofChurch property. He is one of the _Mercanti di Campagna_, mentioned ina former chapter (Chap. VI. ). The following is the substance of hisreply. 

 "Six-tenths of the Agro Romano are held in mortmain. Three-tenths belong to the princely families, and the remaining tenth to different individuals. 

 "I hold under a religious community. I have a three-years' lease of the bare land. The live and dead farm-stock is my own property. It represents an enormous capital, which is liable to all sorts of accidents. But in our dear country one must risk a great deal to gain a little. 

 "If the land, which is almost all of fine quality, were my own, I should bring nearly the whole of it under the plough; but I am expressly forbidden by a clause in my lease to break up the best land, for fear of exhausting it by growing corn. No doubt such would be the result in the course of time, because we apply no manure; but of course the inferior land which I _am_ allowed to break up will be worn out much sooner, and will in the end become almost worthless. The monks knowing this, take care that the best land shall not lose its quality, and oblige me to keep it in pasture for cattle. Thus I grow little corn merely because the good fathers will not let me grow a great deal. I cultivate first one piece of land, then another. On my farm, as throughout the Agro Romano, cultivation is but a passing accident; and so long as this continues, the country will be unhealthy. 

 "I raise cattle, which, as you will presently see, is sometimes a profitable pursuit, sometimes quite the contrary. On the whole of my farm I have no shelter for my cattle. I asked the monks to build me some sheds, offering to pay an increased rent in proportion to outlay. The monk who acts as the man of business of the convent, shrugged his shoulders. 'What can you be thinking of?' he said; 'you know we have only a life interest in the property. To comply with your request, we must spend our income for the benefit of our successors: and what care we for our successors? No, we look to the present usufruct; the future is no concern of ours--we have no children!' And the friar is right. Well, he went on to say that I was at liberty to build at my own cost as many sheds as I liked, which of course would belong to the convent at the expiration of my lease. I replied that I had no objection to erect the sheds, if the convent would grant me a lease of reasonable length. But just then it occurred to me very opportunely, that the canon law does not recognize leases for more than three years, and that on the very day when my sheds were completed, the pious fathers might find it convenient to pick a quarrel with me. So here the matter dropped. Although our cattle are naturally hardy they are bound to suffer from exposure to the weather. A hundred cows under shelter will yield the same quantity of milk through the winter as five hundred in the open air, at half the cost. A large portion of the hay we strew about the pastures for the cattle, is trodden underfoot and spoilt instead of being eaten; and if rain falls, the whole is spoilt. Calculate the loss of milk, the cost of cartage over a wide range of land, the damage done to the pastures by the trampling of heavy cattle in wet weather, all caused by the want of a few sheds, which it is impossible to have under the present system, and you will appreciate the position of a farmer holding under landlords who are careless as to the future, and merely live from hand to mouth. 

 "There is another improvement, which I offered to make at my own expense. I asked permission to dam up a little stream, dig some trenches, and irrigate the fields, by which I could have doubled the produce both in quantity and quality. You will hardly imagine the answer I received. The monks declared the extraordinary fertility which would result from the irrigation, would be a sort of violence done to nature, by which in the end the soil could not fail to be impoverished. What could I reply to such reasoning? These good fathers only think of nursing their income. I tax them neither with ignorance nor bad intentions. I only regret that the land should be in their hands. "

 "Pasture-farming under such conditions as these is a terribly hazardous pursuit. A single year of drought will suffice to ruin a breeder completely. In the years 1854-5 we lost from twenty to forty per cent. Of our cattle; in 1856-7 from seventeen to twenty per cent: and bear in mind that every beast, before it died, had been taxed. "

A champion of the Pontifical system offered to prove to me _byfigures_ that all is for the best even in the ecclesiastical estates. 

"We have our reasons, " he said, "for preferring pasture to arable land. Here is a property consisting of a hundred _rubbia_[16] (not quite three hundred acres). If it were farmed on the proprietor's own account, the cultivation, harvesting, threshing, and storing would amount to the value of 13, 550 days' labour. The wages, seed, keep of horses and cattle, the interest of capital invested in stock, cost of superintendence, wear and tear of tools, etc. , would stand him in 8, 000 scudi, or 80 scudi per rubbio. The earth returns sevenfold on the seed sown. If 100 measures of seed are sown, the return will be 700. The average price of the measure of corn may be taken at 10 scudi. Thus the value of the crop will be 7, 000 scudi, whereas the same crop cost to raise 8, 000 scudi. Here are 1, 000 scudi (about £215) flung clean into the gutter; and all for the pleasure of cultivating 100 rubbia of land. Is it not much better to let the 100 rubbia to a cattle-breeder, who will pay a rent of thirty or forty shillings per rubbio? On one side we have a clear loss of £215, and on the other a clear income of £160 or £184. "

This reasoning is founded upon the calculations of Monsignore Nicolai, a prelate of considerable ability[17]: but it proves nothing, becauseit attempts to prove too much. If the cultivation of corn be really soruinous an operation, it is strange that farmers should continue togrow it merely to spite the government. 

But although it is quite true that the cultivation of a rubbio of landcosts 80 scudi, it is false that the earth only yields sevenfold onthe seed sown. According to the admission of the farmersthemselves--and they are notoriously not in the habit of exaggeratingtheir profits--it yields thirteen-fold on the seed sown. Thirteenmeasures of corn are worth thirteen times ten scudi, or 130 scudi. Deduct 80, the cost of cultivation, and 50 remain. Multiply by 100, the result is 5, 000 scudi (about £1, 070), which will be the net incomearising from the 100 rubbia cultivated in corn. The same extent ofland under pasturage will produce £160 or £180. 

Consider, moreover, that it is not the net, but the gross income, which constitutes the wealth of a country. The cultivation of 100rubbia, before it puts 5, 000 scudi into the farmer's pockets, has putsome 8, 000 scudi in circulation. These eight thousand scudi aredistributed among a thousand or fifteen hundred poor creatures who aresadly in want of them. Pasture-farming, on the contrary, is onlyprofitable to three persons, the landlord, the breeder, and theherdsman. Add to this, that in substituting arable for pasturefarming, you substitute health for disease, a more importantconsideration than any other. 

But churchmen who hold or administer lands in mortmain, will neverconsent to such a salutary resolution. It does not profit themdirectly enough. As long as they have the upper hand, they will prefertheir own ease, and the certainty of their income, to the futurewelfare of the people. 

Pius VI. , a Pope worthy to have statues erected to him, conceived theheroic project of forcing a change upon them. He decided that 23, 000rubbia should be annually cultivated in the Agro Romano, and that allthe land should in turn be subjected to manual labour. Pius VII. Didstill better. He decided that Rome, the _origo mali_, should be thefirst to apply the remedy. He had a circuit of a mile traced round thecapital, and ordered the proprietors to cultivate it without furtherquestion. A second, and then a third, were to succeed to the first. The result would have been the disappearance, in a few years, ofmalaria, and the gradual population of the solitudes. The purificationof the atmosphere would, too, be further promoted by planting treesround the fields. Excellent measures these, although tinged bydespotism. Enlightened despotism repairs the errors of clumsydespotism. But what could the will of two men avail against thepassive resistance of a caste? The laws of Pius VI. And Pius VII. Werenever enforced. Cultivation, which had extended over 16, 000 rubbiaunder the reign of Pius VI. , is reduced to an annual average of 5, 000or 6, 000 under the paternal inspection of Pius IX. Not only is theplanting of young trees abandoned, but the sheep are allowed to nibbledown the tender shoots of the old ones. Besides this, speculators aretolerated, who burn down whole forests, for the production of potash. 

The estates of the Roman princes are somewhat better cultivated thanthose of the Church: but they are involved in the same movement, or, more strictly speaking, enchained in the same stagnation. The law, which retains immense domains for ever in the hands of the samefamily, and custom, which obliges the Roman nobles to spend so large aportion of their incomes upon show, are equally obstacles to thesubdivision and to the improvement of the land. 

And while the richest plains in Italy are thus lying dormant, avigorous, indefatigable, and heroic population cultivates with thepickaxe the arid sides of mountains, and exhausts its strength inattempting to extract vegetation from flints. 

I have described the small mountain proprietors who form thepopulations of the towns of 10, 000 inhabitants towards theMediterranean. You have seen with what indomitable resolution theycombat the sterility of their meagre domains, without any hope of everbecoming rich. These poor people, who spend their lives in gettingtheir living, would fancy themselves transported to Paradise, ifanybody were to give them a long lease of half-a-dozen acres in thecountry about Rome. Their labour would then have a purpose, theirexistence an aim, their family a future. 

Perhaps you think they would refuse to labour in an unhealthy country. Why, these are the very men who at present cultivate the RomanCampagna to such extent as it is allowed to be cultivated. They it iswho, every spring, come down in large companies from their nativemountains, to break up the heavy clods with pickaxes, and complete thework of the plough. It is they, too, who return to harvest the cropunder the fatal heat of the summer sun. They attack a field wavingwith golden corn. They reap from dawn to dusk, with no food morenourishing than bread and cheese. They sleep in the open field, regardless of the nocturnal exhalations which float around them--andsome of them never rise again. Those who survive ten days of a harvestmore destructive than many a battle, return to their native villagewith some four or five scudi in their pockets. 

If these men could obtain a long lease, or merely take the land fromyear to year, they would make more money, and the dangers to beencountered would be no greater. They might be established betweenHome and Montepoli, Rome and Civita Castellana, in the valley ofCeprano, on the hills extending round the _Castelli_ of Rome, wherethey would breathe an air as wholesome as that of their own mountains;for fever does not always spare them even there. In course of time, the colonizing system, advancing slowly and gradually, might realizethe dream of Pius VII. , and would inevitably drive before it pauperismand disease. 

I dare not hope that such a miracle will ever be wrought by a Pope. The resistance to be encountered is too great, and the power is tooinert. But if it should ever please Heaven, which has given them tencenturies of clerical government, to accord them, by way ofcompensation, ten blessed years of lay administration, we shouldperhaps see the Church property placed in more active and abler hands. 

Then, too, we should see the law of primogeniture and the system ofentails abolished, large estates divided, and their owners reduced, bythe force of circumstances, to the necessity of cultivating theirproperties. Good laws on exportation, well enforced, would enablespirited farmers to cultivate corn on a large scale. A network ofcountry roads, and main lines of railway, would convey agriculturalproduce from one end of the country to the other. A national fleetwould carry it all over the world. Public works, institutions ofcredit, police--But why plunge into such a sea of hopes?

Suffice it to say, that the subjects of the Pope will be as prosperousand as happy as any people in Europe--as soon as they cease to begoverned by a Pope!

CHAPTER XX. 

FINANCES. 

"The subjects of the Pope are necessarily poor--but then they payhardly any taxes. The one condition is a compensation for the other!"

This is what both you and I have often heard said. Now and then, too, it is put forth upon the faith of some statistical return or anotherof the Golden Age, that they are governed at the rate of 7s. 6d. Perhead. 

This calculation is a mere fable, as I can easily prove. But supposingit to be correct, the Romans would not be the less deserving of pity. It is a miserable consolation to people who have nothing, to be toldthat their taxes are low. For my part, I would much rather have heavytaxes to pay, and a good deal to pay them with, like the English. Whatwould be thought of the Queen's government, if after having ruinedtrade, manufactures, and agriculture, and exhausted all the sources ofpublic prosperity, it were to say to the people, "Rejoice, goodpeople, for henceforth your taxes will not exceed 7s. 6d. A head allround!" The English people would answer with great reason, that theywould much prefer to pay £40 a head, and be able to make £400. 

It is not this or that particular sum per head on a population whichconstitutes moderate or excessive taxation; but the relation which thesum annually taken for the service of the State bears to the revenuesof the nation. It is just to take much from him who has much;monstrous to attempt to take anything--be it never so little--from himwho has nothing. If you examine the question from this common sensepoint of view, you will agree with me that taxation at the rate of 7s. 6, d. A head, is pretty heavy for the poor Romans. 

But 7s. 6, d. A head is _not_ the rate at which they are taxed; noreven double that amount. The Budget of Rome is £2, 800, 000, which is tobe assessed upon three million taxpayers. 

Assessed, moreover, not according to the laws of reason, justice, andhumanity, but in such a manner that the heaviest burdens fall upon themost useful, laborious, and interesting class of the nation, the smallproprietors. 

And I do not allude here to the taxes paid directly to the State, andadmitted in the budget. Besides these, there are the provincial andmunicipal charges, which, under the title of additional per-centage, amount to more than double the direct taxes. The province of Bolognapays £80, 900 of property-tax, and £96, 812 of provincial and municipalcharges, making together £177, 712. This sum distributed over the wholepopulation of 370, 107, brings the taxation to a fraction under 10s. Ahead. But observe, that instead of being borne by the wholepopulation, it is borne by no more than 23, 022 proprietors. 

But mark a further injustice! It does not bear equally upon theproprietors of the towns and those of the country. The former has agreat advantage over the latter. A town property in the province ofBologna pays 2s. 3d. Per cent. , a country property of the same value5s. 3d. Per cent. , not upon the income, but the capital. 

In the towns, it is not the palaces, but the houses of the middleclass that are the most heavily rated. Take the palace of a noblemanin Bologna, and a small house belonging to a citizen, which adjoinsit. The palace is valued at the trifling sum of £1, 100, on the groundthat the apartments inhabited by the owner are not included in theincome. The actual rent of which the owner is in the receipt for thepart left off is about £280 a year: his taxes are £18 a year. Thesmall house adjoining is valued at £200. The rent derived from it is£10 a year, and the taxes paid on it are £3. 7s. 6d. Thus we find thepalace paying something like 5s. 6d. Per cent. On its income, and thesmall house £1 7s. 

The Lombards justly excite our compassion. But the proprietors of theprovince of Bologna are taxed to the annual amount of £1, 400 more thanthose of the province of Milan. 

To this crushing taxation are added heavy duties on articles ofconsumption. All the necessaries of life are liable to these taxes, such as flour, vegetables, rice, bread, etc. They are heavier than inalmost any other European city. Meat is charged at the same rate as inParis. Hay, straw, and wood, at still higher rates. 

The town dues of Lille amount to 10s. Per head on the population;those of Florence, about the same; and those of Lyons 12s. 6d. AtBologna they are 14s. 2d. Observe, town dues alone. We are already along way from the 7s. 6d. Of the Golden Age!

I am bound in justice to admit that the nation has not always been sohardly dealt with. It was not till the reign of Pius IX. That thetaxation became insupportable. The budget of Bologna was more thandoubled between 1846 and 1858. 

Something might be said, if at least the money taken from the nationwere spent for the good of the nation!

But one-third of the amount raised in taxation remains in the hands ofthe officials who collect it. This is incredible, but true. The costof collecting the revenue amounts, if I mistake not, in England, to 8per cent. ; in France, to 14 per cent. ; in Piedmont, to 16 per cent. ;and in the States of the Church, to 31 per cent. 

If you marvel at a system of extravagance which obliges the people topay £4 for every £2. 15s. 10d. Required for their mis-government, hereis a fact which will enlighten you on the subject. 

Last year the place of municipal receiver was put up to auction in thecity of Bologna. An offer was made by an honourable and responsibleman to collect the dues for a commission of 1-1/2 per cent. TheGovernment gave the preference to Count Cesare Mattei, one of thePope's Chamberlains, who asked two per cent. So this piece offavouritism costs the city £800 a year. 

The following is the mode in which the revenue (after the abstractionof one-third in the course of collecting it) is disposed of. 

£1, 000, 000 goes to pay the interest of a continually accumulatingdebt, contracted by the priests, and for the priests, annuallyincreasing through the bad administration of the priests, and carriedby the priests to the debit of the nation. 

£400, 000 is devoured by a useless army, the sole duty of which hashitherto been to present arms to the Cardinals, and to escort theprocession of the Host. 

£120, 000 is devoted to those establishments which of all others arethe most indispensable to an unpopular government: I mean, theprisons. 

£80, 000 is the cost of the administration of justice. The tribunals ofthe capital absorb half the amount, because they enjoy the distinctionof being for the most part composed of prelates. 

The very modest sum of £100, 000 is devoted to public works. This ischiefly spent in embellishing Rome, and repairing churches. 

£60, 000 goes in the encouragement of idleness in the city of Rome. ACharity Commission, presided over by a Cardinal, distributes this sumamong a few thousand incorrigible idlers, without accounting for it toanybody. Mendicity is all the more flourishing, as is apparent toevery one. From 1827 to 1858, the subjects of the Holy Father paid£1, 600, 000 in mischievous alms, among the injurious effects of which, the principal was to deprive labour of the hands it required. TheCardinal who presides over the Commission takes £2, 400 a year for hisprivate charities. 

£16, 000 defrays poorly enough the cost of the public education, which, moreover, is wholly in the hands of the clergy. Add this moderate sum, and the £80, 000 devoted to the administration of justice, to a part ofthe £100, 000 spent on public works, and you have all that can fairlybe set down as money spent in the service of the nation. The remainderis of no use but to the Government, --in other words, to a parcel ofpriests. 

The Pope and the partners of his power must be indifferent financiers, when, after spending such a pittance on the nation, they contrive towind up every year with a deficit. The balance of 1858 showed adeficit of nearly half a million sterling, which does not prevent thegovernment from promising a surplus in the estimates of 1859. 

In order to fill up the gaps in the budget, the Government hasrecourse to borrowing, sometimes openly, by a loan from the house ofRothschild, sometimes secretly, by an issue of stock. 

In 1857 the Pontifical Government contracted its eleventh loan withRothschild's house; it was a trifle, something under £700, 000. Nevertheless there were quiet issues of stock from 1851 to 1858, tothe tune of £1, 320, 000. The capital of the debt for which its subjectsare liable, amounts to £14, 376, 150. 5s. If you will take the troubleto divide this grand total by the figure which represents thepopulation, you will find that every little subject born to the Popecomes into the world a debtor of something like £4. 10s. , whereof hewill contribute to pay the interest all his life, although neither henor his ancestors have ever derived the least benefit from the outlay. 

It is true these fourteen millions and a half (in round numbers) havenot been lost for all the world. The nephews of the Popes havepocketed a good round sum. About a third has been swallowed up by whatis called the general interests of the Roman Catholic faith. It hasbeen proved that the religious wars have cost the Popes at least fourmillions; and the farmers of Ancona and Forlì are still paying out ofthe produce of their fields for the faggots used to burn theHuguenots. The churches of which Rome is so proud have not been paidfor entirely by the tribute of Catholicism at large. There are certainremnants of accounts, which were at the cost of the Roman people. ThePopes have made more than one donation to those poor religiousestablishments, which possess no more than £20, 000, 000 worth ofproperty in the world. The expenses lumped together under the head ofAllocations for Public Worship add something short of £900, 000sterling to the national debt. Foreign occupation, and moreparticularly the invasion of the Austrians in the north, has burdenedthe inhabitants with a million sterling. Add the money squandered, given away, stolen, and lost, together with £1, 360, 000 paid to bankersfor commission on loans, and you have an account of the total of thedebt, excepting perhaps a million and a half or so, of which theunexplained and inexplicable disbursement does immortal honour to thediscretion of the ministers. 

Since the restoration of Pius IX. , an approach to respect for publicopinion has forced the Pontifical Government to publish some sort ofaccounts. It does not render them to the nation, but to Europe, knowing that Europe is not curious in the matter, and will be easilysatisfied. A few copies of the annual Budget are published; they arecertainly not in everybody's reach. The statement of receipts andexpenditure is prodigiously laconic. I have now before me theestimates prepared for 1858, in four pages, the least blank of whichcontains just fourteen lines. The Finance Minister sums up thereceipts and the outgoings, both ordinary and extraordinary. Under thehead of Receipts, he lumps the whole of "the direct contributions, andthe State property, 3, 201, 426 scudi. "

Under the head of Expenditure, we read "Commerce, Fine Arts, Agriculture, Manufactures, and Public Works, 601, 764 scudi. " Atolerable lump, this. 

This powerful simplification of accounts enables the Minister toperform some capital tricks of financial sleight of hand. Supposing, for instance, the Government wants half a million of scudi for somemysterious purpose, nothing is easier than to bring their directcontributions in as having paid half a million less than they reallyhave. What will Europe ever know about the matter?

 "Speech is silver, but silence is gold. "

Successive Finance Ministers at Rome have all adopted this device, even when they are forced to speak, they have the art of not sayingthe very thing the country wants to hear. 

In almost all civilized countries the nation enjoys two rights whichseem perfectly just and natural. The first is that of voting thetaxes, either directly or through the medium of its deputies; thesecond, that of verifying the expenditure of its own money. 

In the Papal kingdom, the Pope or his Minister says to the citizens, "Here is what you have to pay!" And he takes the money, spends it, andnever more alludes to it except in the vaguest language. 

Still, in order to afford some sort of satisfaction to the conscienceof Europe, Pius IX. Promised to place the finances under the controlof a sort of Chamber of Deputies. Here is the text of this promise, which figured, with many others, in the _Motu Proprio_ of the 12th ofSeptember, 1849. 

 "_A Consulta di Stato_ for the Finances is established. It will be _heard_ on the estimates of the forthcoming year. It will examine the balance of accounts for the previous year, and sign the vote of credit. It will give its advice on the establishment of new, or the reduction of old taxes; on the better distribution of the general taxation; on the measures to be taken for the improvement of commerce, and in general on all that concerns the interests of the public Treasury. 

 "The Councillors shall be selected by Us from lists presented by the Provincial Councils. Their number shall be fixed in proportion to the provinces of the State. This number may be increased within fixed limits by the addition of some of our subjects, whom we reserve to ourselves the right to name. "

Now, allow me to dwell briefly upon the meaning of this promise, andthe results which have followed it. Who knows whether diplomacy maynot ere long be again occupied in demanding promises of thePope?--whether the Pope may not again think it wise to promisemountains and marvels?--whether these new promises may not be just ashollow and insincere as the old ones? This short paragraph deserves along commentary, for it is fraught with instruction. 

"It is established!" said the Pope. But the _Consulta di Stato_ ofFinances, established the 12th of September, 1849, only gave signs oflife in December, 1853. Four years afterwards! This is what I calldrawing a bill at a pretty long date. It is admitted that the nationneeds some guarantees, and that it is entitled to tender some advice, and to exercise some control. And so the nation is requested to callagain in four years. 

The members of the _Consulta_ of the Finances are a sort of shamdeputies; very sham ones, I assure you, although the Count deRayneval, to suit his purpose, is pleased to call them "theRepresentatives of the Nation. " They represent the nation as CardinalAntonelli represents the Apostles. 

They are elected by the Pope from a list presented by the CommunalCouncils. The Communal Councillors are elected by their predecessorsof the Communal Council, who were chosen directly by the Pope from alist of eligible citizens, each of whom must have produced acertificate of good conduct, both religious and political. In all thisI cannot for the life of me see more than one elector--the Pope. 

We'll begin this progressive election again, and start from the verybottom--that is, the nation. The Italians have a peculiar fancy formunicipal liberties. The Pope knows this, and, as a good prince, heresolves to accommodate them. The township or commune wishes to chooseits own councillors, of which there are ten to be elected. The Popenames sixty electors--six electors for every councillor. And observe, that in order to become an elector, a certificate from the parish andthe police is necessary. But they are not infallible; and, moreover, it is just possible that in the exercise of a novel right they mayfall into some error; so the Sovereign determines to arrange theelection himself. Then, his Communal Councillors--for they are indeed_his_--come and present him with a list of candidates for theProvincial Council. The list is long, in order that the Holy Fathermay have scope for his selection. For instance, in the province ofBologna he chooses eleven names out of one hundred and fifty-six; hemust be unlucky indeed not to be able to pick out eleven men devotedto him. These eleven Provincial Councillors, in their turn, presentfour candidates, out of whom the Pope chooses one. And this is how thenation is _represented_ in the Financial Council. 

Still, with a certain luxury of suspicion, the Holy Father adds to thelist of representatives some men of his own choice, his own caste, andwho are in habits of intimacy with him. The councillors elected by thenation are eliminated by one-third every two years. The councillorsnamed directly by the Pope are irremovable. 

Verily, if ever constituted body offered guarantees to power, it wasthis Council of Finances. And yet, the Pope does not trust to it. Hehas given the presidence to a Cardinal, the vice-presidence to aPrelate; and still he is only half re-assured. A special regulationplaces all the councillors under the supreme control of the CardinalPresident. It is he who names the commissioners, organizes thebureaux, and makes the reports to the Pope. Without his permission nopapers or documents are communicated to the councillors. So true is itthat the reigning caste sees in every layman an enemy. 

And the reigning caste is quite right. These poor lay councillors, selected among the most timid, submissive, and devoted of the Pope'ssubjects, could not forget that they were men, citizens, and Italians. On the day after their installation they manifested a desire to begindoing their duty, by examining the accounts of the preceding year. They were told that these accounts were lost. They persisted in theirdemands. A search was instituted. A few documents were produced; butso incomplete that the Council was not able in six years to audit andpass them. 

The advice of the Council of Finances was not taken on the new taxesdecreed between 1849 and 1853. Since 1853, that is to say, since theCouncil of Finances has entered upon its functions, the Government hascontracted foreign loans, inscribed consolidated stock in the greatbook of the national debt, alienated the national property, signedpostal conventions, changed the system of taxation at Benevento, andtaxed the diseased vines, without even taking the trouble to ascertainits opinion. 

The Government proposed some other financial measure to the Council, and the answer was in the negative. In spite of this, the Governmentmeasures were carried into execution. The _Motu Proprio_ says the_Consulta di Stato_ shall be heard, but not that it shall be listenedto. [18]

Every year, at the end of the session, the _Consulta_ addresses to thePope a humble petition against the gross abuses of the financialsystem. The Pope remits the petition over to some Cardinals. TheCardinals remit it over to the Greek Kalends. 

The Count de Rayneval greatly admired this mechanism. The EmperorSoulouque did more--he imitated it. 

But M. Guizot tells us that "there is a degree of bad government whichno people, whether great or little, enlightened or ignorant, willtolerate at the present day. "[19]

CONCLUSION. 

The Count de Rayneval, after having proved that all is for the best inthe dominions of the Pope, winds up his celebrated _Note_ by adesponding conclusion. According to him, the Roman Question is onewhich cannot possibly be definitively solved; and the utmost that canbe effected by diplomacy is the postponement of a catastrophe. 

I am not such a pessimist. It appears to me that all politicalquestions may be solved, and all catastrophes averted. I am sanguineenough to believe that war is not absolutely indispensable to thesalvation of Italy and the security of Europe, and that it is possibleto extinguish a conflagration without firing guns. 

You have seen the intolerable misery and the legitimate discontent ofthe subjects of the Pope. You know enough of them to understand thatEurope ought without delay to bring them succour, not only from thelove of abstract justice, but in the interest of the public peace. Ihave proved to you that the misfortunes which afflict these threemillions of men must be attributed neither to the weakness of thesovereign, nor even to the perversity of minister, but are the logicaland necessary deductions from a principle. All that Europe has to dois to protest against the consequences. The principle must either beadmitted or rejected. If you approve the temporal sovereignty of thePope, you are bound to applaud everything, even the conduct ofCardinal Antonelli. If you are shocked by the offences of thePontifical Government, it is against the ecclesiastical monarchy thatyou must seek your remedy. 

Diplomacy, without staying to discuss the premises, has from time totime protested against the deductions. In profoundly respectful_Memoranda_ it has implored the Pope to act inconsistently, byadministering the affairs of his States upon the principles of laygovernments. Should the Pope turn a deaf ear, the diplomatists have noright to complain, because they recognize his character, as anindependent sovereign. Should he promise all they ask and afterwardsbreak his word, diplomacy is equally without a ground of complaint. Isit not the admitted right of the Sovereign Pontiff to absolve men evenfrom the most solemn oaths? And finally, should he yield to thesolicitation of Europe, and enact liberal laws one day, only to letthem fall into desuetude the next, diplomatists are once moredisarmed. To violate its own laws is a special privilege of absolutemonarchy. 

I entertain a very high respect for our diplomatists of 1859; nor weretheir predecessors of 1831 wanting either in good intentions orcapacity. They addressed to Gregory XVI. A MEMORANDUM, which is amaster-piece of its kind. They extorted from the Pope a realconstitution, --a constitution which left nothing to be desired, andwhich guaranteed all the moral and material interests of the Romannation. In a few years this same constitution had entirelydisappeared, and abuses again flowed from the ecclesiasticalprinciple, like a river from its source. 

We renewed the experiment in 1849. The Pope granted us the _MotuProprio_ of Portici, and the Romans gained nothing by it. 

Shall our diplomatists repeat in 1859 this same part of dupes? AFrench engineer has demonstrated that dykes erected along the banks ofrivers liable to inundation are costly, in constant need of repair, and ineffectual; and that the only real protection against thosedevastations is the construction of a dam at the source. To thesource, then, gentlemen of the diplomatic guild! Ascend straight tothe temporal power of the Papacy. 

And yet I dare neither hope for, nor ask of Europe the immediateapplication of this grand panacea. Gerontocracy is still too powerful, even in the youngest governments Besides, we are now at peace, andradical reforms are only to be effected by war. The sword alone enjoysthe privilege of deciding great questions by a single stroke. Diplomatists, a timid army of peace, proceed but by half-measures. 

There is one which was proposed in 1814 by Count Aldini, in 1831 byRossi, in 1855 by Count Cavour. These three statesmen, comprehendingthe impossibility of limiting the authority of the Pope within thekingdom in which it is exercised, and over the people who areabandoned to it, advised Europe to remedy the evil by diminishing theextent of, and reducing the population subjected to, the States of theChurch. 

Nothing is more just, natural, or easy than to free the Adriaticprovinces, and to confine the despotism of the Papacy between theMediterranean and the Apennines. I have shown that the cities ofFerrara, Ravenna, Bologna, Rimini, and Ancona are at once the mostimpatient of the Pontifical yoke and the most worthy of liberty. Deliver them. Here is a miracle which may be wrought by a stroke ofthe pen: and the eagle's plume which signed the treaty of Paris is asyet but freshly mended. 

There would still remain to the Pope a million of subjects, andbetween three and four millions of acres; neither the one nor theother in a very high state of cultivation, I must admit; but it ispossible that the diminution of his revenue might induce him to managehis estates and utilize his resources better than he now does. One oftwo things would occur: either he would enter upon the course pursuedby good governments, and the condition of his subjects would becomeendurable, or he would persist in the errors of his predecessors, andthe Mediterranean provinces would in their turn demand theirindependence. 

At the worst, and as a last alternative, the Pope might retain thecity of Rome, his palaces and temples, his cardinals and prelates, hispriests and monks, his princes and footmen, and Europe wouldcontribute to feed the little colony. 

Rome, surrounded by the respect of the universe, as by a Chinese wall, would be, so to speak, a foreign body in the midst of free and livingItaly. The country would suffer neither more nor less than does an oldsoldier from the bullet which the surgeon has left in his leg. 

But will the Pope and the Cardinals easily resign themselves to thecondition of mere ministers of religion? Will they willingly renouncetheir political influence? Will they in a single day forget theirhabits of interfering in our affairs, of aiming princes against oneanother, and of discreetly stirring up citizens against their rulers?I much doubt it. 

But on the other hand, princes will avail themselves of the lawfulright of self-defence. They will read history, and they will therefind that the really strong governments are those which have keptreligious authority in their own hands; that the Senate of Rome didnot grant the priests of Carthage liberty to preach in Italy; that theQueen of England and the Emperor of Russia are the heads of theAnglican and Russian religions; and they will see that by right thesovereign metropolis of the churches of France should be in Paris. 

NOTES

 1: Preface to the Official Statistical Returns of 1853, page 64. 

 2: 'La Grèce Contemporaine. '

 3: Etudes Statistiques sur Rome, par le Comte de Tournon. 

 4: A few of them did good service in the cause of liberty, and deserved well of their country, in the glorious but unsuccessful struggle of 1848, soon about to be renewed, and, let us hope, under happier auspices, and with a very different result. 

 Duke Filippo Lante Montefeltro, Colonel in command of a _corps d' armée_ of the Roman Volunteers, occupied and held Treviso, whereby he at once assured the retreat of the Roman army, after its defeat at Cornuda on the 9th of May, 1848, by General Nugent, and prevented the advance of the Austrians upon Venice. The President Manin acknowledged that by his courage and patriotism he had saved Venice, and immediately sent him the commission of a full General. On the 16th of May, General Nugent arrived before Treviso with 16, 000 men, and siege artillery. He at once summoned the place to surrender, giving General Lante till noon on the following day for consideration. At four the same evening, Lante sent for reply, "Come this evening. I shall expect you at six. We are here to fight, not to surrender!" After threatening the town for some days, Nugent retired from before it, and joined Radetzky. 

 Duke Bonelli, Captain of Dragoons, was Orderly Officer to General Durando at the capitulation of Vicenza. Prince Bartolomeo Ruspoli served as a _private soldier_ in the Roman Legion; he was one of the three Commissioners who were sent to the camp of Radetzky to treat for the capitulation of Vicenza. 

 Count Antonio Marescotti commanded the 1st Roman regiment of Grenadiers. 

 Count Bandini, son of a Princess Giustiniani, was also Orderly Officer to Durando. 

 Count Pianciani commanded the 3d regiment of Roman Volunteers. 

 Don Ludovico Lante (a younger brother of Filippo) was Captain in the 1st regiment of Roman Volunteers. 

 Adriano Borgia quitted the Pope's _Guardia Nobile_ for a Colonelcy of Dragoons, in the service of the Roman Republic: he was an excellent officer. 

 Marquis Steffanoni commanded a company of young students. --_Transl_. 

 5: The ordinary British tourist must not look for his portrait in the witty Author's picture. It is clear that here and elsewhere the pilgrims are all assumed to be true sons of _the_ Church. --_Transl_. 

 6: An expression in use among collegians in France, to describe those students who are unable to pass their examinations; tantamount to our English _plucked_. 

 7: A man who has worn _cioccie_. 

 8: _'Tolla_. ' 1 vol. 12mo. 

 9: 'The Victories of the Church, ' by the Priest Margotti. 1857. 

10: 'Proemio della Statistica, ' pubblicata nel 1857, dall' Eminentissimo Cardinale Milesi. 

11: H. R. H. The Prince of Wales. 

12: Leo XII. (out of his excessive regard for the interests of morality) occasionally departed from this rule. The same motive caused him to be very fond of what the profane call "gossip. " He had a habit, too, of ascertaining by ocular demonstration, whether any incidents of more than ordinary interest in domestic life were passing in the palaces of his noble, or the houses of his citizen subjects. His medium for the attainment of this end was a powerful telescope, placed at one of his upper windows! The principal minister to his gossiping propensities was one Captain C----, a man of great learning, but doubtful morality, selected, of course, for the office of scandalous chronicler, from his experiences in what, in lay countries, the carnally-minded term "life. " When, between his telescopic observations, and the reports of the Captain, the Sovereign Pontiff had accumulated the requisite amount of evidence against any offending party, the mode of procedure was sudden, swift, and sure, fully bearing out the Author's assertion that in Rome the will of an individual is a substitute for the law of the State. There was no nonsense about _Habeas Corpus_, or jury, or recorded judgment. The supposed delinquent was simply seized (usually in the dead of the night, to avoid scandal), and hurried off to durance vile, to undergo, as it was phrased _prigione ed altre pene a nostro arbitrio_. One day C---- brought the Pope particulars of what was at once pronounced by his Holiness a most flagrant case. The wife of the highly respected and able _Avocato_ B---- (a stout lady of fifty), who was at the same time legal adviser to the French Embassy, was in the habit of driving out daily in the carriage, and by the side of the old bachelor Duke C----, Exempt of the Noble Guard. The Papal decision on the case was instant. The act was of such frequent occurrence, so audaciously, so unblushingly public, that public morality demanded the strongest measures. That very night a descent was made upon the dwelling of the unconscious _Avocato_. The sanctity of the connubial chamber was invaded. The sleeping beauty of fifty was ordered to rise, and was dragged off to--the Convent of Repentant Females! B---- knew, and none better, what manner of thing law was in Rome, so instead of wasting time in reasoning with the Pope as to the legality of the case--urging the argument that, even supposing his wife to have been of a susceptible age and an attractive exterior, so long as he himself made no objection to her driving out with the old Duke, nobody else had any right to interfere--and other similar appeals to common sense, he at once requested the interference of the French Ambassador. This was promptly and effectively given. The incarceration of the peccant dame was brief; and a shower of ridicule fell upon the Pontifical head. But the Sovereigns of Rome are accustomed to, and regardless of, such irreverent demonstrations. --_TRANSL. _

13: Louis Veuillot, article of the 10th of September, 1849. 

14: The principal market in Rome is held in this Piazza. 

15: The Basilica of St. Paul without the walls. 

16: The rubbio is a measure both of land and of quantity. 

17: Monsignore Nicolai was a good practical agriculturist. He had a sort of model farm, known as the _Albereto Nicolai_, near the Basilica of St. Paul Without the Walls. He was an able administrator, and a man of superior attainments; and had he only possessed common honesty, he would have been in time a great man--as greatness is understood in Rome. He was a _Prelato di Fiochetto_, and held the post of _Uditore della R. C. Apostolica_, one of the four high offices which necessarily lead to Red Hats. Moreover, he was marked by Gregory XVI for the promotion, and had actually ordered his scarlet apparel. But unfortunately Monsignore Nicolai affected the good things of this life over-much. He was a _bon vivant_, and a _viveur_. He loved money, and he was utterly unscrupulous as to the means by which he obtained it. His career in the direction of the Sacred College was cut short, when he was very near its attainment, by a scandalous transaction, in which, although he was nearly eighty years of age, he played the principal part. He colluded with a notary, named Bachetti, to falsify the will of one Vitelli, a wealthy contractor, inserting in the place of the testator's two orphan nieces that of _his own natural son_. The affair having been dragged to light, Gregory XVI. Deprived him of his office, and he ended his days in disgrace and retirement. His fondness for worldly pelf clung to him in his very last moments. A short time before he expired, he ordered some gendarmes to be brought into his bedroom, and charged them to watch over his property, lest anything should be stolen after he had ceased to breathe, and before the representatives of the law could take possession. 

 It is worthy of mention, as illustrating the administration of Justice in Rome, that even with these proofs of the invalidity of the will produced as that of Vitelli, his nieces were never able to recover the whole of his property. They were compelled to make terms with Grossi, the defunct Prelate's natural son, who to this day remains in the enjoyment of one-half of Vitelli's property!

18: All the facts and figures contained in this chapter are taken from the works of the Marchese Pepoli. 

19: Memoirs, vol. Ii. P. 293. 

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The History of Civilization in England. By Henry Thos. Buckle. Vol. I. 8vo. Cloth. $2. 50

 Whoever misses reading this book, will miss reading what is, in various respects, to the best of our judgment and experience, the most remarkable book of the day--one, indeed, that no thoughtful, inquiring mind would miss reading for a good deal. Let the reader be as adverse as he may to the writer's philosophy, let him be as devoted to the obstructive as Mr. Buckle is to the progress party, let him be as orthodox in church creed as the other is heterodox, as dogmatic as his author is sceptical, --let him, in short, find his prejudices shocked at every turn of the argument, and all his prepossessions whistled down the wind, --still, there is so much in this extraordinary volume to stimulate reflection, and excite to inquiry, and provoke to earnest investigation, perhaps (to this or that reader) on a track hitherto untrodden, and across the virgin soil of untilled fields, fresh woods and pastures new--that we may fairly defy the most hostile spirit, the most mistrustful and least sympathetic, to read it through without being glad of having done so, or, having begun it, or even glanced at almost any one of its 854 pages, to pass it away unread. --_New Monthly (London) Magazine_. 

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Legends and Lyrics. By Anne Adelaide Proctor, (Daughter of the Poet, Barry Cornwall. ) One very neat volume, 12mo. Second edition. 75 cents. 

 This is the charming volume of fresh and tender poems, by the daughter of one of England's most honored and popular poets, which has lately been received with so hearty a welcome in England and America. Choice portions of it, copied by the press with lively praises, have found their way to the firesides. 

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The Household Book of Poetry. Collected and Edited by Charles A. Dana. 1 vol. 8vo. 793 pages. Third edition. In half morocco. Gilttop. $3. 50. 

 As the New-York correspondent of The Boston Transcript enthusiastically writes, 'The elegiac composition, the exquisite sonnet, the genuine pastoral, the war-song and rural hymn, whose cadences are as remembered music, and the couplets whose chime rings out from the depths of the heart; whatever the old English dramatists, the ode writers of the reign of Anne and Charles, the purest disciples of heroic verse, the Lakists, the Byronic school--Wordsworth and Dryden, Mrs. Hemans and Scott, Shakespeare and Hartley Coleridge have made precious to soul and sense, are herein brought together; and more than this--the many isolated single notes, whose lingering harmony embalms their author's name, with the numerous fugitive "brilliants, " heretofore of unknown parentage, cut from newspapers for the last half century--the deep, soulfull utterances of heroes and mourners, lovers and exiles, devotees of nature and worshippers of art--are here elegantly garnered and chronicled. '

 "It is just such a volume as a man may give to a woman, albeit that woman is his mother, his sister, or his wife, and is richly worth the place it claims on a lower shelf within arm's length, in the most select library. "--_Chicago Journal_. 

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The Handy-Book on Property Law, in a series of Letters. By Lord St. Leonards, (Sir Edward Sugden. ) 1 vol. , 16mo. , Cloth, 75 cents. 

 "This excellent little work gives the plainest inspections in all matters connected with selling, buying, mortgaging, leasing, settling and devising estates; and informs us of our relations to our properties, our wives, our children, and our liabilities as trustees, executors, &c. , &c. "--_Tribune_. 

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The Manual of Chess; Containing the Elementary Principles of the Game. Illustrated with numerous Diagrams, recent Games and OriginalProblems. By Charles Kenny. 1 vol. 12mo. Price 50 cents. 

 "Within the compass of this work I have included all that is necessary for the beginner to learn. In recommendation of this Manual, I can safely assert that it contains more than any publication of the same dimensions. The Problems contained herein, as also one of the 'Games actually played, ' are original, and have never been published. "

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The Book of Chess; Containing the Rudiments of the Game, andElementary Analysis of the most Popular Openings, exemplified in gamesactually played by the great masters, including Staunton's Analysis ofthe Kings and Queens, Gambits, numerous Positions and Problems onDiagrams, both original and selected; also, a series of Chess Tales, with illustrations from original designs. The whole extracted andtranslated from the best sources. New Edition. By H. R. Agnel. $1. 25. 

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Sixty Years' Gleanings from Life's Harvest. A Genuine Autobiography. By John Brown. 1 vol. 12mo. Cloth, $1. 

 "A remarkable book in every respect, and curiously interesting from beginning to end. John Brown lived with 'all his might, ' and the 'Life' he writes is, in its abundance and variety of tragic and comic ups-and-downs, as good as a play. His experiences partook of all the quick changes and boisterous bustle, and rude humor of an old English fair; and as they are presented in this volume they afford a picture of the times he lived and incessantly moved in, which, in much of its bold handling, is not to be surpassed by less spirited pencils than those of Fielding and De Foe. The moral, even as you trace it through the bustling table of contents, is of unmistakable application for every fine young fellow of sound natural principles who has to shoulder his own way to good citizenship and a share of social influence. 

 "As a neglected child, a 'juvenile offender, ' an ingenious vagabond, a, shoemaker, a soldier, an actor, a sailor, a publican, a billiard-room keeper, a Town Councillor, and an author, Mr. Brown has seen the world for sixty years, and he unhesitatingly describes all that he has seen, with fidelity of memory and straightforward simplicity of style. "