CORNELL 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 THIS BOOK IS ONE OF A 
 COLLECTION MADE BY 
 
 BENNO LOEWY 
 1854-1919 
 
 AND BEQUEATHED TO 
 CORNELL UNIVERSITY 
 
DG 420.l8°8"l859"'"'""' '""'" 
 
 3 1924 028 373 151 
 
Cornell University 
 Library 
 
 The original of this book is in 
 the Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924028373151 
 
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ITALY, 
 
 CLASSICAL, HISTORICAL AND PICTUHESQIJE. 
 
 lUu^trateti in a &exie^ o( Vieia^ 
 
 FROM DEAWIMGS BY 
 
 STANFIELD, E.A., EGBERTS, E.A., HAEDING, PEOUT, LEITCH, BEOCKEDON, BAENAED, &c. &c. 
 
 WITH DESCRIPTIONS OP THE SCENES. 
 
 PRECEDED BY 
 
 AN INTRODUCTORY ESSAY, 
 
 ON THE RECENT HISTORY AND PRESENT CONDITION 
 
 OF 
 
 ITALY AND THE ITALIANS, 
 BY CAMILLO MAPEI, D.D., 
 
 rOEMERLY CANON OF THE CATHEDRAL OF PENNE, AND GRADUATE OP THE COLLEGE OF SAN APOLLINAUE AT HOME. 
 
 FoK ever and for ever shdt thou be 
 
 Unto the lover and the poet dear, 
 
 Thou land of sunlit skies and fountains clear — 
 
 Of temples and grey columns, and waving woods. 
 
 And mountains, from whose rifts the bm-sting floods 
 
 Kush in bright tumult to the Adrian sea : 
 
 thou romantic land of Italy I 
 
 Earut Cornwall. 
 
 BLACKIE AND SON: 
 
 GUEEN STREET, GLASGOW; SOUTH COLLEGE STEEET, EDINBURGH; 
 AND WAEWICK SQUAEE, LONDON. 
 

 o 
 
 fi^f4:1^L 
 
 GLASGOW : 
 
 W. u. BLACK.IE AND CO., FRINTERB, 
 
 TILLAFIBLD. 
 
 >' 
 
 r^4'<' 
 
 
PUBLISHERS' PREFACE. 
 
 " ITALY, Historical, Classical, and Picturesque," being now completed, the Publishers 
 take the opportunity afforded them of malcing a few remarks explanatory of the plan on which 
 it has been conducted. 
 
 Though the public eye be familiar with a few leading views in Italy, yet there are many 
 exquisite scenes whose charms have never yet been made known in this country by means of 
 Engraving. While the Publishers, therefore, have not deprived this work of the interest con- 
 nected with many places in Italy already frequently depicted, they have endeavoured, as far as 
 limits would allow, to lay before their Subscribers representations of scenes hitherto seen 
 only by the traveller. In accordance with this plan, it will be found that of the subjects 
 engraved nearly two-thirds have never before lieen engraved. And as regards the remainder, 
 consisting as they do chiefly of well-known places, even they will be found possessed of new 
 features, from having been presented in striking points of view, which have hitherto escaped 
 notice.. It is, consequently, hoped that in this collection more justice has been done to the 
 sceneiy of Italy than has before been accomplished, by the united efforts of Painter and Engra'\'er, 
 within the compass of a single volume. 
 
 A large proportion of the Engravings in this collection are from drawings by W. Brockedon, 
 Esq., F.R.S., whose works, the "Passes of Alps" and "Road Book to Italy," are so highly 
 esteemed. In addition to the subjects furnished by Mr. Brockedon, and to contributions from 
 many distinguished amateurs, whose names will be found acknowledged on the Engravings fi'ora 
 their sketches, this work is also enriched from the sketch-books and portfolios of the following 
 eminent artists, — Eastlake, Chantrey, Stanfield, Roberts, Harding, Prout, Leitch, and Barnard; 
 and among the Engravers will be found the names of many whose works are generally recognized 
 as being of the highest excellence. 
 
 In works of this class, the literary department has usually been of a secondary and unimpor- 
 tant character, aiming at most to give very cursory and superficial descriptions of the Scenes 
 depicted in the Engravings. The political history of Italy, in ancient, medieval, and modern 
 times, and its ecclesiastical annals through a long course of ages, together with its classical 
 associations, local traditions, and fascinating romance, were certainly more than sufficient to 
 supply material for the descriptive notices of the scenes ; and the compiler has availed himself, 
 so far as space permitted, of all that may be termed the history and poetry of Italy. Whatever 
 has been done in this department, however, does not of itself draw any strong line of distinction 
 
ii PUBLISHERS' PREFACE. 
 
 between the present work and other publications in which Illustrations of the Picturesqu ^ 
 the leading feature. The Publishers were desirous of producing a work which, besides emg 
 attractive from the beauty of its illustrations, should also be attractive from the interesting native 
 of the literary matter accompanying them. In following out this idea, they perceived how di^ - 
 cult it would be to accomplish their purpose by means of separate descriptions of the localities 
 represented in the Engravings. Such descriptions, however excellent in themselves, being from 
 their very nature without continuity, lack one of the great elements of an interesting work, that 
 concentration of idea and unity of parts which fascinates the mind, by presenting to its view all 
 the various phases of a subject in a perspicuous and connected manner. They believed, that 
 besides the descriptions necessary for properly illustrating each engraving, a succinct but lucid 
 view of the present state of Italy and Italian mind could not fail to interest aU the educated 
 classes of this country. Italy, for some years past, has been in a sort of transition state. From 
 causes unnecessary here to insist upon, the Italian mind has been awakening as if from a deep 
 slumber, and giving unequivocal tokens of possessing a life and energy of which it was generally 
 supposed to be entirely destitute. To speculate on the probable results of such an awakening, 
 and its effects upon the world at large, would here be out of place ; but the evident importance 
 of the speculation must necessarily give an interest to any well written and truly authentic 
 account of the present condition of Italy and the Italians. Such an account, the Publishers 
 trust, they have been enabled to lay before their readers in the admirable accompanying Essay 
 on the 'Political, Religious, and Moral State of Italy,' by Dr. Mapei. From the position held 
 formerly by that learned gentleman, of Professor of Divinity in Rome, and from the ample means 
 he thereby and also otherwise possessed, of obtaining an accurate knowledge of the state of his 
 native country,"' the Publishers believe few individuals could be found in this country with equal 
 qualifications for the task. On some points the Protestant reader and Dr. Mapei may be at 
 variance; but this partial dissidence is the best testimony to the general integrity of the writer's 
 views and statements, and may be taken as conclusive evidence that he has neither advanced 
 nor admitted any opinion of whose truth he is not persuaded in his own mind. 
 
 The Publishers forbear to extend these remarks. They conclude by expressing a hope that 
 this work may serve not only to familiarize the mind with the beautiful picturesque of Italy, but 
 also to awaken it to active vigilance with regard to those insidious errors and crafty stratagems 
 which originated in the city of the Csesars, and continue to seek naturalization in the different 
 countries of the earth. 
 
 Glasgow, 1847. 
 
 * The Essay was written by Dr. Mapei in Italian, and has been translated into English by David Dundas Scott, Esq., the 
 learned translator of D'Aubigne's " History of the Eeformatiou in the Sixteenth Century," Eanke's " History of the Popes of 
 Rome," &o., &c. 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 VICENZA 
 
 ITALIA 
 
 NICE 
 
 VINTIMIGLIA 
 
 GENOA 
 
 LERICI, ON THE GULF OE SPEZZIA 
 
 CARRARA 
 
 PISA ■ . . . 
 
 LEGHORN, EROM THE MONTE NERO 
 
 PLORENCB 
 
 CERTALDO 
 
 SIENA 
 
 AREZZO— THE ANCIENT ARRETIUM 
 
 CORTONA 
 
 PERUGIA 
 
 CHIUSI— ANCIENTLY CLUSIUM, THE REGAL CITY OF THE 
 
 ETRURIANS 
 
 RADICOFANI 
 
 BOLSENA— THE ANCIENT VOLSINIUM 
 
 VITBRBO 
 
 ORVIETO 
 
 RUINS OF THE BRIDGE OF AUGUSTUS, NARNI . 
 CASCATA BELLA MARMORE, TERNI .... 
 
 CIVITA CASTELLANA 
 
 CIVITA VECCHIA 
 
 ROME, FROM THE PINCIAN HILL 
 
 ROME.— SAINT PETER'S FROM THE JANICULUM HILL . 
 ROME— BASILICA OF SAINT JOHN LATERAN 
 
 PRATICA ... 
 
 CASTEL GANDOLFO, ON LAKE ALBANO . . . . 
 OLEVANO 
 
 FnONTISPIECE. 
 
 Vignette Title, 
 
 Page 
 
 1 
 
 ti 
 
 3 
 
 " 
 
 5 
 
 
 12 
 
 
 13 
 
 
 IG 
 
 
 21 
 
 
 25 
 
 
 256 
 
 
 38 
 
 
 42 
 
 
 44 
 
 
 45 
 
 
 48 
 
 
 49 
 
 
 52 
 
 
 54 
 
 
 56 
 
 
 58 
 
 
 59 
 
 
 CI 
 
 
 63 
 
 
 65 
 
 
 89 
 
 
 94 
 
 
 97 
 
 
 *. 
 
 
 98 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 TERRACINA 
 
 NAPLES, FROM THE SANTA LUCIA 
 
 NAPLES, PROM THE SUMMIT OE VESUVIUS . • • • 
 
 CASTELL' A MARE DI STABIA 
 
 THE GATE OP SORRENTO, PROM THE RAVINE . 
 
 META 
 
 AMALPI . . . 
 
 THE TEMPLES OP PiESTUM 
 
 REGGIO, ON THE STRAITS OP MESSINA 
 
 BENEVENTO 
 
 ISOLA DI SORA 
 
 SUBIACO 
 
 ASSISL— CONVENT OF SAN FRANCISCO 
 
 LORETTO 
 
 ANCONA, FROM THE HARBOUR 
 
 BOLOGNA 
 
 FERRARA 
 
 PADUA 
 
 VENICE-THE RIALTO AND PONTE DI RIALTO . . . . 
 
 VENICE.— BAPTISTERY IN THE CHURCH OP SAINT MARK 
 
 BASSANO . . . .* 
 
 BRESCIA 
 
 ROCCA D'ANFO, ON THE LAKE OF IDRO 
 
 BERGAMO 
 
 LOUVERE, ON THE LAKE OF ISEO 
 
 COMO 
 
 VARBSE FROM THE SACRO MONTE 
 
 MILAN 
 
 PAVIA 
 
 THE WALDENSIAN COLLEGE AT LA TORRE.— VAL LUCERNA, 
 
 PIEDMONTE 
 
 PORT BARD, VAL D'AOSTA .... . . 
 
 Page 
 
 99 
 100 
 103 
 105 
 107 
 110 
 
 ib. 
 
 113 
 
 114 
 
 116 
 
 117 
 
 118 
 
 119 
 
 121 
 
 123 
 
 125 
 
 129 
 
 131 
 
 133 
 
 144 
 
 145 
 
 147 
 
 149 
 
 ib. 
 
 150 
 
 151 
 
 153 
 
 164 
 
 166 
 
 158 
 
 IGO 
 
ESSAY 
 
 ON THE 
 
 POLITICAL, RELIGIOUS, AND MORAL STATE 
 
 OF 
 
 ITALY. 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 ^^^3=^ ^ TALY, the object of romantic regard to all civilized nations, is continually 
 
 J^-mfr^^^T' receiving a crowd of curious travellers who resort thither for the purpose of 
 
 p^5¥rj\'^ contemplating the beauty and magnificence of the country. Hence it would 
 
 (^i^f|;| appear that almost all nations ought to cherish a right idea of its religious, po- 
 
 /-/" litical, and moral condition. And yet we find no other nation so badly judged 
 
 of, if not with the few of superior intellect who can reason fairly from causes to 
 '^ then- effects, at least Avith the many who are wont to allow their judgments to be 
 •S, guided by the outward appearance of things. It were an arduous task to enter into a 
 \ minute examination of the causes that in spite of the frequent communications of 
 foreigners with the inhabitants of the Italian peninsula, have led to no just estimate 
 having yet been formed of their character and customs, and of the influence exerted upon these 
 by religious and political systems. It is necessary, however, that I should briefly present the 
 principal reasons why this has been the case. Without going farther it is enough that we 
 reflect that of the four classes of travellers that visit Italy, that is to say, merchants, the rich, 
 artists, and men of science, the first three are not in a state to form a coirect idea of a whole 
 people, since their attention is directed to one special object which attracts their whole regai'ds. 
 Mercantile men travel with an eye to business, the rich for the sake of amusement, artists in 
 order to study the beauties of nature and the monuments of art. It is very cleai- that the 
 first, intent as they naturally are on the success of their speculations, look almost exclusively 
 to the general system of civil administration and of justice, and much less to the religious 
 machinery of the country. Intoxicated with the delightfulness of the climate, amid the per- 
 fumes of the roses of Pesto and the fragrant orange groves of Pausilippo and Mergellina, the 
 rich, passing successively from the public promenades to the theatre and from these to joyous 
 meetings, instead of casting their eyes on the misfortunes and sufferings of the people, and 
 contemplating the wounds of a racked and tortured nation, are careful rather to avert their 
 regards from- these, so as not to mingle a most bitter drop in the cup of their enjoyments. 
 
11 PREFACE. 
 
 Judging of others by themselves, and by the pleasurable sensations that fashion their lips o 
 a smile, they readily take up the false idea that the Italians are contented with their present 
 condition, because they see them smUe, without reflecting that their smile is a ray of the 
 Italian sun. Artists, continuaUy wandering among the ruins and the museums, contemplate 
 Italy as she was in the days of her grandeur, and hence when they set themselves to consider 
 what she is in her state of decline and despondency, they do not sufaciently moderate their 
 judgments, but go beyond the bounds of truth, just as to a person coming from the glare of 
 noon, a chamber seems dark and obscure, so that the eye finds it diflacult to distinguish parti- 
 cular objects, although others not thus dazzled with the sun, can see them clearly and dis- 
 tinctly. Men of learning alone, then, who travel with the view of practically studying society, 
 could give a correct account of the present state of Italy, were the theoretical study of legisla- 
 tion under despotic governments enough ; were it enough for a man but to know the articles 
 of faith and the disciplinary canons of the Roman church in order to judge properly of the 
 influence it exercises on the national manners. But while legislation in the greater part of 
 Italy is such as accords with a civilized people, on the other hand the arbitrary spirit of ab- 
 solute governments destroys its beneficial influence, by means of the secret ordinances with 
 which it supersedes the laws in their application to particular cases, without such infamous 
 proceedings meeting the eyes of foreigners. Many as are the corruptions of doctrine in what 
 concerns faith and discipline in the Church of Rome, yet were its doctrines inculcated on the 
 people as presented in the polemics of the defenders of the faith, the state of society would 
 not in the end prove so unhappy ; but the doctrines of the Church of Rome are one thing in 
 principle, another thing in practice ; one thing in books, another thing in the mouths of the 
 priests from whom they are received by the people. After having made a monstrous amalgam 
 of truths revealed in Holy Scripture and of human follies depending on pharisaical tradition, 
 methods have been sought out likewise, for choking that portion of the good seed which still 
 remains amid the thorns of error, the instruction of the people being intrusted to a body of 
 clergjnnen generally ignorant and immoral. The eye of a foreigner finds it diflficult to succeed 
 in penetrating the darkness in which superstition and vice, clothed in sacred habiliments, 
 nestle and conceal themselves. Hence it follows that it would be an arduous, not to say an 
 impossible endeavour, to obtain, even by means of the most enlightened travellers, a complete 
 acquaintance with the present condition of the Italian people, particularly if we reflect that 
 under the moral torture of the police and the inquisition, they are constrained to lie to all Avho 
 interrogate them. Words dictated by fear to a nation suffering under tyi-anny, are often taken 
 for genuine expressions by those who know not how frightful a thing tyi-anny is when propped 
 by religion. To these sources we ought so far to attribute the errors into which those are apt 
 to fall who write their impressions received in the course of a journey, after having run through 
 the Italian peninsula in two or three months, accusing it in general of vices and bad tendencies 
 which are really special, and more or less vigorous in one or other province according as the 
 Empire and the Church weigh down its neck with a twofold yoke of iron. Another reason 
 
P R E F A C E. "I 
 
 that leads well-informed travellers to give forth false judgments oii the character and man- 
 ners of the Italians, may flow from habits acquired in judging of other countries, that i», of 
 ascending from pa riiciihn-s to ^</(/^(V•^■(/fe. Now Italy may be pronounced that country of all 
 Europe in which generalization ought least to be attempted. Being detached from diverse 
 races, Greek and Asiatic, to which \\'ere afterwards added others from the North and West, 
 the frequent invasions by various peoples that have in later times desolated, sometimes one, 
 sometimes another part of the garden of Europe, which has allured all to it with its charms, 
 have so far influenced the character, the manners, and the morals of the inliabitants. Spaniards, 
 French, and Germans by turns have remained for long periods, now in one province, now in 
 another, as its lords, and have left behind them profound traces of their sway. Lombardy, 
 which now groans imder the chains of Austria, was in other epochs subject to French and 
 Spanish influences, a companion in misfortune of the kingdom of the two Sicilies. The 
 military occupation of the country under the directory of the French republic and afterwards 
 under the imperial government of Napoleon, has recently contributed to fix foreign habits 
 among those classes which feasted these strangers with the view of gaining favour with them. 
 Hence one would make a false conjecture who should judge of the manners of the provinces by 
 those of the cities, where chiefly the troops were quartered, and where the nobility, in their 
 eagerness to obtain distinction, did their utmost to flatter them. But what traveller pushes 
 his inquiries into the shepherd's hut or the cottage of the ploughman and the Avoodcutter under 
 the shoulders of the Appennines ? Who is there that ever sets himself to investigate the 
 peaceful and simple manners of the villages and small towns where there are still preserved 
 untouched, or at least uncorrupted, the patriarchal traditions of a people which has twice been 
 the mistress of civilization to other nations ? Alas, a judgment is passed upon Italy amid the 
 din of its capital cities, Rome, Florence, Naples, Milan, and Venice, where the great affluence 
 of foreigners has had an immense share in the corruption of the inhabitants. What strangers 
 then ever enter Italy without having already conceived a prejudiced idea of it ? Under the 
 influence of this idea, they are easily struck with every, the slightest evil that confirms them 
 in their preconceived opinions. Fully persuaded that the papacy has profoundly rooted itself 
 in the minds of the Italians, when they see the churches crowded and observe the punctuality 
 with which the outward practices of the Roman catholic religion are performed, they are con- 
 vinced that aU Italy willingly bows its neck beneath the feet of the pope and that it kisses 
 the chains that bind it so harshly to the throne and to the altar, so as to make it the laugh- 
 ing-stock of other nations. They see the papacy display all the pomp of its full-blown cere- 
 monies in Italy, and imagine that this parasitical plant grows there vigorously on a propitious 
 soil, without perceiving that its roots are tainted and rotten, and that it is in a dying state. 
 The ancient oak may continue to preserve the beauty of its youth to the eye of the casual 
 passenger, but the shepherd who looks down upon it from the hill top marks the searness of 
 its crown, betokening the approach of death. 
 
 Born in the kingdom of Naples, educated in Rome, and having resided afterwards in my 
 
IV PREFACE. 
 
 native country, in the various epochs of nay life and the various positions in which I have 
 been placed, I have had leisure to observe the tendencies at once of the church, the govern- 
 ments, and the people. A member not of the lowest rank of the clergy, I have scanned all 
 that is ambitious, astute, and perilous in the court of Rome, and the last remedies which it 
 has adopted, the fusion of the pohtical and religious principle, and a servile alliance with 
 tyranny. Warmly attached to social amelioration, I stooped from my position to question the 
 griefs and the desires of the people. Hence the judgment which I come to present on the 
 present state of Italy, wUl be most exact in what relates to facts and to the religious and 
 moral state of the country. Love for my native la,nd may prompt me perhaps to something 
 like exaggeration when I come to speak of its political condition, but be it my defence to write 
 in a country blessed with liberty and independence, prosperous owing to the wealth produced 
 by commerce and industry, and great from the impulses of national love. It will not be as- 
 cribed to me as a fault that misfortune loses none of its wretchedness in my eyes when con- 
 fronted with the spectacle of another's felicity ; my judgment, however, shall be sincere. The 
 slight knowledge I have found existing in England respecting the affairs of Italy, and the 
 little disposition I perceive there to give credit to the representations of my country^s miseries, 
 have stimulated me to speak without reserve. The hope that the British nation, which has 
 the deposit of the Gospel, and which has abolished the slave trade, is now turning its regards, 
 though tardily, to the slavery of Italy, and will no longer participate in the unjust policy that 
 oppresses her, is strengthened by the thought that Britain is alive to the conviction that the 
 papacy stands ready to invade herself 
 
GENERAL REFLECTIONS ON ITALY. 
 
 J ;^-S' '^}- TALY presents a totally different aspect to the man who descends from the 
 P^^ ' Alps from that which strikes the eye on reaching the delicious shores of 
 Naples, or the lone rude coasts of Ostia or Civita Vecchia. Although the nat- 
 ural disposition of the Italian people is the same, whether on the plains of Lom- 
 bardy, on the shoulders of the Appennines, in Tuscany, or the Sabina and the king- 
 dom of Naples, yet some differences may be recognised in the moral lineaments of 
 these different populations, more or less considerable according to the different aspects of 
 their respective territories. Let us cast a glance over the whole peninsula and the liiffer- 
 ence is manifest. From the sides of the Alps, Italy, as far as the Appennines, stretches in 
 a great measure like one vast plain, fertile, luxuriant; full of life yet regular as the course 
 of the rivers that water it. The Po, the Adige, the Oglio, the Dora, slowly and majestically tra- 
 verse its fields, which are cultivated with so much minute attention as to have the appearance of 
 dehcious gardens. 
 
 Wherever the eye reposes one sees towering in the distance those considerable cities, Turin, 
 Milan, Padua, Mantua, Verona, Parma, Placentia, Bergamo, Brescia, Crema, Cremona, Pavia, 
 Lucca, Modena, with numerous villages interspersed, glowing with the bustle of an industri- 
 ous people. Magnificent to one who contemplates it for the first time, is the view of such 
 beautifully disposed fields, vineyards so well kept, such vigorous olive groves and orchards, suc- 
 ceeding each other on all sides ; wide highways bordered with trees that run off in straight lines 
 and lose themselves in the horizon ; but the eye at last becomes used to the monotony of the 
 landscape, to beauties that are repeated at every step. To vary the prospect, the traveller must 
 look up towards the distant horizon, to the white cloudwrapt summits of the Alps, and to the 
 gloomy ridges of the Appennines. If then we proceed towards the south, hardly shall we pass 
 over the first mountains when Italy assumes new forms, and becomes invested with charms that 
 multiply as we contemplate them. Every twenty miles the traveller finds himself with a new per- 
 spective before him. Here are torrents that thunder over the rocks with the impetuosity of a tem- 
 pest, trees moaning in accord with the roaring sound, torrents which yet a little after may be cros- 
 sed dryshod. Rapid and gurgling rivers precipitate themselves from rock to rock, forming mag- 
 nificent and picturesque cascades. Here are silent valleys hemmed in with precipices ; there vase 
 
 
 
VI REFLECTIONS ON ITALY. 
 
 uncultivated plains, having the appearance of deserts, the range of the wild buffalo. Here, on 
 the one hand he fertile plains covered with yellow harvests; there, on the other, rises a hill-side, 
 clothed with shrubs that gradually thicken into a wood. Turn your eye to the shoulders of the 
 mountains, and you will see majestic forests of oak and chestnut, and amid these, cresting the 
 cliffs, the ruins of towers and castles that look like eagles' nests. And then, like the sun-beam 
 after a storm, the smile of nature shows more beautifully by contrast as seen on the flowery banks 
 of the Garigliano, where the extraordinary fecundity and suavity of the climate have well entitled 
 the country to be called/elice (happy). Farther on, the bay of Naples discloses the rich pro- 
 fusion of its charms, surrounded with a rugged garniture of mountains, like a glittering gem en- 
 chased in an iron ring. On advancing beyond this, the Appennines becoming more savage and 
 alpine, stretch their arms across the entire breadth of the peninsula from sea to sea as far as 
 Cape Spartivento. 
 
 From this description it will be seen that Italy may be considered as forming two grand divi- 
 sions, northern and southern, having the Appennine range for their natural boundary. The 
 principal chain of these mountains stretches in an irregular line from west to east. It starts 
 from Cuneo and Tende, branching off from the maritime Alps, and skirting along the coast of 
 Genoa, it traverses the duchies of Parma and Modena, which it separates from Tuscany. Then 
 inclining towards the south, it enters the Papal states, skirting Umbria, Sabina, and the Mark of 
 Ancona, as far as the frontiers of the Abruzzo on the coast of the gulf of Yenice. Prom the 
 Abruzzo it proceeds across the whole kingdom of Naples. Northern Italy, accordingly, com- 
 prehends all that part of the peninsula lying to the north of the Appennines, that is to say, be- 
 tween these and the Alps and the gulf of Venice. Hence this division contains Piedmont, the 
 Lombardo-Yenetian state, Parma, Placentia, Modena, and the four legations of the Papal states, 
 that is to say, Perrara, Bologna, Porli, and Ravenna. Southern Italy is comprehended between 
 the Appennines, the Mediterranean, a part of the gulf of Yenice and the Ionian sea. The 
 duchy of Genoa, that of Lucca, Tuscany, the Papal states, and the kingdom of Naples belong to 
 this division. Nor is the difference between these two divisions confined to appearance only. 
 The nature of the soil and climate is not the same in both, and hence the character of the inha- 
 bitants presents the variety necessarily resulting from diversity of climate, although at the same 
 time the same elements are found in both. The character of the Italians may be said to be 
 made up of all the different qualities that distinguish other nations. The fire and energy of the 
 south is tempered there with the reflective disposition of the north ,• while, on the one hand, the 
 exuberant imagination of the eastern nations produces a disposition to indolence, and to indulge 
 the flowery dreams of poesy and love, on the other hand the activity characteristic of the western 
 tribes, incites them to engage in trade, and to cultivate the arts and sciences. Hence it is not 
 difficult to discover in the Italian character a combination of the gravity of the English, the 
 sprightliness of the French, the ardour and perseverance of the Spaniards, the reflectiveness of 
 the Germans, and the fiery passions of the Arab and the Syi-ian. Diversity of circumstances 
 will bring out the versatility of a nature comprising various elements and will develope the germs 
 
REFLECTIONS ON ITALY. vii 
 
 of new virtues, or new vices, wliicli though ;it first sight they may appear contradictory, must be 
 fundamentally referred to the tciupcrature of the climate. The geographical position of Italy 
 will justify this opinion though it may seem to have been dictated by jjredilection for my nati\i; 
 land. 
 
 On the north, Italy marches with Switzerland and Germany, on the west it adjoins France. 
 Hence it may justly claim a portion of the advantages which a rigorous climate gives to nations, 
 by cooling down in them the ardour of the passions, and thereby rendering them better fitted for 
 intellectual and moral development. The everlasting snows of the Alps temper the heat of the 
 African sun which scorches Italy. The Appennines which emulate the Alps in height and in 
 savage scenery, by traversing the entire peninsula lengthwise, secure a continuation of the ad- 
 vantages resulting from a temperate climate. In other respects, in proportion as Italy extends 
 towards Africa, the action of the solar rays predominates, and the character of the inhabitants 
 gradually becomes more lively and ardent. In fine, as we proceed farther towards Calabria and 
 Sicily, opposite to which lie the immense scorching deserts of Africa, the Appennines which as 
 far as the confines of Puglia, retain their primitive form of a chain of mountains leaving exten- 
 sive plains on the right and left along the Mediterranean and the gulf of Venice, all at once 
 divide into branches and occupy the whole extent of the provinces at the extremity of the 
 kingdom of Naples, these from sea to sea being bristled and notched with mountains. While 
 the provident hand of God has in the southern confines of Italy multiplied the highest mountains 
 on which the north wind's breath copiously deposits the snows that tend to moderate the exces- 
 sive heat of the sun, on the other hand, on the northern confines of that country, it has placed 
 the vast plains of Piedmont and Lombardy, by which the kindly heat of the sun is kept fi-om be- 
 ing overpowered by the frosts from the north. Hence it is that in Italy as a whole, the climate 
 may justly be pronounced temperate, notwithstanding that some variety of temperature is obser- 
 vable on comparing one division with another ; hence it is that the character of the ItaHans may 
 be considered the same, notwithstandino- that in the inhabitants of the north reflection controls 
 energy of sentiment, and in those of the south, energy of sentiment is increased by reflection. 
 The Calabrian and the Lombard may at a first glance present few traces of resemblance, but on a 
 closer examination it will be found that fundamentally they possess the same natural peculiarities, 
 the same independence, energy and perseverance ; the apparent dissimilarity is the result of the 
 oppression under which Italy has been groaning for ages, not at all of nature which is not in them a 
 thing that varies. The brigandage of Calabria in 1799, was the expression of the very same senti- 
 ments that originated the Lombard League. Italy therefore cannot be considered to be a countiy 
 exclusively oriental or meridional, but as one that participates in the advantages which nature has 
 liberally bestowed on all the four quarters. To one who has passed a whole year in Italy the truth 
 of these observations will seem very clear, if he but recall the impressions made on him by the varia- 
 tion of the seasons. An inhabitant of Lebanon arrives in Italy at the beginning of April, at the 
 time when the vernal zephyr caresses with voluptuous wing the flowers that enamel the meadows, 
 and when the air is loaded with sweet odours, from that of the violet that lies hid in the hedges 
 
viii REFLECTIONS ON ITALY. 
 
 to that of the rose which vaunts its charms in the gardens; at the time when amid the verdure of 
 the fields, the fruit trees raise their blossomed heads and the orange trees seem to wait with im- 
 patience for the warming rays that revive them; at the time when beneath a Hmpid and azure sky 
 the copious dews glisten to the silver radiance of the moon, at the time when the dawn empurples 
 the mountain tops and gradually brings out the colours of a landscape where all is harmony and 
 smiles, until the sun, emerging from the Adriatic, pours over Italy a baptism of light, and he 
 might fancy himself still in Palestine. Spring gives to Italy quite the physiognomy of an Eastern 
 country. It is then the land of pleasure, poesy and love. But let an Arab behold it in the heat 
 of July, when the sun darts his fiery rays with all his force, when the scorched earth is cleft and 
 gapes like the thirsty and panting hind in the track of a fountain; when the fields are whitening 
 with corn and the meadows look like the sands of the desert; when of a sudden the atmosphere, 
 whitened at first with mists, grows thick with clouds; when the whirlwind harbingers the tempest 
 with volumes of dust, and the lightning flashes and the thunder roars incessantly like the lion's 
 voice repeated by the echoes, when rain and hail and thunderbolts all come down together, and 
 when, shortly after, the purified and re-invigorated earth presents itseK like a charmed oasis, he 
 might believe that he was still on the sides of his native hills, looking out on one of those grand 
 commotions of nature which announce themselves so terribly and magnificently within the tropics- 
 Italy in summer presents quite the physiognomy of the regions of the south. It is then the 
 land of strong and violent passions. Seen at the commencement of Autumn when the pulse and 
 com are collected in the modest dwelhngs of the peasantry, or in the vast storehouses of the 
 rich, in sufficient abundance for the support of ten such countries, when hill and vale resound 
 with the joyous songs of the villagers while employed in the bustle of the vintage, or of the rustics 
 collecting the fruits or crushing the grapes in the wine-presses, when the fields are preparing for 
 the seed, and when it is sown for the following year, when the shepherds and neatherds hasten to 
 the plains with their flocks and herds from the mountain sides where winter is beginning to show 
 itself; when showers are frequent, and the sun looks pale, and the clouds rise from the streams 
 and valleys, it then looks like a part of western Europe, and Frenchmen and Englishmen will 
 think they find in Italy some resemblance to the lands they have left. It is then a land of plenty 
 and of laborious habits, and would be a land of industry and commerce, were commerce and in- 
 dustry to find instead of obstacles and threatened calamities, protection and encouragement. But 
 what if winter in Italy is roughened with frost and whitened with snow! It is certainly not such 
 a winter as is seen among the rocks of Siberia or beneath the cliffs of Mont Blanc, but the Ger- 
 man or English tourist, provided he does not remain at the bay of Naples, will find the breath of 
 the north wind very cold, and will be amazed at seeing snow and ice so common in a country 
 which he may have pictured to himself as always covered with flowers. Snow falls frequently, 
 particularly in the lands adjacent to the Appennines, and, towards the Adriatic, besides what is 
 discharged by the northern blast, there is added from time to time the snows accumulated and 
 driven over by the wind from the Levant, from the coasts of Dalmatia and from Greece. Alas 
 whoever shall travel during winter in Italy, would never suppose it to be one of the regions of the 
 
REFLECTIONS ON ITALY. ix 
 
 Soutli. Italy during tlie cold season is the country of reflection, of serious studies and of unim- 
 passioned politics. In no other country of Europe are the limits of the seasons so distinctly 
 marked as in that peninsula. Hence we find united in the people the four principal qualities that 
 distinguish nations placed under the influence of particular climates, such as the sensibility of the 
 East and the energy of the South, the activity of the West and the reflective habits of the North. 
 To these, if we add frankness, sobriety, perseverance and hospitality, you will have the main 
 features of the Italian character. The defects with which it is chargeable, are to be traced to 
 the good original peculiarities of heart and mind with which the Italians are naturally endowed. 
 Efieminacy of manners proceeds in Italy from excessive sensibility, fostered by the empire of a 
 religion which speaks softly to the senses while it clouds and obscures the reason. The readiness 
 with which the people shed one another's blood, must be ascribed to the violence of their passions, 
 and the energy of their characters, provoked and exasperated by the injustice of the law courts in 
 which an arbitrary spirit greatly prevails, and by the partiality with which the laws are adminis- 
 tered under despotic governments. The religious and civil systems tend with one accord to turn 
 to what is bad the best qualities of the Italian character. Rome, on the one hand, with the pom- 
 pous apparatus of its ceremonies, lays hold of the imaginations and susceptibility of a people full 
 of the poetical temperament, not in order to guide them to the morahty of the gospel, to the love 
 of God and of mankind, but to superstitious practices and to intolerance. The governments, on 
 the other hand, dread the energy and activity of a people who find in the past a mighty stimulus 
 to come out from that state of degradation in which the vicissitudes of time and the policy of the 
 powerful have reduced them, and a most sufficient warranty of success. Hence science is openly, 
 or at least covertly, persecuted by them, and education thwarted or controlled. Hence res- 
 traints are laid on commerce in order that the civilization of other nations may not be communi- 
 cated by contact. Hence idleness and indolence are fostered. In the unnatural constraint under 
 which Italy is groaning, not only are many good qualities of the Itahan character kept down, but 
 many defects altogether foreign to the disposition of a passionate and energetic people, have ger- 
 minated, and have then been attributed to the Italians as vices essentially rooted in their 
 very nature. The Italians are reproached with being reserved and insincere, without its being 
 remembered that, compelled to conceal their sentiments in the presence of the lynx-eyed Inqui- 
 sition and police, and that crushed beneath the oppression of a brute force which chains up the 
 use of words and the free expression of thoughts however holy and becoming, they have been 
 taught to dissemble and to lie by the advice of other nations which have charged Italy with im- 
 prudence every time it has dared to manifest its true sentiments of independence and liberty. 
 While the common charge of imprudence is raised by all the nations against the sincere expres- 
 sions of a people oppressed by tyranny, the accusation of insincerity thrown upon the Italian cha- 
 racter ought to appear unjust to every reasonable mind. The history of free and independent 
 Italy does credit to the sincerity of the national character of the Italians. Attilius Regulus pre- 
 sents an eternal monument of the good faith of ancient Italy. A glorious monument of the good 
 faith and sincerity of the Italian character in recent history, is seen in the vote passed by the 
 
X REFLECTIONS ON ITALY. 
 
 Neapolitan parliament, on the 7th of December, 1820, on the departure of King Ferdinand I. 
 for the congress of the allied powers at Troppau. The king promised to charge himself there 
 with the defence of the interests of the people and of the rights of the constitution that had been 
 granted ; faith was given to the promise although it came from lips habituated to lying and to 
 breaking the faith of treaties. This presents one of the most evident characteristics of candour 
 and good faith. The national parliament then revealed to the nations of Europe what a trea- 
 sure of sincerity lay in the hearts of a people usually charged with want of sincerity. That was 
 the expression of a people free, independent, in the first moments of their recovered liberty. 
 Now what idea ought not to be conceived of that same people, after enjoying for years the light 
 of such a civilization as should draw forth all the good qualities that God has implanted in their 
 hearts. We all know that slavery makes men wily and cunning. A man, simple and sincere as 
 he may imagine himself, will at length grow sly and crafty within the walls of a prison. The irre- 
 sistible desire for liberty will not be repressed by the sight of barriers and hindrances, and in de- 
 fault of force will call in the aids of ingenuity. Such is the nature of the human heart that when 
 one of its strings is powerfully struck, the others respond to the blow. Hence it is that moral 
 corruptions are never confined to one class of actions only, nor to one end. Dissimulation and 
 hypocrisy are the necessary results of the Inquisition and the pohce, and then are apt to spread 
 from religion and politics into the social relations, mutual distrust being fomented by the iniqui- 
 tous proceedings of the governments. To this there is added the influence of pernicious theolo- 
 gical doctrines. In the confessional, the sentence of absolution is openly said to be founded on 
 probable opinions and on mental reservations. Let us calculate, in fine, what must be the force of 
 the melancholy example set by a swarm of priests, monks, and friars who he before God and 
 man, and it will be found that the Italian people, instead of being a butt for taunts and accusa- 
 tions, ought rather to excite admiration for having resisted so long and combated successfully the 
 combined efibrts of politicians, divines, and armed foreigners to repress within them every gener- 
 ous idea. Granting that the defects referred to are not charged against them altogether without 
 grounds, it would seem at least that the evil plant is not a daughter of the soil of Italy, and does 
 not find full sustenance there. A comparison between Italy and France will suffice clearly to 
 prove the preponderance of sincerity and independence in the Itahan character over that of one 
 of the greatest nations of Europe. Universal plaudits greeted the Russians, Prussians, and 
 Austrians in Paris, on their entering that city as the restorers of the throne of the Bourbons, 
 and the very same persons who shortly before were exclaimed against as enemies and oppressors, 
 after the battle of Waterloo, when circumstances were altered, were saluted as dehverers and 
 fi-iends. But the German is always regarded as an oppressor in Italy, not only when he stands 
 concealed within his mountains whence with his dark intrigues he strikes and crushes the rights 
 of Italian nationality and independence, but also when from time to time he advances in arms to 
 rivet its chain. No shout of applause has ever greeted the banners of Austria. The cities are 
 mute when it enters them, and that silence amounts to a dignified protest ; it does not give the 
 lie to the sincerity of their aversion to foreign tyranny; it does not basely retract the threat uttered 
 
REFLECTIONS ON ITALY. xi 
 
 under an impulse of generous indignation, when a ray of hope promised freedom and victory. 
 The genius of Italy dictated to Alfieri in the following lines, the expression of the independent 
 and candid character of that country in contrast with France. 
 
 Schiavi or siam noi, ma sdiiavi almen frementi 
 Non quali, Galli, il foste e il siete voi 
 Schiavi al poter, qual'ch'oi pur sia, plaudenti. 
 
 Now we are slaves, but slaves that with a frown 
 Confront our tyrants, not such slaves as ye, 
 Gauls ! have been and still are — slaves lost to shame, 
 Who with your plaudits greet whatever power 
 Plants its proud foot upon your abject neck. 
 
 The same candour and independence of character is to be seen in Italy in the profession of 
 religious sentiments. The enlightened class which laughs at the superstitions and the falsehood 
 of the system of Rome, does not, in order to purchase favour with the powerful, stoop to practise 
 superstitious customs and rites, unless such as are commanded under the bayonet of gens d'armes, 
 with the anxiety with which people run in crowds at the sound of the bell to mumble prayers 
 that come not from the heart, after the example of Louis XVIII., a bigot king ruled over by 
 priests. On the other hand, when the French occupied Italy in the character of its lords, when 
 irreligion was reckoned a just claim to favour, and blasphemy against Christ was considered to 
 be a sort of charm for changing for the better a man's condition in life, the lower people did 
 not relinquish their religious practices and made no show of holding their faith in small esteem. 
 Hence the charge of insincerity is calumnious in general, and strangely exaggerated in so far as 
 it may be partially true. 
 
 Let us now speak of religion in Italy, first giving a general idea of it in order the better after- 
 wards to treat it more in detail. The Roman catholic religion has its roots in the heart and its 
 force in the imagination of the Italians. It presents to a people endued with the germs of am- 
 bition and which has a most inextinguishable thirst for love, an innumerable host of glorious and 
 amiable saints ; it flatters vanity by erecting altars to men ; it establishes the relations of a self- 
 ish friendship between devotees and their guardian saints ; it ofi'ers in heaven a sort of human 
 parliament which shares in the councils of the Almighty, and watches over terrestrial destinies, 
 thus caressing the democratical tendencies of a people who have ever aspired and still aspire to 
 political emancipation ; it promotes indolence by indulgences and jubilees ; it establishes a con- 
 tinuation of the sensible affections between the living and the dead — a most agreeable idea to con- 
 stancy of affection ; — it proclaims, as the basis of its doctrine, unity, which seems to include the 
 idea of equahty under the same laws, and of force and social charity, objects of the most eager 
 desire to a people oppressed, harassed, and weak because divided. The antiquity of which it 
 vaunts itself so proudly, constitutes a most powerful charm for a people who look to past times as 
 the epoch of their glories. Aversion to the Romish religion, on the other hand, has its root in 
 the intellect. 
 
XII REFLECTIONS ON ITALY. 
 
 The superstition with which the Italians are reproached, is not essential to them, since intel- 
 lect abounds with them. In this country peoph are not lorn fools, said a learned foreigner resi ng 
 at Naples. Superstition would vanish on the avenues of public instruction being opened up. 
 The infideUty prevailing in the educated class has its source in the rash judgment which hatred 
 of oppression, becoming more and more intense in proportion as the understanding becomes en- 
 Hghtened, leads people to put forth against Kome. Youths educated in colleges and monasteries 
 where there is the pomp of an apparent piety and of an ecstatic mysticism which they are taught 
 to believe to be the sincere expression of the gospel, become convinced with their advancing 
 years that those practices and that hypocritical fervour are nothing but a mask for covering poli- 
 tical ends— are persuaded that religion in the hands of Rome is a means of satisfying its own 
 avarice and of alimenting its own ambition, and that the thirst of universal dominion bums under 
 the appearance of zeal for the propagation of the faith. 
 
 Roma caput mundi quicquid non possidet armis 
 Religione tenet 
 
 Rome, the world's head, now to religion owes 
 What once it owed to arms. . . 
 
 Accordingly, while they indignantly cast off the yoke of Rome, they likewise reject the holy book 
 of revelation which has been announced to them as containing the formal expression of the prin- 
 ciples of Rome. No doubt of the soundness of such a judgment ever enters their minds, so as to 
 conceive the idea of taking into examination the doctrines contained in the gospel, to see how 
 far they accord with those announced from the Vatican. Hence they neglect the reading of the 
 sacred books which alone can undeceive them. The evil is enhanced by knowing that protestan- 
 tism, neither in doctrines nor fact, favours the cause of a people suffering under tyranny. I speak 
 m favour of the religion of Jesus Christ, as delivered to the apostles. I shall tell what part pro- 
 testant doctrines have in the diffusion of infidelity in Italy. I may give offence by my reflections 
 and by the frankness of my language to those who in their religious zeal propose to effect a poli- 
 tical object, but I shall gratify true believers — those who before aU things seek the kingdom of 
 God and his righteousness, those who desire that the gospel of Jesus Christ should triumph, not for 
 the sake of deriving advantages from it but for the glory of its divine author and the salvation of 
 souls. Whenever I have entered into religious discussions with Italian infidels I have felt 
 myself met by two main objections to the divinity of the Bible, besides the usually alleged contra- 
 dictions of the sacred text, now antiquated. The first of these lies in the doctrine of passive 
 submission to established governments, although unjust and tyrannical; the other consists in the 
 spirit of discord in the interpretation of the sacred books. The doctrine of passive resistance 
 patronized by the encyclical letter of Gregory XVI. to the bishops of Poland, and by that other 
 directed against the doctrines contained in the books of Lamennais, excites the dread and horror 
 of every one whose breast glows with love to his country, and who has had the misfortune to be 
 bom in a land subject to the powers of tyranny. Reason recoils from the idea of a God who con- 
 
REFLECTIONS ON ITALY. xiii 
 
 demns a people to slavery and denies the right of defence agaluwt the invasion of their own pro- 
 per rights and fi'auchises. On the other handj those hour the same doctrine announced, it may 
 be said with unanimity, by those who, having cast off the yoke of Rome, make a jjrofession of be- 
 lieving and observing the law of God, as recorded in the books of the apostles and prophets. 
 From this they conclude that Christianity is against the good of society and opposed to the ad- 
 vantage of the people, while it favours their oppressors. Hence with them, to be a patriot and to 
 be likewise a Christian, seems absurd. As far then as concerns the spirit of dissension which 
 seems to flow from the various interpretations of the text, they confound sectarian fanaticism with 
 that variety of opinions which is the necessary consequence of freedom of conscience. Hence 
 they are prepared to consider as fruits of the unrestricted interpretation of the sacred text, the 
 intestine wars that soaked the earth with blood in the age of the Reformation, rather than those 
 peaceful discussions which rendered the human intellect fruitful instead of barren ; discussions 
 which when conducted in the spirit of charity, without which one who should speak with the 
 tongue of angels would be no better than souniling brass, aid to keep alive in the heart the holj 
 ardour for improvement with respect to the search after truth. It appears to them that that book 
 cannot have a divine origin which admits such a variety and discrepance of opinions, thus pre- 
 senting an obstacle to the union of people with people, province with province, city with city, an(v 
 family with family. And as among the evils that have afflicted Italy, the most deplor- 
 able has been the want of a spirit of concord among the various parts into which it is divided, 
 they consider it as a risk, nay rather a certain loss, to propose the Bible as a rehgious code ; 
 the more so as from the people having been brought up in the intolerance of the papal domination, 
 religious discussions will find in them a prolific soil for mutual hatreds and disgusts. Accord- 
 ingly, they regard the free study of the Bible as irreconcilable with the social condition of Italy. 
 Moreover the charge thrown out against Protestantism as leading to individualism, is readily ad- 
 mitted and rigorously judged in Italy from that country itself having been its victim. It has 
 seen the representatives of nations, fi'ee, protestant, and jealous of their religious and ci^'il hber- 
 ties, sitting in council with its oppressors, and favouring or at least not opposing tyi-anny. These 
 reflections have thrown into the ways of rationalism many clear intellects, to whom love of coun- 
 tiy is the guide towards a better future. It does not enter into the scope of this essay to enter 
 into an examination of these objections. But I consider it indispensable to hint whether the 
 sin of the Italian generations present and to come, rushing to their ruin towards infidelity, may 
 not weigh not only on the deluded who are its victims, on Rome which with its iniquities and 
 its sacrilege inspires them with doubts against the Gospel of which it proclaims itself the infallible 
 depositary and sustainer, but also on the nations which mingle political ends with zeal for the 
 laws of God, giving the apostolic doctrine a wider extension than really belongs to it. Let them 
 reflect that their judgment concerning the sense of a book which is at all times in their hands, 
 is of great weight with those who know nothing of it but the name. Let them consider, then, 
 that the excessive keenness shown in religious discussions among Christians of different opinions, 
 
 is a stumbling-block to those who are fondly looking forward to a new order of thinn-s to the era 
 
 d 
 
XIV REFLECTIONS ON ITALY. 
 
 of fraternal union among civiUzed nations. The Christian Union among different denomina. 
 tions on tlie common basis of the Gospel, promoted by the Christians of Scotland and carried 
 into effect at Liverpool during the first days of October last (1845), will prove a source of bless- 
 ings to the entire world. Intolerance alone will keep aloof from it, and very great will be the 
 advantage to the church of Jesus Christ for it to know where that evil plant, the enemy of chanty, 
 which is the essence of Christianity and the bond of union, strikes its roots.* 
 
 Let us now return to our reflections on the religious spirit of Italy. It is of importance that 
 we recognise in the Itahans an irresistible tendency to religion ; and we find a mark of it m that 
 touch of melancholy which generally manifests itself in eastern nations. Indued with a vivid 
 imagination, amid the charms of a country so rich and fertile, fi:om which they acquire the idea of 
 the beautiful and the sublime, they feel in themselves a secret sentiment which carries their 
 thoughts to the supreme Being, who has bestowed upon them superior advantages above other 
 tribes that inhabit burning sands or frozen rocks. They behold in the pure and kindly radiance 
 of the sun an emblem of the tabernacle of the Most High. The two evils that now afflict Italy, 
 that is to say, infidelity and superstition, although contradictory in appearance, proceed from the 
 same tendency of the Italian mind towards the Deity. The educated ItaUan, full of the idea of 
 the infinite justice of a Being who is love and the centre of harmony to created beings, rejects 
 revealed religion, which presents itself to him as ready with one hand to enthral the nations and with 
 the other to crown and defend the fortunate possessors of power, and who longs for a religion that 
 will protect justice and social prosperity. Were the gospel presented to Mm in its purity, breath- 
 ing love and justice, he would renounce the foolish attempt of opposing to the laws of God the 
 littleness of reason intoxicated by the passions. The people that are deprived of instruction, con- 
 vinced that everything that relates to the worship of God is an impenetrable mystery, respectfully 
 sm-render themselves to the teaching of Rome, kiss the chains that press upon them as if they 
 were God's handiwork, and doting, from an excess of the religious sentiment, form to themselves 
 new ones. But let the day of liberty arrive, and the people then instructed will discover in the 
 gospel a remedy for their profound social disorders ; the seed of the divine word wiU find a firuit- 
 lul soil in the hearts of multitudes of Italians. 
 
 While the Italian character, in its principal elements, is such as we have described it, yet it 
 does not manifest itself in the same aspect throughout the whole extent of the peninsula, in as 
 much as the climate, temperate though it be in all Italy, presents considerable varieties accord- 
 ing as we proceed towards the East and South. This diversity is evident above all between the 
 two grand divisions which we have traced, of Northern and Southern Italy. In the former the 
 
 * The labours of the Evangelical alliance being in a sense only begun, and it not being possible to foresee the 
 practical results which may yet flow therefrom, the above decided opinion given by the learned author may by some 
 parties be considered premature. Dr. Mappei's attention having been drawn to this fact, he replied in a note addresed 
 to the publishers, "As to the Christian Union, I beg of you to leave my opinion as expressed, as the opinion of a 
 foreigner, an Italian, formerly a Roman Gatholie, upon whose mind the manifestation of the union of the members of the 
 body of Christ has had great weight." 
 
REFLECTIONS ON ITALY. xv 
 
 rays of tlie sun shine reflected from the cvorl;i,sting glaciers of the Alps, and the lalti;i- in lighted 
 by the sun that melts the snows of the Appennines. The Italians of the North have l>ocn ino- 
 culated with large aduiixtures of the distinguishing qualities of their neighbours, the Swiss, the 
 French, and Germans. The contact they have with these and similarity of climate, have led to 
 the introduction of habits of greater luxury, and of the new ideas that are current among those 
 nations. European civilization, by its reflux from the Alps, and by breaking down the dykes 
 which the despotism of Austria and the intolerance of the Vatican have erected along the extreme 
 frontiers of the country, finds a way for itself among the Italians of the North and makes them 
 seem sufficiently difierent from their brethren of the South, who, while completely separated from 
 aU more civilized nations, and prevented by new barriers within Italy fi'om coming into contact 
 with their brethren of the North, remain in a great measure destitute of the advantage of such 
 communications. The Italians of the South still preserve the habits of their forefathers, and 
 while in Northern Italy the vehement passions bend beneath the continual influence of the intel- 
 lectual progress favoured by the near neighbourhood of enlightened nations, in Southern Italy 
 those passions retain in a great measure all their ardom- and energy. Civilization otherwise ad- 
 vances rapidly in the South of Italy, but flowing from other sources it pursues a different course. 
 Here it is the daughter of Jansenism and of the war which in the last centmy the governments 
 of Tuscany and Naples carried on victoriously against the pride of Rome. That of Northejni 
 Italy is the daughter of the reasoning habits of the French revolution and of German rationalism. 
 Hence the latter finds less support in the multitude, and the former is universally felt because 
 identified with the laws. The one combats all the old forms ; the other endeavours to reform 
 abuses. I shall treat of this subject in detail afterwards. The South of Italy is the land of 
 antiquity and of glorious memorials of the past, the land of the fine arts. To it belong the en- 
 chanting descriptions of the poets and the praises lavished by travellers on the romantic scenes, 
 the mild nights, the delicious splendour of the moon, the mountains tinged with the hues of the 
 violet. Savage nature here offered to the daring pencil of Salvator Rosa, landscapes of marvellous 
 sublimity. Here RafiaeUo created his Madonnas, giving them the features and the complexion 
 of the Fornarina, soft as the cUmate and bright as the sky. Here Pergolesi, Cimarosa, Paisiello, 
 Rossini, Bellini, and Donizetti drew inspiration and cheered the world with their melodies, drink- 
 ing in the harmony which rises on all sides, particularly on a spring morning, when from the 
 
 hedges, in the warbling of the birds — from the gardens, in the colours and the odours of the flowers 
 
 from the trees, in the whisper of the breeze among the leaves — from the brooks, the rivers, and the 
 sea, in the murmur of the billows, there rises to heaven a delicious harmony, as if it were the 
 hymn which grateful Italy addresses to the Creator for having made her so beautiful as she is. 
 There the Colosseum, the Pantheon, the wonders of Michael Angelo, St. Peter's church, raise 
 their heads majestically, proclaiming to the foreigner who gazes upon them that the glories of 
 Italy are perennial and lasting. Here Dante restored the gift of speech to Italy, which had re- 
 mained mute on being deprived of the language wherewith it had dictated laws to the world, and 
 re-erected a temple to the muses of Ausonia. There the Secretary to the Florentme republic 
 
XVI REFLECTIONS ON ITALY. 
 
 discoursed on the destinies of peoples and laid bare the baseness of tyrants. There Tasso en- 
 twined for himself a crown of laurel and myrtle. There Scipio, Caesar, Cicero, Horace, Ovid, 
 Catullus, had their cradles. Hither Virgil came for inspiration. Not indeed that Northern 
 Italy is not likewise the land of glorious deeds, fertile in minds of powerful genius and poetical 
 imaginations. It abounds in these, but its glory is of a later date ; its great men have had a less 
 imposing aspect; — Doria, MontecuccoU, Dandolo, Titian, Correggio, Ariosto, Alfieri, Oanova. 
 The painters of Southern Italy are distinguished by genius in composition and boldness in design ; 
 those of Northern Italy by delicacy of colouring and softness of contour. Architecture in Rome 
 is gigantic and majestic ; in Venice, the Rome of Northern Italy, more finished and regular. 
 During the epoch of its first glory, Italy had for the theatre of its enterprises the southern division; 
 during that of its more recent, its energy and the treasures of its wisdom have chiefly manifested 
 themselves in the northern. The geographical position of Italy suggests to me an idea which 
 comprises the story of its past times and hope for the future. It resembles a giant who reposes 
 his head on the snowy summits of the Alps and his feet on the sands of Africa. In the epoch of 
 its first glories, in the force of youth, it obeyed the impulse of a heart boiling with ambition and 
 traversed the earth with vigorous steps, subjecting the nations to its sway. At a later period it 
 lay rather exhausted by the excess of its own passions than overcome by the barbarians. Then 
 substituting for the impulse of ambition and courage the counsels of the understanding and the 
 powers of genius, it rose from its recumbent position, discoursed of wisdom to the whole world and 
 lorded it over its very conquerors with the force of its words and the industry of its arms. The 
 same hand that had brandished the sword now pressed the pen and became greater in literature 
 and the arts than it had been in point of power and arms. The secret and the hopes of Italy are 
 to be found in these two epochs. History in these has pointed out a new career to be traversed 
 and a new crown to be put on, when re-entering the rank of nations, and obeying the impulses of 
 the heart and understanding, it will find it easy to combine the energy of the southern element 
 with the reflective disposition of the northern, force with science, art with industry. The present 
 state of Italy is a transition state. The thoughts that ferment particularly in upper Italy and 
 from that quarter reach to the extremities of the Calabrias, have prepared the elements of a new 
 social order, and the first symptoms of a vigorous vitality are to be perceived not only in the 
 accomplished cities of Lombardy but also in the rude villages of the Basilicata, which, towards the 
 close of the last century, might be considered the Timbuctoo of Italy. The mind of Italy finds 
 its formal expression in the philosophical principles which distinguish the Italian school from the 
 German and the French. Far removed from the transcendentalism of Kant and from materialism, 
 it is the expression of its own mind and heart. 
 
 Notwithstanding that the cities do not faithfully reflect the moral state of the nation, yet it will 
 be of use to direct a look to them in order to observe at least the tendencies of the people they 
 contain. Considered in this point of view, the capital cities of the two divisions of Italy as above 
 traced out, present sufficient arguments for confirming the opinion already given on the diversity 
 of character between the Italians of the North and South. Milan Turin, and Genoa are the 
 
REFLECTIONS ON ITALY. xvii 
 
 cities that now take tlie lead in Northern Italy. Florence, Rome, and Naples in the South. Milan 
 is the seat of study and of intellectual activity, and in the face of the jealous and tyrannical vigi- 
 lance of a foreign government, which endeavours to foment corruption by clipping the wings 
 of genius, the Italian mind does not stop its flight in the career of progress, but from time to 
 time causes a new ray of light to flash on the pages of its men of science and learning. Turin is 
 the city of industry and of militaiy activity as far as its present political condition permits; the 
 moral state of the capital of Piedmont presents more regularity, and fewer disorders of minor 
 magnitude, in proportion as idleness finds less favour there. Genoa is the city of trade, 
 and although it has sunk from the lofty commercial position it occupied when the flag of the 
 Genoese republic floated in every port of Europe and Asia, yet it still retains much of its old 
 spirit of activity and independence. From an attentive survey of these three cities one is led to 
 judge favourably of the maturity, the reflective habits, and the activity of the Italians. On the 
 other hand, Florence is the city of urbanity, of elegance, of pleasing and genteel mental occupa- 
 tions. Rome, seated on monuments, and clothed in religious pomp, is the city of ambition ; its 
 aspect is majestic and solemn, its voice haughty and imperious. Naples is the emporium of the 
 tumultuous passions, the seat of pleasure, the dwelling-place of the Syren. The warmth of the 
 atmosphere and the fertility of the soil, dispose to indolence and pleasure, while the volcano which 
 mutters hard by, with its sloping sides covered with smiling vineyards and delicious fields, is the 
 image of her people, with jocund brow and smiling lips, and fiery passions at heart. The roaring 
 of the mountain during an eruption, resembles the voice of Masaniello. By observing these three 
 cities we discover the leading features of the southern Italian character, that is to say, the more 
 vehement passions and energy of soul outweighing the power of reflection. I shall close these 
 general reflections on the Italian character with the following considerations. Indolence is 
 the chief defect of the lower classes, and the sole cause of the continuance of the present state 
 of things. In order to keep them as long as they possibly can inert and listless, no method has 
 been found equal to that expressed in the philosophical saying, Ignoti nuUa cupido. The ignorance 
 of the people is the palladium of despotism. Woe to it, should desires on the part of the people 
 arouse their passions ! Woe to it, should the spur of ambition awaken them from their shameful 
 lethargy ! The judgment passed on the Italians by Madam de Stael is most just. " Propose 
 to them an object and in a short time they will overtake it — without some spur they will remain 
 doing nothing." The small account made of the public opinion of foreigners with respect to 
 them, in Italy, is usually attributed to the indolence of the Italian character. The hearty hospi- 
 tality which these strangers meet with in a nation, not only ill used by the European policy, but 
 outraged and vilified by all who have occasion to speak of them, leads people to pronounce this 
 erroneous judgment on them. Hospitality is one of the finest qualities of the Italian people, for 
 it is the off'spring of a susceptible and affectionate natural disposition. Besides this natural ten- 
 dency, one strong reason leads them to exercise it towards those who vilify them, and it is the 
 conviction that the degraded state to which their country has been reduced, so that the name of 
 the Niohe of nations has been rightly enough given to it by Byron, ought not to be imputed to 
 
xvm REFLECTIONS ON ITALY. 
 
 them, but to the melancholy changes which have taken place, and to the violence of the oppres- 
 sors. The Italians give a gracious reception to tourists, from the certain conviction that after 
 having visited their country, and after having witnessed the oppression to which it has been sul>- 
 jected by the quadruple alliance, they will be disposed to judge more fairly of the descendants of 
 the Romans and of the republics of the middle ages. Let us now glance at the political and 
 civil state of the peninsula. 
 
 VIEW OF THE POLITICAL AND CIVIL STATE OF ITALY. 
 
 Tis certainly one of the greatest glories of Italy that she never suffered herself, 
 upon the fall of the Roman empire, to be completely conquered by the barbarians. 
 Shehas thus been the connecting linkbetween the ancient and the modern world. But 
 this glory was obtained at the cost of her national unity. She came out from the long 
 painful struggle divided into various parts. It has been her greatest misfortune 
 ^ to have within her own bosom that element which is inimical to all nationality, the popedom. 
 M Every time that vicissitudes, or a generous feeling, has suggested the ideas of independence 
 V^ and unity, a voice from the Vatican has called in the stranger to disperse the forces that 
 «^ were tending towards association. On comparing the present condition of Italy with that 
 of the Italian republics of the middle ages, it were folly not to acknowledge that she has 
 benefited in so far as respects the union of the various elements that then struggled within her, 
 although at the expense of her freedom and independence. Instead therefore of raising 
 impotent cries against the past which has swallowed up Italian discords in its vortices, 
 instead of lamenting the fall of the republics of Florence, Genoa, Venice, Pisa, Siena, and many 
 others in Italy, they ought to rejoice at seeing the cause of division gradually removed, and as it 
 were dissipated for ever. The existence of seven states where once there swarmed a hundred 
 small and discordant ones, is a gigantic step towards national unity, so much the more if we con- 
 sider that of the seven states now to be found in Italy, one embodies the spirit, the absolute power 
 — one, the activity, the oppression — one, the strength, the troops and fleets of Austria. In such 
 circumstances the unity and independence of Italy are become not only possible but easy. The same 
 lamentations are rung through all points of the peninsula ; the same wants impel the people towards 
 social improvement. Misfortune has brought the desires of all and the hopes of all to a common 
 level. Everybody knows that the Austrian cabinet rules directly one portion of Italy and indirectly 
 all the rest of it. Members of the Lorraine family are seated on the ducal thrones of Parma, 
 Modena, and Tuscany. The pope and the king of Naples keep their places under the protection 
 of the bayonets of Austria, and hence are subject to the conservative counsels and authority of 
 their protector. The king of Sardinia alone now and then manifests in his internal policv some 
 
POLITICAL AND CIVIL STATE OF ITALY. xix 
 
 independence, favouring, though weakly, progress, encouraging and protecting education :i,nd 
 commerce ; all which has given room to hope on the part of moderate liberals, that there is tlie 
 possibility of a national emancipation, through a confederation among the Italian princes for lo- 
 gaining their lost independence. Balbo's publication on the Hopes of Italy , encourages the belief 
 that the court of Sardinia cherishes the idea of putting itself at the head of such a coalition. — - 
 The briefness of this essay not permitting a minute account of each of the governments of Italy, 
 I shall confine myself to giving an exact picture of some of them, and supply such an amount of 
 information with respect to the rest, as may suffice to establish what are the most material points 
 of difference. Among the governments indirectly dependent on Austria, I shall treat at large 
 of the kingdom of Naples. To this I am induced by many reasons ; because it is the most exten- 
 sive and populous of the Italian states, the least known to strangers, and, next to the dominions 
 of the pope, the greatest sufferer from tyranny. I shall then speak of the pontifical states, now 
 groaning under a bastard government which has no natm-al ties to society and to human nature ; 
 an infamous monument of the ages of ignorance, preserved to act as a bar to Italian civilization. 
 Lastly, I shall speak of that foreign government which wastes and crushes the finest part of 
 Italy. There will thus be presented a full view of the present state of the peninsula. Of Tus- 
 cany, Parma, and Sardinia, I shall say as much as will suffice for obtaining a knowledge of the 
 degTee of civilization permitted, and of the general defects of their administration and political 
 organization. Besides that the present condition of these is better known to foreigners, as being 
 less tyrannically governed, and that more frequent intercourse and commerce are maintained with 
 them, I am led on another account not to speak of them at great length, and that is because it 
 may prove more advantageous to poor forlorn Italy to disclose to the eyes of civilized nations 
 the wounds that afflict her most. 
 
 The kingdom of the two Sicilies comprehends the whole of the extreme portion of Italy and 
 Sicily. It was first called the kingdom of Naples and Sicily, distinguishing the continental part 
 by the name of the dominions on this side of Faro, and Sicily by that of the dominions beyond 
 Faro. They were two distinct kingdoms dependent on the same monarch ; they had each its own 
 laws, and Sicily preserved its constitution which had been bequeathed to it by the Norman kings, 
 consisting of three representations called Bracci, Demaniale, Ecclesiastico, and Feudale, that is, 
 of Commons, Clergy, and Nobility. This representative system was abolished in 1812, to give 
 place to a new constitution, granted through English influence by king Ferdinand IV., 
 and modelled in a great measure by Lord (William) Bentinck on that of Great Britain. But 
 after the fall of Napoleon, when the dethroned kings resumed their seats on their ancient thrones, 
 with the certainty of being able to exercise greater despotism than ever over their people, now 
 exhausted with previous struggles, Ferdinand IV., by the decree of the year 1819, closed the 
 Sicilian parliament, promising to open it again but with the idea of suppressing it. In point of 
 fact the court of Naples has, step by step, abolished all the franchises of Sicily. Such was the 
 reward bestowed by a grateful king on the Sicilian people, for the asylum accorded to him, and 
 for the prodigious fidelity they had shown him amid the political vicissitudes which then agitated 
 
XX REFLECTIONS ON ITALY. 
 
 the whole of Italy and Europe. From that epoch the king assumed the title of king of the 
 United kingdom of the two Sicihes. A very great advantage has accrued to Italy as respects 
 the future, from this despotic step of the Neapolitan government, for it diverted the mmd of the 
 Sicilians from a path altogether opposite to that pursued by the whole of Italy, calling upon them 
 to form part of the Italian people by making them share in the common slavery. Whatever 
 aflFection had been manifested by the Sicilians for the Bourbon dynasty when they fraternized 
 with the English in defending its rights against France, so much the more aversion do they now 
 manifest towards it. 
 
 Sicily is governed at present in the same way as the kingdom of Naples ; it pays the same 
 taxes and suffers the same oppression. The code that by the royal decree of 1818, is now in 
 operation, is that of France, modified in some points, and augmented in what relates to leze-ma- 
 jesty divine and human. Heresy, and sacrilege against the eucharist, are regarded in it as de- 
 serving the punishment of death, and blasphemy of seven years' imprisonment. To this last law 
 there is usually given a monstrous latitude, by making disrespect exhibited towards the endless 
 number of the saints of both sexes, and sometimes also towards images and the hierarchy, to be re- 
 garded as an offence against Grod. The French code, which proceeded from the most enlightened 
 minds of Fi'ance, acting at the instance of the vast genius of Napoleon, is one of the few benefits that 
 many European nations have reaped from the warlike agitations of the monarchs of this century. 
 Laws are the formulary of the morality of nations, and therefore the surest way to civiliza- 
 tion. Under this point of view, the kingdom of Naples which, equally with that of Sardinia, has 
 retained upon the whole the legislation of Napoleon, has seeds of moral progress in its bosom, 
 which will sooner or later bear its fruits. According to the French civil code the bonds of matri- 
 mony were not made strong enough, there being an immense facility given to divorce, and a cer- 
 tain strictness was desiderated; but in the code of Ferdinand marriage was reduced to such strict- 
 ness as to be indissoluble, except in the cases contemplated by the council of Trent, which per- 
 petuity reduced families to despair and introduced worse customs. Some reform was hoped for 
 in the augmentation of the paternal authority which may be said to have been annihilated in the 
 French code, but the reform was carried to such an excess as almost to make matters as bad as 
 they were according to the laws of ancient Rome. There was added, as if in contempt of per- 
 sonal liberty, voluntary imprisonment in civil contracts. So much for the civil code. As for 
 the penal, the severity of the punishments is excessive, and that of death fi-equent enough. The 
 severity of the French code is unsuitable and unjust for the character of the Italians, particularly 
 for those of the southern division of Italy. The basis of penal laws beinw to be found in the 
 physical and moral nature of society, and feeling and suffering varying in different nations the 
 culpability involved in misdeeds, the power of enduring suffering, are not the same in all men • 
 hence punishments adapted to some are for others either excessive or too light. The rigour of 
 the punishments, and the too great readiness with which that of death is threatened in that code 
 might suit the circumstances of France when she had just emerged from the vortex of a bloody 
 and unbridled revolution, but it was not adapted to Italy. It was hoped that in the new code of 
 
POLITICAL AND CIVIL STATE OF ITALY. xxi 
 
 Ferdinand the scale of crimes and piimslimonts would at oncn undergo a certain modification, 
 but they have been left as they were, for the severity of the penal code served the interests of 
 absolute power, and thi> sanctioning of the penalty of death for crimes of leze-majesty divine and 
 human, would without that severity have had too monstrous an aspect. The only changes are to 
 be found in the abolition of the pillor)/ and of the confiscation of a cr'un'uiaVs goods. The pillory, 
 just and useful perhaps among nations which from education and civilization have an ordinary 
 sense of shame, was most unjust in Italy where we find shame either nullified by corruption of 
 morals or ignorance in the common people, or from natural disposition excessive. A young 
 woman who had exposed her infant, the fruit of illicit love, in a winter's night, on the public 
 road, where it died, on being convicted of the crime, was condemned to a long imprisonment, 
 according to the French code, and to the pillory. Upon the first insults that were offered to her, 
 she fell down dead, suffocated with shame. The jjunishment of confiscation, most unjust, in as 
 much as it involves the punishment of innocent survivors and the eimchment of the public treasury, 
 presented powerful inducements to an absolute monarch as Ferdinand IV. to preserve it for his 
 own advantage ; but public indignation and the general wish made him cautious, and the new code, 
 in spite of the defects it retained, and notwithstanding the terror inspired by the law of leze- 
 majesty, was received with much satisfaction. In the new code, we find altogether taken away 
 in many cases, and restricted in very many others, the discretionary power given by the French 
 code to the judges, within certain limits, of mitigating the penalty — ^a discretionary power 
 tending to equalize difi'erences of age, condition, sex, and capacity of feeling. In the reform 
 of the two codes, the civil and the criminal, the former was made worse, the latter was 
 improved, if we could but forget the inevitable laws of despotic governments dependant on 
 Rome, as respects religious and political intolerance. The code of civil procedure has 
 remained as it was. Regard is had in it to the competency of the judges being carefully 
 ascertained ; to judges being appointed according to the interests and the wants of the people ; 
 to property being secured by means of a public register of civil acts and hypothecs ; to the un- 
 interrupted order of the judges ; to the independence of the judges ; finally, which is a proof of 
 the wisdom of the age, to the institution of a supreme tribunal, called the court of cassation, the 
 prop and guarantee of the laws, one of the fruits of modern philosophical and legislative science. 
 On the other hand the code of criminal procedure has been rendered worse. The old hope of having 
 a jury, frustrated under the government of the French king, was once more doomed to disap- 
 pointment; the power of imprisonment joer mandato d'accojiijiugnamento, which it was hoped 
 would be abolished, was confirmed, the judging of an accusation which according to the French 
 code was confided to four or six judges, is confided in the new one to three, or to five, revoking 
 the benefit of an equality of voices ; in the French code the judges of the accusation were not 
 judges of the process, and in the new they are, thus involving the greatest peril to justice and 
 obstacle to fairness of discussion, from the judges being already prepossessed against the accused; 
 restrictions were imposed on cases of appeal to the supreme magistracy of the Cassation, and 
 by limiting that tribunal, which is the grand support of the laws, and hence of liberty and of jus- 
 
xxn REFLECTIONS ON ITALY. 
 
 tice, it was intended that the wretched condition of the accused should be rendered still more 
 wretched. Another most grievous defect of the French code has been preserved in the new one, 
 that is, magistrates of exception, police courts, special courts, and military commissions. The false 
 doctrine that the process is the arena on which the law combats the accused person, makes it 
 seem advisable to the governments to deprive the law's enemy of arms and to give them to the 
 law's defenders. It is sought accordingly in crimes that are most hateful to the government, to 
 curtail the defences to the persons accused and to give greater scope for attack to the accusers. 
 But if the process were considered as a device for the detection of crime, people would not fall mto 
 so very grievous an error as to pervert the true nature of the law by attributing to it a shameful 
 partiality, and exposing it to the risk of rashly striking the innocent. One of the most valuable 
 parts of the criminal procedure, preserved in the new code, is the public pleadings, a means of 
 promoting justice more available as a security for the execution of the laws than the jury, which 
 is a means of civilization. The publicity of trials, the moral conviction of the judges, public 
 opinion acting as a check upon iniquitous sentences, are the fruits that proceed from it. The 
 laws called correctional form another valuable part of the criminal code. Insults, slight assaults, 
 violations of modesty, are severely punished ; forming a most holy censureship which initiates 
 the people to civilization, necessary for the Italian people, which, during past ages of feudalism 
 and of the distinction of conditions, had lost the sense of their own dignity. 
 
 It now remains for us to speak of the military code, of that relating to commerce and the public 
 administration. The military code or statute, which may be considered as preserving throughout 
 the legislation of the ten years' domination of the French king, contains four most grievous 
 blunders ; these are, the absence of any distinction between a state of war and a state of peace ; 
 the excessive latitude given to the jurisdiction of military tribunals ; the appointment of a pro- 
 longation of service and flogging as punishments ; and the silence of the laws respecting the 
 abuse of power. From the first there follows impunity or arbitrary punishments, in consequence 
 of the rapidity of trials, and hence want of discipline and justice ; the second separates the mili- 
 tary from the civil state even in that which touches directly the social order, constituting it an 
 exceptional body ; the third blunder tends to tarnish that moral lustre of the military career, 
 which forms the very nerve of armies, in as much as military service is given as a punishment, 
 and stripes involve infamy. Finally, the fourth is contrary to all civilization and justice. Duties 
 and rights are reciprocal, and the counterpart to the obedience of the soldiers is justice in com- 
 manding the troops. Every one sees that all these blunders tend to convert the army into a prop 
 to despotism and a scourge to the people. The commercial code is made up of laws for the most 
 part French as respects internal traffic, and of the old pragmatics of Charles III. as respects 
 international trade, inasmuch as the French code, having been promulgated when the fury of 
 war placed Europe under the oppression of the continental system, which aimed at the destruc- 
 tion of the commerce of England, mad-e no provision for the external part of coimnercial leo-is- 
 lation. The internal part is carefully drawn up ; there may appear to be an excessive rio-our in 
 
 to 
 
 the trammels imposed on merchants with the view of preventing fraud, but it will appear most 
 
POLITICAL AND CIVIL STATE OF ITALY. xxiii 
 
 just to every one who sets himself to consider the corruption of past times ;md the growing avarice 
 that accompanies the wants of a new civilization. The tribunals of commerce arc ioiined of mer- 
 chants chosen by merchants, and liable to be changed from time to time — commercial juries. 
 The external or international part is regulated according to the treaties concluded with various 
 other powers. The administrative code which, in the time of the French king, was faulty in the 
 way of leaving too much to arbitraiy power, tending to favour the persons and affairs of the 
 administration, by establishing an exceptional magistracy, has become worse than before, inasmuch 
 as it is no longer controlled by the council of state and is dependent on the ministry. The council 
 of intendency in each of the provinces takes up in the first instance causes connected with the 
 administration, and, in case of appeals being made, they are submitted to the royal court of 
 Conti ; but the whole is subject to the absolute will and pleasure of the minister for the 
 Home department. 
 
 From the outline we have just traced of legislation in the kingdom of the two Sicilies, it follows 
 that the germs of civilization, of equality, and of freedom, that are budding there so vigorously, 
 exist in the legislation itself, and hence that the state of slavery and oppression in which people 
 would have it to remain fixed, is absurd and contradictory. While the government with one 
 hand presents to the people a law of progress, saying to it, Oo forward and advance tmvards 
 your own improvement, with the other it presents its weapons and enchains the people, so that 
 they cannot move a step towards the generous object it proposes to their aim. The first to con- 
 demn arbitrary power and oppression are the codes, while the supreme absolutism of the king 
 condemns the desires felt by the nation for a better condition, in the name of the codes. The 
 law fructifies morality and ideas of justice to the people, while the government endeavours tii 
 demoralize society and destroys its rights. The equality of all in the eye of the law is indeed 
 the fundamental principle of the code, but practically, on the other hand, the avenues to justice 
 are closed against the poor, in consequence of the very heavy expense required in trials, much 
 as it has been already hinted, under the financial spirit of the code of civil procedure. That is 
 so contrived as to impoverish private persons and to enrich the royal treasury. In this manner 
 the advocates, a class which has in its hands the interests of the nation, have been brought to 
 adopt the interests of the government. To paralyze the beneficial effects of the criminal code 
 there is the secret code of police. In this manner the severity of the law that should properly be 
 applied to crimes, is made to fall upon opinions. In this manner the magistracy is led to adopt 
 the interests of a despotic government. Horrible to say, yet it is too true ! Ignominious sentences 
 are often pronounced, not based on conclusions from facts, but on grounds of mere probability in 
 order to stamp the seal of infamy upon the liberals. Secret ordinances of the ministiy of justice 
 acting in concert with the ministry of police, enjoin the judges to take account of the political 
 and turbulent opinions (for this is the ministerial definition of liberal opinions) of the accused. 
 In a trial for murder at the criminal court of Teramo, two persons were charged with the crime 
 Antonio Tomei, an artisan, and Signer Firmani, a young man of the best family connections. 
 The former lay under two heavy proofs of guilt ; a few hours after the commission of the been 
 
XXIV REFLECTIONS ON ITALY. 
 
 the public prosecutor (il Giudice Regio) had fouud in his house, while making the legal investi- 
 gation, a fresh-washed dagger hidden beneath a bundle of twigs, and this dagger was found 
 exactly to fit the wounds of the murdered person. Numerous testimonies established the fact 
 of his having, on the day that the crime was committed, put on white pantaloons ; in the search 
 made at his house these were nowhere found, and he insisted that he had never put them on. 
 The destruction of these pantaloons, when stained perhaps with blood, by himself or his relations, 
 was a negative argument of the utmost importance when joined to that other of the dagger, for 
 the moral conviction of the judges. The charge against Firmani was founded on his having, a 
 year before, asked in marriage a rich young lady who had given her preference to the youth who 
 had been slain. In Firmani's favour, in fine, there were honest testimonies to the fact of his 
 having been, in the evening about the time that the crime was committed, engaged in light and 
 cheerful talk with a family who were his friends. Tomei was acquitted, and was merely placed 
 for two years under the surveillance of the police. Firmani was condemned to twenty-five years 
 of imprisonment. Firmani was a liberal. 
 
 The decision of the courts is not based on the bare words of the text of the law, but on equity 
 and the spirit of the law, which, under a liberal government, would be a source of immense advan- 
 tages, and would prove a light of wisdom to the people, but under an absolute government leaves 
 an open field for injury and injustice. Provided acts of injustice do not remain concealed 
 from the conscience of a people enlightened by the eloquence of the bar in the course of 
 public pleadings, they will only form and mature the people for better destinies. In 
 order to comprehend the advantage to be found in the present state of legislation in the 
 kingdom of the two Sicilies, in the face, too, of the contradictoiy tendency which it assumes 
 under the impulse of an absolute government, it is well to know what it was before the French 
 invasion. Down to the reign of Charles III. of Bourbon, the founder of the existing dynasty of 
 Naples, eleven different legislations prevailed in the kingdom ; these were the ancient Roman, 
 the Lombard, the Norman, the Suabian, that of Anjou, the Aragonese, the Austrian-Spanish, 
 the Austrian- German, the Feudal, the Ecclesiastical ; in addition to which there were the customs 
 required by the Greek empire of the east in the cities of Naples, Amalfi, Gaeta, and others 
 governed at one time by officials sentfrom Constantinople. Whathas been an incalculable improve- 
 ment is the unity of the codex and the law courts in which the law and the decisions are under- 
 stood by the people. It would be desirable that the partial advantages that result from the 
 comprehension of the laws to those who frequent criminal trials, might be rendered general, by 
 introducing the system of teaching in public national schools the maxims of law, as those of 
 religion, in the catechism, are taught by the parish priests, in order to instil into their minds the 
 lessons of social morality which ought to be their guide. 
 
 In eveiy commune there is to be found a supplente giudiziario, and a conciliatory judge. The 
 attributions of the first (who is a substitute for the judge residing at the capo circondario head 
 office of the circuit, which comprehends four and more communes) are to watch over the peace 
 of the commune and to take the first steps in inquests into crimes, giving immediate notice of 
 
POLITICAL AND CIVIL STATE OF ITALY. xxv 
 
 them to the judge ( Giudice Rvgio). The second decides pecuniary causes not exceeding six ducats 
 in amount (about one pound sterling). Larger suras, up to twenty ducats, are decided by the 
 royal judge ; likewise without appeal. He, in fine, cannot decide in cases exceeding 200 ducats. 
 It belongs to the judge royal, who has at his command one or more brigades of gens d'armes, to 
 watch over the political opinions of the circuit ; besides authority to condemn, in correctional 
 cases, to the extent of a year's imprisonment. Crimes are tried at the criminal courts stationed 
 at the chief towns of all the provinces. Besides the judge royal there were formerly in each of 
 the provinces, two or more instructor judges, whose office it was to direct how the process should 
 be conducted and trace out crimes, previous to the criminal courts taking cognisance of them ; 
 but they have now been abolished as involving a heavy charge on the finances without being of 
 any evident utility. The civil courts established in every province of the kingdom, try causes 
 involving sums above 200 ducats ; from these there is an appeal to the grand civil com-t placed 
 in each of the great divisions of the kingdom, that is, in Aquila for the Abruzzo, in Naples for 
 Terra di Lavora, in Catanzaro for the Calabrias, in Lecce for Puglia ; in Palermo, Messina, 
 and Catania for Sicily. There is no appeal from the sentences that are pronounced by the cri- 
 minal courts and by the grand civil courts ; but they may be revised in the supreme court of 
 cassation, an after recourse for the violation of the law. In confirmation of what has been said 
 of the influence which the government exercises upon political opinions by means of the judiciary 
 magistracy, it is well to reflect that the procurator general, or the public prosecutor in the crimi- 
 nal courts, is the centre into which are thrown all the afiairs that concern politics and the pubhc 
 tranquillity of the province. He is in direct communication with the minister of the general 
 police ; all informations and charges come into his hands, so that the public spirit and the opinions 
 of individuals through him come under the cognizance of the government. Hence his 
 opinion in criminal trials, in what is called requisitory, has the utmost weight in the minds 
 of the judges, who recognise in him one who possesses the confidence of the government. In 
 fine, besides the courts in which law prevails over arbitrary power in consequence of the pubUcity 
 of the pleadings, and which are the best part of the administration, there are two other courts, 
 both of them atrocious and scandalous, namely, the high police, for opinions, and the military 
 commission, for attempts at insurrection. The former, the heir of the holy office (of the Inquisi- 
 tion), is dark and impenetrable. Like the sword that hung suspended over the head of Damocles, 
 it poisons all the joys that can embellish the citizen's domestic peace. Invisible, like the hand 
 that wrote the sentence of Belshazzar, it strikes without the possibility of foreseeing the blow, 
 or of escaping the consequences. The intendant, or political head of the province, invested with 
 the powers of the ancient proconsuls, is its infallible judge, without appeal. It is true, indeed, 
 that the sentences he pronounces do not exceed the limits of imprisonment, but they are not on 
 that account the less atrocious and fatal. The arrests fulminated by the measures of the police 
 are very frequent. Thrown into a prison, the wretch who is its victim sees those inexorable 
 gates shut upon him, without knowing why they are shut, or when they will open to him again. 
 There might at least be such a form of justice, as should admit of defense. From the insidious 
 
 9 
 
XXVI REFLECTIONS ON ITALY. 
 
 interrogatories to which he is subjected, the accused has hardly a gleam of light to help him to 
 discover, amid the darkness, what the fault is that he is charged with. Meanwhile, torn from 
 his family, his home, and his business, to the grievous damage of his interests, of his reputation, 
 and of his health, amid the inconveniences, the hubbub, and the noxious vapours of an unhealthy 
 prison, the gentleman (for it is always the better sort of people that are made the butts of inso- 
 lent dunces) is compelled to wait there upon the clemency of his persecutors. Months, and 
 sometimes years pass away, and hundreds of victims look forward in vain to being restored to 
 their desolate famihes. Orders for domiciliary visits go forth also from the police tribunals, or 
 are issued at the caprice of the intendants. In the silence of night, a band of gens d'armes 
 knocks at the door of the honest proprietor, or man of letters, and enters in the king's name, 
 for the purpose of impudently inspecting the secrets of families. The hand of the police inspec- 
 tor opens desks, rummages shelves, and unfolds family letters and bonds, perhaps of considerable 
 value, visits the most secret recesses of the house, and carries off with him every thing that he 
 thinks likely to supply proofs of a political crime, and often such objects of value as seals, rings 
 with some suspected cipher, and so forth, which seldom find their way again to the owner's hands. 
 The police is the Argus and the Briareus of fable, a monster with a hundred eyes and a hun- 
 dred arms. The supplente giudiciario and the sindaco in the communes, watch the opinions of 
 individuals. The judge royal, with his subalterns and gens d'armes, watches over the circuit. 
 The sub-intendant watches over the district. Besides the satellites whom each of these puts in 
 movement, and those who depend on the procurator general, others directly dependent on the 
 intendant, on the provincial commandant, and on the police commissary resident in each capital 
 city of a province, and on the police inspector resident at each head office of a district, swarm 
 about every where. If the astuteness of such people, accustomed as they are minutely to watch 
 whatever the citizens are about, does not succeed in detecting some blot that calls down misfortune 
 on the head of the person who is watched, and the favour of the government on the person who 
 watches him, there is often no want of officious informers, who, from motives of private rancour 
 or mercenary advantage, carry accusations to the intendant's office, and these are always favour- 
 ably received. Let it not be said that this is a defect in the morality of the people and not of 
 the government, for if the latter were not to be content with anonymous delations, or, without 
 abating from severity towards well-founded accusations, were to punish those that were calum- 
 nious, the social plague would not be so bad. But the accusations are received in secret, and 
 although they are often found to be false, they are usually attributed to an excess of zeal for the 
 pubhc tranquiUity, never to evil intentions. An ambiguous expression caught up, in times of 
 pohtical agitation in whatsoever part of Europe, from the mouth of a liberal, is often the first 
 link in a chain of persecution by the police, directed against the fi-iends of the imprudent person, 
 particularly if among his letters some should be found not quite clear in point of meaning, and 
 which might admit of a sinister interpretation. In this manner the social ties are relaxed ; a 
 spirit of misanthropy and isolation obtains the mastery in the better part of society, distrust con- 
 sumes the germs of associations, and offers a plausible pretext for dissimulation. An arrest at 
 
rOLITICAL AND CIVIL STATE OF ITALY xxvn 
 
 the instance of the police, or a domiciliaiy visit, spreads terror throughout all the families that 
 are connected with the person that has been arrested, all fearing lest the tempest should diseliarge 
 itself upon them. Should it so happen that after a long and painful imprisonment he recovers his 
 freedom, still the effects of the disgrace into which he has fallen with the government, make 
 themselves felt most bitterly. The eye of the police pursues the unfortunate man who, as if he 
 were infected with some contagious disease, perceives that his presence brings uneasiness with it. 
 Although public opinion is in favour of all those who are subjected to such abuses of power, and 
 in the secret hearts of men police persecutions excite esteem and respect, yet terror counsels them 
 to conceal generous sentiments, for the manifestation of these would cost the incautious an infinite 
 series of embarrassments and vexations. Still further to increase uncertainty, distrust, and de- 
 spondency in the liberal party, care is taken to spread insulting doubts of the sincerity of the 
 opinions professed by the warmest patriots. It is whispered in the ears of the pusillanimous that 
 they are spies ; and these whispers originate with the police. To it, too, may often be attributed 
 partial attempts at revolution ; it certainly takes care to provoke these for the purpose of dis- 
 covering those warm partisans who have contrived to escape the crafty eye of spies, and to sound 
 the leanings of the people, in order that, on knowing them, it may proceed to take violent mea- 
 sures and inflict chastisements. The revolution of the city of Aquila in 1841, if not originally 
 excited, was marvellously seconded by the police. During the period immediately preceding 
 such a crisis, to all appearance nothing is suspected, nothing is perceived, so that the liberal 
 party may advance securely to its object. The authorities, ordinarily so active, so energetic, and 
 sharp, seem to be sunk in a lethargic sleep, only to re-assume their energy in the bloody trials 
 that follow the catastrophe. All this proceeds from the notion that an amount of force which 
 is useless for the purpose of breaking the chain, may weaken the prisoner and make him relapse 
 into a state of greater languor and exhaustion. Meanwhile, the condemnation of from two to 
 three hundred persons to death, the galleys, or long imprisonment, rids society of the most impatient 
 youths. This system of incitement to insurrection, well enough known to the Italians, deceives 
 the foreigner, who is incapable of conceiving the perfidy of the agents of police in Italy. In the 
 chief cities particularly, nothing is more common than to hear in the public places people talkincr 
 freely against oppression, censuring the acts of the government, and sneering at persons in the 
 employment of the police. Nothing is more natural to foreigners, who have been born in free 
 countries, than to conceive the false idea that freedom of speech is no crime, and that the o-overn- 
 ments of Italy, although absolute, are mild and paternal. These are not aware that those who 
 speak so keenly, and show themselves such fervid advocates of a better state of society, are ao-ents 
 of the police, who of set purpose scatter about inflammatory words, in order to excite the passions 
 of the less prudent, and to obtain in reply some expressions of a wish for liberty, some sarcasm 
 against the government, some glance at better times, so that they may run off to the ministry 
 and carefully lodge accusations there. The central police has a register of all names of the 
 subjects, with running remarks on their respective characters, on the opinions that they cherish, 
 and the influence that they exercise. The informations on the educated classes of each com- 
 
xxvm REFLECTIONS ON ITALY. 
 
 mune are transmitted from the supplente giudiziwrio to the judges royal, and from them to the 
 procurator general ; from the sindachi to the intendants ; and from the military chiefs to the 
 commandant of the province ; and each of these supreme inquisitors communicates with the 
 central police, through the medium of the ministry of justice, that for home affairs, and that 
 for war. The common people are considered as dependent on the parish priests, and hence 
 remarks bearing on the lower classes, are transmitted from them to the respective bishops, 
 and from them to the ministry for religious worship, which communicates them to that of police. 
 In this manner the ministry of police has placed before its eyes an exact picture of the indivi- 
 dual opinions of the whole kingdom. The excessive rigour that is adopted, and the state of 
 violence which is made to press more and more upon the people, proves irrefragably that the 
 police, in calculating its hopes and its fears, finds the latter better founded than the former. 
 Besides the secret tribunal of police, there is also that for state offences, called the military com- 
 mission. It has the commandant of the province for its president, and is composed of military 
 officers who are appointed to try persons charged with attempts at insurrection, according to the 
 military statute. The accused are allowed to choose an advocate for the defence, but great love 
 of justice and generosity of feeling are required in an advocate who would take in hand so perilous 
 a task. The odium of government is the ordinary consequence of such defences. Tor the most 
 part the accused have an official defender assigned to them. 
 
 The penalty of death by shooting is the ordinary sentence, which is executed on the expiration 
 of twenty-four hours, without giving room for appeal. Such facility for the shedding of human 
 blood, which makes all civilized Europe shudder, ought to kindle the greater indignation; but how 
 much the greater is the inconsistency of the government which seems to have adopted principles 
 of philosophical moderation with respect to the punishment of death. Although in this code it 
 is made common to a fearful excess, yet already it seems abolished, not having been applied for 
 some time, except in the case of some very rare offence fitted to produce unusual horror. But 
 for despotic governments it is a worse crime to desire the diminution of their power than the disso- 
 lution of society, to which crimes have a natural tendency. The provincial commandant is the 
 military authority appointed to put down all popular movements, and to maintain things as they 
 are. The intendant is the administrative authority, and the procurator general the supreme 
 authority, in the judicial branch. These are independent of each other in the exercise of thek 
 respective powers, but come into contact in the sole point of keeping an eye upon the public mind 
 and the security of the throne. Each of them watches over the other two, so that the govern- 
 ment has a threefold warranty for the execution of its will; although, indeed, as each of them 
 enjoys a share of absolute power, none can require any spur to redoubled zeal in defence of a 
 system of which they all form a part. The intendant acts as a spy on the thoughts, the pro- 
 curator general dissects the heart, and the provincial commandant chains down the arms of 
 society as it moves onward. Therefore there are a tribunal for opinions, special courts for con- 
 spiracies, and courts martial for insurrections. 
 
 The municipal administration is directed by a syndic and the decurionato or communal council. 
 
POLITICAL AND CIVIL STATE OF ITALY. xxix 
 
 varying iu number, from ton to thirty, accunlliig to the population of the commune. In this 
 council the affairs of tlio commune are discussed, and the resolutions adopted are transmitted by 
 the syndic to the central administration of the province. A collector of the public revenues who 
 corresponds directly with the receiver of the district ; a cashier of the municipal revenues ; two 
 assistants to the syndic, with the names of First and Second Elect, are, besides the conciliatore and 
 supplente giudiziario, the charges renewed in each commune every three years. The decurionato 
 presents the candidates for each charge, and new members to supply the place of those of the 
 municipal council who may happen to die within the three years. For each charge three indi- 
 \'iduals, taken from the list of the eligible inhabitants, are usually proposed. The proposed three, 
 however, may be sent back by the intendant when the candidates do not enjoy the confidence of 
 the government, and so a second, a third, and so on, until at length the person desired by the 
 government is presented. It belongs also to the municipal council to propose the members for 
 the district and provincial councils. These institutions have at first sight all the appearance of 
 national representations, but if we consider them more closely, we find that they offer no, or very 
 few advantages to the people. The persons who are called to form part of the provincial and 
 district councils, besides that they must be propi-ietors with an income of not less than 300 and 
 200 ducats, respectively, must be such as enjoy the favour of the government, on which their 
 election entirely depends ; hence there is little probability of their being zealous for the public 
 advantage. The district council meets every year at the head quarters of the sub-intendant. 
 The provincial council meets in the capital of the province at the beginning of May, and con- 
 tinues its sittings during the course of the month. The president is directly chosen by the 
 ministry from among the richest and most distinguished proprietors of the province. The 
 attributions of the provincial council consist in setting forth the grievances of the provinces, in 
 giving a formal expression to the demands suggested by the wants of society, in examining the 
 state of the communal administrations, in discussing plans of public works, in bringing before 
 the sindacato the conduct of public functionaries and censuring them when necessary, and, which 
 most concerns the government, in partitioning the taxes and imposts among the communes. 
 It is very clear that the idea that was to be embodied in this institution has been that of pre- 
 senting a legal method of reforming abuses, promoting the weal and stimulating the progress of 
 society towards a better state of things. The provincial council (the same may be said of the 
 district council) is nothing but the right accorded to society of petitioning once a year. Now 
 under a government sincerely desirous of promoting the good of the people this means might 
 effect its object, but under a government at once despotic and hostile to all progress, it is not 
 only rendered nugatory but is in many respects hurtful. The government, besides having made 
 itself master of the election of the members, has given them no guarantee. The sittings are 
 secret, and the results of the discussions remain concealed to the entire province. The way is 
 closed on all sides upon the expression of public opinion, which is the sole defence of those 
 magnanimous persons who would fain perform the duties incumbent on them in their difficult 
 mission. Which of them would dare under such circumstances to open his mouth in complaining 
 
XXX REFLECTIONS ON ITALY. 
 
 of the innumerable grievances by which the people are oppressed ? Who would dare to censure 
 the conduct of the public functionaries at the risk of being ever after the object of their implac- 
 able hatred ? The only liberty left them is that of discussing plans of public works. But even 
 this advantage, if we take a nearer view of it, will not appear so great. The provincial council 
 cannot propose any public work without suggesting at the same time the funds by which it may 
 be executed. Hence the whole authority of the council is directed to the looking about in all 
 quarters for some forgotten source of revenue, or the creation of new ones. Of late years the 
 zeal of the councillors has been laboriously employed in tracking out the traces of the monti 
 frwmentarii, corn lending institutions, which existed, for the benefit of the poor, in almost every 
 commune previous to the wars raised by the French revolution, as they want the revenues to be 
 applied to the use of pubHc works. When all endeavours to trace out old funds have failed, the 
 council makes an addition to the fondaria, or land-tax, of some grani, two and a half of which 
 make a penny, hence called addizionali; and imposes on each family, according to the extent of 
 its possession, one or two days' labour In the year or an equivalent in money. On being sub- 
 mitted to the royal approbation, the plan, together with a statement of the funds annexed to it, 
 is either rejected, or after being accepted, is allowed to drop, in both which cases the govern- 
 ment takes to itself the funds that had been proposed, or it is carried into effect, and the addi- 
 tional taxes still remain after the work has been completed. It rarely happens that plans of 
 public works directed to the increase of foreign trade, are favourably looked upon. How often 
 has it not been proposed that a port should be constructed at the mouth of the river Pescara, on 
 the coast of the Adriatic, in order that there might be an outlet for the productions of the three 
 provinces of the Abruzzi, where the trade of the interior is so inactive owing to the mountainous 
 nature of the country, and where the produce far exceeds the consumption ! The call has been 
 constantly rejected. Catania, in Sicily, has at last obtained the construction of a port. It mi^ht 
 seem at first sight that this concession was the fruit of the provincial council's perseverance, for it 
 had during the course of five and twenty years repeated the most urgent efforts to obtain it ; but it 
 will appear otherwise to one who sets himself to consider the impatient spirit of that city, which, 
 in 1 837, made the warlike Ferdinand II. tremble upon his throne. It was thought desirable that a 
 naval station should be formed there for facilitating the disembarkation of troops, in the event of new 
 troubles which seemed not far distant. The advantages to accrue to the people, when placed alone 
 in the balance, would not have sufficed to procure such a concession from the ministiy and the king. 
 On the other hand, projects for the erection of sumptuous buildings for the residence of pubHc func- 
 tionaries, and for the ornamenting of the capital cities of the provinces, are never rejected. The 
 residences of the intendants boast such magnificence that they might be considered little royal pala- 
 ces. What wonder, then, if thepeople, judging by the effects, should consider the provincial councils 
 as rather opposed to their welfare than favourable and advantageous ? From the provincial coun- 
 cils there ever come new burdens upon them, never any abatement of the old. It has been the astute 
 idea of tyrannical sapience to divert the course of this beneficial institution towards what is evil, in 
 order to instil into the minds of ignorant populations a dislike to national representative bodies. 
 
POLITICAL AND CIVIL STATE OF ITALY. xxxi 
 
 Having thus cast a rapid glance at the legislation and administration of the kingdom, having 
 touched on the chief disorders that prevail, it will be well that we point to their source ; that is, 
 to the governmental system. By the royal decree of 1821, after the fall of the constitutional go- 
 vernment, it was established that the imperial power of the king should be independent, no doubt, of 
 any national representation, yet tempered by two assemblies on which the king conferred the voto 
 considtativo, a consultative voice, in the affairs of the nation, namely, on the consiglio distato and 
 the consulta di stato. The former is composed of twelve members at least, six councillors and 
 six ministers. The latter counts thirty councillors for the state of Naples, and eighteen for that 
 of Sicily, these residing in Palermo and those in Naples. The king treats of the affairs of the 
 kingdom in the consiglio di stato, in which the drafts of future decrees and governmental measures 
 are deliberated upon before being submitted for examination to the consulta di stato. The latter 
 body directs its attention to the examination of the new decrees and newly projected measures 
 that have been discussed in the consiglio di stato, under such a point of view as is pleasing to the 
 king, so that the attributions left to it are extremely limited, in the matter of offering its counsels 
 too. Although, however, it be a very narrow field that is left to these consultative assemblies, 
 they might be of some advantage to the kingdom were they independent in the exercise of their 
 attributions, and were persons called to take their places there who should enjoy a reputation for 
 zeal for the public welfare ; but matters are otherwise managed ; for the choice of the members 
 composing these two bodies depends on the king, who knows how to distinguish from among the 
 many that are warm in their country's cause the few who make it their grand object to please 
 him. Not only does the choice of the members belong to the king, but he can dismiss them at 
 his pleasure whenever they show any unwillingness to second his absolute wishes. From all 
 this it is clear that the above institutions, although they seem at first sight most useful supports, 
 and to serve to temper the absolute power of the sovereign, may rather be considered as masks of 
 a beautiful appearance, fitted to conceal the disgusting features of despotism. The ministers 
 are considered as responsible, but only to the king. While the ministers, created bv the 
 king, and liable to be changed when he thinks fit, are the mere organs of the royal good pleasure, 
 can it ever be supposed that they can be punished for any fault but that of opposition to the 
 sovereign's will ? In the year 1840, when the question of the Sicilian sulphurs was hotly agitated 
 between Ferdinand II. and the English cabinet, the minister for foreign affairs, the Prince of 
 Cassero, was conscientious enough to dare to manifest an opinion opposed to that of the king, 
 and ceased to be minister. Can it be expected that the few honest men, influenced by the desire 
 of enjoying the royal favour, or by unwillingness to become objects of the royal indignation, will 
 not often cease to pursue the straight course on which they have entered attended by the public 
 esteem, to commence a new career, dishonourable and infamous ? The chevalier Lewis di 
 Medici, a man of profound genius, and who had been twice a prisoner, as a partisan of liberty in 
 the kingdom of Ferdinand (previous to the French invasion) and as a friend of the monarchy 
 under the Partenopean republic, a man therefore of high reputation, was called to the ministry 
 of the finances in 1821 , under the auspices of Rothschild the Jew, and amid the applause of good 
 
XXXII 
 
 REFLECTIONS ON ITALY. 
 
 people who augured a mild government from seeing him ask for the exile of the execrated Oanosa. 
 His good intentions were seconded by public opinion ; but the hatred of the king, who (com- 
 pelled by want of money) had unwillingly complied with the wishes of the banking protector, and yet 
 retained the most intense rancour against him, had sufficient influence to make him depart from 
 those maxims of moderation which had guided him up to that time. Feeling it intolerable to be so 
 often in the company of his master without his ever even deigning to look him in the face, he saw 
 that to please him it was necessary that he should forfeit the eulogies of public fame. Following 
 in the footsteps of Oanosa, so cruel to the unfortunate, he filled the prisons, he peopled the 
 penal islands with convicts, he urged on the trial and punishment of those who had promoted the 
 revolution of 1820. Restored to favour with the king, the whole kingdom was amazed to see 
 the mind of Medici so much changed as to seem rather emulous of, than hostile to the ferocious 
 minister whose banishment he had called for. Yet Medici, as he owed his appointment to 
 Rothschild, was quite independent of the king in the exercise of the ministry ! But what is to 
 be said of those who doubly depend on the king, being influenced at once by gratitude and fear ? 
 The government of the kingdom of Sicily may, on good grounds, be considered as despotic, if 
 not dejure, at least de facto. In so far as respects the promulgation of new laws this is manifest 
 from what has been said; and even as respects the observance of the code now in force, this will 
 equally appear, if we reflect that the choice of those who have to administer justice and to apply 
 the laws in cases where the person and the interests of the king conflict with those of society, 
 appertains to the king, and that he has it in his power to dismiss from office whosoever shall dare 
 to incur his displeasure. While the process of those who were tried for high treason for the 
 proclaimed constitution in Monteforte, was still in discussion, it happened that the supreme court 
 of Naples pronounced a sentence favourable to some of the accused ; from that sentence it was 
 augured publicly that the accused of Monteforte might be acquitted. The king, in spite of such 
 rumours, annulled that sentence by a decree, and severely reprimanded the supreme court. The 
 minister of justice, the chevalier de Giorgio, in support of the laws, dared to oppose this unjust 
 and arbitrary rigour on the part of the king— he was deposed. Not content with this, the king, 
 dreading lest the procurator general Calenda, a man of the greatest integrity, might favour the 
 accused even in the face of the universal dread inspired by the annulHng of the sentence of the 
 supreme court, and by the deposition of the minister, was not ashamed to surrogate in the place 
 of an honest man one of the worst reputation, the procurator general Brundusini. Thus, as 
 matters stand, good institutions are rendered null, and the king can destroy with a breath the 
 admirable edifice of the codes, by confiding the interpretation and execution of them to persons 
 who, m the name of the law, favour absolute power. Meanwhile civilized Europe considers 
 governments of this sort as not at all absolute but of a temperate nature, because based on the 
 suffrage of councillors chosen from among the people ! Meanwhile these governments are con- 
 sidered just and legitimate, at least by the conservative party ! 
 
 Until 1838 the law admitted no distinction of conditions ; it alone towered above all classes of 
 society and saw nothing above itself but the will of the king. Dominated by one alone and 
 
POLITICAL AND CIVIL STATE OF ITALY. xxxiii 
 
 dominating over all beside, it seemed to preserve its own ilignity ev(jii in its humiliation ; the 
 slave of policy it lorded it over public morals and made its severity fall upon all delinquents with- 
 out distinction ; but the decree of 6th April 1838, de]iriv(jd it of the right of judging the clergy 
 without appeal. Rome, which for a long time had cherished the idea of restoring the 
 ecclesiastical immunities in the kingdom, has at length in a great measure obtained its end. 
 Under the reign of Ferdinand I. its endeavours to this effect came to nothing ; for, notwithstand- 
 ing his superstitious fears, this king still retained in his mind the good seed which the Marquis 
 of Tanucci sought to implant in him while a youth, that is, opposition to the ambition of Rome. 
 Nor did the court of Rome, under his successor Francis I., obtain any advantage beyond an 
 unlimited favour to the Jesuit party whose pupil he had been ; his short reign did not permit him 
 to complete the project of restoring the immunities of the clergy, and perhaps also the court 
 of the Inquisition. He at least interested himself in it so far that his son Ferdinand II. per- 
 fected what he had been constrained to leave incomplete. Committed to the care of the Jesuits, the 
 present sovereign was subject to the domination of Monsignors Olivieri, Scotti, and della Porta, 
 not only through the influence given them by the will of the father, but much more through the 
 ascendency they possessed over the mind of the queen Maria Christina. Her entreaties with her 
 husband that he would comply with the demands of Rome were on the point of being favourably 
 heard, when she ceased to live. Far from being discouraged by this untoward event, Rome 
 knew as usual how to make the most of it for her own advantage. Availing herself of the good 
 opinion which the deceased (^[ueen universally enjoyed for piety and a generous charity (qualities 
 so rare on the throne of Naples), she thought that as soon as her ambitious views should be 
 announced to the people, as a voice from heaven, by the mouth of the defunct queen, they would 
 meet with no obstacle either on the part of the people or on that of the king, whom she knew to 
 be tormented with remorse for having caused her death by ill treatment. A miracle was fabricated 
 in which Maria Christina threatened from the tomb disgraces to the king and kingdom unless 
 the dignity of the church were restored to its ancient lustre ; unless the clergy should re-obtain 
 their lost immunities. I defer relating the crafty machinations practised in such circumstances, 
 until I come to speak of the religious state of Italy. Meanwhile the miracle obtained the object 
 in view, and threw society in the kingdom of Naples many ages back. In virtue of the decree 
 of 6th April, 1838, the bishops are authorized and obliged to have in their episcopal palaces a 
 prison in which to confine priests at their pleasure, and to prolong their confinement as they may 
 think fit. Then, if priests make themselves guilty of common offences, the trying of them belongs, 
 indeed, to the ordinai-y judges, and these pronounce sentence, but it is reserved to the bishop to 
 revise the proceedings, and, with the assistance of two adjoining bishops, to annul the sentence. 
 At first sight the privilege accorded to the bishops in this decree, seems dictated by the spirit of 
 respect which the Roman church has ever aimed at instilling into men's minds towards the clergy 
 in general, and specially towards the hierarchy ; if, however, it be examined more closely, it will 
 appear manifest that under this religious veil there lurks a purely political purpose. What 
 terrifies Rome and the monarchs of Italy is the progress of liberal ideas among the clergy through- 
 
XXXIV REFLECTIONS ON ITALY. 
 
 out the whole peninsula, with the exception of the papal states where the priests form paxt 
 of the government, and have the administration of public affairs in their hands. Generally 
 speaking, old ideas are shaken, and the light of more humane ideas penetrates into the very 
 darkest recesses of monasteries. Youth, after the first rush of an artificial fervour produced by 
 the febrile state in which the mind is kept in colleges and monasteries, by presenting to it ideas 
 of superstitious terror, returns to a natural state on returning to society. Social progress, like a 
 rapid river, sweeps along with it all the objects it meets in its course. The clergy, both secular 
 and regular, of the kingdom of Naples, with the exception of the bishops and the superiors of the 
 religious orders, are generally partizans of a new order of things, and cherish the hope of seeing 
 a brighter day shed its light on their country and them. I have already hinted at the source of 
 such a tendency, when I attributed to Jansenist opinions the advance of civilization which is 
 taking place in southern Italy. The clergy, so long educated by the government in the doctrines 
 of Jansenius in opposition to the despotical principles of Rome, have learned to think liberally 
 and to detest tyranny under whatever form. To direct political persecutions against the priests 
 and friars, would be a most dangerous proceeding, in as much as opinions touch upon doctrines, 
 and to proclaim their opinions to be false and criminal, would amount to awakening doubts in 
 men's minds as to the rectitude of their doctrines. It is a fatal dilemma in which the Italian 
 princes find themselves placed as regards the clergy. Either they must allow that body to pursue 
 the course on which it has entered without endeavouring to throw obstacles in its way, and then, 
 following the example of the clergy, the people will in a short time shake off the yoke. Or they 
 will unsheath the sword of persecution against the clergy, and then the people, long habituated 
 to recognise in that body the infallible guide to heaven, will consider its persecutors as tyrants. 
 Again, were they to persuade their subjects that the clergy is leading them wrong, they would 
 sap the foundation of Romanism, which reposes on the credulity of the multitude with respect 
 to the sound creed and the infallibility of the ministers of the church; and Romanism is the 
 main prop of absolutism. What then is to be done in such circumstances? Rome has come to 
 the help of the policy of the Italian princes, and has contrived a dark labyrinth in the windings 
 of which that portion which takes the side of Italian liberty, is lost. The prisons set apart for 
 the priests in the episcopal palaces, give to the persecution that is directed against the liberal 
 clergy, a character altogether canonical, and shield the government from popular odium. The 
 priests are made to enter the episcopal prisons with the stain of immorality on their characters, 
 and the public, instead of being scandalized at their persecution, applauds it; it loses all esteem 
 for the patrons of the new order of things from seeing thgm always accused and condemned as 
 guilty of immoralities, by a tribunal which they never suspect to be at all influenced by political 
 aims. But how succeed in making public opinion give credit to such accusations? Why, where 
 the freedom of the press does not guarantee public opinion, it may with all truth be asserted 
 that public opinion is the slave of government. It will here be of use to give an idea how public 
 opinion depends on the cunning tricks of the police. Anonymous accusations are showered by 
 the servile tools of the government in the bishop's court against those priests who are considered 
 
POLITICAL AND CIVIL STATE OF ITALY. . xxxv 
 
 most dangerous, whether from the influence they exercise by the social position they occupy, or 
 from their talents. On the other hand it liegins to be whispered by the bishop or his satellites 
 that complaints are continually arriving from all quarters against such an one. Instead of showing 
 any severity towards the accused the bishop abounds in courtesies and acts of kindness, avoiding 
 in fine any examination of the charges preferred, even although the accused should call for a 
 judicial inquiry. On the contrary, distinctions are often accumulated on those priests who it is 
 intended should be ruined in public opinion ; yet perilous distinctions, such as a parochial charge 
 and the power of hearing confessions, which while, on the one hand, they give a vast scope for 
 accusations, on the other hand persuade the people that no envy of the accused T>roods in the 
 bishop's heart. From the mouth of the superior there never comes the mention of a fault 
 attributed to them without ample praises being mingled with the accusation ; the snake lies 
 hidden among flowers. " He is a youth of high talent and good intentions. . . A sin ! which 
 often belies the duties of his vocation ! . ." Such insinuations are repeated everywhere, are 
 amphfied, and the report crescit eundo. When calumny has for some time been whetted against 
 them it is very easy to give a body to the shadow, or to find some blot in their conduct requiring 
 that their actions should be sharply watched by every body : and they are led off to the prisons 
 of the episcopal palace without a single sigh of commiseration for their fate being breathed by 
 the people. But if an inquiry into their conduct should take place, it would be found that it 
 was nowise worse than that of their colleagues, or that of the bishop himself, and often even 
 better. Immorality, in the more extensive application of the word, that is, in the violation of 
 the laws of the celibate, is a stain which attaches almost without distinction to all the Ro- 
 man catholic clergy. Hence it is very clear that young men cannot escape confinement in 
 the episcopal prisons when the bishop thinks fit to subject them to the scrutinizing eye of 
 society. 
 
 But it sufficed not to have punishments prepared for liberal opinions. There behoved to be ad- 
 vantages and protection held out to such as professed absolutist opinions, to the priests who sided 
 as partizans with the government. All the springs of the human heart behoved to be put in 
 motion in order to allure the clergy to follow the old path of servile attachment to the throne. 
 This object was obtained by the monstrous right being accorded to the bishops, of annulling and 
 correcting the decisions of the tribunals, when pronounced against priests guilty of ordinary de- 
 linquencies. If the sword of public justice ever threaten to strike the head of a priest who is a 
 faithful partizan of the present state of things, the hand of the bishop can turn it aside. But that 
 hand is never put forth when it happens to be a liberal priest that is doomed to punishment. 
 These reflections will guide one to a favourable opinion with respect to the direction of public 
 feeling in the kingdom of Naples in particular, and in the interior of Italy. The bishops, too, 
 have, at their disposition, the gendarmeria, as in Rome the parochial clergy have the carabineers 
 at theirs. And now we come to enumerate the grievances of the administration. 
 
 Since I have had occasion to mention it, I shall begin with the gendarmeria. This is a mili- 
 tary body dependent on the minister of police, and intended to watch over the public tranquillity. 
 
XXXVI REFLECTIONS ON ITALY. 
 
 The gendarme is invested with an arbitrary power, and is protected with an inviolable character, 
 so that he may well be considered an armed magistrate. It may be readily understood what use 
 they make of the privileges accorded to them. Under the safeguard of the unlimited protection 
 they enjoy with the government, and in the face of the terror they inspire, they can, with impu- 
 nity, give vent to their passions, insult honest people, and throw desolation into families. The 
 processo verhale (minutes of inquest) of a gendarme, has the validity of a juridical deposition, and 
 cannot be arraigned de falso (as contrary to evidence). Particularly when the vengeance of the 
 government weighs upon a province, or on a city, after some attempt at a revolt, the hateful 
 character of this military and political body manifests itself in all its brutality. They demean 
 themselves like conquerors ; and their insolence is such as to disgust even those who are least 
 squeamish about oppression. They often make an abatement of their bad treatment depend on 
 sacrifices of money or honour, and answer the tears of mothers, sisters and wives, with the most 
 outrageous and iniquitous proposals. How often does the threat of aggravating the horrible 
 position of the beloved persons that are in their hands, fail to triumph over the severity of virtue ! 
 History will one day paint in black colours among the bloody scenes that have taken place in 
 Bosco, Catania, Syracuse, Penne, Aquila and Cosenza, the lewd revelries and shameless pro- 
 ceedings of the satellites of power. Resistance to a gendarme in the exercise of his proper func- 
 tions, is inexorably punished with seven years' imprisonment in chains. Now, a gendarme has 
 a right to be presumed to be always in the exercise of his proper functions, since the police is 
 considered to be always vigilant and active. There is now languishing in the prisons of San 
 Francesco in Naples, a young man of good family. Signer Tito Garofoli, condemned to be in 
 chains for seven years, for the crime of resistance to the public force. He happened to be be- 
 trothed to a young woman whom an official of the armed police was endeavouring to please. 
 The latter, thinking that by getting rid of his more favoured rival he might succeed in making 
 her forget him, met the young man when leaving the house of his bride at a late hour, in- 
 sulted him, and then reported that he had received an insult. The scheme succeeded admirably, 
 notwithstanding that the prudent youth, aware of what was sure to follow from the slightest 
 resistance to a gendarme, instead of allowing himself to be transported with resentment, had con- 
 ducted himself with discretion, for the gendarme had bitten his own hand so as to make it bleed, 
 in order that he might have something to show by way of evidence that Garofoli had wounded 
 him. But, although his rival had become the victim of superior power, he himself did not for 
 all that succeed in gaining the girl's affections; for, throughout the whole civilized class of society, 
 there prevails a deep-rooted and invincible dislike to the armed police. The prisons abound 
 with such victims. The injuries inflicted by that body, which is numerously scattered over the 
 whole surface of the kingdom, and its insolence and brutality, act powerfully on public opinion among 
 the people, and instil and keep alive in them an abhorrence of the oppression of the government. 
 As the persecutions by the police for matters of opinion, the bad administration of justice, the 
 chaining down of men's minds with the view of preventing their progressive improvement, and the 
 state of moral degradation presented to the eyes of other nations, crush the hearts of the educated 
 
rOLITlCAL AND CIVIL STATE OF ITALY. xxxvii 
 
 class, so tlie excesses committed by the ;ii^(>nts of the government, speak effectually to the people; 
 who, being incapable of thinking deeply, judge from the impressions maih; on them. The 
 countryman who is unable to pay his taxes when they fall due, receives an unwelcome guest into 
 his house, whom he is not only obliged to admit there with a good grace, but must likewise pro- 
 vide with two carlini a-day, as long as any part of his taxes remains unpaid. This guest is the 
 gendarme. In proportion to the want of feelhig that marks these men, does the ]>ressure of the 
 impositions gall the hearts of the people, and rouse feelings of indignation which, were they suf- 
 ficiently nourished by a full knowledge of the degraded state in which they live and of their own 
 rights, would lead to their making great advances in the ways of liberty and independence. The 
 taxes, moreover, are exorbitant, and they are ill distributed, so that some of them press more 
 heavily on the poor than on the rich. The fondiaria, which is a tax on landed property, amounts 
 to more than twenty per cent, on the yearly returns. In order justly to appreciate the enormity 
 of this tax, it must be borne in mind that the returns are calculated according to an estimate 
 made by persons in the employment of the government. Lands are considered always to bear 
 the same description of crops without any regard being had to the rules of agriculture. The 
 different articles are estimated at the maximum, which is rarely reached. Wheat is valued at 
 54 carlini the salma (weighing 25lbs.), whereas, generally, it does not exceed 40. To this there 
 is added the vicissitudes of the climate which often desolates the country with hail, severe 
 drought, or floods ; but while the crops are diminished, the impost is inexorable. From a cal- 
 culation made by political economists it appears that, on an average of ten years, the half of the 
 produce of the ground is absorbed by this land-tax. But it is the impost which presses least on 
 the people who have but a few bits of ground in their hand, although, indirectly, they suffer very 
 much from it, as the proprietors endeavour to indemnify themselves for the exorbitancy of the 
 tax by getting higher terms for the lands in bargaining with the farmers. The taxes that gall 
 the people are the multm-e tax on flour and that on salt. The former is felt in proportion to the 
 flour consumed by a family. Now who does not see that the poor man and the artisan whose 
 food mainly consists of bread, pay much more of it than the rich, whose table is loaded with ex- 
 quisite viands, and who uses little bread? Salt, as well as tobacco and gunpowder, is a govern- 
 ment monopoly. It sells at four grani the pound of twelve onces, that is about twopence. But, 
 if we consider the scarcity of money and the abundance of productions, it will ai)pear manifest 
 that the price is enormous. In the provinces the price of a chicken is five grani — twopence half- 
 penny. Then the rigour of the government is excessive, for it makes it a crime to get salt by 
 evaporating sea- water in the case of a poor man who endeavours to rid himself of the enormous 
 pressure of this tax. The coast guard is ever on the watch — and a long imprisonment would be 
 -inflicted on any one who should take sea-water into his house. Invalids who require that article 
 for bathing, are obliged to provide themselves with a special permission, obtained on presenting 
 a medical certificate. As for the multure tax, .some of the municipal administrations, compas- 
 sionating the sad condition of the poor who suffer so severely from such an impost, have endea- 
 voured to exempt them from it by classifying the citizens into rich, proprietors, and industrious, 
 
 k 
 
XXXVIII REFLECTIONS ON ITALY. 
 
 in such wise that a man's poverty should modify the proportion he pays of the tax. Who 
 could believe it? — this magnanimous measure, instead of compelling applause, has often been 
 vituperated by the provincial Intendants, for this reason, that any such condescension, besides in- 
 volving a tacit reproach on the harshness of the impost, spoils the people by making them restive 
 and refractory subjects. The inscription and registration tax that is on contracts, testaments, &c., 
 is likewise very heavy, amounting often to five per cent, on the capital, and in some cases to ten 
 per cent. The stamp duties form another exorbitant impost alike for the rich and the poor, 
 especially when we consider the means taken in the code that regulates the law proceedings, to 
 multiply the sale of stamps. The quantity of deeds required in every trifling civil cause, frightens 
 honest people who recognize under the cloak of justice, the insatiable rapacity and greed of the 
 royal treasury. It is enough to reflect that by law, in using stamped paper no page must contain 
 more than 25 lines — that in case of exceeding this limit the notary, or attorney, or whoever may 
 have been guilty, is subjected to a fine of thirty carlini — above ten shillings. The same fine is 
 inflicted on those who, having made agreements on unstamped paper, wish to use these as legal 
 documents in a court of law. The obligation to renew game licences every year, might also be 
 looked upon as an expedient for enriching the treasury, if the government did not prefer being 
 excessively chary in granting them — not choosing that, under pretext of killing game, the liberals 
 should have fire arms in their houses. In order to obtain a game licence one must submit to a 
 minute examination by the police. The customs form one of the most intolerable grievances, 
 the duty being often more than the price of the goods on which it is levied. The tax for keeping 
 the highways in repair and making new ones, is particularly burdensome to the industrious class. 
 Those who have horses and mules, asses and carts for the transport of commodities, pay in much 
 larger proportion than landed proprietors who are taxed in proportion to the rent. NTo regard is 
 paid to the distinction between objects of luxury and those of necessity. The wealthy man who 
 keeps his carriage is placed, in point of taxation, on the same footing with the farmer who keeps 
 horses for the carriage of his corn. Hence the financial system bears more heavily on the people 
 than on the easy class; but the latter sufiers more from the moral oppression exercised by the 
 poHce— a state of intellectual martyrdom, of which the simple rustic, thanks to the ignorance in 
 which he is immersed, knows nothing. Another kind of impost, a voluntary one, consists in the 
 drawing of public 'lotteries, which the Italian governments, to the scandal of civiHzed Europe, do 
 not blush to maintain for their own advantage, by availing themselves of the excitableness of an 
 imaginative people, and taking advantage of their passions for the purpose of sucking their blood. 
 It would be difficult to find in the easy classes one who enriches himself by a farthing in this 
 game. But it is truly deplorable to see the ignorant multitude blindly abandoning themselves to 
 the remotest hope, to the improbable possibility of gain, and of their own free will throwing into 
 the hands of the king all that remains over from the fruits of the ground, and fi-om their hard day 
 labour, after payment of the taxes, thereby depriving themselves and their families of their need- 
 ful sustenance. It is a most painful spectacle for those who know better, to see, on the drawing 
 day, the silly crowd undeceived, after hearing the numbers drawn from the urn, and after seeino- 
 
POLITICAL AND CIVFL STATE OF ITALY. xxxix 
 
 liope vanisli, to see it dispers(> in sullen sadiu'ss, (lcs[)air on uvery brow and blasphemy on every 
 lip, yet with the idea nevortlioless of not letting fortune gOj ami pomloriug how to raise money 
 for the next drawing. It is a harrowing scene to observe on the days that itrccAide this ■pahl.v: 
 theft, exercised in the name of the law which warrants it, the poor man hunting out the usurer, 
 that he may sell or pawn his remaining utensils, and perhaps post himself also in ambush at 
 night in order to obtain by force from the passing traveller the carlino (four pence) required for 
 the gTatitication of his passion for gambling. Whoever should seek to throw discredit on lottery 
 gambling, would be made to feel by the police what it is to be denounced as a man of a seditious 
 and turbulent spirit. While there are so many noble souls in Italy that deplore a scourge that 
 proves so destructive not only to the wealth, but, which is worse, to the morality of the people, 
 none dares to raise a cry of indignation against it, owing to the dread of prosecution. The 
 mischief is still further aggravated by the friars, who fail not to avail themselves of all these 
 immoral tendencies among the people, in order to promote their own interests, fomenting this 
 social plague by pretending to a knowledge of the cabalistic art, so as to be able to foretell lucky 
 numbers. The begging friars, and among these the Capuchins in particular, an order composed 
 of persons from the very dregs of society, who by their ignorance and superstition find all the 
 more favour among the people, make a trade of such fooleries, and are fed and provided for by 
 their dupes all the more liberally the more grossly these are deceived; as it sometimes happens 
 that among the thousands whom they have led to ruin, some one has the good fortune to gain 
 for once, their credit receives new force and the people are confirmed in their folly. 
 
 Among the worst grievances that crush the poor country people, ought to be reckoned the 
 protection and favour accorded by the government to the friars, and particularly to the mendicant 
 orders. These may well be likened to the lazy wasps which devour the honey collected by the 
 industrious bees. One would need to have been present at each of the various scenes that succeed 
 one another in the course of the year, when the cunning and the superstition of the priests come 
 into conflict with the simplicity of the people, in order to have a full idea of the horrible situation 
 of the rural inhabitants of Italy. After the fatiguing labours of the year are over, between 
 wretchedness and want, beneath the icy cold of winter and the intense heat of the dog-days, 
 what remains to the husbandman of the produce of his little field? Let us approach the barn 
 about sun-set, when the flail is laid aside, and the corn lies ready to be taken into the cottage. 
 In spite of the exorbitance of the taxes there will yet remain to the poor man wherewithal to 
 support his little family fi'om the gifts which nature has lavished on Italy; but see all at once, 
 approaching from afar, friars of various colours, white, black, and gray, each leading an ass or a 
 mule, for the transportation of booty to the monastery. The poctr creature feels a cold shivering; 
 run through his veins, while in the name of St. Francis, of St. Anthony, of St. Pasqual, etc. 
 all that remains of the collected store is asked from him. Good sense would certainly suggest 
 that he ought to shut his ears to their importunate beggary, but on the other hand, the suf)er- 
 stitious feelings by which he is chained down under the name of religion, urge him to pour into 
 their sacks the greater part of the little that remains to him. Some artful tales are always 
 
XL REFLECTIONS ON ITALY. 
 
 ready to be told for the purpose of convincing the refractory, and stimulating the generosity of 
 the most prudent. According to what they say, their saints are at that moment, it seems, at the 
 wdndows of heaven, looking out with far-sighted spectacles, to take note of the succours supplied 
 to their faithful servants (the friars !), and to bless or curse according as matters turn out favour- 
 ably or othei-wise for their sumptuous table. An exact idea of such impositions, which are quite 
 common through all Italy, has been given by Alexander Manzoni in his celebrated romance, 
 I promessi Sposi (the Betrothed Spouses), when the foraging Capuchin goes to look for the 
 nuptials in the house of the peasant Mondella. It will not be superfluous to relate here the 
 miracle which he palmed off on that occasion, as a sample of others of a like sort, coined accord- 
 ing to the various circumstances of the parties, by the cercatori (foragers) at the time of harvest. 
 " Now, you must know," said friar Galdino, " that in that monastery there was a father of 
 ours who was a saint, and he was called father Macario. One winter's day, passing by a path- 
 way in a field belonging to a benefactor of ours, a good man too, father Macario saw this kind 
 friend beside a large walnut tree that he had, and four j)easants shouldering their spades, who 
 forthwith began to bare its roots. 'What are you doing to the poor tree?' asked father Macario. 
 ' Why, father,' was the reply, ' it is years and years since it has given me any walnuts, and I 
 am going to use it for timber.' ' Let it alone,' said the father, ' know that this year it will have 
 more nuts than leaves.' The kind friend well knowing who it was that spoke thus, told the 
 labourers to replace the earth about the roots of the tree, and, calling to the father, who con- 
 tinned his walk, he said, whatever the produce may be, one half shall belong to the monastery. 
 The report of this prediction spread abroad, and every body ran to look at the tree. In fact, 
 spring brought flowers and the fruit season nuts in abundance. The kind friend had not the 
 consolation of beating them down himself, for when harvest came he had gone to receive the 
 reward of his charity in heaven. But the miracle was just so much the greater, as you shall 
 hear. The good man had left a son of a very different character. Now then at harvest the 
 foraging friar went to demand the half that was owing to the monastery; but the son affected to 
 know nothing about the matter, and had even the temerity to reply that he had never heard of 
 Capuchin friars knowing how to make walnuts. Now, know you what happened? One day, 
 mark this, the scapegrace had invited some friends like himself, and while makino- merry with 
 them, told them the story of the walnuts, and laughed at the friars. These youths wished to 
 see this immense heap of nuts, so he took them up to the granary. But mark now, on opening 
 the door he went to the corner where the great heap had been laid, and just as he was saying- 
 Zoo^, he looked himself and saw — what think you? why, a fine heap of dry walnut leaves! That 
 was an example for you. And the monastery instead of losing, gained ; for after so remarkable 
 an occurrence, there was such a return from the begging for walnuts that a kind friend, out of 
 compassion for the friar who conducted it (cercatore), made a present of an ass to the monastery 
 which helped to carry them home. And such a quantity of oil was extracted from them that all 
 the poor came to take according to his wants ; for we are like the sea which receives water from 
 all quarters and makes a return by distributing it among all the rivers." 
 
POLITICAL AND CIVIL STATE OF ITALY. xli 
 
 Such anecdotes are rcpeatod under new forms every successive season, at the timo of the 
 gathermg m of the various kinds of pulse. The begging for new wine, oil, vegetables, and fruits, 
 is felt by the poor peasant to be as heavy a scourge as locusts or hail. Nor is the peasant 
 subject only to the importunity of the begging friars who exist in vast numbers under various 
 names, the Passionisti, the Minorite observantists, the Riformati, the Minimi, &c. &g., but 
 further, to the ui'gent demands of those who are chosen every year for the task of collecting the 
 means required for the public festivals of the patron saints, which are solemnized with great 
 pomp and at great expense. 
 
 If the government had at heart the instruction of its subjects and the laying of some restraint 
 on such exactions, the people would be rid of such voluntary impositions, which are all the more 
 ruinous from having no limit but that of conscience, acting under the absolute sway of super- 
 stition. The upper classes, too, are certainly beset by such beggars; but these furnish few 
 supplies to the monasteries, owing to their having for ever shaken off, to a greater or less 
 degree, the yoke of superstition. But though their revenues are not eaten up by these para- 
 sitical plants, and in this respect they escape a voluntary imposition, they cannot obtain 
 exemption from a new kind of enormous tax which has been recently invented. The Guards of 
 Honour, a military body established after the example of Austria, are composed of young men 
 belonging to wealthy and distinguished families. It began at first with a gracious invitation, 
 hoping that all would willingly have presented themselves to participate in the honour of serving 
 his majesty. But perceiving that the idea of guards of honour was a dream, and that very few 
 accepted the invitation, the king changed his smiles into a frown, and it was estabUshed by a 
 decree that all who kept riding horses should belong to it. As nobody obeyed this order, and 
 the demands of the government met only with complaints, another decree settled that those who 
 resisted should be subject to the payment of four carlini the day (one and five pence), and a 
 gendarme lodged in their houses as long as they refused compliance; that if they should persist 
 in refusal they should be led away as prisoners to a fortress; that if, further, this measure should 
 prove of no avail, they should be obliged to form a part of an active corps of the line. The 
 guards of honour are obliged to accompany the king when he happens to be on a journey, and 
 to give their attendance at grand court solemnities, whether in the capital or in the chief town 
 of the province ; hence they are subjected to serious expenses, seeing they have no pay assigned 
 them beyond a few carlini in the sole case of their having to come from the provinces into the 
 capital, a sum hardly sufficient for the maintenance of a horse. Besides the enormous expense 
 of a rich uniform, they have that also of providing themselves with a horse, from that which they 
 possess not being ordinarily fit for military manoeuvres. This atrocious act of despotism has been 
 dictated by two equally odious ideas. The one is that of attaching families of high rank to the 
 governmental system, with the fascination of an aristocratical distinction, or by the idea of 
 honour, or of religion, as respects the duties rendered imperative by the oath taken liy those who 
 belong to the corps. The other is that of justifying in the eyes of the civilized nations of Europe 
 the excessive rigour of the punishment inflicted whenever a member of the corps is found guilty 
 
 I 
 
xLii REFLECTIONS ON ITALY. 
 
 of political opinions, seeing that tlie inexorable military code strikes him with every appearance 
 of justice. Over and above this, it seems not improbable that it further aims at the impoverish- 
 ment of those families of distinction among whom there is more education and progress than 
 elsewhere, so as to induce them to seek for employment at the hands of the government, and 
 thus to neutralize the influence which wealth always gives to the rich over the lower classes. 
 
 From all this it evidently appears, that while on the one hand the government chains down 
 thought, on the other it endeavours with all its might to enfeeble and enervate the nation. 
 Industry languishes not only from being deprived of every stimulus, but from being beset on all 
 sides with obstacles. With the exception of some individual efforts, which may be likened to 
 those shrubs that germinate spontaneously in an uncultivated country, the great mass of the 
 people remain in much about the same stationary condition as their forefathers. Agriculture, 
 the pasturing of cattle, and the mechanical arts, although far from the state of improvement in 
 which they are to be found elsewhere, supply the means of living to the people and enrich the 
 treasury, and that is thought enough. Instead of encouraging whatever forms the life of a 
 nation, the force and the grandeur of a people, every means is employed to check it. Associ- 
 ations, those powerful means of realizing the hopes of such as have not sufficient money, or 
 adequate talents, or energy, to undertake great things, are prohibited; or, at least, when not so 
 imposing as to inspire the government with fear — for in every association it dreads a conspiracy — 
 they are looked upon with an evil eye. These, from their very nature, are opposed to a despotic 
 government, which is founded on the principle that in order to lord it over a people, it is neces- 
 sary to sow divisions among them. How could it encourage the fusion of many wills, weak, 
 wavering, and obscured by ignorance, into one which might prove powerful, resolute and 
 enlightened ? The only existing associations in the kingdom of Naples are to be found in the 
 capital, and are composed for the most part of strangers, with the permission of the police, 
 which watches over all their movements. 
 
 Large manufactories do not flourish in the kingdom of Naples, if we except those of woollen 
 cloths in Palena and in Ai-pino, those of silk in St. Leucio, of earthenware in Castelli, of paper 
 in the island of Sora, of arms in Oampobasso, and a few other branches of industry, of no great 
 importance, or at least capable of great ameliorations. Hence the export trade is confined to 
 the productions of the soil, of which the government has already engulfed a large proportion, 
 while waiting for the opportunity of devouring a still larger on the entrance of foreign manu- 
 factures into the ports of the kingdom in return for raw materials and cereal fruits. Trade with 
 the other Italian states by land, is rendered impossible by the multiplicity of the lines of custom- 
 houses. Maritime trade, restricted as it is, is the sole kind of commerce by which the wants of 
 the nation are so far supplied. The latest commercial treaties with the great commercial 
 nations of Europe, and particularly with Great Britain, seem to have given a favom-able impulse 
 to the national activity. In 1830, the number of trading vessels belonging to the kingdom of 
 the two Sicilies amounted to 6943, and the greater part of these were coasters and fishing craft. 
 In 1833, they rose to 7600, and of these 2400 were above sixteen palms in depth of hold. The 
 
POLITICAL AND CIVIL STATE OF ITALY. xliii 
 
 tonnage of Sicily alone amounted, in 1835, to 41,797, whereas in 1823, it was only 25,844; 
 proving how far a little favour shown to commerce has gone to raise the people's energies ; and 
 what hopes might be entertained of the industij and commercial activity of Italy, were obstacles 
 removed, and were freedom to vivify the benumbed energies of the Italians, 
 
 But of the commeixe of Italy I shall have to speak hereafter. At present let us not lose 
 sight of the political state of the two Sicilies. Despotic governments may with all justice be 
 likened to a cankered tree which at times may possibly produce some not bad fruit, as free 
 governments may be likened to a ti"ee that is vigorous and productive of the best fruits, although 
 it may at times produce some that is bad. All depends on the sovereign, and hence, should he 
 happen to be indued with a good disposition and sound judgment, so as to own that a reign 
 of terror and force is neither stable nor virtuous, the people may draw from it more advantages, 
 though not better advantages, because they are not felt. Such was the first king of the present 
 dynasty, Charles III., who prepared and cherished into fruitfulness the good seed of civilization, 
 which, in spite of the efforts made to choke it, is now flourishing, and will give abundant returns. 
 But his successors, degenerating from him, lead to the belief that the plant of despotism very 
 rarely produces good fruits. Ferdinand and Francis have left such traces of themselves in 
 history, that posterity will be amazed at Europe having not only tolerated the cruelty and the 
 wickedness of those abhorred tyrants, but having in a certain measure even sanctioned them by 
 sustaining them in the struggle which tliey have maintained against the progressive improvement 
 of the people. It was hoped that the present king would pursue quite a different path from that 
 rendered slippery with blood, which was trodden by his father and grandfather. But whether 
 from the ascendancy Rome exercised over his heart when a youth, by means of the two prelates 
 who had the charge of his literary and moral education, or from hereditary inclination, from the 
 veiy commencement of his reign he adopted a system not less shamelessly oppressive and fero- 
 cious than that of his superstitious father. The political prosecutions commenced in the dawning 
 of his reign in 1831, pursued with constancy and ardour in 1833, ceased not with the horrors 
 and the executions in Sicily and in Penne in 1837; on the contrary, they showed fresh vigour 
 in the proscriptions exercised in Aquila in 1841, and in the tragical end of the brothers 
 Bandiera and their generous companions in Cosenza in 1844. The premier at Naples is the 
 minister of police, as in England the premier is the first lord of the treasury, intimating that as 
 commerce and the national prosperity form the chief aim of the English government, so in 
 Naples the grand object of the government is the oppression of the people and the persecution 
 of ideas of progressive improvement. Most lamentable condition of my native country! 
 
 In order to give a just idea of a state of things altogether strange to, and of a different kind 
 from, the order of ideas prevailing among the English, it is necessary that I should clear away, 
 with some facts, the common prejudice, that however much tyranny is to be condemned in Italy, 
 so much the more imprudent and culpable is the spirit of insurrection fermenting there. 
 Arguing from the discreet and rational way in which the people's remonstrances are brought 
 before the members of the government in a country where the king is the executor of laws, of 
 
sLiv REFLECTIONS ON ITALY. 
 
 wlilcli tlie Initiative and the sanction pertain to the representatives of the nation, persons under 
 the influence of this prejudice cannot persuade themselves that the people should conspire and 
 rise "in tumults, instead of having recourse to the legal method of petition. But why, I hear 
 continually repeated on all sides, why, instead of having recourse to threats and even to arms, 
 do they not present petitions to the government ? Who does not know that collective petitions 
 are formally prohibited in Italy, and in Tuscany too, which is usually considered as the mildest 
 of all the Italian governments ? Who does not know that liberty of speech is a crime in Italy 
 when applied to calls for social ameliorations ? Who does not know that not only are public 
 meetings and gatherings of the people not allowed, but private meetings likewise, whether lite- 
 rary, such as of the academies and educational institutions, or for amusement, that is, balls, 
 festive parties, and such like, without a special permission from the police ? Who does not know 
 that where students are numerous, that is, at the universities and in the provincial cities where 
 there are lyceums, they are prohibited from walking together by threes and fours ? Hence how 
 can it be supposed that public opinion has any scope for manifesting itseli paci/icall'i/ and legally, 
 seeing the governments declare it in set terms to be turbulent and illegal, on the sole ground 
 that the royal will (statpro ratione voluntas) ought not to be opposed even by prayers ? 
 
 Let us illustrate with some facts the unfortunate position of the people of Italy, who are not 
 even permitted the liberty of presenting prayers to the sovereign, who are sometimes blamed 
 even for obeying the very orders of the king, and in whom petitioning collectively is reckoned as 
 a crime. In July, 1837, an insurrection broke out in the city of Penne, having for its object 
 the obtaining of a constitutional government. This rising being put down by the arrival of 
 troops, many persons were condemned to death, a vast number to the hulks, to chains, to tem- 
 porary imprisonment, or to banishment; still the royal vengeance seemed unappeased. A 
 decree was issued, depriving the city of its privilege of being head of the district; that privilege 
 was given to St. Angelo, to which accordingly were transferred all the offices and officers con- 
 nected with the various branches of district administration. The choice of a city, situate on the 
 sea-shore, far from the centre, and at a distance from the greater number of the communes, 
 gave universal dissatisfaction to the whole district, not only because it affected the interests of 
 all who had or who might have business connected with administration, but because it exposed 
 them to damages and dangers, owing to the necessity of having to cross the numerous mountain 
 torrents and rivers, without bridges, when swoln by the winter rains, the melting of the snow in 
 spring, and the storms of summer. Hence a petition, drawn up in the humblest terms, began 
 to be subscribed by common accord for the purpose of obtaining the re-establishment, as before, 
 of the district offices in Penne, the central city, or, at least, the selection of some other place, 
 better adapted to meet the wants of the communes which had had no share in the blame incurred 
 by the city which had rebelled. The petition was signed by all those employed in the municipal 
 offices, by the priests, by the landowners, by all persons, in short, who could wi-ite their names. 
 The king was indignant at the temerity of the supplicants, and replied through the ministry of 
 the interior, in a threatening tone, that he considered the request insolent and seditious, and 
 
POLITICAL AND CIVIL STATE OF ITALY. xlv 
 
 that those should be severely punishcil in future who should dare to uiako any further resistance. 
 The sole motive that had induced the king to make choice of the city of St. An^elo, was the 
 pleasing impression that he had received at the time of his passing through it, from the wide 
 extent of the horizon there, owing to its position on a delightful hill! Such is the way in which 
 the petitions presented to the king of Naples are received!! But it will be said, perhaps, that 
 in the particular circumstances of this case, the petitions in behalf of a city which had provoked 
 the royal indignation, were mistaken for sympathy with it, and were considered accordingly as 
 amoimting to a participation in its offence. 
 
 The incident I am about to relate will show what account is made of the prayers of the people 
 when altogether unconnected with political culprits, and when, moreover, they express feelings 
 of affection and loyalty towards the person of the king. In 1838, the king, on his return from 
 Vienna with his lately married queen Maria Theresa, had publicly intimated that he would pass 
 a night in the city of Chieti. Sumptuous preparations were made, and a magnificent reception 
 was about to be given to the royal guests. But as Leopold, prince of Salerno, the king's uncle, 
 who had preceded him in his journey, had stopped at that city, and had made a liberal use of 
 his wealth in distributions among the poor, the king, who is universally known to be very miserly, 
 dreaded the disadvantageous contrast he would have had to encounter by remaining in the same 
 city, changed his intention, and sent word by the telegraph that he was to jaass on without 
 stopping. On this notice being circulated, the municipal authorities, followed by a great 
 afiluence of people, went out to meet the royal train, and amid cheers and other marks of respect 
 and gladness, they surrounded the carriage and took off the horses, intending to drag it along 
 with their arms into the city, a distance of about two miles. On this the king, turning to the 
 carriage window with a frown and pale with rage, cried out: Servile wretches !! ! Kings give 
 orders to the people, not the 'people to kings! Gendarmes, drive away this rabhle. The people, 
 silenced and confounded, anticipated the order given to the gendarmes, who hesitated to obey it, 
 and retired, repenting of having virtually lied by manifesting sentiments which did not spring 
 from heartfelt conviction. I was present on that occasion, and it was one that gave fresh force 
 to my liberal opinions. But it may possibly be said that here, as the king had intimated what 
 was his pleasure, it was imprudent to oppose him. One last fact, then, will clearly show that 
 even when the people's desires perfectly accord with the royal will, the latter sometimes is 
 offended at prompt obedience, considering it criminal. Strange indeed, yet not the less true ! 
 By the treaty concluded between king Otho of Greece and Ferdinand II. of Naples, a decree 
 was published, in which permission was given not only to the Greek colonies established Mithin 
 the kingdom, but also to persons belonging to the Neapolitan nation, should they so desire, to 
 pass into Greece, there to settle and enjoy the a<lvantngcs which presented themselves to colonists 
 from foreign parts, in consequence of Greece having been left to a certain extent dispeopled by 
 the long and bloody war of emancipation. IMany joyfully welcomed this spontaneous invitation 
 on the king's part, and hastened to consolidate their property by selling houses and fields and 
 flocks, even though at a heavy loss, under the presumed certainty of realizing the advantageous 
 
 m 
 
xLvi REFLECTIONS ON ITALY. 
 
 circumstances in which they would find themselves in the hospitable land which they had chosen 
 for their country. On the day fixed for the embarkation it was found that the passports promised 
 to all that had showed a disposition to expatriate themselves, were refused by the ministry in 
 virtue of orders from the king, who, seeing that the number of the emigrants was very consider- 
 able, dreaded lest it should strike foreigners as a symptom of discontent, and prove an example 
 to others to pursue the same course. The Greek colonists alone embarked, while those who 
 belonged to the country, with despair on their brows and amid the wailings of their desolate 
 families, were compelled to return whence they had set out, not only with all their hopes dashed 
 to the ground, but with a rancorous feeling of the losses they had suffered. I was a witness of 
 the consternation of some of these wretched families. 
 
 These facts ought to convince Englishmen how difficult it is for a fi-ee people to pass a judg- 
 ment on the social condition of other people subject to a despotic regimen. Some imagine that 
 mere good sense suffices for judging of such things, without reflecting that good sense, in order 
 to its passing sound judgments, would need to be fully informed about the laws, about all the 
 habits, and all the various circumstances special to the people of which they desire to judge : 
 and that good sense put forth in examining things under one particular point of view, under the 
 influence of prejudices imbibed from infancy, is incapable of escaping from the circle of ideas 
 that are habitual to it, or of disengaging itself from the trammels by which it is unconsciously 
 held bound. The patronisers of the political and religious state of Italy who write in England, 
 always make an imjoenetrable shield for themselves by appealing to the good sense of the English, 
 knowing that English good sense will judge according to English notions ; whereas Italy ought 
 to be judged as things fall out in Italy, and not at all as they fall out in England. Deplorable 
 error in logic, which induces people to believe to be false what are really true accounts of the 
 religious persecutions and monstrous acts of injustice that are practised in my fatherland, and 
 which leads very many to believe that Rome is now no longer what she once was ! An Italian 
 has no want of good sense, yet if an Italian, imperfectly acquainted with the political condition 
 of Great Britain, should be told that the sovereign of England on offending a subject, would be 
 constrained by the voice of the people and by the censures of the daily press, to retract the 
 offence and to apologize for the insult given, he would declare, and with justice, that such a 
 piece of information was contrary to good sense, and this declaration of his would be received 
 there with applause, because the good sense of the Italians is accustomed to see acts of tyranny, 
 and public opinion coerced by the bayonets of the gendarmes. Upon this ground there does not 
 exist the man who will beheve that the Pacha respectfully received the bowstring sent him by 
 the Sultan, and strangled himself with his own hands. It is good sense that has taught the 
 nations a proverb that attests the difl&culty of judging rightly of others placed in different circum- 
 stances from our own—' The full belly does not believe in hunger:' [II satolla non creda al digiuno.] 
 
 Hence the only possible mode of protesting under a government which makes no account of 
 reasons, is that of efforts to break the chains. In the case of free governments, what is desired of 
 the people is a rational obedience to the laws, and it is right accordingly that when they feel them- 
 
rOLITTCAL AND CIVIL STATE OF ITALY. xlvji 
 
 selves aggrieved, they sliould give tlieir rcmoustrauccs all the moral force that r(;;),son can supjily; 
 to employ force would be a monstrous crime. Under tyrants again, who carry capric<' and arbi- 
 trary power through a whole region, making the employment of reason criminal wlujiievci- it is 
 opposed to their mere will, the right of defence becomes sacred. To accuse Italy of criminal 
 efforts to break the yoke under which she groans, were atrocious injustice in an individual, but 
 would be most atrocious and scandalous in nations to which Providence has committed the 
 management of the destinies of Europe and of civilization. The very frequent insuiTectlons 
 that have followed, one after another, in the Pontifical states and in the kingdom of Naples, if 
 not by the success, at least by the heroism of those generous souls who became their victims, 
 have from time to time demanded the attention of all Europe, and have been the loudest protests 
 against oppression. Which among civilized nations has ever raised its voice in favour of the 
 oppressed ? Not indeed that Italy expects to have her deliverance brought about by the arms 
 of other nations intervenino; in the struggles which she has maintained, is now maintaininrf, and 
 will ever maintain against tyranny; she is conscious of possessing sufficient force of her own to 
 break the yoke of her ojjpressors. What in the name of equity she demands is, that she should 
 certainly be left alone in the struggle, but that no foreign arms shall come to support her 
 oppressors. She demands that faith be kept with those principles of non-intervention which are 
 trampled upon when Italy is in question, and jealously observed with respect to other peoples. 
 She calls on all free nations not to blaspheme the sacred name of liberty by binding themselves 
 in alliance with despots, and to bear in mind that there is no neutrality betwixt good and evil, — 
 that when the cause of truth is at stake, they who abstain from taking part in its defence, favour 
 and become the partisans of en"or. These may be unpleasant truths, but it has been my duty 
 to mention them, and it would not be right to prove wanting to what is duty, because of the 
 displeasure that may be felt by those who are in fault. To those then who would make use of 
 religious opinions for political ends, and who will not fail to accuse me of being a revolutionist, 
 I will say that if they desire it, I will willingly engage to discuss their opinions with them 
 through the medium of the periodicals, not being allowed in these pages to enter into such a 
 discussion, and now content myself with repeating to them: — how shall the Italians hclicve in 
 the Gospel if it is not to be preached to them? how shall it he preached to them without there heinq 
 liberty to preach it ? 
 
 From the political and administrative condition of the kingdom of the two Sicilies, I now 
 proceed to examine that of the Pontifical states. 
 
 It is with no small gratification that I find myself called upon to wi-ite these pages on the 
 political and administrative condition of the papal states, at the present time, when a ray of hope 
 seems shining once more on their population, till now the most wretched in Europe. All 
 appearances concur towards the belief that the accession of Pius IX. to the pontifical throne, 
 may be viewed as the commencement of a new era, the dawn of a fine day, not only to the 
 people that are suljject to his temporal jurisdiction, Imt also to all Italy, and even to the world 
 at large, by reconciling those ideas of progress which are boiling in the breasts of the nations. 
 
XLvm REFLECTIONS ON ITALY. 
 
 with the religious opinions of which Rome is the centre. It is impossible for me to enter at 
 any length on the smiling prospect which the new pontiff is hastening to present to the earth. 
 Many are the reasons that divert me from doing so, but not the last is the obscurity which hangs 
 over the aim of the proposed changes. The sincerity of a man's promises rests on the pureness 
 of his intentions ; as long therefore as it is not very clear whether it be the good of the people, 
 or nothing more than the perpetuity of the temporal dominion, that the new Pope sets before 
 him as his objects, it is idle to discuss the reality of the advantages that will redound to the 
 inhabitants from the promised reforms. May not all this pomp of clemency and of a liberal 
 spirit, turn out perhaps to be a stratagem to gain the people's affections, to be made available 
 afterwards in securing their patient acquiescence when a foreign force, secretly invited by the 
 pontiff himself, shall render the promises that have been made, and the hopes that have been 
 conceived, alike nugatory ? May not this swift transition from a pope replete with the spirit of 
 the middle ages and with anathemas on his lips, such as Gregoiy XVI. showed himself to his 
 dying moments, to a pope animated with the spirit of the nineteenth century, and talking of 
 liberty, toleration, and progress, such as Pius IX. shows himself, be possibly one of those 
 profound Jesuit contrivances conceived with the view of dazzling civilized nations, and more 
 especially England, whose conversion, or to speak more correctly, whose riches Rome has for a 
 long while been panting for. She too well knows that an insurmountable obstacle to England's 
 return to Roman Catholicism, is to be found in the despotic principles and the intolerance on 
 which the see of Rome is based, not only as respects religion, but politics also ; she too well 
 knows that notwithstanding the mild and flattering appearances which the abettors of Romish 
 polemics would fain attribute to her, facts give the lie to their words, as long as the lamenta- 
 tions of oppressed subjects lead to the belief that the political is no less atrociously cruel than 
 the religious inquisition. It was of consequence that this obstacle should be removed, that 
 people should be induced to believe that with the change of times there would be a modification 
 of the church's discipline, and that the monstrous idea of the past should thus be effaced from 
 their minds. Hence, in order to give greater prominence to the present and a greater stimulus 
 to hopes of the future, it has been thought well to reproduce the idea of the past in the prede- 
 cessor Gregory, just as a skilful painter deepens the shading of a picture in order to o-ive 
 stronger relief to the figures which he wishes should chiefly catch the eye. Some years of a 
 mild pontificate, it is thought, will suffice for completing the work that began with the Roman- 
 izing movement at Oxford, that itself having been a Jesuit machination. Nor need there be 
 any fear that the proselytes gained by such a stratagem will escape from her hands, when Rome 
 is pleased to take advantage of a favourable opportunity for removing the mask, seein"- she 
 knows how diflficult it is, especially amid the ferment of controversy, for those who have become 
 the advocates of the opposite principle, after having identified themselves with the system, to 
 turn back from it, and expose themselves to the contempt, if not to the hatred of both parties. 
 This scheme will not seem improbable to whoever knows that the now prevailing party in the 
 Roman Church, has inscribed on its vestm-e: The end justifies the means. This scheme will 
 
POLITICAL AND CIVIL STATE OF ITALY. xux 
 
 seem most probable to whoever may havi' rcaJ Eu^i'iie Sue's Wamlering Juvr. Nor let the 
 fierce and obstinate opposition which Pius IX. meets with iu the cardinals and in the retrograde 
 party, detract at all from the weight of these reflections. As for the last, the opposition may 
 be sincere, those who make it being ignorant of the thread of the plot. And as regards the 
 first, their opposition may be part of the farce, got up for the purpose of making the stratagem 
 accredited; this suggests, also, one of the strongest arguments in favour of the probability of 
 such an insidious machination. How can we suppose it possible, that so many men, consum- 
 mate adepts in the arts of courts, profound scrutinizers of the human heart, wary and astute, at 
 least from long experience of the cunning devices of others, should have deceived themselves 
 with respect to the mode of thinking, and the tendencies of mind and heart, in Giovanni Mastai 
 Ferretti, who had been educated and had grown up under the watchful eye of a policy which 
 scrutinizes the thoughts, who had long lived iu Rome and been employed in discharging public 
 functions, who had sat in consistory with them iii times rendered difficult by political vicissitudes? 
 This will seem a paradox, an absurdity! And this paradox must be admitted as a fact if the 
 opposition of the cardinals be sincere; otherwise we must admit the still greater absurdity that 
 the Sacred college had unanimously chosen Mastai, knowing him to be disposed to favour liberal 
 opinions!! Be this as it may, it is not my intention to pronounce judgment on the fact; the 
 event will throw light upon it. I confine myself to declaring that while on the one hand love for 
 my country would induce me to believe the new Pope's protestations sincere, on the other hand 
 a secret presentiment, confirmed by the circumstances I have mentioned, makes me repeat the 
 hemistich : 
 
 Timeo Danaos et dona ferentes. 
 
 Would that these reflections of mine would awaken in the minds of the English wary thoughts, 
 and restrain that excessive confidence with which they abandon themselves to their favourite 
 notion that civilization may find patronage from the Romish system and modify it. Let men be 
 cautious how they trust implicitly to all that is announced about the new Pope, when they reflect 
 that endeavours have been made, I know not whether by a mistake or by a wicked purpose, to 
 accumulate upon him the private virtues of another Ferretti, he too a cardinal, who at the 
 deplorable time of the cholera's raging in Naples, furnished an examjjle of heroical charity by 
 not only distributing all his silver plate for behoof of the unfortunate persons in the hospitals, 
 but also by exposing his own life in offering aid to the dying. 
 
 But how on such a principle, with my mind full of such doubts, can I permit myself to indulge 
 in so much gratification and hope? Just because even should the Pope's promises come to 
 nothing, whether from being insincere or from adverse circumstances, the highest advantage will 
 accrue to the pontifical states, to Italy, and to the whole world, from the favourable demonstra- 
 tions made in his seconding the desires of the people, in his making himself the advocate of 
 toleration, in his awakening hopes of a better futurity. It has hitherto been taught from 
 St. Peter's chair, both in bulls and by deeds, that the wishes of the people were sinful in so fixr 
 
 n 
 
L 
 
 REFLECTIONS ON ITALY. 
 
 as they should be opposed to the will of those in power; political intolerance had been sanc- 
 tified with the name of justice; civil liberty, of whatever kind, was reprobated as opposed to 
 religion. The people, although intolerant of the grievances they suffered from the govern- 
 ments, and desirous though they were of ameliorations, showed themselves backward, particu- 
 larly in the pontifical states, in uniting with the educated classes in the frequent efforts that 
 have been made to shake off the yoke, or at least to constrain the oppressors to be less 
 unnaturally severe. This obstacle is now removed. The report, be it true or exaggerated, — 
 that I know not,— has been bruited in all quarters, in Italy as well as elsewhere, that the Pope not 
 only condescends to, but shows himself propitious to the seconding of the wishes of those very 
 persons whom his predecessors condemned and excommunicated. The people who had been 
 quite prevented from making any progress by superstition, have again been made to move 
 onwards; their hopes have been excited; that which was but a streamlet has become a river. 
 Who can stop its course? It is in this sense that I am delighted, and regard the pontificate of 
 Pius IX. as the dawn of a fine day. The people of Italy are now convinced that the predecessors 
 of the present Pope endeavoured to divert them from a good way by calling it a bad one, and 
 made it their object to promote their own advantage, not that of the people. They now know 
 that the construction of railways, which the last pope rejected as an invention of the devil, is a 
 most useful measure for the prosperity of commerce, the facilitating of social relations, and the 
 spread of civilization. Should another pope come and teach the reverse, or should the present 
 Pope even choose to contradict himself, Italian good sense will be convinced from this, of which 
 history has never convinced it owing to the ignorance in which it has been kept, namely, that 
 the popes are not infallible, and that they do not speah seven times a day with the Holy Ghost, 
 as the Capuchins and the Franciscans have made men believe till now. Let me be forgiven for 
 this preamble before entering upon an examination of the political and administrative machinery 
 of the papal government; present circumstances have impelled me to it. 
 
 By usurping the temporal dominion over a part of Italy, the pontiffs have evidently set 
 themselves in contradiction with the Gospel. Jesus Christ, in eulogizing his precursor John, 
 contrasted the hardships of his solitary and sober life, with the voluptuous luxury of courts. In 
 speaking to the apostles he renewed the contrast, making Christian humility a counterpart to 
 the pride of kings. Speaking of himself, he said that his kingdom was not of this world. This 
 last declaration of the Saviour, on the other hand, instead of persuading the bishops of Rome 
 to confine themselves to spiritual, without intermeddling with temporal matters, has become on 
 the contrary, by Jesuitical interpretation, a most powerful weapon for the defence of their tem- 
 poral dominion. It is usually said that Jesus Christ intended it in the sense that the rioht to 
 reign on the earth did not come to him from this world, but from the Father, not at all that his 
 kingdom was not in this world. Accordingly, the popes attribute this very right to themselves, 
 extending it over all other monarchs ; since, notwithstanding that the universal empire imao-ined 
 by Gregory VII. must ever be held a dream and a delirium, this monstrous theory is upheld in 
 the schools in Rome. Upon this principle, it may easily be comprehended, that the govern- 
 
POLITICAL AND CIVIL STATE OF ITALY. li 
 
 ment of the popes must be alisolute and despotic, all reluct;! ncy on the part of their subjects to 
 comply with their wills being considered as sinful, and tlie pretension to impose limits on their 
 divine authority thought absurd. On this same principle, likewise, they must naturally commit 
 the subaltern exercise of that authority almost exclusivedy to members of the clergy, so that no 
 layman shall be called to participate in the apostolic rights. Accordingly, one main defect of the 
 pontifical government is ignorance of the way to manage public affairs. As tlie heads of the 
 jiublic offices all belong to the clergy, and are all educated in the monasteries or colleges, in 
 sacred learning, and without any knowledge of public right, of political economy, of statistics, 
 &c., they are compelled to have recourse to others to assist them in the discharge of their 
 functions in the judiciary or administrative departments. Llence knaves and hypocrites are 
 wont to prevail with their counsels on the cardinals and the prelates, converting to their own 
 advantage the influence these possess, and giving vent to their private passions. A second 
 defect appears in the government being wanting in centralization and unity, there being no fixed 
 rule for determining the respective attributions of the ministers. Hence it is that one minister, 
 whenever he pleases, may step into the department of another ; a thing that must often take 
 place, if it be considered that such an irregularity, being a perennial source of gain to syco- 
 phants, there is no want of persons to urge and stimulate to these invasions. 
 
 A third defect lies in the ministers being independent of the pope, if not de jure, at least de 
 facto; inasmuch as there never occurs a case of their being called to give an account of their 
 doings, and far less of their being punished for them. But if we reflect on what has already 
 been intimated, that the ministers are generally under the control for the most part of vicious 
 persons, it will appear manifest that the people are the sport not only of the absolute pleasure of 
 the sovereigTi, but of as many despots also as there are ministers and unprincipled persons by 
 whom they are surrounded. A fourth defect, the most pernicious of all, lies in the maintenance 
 of public order and the administration of justice being placed on no solid foundations. The 
 administration of the police and that of justice, are confided to two prelates — the consequence of 
 which is that offenders, when they contrive to obtain for themselves the protection of a cardinal, 
 escape the punishment due to their offences, and can elude the laws to the detriment of others 
 in civil causes. Is it likely that cardinals who would think themselves degraded liy submitting 
 to the orders of other cardinals, will be humble enough to respect the injunctions of the Uditore 
 santissimo (most holy auditor) or of the Governor of Rome, who are simple prelates ? The mere 
 enumeration of these defects may lead one to see that the pontifical government is a chaos, a 
 labyrinth, in which law and justice cannot fail to be lost. Let us come now to the examination 
 of the administrative boards in detail. 
 
 The government is composed, 1st, of a cardinal secretaiy of state; 2d, of a cardinal camer- 
 lingo ; 3d, of a prelate treasurer-general ; 4th, of a congregation (or board) of cardinals for 
 waters and highways; 6th, of an uditore santissimo; 7th, of a congregation for schools and 
 colleges, composed of cardinals; 8th, of a military congregation; 9th, of the governor of Rome. 
 The Secretary of state is always the head of the faction that chooses the pope. This circum- 
 
Lii REFLECTIONS ON ITALY. 
 
 stance is enough of itself to give the true idea of what a Secretary of state generally is. Ambition 
 has already been to him the spur to his activity; intrigue has been the means of his success. 
 Gratitude in the pontiff who has been elected, or the ascendancy acquired over his mind by the 
 display of abilities, real or ephemeral, in defeating the opposite faction, gives him such power, 
 that instead of being minister, he may be said to have a virtual share in the sovereignty. He 
 publishes the laws in the pope's name, stating that he has received orders delivered viva voce to 
 that effect. He has by right the disposal of all branches of the administration, without acquaint- 
 ing the respective ministers beforehand, in special cases; hence it happens that his arrangements 
 are very often quite opposed to those that have emanated from other ministries. He has the 
 monstrous right of derogating the laws with a simple note, called that of the Secretaryship of 
 state, whether in the case of his being consulted by a tribunal, or even owing to his engage- 
 ments to some private person who may have an interest in it. It frequently happens that civil 
 causes, after being decided in courts of first and second resort, are definitively lost in the last 
 court of appeal, the judges declaring that by virtue of a note of the Secretaryship, those articles 
 on which the party at the bar rested his right, no longer existed for that particular case. 
 Besides the monstrosity of the arbitrary act implied in derogating a law, to the loss of famihes 
 for the most part poor, and in favour of the rich, who are the persons that have it in their power 
 to draw to themselves the favours of the cardinal Secretary, he has in this infamous prerogative 
 the injustice to attribute a retro-active force to the law ! The Secretary of state has a similar 
 prerogative also in regard to the sentences of death pronounced by the tribunals. Should he want 
 to liberate a condemned person, it suflfices that he pass near the place of punishment in his 
 carriage, in diplomatic pomp, which is usually called infiocchetto, in full puff, and the condemned 
 person becomes ipso facto absolved from the sentence of death. I was in Rome at a time when 
 the nephew of a cardinal was to be executed for a horrible crime. The report spread that the 
 Secretary of state would come out infiocchetto for the purpose of remitting his sentence, and the 
 people tumultuously collected in a crowd on the street along which the culprit had to pass. 
 The Cardinal Vicar happened accidentally to pass through that quarter in returning from the 
 Vatican, and the people, mistaking his carriage for that of the Secretary of state, compelled it 
 to fly by attacking it with stones, thrown with such force as to damage it. This occurrence 
 proved a warning to the Secretary of state, who was already preparing to leave the palace, and 
 the cardinal's nephew, as I have already related, even with his head on the block, turned his 
 eyes full of hope, to see the desired Fiocchetti, underwent his fate, and public justice was satisfied. 
 It happens not unfrequently that the Secretary of state opposes even the execution of the pope's 
 rescripts; sometimes, it must be confessed, doing thereby an act of justice, fr-om those rescripts 
 being calculated to injure the rights of other persons, the pope being accustomed for the most 
 part to grant them on the mere asseveration of the petitioner, without any investigation of the 
 case. The confusion in the Secretary of state's office is increased by those who are employed 
 in it, instead of having the affairs connected with the various branches of the service distributed 
 under their proper heads, having the provinces parcelled out among them. Hence it happens 
 
POLITICAL AND CIVIL STATE OF ITALY. Lm 
 
 tLat as tliey are not circumscribed within any precise limits, each ;i,etiiig independently of 
 another, disposes of the same affairs that another may have nlnndy disposed of, seeiii;^ that 
 various vuindanti (the title given to the head functionaries) have charge of the affairs of one 
 province. Sometimes there arrive in one province orders from the Secretary of State contra- 
 dicting each other. 
 
 The Canlinal Camerlingo may well be called the Proteus of fable. Looking at some of the 
 functions allotted to him, it will appear that he may be considered as the minister of finance, for 
 he is supreme head of the treasm-y, and has the supreme direction of the customs and of the 
 mint. Seen from another point of view, one would take him to be minister for the home depart- 
 ment, for he presides over the annona, the provision board, fine arts, industry, agriculture, 
 and commerce. Under another point of view he seems director- general of the post-office, 
 for he has the administration of that department. Viewed under another aspect, he appears 
 as director-general of the waters, highways, and bridges, being supreme magistrate with 
 respect to these. But none of these characters is exclusively his. There is a lord-treasurer 
 placed over the treasury and the customs; and there is a president of the mint. These act 
 independently of him. There is a lord -prefect of the annona and of the provision board, 
 and a board for the museums, a board for the post-office, a congregation of cardinals for 
 the waters and highways, and all these are independent of the Camerlingoship. From this 
 it may be seen what contradictory regulations must emanate from the mutual confliction of 
 these various powers! The cardinal Camerlingo assumes the supreme authority over the state 
 on the death of the pontiflp, and retains it until the election of a new one. He proceeds to 
 verify the death of the sovereign, generally striking his forehead with a small silver hammer, and 
 directing the notary to draw up the official report of his death. On leaving the palace the Swiss 
 guard is declared to be loosed fi'om its engagement with the defunct; he makes a new contract 
 with it, and proceeds attended by it to his place of residence. The office is held for life. 
 
 The Treasurer may really be called the minister of finance. He has the right of administering 
 all the property that belongs to the state, and of disposing of it as he j)leases ; he creates debts; 
 makes acquisitions ; sells without rendering any account of his doings. The apostolical consti- 
 tutions prohibit under the heaviest penalty the criminal attempt (I'attcntato) of calling on the 
 Treasurer to give an account of his transactions. Could he not be obliged at least to draw up 
 an antecedent scheme of income and expenditure? No, he is under no restraint, as if it seemed 
 to be the absolute pleasure of the sovereign that the public treasure should be dilapidated. 
 Large contracts are entered into on a simple proposal, without any competition, with the sole 
 view of benefitting some noble family. The collection of the public taxes is also secured by 
 contract, and the amministratori camerali (as the provincial collectors are called) have a premium 
 which is ordinarily three or four-fifths more than like employments were farmed out at under 
 Napoleon ; with this sole difference, that the provincial collections were then the only ones 
 contracted for, and that to these are now added the communal collections, which the amminis- 
 iratore afterwards sub-farms to great advantage. The chief scourge of the financial system is 
 
 
 
Liv REFLECTIONS ON ITALY. 
 
 unquestionably the arbitrary power of the Treasurer, but it suffers no less loss from a want of unity 
 which renders it in the highest degree expensive. Could not the separate administrations of salt 
 and tobacco, of the customs, of the tax on consumption, of registers and stamps, of the lottery, of 
 mortgages, and of the public debt, be united in one single board, and then divided into sections? 
 The Treasurer cannot be removed but upon his being made a cardinal. On receivmg his cardmal's 
 hat, he lies under no obligation to do anything beyond going through the formality of leavmg on 
 his table the keys of the treasury, which, as may be readily conceived, is always found empty. 
 There is a proverb in Italy in which the shrewd sense of the people has summed up the moral 
 disorder of the men in power, namely, " Chi piu ne fa e' Priore," i. e. he who is the worst is 
 Superior. This proverb, coined originally with the view of being applied to the monkish brother- 
 hoods, in which the least deserving and the intriguing have the foremost place, if now applicable 
 in all its truth to governments, may be emphatically applied to the pontifical, in which the 
 crimes of malversation and peculation are rewarded with the dignity of cardinal. What wonder 
 that the public debt has risen to such an extent that the interests alone amount to £558,333 
 sterling? Besides the yearly pension to each of the cardinals, who withal enjoy the richest 
 benefices, there are endless pensions granted to ladies under the specious names of widows in 
 peril (vedore periclitanti), to spies, and to all those that have sufficient astuteness to gain favour 
 with a prelate or cardinal; intolerable burthens to a state, small in extent, badly administered, 
 and on the brink of ruin from debt. 
 
 Among all the branches of the administration the most expensive to the state is that of the 
 waters and highways. This congregation (or board), which is composed of cardinals, has a council 
 under it composed of its engineers. There is a separate central board of directors for works 
 connected with the national highways, which has its council of art and engineers of the first and 
 second class, besides those for extraordinary service. There is an administrative council for the 
 operations required by the streets of cities, with an engineer at head quarters, as well as engineers 
 of the first and second class. There is withal a presidency of waters and banks, and an adminis- 
 trative council for the aqueducts in Rome, with engineers, a council of art, and other functionaries 
 such as those above mentioned. Finally, there is a general board for the hydraulic operations 
 of the government, with a council of art, engineers of the first and second class, inspectors, &c. 
 Then in the provinces there are engineers, inspectors, and others of the first and second class, 
 who attend to the execution of hydraulic operations and to the national highways. In Bologna 
 there is a commission called del Reno, which exercises jurisdiction over the rivers and torrents 
 of the four legations, to which there are attached many engineers, inspectors, and engineers of 
 the first and second class. Hence it is evident that this branch of the administration absorbs 
 an immense part of the public treasure, not only from the superabundant number of the persons 
 employed, but unquestionably too from their being much over paid. The inspectors have ninety 
 scudi a month, engineers of the first class sixty-five, those of the second class forty-five. The 
 head engineers and the members of councils have much higher pay. The total cost of this 
 branch of the administration is more than double what it was under the kingdom of Italv. which 
 
POLITICAL AND CIVIL STATE OF ITALY, lv 
 
 ■was so much more extensive tlian the present pontifical state. Tlie more mauifest will the 
 oppression that it brings with it to the people ap[icar, when we consifhu- that the streets and 
 highways in the Roman state are in the worst comlition, as travellers can testify. But in 
 multiplying the number of the persons, the object aimed at is not the public good, but the 
 giving of situations, at once lucrative and easy, to persons who in any way, whether from natural 
 ties, or from those of party, or even from less honourable motives, are favourites with those in 
 power. The same object has been aimed at in the establishment of the congregation of good 
 government. This, too, is composed of cardinals, and presides in a special manner over the 
 affairs of the marches and comarches. The limited sphere assigned to it, affords no room for 
 serious abuses. Its most serious defect is its being totally useless, inasmuch as the few functions 
 assigned to it might have been concentrated in another department of the ministry, but the 
 saving of expense is no object with a government in search of partizans for its support. 
 
 The Uditore santisshno has a good right to be called the minister of justice, his department 
 being the general superintendence of all the judges and courts. According to the established 
 laws of the country this does not belong to him of right, for directly the only jurisdiction that 
 belongs to him is that over the causes of widows, persons under age, and the poor. It is 
 on this account that he receives the title of santi^simo, most holy, because it is a most holy 
 office to protect the weak against the strong, and the poor against the extortions and prepon- 
 derance of power possessed by the rich. But since his going beyond the bounds marked out for 
 him by the laws, the opposite title would suit him best. Recourse is had to him in causes 
 which in the ordinary course of justice ought to be held as finally determined, and he arrogates 
 to himself an immense power, for on him depends the annulling of rights acquired through the 
 medium of the courts of law. T\Tiile, on the one hand, he exercises a direct and most hurtful 
 power over the causes of citizens, and hence over the interests of the public, on the other hand no 
 advantage accrues to the public from the right of oversight he possesses with respect to the rectitude 
 and integrity of the judges. Viewed In this light his attributions are rather nominal than real, 
 seeing that the heads of the provinces, who have withal a right to exercise such a superinten- 
 dence, do as they see fit, without making any account of the ordinances of the minister; all 
 which falls true much oftener In the four legations administered by cardinals. The Uditor 
 scmtissimohemg a, Prelate di jiocchetto , the same as the Treasurer, is entitled to the cardinalship, 
 and cannot be removed from office without being raised to that dignity. 
 
 The congregation for schools and colleges (der/Ii studiij, the members of Avhich are all cardinals, 
 has been established apparently to promote, but in reality does all in its power to strangle, 
 public instruction. It is to be noted that, generally speaking, those who compose it are under 
 the spiritual direction of the Jesuits. Hence it is not strange that the method of instruction tends 
 to darken the lights of intelligence, and to make progress go back. Efforts are made in every 
 way to impede the prosperity of the philosophical sciences, and to have the slight philosophical 
 knowledge that is indispensable for the liberal professions mixed and adulterated with the ideas 
 of Roman theology. The courses of Instruction in the pontifical states, are regulated with the 
 
i,vi REFLECTIONS ON ITALY. 
 
 index of prohibited books in hand; hence the best works are exclnded from them. Endeavours 
 are made, if not directly, indirectly at least, to suppress the reading of Dante, so very precious 
 and dear to the Italians, who recognise in it the germs of the future liberty of Italy. To pro- 
 hibit it, would be imprudent, but it is encouraged in none of the schools of the pontifical states. 
 It is thought desirable that Italian literature in general should languish, and the utmost efforts 
 are made to have it superseded by the Latin. The natural and physical sciences are kept under 
 as much as possible, seeing that they train the mind to research and analysis, those two irrecon- 
 cilable foes of the Roman theology. Hence it is the whole aim of this congregation to give 
 prominence to the ecclesiastical sciences, and to enhance the influence of the Jesuits, who, 
 accordingly, are the instructors of youth throughout the whole of the Roman state. 
 
 The military congregation is composed in great part of prelates and a few officers; the 
 Secretary of state presides and acts as minister for the war department. Its chief defect is its 
 having become for many years past altogether useless, and hence a mere burthen to the state, 
 seeing that the pontifical government is now convinced that from the universal prevalence of 
 discontent among its subjects, the troops of the line, though increased in number, would not 
 make face, I do not say against all the provinces in case of insurrection, but against the 
 Romagna alone. Had it not been for the protection given to the Vatican by the bayonets of 
 Austria, what advantage would Gregory XVI. have derived from the hundreds of thousands of 
 scudi he lavishly expended in augmenting the number of his troops, and from elevating to the 
 dignity of defenders of the throne and the altar, ruffians stained with atrocious crimes and taken 
 out of the prisons. Seeing that Austria and the Allied Powers are always ready to fly to the 
 spot for the preservation of the established order, would it not prove a most serviceable measure 
 to lessen this useless expense by disbanding the troops? Would it not be proper to send back 
 the cardinals that compose the military congregation to the study of theology, and especially to 
 discuss the proper interpretation of that passage of the New Testament, addressed by Jesus 
 Christ to St. Peter, qui gladio ferit gladio perihit ; they that take the sword shall perish with 
 the sword? 
 
 The Governor of Rome is the minister of police; he has the special direction of public order 
 in the capital, and the general charge of it within the state; besides this, he has the command 
 of the gend'armerie, called in Rome the carabineers. In the provinces the police is specially 
 intrusted to the Legates and Delegates, and these appoint at their choice a co-official for the 
 discharge of the necessary functions. These, particularly if they be cardinals, act independently 
 of the Governor. But this does not suffice; the bishops ex ojicio, keep an eye over manners 
 and opinions, and act independently of the Governor and of the heads of the provinces. The 
 inquisitors themselves further enter into this department, and act' independently of the bishops 
 and of the police functionaries. The absence of unity alone would suffice in the organisation of 
 this branch, to make it evidently most vexatious to the subjects and a source of injustice and 
 disorder. Many other defects besides concur to render the police a scourge that proves the 
 utter destruction of public morals. One most essential defect lies iu the partial or total unfitness 
 
POLITICAL AND CIVIL STATE OF ITALY. lvii 
 
 of the persons employed, who ccrt;iiiily arc not chosen from the hotter jiart of the coimnunity. 
 These revolt from entering a hranch of the administration that is held in odium, inasmuch as 
 it is directed against opinions rather than against vice. Moral and social qualities which ought 
 to he eminently good in those who are charged with the oversight of public morals and with the 
 maintenance of social order, are generally found wanting in the satellites of absolute power, and 
 especially where hypocrisy gives the first and highest title to favour with the government. 
 Another most grievous defect lies in the pitiful emoluments granted to the persons cnjj^loyed, 
 so that vexatious measures and extortions are of frequent occurrence. A third defect, common, 
 however, to many too of the civilized governments of Europe, lies in the jiolice being principally 
 employed in the discovery of crimes rather than framed for their prevention. Instead of direct- 
 ing attention and provident measures to the causes that give rise to disorders, with the view of 
 removing them, all attention is directed to effects, in ord^^r to have the ferocious gratification of 
 indulging public revenge, to which the name oi justice is hypocritically given; it is not considered 
 that this justice comes to be exercised by those who arc accomplices in crimes, seeing that, 
 although they have it in their power and although it be their duty, they do not remove stumbling- 
 blocks. Hence it may be inferred what the police is in Rome, where by the union of the two 
 powers, religious and civil, there is attributed to the governmental system the same immobility 
 that has been declared essential to the religious system, because infallible/ constituted. To 
 correct the abuses of the government, to which, for the most part, the crimes and immoralities 
 of the people may be traced, is considered in Rome as an incurable wound inflicted on the 
 authority of the Popedom. The police accordingly may be likened to one of those JBravi 
 (bullies) of the middle ages, who waited in the lobby to assassinate one of their accomplices that 
 might have incurred the baron's dislike. As has already been noticed, the Governor, how- 
 ever desirous to do so, finds it often altogether out of his power to punish crimes, should a 
 cardinal be pleased to undertake the protection of the culprit. A recent example ^rill suffice to 
 convince those who are slow to believe that persons of the most eminent merit make themselves 
 shameless defenders of crime. A priest in 184.3,* had been guilty of an aggravated rape in 
 Rome, nor could the strictest searches on the part of the caraliineers and the agents of the 
 police, avail for the discoveiy of his place of concealment. The Pope, shaken by the clamours 
 of the public, which threatened to turn into a tumult, ordered the Governor to be called, and 
 bitterly reprimanded him for making no efforts for the satisfaction of public justice in so urgent 
 a case. The Governor replied that as long as there were palaces having the privileges of sanc- 
 tuary, into which the police had no right to enter, it was impossible for him to discharge his 
 proper duties; but let him have special authority, derogating all such privileges, and in the course 
 of a few hours the guilty person would be in the hands of the police. The Pope, rendered 
 courageous by necessity, gave the Governor full powers, and the culprit was found in one of the 
 
 * This case -was, noticed in the Times at the period at which it occurred. 
 
Lvm REFLECTIONS ON ITALY. 
 
 private apartments of Ms Eminence the Cardinal Secretary of State! The Governor cannot be 
 put out of office unless by being promoted to the cardinalship. 
 
 Having thus enumerated the branches of the administration, let us now take a hasty view of 
 the civil and criminal legislation. As for the civil law, the pontifical state is ruled in appearance 
 by the common or Roman law, modified by the canon law, and by the Apostolical constitutions, 
 not by the various rmtv^proprii of Leo XII. The Roman law, known by very few, besides its 
 not being adapted to present times and present habits, has been monstrously disfigured by an 
 infinitude of theories, interpretations by doctors, and ancient and modern decisions of the Rota, 
 in such a manner that even the most shameless wrong may appeal to it in its own defence. In 
 it the judges always find a pretext for veiling the partiality of their decisions. The canon law 
 and the Apostolical constitutions, a vast sea of matter, are still less known than the Roman law, 
 and from their very nature participate in the spirit of intolerance and of privilege which dictated 
 them in ages in which reason, silenced by the Episcoj)ate, had lost the consciousness of her own 
 proper rights. The motvr-proprii of Leo XII. give full power to establish testamentary trusts, 
 authorize parish priests and confessors to receive wills without any solemnity and in the presence 
 of only two witnesses; deprive women of the inheritance of their kinsfolk when competing with 
 males, and make their rights of dowry so uncertain and perplexed that they easily fall victims 
 to the avarice of their husband's relations. The testamentary wills received and dictated by the 
 confessors, on the one hand, enrich the churches, while lawful heirs, on the other, despoiled and 
 under the pressure of want, people the monasteries, and young women, defrauded of their pros- 
 pects and relinquishing all hope of being married, go to bury themselves in a convent. The 
 spirit of civil legislation in Rome, is that of making a mystery of the law, that of protecting the 
 despotism of the men in power, and keeping the people in ignorance of their rights. 
 
 What shall I say of the criminal legislation? The whole body of the criminal statutes 
 consists in things called Bandi. In these ancient laws the punishments are very severe, and 
 not proportionate to the nature and gravity of the crimes to which they apply. The honour, 
 liberty, and life of the citizens are placed at the arbitrary disposal of the judges, but though this 
 code be indeed worthy of the times in which it was written, yet it is at least written, and the 
 subjects have it in their power to know what is claimed from them and what they are threatened 
 with in case of transgression. But what is incredible is, that there is still a people in Europe, 
 in the nineteenth century, without any law of penal process. In the Roman state the liberty and 
 the life of accused persons depend on the opinions of the prosecutors, and who for the most part 
 form their opinions from those books which at one time authenticated torture, and have laid the 
 foundation of criminal sentences in confessions extorted by torments. It horrifies one to think 
 that in the papal states, the criminal courts have the right of forming for themselves a particular 
 method of regulating processes', and that the prosecutors of one same court, may act according to 
 their discretion without any dread of being called to account for their capricious doings by any 
 person whatsoever. The prosecutors can imprison the accused and prolong their imprisonment 
 although innocent, pretexts being never wanting with which to vail such acts of injustice. Let 
 
POLITICAL AND CIVIL STATE OF ITALY. lix 
 
 not tliese notices be tliought exaggerated, being taken from the memorials whicli the insurgents 
 in the four Legations presented to the allied powers in 1831, and lnung quite accordant with the 
 notions I could collect, during my long stay at Rome, from honest men of the law who deplored 
 the state of things. The spirit of the code of civil process, is that of multij)]ying lawsuits, of 
 spinning them out interminably, and of dragging evei-y thing to Rome. Hence it throws the 
 poor into despair, it augments the preponderance of the rich, it temjits the ill-disposed to try 
 their fortune by hazarding capricious lawsuits, and it corrupts men's morals. Two supreme 
 courts are established at Rome, the Rota and the Segnatura. The attributions of the Rota are: 
 1st, To take cognisance, as a court of appeal, of all causes where the interest at stake exceeds 
 825 scudi: 2d, To take cognisance of the same causes, as a court of revision. The chief defect 
 of this court lies in the serious amount of expenses incurred and in the tedious length of the 
 suits. A single suit before the Rota ruins both gainer and loser. The practitioners, who by 
 way of reproach get the name of mozza-orecchie (crop-ears), foment rancorous feelings and 
 protract litigation, in which one is never sure of success, whatever the number of favourable 
 decisions; hence, when any one has lost a cause in the provinces, it is usual for him to dishearten 
 the gainer with the sarcastic saying: "We shall have it reviewed at Rome." — The attributions 
 of the Segnatura are most important, or, to speak more correctly, are most frightful. It rests 
 with that court to grant or to refuse leave to appeal, and to circumscribe or to annul the judicial 
 acts and sentences of all the com-ts belonging to the state, nay, even to concede the entire resti- 
 tutions in causes that have been decided, in order to their being submitted to a second revision. 
 Not indeed that this court can refuse appeals, for it is a maxim sanctioned by all legislations, 
 that the right of appeal cannot be refused, and much more is this the case with the canon law 
 and the Apostolical constitutions, which consider the right of appeal as one of the essential 
 prerogatives of the popedom. The Segnatura only judges whether the appeal ought to be 
 received in sospensivo, or in devolutivo. It is a most crying grievance in the code regulating 
 processes at law, that the Prefects of the Segnatura are empowered to suspend the course of 
 lawsuits by means of citations subscribed in banco, in virtue of which an appeal from any 
 sentence is interposed, although not subject to contestation, as are, for example, the interlocutors 
 in decrees for execution of sentences past. Another defect is, that the judges who vote are for 
 the most part chosen from among young prelates having neither experience nor learnino-, and 
 that ordinarily the most important offices of Auditor and Subauditor are intrusted to practi- 
 tioners (curiali) who, in consequence of the monstrous vitiosity of the legislative system, are 
 not the most honest class in Rome. These are cunning enough in the exercise of their func- 
 tions, to get the courts to adopt equivocal maxims, and even contradictory maxims, in order 
 that they may afterwards cite them in their own causes. These defects have made the public 
 hold the court of Segnatura in abomination, and have subjected it to most just complaints. To 
 the code for regulating processes at law, ought to be added the civil and criminal judiciary 
 Faculties of the Legates and Delegates of the provinces. The motu-proprio of Leo XII. 
 excludes from the attributions of the Legates and Delegates, any intenneddling with civil suits. 
 
Lx REFLECTIONS ON ITALY. 
 
 But that regulation is derogated by Brieves of nomination with which the Legates and Delegates 
 are furnished. Hence they become judges, or commit to assessors the cognisance of various 
 most delicate causes, among which we meet most frequently with those of concorso (competition 
 of claims) and interdiction. These causes are usually treated in via economica, that is, with a 
 parsimony of justice and of reason, by substituting caprice for law. In the trials of competitions 
 of claims, the creditors may be constrained to submit to the judgment called di concordia, which 
 is grounded on the consent of a majority of creditors. But creditors are not obliged to show 
 cause for their claim, and debtors are dispensed from the obligation of. rendering an exact state 
 of their affairs. Creditors, accordingly, are forced to be content with whatever is offered by 
 their debtors. It is useless to consider that the majority is formed of supposititious creditors. 
 Often the caprice of the heads of the provinces manifests itself most shamefully. Orders are 
 directed to the executive officers, called curtori, that they must not dare to lay hands on the 
 person, or to attach the property of a debtor, from whatever judge the requisition may have 
 come, and whoever may have been the creditor, or the title on which the debt was claimed. 
 As for judicial interdicts, the assessor takes secret information on the prodigality or the fatuous- 
 ness of the person who it is intended shall be dejsrived of his civil rights; on this inquest 
 (contenziosa notiziaj is formed the edict by which the unhappy person, who has not undergone 
 either interrogatories or judicial examinations, and who is not allowed the right of defence, is 
 deprived of the administration of property. But there is something even worse. These arbi- 
 trary decisions affect substance; others of them strike at liberty and honour. The legates who 
 are cardinals, and whose attributions are not confined within any limits, seeing that the pope, 
 in the bulls that he grants them on sending them to govern the provinces, says of them, that it 
 is to God alone and not to him that they have to render an account of what they do: Deo, et 
 non nobis rationem reddituri, judge, without appeal, crimes deserving punishments reaching to 
 ten years of the galleys, without the solemnity of a trial and without defence. A thing incredible, 
 but most true ! "Who will find it possible to believe that the heads of the provinces are empowered 
 to grant safe conducts to public robbers after having already fallen into the hands of justice, who 
 naturally make use of them by never returning to prison again? What wonder then if the people 
 are indignant, and from time to time fly to arms in order to shake off an intolerable yoke? 
 
 The state is divided into Legations and Delegations, and these again into Communes. The 
 Legates and Delegates settle what shall be the provincial expenditure, independent of all 
 control. If the treasury refuse to pay a part of it, the provinces are compelled to payment. 
 The communes in the Legations depend entirely on the legate; in the Delegations, they depend 
 indeed on the delegate, but these are bound to present a budget of the municipal expenses for 
 approval to the congregation of good government. The inexperience in the affairs of govern- 
 ment of the heads of the provinces, who are often bishops, very often exposes them to the 
 ascendancy of the secretary-general, of the first accomptant, of the steward, and even of the 
 chamberlain, which cannot seem strange after the luminous example given by Gregoiy XVI., 
 who disposed of the temporal treasures of the state, and the spiritual ones of the church, 
 
POLITICAL AND CIVIL STATE OF ITALY. lxi 
 
 according to the caprice of the chamberhiin. The provinces that have a iiionsignor (bishop) for 
 delegate, and a cardinal for bishop, know not any distinction of lirad. 
 
 Besides the prisons and the forts, -which, down to the death of Gregory XVI., were gorged 
 with persons imprisoned for their political opinions, there is a vast building in Rome called the 
 Holy Ojflcc, the mere name of which suffices to make it umlcrstood that it is not empty at the 
 present day. Notwithstanding all the efforts of the defenders of the Roman system, to obliterate 
 the stain of intolerance and of a spirit of persecution, which history and the profound convictions 
 (coscicnza) of the people, attribute to it, it is an undeniable fact that in the jjontlfical state, the 
 Inquisition is always in full vigour. This is evidenced not only by the gloomy building which 
 bears the name but likewise by the existence of persons bearing the name and exercising the 
 functions of inquisitors, both in Rome and in the provinces. But, it will be said, may not the 
 congregation of the Holy Office have been established possibly for appearance only? jMay not 
 the cardinals who compose it possibly attend the council merely for their amusement ? A pro- 
 found mystery veils from all eyes the terrible doings of that secret tribunal, the members of 
 which are bound to the strictest secresy by an oath and by the penalty of excommunication, 
 which, in case of trtmsgression, would subject them to the rigour of that tribunal. Hence no 
 one knows what victims are buried in those vaults, or what tortures are put in practice there. 
 The pope presides at that congregation alone, while others meet under the presidency of a 
 cardinal ! ! ! Is it wished in this way that people should understand that the sole business 
 deserving the special attention of Christ's pretended vicar, is the punishment of heresy? When 
 Roman catholics are reproached with bloody persecutions against heretics, their divines are wont 
 to reply craftily, that the Church has no part in the condemnation and punishment of heretics, 
 except the indispensable one of declaring them to be such when the civil power asks this at their 
 hands, but without having any thing to do with the punishment which is sanctioned by the penal 
 laws in catholic countries. But how will they defend the Inquisition in Rome, where the pope 
 promulgates the code, sanctions the penalty for heresy, and declares who are heretics? Should 
 they reply with another artifice, that one must make a distinction betwixt the two powers, that 
 is, that he declares, as pope, what is heresy, and punishes it, as king, I then ask of them whether 
 the pope presides at the congregation of the Holy Office as pope or king ? Not as king, for 
 there affairs of conscience are judged, and there even the intention is subjected to scrutiny. 
 There accordingly he presides as pope, he makes laws as pope, he applies them as pope; that is, 
 he condemns heresy and heretics in the exercise of his spiritual power. 
 
 There is another edifice in Rome called "St. Michael of the bad," where it is usual to incar- 
 cerate persons guilty of impudent manners. Over the gate of that building, as over that of the 
 Holy Office, might be inscribed, "Mystery." It is a common saying in Rome, that honest 
 people are often imprisoned there among persons of ill fame, for having resisted the unbridled 
 desires of men in power, and among dissolute youths there groan the brothers and kinsmen of 
 some unhappy maiden, whose ruin is meditated, for having wished to show themselves jealous 
 of their family's honour. Let not the mournful picture of the disorder in the papal government 
 
 1 
 
txii REFLECTIONS ON ITALY. 
 
 be tliought exaggerated. In confirmation of the tilings I have stated, and of the nefarious 
 caprice that lords it over all things in the place of law, let it suffice to relate a very recent 
 fact respecting the Dominican friar Abbo, parish priest of Minei-va in Kome, a man enjoying 
 the protection of the cardinals, esteemed and revered by the chief families, thought to be a 
 model of virtue, and on the eve of being raised to the prelatureship, who on being discovered to 
 be guilty of the most unutterable turpitudes, and of atrocious murders in the persons of his 
 nejjhews for the purpose of concealing them, was condemned to death. Through the interces- 
 sion of the Cardinal Secretary of state, the sentence of death was commuted for an imprisonment, 
 long indeed, yet only for a time, which it was afterwards meant to shorten by the frequency of 
 the indults, of which the popes have always been lavish in favour of persons found guilty of 
 ordinary crime. The people rose in a tumult, and the Pope was constrained to recall the unjust 
 z-ej)rieve, desiring, however, that by a special privilege, the execution should not be public, but 
 that it should take place in the castle of St. Angelo. The people again rose in a threateniuo- 
 manner, dreading with good reason lest, under the pretext of such a privilege, it might be 
 intended to save the criminal, and desired that the city guard, composed of burghers, should 
 witness the execution. The newspapers of France and England relate this scandalous event, 
 which in itself presents a summary of the miseries of about three millions of Italians, subjects of 
 St. Peter's successor. 
 
 As for political persecutions, I need say nothing about them, for it is easy to infer what is 
 likely to be the reaction among the enlightened class in the papal states, while at once spectators 
 and victims of the violent and irregular acts of the government; and, bence, what has been 
 hitherto the rigour exercised against opinions. But more than from any reasoning, may be 
 inferred from the frequent insurrections and from the ill-suppressed indignation of the provinces. 
 As an irrefragable proof, however, I will relate a fact which makes one horrified when we con- 
 sider that the unhappy person who was the victim, was not by birth a subject of the Pope, nor 
 had ever plotted against his throne, and, which is more, was taking measures for leaving Italy 
 as a voluntary exile. Baron Luigi Falconj, my friend, who had taken part in the insurrection 
 that broke out in Aquila in the Abruzzi in September, 1841, had been fortunate enouo-h to 
 escape from the vengeance of the king of Naples, and traversing secretly the pontifical states, 
 was proceeding in a fishing boat at Civita Vecchia to seek an asylum on board the French 
 steamer. He was followed by the Pope's carabineers, and overtaken just as he was reaching it; 
 he was then conducted to Rome and sent back by the Pope to Naples, attended by an escort of 
 sixty dragoons! ! ! This fact needs no comment. 
 
 Nevertheless, Dr. Wiseman, author of the critical article which has for its title Italian 
 Apostates, inserted in the 23d No. of the Dullin Review, blushes not to compare Rome with 
 London, to eulogize the justice that is administered in Rome with the view of making people 
 believe that the narrative of Rafi-aele Ciocci, under the title "Iniquities and Barbarities of the 
 Roman Church in the Nineteenth Century," is a tissue of fables. And that article has been 
 believed by many, because the astute reviewer makes frequent appeals in it to English good i 
 
 • sense. 
 
POLITICAL AND CIVIL STATE OF ITALY. lxiii 
 
 But if the English shall go on judging of things in Italy with English good sense, without endea- 
 vouring to put themselvos In a capacity for judging of them with Italian good sense, I fear 
 England may be fascinated by the charmer who charms wisely. 
 
 I shall conclude those rofloctions on the political state of Rome with some considerations on 
 the acts of the new Pope's government, and on the hopes that have been conceived of him. 
 Much is said of the amnesty granted to those imprisoned for political offences, without attending 
 to the political clause where it is said that those to whom the amnesty applies are to suljscribe 
 a declaration binding themselves not to distm-b the public peace. This condition would have 
 been useless, had there been any sincere intention of reforming abuses, secularizing the govern- 
 ment, and granting a constitution. On the cause of the public clamour and discontent being 
 removed, there would have followed the removal of the effect, and in case of some turbulent 
 persons making seditious manifestations, even after the reforms were granted, the law, with the 
 applause of public opinion, would be sure to strike them. The solemnity of that clause, as long 
 as the reforms are not granted, deprives the amnesty of all value by tending to demoralize those 
 good people with a pretence of renouncing their generous convictions. Hitherto no essential 
 refo7'm has been effected, such as would secure to the people a stable and permanent ameliora- 
 tion. Nor can such an amelioration be hoped for as long as the people's rights are not acknow- 
 ledged and guaranteed by laws, which would be directly contrary to the doctrine announced 
 doo-matically ex cathedra by the last Pope, and accepted unconditionally by all the bishops of 
 the Roman catholic church. Hence it follows that the new Pope, even should he desire it, 
 could not without incurring the stain of heresy, sanction the contrary doctrine, by acknowledging 
 in the people rights that should limit ahsolute looiver. One most interesting circumstance, not- 
 withstanding all that is said, accompanies the enthusiasm that has been called forth in the 
 peoT)le of Rome by the hope of a better futurity, which may sei-ve to confirm what has been said 
 respecting the dissoluteness and the violence that characterize the Roman clergy. The unani- 
 mous cry of the people which recommended the Pope not to take any food when he went to visit 
 the Jesuits or other Fraternities, furnishes a clear testimony that the people of Rome have solid 
 ground for suspecting these holy Fathers to be capable of the blackest crimes, whatever Dr. 
 Wiseman may think to the contraiy. But if this argument, taken from the public opinion of 
 the people of Rome, does not suit him, I hope he will admit as good and authoritative that 
 drawn from the very conduct itself of the existing Pope, who, according to the notices that 
 appear in the newspapers, uses all possible precautions in order to avoid the risk of poison, 
 orderino- his victuals to be brought to him some hours before meals, allnwina; them to cool, and 
 then having them examined by a chemist, who heats them over again in a small stove brought 
 for the purpose into his presence, and partakes of them. 
 
 It is now time to pass from the Pontifical, and to give an idea of the political organization of 
 the Lombardo-Venetian state. 
 
 Before entering on this examination, it will be useful to call attention to the fact, that the 
 Austrian government in Italy is subject to all those evils which are inseparable from a foreign 
 
Lxiv REFLECTIONS ON ITALY. 
 
 government placed over a reluctant people which aspires after independence. Although there 
 may be the best intentions in the cabinet of Vienna towards the Lombard and Venetian pro- 
 vinces, although the utmost endeavours may be put forth for promoting the prosperity of their 
 inhabitants, never will it be possible for the tribes of Italy to prosper in such a manner as they 
 would prosper, even in less favourable circumstances, under the impulse of a national govern- 
 ment. The idea of being subject to force and not to right, deprives even that which is good of 
 all charms, and causes it to be received with distrust and peevishness. All the national elements 
 converge towards a secret resistance against the invaders of the most sacred right, such as is 
 that of nationality, which may be defined as the conscience of peoples. This resistance then is 
 interpreted by the government in the worst sense of turbulence and rebellion, so that in order to 
 its repression, recourse is had to force. This provokes fresh reaction, and thus, reciprocally, 
 reactions augment in energy until the moment of a crisis arrives. Exactly the same thing 
 happens to England with respect to Ireland as that which happens to Austria with respect to 
 Lombardy. The most serious difference in the two positions consists solely in the differeut 
 political circumstances of the two governments, Austrian and English. Fundamentally, however, 
 the position is the same. All the efforts put forth by England for the advantage of Ireland, are 
 ill received, and the reaction which is inevitable wherever force decides right, has the effect of 
 making the English attribute the evils of Ireland to the mere indolence of a people demoralized 
 by superstition, while Ireland attributes all her miseries to English selfishness. I have men- 
 tioned Ireland to give an idea of the dislike felt by the Italians to the Austrian dominationj not 
 at all that I would compare Lombardy, which is a most flourishing and civilized part of Italy, 
 with Ireland; although the latter is free, and the former not only without independence, but 
 destitute of all enjoyment of freedom. But besides this difference we find another, and most 
 essential one, in the conservative element in the English government being tempered by the 
 progressive element, whereas Austria represents in Europe the principle of Chinese immobility. 
 This ultra-conservative principle of Austria admirably explains what must be the violent state of 
 the Italian provinces that are subject to her, whilst every where throughout Italy, and especially 
 in Lombardy, the progressive element is in a state of ebullition and advancement, absorbing old 
 ideas from day to day. Although, then, Austria might have the best intentions in the world, 
 these can only be directed to the conservation of the old system and to impeding prooress, that 
 is, to the opposing of all that the people desire. But Austria has no good intentions towards 
 Italy, for she knows that the usurped dominion which she directly exercises over the Lombardo- 
 Venetian states, and indirectly over the Italian princes, whose arbiter she has rendered herself 
 by taking them under her protection, will not be of long duration; hence she has no other object 
 but that of prolonging it to the utmost possible length, and nevertheless extracting from them 
 those greater advantages than the mere act of extracting from them will prove. The maxim 
 that supplies her with a rule is that oi resisting all progress. But if, in spite of all her efforts, 
 any kind of progress shows itself victorious, and advancing to perfection, she has another 
 convenient maxim at hand, that is, the patronizing of it, for the purpose of neutralizing the 
 
POLITICAL AND CIVIL STATE OF ITALY. lxv 
 
 conseqwnces, by giving it the sanction of her name. Thus Europe remains deluded, for Europe 
 attributes to her what proceeds from Lombard energy, and Europe knows not that this plant 
 which has grown up in spite of the northern winds and blasts, is condemned not only to barren- 
 ness, but to bear noxious fruits in consequence of having poisonous grafts inserted into it. 
 
 The Lombardo -Venetian government has for its head the viceroy, a member of the imperial 
 family, who exercises the supreme executive authority. He has a royal Chancery. The legis- 
 lative power, the selection of the leading functionaries, and the administration, belong to the 
 cabinet of Vienna. In Vienna the direct and indirect taxes are settled; also the post-office 
 regulations, a most important, branch under absolute governments for tracking out the designs 
 of secret correspondences. Vienna has the selection of persons for all the first charges in the 
 government, the Podestas, the Delegates, the Deputies of the central congregation, the coun- 
 sellors of the tribunals, the government, the court of exchequer (nmgistrato camerale), the 
 administrators of the finances, the Prefect of the Monte-di-Pieta, all persons employed In any 
 new institution, the professors, &c. Vienna settles the salaries of pubhc functionaries, pensions, 
 and the budget of the annual expenditure. All enterprises, and all speculations that exceed the 
 amount of 3000 florins, must be submitted to revision and approval at Vienna. Thence, besides, 
 people must wait for the dispositions for sales of crown property (herd Domaniale), without 
 auction, and for extraordinary expenses. Public instruction, the regulations of the high police, 
 mihtary levies, <fec. likewise depend entirely on the Aulic council and on the Emperor. Hence, 
 behold! in reahty the Lombardo -Venetian provinces deprived of the advantage of a local govern' 
 ment, and reduced to the miserable condition of provinces subject to a foreign and distant 
 government. Nevertheless, an ostentatious display is made of the concession of a local govern- 
 ment ! Persons in the employment of the state, are chosen in a great measm-e from Austrlans 
 and Tyrolese. Now of what consequence is it that about an equal number of Italians (were this 
 indeed true) are employed at Vienna? The Austrlans command in Italy and the Italians seiTe 
 in Austria. The Police especially is, one may say, entirely organized by Austrlans, and the 
 same may be said of the Direction of the Posts, of the presidents of the tribunals, and of the 
 heads of almost all the other branches. Hence it follows that the local government still comes 
 to be powerfully influenced, in the executive, by the Austrian system. After the fall of Napoleon, 
 Austria, on having restored to her a more extensive dominion in Italy, wished to make herself 
 appear generous, and on the 24th of April, 1815, gave to the Lombardo -Venetian state a 
 phantasm of a constitution, modelled upon the Germanic Diet, or perhaps mere provincial 
 states, without any legislative power whatever, and altogether dependent on the absolute will of 
 thf Emperor, being nothing more than consultative meetings. In the proclamation sent forth 
 in those circumstances by the Emperor Francis, he expresses himself thus: "It Is the desire of 
 the Emperor that colleges should be formed of persons taken from the various classes of the 
 state, in order that his Imperial and Royal Majesty may be made acquainted, in a regular form, 
 with the wants and the wishes of the nation." The institution of these Provincial and Central 
 congregations accordingly, being solely intended to bring the desires of the people to the know- 
 
 r 
 
Lxvi REFLECTIONS ON ITALY. 
 
 ledge of tlie sovereign, In order to their being of some practical utility, ought to have been 
 guaranteed in such a manner that the people should have in them true organs of their wishes. 
 On the contrary, as has already been remarked of the provincial councils in the kingdom of 
 Naples— an imitation of the provincial states in the Austrian dominions— no guarantee has been 
 accorded to the members that compose it; not only so, but the government has rendered them 
 servile to it, by reserving to itself the choice of members and by settling lucrative salaries on 
 those who compose the central congregation. Each of them receives from the public treasury 
 
 2000 florns (£200). 
 
 Let us now see how these congregations are organized. The provincial congregation consists 
 of four, six, or eight proprietors, according to the population of the province; one half of these 
 are nobles. Every royal burgh has a representative in it. The choice of the deputies of the 
 whole province is made by the communes through the medium of the municipal council, which 
 sends up two names of persons resident in the province, and of whom one must be a noble. 
 Every royal burgh transmits three names of its citizens. The provincial congregation receives 
 these lists, and from them selects three candidates for any vacant post. The central congrega- 
 tion examines the choice of the candidates made by the provincial congregation, and has the 
 right of excluding those individuals whom it does not deem fit, and then transmits the lists to 
 the government, either at Milan or Yenice. Further, the government has the right of excluding 
 any one, under the obligation, however, of giving a reason for doing so at Vienna; but if there 
 be no objections found, the individuals named first in any lists are confirmed deputies for entering 
 into the place of those who, having exercised their functions for six years, go out of office. 
 Meanwhile half of the number is renewed every three years ; and the same organization is 
 observed in the central congregation. The Delegate of the province is the president of the 
 provincial council. The necessary qualities for being elected are citizenship of the kingdom 
 and residence in the province or in the burgh for which the candidate is proposed; he must 
 have property to the amount of 2000 crowiis, and be at least thirty years of age. For nobles 
 the patent of nobility granted by the emperor, is required. Persons employed in the public 
 service are excluded from them, besides common criminals, or even persons only subject to 
 criminal trial, or bankruptcy. The same grounds carry exclusion from the central congrega- 
 tion. The provincial deputies are not paid, and hold only an honorary rank, but their services, 
 which are so useful to the government, form a step to their admission into the central congrega- 
 tions, or even for other lucrative employments. Their attributions are limited to the adminis- 
 tration of the taxes in the province, to the revision of the accounts of the communal revenues, 
 to attending to the construction and upholding of the bridges and roads, excepting those with 
 which the government charges itself; and the superintendency of charitable institutions. The 
 central congregations are two in number, one having its seat at Milan, the other at Venice. 
 Each province has two deputies there, one of whom is a noble, and there each royal burgh has a 
 representative. The choice of the deputies is regulated as follows. The municipal council of 
 each of the communes proposes two candidates, a noble and a proprietor, to the provincial 
 
POLITICAL AND CIYIL STATE OF ITALY. lxvii 
 
 congregation, whicli selects from the varions lists, throe nobles and three proprietors. The 
 central congregation, through the medium of which the candidates arc presented to the govern- 
 ment, recommends one of them according to its own judgment. On the other hand the royal 
 burghs present three candidates to the central congregation, and that again transmits these to 
 the government with a recommendation of one of them in preference to the rest. In order to 
 one's being elected, besides the three other requisites already mentioned, it is necessary to be in 
 possession of four thousand crowns. Two remarks will suffice to make it clear that certainly 
 the desires of the people are rather the excuse for establishing a new species of aristocracy than 
 the true aim of this organization, which tends to a violent separation from the interests of the 
 nation, of the families of most distinction, in order to bind them insensibly to the governmental 
 system. The first of these remarks is, that for the members of the central congregation, in 
 order to their election as such, it is not necessary that they should reside in the Lombardo- 
 Venetian kingdom, all that is required being residence in any part of the Austrian dominions ; 
 clearly showing that it is the intention of Austria to have the election made to fall on her 
 nobility or her rich residents at Vienna, with the view of disposing of the favours of government 
 to the best advantage. The second is, that the emperor reserves to himself an unlimited right 
 to exclude any person whomsoever, although elected by the communes, chosen in preference by 
 the provincial congregations, recommended by the central congregations, and approved, by the 
 local government, showing that the high police of Vienna is that which regulates the elections, 
 and consequently, that these instead of being favourable to the people's interests, cannot but 
 be servilely compliant with the desires of the foreign dominator. The provincial congregations 
 exercise the following functions: First, The repartition of all the extraordinary taxes. Secondly, 
 The complement of the repartition of the tax on real estates (fondi). Thirdly, the insf)ection of 
 the communal revenues, and the division of the public imposts among the several provinces, 
 cities, and communes individually. Fourthly, The distribution of military services. Fifthly, 
 The superintendency of the bridges, canals, highways, and railroads. Sixthly, The superinten- 
 dency of charitable institutions. But it is not sufficient for the absolute power of Austria to 
 make sure of the personal attachment of the members that compose these assemblies, in order 
 to commit to them the definitive management of affairs, although circumscribed in extent and of 
 the smallest prominence, it has wished to limit besides the exercise of these attributions, by 
 restraining the force of their deliberations to the consultative vote. Moreover, this consultative 
 vote can be emitted by them solely respecting those matters that form part of the above-mentioned 
 sections, but on which the government has not yet sent forth any regulation. Affairs are dis- 
 cussed at general meetings, but the president has the right of appointing particular commissions 
 for the treatment of special matters. The governors of Milan and Venice preside respectively 
 over the central congregations. 
 
 Pass we now to the civil and criminal judiciary administration. Besides the lower courts, 
 called Preturas, for civil causes involving minor sums, and for correctional causes, which are 133 
 in number, there is in each province a tribunal of the first instance which decides not only civil 
 
Lxvm REFLECTIONS ON ITALY. 
 
 but also criminal causes, and mercantile ones. But for the two provinces of Milan and Venice, 
 the tribunal of the first instance for civil causes is distinct from that for the criminal] and, 
 besides these, has a chamber of commerce. Causes are tried in appeal by the two tribunals 
 called the General cowrt of appeal and the Higher tribunal of criminal justice, the one of which 
 has its seat at Milan, the other at Venice. The Senate of Verona is the supreme tribunal of 
 the whole kingdom, that is, the Grand Court of Cassation. It is impossible to give even a 
 remote idea of the Austrian legislation, it being exceedingly voluminous, consisting of above 
 eighty volumes. Where shall we find a judge capable of acquiring a perfect knowledge of so 
 vast a collection? Where shall we find a subject who can say that he knows his duties and his 
 rights? Besides this defect, there is another most grievous vice in the selection of the judiciary 
 functionaries, and it is the system of the Austrian government to pay those whom it employs at 
 the lowest possible rate. To this we must add their frequent removal from one place to another, 
 a circumstance which exerts a fatal influence on the administration of justice, by burdening the 
 functionaries with useless and heavy expenses, retarding the expedition of business, and aug- 
 menting the difficulty of judging with a full knowledge of the cause in hand. In conclusion, as 
 the acme of evil, the first posts in the judiciary hierarchy are filled with Grermans, who, 
 accordingly, hardly knowing even a few Italian phrases, are not capable of trying causes in 
 which not only a perfect knowledge of the language but that of the dialects also is indispensable. 
 Hence it will appear manifest that the administration of justice must be at once most costly and 
 most tedious for the litigants. As for civil causes, which certainly are not within the possibility 
 of the poor, even the rich, taught by fatal experience, seek to escape fr'om them. But how 
 escape the mischievous eff'ects of such an order of things, in criminal causes? The accused are 
 confined in prison for months before they are examined and tried, and frequently for years. 
 The system of secresy in the procedure, authorizes one to apply the terai inquisitions rather than 
 administration of justice, to the criminal tribunals. The destiny of the accused is placed in the 
 hands of a counsellor, who is at one and the same time judge and defender; for in the formation 
 of the process, which is secret and devolved on him alone, it rests with him to put together the 
 circumstances that are favourable, or the reverse, to the innocence of the accused. In fine, over 
 against the other tribunals stands the Police, a tremendous court, which throughout all Italy 
 wages a fierce hostihty against opinions, and, further, is all the more intolerable in the Lombardo- 
 Venetian state, seeing that those portions of the population are more powerfully incited towards 
 ideas of a better futurity, not only from the mere desire for liberty, but also from having a still 
 keener longing for national independence. There are in Lombardy alone 300 agents of pohce, 
 872 gendarmes, 1233 police guards, an infinity of keepers, under -keepers, prison -guards, 
 assistants, and guards of fortified places. There are guards for the frontiers, conmiunal guards, 
 guards for the woods and forests, urban guards, all subject to the orders of the police. Various 
 names are given them with the view of palliating to the eyes of the public, and especially of 
 foreigners, the turpitude of this inquisitorial system. There are spies in the service of the 
 Viceroy, of the Governor, of the Director of Police, of the district Commissaries, of the Bishops 
 
POLITICAL AND CIVIL STATE OF ITALY. lxix 
 
 and of the parish priests, although these have no need of them, having both ihc right ;ind 
 facilities for acting as spies themselves. A gentleman who had once the charge of a parish in 
 Venice, now a Protestant, assured me that in the exercise of his parochial functions, he received 
 frequent letters fi'om the Venice police board, inclosing special notices respecting the private 
 conduct of some and about the domestic occupations of others. Therefore it is that in order to 
 their being parish priests, besides the approval of the bishop, they must have that of the govern- 
 ment too. And all these, by their making a show of having the interests of the government at 
 heart, are authorized to do any thing, even to the giving vent to their passions, from that of 
 thirsting for money to the gratification of private revenge. The persecutions of the police are 
 in no other part of Italy so fierce, though very fierce, as in the Lombardo-Venetian states. In 
 the kingdom of Naples, in the Papal states, in Sardinia, the punishment of death is denounced 
 on those only who take up arms against the government, while conspiracies are punished by the 
 longest imprisonment and forced labour (I'ercfastolo) ; but in Austrian Italy the penalty of death 
 is extended to conspirators also, although they may not have made any attempt implicating them 
 in the guilt of leze-majesty. Silvio Pellico, Gronfalonieri, and those other generous souls who, 
 in 1821, thought about the emancipation of their fatherland, were condemned to death. Imprison- 
 ment of the harshest kind, or harsh in the Spielberg, was in their case a respite. That accord- 
 ingly which for other kingdoms of Italy is justice, for Austria is a favour. 
 
 As for Finance, for the reader to perceive how heavily the hand of Austria lies uj^on the 
 Italian states, it is enough to point to the fact that while their population forms only the eighth 
 part of that of the empire, it contributes to the imperial treasury above a fourth part of the 
 entire revenues. The Lombardo-Venetian state, with 4,680,000 inhabitants, pays 34,240,000 
 florins; the remainder of the empire counts 39,869,000 inhabitants, and pays 101,212,000 florins. 
 On making a calculation we find that each individual of the Italian states pays 7 florins, 40 
 kreutzers, while in the other Austrian dominions each individual pays 3 florins, 10 kreutzers, 
 that is, less than the half. The hand of the Austrian government is perceived in enormous 
 import duties on colonial produce, on wines, spirits, &c., creating a contraband trade vdiich is 
 the ruin of Milan, the grand depot of the wares of the country; it is seen in the prohibiten' 
 system with respect to foreign silk, cotton, and woollen manufactures, which also fosters smua- 
 gling, owing to the insufficiency and the dearness of the manufactures of the state. The Austrian 
 system may be seen in the vexatious customs regulations, which impede the free circulation of 
 manufactures and of colonial productions, even in the interior of the state, which impose a fine 
 should a few pounds weight of manufactures be passed from one city to another without a 
 previous license, which subject merchants, especially in the districts placed along the fi'ontiers, 
 to having their warehouses inspected and their houses searched, by day or by night, by the 
 custom-house officers, often too several times a week. The Austrian system makes itself keenly 
 felt in a most obscure code of finance, which gives scope for arbitraiy judgments and cnprices, 
 imposing taxes on the various branches of art and industiy at random. The man of trade feels 
 the hand of Austria not only in the mercantile tax, but much more in the heaAy expense which 
 
 s 
 
,,xx REFLECTIONS ON ITALY. 
 
 he is bound to pay in the protests of bills of exchange even for sums below a hundred livres 
 Austrian money; the lowest cost in such cases being 8 livres and 64 cents. Austrian despotism 
 reveals itself overwhelmingly in the augmentation of the public debt of the Lombardo -Venetian 
 kingdom to about 25,000,000, without any just reason, in 1840. The despotism of Austria 
 reveals itself in the enormous postage taxes, so that a letter from Milan to Placentia, at the 
 distance of 14 leagues, pays 40 cents.; 60 from Milan to Modena; 80 from Milan to Bologna 
 or to riorence. The despotism of Austria manifests itself finally in the hinderances opposed to 
 the construction of the many railways now in ijrogress, not having it in its power to prevent them 
 amid the universal enthusiasm of Europe; in imposing a new postal tax on the line from Milan 
 to Monza, and in declaring that at the completion of the whole enterprise, it will take it into its 
 own hands on its own account. It is impossible to recapitulate all the grievances of the Italian 
 states under the Austrian government. Not the least of these, and that perhaps which bears 
 most sensibly on the Lombard energy and activity, is found in the hinderances by which, in one 
 mode or other, the government thwarts the aspirations of the people towards any amelioration. 
 This kind of moral oppression does not strike the eye of a superficial observer, but it is not 
 therefore the less serious. In Lombardy, thanks to the vigorous vitality that glows in the 
 descendants of the heroes who routed the Germans at Legnano, the sluggishness of Austria is 
 triumphantly overcome. But in Yenice, under less favourable circumstances, the moral oppres- 
 sion of the Austrian system presents the saddest results. In Yenice, which counts hardly 110,000 
 inhabitants, 52,000, under various titles, receive charitable assistance. 
 
 Let us now make a few remarks on public instruction. This comprises three kinds of study; 
 the Gymnasia, the Lyceums, and the Universities. The course of studies at the Gymnasium 
 lasts six years. No one is admitted there under the age of ten, so that a complete course of 
 study extends to a man's being twenty-five years of age. Here one sole master teaches history, 
 geography, arithmetic, the elements of algebra, religion, poetry, and rhetoric. Among other 
 things Latin is taught. In the Lyceums the course is one of two years. Here there are 
 taught algebra, physics, mechanics, philology, philosophy, natural history, and universal history. 
 Italian literature is excluded. Philosophy is taught according to the German method. What 
 wonder then if Italian philosophers are excluded? Afterwards, in the Universities the Austrian 
 system unblushingly reveals itself. Yienna directs the examinations of the professors, and 
 Yienna judges of their merit. Their merit consists in nothing but boundless submission to the 
 government. Yienna proposes subjects for instruction. Woe to that professor who would desire 
 to change a maxim, a theory in the doctrine prescribed; the loss of his chair and imprisonment 
 would be the consequence. German authors are preferred in the schools of medicine, of the 
 faculties of law, of statistics. Disorder reigns in all the faculties, but particularly in those of 
 medicine and mathematics. That, indeed, which most interests the government is the watching 
 of youth from the commencement of their studies, being aware that in proportion as the intellect 
 becomes enlightened, generous sentiments of honour and patriotism revive in Italian breasts. 
 The masters are obliged to inform the government minutely with respect to the conduct of the 
 
POLITICAL AND CIVIL STATE OF ITALY. lxxi 
 
 students, both in the Gymnasiums and the Ijyceums. Afterwards, in the universities, the sinvoil- 
 lance becomes so intolerabk^ and vexatious, that it might well be deemed a prohibition of 
 study ; students are laid under the obligation of permanent residence in the cities that are univer- 
 sity seats. Hunting and the exercise of fencing are forbidden. Orders are issued under severe 
 threats not to allow moustaches to grow, or should youthful wantonness tempt a student to have 
 them, to cut them off. Then comes the necessity of a hypocritical submission to the external 
 forms of religion, to ^Yhich not only the police but even the university professors constrain thorn 
 to submit. Then, as in every association despotism dreads a conspiracy, the student must avoid 
 every appearance of association, and keep himself isolated. On every the slightest pretence he 
 finds himself the butt of insults from the soldiery and the guards of the police. The student, if 
 he belong to the class of the people, must suffer the inequality sanctioned by the regulations in 
 favour of the sons of persons in public employment, of proprietors, and the nobility. A heavy 
 expense attends the various examinations for degrees. But over and above the eventual expenses, 
 most oppressive by themselves are those necessaiy for obtaining the degree of doctor, a young 
 man being obliged to live sixteen, and often nineteen years, far from his family, to enable him to 
 frequent the gymnasia, the lyceums, and the universities. And after all these expenses, other 
 difficulties remain to be overcome before they can attain to a capacity for being of use to them- 
 selves and their families, as they are obliged for many years to work as ahimm, that is to say, 
 without remuneration, and all those avenues to employments that are granted through the medium 
 of the police being shut against them. The number of advocates and notaries is limited : 
 engineers must have four years more of practice, and about 12,000 Austrian livres of caution. 
 Nobody can teach, not even as an elementary master, without the sanction of the government ; 
 and studies pm-sued under an unauthorized master, are declared to be null. There is a severe 
 prohibition against studying at foreign universities. The elementary schools, the establishment 
 of which is due for the most jiart to the paternal charity of generous individuals, have been ren- 
 dered almost useless by the government, since it usurps the direction of them for the purpose of 
 making them subserve its own ends. Ignorant and careless masters, few in number and ill paid, 
 are chosen by the government, and may be displaced by the commission that presides over the 
 schools. The masters are obliged, not only as s[)ies, to watch the conduct of the boys, but also 
 to teach them to act as spies upon one another. The same may be said of the Charity Boys' 
 Schools, {asili pei ragazsi,) founded and endowed by private benevolence, but directed by the 
 government. Moral instruction is directed to the forming of the tender minds of infants to ser- 
 vility, by teaching them that the power of the Emperor extends over their property eqiuxlhj as over 
 their persons. In spite of these obstacles it may happen, however, that the genius of Italy freely 
 soars aloft, but Austria fails not to clip its wings. There is a censorship for literary journals, 
 for to speak of politics is a crime, and in the whole kingdom there is no other political journal 
 but the Privileged Gazette of Milan, written under the direction of the Police. Foreign jour- 
 nals are not permitted, if we except those that patronize absolute power, and further, for these 
 there is a tax of ten cents for each number. There is a censorship for books both in Milan and 
 
r^xxii REFLECTIONS ON ITALY. 
 
 ill Venice, and as many other censorships as there are provinces, for publications not exceeding 
 one printed folio. There is a censorship, moreover, for engravings and for theatrical represen- 
 tations. Finally, there are special censors for theological works, for medical, and for mathema- 
 tical works. In all this, nothing is contemplated but the imposition of chains upon thought. 
 But should one succeed at times in satisfying the censor, it is found that the police never loses 
 its right to suspend the printing after it has commenced, and to lay its hands on the portions 
 already published, to the severest hurt of the authors, and to the loss of individuals and printers. 
 Such are the doings of Austria in Italy. All its endeavours tend, as has been said, to the pro- 
 longation of its dominion, and hence its efforts to suppress thought. Its whole object is to 
 extract the utmost advantage possible from the fairest and most fertile of its provinces, and hence 
 it does not lose a single favourable opportunity of devouring its revenues. In proof of this, 
 suffice it to remark that availing itself of the completed fact, (fatto compito), that the Lombards 
 paid an excessively high land-tax under the French, it has always chosen to draw it without the 
 diminution of a cent, although under the French the state of continual war formed its justifica- 
 tion, and from 1815 till now, the very long continued peace ought to have proportionably reduced 
 it. In such a state of things the sum of 60,277,000 Austrian livres, over and above the expen- 
 diture, goes to enrich the treasury of Vienna every year ! 
 
 After having considered the governmental system of Austria with respect to the Lombardo- 
 Venetian States, it will not be beside the purpose to cast a rapid glance at the policy she adopts 
 with respect to the chief Italian princes. Notwithstanding that according to the treaty of 
 Vienna, after the fall of Napoleon, all the Italian princes were independent, and had full and 
 absolute authority over their own respective dominions, yet Austria has never thought that they 
 ought to be so with respect to her. She considers herself empowered to exercise a j)rotective 
 authority, not only in the perils that threaten them, but also in the measures they should adopt 
 for securing the tranquillity of the people. The Austrian ambassadors in the Italian courts, 
 exercise an influence, and an ascendancy, which neutralize whatever may be the good intentions 
 the governments may have had. We have noticed the similarity that exists between the pro- 
 vincial councils of the kingdom of Naples and those of Austria, and every one can perceive the 
 likeness between the Austrian system of police and the picture already given of the Neapolitan. 
 As for Tuscany, the dukedom of Modena, and that of Parma, no one has any right to wonder at 
 it, seeing the reigning families in these are branches of the house of Austria, and naturallv feel 
 a deference for the throne from which they derive their origin. As for the kinodom of Naples, 
 besides the facts already mentioned, others are supplied by recent history. Ferdinand I., after 
 having conceded the constitution to the kingdom which unanimously called for the fulfilment of 
 the promise made by him when he was in Sicily, for the purpose of detaching the people from 
 their affection for Joachim Murat, left Naples with the consent of the Parliament to go and 
 defend his own rights, and those of his people, in Vienna, before the Allied powers. It cannot 
 be doubted that such was his good intention, seeing that in writing from Vienna to his son, and 
 in other spontaneous demonstrations before his setting out, he emphatically attested that it was 
 
POLITICAL AND CIVIL STATE OF ITALY. Lxxiir 
 
 his desire to observe the oath that liail l)C(ni swdni. The Allied powers, and Austi-ia more than 
 any other, induced him to ch;iii<^e his language and to declare his people i-ehels. When onl)oing 
 aftei-wards restored in Naples by force of the Austrian's arms, he grew fierce in sheilding blood 
 in torrents, it was whispered to the king's exculpation, that iiuclh ivas the iv'dl of AuHtr'ui, although 
 the Austrian cabinet seemed to inculcate clemency and moderation. Then, as for the Pontifical 
 states, in the insurrection of the Legations in 18.31, the impudence of Austria reached its climax. 
 Coiitrary to the treaty of non-intervention, she lorded it over a house not her own. But if she 
 would excuse herself on the ground of having been invited by the Pope for the re-e? tablishment 
 of disorder, who can ever excuse the overbearing act exercised by her in arresting on the high 
 sea the Brigantine Isotta, making her prisoners ninety-nine liberals who had got out of prison by 
 the capitulation of the fortress of Ancona ? How will it justify the severe imprisonment to which 
 they were subjected in Venice, and from which they were delivered only by the intervention of 
 France ? The diplomatic note which prince Metternich directed to the English Ambassador at 
 Vienna In July 1832, respecting the reforms projected in the Pontifical State, and rejected by the 
 Pope, is a most curious document. Two most important ideas may be learnt from it. The first 
 is the hypocrisy of Austria, who therein declares certainly her readiness to give advices, but makes 
 a show of having a dread of usurping the right of command to the prejudice of an independent 
 prince such as the Pope ! ! What delicacy of conscience ! ! ! The second is, that with all this 
 conscientious repugnancy, the Austrian cabinet made an offer of its readiness to place at the 
 disposition of the Roman government, experienced Austrian functionaries, ivho hieiv Itahj well, 
 (from the long habit of oppression), in order to assist it in introducing all practicable ameliorations 
 in the difficult circumstances in luhich it ivas placed. That is to say, after the specious pretence 
 of its unwillingness to infirlnge the pope's rights of independence, it made an offer of Its readiness 
 to act as lord and master in his state, as if, forsooth, reforms were impossible in Italy, unless 
 they came from German hands ! 
 
 The only Italian state that shows any restlveness under the influence of Austria, and that 
 begins to display a firm determination to act as master in its own house, is that of Sardinia. As 
 has been already hinted, the book published by Balbo, intituled Sperenze d'ltedia, (Hopes of 
 Italy), gives ground to believe that the Court of Turin nourishes the idea of emancipation from 
 the preponderance of Austria. In other respects Italy shows herself backward to believe the 
 insinuations of Charles Albert, remembering the cowardly or treacherous flight from the liberal 
 standards, to which he had spontaneously run in 1821. Besides this, if Indeed it be true that 
 he proposes to make amends for that passage In his life, why does he not begin to condescend to 
 the desires of his people, who have long been panting for a national representation ? This step 
 would make all Italy believe in the sincerity of his projects, would secm-e for him again the love 
 and esteem of all Italians, and would depi'Ive Austria for ever of all hope of aggrandizing herself 
 in the peninsula. Whatever otherwise may be the opposition of the Court of Turin to the pre- 
 tensions of Vienna, it will be gratifying in a two-fold sense, not only by its keeping alive and 
 further enkindling in Italy the glowing desire felt for independence, but also by its covering with 
 
Lxxiv REFLECTIONS ON ITALY. 
 
 shame the other Italian courts while exhibiting them as voluntarily enslaved to the foreigner ; and 
 this exhibition will school the people into the forming of right judgments on such governments. 
 
 We shall now devote a few words to giving an idea of the states of the king of Sardinia and 
 then of Tuscany. However the Sardinian government may at present appear in some measure 
 progressive, it is indubitable that it has followed hitherto the same violent course trodden by the 
 other ItaHan princes. Scenes of blood have been witnessed from time to time in the Genoese 
 territory and in Piemont. The wish for freedom has deep roots in the inhabitants of those dis- 
 tricts, and it is all the more formidable as the idea of national honour has been less obscured in 
 them. Piemont has never been equally with the kingdom of Naples and with Lombardy, degraded 
 so far as to be a foreign province, and has always seen in the house of Savoy, which it has obeyed, 
 an ardent and jealous zeal for the national honour. On the other hand Genoa does not belie the 
 glories of her republic. Hence the seed of liberty which the civilization of our day has scattered 
 everywhere, has found in them a soil admirably adapted for its growth. In other parts of Italy 
 ideas of liberty have found an hinderance in the indolence and in the degradation bequeathed by 
 foreign dominations ; in the Sardinian continental states they have found none but favourable 
 elements. Hence no wonder that in them the progress should appear greater. Not, indeed, that 
 it is so really, seeing that taking difference of circumstances into account, the whole of Italy may 
 boast of having produced equal fruit in the cause of its regeneration. Hence from the tendency 
 towards liberty being most lively in the Sardinian states, and the government being absolute, it 
 will readily be understood that their political condition cannot be suj^posed to be different fi'om 
 the other Italian peoples. But if one would conclude from their not being seen to rise in 
 arms against the government, that they are quite satisfied with their lot, he would judge amiss. 
 It has been said in the general observations on the character of the Italians, that in northern Italy 
 reflection predominates over the energy of the passions, while in the southern part, the energy of 
 the passions is increased by the imaginative vivacity of reflection. One ought to make allowance 
 then, for the Piemontese and Lombard temperament, in explaining the political phenomenon pre- 
 sented by the Sardinian and the Lombardo- Venetian states, compared with other Italian peoples. 
 Besides difference of temperament, the situation of these two States has a great share in this, in 
 as much as they lie contiguous to other liberal states, whence it happens that they not only par- 
 ticipate in the habits of their neighbours, but in'other respects find themselves within reach of 
 information with regard to the present state of Europe, so 'as calmly to wait for the not distant 
 crisis, the final struggle betwixt the old aristocratical forms and the new democratical spirit. 
 To this we must add that the court of Turin has adopted, as has already been observed of Austria, 
 the system of taking under its own management, such instances of progress as the nation has 
 matured, for the purpose of subjecting them to its sway and of neutralizing their effects ; the 
 result of which is, that the nation loses its exasperation and silently pursues its work of civiliza- 
 tion, while in the kingdom of Naples, in the Pontifical states, and in the duchy of Modena, all 
 that the people have desired has down to this day been rejected with violence, so that re-action 
 has become inevitable. The form of the Sardinian government and the general administration 
 
POLITICAL AND CIVIL STATE OF ITALY. i.xxv 
 
 of the kingdom being similar to that of the kingdom <il' Naples, I aljst;i,iii from speaking of them. 
 The system of municipal administration varies in the capital cities a,nd in the provinces. Turin 
 and Grenoa have by special privilege oligarchical municipal assemblies. In Turin there is a body 
 of sixty Dccurionl, half of whom must be nobles. These elect every year two syndics and ten 
 counsellors, together with other subaltern officers, and these compose the so-called Congregation 
 or magistracy. Upon the demise of any of the sixty, the charge of Decurione being one for life, 
 the vacant place is filled up by the votes of the entire body and of the congregation, so that the 
 king has nothing to claim in the election. In Genoa there is a grand council and a little council. 
 The grand council is composed of forty Docurioni, half nobles, who in 1815, when it was first in- 
 stituted, were chosen by the king, but now are elected by the votes of the grand council. This 
 assembly meets thrice in the year. It elects ten councillors and other functionaries, having at 
 their head two Syndics and a royal commissioner, and it is denominated the little council. The 
 administration of the city, the police, public institutions, and the municipal revenues are under 
 the direction of the little council. The two Syndics, one of whom is a noble, are cliosen directly 
 by the king from a list presented to him by the great council. These remain in office for three 
 years, but of the other members of the little council, one half is renewed eveiy year. There are 
 two or three cities besides that have much about the same form of municipal assembly, but the 
 provinces in general are constrained to receive the choice of the municipal functionaries, from the 
 intendants, or governors of the provinces, and hence to have their internal affairs regulated accord- 
 ing to the wishes of the government, not at all according tp their true wants. Thus far as regards 
 the continental provinces. The island of Sardinia still preserves its ancient national assembly 
 called Stamenti. These parliaments consist of three sections : an ecclesiastical chamber com- 
 jDOsed of prelates, a military chamber composed of nobles, and the royal chamber consisting of 
 the sworn heads of the seven demanial cities and of the syndics of the communes. These cham- 
 bers meet separately and communicate their deliberations by messages. It rests absolutely with 
 the king to convoke or to dissolve them. In so far as their power extends, the preponderance is 
 on the part of the nobility, and hence oppression remains on that of the peo2:)le ; because the pre- 
 lates themselves, too, are for the most part nobles, as likewise are the sworn heads. Then as feu- 
 dalism still retains its vigour in Sardinia, it will be easily understood that the syndics of the com- 
 munes must bow to their preponderance. It may be said, no doubt, in praise of the Sardinian 
 government (if indeed praise is due to a levelling tendency common to all absolute powers) that 
 various laws have been promulgated fpr uprooting feudalism in that island. In virtue of these 
 laws the feudal jurisdictions have been abolished, and hence also the baronial courts ; the feudal 
 rights consisting in personal serv ces have been commuted for money payments. But the com- 
 plication of interests, the customary usages, and above all the weakness of the progressive ele- 
 ment in this island, have led to these laws having l)een followed with little or no effect, and feud- 
 alism still exists there. Sad consequence of Sardinia not having been enveloped in the political 
 whirlwind of the French revolution and Napoleonic empire, and of its not having participated in 
 the beneficial effects which resulted from these to the cause of the people. Albeit that political 
 
Lxxvi REFLECTIONS ON ITALY. 
 
 tempests are to be dreaded and dejslored, as the scourge sent forth by God's hand to punish the 
 sins of nations and rulers, they may be Ukened to the hurricanes, which while on the one hand 
 they cause devastation and ruin, on the other hand purify the atmosphere, renew the face of 
 nature, and prepare the soil for a more vigorous vegetation. Sicily, too, like Sardinia, found 
 itself deprived of those very advantages, but more favourable circumstances of genius, of greater 
 nearness to the continent, and of a more energetic will in the governors, have promoted the 
 extirpation of feudalism. It must be remembered, however, that the Sardinian government has 
 exerted a certain measure of influence in preserving prejudices in favour of the nobility, by 
 choosing noblemen in preference to others, for public charges and as officers in the fleet. 
 
 The legislation of the Sardinian government may be said on good grounds, to be modelled, 
 or at least reformed, as has already been mentioned elsewhere, after the French code, seeing 
 that in the duchy of Genoa, the civil and commercial codes are substantially the same with the 
 code Napoleon, with the sole restrictions noticed in speaking of the Neapolitan code. In 
 Piemont the ancient code was subjected to essential modifications in 1813, and fi-om that time 
 gradually revised, corrected, and ameliorated, so that it may now be considered as renewed and 
 placed on a level with the progress made by the people. It is not thus as to the criminal code. 
 The principle of equality is apparently recognized, indeed, in the law, but the publicity of trials, 
 which affords a mighty guarantee of justice, is not conceded. Endless procrastination in the 
 judges is another essential defect in the criminal procedure. It is true, indeed, that to obviate 
 these defects, severe laws for the regulation of the civil and criminal administration were pub- 
 lished along with the code. Severe penalties have been established for every abuse of power 
 on the part of the judges. But when all might be efficaciously remedied by establishing better 
 foundations, whose interest is it to give an impulse to a provision for particular cases, all the 
 more inefficaciously as there is there no liberty of the press or of mutual association for the 
 purpose of giving eflPect to one's own rights? May not the api)lication of those laws possibly be 
 confided to judges who are themselves obnoxious to like accusations? Of what avail can these 
 laws be in case of abuses, or in causes originating in political motives? From 1821 downwards, 
 there has been a cessation of the despotic measures which gave a stimulus to insurrection in 
 Piemont, namely, the safe-conducts, and the roytl billets. The former of these were privileges 
 of protection granted by the king to noble debtors, in virtue of which the rights of creditors 
 remained for some time in suspense. The royal billets authorized those nobles whose lands 
 had been sold during the French invasion, to recover possession on paying the original sum 
 disbursed by those who then acquired them. All this was done for the purpose of indemnifying 
 or remunerating those of the nobility who had remained faithful to the person of the king. 
 These arbitrary acts, although they have ceased now, will show wliat are the spontaneous fruits 
 of the evil plant of absolute power. 
 
 PubUc instruction, although the government makes a show of favouring it, although, in fine, 
 for the middle classes, it is placed within easier reach than in any other part of Italy, yet meets 
 with the most serious obstacles. The regulations issued in 1834 gave the preference to clergy- 
 
POLITICAL AND CIVIL STATE OF ITALY. lxxvii 
 
 men in the matter of instruction, wlion tlic (|na.lifioati(ins of coiii|)('tinL>; caiididatos :\v<: in otlior 
 respects eqnal. And as the state swarms with Jcsiiits protected and caressed by the aoveiniin'iit, 
 it may readily he inferred that instruction is entirely engrossed hy them. The iiuif/isfrri/o dclht 
 I'iforma, residing at Turin for the puhlic instruction of Piemont, of Savoy, and of the county of 
 Nizsa, and the Depntazioue dfffJl stnJJ in Genoa, are composed of laymen, and whilst the former 
 enters most Avarnily into the instruction of the classes that are in easy circumstances, the latter 
 is most favourable to elementary instruction, although its good intentions are frustrated by the 
 regulations above mentioned. As there may be clearly seen in the former the remains of the 
 aristocratical spirit, so in the latter the germs of the old republican spirit are budding afresh. 
 In the island of Sardinia elementary instruction is making such j^rogress, that out of three 
 hvmdred and ninety-two villages, more than three hundred have at present free schools for 
 children. Unfortunately the great number of monasteries prevents people from feeling the 
 necessity for having establishments for boys belonging to the middle classes, from whom it 
 would more easily spread afterwards to the lower classes. 
 
 About Tuscany I shall say all that is necessaiy to explain the tranquillity which it enjoys 
 amid universal agitation. When with the republic in Florence thei'e fell the last hope of lilierty 
 in Italy, the Medici family exercised a harsh absolute government, which was all the more 
 unpleasant, the more fresh were the recollections of a prosj)erous democracy, and the more 
 advanced the enlightened intelligence, the civilization, and the literature there, as contrasted 
 with the other Italian peoples. It is true that in other parts of Italy at that time, the inhabi- 
 tants were groaning under a foreign sway, but the sense of suffering was not so keenly felt on 
 account of the moral and intellectual degradation in which they had been plunged by foreign 
 domination. The age of Leo X., protecting the arts and literature, and crushing fi-eedom, was 
 an epoch of the most atrocious oppression for the Tuscan mind, however history may pourtray 
 that epoch with a forehead crowned with light. Then, when after the lapse of tAvo centuries, 
 the house of Lorraine ascended the Ducal throne of Tuscany, that people, in whom the hope of 
 a better state of being had begun to wane, yet in whom the generous sentiments of republics 
 were not extinct, found themselves vivified at once by the provident cares of the new governors, 
 who from opposition to the court of Rome, undertook the amelioration of the people's destinies. 
 Leopold's administrative and religious reforms, although combatted and maligned at first at the 
 instigation of the friars, proved afterwards sources of well-being and of civilization. Justly 
 appreciated by the present generation, these have captivated universal aflection to the reigning 
 family, which has never belied itself, and after having given the first impulse to these reforms, 
 has maintained and improved them. This gratitude and aflection on the people's part, while 
 they foment, on the one hand, the hope that during the future, reforms will go on to the extent 
 of the concession of a national representation, that supreme desire of all Italians, on the other 
 hand, induce men to excuse the tardiness and reluctancy of the government in condescending to 
 the people's wishes. There is a general persuasion in Tuscany that the Grand Duke would do 
 prodigies, were it not for insurmountable obstacles, and were he not tied down by the political 
 
 u 
 
LXXVIIl 
 
 REFLECTIONS ON ITALY. 
 
 system of Austria. Meanwhile, in spite of the reforms, Tuscany is not only on a level with 
 other Italian states as respects its governmental system, but is in some measure beneath that of 
 the Lombardo -Venetian states. It is enough to notice that according to the statistics, the 
 number of children that receive elementary instruction in Tuscany, is in proportion to the 
 population as 1 to 68, while in the Lombard provinces it is as 1 to 12, and in the entire 
 Lombardo -Venetian kingdom as 1 to 19. It is very true, however, that instruction is not laid 
 under bonds in Tuscany as it is in Austrian Italy, and no mention is made in the statistics, of 
 private instruction which prevails most extensively in Tuscany, and not at all ni Lombardy. 
 The Tuscan government is absolute ; there are no provincial councils there, and the munici- 
 palities have very narrow powers, their decisions, in matters of importance, being dependant on 
 the government. The police there is severe, perhaps rather more so than elsewhere in Italy 
 when we consider the pacific disposition of men's minds in Tuscany; which sufficiently shows to 
 those who know how to argue from effects to causes that the sacred flame of liberty and inde- 
 pendence glows likewise in Tuscan breasts, so as to require strict vigilance on the part of the 
 government. It will be enough to mention here the order issued by the high police of Florence, 
 to take away the inscription placed over the house of Alfieri. Tuscany has one advantage above 
 the other Italian states, and it is this, that the Jesuits have no standing there. ISTot long since 
 an attempt was made to open a Jesuit establishment; the people rose in a tumult, and the 
 citizens and the clergy sent supplications to the government individually, because collective 
 petitions, even under that tnost mild of all the Italian governments, are prohibited. And the 
 Jesuits missed their blow. One of the purest glories of Tuscany is its having demonstrated to 
 nations that boast of greater civilization than Italy, that the punishment of death is not in their 
 case necessary as a bugbear to deter men from committing crimes. The abolition of capital 
 punishments sanctioned by the grand duke Leopold, has produced the marvellous result of the 
 diminution of crime. The reigning family of Tuscany being a branch of the imperial family, it 
 may easily be understood that it acts according to the impulse that proceeds from the Austrian 
 cabinet. This leads people to think that the mild appearances of despotism in Tuscany are 
 dii-ected to advance the interests of Austria, having for their object that of exciting the desire 
 for a mild government. Still, dislike for the German remains profoundly rooted in Italian minds, 
 founded on the desire for independence. But if love of fatherland and of national independence 
 were not enough to make foreign oppression detested, Italy, besides the desolating spectacle of 
 the Lombardo-Venetian states, has recently had before her eyes a still more nauseous spectacle 
 of the influence of the mischievous Austrian spirit, in the fierce duke of Modena, who declared 
 that a king's prime minister ought to he the hmigman. The reigning family in Modena is itself, 
 too, a branch of the house of Austria. The dukedom of Parma, under the government of the 
 widow of Napoleon, may justly be considered as subject to the immediate dominion of Austria, 
 seeing that German troops garrison Placentia. Although the French code has been retained 
 there, its good effects have been nullified by the many modifications of it, dictated by Austria, 
 and by the system of law procedure. The dukedom of Lucca, reserved to form part of Tuscany 
 
POLITICAL AND CIVIL STATE OF ITALY. i.xxix 
 
 at the death of the duchess of Parma, Avheu the pi-('S(uit (hike will succrcil in that ,sl;it(;, jux'neiits 
 the beautiful spectacle of a people owning the lands they (adtivate, a stimulus of the utmost 
 consequence to activity and industry. Few poor people are seen going aljout Legging, seeing 
 that if they fail to obtain land the labourers emigrate for Corsica or the low shores (iiiarc'ivnic) 
 of Tuscany and the Pontifical states. Were the system of breaking down estates into fractions 
 to be adopted generally, what advantages might not society derive from it? How would it 
 elevate the tiller of the ground in point of dignity, and augment his activity and industry, to fool 
 that he was not a slave compelled to sell the labour of his arms for the benefit of the rich? 
 This system made the Tuscan republics of the middle age so powerful, and was abolished when 
 the aristocratical spirit smothered the good mstitutions of the communes. It has survived in 
 Lucca, owmg to that having been the last to fall of the republican institutions of that epoch, 
 although now for a long while deprived of independence and of the democratical si:)irit. Public 
 instruction in Lucca, although not in a prosperous state, is more extensive than it is in Tuscany, 
 the number of boys receiving elementary instruction being to the population as 1 to 54. Private 
 schools, however, are much in use. 
 
 In order to fill up the picture of the political state of Italy, I ought not to omit those two 
 diminutive states, the principality of Monaco, and the republic of S. Marino. The former of 
 these, situate within the territory of the Sardinian states, with a population of aliout 12,000 
 inhabitants, is governed by a prince formerly a peer of France, who had it bestowed upon him 
 as a fief under the empire. He obtained from the congress of Vienna, nominally if not in fliet, 
 the independent sovereignty of that corner. The king of Sardinia has the right of protecting 
 him, and it is well known what is meant, at the present day, under the name of protection; a veil 
 fitted to hide political thefts. The republic of S. Marino, in like manner, is under the protec- 
 tion of the pope, in whose dominions it is situate. It reckons only about 7000 inhabitants. 
 May it not be the seed of the future destinies of Italy? It is impossible to read the future; but 
 arguing from the great teacher of affairs, history, it may be easily inferred that, according- to the 
 ordinary course, the people will always pant to escape from despotism to complete liberty, and 
 that tyranny begets popular regiments. Let it not be said that despotism, as it exists at the 
 present day in Italy, cannot be called tyranny. V\^ithout entering into the confutation of this 
 idea, which the reader has it in his power besides to find in the facts already related, I will only 
 say that for the less fierce aspect of absolute power in our days, we are indebted to the obstacles 
 which the advanced civilization of the nations places, or threatens to place, in the way of 
 potentates, not at all to any modification of the selfish tendency of despotism. I will say in 
 plainer terms, that absolute kings are constrained to assume the mask of moderation. But if 
 modern tyrants are in some measure unlike the Ncros and Calignlas, the people, also, are no 
 longer such as they were when easily contented with bread and with public amusements, vanem 
 et circenses. The Italians aspire after emancipation and the free exercise of thought, and these 
 are precisely what their rulers fiercely refuse. Hence the tyranny exercised liy these, is so 
 much greater than that of the ancients, in proportion as the present civilization excels the 
 
Lxxx REFLECTIONS ON ITALY. 
 
 ancient rudeness and ignorance. Let me now be permitted to repel with indignation the excuse, 
 constantly on the lips of the enemies of Italy (and the enemies of Italy are all the partizans of 
 the statu quo), namely, that it is not yet ripe for liberty. Those who repeat this mendacious 
 insult, are the very same who have given liberty to Greece! What comparison is there between 
 the civilization of Italy and of Greece? If it be true that civilization consists in the social 
 virtues, in the love of letters, in the splendour of the liberal arts, and in industrious habits, 
 Italy his a right not only to despise being compared with Greece, but to be placed on a level 
 with the most civihzed nations, taking into account the obstacles which it has encountered and 
 still encounters, and the facihties that other people have had for their own improvement. Who 
 knows not that liberty begets generous sentiments and strengthens good tendencies, while 
 oppression disseminates corruption and tends to enervate all energy of mind and heart? What 
 nation is there which, like Italy, after the total loss of its liberty and independence, has presei-ved 
 the Muse's laurel crown in all its freshness? The genius of Italy has outrun that of other 
 nations, in casting itself loose fi-om the chains of tyranny; Galileo, Yolta, Vico, Beccaria, 
 Filangieri have opened up new paths in the sciences. But if even then, one would give the 
 precedence to Greece over civihzed Italy, because the former vigorously battled with its own 
 oppressors, he falls into a most grievous error in confounding not only circumstances and facts, 
 but further Itahan civilization with the desperation of the Greeks. In Italy the desire for liberty 
 is the offspring of thought and reason; in Greece it was produced by the brutality of the outrages 
 which that country received. In the latter it was a fierce feeling of revenge; in the former there 
 are manifestations worthy of a refined state of feeling. One of the fairest pages of Italian history 
 is presented by the revolution of 1820, in the kingdom of Naples, and that in 1821 in Piemont, 
 in neither of which was there a drop of blood spilt in the name of liberty; and moderation pre- 
 sided in all the proceedings of the new government. The same glory belongs to the insurrection 
 in central Italy, in 1831. Let these pages be contrasted with the emancipation of Greece and 
 with the first French revolution, and it will be seen how ripe Italy is for liberty. Then, as 
 resDCcts the difference of circumstances, I cannot refrain from taxing with impudence the enemies 
 of Italy who dare, with manifest self-contradiction, to blame that country at one and the same 
 time for being too impatient under the yoke of its legitimate rulers, and for not being sufficiently 
 energetic in its impatience, in maintaining the war against its oppressors ! But with those who 
 defend erroneous principles contradiction is inevitable. Nor is it borne in mind that the 
 Austrian, English, and French fleets fought in behalf of the Greeks at Navarino, while all 
 Europe beholds with folded arms the efforts of Italy, and the European powers have armies 
 ready to cross the Alps and to crush Italian liberty at the moment of its appearance. Nor is it 
 remembered that brave sons of Italy fought under the Greek and Spanish banners, while nobody 
 comes forward to make common cause with Italy; and while it was publicly declared from the 
 French tribunes in 1831, in announcing the refusal of all sympathy with the insurrection of 
 central Italy, " that French blood ought not to be shed for foreigners," forgetting that Italy 
 had lavished hers in torrents in behalf of France. It is not recollected, in fine, that Greece 
 
POLITICAL AND CIVIL STATE OF ITALY. lxxxi 
 
 fought under the flag of rclii/ioii against the Mahometan oppressor, and that cathohc Italy was 
 taught to regard the flag of hor oj)pressors as religions, and that of liberty as infidol. When 
 the European nations direct their thoughts to the recent insurrections in Italy conducted by the 
 educated class, and coldly seconded by the multitudes, without the enthusiasm that accompanies 
 popular movements, they definitively pronounce as their judgment that the people have no relish 
 for the word liberty. If they would but be at the trouble of taking the circumstances that have 
 been mentioned into account, they would form a different conclusion, and confess that the 
 people, taught by fresh experience of foreign intervention, and not aware, owing to the many 
 barriers placed by despotism betwixt province and province, that the selfsame desire for liberty 
 glows throughout all Italy, believe themselves exposed to certain loss without any probable hope 
 in their favour. This idea paralyses all their powers, and admirably explains the want of energy 
 displayed in the partial Italian insurrections. The first element necessary for the success of an 
 enterprize, is a belief in its feasibility, that is, full confidence being reposed in the force that 
 is to be devoted to it. This made Alfieri say: 
 
 Vopinione del volgo 
 
 Che il nostra petto involnerabil crede 
 ll nostro petto Involnerabil rendi'. 
 
 The popular opinion 
 
 That holds our breast to be inrulnerable, 
 Itself our breast renders invulnerable. 
 
 Nor have the excommunications falminated by the pope against the liberals, any great weight 
 with the masses in Italy, since the clergy have begun to take a part in the onward progress and 
 cause of the nation; were it not for this, should we not see perhaps the masses rise in arms 
 against the educated class, as they were seen half a century ago, even to wage a fanatical warfare 
 on the mountains of Calabria, the Abruzzo, Tuscany, and Piemont, against the republicans and 
 the French armies? On the contrary they second, or at least do not oppose, the movements in 
 behalf of liberty. In order that no one may sujjpose that my patriotic feelings have led me to 
 form exaggerated opinions, it will be of some use for me to quote the words of a Fi-ench writer 
 who has studied the political and religious position of Italy. La Mennais, in his small work 
 intituled: "The ills of the Church" (Les maux de VEglise), thus expresses himself: "If Italy, 
 for a single day, were left to herself (that is, without foreign intervention), if the existing order 
 of things had no other suj^j^ort but the exhortations, the prohibitions, and the commands of the 
 head of the church, the day following would see revolution extend fi-om Turin to the extremities 
 of Calabria." What idea, accordingly, ought we not to conceive of the progress made by Italy, 
 if it has advanced so far as to combat religious prejudice with success? Some will suppose that 
 the progress made by Italy, may have sprung from the political agitations that prevailed during 
 the occupation of the country by the French. But this would be a very false idea as far as 
 respects the masses, although it may so far hold true as respects that part of the population 
 
 X 
 
,^^xxn REFLECTIONS ON ITALY. 
 
 which is in easy circumstances. The French invasion has contributed rather to retard the 
 progress of the naasses by having given them an odious idea of liberty, by vilifying and trampling 
 on every thing held sacred, and making open profession of irreligion. The pope's excommuni- 
 cations launched against the ideas of liberty, found a solid foundation in the public opinion of 
 the people, who had seen the fruits of the tyrannical liberty of the French republic. In this 
 sense, too, the progress left by the French invasion in the easy classes, has hitherto contributed 
 not a little to retard the progress of the people. The people now, however, are convinced from 
 facts, that whatever be the opinion of the liberals with respect to religion, in all the attempts 
 that have been crowned with success, and in which these have assumed the reins of government, 
 no violence, no offence has ever been done to men's consciences, and the clergy and the church 
 have been respected. Let the praise of this fall on those good men who have removed the most 
 serious stumblingblock in the way of the people's progi-ess. But to what, then, are we to trace 
 the progress of the population in the various parts of Italy? This is what we shall see in 
 speaking of the religious state of the peninsula. 
 
 RELIGIOUS STATE OF ITALY. 
 
 It has been intimated elsewhere already, that the progress made by Northern Italy, differs from 
 that of Southern Italy, inasmuch as the former may be considered as a participation in the 
 progress of the neighbouring nations, while the latter, owing to the remoteness of the other 
 European states, has felt but faintly the impulses they could communicate, and these indeed 
 have sometimes exerted an adverse influence. The progress of Southern Italy has been one 
 fruit of the struggle betwixt the civil power and the court of Rome, whereas the progress from 
 abroad communicated to Upper Italy, is the fruit of reason disdaining subjection to the authority 
 of revelation. Both these progressive movements lift the standard against Rome, but on the 
 one flag is inscribed Christianity , on the other Philosophy. Hence the progress of Northern 
 Italy, confined from the first to the educated classes, has not found any warm reception among 
 the common people. There has on this account been a mighty impulse given to the activity of 
 the educated class, in propagating instruction among the lower classes, to which we may trace 
 the spread of elementary schools by means of the united efforts of the wealthy and the learned. 
 On the other hand the progress of Southern Italy has found a solid foundation in the people, in 
 so far as it has rested upon the Gospel, and has patronized their cause without doing offence to 
 the essence of religion, by at once removing them from intellectual oppression, and teaching 
 them a better way of being Christians. Hence the progress that distinguishes Southern Italy 
 points out to the wise and prudent men who have undertaken to direct it, that the easiest method 
 of persuading the multitudes is the amelioration of the codes, and the publication of laws directly 
 adverse to papal ambition. Jansenism and Deism, both in the past and present century, have 
 modified the religious ideas of the people of Italy. Not indeed that the people know any thing 
 about Jansenius and his opinions, for their ignorance is most profound, and neither governments 
 nor clergy have thought it for their advantage to enlighten the masses. But the constant 
 
POLITICAL AND CIVIL STATE OF ITALY. r.xxxm 
 
 opposition of the governments, find of one part of the clergy to the prcti'nch'd claims of juiisilic- 
 tion on the part of the pontiff, have tanyht the people that one may be catholic without any 
 slavish and total dependence on the pope, and that their ancestors had been victims of the most 
 enormous abuses, all germinating from the Vatican, and regarded with v(3neration as religion; 
 and that hence the pretensions of Rome, always announced as the voice of God, might and 
 ought to be conscientiously rejected. 
 
 Let us now examine minutely the origin of the Jansenist progress in the different parts of Italy, 
 and the various circumstances which have had an influence in promoting or in stifling it. The 
 kingdom of Naples, the grand-dukedom of Tuscany, the dukedom of Parma, and Lomliardy, had 
 almost contemporaneously the same impulse when their respective sovereigns undertook to 
 engage in a tilt against Rome. The emperor Joseph II., as long as his mother Maria Theresa 
 lived, attempted nothing in the way of reforming the abuses of the Roman court in his states, 
 for he was restrained from doing so by that mother, she being a most superstitious person, and 
 scrupulous in regard to the forms of religion. At her death, however, in 1780, he eagerly 
 rushed forward to the aim that he had proposed to himself. He cut off the free and secret 
 communication of the bishops with Rome, prohibiting their executing the pope's rescripts and 
 bulls, except in those cases in which they were approved liy the government; he abolished the 
 ecclesiastical immunities; he subjected the regular clergy to the bishops of the dioceses in 
 which they resided, in such a manner that Rome ceased to have any direct influence over either 
 the secular or the regular clergy; he abolished the monasteries, with the exception of those 
 which undertook the education of boys. And he effected many other reforms which I do not 
 mention, reserving them to be spoken of in detail, or when describing such as were carried into 
 execution in the kingdom of Naples under the ministry of the Marquis Tanucci; seeing that all 
 the reforms introduced at that time, were animated vdth the same spirit. Leopold, grand-duke 
 of Tuscany, brother of the emperor Joseph, went still farther, having pro2DOsed to himself the 
 suppression of monachism. He placed it not only under the bishops, as his brother had done in 
 Lombardy, but even under the parish priests. He suppressed the Inquisition; he subjected the 
 profession of monastic vows to the severest restrictions. He imjDroved the condition of the 
 parish priests, by bestowing on them the revenues of simple benefices and of rich convents, and 
 by abolishing tithes. In the dukedom of Parma, under the ministry of the French De Tillot, 
 who governed the state during the duke's minority, similar though less important reforms took 
 place; the immunities enjoyed by the ecclesiastical courts were abolished; restrictions were laid 
 upon the Church in regard to the acquisition of property, and ecclesiastical goods Avere subjected 
 to the common rule of taxation. In no part of Italy, however, were the reforms so great and so 
 important as in the kingdom of Naj^les under the reigns of Charles Bourbon and his son Ferdi- 
 nand. The Church had reached the utmost summit of preponderance throughout all Italy after 
 the council of Trent, through the increase of regular (conventual) communities, and the numbtn- 
 of bishops and of priests, who were cordially bent on keeping the people in ignorance, and on 
 multiplying superstitions. But this was the case more than elsewhere, in the kingdom of 
 
Lxxxiv REFLECTIONS ON ITALY. 
 
 Naples, owing to its servile subjection to the dominion of the Spaniards, who were of all men 
 most fervid in their zeal for the Roman church, and owing to the remoteness of the states in 
 which religious liberty was endeavouring to diffuse the light of the Gospel among those who 
 were in want of it. The clergy were immensely rich, and exerted the most ample influence over 
 men's consciences. In the kingdom of Naples there were about 112,000 ecclesiastics, while 
 the entire population did not exceed four millions of inhabitants, that is, they stood in the pro- 
 portion of twenty-eight to a thousand. There were twenty-two archbishops and a hundred and 
 sixteen bishops, a suj)erfluity arising from the Roman court having adopted the system of multi- 
 plying to excess the bishops in Italy for the purjDOse of securing a majority in favour of the 
 popedom at the council of Trent. The property of the Church, exclusive of the royal domain, 
 amounted, according to some exact and circumspect authors, to two-thirds of that of the whole 
 kingdom; according to others who, indeed, seem better informed, to four-fifths. 
 
 Such was the state of the kingdom of Naples when Charles of Bourbon, son of Philip V., king 
 of Spain, reconquered the kingdom for himself and for his descendants from the hands of the 
 Germans. Tanucci, professor of laws in Pisa, was Charles's right arm in the reforms of the 
 kingdom. When peace between the government of Naples and that of Rome was broken, in 
 consequence of the insults given by the Roman populace to some Neapolitan soldiers, although 
 Clement XII. made honourable concessions to pacify the government of Naj)les (after having 
 called in vain on Austria and France for assistance against it) Charles, urged by the finest 
 Neapolitan geniuses and by the favourable nature of circumstances, to revive reasons of state 
 against the unjust usurpations of Rome, succeeded in wresting from the greedy clutch of the 
 Vatican the abatement of many of its pretended claims to jurisdiction, in virtue of a concordat. 
 From that moment. Church property, which until then had enjoyed an immunity from taxation, 
 was subjected to payment of half the common tribute, and all future acquisitions to the whole; 
 precise limits were drawn betwixt the property of the clergy and that of the laity, which had till 
 then been confounded among the estates of the Church, to the advantage of the clergy; privileges 
 were reduced, customary favours recalled. The right of asylum, which until then extended to 
 almost all crimes, was restricted to a few of the lighter offences. Formerly guilty persons found 
 an inviolable asylum not only in the churches, but likewise in the chapels, the monasteries, the 
 gardens attached to them, and in every building that had a common wall with the churches, or 
 that stood in contact with them. It was now laid dowir as law that personal immunities are 
 granted to the clergy alone, whereas they had previously been extended to the attendants of the 
 bishops and to the lowest persons employed in the ecclesiastical courts, to the tithe collectors, 
 to the servants and thpse who lived with the priests, and hence also to their concubines; the 
 immunities were likewise restricted. The jurisdiction of the bishops was restricted and that of 
 the common courts enlarged. Strict disciplinary regulations were established, and in order to 
 keep down the number of priests, difficulties were interposed in the way of ordinations. This 
 concordat was the first step to civilization and to the modification of religious ideas among the 
 Neapolitans, although the hopes of the learned might extend farther. Nor amon^ the well 
 
POLITICAL AND CIVIL STATE OF ITALY. i.xxxv 
 
 informed men of that epoch wore thcrt^ wuntiug ecclesiastics oC high reputation, to give their 
 support to wise reforms and to l>ecomo their boldest patrons. Among these I will name only the 
 philosophic Abbot Cveuovosi, and Monsignor Galliani, both Jesuits. But the concordat cleared 
 the way for greater reforms, for the government interpreting, extending, and even going beyond 
 its stipulations, enjoined lay jurisdiction, restricted the ordination of priests to ten for every 
 thousand inhabitants, denied the validity of papal bulls not accepted by the king, impeded the 
 acquisition of new property by the Church, and pronounced the censures of the bishops to Ijg 
 null when dii-ected against subjects for having obeyed the laws. If contests arose about the 
 proprietoiy rights of laymen and the clergy, they were always decided in favour of the former. 
 All the licentious acts of the clergy were inexorably punished. Two friars of high degree in 
 their orders, opposed the royal judge in a case of asylum; Charles ordered the criminals to be 
 dras'^ed by main force out of the church, and banished the two friars for ever from the 
 province. A church was pulled down in Abruzzo, because erected without permission from the 
 government, which had forbidden the erection of new churches, because they were already so 
 numerous as to exceed the wants of the population. It refused licences to the Jesuits for 
 founding new conventual houses; it withstood the haughty pretensions of that order, by prohibit- 
 ing it from making new acquisitions. Although Naples may not have been the first to drive the 
 Jesuits from her bosom, but the fourth after Portugal, France, and Spain, it has the glory 
 nevertheless of being the first to pass laws tending to bridle their pride, as it was also the first 
 among the Roman catholic states to make opposition to the Church, a rule of good government. 
 When, in 1759, Charles passed to the throne of Spain, and his son Ferdinand, a minor who 
 had not yet completed his eighth year, succeeded him under a numerous regency, the Marquis 
 Tanucci prosecuted the reforms that had been commenced. It was established that the king's 
 ministers should see to the disposal of the goods and chattels of deceased bishops, abbots, and 
 beneficed clergymen, and that the revenues of vacant sees should be laid out on works of public 
 utility. Divers monasteries and convents were suppressed, and the property belonging to those 
 establishments was vested in the commune. Tithes were first restricted and then abolished; it 
 was declared by law, that monasteries and convents, churches, pious places, confraternities, and 
 episcopal seminaries, comprised under the title of mortmain, should be incapable of making- 
 new acquisitions; and by acquisitions were understood any new property, the enlargement of 
 houses and conventual institutions, the dotation of churches and chapels, the endowments of 
 monks and the patrimonies of the priests; and the eleemosynary gifts for festivals, processions, 
 and masses beyond the prescribed limits. The same law prohibited notaries from writing testa- 
 ments that should convey new acquisitions to them; it prohibited exchanges to prevent evasions 
 of the law. In order to diminish the immense property of the Church, the same law declared 
 that the rent of mortmain lands granted to husbandmen for a limited time under a long lease, 
 or released to the same tenants, shall be equivalent to a feu-duty, and hence, according to the 
 nature of this contract, the Church should have right to the canon alone, the proprietorship 
 belonging to the husbandmen. By other laws, blows were struck at the pretended rights of the 
 
 y 
 
LXXXVI 
 
 REFLECTIONS ON ITALY. 
 
 pope. Lay jurisdiction was still farther enlarged, while the ecclesiastical was to the same extent 
 diminished. The number of priests was reduced from ten to five for every thousand inhabitants. 
 It was enjoined that only sons should be neither priests nor friars, and that a family having one 
 son a priest, should have no more such. If under Charles it was declared that no bull of the 
 pope should be received without the royal assent, by a new decree it was further established that 
 the old bulls, although they had already and from time immemorial passed into ecclesiastical 
 laws, should be null and void, obtaining all their validity from the king's placets, and being 
 revocable at the discretion of the king and his successors. Recourse to Rome without the royal 
 consent, was prohibited; hence grants of benefices executed by the Roman chancery were 
 annulled by the king: hence a check was put on the pensions granted by the pope upon the 
 revenues of the bishops : the pope was hindered from uniting, separating, or changing the 
 boundaries of dioceses ; and, finally, the regulations of the Roman chancery were abolished. 
 Matrimony was defined to be a civil contract by natm-e and a sacrament by accession, and 
 consequently matrimonial causes to be of lay competency. While by these laws the powers of 
 the bishops were increased to the loss of Rome, on the other hand episcopal authority was 
 restricted and lowered. Bishops were prohibited from interfering with public instruction, and 
 while by one law they were deprived of the powers of censorship with regard to the writings of 
 others, they were themselves subjected to the common censorship in the case of their wishing 
 to publish any work of their own. From very ancient times the bishops had the monstrous 
 right of instituting legal proceedings against laymen for leading a dissolute life, and this became 
 a pretext for indulging revenge and an instrument of greater oppressions, by condemning those 
 who had the misfortune to oppose the ambition and greed of the priests to pine in episcopal 
 prisons. Trials for wantonness were forbidden, and the episcopal prisons were shut. Personal 
 immunities, which had been restricted by Charles, were now altogether abolished; the ecclesi- 
 astical sportulas were subjected to a tariff; and pious places were released fi'om payments to 
 bishops; various exactions that had been made by the bishops from a very remote period, were 
 revoked for ever, and when they wanted to allege in their favour the right of prescription, the 
 law expressed itself in this most wise maxim : il vescovo come prejootente non prescrive, i. e. 
 prescription cannot be pleaded in favour of a bishop exceeding his powers, a maxim which 
 triumphantly explodes all the sophisms of those who patronize the state of things established by 
 force and not by the people's choice. 
 
 Ferdinand, on his arriving at majority, began the acts of his reign with the expulsion of the 
 Jesuits, a bold and energetic measure which nobody lamented. He replied to the threats of 
 Rome by retaking the temporal dominion of Benevento and Ponte-corvo, by disapproving and 
 prohibiting in his states the brief issued by Clement XIII, against the duke of Parma, in which 
 an excommunication was fulminated against all the kings that had banished the Jesuits. 
 Accordingly, under the pontificate of Pius VI., he filled up the vacant archiepiscopal see of 
 Naples against the pope's will, and laughed at his remonstrances. Shortly afterwards he made 
 Francis Serrao, the learned author of many writings against the papal usurpations, and a most 
 
POLITICAL AND CIVIL STATE OF ITALY. lxxxvh 
 
 judicious Jansenist, bisliop of Potenza, aud wluni the jiopo refused to consecrate him, Fcjdinand 
 declared that he would have him consecrated according; to the ancient discipline of the Church, 
 and that he would do the same with resjK'ct to all the l)ishops whom he might choose in future. 
 He refused to submit any longer to the custom that had j)revailed in the court of Naples, of pre- 
 senting every year to the pope a white horse, richly ca})arisoned, together with seven thousand 
 ducats of gold; a gift dictated by devotion, and which papal pride openly called a tribute due 
 to him as lord paramount of the kingdom. Ferdinand had by this time married Carfdine of 
 Austria, sister of Joseph and of Leopold, Avho gloried in the good laws of her l.irothers, a powerful 
 incentive in making him follow in his father's footsteps and emulate his connections. The 
 kingdom overflowed with Jansenists, and these gave support by means of their influence on the 
 consciences of the masses, to the efforts of the learned, the ministers, and the magistrates, in 
 diffusing by their authority and by their example the good doctrines of the reforms, while the 
 ^\Titing■s of Filangieri, of Pagano, of Galanti, of Conforti, of Grenovesi, formed a good preparation 
 for the minds of those who governed the countiy. 
 
 In expelling the Jesuits the king had promised to introduce better order into the system of 
 public instruction, and he applied himself with ardour to the task. He appointed salaries for 
 teachers of reading and writing in every commune. Schools were erected in every province. 
 The instructions were given publicly, and the professors were elected by public trial. The 
 episcopal seminaries, of which the bishops were only directors, were declared to depend imme- 
 diately upon the king. The bishops were deprived of all right of interference in public instruction. 
 To a bishop who had raised a complaint against some professors for not observing the rules of 
 the Roman catholic faith, the king caused this reply to be sent, that the sole duty of the masters 
 of the schools was to profess and observe the rules of the Christian faith. Other bishops who 
 claimed it as their right to interfere in insti'uction, or to cite the pontifical bulls against it, were 
 censured and repulsed. 
 
 Thus were reforms carried out until the French revolution came and changed the mind of 
 Ferdinand for the worse, by making it fierce and austere. For a course of about sixty years the 
 kingdom of Naples had been taught to separate from the idea of religion what Rome set up for 
 religion, that is to say, the ambitious designs and the avarice of the clergy. Old ideas came 
 gradually to be buried along with those who had imbibed a prejudice in their favour from infancy 
 when such abuses seemed sacred rights, and two new generations had entered upon a path alto- 
 gether new. The laws were transfused into the conscience of the people. Besides the longer 
 duration of the reforms in the kingdom of Naples than in Tuscany, where they commenced only 
 in 1775, there are other reasons that explain how the progress of religious ideas is in a certain 
 measure greater in the kingdom of Naples than elsewhere in Italy. The first of these is, that 
 the reforms in the kingdom of Naples were developed step by step, while Joseph II. in Lombardy 
 and Leopold in Tuscany ran too fast. Thus men's consciences received no shock. No condem- 
 natory sentence from Rome reached the ears of the people in Naples ; whereas in Tuscany first 
 the sentence fulminated from Rome against the council of Pistoja, and afterwards the retractation 
 
Lxxxvni REFLECTIONS ON ITALY. 
 
 of bishop Ricci, who was chiefly instrumental in carrying through the religious reforms under 
 Leopold, first excited the people to tumult, and afterwards disheartened those who took part in 
 favour of the reforms. In Lombardy aversion to the foreign hand that wanted to plant the good 
 seed there by main force, caused it to be disowned and rejected. In the kingdom of Naples, on 
 the contrary, the love felt by the nation for Charles was extreme, and such as enabled him to do 
 l^rodigies of valour for a people dispirited by long servitude, when the Germans advancing to the 
 reconquest of the kingdom, were defeated at Velletri. Not less was the affection which they 
 entertained for Ferdinand up to the time that he became a tyrant, so that the French republican 
 army under General Championet, after being everywhere triumphant, found a grave in the 
 Calabrias and the Abruzzi chiefly, and in the other provinces, at the hands of the inhabitants 
 who had armed in defence of the reforming king. The love of the Neapolitan people towards 
 Charles before commencing the reforms, was a sure pledge of success; the love of the people to 
 Ferdinand, after having accomplished the boldest reforms, was a testimony of gratitude to him, 
 and an historical monument attesting to other nations that make a jest of Italian superstition, 
 that Italy, far from disdaining reforms, welcomes them as the greatest benefits, when they come 
 as the gifts of love and wisdom, and when no insurmountable obstacles are placed in their way. 
 
 From the French invasion till now every thing has been done to bring back the people to the 
 old superstition but in vain, although progress has been in a great measure prevented. The 
 suppression of the wealthy monastic orders which took place under the French government, 
 immensely contributed to enlighten the people with respect to the true character of the monks 
 and friars. Considered till then as persons withdrawn from the world, of an austere nature, and 
 not subject to like passions with other men, they were held in esteem by the common people, 
 notwithstanding that the educated class did not lose occasions of bringing their vices and immo- 
 ralities to light. The mystery that involved conventual institutions and the spirit of corporation, 
 threw a veil over all the irregularities of the religious orders. Wlien at their suppression the 
 hooded crowd spread themselves about, each returning to live in the world and in contact with 
 society, that veil was removed, and the people could, detect the true features of monkery, the 
 spirit of intrigue, selfishness, and hypocrisy, combined with turpitude. This holds with respect 
 to all Italy. Then for the kingdom of Naples in particular, the epoch of the constitutional 
 government was one of immense progress. The clergy, both secular and regular, shared fi'om 
 the first in the general movement, and afterwards seconded it with ardour; so that when, more 
 lately, the excommunication of Pius VII. struck all who had participated in the new order of 
 things, the clergy found themselves involved in the catastrophe. But as the clergy had not only 
 suffered nothing in that political revolution, but had been respected and favoured even so far as 
 to be admitted to form a part of the national representation, seeing that of seventy-two members, 
 of which the parliament is composed, ten were ecclesiastics, the most lively regret and affection 
 for the constitution remained in that enlightened portion of the latter body which could appreciate 
 the advantages of liberty. The excommunication from the pope was of no farther avail than to 
 divert from the good path that part of the clergy which had submitted to the change of govern- 
 
POLITICAL AND CIVIL STATK OF ITALY. lxxxix 
 
 ment as a duty of obedience to tli:i powers tliat be, and ;i,s a matter of necessity, that is, the 
 indifferent in the matter of politics, and the few partisans of Rome. The greater ]iart of the 
 cleroy, accordingly, remained liberal in mind and desire. Meanwhile the people had a new and 
 most useful lesson as regards religion. As under the constitutional government the clergy had 
 pronounced eulogies from the pulpit and the altar on the new order of things, inflaming their 
 hearers to the defence of the rights of independence against the Austrian arms which were 
 moving towards the frontier, the people became habituated to the idea that liberty as already 
 constituted by wise laws, by universal consent, and by the oath of the king, instead of being 
 opposed to religion, was something holy and inviolable. What effect, then, ought it not to 
 produce on this same people to hear it condemned from the same pulpit and the same altar, as 
 a sin asainst religion? How were the people confounded at hearing benedictions invoked on the 
 Austrian arms, and at beholding the ferociousness of the king in shedding the blood of citizens, 
 announcing that his oath, most solemn and free, had been annulled by the pope? What was 
 not the people's horror on hearing eulogies from the mouth of the clergy in favour of the king's 
 tyranny and breach of faith involved in the violation of his oath, and the publication of the pope's 
 excommunication as a rule of the catholic faith ? Italian good sense could not avoid the 
 conclusion that either the clergy had deceived them at first, or were deceiving them then. 
 The whole foi'ce of Catholicism, as understood at Rome, consists in unbounded credit being 
 given to the teaching of the clergy as the organ of the church's infallibilityj and consequently in 
 removing all circumstances that might suggest a doubt as to the purity of ecclesiastical instruc- 
 tion. Rome knows that doubt is naturally followed by a desire for knowledge, and knowledge 
 Ijy the fall of superstition. While therefore, on the one hand, the church excited doubts in 
 men's consciences, on the other the church itself, that is, the liberal portion of the clergy, did 
 interest itself, and still interests itself, in resolving these in favour of liberty, and hence against 
 Rome, because Rome has condemned liberty, and ever does so. 
 
 The matters that have been discoursed upon thus far, will enable the reader to perceive 
 that in Italy it is now a century since people began to distinguish in what religion really consists, 
 and to separate the idea of the popedom from that of Catholicism; and that from the expulsion 
 of the French downwards, they have begun to separate the political from the religious idea. 
 Previous to the Jansenistic reforms, Rome tyrannised over the governments and the peoples of 
 Italy; subsequently to those reforms, the governments shook off the yoke of Rome and prepared 
 the people's consciences for a like result; since the formation of the holy alliance betwixt the 
 king and the pope, fusing the two systems, religious and political, into one, the people, placed 
 in the dilemma of renouncing every idea of social amelioration if they obeyed the dogmatic bulls 
 of the popes, or of renouncing all religious conviction if they wished to follow the impulse of 
 philosophy and of good sense, have taken the third way opened up for them by Jansenism, that 
 is, of distinguishing the right from the abuse ; and having been taught how to distinguish the 
 church from the popedom, protest eveiy day, submitting to Rome in spiritual things, but 
 recalcitrant to its instructions as respects politics. On traversing Italy from point to point, this 
 
 z 
 
xc REFLECTIONS ON ITALY. 
 
 idea will be found clearly fixed in every mind; an evident proof of this is found in the late histor 
 of the various insurrections that have been seconded by the people, in spite of the excommunica 
 tions previously fulminated against rebellions. What a prospect for. the future to Italy when i 
 shall obtain its civil liberty, inseparable from religious freedom! 
 
 But is it not true perhaps that superstition reigns in Italy? And how can superstition b 
 reconciled with such religious progress as has been described? This seeming paradox is easil 
 explained if regard be had to the populations of the South and East, to the interests of th 
 priests and still more of the friars, and as respects the kingdom of Naples in particular, to th 
 example of the court from which the reforms emanated. Liveliness of imagination, accompanies 
 with a love of the marvellous, and with indolence, is, as has been observed in speaking of th 
 Italian character, a quality that counterbalances the contrary element, which, indeed, is powerfi 
 there, namely, reflection and activity. Hence, in proportion as imagination is more lively am 
 indolence greater, superstition exerts a greater influence over the people. It has been alread 
 observed that instruction, and hence reflection and activity, prevail more in Tipper Italy and i: 
 Tuscany than in the kingdom of Naples, while the imagination is more ardent on the volcani 
 soil of the two Sicilies; the consequence of which is that, in the latter, superstition is mucl 
 more prevalent. On the other hand, enthusiasm is the child of imagination, and this explain 
 how the idea of liberty, and hence energetic resistance to the obstacles opposed to it by thi 
 Vatican, is so much more fervent in the kingdom of Naples, and in the Pontifical states, thai 
 in other parts of Italy among the lower orders. It is clear that one may be most superstitious 
 and at the same time most attached to the cause of social well-being. Now the religiou 
 progress in Italy, that is to say, opposition to the ambitious arts of Rome, has originated in th 
 desire for independence in the reigning princes, and has increased with the desire for freedom ii 
 the people. Add to this, that Jansenism, which began the reforms and abetted them, wa 
 iinalloyed in those wise persons who dictated the laws, but in the greater number of the clergy 
 not being sufficiently enlightened to comprehend all the importance of the principle which it ha( 
 adopted, remained infected with the errors to which these were habituated. The essence of th 
 Jansenist doctrine is to attribute the efficacy of grace to God and to deprive man, that is, thi 
 priests, of the power, which the Catholicism of the popes has usurped, of opening the gates o 
 heaven to believers. The ignorant and corrupt clergy could not attain to the elevation of thi 
 doctrine. They easily persuaded themselves that the external practices of religion, attributini 
 their efficacy to God, either directly or through the medium of his saints, would tend to the sam 
 end; and so the popular superstitions were left almost in the same state as before the reforms 
 And it was their interest too that it should be so, since they derived advantages fi'om th 
 superstition of the people without being wanting to the observance of the laws established by th 
 governments, these tending only to emancipate themselves from the yoke of Rome, and not s 
 all to disabuse the people of the errors of Romanism. In this, too, the kingdom of Naples wa 
 more unfortunate than the other kingdoms of Italy, since the two reforming kings, Charles an 
 Ferdmand, were of themselves very superstitious, to which we may ascribe there being no car 
 
POLITICAL AND CIVIL STATR OF ITALY. xci 
 
 • taken to give a bettei" direction to pulilic opinion so fiif as relates to tli(; suuiirstitious tendency. 
 Divine providence, indeed, has ordm-od tilings thus for the i^reatcr advaiit;iL;e of my country in 
 its future, and now not remote destinies, for had reforms Leon precociously accumulated against 
 both the abuses of the popedom arnl the abuses of Christianity, a risk wouLl have been incurred, 
 owing to the extreme ignorance of those times, of exciting religious fanaticism and interposing 
 obstacles in the way of other possible reforms. Italy now waits for only a ray of freedom, and 
 her sufierstitions will gradually disappear. 
 
 For the conviction of those who, notwithstanding these reflections, are inclineil to regard as a 
 paradox the religious progress of Italy in the face of the existing superstitions, I will adduce an 
 incontrovertible historical fact. It is known how gross the superstition of the populace in the 
 city of Xaples is, and it is well known in history how the Neapolitans have ever abominated, 
 even during times of the deepest ignorance, the name of the Inquisition, waging war upon it, 
 sending embassies to distant kings and rising in tumults, on the mere suspicion of there being 
 any intention to establish among them that abhorred tribunal. The latest example of this 
 generous indignation on the part of a people so credulous and so superstitious, was given in the 
 year 1745, under the popedom of Benedict XIV., when the archbishop cardinal Spinelli was 
 bold enough to renew the attempt that had so often misgiven. On reading, cut in stone, over 
 the gate of the edifice destined for the infamous tribunal, iSant' Ufjizio (Holy Office), the city 
 rose in a tumult, disowned and threatened the authority of the king, who indeed was tenderly 
 loved; neither the lowest of the populace, nor that class alone which was superior in point of 
 vasdom and liberty, but men of all classes and all conditions, even to simple country clowns, 
 unanimously and eagerly united together, as if by one common instinct, in one sole desire, 
 threatened with death two cardinals, and did not allow their excitement to subside, until the 
 king signified by an edict his disapproval of the archbishop's proceedings, caused the inscription 
 to be erased, and abolished the tribunal. The archbishop was constrained by pulilic odium to 
 renounce that rich archiepiscopal see, and to leave the city. Cardinal Landi, who was sent by 
 the pope to obtain from the king some remission of the rigour of the edict, had enough to do to 
 save himself by flight, as he would otherwise have fallen a victim to the popular fuiy. 
 
 What has been said of religious progress in Italy cannot be sti-ictly applied to the Pontifical 
 states, where the temporal government is in the hands of the pope. It is matter for wonder, 
 however, that whether owing to what they hear from the inhabitants of other parts of Italy, or to 
 their own good sense, the people of the Pontifical states participate in the same public opinion 
 which attributes to the pope jurisdiction over spiritual matters, and denies to him any right of 
 interference in political affairs. Superstitious and credulous though they be as respects reli- 
 gion, they have ever champed with impatience the bit of the papal administration, and been 
 ready to fly to arms in order to overthrow the papal throne. In the educated class, indeed, 
 and in that of the artizans, so profound is the hatred entertained for the priests, as to spur them 
 to reject with abhorrence all that comes from that quarter, even to the Gospel itself. In other 
 parts of Italy the Guelphs have recovered their footing for the purpose of maintaining the na- 
 
sen 
 
 REFLECTIONS ON ITALY. 
 
 tional independence, and the clergy, at least a great part of them, seconds their generous efforts,- 
 whereas in the Roman states modern Guelphs have found a Ghibelline clergy. 
 
 As regards Piemont, religious progress is less than elsewhere in Italy, and the reaction against 
 Rome participates in what prevails in Lombardy, that is, it is founded on philosophy and ration- 
 alism ; it is confined accordingly, to the educated class, thanks to the efforts of the Jesuits who 
 have public instruction in their hands. The king of Sardinia has favoured and caressed that 
 order for a long while, although it is now announced that he shows a progressive tendency. The 
 king of Naples has himself too re-established them by committing education into their hands. 
 In the city of Aquila in the Abruzzi, the Jesuit house was declared by a royal decree to be re- 
 estabhshed in 1839, and the teaching in the Lyceum confided to them. The municipal body 
 presented a petition to the king, praying that he would remove this public calamity. The peti- 
 tion was blamed and the Jesuits were sent, but they were received with a shower of stones amid 
 the hootings and cat-calls of the people, so that the public force had to come to protect them. 
 Austria, too, shows a disposition to re-establish them. 
 
 All the governments are in close league Avith the popedom in Rome, in the hope of their mutu- 
 ally supporting each other. The possessors of real power flatter themselves that the voice of the 
 pope has power to persuade the peoples to renounce the idea of independence and of liberty ; and 
 the pope, on the other hand, thinks that by dint of arms Italy may renounce the ever-increasing 
 opposition to the abuses that prevail in religious matters. Nor do they reflect that in this way 
 they labour to accelerate their own fall, for the people of Italy will always shun the altar more, 
 the greater the number of bayonets they see sent forth by Austria and from Switzerland, and 
 will always have the greater detestation for tyranny, the more furious they see it to be in forbid- 
 ing thought and doing violence to conscience. 
 
 It has been a great benefit to Italy that the monasteries and convents were suppressed in the 
 time of the French, for their houses and estates having been sold, or applied to other objects, it 
 was found impossible at the restoration to replace the conventual brotherhoods on their old foot- 
 ing. In every city, particularly in the kingdom of Naples, there are public buildings, lyceums, 
 town-halls, prisons, hospitals, military barracks, and magnificent private residences, which were 
 inhabited forty years ago, by friars and monks. Further, those conventual institutions that have 
 been restored, no longer contain the same number as formerly. It calls for special remark that 
 those orders, that possess property, such as the Camaldoli, the Cistertians, the Dominicans, the 
 Carmelites, and others of a hke kind, that require certain qualifications of fortune and birth in 
 those who want to belong to them, have few novices, which shows how civihzation is advancing 
 among the classes that are in easy circumstances. On the other hand, the mendicant orders, 
 composed of the lower class, are numerous. As for the friarhoods, it is certainly to be 
 remarked that liberal ideas are much more widely difiiised, particularly among the young, that 
 is, after the first movements of Italian liberty which were not accompanied with any violence 
 agamst the clergy. This is far fi-om implying, however, that the begging orders are not griev- 
 ously hurtful to the people in whom they nourish superstition. From them there are distributed 
 
POLITICAL AND CIVIL STATE OF ITALY. xcin 
 
 among tlie people liundreds and hundreds of religious toys, such us false relics, marvellous arm- 
 lets, thaumaturgic j^i'^ycrs, cabalistic arts, remedies against witchcraft and M'itches, and otfier 
 fooleries, employed for the purpose of extracting money from poor dupes. 
 
 One of the orders which is most distinguished liy its retrograde tendency, is that of the friars 
 of the Most Holy Redeemer, founded by Alphonso Liguori, lately canonized, and consequently 
 called that of the Liguorinians. This order was instituted as a substitute for that of the Com- 
 pany of Jesus towards the close of the last century, and from its intriguing spirit, its intolerance, 
 and the support it offers to despotic power, may be said to be a worthy scion of the Jesuitic tree. 
 The government of Naples protects them in preference, even to the Jesuits, and sends them from 
 one quarter to another, under ])Tetexi of missions, to spy out and sound jDublic feeling, while acting 
 as confessors. Many of the bishops have for some time been chosen from among them. Woe 
 to the poor diocese that is visited with such a scourge. In the diocese of Chieti in the AbruzzO' 
 the archbishop is a LIguorlnian, who has ruined the diocese imder the idea of reviving the middle 
 age. Among other machinations that have been employed for this purpose, he succeeded in 
 making heard during the night, by means of an eld woman who had lieen suborned for the pur- 
 pose with the promise of eternal gloiy, strange sounds, bowlings, and other devilries, in the house 
 of a very rich old man who had shown himself, and continued to show himself refractory in not 
 executing legacies for masses to the church. He thought he should excite the terror of the 
 diocese on account of such a want of compliance in executing such deeds, but instead of that only 
 raised general laughter and mockery. 
 
 It would be too long to relate all the tricks that are put in practice for the purpose of increas- 
 ing, or, say rather, of preventing the daily manifest decline of superstition. I stop for a little 
 only to mention the many miracles that are wont to be fabricated for this purpose. The fable of 
 St. Philomena has had marvellous success, and has found credit not only In Italy but wherever 
 Roman Catholics are met with. A large book has been made up of it, which increases in 
 bulk every year, containing the miracles God has wrought through her intercession. To give an 
 idea of these, I will relate one of them which has fixed itself deeply in my memory, as apparently 
 the most singular In tue whole collection. A little girl, between six and seven years of age, having 
 got for breakfast from her mother a good piece of bread, fancied that she would like to have a bit 
 of cheese, more because she was fond of good things than because there was any hardship in eat- 
 ing the bread by itself. On the mother refusing she made a noise and lamentation, so that as a 
 punishment she was shut into a garret. Half an hour after, her mother not hearing any noise, 
 opened the door of the room and found her child smiling with a fine piece of cheese, and on being 
 asked how she had come by It, the little innocent replied that a very beautiful lady had come to 
 console her, and had given It to her, and on the mother pressing her to say if she knew the lady, 
 the girl pointed to a print of St. Philomena that hung on the wall, saying that she perfectly re- 
 sembled that. From this pretended miracle It follows that the saints of modern invention are 
 most sympathetically disposed to gi-atify a nice tooth in others, and accordingly are at variance 
 with the Roman church which enjoins abstinence. For my part, in this affair I conceive that 
 
 a a 
 
xciv REFLECTIONS ON ITALY. 
 
 the engraver of the print must have wrought the greater miracle of the two in divining so jDre- 
 cisely the physiognomy of St. Philomena without ever having seen her. 
 
 Nor does the falsehood of the miracles that are registered in that book reveal itself only in the 
 absurdity of the motives on account of which they are said to have happened, but I have had 
 occasion to investigate the truth of a fact mentioned there, and have found it of false coinage. 
 The most important miracle related by it, is that of a still-born child, declared to be so by the 
 physician in attendance, after employing various and exact tests to ascertain whether there was 
 a spark of life in the cold little body. It is said that after prayer to St. Philomena, the baby 
 cried. Now, happening myself to have come into that part of the country where the miracle is 
 said to have occurred, to preach a sermon there, I wished to inform myself about it, when I 
 found I was the only 23erson there that knew anything of the matter ! As Francis di Lucia, the 
 person who composed the book, resides in Mugnano del Cardinale, where the sanctuaiy of St. 
 Philomena stands, at a short distance from Naples, where it is commonly believed that the 
 Abruzzi form a half savage because a mountainous country, he thought that that miracle could 
 never be questioned on account of the distance and the inhospitable ]30sition of the place, situated 
 among the mountains and called Novelli. It is one of the ordinary tricks employed to accredit 
 miracles, to say that they took place in remote regions ; the want of newspapers, and of a free 
 communication betwixt place and place, making it almost impossible to detect the lie. Besides, 
 should any one succeed in discovering any of these sacred lies, he is compelled to shut his 
 mouth as to the result of his investigations, if he would avoid incurring the censure of the govern- 
 ment, which would charge the denunciation of a false miracle with the spirit of irreligion and im- 
 piety ; and even admitting that some bold person were to despise that risk, his discovery would 
 discredit the miracle only with a few, while the millions of the credulous would continue to hold it 
 authentic, and the Eoman church is in any case sure to gain by it. How many things are there not 
 related in Italy of the miraculous medal of the Virgin in France ? A Jesuit preaching on the 
 efficacy of carrying this incomparable talisman about one, related that the present king of France, 
 Louis Philip, having been induced by his wife, though with reluctance, to suspend one of them from 
 his neck, has by virtue of this escaped death in the various attempts that have been made to kill him. 
 
 But the miracles trumped up by Rome are mainly directed to the inculcating of the maxims 
 that are of most service to her, so that after having drawn the superstitious faith of the masses 
 towards some male or female saint, they may be willing to receive from their mouths such in- 
 structions as are now-a-days disseminated in the encyclical letters and bulls of the popes. The 
 doctrine which Rome has most at heart is that of submission to royal despotism, and, accord- 
 ingly, she contrives that the saints always speak in favour of absolute governments against liberty. 
 The apparition is well known of the archangel Raphael to a French rustic of the name of Martin, 
 predicting the restoration of Henry V., now Duke of Bordeaux, to the throne, as settled in heaven 
 in 1840. Heaven was made to speak in order that the thing might happen. But the calcula- 
 tions came to nothing. Saint Philomena in like manner in Italy, in her pretended apparitions, 
 speaks of politics exactly in the style of the pontifical bulls. 
 
POLITICAL AND CIVIL STATE OF ITALY. xcv 
 
 The defunct queen of Naples, Maria Christina, wliom Koine intemls to canonize, lias iiiaiTol- 
 lously promoteJ, as has been already intimated elsrwliere, the ends of the popedom, in persuadiii;.^ 
 the king by a pretended miracle so far to re-establish the abolislu'd immunities of the clo-jy and 
 the jurisdiction of the bishops. One morning the poor widow oi' a soldier presented hprs<df at the 
 royal palace with a petition to lay before the king, wanting to be admitted to a conference, as 
 having to communicate a matter of the utmost imjxirtance to the king. On being repulsed by 
 the guards she insisted, made a clamour, and on being threatened unless she would be quiet, she 
 broke out into such lamentations that the officers of the guard and others ran to see what was the 
 matter ; and passing from mouth to mouth, the news of this strange pertinacity reached at length 
 the apartments of the king, who was told of it by persons belonging to the court. He then gave 
 orders that the woman should be broujjht before him, beino- curious to know what this most im- 
 portant secret might be, of which she announced herself the messenger. The widow, after present- 
 ing the petition in which she asked for a pension, told the king that the glorious ]MarIa Christina, 
 sainted and beatified in heaven, had several times appeared to her in vision, encouraging her to 
 present herself in her name to the king her husband, and to say to him on the part of God, that 
 most heavy chastisements and grievous scourges threatened the kingdom and the throne, and 
 that God's wrath would not be appeased until the church should be re-established in its former 
 splendour, and God's ministers have restored to them the power usurped from them by his ances- 
 tors. The king, in consternation, or pretending to be so, replied that if the mission entrusted to 
 her were really such as she affirmednt to be, his blessed spouse would not have failed to authen- 
 ticate it with some miraculous sign; otherwise any one might have it in his power to boast of 
 visions that were the mere creatures of his own imagination. Well then, rejoined the Avoman, 
 " Santa Maria Christina told me that if your majesty refused credit to my words, it would be 
 enough that I presented you with this ring, which she in the vision placed on my little table, and 
 which on awaking in the morning I actually found there ;" and so she presented the king with a 
 ring. The king broke out into an ecstacy of astonishment, on recognizing in it the veiy rich 
 marriage ring with which the deceased queen had been buried. He called together the courtiers 
 who had been present at the obsequies, at the sealing of the three coffins, and at the closing of 
 the mausoleum, and they unanimously confirmed the fact that the ring had been left on the finger 
 of the corpse. The mortuary instrument, indeed, left no doubt as to this. All that remained 
 was to ascertain whether it was the same or another the likest thing possible to it. The report 
 of what had happened spread like wild-fire through the city. The king with the court, the arch- 
 bishop with the clergy, and the nobles of the city, with the most scrupulous formalities, attended 
 at the examination of the seals, and they were found not to have been touched. The wonder and 
 religious joy of the bystanders were raiseil to the highest pitch when it was seen that there was 
 no ring on the finger of the queen. Thus tlie miracle was sanctioned, and care was taken to pro- 
 pagate an account of it by means of the j^ress. The people readily believed it, on account of the 
 very high opjinion they had had of the deceased queen. Rome exulted in the fortunate result of 
 her fraud. Intelligent persons groaned in secret at the new obstacle interposed in the way of 
 
XCVI 
 
 REFLECTIONS ON ITALY. 
 
 progress. Woe to the man who should have exposed the trick, and reasoned on the fraud that 
 had been practised ; on the facility, in these times, of obtaining seals perfectly resembling any 
 that one would wish to break ; on the opportuneness, the convenience, and advantage derived 
 from mystery in the stillness of night, which afforded facilities to the cardinal archbishop and his 
 accomplices in the imposture, to consummate it within the walls of a church impenetrable to 
 every prying eye ; on the facility possessed by the archbishop, by means of the directors of con- 
 sciences, of finding in some petty soul of a female devotee, a fit instrument for acting the part of 
 visionary, particularly with the smiling perspective of attracting universal wonder and veneration 
 in consequence of having been found worthy of having celestial messages addressed to her, and at 
 the same time of a life rendered easy by the enjoyment of a rich pension which she would receive 
 immediately from the royal munificence. Still more luckless would be the man who should have 
 reasoned about the political object of this sacred imposture, namely, leading the people greedily 
 to drink in the idea that in heaven the absolute power of the king and the privileges of the clergy 
 were made matters of special care ; and hence that the king himself, too, might have had a share 
 in that sacrilegious falsehood . But in spite of the miracle and of the superstitious veneration 
 entertained towards the deceased queen, the king is held in constant detestation, and the bishops 
 dare not avail themselves of the privilege they have wrested, from dread of the public opinion 
 which had been already formed against the abuses of the ecclesiastical dignities. 
 
 I proceed to say somewhat of religious practices in Italy. From the things that have already 
 been saidj it comes out that the educated class in that country, particularly wherever they owe 
 any progress they may have made to the philosophy of France and to German rationalism, are in- 
 clined, one may say generally, to deism, and sneer not only at the doctrines taught by Rome, 
 but even at the idea of a divine revelation. I have discoursed elsewhere about the origin of such 
 mental blindness. The middle classes, consisting of such as are neither wholly ignorant nor 
 sufficiently educated to form a proper judgment and a religious conviction, either follow the 
 religious impulse given by the legislation of the country, and by the Jansenistic religious pro- 
 gress, if conscientious, or if depraved in point of morals, they adopt the cynic sneer of the unbe- 
 lieving, in order that they may show themselves off as men of spirit, or to smother remorse for 
 an ill life. This, which is the most numerous class, composed of persons of all descriptions, pro- 
 prietors, artizans, soldiers, and, further, of part of the lower people inhabiting the towns, has for 
 its limit the earlier period of life ; in as much as afterwards, when old age comes on, they go to 
 the contrary excess of superstitious terror ; for just as the voice of the passions becomes weak, 
 conscience resumes her proper rights, and these too become all the more burdensome the more 
 impure a man's previous life has been. This class, then, in old age, re-enters among the common 
 people whose faith is sincere. The villager, although superstitious, is generally animated with a 
 sincere rehgious sentiment : and it is a spectacle at once soothing and melancholy to see him 
 conscientiously, and in the simphcity of his heart, exactly observing practices that have been in- 
 culcated on him as duties ; to observe how absorbed he is in church with a modest thouohtfulness, 
 during the recital of prayers of which he does not understand the meaning, and remaining for 
 
rOLITICAL AND CIVIL STATE OF ITALY. xcvu 
 
 hours on his knees before the altars of the Virgin or the Saints. What would not ho the cncrffy 
 of his faith, were it solely directed to the Author of the faith ? All howevi'r, the enlightoued, tlie 
 moderately enlightened, the superstitious and the simple, all run in (■r(jwds to the churches on 
 festival days, but it is easy to distinguish the former from the latter, not only from the indifference 
 of their behaviour, their babbling, and from their having the air of boaux and gallants, but also 
 from their never being seen at church during novenus and in other religious exercises of pure 
 devotion, not of precept ; a very clear proof that nothing but the bayonet of the Swiss and the 
 gendarmes urges them to the outward observance of the religion of the state. To the classes which 
 have been already mentioned there should be added another, which in truth is not very numerous, 
 and consists of the hypocrites by necessity, that is, those who eat the bread of the government 
 wathout any real merit ; while those among them who are indebted for their employments to their 
 talents and to their merits, certainly practise religion without ostentation, either because they 
 think it their duty, or on the principle of submission to command. 
 
 And now as to the clergy. The greater part of them, owing to the goadings of their conscience, 
 belong to the class of Deists ; and consist of those who in the factitious fei-vour of the crafty edu- 
 cation adopted by Rome for candidates for the priesthood, and for monachism, have been taught 
 to consider the Roman Catholic religion as the sole ark of safety, and to regard Protestantism as 
 an inconsistent system, conducing to religious indifference and to individualism. These finding 
 themselves afterwards in contradiction with their own couscience, finding it beyond their power to 
 obey the law of celibacy, contrary as it is to human nature, in all climates, but specially in the 
 Southern races, and finding it impossible to escape from a state that does violence to their natures, 
 and withal a state of sin, in as much as the marriage of priests is declared null by the church, 
 and is forbidden by law, rush into Deism. W^hat distinguishes the deistic priests from the same 
 class among the laity is, their having no cynic sneer on their lips, and their not rendering them- 
 selves scandalous to the believing part of the people ; although, on the other hand, they render 
 themselves guilty of hypocrisy by affecting zeal for the external practices of religion. Another 
 part of the clergy belongs itself, too, to the class of the half-informed, that is, to those who arc 
 not instructed enough to form for themselves a conviction, who live carelessly in the gratification 
 of their passions, with the idea of afterwards repenting when the passions are calmed. These 
 form afterwards in their old age the most powerful support of Catholicism as understood at Rome. 
 There is not wanting a last class, although very restricted in point of numbers, who, reasoning 
 from the very principles of the Roman church, have succeeded in emancipating themselves from 
 the law of celibacy. Thoroughly persuaded as they are, from their knowledge of church history^ 
 and of the times of the apostles, that celibacy is enjoined, not by the law of God, but by the com- 
 mand of the church, and knowing, on the other hand, that the church's precepts do not bind a 
 man with much serious inconvenience, according to the adage most universally received in the 
 Roman church and forming an axiom in canon law, have come to the conclusion that the same 
 thing holds with respect to celibacy. Apropos to this, an educated priest belonging to this class 
 has said, in the phraseology of Scripture, that celibacy is that yoke which our fathers could not 
 
xcvm REFLECTIONS ON ITALY. 
 
 bear, seeing that otherwise we should never have been born. Nor must it be supposed that the 
 men of this class abandon themselves to a life of immorality ; they seek out a companion whom 
 they usually indoctrinate with the same principles, with whom they interchange mutual promises 
 of conjugal fidehty ; seeing that according to the Roman doctrine the two contracting parties are 
 the true ministers of the sacrament of marriage, and the parish priest no more than the legitimate 
 witness, whose will does not affect the validity of the sacrament. This class, accordingly, is the 
 only moral one among the clergy, if indeed we except a very few in whom either fanaticism, or 
 ambition, or a temperament cooled down by infirmity or old age, renders obedience to the law a 
 matter of less difficulty. What has been said of the clergy in general, further applies to the 
 regular clergy, or monks and friars. 
 
 Among the abuses of the Church of Rome, the two that have most influence with the populace, 
 and that make them murmur against the clergy and Rome, are immorality and avarice. People 
 universally lament the betrayal of the honour of families, and one rarely finds an Italian that is 
 not convinced of the general corruption of the clergy ; small accordingly is the esteem entertained 
 for the ministers of religion, though there may be the very utmost respect for its observances and 
 its doctrines. Public opinion, in this respect, has been formed by the clergy themselves, who 
 have launched among the people the saying of Jesus Christ, in speaking of the Pharisees, by ap- 
 plying it to themselves, namely, " Do what the priest says, not what he does." Now if we bear 
 in mind that the Gospel is not read by the people, it will appear manifest that the priests them- 
 selves must have taught it to the people ; and in fact these words are very often heard from their 
 mouths when they happen to be reproved for their libertinage. What shameless confessions are 
 there in that excuse ! 
 
 Avarice, one of the many features of selfishness, is one of the inseparable consequences of the 
 state of isolation from family ties, and from society in which the Roman Church has placed the 
 priest. The defenders of cehbacy usually allege in its support, that matrimony, by making it 
 necessary for people to occupy themselves, and to care about temporal property, and that the 
 desire to accumulate money for children, would distract the ministiy and call oflf their attention 
 from the church. They do not consider that the state of isolation resulting from celibacy, brings 
 along with it the melancholy reflection that in ill health and old age, there will be none enoao-ed 
 by ties of blood, gratitude, or duty, to render them those services of aff'ection which the married 
 usually enjoy, and that being obliged accordingly to have recourse to hirelings, or to nephews 
 gloating upon wealth, they stand much in need of gold ; that if it be considered how easily a man 
 flatters himself with the prospect of living to extreme old age, one may infer how insatiable in 
 general is the thirst for amassing wealth among the priests. One of the most evident proofs of 
 the tendency to avarice in the Romish clergy, is to be found in the theory that the Roman Church 
 has recently sanctioned, in canonizing its author St. Alphonso dei Liguori, whose moral theology 
 carries weight as an authority among Roman Catholics. In Book II., sec. 3, 5, 31, and 32 he 
 expresses himself thus : " The obligation of almsgiving in a rich person does not at 111 arise from 
 the superfluity of wealth in his possession, but solely from the urgent necessity of his neighbour. 
 
rOLITICAL AND CIVIL STATE OF ITALY. xcix 
 
 .... Simple individuals arc not bound to show any oagomoss in finding out the poor for the 
 purpose of giving them relief. All they have to do is to make sure of not being deceived when 
 
 they suspect the extreme indigence of any one In the common necessities of the poor 
 
 there is an obligation to give alms from time to time, when after satisfying the needs of nature 
 and the exigencies of rank any thing remains over ; but it is unnecessary to say, that there is no 
 obligation to despoil one's self of every thing superfluous for the benefit of this sort of poor people. 
 .... In a ease of serious necessity, it is probable that there is an obligation to take from what 
 is superfluous for the relief of a neighbour, when at least there is probalile ground for believing 
 that there is nobody else to relieve him," (this being what a priest will never believe, from a spirit 
 of charity, and that he may not think evil of other people). " When our neighbour is found in 
 extreme necessity," Liguori goes on to say, " one is ordinarily bound to relieve him on his pro- 
 perty in some way necessaiy to the dignity of his rank. I have said ordinarily, for if the injury done 
 to your rank shall appear to be more serious than the death of the poor man, there will be no 
 obligation." This revolting doctrine, so opposed to the Gospel, tends only to foster the avarice 
 of the rich, among whom the priests do not rank last ; and it is the doctrine forsooth of a saint ! 
 The avarice of the priests in Italy is proverbial. 
 
 On the other hand it is a subject of murmuring that dispensations for marriages among relations, 
 by blood and marriage, are got at Rome for money, where the rich have rights to the most extensive 
 privileges denied to the poor. In the kingdom of Naples there is the bull called della crociata, which 
 is distributed eveiy year to such as want to be relieved from the severity of the abstinence imposed 
 by the Roman church on fast days fi-om eggs and milk food, at the cost of thirteen grani for the 
 common people, double that for those in easy circumstances, and of five carlini for a whole family. 
 This bull, which is in vigour, indeed, in some other province of Italy, was granted for the benefit 
 of the court of Naples by Clement XII., on king Charles becoming again reconciled to him after 
 the rupture that has already been spoken of. It is presumed that the money exacted for this piece 
 of stamped paper, goes to maintain the fleet that is employed in the suppression of the Barbary 
 corsairs, and to redeem Christian slaves out of their hands. Now, however praiseworthy this 
 object might so far have been at the time of the bull being granted, it has no longer any existence 
 now, seeing that piracy has been abolished ; notwithstanding which this religious tax still subsists, 
 and the pope and the king tell a lie eveiy year. The people meanwhile become confirmed in the 
 idea that the church is greedy of money. 
 
 Confession, too, of late years, has become a sul)ject of peevish complaint, not only among 
 intelligent Roman catholics, but also among the more public-spirited of the [)eople, from its 
 being manifestly prostituted to political purposes, by spying out opinions while dealing with con- 
 sciences, and then by subjecting people to persecutions, or at least taking advantage of this 
 espionage for the purpose of sifting the efforts of the liberal party. The revolution was about to 
 break out in Rome during the carnival of 1831, but was prevented by the measures adopted, after 
 notice of it had been received in confession from the wife of a tailor who had sewed the tricolor 
 cockades. We are told, it is true, that the confessor had got the penitent's permission to give the 
 
c REFLECTIONS ON ITALY. 
 
 information, but every body knows in Italy that such a permission is extorted by refusing absolu- 
 tion to whoever will not give it. In the kingdom of Naples, after the revolution of 1820, it was 
 publicly reported that the priests would make up the lists of those persons who had taken a warm 
 interest in the cause of independence and liberty, on the coming round again of the Easter that 
 immediately followed the fall of the constitutional government. When an insurrection of any 
 kind is dreaded, the government usually sends missions into the provinces that are supposed to 
 be most zealous and resolute. These missions are ordinarily entrusted to the Liguorinians. The 
 common rumour that the confessional has become an instrument in the hands of the police, is no 
 groundless suspicion then, but has a plausible and clear foundation in the concordat of 1815, 
 betwixt Rome and Naples. There we find the oath which has to be sworn by the bishops pre- 
 scribed in the following terms : " I swear and promise on the Holy Gospels, obedience and fidelity 
 to the royal Majesty. In like manner I promise that I will not have any communication, or 
 take part in any meeting, or keep up within or out of the kingdom any suspected miion which 
 may prove hurtful to the public tranquillity. And if either in my own diocese or elsewhere I 
 shall come to know of anything heing on foot to the prejudice of the state, I will reveal it to his 
 Majesty." These last general words afford good ground for the belief that even information ob- 
 tained by means of the confessional, comes within range of the obligation contracted by the oath. 
 This will appear still more evident if we consider, on the other hand, that the popes in their bulls 
 against secret societies, fulminate the sentence of excommunication against those who belong to 
 them ; and, on the other, that absolution from that sentence is reserved to the bishop. People know 
 of themselves that the bishops make every effort to show their zeal in behalf of the government, 
 and fail not to pry into the secrets of men's consciences, being themselves chosen by the govern- 
 ment, and looking to it for favour for themselves and their families. Nor does what has been 
 said hold true with respect to the kingdom of Naples and the Papal states only ; the same 
 method is employed with all the governments in Italy. It will suffice as a proof to mention a 
 fact that happened at Leghorn in 1841, at the time of the insurrection of central Italy. 
 The wife of a house-agent having gone to confession, was so perplexed with the questions put 
 to her by the confessor that, poor woman, she could not help telling him something about her 
 husband's secrets. Hardly had two hours elapsed after her leaving the church, when the police 
 inspector and gendarmes presented themselves at the man's house for the purpose of making 
 a perquisition. The result was that the poor husband was thrown into the dungeon of a 
 prison, there to do penance for the confession made by his wife. Yet Tuscany was in those 
 times mildly governed, and of all the governments of Italy was that which ought to have been 
 supposed exempt from such abominations, that is to say, from the prostitution of religion to 
 the espionage of the police. What then might be expected from the other governments ? It 
 is worthy of observation, indeed, that such revelations are generally made by women, showing 
 how just are the reflections of M. Michelet in the book he has published under the title of Le 
 Pretre, lafemme, et lafamille (The Priest, the Wife, and the Family.) 
 
 From what has been said we may clearly infer that the foundation of the Roman catholic 
 
rOLITICAL AND CIVIL STATE 1- ITALY. ci 
 
 religion in the Italian populati<iiis, is already so much shaken, that its whole fabric is now in a 
 tottering state. Doubts as to the holiness and good intentions of the i)ricsts, are creeping over 
 the country and extending among all classes of society. The Romish Church has now absolute 
 submission for its foundation. Yet there is no catholic couuti-y in which the principle of absolute 
 submission is less received, and meets with more contrailiction than it finds in Italy. This spirit 
 of opposition to the tyranny which Rome exercises over men's consciences, increases more and 
 more, and acrpiires force and energy in proportion as the progress of improvement spreads from 
 cities into the country. But what will it be when new ideas traverse the peninsula with the 
 speed of railways ? 
 
 It remains for me to give a general idea of the influence which religion exercises on the people's 
 morals. From what has been said of the slight observance, or the no observance at all of celi- 
 bacy, it may be inferred that the Roman catholic religion, instead of laying any restraint on the 
 fervid passions in Italy, rather contributes to the relaxation of morals. What is most deplorable 
 in this respect, is that the scandalous example presented by the clergy has acted most directly 
 on that part of society for which the moral duties are most sacred, namely, married persons. 
 The marriage bed is the object chiefly aimed at by the priests and friars, in order to avoid the risk 
 of having the depravity of their lives brought to light, by the fruits of their illicit amours. Could 
 accurate statistics be framed of the transgressions of the celibate, I venture to say that the cases 
 of seduction would be to those of adultery as one to a huudred. Delicacy forbids my going into 
 a minute examination of the clergy's share in the demoralization of the people. This, however, 
 is beyond doubt, that were the clergy to lie under the burthen of no other sin but that of plotting 
 against the faithful observance of the marriage vow, that would be found enough to bring them 
 in as guilty of the greater part of the disorders of society. By this the peace of families is de- 
 stroyed, the education of children is corrupted and vitiated, interests are divided, the passions are 
 let loose ; hence infinite crimes and miseries. The picture becomes so much the sadder when 
 we consider that Rome declares matrimony indissoluble. It would seem that in not admitting 
 divorce, its object had been to favour the turpitude of the clergy. But however Italian civiliza- 
 tion may now have laid some restraint on so great an evil, nevertheless, with the utmost grief, 
 I find it necessary to bewail the misery of the lower orders, who still remain exposed to the insi- 
 dious seductions of the priests and friars. It is not out of place to mention here an opinion re- 
 corded in all the Romish church's books on morals, respecting children born iia adultery, namely, 
 that should a mother feel remorse of conscience at the thought of such a child sharing in the 
 family inheritance, she ought to do her utmost to induce the wretched victim of its mother's 
 sin to enter some monastery or convent, and thus not to receive any part of her husband's patri- 
 mony. Thus the divines have not only found a remedy for their own remorse and that of their 
 accomplices, but have opened up besides a most spacious way for bringing new friars in crowds 
 into the monasteries. Apart, however, from these considerations, and judging from statistics, I 
 cannot omit stating that however owing to the fault of the clergy, vicious tendencies have increased 
 in the course of the last bygone centuries among the Italian masses, yet the morality of young 
 
 c c 
 
en REFLECTIONS ON ITALY. 
 
 uumarried women seems to be gxeater in Italy than in other civilized countries. It will suffice 
 to give a proof. In the kingdom of Naples, which is considered as the least civilized part of 
 Italy, in the statistics for the year 1832, bastards were to legitimate children as one to twenty- 
 two, and in the Lombardo- Venetian kingdom as one to twenty-seven, while in the statistics of 
 England for 1830 they were as one to nineteen. But if, in addition to these facts, we take into 
 account the difference of climates, political oppression, the ignorance in which the masses are kept, 
 the difference indicated by these cyphers will seem still greater. 
 
 As for theft, Italy has been severely judged by other nations ; people founding their opinions 
 on the old stories of banditti or on recent assertions of travellers, who, from having been victims 
 of the cupidity of the vetturini, (men who lend carriages and horses for hire), inn-keepers, shop- 
 keepers, and porters, with whom they may have had to do in travelling, speak in condemnation 
 of the national character. The character of a nation cannot be justly estimated if we judge by 
 places that are much frequented by travellers. It is in the provinces that the national character 
 reveals itself in its true light. On this point I shall confine myself to addressing an invitation to 
 English tourists to frequent in the tours they make the provinces rather than the capitals, if they 
 would really wish to form a correct estimate of what is national in Italy. An Edinburgh jom-nal- 
 ist has been pleased to charge me with making myself the partial eulogist of Italy without con- 
 sidering that the exaggeration of evil, supposed or real, into which all have fallen who have 
 written about Italy, has made it incumbent on me to put in strong relief whatever good there is 
 in my country. Had but justice been done to Italy, it would have been my duty to have modestly 
 refrained from eulogising it. 
 
 To return to the subject, I find it necessary to call attention to the influence which confession 
 exerts upon the people in respect of theft, not being such as the defenders of Roman Catholicism 
 boast that it is. However it may be that in some particular cases of certain precise sums being 
 taken from known individuals, confessors cannot avoid inculcating the duty of restitution, generally 
 speaking, in cases of petty thefts accumulated without its being possible to distinguish them, at 
 the expense of various unknown persons, as happens in the case of dishonest tradesmen and shop- 
 keepers, from the impossibility of general restitution, the confessors cut the Gordian I'liot to their 
 own advantage by imposing on penitents the obligation of having masses said. But be that as it 
 may,however, the inculcation of the duty of restitution is not confined exclusively to the confession 
 of the Roman catholics. What Christian reading the Gospel, does not perceive the restitution 
 of what is taken improperly from others, inculcated by Jesus Christ in the house of Zaccheus. 
 But by how many evils, and by what a pest of bad morals, is this vaunted importance of the 
 Confession countervailed ! We find an irrefragable proof of the iniquities to which confession 
 serves as a veil in the papal bulls against solicitations, that is, seductions, in confession. But 
 what avail the pretended rigours of the Romish church when set against the astuteness of its 
 ministers in seeking the gratification of their boiling passions ? May it not perhaps be enough, 
 in order to their being eluded, for the confessor, on being made conscious of another's frailty, to 
 wait for circumstances that may be favourable to his depraved aims ? Further, although this 
 
POLITICAL AND CIVIL STATE OF ITALY. cm 
 
 case be included in the condemnations, it is tdcarly almost iinjxissiblc to in-ovi: the (di;uye. Nor 
 is tlae confessional a source of immoralities only ; it is also a most pernieioiis forg(; of intrigues 
 that prove most fatal to domestic peace. Without entering into minute details, I will 
 only mention the great part that confessors usurp in the making of testame-utary dispo- 
 sitions, in Avhich the least that can he looked for from the most conscientious is, their advising 
 people to leave rich bequests to the church, or legacies for perpetual masses, to the prcjudic(; 
 of the heirs. 
 
 One of the most deplorable consequences of the celibacy of the clergy is the roughness and 
 austerity of manner's necessarily consequent upon a law which interdicts and dries up the foun- 
 tains of the most tender affections. The harsh, dry, or, to say least, serious character of the 
 Roman Catholic priest, is an argument besides in favour of their sanctity ; hence it proves a 
 safeguard, in the opinion of the people, against any imputations whatever of blamable frailty, 
 and insures their being respected. From this harshness and austerity in the clergy, the greatest 
 mischiefs result to society. Besides what is notoi'ibus, that it opens to men of the most un- 
 bridled passions the way to acts of excessive turpitude by their abuse of an ill-acquired confi- 
 dence, there is another evil likewise which is still more universal and not less pernicious, and 
 that is the immoderate rigour shown in the bringing up of children. Besides that education in 
 general is confided to the clergy, families are regulated according to the maxims that are inculcated 
 by confessors. That text of the Bible, He that spareth the rod hateth Ms oivn son, is repeated 
 unceasingly in the ears of fathers and mothers, without ever calling to mind that other passage 
 from St. Paul, Provoke not your children to anger. It would present a most melancholy picture 
 were I to describe the life of a child during the course of its education until its majority. Threats, 
 castigations, and reproofs on the one hand, on the other a timid and mute submission, all attempts 
 at exculpation prohibited, diversions rarely occurring, and even then embittered with the dread 
 of the rod. It is useless for me to pause for the purpose of developing the mischievous fruits 
 of such a system. It will not be out of place, however, to note that it is intended by its means 
 to dispose the new generations to absolute submission to the Church and the State. In fine, 
 I shall give an idea of this system by relating a saying that used frequently to be in my 
 father's mouth : I desire, he would say, tliat you, for tea years after my death, may tremble 
 at my name on reading it on my tombstone. And yet he was a man who most fondly loved 
 his children, although he always showed himself severe to them, and rarely gladdened them 
 with a smile. 
 
 Let us now take a final survey of the whole of the religious practices, rites, and instructions 
 of the Romish church, that we may see what are those ties that chiefly bind the masses of Italy 
 to its communion. Among the doctrines that exercise the most jjowerful sway over the people's 
 hearts, and that attach them most to the clergy, we must give the first place to that of prayers 
 for the dead. I have noticed elsewhere that for a nation remarkable for tenderness and warmth 
 of affection, the idea of keeping up a communication of love and friendship with objects that are 
 dear to us, even when separated from them by death, is most consolatory and genial. It is said 
 
CIV REFLECTIONS ON ITALY. 
 
 of some nations that they have the custom, when they take their meals, of leaving a place at the 
 common table for the deceased members of the family, and considering them as present. No 
 wonder, therefore, that prayers for the dead form one of the strongest ties for attaching the nations 
 of the South to the Roman communion. The practice of burying the dead in churches, so preju- 
 dicial and unwholesome, has its origin in this doctrine, and in the misdirected fondness of the 
 masses for their relatives. Hence the greatest difficulties have been encountered in Italy in en- 
 deavouring to introduce the general use of burial grounds; all the more since the clergy, 
 with the abolition of sepulture in churches, must submit to lose part of the revenue arising from 
 the belief in purgatory, that practice being a most powerful incentive with those who attend 
 church, to open their purses when hearing discourses on the torments of souls suffering the pur- 
 gatorial fire. 
 , To show how strongly the hearts of the Italians are influenced by thoughts about the dead, we 
 have only to attend to the form in common use among the poor, both when they ask alms and 
 when they thank the donor on receiving them. " Charity for the love of God," are the first 
 words that the beggar addresses to the passer by, and if the latter seems not to heed, he usually 
 adds, "for the sake of the soul of your father and that of your 'another .... ;" after having got 
 something, he expresses his gratitude thus: "May the souls of your dead {friends) be blessed!" 
 Woe to any one who should imjarecate maledictions on the deceased relatives of a country 
 villager ; he would become mad with rage and might run into dreadful excesses. Hence the 
 Christian who should propose to himself the preaching of the gospel to Italians, or to Roman 
 Catholics in general, ought to make it his first concern not to make too rude an assault on a 
 prejudice which is so dear to them. In order to accomplish this, two methods may be adopted, 
 both very gentle and not likely to give offence. The first is, to show them in what the commu- 
 nion of the saints consists, and the communication of the living members with the mystical body 
 of Jesus Christ, making them to understand that if their deceased relatives have died in the vivi- 
 fying faith of the Saviour, and if they themselves be regenerated in the blood of the Lamb, death, 
 instead of severing the bonds of affection, has strengthened them, and glorified believers love 
 them with the same love of Christ. The second is, to invite them to pray, and in their prayers 
 to begin with thanking God for the innumerable benefits bestowed on all the saints, on the 
 blessed Virgin Mary, the Apostles, the Martyrs, and especially on our deceased kindred and on 
 ourselves, &c. In this manner they will be convinced that there is no intention entertained of 
 depriving them of the consolatory belief in the certainty of the bonds of affection between the 
 living and the dead. They will be convinced that in announcing the gospel to them, it is nowise 
 meant to inspire them with sentiments of little respect or of disrespect towards Mary and the 
 Saints, but only to keep this respect and this affection within their proper limits. 
 
 Love for the beautiful, which abounds so much in the Italian races, and which has made them 
 as a nation so passionately fond of the fine arts, painting, sculpture, and music, finds aliment also 
 in the Roman Church, which bestows its benediction on the fine arts by convertino- them into an 
 element of religious worship. The pomp of her sacred ceremonies, the splendour of her worship, 
 
POLITICAL AND CIVIL STATE OF ITALY. cv 
 
 and of the furnituro and habiliments that aro oiuployed in it, hold likewise a large .sliun; in the 
 charm that fascinates the southoni popuhitions and allures them to Roman catliolicJKiu. How- 
 ever strange it may appear to many, I cannot rel'rain from expressing my conviction that iuuif/es 
 and the splendour of the churches may perfectly harmonize with pure Claistlanlty, when those 
 images are only used as outward means of fixing the attention on the things they represent, and 
 when the splendour of the worship is directed to pure ends, not to the indulgence of pride and 
 superstition. I do not think that that harshness in judging of others, which the re-action in re- 
 ligious discussions is apt to induce, and which may, without impropriety, he called Protestant 
 intolerance, can be reconciled with the spirit of the gospel. These reflections will, with some 
 people, bear the aspect of a residue of Romanism; sensible persons, however, will clearly see 
 from the spirit that has dictated this essay how far removed I am from Romanism. But if any 
 doubt remain, it ought to vanish on reading a last observation on the doctrine Avhich most re- 
 commends itself to the passions of the people of Italy, and which forms the strongest of the ties 
 that bind them to the Church of Rome. 
 
 The Church of Rome teaches that the good works of a Christian, in a state of grace, merit the 
 glory of paradise. On the other hand, it teaches that if the Christian falls iiato sin, he loses, no 
 doubt, all the good works previously accumulated, yet by no means for ever, but only as long as 
 he fails to repent of the sin he has committed. Hence the sinner in the Church of Rome returns 
 into the possession of all his good works at the very instant of his repentance. In the language 
 of theology, the good works of the sinner, performed during his sinful state, are called dead worl:s, 
 and avail nothing — good works, anterior to sin, are called works made dead, which come to life 
 again {revivescunt) by means of repentance. This doctrine suits well with the character of the 
 South, so passionate and so ready, under the impulse of circumstances, to abandon itself to 
 virtuous or vicious transports with equal ardour. The carnival is preceded by the fastings and 
 the prayers of Advent, and precedes the haggard looks and the repentance of Lent. The games, 
 balls, theatres, revels, and mad outrageous mirth of the carnival, are immediately followed by the 
 devout practices, the manifold mortifications, the fasting and penitential tears of Lent. This 
 alternation of good works and of sins, this facility of accumulating a treasure of good works for 
 everlasting glory, without relinquishing one's diversions or making war upon the passions upon 
 earth ; this little difficulty found in obtaining absolution from sins which people mean to commit 
 again as soon as the season for repentance is past, are very strong enticements to the masses, 
 and powerfully serve to endear to them the Roman Catholic religion. I do not say, indeed, that 
 the doctrine of the Roman Catholic church is such as encourages sin, and promises absolution 
 from sin to those who mean to return to it again ; but I certainly do say, that the people view 
 the matter in that light, and cannot but do so, owing to the profound ignorance to which the 
 masses are condemned by the Church of Rome. How can they attach any other meaning to it? 
 The church herself tacitly encourages this erroneous interpretation of her doctrine, an interpre- 
 tation most fatal to morality and to the salvation of souls. The church has never proscribed, or 
 
 dd 
 
cvi REFLECTIONS ON ITALY. 
 
 at least reprobated, the custom of representing the archangel Michael with scales in one hand, a 
 sword in the other, and the devil beneath his feet. The usual interpretation given by the com- 
 mon people (and in this term we must include the greater number of the friars and monks) to 
 this imao-e is, that when one is at the point of death, the archangel Michael sets himself 
 to weigh the dying person's good works against Us had, and according as the former or the 
 latter preponderate, conducts his soul to heaven, or hands it over to the devil, to be dragged to 
 eternal punishment ; but if neither of the scales weighs up the other, that is, if the good works 
 are in equilibrium with the bad, he will open to the soul the gates of purgatoiy, in order that 
 its fires may consume the bad and purify the good — as with gold in the crucible. Such repre- 
 sentations of St. Michael are to be seen in the churches — so that, how can the people fail to be 
 led into error ? 
 
 Here we see the grand charm that attaches the masses with so firm a hold to Komanism, that 
 is to say, the persuasion that it is possible to conciliate a sinful indulgence of the passions with 
 Christian virtue — ^Christ with Belial. That rigid virtue which springs from faith in Jesus 
 Christ, which is the death of the old man that we may live of the life of the Saviour, acts as a 
 bugbear on the Roman Catholic, all the while he remains ignorant that the doctrine of the 
 Church of Rome condemns that very thing which he fancies it approves. The grand force of 
 the Church of Rome consists in the ignorance of the masses. While in controversy she fur- 
 bishes up and burnishes the arms of her doctrine, so that they dazzle those that look at them, 
 she leaves them to grow rusty in the hands of her own followers, so that they can scarcely be 
 recognized. The Roman Catholic doctrine, as it is recorded in books, is infinitely remote from 
 that which she sanctions in j^ractice and in discipline. The whole secret of Romanism^ lies in 
 this illusion of making people believe that it teaches the doctrine that it defends in controversy 
 with so much noise and as with the sound of a trumpet, while it really teaches a diflPerent and a 
 corrupting doctrine. The clergy who teach, and the people who receive instruction without being 
 authorized to investigate its soundness, are the springs of that insidious machine. Let the 
 masses but instruct themselves, and Rome will behold her empire over men's consciences escape 
 from her grasp. 
 
 And now I come to the close of this essay, in order to complete which, I would need to say 
 something on the commerce, the industiy, and the arts in Italy ; but the limits prescribed to me 
 will only admit of my summing up the subjects that have been discoursed upon, with the view of 
 deducing from them such lessons as may be of use to the reader. 
 
 Italy has, at two different epochs, been the nursing-mother of civilization to other nations- 
 she has in herself then the elements of life and energy. But how has she fallen into that state 
 of debasement and impotency in which she has now been languishing for three centuries ? The 
 nivestigation that this question would require, would necessarily occupy many a long page, were 
 I to think of treating it in detail and to follow out the various ideas that present themselves to 
 my mmd ; but, concentrating these in one, I would point to the cause of all the woes of Italy, in 
 
POLITICAL AND CIVIL STATE OF ITALY. cvn 
 
 the new aspect assumed by Romanism in the sixteenth ccntui'y, synthetically r('[)ro,scHtoil by 
 Jesuitism. It will strike every one who sets himself to examine the history of the church, that 
 society has always followed the development of the religious idea, and the political form of society 
 has been nothing more than a copy and image of the form of tli(j church. When the bishop was 
 nominated by the acclamation of the people, the head of the people was elected in the same 
 manner. When the bishops formed a sort of feudal league, the pope, in attempting to raise him- 
 self to an absolute supremacy, found the same resistance in them that at that epoch the kings of 
 Europe found in their barons. When the bishops re-asserted their rights, and when at Basel, 
 and at Constance, the pride of the popedom was humbled, the communes of France, the cortcfsoi 
 Spain, and the parliaments of England, followed the example in the political order of things. 
 A council deposed the pope — the state deposed the emperor and two kings. Now, as at the 
 council of Trent, the church of Italy, and along with it Catholicism, allowed itself to be entirely 
 absorbed by the Vatican — in such a manner that, from that epoch down to the present time, the 
 pope has represented the church — so, in the political order, kings have represented the state. 
 "France, that is, myself," said Louis XIV. The absolutism of kings followed the absolutism of the 
 pretended head of the church. Hence the nationality of Italy disappeared, and it is nationality 
 that forms the force of nations. Italy was the first to lose her nationality, and hence with it all 
 weight in political Europe. Spain gradually lost her splendour from the time that Philip II. 
 gave his kingdom the form that had been assumed by the Roman Church, that is, absolutism. 
 France, Austria, Portugal, and all the rest of Europe that remained subject to Rome, came to 
 be regulated according to the sacred model of absolute government. The French revolution 
 broke the charm, and all nations in which the spirit of democracy is boiling, have felt again the 
 throbbings of renovated life, and of these Italy is not the last. Woe to the nations to which 
 Romanism gives absolute law ! Woe especially to those nations which, from beiu'*'- embued with 
 aristocratical maxims and prejudices, allow themselves to be seduced by Rome ; once seduced, 
 they will find it a hard task to withdraw themselves firom servitude. May Italy sei-ve as an 
 example to England, to which Rome's gloating eyes are now directed, as to an exceedingly rich 
 and desirable prey. The English aristocracy cannot fail to favour the efforts of the church of 
 Rome, when called to make head against the ever-waxing efforts of a democracy that threatens 
 their privileges. Oxford cannot hesitate in the choice between Rome with its despotism, and 
 Protestantism with its evangelical maxims tending to equalitt/. Never let England forgot that 
 Italy owes her degradation to the popedom, and, accordingly, that she too will cease to be 
 great, prosperous, and free, when Rome shall regain her ancient ascendancy in this kingdom. 
 The celebrated Vincenzo Gioberti, in his work on the Primacy of the Italians, endeavours to 
 separate Jesuitism from the popedom, and while he attributes the ills of Italy to Jesuitism, he 
 makes himself the warm defender of the Roman ]3ontificate. But how often do even men of 
 great genius allow themselves to be the dupes of an illusion ! To condemn Jesuitism and laud 
 the popedom, while the popedom lauds Jesuitism and identifies itself with it ! ! ! and con- 
 
cvm REFLECTIONS ON ITALY. 
 
 demns those that make war upon it ! ! ! To conclude, therefore, and in warmly recom- 
 mending my readers not to allow themselves to be seduced by the blaiid appearances 
 that Romanism assumes, I cease not to repeat that they should not lose sight of the political 
 and moral state of Italy, as being that from which they may gather what Romanism essen- 
 tially is. A tree must be judged by its fniits. But if they would ascribe bad fruits to the 
 Jesuitical tree, is not that a bud of Romanism ? May the Lord deliver the earth from both. 
 
# • ■^^'^/^li»H» 
 
ITALY, 
 
 CLASSICAL, HISTOKICAL AND PICTUEE8QUE, 
 
 m: 
 
 NICE. 
 
 ~5^W)\-^'" ICE is said to have been founded by the MassUii, about 600 b.c. Its ori- 
 J|P/ ii ginal name of 'Nnoj {victory), given to it to commemorate the conquest of 
 ^^ the Ligurians by the ^Massilii, lias been converted by the French into Nice, 
 and by the Italians into Nizza. The ancient city, of which aU traces have 
 disappeared, occupied the site of the present citadel : its fortifications were 
 sufficiently strong to repress the incm-sions of the Ligurians and the mountain tribes, 
 and to protect the navigation in its vicinity. Nice became, at length, subject to 
 Rome ; and, on the decline and ultimate dismemberment of the emphe, it passed 
 through all the vicissitudes to which the Roman provinces were then exposed. It 
 was afterwards ceded to the Counts of Provence, and formed part of the ducal terri- 
 tory of Savoy. At the present day, it is included in the dominions of the King of Sardinia. 
 
 In 1543, Nice sustained an attack from the combined forces of Francis I. and the Turks ; 
 on which occasion the city Avas saved by an act of female gallantry, worthy to stand on record 
 beside the more recent heroism of the Maid of Saragossa. In one of the assaults, the Janissaries 
 had actually planted the crescent on the ramparts, when a woman, named Catherine Segm-ana, 
 the wife of a poor citizen, rallied the retreating garrison, and struck down the Turkish standard- 
 bearer with a hatchet. This instance of bravery inspired her countrymen with new energy; 
 they returned mth enthusiasm to their defences, and drove the assailants from the walls. The 
 citizens of Nice raised a statue in honour of the heroine ; but the descent of her fame has suffered 
 from the fidelity of the sculptor, who, by a too faithful portraiture of the " amazon," has 
 conveyed to posterity " a fearful record of her ugliness." 
 
 The present aspect of Nice is described as being that of a pretty, small city, not fortified, 
 stretching round the back of a steep, rocky mount, Avhereon, till recently, stood the ruins of 
 the once formidable castle. These ruins are now removed, and the ground is converted into a 
 delightful promenade, whence is obtained a magnificent view of the coast and inland scenery. 
 The architectm-al character of the city is not uniform : in the older portions, the avenues are 
 narrow, and deficient in point of cleanliness ; but the streets, squares, and terraces, Avhich have 
 sprung up in consequence of the great influx of visitants, are spacious and elegant, and impress 
 the stranger, whether ennuy^e or invalid, very strongly in their favour. The names of the 
 
 A 
 
2 NICE. 
 
 streets ai-e wi'itten up both in Frencli and Italian ; but the dialect of the Nizzari differs con- 
 siderably from either of these languages, and possesses much interest on account of its aUeged 
 antiquity, and also as being the dialect of the Troubadours, whose minstrelsy gave the first 
 impulse to poetry in modern Italy. The King of Sardinia is anxious to restore its ItaUan 
 nationality to Nice ; but owing to its position with respect to France, and, even more perhaps, 
 to its mixed population, there is a strange jumble of language, appearance, and manners. 
 
 Nice does not contain any pubhc buildings worthy of particular regard. The cathedral of 
 Santa Reparata, built in 1650, is in the ordinary Italian style of architecture, and presents 
 little to attract attention. The pictorial decorations, which form so prominent a feature in the 
 chm-ches generally, render no aid to this edifice, the few which it contains being equaUy 
 mediocre with the structure itself In one respect, this cathedral stands on equality with all 
 the churches of Italy— in the number of lazzaroni who carry on theu- mendicant profession 
 within its sanctuary. " The Sunday after we arrived," observes a recent writer, " we were 
 driven from the cathedral by the importunity and disgusting appearance of the beggars, who, 
 at Nice, as in all Italian cities, pm-sue their occupation with the same industry and pertinacity 
 in the church as on the street." 
 
 The Croce di Marmo, or Marble Cross, commemorates the conference between Francis I. 
 and Charles V., in which Pope Paul III. endeavoured to adjust the differences between these 
 rival monarchs, and effect a reconciliation. In this the pontiff only partially succeeded : the 
 sovereigns regarded each other with such deep animosity, that at this conference, so named, 
 they could never be persuaded to meet together ; and Paul, with much difficulty, procured 
 their joint agreement to a ten years' truce, during which period each was to confine himself 
 within the territory presently in his possession. The Croce di Marmo gives name to the 
 faubourg in its vicinity, which is also called the Citta degli Inglesi, from its being that part 
 of the city in which the English principally reside. It stands apart from the rest of the town, 
 and contains some good houses, with pleasant gardens attached. In the neighbourhood is a 
 chapel of the English Church, erected in 1821, by permission of Vittorio Emanuel. It stands 
 in the midst of an English burial-ground, which has become a place of deep interest from 
 the numerous records scattered over it of the young and beautiful who came hither — to die. 
 
 In the city of Nice itself, there is as little to interest the antiquary as the lover of art ; 
 but in the environs some remarkable remains are still existing. A pleasant drive leads to the 
 modern village of Cimella, occupying the site of the ancient Civitas Cemeliensis, once a place 
 of considerable importance. In this neighbourhood are the remains of a Roman amphitheatre, 
 named by the peasants the Bath of the Fairies. Other remains are discovered in the contigu- 
 ous farms and vineyards, presenting less obvious traces of Roman structure. In the church 
 of the Franciscan Monastery, which occupies a delightful position in this vicinity, is a very 
 good painting by Ludovico Brea, the only artist of eminence whose name is associated with 
 Nice. Other excursions, presenting great variety of scenery, may be made through the environs 
 of Nice. Amongst the objects of interest may be mentioned the Convent of San Bartolomeo, 
 in which is an altar piece of considerable merit ; the II Vallone Oscm-o, a fine mountain gorge, 
 worthy the pencil of Salvator Rosa ; and the La Fontana del Tempio, a valley not less remark- 
 able for its beautiful repose than is the Vallone Oscuro for its wild and savage grandeur. 
 
 The picturesque features of Nice and the surrounding country, and the salubrity of the 
 climate, were too highly rated by early visitants, and there is now a tendency to undervalue 
 the natural features and qualities of this locality. When it first became a place of resort, it 
 
1 _^-I...'Li;.i^..J«:! 
 
VINTIMIGLIA. 3 
 
 was recommended as a suitable residence for persons suffering from jmlmonary complaints ; 
 for this class of invalids, llo^\■cver, experience lias shown that it is not well adapted. The 
 cloudless sky common to Italy is almost always visible, but the air is very pic^rcing and highly 
 unfavourable to disease of the lungs. The invalid is, moreover, much exposed to the two 
 winds named the Use and the marin, the former bringing cold, and the latter damp. The 
 comforts so amply found in the houses and hotels, counteract, to a great extent, the incon- 
 veniences resulting from climate ; but the medical testimony of the present day does not 
 recommend a lengthened stay at Nice to those Avho exhibit consumptive tendencies, or in 
 whom, at least, these tendencies have made any decided advance. To other classes of invalids, 
 this locality offers renovation of health, resulting, perhaps, less from peculiarity of climate 
 than from the exciting and sublime scenery by Avhich it is environed. To the tourist, Nice is 
 an interesting and pleasant place of sojourn before crossing the Alpine barrier of Italy. 
 
 VINTIMIGLIA. 
 
 BOUT six miles from Mentone, in the route from Nice to Vintimiglia, and 
 
 in the immediate neighbom-hood of the latter place, stands the Bridge of St. 
 
 Louis, built across a ravine, on rocks whose height is from three hundred to 
 
 (^-Vj^^V four hundred feet. An aqueduct is also thrown over the ravine, which adds 
 
 ^ - . , , 7^-^^ considerably to the beautiful effect of the bridge, beneath which the water 
 
 '^V'iWty- fells in a succession of cascades. Both the bridge and the aqueduct were constructed 
 
 Y^'io) by the command of Napoleon, and they serve alike as monuments of his enterprise, 
 
 C^ and grateful recollections of a man more remembered for his unrelenting ambition 
 
 ^ than for beneficence to his species. 
 
 ^ The httle town of Vintimiglia, seated on a high rock above the Mediterranean, and 
 
 commanded by its stUI more lofty castle, is situated on the right bank of the Roya, close to its 
 junction with the sea, and presents a most picturesque appearance from every point of approach. 
 From the side towards Nice, where the road is level with the town, and elevated far above the 
 sea, the wild masses of overhanging cliffs are speckled Avith the aloe, the prickly pear, and 
 even the palm tree, Avhich last vegetates thus far from the north in some deep recesses of the 
 coast, and gives it almost an Eastern character. Beyond this grand foreground, the eye gathers 
 up the white and shingled line of coast to Bordighera, and the headlands which mingle in the 
 haze with the horizon. The approach from the Genoese side is strikingly different. Vinti- 
 miglia, surmounted by its castle, is seen perched on a precipice, the access to Avhich is by a 
 bridge, crossing the broad Avinter's bed of the Roya, whence by a steep, abrupt, and Avinding 
 ascent, Ave approach the toAvn. The view chosen for this Avork shoAvs the junction of the Roya 
 Avith the Mediterranean, and presents in picturesque combination the bridge and castle already 
 mentioned. 
 
 Vintimiglia is a place of great antiquity, the Albium Intemelium of the Romans, and the 
 capital of the Ligures Intemelii : it is mentioned by several classical historians, and more parti- 
 cularly by Tacitus, who calls it a municipium, and relates, concerning it, the anecdote of the 
 
4 VINTIMIGLIA. 
 
 Ligurian mother, who, when the town was taken by Otho, died by torture rather than divulge 
 the place of her son's concealment. In the middle ages, Vintimiglia repeatedly changed mas- 
 ters the possession of it being obstinately contested by the Genoese, the Dukes of Savoy, and 
 the Counts of Provence. Previous to the invasion by the French, it was the frontier town 
 between the States of Sardinia and Genoa. It is now an episcopal see, founded, according to 
 tradition, by St. Barnabas, the apostle, who is stated to have first preached the gospel here. 
 
 The Duomo, or cathedral, an ancient structure, now considerably modernized, is supposed to 
 have been a temple of Juno. Some portions stdl exhibit a rude and singular Gothic style of 
 architecture, peculiar to the Riviera, and at present unnoticed by writers onthis subject. Vailous 
 inscriptions, attesting the antiquity of the town, are inserted in this building, and are also to be 
 found in other parts of the city. The church of St. Michael, another ecclesiastical structure, was 
 anciently a heathen temple, dedicated to Castor and Pollux. It is the custom, throughout the 
 Continent, to leave the churches open during the day and evening. This privilege of free access 
 to a place of worship takes its value from the estimation in which the building is held, not merely 
 as a gathering place for worshippers, but as a spot holy and apart, a hallowed retreat from all 
 that is secular and profane. On entering a church in the gloom of evening, the mind can 
 scarcely resist the touching sentiments of the scene, as the eye wanders round the aged structure, 
 dimly revealed by the light of a single lamp, and discovers a groupe of women kneehng iu 
 deep abstraction, and making silence more impressive by the low and whispered murmurs of 
 sighs and prayers. It is, however, only the poetry of religion that the spectator feels. 
 
 Vintimigha has been strongly fortified, as being the spot where the defence of the Sardinian 
 territory against any aggression on the part of the French must necessarily begin. This city 
 divides with San Remo, a wealthy town, about sixteen miles to the eastward, the advantage of 
 supplying palm leaves to Rome for the ceremonies of Palm Sunday. A vessel, with a cargo of 
 these sacred branches, has regularly sailed every year since 1587; and the privilege of sending 
 them is still retained in the Bresca family, by whom it was obtained in a remarkable way from 
 Pope Sixtus V. Thousands had assembled to witness the raising of the obelisk in the centre 
 of the colonnade of St. Peter's. The multitude were enjoined to observe strict silence, that 
 the orders of Fontana, the engineer, might be heard by the workmen employed in the opera- 
 tion ; and a violation of this order was to be punished with immediate death by hanging, a 
 gallows for that purpose having been erected on the spot. The obelisk had nearly reached its 
 destined position, when Fontana noticed, with deep anxiety, that the ropes had stretched to the 
 utmost, and that there was danger of their breaking from extreme tension. At this moment, 
 a shout was heard from the crowd, ''Bagnate le cat^de" (wet the rope). This was instantly done: 
 the wetted cords contracted, and the obelisk was raised to and rested in its place. A man 
 now stepped forward, and sm-rendered himself to the punishment he had incurred by breaking 
 silence : it was the Capitano Bresca, the master of a merchant vessel of San Remo. Fontana 
 embraced him amidst the cheers of the multitude, introduced huii to Sixtus, and obtained Ms 
 immediate pardon ; and the Pope, besides rewarding him with a considerable pension, gave 
 him the hereditary privilege of supplying the holy see with palm branches for the service of 
 the Church of Rome. 
 
 In the neighbom-hood of Vintimigha is Monte Appio, a shoulder of the Alps, or perhaps of 
 the Appenines, it being diflBcult to decide with certainty where the one ends and the other 
 begins. A castle, consisting of two stone towers, and said to be of Roman structure, is still 
 existing on this mountain, together with other fortifications, supposed to be of Genoese origin. 
 
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GENOA. ^ 
 
 Near to the main road between Vintimigiia and Bordighera, and by the side of tlie river Ncrvia, 
 stands the ancient castle of Dolce Acqna, an interesting relic of the feudal age. This structure 
 occupies a site of remarkable beauty, and is thus rendered not more attractive to tlie historian 
 and antiquary than to the lover of the picturesque. 
 
 (■' 
 
 GENOA, 
 
 ENOA, the superb! Such is the designation accorded to this queenly 
 city by the host of admiring visitants Avho yearly throng thither to gaze 
 upon its magnificent structures, and to examine the treasures of art 
 Avhich they enslxrine. Tourists contend with each other to do honour to 
 Genoa, and well nigh exhaust the language of eulogy in its praise. In the 
 '^|«[^'^" words of one AATiter, " It looks like a fairy city of white marble rising out of 
 
 " ](.// the sea, the blue waters of which are only one shade deeper than the cerulean sky with 
 AA'hich, at a distance, they seem to mingle." By another, we are told, that not to her 
 churches, though many in number, large in size, and rich in decoration, does "Genoa owe 
 her splendid individuality among the cities of the earth. It is to her palaces, with their 
 marble terraces, their hanging gardens, and their stately halls ; it is to the unspeakable 
 brightness of the sea that bathes her shores, and of the sky that is her canopy ; of the bold hills 
 that are her buckler to the north, with the innumerable villas which seem to smile upon her from 
 among them ; and, though last not least, it is the overflowing fertility of the golden garden in 
 which she lies, with its orange groves, its lemon trellises, its myrtles, oleanders, and pomegra- 
 nates, which, altogether, give it an aspect and a charm that would be sought in vain else- 
 where." Lastly, and best of all, we have a poet's testimony to the magnificent gpectacle 
 presented in the seaward approach to Genoa : — 
 
 " At lengtli tlie day departed, and the moon 
 Rose like another sun^ illumining 
 Waters and ■woods, and cloud-capt promontories, 
 Glades for a hermit's cell, a lady's bower, 
 Scenes of Elysium, such as night alone 
 Reveals below, nor often — scenes that fled. 
 As at the -waving of a wizard's wand, 
 And left behind them, as their parting gift, 
 A thousand nameless odours. All was still ; 
 And now the nightingale her song poured forth 
 In such a torrent of heart-felt delight, 
 So fast it flowed, her tongue so voluble, 
 As if she thought her hearers would be gone 
 Ere half was told. 'Twas where in the north-west, 
 Still unassail'd and unassailable, 
 Thy pharos, Genoa, first displayed itself. 
 Burning in stillness on its craggy seat ; 
 
Q GENOA. 
 
 That guiding star, so oft the only one, 
 
 When those now glowing in the azure vault, 
 
 Are dark and silent. 'Twas where o'er the sea — 
 
 For we were now within a cable's length, 
 
 Delicious gardens hung ; green galleries, 
 
 And marble terraces in many a flight. 
 
 And fairy arches flung from clifif to clifi", 
 
 Wildering, enchanting, and, above them all, 
 
 A palace, such as somewhere in the East, 
 
 In Zenastan, or Araby the blest. 
 
 Among its golden groves, and fruits of gold, 
 
 And fountains scattering rainbows in the sun, 
 
 Rose, when Aladdin rubb'd the wond'rous lamp ; 
 
 Such, if not fairer ; and, when we shot by, 
 
 A scene of revelry, in long array. 
 
 The windows blazing. But we now approach'd 
 
 A city far renown'd; and wonder ceas'd." 
 
 This exquisite description rivals the scene which it poui'trays : that it is not a mere poetical 
 rapture, we have the assiu-ance of one, who says, in reference to the same view, — " I know of 
 no words expressing beauty, splendour, and majesty, that are strong enough to do it justice." 
 
 Tourists unite in the opinion that Genoa is most impressive in its general exterior, and ia 
 best seen from the sea. Some indeed have spoken disparagingly of the streets and buildings, 
 as losino-, on a near approach, much of the beauty which they assume at a distance ; others 
 ap-ain, give to this city the superiority over Naples and Constantinople, inasmuch as it fulfils 
 the expectations Avhich are raised by the first and general view. The streets of Genoa are 
 narrow, and more so as compared with the height of the palazzi which form them ; but in an 
 Italian city, that gloom which pervades the confined avenues of a town in northern Em-ope, is 
 unknown. The truth appears to be, that the magnificent coup d'oeil obtained from the Gulf of 
 Genoa presents an assemblage of beauty that is by no means favourable to- the after survey 
 of the city in detail ; — that, in short, the one is necessarily far more impressive than the other. 
 
 Tradition has given to Genoa an existence prior to that of Rome, and the Genoese trace 
 the foundation of their city, and its name, to Janus. It took part with Rome in the war 
 against Carthage, and afterwards remained in alliance with her. On the decline of the 
 Western Empire, it fell into the possession of the Lombards, from whom it was taken by 
 Charlemagne, who united it to the Ligurian coast, and gave the command of the territory to a 
 count. During the struggles for the crown of Italy, betAveen the GeiTuan emperors and the 
 Berengarians and other claimants, the Genoese asserted their independence, and established 
 an elective government by consuls, whose names are recorded from the eleventh century. 
 Genoa acquired an early naval and military reputation in her contest with the Saracens, against . 
 whom she united with the Pisans, and ultimately succeeded in defeating the invaders on their 
 o-wn coast. The Genoese next distinguished themselves in the great crusade, under Godfrey 
 de Bouillon, and, not long after, in their struggle with the Moors. But these victories excited 
 the jealousy of the Pisans, between whom and the Genoese a protracted warfare was carried 
 on, Avhich ended in the total destruction of Pisa as a maritime power. 
 
 Some time before the final defeat of the Pisans, Genoa found another and a more powerful 
 rival in Venice. The Genoese having assisted Paleologus in recovering Constantinople from 
 the Franks, obtained, as the reward of their services, the suburbs of Pera and Galata, and 
 
GENOA. 7 
 
 Smyrna. This acquisition of territory raised tlie jealousy of the Venetians, and led to a war 
 between tliem and the Genoese, which, tliougli occasionally iiitcrniptcd ))y intervals of j)cace, 
 and conducted with various success, resulted in the ultimate triumph of Venice. Along witli 
 this discomfiture, Genoa had to sustain herself agahist the internal discord arising from the 
 intrigues and struggles of her nobles for power. The election of Captains of Liberty, and sub- 
 sequentl}^ of the Council of Twelve, and the Council of Twenty-four, attended with all the 
 dissensions of the Guelph and Chibelline factions, led to scenes of tumult and disorder that 
 threatened utter desolation to the city and territories of Genoa. Wearied Avith these outrages, 
 the citizens at length elected a chief magistrate for life, under the title of Doge, and the 
 government continued in this form for nearly two centuries, not unaccompanied, however, by 
 much popular violence, arising from factious opposition to the supreme power. 
 
 Advantage was taken of the feuds of the Genoese, by the visconti of Milan and the kings 
 of France, who alternately possessed the city. But at this period, rose up one of the greatest 
 men of the middle ages, one singularly adapted for the time in ■which he lived, and for the 
 circumstances into which he was thrown. This was Andrea Doria, a native of Oneglia, in the 
 States of Genoa, who after serving many Italian princes, attached himself to Francis I., from 
 Avhom he received the command of a fleet in the ]\[editerranean. The factions of Genoa had 
 led to the possession of the city by the French, A^•ho placed a garrison there that oppressed the 
 citizens. Doria remonstrated, and was ordered into arrest, when he immediately passed over 
 with his whole fleet, to Charles V., and acted in concert with him for the expulsion of the 
 French, which being effected, the Emperor offered Doria the sovereignty of Genoa. This he 
 declined, but immediately proceeded to re-organize the republic, and to extinguish the factions. 
 A council of sixteen was appointed, presided over by a Doge, whose election was for two yeai's 
 only ; five censors Avere also elected for five years, to act as guardians of the laws, and Doria 
 himself, with the title of " Father and Liberator of his Country," was appointed censor for life. 
 To the great council, in which all the nobles sat, were added every year, seven plebeians, from 
 the respectable classes of society, four from the city, and three from the territory of Genoa. 
 These Avere intended to serve as a check upon the aristocracy, and as a salutary watch over 
 the interests and liberties of the people. Under this government, Genoa flourished ; and the 
 death of Andrea, at the advanced age of ninety-four, after a life of arduous enterprise, and of 
 eminent usefulness to his country, was lamented as a national calamity, — possiblj' the greatest 
 that the republic had hitherto sustained.* 
 
 The government established by Andrea Doria, continued from the commencement of the 
 sixteenth century, till the invasion of Italy by Bonaparte, when a democratic party fraternising 
 Avith the French, rose upon the government for the destruction of the aristocrats of Genoa, 
 who for the time defended themselves against the outrages of the confederates ; but ultimately 
 the French Directory obtained possession of the city, and established a garrison within its 
 defences. In 1790, Massena AA^as besieged in Genoa by the united poAvers of England and 
 Austria, and was at length compelled to capitulate, though not until he had achieved a high 
 military character by his gallant defence of the place. After the battle of jNIarengo, Genoa 
 
 * Columbus, the discoverer of America, was- contemporary with Andrea Doria. Genoa long claimed the honour 
 of having given birth to the great navigator; but the recent discovery of a will, made by Dominic, the father of 
 Columbuf, has transferred that honour to the little town of Cogoleto, situated about eighteen miles west of Genoa. 
 
was again 
 
 GENOA. 
 
 in the possession of Napoleon, who at first gave it a nominal independence as a re- 
 public° but afterwards annexed it to France, forming out of it the three departments named 
 Genoa! Monte-notte, and the Apennines. In 1814, the city surrendered to the EngUsh forces 
 commanded by Lord William Bentinck, and the following year it was united to the government 
 of Sardinia, by the Congress of Vienna. Since that time much has been done for the strength- 
 ening of its' garrison, the improvement of its port and harbour, and the advancement of its 
 commercial interests. The approaches to the city also have been widened, new streets formed, 
 and public institutions founded for the benefit of the community. 
 
 Genoa has been repeatedly increased in size, and its walls as frequently extended. Traces 
 of the Roman walls are said to be still discernible ; and some of the gates of the circuit raised 
 by the Genoese, in 1155, are yet standing. Another circumvallation was completed in 1537, 
 which included many of the previous suburbs of the city. This line is in the semi-modem 
 style of fortification, but very strong ; and the ramparts, which affbrd delightful promenades, 
 are connected with a public garden of great beauty, named the Acqua Sola. An additional 
 circuit -extends all around the neighbouring hills, forming avast semicu-cle, supported by forts, 
 redoubts, and outworks, and constituting a line of fortification second only to the defences of 
 
 Paris. 
 
 Passing from this brief glance at the historical records and general features of Genoa, we 
 proceed to a brief description of the palaces and public buildings of the city. But where to 
 begin, and where to end, are diflacult points to determine : to describe whole streets of palaces, 
 each palace a rich repository of art, would require volumes in place of pages. 
 
 The Strada Nuova consists entirely of palaces, all, with the exception of two, constructed 
 by Alessio. The colossal magnitude of the doors and windows in the fronts of these edifices, 
 gives them an an- of magnificence, of which no description could convey an adequate idea. On 
 entering their portals, the spectator cannot repress his admiration of the grand and imposing 
 spectacle which opens upon him. " Gallery rises above gallery around the whole quadrangle, 
 pierced by arcades and sustained by marble columns. The vaults and walls are painted in 
 fresco, and adorned with rich moulding, gilding, and bas-reliefs. You ascend by spacious 
 stair-cases, composed entirely of marble, each broad step being generally a single slab, and 
 sometimes a solid block. The apartments are almost universally painted in fresco, and 
 adorned with rich furniture and the finest productions of the arts." This brief description 
 may serve generally for the buildings themselves ; but in the decorations of the saloons and 
 apartments, and in the value of the works of art which they contain, some of these palaces 
 enjoy a celebrity far beyond the rest. The Palazzo Brignolo contains the most valuable private 
 collection of pictures in Genoa, amongst which are found, a St. Sebastian by Guide, an Annun- 
 ciation by Ludovico Caracci, a Flight into Egypt by Carlo Maratti, and a number of portraits 
 by Vandyke, admitted to be the finest specimens of this master existing in Italy. The archi- 
 tecture of this structure has been much admired, but the fagade is less imposing than that of 
 some others ; the cortile is very fine, and from the marble terrace of the upper story, a beau- 
 tiful view is obtained over the contiguous gardens and palaces. The Palazzo Serra is chiefly 
 remarkable for the gorgeous magnificence of its saloon, which has obtained the appellation of 
 Palazzo del Sole, the Palace of the Sun. " The decorations of this apartment, exclusive of the 
 pictures and porcelain, which are of great value, are said to have cost forty-four thousand 
 pounds. This ill-judged magnificence in one room throws the rest of the apartments into the 
 shade, and gives the impression that the palace is not sufficiently grand for it. Each side of 
 
GENOA. 
 
 this saloon is supported by marble coliiiuus, richly i^Ut, antl bctwt'cii thciii are j)laccd iiiirroi-s 
 which extend from the frieze to the floor. There is a tirt'-place at each end, with mantle- 
 pieces of great beauty, and exactly similar, and on them stand vases of ancient Sevres china 
 that excite the admiration, if not the env_y, of c\'ery connoisseur. Tlic doors are frosted Avith 
 powdered lapis lazuli, which produces a Aery rich effect, and the architraves and pannels are 
 finely carved and gilt. The furniture of this saloon is of the most splendid description, and 
 the eiisemblo has more solid grandeur than is to be found in any other apartment throughout 
 Italy." The saloon of the Palazzo Cataneo contains several pictures of great merit : amongst 
 others, a Philosopher in his Study, by Domenichino ; the Stoning of Stephen, by Ludovico 
 Caracci ; and St. Joseph and St. John adoring our Lord, by Raphael. 
 
 The old ducal palace, Palazzo Ducale, though now no longer a regal residence, being used 
 only for government oflflces, is one of the most magnificent erections in Genoa, and carries the 
 fancy back to the middle ages more poAverfuUy than any other ; although the edifice, as it now 
 stands, is almost, if not entirely, a rcfaclmento, the original building having been destroyed by 
 fire. The marble statues of all the heroes of the Genoese republic, which once adorned the 
 hall of the grand council, Avere pulled doAvn and broken to atoms by the French, and the niches 
 which they occupied have been filled by statues of straw, Avith plaster heads, and white calico 
 draperies. There is something exceedingly ludicrous in the idea of the substitution, but the 
 general efiect, on entering the room, is astonishingly delusive. 
 
 In the Strada Carlo Felice, stands the Palazzo Pallavacino, justly celebrated for its saloons 
 of paintings. A mere catalogue of these Avorks of art Avould be uninteresting. It may suffice 
 to mention that they include fine specimens of the foUoAving masters : — The tAvo Caracci, 
 Rubens, Spagnoletto, Guercino, Vandyke, Raphael, Albano, and Franceschini. The Palazzo 
 Reale, in the Strada Balbi, formerly in the possession of the Durazzo family, but noAV a royal 
 residence, contains a choice collection of pictm'es, some good antique statues, and a number 
 of excellent frescoes. The Palazzo della Universita, a noble building, is distinguished by its 
 extensive library, and museum of natural history. To attempt a detail of all the palaces in 
 Genoa, would far exceed the limits of the present work ; one, however, remains to be mentioned 
 which is in several respects more interesting than any of those to Avhich Ave have adverted, 
 namely, the Palazzo Doria. This building, originally the Palazzo Fregoso, Avas almost entirely 
 rebuilt, under the direction of Montorsoli, a Florentine architect, and the celebrated Perino del 
 Vaga, to AA'hose pencil the palace is indebted for its richest decoriitions. The frescoes of Perino 
 are beyond aU praise ; and it is subject of regret that the hand of decay has already touched 
 several of his finest works. In the gallery of the palace, leading to the terraced garden, arc 
 portraits of Andrea Doria and his family. The garden itself is decorated Avith fountains, 
 statues, and vases ; and the Avalks of cyjiress and orange, unite in magnificent picturesque, 
 with the arches and columns of the structure. The descendants of the Dorian family reside 
 in Rome, and leave the palace of their great ancestor to its fate. The beauty of the edifice, 
 the exceeding value of its works of art, and, beyond all, the historical associations inseparably 
 connected with it, deserve more generous treatment. 
 
 Next to her palaces, the churches of Genoa deserve high regard ; the most splendid of these 
 structures Avere erected by private individuals and families; and though they, in common 
 Avith all the buildings and institutions of Italy, suffered severely during the occujiation of this 
 country by Bonaparte, they retain enough of grandeur to attest then- former greatness. 
 
 The metropolitan church of San Lorenzo AA^as built in the eleventh century. The archi- 
 
^Q GENOA. 
 
 tecture exhibits a combination of Gothic and Saracenic ornament ; and the exterior of the 
 buildino- is cased with black and white marble, disposed in alternate stripes, producing an 
 effect more startling than tasteful. The interior is chiefly remarkable for an altar, adorned 
 with four columns of porphyry, and for an iron urn, which is said to inclose the remains of 
 the saint to whom the church is dedicated. A remarkable relic, named the Sacro Catino, is 
 yearly exhibited to hundreds of prostrate and admiring devotees. According to tradition, it is a 
 plate, composed of a single emerald, presented by the Queen of Sheba to Solomon, and subse- 
 quently placed before the Saviour at the Last Supper. " The Sacro Catino was taken by the 
 crusaders when they conquered Palestine in the twelfth century ; and when the plunder was 
 divided, this supposed valuable prize fell to the lot of the Genoese." The French afterwards 
 took possession of this treasure, and sent it to Paris with the intention of converting the gem into 
 specie ; a scientific examination, however, proved the matchless emerald to be nothing more 
 than a plate of coloured glass. It was eventually restored to the church of Lorenzo, through 
 the intercession of the king of Sardinia, on which occasion his Majesty assured its adorers 
 " that it was the real, true, genuine, and inestimable emerald, sinking the history of its 
 mineralogical examination at Paris, any hint of which would incur the penalty of excommu- 
 nication at Genoa." This relic is preserved in the Sacristy, the keys of which are entrusted 
 to the Clavigeri, who are solemnly bound to retain them in safe custody. 
 
 The Church of San Stefano contains a fine painting of the martyrdom of St. Stephen, by 
 Raphael and Giulio Romano. This work of art is deservedly esteemed, and gives celebrity to 
 a building not otherwise remarkable. During the Napoleon era, it formed a principal orna- 
 ment of the Louvre, at that time enriched with the choicest spoils of Italy. The Church of 
 Saint Ambrogio is a magnificent structure, displaying rich marbles and paintings in great pro- 
 fusion ; and it contains, amongst other works of great merit, two pictures by Rubens, and 
 the celebrated Assumption by Guido Reni. Over one of the altars, there was recently a figure 
 of the Virgin most extravagantly attired : her robes formed of flowered brocade and tissue, 
 and her neck graced with a coral necklace. To blend the horrible with the ridiculous, eight 
 swords were thrust into her breast. On the same altar, was laid an eflftgy of the infant Saviour, 
 dressed in a costly robe, and fine lace cap ! The Church of San Matteo, erected by the Dorian 
 Family, is remarkable for its statues of the Evangelists, and more so as being the last resting 
 place of Andrew Doria, whose tomb, enriched with the sculptures of Montorsoli, attracts uni- 
 versal regard, both as a work of art, and as the reminiscence of a man justly renowned. The 
 Piazza di San Matteo is the spot whence Doria proclaimed liberty to the Genoese, and on one 
 side of it stands the house presented to him by his countrymen.* 
 
 — 'Tis less in length and breadth, 
 
 Than many a cabin in a ship of war ; 
 
 But 'tis of marble, and at once inspires 
 
 The reverence due to ancient dignity. 
 
 He left it for a better ; and 'tis now 
 
 A house of trade, the meanest merchandize 
 
 * There is a discrepancy amongst writers regarding this public gift to Doria : some state that the Palazzo Doria 
 was presented to him ; others affirm that the small house in the Piazza San Matteo was the only gift of the citizens, 
 and that Andrew removed thence, as his wealth increased, to the Palazzo Fregoso, and after nearly reconstructing it, 
 gave it the name of his family. 
 
GENOA. 11 
 
 Oumboring its floors. Yet, fallen as it is, 
 'Ti.s still the noblost dwollliig — even in Oouoa ! 
 .Vud hadst thou, Andrew, lived there to the last. 
 Thou hast done well ; for there is that without, 
 That in the wall, which monarchs could not give, 
 Nor thou take with thee, " that which says aloud, 
 It was thy Country's gift to her Deliverer." 
 
 One of the objects of interest in Genoa, and not the least, is that singular and bold arch 
 called the Bridge of Carignano ; interesting in the first place, from its construction, hanging 
 as it does, over a huge ravine between two hills, and having houses of six or seven stories 
 high underneath it ; and in the second place, from the motive assigned to the proud patrician by 
 whom it was erected, who, not bearing to see the commonalty of the city, fagging from one 
 part of it to another, by the steep ascent of the hills, caused this imperial accommodation to 
 be provided for them. 
 
 Amongst the public buildings of Genoa, none can be regarded with greater interest than 
 the edifices connected with the noble charities of the city. The Albergo de' Poveri gives shelter 
 to a multitude of poor within its walls, and dispenses extensive charities beyond them. In 
 the centre of this Institution, stands the chiu-ch of Santa Maria, containing a celebrated basso- 
 relievo by Michael Angelo, representing the Virgin bending over the dead Christ. The Ospe- 
 dale del Pammatone unites the splendom- of a palace to all the necessary details of an exten- 
 sive hospital. And the Sordi Mutti, founded in 1801, by a poor monk, named Ottavio Assarotti, 
 for the reception of the deaf and dumb, is much celebrated. There are no fewer than fifteen 
 conservatories in Genoa, devoted to the protection and assistance of the female sex. Some 
 are houses of refuge, some penitentiaries, others schools and asylums ; in aU, the great design 
 is to rescue the weaker sex from poverty and vice, to raise up the fallen, to shelter the 
 oppressed, to teach the ignorant, and to comfort and cherish the forlorn outcast and helpless 
 orphan for whom no other home is open. The French, to their lasting disgrace, ruined some 
 of the charitable institutions of Genoa, and greatly injm-ed others ; but the Sardinian govern- 
 ment contributed munificently to those which remained and required assistance, and it con- 
 tinues to uphold all that have survived the rapacity of Napoleon. 
 
 The character of the Genoese people and territory is not very favourably pourtrayed in the 
 Italian proverb : " Land without trees, sea without fish, men without faith, and women without 
 virtue." These censures have been discountenanced in part by intelligent travellers ; and y\'e 
 apprehend that the entire proverb has gained cm-rency rather by its point than its verity. It 
 cannot be denied, however, that this traditional aspersion has been cast upon the Genoese, 
 and perpetuated upon them, from the time of Virgil down to that of Dante. The latter poet 
 denounces them as a race of men who ought to be swept from the earth by some signal de- 
 struction. Nevertheless, it must be remembered, that poets are not the best authorities for 
 historical truth ; and we may indulge an occasional doubt of their veracity, knowing, as we 
 do, that jetton is their peculiar province. 
 
12 
 
 LERICI. 
 
 L E R I C I. 
 
 HE town of Lerici is situated between Cape Corvo and Spezzia, in the con- 
 
 ||\- cave of a valley which terminates in a bay offering one of the most secure 
 
 harbours on the coast. It is supposed to owe its designation to a hill in the 
 
 neighbourhood which was formerly clothed with the Quercus Ilex, and 
 
 which for many ages bore the name of Mons Illisis. The etymology is not, 
 
 however, determined with much precision either from the shrub or the 
 
 mountain. A mythological origin is likewise assigned to this place ; but, so far as 
 
 the derivation of the name is concerned, with no happier results. Hercules is reported 
 
 to have erected a temple here to deprecate the wrath of Venus, after he had slain 
 
 her son ^rj/a;— whence, as the etymologists say, comes Lerici. 
 
 Lerici was anciently held by the Pisans, to whom the emperors of Germany dele- 
 gated an authority to prevent the erection of any fortress on the Mediterranean shore, between 
 Monte Corvo and the mouth of the Arno. From the Pisans, the possession of the place passed 
 to the Genoese, who, in 1256, became masters of Lerici, and surrounded its castle with walls 
 and towers. Thenceforward the town remained under the sovereignty of Genoa, which suc- 
 cessfully resisted the eflforts of the neighbouring powers, at distant intervals, to regain posses- 
 sion. It was here, as history records, that Andrea Doria renounced his allegiance to Francis I, 
 and entered into the service of Charles V. ; an event which is commemorated by a stone still 
 existing in a garden at Lerici. Charles V. afterwards set sail from this port with a powerful 
 naval armament for the conquest of Algiers. 
 
 The harbour, formed by the Gulf of Spezzia, constituting the port of Lerici, is enclosed by 
 semicircular hills, terminated on the left by a rock, upon which rises, amidst the batteries, the 
 solid tower, seen in om- view. The battery of Maralonga stands towards the mouth of the 
 gulf, whilst on the headland, which shuts in the harbour on the north, lies the rock of Occape- 
 lata, and the battery of St. Theresa. The Gulf of Spezzia particularly attracted the regard of 
 Napoleon, who considered it so much iiner, as a harbour, than that of Genoa, that he projected 
 converting it into a vast naval establishment ; but for this, among the rest, he was not ordained. 
 This gulf is rendered interesting to the classical reader, by the assertion of the Ligm'ian com- 
 mentators, that it is the gulf, described by Virgil, into which Jilneas was driven by the storm. 
 The general features harmonize sufl&ciently with the description, to render the opinion plaiisible; 
 though they may not sufllce to vouch its accuracy, and establish it as a fact. A cavern situa- 
 ted about a mile to the north-east of the town of Spezzia, and a ruined edifice, bearing over 
 the door, the inscription Nympharum domus, seem to offer " confirmation strong " in favour of 
 the assumed identity. The description referred to is in the iEneid, book I. and lines 158 — 169. 
 The death of Shelley, the poet, is associated with Lerici. On the 7th July 1821, he went 
 to Leghorn to have an interview Avith Mr. Leigh Hunt, and returning thence to Lerici, his boat 
 was lost in a violent storm, off Via Reggia. 
 
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CARRARA 
 
 13 
 
 CARRARA. 
 
 sHE town of Carrara derives all its importance from the marble quarries in 
 I its neighbourhood, ^yhich have been wrought from time immemorial. The 
 immense revenue produced by them, has rendered the history of Carrara 
 more eventful than it would otherwise have been. These treasiu-es, appa- 
 rently inexhaustible, excited the cupidity of all ages, and led to successive 
 contests for possession of a locality so enriched by nature. These quan-ies 
 occupy three or four descending ridges which unite in a lofty mountain, named Monte 
 Sagro. Ascending the little stream that flows through the town, the tourist anives at 
 the beds of dove-coloured marble called hardhjllo. Higher up the valley, are the beds 
 of white marble ; only a few of which produce a material of such fine grain and trans- 
 parency as to suit the highest purposes of sculpture. At a greater elevation, the 
 marble becomes less pure in colour, but larger in the block. The Lunigian or Carrara marbles 
 have been quarried, with little interruption, for upAvards of two thousand years, and judging 
 from appearances, another and as long an interval may elapse before their stores are exhausted. 
 A vast niimber of men are constantly employed in the quarries ; and the duty on the exports 
 exceeds two thousand pounds anmially. 
 
 The excursion to the quarries is a work of toil, the road being inaccessible by carriages ; but 
 the natural beauty of the scenery, and the interesting associations connected with this cradle 
 of the arts, are sufficient to compensate for all the difficulties of the approach. The quarries 
 of Crestola and Cavetta are usually first visited : from these is obtained the white wax-col oue 
 marble ; and from the hill of Silvestro, on the opposite side, is taken the blue-veined, or dove- 
 coloured, variety. Near to this, in the hill of Carpevola, are found the white marbles called 
 mossa, the flexible marbles of Betogla, and the great masses of the quarries of Polvaccio. The 
 Fantiscritti, situated about three miles from Carrara, possess a peculiar interest for the histo- 
 rian and antiquarian. In these quarries are three small flgures of Jove, Bacchus, and Hercu- 
 les, sculptured high on the side of a vertical mass of rock ; and the ground is covered with 
 large masses of marble columns and architraves, left unfinished by the sculptors of ancient 
 Rome, when the power of the empire declined. The statues of the deities, from their small 
 size, have obtained amongst the peasantry the title oifanii ; and the name of the quarries is 
 compounded of this appellation, and sa'itti, the latter term having referred to the scribbling 
 propensities of tourists, many of whom have deemed it necessary to inscribe their names upon 
 the rocks. 
 
 After contemplating the beautiful material which nature has provided in these quarries for 
 the sculptor's ideal of the form divine, and suffering the imagination to revel amidst recollec- 
 tions of human genius, it is mortifying to witness the reckless mode in which the blocks of 
 marble are conveyed down the descent leading to the town of Carrara. Thei-c is an utter 
 ignorance, or an entire neglect, of all mechanical aids, cither with a view to lighten the 
 
j^ CARRARA. 
 
 toil of tlie labourer, or preserve the marble from injury. The very approach to the quarry is 
 choked with masses of rock, which a little well-directed labour might speedily clear away: 
 over these obstructions, the marble must pass, at the very outset of its removal ; and when 
 these impediments are overcome, it is rattled down the descent in a manner which perpetuaUy 
 causes the blocks to be broken. The whole process is attended with so much difldculty and 
 danger, that it can scarcely be witnessed without a feeling of terror. The blocks are placed 
 upon a rudely constructed carriage, drawn sometimes by six oxen, at others by only two ; the 
 number varying according to the nature of the path to be traversed. At the points of sudden 
 descent, the exertions of the men who have charge of the convoy are truly frightful, and not 
 unfrequently attended with dreadful accidents. To break the fall of the vehicle from one 
 mass of rock to another, the conductors bound from side to side of the rude machine, at the 
 imminent hazard of life and limb ; at this moment, endeavouring to preserve the balance of 
 the weighty mass, and in the next, goading the oxen into the most painful movements and 
 positions. If an engineer of Britain, or of any country where the simplest rudiments of en- 
 gineering science are known, had charge of the transit, he would at once clear the approach 
 to the quarries, and lay a rail along the descent; and this done, the removal would be effected 
 with a degree of ease and safety, not less admirable than the present method is laborious, 
 dangerous, and uncouth. As it is, the destruction of the marble, and the injuries sustained 
 by the worlmien, are a constant theme of lamentation ; and these evils are visited upon the 
 sculptor, who has to pay a price proportionate to the risk of transit. Sir Francis Chantrey on 
 one occasion paid eight hundred pounds for a block of marble ; a sum which few can afford, 
 save they who have princes for patrons. 
 
 The city of Carrara itself is beautifully situated near a junction of small valleys, all in a 
 high state of cultivation, the scenery of which is enclosed in every direction, except towards 
 the sea, by lofty mountains that give form, richness, and celebrity to a territory not exceeding 
 thirty square miles in extent. It is now annexed, with the title of principality, to the 
 neighbouring duchy of Massa, and is possessed by the Duke of Modena. The name of 
 Carrara is supposed to be derived from Carrariw, caves or quarries; and the origin of the 
 town may be traced back to a remote period, when the excavations of the marble were fii-st 
 begun by the Romans ; this origin being none other than the huts of the workmen, and sub- 
 sequently the more permanent dwellings of the superintendents and ofl&cers who directed 
 their labours. 
 
 The history of Carrara has almost exclusive reference to the marbles ; either in regard to 
 the working of the quarries, or to the erection of structures for which they furnished material. 
 Augustan Rome was indebted for its magnificence to the marbles of Carrara and its neigh- 
 bourhood ; and the ancient sculptors gave preference to them, to the neglect of the quanies 
 of Pares and Pentelicus. Laws were instituted by the Roman emperors to regulate the 
 working of the mines, and to protect them from any infringement by individual or private 
 enterprise. These restrictions operated unfavourably in a commercial point of view, and pre- 
 vented mercantile traffic in the marbles ; but it is questionable whether the splendour of the 
 Imperial City would not have suffered, if extensive exports had been permitted ; the patriotism 
 of private speculators would not, probably, have withstood the temptation of a foreign con- 
 tract ; and the chisel might have wrought too industriously for the market, and too indolently 
 for the embellishment of Rome. 
 
 During the long and dark period which followed the decline and extinction of the Empire, 
 
CARRARA. 15 
 
 the marble quarries lay neglected: the barbarian hosts who swept like the locust over Italy, 
 had no sympathy with art; and so far from aiding its advance, they sought rather to annihi- 
 late all traces of its past achievements. The t[uarries i)asscd from one ])()ssessor to another, 
 simply as so much territorial surface; and in the petty ^\ars which subsequently arose between 
 the Genoese, the Pisans, and the Lucchese, they fell successi\ ely under these several re])ub- 
 lics. It is to the Pisaus that the re\'ival of art is chiefly to be attributed : they resumed the 
 working of the quai-ries ; and the marble works of the neighbourhood again resounded with the 
 labours of the sculptors, employed by Nicholas Pisano and his pupils. Then it was that a 
 thousand Christian temples arose, the materials for which were drawn from the quarries of 
 Carrara ; and in this city itself was raised a cathedral, inferior to none of the Gothic Italian 
 structures of that period. The succeeding history of the quarries, traces them into the posses- 
 sion of various noble families of Italy. Early in the sixteenth century, the go\ernment of 
 this territory devolved upon Alberico, son of Count Lorenzo Cybo, Avho assumed the title of 
 Prince of jMassa and Marquis of Carrara. To this prince, Carrara owes the construction and 
 extension of its walls ; the formation of its fine piazza, which still bears the irame of Alberico ; 
 several of the public fountains which adorn the city ; the erection of a palace for the sovereign; 
 estabhshments for the fine arts; municipal statutes, which are deemed models of jurisprudence ; 
 and a most liberal convention to furnish sculptors and artificers in marble with the productions 
 of his quarries. A female descendant of the same family founded the Academy of the Fine 
 Arts. She assigned to it, in 1779, a new edifice, from which it was transferred, in 1815, to 
 the palace of the sovereign, and emiched with excellent copies of the most celebrated statues. 
 
 Amongst the most remarkable buUdings of Carrara, besides the Academy, may be seen its 
 collegiate church, slowly buUt in the thirteenth, and adorned Avith sculptm-es in the fifteenth 
 century : this splendid college has a Chapter of fourteen canons, and other dignitaries. Other 
 sacred edifices exist in Carrara, all of them, as might be expected, rich in marbles. One may 
 be remarked for the beauty of its foreign materials — the Temple of the Madonna delle Grazie. 
 The two i^iazzi, various streets, and some private habitations, are adorned with fountains, 
 yielding an abundant supply of fine water. In the Piazza Alberico is a colossal statue, raised 
 by the Carrarese to the memory of their last sovereign. There are many good dwellings 
 and marble palaces in Carrara, but structures are wanting which unite richness of ornament 
 Avith chasteness of style, such as might satisfy the eye of the stranger, who knoA\'s that he is 
 entering into a country of artists, and into the immediate vicinity of the richest and most 
 celebrated emporium of marble in the world. Its chief attraction, however, is found in the 
 contemplation of its vast and celebrated quarries, in the Academy, and in the numerous 
 galleries and work-shops of its statuarie;--. 
 
 Carrara may be regarded as one entire studio ; the majority of its residents being artists, 
 who have come hither to pursue their studies in a locality where material for their work can 
 be readily and cheaply obtained. You see them in all costume:-, of aU ages, and of vai-ious 
 capabilities ; the young tyro and the confirmed sculptor, both alike working industriously, either 
 for fame, or for the wherewithal to live, — or for both of these together. The joint productions 
 of so many artists, render Carrara a vast museum of sculpture, where may be obtained speci- 
 mens of the art in all its stages, from the mere chimney-piece ornament, to a relievo or statue 
 of exquisite beauty and finish. It is not unusual for the eminent sculptors of Rome, to pre- 
 pare their works from the blocks, at Carrara ; this lessens the size and weight for transport, 
 and affords means of ascertaining the pmity of the marble. Excellent copies of the most 
 
16 
 
 PISA. 
 
 admired statues can be bought at Carrara at a much cheaper rate than in any other place. 
 Statues of Napoleon, and busts of Wellington, are executed in great numbers by the Carrarese 
 sculptors, and of the latter, hundreds have been sent from this work-shop of art, to different 
 quarters of the globe. 
 
 PISA 
 
 -EAUTIFULLY situated on the banks of the Arno, sheltered from the north 
 by a range of hills, and open to rich plains on the south, stands the cele- 
 brated city of Pisa, once the rival of Genoa. The origin of this city is 
 referred to a period even more remote than the destruction of Troy ; but 
 the first mention that is made of it in Roman history, is by Polybius, Avho 
 states that the harbour was much frequented by the Roman ships in their 
 voyages to Sardinia, Gaul, and Spain. Livy relates that it was colonized by the 
 Romans, 180 years before Christ. And Strabo speaks of its early importance, and of 
 the extent of its commerce ; it being the depot for timber for the Roman fleets, and also 
 for the splendid marbles of the neighbouring quarries, destined for the structure and 
 decoration of the pubhc buildings of Rome. 
 
 After the fall of the empire, Pisa was subjected to many vicissitudes. It was subsequently 
 erected into an independent republic, under a nominal allegiance to the emperors of the 
 Carlovingian dynasty. In 874, the Pisans successfully opposed the Saracens, who had made 
 a piratical descent upon the city. Nearly a centm-y after this, Otho I., on his return from 
 Rome, received the homage of the Pisans, and extended towards them a regard, which per- 
 manently attached them to the interests of the empire. The republic directed its naval 
 strength, on several occasions, against the Moors and Saracens, and ultimately succeeded in 
 establishing its maritine power and commercial importance. The Genoese now began to take 
 alarm at its growing prosperity; and towards the end of the eleventh century, those wars com- 
 menced between the two republics, which at length ended in the total ruin of Pisa. These hosti- 
 lities were, at first, occasionally interrupted by a union of forces, against their common enemies, 
 the Moors and Saracens ; but ambition on the one hand, and jealousy on the other, forbade 
 any permanent peace ; and in 1282, the final struggle took place, by which Genoa was left 
 with no rival, save Venice, to dispute its power in the Mediterranean. 
 
 The subsequent history of Pisa is little more than a detail of its struggles with Florence, 
 Lucca, and the Milanese ; intermingled Avith domestic feuds, Avhich form part of the romance 
 of Europe in the middle ages. Amongst the latter, the story of Ugolino is an incident of 
 fearful interest. Possessed of great power, he had exercised his tyranny and cruelty in pro- 
 scribing all who were impediments to his ambition. At length, in 1288, he was accused of 
 
18 PISA. 
 
 tliis precious material in sucli great abimdaiK'c. Tliis clim-cli must (^criaiiily rank amongst 
 the finest in the world, A\hether we regard the A-astness of the entire design, or the elalK^iat*; 
 richness of its separate details. It is the wov\<. of two Italian arcliitects, JJuschetttj and 
 Rainaldo; and is dedicated to the Virgin, in pious commemoration of the victory gained by 
 the Pisan consul, Orlandi, over the Saracens. 
 
 The bronze gates of the Duomo attract universal regard for their exquisite beauty : they 
 were modelled in 1C02, from the designs of Giovanni di Bologna, to supply the place of the 
 ancient doors, which were destroyed by fire, on the night of 15th October, 159G; on A\'liic]i 
 occasion also, the entire building suffered considerable damage. The general restoration of 
 the structure, has been conducted with such judicious reference to its original character, that no 
 discrepancy obtrudes upon the eye of the connoisseur : eveiy thing is in such perfect corres- 
 pondence, that it is only from historical record we ascertain the fact of a partial destruction 
 having once taken place. The bronze gates are divided into compartments, each containing 
 an historical event, and sometimes a device or eml_ilem allusi\'e to that event. The centre 
 gates have eight compartments, which contain the history of the Virgin, from her Ijirth to her 
 glorification. The doors on the riglit and left have six compartments each, the whole em- 
 bracing the history of our Lord. In the transept, called the Crociera di San Rainieri, is the 
 single bronze door which escaped injury from the fire ; this is an interesting relic of ancient 
 art, and at the same time an evidence of the taste and skill displajed in the renewal of the 
 doors A^iiich Avere destrojed. 
 
 The whole building stands upon a terrace ascended by steps. Passing into the interior, the 
 spectator contemplates with awe and admiration, the impressive and magnificent scene pre- 
 sented to him. Five aisles are supported by a forest of Corinthian columns, with shafts of 
 granite, or marbles of different colours. The roof is flat, with compartments and rosettes 
 richly carved and gilt. The windows are filled with stained glass of wonderful brilliancy ; 
 and in place of an eastern window, as in our cathedrals, the building is terminated in this 
 direction, by exquisite mosaics of colossal size, representing our Lord, with the Virgin on one 
 side and St. John on the other. These works of art are universallj^ esteemed for then- gran- 
 deur and beauty. The high altar, erected in 1774, but partially rebuilt in ls25, is a rich and 
 elaborate pile of marbles and lapis lazuli ; and connected with it are decorations exhibitino- 
 the most exquisite taste and felicitous execution. Many of the ancient works of art, which 
 formerly adorned this edifice, were either partially or totally destroyed by the fire ; and some 
 of the monuments have been removed to the cemetery of Campo Santo : the building is, not- 
 withstanding, still rich in relics of its olden grandeur. It contains many paintings of great 
 A-alue; including the celebrated St. Agnes by Andrea del Sarto, a i)icture of inestimable worth. 
 A bronze lamp of fine workmanship is suspended from the nave, of which it is said, that it 
 suggested the theory of the pendulum, to Galileo, — a tradition sufficient, of itself, to render 
 this lamp an object of great interest to the beholder. 
 
 The Baptistery, the work of Diotisalvi, is a remarJcaDle building, exhibiting in its o-eneral 
 character a strong resemblance to the iJuomo. " Of its profuse collection of ornamental trea- 
 sures of all descriptions," says an elegant AM'iter, " I can only say, that it struck me as beino- 
 a sort of museum into Avhich the piety of the Pisans sent every thing the^- happened to find 
 of rich and curious, that they knew not hoAv to dispose of elseA\'herc." The interior is a noble 
 circular church, supported by eight columns of granite, Avith rich Corinthian capitals. The 
 pavement in front of the altar, is wrought in mosaic Avork, the combined effect of Avhich is 
 
PISA. J7 
 
 betrayinc. his country into the hands of the Florentines ; and in an insurrection, headed by 
 the archbishop Ruggiero, he, with two of his sons, and two grandsons, were seized, and con- 
 fined in a tower on the banks of the Arno. The key of the dungeon was thrown into the 
 river and the captives were left to die of hunger. The unhappy fate of Ugolmo and his sons 
 has been immortahzed by Dante, who vents his indignation against their tormentors : 
 
 " Thou modem Thebes ! what, though, as fame hath said, 
 Count Ugolino did thy forts betray, 
 Ills sons deserv'd not punishment so dread." 
 
 And our own Rogers, in a beautiful description of the Arno, numbers amongst the pollutions 
 of its waves, the casting therein, the key of the " Tower of Famine : " 
 
 " Sullen was the splash, 
 Heavy and swift the plunge, when they received 
 The key that just had grated on the ear 
 Of Ugolino — closing up for ever 
 That dismal dungeon, henceforth to be nam'd 
 The Tower of Famine." 
 
 Pisa, shorn of her greatness by Genoa, and distracted by internal tumults and treachery, 
 struggled on fOr upwards of another century ; till, at length, to fill the measure of her indig- 
 nities, she was sold to the Florentines. Gabriello Maria, her then master, Avho had been se- 
 cured in his government by Charles VI. of France, agreed to the proposal of Marshal Bourci- 
 cault, the king's representative, to yield her up to Florence for 400,000 florins, to be equally 
 divided between Bourcicault and himself. The Pisans rose up to resist this infamous trans- 
 fer ; Avhen Bourcicault concluded his bargain Avith the Florentines by accepting 206,000 florins; 
 and on Gabriello demanding an equal share of the money, he caused him to be beheaded on a 
 charge of treason against the French king. The Pisans did not, however, yield up their city 
 without a struggle ; they endured all the horrors of a siege for twelve months, before they 
 surrendered to their purchasers. They made subsequent attempts to regain their independence, 
 but with no permanent success. In 1509, being again besieged by the Florentines, they were 
 starved into a final surrender. The wealthy and noble families went forth from their city into 
 voluntary exile ; and the young men sought employment and distinction as mercenaries, in 
 the then factious states of Europe. 
 
 Pisa is nov/ but the sepulchre of what it was ; its inhabitants are reduced from one hundred 
 and twenty thousand, to one-sixth of that number ; and it is visited for those remains of its 
 former greatness which, as evidence of middle-age splendour, are unrivalled in any city of 
 Italy. The four edifices, on which the unfading celebrity of Pisa rests, are the Cathedral, 
 or Duomo, commenced in 1063 ; the Baptistery, begun in 1152 ; the Campanile, or Leaning 
 Tower, built in 1174; and the Campo Santo, which was completed in 1283. These buildings 
 are so situated as. to form a striking coup d'oeil, at once magnificent and sublime; and words 
 are unequal to describe the effect produced on the mind by a survey of these venerable and 
 majestic structures, " fortunate," as Forsyth happily remarks, " both in their society, and 
 their solitude." 
 
 The Cathedral, or Duomo, is a noble edifice, of which the prevailing characteristic is massive 
 dignity. The beautiful marble of Avhich it is built, is of itself a Avonder to eyes unused to see 
 
PISA. ]'j 
 
 gorgeous : other portions arc curiclied Avitli inoiuuncutal figures and rclicvi. Jn tlie ceuti-e of 
 the building stands a magnificent font, fourteen feet in diameter, marvellous botli for jnatciial 
 and workmanship. It is adapted for baptism by immersion, and would contain six or eight 
 adults. Four smaller fonts, or basins, are disposed around it ; but their use does not appear 
 to be known. If the conjecture of some Avriters be correct, that they were originally designed 
 for the administration of the baptismal rite to infants, and by sprinkling, whilst the large font 
 Avas to be specially reserved for immersion, — it forciljly reminds one of the ludicrous anecdote 
 related of Sir Isaac Newton, that he caused a large hole to be cut in the door of his stable for 
 the cat, and a smaller one for her kittens. The carvings and other ornaments of the fonts are 
 rich and profuse, though some few of them ai-e not worthy of the artists to whom the}- are 
 attributed. 
 
 The great ornament of the Baptistery, is the pulpit, or reading desk, by Kicolo Pisano, the 
 founder of the Pisan school of sculpture. " This pulpit well deserves all the celebrity attached 
 to it, the degree of which celebrity in its own city may be judged of bj^ the fact, that, in for- 
 mer years, when the denser population sent more crowded congregations to the church, on the 
 fete days, it was the custom for the authorities of the town to send an armed civic guard to 
 watch over its safety, by preventing the pressure of the multitude upon it." It is a hexagon 
 of oriental alabaster, or, according to some, of Parian or Carrara marble, resting upon nine i)il- 
 lars of different kinds of marble. The alternate columns are supported b}' lions, and the centre 
 one rests, rather oddly, on St. John and his eagle. The relievi "\\ hich adorn tliis chef d a'uvre 
 of art are of great beauty both in design and workmanship : tlio}' are fi^e in number ; and re- 
 present the Nativit}', the Adoration of the JMagi, the Presentation in the Temple, the Cruci- 
 fixion, and the Last Judgment. The general aj'pcarance of this pulpit, is that of a small 
 temple or shrine, happily conceived and elaborately- wrought. 
 
 The Campanile, or Leaning Tower, has been so often described, that there is scarcely an 
 object of interest in the world with which people genei-ally are Ijctter acquainted. The pecu- 
 liarity on which its fame principally rests, is its fearful inclination from the perpendicular, 
 which seems to threaten the instant fall of the structure. It ought, however, rather to be 
 called the contorted, than the lemniuj tower ; for neither pen nor pencil can convc}' an adequate 
 idea of its ii-regularities. An opinion was long entertained, and is stiU held by some, that the 
 inclination of the building was a contrivance of the architect ; but there is abundant evidence 
 to be seen, in the immediate neighbourhood, that the leaning has resulted altogether from the 
 foundations having sunk more on the one side than on the other. This sinking, it would ap- 
 pear, began to be observable long before the structure was completed; and the architect 
 endeavoured to remedy the evil, by an irregular curvature, which noperspecti\e can represent, 
 and which could not, without much difficult}-, be trul}- shown ca en in a model. The Campa- 
 nile is a seven-storied circular tower, each stor}^ supported by an open Corinthian portico. 
 The basement arches are solid, and exhibit some niosaics and sculptures. The ascent to the 
 summit of the building, is by tAvo hundred and ninety winding steps, which lean variously, 
 following the irregularities of the tower. The prospect from the top is extensive and interest- 
 ing, embracing the Mediterranean, and reaching, in fine Aveathcr, even to the island of Corsica. 
 
 There is something inexpressibly grotesque in the appearance of the Campanile, a qiwcn/ct^g 
 which throws it entirely out of harmony M'ith the sacred and magnificent buildings in its 
 vicinity. " As you pass from one part of the Cainpo Santo to another, you open to your eye 
 the top of the edifice, while the loA^er part still remains concealed ; or, if you take yoiu- con 
 
20 P^SA. 
 
 templative walk in the other direction, a contrary phenomenon appears, and the lower part of 
 the tower presents itself, while the correctly straight line of the building from behind which 
 you are passing, cuts it strangely in half the other way. The very shade that it casts upon 
 the ground is monstrous, and, in short, it is absolutely impossible to get yom- mind into the 
 harmonious state of religious sublimity, unless you fairly turn your back upon the leaning 
 tower." One fact remains to be mentioned, which confers interest upon the Campanile, and in 
 some measure reconciles us to its singular deformity : Galileo from this tower made his fii-st 
 experiments upon gravity and the descent of falling bodies. 
 
 The last of the four great objects of interest in Pisa, is the celebrated cemetery named the 
 Campo Santo. It is related that the archbishop Ubaldo returning from Palestine, brought 
 thence fifty-three vessels laden with the earth of the Holy Land, which he deposited in this 
 spot. It has also been gravely stated, that " independently of the high value which rehgion 
 gave to this sacred soil, it had a physical virtue which approached the wonderful, namely, the 
 property of consuming bodies in twenty-four hours." Looking, however, to the extent of the 
 cemetery, we may be allowed to doubt this efficacy, seeing that fifty-three galleys of earth 
 could not cover this vast enclosure to any great depth. The Campo Santo was not inclosed 
 by walls till the completion of the cloister in 1278. This structure, the work of Giovanni di 
 Pisa, is beyond compare the most magnificent cloister in existence. It consists of four sides 
 of long and light arcades, above a hundred and five thousand yards in circumference, and of 
 a most noble width. A fine area of turf occupies the centre ; and along the sides of the cloister 
 are ranged monuments, sarcophagi, and vases, of every artistique age and country ; while the 
 walls are covered with innumerable frescoes, which, as remains of art, are invaluable. To 
 attempt particular description of this celebrated spot in a brief and general sketch, is impos- 
 sible ; we could at most give little more than a dry catalogue of its sculptures and paintings, 
 which would utterly fail to convey any distinct idea of its marvellous beauties. Let it suffice 
 to say, that none visit this city of the dead without feeling that there are hallowed spots of 
 earth ; — that there are localities whose awful magnificence invests them with sanctity, and 
 within whose pale are gathered mighty sympathies and associations which the outer world is 
 too narrow to contain. 
 
 We must pass rapidly over the remaining features of Pisa. The Lungo I'Arno, a continued _ 
 quay on both sides of the river Arno, contains some interesting buildings. Amongst these the 
 Palazzo Lanfreducci* is remarkable for the links of a chain over a majestic portal, and the 
 enigmatical moiio—alla giornata, signifying " day by day." This inscription has greatly 
 puzzled the antiquaries, and to this day it remains unexplained. Why the chain and inscrip- 
 tion should be placed over the portal of this palace, it may be difficult to determine ; but the 
 expressive adaptation of the motto to the device is surely obvious enough. " Day by day:" 
 why it contains the whole history of a pining, monotonous captivity. In the Piazza de Cava- 
 lieri, formerly stood the Torre della Fame, or Tower of Famine. With a singular disi-e- 
 gard for a locality, so remarkable for the tragedy connected with it, the Pisans have permitted 
 all traces of this structure to disappear. It was ruined so early as the sixteenth century, hut 
 a portion of the walls remained till a very recent period. All vestiges of the tower are now, 
 however, lost ; and a smart modern house occupies its site. Shade of Dante ! the Smiths and 
 the Browns locating in the Torre della Fame ! 
 
 — ^ - u 
 
 * Lord Byron resided for a time in this palace. 
 
LEGHORN. 
 
 21 
 
 Amongst the ecclesiastical structures of Tisa, may be named tlic monastery of Santa (Jatc- 
 rina, a stately building, adorned with rich marbles and sculptures, and contain inj^- some 
 interesting tombs. The abbey of San Nicolo is a fine structure, containing some mosaics of 
 an early age, and a number of paintings of inferior character. The church of San Matteo is 
 in the Gothic style. Connected A\'itli it is a convent, remarkable for the Ijeauty of its cloister, 
 and for a painting by Aurelio Lomi, representing the glorified Redeemer surrounded by saints 
 and angels. 
 
 The chai'acter of Pisa, as a place of temporary soj ourn for the tourist and invalid, is various- 
 ty stated by different writers. Some complain of its unendurable iristesse : others speak fa- 
 vonrably of its quiet, as compared Avith the gayer cities of Italy, and find ample compensation 
 for the absence of bustle and excitement, in the grandeur of its principal buildings, and the 
 beauty of the scenery in its neighbourhood. The climate of Pisa is remarkably mild during 
 the winter, and appears on the whole to be suited to invalids suffering under pulmonary com- 
 plaints. It is said that twice as much rain falls here, within the year, as in London ; but Pisa 
 has this advantage, that the rains fall there in torrents, and hence the PisanS' enjoy longer 
 intervals of sun-shine than the inhabitants of Britain. It is undoubtedly a pleasant thing 
 " to see the sun shine every day," yet rain in torrents is a fine antithesis ; but that everlasting 
 drizzle of water comminuted into vapour, so characteristic of our o^m climate, is most de- 
 cidedly unpoetical and uncomfortable. 
 
 LEGHORN 
 
 ISTORIANS have laboured industriously to establish the antiquity of Leg- 
 horn ; and its name and situation appear to identify it with the ancient 
 Herculis Libueni Pai^tus, or Port of the Liburnian Hercules. To trace the 
 derivation of its name, we must discard the French appellation of Ligorne, 
 or Leghorn, and adopt the more euphonious Italian term, Livorno ; the latter 
 word being easily deduced from the classic Lihurni. Livorno is indebted to antiquity 
 for nothing beyond a name. It seems never to have attained any consideration in 
 ancient times ; and, indeed, it remained a petty village, almost immersed in swamps 
 and sea-weeds, till the Medicean princes turned their attention to its port, and by a 
 series of regulations equally favourable to the interests and the feelings of the mer- 
 cantile body, made it the mart of Mediterranean commerce. 
 
 In the thirteenth century, Livorno was a wretched village, undefended by walls ; but in the 
 fourteenth century it rose to some importance under the government of Florence. The 
 Florentines, who had been for ages bankers to sovereign powers, and merchants to the subjects 
 
22 LEGHORN. 
 
 of those powers, were then without a port, the want of whicTi had long operated against the 
 extension of their commerce. At length, in 1421, they obtained Livorno, by purchase, from 
 the Genoese, who, for present gain, most unwisely sold it, and thus raised a powerful rival. 
 The Florentines having now obtained access to the sea, their opulence rapidly advanced, and 
 under the powerful influence of the Medici, their newly acquired port rose to distinction. It 
 was fortified by Alexander de' Medici; and Cosmo I. constituted it a free port, and induced 
 many Greeks to establish themselves within its walls. The city, for it became one, rapidly 
 increased ; a canal was cut, and the port enlarged. To Ferdinand I., the immediate successor 
 of Cosmo I., is Livorno chiefly indebted for its improvement ; and to his wise and prudent 
 policy, the permanent foundation of the city, as a great mart of commerce, is entirely attri- 
 butable. He built the Molo Ferdinando ; added a new fort ; and constructed many pubhc 
 works, at once useful and ornamental. But the prosperity of Livorno was mainly secured by 
 the judicious conduct of this sovereign in granting liberty of conscience to all strangers,— a 
 gift which rivalled, and far exceeded, Cosmo's liberty of commerce. There is no act which 
 marks more distinctly the enlightened policy of Ferdinand, than his gi-ant of universal tolera- 
 tion, by which he placed upon record this great truth : that large social and conunercial re- 
 lations are utterly incompatible with sectarian jealousies. The population of Livorno was 
 inconsiderable, until Ferdinand's invitation to the inhabitants of every nation to make settle- 
 ment there, brought a vast influx of strangers, and more especially of Jews, which latter had 
 been driven from Spain by the tyranny and cruelty of the Inquisition. 
 
 Ferdinand II. built the Arsenal, the Custom House, and that part of the city named, from 
 its numerous intersections by canals, Venezia Nuova. The subsequent history of Livorno 
 affords little of interest to the historian beyond the statistics of its commerce. It suffered in 
 the common fate of Italy, during the Napoleon visitation. It fell under the power of the 
 French in 1796 ; and was retaken by the English in 1799 ; but returned again to the French 
 in 1800, and remained under their pf^otedion till the memorable events of 1814 destroyed their 
 power in all the countries they had subdued. Within late years, the suburbs of the city have 
 been surrounded with a wall ; and the entire population is now estimated at about 60,000 
 inhabitants, of whom upwards of 8000 are Jews. These last have not increased in proportion 
 to the rest of this mixed population ; but no small portion of the wealth and trade of the city 
 is in their hands. 
 
 Livorno possesses few structures, or works of art, to arrest the attention of the connoisseur 
 and artist. Its features are, for the most part, those of a bustling mai-itime town. By the 
 mercantile traveller it must ever be regarded with interest, as the gathering place of nations, 
 in which men of every creed and clime unite for the cultivation and extension of commerce. 
 And to all who take interest in the social relations of mankind, Livorno presents the gratify- 
 ing spectacle of a community composed of many distinct bodies, mingling in good faith and 
 amity ; each body being protected in the enjoyment of its own religious opinions, alike secured 
 from obloquy and restrained from intolerance. There are places of worship for every dis- 
 tinct people and creed. Amongst these may be named, the Greek Church ; the Melchiti, or 
 Greek Church in the Arabic language ; the Eastern or Schismatic Greeks, and the Russian 
 Greek Church ; the Catholic Armenians ; the Arabian Maronites ; the English EpiscopaUan 
 Church, and the various forms of English Dissent ; the Scottish Presbyterian Church ; a Lu- 
 theran and a Calvinist Chtirch for the Germans and the Dutch; a Mosque for Mahomedans ; 
 and the finest Synagogue in Europe for the Jews. Thus the residents from all nations have 
 
LEGHORN. 23 
 
 established churches, chapels, and ccnietcries, in confoiinity with their own modes of worship. 
 The burial ground attached to the English chapel, contains several beautiful marble tombs, 
 one of which, distinguished from all the rest by a cameo, the work of Chantrey, — covei-s tlie 
 remains of Smollett. This cemetery, named the Cuvrpo hujlciic, was formerly a general place 
 of sepulture for our countrjanen ; there being no other English burial ground in Italy, before 
 the present centuiy. 
 
 The only monument that can be referred to the age of the republic, is the Torre del Marzocco, 
 or Torre Rossa ; the first name deriycd from the lion, placed upon it as a weather-cock, and 
 the second from the colour of the marble of which the building is constructed. The Duomo, 
 or Cathedral, is remarkable for its facade, designed by Inigo Jones ; and for the paintings on 
 the entablature by Ligozzi. The statue of Ferdinand I., a noble work of art by Pietro Tacca, 
 stands upon the quay adjoining the harbour. The pedestal is supported by four kneeling 
 figures, of colossal size, said to represent some Turkish slaves who had attempted to steal a 
 Tuscan galley, and Avho were executed by order of Ferdinand. There is some difference of 
 opinion regarding the prototypes of these figures ; but if we even admit the mildest interpre- 
 tation, that these kneeling slaves are merely allegorical personages, we can but regret that 
 they should form the support of a monument erected to the memory of a prince, whose dis- 
 tinguishing fame is identified with free commerce and liberty of conscience. The fettered 
 hmbs, and the despairing, grief- worn countenances of these slaves, are either utterly out of 
 place, or they offer inevitable evidence of vhidictive spirit on the part of the prince whose 
 statue they sustain. 
 
 Although there is little in Livorno, compared with other cities of Italy, to interest the 
 antiquarian or the lover of art, the general features present an interesting and picturesque 
 appearance from the neighbouring elevations. From the Monte Nero, whence our view is 
 taken, the city is seen at a distance of five miles, and beyond it are the mountains of Carrara; 
 but between these, a great extent intervenes in the Maremma of Pisa, where alone, in Europe, 
 camels are bred for beasts of burden. Immediately above the Church of the Madonna of 
 Monte ]S^ero, which forms a prominent object on the right, is seen the distant city of Pisa, 
 lying at the foot of the mountains. The Monte Nero is covered with the suburban residences 
 of the merchants and rich citizens of Livorno ; the beauty of which is pleasingly indicated in 
 the foreground of our view. 
 
 The Monte Nero, or Black jMountain, is said to have derived its name from the dark colour 
 of the w^oods which formerly covered the hill. It was in this wood that the portrait of the 
 Vh-gin, which makes the region so sacred, w^as finally deposited. This picture, according to 
 veritable tradition, after an unrecorded sojourn in Negropont, suddenly took a flying fit, and 
 at length dropped upon the shore of the Ardenza ; and its locomotive powers being then 
 exhausted, the Virgin ordered a shepherd to transport it to the neighbouring Monte Nero, — 
 the spot where for five centuries she has received the devotion of tlie faithful Livornese. It 
 is one of the numerous portraits for which, it is said, the Virgin granted sittings, and is re- 
 markable for not being attributed to St. Luke, who, according to the traditions of the Romish 
 Church, was painter and sculptor to the Holy Family. This picture, so celebrated for its 
 miracle-working powers, is said to be " da mono ignota " ( by an unknown hand ) ; it represents 
 the Virgin sitting on a cushion ornamented with gold flowers, bearing on her left arm the infant 
 Christ, who holds a bird tied to a thread. After the picture had been placed in an oratory. 
 and worshipped there for above a century, the Archbishop Giuliano of Pisa consigned it, as a 
 
24 LEGHORN. 
 
 precious charge, to a small religious community of the Gesuati ; but when this cloistered 
 institution was suppressed in 1688, by order of Clement IX., the sacred picture was, in the 
 following year, confided to the guardianship of another order of monks, called the Teatini. 
 Under these fathers, not only was the convent of Monte Nero built, but, in 1720, was commenced 
 the present superb church, which was completed in fifty years at a great expense, and dedi- 
 cated to the Virgin. When the establishrhents of the regular clergy were generally suppressed 
 in Tuscany in 1783, the charge of the picture was given to the seculars of this Church of the 
 Madonna, which became parochial ; but in 1792, the Grand Duke, Ferd.inand III., having 
 restored some of the convents, intrusted the treasury of this miraculous picture, and all that 
 belonged to it, to the monks of Vallombrosa ; and, the following year, a sufiftcient number of 
 them came hither, and assumed the guardianship of this greatly celebrated shrine, which they 
 have ever since retained. 
 
 The Church of the Madonna of Monte Nero, is remarkable for its rich display of marbles 
 and costly decorations, the gifts and contributions of grateful benefactors. Forsyth, in his 
 wonted irreverent and sarcastic manner, gives the following amusing description of the shrine : 
 " On Monte Nero is a most magnificent church, raised by the piety of sailors to an old picture 
 of the Virgin, which had flown from Judsea through the air, and perched on this hiU for their 
 especial protection. To this miraculous daub they ascribe all their escapes ; and as proofs of 
 its saving power, they have covered the walls with cable-ends and crutches, the barrels of 
 guns which had innocently burst, the chains of delivered slaves, and a thousand ex-voto pictures 
 bordering on caricature. No Italian ship sails past the hUI without saluting our Lady of 
 Monte Nero. A thousand sterns in the Mediterranean bear her name and efBgy. Under her 
 invocation I had embarked in two different feluccas ; but, finding me out to be a heretic, she 
 would never let me finish my voyage." 
 
 To the south of Livorno, the whole coast between the rocky headlands of Monte Nero and 
 Piombino, is a long sweep of low, sandy beach, with three or four lonely, diminutive castles, 
 intended as a check upon the piratical incursions of the Barbary corsairs. Opposite the port 
 rises the island of Menaria, and some miles beyond it, that of Gorgone : 
 
 Adsurgit ponti medio circumflua Gorgon, 
 Inter Pisanum Cyrnaicumque latus. * 
 
 Rutilius. 
 
 Farther to the south, but within sight of the coast, is the island of Elba, for whose petty 
 sovereignty Napoleon was compelled to exchange the throne of France : 
 
 " There sunk the greatest, nor the worst of men, 
 
 Whose spirit antithetically mixed, 
 
 One moment of the mightiest, and again 
 
 On little objects with like firmness fixed, 
 
 Extreme in all things I" 
 
 Clnlde Harold. 
 
 * Between the Pisan and Cyrnrean lands, 
 
 'Mid the wliite waves the sea-girt Gorgon stands. 
 
FLORENCE. ^5 
 
 FLORENCE. 
 
 Of all the fairest cities of the earth, 
 
 None are so fair as Florence. 
 
 Rogers. 
 
 TALIAN History presents nothing more interesting and exciting than the 
 annals of Florence. Tracing this city downwards from her first appear- 
 ance on the page of legitimate history, as a Roman colony, till she became the 
 very temple of literature and art, — avc gather in our progress such instances of 
 indomitable courage in the dark ages which succeeded the fall of the empire ; 
 such union of the highest chivalry of romance with the sanguinary scenes wliich 
 marked the struggle between rival parties ; such displays of pure patriotism and 
 unbounded munificence on the part of the first merchant princes of the Medicean family ; 
 such thrilling tragedies connected with the subsequent history of this distinguished 
 house, when its descendants, forgetting their virtuous and patriot origin, sunk into 
 oppressors of their country, and riotous slaves of profligacj' and prodigality ; — and, inter- 
 woven with these, the glorious imaginings of Dante ; Petrarch's impassioned strains ; the 
 " Hundred Tales of Love," of the elegant, but impure, Boccaccio ; the dramatic triumphs of 
 Alfieri ; the heaven-ward contemplations of Galileo, who walked amidst the brightness of the 
 firmament, whilst the thunders of the Vatican were directed against him, and the terrors of 
 the Inquisition were arrayed before him ; — and, blended with these again, the triumphs of 
 Painting, the triumphs of Sculpture, the triumphs of Architecture : — we gather from the 
 annals of Florence such salient points as these, to distinguish above all common records an 
 historical drama, played upon Roman ground, and represented in its various acts by a dra- 
 matis personte of princes, and of men greater and more ennobled than princes. 
 
 The antiquity of Florence cannot be traced back, with certainty, fai'ther than sixty years 
 previous to the Christian era. Then it was, that a division of Roman soldiers were sent 
 thither, after the battle of Perusia, by Octavianus. Little remains to distinguish its history 
 as a Roman colony, either in recorded achievements, or in architectural remains of former 
 greatness. Beyond a few traces of an amphitheatre, and some inscriptions, nothing is present- 
 ed to the eye to identify Florence with the empire. Ecclesiastical histor}- has preserved an 
 account of persecutions and martjTdoms in this city, under Decius, in the third century ; and 
 in 313, Felix, one of its bishops, attended a council in Rome. When the Goths made irruption 
 into Italy, the Florentines distinguished themselves by a bold defence of then- city ; from whose 
 walls they triumphantly repulsed the barbarian host, first in 405, and subsequently in 542. 
 We afterwards find the city in the possession of the Longobards, A\'ho made the district one of 
 their dukedoms ; but in their hands, Florence itself became little better than a deserted mass 
 of ruins. On the defeat of the Longobards by Charlemagne, Florence was raised from its for- 
 lorn condition ; but it never shone forth in all its lustre, till governed bj^ its own magistrates, 
 
26 FLORENCE. 
 
 and under laws enacted by its own authority, it acquired the name and the energies of a 
 republic. 
 
 In the latter part of the eleventh, and the beginning of the twelfth century, when the dis- 
 putes between the Church and the Empire were violent, and when every Italian town became 
 involved in their contests, Florence was under the jurisdiction of the Countess MatUda, who, 
 dying in 1115, left her inheritance to the See of Rome. Florence had then a very limited 
 territory, but already the commercial character of its people had shown, itself, in their transac- 
 tions with the Levant and with France. Before the death of Matilda, the Florentines had 
 made a grand struggle for liberty, by opposing the appointment of a new vicar nominated by 
 the emperor ; on which occasion an obstinate battle was fought at Monte Cascioli, about six 
 miles from Florence, wherein the imperial vicar was slain, and the troops of the empire dis- 
 comfited. Notwithstanding the bequest of Matilda, successive popes, from motives of policy, 
 acted with great moderation towards the Florentines, and laid their authority lightly upon 
 them ; by which means they effectually won them to the side of the Church, and arrayed them 
 in permanent hostility against the empire. Thus was Florence established as an independent 
 commonwealth, attached to the Guelphic, or Church party, in opposition to the GhibeUine 
 faction, which gave its support to the emperor. As the community of Florence increased, 
 many partisans of the emperor became citizens, and the seeds of dissension were sown within 
 the city itself Thenceforward, tOl the time of the Medici, the history of Florence is a fearful 
 record of party strife. 
 
 The dissensions of the Florentines may be altogether referred to the dispute for supremacy 
 between the Church and the Emperor ; but out of this original ground of quarrel, not unfre- 
 quently arose private bickerings, in which the party epithets of Guelph and Ghibelline were 
 made subservient to the fierce passions of powerful and rival families thu-sting for each other's 
 blood. In 1215, the whole city was divided into two great factions, in consequence of a do- 
 mestic tragedy, the subject of many a drama and picture. A young man of the Buondelmonti 
 family had been betrothed to a young lady of the family Uberti. He broke faith with her, 
 and married a Donati, for which he was stabbed in the streets by the Uberti. The citizens 
 took part, some with the one family and some with the other ; and as the Uberti were for 
 the Emperor, Frederick II., and the Buondelmonti and Donati were partisans of the Church, 
 these domestic quarrels were combined with the public and political struggle which so long 
 hung like a curse upon Italy. 
 
 Buondelmonti ! what ill counseling 
 Prevailed on thee to break the plighted bond ? 
 Many, -who now are weeping, would rejoice, 
 Had God to Ema given thee, the first time 
 Thou near our city earnest. 
 
 Paradiso, XVII. 139-143. 
 
 We cannot enter minutely into all the vicissitudes which attended the strife of parties in 
 Florence. Ages passed in a frightful monotony of tumult and massacre, relieved occasionally 
 by an act of devoted courage and patriotism, or by an incident destined in after-times " to point 
 a moral and adorn a tale." Governed sometimes by its bishop, sometimes by its nobles, and 
 not unfrequently by its people, Florence experienced all the varieties and all the agitations of 
 republican administration. Sometimes convulsed by the rival pretensions of the former, or 
 
FLORENCE. 27 
 
 by the licentious claims of tlic latter, it was converted into a field of battle, a theatre of p;\u\t 
 and assassination ; at intervals, under the sway of a wise and virtuous magistracy, it exhibited 
 tokens of peace, industry, and prosperity ; and in its fre(iuent wars Avith the neighbouring 
 states of Siena, Pisa, and Lucca, it obtained a fame that placed it upon a level with the 
 other commomvealths of Italy. But ever and anon, the volcano of intestine division, which 
 never ceased to give indication of its presence, broke forth into terrible eruption, that swept 
 before it the peace and order, and happy presages, to which a brief interval of quiet had 
 given birth. About the middle of the thirteenth century, the Guelphic pai-ty had utterly 
 expelled the Ghibellines from Florence. They recorded their successes in the annals of the 
 city, as " the year of victories ;" and on this occasion, they first coined their fine gold florins, 
 bearing the municipal emblems, St. John the Baptist, and the Lily. Within a few years, 
 almost before the acclamations of triumph had ceased, the proscribed Ghibellines returned to 
 take vengeance upon their enemies. The Guelphs were now, in tarn, expelled from the city, 
 which was only saved from utter destruction by the patriotism of Farinati, himself a Ghibelline. 
 When his party proposed to raze Florence to its foundations, and scatter its population over 
 the surrounding country, he indignantly declared that he would rather unite Avith the Guelphs 
 than consent to the proposal. Florence was saved : and her defender still lives in the poetry 
 of Dante. 
 
 In that affray 
 I stood not singly, nor, without just cause, 
 A.ssuredly, should with the rest hare stirred ; 
 But singly there I stood, when, by consent 
 Of all, Florence had to the ground been razed, 
 The one who openly forbade the deed. 
 
 Infenio, X. 87—92. 
 
 The tide of circumstances again rolled in favour of the Guelphs, who in 1625 returned in 
 triumph to Florence, whence they drove the garrison of their opponents. ThenceforAvard the 
 strength of the Ghibellines declined ; and their triumphs were confined to partial and tempo- 
 rary advantages, which failed to re-establish then- supremacy, but sufl&ced to perpetuate the 
 horrors of intestine strife and tumult. An attempt on the part of Pope Nicholas III., to 
 mediate between these factions, utterly failed ; and centuries passed aAvay leaving only records 
 of enmity and bloodshed. Other parties also arose ; and the contests of the Bianchi and the 
 Neri, are as distinguished in the history of hatred, as those of the Guelphs and Ghibellines. 
 Amidst aU these disasters, Florence prosecuted her commercial enterprises with great success, 
 and also entered into fierce contest with the other republics of Italy, some of which she re- 
 duced to entire subjection. * The wealth of the Florentines must in these ages have been 
 immense : the physical force of the city and neighbourhood could not fm-nish strength for 
 their Avarlike expeditions ; and their armies Avere therefore composed of mercenaries, com- 
 manded by a foreign leader, and maintained at great cost. With the growth of her commer- 
 
 Florence exult ! for thou so mightily 
 
 Hast thriven, that o'er land and sea thy wings 
 
 Thou beatest. 
 
 Inferno, XXV. 1 — 3. 
 
28 FLORENCE. 
 
 cial importance, there sprung up in Florence contentions for supremacy between the nobles 
 and wealthy citizens ; and ultimately the grandi were overborne, and excluded from all the 
 offices of the republic. In a few years, jealousies arose between the citizens themselves, 
 when proscription and exile fell upon the weaker party ; and out of these strifes, the Medici 
 and the Ricci sought monopoly of power by pandering to the prejudices of the lower trades. 
 The Albizzi afterwards obtained ascendancy at the head of the wealthy citizens, and founded 
 a new aristocracy, which held the government, in spite of tumults and conspiracies, for 
 fifty-two years ; and from 1400 to 1433, Florence enjoyed a period of quiet, the longest, says 
 Macchiavelli, in her history. At length, the Albizzi were overthrown by Cosmo de' Medici, 
 with whose family the subsequent history of Florence is identified. 
 
 The first merchant princes of the Medicean family, wisely content with the ascendency 
 which the affection and the gratitude of their country gave them, blended the policy of the 
 statesman, the disinterestedness of the patriot, and the munificence of the sovereign, with 
 the economy of traders, and the affability, the ease, and the simplicity of citizens. Such was 
 the effect of these virtues, set off by learning and discernment, that history presents few great 
 men to our observation more worthy of esteem and admiration than Cosmo, the " Father of 
 his Country," and Lorenzo, " the Magnificent." To these founders of the Medicean famUy 
 Florence is indebted for the world's interest in her fortunes. 
 
 Cosmo de' Meiici, by a course of prudent policy, increased his wealth and popularity, and 
 became a great patron of art and literature; but the restless disposition of the Florentines in- 
 terrupted for a time his patriotic and munificent designs for the benefit of his country. 
 Through the intrigues of the Albizzi, a sentence of banishment for ten years was recorded 
 against him ; but within a year from his departure, he was restored to the seat of government 
 by the unanimous voice of the people, and received with every demonstration of joy. He now 
 rallied around him the wise and the learned of all countries, established libraries and institu- 
 tions, and endowed hospitals ; yet he so carefuUy avoided ostentation that his munificence and 
 benevolence excited neither jealousy nor envy. He died in 1464, leaving behind him a name 
 to which history presents few parallels. This citizen prince was succeeded by his second son 
 Piero ; Giovanni, the elder son, having died before Cosmo. Piero survived his father only five 
 years, and then left the government to his son, Lorenzo, " the Magnificent." 
 
 Lorenzo distinguished himself above all his predecessors by his princely foundations for the 
 encouragement of the arts and literature ; his gardens in Florence, furnished with the finest 
 statues and works of art, became an academy for study ; and by the influence of his example, 
 the higher classes of the Florentines were invited to follow his pursuits, and the lower order 
 of citizens were encouraged to adopt them by his liberality. The age of Lorenzo de' Medici 
 stands out as one of the brightest eras in art, science, and literature. Many of the extraordinary 
 men of that time had been preceded, in the same country, by minds worthy of contempora- 
 neous fame. Giotto and Brunelleschi, Dante and Orcagna, had preceded Michael Angelo, 
 Galileo, Da Vinci, Cellini, and Politiano ; but few have followed who would, in that age, have 
 been distinguished. The powers of the painters, sculptors, and architects, of that day, were 
 not confined to one, or all of these pursuits together ; they were the engineers, civil and mili- 
 tary, the mathematicians, mechanics, chemists and anatomists of their time; they were poets, 
 artists, and philosophers. Since their day, none have appeared to compete with them in ex- 
 cellence, in any one of their pursuits ; and none have succeeded, as they did, in combining 
 these pursuits, and in embracing, both in theory and practice, all the human Iniowledge of 
 
FLORENCE. 29 
 
 their time. There wore, indeed, giants in those days ; and at the mention of tlieii- names, we 
 recall their contemporaries, their works, their mnnificent patron, and their conntry, whicli 
 they rendered illustrious. 
 
 The zealous efforts of Lorenzo for the happiness and prosperity of his country, were insuf- 
 ficient to extinguish that spirit of faction which had for so many ages disturbed the tranquillity 
 of Florence. The Pazzi, Avho had been admitted into family alliance with the jMedici, jealous 
 of the popularity and consequent power of Lorenzo, conspired for his overthrow ; but their 
 design failed in its principal object, and accomplished only the assassination of his brother 
 Giuliano. The " Conspiracy of the Pazzi " forms the subject of a tragedy by Alfieri. The 
 poet has not pourtrayed the character of Lorenzo very faithfully ; he was too stern a republi- 
 can to acquiesce in the supremacy of the Medici, how great soever tlieir private virtues might, 
 have been, or their public benefits to the commonwealth. It, moreover, better suited dramatic 
 purposes, that his conspirators should appear in the character of men bold and resolute for the 
 right, than in that of moody malcontents and ruthless assassins. The following passage, in 
 which Lorenzo taunts the father of Julian for his son's contumacy, breathes more of tyranny 
 than of patriotism : 
 
 " Go ; if thou carest for thy son pursue him : 
 To adapt his conduct better to the times 
 Instruct him ; and to this do thou thyself, 
 By thy example, aid him. Equally 
 With him indeed thou hatest us, yet thou 
 Hast yielded to us, and dost yield. Engraft 
 Thy own discretion on his headstrong will. 
 I do not e'en pretend regard for you ; 
 111 have ye feigned ; and nothing it annoys m_-. 
 Haste, hut obey ; and yet obeying, tremble. 
 Go thou, and tell to this thy mountebank. 
 And pigmy Brutus, that his prototype, 
 The real Brutus, fell in Tain with Rome." 
 
 On the death of Lorenzo, at the early age of forty-four, his son Piero rose to his place ; but 
 the latter wanted the capacity and the virtues of his father ; and after offering vain conces- 
 sions to Charles VIIL of France, he was driven from Florence. The French troops entered the 
 city, and, aided by the citizens, destroyed the palace of the Medici, and dispersed in a single 
 day the wonders of art, and the rare manuscripts, which had been collected by Cosmo and 
 Lorenzo. Subsequently, the Medicean family were restored to Florence ; but though the 
 liberty of the city and the glory of the Medici surviA-ed Lorenzo, they began from the fatal 
 period of his death to decline ; till Cosmo, a descendant from the first Lorenzo, decorated with 
 the empty title of Duke, resigned the nobler appellation of the first citizen and the father of 
 his country, and usurped by force that government which the gratitude and veneration of his 
 countrymen had deposited with generous confidence in the hands of his ancestors. Cosmo had 
 no sooner risen to the coveted distinction of the ducal coronet, than he removed to the Palazzo 
 Pitti, there to exhibit the vanity and ostentation which formed such striking features in his 
 character. Here it was that his Duchess, Eleonore de Toledo, gave birth to offspring Avhose 
 crimes entailed no less misery on themselves than on others ; and from this palace went 
 forth that gorgeous procession, the first exhibition of his ambition to play the sovereign, on 
 
30 FLORENCE. 
 
 the occasion of the baptism of his first-born, Mary. But the pride of Cosmo was soon to be 
 humbled. His second son, Giovanni, fell by the hand of his brother Garzia ; and the latter 
 was stabbed by Cosmo in the presence of the unhappy mother, Eleonore, who in a few days 
 after died of a broken heart, and followed her children to the grave.* Cosmo afterwards re- 
 signed his authority into the hands of his eldest son Francisco, whom he nominated regent. 
 Thenceforward he surrendered himself to sensual indulgences ; and his subsequent marriage 
 with a lady, formerly his mistress, gave umbrage to his son, to Avhom he was compelled to 
 make concessions fatal to his peace. To conciliate the regent, lie promised that his new wife 
 should never have the title, or be treated with the honours of gi-and duchess ; and she, disap- 
 pointed in her ambitious hopes, treated him in tm-n mth indifference and neglect. For- 
 saken by his wife, and reduced to a state of helplessness, by repeated attacks of gout and apo- 
 plexy, he was at length removed by order of the regent to the ducal palace. Here, having 
 lost not only the use of his limbs, but his speech also, he lingered for a few months, making 
 the walls echo with the sighs and groans wrung from him by recollections of the past, and 
 dread of the future. Let ambition derive a lesson from Cosmo, grand duke of Florence, sm-- 
 rounded with the " pride, pomp, and circumstance " of sovereign authority, and 
 
 That very Cosmo shaking o'er his fire, 
 Drowsy and deaf and inarticulate. 
 Wrapt in his night-gown, o'er a sick man's mess, 
 In the last stage — death-struck and deadly pale. 
 
 Bogcrs. 
 
 The annals of the Medici, from the time of Cosmo till the extinction of the family, are one 
 long catalogue of cruelty and crime. Florence ultimately came under the sovereignty of 
 Austria, and so remained till Napoleon arose to be the disturber of dynasties. He too has 
 passed away : and Florence is now restored to a branch of the Austrian line. 
 
 Florence is pleasantly situated in a vale intersected by the Arno, graced by numberless 
 hills, and bordered at no great distance by mountains of various forms rising gradually towards 
 the Appenines. The whole vale is one continued grove and garden, where the beauty of the 
 country is enlivened by the animation of the town, and the fertility of the soil is redoubled by the 
 industry of its cultivators. White villas gleam through the orchards on every side, and lai-ge 
 populous hamlets border the roads, and almost line the banks of the river. The city itself 
 spreads along the side of the river, which forms one of its greatest ornaments, and contributes 
 not a little to its fame. Florence presents in its interior neither the splendour of Genoa, 
 the cheerfulness of Milan, nor the grandem* of Venice ; the character of its architectural aspect 
 is that of thoughtful and sober dignity. It is impossible however to imagine an3^thing finer 
 than the view which this city presents from the neighbouring elevations. Our limited space 
 will not permit us to enter into a minute detail of the palaces and public buildings of Florence, 
 and the noble works of art which they contain ; indeed a mere catalogue of the latter, would 
 of itself extend to a volume. It must suffice, that we glance rapidly at the leading structures, 
 cursorily noticing as we pass along the peculiar points of interest in each. 
 
 Commencing with the churches, the Duomo, or Cathedral, claims our first regard. In 
 
 * This domestic tragedy has been dramatized by Alfieri, but with a total want of regard to historical truth. 
 
FLORENCE. ?,^ 
 
 strength and magnificence this building ranks amongst tlie first of the kind in Europe. Its 
 walls are encrusted Avith black and white marble ; and its pavement, the work, in part, of 
 Michael Angelo, is composed of variegated marble wrought in devices of great beauty. It is 
 adorned both within and A\'ithout by marble statues, the works of the most eminent sculptors ; 
 and its paintings are master-pieces of art. This structm-e is principally remarkable for 
 its octangular dome, erected by Brunelleschi in the fourteenth century, and which suggested 
 to Michael Angelo and Bramante, a model for the dome of St. Peter's. The last, however, is 
 of a circular form, and hence is more pleasing to the e3^e ; but in point of skUful construction 
 the dome at Florence is in no degree inferior, whilst it has the superior merit of being a first 
 conception. 
 
 The Cathedral of Florence is not altogether dependent on its architectural beauty for the 
 interest it excites. In it was assembled the celebrated council, where a Greek Emperor, sur- 
 rounded by the patriai'chs of the Greek Chm-ch, sat enthroned next to the Roman Pontiff and 
 his prelates ; when the two most ancient ecclesiastical communions were united for the last 
 time in the bonds of faith and charity. Here also the Emperor, Frederic III., environed by 
 his vassal kings and dukes, sat in imperial state, and distributed the honours of knighthood 
 among his attendants. And the pavement of this church received the Ijlood of Giuliano de' 
 Medici, when he fell beneath the daggers of the Pazzi. This structure is also hallowed by the 
 dust which it enshrines. Here repose Giotto and Brunelleschi, side by side ; jMarsilino Ficino, 
 the restorer of Platonic philosophy ; and many others, whose names are linked to fame. At 
 some distance from the choir, and on the northern wall of the church, is a very ancient pic- 
 ture of Dante. This painting, of which the authenticity is doubted, is the only monimient 
 which Florence has raised to the memory of her most illustrious poet. The republic once 
 endeavoured, through the mediation of jMichael Angelo, to obtain the bard's remains ; but the 
 citizens of Ravenna, faithful to their trust, and to the indignation of Dante against his un- 
 grateful country, steadily refused to resign them.* 
 
 Close to the front of the Duomo, but totally detached from it, rises the Campanile, or belfr}', 
 adorned with allegorical tablets and many highly finished statues. This building was erected 
 by Giotto, who was commanded to construct an edifice which, both in dimensions and in elabo- 
 rate workmanship, should excel the finest works of Greece and Rome. It is a square tower 
 in the pure Italian Gothic style, rising in the same dimensions to the very top, the diminution 
 of proportions being left to the natural effect of perspective. The beauty of the building rc- 
 
 * When Dante had been driven into exile by the Guelphio party, the people of Ravenna afforded him an asylum ; 
 and after his death, they raised a magnificent tomb to his memory. The epitaph says, — " ^Vu exile from Florence, 
 he was received at Ravenna, which enjoyed his presence during his life-time, and honours him after his death . . 
 his tomb, dear to the muses, the senate and people of Ravenna secured, repaired, and adorned, as a treasure of their 
 own, by their own authority, and at their own cost." Dante makes a touching allusion to his banishment in the 
 "Vision:" 
 
 Thou shalt leave each thing 
 Belov'd most dearly : this is the first shaft 
 Shot from the bow of exile. Thou shalt provo 
 How salt the savour is of other's bread ; 
 How hard the passage to descend and climb 
 By other's stairs. 
 
 Paradiso XVII. 57— Gl. 
 
32 FLORENCE. 
 
 suits in no small degree from this circumstance ; for had the sides been inclined from strict 
 parallelism, the eye would have reduced the proportions too rapidly. 
 
 By the gates 
 Wondrously wrought, so heautiful, so glorious, 
 That they might serve to he the gates of Heaven, 
 Enter the Baptistery. 
 
 Rogers, 
 
 The Battisterio di San Giovanni is an octangular building of great beauty, surmounted by a 
 cupola and lantern. The exterior is coated with black and white marble. The interior is 
 adorned with the sculptures of Donatello ; and the cupola, supported by pillars of granite, is 
 covered with mosaics wrought by a succession of Florentine artists. This church is the Bap- 
 tistery, not of St. John's parish only, but of the whole city of Florence ; and the annual num- 
 ber of baptisms is said to average three thousand five himdred. The high reputation of this 
 structure is principally derived from its three brazen portals, or doors ; one of which was 
 executed by Andrea Pisano, in 1330 ; and the other two by Ghiberti, in the early part of the 
 fifteenth century. They are celebrated for the exquisite beauty of the basso-relievos with 
 which they are adorned ; these have reference to the leading events in Sacred History, includ- 
 ing the life of St. John, and the ministry of our Lord. Michael Angelo is reported to have said 
 of these doors, that they were worthy to be the gates of paradise. 
 
 The Church of San Lorenzo is less remarkable for its own internal beauties than for the 
 edifices united or connected with it ; these are the Sacristy, the Medicean Chapel, and the 
 Laurentian Library. Externally, the Church of St. Lorenzo is mean and unsightly ; but the 
 interior presents all the graces of architect a?e. Two pulpits of singular beauty, the work of 
 Bertoldo, stand in the nave ; and in the pavement near the high altar, a slab of porphyry, 
 exquisitely inlaid with verd antique and precious marbles, marks the resting place of Cosmo 
 de' Medici, " the father of his country." There are two Sacristies ; the Sagrestia Vecchia, de- 
 signed by Brunelleschi, and the Sagrestia Nuova, built by Michael Angelo. The first is re- 
 markable for a singular allegorical painting over the altar, and for the sarcophagus of Giovanni 
 de' Medici, by Donatello. But the Sacristy of Michael Angelo exhibits the most fehcitous 
 imion of architecture and sculpture ; the buildings and monuments having been planned with 
 mutual reference to each other. Here are several statues commemorative of the Medici ; and 
 the famed allegorical statues of Morning, Noon, Evening, and Night. Some of these are highly 
 finished, whilst the rest, by their very imperfections, attest the power of Michael Angelo. 
 The highest praise has been bestowed on these works, both in prose and verse, by native and 
 foreign writers, whose descriptions and allusions have directed the traveller's attention to- 
 wards their repository : 
 
 That Chamber of the Dead, 
 Where the gigantic forms of Night and Day, 
 Turn'd into stone, rest everlastingly. 
 Yet still are breathing. 
 
 Rogers. 
 
 The Medicean Chapel, which is still unfinished, was begun in 1604, and was originally intend- 
 ed for the reception of the Holy Sepulchre, the acquisition of which had been promised to 
 
FLORENCE. ;j3 
 
 Ferdinand I. by an Emir of the Druses, who offert'd liis aid to steal this relic from the I loly Land. 
 The pious intention failed ; and the strurture was thenceforward destined to be the mausoleum 
 of the Medicean family. The building is still in an unfinished state, and some parts contrast 
 violently with others ; there is notwithstanding a gorgeous yet solemn magnificence about this 
 chapel, which strikes the beholder with awe and amazement ; and enough has been accom- 
 plished to show that if the structure were finished in accordance -with the original design, it 
 would be the most sumptuous mausoleum in the world. Its form is octangular, its diameter 
 ninety-four feet, and its elevation to the vault two hundred feet. It is lined with lapis lazuli, 
 agate, jasper, onyx, and other precious stones ; furnished with sarcophagi of porphyry ; and 
 supported by granite pilasters with capitals of bronze. The niches between these pilasters are 
 of touchstone. Underneath is a subterranean chapel, where repose the bodies, whose names 
 are inscribed on the sarcophagi above. The crucifixion of our Saviour, a group in white marljle 
 by Giovanni di Bologna, and a Virgin by ^lichael Angelo, grace this dormitory of the dead. De- 
 scription is utterly inadequate to convey any idea of this magnificent building, therein the 
 skill of the artist is rivalled by the preciousness of the materials with which he wrought. The 
 mosaics are exquisite; the cenotaphs of the ^ledici exhibit a costly display of chalcedony, jas- 
 per, mother of pearl, turquoises, and topazes ; and the statues of Ferdinand I. and Cosmo II. 
 are marvellous works of art. It is highly improbable that this structure will ever be com- 
 pleted ; at least, in accordance with what is already done. Eustace says, indeed, that the ma- 
 terials of the inlaid pavement are still in store ; but if so, what labour of art must be besto■s^'ed 
 to work these materials, before the pavement could Avorthily hold companionship Mith the 
 mosaics on the walls. And if the pavement were finished, there would be yet more to do, to 
 render the kingly mausoleum of the Medici a perfect Avork. 
 
 The cloister of San Lorenzo opens into the Laurentian Library, which originally- consisted of 
 manuscripts collected by the first princes of the Medicean family. After their dispersion, in 
 the time of Piero, some were recovered, and many were subsequently added by Leo X. and 
 Clement VII. These are of rare value, and give to the collection a celebrity equal to that 
 of the Vatican. The library now contains upwards of nine thousand manuscripts, including 
 the richest treasures of literature that the world can boast. 
 
 The Church of Santa Croce, a noble and richly decorated building, having much of the cha- 
 racter of the Duomo, holds pre-eminence over the other churches, on account of its being the 
 Westminster Abbey of Florence. Here repose the remains of men, whose names have gone 
 forth into every civilized land, in connection with all that is illustrious in literature, science, 
 and art. The mausoleum of Michael Angelo is a marble sarcophagus, raised upon an oblong 
 platform of the same material, and surmounted by a bust of the deceased. Seated on the 
 platform are three fine emblematic figures of Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture, in various 
 attitudes alike expressive of grief The tomb of Alfieri,the work of Canova, is also a sarcophagus, 
 bearing a bust of the poet in bas-relief, and elevated upon two huge elliptic bases of marble. A 
 colossal statue of Italy, clad in flowing drapery, leans upon the tomb, and bows her castellated 
 head in sorrow. The monument to Macchiavelli supports a statue of Justice, holding in one hand 
 a medallion bearing a bust of the historian, and leaning with the other on the balance and the 
 sword. Galileo's tomb is appropriately adorned with statues of Geometry and Astronom3^ 
 Besides these, there are also monuments to the poet Filicaja, to Lanzi the connoisseur, to the 
 theologian Lami, the historian Bruni, the statesman Signorini, and a host of others whose 
 
34 FLORENCE. 
 
 genius and fame render sacred the earth which covers them, and give a lustre beyond the 
 reach of art to the tombs which commemorate them. 
 
 In Santa Croce's holy precincts lie 
 Ashes which make it holier, dust which is 
 Even in itself an immortality, 
 Though there were nothing save the past and this. 
 The particles of those sublimities 
 Which have relaps'd to chaos : — here repose 
 Angelo's, Alfieri's bones, and his. 
 The starry Galileo, with his woes ; 
 Here Macchiavelli's earth returned to whence it rose. 
 But where repose the all Etruscan three- 
 Dante, and Petrarch, and scarce less than they, 
 The Bard of Prose, creative spirit ! he 
 
 Of the Hundred Tales of love ? 
 
 Cfhilde Harold. 
 
 " The all Etruscan three," Dante, Petrarch, andBoccaccio, sleep in exile ; Dante at Ravenna, 
 Petrarch at Arqua, and Boccaccio at Certaldo. 
 
 "And Santa Croce wants their mighty dust." 
 
 We pass on to a brief mention of the palazzi of Florence ; of which, space permits us to 
 notice only a few of the most striking features. The Palazzo Vecchio, in the Piazza del Gran- 
 duca, is a noble structure. Here passed the most stirring events of a period pregnant with all 
 the virtues and crimes that usually mark the struggle between the defenders and assailants of 
 liberty. In front of the entrance to this massive edifice, are placed the colossal statues of 
 David and Hercules ; the first by Michael Angelo, and the second by Bandinelli. The Palazzo 
 del Podesta was formerly the residence of the chief criminal magistrate of the Florentine re- 
 public. It is now used as a prison. The palazzo Ricardi is worthy of remark as the palatial 
 residence of the first Cosmo de' Medici. The Palazzo Pitti presents the greatest attractions to 
 tourists and visitors ; being the residence of the sovereign, and also the building most inti- 
 mately connected with the fate and fortunes of Florence. The erection of this edifice was begun, 
 early in the fifteenth century, by Lucca Pitti, an opponent of the Medici. After the disgrace 
 of Pitti, the structure came into the hands of the Medicean family. This buUding is in the 
 true Florentine style, and its prevailing character is that of massive dignity. Some of Salva- 
 tor Rosa's finest works exist here ; amongst which is a battle piece, full of force, life, and 
 energy. Rubens' picture of the Four Philosophers is esteemed one of the most perfect works 
 of this master. Andrea del Sarto's St. John in the Wilderness, and the St. Mark by Fra 
 Bartolomeo, are greatly admired. And Vandyke is here shown in some of his most perfect 
 performances. Canova's Venus forms one of the grand ornaments of the Pitti palace. And 
 amongst the paintings, the celebrated Madonna della Seggiola, of Raphael d'Urbino, stands 
 distinguished for majesty of conception, and artistic excellence in all its details.* We regret 
 
 * This magnificent painting has recently been made patent to the public of Britain, through the medium of a beau- 
 tiful engraving, included in the series of Illustrations prepared for the Imperial Family Bible. Before that plate was 
 engraved, the only transcripts from this picture, accessible to the community at large, were worthless caricatures, 
 utterly inadequate to convey the faintest idea of the original. 
 
FLORENCE. -5 
 
 that we are compelled to pass these treasuries of art with such brief notice ; but our rapid 
 sketch does not admit of more extensive descrii)tion. 
 
 The glorj of Florence is the Uffizj, or Gallery, erected by Cosmo I. to Ije the seat of magis- 
 tracy, and which is now a repository of art, second only to the unrivalled collection of the 
 Vatican. The first vestibule contains busts of the Medici family. The second vestibule ex- 
 hibits a fine specimen of ancient sculpture, the Florentine Boar ; and a remarkable example 
 of ri'i^toration in the Apollo CoeUspex, of which scarcely any thing beyond the trunk, the right 
 thigh, and a portion of the right arm, belongs to the original sculptor. The corridors are 
 adorned with paintings and arabesques ; busts of the Roman emperors ; the Bacchus and Faun 
 of Michael Angelo ; and the David of Donatello. The Hall of Niobe presents a group of noble 
 figures, illustrating the fate of the unhappy mother Avho, proud of her offspring, claimed supe- 
 riority over Latona. In the Tribune " stands the statue that enchants the world," the far-famed 
 ^^nus de' INIedici. This unrivalled work of art, was discovered in a broken state, and some 
 portions were wanting ; but the fragments have been united with wonderful skill, and the 
 necessary restoration made. That this statue possesses excellence of the very highest order, 
 is sufhciently evident from the unqualified commendations bestowed upon it by the best 
 judges. It is, however, amusing to read the thousand and one critiques on the Venus, 
 by tourists male and female; the whole, with very few excejjtions, characterized by an 
 amusing absurdity. We have been invited to mark the purity of the Venus, and then 
 desired to note her sensuality ; one tells us that she is a nymph rather than the Paphian 
 Queen, and another sees in her something perfectly transmundane, celestial, and madonna- 
 like ! Some few have sense and candour enough to decide, that the statue is an exquisite 
 portraitm-e of woman placed in very peculiar circumstances. Amongst the sculptures of the 
 Tribune, should be particularized, the Wrestlers or Lottatori ; the Arrotino ; the Apollino ; and 
 the Dancing Faun. Passing over the paintings and other works of art, which are too numerous 
 for us even to catalogue, we may name the Egyptian Antiquities, the Vases and Terrar-cottas, 
 the Medals, the Cabinet of Gems, and the Collection of Drawings and Engravings, as so many 
 sources of refined amusement presented to the connoisseur in the Gallery of Florence. 
 
 "There be more things to greet the heart and eyes,' in Florence, than we have glanced at, 
 " there be more marvels yet ;" but we have already exceeded our limits, and we must rest 
 content with having indicated a few leading characteristics of this famous city. It remains 
 only to notice very briefly two localities in its neighbourhood, to which Milton has given a 
 classic interest. The one is the beautiful village of Fiesole, placed on the summit of a lofty 
 and broken eminence, overlooking the Arno and the city of Florence. To this spot, the scene 
 of his converse with Galileo, Milton refers in that well-known passage : 
 
 The moon, whose orb 
 
 Through optic glass the Tuscan artist views 
 
 At evening from the top of Fesole. 
 
 Paradise Lost. 
 
 The other locality is Vallombrosa, celebrated for its abbey and beautiful scenery. 
 
 Autumnal leaves that strow the brooks 
 
 In Vallombrosa, where the Etrurian shades 
 
 High over-arch'd embower. 
 
 Paradise Lost. 
 
36 
 
 CERTALDO. 
 
 CERTALDO. 
 
 HE little township of Certaldo, in the Val d'Elsa, is principally remarkable 
 for its being the disputed birth-place, and the undisputed resting-place of 
 Boccaccio. It was formerly the seat of an extensive Vimi^iat ; and the re- 
 mains of the old town, occupying the summit of a hill which rises abruptly 
 from the plain, present a striking and picturesque appearance. The modern 
 town, built at the foot of this eminence, is divided into two portions, between 
 which passes the road, named the Traversa, leading from Poggibonsi to Siena. History 
 has recorded httle of importance concerning Certaldo. In 1 164 it was conveyed by a 
 diploma of the emperor Frederick I., to Count Alberto of Prato, a descendant of whom 
 yielded up the place to Florence. The rebellion of the Alberti, at Simifonte, led to the 
 destruction of the castle of Certaldo, and the town was thenceforward declared to be 
 a district of the Florentine Republic. 
 
 Dante ascribes the degeneracy of the Florentines, in his day, to the admission of famiUes 
 from the neighbouring villages, into Florence, and to their mixture with the primitive citizens. 
 Before the acquisition of contiguous territories had extended the citizenship, he tells us, — 
 
 the citizen's blood that now is mix'd 
 
 From Campi, and Certaldo, and Fighine, 
 Ran purely through the last mechanic's veins. 
 
 Paradiso, XVI. 47—49. 
 
 And he applies the defeat at Simifonte as a taunt against the descendants of these intruders 
 into civic privileges : 
 
 Such a one as hath become a Florentine, 
 And trades and traffics, had been turn'd adrift 
 To Simifonte, where his grandsire plied 
 The beggar's craft. 
 
 Paradiso, XVI. 59- 
 
 -62. 
 
 The French and the ItaUans are at issue regarding the birth-place of Boccaccio. The former 
 contend that he was born in Paris, in 1313 ; the latter admit the correctness of date, but deny- 
 ing the locality, stoutly assert that he was born at Certaldo. There is no evidence to settle these 
 rival claims. It is, however, certain that he was educated in Florence ; and with the excep- 
 tion of six years of mercantile drudgery in Paris, he spent nearly the whole of his life in Italy. 
 The Decameron, on which the fame of Boccaccio rests, was written at the court of Naples, by 
 desire of queen Joanna, a sovereign equally celebrated for her beauty and licentiousness. 
 It consists of a series of one hundred tales supposed to be related by a society of young people 
 of rank, who had fled from Florence during the dreadful pestilence which, in 1348, devastated 
 
CERTALDO. 37 
 
 that city. These tales are elej^autly written, and are full of spriglitliness and wit ; but some 
 of them ai-e very offensive to moral purity. 
 
 In the year 1361, a Carthusian monk, named Father Ciani, wrought upon the fears of 
 Boccaccio, by declai'ing to him that he was commissioned to warn him of his api)roaching end, 
 unless he repented his irregular life and licentious writings.* Tlie impression produced upon 
 Boccaccio, lasted only till his health -was restored. Whether the monk's commission was 
 genuine, may be questioned ; but sm-ely the attempt to arrest a voluptuous writer in his course 
 of impurity, deserved not the sneer which a modern poet has cast upon it : 
 
 " The Friar pour'd out his catalogue of treasures ; 
 A ray, imprimis, of the star that shone 
 To the wise men ; a pliial full of sounds, 
 The musical chimes of the great bell that hung 
 In Solomon's Temple ; and though last not least, 
 A feather from the angel Gabriel's wing, 
 Dropt in the Virgin's chamber.'' 
 
 The literary reputation of Boccaccio, led to his being employed in various missions and offices, 
 by the republic of Florence. The latter part of his life appeal's to have been occupied in the 
 collection of classical manuscripts. Returning, at length, to his paternal home at Certaldo,f 
 
 Boccaccio to his parent e?,rth bequeath'd 
 His dust. 
 
 Cliilde Harold. 
 
 He died on the 21st December 1375, at the age of sixty-two ; and was buried in the church 
 of San Jacopo e San Filippo, at Certaldo. In 1503, a cenotaph was raised to his memory, and 
 a marble bust, the latter sculptured by Giovanni Francisco Rustico. Boccaccio's monument is 
 frequently visited, both by foreigners and natives, as well as the house he inhabited, con- 
 sisting of two or three small chambers, and a low tower, upon which Cosmo II. placed an 
 inscription. The house is preserved with great care by the Marchioness Lanzoni ■\Iedici, 
 who has become its possessor. 
 
 * Boccaccio, relating this transaction to his friend Petrarch, says : — " A Carthusian of Siena, whom I know not, 
 came to me at Florence, and asked to speak with me in private. ' I came hither,' says he, 'from the desire of the 
 blessed father Petroni, a Carthusian of Siena ; he charged me to represent to you your extreme danger, unless you 
 reform your manners and your writings, which are the instruments the devil uses to draw men into his snares, to 
 tempt them to sinful lusts, and to promote the depravity of their conduct. Ought you not to blush for such an abuse 
 of the talents God has given you for his glory ? What a reward might you have obtained had you made a good use 
 of that wit and eloquence with which He has endowed you ! On the contrary, what ought you not to fear, for de- 
 voting yourself to love, and waging war with modesty, by giving lessons of libertinism both in your life and 
 writings !'" 
 
 t It may be noticed that Florence, as well as Paris, disputes with Certaldo the honour of having given birth to 
 
 Boccaccio. 
 
 K 
 
38 
 
 SIENA. 
 
 SIENA. 
 
 RESERVING its ancient name of Siena, or Sena Julia, almost without 
 change, Siena can with certainty be referred to the time of the empire ; and 
 indubitable traces of Etruscan origin, give this city a still higher claun to 
 antiquity, although no mention is made of it amongst the towns of Etruria. 
 The Sienese have ever been vain of their remote descent ; to this, and to 
 
 their love of distinction and frivolous display, they are indebted for the moral ana^ 
 
 thema which Dante has recorded against them :* 
 
 Was ever race 
 Light as Siena's ? Sure not France herself 
 Can show a tribe so frivolous and vain. 
 
 Inferno, XXIX. 117—119. 
 
 Siena appears to have escaped the ravages of the northern hordes, who held their course 
 generally along the shore of the Adriatic ; and until the eleventh century, it is probable that 
 it remained in a state of peaceful obscurity. Ecclesiastical history mentions a bishop of 
 Siena, so early as the sixth century ; f and a council was held there in 1058, at which Nicho- 
 
 * The descent of the Sienese from a Roman colony is forced upon the attention of the traveller, by the oft repeated 
 figure of the she-wolf. Their vanity is attested by the eagerness with which the artisans sought a patent of nobility 
 in connection with the purchase of an estate. And their frivolity and vanity are seen in combination, in Agostino's 
 banquet to Leo X., on which occasion the whole papal court were served with a, succession of silver plate, which, as 
 the removes went from the table, was cast into the river. Another instance, and the one to which Dante more ex- 
 pressly alludes, refers to a club of young prodigals named La Brigata Godereccia. These were men who could club 
 a purse of 200,000 ducats, and spend it in a few months. They roasted pheasants with burning cloves, shod their 
 horses with silver, and played other pranks equally absurd. 
 
 t Albero, a bishop of Siena, caused Grifolino of Arezzo to be burned as a necromancer ; the latter having promised 
 to teach the son of Albero the art of flying, and failed to fulfil his promise. 
 
 In sport I told him 
 That I had learn'd to wing my flight in air ; 
 And he, admiring much, as he was void 
 » Of wisdom, will'd me to declare to him 
 
 The secret of mine art : and only hence. 
 Because I made him not a Dtedalus, 
 Prevailed on one, supposed his sire, to burn me. 
 
 Inferno, XXIX. 107—113. 
 
 There is a cutting satire in the last line of the quotation, referring to the domestic relationships of the papal 
 priesthood. 
 
SIENA. 39 
 
 las II. Avas elected pope. When the contest afterwards arose between Gregory VII. and Ilcjnry 
 IV. of Germany, the Sienese declared for the emperor ; and the refusal of the Florentines to 
 receive him, was the commencement of a hatred between the two republics which led to fre- 
 quent wars. 
 
 The plebeian orders in Siona devoted themselves assiduously and successfully to manufac- 
 tures and commerce, and for a time the executive government was left in the hands of the 
 nobles ; but these last becoming intolerant, the people demanded a share in the legislature, 
 when the grancU retu-ed in dignified disgust to their castles in the country. Flushed with 
 success, the democracy attempted to intermeddle in the affairs of the empire, and through 
 motives of vanity left the Ghibelline interest, to support their townsman, Alexander III., on 
 the papal throne. Their presumptuous interference was punished by the emperor Frederic 
 Barbarossa, who divested them of all their franchises, which they afterwards, on their abject 
 submission, obtained again by purchase. In 1258, we find the Sienese giving shelter to the 
 proscribed Ghibellines of Florence, and subsequently acting in concert with them against the 
 Florentines at Montaperto, where the Guelphic party were utterly routed.* The nobility of 
 Siena, returning from their estates, came humbly back to the city, Avhere most of them re- 
 nounced the insignia of rank, and entering into mercantile speculations, rose to the distinction 
 of rich merchants. Soon, however, a mushroom nobility sprung up in their place, from the 
 ranks of the democracy ; and the disorders which arose, in consequence, in the government, 
 led to internal discords which rendered the city an arena of perpetual contest, till at length it 
 fell into the hands of the Medici. From that time Siena dates her decay. This city which, 
 in the days of her prosperity, could send forth one hundred thousand armed men from her 
 thirty-nine gates, is now reduced in population to httle more than eighteen thousand ; and her 
 present aspect offers nothing to indicate her former importance, — her inhabitants are lost in 
 torpor, and the grass is growing on the very pavement of her streets. 
 
 — Empty lodgings and unfurnished walls, 
 Unpeopled offices, untrodden stones,! — 
 
 are now the characteristic features of Siena. 
 
 The city stands on the summit of a bleak hill, and is celebrated for the purity of its air, and 
 the absence of mosquitoes. English visitants who pass the summer in Italy, usually fix their 
 residence at Siena. Of its thirty-nine gates, eight only remain open. Entering by the Florentine 
 gate, into a long irregular street, " you see men," says Forsyth, " you see groupes proportioned 
 to the extent of Siena. Leave this line, and you pass into a desert." The principal objects of 
 interest to the traveller, are the Lizza, the Citadel, the Cathedral, and the Piazza del Campo ; 
 all of which are to be found in the less frequented avenues of the city. As for the palazzi, 
 they are, for the most part, palaces only in name, possessing few works of art, and exhibiting 
 nothing particularly striking in their architecture. 
 
 * When destruction caught 
 The maddening rage of Florence, in that day 
 Proud — 
 
 Purgatorio, XI. 112—114. 
 
 t Shakspeare. 
 
40 SIENA. 
 
 The Lizza, which occupies the site of a fortress erected by Charles V.in 1551, is decorated with 
 statues, and is the favourite walk of the Sienese. The Citadel, built by Cosmo I., at the north- 
 west extremity of the town, is in the form of a pentagon, with five bastions. The 
 Piazza del Campo is sloped like an amphitheatre for public games ; like that, it forms the 
 segment of a circle, in the chord of which stands the Palazzo Pubblico, a buUding of different 
 dates and designs, parcelled out to different and incongruous uses. One portion is assigned 
 to the theatre, another to the courts of law, and a thu-d to a prison. 
 
 The Cathedral exhibits the piebald architecture so common to the ecclesiastical structures 
 of Italy: "we find marble walls poUshed on both sides, and built in alternate courses of black 
 and white ; a front overcharged on the outside, and plain within ; a belfry annexed, but not in- 
 corporated with the pile ; a cupola bearing plumb on its four supports ; ckcular arches resting 
 on round pillars ; doors in double architraves ; and columns based upon lions tearing lambs." 
 The edifice groans beneath the load of its ornaments, which, however meretricious, strike the 
 eye forcibly, and extort admiration in defiance of the judgment. The pavement is a kind of 
 engraved inlay, called pietra cmiimssa, wrought by a succession of artists from Duccio down to 
 Mecherino. Scriptural subjects, and emblematic devices referring to the cities once in aUiance 
 with Siena, together with no fewer than ten different sibyls, are displayed on this pavement, 
 which is now, after a century of exposure to the general tread, protected by a covering of 
 boards. The vault of the nave is of a deep azure colour, and is studded with stars, to repre- 
 sent the firmament. The cornice is surmounted with busts of the Popes, down to Alexander 
 III. ; amongst these, the bust of Pope Joan is said to have formerly held place, with the inscrip- 
 tion, " Johannes VIII., Foemina de Anglice" The catholics repel with indignation the assertion 
 that the papal seat was once held by a female ; and they prove by historical evidence that 
 such could not have been the case. It must be admitted that the zealous opponents of the 
 papacy have, on some occasions, by departure from truth, unwittingly adopted the papal 
 dogma, that the end justifies the means. 
 
 The Baptistery under the choir of the cathedral is worthy of observation, both for its archi- 
 tecture and for the works of art which adorn it. The Chigi Chapel " glares with rich marble, 
 silver, gold, bronze, and lapis lazuli," and contains a statue of St. Jerome, and another of a 
 Magdalen by Bernini, the latter said to be merely a statue of Andromeda transformed. The 
 Sacristy, or Library, may now ^e called a library without books, for it contains only a few 
 illuminated volumes of chui'ch music. The walls are decorated with frescos, said to be 
 from the designs of Raphael when very young ; they have little to recommend them beyond 
 this traditional association. The roof is covered with mythological pictures. In the centre of 
 the library stands a mutilated group, representing the Graces, and considered by some 
 authorities to be one of the finest examples of Grecian sculpture. Amongst the other ecclesi- 
 astical structures of Siena, the church of Fonte Giusta claims distinction, chiefly as the de- 
 pository of Peruzzi's celebrated sibyl, in the act of foretelling the birth of Christ to Augustus. 
 " This figure," observes Lanzi, " Peruzzi has contrived to invest with such an air of inspiration, 
 that even Raphael himself, when treating similar subjects, can, perhaps, hardly be said to have 
 surpassed him ; and yet less can Guido or Guercino." 
 
 The School of Siena, which the Sienese assert was the earliest in modern art, has gone to 
 decay. Of its greatest masters, few are known or held in esteem at the present day. The 
 most eminent was Beccafumi, by whom the pavement of the cathedral was partly wrought. 
 
SIENA. 41 
 
 The citizens of Siena are annually awakcMied from tlioir torpor, on the festival of Santa 
 Caterina, the tutelary saint of the city. " On this occasion, the senators, who, though divested 
 of all their ancient privileges, still retain their red mantles and the title of liccelsi, aid in the 
 solemn procession, which exhibits the waggon that was conquered from Florence, and a votive 
 wax-work which is conveyed with solemn pomp to the cathedral. At this festival, the 
 horse-races of the piazza revive, among the different wards of the city, the same rivalry that 
 prevailed in the four factions of ancient Rome ; and scores of new sonnets are recited, in 
 solemn academy, on the same holy theme that has employed the Sienese rhymesters for thr(>e 
 hundred years."* Boxing, which ranks amongst the holiday pleasures of Siena, is said to have 
 been introduced, in the 3"ear 1200, by St. Bernardine, as a comparatively innocent vent to the 
 hot blood that prevailed in his day. The pugilistic encounters of the Sienese frequently 
 assiune a ludicrous character. If a man finds himself overmatched, he usually shouts " in 
 soccorso r (help !) and by the aid of the first comer, turns the tables upon his antagonist. The 
 latter also finds his abettors, and the combat thickens, till in the end, the street wears the 
 appearance of the stage at the conclusion of Tom Thumb. 
 
 To the south and south-west of Siena is the Maremma, which, in its largest extent, stretches 
 along the shore of the Mediterranean from Leghorn to Terracina, and reaches inland as far 
 as the first chain of the Apennines. This insalubrious tract of country, which takes its name 
 from its contiguity to the sea, includes the Campagna of Rome, and is terminated by the 
 Pontine Marshes. Whether the whole plain of the Maremma was anciently as unwholesome 
 as it now is, cannot be ascertained : the probability is that it was formerly more healthy, for 
 we have evidence of its having been both fertile and Avell-peopled in earlier ages. It is a 
 plausible conjecture, that when Italy fell under the power of the barbarians, the drains, no less 
 than other works of the empire, were either destroyed, or suffered to go to ruin ; and that the 
 natural moistm-e of the soil, added to the deposits of a tideless sea, acted upon by the summer 
 heats, have ever since impregnated the atmosphere of this district with mephitic and delete- 
 rious qualities. Some of the modern towns of the Maremma are at all times thinly peopled, 
 whilst others are much frequented during the winter months, but nearly deserted in the sum- 
 mer : it is however in the country parts, that the depopulation is most observable. As family 
 after family became extinct, their possessions devolved upon the community, until at length 
 an entire district was left 07mier-kss, when it was annexed, under the name of a baiulita, (or pri- 
 vileged place), to the nearest villages. There are villages possessing seven or eight of these 
 handite, which have not inhabitants enough to cultivate a fourth part of their domains. Hence, 
 the people of the higher and more healthy tracts, migrate to the iMaremma to feed their cattle, 
 to sow corn, make charcoal, saw wood, cut hoops, and peel cork. " The most usual season of 
 descent is the winter ; but a portion of the mountain peasantry also assist in getting in the 
 harvest. Most of the summer worlcmen imbibe the diseases of the place, and some even 
 of those who are employed in winter operations, decamp too late, and leave their corpses on 
 the road, or crawl away ' like poisoned rats to die at home.' " 
 
 '" Forsyth witnessed, at this festival, the beatification of Piero Pettinagno, a Sienese comb-maker, whose piety had 
 been celebrated five hundred years before, by Dante. 
 
 The hermit Piero, touched with charity, 
 In his devout oraisons thought on me. 
 
 Pargatorio, XIII. J 19, 120. 
 T. 
 
42 A R E Z Z 0. 
 
 AREZZO. 
 
 ISTORY refers to Arezzo, under its classical name of Arretium, as one of 
 «> the twelve principal cities of Etruria. It is celebrated for its resistance of 
 
 the Roman power ; and for a middle-age history of turbulent vicissitude. 
 
 It claims to be the birth-place of Porsenna, Maecenas, Petrarch, Vasari, and 
 
 of a lengthened host ofdii minor es; — the latter indeed are so numerous as 
 ' to have originated the taunt, that the Arretini reckon their illustrissimi by 
 
 quantity rather than quality. If we may credit Dante, the Arretini were, in 
 his day, a quarrelsome race. The poet anathematizes all the cities of the Val dArno ; 
 and whilst tracing the course of the Arno, he says with reference to Arezzo, that the 
 river 
 
 sloping onward, finds 
 Curs, snarlers more in spite than power, from whom 
 He tmnis with scorn aside.* 
 
 Purgatorio, XIV. 48—50. 
 
 Prior to its subjugation by the Romans, Arezzo was governed, like Rome itself, by a senate. 
 About three hundred years before Christ, it had so far fallen under the poAver of the empire, 
 as to be compelled to sue for peace; and though a nominal truce was granted, and afterwards 
 renewed, the city was thenceforward virtually in subjection to the Romans. In the second 
 Punic war, Arretium furnished Scipio with arms and money, and it continued for a long time 
 faithful in its relations to Rome ; but in the Social war it took part with the enemies of the 
 empire, and drew upon itself the exterminating vengeance of Sylla. 
 
 Arretium suffered severely from the Goths under Totila. It afterwards passed from the 
 Longobards to Charlemagne ; and subsequently, when a hundred petty princes and powers 
 sprung up in Italy, it was governed by its bishops, who, having become feudal counts, held 
 the city and territory in the name of the emperor. In the eleventh century, the Arretini erected 
 themselves into an independent republic ; but they unavoidably fell into the Guelph and 
 Ghibelline factions, and became divided amongst themselves, until at length the GhibeUine 
 party ejected their opponents from the city. The Ghibellines then made war against Florence, 
 but were defeated with great loss at the battle of Campaldino, in 1289.| A century later, we 
 find the Arretini achieving conquests, under the guidance of their general, Tarlati. On the 
 
 * The Arno, in its passage, leaves Arezzo about four miles to the south. 
 
 t Dante was present in this engagement ; where he served in the foremost troop of cavalry, and was exposed to 
 imminent danger. Leonardo Aretino refers to a letter of Dante, in which he described the order of the battle, and 
 mentioned his having been engaged in it. The poet was then in his twenty-fourth year. 
 
AREZZO. 43 
 
 death of the latter, Arezzo renewoil the contest with l^loi-ciu-o ; till, in 1384, it was taken by 
 a famous Condotti<^re, Ingelram de Couci, who sold the city to the Florentines for 40,000 gold 
 florins. In 1531 it became part of the territory of the Medici, and it has ever since been 
 annexed to the Duchy of Tuscany. 
 
 Arezzo is pleasantly situated on the declivity of a mountain range, and is in general a well 
 built city, retaining the honours of an episcopal see, and still exhibiting some remains of its 
 Etrurian origin, and fine examples of the ecclesiastical architecture of the middle ages. The 
 Cathedral, built in the Italian gothic style, was begun in 1256, and completed by Marchione, 
 at the end of the same century. The interior of this structure is characterized by a gloomy 
 magnificence. The painted windows executed by Guillaume de Marseilles, early in the six- 
 teenth century, are greatlj'- admired, especially those of the tribune, one of which represents 
 the Calling of Matthew. In 1286, Giovanni di Pisa erected the marble screen at the high 
 altar. It is covered with bas-reliefs referring to the history of San Donato, the tutelary samt 
 of the city, and is said to have cost 30,000 gold florins. The tomb of the Aretine bishop and 
 general, Guido Tarlati, is one of the grand ornaments of the cathedral. It was executed by 
 Agostino and Angelo da Siena, in the early part of the fourteenth century. In sixteen com- 
 partments of beautiful sculptures, are pourtrayed all the important events in the life of Tarlati. 
 Amongst other objects of interest, the tomb of pope Gregory X., by Margaritone, is worthy of 
 observation. A large chapel, the most recent addition to the Cathedral, is consecrated to the 
 Madonna of Arezzo, " a little ugly figure of chalk found in the rubbish of a cellar," yet deemed, 
 nevertheless, more potent than the palladium of old which fell down from Jupiter. 
 
 The church of Santa Maria della Pieve is supposed to occupy the site of a temple of Bacchus. 
 It underwent extensive repairs, indeed was nearly reconstructed, by Marchione in the begin- 
 ning of the thirteenth century. The front has four stories of ornaments, and the tower, which 
 rises from it at one angle, has five stories more, full of little columns with fancy capitals, and 
 exhibiting the wildest irregularity in all the details. Behind the high altar is Vasari's picture 
 of St. George. 
 
 Amongst other public buildings of interest, may be enumerated the Loggie of the Piazza 
 Maggiore, constructed by Vasari ; the church of Santa Flora, remarkable for the painting on 
 its cupola by Padre Pozzi ; that of San Francesco, containing the frescoes of Pietro della 
 Francesca ; the church of Sant' Angelo, in which is the celebrated fresco of the Fall of the 
 Angels, by Spinello Aretino ; and the Fraternita, a superb gothic structure, originally founded 
 for the relief of the poor, and as an asylum for widows and orphans, and now including an 
 extensive library and museum. We must not, however, omit adding to these, the house in 
 which Petrarch was born, and that wherein Vasari resided. The first is close to the cathedral ; 
 it has been repaired in late years, and bears an inscription testifying that here Petrarch first 
 drew breath, on Monday, July 20, 1504.* The latter is in the Strada San Vito, and remains 
 nearly in the same state as when occupied by Vasari. 
 
 * A well, still existing in the immediate neighbourhood of this house, is the scene of Boccaccio's comic tale of 
 Sofano and Ghita. See the Decameron, Day 7, Novel 4. 
 
44 C R T N A. 
 
 C R T N A. 
 
 04.^^4=5*. EW cities present such incontestible evidence of remote antiquity as Cortona. 
 
 '^ ¥^S Carrying back its mythological origin beyond the foundation of Troy, and 
 
 Ji])> taking undoubted place, by consent of authentic history, as the most ancient 
 
 cit}^ of Etruria, it remains to this day a remarkable example of unchanged 
 
 locality, presenting within the same area, and circumscribed by the same 
 
 ' walls, a town whose existence can be traced back with certainty for nearly three 
 
 thousand years* 
 
 Cortona stands amidst its vineyards, on the acclivity of a steep hill, and appears 
 to hang like a panoramic picture upon a back-ground of dark mountains. From the 
 church and convent of Santa Margherita, occupying the summit of the eminence on 
 which the city is placed, a magnificent prospect is obtained of the Thrasimene and 
 Clusian lakes, the mountains of Radicofani and Santa Flora, and of the wide variegated Val di 
 Chiana, skirted with vine-covered hills, and beautifully strewed with white cottages, fattarie, 
 and villas, and with convents of sober gray. The original walls of Cortona form the founda- 
 tions of the modern walls built in the thirteenth century. Two thirds of the former are still 
 existing ; and for a quarter of a mile the magnificent Etruscan masonry is uninterrupted ; then 
 comes a portion which is Roman, then a modern repair, then Etruscan again. From her walls, 
 and other coeval remains, Cortona takes all her celebrity; and as these are objects of interest 
 to none but the classical scholar, the historian, and the antiquarian, this city is rarely visited 
 by the butterfly swarms of tourists who yearly throng into Italy. By them, however, who 
 can summon up the associations which give value and interest to the remains of elder time, 
 
 * Hetruria, or Etruria, the country of the Tusci, (whence the modern name, Tuscany) was anciently divided into 
 two parts, — Etruria beyond the Arno, and Etruria on this side the Arno, which distinction has reference to the situa- 
 tion of Rome. The first division included the country about Genoa, the Val di Magra, the Duchy of Carrara, the 
 State of Lucca, and part of the Pisaa territory. The second division was much more extensive, and comprised the 
 whole of modern Tuscany ; and it was this portion that was divided into the twelve cities or communities of Etruria, 
 of which mention is so frequently made. Cortona was the seat of the Cortonensis, one of these twelve Etrurian 
 tribes. Poetical tradition attempts to identify Cortona with an ancient town named Corytus, after its founder, the 
 then king of the country. This Corytus had two sons, Jasius and Dardanus, the latter of whom slew Jasius in order 
 to obtain undivided sovereignty, after his father's decease. To this Dardanus the foundation of Troy is attributed ; 
 and hence the assumption that Cortona is of more remote origin than the Trojan city. Passing by these unworthy 
 fables, we have the testimony of Dionysius of Halicarnassus, that several centuries prior to the ordinarily assigned 
 era of the Trojan war, tribes of the Pelasgi came over into Etruria, and founded Cortona and other colonies. And 
 m connection with this testimony, we have existing remains to fix beyond question the high antiquity of this Etruscan 
 city. The classical reader will be aware, that although Dionysius flourished in the Augustine age, his geographical 
 writings are founded upon those of Eratosthenes, who lived two centuries and a half before Christ. We have there- 
 fore clear evidence that Cortona was esteemed an ancient city upwards of two thousand years ago. 
 
PERUGIA. 4r. 
 
 Cortona will not be reckoned the least reiu.-ukable ;iiiioiij;st the cities of Italy. Troy itself, 
 though shrined in ancient song, is little mo le tliau "the unsubstantial jjngeaiit of a dreuin ;" 
 but here is the palpable reality of a city, at least cotcniporary with the towers of Ilium, and, 
 if poetic tradition may be trusted, of a date and origin even more reiiKjte. 
 
 Little is known of the history of Cortona under the Romans. That it must have been in 
 alliance with that people at an early period, is evident from the record of its fidelity to Rome 
 throughout the second Punic war. History is silent during the empire. About the twelfth 
 centm-y it assumed an independent government ; and it ultimately became involved in the 
 quaiTel between the temporal and spiritual powers. After several centuries of distraction and 
 disorder, Cortona was, in 1409, sold to the Florentines, for 60,000 gold florins, by the Neapo- 
 litan mercenaries which she had summoned to her aid for the expulsion of the Caselli family. 
 Since that period the city has remained subject to Florence. 
 
 Amongst the public buildings of Cortona, the most remarkable are the church and convent of 
 Santa Margherita, containing the tomb of the patron saint, and several paintings of considerable 
 merit ; and the cathedral, said to be as old as the tenth century, in which are paintings by Pietro 
 da Cortona and Luca Signorelli, both native artists, and a magnificent sarcophagus, named the 
 tomb of Flaminius, adorned with a bas-relief representation of the combat between the 
 Centaurs and Lapith^. The jMuseum of the Academy, the Museo Corazzi, and the Museo 
 Venuti, present interesting collections of Etruscan antiquities, 
 
 PERUGIA. 
 
 Between Tupino, and the wave that falls 
 From blest Ubaldo's chosen hill, there hangs 
 Rich slope of mountain high, whence heat and cold 
 Are wafted through Perugia's eastern gate. 
 
 Paradiso, X. 40—43. 
 
 ■-^3 
 
 ERUGIA claims historical celebrity as one of the most ancient and dis- 
 tinguished cities of Etruria. Its foundation long preceded that of Rome, 
 and like the origin of Cortona is almost lost in the distance of time. 
 As a seat of antiquity, Perugia must, however, yield in point of interest to 
 ^Cortona, Avhich exhibits more palpable and extensive evidence of Etruscan origin. 
 
 Perugia, or Perusia, in conjunction with the other Etrurian states, obstinately re- 
 sisted the power of Rome ; but when, at length, it became subject to the Romans, it 
 remained in faithful alliance with them. In the war between Antony and Octavius, 
 this city unfortunately took part with the former, and shut its gates against the 
 master of the world. Compelled by famine to surrender, it experienced all the cala- 
 mities attendant upon the seizure of a hostile city. On this occasion more than three hundred 
 distinguished citizens were sacrificed to the vengeance of Octavius. One of the principal 
 
 M 
 
46 
 
 PERUGIA. 
 
 inhabitants devoted his own house as a funeral pyre for himself and family, and thus kindled 
 a conflagration which spread throughout the city and reduced it to ashes. Perugia rose, 
 however, immediately from its ruins, and under the name of Perusia Augusta, became once 
 more a place of importance. It afterwards, in the reign of Justinian, sustained a seven years' 
 siege by the Goths ; but it was ultimately reduced by Totila. The subsequent history of Perugia 
 diflfers little from that of other Italian cities. Possessing for a time a political independence and 
 a free municipality, it next became subject to tyrants who rose above its laws and controlled its 
 privileges. It endured the horrors of the Guelphic and Ghibelline factions ; opposed the efforts 
 of the popes to unite it to the Papal States ; and at length came under the government of 
 Braccio Fortebraccio da Montone, one of those remarkable persons which extraordinary times 
 produce, and who, happily for Perugia, was one of the wisest and best men that rose to power 
 in the middle ages. The valour and wisdom of this eminent warrior at once overthrew the 
 enemies of his country and effected reconciliation between the factions which disturbed its 
 peace. After his death, his family retained the sovereignty, under a nominal obedience to the 
 church. At length the government passed into the hands of the Baglioni family, Avhose ambi- 
 tion aroused the anger both of the Pope and the people ; and ultimately, after several struggles 
 for supremacy, Perugia was reduced to subjection by Paul III., Avho annexed it to the Papal 
 territories.* During the French invasion of Italy, this district formed part of the Tiberine 
 republic ; but upon the restoration of the Papal power, it returned to the government of 
 the church, under which it has ever since remained. Perugia is now the capital of the 
 second delegation of the Papal States, and is governed by a Monsignore, or prelate. This 
 delegation extends over 245 square leagues, and numbers a population of more than 200,000 
 inhabitants.! 
 
 * This imperious prelate built the citadel, between the years 1540 and 1544. Having excited the people to revolt 
 by his obnoxious salt-tax, he raised this formidable structure to overawe them. The court of the citadel long ex- 
 hibited this haughty inscription : — Ad coercendam Perusinorum audaciam, Paulus III. eedificavit. Built ly Paul III. 
 to restrain the audacity of the Perusiani. 
 
 t The Lake of Perugia, the celebrated Thrasymenus of the ancients, is a noble expanse of water, about ten miles 
 in length, by seven in breadth. It has three islands, the Polvese near the southern extremity, and the Miuore and 
 Maggiore about a mile from the northern shore. The banks ascend gradually, and in some places rapidly, from its 
 margin ; and as they are clad with wood, and speckled with villages, they form an outline of singular beauty. Such 
 also was the ancient appearance, according to the testimony of Silius Italicus, through whose muse the spirit of the 
 lake makes utterance : 
 
 Lo ! I am Thrasymene, the wooded lake 
 
 Upon whose banks, to lofty hills that swell. 
 
 Still dwell the tribes that erst from Tmolus came. 
 
 A plain in the immediate neighbourhood of the Thrasymenus is celebrated for a great battle fought there between 
 the Carthaginians under Hannibal, and the Romans under C. Flaminius, B. C. 217. The result of the engagement 
 was most disastrous : the consul in command, aud no fewer than 15,000 Roman soldiers, were left dead upon the field. 
 
 such the storm of battle on this day, 
 
 And such the frenzy, whose convulsion blinds 
 To all save carnage, that, beneath the fray, 
 An earthquake reel'd unheededly away ! 
 
 Childu Harold. 
 
PERUGIA. 47 
 
 Perugia is an episcopal see, said to have been foiiinled A. i). 57, and to luive liad for its 
 first bishop, Ercolano di Siria, one of the folloAvers of St. Peter. Seated on the summit of a 
 mountain, tliis city commands from its ramparts, and particularly from its citadel, an exten- 
 sive view over a vast range of fertile country, varied with hill and dale, and enlivened with 
 villages and towns. It contains many churches, convents, and palaces, which do not, however, 
 require paiticular description, since they differ little or nothing from other Italian edifices of 
 the same chai-acter, exce^it in their pictorial decorations.* Perugia is the centre of the 
 Umbriau school of painting, and the works of her most distinguished master, Pietro Perugino 
 the instructor of Raphael, are to be found in the churches, palazzi, and public institutions of 
 the city. The Sala del Cambio (the Exchange) is enriched with the frescoes of Perugino, 
 representing the prophets and sibyls, the philosophers and warriors of antiquity. The paint- 
 ings of this master are scattered over Italy, but his merits can be most justly estimated in 
 Perugia, his adopted city and the chief treasure-house of his genius.f 
 
 Livy relates, that " such was tlie mutual animosity of the combatants, so intent were they upon the battle, that the 
 earthquake which overthrew in great part many of the cities of Italy, which turned the course of rapid streams, poured 
 back the sea upon the rivers and tore down the very mountains, was not felt by one of the combatants !" 
 
 Far other scene is Thrasimone now ; 
 Her lake a sheet of silver, and her plain 
 Rent by no ravage save the gentle plough ; 
 Her aged trees rise thick as once the slain 
 Lay where their roots are ; but a brook hath ta'en — 
 A little rill of scanty stream and bed — 
 A name of blood from that day's sanguine rain ; 
 And Sanguinetto tells ye where the dead 
 Made the earth wet, and turn'd the unwilling waters red. 
 
 Childe Harold. 
 
 * The Cathedral, or Duomo, is a fine g(3thic edifice of the fifteenth century, containing, amongst other works of 
 art, the Deposition from the Cross, by Baroccio. The church of the convent of San Francesco, is the depository of 
 the bones of Braccio Fortebraccio, which are here kept in a side chapel, enclosed in a miserable box ; they are subjected 
 to the indignity of being handed to visitors for inspection, on payment of a small gratuity. The church of Santa 
 Maria Nuova contains the Adoration of the Magi, by Perugino ; and the St. Sebastian and St. Roch, by Sebastiano del 
 Piombo. The Benedictine monastery of San Pietro de' Casinensi is rich in paintings, including the Infant Saviour 
 embracing St. John, the earliest known work of Raphael, — an Ecce Homo, said to be by Titian, and the two fine 
 pictures of Christ Bound and the Flagellation, by Guercino. There are, in all, upwards of one hundred churches, 
 and about fifty monasteries in Perugia ; some > if these structures possess few works of art, whilst others contain 
 many fine examples of the best masters of the Perusian school. 
 
 t Perugia has, on several occasions, been nearly depopulated by the plague. In the visitation of 1348, 100,000 
 persons are said to have perished ; and in that of 1524, Pietro Perugino was among its victims. 
 
4S 
 
 CHIUSI. 
 
 C H I U S I. 
 
 
 ANUS-LIKE in its aspect, the city of Chiusi looks back upon remote times 
 wliich veritable history cannot reach, and forward through a succession of 
 ages embracing the origin, progress, triumphs, decline, ruin, and ultimate 
 dismemberment of the Roman empire. Of all the cities of Etruria, this one 
 is the most remarkable and the most interesting for its classical associations. 
 Anciently known as Clusium, the seat of Etrurian royalty, it is identified 
 with a people whose history is a mystery ; whose advanced civilization and extensive 
 acquaintance with the elegant arts are attested by existing remains ; and whose distant 
 original reduces the foundation of Rome to a thing of yesterday. Romulus, partly by 
 conquest, but more, perhaps, by courteous treatment, united to his interest several of the 
 Etrurian towns, and thus consolidated the power of his infant kingdom. At a later 
 period, an Etruscan exile, named Lucomo Damaratus, established himself as king of Rome, 
 under the title of Lucius Tarquinius. Every reader is acquainted w^ith the circumstances 
 which led to the expulsion of the Tarquins ; the pathetic history of Lucretia, the assumed 
 idiotcy of Junius Brutus, and the united voice of a people impatient of t3Tanny and wrong. 
 At this juncture, the assistance of the Etrurian league was sought for the re-establishment of 
 the Tarquins ; and Porsenna, king of Clusium, despatched an embassy to Rome, demanding 
 the recall of the exiled family, or the restoration of their estates. Neither demand was com- 
 plied with ; Porsenna therefore led a numerous army against Rome, and invested the city. 
 The incidents of this siege are familiar to us ; they exhibit a degree of bravery, magnanimity, 
 and generosity to which history presents few parallels. When the city had well nigh been 
 reduced to extremity, Mutius Scsevola, " to his own hand remorseless," daringly attempted 
 the life of Porsenna, and having failed in his purpose, he held his hand over a pan of burning 
 coals until it was consumed, to intimate to Porsenna his contempt for any tortures that 
 awaited him. The king struck with admiration of his bravery, concluded a truce with the 
 Romans on honourable terms ; and subsequently perceiving the baseness of the Tarquins, he 
 drew his army from the city, and thus by an act of lofty generosity spared Rome to fulfil 
 her proud destinies. The name of Porsenna was thenceforward hallowed amongst the Romans; 
 and in their after wars with the Etrurians, the city of Clusium was regarded with venera- 
 tion, as a locality too sacred to be wasted with fire and sword. 
 
 The city of Clusium itself had afterwards to sustain a siege by the Gauls, on which occasion 
 Rome came forward in its defence, but only succeeded in turning hostilities against herself. 
 Brennus, the general of the Gauls, raised the siege of Clusium, and sat down with his army 
 before Rome. The Romans were compelled to seek a truce ; when, amongst other things, it 
 was stipulated that the Gauls should receive a thousand pounds' weight of gold, the payment 
 of which, however, was suspended, on the arrival of Camillus from exile, at the very moment 
 
>^ 
 
INBURGH S 
 

RADICOFANI. 
 
 49 
 
 that the gold had been brought forth, and Brennus had insultingly cast his sword into the 
 scale to increase the weight, alleging that it was the part of the vanquished to suffer. When 
 the whole of Etruria fell under the power of Rome, and became part of her territories, 
 Clusium was regarded as an ally rather than as a subjected city. It shared the fortunes of 
 Rome, and fell with the empire. Fi'om being the metropolis of Etruria, it sunk into a petty 
 principality of Italy, and ultimately became the seat of a bishopric. 
 
 Chiusi has suffered many vicissitudes, and offers in the present day little evidence of its 
 former greatness, beyond a few remains interesting to the scholar and the antiquary. In pic- 
 turesque beauty, however, it claims general regard. Seated on an eminence, in the midst of 
 a fertile neighbourhood, it overlooks the lake to which it gives name, and commands extensive 
 and varied prospects of singular beauty. The cathedral has evidently been constructed from 
 the remains of more ancient structures; a fact which accounts for the disappearance of the 
 monuments of Clusium. This building presents, in other points of view, nothing that claims 
 extended notice. Chiusi is principally interesting in our day, for its museums of Etruscan 
 antiquities, and, more especially, as being the City of Sepulchres. The museum of Signor 
 Casuccini is esteemed one of the finest collections of Etruscan remains now existing. It 
 includes every known variety of vase, with a large assemblage of sarcophagi and sepulchral 
 monuments ; and it is receiving daily accessions. The tombs in the ancient necropolis of the 
 city are niunerous, and have " an awe about them placed," created by historical associations. 
 The tomb of Porsenna cannot be determined with precision; of four large tumuli which yet 
 remain, each claims to be the mausoleum of the great Etrurian king. 
 
 RADICOFANI. 
 
 ?^r 
 
 i5. 
 
 OLLOWING the direct route from Siena to Rome, the traveller crosses the 
 > volcanic mountain of Radicofani, where all is utter sterility and nakedness. 
 The road does not ascend so high as the village of Radicofani, which is situ- 
 ated at the base of the cone, whereon are still seen the extensive ruins of a 
 fortress, once a place of strength and importance. The village itself contains nothing 
 to attract attention, except the wild dress and appearance of its inhabitants. The 
 shepherds are clad in goat-skins to protect them from the inclemency of the atmo- 
 sphere, which has, in this district, little in common with the general climate of Italy. 
 This rude costume may plead classic antiquity in its defence; for Ave learn from 
 Juvenal that such was the dress of the shepherds in his day :— 
 
 The poor, who with inverted skins defy 
 The lowering tempest, and the freezing skj. 
 
50 RADICOFANI. 
 
 The fortress, erected by Desiderius, king of the Lombards, was often conspicuous in the history 
 of Italy. In the course of events, however, it lost its importance; and the Tuscan government 
 hesitated whether to maintain or dismantle it, until, at length, the powder magazine exploded, 
 and so consigned it to ruin. This castle was once held by Ghino di Tacco, a daring leader of 
 banditti, whose seizure and treatment of the abbot of Cligni, are related with great humour by 
 Boccaccio.* The abbot, it appears by the story, had deranged his digestive organs by high 
 living, and was, at the time of the rencontre, on his way to the baths of Siena, to regain his 
 health. Ghino, shrewdly judging that a low diet would be as efllcacious as the bath, placed 
 the abbot, for some days, on a very restricted regimen. The result proved the sagacity of 
 Ghino: the abbot quickly recovered his appetite, and "desired nothing so much as to eat." 
 Having succeeded so happily, the bandit changed his treatment, and extended aU courtesy to 
 the patient, offering at the same time to restore the whole or any portion of his booty. The 
 abbot, impressed with a truly aldermanic gratitude for the restoration of his appetite, took 
 back only a small part of the spoil, and departed from the castle with a very high opinion of 
 Ghino's honour, if not of his honesty. On his return to Rome, the abbot mediated between 
 the Pope and his mountain physician, and prevailed upon his Holiness to pardon Ghino, and 
 receive him into favour at the papal court. The Pope was soon convinced of Ghino's worth, 
 (probably, as a renovator of decayed appetites), and in token of reconciliation, created him a 
 knight, and made him prior of an hospital. Dante makes allusion to this knightly robber :— 
 
 Here of Arezzo him I saw, who fell 
 By Ghino's cruel arm. 
 
 Purgatorio, VI. 14, 15. 
 
 The victim referred to by the poet, was Benincasa of Arezzo, eminent for his skiU in jurispru- 
 dence, Avho having condemned to death Turrino da Turrita, brother of Ghino di Tacco, for his 
 robberies in Maremma, was murdered by Ghino. in an apartment of his own house, in the pre- 
 sence of many witnesses. Ghino was not only suffered to depart in safety, after the commission 
 of this fearful deed, but was ultimately, on account of his general liberality and courtesy to those 
 whom he plundered, invited to Rome, and knighted by Boniface VIII. ! 
 
 In the earlier periods of Italian history, when disorder and lawless outrage prevailed 
 generally, the first bandits were probably men of noble nature, who assumed the mountain- 
 robber's wild and fearful life, to avenge or to redress their real or imaginary wrongs. When 
 pronouncing judgment upon them, we must keep constantly in view the condition of society 
 and the popular sympathies linked with it. The emperors, the popes, and the factious nobles, 
 were engaged in continual contest for supremacy; and in this contest, ferocious valour and 
 skilful intrigue obtained the victory, whilst the timorous and undesigning were compelled to 
 yield in the protracted struggle between might and right. Men soon begin to admire what- 
 ever extorts their fears; and hence the popular sympathies of Italy came to regard ferocity 
 and cunning as the attributes of greatness. And these sympathies were legitimately exercised 
 when they were extended to the first bandits of Italy, — men who having suffered wrong, 
 went forth to their wild warfare to work retaliation upon the authors of their injuries, and to 
 throw defiance in the teeth of tyrants before whom society bowed with trembling. That a 
 
 * Decameron, Day X., Novel 2. 
 
RADICOFANI. 61 
 
 romantic generosity mingled, in no small degree, with their deeds of violence and blood, is 
 attested in several instances. It is related in the life of Tasso, that the poet, on one occasion, 
 wandered into the very meshes of the brigands' snare ; but no sooner had he made himself 
 known to the outlaws, than their rude voices and threatening gestures were exchanged for 
 expressions of reverence and respect, and he was suffered to pursue his way unmolested.* 
 This little incident is beautifully imbodied in poetic language by Rogers : — 
 
 Time -was, the trade was nobler, if not honest ; 
 When they that robb'd, were men of better faith 
 Than kings or pontiffs ; when, such reverence 
 The poet drew among the woods and wilds, 
 A voice was heard, that never bade to spare, 
 Crying aloud, " Hence to the distant hills ! 
 Tasso approaches ; he, whose song beguiles 
 The day of half its hours ; whose sorcery 
 Dazzles the sense, turning our forest-glades 
 To lists that blaze with gorgeous armoury. 
 Our mountain-caves to regal palaces. 
 Hence, nor descend till he and his are gone. 
 Let him fear nothing." 
 
 It must not, however, be denied, that the chivalry, so to speak, of bandit life has long ago 
 departed. Unredeemed cruelty and villainy are the characteristic attributes of the banditti of 
 recent times. Some of these outlaws are men whose atrocities have driven them forth to the 
 mountains as their sole refuge against an outraged community; yet these are the least 
 dangerous, for "the plague-spot visible" is impressed upon them, "the guilt that says. 
 Beware:" — ^the traveller has more to dread from them who unite with the robber's deadly 
 ferocity, the peaceful occupations of rural hfe : — 
 
 " Such 
 As sow and reap, and at the cottage door 
 Sit to receive, return the traveller's greeting ; 
 Now in the garb of peace, now silently 
 Arming and issuing forth, led on by men 
 Whose names on innocent lips are words of fear, 
 Whose lives have long been forfeit." 
 
 It is only within a comparatively few years that the road between Siena and Radicofani, and 
 more especially across the frontier district of the latter place, could be traversed with any 
 degree of safety. The unfortunate traveller was formerly betrayed in his inn, all requisite 
 information concerning him was thence conveyed by spies to the mountains, and even the 
 postillions who conducted him along the road, gave signal of his approach to the bandits with 
 whom they were in league. 
 
 About four miles from Radicofani, is a hot transparent spring, which issues from the Monte 
 Amiato. This water holds in solution a considerable portion of sulphur and carbonate of 
 lime, of which advantage has been taken to form casts. The water is suffered to fall in a 
 broken shower upon moulds, and the calcareous deposition hardens into cameos and intaglios 
 of exquisite beauty. 
 
 * Arioato, likewise, was once surprised by banditti, who treated him with similar respect. 
 
52 BOLSENA 
 
 B L S E N A. 
 
 Bolsena's eels and cups of muscadel 
 
 Purgatorio, XXIV. 25. 
 
 ^i^^P''OLSENA is identified with Volsinium, or Vulsinium, one of the tM^elve chief 
 rJ^ cities of Etruria. The Volsinii so far maintained their independence, after 
 the conquest of the rest of Etruria by the Romans, as to retain their own 
 laws and form of government. They afterwards became an opulent and 
 flourishing people. At length, enervated by dissipation and luxury, they 
 MfconMedi the defence of their city, and all the active duties of citizens, to their manumitted 
 (W slaves, who ultimately became tyrants over their former masters, and committed the 
 
 most atrocious outrages against persons and property. In this extremity, the Volsinii 
 ^' besought the assistance of Rome; when the Consul, Q. Fabius Gurges,gave battle to the 
 fi-eedmen and routed them, but lost his life whilst pursuing them into the town. DeciusMus, 
 the lieutenant of Fabius, then laid siege to Volsinium, which held out for twelve months, but, 
 at length, surrendered (266 B. C.) to the Consul, Fulvius Flaccus, who caused all the freedmen 
 to be put to death. This city, which had so long preserved its independence, was then razed 
 to the ground ; and so great were the spoils, that Pliny, upon the authority of Metrodorus 
 Scepsius, states that two thousand bronze statues were removed thence to Rome. The inhabi- 
 tants erected another city in the immediate neighbourhood, but it rose to no importance, and 
 history mentions little more concerning it, than its having been the birth-place of Sejanus, the 
 favourite of Tiberius. 
 
 The modern town of Bolsena does not occupy the exact site of the ancient city, but is 
 situated farther down the hill, and nearer to the neighbouring lake. It contains few objects 
 of interest, except a mass of ruins, part of which are the supposed remains of a temple 
 in honour of the goddess Nortia;* — and the church of Santa Christina, famous for the miracle 
 of the Bleeding Host. This miracle, or, to speak more correctly, this juggling trick, is said to 
 have taken place in 1263, whfen a Bohemian priest, who entertained doubts regarding the doc- 
 trine of transubstantiation, had his scepticism removed by the ocular proof of blood flowing 
 from the consecrated wafer, or host, during the sacrifice of the mass. To commemorate this 
 blasphemous mummery. Urban IV. instituted the festival of Corpus Domini. A dark and 
 dirty vault is shown as the scene of the miracle ; and the precise spot where the blood feU is 
 protected by an iron grating !f 
 
 * The goddess Fortune was worshipped by the Etrurians under this name. Thej marked the years by fixing nails 
 in her temple. 
 
 + This fraud had not even originality to recommend it as an ingenious trick ; it was the mere repetition of an im- 
 position that had frequently before been practised upon the credulity of an ignorant people. So early as the year 
 
B L S E N A. 53 
 
 The Lake of Bolseiia is a magiiiflcent sheet of water, nearly twenty-seven miles in circum- 
 ference. It has two small but picturesque islands, named Bisentina and Martana. The latter, 
 which is of less extent than the other, is the scene of the imprisonment and murder of 
 Amalasontha, queen of the Goths, the only daughter of Theodoric, and the niece of Clovis. 
 Distinguished for talents and virtue, this princess secured the friendship of the emperor 
 Justinian, and the cotemporaiy sovereigns of Europe regarded her with admiration. Deprived 
 of her son, who died from intemperance at the early age of sixteen, she gave to her cousin 
 Theodatus a share in the regal dignity. This treacherous kinsman excited a revolt against her. 
 and after imprisoning her in the island Martana, caused her to be strangled in her bath, A. D- 
 535. Some ruins are still pointed out as the remains of her prison. On the Bisentina, were 
 villas of the Farnesi, where Leo X., returning from the pleasures of the chase at Viterbo, 
 resided for a short time, to enjoy the amusement of fishing. The fish of the lake, more parti- 
 cularly the eels, are in great request ; and Dante irreverently records of Martin IV., that he died 
 by eating of them to excess. His holiness was accustomed to have his eels killed by being put 
 into the wine called veniaecia, in order to heighten their flavour,* The church on the Bisentina, 
 built by the Farnesi, and decorated by the Caracci, contains the relics of Santa Cristina, the 
 patron saint of Bolsena. 
 
 The lake is bounded by volcanic rocks, and has the form of an extinct crater, but the extent 
 of this sheet of water is opposed to the hypothesis of a volcanic origin. It is suiTounded with 
 beautiful scenery, and a luxuriant soil ; but the prevalence of malaria on the lake, and along 
 its borders, interrupts the labours of the husbandman, who dares not sleep in the vicinity of 
 the land he cultivates. Nearly all within sight of Bolsena, is a vast solitude, — its expansive 
 waters without a single saU, and the shores without inhabitants. Nothing can convey to the 
 traveller a more fearful impression of the ravages of malaria in Italy, than the solitude and 
 sUence which here claim dominion absolute over a locality, adapted, so far as the eye can 
 judge, to be an earthly paradise. 
 
 600, we find pope Gregory using similar means to convince a Roman lady of the actual presence. During the sacri- 
 fice of the mass, this lady, it is said, smiled at the idea of calling a morsel of bread the body of the Lord. The 
 pontiff, therefore, prayed for a sensible manifestation of the presence, which done, the sacramental bread, it is added, 
 "was changed into bloody flesh." Pascasius, who lived in the ninth century, and defended the doctrine of transub- 
 stantiation most strenuously, declares that the Lord's body and blood have often appeared visible on the altar. 
 And Odo, in 960, performed a miracle, the very prototype of the one which gives celebrity to Bolsena. Some of the 
 clergy having denied that the elements of the eucharist were substantially changed by consecration, Odo prayed during 
 the solemnization of mass, and the host in the hands of the priest " began to drop blood." 
 
 * Dante, in fixing the purgatorial punishment of Martin IV., anticipated the retributive code recommended by 
 Eugene Sue. His holiness wanders amongst the shadowless ones with all his papal voracity undiminished, but— 
 powers of endurance ! — there is nothing to eat, and as little to drink. 
 
 He purges by wan abstinence away 
 Bolsena's eels and cups of musoadel. 
 
 Purgaforio, XXI V. 24, 25. 
 
54 
 
 VITERBO. 
 
 V I T E R B 0. 
 
 .OUNTAINS and beautiful women give fame to Viterbo, a city distinguished 
 in ancient history as the Vanum Voltumnse, where the Etrurian cities held 
 their general assemblies ; and in mediaeval periods, as the arena of turbulence, 
 outrage, and ecclesiastical insolence. It is now the seat of a bishopric ; and 
 I the capital of one of the largest delegations of the Papal States, extending over two 
 hundred and five square leagues, and embracing a population of more than one hun- 
 dred and thirteen thousand souls. In this city numerous conclaves of the papal 
 college were held, at which no fewer than six popes were elected between the years 
 
 1261 and 1281. 
 The cathedral, a gothic edifice dedicated to San Lorenzo, is supposed to occupy the 
 site of a temple of Hercules. Several popes are interred here ; and the edifice is adorned 
 with paintings of various degrees of merit, by artists of questionable and unquestionable 
 fame. One incident linked with the history of this church, relieves it from the wearying 
 monotony of statue and picture celebrity. At the high altar of this cathedral, Guy de Mont- 
 fort, son of the Earl of Leicester, slew prince Henry of England, dm-ing the celebration of 
 mass. Simon de Montfort, the father of the assassin, fell at the battle of Evesham in 1265, 
 fighting against Henry III. To retaliate for his death, and yet more to avenge the indignity 
 offered to his body after the battle, his son Guy sought, by " patient search and vigil long," 
 to fulfil his vow of hatred and vengeance against the family of Henry. Prince Henry, the 
 brother of Henry III., was sojourning at Viterbo, on his return from Aft-ica, when Guy de 
 Montfort also arrived in the city. The latter, learning that the prince w^as attending mass at 
 the cathedral, rushed upon him, and thrust him through with his sword ; and afterwards 
 dragged the lifeless body from the church into the public square. For this filial enormity 
 Guy has been damned by Dante, who places him in a river of boiling blood, in the seventh 
 circle of hell, and under the immediate guardianship of the Minotaur and Centaurs.* 
 
 The cathedral of Viterbo is rendered interesting to English travellers by another incident. 
 In the piazza of this edifice, Adrian IV., the only Englishman who ever rose to the pontifical 
 
 * Giovanni Villani relates that " the heart of prince Henry was put into a golden cup, and placed on a pillar of 
 London Bridge, over the river Thames, for a memorial to the English of the cruel outrage." Dante says of Guy de 
 Montfort, — 
 
 He in God's bosom smote the heart 
 
 Which yet is honoured on the banks of Thames. 
 
 Inferno, XII. 119—120. 
 
V I T E R B (">, 55 
 
 cliair, caused the emperor Frederic Barbarossa to hold his stirrup whilst he dismounted from 
 his mide. The haughty monarch appears to have grimaced on this occasion, but he did stoop 
 to the indignity ; and having thus acknovifledged the supremacy of the church, he received, in 
 payment of his obedience, the kiss of peace. One finds it difficult to reconcile with the lofty 
 valour of chivalrous times, so abject a submission to the hateful tyi-anny of ecclesiastical 
 despotism. 
 
 The episcopal palace, now greatly ruined, is remarkable as the seat of a conclave assembled 
 by the command of Charles of Anjou for the election of a pope ; when, after thirty-three 
 months of deliberation, the cardinals elected Tibaldo Visconti to the papacy, under the title of 
 Gregory X. It was here also that the cardinals elected Martin IV. to the pontifical seat, though 
 not imtil Charles had raised the citizens of Viterbo into insurrection, and had removed the 
 roof of the building, to hasten the decision of the holy fathers. Letters it is said are still pre- 
 served in the archives of the city, dated from " the roofless palace." In the ch\u:ch of the 
 convent of Santa Rosa, is preserved the body of the saint to whom the structiu-e is dedicated. 
 This holy maid excited the people against the emperor Frederic II. ; but on the triumph of 
 the Ghibellines she retired into exile. On the death of the emperor she returned to Viterbo, 
 and there dying at the age of eighteen, received from the Guelphic party the honours of cano- 
 nization. Her reputed miracles are many, and the greatest reverence is paid to the gilt tomb 
 which contains her blackened and disfeatured remains. 
 
 The gothic church of San Francesco is enriched with the celebrated Deposition from the 
 Cross by Sebastian del Piombo ; and in the church of the Osservanti del Paradiso, is the Fla- 
 gellation, by the same master ; and also a Madonna, attributed to Leonardo da Vinci. An 
 Incredulity of St. Thomas, by Salvator Rosa, graces the church named della Morti ; and a 
 remarkable fresco by Lorenzo di Giacomo da Viterbo is preserved in the church of Santa Maria 
 deUa Verita. The tomb of Galiana, the most beautiful woman of Italy, gives celebrity to the 
 church of Sant' Angelo in Spata. The beauty of this lady, who appears to have been another 
 Helen, led to a war between Rome and Viterbo ; and when at length the Romans were reduced 
 to capitulate, they stipulated to be allowed a last sight of Galiana, who was accordingly shown 
 to them from a window stiU existing in the tower of the ancient gate of St. Antony. 
 
 The court of the Palazzo Pubblico contains two large Etruscan tombs ; and an elegant 
 fountain. In the haU of the Academy are preserved the frescoes of Baldassare Croce, the pupil 
 of Annibale Caracci. And the Museum is richly stored with Etruscan antiquities. 
 
 The fame of Viterbo, for fountains and lovely women, has not departed : the first are 
 numerous, and are highly worthy of regard for then- antiquity and architectural beauty ; the 
 latter also are not few, and we may add that they likewise are deserving of the tenderest regard, 
 not, however, on the score of antiquity. One little fact, a scandal to the fair fame of the maids 
 of Viterbo, remains to be noticed. Olimpia, the beautiful and dissolute daughter of Innocent 
 X., is said to have had many lovers. The palazzo San Martino, the scene of her intrigues, still 
 exhibits her portrait ; and with this structure are connected dark tales of trap-doors and 
 mysterious disappearances, very intelligible hints, in their way, to those who " love not wisely, 
 but too well." 
 
56 
 
 ORVIETO. 
 
 K V I E T 0. 
 
 OTHING is known of the early history of Orvieto, beyond what is gathered 
 
 il from existing evidence of Etruscan origin. The city stands upon a rock of 
 
 volcanic tufa, at the base of which flows the river PagUa. The position is 
 
 well adapted for military defence ; and the ruins of its walls and fortress 
 
 are sufScient to attest to its strength and importance in the middle ages. 
 
 This city was a stronghold of the Guelphic party ; and no fewer than thirty-three 
 
 popes retired hither, at different periods, to find a shelter from the violence to which 
 
 the rage of contending factions exposed them. It is now the seat of a cardmal bishop, 
 
 and numbers a population exceeding six thousand persons. 
 
 Orvieto is principally remarkable for its Duomo, or cathedral ; and this structure 
 itself has a two-fold interest, — first, as deriving its origin from the famous miracle of Bolsena ; 
 and, secondly, as being the joint production of a host of the most talented artists and artificers. 
 We have already alluded to the miracle in our description of Bolsena, and if the reader have 
 not in his memory what is there related, he must refer back to connect the story. The priest 
 whose scepticism had been so wonderfully removed, departed from Bolsena with the bloody 
 napkin, and other evidences of the miracle, and presented himself to Urban IV., then resident 
 at Orvieto. The priest, it would appear, had sent an avant-courier to announce his coming, 
 for his holiness, attended by several cardinals, repaired in solemn procession to the bridge of 
 Rio Chiaro, to welcome the relics and their bearer. The successor of St. Peter beheld in the 
 relics the infaUible tokens of a miracle, and at once resolved that an edifice should be con- 
 structed for their especial reception. The design was furnished by Lorenzo Maitani, of Siena; 
 but the first stone of the edifice was not laid tiU 1290, and then by Nicholas IV., the ninth 
 pontiff in succession from Urban.* Thenceforward, however, tiU the end of the sixteenth 
 century, this remarkable and costly structure was in constant progress ; and in this long 
 interval almost every artist of eminence in architecture, sculpture, and mosaic, was employed 
 upon the work. History records thirty-three architects, one hundred and fifty-two sculptors, 
 sixty-eight painters, ninety workers in mosaic, twenty-eight workers in tarsia,j and fifteen 
 
 * Urban IV. assumed the pontifical chair in 1261, and Nicholas IV. in 1288 ; in twenty-seven years, therefore, 
 nine popes had fretted their hour upon the stage. The brief reigns of the popes is a remarkable feature in the annals 
 of the papacy. From St. Linus the iirst Roman bishop in 66, down to Pius VII. in 1800, the reigns of the popes 
 average little more than five years. Eustace mentions, as the last ceremony at the inauguration of a pontiff, that 
 as the vicar apostolic " advances towards the high altar of St. Peter's, the master of the ceremonies kneeling before 
 him, sets fire to a small quantity of tow placed on the top of a gilt staff, and as it blazes and vanishes in smoke, thus 
 addresses the pope, Sancte Pater, sic transit gloria mundi."—E.olj Father, so passes the glory of the world. Truly, 
 the ceremony is very pertinent and significant. 
 
 t In-lay work. 
 
ORVIETO. 57 
 
 capi maestri* as having contributed to the erection or cmbt'Uislnnent of this extraordinary 
 building. 
 
 The Duomo is built of black and white marble, and the fagade is exuberantly enriched 
 with mosaics and sculptures; — of these alone it has been said, that it is worth a journey to 
 Orvieto to examine and study them. The interior of the church is in the form of a Latin 
 cross. Here the spectator's attention is riveted to the colossal statues of the Apostles, 
 the works of various sculptors. At the high altar are the celebrated figures of the Virgin 
 and the Announcing Angel. These sculptures are not, however, esteemed faultless : 
 the angel is said to betray declining art and corrupt taste ; and the attitude and expression 
 of the Virgin are so little in consonance with the evangelical narrative, that the beholder 
 grows irreverent in thought Avhilst contemplating the figure. There is too much of the tragic 
 muse, and too little of the humble Mary, She starts from her seat at the salutation, grasps 
 the chair with convulsive energy, and looks very unamiable. The chapel of the Santissima 
 Corporale contains the miraculous relics. These are inclosed in a magnificent reliquary, 
 executed in solid silver by Ugolino Veri of Siena. In form it represents the Duomo, and it is 
 embellished ■^ith exquisite sculptures and enamels. The chapel of the Madonna di S. Brizio 
 contains a miraculous image of the Vu'gin ; but, to all, save good catholics, it is more 
 remarkable for its frescoes by Signorelli, and the group of the Pieta by Scabza, together with 
 other works of art. The paintings in this chapel exhibit a grotesque medley of sacred and 
 profane subjects, too often observable in the churches of Italy, f 
 
 Next in interest to the Duomo, is the Pazzo di San Patrizio, or Well of St. Patrick. It was 
 sunk for the purpose of relieving the gamson of Orvieto, when, after the sack of Rome in 
 1527, Clement VII. took refuge here with his whole court. It bears a great resemblance to 
 Joseph's WeU in the citadel of Grand Cairo. The depth is about 200 feet, and the width 
 across the top 44 feet. The descent is by a double spiral stair-case which a mule can ascend 
 and descend with ease. Orvieto having ceased to be a garrisoned city, this well is regarded 
 only as a local curiosity. 
 
 Orvieto is celebrated for the wine to which it gives name. The traveller is met, at his 
 entry into the city, by persons offering flasks of this beverage for sale, and making loud pro- 
 clamation of its vktues. 
 
 * Designers. 
 
 + This church is the scene of a facetious novel by Franco Sacchetti, which is in substance as follows : — Cola, 
 abUnd man of Orvieto, having collected a hundred florins by "the beggar's craft," placed them, for security, under 
 a tile in the church. He was observed by a certain Juccio Pezzicheruolo, who waited Cola's departure, and then 
 took possession of the treasure, leaving no traces of his handy-work to betray the theft. Cola returning a few days 
 after discovered his loss. By the assistance of a young boy, who acted as his guide, the blind mendicant found out 
 the thief. He then resorted to a cunning expedient for the recovery of his money. He visited Juccio, confided to 
 him the concealment of the hundred florins, apprised him that he was about to add another hundred to the hoard, 
 and intreated his assistance to invest the two hundred florins profitably. Juccio promised his assistance, and 
 departed, so soon as Cola left him, to replace the one hundred florins whence he took them. No long time after, 
 came Cola to ascertain the success of his experiment, when to his great delight he found his lost treasure restored. 
 It is needless to add, that he neither deposited a second hundred, nor suffered the original sum to remain longer in 
 danger. Juccio subsequently returned for his prize, and was much chagrined to find that he had been out-witted. 
 
58 
 
 NARNL 
 
 NARNI. 
 
 NCIENTLY known as the Narnia or Nequinum of the Romans, the modern 
 fC city of Narni refers to the times of the empire, with which it is still further 
 identified by the magnificent ruins of the Bridge of Augustus, still existing 
 in its vicinity. The original intention of this structure was to continue the 
 Flaminian Way, by connecting the lofty hills which overhang the river 
 Nar.* It consisted of three arches, built of massive blocks of white marble, fitting 
 into each other with such accuracy as to render cement, or any other means of 
 uniting the masses, unnecessary. From its solidity, it is highly probable that this 
 K bridge would have remained entire to the present day, had not the foundations of the 
 middle pier given way, and so caused the fall of the two arches on the right bank of 
 the river. Addison regarded this bridge as " one of the stateliest ruins in Italy," and through 
 a long course of ages it has been esteemed one of the noblest relics of imperial times, — a proud 
 memorial of a people whose o'er-vaulting ambition built for eternity. The ruins are seen to 
 great advantage from the modern bridge which crosses the river a short distance above them. 
 This point offers many picturesque combinations for the sketch book, particularly when the 
 position is so chosen, as to bring the convent of San Casciano into view, through the remaining 
 arch of the bridge. No view, however, is more striking than the one obtained from above 
 the ruins on the right bank : here, the utility and grandeur of the structure in its perfect 
 state, are at once evident ; whUst the valley of the Nar, and the city of Narni on the opposite 
 hill, combine to make up a scene of singular beauty. The ruinous mass between the two 
 nearest piers, is said to be the remains of a fortress erected there in the middle ages. 
 
 The city of Narni itself is remarkable for little beyond its antiquity, and picturesque 
 appearance; it is badly built, with steep and narrow streets, and exhibits every mark of 
 poverty and decay. At the foot of the rocky heights upon which it stands, the Nar rolls its 
 turbid and impure waters through a deep and vast fissm-e in the limestone rock, wherein are 
 caverns which are used as habitations. A broken path leads down to the river, to the point 
 where the Augustan bridge bestrides the stream. As the birth-place of the emperor Nerva, 
 and Pope John XVIII., Narni, despite of its dirt and poverty, enjoys a distinction which cities 
 of more inviting and promising aspect cannot boast. 
 
 * To readers unacquainted with classical topography, it may be acceptable information to be told — that the 
 Flaminian Way (so named from the consul Flaminius, who was defeated by Hannibal at the Lake Thrasymenus) was 
 a road leading from Rome to Aquileia, a port still retaining its ancient name, and situated on the northern coast of 
 the Gulf of Trieste. This town, built by a Roman colony to repress the incursions of the barbarians, was beautified 
 by the emperors, who frequently made it their residence. The Flaminian Way led directly from Rome to Ariminum 
 (now Rimini), and thence by passage across the Adriatic to Aquileia. 
 
ItllUuMIIkllllljUilwl'^ 
 
CASCATA DELLK MARMORE. 59 
 
 CASCATA DELLE MARMOEE. 
 
 T E R N I. 
 
 Lo ! where it comes like an eternity, 
 As if to sweep down all things in its track, 
 Charming the eye with dread, — a matchless cataract, 
 Horribly beautiful ! 
 
 Childe Harold. 
 
 h ERNI, the ancient Interamna of Umbria, is in the present day a thriving 
 
 1' kittle town, in •whicla the manufactm-e of silk and' woollen fabrics is carried 
 
 on to some extent. Beyond the fact of its being the birth-place of Tacitus 
 
 the historian, and of the emperors Tacitus and Florian, it offers in itself 
 
 ^ scarcely anything to attract the attention of travellers. The interest of this 
 
 'J^f^fj'"- locality centres altogether in the Cascata delle Marmore, or Marble Cascade, 
 
 ^ a magnificent waterfall celebrated throughout Europe, and more popularly known as 
 
 the FaUs of Terni. 
 
 /4"= BjTon has remarked upon the extraordinary fact, that the two finest cascades in 
 ^^ Europe — those of Terni and Tivoli — are both artificial. The formation of the Cascata delle 
 Marmore originated in the necessity for providing an outlet for the waters of the Velino, 
 which anciently, in consequence of calcareous deposits shallowing and contracting its bed, 
 often overflowed and inundated the valley of the Nar. To counteract this evil, Marcus Curius 
 Dentatus, in the year before Christ 271, caused a canal to be cut, to carry the Velino into 
 the Nar. This work appears, however, to have been conducted with too exclusive a reference 
 to the protection of Rieti, and with little or no regard to the safety of Terni ; for the waters of 
 the Velino being discharged over a precipice of great height in the vicinity of the latter place, 
 the upper valley of the Velino Avas relieved from inundation, by the sacrifice of the lower 
 valley of the Nar. In the frequent disputes which arose between the inhabitants of the two 
 valleys, regarding this channel, the Reatines sought counsel fi*om Cicero, to whom they 
 subsequently erected a statue in acknowledgment of his services. 
 
 For nearly 1700 years from its first construction, this canal continued to carry off the 
 superabundant waters of the Velino, till at length, about A.D. 1400, it became so much 
 obstructed that the Reatines were compelled to clear it, and in doing this, they gave a direc- 
 tion to the waters which again threatened the lower valley with ruin. To terminate the 
 serious disputes thence arising, an entirely new channel was cut, which preserved peace 
 between the two valleys for nearly a century and a half, when this new outlet also failed to 
 fulfil its pui-pose. Paul III. then gave orders for the construction of a canal sufficiently large 
 to carry off all the waters of Rieti ; and though Terni, and other cities situated below the 
 falls, protested against the proceeding, the work Avent forward to completion. This channel, 
 
60 
 
 CASCATA DELLE MARMORE. 
 
 however, like the former ones, did not long answer its purpose ; and, at length, Foutana the 
 celebrated engineer undertook to render the canal permanently effective. He commenced by 
 re-opening a considerable portion of the old channel cut by Dentatus; but instead of following 
 it to an obtuse junction with the Nar, he cut a new portion at right angles to the valley, and 
 the consequence of this unfortunate blunder was, that vast quantities of fragments of rocks, 
 brought down by the Velino, blocked up the course of the Nar, and produced below the Falls 
 the floods so much dreaded. Fresh disputes arose out of this disaster, and continued without 
 intermission till 1785, when the oblique angle of junction was restored, and other measures 
 taken to secure the lower plains from injury, and since that time the two valleys have beeD 
 
 at peace. 
 
 The Falls of Terni are distant between three and four miles from the town. They are 
 approached by a road ascending from the valley of the Nar as far as Papigno, whence a 
 branch road leads to the bottom of the Falls. From this point, the spectator sees the 
 principal fall, and also two or three minor cascades, which, although of little importance in 
 themselves, add considerably to the collective grandeur of the scene. Ascending the hill, the 
 tourist arrives in full view of the waters of the Velino, and beholds them foaming and 
 tumbling down the precipice. He is next led to a projecting eminence, whence the cataract 
 is seen rolling on, "like an eternity," in one unbroken fall, bursting into foam which 
 surrounds it like a mantle, and plunging into the deep abyss that rises to meet it at its 
 coming in thick clouds of vapour. At this point, the spectator is admitted into a small 
 building seated on the very edge of the projecting rock, and said to have been erected by order 
 of Napoleon ; here he looks forth, with a feeling of security, upon " the hell of waters " raging 
 before him and beneath him. Descending from this building, and crossing the Nar, the tourist 
 reaches the little summer-house, from which an uninterrupted view is obtained of the cataract 
 in aU its extent. 
 
 Of the character of the country above the Falls, but in connection with them, no engraving 
 hitherto published has conveyed any idea. The view from the vaUey of the Nar, shows all 
 the lower cataracts fore-shortened, and excludes the country above; and the prospect from the 
 top of the Falls, is made indistinct by the mists. Our scene, representing the cataract in its 
 relation to the surrounding country, is taken from the high ground above the right bank of 
 the Nar, opposite its confluence with the Velino ; it thus commands an extensive view above 
 and beyond the crest of the cascade ; the mountains where its waters take their rise, and the 
 direction of the valleys through which they pass, are seen ; whilst the eye embraces the" entire 
 cataract from the first great plunge of 300 or 400 feet, through all the continuous and lower 
 faUs, to the stream of the Nar, — a collective depth of nearly 1000 feet.* 
 
 * Wilson the painter visited these Falls in company with Sir Joshua Reynolds. Sir Joshua relates, that for a 
 moment Wilson stood in mute astonishment at the sublimity of the spectacle, and at length unconsciously exclaimed 
 — "Well done, water, by God!" Let the reader pardon the apparent irreverence of the exclamation, and then 
 contrast it with the insipid remark by Addison, that "these Falls are superior to the water-works at Versailles." 
 
CIVITA CASTELLANA. 
 
 61 
 
 CIVITA CASTELLANA. 
 
 p NTIQUARIANS Avere, until within the last few years, much divided in 
 
 \'' opinion regarding the sites of several ancient cities, each of wliich had been 
 
 ^^l identified, by different authorities, with the modern town of Civita Castel- 
 
 lana* It is now, however, pretty clearly ascertained that this town mar lis 
 
 the locality of the classic Falerium, the capital of the Falisci, and one of the 
 
 cities of the Etrurian league. It is situated on the Flaminian Way, at the distance 
 
 of thirty-seven miles from Eome, and though containing within its walls nothing of 
 
 great interest to the traveller, the picturesque beauty of its site and neighbourhood, 
 
 and the classical associations connected Avith them, render it worthy of regard by the 
 
 antiquarian, the scholar, and the man of taste. 
 
 * Civita Castellana has been variously regarded as the site of Veii, Falerium or Falerii, and Fescennium, three 
 famous cities of Etruria. The insulation of the town by deep ravines, running almost entirely round it, seemed to 
 favour the hypothesis of its having been the ancient Veii, so celebrated in classical history for its resistance of the 
 Roman power under Camillus. This city, which sustained a siege of ten years, was larger and far more magnificent 
 than Rome itself. The Romans, whose city had recently been much injured by the Gauls, were anxious to migrate 
 to Veii ; and the authority and eloquence of Camillus were scarcely sufficient to change their resolution. At length, 
 however, he prevailed, and Veii was destroyed. The recent discovery of inscriptions, marble columns, and fragments 
 of temples, has determined the true situation of Veii to be at La Storta, about twelve miles from Rome. 
 
 The city of Fescennium is now ascertained to have had its site at Galese, a few miles north-east of Civita Castel- 
 lana, The famous Fescennine Verses, invented by the Fescenni, are frequently mentioned by the Latin poets. 
 They were a sort of rustic dialogue in which the failings and vices of mankind were exposed to ridicule. With a 
 considerable share of satirical humour, they lilended a too great licentiousness of language. They ultimately became 
 a vehicle for gross and slanderous attacks upon patrician families ; and Augustus was compelled to proscribe them, 
 as being more offensive by their immorality than corrective by their satire. In his Epistle to Augustus, Horace 
 thus alludes to them : 
 
 Fescennina per hunc invecta licentia morem 
 Versibus alternis opprobria rustica fudit ; 
 Llbertasque recurrentes accepta per annos 
 Lusit amablliter ; donee jam sjevus apertam 
 In rabiem verti coepit jocus, et per honestas 
 Ire domes impune minax. 
 
 Epist. II. 1. 14.5. 
 
 Here, in alternate verse, with rustic jost. 
 The cldwns their awkward raillery express'd. 
 And as the year brought round the jovial day. 
 Freely they sported, innocently gay. 
 Till cruel wit was turn'd to open rage, 
 And dar'd the noblest families engage. 
 
 Franch. 
 
 Falerium, or Falerii, whose site is now fixed, by the best authorities, at Civita Castellana, is rendered famous by 
 the noble conduct of Camillus. The Falisci having rendered assistance to the Veientes during the siege of Veii. 
 Camillus invested their city. Whilst the Roman army lay before the place, a schoolmaster went out of the gates 
 -with his pupils, and delivered them into the hands of Camillus, as the surest means of inducing the citizens to sur- 
 
62 
 
 CIVITA CASTELLANA. 
 
 The principal approach to Civita Castellana is by a magnificent bridge of many arches, 
 thrown across the deep ravine which separates the town from the neighbouring heights. 
 This structure, which bears strong resemblance to the Pont du Gard near Nimes, was con- 
 structed by Cardinal Imperial! in 1712, a,nd is considered one of the finest works of papal 
 times. Remains of the ancient Falerium are discoverable in the ravine ; through which flows 
 the river Triglia, a small afiiuent of the Tiber. The modern town stands upon an insulated 
 rock ; the walls rising on the edge of a perpendicular precipice, and formed in general of large 
 blocks of stone, which are probably the remains of the ancient rampart. The Citadel, which 
 forms a striking object in our illustrative view, occupies an isthmus that connects the town 
 with the higher grounds. This building was begun by Alexander VI., in 1500, and completed 
 by Julius II. and Leo X. It is now used as a state prison, but its defences are M'hoUy inade- 
 quate to protect the town against an enemy. 
 
 The Cathedral ranks next in interest to the Citadel. This structure is of the thirteenth 
 century. It has a portico of small columns of granite and marble, and a mosaic frieze. The 
 middle door- way is of Lombard architecture, and is decorated with ancient mosaics. The in- 
 terior is much modernized and contains nothing remarkable, if we except some sepulchral 
 tablets with efllgies, dating from the fifteenth century. This church is regarded with venera- 
 tion by the religious, as being the depository of the bodies of S. Gracilian and Santa Felicis- 
 sima who suffered martyrdom at Civita Castellana, in the third centmy. Besides the cathedral, 
 there are no buildings of consequence except the convents, and these exhibit nothing in their 
 architecture or interior decorations to claim extended notice. 
 
 The prospect which is obtained from the tower of the citadel is far more interesting than 
 the structure itself From this point the spectator commands an impressive view of the deep 
 ravines which wind and twist in various directions, and almost entu-ely surround the town , 
 whilst at a distance is seen the Mons Soracte,* or Sant' Oreste, famous for mythological and 
 classical tradition ; the plain of Nepi, anciently celebrated as the Ciminian forest, upon whose 
 
 render. The Roman general, filled "with, indignation at the baseness of a man who could betray a trust so sacred, 
 caused him to be bound, and in this condition to be whipped back into the town by his scholars. When the Romans 
 destroyed Falerium, another city bearing the same name was built in the plain, about four miles distant. To dis- 
 tinguish between the two, the second city is named Falerii ; its site is identified with Santa Maria di FaUeri. 
 
 * To the east of Civita Castellana, and at the distance of twenty-six miles from Rome, rises the Sant' Oreste, or 
 sacred mountain of Soracte, which, according to mythology, was under the immediate guardianship of ApoUo, who 
 is thence styled by the poets, Apollo Soractis. 
 
 Summe deftm, sancti custos Soractis Apollo, 
 Quem primi colimus, cui pineus ardor acervo 
 Pascitur. 
 
 y-Eiieis XL 785. 
 
 Phoebus ! guardian of Soracte 's woods, 
 And shady hills ; a god above the gods 1 
 To whom our nations pay the rite divine, 
 And burn whole crackling groves of hallow'd pine. 
 
 Pitt. 
 
 Here was a temple of the god ; and from this place went forth those oracular responses whose utter vagueness ren- 
 dered the infallibility of the Pythoness unimpeachable, and gave to her pretended revelations one genuine charac- 
 teristic of a voice divine— mystery. Some report that on Mount Soracte was a fountain whose waters boiled at sun- 
 rise, and instantly killed all such birds as drank of them. Other fables are not wanting, to invest with marvels a 
 spot whch a deity had chosen for his peculiar residence. Horace in his ninth Ode refers to this mountain : 
 
J^' 
 
 ■^ 
 
 y5saR>. fr-IBBiHiiii tiL^iiiiliiiiiBiiil 
 
CIVITA VECCIITA. 
 
 G3 
 
 impenetrable labyrinth the Romans once looked with awe and terror; and tlic noif^hlxnii-iug 
 lake beneath which a city is said to lie submerged * Leaving the town, tlie tourist mala's 
 excursions to the classic localities in the neighbourhood ; and perhaps no where, ^\'ithin the 
 same conijiass, can so many associations of ancient site and tradition be brought together. 
 
 CIVITA V EC CHI A. 
 
 illS town, the principal port of the Papal States, and usually designated 
 ' the port of Rome, was an important maritime station in the latter times of 
 the empire. Anciently known as Centumcellse.f it afterwards took the name 
 of Portus Trajani, or the port of Trajan, from the magnificent harbour con- 
 structed there by the emperor Trajan. The depth of the water within the 
 'basin varies from fourteen to t^Acntj- feet. Two immense inflected piers enclose the 
 harbour, which is defended at its entrance by an artificial island, or breakwater, re- 
 sembling, both in construction and appearance, the modern sea-barrier erected in 
 Plymouth Sound. The younger Pliny, in a letter addressed to Cornelianus, and written 
 from Centumcellee, makes interesting reference to the imperial works then in progress. — 
 " This delightful villa," he writes, " is surrounded by the most verdant meadows, and commands 
 a fine view of the sea, which flows into a spacious harbour in the form of an amphitheatre. 
 The left hand of this port is defended by exceeding strong works, and they are now actually 
 employed in carrying on the same on the opposite side. An artificial island, which is rising 
 in the midst of the haA^eu, will break the force of the waves, and afford a safe channel to ships 
 on each side. In the construction of this Avonderful work of art, stones of a most enormous 
 size are transported hither in a large sort of pontoons, and being piled one upon another, are 
 fixed by their own weight, and gradually accumulating in the manner of a natural mound. 
 It already lifts its rocky bank above the ocean, while the waves -ohich beat upon it, being 
 tossed to an immense height, foam with a prodigious noise, and whiten all the sea around. 
 
 Vides, ut alta stet nive candidum 
 Soracte. 
 
 Ode IX. 1. 
 
 Behold Soraote's airy height, 
 See how it stands a heap of snow ! 
 
 Francis. 
 
 * The Lago di Vico, or Laoug Cimini, presents the appearance of a crater, and the physical structure of the sur- 
 rounding hills bears testimony to its volcanic origin. The city of Succinium, according to tradition, was swallowed 
 up by the sudden sinking of the earth. It is mentioned by ancient writers, that when the water was clear, the ruins 
 of the city might be seen at the bottom of the lake. 
 
 t Previous to Trajan's erecting a villa at Centumcella3, and subsequently converting this town into a secure harbour 
 for the ships of Rome, this place was mean in character and thinly inhabited. Indeed, the very name of Centum- 
 cellse, or the Hundred Cellars, is indicative of the wretchedness of its dwellings. 
 
64 CIVITAVECCHIA. 
 
 To these stones are added larger blocks, which, when the whole shall be completed, will give 
 it the appearance of an island just emerged from the ocean ! This haven is to be called bj 
 the name of its great founder, and will prove of infinite benefit, by affording a very secure 
 retreat to ships on that extensive and dangerous coast." 
 
 When this sea-port was destroyed by the Saracens, in 828, its expelled inhabitants retired 
 inland, and built another town, which, however, they evacuated in 854, and returned to re- 
 occupy their former site, which thence obtained the name of Civita VeccMa, or the old town. 
 On the establishment of the papal power, the restoration of the harbour became an important 
 object with the government. Julius II., in 1512, ordered the construction of the fortifications, 
 which were completed by Paul III. And, in 1590, Urban VII. built the Avails of the town.* 
 The massive architecture of the buildings around the basin, and the exterior appearance of 
 the place towards the sea, raise an expectation that is not realized on entering the town. 
 
 Civita Vecchia is the capital of a small delegation, and numbers a population of nearly seven 
 thousand inhabitants. It was erected into an episcopal see by Leo XII., in 1825 ; but is now 
 incorporated with the more ancient dioceses of Porto and Santa Ruflftna. The largest prisons 
 of the Papal States exist here ; these are capable of holding 1 200 convicts, and it is seldom that 
 the cells are unoccupied. Among the prisoners, there are nearly twenty brigands who formerly 
 infested the frontiers of the Papal States. Gasparoni, their chief, whose continued imprisonment 
 is said to be a breach of faith on the part of the government, has become an object of great 
 interest to English visitors. The bad eminence of this man of crime, who confesses to thirty- 
 five murders, has awakened the sympathy of our countrymen, who reward the wretch with 
 small presents in return for the revolting and disgusting details of his atrocities. 
 
 This port was constituted a free port by Clement XII. ; but by a singular contradiction, it 
 seems to stand pre-eminent for vexatious exactions and imposts. A host of police and custom- 
 house officers, from whose rapacity there is no escape, seem to possess the art of ingeniously 
 tormenting, in a degree far beyond their compeers in any other station in the Papal States. 
 It is to be hoped that new and better regulations will be introduced, now that steam naviga- 
 tion has given to this haven a celebrity and an importance which it never before enjoyed. A 
 new road to Rome, through Civita Vecchia, is in course of formation ; — ^probably by this 
 time completed ; — and there is little doubt that a wise relaxation of the customs would lead 
 travellers to this port as the point of departure for the imperial city. It is, moreover, the 
 most convenient place whence to start on a visit to the Etrurian ruins. And, add to this, that 
 it is a central point where travellers may assure themselves of rapid and certain conveyance 
 to all parts of the Mediterranean. 
 
 * The re-construction of this harbour was committed to Michael Angelo. It is a grateful task to record of the 
 papacy that it has wrought some good. True, it has enslaved the minds of men, and erected a spiritual despotism 
 fearful in power, and terrible in activity ; but it has also, and that not in a few instances, emulated the patriotic 
 spirit of elder Kome, and disbursed its ample revenues — how obtained we stop not to inquire — in the erection of 
 public works, not more eminent as examples of art, than useful to the community at large from their purpose and 
 design. 
 
ROME. G5 
 
 R M E. 
 
 Thou art in Rome ! the City that so long 
 
 Roign'd absolute, the mistress of the worLl ; 
 
 The mighty vision' that the prophets saw, 
 
 And trembled ; that from nothing, from the least, 
 
 The lowliest village (what but here and therj 
 
 A reed-roof 'd cabin by a river side ?) 
 
 Grew into every thing ; and, year by year. 
 
 Patiently, fearlessly working her way 
 
 O'er brook and field, o'er continent and sea, 
 
 Xot like the merchant with his merchandize. 
 
 Or traveller with staff and scrip exploring, 
 
 But hand to hand and foot to foot, through hosts, 
 
 Through nations numberless in battle-array, 
 
 Each behind each, each, when the other fell. 
 
 Up and in arms, at length subdued them all. 
 
 Thou art in Rome ! the City, where the Gauls, 
 Entering at sun-rise through her open gates. 
 And, through her streets silent and desolate, 
 Marching to slay, thought they saw gods, not men ; 
 The City that, by temperance, fortitude, 
 And love of glory, tower'd above the clouds, 
 Then fell — but falling, kept the highest seat, 
 And in her loneliness, her pomp of woe. 
 Where now she dwells, withdrawn into the wild, 
 Still o'er the mind maintains, from age to age. 
 Her empire undiminish'd. 
 
 Rogers. 
 
 IIANDEUR is the characteristic of Rome; — the associated grandeur of a 
 long antiquity, of an unparalleled history, of a succession of magnificent 
 architecture, and of a resplendent stream of art descending frou:i imperial 
 ages to the present time. Twenty-six centuries have passed since the 
 foundations of the "Eternal City" were laid; — since Romulus gathered 
 %\\{h^j' around him the restless spirits of ancient Italy, to form the germ of a community 
 ^ whose fame was afterwards to fill the earth. From their rude huts on the Tiber — 
 1/3 lowly dwellings, yet dignified, for they were the nucleus of Augustan Rome, — the 
 (\\ first Romans went forth conquering and to conquer. The nations submitted to them; 
 (j;( one people after another sought alliance with them; and the gradual increase of power, 
 and its concomitants, consolidated their infant kingdom, and gave to the throne of their adven- 
 turous chief a fixity not to be shalLcn. Taught by the nations they subdued, the early Romans 
 
 I 
 
66 ROME. 
 
 spared from the work of conquest time enough to appl}^ the lessons Avhich a wise policy 
 dictated to them. Adopting the religion, the laws, the useful arts, and, to a great extent, the 
 manners and customs, of the vanquished, they at one and the same time conciliated the 
 enemies they had overthrown, and collected within their own city the most estunable arts 
 and institutions of neighbouring nations. The kingly authority under which Rome, for upwards 
 of a century and a half, continued to grow in prosperity and extent, came suddenly to an end: 
 tyranny which had dared to erect itself in the presence of a free people, was put down; and. 
 thenceforward it Avas declared, that no king should ever reign in Rome. Then commenced 
 the consular government, which was interrupted when Julius Csesar assumed imperial power 
 and finally extinguished when Csesar Augustus was called to the supreme authority by the 
 unanimous consent of the Roman senate and people. In the long interval between the last 
 king and the last consul, the Romans fought and worked their way till they held undisputed 
 mastery over the then known world. What reader of history needs to be told of their achieve- 
 ments, of the hundred-armed grasp with which they gathered the nations to themselves, of 
 the territory they held, of the wealth they amassed, of the magnificence they created? So 
 vast at last were the limits of the empire, that the much coveted and esteemed title of a 
 Roman citizen became an unmeaning and empty name. But Rome had departed from her 
 vow; she who had given sentence against kings, again confided her liberties to the guardianship 
 of one man. The boast of Augustus may be allowed, that he found the city of brick and left 
 it of marble; and of succeeding emperors, it may be granted that they embellished Rome, 
 insomuch that no city might be likened unto her. Yet amidst the magnificence and luxury 
 of imperial rule, the decay of the emj)ire began to be visible. The national character was 
 corrupted; the daring valour and the stern virtue of consular Rome, gave place to an effeminacy 
 that enfeebled the arm, and a sensual luxury that debased the mind. With few exceptions, 
 the emperors themselves were monsters of sensuality, demons of cruelty, exercising absolute 
 sway over a people reduced to abject servility, and recommending by imperial example vices 
 too hideous and disgusting even to be named. The Augustan age was, indeed, a brilliant 
 epoch; — so brilliant that all succeeding times have referred to it as a standard of national 
 greatness in literature and art. Yet amidst magnificence which might have begot undying 
 love of country, and patriotic zeal in its defence; amidst all that art and literature gave forth 
 to adorn and beautify, to elevate and refine; — there sprung up the antagonistic powers of 
 luxury and indolence, Avhose deadening and corrupting influences converted the evidences and 
 results of national greatness into presages and preparatives for national decay. And wherefore 
 v/as it so? Rome bowed itself as one man before Augustus: his nod Avas law; the permanent 
 principles of moral and social order were forgotten in implicit obedience to the Avill of Ceesar. 
 Thus was Rome prepared for the times that awaited her: thus by abandonment of her inde- 
 pendence, Avas she fitted to sink into degradation, and to AvalloAv in the very depths of moral 
 pollution, so soon as an emperor should appear to enforce the one by his tyi-anny, and to 
 countenance the other by his example. Such an emperor Avas Tiberius, the immediate suc- 
 cessor of Augustus; a Avretch infamous for his vices, a tyrant detestable for his cruelties. 
 From the time of Augustus till the reign of Jovian, a period embracing thirty-six emperors, 
 only seven individuals can be named AAdio exhibited virtues eminently Avorthy of a throne. 
 Vespasian, Titus, Trajan, Adrian, Antoninus, Aurelius, and Constantine, stand forth as prodigies 
 on the imperial list: in an age of polytheism they might have been regarded as gods Avho had 
 descended upon earth for the precerA'-ation of Rome. Victorious in arms, prudent in poliry, 
 
ROM l). 07 
 
 and severe in manly and kingly virhic, they at least retarded the downfall of the cnipiic. 
 But the evil was too deep for cure: a succession of just men might have reformed and reani- 
 mated the Roman peoide; their occasional appearance served only to rouse indolence to tem- 
 porary exertion, to restrain but not to banish luxury, to disturb but not to eradicate vice. 
 Though hastening to decline, Rome sent forth her imperial legions to conquest; and for a time 
 also she successfullj' opposed the incursions of the barbarian hosts who hovered over the con- 
 fines of the empire like vultures watching for the prey. But this does not falsify the view 
 that lias hitherto been taken of imperial Rome: "No man," says the satirist, "ever reached 
 the heights of vice at first;" and no nation has ever thrown aside her greatness in a day. The 
 long glories of republican Rome could not suffer instant eclipse : a gradual decay of ancef;tral 
 virtue, a gradual advance in vicious refinement — operations as sm-e in effect as the dropping 
 water that wears the marble underneath, — these were at ^\'ork, and they finally issued in the 
 extinction of the Roman name. 
 
 The Roman empire, almost innnediatcly after the death of Aurelius, offered a melancholy 
 illustration of a modern apothegm — that between the sublime and the ridiculous there is onl}"^ 
 one step. The imperial ensigns were held by the Praetorian guard, who openly exposed them 
 for sale, and readily granted them to any purchaser who would meet their demands, h'carcely 
 had one aspkant for sovereign sway taken his seat, before he was dragged thence to make 
 room for a successor, another purchaser of imperial dignities. From Commodus to Dioclesian, 
 the period of a century, disorder reigned throughout the empire, and the lives and liberties of 
 the people were at the mercy of an avaricious soldiery. Honour and virtue were extinct. 
 Rome was deserted by her guardian genii. When Dioclesian divided the imperial dominions 
 into four separate governments, over which presided two emperors and two Csesars, — and when 
 immediately after, Constantine removed the seat of empire from Rome to Byzantium, — then, 
 indeed, "the beginning of the end" was seen. For a century and a half longer, Rome wrestled 
 with her destiny; she abandoned her conquests, and gathered her legions round her to repel 
 the attacks of the barbarians, who now began to threaten the city itself. On the death of 
 Theodosius, his sons made a permanent division of the empire into Eastern and Western. 
 Of the first of these we lose sight; and of the latter little is left to record save its final 
 catastrophe. 
 
 Whilst Rome was hastening to decaj', barbarian kingdoms were rising up on ever}' hand: 
 the Vandals in Africa, the Huns in Scjthia, the Visigoths in Gaul and Spain; — each originally 
 a community of rude and daring spirits, the very counterpart of the first Romans. Temperate, 
 frugal, and brave, these people possessed all the qualities requisite for success in arms. Long 
 before the ruin of Rome had become inevitable, these warlike hordes prowled around the 
 borders of the empire, and succeeded in permanently or temporarily detaching the fairest pro- 
 vince:;. Watching with eagle glance the declining strength of the masters of the world, — 
 profiting by the disasters which beset the Romans from Avithout, and the pernicious influences 
 that were working surely and silently within the city, — observing how the Romans retired 
 from scenes of former conquest, and concentrated themselves for the final struggle that was 
 impending, — these barbarian hosts disdained to continue longer a predatory warfare against 
 the extremities of the empire: they made bold irruption into the Roman territorj-, swept like 
 the avalanche across the pleasant fields of Italy, carrying terror in their front and leaving 
 utter desolation behind tliem, nor paused on their march till they had reached the xevy gates of 
 Rome. Attila of ths Huns, with four hundred thousand followers, invaded Italy in the time 
 
68 ROME. 
 
 of Valentinian. He entered with his army into Rome, and the work of spoliation had begun, 
 when the timid emperor purchased an inglorious rescue. Attila retired laden with treasures. 
 Alas! for the nation that redeems herself, save with the sword. Alas! for the people who can 
 offer no better resistance to a hostile invader than to cast upon him the spoils of temples and 
 palaces, and the gold of the treasury. Every talent in the hand of Attila was an argument 
 for fresh invasion, an invitation to other kingdoms to come down and share the wreck of an 
 empire. The last days of Rome were at hand. In the time of Honorius, the first of the 
 Western Emperors, Alaric, king of the Visigoths, appeared in Italy, fresh from the conquest 
 of Greece. The wrath of this Destroyer of Nations was for the instant appeased by unlimited 
 concession. Subsequently, however, he strengthened himself by alliance with the Goths and 
 Huns, and set forth towards Rome. The hour of accumulated vengeance had come: fire and 
 sword devastated the city; and of all its magnificence, nothing remained of imperial Rome, 
 save the Christian churches, which, together with their treasures, the barbarian consented to 
 spare. Rome had not, however, utterly fallen: she was to be destroyed, but her time was not 
 yet fulfilled. Like her own soldiers, in the best days of the republic, who, staggering beneath 
 the blows of their assailants, fought on, and at length yielded up life sullenly and by degrees, 
 — she protracted her final overthrow by unavailing attempts to restore her greatness. She 
 arose from her ruins, and preserved a name amongst the nations: it was too late to claim her 
 former proud title of mistress of the world. 
 
 The barbarians returned to their prey: they poured down like the locust upon Italy: from 
 the forests of Scandinavia, from the deserts of Africa, from the wilds of Scythia, they came 
 forth in successive myriads to plunder and destroy. They came with their wives and their 
 children, their slaves and their flocks, to make settlement upon Italian ground. The lands 
 they deserted were instantly occupied by more remote tribes of barbarians, who in tm-n rushed 
 forward to obtain a share in the spoils of Rome. Thus, like an impetuous and unbroken 
 stream, or like a torrent continually increasing, they rolled on sweeping everything before 
 them. These were adventurers, not warriors. They foUoAved in the rear of tiie armies to 
 render the work of devastation complete, and to secure permanent advantages fi'om the 
 triumphs of their coulitrymen. Genseric now led his Vandals to Rome: the threatened 
 destruction was partially averted by the intercession of Leo I., emperor of the East. The city 
 escaped the flames; but the sword did its work upon the wretched inhabitants, and the spoiler 
 left little behind him that fire could consume. The interval of rest was brief. The cry was 
 still. They come ! Within twenty years after Genseric retired, carrying with him into Africa 
 thousands of Roman prisoners to groan in bondage, — Odoacer, king of the Heruli, advanced 
 upon the city, wrested the imperial ensigns from the hands of Augustulus, and put a final 
 termination to the empire of the West (a.d. 476). Thus was Rome cast down, never to rise 
 again. She was given over to the barbarian; a long and dark night was before her; and a far 
 distant twilight was, after the lapse of ages, to break forth, not upon "the Roman's Rome," 
 but upon a city oppressed and trodden down by rival claimants and foreign domination, and 
 by a spiritual despotism from which escape should be hopeless. 
 
 In the history of the world, we cannot find a period so beset with calamities and afflictions 
 to the human race, as that which transpired from the death of Tlieodosius till the establishment 
 of the kingdom of the Lombards. Rome was, indeed, the centre of desolation; but that deso- 
 lation radiated thence over all the cidlized portions of the globe. Upon southern Europe more 
 especially fell the withering influences of l)arbaric rule. The Great Northern Hive came down 
 
ROME. 69 
 
 from tlie colder regions of our continent, in numbers numbeiless, to sweep away tlie old 
 inhabitants of those fertile provinces which they sought to occupy. Slavery in its most liideous 
 form; a mental darkness unpierccd, save by a few feeble rays of intellectual light; art pro- 
 scribed, and aU her triumphs cast down, broken, destroyed; outrage, tumult, massacre; — such 
 were the features of barbarian Europe, from the end of the fourth till nearly the end of the 
 sixth century. The contemporaneous authors who successively witnessed the miseries of this 
 long period, find language inadequate to portray the horrors that surrounded them. The 
 Scom-ge of God, the Destroyer of Nations, are the fearful epithets by which they distinguish 
 the leaders of the barbarian hosts. The names of Attila, Alaric, Genseric, and Odoacer, have 
 descended to modern times with a terrible significance, each appellative alike expressive of 
 lamentation, mourning, and woe. 
 
 The Dark Ages did not terminate with the expulsion of the Ostrogoths. It was not until 
 the Lombards had given place to the Franks, and these in turn had been superseded by the 
 Germans, that the twilight of the IMiddle Ages broke forth upon Italy. Indeed, subsequent 
 centuries offer darker pages of Italian history, than present themselves in the reign of Theo- 
 doric, and his successors. At the commencement of this barbarian djoiasty, which began 
 A.D. 489 (on the expulsion of Odoacer), and continued for sixty-four years, there was a display 
 of moderation, justice, and clemency, too remarkable to be overlooked. The comparatively 
 liberal institutions of Theodoric, who pursued an enlightened policy, seldom exhibited by the 
 Gothic kings, mitigated the evils to which Italy had been exposed under the Heruli. The 
 latter princes of this line had to contend against the power of Justinian, who sent his cele- 
 brated general, Belisarius, to recover the western provinces, and restore the extinct division 
 of the empire. Italy endured even more during this struggle, than whilst she lay beneath the 
 undisturbed rule of the barbarians. Which party soever triumphed, the natives suffered; and 
 the dreadful retaliation of Totila, when he recaptured Rome from Justinian, caused universal 
 terror and dismay, and drove the Romans to despair. Ultimately the Eastern emperor pre- 
 vailed; and the kingdom of the Ostrogoths ceased. Rome was thenceforward, for fifteen 
 years, under the government of Narses, Justinian's general, who, at length, to escape impending 
 censure and disgrace, invited the Lombards into Italy to aid. in protecting him against the 
 imperial arms. 
 
 The Lombards were a powerful German tribe from the banks of the Danube. They eagerly 
 accepted the invitation to descend upon the rich valleys of the south; and shortly after their 
 arrival, they founded the celebrated Lombard kingdom, which, commencing a.d. 568, continued 
 for upwards of two centm-ies, or until a.d. 774. Their sovereignty never embraced the Avhole of 
 Italy, of which a large portion, including Rome, continued to be held by the Greek, or Eastern 
 emperors. For a length of time, the government of the country was divided between the 
 emperors of the East, the Lombardic kings, and the Germanic chiefs, or dukes, who had suc- 
 ceeded in establishing independent principalities in the dominions of the Lombards. When 
 pope Gregory II. denounced the emperor Leo as a heretic, and thereby instigated the imperial 
 provinces to revolt, these last became subject to the Lombards, who sought also to annex the then 
 independent republic of Rome to their territories. This act of aggression caused the bishops 
 to seek the aid of Pepin, king of the Franks, who came over into Italy and expelled the Lom- 
 bards from the imperial provinces. They were finally vanquished by Charlemagne, the son 
 and successor of Pepin, and the founder of the Prankish empire. 
 
 The Franks were a German people who, under Clovis their king, established a monarchy in 
 
 s 
 
^Q ROME. 
 
 Gaul, which during the reign of Charlemagne rose to be one of the great empires of the world. 
 The sovereignty of the Franks in Italy extended as far south as Naples ; but after the death 
 of Charlemagne, and the partition of his dominions, his successors maintained little more than 
 a nominal authority. When the Carlovingian dynasty was deposed, in the person of Charles 
 Le Gros, in 888, Italy was ravaged by contending tyrants till 916, when the popes and the 
 leading men of the country invited Otho the Great to their assistance. Since then, Italy has 
 always remained subject to the German emperors, if we except that brief period, in modern 
 times, when the successes of Napoleon gave him possession of this southern portion of the 
 Austrian dominions. At this point in the political history of Italy we must stop: it would 
 lead us too far, even to glance briefly at the many separate and rival governments estabhshed 
 in the Middle Ages. The disputes of popes and emperors, and the constant feuds between 
 republics and principalities, could not be detailed with any degree of perspicuity in this brief 
 
 abstract. 
 
 Before proceeding to a slight review of the rise of the papacy, the growth of its power, and 
 its ultimate supremacy, it may be well to notice a few of the predominant features in the 
 history of the temporal sovereignties which, on the fall of the empu-e, held successive authority 
 
 in Italy. 
 
 It is a remarkable fact,— a fact for which, at first view, we are little prepared,— that fallen 
 Rome dictated to her barbarian conquerors both language and laws, and also much of the 
 general economy of civil and social life. Imperial institutions were preserved, either entire, 
 or with slight modifications ; the Latin tongue was made the basis of a common language, to 
 be spoken in after times by the amalgamated posterity of the Roman and the barbarian ; and 
 with regard to minor details of national distinction, it may be asserted that the leaders of the 
 Germanic tribes were, for the most part, more anxious to Italianize their own people, than to 
 convert the Italians to the rude and primitive manners which prevailed in northern Europe. 
 With the fact before us, we can account for it in two Avays ; the barbarians, by pursuing a 
 policy, formerly practised by the Romans, might seek to render their yoke more tolerable to 
 the conquered, by preserving and respecting the national characteristics of their country ; but, 
 in another view, we cannot suppose the barbarians to have been insensible of the value of 
 many institutions that had been preserved intact and uncorrupt amidst the rubbish of the 
 empire. Probably in the first centuries of the dark ages, we are scarcely justified in assuming 
 that the barbarians were actuated by any motives of sympathy towards the conquered ; for 
 with such a supposition, we could not reconcile the exterminating cruelty of the invaders, 
 which for a long period made Italy a scene of utter desolation. The truth may be, that the 
 barbarians sought only their own advancement in the institutes of civil and social life, in 
 what they adopted of Roman origin ; and that they warred ruthlessly against literature and 
 art, as a necessary prelude to the permanent subjection of a refined people; and to clear away 
 what they deemed useless encumbrances and seductive allurements, equally dangerous and 
 valueless to a nation whose dependence was upon the sword. Darkly ignorant as were the 
 barbarians, and unprovided with written laws, they had arrived at some of the great principles 
 of civil polity ; and not a few of the best institutions of modern times may find an origin in 
 the usages of the rude tribes of the north. Monarchical authority was recognized by them, 
 and when they came southward, they appear to have had an hereditary nobility. The privi- 
 leges of these nobles were confined to eligibility for election to the throne and the subordinate 
 offices of state, and to the right of gathering around them mercenary followers to assist them 
 
ROME. 71 
 
 ill their fiei'ce quarrels with each other. The rights of citizenship were denied to tlie poor, 
 and to foreigners; to the one, hecaiise his poverty prevented him from fulfilling the t(;nns of 
 franchise, in the service of arms ; and to the other, hecause no dependence fur war could he 
 placed on a foreigner or conquered enemy. Lands were divided into districts, each district 
 being under the jurisdiction of a chief, the original of the more recent Count. These chiefs 
 A\ ere subject to the kingly authority ; and in time of war each led the inhabitants of the 
 district over whicli he presided, to aid the general cause. The supreme military command 
 A^'as given to the Ilerzog, or Duke, whose office resembled that of Dictator amongst the Romans, 
 being conferred for the occasion, and lasting no longer than till the end of the campaign. 
 Every reader Imows somewhat of the institutions of ancient Rome ; and we must leave him 
 to infer the results that followed from engrafting upon them the native institutes and customs 
 of the barbarians. 
 
 We have already alluded to the wise policy of Theodoric, by which he mitigated the evils 
 that oppressed Italy, and succeeded to a great extent in reconciling the Italians to gothic rule. 
 His concessions towards the emperor of the East, and the respect and protection which (though 
 himself an Arian) he extended to the Western Church, produced peaceful results. He acted 
 justly towards the community, without respect to Goth or Roman ; and made strenuous 
 exertions to improve the resources of the country. He brought the swampy lands into a state 
 of cultivation, drained the Pontine jMarshes, and rendered many districts habitable that before 
 Avere too unwholesome for human residence. It is worthy of remark, that during his reign, 
 Italy, which under the empire was indebted to foreign countries for its corn, was not only 
 enabled to supply its own wants, but also to export a large surplus of grain to Gaul. Un- 
 happily for the Italian people, the successors of Theodoric did not tread in his steps : in the 
 true spirit of Goths, they sought to establish their power by unrelenting cruelty and rigorous 
 exactions. Nor were the Italians benefited by exchange of masters, when the Lombards took 
 possession of their country ; for these new rulers claimed one-third of his yearly produce fi-om 
 every native proprietor. But the sufferings of Italy were much aggravated at this period by 
 the operations of the feudal system, which now began to prevail throughout Europe. The 
 laws both of the Lombards and of the Franks allowed creditors to reduce their debtors to 
 villenage, and to sell them into hereditary slavery. During the sovereignty of these dynasties, 
 the miseries of feudal tyranny reduced the Italians to a painful and degrading servitude. 
 Italy did not, however, endure the severities of the feudal system to the same extent, or for 
 so long a period, as other countries of Europe. The perpetual conflict between a number of 
 independent principalities, the frequent quarrels between the temporal and spiritual powers, 
 and the constitution of the free cities of the Middle Ages, — these wrought successively in 
 favour of liberty, and laid considerable restraint upon the tyranny of the feudal chiefs. The 
 ascendancy of the papal power also gave a measure of freedom to the people ; for the emperor 
 who was the source of feudal authority, was likewise the enemy of the holy see. The institu- 
 tions of the Middle Ages were utterly opposed to the principles of feudalism : they united, it 
 is true, with other causes to render Italy an arena of perpetual disorder ; but it is some atone- 
 ment that they at first held in check, and subsequently overthrew, one of the most atrocious 
 systems of t3Tanny that the world has ever known. 
 
 Having traced Rome from her origin, through all the vicissitudes of temporal rule, till the 
 opening of the eleventh century, when the darkness of l)arbarism began to disappear in the 
 returning light of literature and art, — it remains that we take a slight view — cursory and 
 
72 ROME. 
 
 imperfect it must necessarily be — of the rise and progress of that spiritual domination which 
 has trodden Italy into the very dust, and made her, — what neither Austria nor France, each 
 with its manifold wrongs, could have made her — 
 
 The Niobe of Nations ! 
 
 Childless and crownless in her voiceless woe. 
 
 Christianity was introduced into Rome in the early times of the empire. It was a remark- 
 able spectacle to behold the first converts to the Christian faith, testifying to God and His 
 Christ in the midst of heathen abominations, and in the face of a nation devoted to vicious 
 indulgences. The purity of life and simplicity of doctrine which characterized the followers 
 of Jesus, formed a beautiful contrast to the morality and the religion of the heathens. The 
 infant church of Rome appears, at first, to have attracted little attention fi-om the proud com- 
 munity in which it dwelt. Scorn and contempt were, for a time, the only weapons that 
 assailed the Christian converts of Rome. But when the new sect had not only increased in 
 numbers, but had also gathered adherents from the patrician ranks, it began to exert an 
 influence not to be destroyed by scoff and jest. So long as it was a company of mean men, 
 having no repute in the estimation of the world, its practical rebuke of heathen idolatry and 
 wickedness was little regarded ; but the case was far different (humanly speaking) when 
 increasing numbers, and that kind of influence which the world recognizes, rendered it an 
 object of imperial jealousy and hatred. It had ever been the custom with the Romans to give 
 place in their temples to the gods of conquered nations ; and before the introduction of 
 Christianity, they were preeminently distinguished for toleration in matters of religion. This, 
 however, is readily accounted for : the variations in heathen worship presented no startling 
 contrast ; they were merely so many separate features in one corrupt faith, which, as it sprung 
 originally out of the pride and vanity of the human heart, so it commended itself in its ghastly 
 unity to all the nations of heathendom. But Christianity was opposed to heathen worship at 
 every point : the one was moral purity itself, the other a pander to all the vicious propensities 
 natural to man ; this inflated its worshippers and ministered to their pride, that enjoined 
 humility to its followers, and proclaimed the empty nothingness of earthly grandeur. No 
 wonder, then, that imperial Rome arose to vindicate her thousand gods, and to pour forth her 
 exterminating wrath upon the votaries of a religion which threatened to silence her oracles 
 for ever ; and which, moreover, smote with withering rebuke the monstrous enormities of both 
 emperor and people. The sufferings of the Christians commenced under Nero, a.d. 64; and 
 continued till the time of Constantine, a.d. 328. Ten distinct periods of fiery persecution, 
 separated by intervals of relaxed severity, fill ijp the lapse of time between these two emperors. 
 Every cruelty that malice could devise and tyranny inflict, was employed for the extirpation 
 of a faith that would make no compromise with the works of darkness. But the sword of 
 the legionary, the agonizing fire, the sharp pangs of ingenious torture, all were unequal to 
 overthrow a cause which was of God. The church of Christ exhibited during these trials 
 a purity and faith never exceeded— perhaps never equalled— in all her succeeding history. 
 
 Constantine was a deadlier foe to Christianity than all the persecuting emperors taken 
 together. His political adoption of Christianity as the religion of the empire, introduced a 
 deadly element into the Christian system, whose pernicious evils are not exclusively confined 
 to the Roman church, but lurk insidiously, to a greater or less extent, in the constitution of 
 every chm-ch that has been established since his day. The truly apostolic church of the fii'st 
 
ROM ]:. 73 
 
 ages exhibited every grace; she was in the workl, but not of the world; her bisliops and pas- 
 tors were humble-minded men, who sought no earthly honours, who dreamed not of supremacy, 
 who appealed to no sword, save that of the Spirit, to propagate and estal^lish the faith. It 
 was the unnatural union of temporal Avith spiritual i)ower that transformed the Christian 
 church of Rome into a temple of Satan, — that took from her, humility, long-suffering, gentle- 
 ness, and kindness, and gave her in place of these, haughtiness, wrath, fierce anger, and devour- 
 ing hate. It was the spirit of this world, let loose upon the subdued yet still corrupt heart of 
 man, that drew aside a Roman bishop from his duties as a spiritual overseer, to indulge in the 
 criminal excesses of a temporal supremacy. It was this spirit whose malignant broodings 
 brought forth the monstrous contradiction of a persecutinr/ Christian church. Up to the tinu' 
 of Constantine, the Roman church had suffered much, and proclaimed peace : after Constantino, 
 she became a destroyer, and peace dwelt not with her. And to which of the churches that 
 have arisen since the age of the first Christian emperor of Rome, can we point and say, that 
 in it are discoverable no traces of the evil which Constantine inflicted upon Christianity when 
 he made it the partner of an earthly throne ? 
 
 Constantine adopted Christianity as the religion of the state ; but he did not put down 
 heathen idolatry. The truth appears to be that Christianity had assumed a reqiedahle appear- 
 ance, and the emperor was desirous to preserve ctuietude in his dominions ; and ilienjhre it 
 was that he was tolerant towards the new faith, nay, indeed, gave it priority of position — and 
 why? because heathenism was discountenanced and like folly showed when confronted with 
 the Gospel. It is a notorious fact, that long before the coming of Christ, the utter worthless- 
 ness and the dreadful abominations of polytheistic worship were the scoff and scorn of the very 
 heathen themselves. In the calm retreats of philosophy, a system of belief was inculcated, 
 totally opposed to the doctrines and modes of worship enjoined by the national creed. The 
 people, indeed, were for the most part satisfied with their deities. And why not ? Every bad 
 passion was protected by a god, and its indulgence was enjoined, as the only acceptable worship 
 in his temple ! Thus, then, Constantine recognized Christianity because numbers had embraced 
 it, and even its enemies were beginning to respect it ; but he tolerated heathen worship lest 
 the people should resent the dismissal of the gods in whose service they delighted. But what 
 was the consequence of this imperial compromise ? Look to the church of Rome, and in her 
 rites and ceremonies, her festivals and solemnities, see the deplorable results of this temporiz- 
 ing policy. It is most important that we have a clear perception of the primary corruption of 
 the Roman church; for out of that proceeded all the monstrous enormities which history 
 chronicles against the papacy. Constantine restrained some of the more openly gross rites of 
 heathenism, but when he had done this, he gave equal protection to the altar of Jove and 
 the church of Christ. The heathen pontiff and the Christian bishop had nearly equal eminence : 
 each was recognized and respected by the civil power. What was the result in regard to 
 Christianity? Its followers began, under episcopal sanction, to adopt the worse than empty 
 splendour of heathen rite and ceremony. Heathenism was engrafted upon Christianity, and 
 that not in externals only, but also in the internals of doctrine and belief And ultimately 
 there were superadded to heathen corruptions, the vain rites and superstitions of pagan wor- 
 ship ; until, at length, what was at first a pure Christian church, was transformed into a 
 pantheon for the preservation of a multiform idolatry. 
 
 The supremacy of the bishop of Rome was never alluded to in the first ages of Christianity. 
 The early fathers are altogether silent regarding St. Peter's primacy, upon which this supre- 
 
►-4 ROME. 
 
 macy was subsequently founded. It Avas not until nearly the end of the second century that 
 "this hereditary lie of the popedom"* obtained currency. At that period it began to be 
 asserted that St. Peter was the first bishop of Rome, and that he consecrated his successor. 
 Waiving the arguments which render it matter of doubt, even to the present day, whether St. 
 Peter ever visited Rome at all,— we put the Roman hypothesis to the test of one searching 
 question : Supposing St. Peter to have held the bishopric of Rome and to have appointed a 
 successor from whose hands all future bishops should receive consecration by hereditary 
 transmission of episcopal authority,— how are we to account for two centuries of silence re- 
 garding this extraordinary circumstance? how reconcile our minds to the hesitation and want 
 of confidence with which the assertion was at first sent forth? and how overcome the start- 
 ling difficulty, that no sufftcient testimony has been brought forward, to this day, to support 
 the assertion ? It will not do to tell us of tradition, and to say that what was at first tradition, 
 afterwards became recorded fact. There was no tradition current regarding St. Peter's bishop- 
 ric, at the period when he was first said to have been the primal bishop of Rome ; the origi- 
 nators of the assertion refer to no such tradition; at least to none suflftciently recognized to 
 warrant its becoming the foundation of a recorded event. But, in truth, such a cu'cumstance 
 never couU have commended itself with due authority to the belief of mankind, after floating 
 for two centuries through the falsifying and uncertain medium of tradition. It was a great 
 event. It ought to have been on record within the canon of Holy Scripture. We mean, that 
 if it had been fact in place of fiction, its consequences were of such magnitude and of such 
 vast importance to the Christian church, that it ought not to have rested on any merely human 
 testimony, and much less ought it to have been conveyed through the unsafe channel of oral 
 transmission from father to son. We must estimate the greatness of this event from the 
 overwhelming assumptions which have been based upon it by the papacy. Mark the links in 
 the papal chain : St. Peter was invested with the keys, he was the chief of the Apostles, the 
 delegated Head of the Church ; he was the first bishop of Rome ; he consecrated his successor 
 in that see ; from that successor consecration and ordination have been uninterruptedly con- 
 veyed to the clergy of the Roman church ; the bishops of Rome, each for the term of his 
 episcopate, have been Christ's vicegerents on earth, clothed with the supremacy of Peter, 
 invested with universal authority over the church on earth, and consecrated as pure fountains 
 whence alone the streams of Divine Truth could flow ! Admit St. Peter's supremacy, to which, 
 however, the New Testament offers abundant denial ; — and grant the little fact of his primacy in 
 the Roman church, which has nothing worthy the name of authority to support it ; — then, 
 perhaps, some feeble show of argument may be made in favour of the remaining assumptions. 
 We have already seen what corruptions were introduced into Christianity in the time of Con- 
 stantine ; let us mark as we go along the new features of the papacy as successively developed: 
 it may be profitable to recur to them as arguments affecting the claim of the Roman church 
 to universal supremacy. 
 
 The defenders of Romanism refer with triumph to the ancient precedence of the bishop of 
 Rome as confirmatory of his supremacy. This precedence was, however, simply one of order, 
 not of power. Priority of position was accorded to the Roman prelate as bishop of the metro- 
 polis of the empire, in the same manner that precedence was granted to the bishops of Antioch, 
 
 * D'Aubigiie's Preface to the English Tvanslation of Ranke's " Popes of Rome," published by Blackie & Son. 
 
 ^ 
 
ROME. 75 
 
 Alexandria, Constantinople, &c., solely on account of the importance attaching to those cities. 
 But so far from the bishop of Rome deriving from this precedence unlimited control over all 
 the Christian churches, he did not oven hold supreme authority over the Roman clergy. The 
 seat of honour was given to him, but his authority at first did not exceed that of a president 
 in an assembly; he preserved order and assisted in council, but his voice could not outweigh 
 the opinions of his brethren and unduly influence their decisions. It was long after the pro- 
 mulgation of the first fiction of Romanism — namely, the primacy of St. Peter — that advantage 
 was taken of it to build up the supremacy of the Roman hierarch. About the beginning of 
 the fifth century the pontiffs and their minions fabricated what may be termed the grand 
 romance of pope Peter's Roman episcopacy and ecclesiastical supremacy. Improving upon the 
 first simple and unvarnished assertion, they sought to establish it by substantial evidence. 
 "Simon a magician is introduced, accompanied by Helen a goddess, who had been taken from 
 the Tyrian brothels, and transformed from a courtezan into a divinity. Simon, by the arts of 
 necromancy, had obtained an infamous notoriety; and the apostle, it would appear, was con- 
 ducted to Rome for the purpose of withstanding the enchanter. The new pope was opposed 
 to the old conjurer. Simon, in presence of Nero and the whole city, flew up into the air. But 
 Peter kneeling invoked Jesus; and the devil who had aided the magician's flight, struck with 
 terror at the sacred name, let his emissary fall and break his leg."* This was certainly one 
 way of bringing Peter to Rome and installing him in his diocese. As a sample of Roman 
 ingenuity in the manufacture of fictions, it is not amiss. We leave it without comment. The 
 reader who desires more evidence in support of Roman supremacy, may refer to the writings 
 of Cyril, whence, in substance, the above brief but edifying extract is taken. 
 
 The true foundation of the papal supremacy is to be found quite away from the fable of St. 
 Peter's primacy. That fable served, indeed, and still serves, as a colourable pretence for the 
 assumptions of the Roman church; but taken apart from the circumstances of the times when 
 this church yearned for authority and temporal wealth, it is a foundation utterly inadequate 
 in the first instance to establish a claim to supremacy, and afterwards to sustain it. The uses 
 which were made of that supremacy so soon as it was conceded, are sufficient evidence of the 
 spirit in which it Avas sought, and an equally clear testimony that for Christian and spu-itual 
 purposes it would never have been assumed. The church of Rome was never more supreme 
 than when amidst persecution and poverty she testified to the Truth. She could neither claim 
 nor hope for a loftier supremacy than might have been secured by holding fast her primitive 
 integrity. He who declared His kingdom to be not of this world, never designed that His 
 church should deck herself in the gauds of earthly vanity, and gather around her the pride, 
 pomp, and circumstance of a temporal empire. Looking to the time when, and the circum- 
 stances under which, the church of Rome claimed supremacy, and eventually secured it, — that 
 very supremacy becomes an argument powerful for her overthrow. It disrobes her of 
 every Christian grace ; and exposes her to all men as a mere pretender to holiness, a greedy 
 claimant for the power and wealth of this world, a polluter of the sanctuary, who having first 
 cast down the ark of God, raised iip the throne of her supremacy to fill its place. 
 
 The power of Romanism grew insensibly. When the Roman church was first recognized by 
 Constantine,and for some considerable time thereafter, she made no attempt to grasp at temporal 
 
 * Edgar's Variations of Popery. 
 
76 ROME. 
 
 sovereignty. She heathenized herself from motives of policy, and made of Christianity and idol- 
 atry a miserable jumble of ill assorting things, but she carefully avoided overstepping the bounds 
 of ecclesiastical authority. She had, however, an eye towards the future. She gradually and 
 silently accumulated wealth, that fulcrum of power, — and she waited the favourable moment to 
 use it with advantage. The heathens murmured little to see the temples of their gods despoiled to 
 furnish adornments for the Christian churches; or even to behold these temples taken entire 
 and applied to Christian uses. A harmony had been established between idolatry and the 
 gospel, between light and darkness, between Christ and Belial: Christianity and idolatry began 
 to differ in little except the name. It was not, however, desirable that Christianity should be 
 altogether identified with heathenism. A new power was to be established, and so to be esta- 
 blished that no fear might remain of its being afterwards absorbed back into heathenism. It 
 was not enough, therefore, to convert idolatrous temples into Christian churches. New edifices 
 must be constructed on a model studiously different from the old temples of Rome. These 
 were the Basilicse, or first cathedrals, seven of which, including St. Peter's and the Lateran, 
 were erected by order of Constantino. These ancient structures have disappeared; but their 
 architectural magnificence is attested by the awe and admiration with which they were re- 
 garded by larharian Rome. 
 
 ■ the grim brood, from Arctic shores that roam'd, 
 
 (Where Helice for ever, as she wheels, 
 Sparkles a mother's fondness on her son,) 
 Stood in mute wonder 'mid the works of Rome, 
 When to their view the Lateran arose. 
 In greatness more than earthly. 
 
 Paradiso, XXXI. 28—33. 
 
 In the reign of Valentinian III., the pope purchased a title of supremacy as the last authority 
 in matters ecclesiastical. This title was disputed, and the decrees of the Roman hierarch 
 were long resisted; but perseverance and favouring circumstances gradually confirmed this 
 supremacy. Once invested with unlimited power in his spiritual jurisdiction, the pontiff beheld 
 the way to temporal sovereignty open before him. Rome had by this time fallen under bar- 
 barian rule; but even the ruin of the Roman empire, operated favourably to advance and 
 realize the pretensions of the Roman church. The barbarians brought with them a rude 
 Christianity — a Christianity not much worse than that which prevailed in Rome. It differed 
 however from Roman Christianity in the character of its alloi/; the latter was incorporated 
 with imperial idolatry, and the former was obscured by barbarian superstitions. The papacy 
 could not, however, have desired a people more blindly superstitious than the barbarian con- 
 querors of Rome. They yielded themselves to the church and became its tools; and this they 
 did the more readily when they beheld their holy trees and fountains favourably regarded and 
 recognized by the spiritual pastors of Rome. Just as the heathens were converted by admix- 
 ture of heathenism with Christianity, so were the barbarians conciliated when they beheld 
 their cherished superstitions blended with the ceremonies and ordinances of the Roman church. 
 
 It was in the sixth century, during the reign of Gregory, that the papacy boldly asserted its 
 supremacy. Mauricius, emperor of the East, had granted the title of universal bishop to the 
 patriarch of Constantinople. This awakened Gregory's j ealousy and hostility, and in the height 
 of his resentment he denounced the assumption as impious and profane, and endeavom-ed to 
 arouse all the powers of the earth to extinguish the title. When, shortly after, Mauricius was 
 assassinated by Phocas a centurion, Gregory sought his own advancement by flattering the 
 
ROME. 77 
 
 murderer, and hailing him as " the joy of h(>aveu and earth." This timely .'idulation was suc- 
 cessful: Phocas conferred the title of universal bishop on the Roman pontiff, who no longer 
 beheld in it any thing antichristian or proftxne. The temporal power of the papacy, though 
 exercised to a great extent, was not, however, formally recognised until the famous grant of 
 Pepin the Great, by ^A'hich the pope was invested with the secular authority of a sovereign 
 prince, over an assigned territory, and confirmed in his previously obtained title of supreme 
 head of the church. From this time forwai'd, the Roman prelate boldly exerted himself for 
 the accomplishment of his ambitious designs; until at length the secular authority bowed to 
 the ecclesiastical, and the pope of Rome was acknowledged to be the temporal and spiritual 
 head of the world. 
 
 Whilst the papal supremacy was gradually establishing itself, the machinery by Avliich it 
 was ultimately to effect the entire subjugation of Christendom was as gradually evolved. 
 When by the mere force of reiterated assertion, the primacy of St. Peter came to be admitted 
 as a great fundamental fact, it was necessary to join with it another ./J/r/, namely the unbroken 
 succession of the Roman hierarchs in the Apostle's seat. The Apostolical Succession is un- 
 doubtedly of vital importance to the papacy, for Avithout legitimate descent from their primate, 
 the Roman bishops could not possibly be received as true successors of St. Peter. Difficulties 
 apparently insurmountable are, however, to be overcome before this vaunted succession can 
 be admitted. At a very early period there were schisms in the papacy, and rival popes, each 
 claiming to be the true vicegerent of heaven. Subsequently there was a great disruption 
 arising out of the removal of the papal court from Rome to Avignon ; when the Christian 
 world was distracted by the rival pretensions of contending popes, the one thundering in Italy, 
 and the other discharging his spiritual artillery from the seat of his retirement. Amidst popes 
 and anti-popes, French hierarchs and Roman pontiffs, anathemas and counter-anathemas, how 
 is our judgment to be guided in determining Avhich claimant for universal supremacy was the 
 true vicar apostolic, and by consequence the only pure channel through whom the church was 
 to be supplied with duly-appointed ministers? Such difficulties meeting us in our attempt to 
 trace out the veritable successors of the apostles, might of themselves settle the question of the 
 apostolical succession as one that can never be decided on the data of the Roman church. 
 What, however, shall we say regarding the talue of this descent, if we admit for argument's 
 sake that it has been perpetuated in the papacy? In course of time the papal court became so 
 notoriously profligate and corrupt, that the abominations of the imperial palace, to Avhich we 
 have already alluded, were cast into the shade by the exceeding wickedness of spirittial princes. 
 The Vatican became a brothel and a slaughter-house, in Avliich the men who blasphemously 
 assumed the title of Christ's vicegerents on earth, boldly denounced Christianity as a lie, and 
 devoted themselves continually to Satan as his agents for the demoralization of Rome. Let 
 the mind picture for itself the daily routine of pontifical occupations at this period. Days 
 spent in gluttony and excess; nights employed in Avorks darker than the darkness that 
 shrouded them. But the reverse of the picture is more horrible and ghastly : behold these 
 gross feeders and midnight debauchees standing in the holy place to dispense Christian ordi- 
 nances, and to bid successors in the ministry go forth to their w^ork ! 
 
 With the primacy of Peter, and the apostolical descent of the Roman hierarchs, is neces- 
 sarily connected the Infallibility claimed by the sovereign pontiff of the Roman church. It 
 must be obvious that the claim to infallibility could not be dispensed with, without endanger- 
 ing the supremacy of the papacy. Peter Avas the chief of the apostles ; the authority of Peter 
 
78 ROME. 
 
 resides exclusively in the popes : admit these propositions, and it is ridiculous to think that a 
 pope is fallible : what would be the weight of his authority, and the value of his headship, if 
 he could err? No: the supremacy and the infallibility of the pope must stand or fall together. 
 There are differences of opinion regarding the Infallibility, but upon the Italian system it is 
 given to the pope personally ; or when it is annexed to the church, we are told that by the 
 church we must understand the Roman pontiff. This doctrine is acknowledged by grand 
 councils. We shudder to read of infallibility in connection with such men as John, Boniface, 
 and Alexander ; and yet we are called upon to acknowledge that these monsters of iniquity 
 " were enlightened with divine illumination, and were as unerring as the Son of God." This 
 is the language in which papal eulogists speak of these hierarchs. It is amusing, however, to 
 turn from this admission of the pontiffs infallibility, and obsei've the opposition Avhich has 
 frequently been exerted against his decrees, and the state of perplexity in which this unerring 
 man has oftentimes been placed, — a man of whom it was once blasphemously said, in the 
 council of the Lateran, that he possessed "power above all powers, both in heaven and earth." 
 Grand councils, it has already been said, acknowledged the Infallibility ; other grand councils 
 rejected it : the papal decrees were treated by these last with little ceremony, and on several 
 occasions they complimented the pontiff with an anathema and the imputation of heresy. 
 In these dilemmas, the poor pontiff had frequently much ado to decide between his infallibility 
 and the opposition it encountered : in some cases he preserved his title to unerring wisdom by 
 rescinding or altering his decrees, and virtually acknowledging himself to be in error. If space 
 permitted us to enter into a more minute inquiry, we should discover that this thing named 
 Infallibility was sometimes limited, at others enlarged ; that it was defined, and re-defined ; 
 and occasionally so much qualified that it and fallibility became nearly convertible terms. In 
 fact, we should find the vicegerent of heaven to be, even in his own communion, in the melan- 
 choly position of a man ever practically in the wrong, and always theoretically right. 
 
 Supremacy in power, and infallibility in wisdom, though built upon insufficient bases, were 
 bold and politic assumptions, powerful for the subjugation of a barbarian people. With the 
 extinction of the empire began that long era of mental gloom so expressively denominated the 
 Dark Ages. And let it be remembered that this gloom was not a partial cloud overhanging 
 the city of Rome, but a night-like pall that extended its murky folds over the whole of Europe. 
 There was no benign influence to counteract barbarian ignorance and policy. All that con- 
 stitutes intellectual power was placed under ban by those rude conquerors, who owed every- 
 thing to mere physical prowess, and little or nothing to the arts and adornments of civilized 
 life. Nothing could be more acceptable to the Roman church, or more conducive to the estab- 
 lishment of its despotism, than the general condition of Europe on the fall of the empire. The 
 barbarian people who then became lords paramount, were the very men to acknowledge the 
 supremacy and further the views of an arrogant and ambitious hierarchy. Steeped to the 
 very lips in grovelling and debasing superstitions, and possessed only of imperfect notions of 
 Christianity, utterly insufficient to initiate them into the wisdom and power of the Gospel, but 
 well adapted, by a singular perversity of the human mind, to render them the slaves of bigotry, 
 these men soon came to bow themselves deferentially to the Roman church. They owned her 
 supremacy, poured barbarian wealth into her lap, and erected at her bidding those rudely 
 magnificent structures with which the ecclesiastical history of Europe is so extensively con- 
 nected. Ecclesiastical libraries were the only depositories of learning; and to these laymen 
 had no desire to obtain access. Thus the church monopolized learning; and the advantages 
 
ROME. 79 
 
 she thence derived, were not employed to lift an unintcllcctiKil [Miople from darkness into 
 light, bnt to overawe that people, and bow down their necks beueatli the hopeless yoke of 
 superstition and error. The ignorance which jjcrvaded the ranks of the laity at length ex- 
 tended itself to the clergy. Learning began to be regarded as no necessary preparative for the 
 clerical profession ; and so long as a man could publicly utter the offices of the church from 
 the book, or repeat them by rote, it was deemed quite unimportant whether or not he under- 
 stood the language in which they were written. But even in this, the shi-ewd policy of the 
 Roman church was manifest. The ignorance of the laity had enabled her to build up her 
 dominating throne ; and it was rightly judged that an ignorant priesthood, who would never 
 call in question the commands of their superiors, were the fittest auxiliaries to aid in support- 
 ing and propagating a system of religion based on no better foundation than a cumulus of 
 falsehood. 
 
 Long before the mental horizon brightened with the returning dawn of literature and intel- 
 lectual art, the Roman church had established herself too firmly to yield her supremacy to the 
 improved institutions of the Middle Ages. The popular mind had become so deeply imbued 
 with her superstitions, and had been so long accustomed to lie in entire subjection to her will, 
 that none dared to rise up and denounce her as the great deceiver of Christendom. The secular 
 power did indeed join battle with her ; but the ultimate result was rather favourable than 
 otherwise to her supremacy. She wielded a power neither of earth nor heaven : she terrified 
 the hosts of her adversaries by excommunication and anathema, and by a fearful display of 
 vengeance — impotent it is true, yet before which the daring soldier shrunk back pale and terror- 
 stricken. Taught from earliest infancy to regard the pope as God, and the external rites of 
 Roman worship as the only passport to heaven, he quailed before a sentence that cut him 
 off from all participation in religious ordinances, and cast him forth as an impious and heretical 
 wretch whose contact none might endure without incurring a like sentence, and siu-rendering 
 himself to everlasting torments in the world to come. The ordinary weapons of warfare could 
 not contend against a power like this : they secured a temporary victory on the battle-field, 
 and seenud to threaten the authority of the church in secular matters ; but, in truth, they 
 achieved nothing ; the discomfited pontiff" ascended his spiritual tribunal, and Christendom 
 trembled at denunciations that made the conqueror pall in resolution whilst the wreath of 
 victory was green upon his brow. 
 
 At an early period when gloom and austerity were accounted Christian graces, the monastic 
 spirit began to prevail. Men were persuaded to yield up all their temporal wealth to the 
 church. This wealth was devoted to the building and endowment of religious houses ; and 
 the pious donors retired from the world to become the Superiors of these institutions. Both 
 men and women, of noble and even of regal rank, frequently devoted themselves and their 
 riches to religious purposes, under the assurance that by such sacrifices they made effectual 
 and sufficient atonement for the grossest enormities, and secured beyond all doubt their final 
 admission to a future state of bliss. These monasteries became fruitful nurseries of supersti- 
 tion and crime. The inmates of these institutions, cut off from all human sympathies, and 
 brooding in melancholy, mistook altogether the spirit and design of the Gospel. Painful 
 penance was substituted for Christian endurance ; Roman dogmas for Christian truth; and a 
 wearying, lifeless round of monotonous rite and ceremony, for that reasonable service which 
 God requires from his creatures. The celibacy of the Romish clergy rendered the monasteries 
 a useful machinery in the hands of the church. No tie of husband, wife, child, was suffered 
 
go ROME. 
 
 to interfere with the utter subjection of the monk to the will of his Superior. Subsequently, 
 indeed, these institutions became dens of infamous iniquity ; but for a considerable period the 
 religious vow appears to have been faithfully observed ; and when it became no better than 
 a shallow device, the church could aflford to wink at depravity which, stealthily indulged, 
 secured her votaries without endangering her power. The monks proved faithful emissaries 
 of the church ; they insinuated themselves into the bosom of families, and reigned like little 
 popes in the sphere of their visitations. They taught the people that implicit obedience to the 
 church, and a rigid performance of external ceremony, constituted the sum and substance of 
 religion. It may easily be conceived that in course of time, religious error was not the only 
 evil that monkish intercourse introduced into social life. We are compelled to believe that at 
 an early period these visitations were used as a means of procuring a criminal solace for the 
 unnatural restrictions imposed upon ecclesiastics by the laws of the church. 
 
 The primacy of Peter, the apostolical succession, the supremacy of the Roman church and 
 its infallibility in the person of its pontiff, were not empty assumptions merely designed to 
 gild a pageant and minister to ostentatious display. They were artfully contrived means for 
 the attainment of a great end, — namely, the entire subjection of the temporal to the spiritual 
 power, and the final deposit of all authority in the hands of the Roman pontiff. This end was 
 attained when kings consented to hold then* crowns and kingdoms as vassals of the pope, and 
 ranged themselves under his banner as the creatures of his will. War and peace were then 
 dependent upon the flat of the Roman see ; and compacts were formed or alliances dissolved 
 in submissive obedience to papal command. If any rebellious " son of the church" dared to 
 resist the mandate of Rome, his subjects were instantly released from their allegiance, and conh 
 pelled to throw off his authority. If monarch and people united in obstinate resistance, the 
 whole kingdom was laid under ecclesiastical censure. In this case all religious ordinances 
 were suspended, the consolations of religion were refused to the sick and dying, and even the 
 dead were left exposed on the highway to rot beneath the sun. The accumulated curse of 
 a national interdict was too dreadful to be borne. Men could not at once shake off" the super- 
 stitions that enthralled them. After a vain resistance they submitted unconditionally to the 
 church, whose policy it well suited to receive back her rebellious children so soon as they gave 
 signs of contrition and* obedience. The power thus to wield mankind at wHl could not be 
 maintained without blood. The spirit of liberty would occasionally arise and level her spear 
 against the usurpations of Rome. Communities and nations of men rose up from time to time 
 to resist even to the death the spu-itual and temporal bondage of the papacy. What was to 
 be done with men who laughed at anathemas, and mocked at the highest pains and penalties 
 the church could inflict? The crusade was preached : and "the army of God" went forth to 
 sweep from the earth, if it were possible, the very remembrance of a people who had dared to 
 array themselves against the vicegerent of heaven. Neither sex nor age escaped in the uni- 
 versal slaughter. And happy, indeed, were they who fell in the fury of the conflict, before 
 the oppressor had leisure to reflne upon cruelty and devise ingenious torments. The heart 
 bounds with indignation, yet sickens, at the hellish atrocities perpetrated by the "warriors of 
 the cross." Their victims were destroyed by tortures too dreadful in agony and too disgusting 
 in detail to be openly unveiled. Yet these filthy and inhuman deeds do stand on record, an 
 imperishable testimony against the blood-stained church of Rome. 
 
 Whilst the papacy visited with its terrors all heretics and resisters of its will, it could not 
 (or did not) silence the satu-ical tongues that were busy with its fame. Its assumed sanctity 
 
ROME. 81 
 
 and the immoral lives of its priesthood were suffered to become the theme of sarcasm, and that 
 too with something very like impmiity. Shortly after tlie I'evival of letttsrs in Italy, tli(i most 
 powerful and elegant writers employed their })eas in exposing the charlatanism of the church 
 and the sensual lives of the clergy. The Decameron of Boccaccio reflects the habits of the 
 Italian priesthood too faithfully : the power of his satire and the elegance of his style scarcely 
 compensate for the gross immoralities of his A\'ritings. The severe Dante, in the latter part 
 of the thhteenth century, scourged Roman imposture and wickedness with a merciless lash. 
 His strictures equal in severity anything that has been said of the church of Rome since the 
 days of the Reformation : 
 
 ■ the book of God 
 
 Is forced to yield to man's authoritj', 
 
 Or from its straightness warp'd : no reckoning made 
 
 What blood the sowing of it in the world 
 
 Has cost ; what favour for himself he wins, 
 
 Who meekly clings to it. The aim of all 
 
 Is how to shine : e'en they, whose office is 
 
 To preach the Gospel, let the Gospel sleep, 
 
 And pass their own inventions off instead. 
 
 One tells, how at Christ's suffering the wan moon 
 
 Bent back her steps, and sliadow'd o'er the sun 
 
 With intervenient disk, as she withdrew : 
 
 Another, how the Hght shrouded itself 
 
 Within its tabernacle, and left dark 
 
 The Spaniard, and the Indian, with the Jew. 
 
 Such fables Florence in her pulpit hears, 
 
 Bandied about more frequent, than the names 
 
 Of Bindi and of Lapi in her streets. 
 
 The sheep, meanwhile, poor witless ones, return 
 
 From pasture, fed with wind : and what avails 
 
 For their excuse, they do not see their harm ? 
 
 Christ said not to his first conventicle, 
 
 ' Go forth and preach impostures to the world,' 
 
 But gave them truth to build on ; and the sound 
 
 Was mighty on their lips : nor needed they 
 
 Beside the Gospel, other spear or shield. 
 
 To aid them in their warfare for the faith. 
 
 The preacher now provides himself with store 
 
 Of jests and gibes ; and, so there be no lack 
 
 Of laughter, while he vents them, his big cowl 
 
 Distends, and he has won the meed he sought: 
 
 Could but the vulgar catch a glimpse the while 
 
 Of that dark bird which nestles in his hood. 
 
 They scarce would wait to hear the blessing said. 
 
 Which now the dotards hold in such esteem, 
 
 That every counterfeit, who spreads abroad 
 
 The hands of holy promise, finds a throng 
 
 Of credulous fools beneath. 
 
 Paradise, XXIX. 94^131. 
 
 X 
 
32 ROME. 
 
 Intoxicated with her supremacy, the Roman church became singularly unmindful of the 
 means by which that supremacy had been secured, and as singularly negligent in provision 
 for the perpetuation of her power. She had bowed the minds of men by the austerities of 
 ecclesiastical discipline, and the apparent sanctity of clerical life ; she had chained kings to 
 her footstool by a bold and haughty defiance of all secular authority. She ought not to have 
 thrown aside the mask that awed the multitude ; she ought not to have permitted jest, satire, 
 sarcasm, and exposure to undermine that supremacy which she had extorted from the fears 
 of mankind. Yet both of these she did : she unveiled herself, in the lives of her clergy, as a 
 thing foul alike in morals and in faith ; and she suffered her abominations to be chronicled 
 against her, and to become the theme of ridicule and licensed mockery. This was a sad mis- 
 take. It was a shallow policy to exhaust ecclesiastical vengeance on impugners of her rites 
 and doctrines, and to terrify with denunciations and anathemas all who lifted a strong arm 
 against her supremacy ; and then in a mere bravado of reliance upon the power she had ac- 
 cumulated, to adopt no suflacient means for intimidating the satirist and jester whose daily 
 attacks were i-endering her a by-word and a proverb, even in her immediate realm of Italy. 
 The papacy began to be a fearful, hated thing : her abominations were loathsome in the eyes 
 of mankind ; but the antagonist poM'er which was ultimately to free the nations from her 
 chains, was yet in its infancy, and men continued to yield a submission which she had still 
 suflBcient authority to compel. 
 
 At the very time Avhen austerity of discipline, assumed sanctity of life, and bold assertion of 
 unlimited power, were essentially necessary for the safety of the papacy, at that time it was that 
 she relaxed her wonted jealous guard over her supremacy — at the very moment when watch 
 and ward were most necessary. The thick darkness, in the midst of which the corruptions 
 and assumptions of the Roman church had their birth, and whose shadow was the only wall 
 of defence around the papacy, began to disperse. Knowledge began to be diffused; literature 
 and art revived ; men began to tliinh. Circumstances combined to threaten the permanency 
 of Romanism. 
 
 Despotism, whether temporal or spiritual, can be estaljlished only in a dark age. The mass 
 of the people must be blinded and cawed by ignorance to render them the unresisting slaves 
 of a tyrant, whether his chains manacle the bodily limbs, or the diviner pai't, the mind. Ec- 
 clesiastical despotism, of all others, is the most offensive to an enlightened people. Men who 
 can read and think, fail to discover in the Gospel any delegation of authority to human hands 
 by which one man, or even a body of men, can hold communities and nations in a perpetual 
 and oppressive thraldom. They perceive that Christianity is persuaske, not compulsive ; and 
 that true religion stands distinguished from false religion principally in this,— that she neither 
 wounds with the sword nor galls with the fetter, but wins followers by gentleness and kind- 
 ness, and expressions of love. 
 
 The revival of letters, the return of civilization throughout Europe, the advance of refine- 
 ment, the march of the spirit of freedom,— these together formed a strong combination against 
 the temporal and spiritual tyranny of a church, whose rites and ceremonies, dogmas and doc- 
 trines Avere, one and all, mere cunningly devised fables suited only to an age of ignorant 
 credulity. From her first false assumption to the time when her supremacy Avas admitted, 
 the Roman church had to maintain a continual struggle; but she had to sustain a fearful con- 
 test Avhen her gross filthiness had rendered her a jest, when she had suffered her lewdness to 
 become " the burden of a merry song," and Avhen the light of literature and expanding know- 
 
R M l<:. s:] 
 
 ledge made open discovery of the hollow mid i-otten basis upon which she stood. The un- 
 christian doctrines and praclicos of Uomanism wvw' impugned at an early age; and the annals 
 of martyrdom record the active zeal and the dying agonies of men a\'1io lifted up a testi- 
 mony for the Truth, whilst the world aiduiid them was lying under Roman bondage. These 
 were the bright and particular stars that shone forth from time to time in the long and dark 
 night of superstition and error. The destruction of these heretics seemed for the time to con- 
 firm the power of the papacy ; but those high examples of Christian heroism were not for- 
 gotten; in diie time they came up as great precedents to urge on the argument of truth against 
 falsehood. When the Reformation burst forth in i-esistless might through the instrumentality 
 of Luther, 
 
 The solitary mouk that shook the world, 
 
 then were the first martyrs appealed to as arbiters in the contest, as men Miio had skilfully 
 set the battle in array, but fell before the victory was ^\'on. 
 
 Pitiful were the shifts, desperate were the expedients, to which Romanism resorted to ward 
 off the attacks of Luther ; at one time endeavouring to intimidate by anathema, at another 
 trying all the arts of Jesuitical persuasion to turn the Reformer from his purpose. But the 
 standard of Truth had been unfurled in God's appointed time : disaffection to the papacy 
 spread ; and the Roman pontiff, bewildered and perplexed, became almost a supplicant for his 
 supremacy. The world beheld a great phenomenon. Papal supremacy was triumpluiiitly re- 
 sisted ; and no mean section of Christendom left the Roman cojumunion for ever. From this 
 shock the papacy has never recovered to the present hour She continued thereafter to main- 
 tain a certain influence, but as we shall presently see this was maintained, and still continues 
 to exist, only by sufferance of the temporal powers in alliance with her. In her extremity, 
 the papacy again employed the cunning which she seems in part to have laid aside in her 
 days of palmy prosperity. She began to affect great moderation ; ceased to obtrude her secu- 
 lar authority; and retired within the privacy of her spiritual functions. Since the days of the 
 Reformation, the position of the Roman church has been — to compare great things with small 
 — that of a fettered malefactor armed Avith a lash to scourge his fellows in bondage. Her 
 temporal power is confined to a limited space; and even there it is exercised under the suffer- 
 ance of France and Austria; and it is only by stooping both her temporal and spiritual sove- 
 reignty to the secular powers, that she is still permitted to vend her delusions throughout 
 papal Christendom. Kings and emperors were once reduced to hold the stirrup of the Roman 
 pontiiT: the latter has come in turn to be an obsequious dependent upon secular rulers. Every 
 election of a pope exposes the Aveakness of the pontiff's throne, and exhibits the hierarch as a 
 gaudily dressed automaton whose movements are guided and controlled by a cunning mechan- 
 ism. Romanism, we repeat, now exists by sufferance : it is a valuable auxiliary to despotic 
 governments; it is an excellent school to prepare mankind for abject submission to the tyranny 
 of absolute power ; and so long as the Roman church continues to fulfil the implied terms of 
 her contract with the temporal sovereignties in alliance with her, so long she will be permitted 
 to enjoy a shadow of power, and exercise her baleful influences on Christianity. "\^'e have lately 
 seen a renewal of the compact between the papacy and its allies, in the election of a successor 
 to the seat of St. Peter; and the memories of our readers Avill refer them to announcements 
 in the daily press, of the interest which France took in the election, and the disposition she 
 evinced to step forward and place her veto upon any candidate whose advancement might be 
 
84 ROME. 
 
 thought to place the balance of power in danger. A feather cast upon the air will show the 
 direction of the wind ; and this simple incident is sufficiently indicative of the restraint under 
 which the papacy now moves and acts. 
 
 It is undoubtedly a fearful thing in a religious point of view to behold a nation clinging to 
 the blasphemous idolatries of the Roman church as the refuge of their future hopes. It is 
 especially fearful and appalling to contemplate the state of modern Italy, that unhappy country, 
 where despotism and ecclesiastical slavery, like a Scylla and Charybdis, threaten on either 
 hand the poor jaded and dispirited descendants of old Roman progenitors. But never let it 
 be imagined that the faded power of the papacy can be recovered. Let none fret themselves 
 with anxiety lest the circumstances of the present age restore the supremacy of the Roman 
 hierarch, and re-introduce into Protestant countries those fearful engines of wrath and destruc- 
 tion over which the dust of ages has been accumulating. The cell of the Inquisition, and the 
 chamber of torture, are obsolete enormities, never again to be tolerated in countries where 
 wholesome government has long prevailed, and where the people have acquii-ed a knowledge of 
 Christianity sufficient, at least, to teach them that captivity and torture are not its recognized 
 means of conversion. Before the crusade can be preached, and a papal army make u-ruption 
 into Protestant countries to tvin men back to Romanism, by the persuasive arguments of fire 
 and sword, and all manner of torments, — there must first come over aU Christendom a mental 
 and a moral darkness, such as the Avorld has never yet known ; the human mind must stoop 
 to a degradation too revolting to be contemplated; and even the pulse of freedom, which has 
 hitherto beat, however faintly, in the veins of the veriest slave, must become motionless and 
 extinct. The Dark Ages with all their barbarian ignorance, the feudal system with aU its 
 degrading oppressions, — could these return again, they would be unequal to the task of restoring 
 Roman supremacy in Protestant lands. That supremacy, it is true, arose under their auspices; 
 but men knew not the power they nursed and fostered. A superstitious and ignorant people 
 regarded with awe and veneration the sanctity and austerity which veiled the ultimate designs 
 of the Roman church; but could they have penetrated into her secret purposes, they would 
 not have so laboured to build up a tyranny that was to crush their posterity. Whatever tem- 
 poral changes, therefore, shall come in future times upon Protestant nations, even though they 
 should extend to the return of barbarism and ignorance, they will offer no facilities for the 
 restoration of papal supremacy. Men would have to forget the character of Romanism before 
 they could be again deceived. 
 
 We hear, indeed, in the present day, somewhat too much of the conversion of individuals, 
 both lay and clerical, to the communion of the Roman church. So far as these individuals 
 themselves are concerned, we must deplore their secession from the Protestant faith; but it is 
 little less than ridiculous to give these desertions the weight of a great national calamity. 
 Many motives may be assigned for this falling away ; any motive, save that of love for a 
 system of religion so full of manifest error, and so debased by crime. The laic may be one 
 Avhose heart has ever remained unimpressed by the simple ritual of a reformed church, and 
 who has therefore sought in Roman worship for that false excitement which can alone render 
 religion tolerable to hun. The cleric may be one who has vacillated and wavered between the 
 extreme limits of the outward and visible form of Christianity; changing his creed like his coat,— 
 
 " To one thing constant nevei-.'' 
 
 Or, he may be one who made ill choice of a profession, when he took his vow of ordination as 
 
ROME. 85 
 
 a minister of Chi'ist, yet so little understood the nature of the service upon -wliicli he had 
 entered as to deem it merely a ])atent for supremacy of place. 
 
 If there is a church professing to be reformed, that exhibits Romish tendencies, and evinces 
 an anxiety to fraternize \vith the papacy, A\e cannot deny that this is a great national cala- 
 mity: still M'e may over estimate the calamity of a relapsing church. The evil to bede])lored 
 rests mainly in this : that the people Avill be left churchless ; no fear ought to be entertained 
 lest they follow their pastors into Romanism. When the laity secede to Rome, it is for license 
 or excitement ; when the clergy move thither, it is to recover somewhat of that supremacy 
 which the churches of the Reformation denied to Rome, and claimed not for themselves. Hence, 
 the clergy and the laity will never be seen travelling to Rome in company with each other. 
 The truth of this general proposition is not affected by the isolated exceptions which the pre- 
 sent day affords. 
 
 Rome can be appreciated only by educated minds. To nine out of every ten tom-ists who 
 toil theu- weary way thither, in obedience to the dictates of wealth and fashion, the city of the 
 seven hills presents an exterior of some beauty, but of much less interest than is generally 
 supposed. Without their classical and historical associations, the remains of ancient Rome, 
 with few exceptions, are masses of ruin and desolation, upon Avhich the tourist may cast a 
 passing glance, and marvel that such heaps of rubbish are suffered to lie undisturbed. In the 
 department of art, educational preparatives are not less necessary ; for to M'hat purpose is it, 
 to look upon paintings and statues with an eye that can appreciate only colossal size or bril- 
 liancy of colom- ? And with regard to the people of Italy, their manners and customs, their 
 institutions, theu- church ceremonies, — in short, everything that distinguishes Italj' and the 
 Italians from any other country and people, — how little is to be rightly observed or understood 
 by those whose minds are not imbued with liberal learning, and stored with a well-digested 
 knowledge of Roman history from the building of the city to the extinction of the empire, and 
 thence through countless vicissitudes to the present aspect and condition of modern Rome. 
 That the majority of visitants to the eternal city are utterly incompetent to form any just 
 estimate of what is there presented before then), is abundantly evident from the vapid dulness 
 of their reports when they return home. And amongst those avIio favour the world with their 
 Recollections of Rome, how few record anything beyond the merest common-place, — shreds 
 and patches of information gathered from ignorant ciceroni, interwoven with a sickly senti- 
 mentalism, so ineffably ridiculous that it toudies only the risible faculties. Byron has said, 
 truly and beautifully — 
 
 Rome is as the desert, where we steer 
 Stumbling o'er recollections. 
 
 In one sense or other, all find the desert, but few comparatively stumble over a recollection 
 worth recollecting. 
 
 The antiquities of Rome refer for the most part to the times of the empire. Of the kingly 
 period a few remains may be traced by the industrious antiquary: viz. the Mamertine Prisons, 
 
86 ROME. 
 
 begun by Ancus Martius, and enlarged by Servius TuUius ; the Cloaca Maxima of Tarquinius 
 Priscus ; and a portion of the celebrated rampart of Servijis TuUius. The monuments of the 
 repubhcan era are likewise few. This period was not favourable to the erection of great pub- 
 lic edifices : the Romans were continually engaged in wars that allowed few intervals of rest; 
 and moreover the nature of the consular government was too transient for the accomphshment 
 of such works as were afterwards designed and consummated by the emperors. The boast of 
 Augustus, to which we have before referred, that he found Rome of brick and left it of mar- 
 ble, is a strong testimony that the city, during the republican period, contained few erections 
 remarkable for magnificence. Nearly at the close of this period several public works were 
 constructed, whose remains form nearly all the relics that can certainly be identified with con- 
 sular Rome. The most considerable of these were the military ways paved with large blocks 
 of lava ; and the magnificent Via Appia, constructed by Appius Claudius, which still remains 
 perfect through a great portion of its course. Of the ancient republican temples, that of For- 
 tuna VirUis, now the church of Santa Maria Egizziaca, is the only one existing ; if we except 
 some substructions below the walls of San Nicolo in Carcere, and four columns of the temple 
 of Hercules Custos in the cloisters of the Sommaschi. The remains of the Marcian Aqueduct, 
 of the Theatre of Pompey, and of several bridges, refer to the age of the Republic. But the 
 most remarkable memorials of this period are the tombs on the Appian Way, many of which 
 are commemorative of men whose names are identified with the glory of Rome. 
 
 Under Augustus Rome assumed a magnificence she had never known before. It was the 
 aim of this emperor to extend the limits of the city, and to embellish it with works of splen- 
 dour and luxury. The palace of the Csesars on the Palatine; and the temples, arcades, theatres, 
 and innumerable buildings of the Campus Martius, were amongst the works of Augustus. The 
 existing relics of this reign are the remains of a Forum, in which are three columns of the 
 Temple of Saturn ; three beautiful columns at the angle of the Palatine, supposed to be ruins 
 of a Temple of Minerva; the mausoleum of the emperor between the Corso and the Tiber; and 
 a few others. Agrippa, the friend and favourite of Augustus, erected the Pantheon, which 
 remains to this day the most perfect monument of ancient Rome: 
 
 Pantheon ! Pride of Rome ! 
 Relic of nobler daj's, and noblest arts .' 
 
 Tiberius began the Praetorian Camp; built the Temple of Ceres and Proserpine, some remnants 
 of which still exist in the church of Santa Maria in Cosmedin at the Bocca di Verita ; and 
 added considerably to the palace on Mount Palatine. Claudius constructed the magnificent 
 aqueduct which continues to be an object of admiration to the world. When the palace of 
 the Csesars was destroyed in the general conflagration of Rome, Nero raised in its place his 
 famous Golden House, whose extent was not less remarkable than its amazing splendour. 
 This emperor rebuilt a large portion of the city ; and completed the circus of Caligula, 
 wherein the first Christians were "butchered to make a Roman holiday." The Flavian 
 Amphitheatre, better known as the Coliseum, (so named from the colossal statue of Nero- 
 placed in it) was begun by Vespasian and finished by Titus. It is said to have been erected 
 by the compulsory labour of twelve thousand Jews and Christians. It codtained, during the 
 public shows, one hundred and ten thousand spectators, of whom above ninety thousand were 
 seated. This vast building is supported by three rows of columns, of which the lowest is of 
 
ROME. 87 
 
 the Doric, the second of the Tonic, and the highest of the Corinthian order. The inclosures 
 for the wild animals are still standing. Tliis structure is regarded as the noblest ruin in 
 existence. 
 
 A Ruin — 3'et what ruin ! from its mass 
 Walls, palaces, half-cities, have been rear'd; 
 Yet oft the enormous skeleton ye pass, 
 And marvel where the spoil could have appear 'd. 
 Hath it indeed been plunder'd, or but clear'd ? 
 Alas I developed, opens the decay. 
 When the colossal fabric's form is near'd: 
 It will not bear the brightness of the day, 
 Which streams too much on all years, man, have reft away. 
 
 But when the rising moon begins to climb 
 Its topmost arch, and gently pauses there ; 
 When the stars twinkle through the loops of time. 
 And the low night-breeze waves along the air 
 The garland-forest, which the gray walls wear, 
 Like laurels on the bald first Caesar's head; 
 When the light shines serene but doth not glare, 
 Then in this magic circle raise the dead: 
 Heroes have trod this spot — 't is on their dust ye tread. 
 
 "While stands the Coliseum, Rome shall stand; 
 When falls the Coliseum, Rome shall fall; 
 And when Rome falls — the world." From our own land, 
 Thus spake the pilgrims o'er this mighty wall 
 In Saxon times, which we are wont to call 
 Ancient ; and these three mortal things are still 
 On their foundations. 
 
 Childe Harold. 
 
 Domitian constructed the beautiful arch commemorative of the destruction of Jerusalem by- 
 Titus. The Mausoleum of Hadrian is now the Castle of St. Angelo, and the Bridge of St. 
 Angelo was formerly the Pons ^Elius leading to the tomb of this emperor. The baths of Cara- 
 caUa are remarkable from the extent of their existing ruins, and also as being the depository 
 whence the Farnese Hercules, the Toro Farnese, the Torso of the Belvidere, and other cele- 
 brated statues of antiquity were taken. The preceding are a few of the most striking remains 
 of antiquity in Rome. It is matter of wonder that so many remains exist to the present day. 
 The barbarian conquerors of Rome sought to efface all memory of its magnificence ; and the 
 vestiges they spared were afterwards subjected to a more systematic spoliation by the ecclesi- 
 astical power which became dominant after the time of Constantino. Not only were the ruins 
 seized upon as ready material for the construction of new edifices, but even the Coliseum and 
 other noble structures were regarded as quarries for the use of the papal architects. Not- 
 withstanding this wholesale pillage and destruction, enough remains to form the mausoleum 
 of the Roman empire. 
 
 We shall confine our further notices of the city, to the descriptions of the scenes and 
 objects which form the subjects of our illustrations. 
 
gg ROME. 
 
 THE PIAZZA DEL POPOLO. 
 
 FROM THE PINCIAJSr HILL. 
 
 The Piazza del Popolo, the first spot within the walls of Rome upon which the traveller from 
 the north of Europe sets his foot, is a spacious but irregular piazza, entered by the Porta del 
 Popolo, a modern substitute for the Flaminian gate. The present portal, built by Vignola in 
 1561, from the designs of Michael Angelo, is of the Doric order; and in the intercolumniations 
 are statues of St. Peter and St. Paul. The inner front, completed under Alexander VII. from 
 designs by Bernini, is ornamented with decorations intended to commemorate the visit to 
 Rome in 1567 of Christina Queen of Sweden. 
 
 On entering the gate, the first object that strikes the observer is the fine Egyptian obehsk 
 of red granite, erected by Fontana in 1589, during the pontificate of Sixtus V. This is one 
 of the two obelisks said to have been placed by Rhamses I. in front of the Temple of the Sun 
 at Heliopolis, the On of Scripture. The site of this ancient city is now marked by the remain- 
 ing obelisk. The one under review is coeval with Moses. It was removed to Rome by 
 Augustus after the conquest of Egypt, and erected in the Circus Maximus, where, in the time 
 of Valentinian, it had fallen from its pedestal, broken into three pieces. It remained buried 
 in the earth until 1587, when it was removed, and shortly after placed in its present position. 
 The length of the shaft alone is seventy-eight feet ; and the entire height from the ground to 
 the cross with which it is surmounted, is one hundred and sixteen feet. It stiU bears an 
 inscription testifying that its dedication to the Sun Avas renewed by Augustus. 
 
 Beyond the obelisk are two churches with domes and fa9ades alike; — the one, Santa Maria 
 in Monte Santo, and the other, Santa Maria de' Miracoli. The street in the centre between the 
 churches is the Corso, the principal street in Rome, leading through the heart of the city to 
 the capital. This street is celebrated for the horse-races held in it during the carnival. The 
 avenue on the right of the Corso is the Via Ripetta, running parallel with the Tiber to its prin- 
 cipal quay, the Porto di Ripetta ; and the street on the left is the Via Babuino, leading to the 
 Piazza di Spagna, and thence direct to the Quirinal Hill. On the left of this street hes the 
 high ground of the Monte Pincio, whence our view is taken. During the occupation by the 
 French, under General MioUis, this mount was beautifully laid out into public gardens, terraces, 
 and walks, and led to the French Academy, — formerly the ViUa Medici, — and to the church 
 of the Trinitk de' Monti. This last named edifice contains one of the finest Italian pictures, — 
 the " Descent from the Cross," by Daniello di Volterra. This work of art having been greatly 
 injured by time, the French attempted to remove it, with a view to its future preservation. 
 They placed a flat frame-work against the picture, and sawed down the face of the wall with 
 great labour ; but when they had succeeded in detaching the painting, the wall fell before it 
 could be removed and destroyed it. A few fragments only of the genuine production have 
 been preserved. On the Pincian Hill, and near the Trinitk de' Monti, were formerly the 
 houses of Poussin and Claude. Many modern artists have established their studies in the 
 same locality, — probably with the hope that the mantle of departed genius may there descend 
 upon them. 
 
 Our illustrative view, taken from the public walk of the Monte Pincio, commands a great 
 extent of modern Rome, and embraces amongst other features St. Peter's and the vast range 
 

R ]\I E. 80 
 
 of the Vatican Palace, the Castle of St. Angelo, the distant Monte jMaiJo, and the JaniculuHi 
 Hill. The Tower, nearly in the fore-ground of the aIcw, belongs to the church of Santa Maria 
 del Popolo. This structure, founded in T099, is reported to occupy the spot where the ashes 
 of Nero were found and scattered to the winds. The vietims of his cruelty A\'ere said to haunt 
 the neighbourhood, and terrify the inhabitants, until the erection of a church appeased then- 
 manes and gaAc a sacred character to the locality. This church contains a statue of Jonah 
 by Raphael. It is a A\'ork of great merit, and incontestably proves that this artist, like Michael 
 Angelo, might have risen to the highest fame in sculpture, if he had chosen to -withdraw his 
 attention from painting. Raphael died at the early age of thirty-seven, and left behind him 
 more pictures and designs of immortal excellence than were executed by the hand, or ever 
 emanated from the mind, of any other painter. 
 
 SAINT PETER'S. 
 
 — lo I the dome — the vast and wondrous dome. 
 To which Diana's marvel was a cull ! 
 
 Enter : its grandeur overwhelms thee not ; 
 
 And why ? it is not lesssened ; but thy mind, 
 
 Expanded by the genius of the spot, 
 
 Has grown colossal. CJiilde Harold, 
 
 The Basilica Vaticana, or church of St. Peter, at Rome, is the most stupendous and magnifi- 
 cent temple in the Christian world. It stands between the Janiculum and Vatican hills, and 
 occupies the site of the Circus of Nero, — a spot memorable for the sufferings endured there by 
 the Christian martyrs, whom Nero accused of having caused the conflagration of Rome. 
 
 So early as a. d. 90, Anacletus, bishop of Rome, built an oratory where St. Peter's now stands 
 to commemorate the martyrs. In 306 Constantine the Great erected a basilica on the same 
 spot, which continued from that time to be the great attraction of the Christian world. In the 
 reign of Nicholas V., 1450, the building had fallen into ruin, and that prelate set about its re- 
 construction. It had then stood eleven centuries, and was tottering to its faU. To pope Julius, 
 however, is due the honour of having commenced with vigour the present magnificent struc- 
 ture. Under the advice of Bramante, the walls of the old basilica were razed; and on the 18th 
 of April, 1508, Julius laid the first stone of one of those enormous pillars that support the dome. 
 This was done with all the ceremonies which the importance of the undertaking, and the grandeur 
 of the occasion demanded. This stupendous work was carried on during the reigns of thnty-five 
 popes, which extended to nearly three centuries. It was ultimately completed by the erection 
 of the sacristy, at the end of the year 1794, and under the pontificate of Pius VI. The cost of 
 this great work exceeded twelve millions sterling. The sums which its construction demanded 
 impoverished the resources of the church, and led under Leo X. to the adoption of the sale of 
 Indulgences as a means of providing funds for carrying on the undertaking. It must strike 
 
90 ROME. 
 
 the mind as a most remarkable fact, that the erection of this vast temple gave a fatal blow to 
 that very supremacy Avhich it was intended to glorify and exalt. Had the progress of St. Peter's 
 not required funds far beyond the ordinary means of the church, the sale of indulgences had 
 perhaps never been devised, and the circumstances which led indirectly to the Reformation 
 would not have taken place. 
 
 St. Peter's is approached by a wide street conducting in a straight line from the Bridge and 
 Castle of St. Angelo. On entering the court, the spectator views two colonnades, each consisting 
 of four rows of lofty pillars, sweeping off to the right and left in a bold semicu-cle. In the 
 centre of the area which these colonnades inclose stands an Egyptian obehsk of granite, 
 ascending to the height of one hundred and thirty feet, and on each side of it plays a fountain 
 whose waters fall into a basin of porphyry. Two covered galleries, three hundred and sixty 
 feet long, and twenty-three feet broad, connect the colonnades with the vestibule of the church, 
 which is approached by three successive flights of marble steps. The front of St. Peter's is 
 supported by a single row of Corinthian pillars and pilasters, and is adorned with an attic, a 
 balustrade, and thirteen colossal statues. Above the fa9ade rises the matchless dome which, 
 whether viewed from the outside or the inside of the building, constitutes the chief feature in 
 the edifice. Two smaller domes, or cupolas, complete the front view. 
 
 The interior of this magnificent temple is best described in the language of Eustace, which 
 by a Procrustean process we adapt to our narrow limits. 
 
 Five lofty portals open into the portico or vestibule, a gallery equal in dimensions and 
 decorations to the most spacious cathedrals. It is four hundred feet in length, seventy in 
 height, and fifty in breadth, paved with variegated marble, covered with a gilt vault, adorned 
 with pillars, pilasters, mosaics, and basso-relievos, and terminated by equestrian statues of 
 Constantine and Charlemagne. A fountain at each extremity supplies a stream sufficient to 
 keep a reservoir always full, in order to carry off every unseemly object, and perpetually refresh 
 and purify the air and pavement. Opposite the five portals of the vestibule are the five doors 
 of the church; three are adorned with pillars of the finest marble: the one in the middle has 
 valves of bronze. Advancing up the nave, the spectator's attention is directed to the variegated 
 marble pavement, and the golden vault that rises above his head. But how great is his astonish- 
 ment when he reaches the altar, and standing in the centre of the church, contemplates the four 
 superb vistas that open around him ; and then raises his eyes to the dome resting on its four 
 colossal piers, glowing with mosaics, and extending like a fia.-mament, at the prodigious eleva- 
 tion of four hundred feet. Around the dome rise four cupolas, small when compared Avith the 
 vast concave they neighbour, but of great boldness when considered separately. Three cupolas 
 on each side of the nave cover the divisions of the aisles; and other six, of greater dimensions, 
 canopy as many chapels. The whole of these inferior domes are lined with mosaics. The high 
 altar stands under the great dome, beneath a canopy supported by four twisted pillars fifty 
 feet in height. The entire height of the canopy, including the massive pedestal upon Avhich 
 the pillars rest, is one hundred and thirty-two feet. Behind the high altar stands the Cathedral, 
 or Chair, of St. Peter, an enormous structure of bronze, consisting of a group of four gigantic 
 figures of so many fathers of the Greek and Latin churches, supporting the throne of the 
 apostolical primate. This edifice is seventy feet in height, and is occupied on gala days by 
 the pope. 
 
 Beneath the high altar are the remains of the old Basilica of Constantine, in which is the 
 tomb of St. Peter. The descent is by a double flight of steps into an area, whose walls, forming 
 
ROME. ;jl 
 
 the approach to the tomb, arc enriched A\'ith aUibaster, lapis lazuli, vcrd antique, and beautiful 
 mai-bles. The rails which surround this space ai'e adorned with one hundred and twelve bronze 
 cornucopicB which serve as supporters to as many silver lamps that burn continually in honour 
 of the apostle. The entrance to the tomb is by bronze folding doors ; and by the same area 
 the sacred grottoes may be visited, in which are deposited the remains of emperors, pontiffs, 
 and princes. Amongst the tombs of St. Peter's, the most remarkable one to English visitants 
 is the monument of the Stuarts, which commemorates those pseudo-monarchs, James III., 
 Charles III., and Henry IX., kings of England ! The smile with which the inflated inscription 
 is usually read may not, however, conceal the fact, that these descendants of a long line of 
 royal ancestry " had the crown " in hereditary prospective, and were denied the regal seat by 
 the voice of the people only when their dynasty had manifested unfitness to govern. Kings 
 may learn wisdom at the tomb of the Stuarts. 
 
 The ascent to the roof of St. Peter's is by a well-lighted staircase, winding round with an 
 ascent so gentle that mules can ascend two abreast with the greatest ease. When the spectator 
 reaches the platform of the roof, he is astonished at the number of cupolas, domes, and pin- 
 nacles that rise around him; and the galleries that spread on all sides, and the many apart- 
 ments and staircases that appear in every quarter. Crowds of workmen are to be seen passing 
 and repassing in every direction, and the whole has rather the form of a town than that of the 
 roof of an edifice. It is here only that the dimensions of the dome can be felt in all their force. 
 The vast platform of stone on which it reposes as on a solid rock; the lofty colonnade that 
 rises on this platform, and by its resistance counteracts, as a continued buttress, the horizontal 
 pressure of the dome, all of stone of such prodigious swell and circumference ; the lantern 
 which like a lofty temple sits on its towering summit ; these are objects which must excite the 
 astonishment of every spectator. The access to every part, and the ascent even to the inside of 
 the ball upon which the terminal cross rests, is perfectly safe and commodious. 
 
 The illustrative view, taken from the gardens of the Janiculum Hill, by Eastlake, embraces a 
 noble prospect not only of St. Peter's and its magnificent approaches, but also of the enth-e range 
 of the Vatican Palace : it is proper, therefore, that we offer some brief notice of the latter structm-e. 
 
 The Vatican* was erected by different architects at different eras, and for very different 
 
 * The Vatican Hill is supposed to derive its name from the prophecies or oracles ( Vaticinia) formerly delivered there 
 bj the vates, or soothsayers. W^e find allusions to this mount in the Latin poets : 
 
 Kedderet laudes tibi Vaticani 
 
 Montis imago. Horace, Odes I. 20. 7. 
 
 That the echo of the Vatican Mount may repeat thy praises. 
 
 Aut quis 
 Simpuvium ridere Num£8, nigrumque catinum, 
 Et Vaticano fragiles de monte patellas 
 Ausus erat ? Juvenal, Sat. vi. 341. 
 
 Or who 
 Dared to deride the wooden bowl of Numa, and the black dish, 
 And the brittle ware from the Vatican Mouut. Madan. 
 
 Juvenal alludes to the sacrificial vessels, some of which were made from the clay of the Vatican Hill. 
 
Q2 ROME. 
 
 purposes ; and it is rather an assemblage of palaces than one regular structure. A palace 
 appears to have been attached to the basilica from a very early period, probably from the time 
 of Constantine. In the eighth century Charlemagne resided in the palace of the Vatican during 
 his coronation by Leo III. In the twelfth century, the building having gone to decay, it was 
 reconstructed by Innocent III. ; and a century later it was enlarged by Nicholas III. After 
 the return of the popes from Avignon, in 1377, this palace became the papal residence, since 
 Avhich time successive pontiffs have laboured to make it "the largest and most beautiful palace 
 of the Christian world." It is now the theatre of some of the most imposing ceremonies of the 
 Romish church ; the repository of the records of ancient science, and the temple of the arts of 
 
 Greece and Rome. 
 
 All the great architects and artists whom Rome has produced were, each in his age, employed 
 upon the Vatican. The extent of the structure is immense, and includes an area of twelve 
 hundred feet in length, and a thousand feet in breadth. Its elevation is proportionate, and the 
 number of apartments it contains almost incredible. Galleries and porticos sweep around it 
 and through it in all directions, and open an easy access to every quarter. Its halls and 
 saloons are all on a great scale, and by their multitude and loftiness alone give an idea of 
 magnificence truly Roman. The walls are adorned or rather animated by the genius of Raphael 
 and Michael Angelo. The furniture is plain, and ought to be so : finery would be misplaced 
 in the Vatican, and would sink into insignificance in the midst of the great, the vast, the 
 sublime, which are the predominating features or rather the very genii of the place. The grand 
 entrance is from the portico of St. Peter's by the Scala Regia, the most superb staircase in the 
 world, consisting of four flights of marble steps, adorned with a double row of marble Ionic 
 pillars. This staircase springs from the equestrian statue of Constantine which teraiinates the 
 portico on one side ; and whether seen thence, or viewed from the gallery leading on the same 
 side to the colonnades, forms a perspective of singular beauty. 
 
 It were vain to attempt a description of the Vatican throughout. It must suflBce to refer 
 very briefly to two or three leading points of attraction. 
 
 The library consists of a double gallery of two hundred and twenty feet long, opening into 
 another of eight hundred feet, Avith various rooms, cabinets, and apartments annexed. These 
 galleries and apartments are all vaulted, and adorned with paintings embracing a vast range 
 of sacred and profane subjects. The books are kept in cases; and, in the Vatican, the student 
 seeks in vain for that pompous display of volumes, Avhich he may have seen and admired in 
 other libraries. The number of volumes and manuscripts in this library has been so variously 
 stated, that little reliance can be placed on any of the authorities. The most moderate com- 
 putation flxes the number of the manuscripts, at the present time, at nearly tAventy-four thou- 
 sand, and that of the books at thirty thousand. The library is open daily, except during the 
 recess, and every facility of reference is afforded to learned travellers by the keepers and 
 interpreters. It could scarcely be thought that in modern times an institution like this, Avhich 
 ought to be respected and held inviolate by the Avhole civilized Avorld, Avould suffer injm-y even 
 from an invader ; yet the organized banditti of Napoleon made it an arena of plunder and out- 
 rage. " The French invasion," says Eustace, " Avhich brought with it so many evils, and like 
 a blast from hell checked the prosperity of Italy in every branch and in every province, not only 
 put a stop to the increase of the Vatican library, but by plundering it of some of its most 
 valuable manuscripts, lowered its reputation, and undid at once the labour of ages." 
 
 The Sistine Chapel, so named from the pontiflf Sixtus IV., by Avhom it Avas built in 1473, 
 
ROME. 93 
 
 from the designs of Pintelli, is one of tlie Avonders of the Vatican. It is cliicfly cclol)rated 
 for its paintings in fresco hy Michael Angelo and his scholars. The roof Avas Ijogun 
 in 1508 and finished in 1512, in the pontificate of Juhus II. The architectural decorations of 
 this ceiling form the framoA\'orlc of a series of paintings, which remain to this day a wonderful 
 testimony of the artist's powers. The subjects include sublime conceptions of the progressive 
 work of Creation, and embodiments of the types by which the coming Redemption was fore- 
 shadowed to the Jewish people. From the colossal size of the figures, and their exquisite 
 artistic execution, these paintings command the admiration of the world. On the end wall 
 opposite the entrance to the chapel, is the great fresco of the Last Judgment, a work which 
 strikes the merest novice in art with astonishment. This sublime work was designed by 
 Michael Angelo in his sixtieth year, at the request of Clement VII. After a labour of eight 
 years, it was completed in the pontificate of Paul III., the painter then being little short of 
 seventy years of age ! Paul IV. objected to the nudity of the figures in this matchless paint- 
 ing. " Tell him," said Michael Angelo, " to reform the world, and the pictures will reform 
 themselves." The painter however so far yielded to the pope, as to allow Daniele da VolteiTa 
 to drape the most prominent figures ; but he revenged himself upon Biagio, who first sug- 
 gested the indelicacy, by placing him in hell, in the character of Midas ; and when this person 
 complained to the pontiff, the intercession of the latter failed to move Michael Angelo, who 
 told his hohness that though he might have effected Biagio's release from purgatory, he had 
 no power over heU. 
 
 The Chamber of Raphael, which is in fact a series of rooms, is devoted to the works of this 
 great master. Here, amongst many other noble productions, may be seen the Expulsion of 
 Heliodorus from the Temple, the IMiracle of Bolsena,* Leo arresting Attila at the gates of 
 Rome, and the Deliverance of St. Peter. In an adjoining gallery are the Tapestries of Raphael, 
 those wondrous Avorks of art, of Avhich the Cartoons are preserved (?) in Hampton Court. The 
 French carried off the Tapestries and sold them to a Parisian Jcav, who actually burned one for 
 the sake of the gold and silver thread Avith Avhich portions of the Avork Avere A^^*ought. The 
 Israelitish scoundrel failed in his experiment, and gladly accepted the offer of Pius VII. to 
 purchase the remainder of his reset. 
 
 In the gallery of the Vatican are tAvo paintings deserving especial notice, namely, the Trans- 
 figuration by Raphael, and the Communion of St. Jerome by Domenichino. The first of these 
 was painted for the Cathedral of Narbonne, and Avas not completed Avhen, at the early age of 
 thirty-seven, the illustrious painter died. This masterpiece of his genius Avas suspended over 
 the artist's corpse for public homage, Avhilst the last traces of his hand were yet visible iipon 
 the canvas. The Communion of St. Jerome Avas painted for the Church of Ara Coeli, but the 
 ignorant monks quarrelled Avith the painter and thrcAv his Avork aside. They subsequently 
 commissioned Poussin to paint an altar-piece, and in place of neAv canvas gave him the Com- 
 munion to be painted over. Poussin threw up his commission Avith indignation, and loudly 
 proclaimed the excellence of Domenichino's performance. 
 
 The Museum contains an extensive collection of ancient sepulchral inscriptions and monu- 
 ments ; and its numerous apartments are stored Avith remains of classic sculpture. To cata- 
 logue Vv'orks of art, that must be seen to be appreciated and understood, is a mere Avaste of 
 
 * See pages 52, 56. 
 
94 ROME. 
 
 words. We may, however, name a few of the sculptures, which are popularly known through 
 the medium of engravings, or of plaster casts:— The Cupid of Praxiteles, the Statue of Demos- 
 thenes, Minerva Medica, the Fawn of Praxiteles, the Statue of Mercury, the Torso Belvidere, 
 the Laocoon, the Apollo Belvidere, and the Genius of the Vatican. 
 
 THE BASILICA OF SAINT JOHN LATERAN. 
 
 The ancient BasilicEe (so named from BuaiXiug, a king, whence Bx(riXt%.i a royal house, a seat 
 of authority, a court of justice) were the tribunals of the Roman magistracy during the latter 
 times of the empire. These structures were simple in their character, and consisted of a nave, 
 (testudo), and two side aisles (porticus), the latter separated from the nave by two rows of 
 columns, from which sprang arches to support the waU that sustained the central roof. Tran- 
 septs {chalddica) were sometimes added to the extremity of the building, thereby giving it the 
 form of the letter T. The nave terminated in a curve, which, as being the immediate seat of 
 the judge, was named the tribunal. These few particulars are worthy of notice, inasmuch as aU 
 places of Christian worship to the present day, bear striking resemblance to the ancient 
 basilicce. On the fall of the empire, the Roman church, it would appear, was allowed to appropri- 
 ate some of these structures as places of worship ; and the bishop assumed the seat of the tem- 
 poral judge in the tribunal.* When Constantino made Chi-istianity the religion of the empire, 
 he erected a number of costly structures on the plan of the basilicse, and with especial reference 
 to Christian uses. Thus the character of ecclesiastical architectm-e was fixed, first by the 
 choice of the church, and afterwards by the recognition of that choice by Constantine. In 
 course of time the original model was modified by the removal of the transepts fi:om the 
 extremity of the building, so as to form a cross, which, according as the transepts were nearer 
 to or farther from the centre of the building, obtained the name of a Greek cross, or a Latin 
 cross. From the time of Constantine to the present age these leading characteristics of church 
 architectm'e have universally prevailed ; and in the wide range between the Vatican temple 
 and the meanest conventicle, the main features of the ancient basUicse ai-e still presented before 
 us. In the Roman church the tribune is at once the seat of a temporal and a spuitual judge. 
 In the cathedrals of the reformed episcopal church, the bishop occupies a different position, 
 and the tribune terminates with the communion table, close behind which rises a screen, thus 
 leaving no space for a throne similar to that of the Roman pontiff". Parish churches have, 
 for the most part, more of the simplicity of the early basilicse, and modern dissenting places 
 
 * We can scarcely regard the first occupation of the ancient Basilicse by the Eoman church as an accidental 
 circumstance. The choice of these edifices appears to have been dictated by the desire for supremacy. These 
 structures were the immediate precincts of magisterial authority, and long association had connected with the 
 Tribune the awful attributes of a judge. Here, then, it was, upon the exalted tribune, that a Christian bishop fixed 
 his throne and dwelt apart from the people ; having the elevated steps of the tribunal, and even the altar itself, 
 interposed between him and the congregation. Is any so blind that he sees not here the high priest in the holiest 
 place, and a temporal ruler in his judicial seat ? 
 

ROME. 95 
 
 of worship almost uniformly cxliibit the divisions of nave and aisles, with occasionally a cir- 
 cular end answering to the ancient tribune. 
 
 The Basilica of St. John Latcran* was one of the structures erected by Constantino. After 
 its destruction by fire in the beginning of the fourteenth century, Clement V. began a new 
 edifice on its site, preserving as far as possible what remained of the former building. Various 
 pontiffs from Clement to Sixtus V. enlarged, remodelled, and embellished this structure. Sixtus 
 added the portico to the Scala Santa, or Sacred Stair, which constitutes one of the most valu- 
 able relics of the chmxh. In the time of Innocent X., Borromini was allowed to load the nave 
 Avith cumbrous ornaments which disfigure the building in the estimation of architects and men 
 of taste. In 1734, Clement XII. completed the renovations by the addition of the principal 
 fa9ade. After so many changes, it may be supposed that few traces of the ancient basilica of 
 Constantine are now to be seen. If anything might atone for the atrocities of Borromini, it 
 would be the fact that his meretricious ornaments serve as a foil to the beauties of the Corsini 
 chapel which stands in the nave. This superb structure, built in the form of a Greek cross by 
 Clement XII., is from the designs of Alessandro Galilei, and may be regarded as one of the 
 most perfect buildings of the kind existing. Nothing can surpass the magnificence of this 
 chapel: the pavement is the finest mai-ble ; the walls are incrusted with alabaster and jasper, 
 and decorated with basso-relievos ; six pillars adorn the recesses, and of these the two on each 
 side of the altar are verd antique; the other four are porphyry, with bases and capitals of 
 bm-nished bronze. Over the altar is a mosaic copy of Guide's painting, S. Andrea Corsini, now 
 in the Barberini Palace. The tombs with their statues are much admired, especiaUy that of 
 Clement XII., whose body reposes in a large and finely proportioned antique sarcophagus of 
 porphjT-y. The Corsini chapel, though it may not altogether escape criticism, must strike the 
 spectator very forcibly by its beauty. The valuable materials that form its pavement, line its 
 walls, and adorn its vaults, are so disposed as to mix together their varied hues into soft and 
 delicate tints ; while the size and symmetry of its form enable the eye to contain it with ease, 
 and contemplate its unity, its proportions, and its ornaments without effort. 
 
 The Lateran was long regarded as the first of Christian churches, and an inscription over 
 the door still sets forth its pompous claim to distinction: Ecchsiarum UrUs et Orbis Mater et 
 Caput — The Mother and Head of all the churches of Rome and of the world. The Chapter of 
 
 * This celebrated Basilica occupies the site of the sumptuous palace of the senator and consul elect, Plautius 
 Lateranus. Suspected by Nero of being a partaker in the conspiracy of Piso, Plautius was beset in his palace by 
 the imperial guard, and after his seizure he was conducted so suddenly to execution, that no time was granted him 
 to take leave of his wife and children. Juvenal is of opinion that the accusation of treason was a mere device on the 
 part of Nero to obtain easy possession of the treasures of the most wealthy senators : 
 
 Temporibus diris igitur, jussuque Neronis, 
 Longinum, et magnos Senecas prasdivitis hortos 
 Clausit, et egregias Lateranorum obsidet sedes 
 Tota cohors. Jimenal, Sat. x, 15. 
 
 Therefore in direful times, and by the command of Nero, 
 
 A whole troop Longinus, and the large gardens of the wealthy Seneca 
 
 Surrounded, and besieged the stately buildings of the Laterani. 
 
 Madan. 
 
9(3 ROME. 
 
 the Lateral! continues to hold precedence over that of St. Peter's. One of the first forms in 
 the election of a pope, is the taking possession of the Lateran palace ; and the coronation of 
 the pontiff is always celebrated in this church. The Lateran has long ceased to be the seat of 
 ecclesiastical Councils:* its fame is now confined to imposing ceremonies, and to the exhibi- 
 tion of relics of grossly ridiculous, yet blasphemous pretensions. Among these last are the heads 
 of St. Peter and St. Paul, encased with silver busts set with jewels; a lock of the Virgin Mary's 
 hair, and a piece of her petticoat ; a robe of Christ sprinkled with blood ; some drops of his blood 
 in a phial ; and some of the water that issued from his side. But the Scala Santa, before re- 
 ferred to, is perhaps the most remarkable of all the relics. It is composed of twenty-eight steps 
 of marble, brought from Jerusalem by Santa Helena, and affirmed to be the identical stairs by 
 which Christ ascended to the judgment seat of Pilate. Devotees ascend these stairs on their 
 knees, and from the number of penitents who claimed to perform this meritorious labour, it 
 became necessary, even in the time of Clement XII., to cover the steps with wood ; and this 
 protecting envelope is said to have been thrice renewed. 
 
 The Baptistery of the Lateran, according to the custom of the early ages still observed in 
 Italy, though near, is yet detached from the church. It is named San Giovanni in Fonte, and 
 is the most ancient baptistery of the kind in the Christian world. The episcopal palace of the 
 Lateran, which from the time of Constantine until the return from Avignon was the papal resi- 
 dence, is now an hospital ; a portion only being reserved for the temporary accommodation of 
 the pope when he comes to perform service at St. John's church, 
 
 The illustrative view is taken from the top of the Claudian Aqueduct. In the foreground 
 are the buildings which contain the Triclinium of Leo III., a name applied to some mosaic, 
 figures removed from the old Lateran palace. On the right is seen a famous obelisk of red gran- 
 ite, the largest now known, originally brought from Heliopolis by Constantine, and afterwards 
 erected on this spot by Fontana, in the reign of Sixtus V. On the left are the walls of Eome, 
 beyond which lies the wide-spread and now desolate Campagna, — the expressive type of the 
 physical, spiritual, intellectual, and moral condition of papal Italy. 
 
 * The second, third, and fourth councils of the Lateran excommunicated and condemned all heretics, and gave 
 them over to the civil poTver, which was commanded to extirpate them. By the fourth council it was decreed that 
 "the suspected, unless they proved their innocence, were to be accounted guilty, and avoided by all until thev afforded 
 condign satisfaction. Kings were solicited, and, if necessary, compelled by ecclesiastical censures, to exterminate all 
 heretics from their dominions. The sovereign who should refuse, was to be excommunicated by the metropolitan 
 and suffragans ; and if he should prove refractory for a year, the Roman pontiff, the vicar general of God, was 
 empowered to transfer his kingdom to some champion of Catholicism, and absolve his vassals from their fealty." 
 
 Many of our readers may desire to know something of the character of these awful councils. Xazianzen, a Roman 
 saint, describes the Byzantine assembly, which was the second general council, as " a cabal of wretches fit for the 
 House of Correction ; fellows newly taken from the plough, the spade, the oar, and the army." The Council of Lyons 
 demoralized the city in which it was convened. Matthew Paris, a contemporary historian, gives the farewell address 
 of Cardinal Hugo to the people, after the dissolution of the assembly. " Friends," said the Cardinal, " we have 
 effected a work of great utility and charity in this city. When we came to Lyons we found three or four brothels in 
 it, and we have left at our departure only one ; but this extends, without interruption, from the eastern to the western 
 gate of the city ! " More than seven hundred public women, according to Dachery, attended the Council of Constance, 
 and another authority states the number at fifteen hundred. In Bruys, 4. 39, it is said, "sept cens dix huit femmes 
 imbliqties," Aniia Labbeus, 16. 1435, the number is increasedto " xvc. meretrices vagabaw:li3." One favourite courtezan 
 is said to have gained eight hundred Jorins by her trafBc with the holy fathers. And this was the council that con- 
 signed Huss to the flames ! 
 
■^ § 
 
 ^ ^ 
 
piinirn'Tfi mi 
 
^mL 
 
PRATICA— CASTEL CANDOLFO. 
 
 07 
 
 PRATICA. 
 
 !\\ 
 
 ^RATICA is a locality of no importance except to the antiquary, who finds 
 in it the site of the ancient Lavinium, the city founded by J^lneas in honour 
 of his "wife Lavinia. It is distant about eighteen miles from Rome, and 
 three miles from the sea coast ; and is so afflicted with malaria, that its 
 meagre population of some sixty souls carry in their countenances the 
 melancholy evidence of its fatal presence amongst them. A large baronial man- 
 sion of the Borghese family exists at Pratica ; and from its lofty central tower, 
 the spectator obtains an extensive panoramic view of the surrounding country. 
 
 Lavinium was the regal city of Latium during the reign of /Eneas; but after his 
 death, his son Ascanius built Alba Longa, and removed thither the seat of govern- 
 We learn from Virgil that during the wanderings of ^Eneas, the prophetic Helenus 
 du-ected the Trojan fugitive where to find a large white sow, Avith thirty young ones white 
 like their dam, and declared that in the place of her concealment he should make settlement 
 and build a city. Dionysius relates that iEneas was led to the site of Lavinium by this white 
 sow; but the fable appears to be a little confused. The god of the Tiber, according to Virgil, 
 revealed to ^Eneas the prophetic sty, and informed him that it was to be the site of a city (Alba 
 Longa), which after thrice ten years Ascanius should build as the metropolis of the empire. 
 The only information we can extract from the fable seems to be this : that it was not always 
 the path of ill luck to "go to the pigs;" at least in f7(,;?s/c times, Avhen little pigs were oracles. 
 
 ment. 
 
 CASTEL GANDOLFO. 
 
 HE village of Castel Gandolfo, principally remarkable as the summer resi- 
 dence of the popes, is situated about tAvelve miles from Rome, on a spot of 
 singular beauty, in tlie immediate Ancinity of the Lake of Albano. It derives 
 its name from the Gandolfi family, by Avhom it Avas possessed in the tAvelfth 
 century. The Savelli, Avho afterAvards became the proprietors, held the 
 'castle nearly four hundred years against the popes and barons and the neighbouring 
 toAvns. It Avas sacked in 1436, by Eugenius IV., in consequence of sanctuary having 
 been given to an enemy of the pope; but the Savelli resumed possession in the reign 
 of Nicholas V., and continued thenceforAvard to enjoy it until 1596, AA'hen the descen- 
 dant of this house finding himself unable to maintain baronial dignity, sold the 
 property to the Apostolic Chamber for 150,000 scudi. Clement VIII. annexed it to the tem- 
 poralities of the papal see. and converted it into a pontifical summer residence. The palace 
 
 2b 
 
Qg OLEVANO. 
 
 was begun in 1630, from the designs of Carlo Maderno; it was afterwards enlarged by 
 Alexander VII.; and subsequently, in the last century, restored by Clement XIII., who gave it 
 the form which it retains to this day. It is a building of no great pretensions; but it com- 
 mands fine views of the lake, and is surrounded by the ruins of towns which had existence 
 before Rome itself, and the sites of ancient imperial villas. Since the restoration of the edifice 
 by Clement, the Roman nobility have erected suburban residences in its vicinity. 
 
 Castel Gandolfo stands on a volcanic peak, nearly fifteen hundred feet above the level of the 
 sea, and more than four hundred feet above the Lake of Albano. Adjoining the papal palace 
 is a church dedicated to St. Thomas of Villanuova, containing an altar-piece by Pietro da 
 Cortona, and an Assumption by Carlo Maratti. The lake, which is the great attraction of the 
 locality,' is between two and three miles long, and nearly three miles in width.* 
 
 OLEVANO. 
 
 -"^ £-' l-i^ N the mountain road between Palestrina and Subiaco, on a rocky hill at 
 '^ the foot of Monte del Corso, stands the picturesque village of Olevano, a 
 
 »j locality rich in materials for artistic study. Its history does not go back beyond 
 7' ,f^ the middle ages, and its name is derived from the appropriation of its revenues to 
 provide incense {olibanum) for the churches in its neighbourhood. The approach 
 to Olevano from the side of Subiaco is extremely fine. The old baronial castle of 
 the thirteenth century, built by the Colonna family, stands on a massive rock of 
 Apennine limestone. The town and castle now belong to the Borghese, to Avhom it gives 
 the title of marquis. The views from the rocks in the neighbourhood of Olevano com- 
 mand the vale of Latium, bounded by the high range of the Volscian mountains. The 
 town of Paliano, containing about three thousand inhabitants, is situated upon an insulated 
 hill, and forms a striking object. During the middle ages the fortress of Paliano was the scene 
 of many contests with the papal government. 
 
 * The most interesting circumstance connected with the Lake of Albano, apart from its natural beauties, is the 
 history of its Emissary. This subterranean canal was constructed by the Romans, b. c. 394, whilst besieging Veii, for 
 the purpose of lowering the waters which threatened to burst their banks and inundate the adjacent country. The 
 Emissary is upwards of a mile in length, varies from seven to ten feet in height, and is not less than four feet wide 
 in the narrowest part. In the Mont' Albano, which rises to the height of two thousand feet above the lake, may 
 still be seen the spiracula, or air-holes, which served to ventilate this ancient tunnel. The construction of this canal 
 was begun by command of the Delphic oracle, which directed that the waters of the lake should not be allowed to 
 escape by their natural outlet. An Etruscan soothsayer had predicted that Veii should be entered by a path under- 
 ground, and the Romans, who were previously unacquainted with mining, took advantage of the knowledge gained in 
 the formation of the Emissary, to sink a mine by which Veii was eventually entered and taken. 
 
 The Alban Mount is the site of interesting classic traditions. On the ridge above Marino stood the city of Alba 
 Longa. The theatre of the combat between the Horatii and Curiatii is in the same vicinity. The tombs of the 
 heroes are probably some of the many mounds which still arrest the traveller's attention. 
 
TERRACINA. 09 
 
 T E R R A C I N A. 
 
 ^^ TWO-FOLD celebrity attaches to Terracina: it is the site of the ancient 
 ^'jA \y=^:^j ^nT Anxnr, a city of "shining stones," and it has been renowned since the days 
 ■A-\.vf^-Av/o, of Juvenal, as a nest of robbers and assassins.* 
 ///;'' fe\tvl'' '^^^^ modern town of Terracina consists of a few steep, narrow, and 
 ljf{f-):ii^^...i^ miserable streets, through Avhich a path leads to the ruins of Anxur. In the 
 ^CVv^-^ cathedral are some remains of the ancient city; the most remarkable of these are the 
 ^ ■ ^ y>y^ columns of the temple of Apollo. A portion of Terracina is as modern as the time of 
 'Q':^ Pius VI. This pontiff gave celebrity to the toAvn, and rendered his OAvn name famous 
 ^•v by his gigantic operations for draining the Pontine Marshes. The drainage of 
 ^ this swampy tract was first attempted by Appius Claudius, about three hundred 
 years before the Christian era, when employed in carrying his celebrated road, the Appian 
 Way, across the Marshes. Repeated attempts were afterwards made in consular, imperial, 
 gothic, and papal times, but none of them were attended Avith more than partial success. In 
 1778, Pius commenced his labours, and continued to prosecute them with incredible ardour 
 and vast expense for the period of ten years. To accomplish this one purpose of his mind, he 
 sacrificed human life and apostolic treasures with equal indifference; and that his vigilant eye 
 might be always near to scan the operations of his workmen, he fixed his residence at Terra- 
 cina, and continually superintended the operations in person. Whilst the value of the under- 
 taking cannot be questioned, the great vanity of the pontiff has detracted from the glory of the 
 work. Pius set out with the determination of persevering in a straight line, despite of 
 all obstacles that might threaten his progress. He designed to restore the Appian Way under 
 the new appellation of the Line of Pius, and with this view he constructed his canal in a direct 
 line from Cisterna to Terracina. The ambition of the pontiff militated against the utility of 
 
 * Anxur appears to have been founded by the Volscians, from whom it was taken by the Romans, in the year of 
 the city 348. It occupied the summit of the eminence at the foot of which stands the modern town of Terracina. The 
 ruins of the palace of Theodonc, king of the Ostrogoths, are still existing ; and this edifice having probably been 
 erected upon the substructions of the temple of Jupiter, the remains are regarded with great interest as relics superhi 
 Anxuris — of proud Anxur. This city is frequently alluded to by ancient writers under one or other of its various 
 names of Trachina, TappaKxira, Trachas, Tarracina, or Anxur; but it is by the latter appellation that we usually find 
 mention of it in the poets. From the conspicuous and commanding site of his temple, Jupiter Anxurus was supposed 
 to preside over all the circumjacent country, and to regulate the destiny of its inhabitants : 
 
 quels Jupiter Anxurus arvis The fields o'er which Anxurian Jove presides. 
 
 Prsesidet. JEneid. vii. 790. 
 
 The poets apply the epithets ^perhus, splendiclus and candidus, to the city of Anxur ; the first to denote the proud 
 eminence of its site, and the latter two to express the glittering whiteness not only of the city itself, but also of the 
 lofty rock on which it was built. Polybius places this city amongst those in alliance with Rome when the first treaty 
 was concluded between the Romans and Carthaginians. After it was taken from the Volscians, it became a station 
 for supplying the Roman navy with sailors and stores ; and subsequently when the imperial seat was contested by 
 rival claimants, the possession of this port was sought with great eagerness. 
 
100 
 
 NAPLES. 
 
 his work: his line was carried through the middle of the Marsh, without depth enough to 
 sluice off the water from the lower parts, and yet at an expense that was ruinous to the papal 
 treasury; and, moreover, this undeviating course carried the workmen into the most unhealthy 
 districts of the fens, where they died in hundreds. Pius, however, completed his undertaking, 
 and the tiara and keys, and the pontifical title, claim equal distinction in the Pomptinae 
 Paludes, with the milestones of Trajan and the tablets of Theodoric* Where the Linea Pia 
 terminates beneath the rock of Terracina, Pius erected the buildings which are seen in our 
 view, consisting of a palace, public offices, wharfs, and granaries. 
 
 Nearly half-way up the rock Avhich forms so remarkable an object in the view of Terracina, 
 is seated a hermitage, stuck like a swallow's nest where it is apparently inaccessible. Below 
 there is a deep excavation, near the gate towards Naples, which serves for the station of some 
 persons employed by the government. The rock above, upon which rest the ruins of the 
 palace of Theodoric, forms part of the range of mountains separated from the great chain of 
 the Apennines, by the valley of Garigliano. 
 
 NAPLES. 
 
 I>^ APLES occupies the site of two ancient Greek cities, Palsepolis and Neapolis, 
 though it inherits the name of the latter. Neapolis derived its appellation, 
 which signifies the new citt/, from, the Cumseans who settled in this locality, and 
 probably rebuilt or enlarged the old city of Parthenope, so named from one of 
 the Syrens who was said to have resided there. Livy relates, that PalsepoUs 
 and Neapolis joined the Samnites in a confederacy against Rome, and that after the 
 space of two years the former city was taken by the Romans, at which time also the 
 latter, which was then the more inconsiderable town of the two, probably shared the 
 same fate. In little more than half a century from this period, Neapolis appears to have 
 attached itself closely to the interests of Rome, and to have acquired under the pro- 
 tection of the republic no small degree of prosperity and importance. Its fidelity to Rome 
 excited the resentment of Hannibal, who ravaged and laid waste the Neapolitan territory, 
 but shrunk from the difficulties of an attack upon the city itself For a long series of years 
 after its gallant repulse of the Carthaginian, we find no mention of Neapolis; and it is 
 probable that in the interval it enjoyed undisturbed tranquillity, and cultivated the advantages 
 of its fertile soil and unrivalled situation. It was during this peaceful period, embracing the 
 fall of the republic and the infancy of the empire, that its environs became the fashionable 
 
 * The Pontine Marches, so infamous for robbery and murder in the days of Juvenal, had lost none of their ancient 
 fame in the early part of the present centu;■3^ The situation of Terracina as a frontier town between Rome and 
 Naples, rendered it the stronghold of banditti,- who escaped pursuit by fleeing as circumstances required into either 
 State. Scarcely twenty years have elapsed since organized bands of brigands pursued a fearful system of mutilation 
 or murder to enforce ransom for those unfortunate people who fell into their hands. In 1826, so many forts and 
 stations were established by the Austrians along the line of road near the frontier, that the brigands have since 
 had no chance of successful attack or escape, and the scovding looks of the inhabitants upon the traveller, who now 
 passes in safety, have, under such control, lost their terrors. 
 
NAPLES. 101 
 
 winter retreat of the Roman citizens, among A\'liom tlicrc were few of any note who did not 
 possess a villa in the romantic recesses of its shores. The presence of Horace, Virgil, and his 
 imitator, Silius Italicus, and their fond attachment to its delightful scenery, were lasting and 
 honom-able distinctions; whilst the foul indulgences of Tiberius, and the wild and cruel freaks 
 of Caligula, were its scandal and its scourge.* 
 
 The earliest interruption to the prosperity of Neapolis was the desolation caused by the first 
 recorded eruption of Vesuvius, ad. 79 ; in which the towns of Ilerculaneum, Pompeii, and 
 StabicP, were destroyed and buried under showers of volcanic sand, stones, and scoriae ; in 
 which also the elder Pliny, at that time commanding the Roman fleet on the coast of Cam- 
 pania, lost his life. In subsequent centuries, Neapolis shared the miseries incident to civil war 
 and foreign invasion ; and on the fall of the empire it was plundered by the barbarian 
 hordes that spread themselves over Italy. It afterwards fell a prey to the Germans, French, 
 and Spaniards ; until at length the latter became its undisputed masters, and after having 
 carried on the government for many years by viceroys, at last gave it a king in the person of 
 Charles IV. 
 
 No vestiges remain of the ancient beauty or magnificence of Neapolis. Its temples, its 
 theatres, its basilicae, have been levelled by earthquakes or destroyed by barbarians. The 
 edifices of modern Naples, whether churches or palaces, are less remarkable for their taste 
 than for their magnitude or riches. It is, however, probable that Naples is at present more 
 populous, more opulent, and in every respect more flourishing than she has ever before been, 
 even in the most brilliant periods of her ancient history. 
 
 Naples is seated at the head of a capacious bay, thirty miles in diameter, and which, from 
 its resemblance to a bowl, has been named the Crater. The town is built in the form of a 
 vast amphitheatre, sloping from the hills to the sea. It contains within its walls upwards of 
 four hundred thousand inhabitants, and one hundred thousand more occupy the suburbs that 
 stretch in a magnificent and most extensive sweep from Portici to the promontory of Misenus, 
 a distance of sixteen miles along the shore. The internal appearance of Naples is in general 
 pleasing ; the edifices are lofty and solid ; the streets as wide as in any continental city; the 
 Strada Toledo is a mile in length, and with the qua}', which is very extensive and well-built, 
 forms the grand and distinguishing features of the city. Taken in detail, its architecture will 
 not bear comparison with that of Rome ; for the recollection of the Roman buildings makes 
 everything at Naples look poor and paltry. Some of the churches, indeed, are striking to the 
 eye ; but only from their deformity. Within they are loaded with ornament to such a degree 
 that the very excess of decoration injures the buildings it was intended to beautify. The 
 altars, more especially, display an exuberance of riches : in these, jasper, lapis lazuli, porphyry, 
 and all sorts of rare marbles, together M'ith gilding, painting, and carving, are jumbled together 
 without the smallest regard to simplicity or taste. Justly has it been observed, that in Naples 
 every thing is gilded, from the cupolas of the churches to the pills of the apothecary. 
 
 It would be difficult to imagine the^ constant bustle and turmoil that pervade the Sti-ada 
 
 * This delightful retreat of the ancients, like the fashionable marine localities of the present day, appears to have 
 been the favourite resort of invalids, who met there for the recovery of their health. Martial, however, in one of his 
 pointed epigrams, alleges that the luxuries of Neapolis, rather than their individual ailments, led invalids thither 
 and prolonged their stay. 
 
102 NAPLES 
 
 Toledo, the principal street of Naples; the people bawling and roaring at each other in all 
 directions; beggars soUciting your charity Avith one hand, whilst they pick your pocket with 
 the other; and the carriages cutting their way through the throng with fearful rapidity. The 
 crowd of London moves rapidly in a double Mne; that of Naples is a general tide rolling up 
 and down, and in the middle of this tide a hundred eddies of men. A diversity of trades 
 disputes with you in the streets. You are stopped by a carpenter's bench; you are lost among 
 shoemakers' stools ; you dash among the pots of a macaroni stall. Every bargain sounds like 
 a battle; for it is a custom with the Neapolitans to ask three times as much as is just.* 
 
 NAPLES FEOM THE SANTA LUCIA. 
 
 The Santa Lucia is a wide street, open towards the bay, whence a beautiful view is obtained, 
 across the blue waters, of Vesuvius, the distant Appennines, the Mont Sant' Angelo, and the 
 Cape of Sorrento. The houses on this quay are very substantial, and the prospect they com- 
 mand causes them to be much sought after by visitors as places of abode. Not a few persons, 
 when engaging lodgings in this desirable quarter, are led in the ardour of expectation to 
 imagine that they are hespeaUng an eruption of Vesuvius. The Santa Lucia is a scene of 
 Neapolitan bustle not much inferior to that of the Mole ; around its fountain animated groups 
 are gathered ; and along the quay are stalls covered with land fruit and sea fndt, the latter 
 consisting of oysters, mussels, &c. Our engraving brings into view the light-house of the 
 Mole, a quarter of the city remarkable for exhibiting on gala days a motley train of humorous 
 incidents. " Here stands a methodistical friar preaching to one row of lazzaroni ; there. Punch, 
 the representative of the nation, holds forth to a crowd ; yonder, another orator recounts the 
 
 * Tho lazzaroni of Naples demand especial mention. The appellation of lazzari, or lazzaroni, is applied indis- 
 criminately to all the mendicant thieves of Italy, hut in its application to the fraternity of Neapolitan porters its 
 meaning is less offensive. The term appears to be of Spanish origin, and to allude to the torn and tattered garments 
 of the persons to whom it was contemptuously given. The lazzaroni of Naples are the poorer portion of the labouring 
 class ; and their distinctive character, as compared with the populace of other great cities, rests in two points : first, 
 the cheapness of those articles of food which suffice for their wants ; and secondly, the mildness of the climate, which 
 renders them nearly independent of clothing and habitations. That the lazzaroni are an idle race cannot be denied ; 
 it is also said that they are not remarkable for honesty; yet many have borne testimony to their fidelity. Their 
 daily occupation is little more than a continual lounge ; selling of fruit, running of errands, and performing menial 
 offices requiring little of either mental or bodily activity, constitute almost the entire round of their labours. When 
 they have earned the small pittance necessary for daily support, they have no inclination to make further exertion; 
 they then congregate around their favourite Punch, or recline in utter indolence to enjoy that inestimable luxury of 
 Italian life — doing nothing.. In earlier periods of their history, the lazzaroni were strong in their numbers, and in the 
 bond of union which held them together ; and they frequently played an important part on occasions of civil insur- 
 rection and foreign invasion. They were the only class in Italy whom the Spaniards feared. The viceroys of Spain 
 named them with deference, and received deputations from their body with marked respect. Once a year they met 
 tumultuously in the Piazza del Mercate, and named by acclamation their temporary chief, or capo-lazzaro. They 
 have subsequently fallen in position ; yet are they still sufficiently formidable to exercise great influence in seasons of 
 popular or political commotion. This unique race offer in their persons the most faultless models for the sculptor, 
 they gesticulate with the commanding energy of a savage ; their language, though gaping and broad, when kindled 
 into passion, bursts into oriental metaphor ; and their ideas move in a circle, narrow indeed, but a circle in which 
 they are invincible. Their exertion of soul, their humour, their fancy, their quickness of argument, their address at 
 flattery, their rapidity of utterance, their pantomime and grimace, none can resist but a lazzarone himselt 
 
NAPLES. 103 
 
 miracles performed by a sacred wax-work, on wliich lie rubs his aijiriii<i'i^ and sells tliem, thus 
 impregnated with grace, for a grain a-piece. JJeyund him arc quacks hi liuzzar uniform, 
 exalting their drugs and brandishing their sabres, as if not content ^\\t\\ one mode of killing. 
 Opposite to these is a motley audience seated on planks, and listening to a trtigi-comicyZ/oiYyo, 
 who roads, sings, and gesticulates old gothic tales of Orlando and his Paladins." 
 
 NAPLES FROM VESUVIUS. 
 
 Visitors to Naples climb Vesuvius with the same devotion that pilgrims to Loretto prostrate 
 themselves before the shrine of the Virgin ; it must, however, be admitted that the Nea- 
 politan devotees are the most rational class of the two. The view of Naples, and the 
 magnificent bay with its islands and promontories, is worth a steep ascent over pumice stone 
 and amidst ashes ; and the phenomena of the mountain itself, even in its quietest mood, may 
 well prompt and justify the undertaking. 
 
 We shall be pardoned for not adding another to the thousand and one descriptions of Vesu- 
 vius : in place of this, we offer a few particulars regarding the eruption of 1822, of which Mr. 
 Brockedon was a spectator, and whose account, recorded at the time of its occurrence, we 
 slightly compress : — 
 
 " The author's first visit to the mountain was on the 11th February, 1822. Ko unusual quantity of smoke or steam 
 issued to excite expectation of immediate activity, and our party not only walked round the crater, but some 
 descended into it as far as the suffocating vapours would allow ; yet the guide, Salvatore, said the wells in the 
 vicinity had become so dry as to leave no doubt of an approaching eruption. On tlie evening of the 21st, a few 
 gleams of light appeared at long intervals on the summit ; but on the following day we observed, on returning from 
 an excursion to Portici, frequent and vivid flashes, accompanied with sounds like distant, heavy thunder ; and the 
 next morning smoke began to settle over the crater, and assume the form of a vast palm-tree. These indications of 
 violent activity increased until the evening of the 23d, when, about nine o'clock, we saw streams of lava descend on 
 the side of the cone towards Naples, dividing or uniting as channels in the old lava influenced their course, until they 
 flowed together in a common channel that appeared to be the outlet of the Atrio dei Cavalli: thus the lava formed, in the 
 darkness of the night, a red-hot net-work on the cone, and a lengthening line of fire as it pursued its course towards 
 the base of Vesuvius. The explosions during the night were terrific ; the house in which we resided in the Santa 
 Lucia was violently shaken almost at the instant that the flash of the explosion was seen, although the sound reached 
 us at an interval which marked a distance of about eight or nine miles between us and the mountain. On the follow- 
 ing day, the 24th, the violence of the eruption having increased, we made preparation for a visit to Vesuvius. We 
 left Naples about two o'clock, and drove to Resina, where we were furnished with mules for our ascent to the Her- 
 mitage. It is impossible to imagine the excitement of the scene as we rose on the mountain-side, and looked back 
 upon the city and bay of Naples bathed in a flood of light, such as in Italy is displayed under a declining sun. A 
 vast cloud of pure white vapour intervened between us and the cone of Vesuvius ; but our proximity was evident 
 from the awful and terrific explosions that burst upon our ears. As the sun declined, this cloud reflected aU his 
 bright and varying tints, from golden to roseate hues, till he pluuged into the sea ; when the last glowing colour 
 faded rapidly in the transient twilight into an indescribable ashy hue. The cloud then became the screen to the 
 fires of Vesuvius ; and when greater darkness came on with night, even before we reached the Hermitage, a deep 
 murky red began to pierce the vapour, which now became of a lurid and awful colour, arising from the molten lava 
 that was not vivid enough to be perceived during the light of day ; this colour, with each explosion, became for a 
 moment more intense, and then subsided into its former deep and horrid glare. 
 
 On reaching the Hermitage, we found it a Babel of confusion : the poor host and his assistants were bewildered by 
 the noisy application of hundreds of people for refreshments, made in nearly all the languages of Europe. The stock 
 
X04 NAPLES. 
 
 of bread, vine, and other provisions, soon disappeared, and an empty larder was left for succeeding comers. From 
 the hermitage we had yet nearly two miles to go. Our party started on foot, in the usual order, each two or three 
 persons with attendants bearing torches ; and it was an exciting scene to witness, amidst the awful thunderings and 
 bursts of the volcano, the line of visitors braving its horrors. The march of each party, above and below us, was 
 traced in the darkness by the tortuous course of these moving lights, as they marched single file by the zig-zag path 
 of ascent made over the old lava. At length we reached the Atrio dei Cavalli. Here the ladies of the party rested 
 under the care of some of the guides, while the rest moved forward to ascend the mountain if possible, or to examine 
 more closely the stream of lava. The sense of security experienced amidst throes of nature, which had frequently 
 produced the destruction of surrounding cities, and of whose approaching issue no man could know the limit, was an 
 unaccountable feeling : storms of thunder, which are appalling from their frequency, man, when he can, generally 
 avoids ; yet here, whilst the vivid lightnings played round the crater, and explosions louder than thunder made the 
 earth tremble upon which we stood, no emotion of fear was excited : on the contrary, a fascination drew the visitors 
 to the nearest point to examine the sublime phenomena thus offered to their contemplation. But a near approach 
 was not unattended with danger. The explosions of the mountain were produced like the discharges of cannon, and 
 whilst their fury lasted, were like successions of loading and firing. When an explosion took place, the contents of 
 the enormous calibre of the crater were shot up to a height so great, that the projected masses of red-hot rock and 
 lava seemed for a long time to be stationary in the sky, like dull stars ; until at length the projectile force being spent, 
 they returned, enlarging as they approached, and excited the horrid feeling that they might fall upon us : but of the 
 millions of tons discharged, nearly all fell back, as perpendicularly as they had risen, into the fierce gulf, where they 
 jammed each other in with a force of which the mind can form no just idea ; and in proportion to the compactness 
 with which they filled the crater, was the force required to burst this barrier at the next discharge. Occasionally, 
 however, a piece feU outside, and rolling down the cone soon acquired a centrifugal force that burst it into a hundred 
 pieces, which struck the points that checked their progress with the force of fragments of shell. The line of danger 
 is therefore narrowly watched by those who approach it, and they shelter themselves behind the masses of old lava 
 until the pieces have been stopped, or have passed over them. Yet this evening one gentleman had his arm broken 
 by a fragment that struck him. On approaching the stream of lava, the heat was insufferable ; but we chmbed upon 
 the scoriae, which overlaid the flowing lava, without suffering inconvenience. These scoricB on which we sat were 
 restrained from advancing with the lava by the jagged sides of the old beds or courses, which checked their descent 
 with the stream as a flood-gate restrains the passage of straw and wood. The sensation excited by sitting on the 
 trembling masses, with the liquid lava passing beneath us, was indescribable : it was so near that we lit our cigars in 
 its fires. Many of the visitors employed themselves in detaching small portions of the lava, and whilst it was in a 
 viscid state, embedding coins in it by pressure, when the soft material collapsed over the edges and inextricably held 
 them. We heard that some persons succeeded in reaching the summit of the crater by going round the mountain on 
 the opposite side to the course of the lava ; but we learned this too late to avail ourselves of it, not desiring to remain 
 longer separate from our party. 
 
 On our return to the Hermitage we met hundreds ascending ; and having found our mules with difficulty amidst 
 the confusion, returned to Naples soon after midnight. We often looked back when very loud explosions recalled our 
 attention to the wonders we had left, and to which crowds were still pouring out from Naples. We heard the next 
 day that four thousand persons had ascended and visited the mountain on the previous night, and we afterwards 
 learned that ten thousand ascended on the following evening. On the 26th, the explosions and eruptions of lava 
 ceased, though the lava already discharged was still advancing. On the 27th, volumes of fine ashes were blown out 
 of the crater, and hung over the bay like a heavy black cloud : these were so fine, and the air was so charged with 
 them, that they grated in the teeth ; and the author, when at Posilipo, found the paper on which he was sketching 
 gradually darken with the layer of fine ashes ejected from the volcano. The following day, the 28th, he again went 
 to Vesuvius to observe the progress of the lava. It had fiowed from the crater about two miles and a half, and had 
 crossed the road to the Hermitage, cutting off on that side the usual communication : in the latter part of its course 
 it had destroyed some valuable vineyards, in which the celebrated Lachryma Christi is grown. At the farthest point 
 of the yet advancing lava, the mass was about thirty or forty feet high, and two or three hundred feet wide, but it 
 was now fast settling; its progress was so slow that it was chiefly marked by the falling over of the scoris, through 
 the crevices of which the red-hot lava could be seen, thus near, even by day. 
 

CASTKLLAMARE DI ST A 15 1 vV. 106 
 
 CASTELLAMARE DI STABIA. 
 
 }/ TABIiE, whose site is in the immediate vicinity of Castell' a mare di Stabia, 
 ^^ was a place of some importance before its destruction by Sylla ; but in 
 Pliny's time it had disappeared as a town, and was then occupied by villas 
 and pleasure-grounds. The memory of Stabite is preserved to us principally 
 by its participation in the ruin and overthrow of Herculaneum and Pompeii, 
 during the eruption of Vesuvius, a.d. 79, in which so many towns and cities 
 of Campania were overwhelmed.* It was in the neighbourhood of this place that the 
 elder Pliny perished ; and in the letters of his nephew to the historian Tacitus, the 
 ^ '^t classical reader finds a graphic and interesting account of many incidents attendant upon 
 "i^ the eruption, and a particular description of all the circumstances connected Avith the 
 
 death of Pliny. 
 
 Castell' a mare di Stabia is situated at the foot of the table-land on which Stabise anciently 
 
 stood. It has a handsome quay, erected during the occupation of Naples by the French ; and 
 
 it is altogether an agreeable locality, with much to recommend it to tourists as a place of 
 
 temporary sojourn. The surrounding country is very beautiful. In the plain above the town 
 
 * The destruction of the cities of Herculaneum, Pompeii, and Stabise, took place, according to Pliny the younger, who 
 was an eye-wituess of that catastrophe, August 24th, iu the second year of the reign of the emperor Titus, or a.d. 7!)- 
 Frequent as have been the eruptions of Vesuvius since that which consigned these cities to oblivion, it appears to have 
 shown no active indications of its volcanic nature for some centuries previously ; for we find no memorial of any prior 
 eruption of the mountain. Strabo, a.d. 25, describes Vesuvius as clothed with a most fertile soil, except at the top, 
 which was totally sterile, being covered with stones which appeared to have sustained the action of fire. Martial, in 
 an epigram written immediately after the eruption, deplores the desolated state of Vesuvius ; and describes it before 
 that event to have been overshaded by the most luxurious vines and vegetation, a retreat for which the gods of plea- 
 sure and gaiety forsook their most favoured abodes. 
 
 Herculaneum, Pompeii, and Stabise were three towns situated on the coast of Neapolis, and in the immediate neigh- 
 bourhood of Vesuvius. The small town of Portici, distant about six miles from Naples, stands upon the entombed 
 city of Herculaneum, whose partial excavation was begun in 1713. A peasant sinking a well in his garden found 
 several fragments of marble ; and this circumstance being reported to the prince D' Elbeuf, he purchased the spot, 
 and continuing the excavations discovered various statues and pillars, and even an entire temple of the finest marble 
 filled with statues. The Neapolitan government, after suspending the excavations for twenty years, bought the site ; 
 but in place of opening up the ground for further discovery, it stupidly erected a palace upon the ruins, and thereby 
 sealed the sepulchre of Herculaneum. The excavations were indeed continued occasionally, and ultimately a 
 basilica, two temples, and a theatre were discovered, and stripped of their numerous pillars and statues. The Museo 
 Borbonico at Naples exhibits a large collection of bronze statues, pillars of marble and alabaster, paintings, and 
 mosaics, — the spoils of this ancient city ; together with a great variety of ornaments used in dress, weapons and 
 armour, kitchen utensils and domestic furniture, agricultural and chirurgical instruments. These last-named relics 
 are so numerous and complete that we are enabled, after the lapse of eigliteen centuries, not only to see the inhabit- 
 
 2d 
 
106 CASTELLAMARE DI STABIA. 
 
 is the royal villa of Quisisana, so named from the great salubrity of the climate. On the hill 
 of Pozzana, noted like a thousand other places in Italy for a miraculous image of the Virgin, 
 stands a wooden cross, remarkable for its having an altar of Diana for its pedestal. A temple 
 of the goddess anciently occupied this locality ; but it has given place to a church of the 
 Madonna, and the pedestal of the cross is the only vestige that remains of the heathen struc- 
 ture. The views of Naples and its neighbourhood which may be seen from the sheltered and 
 beautiful rides and Avalks in the vicinity of Stabise, are scarcely inferior to those that are pre- 
 sented from other points around the Neapolitan coast. The hills from Castell' a mare to Sorrento 
 are covered with rich pasturages celebrated for the milk they produce, whence the entire 
 range was anciently named the Mons Lactarius ; but the fine form which towers above the 
 rest takes its modern name of Sant' Angelo, from a miraculous grotto said to be haunted by 
 the archangel Michael. It is the highest mountain in the neighbourhood of Naples. 
 
 ants of Heixulaneum in tlieir habits as they lived, but also to contemplate all the peculiarities of their domestic 
 economy and every-day life. At Pompeii the traveller walks through a disinterred city, and surveys the remains of 
 long departed ages in all their undisturbed relations, but he gathers his knowledge of Herculaneum from the details 
 collected in the Neapolitan museum. 
 
 Pompeii was discovered about the middle of the last century. A labourer found, in ploughing, a statue of brass ; 
 and subsequently the temple of Isis was brought to view by some workmen who were employed in the construction of 
 a subterraneous aqueduct. These discoveries naturally excited great expectations ; and the work of excavation went 
 forward until at length a large portion of the city was laid open. The volcanic deposit covering Pompeii was in some 
 places scarcely three feet in depth ; hence the excavations on this site were a work of small difficulty compared with 
 the operations at Herculaneum. 
 
 Approaching Pompeii from Naples, both sides of the road, for nearly a furlong before entering the city, are occu- 
 pied by tombs and public monuments, intermixed with shops. The carriage way still exhibits the tracks or ruts worn 
 by the chariots, and the foot-ways are protected by curb-stones, in which frequently occur holes for fastening the 
 halter. The principal entrance to the city is not striking for its beauty. The walls of brick and rubble-work are 
 faced with stucco, which is covered with nearly illegible inscriptions. Within , an arched recess at the gate of the 
 city was found a skeleton, conjectured to be that of a sentinel, who in accordance with the strictness of Roman 
 discipline died at his post. The street of the tombs, containing the monuments of distinguished men, lies to the east 
 of Pompeii, and leads to the villa named Suburbana, at the entrance to which were found two skeletons ; one held a 
 purse containing many coins and medals, with the key of the door, and its hand bore a ring indicating equestrian 
 rank ; the other was probably an attendant occupied at the moment of death in the removal of some valuables which 
 were found near them. In the subterranean passage of this villa were many large earthen wine vases, rano-ed in order 
 against the wall; and hither twenty-three of the family had retired for refuge. Ear-rings, bracelets, and other 
 ornaments, were found with their skeletons ; and the bones of the fingers of some still grasped small articles suddenly 
 caught up for preservation. 
 
 It is truly a wondrous thing to be admitted to the temples, the theatres, and the domestic privacy of a people who 
 lived nearly two thousand years ago. The inhabitants indeed are wanting; but a ramble through the silent streets 
 of the city makes us acquainted with their domestic history as thoroughly as if we had been their cotemporaries. It 
 is interesting to observe their identity with ourselves in the ordinary routine of life. Sign-boards we discover are no 
 new invention: at Pompeii rudely executed combats of gladiators mark the vintners' shops, the baker's trade is 
 indicated by a mill and an oven, the druggist threatens under the device of a serpent, and the surgeon recommends 
 his tender mercies by a painting illustrative of the raptures of tooth-drawing. In the passage to one house an 
 inscription warns the intruder to " beware of the dog." On the walls of the city we see scrawled in red characters 
 an advertisement that " a bath and nine hundred shops belonging to a certain lady named Julia Felix, are to be let 
 for five years;" another, that " on the sixteenth of May there will be a show of gladiators in the theatre, which will 
 be covered in on that occasion;" and a third, that " Muuiclus Pomfidius Rufus will .exhibit, on the 29th October, a 
 combat of wild beasts." Alasl we are eighteen hundred years too late to take a lease, or to be present at the 
 spectacles. 
 
jjrawd- by J i Willmor'' 
 
 GLASGOW. EDINBURGH A LONDON 
 
SORRENTO. I(i7 
 
 THE GATE OF SORRENTO. 
 
 once ainonff 
 
 The children gathering shells along the shorf, 
 One laughed and played, unconscious of his fate ; 
 His to drink deep of sorrow, and, through life. 
 To be the scorn of them that knew him not, 
 Trampling alike the giver and his gift. 
 The gift a pearl precious, inestimable, 
 A lay divine, a lay of love and war. 
 To charm, ennoble, and, from age to aye. 
 Sweeten the labour, when the oar was plied 
 Or on the Adrian or the Tuscan Sea.* 
 
 "■• HE fame of Son-ento is "antithetically mixed," a composition of sweet 
 1^ poetry and som- wine, Tasso's strains and the vinum Surrentinum. Regard- 
 ing the first element of celebrity there is no difference of opinion amongst 
 persons of taste; but the tastes of persons are not agreed upon the merits 
 of the second. The poets, those revellers in fiction, have extolled the vintage 
 of Surrentum in good set terms; but Tiberius, who was a lover of plain prose, 
 and a matter-of-fact man, affirmed that it was only a shade better than diluted vinegar. 
 The town of Sorrento, anciently called Syrentum, from its local beauties, and after- 
 wards Surrentum, is situated high above the sea, on the south-western promontory 
 of the bay of Naples. It was probably built by the Phoenicians; although Strabo 
 aflflrms that it was founded by Ulysses, and a certain priest of Sorrento, desirous to "out- 
 Herod Herod," even attributes its origin to Shem the son of Noah. Frontinus says that it was 
 colonized by Augustus, but mentions also that it was once occupied by the Greeks. After the fall 
 
 * Torquato Tasso, the son of Bernardo Tasso, a poor though noble native of Bereamo, was born at Surrento, 
 March the 11th, 1544, nine years after the death of Ariosto. The father of the poet was the author of many elegant 
 lyrics, and of some volumes of letters. Ho possessed an ardent, restless temperament that descended to his son, whose 
 misfortunes were mainly owing to this hereditary disposition, excited and acted upon by those brilliant powers of 
 imagination which, whilst they won for their possessor a barren wreath from posterity, were destined to torment him 
 through life like a consuming fire. Bernardo attached himself to the fortunes of Sanseverino, prince of Salerno, and 
 when Spanioh oppression had ruined his patron, and made himself an exile, he sought refuge in Rome. Thither his 
 son Torquato followed him, and the young poet's parting embrace with his mother, who remained behind to look aftci 
 a dowry which she had never received, forms a beautiful incident in one of his fragmentary pieces. After two yenrs'' 
 
lOS SORRENTO. 
 
 of Rome, Sorrento appertained to the duchy of Naples and shared its political fortunes. Some 
 of the defences of the middle ages are fast approaching the condition of the Roman ruins. The 
 turretted fort in our view, presents within the walls a melancholy aspect of decay. It stands 
 close beside the eastern gate, which is surmounted by a statue of San Antonino, regarding whose 
 exaltation as the patron saint of Sorrento, an amusing story is told. When Sicardo, prince of 
 Beneventum, besieged the citadel, in 836, the inhabitants, it is said, were reduced to great straits 
 and perplexities, and were led, from despair of earthly succour, to intreat the assistance of 
 San Antonino. They prudently accompanied their intreaties with substantial bribes, which 
 last found their way to the treasury of the church, and by consequence to the favour of the 
 saint. San Antonino appeared at the moment of need, armed with a cudgel that might have 
 carried the prize at Donnybrook, and let fall upon the head and shoulders of the luckless 
 Sicardo such a succession of convincing blows that the prince was brought to his knees, 
 whence he arose with the prudent resolve to take to his heels. After this interposition in 
 favour of the Sorrentines, San Antonino reigned paramount in Sorrento, and he has continued 
 to do so to the present day. 
 
 study in Rome, Bernardo removed his son first to Bergamo, amongst his relations, and afterwards to Pesaro, in the 
 duchy of Urbino, where he pursued his education in fellowship with the young prince, who subsequently became duke 
 Francesco Maria the Second. In 1559, the boy repaired to Venice, where his father had been appointed secretary to 
 the academy ; and in the following year, parental solicitude devoted him to the study of the law. Arriving in Padua, 
 between sixteen and seventeen years of age, he commenced his legal studies by writing the poem of Einaldo, which 
 was published in less than two years at Venice. The poetic father, deeming it useless to thwart the bias of his son's 
 disposition, kindly and wisely permitted him to devote himself to literature. He therefore entered the university of 
 Bologna ; and there, at the early age of nineteen, he began his Jerusalem Delivered. Leaving Bologna, he returned 
 to Padua, where he continued his studies ; and afterwards repaired to Mantua, to visit his father. During this brief 
 leisure he fell in love, but not so desperately as to prevent his returning to Padua. About this time the cardinal 
 d'Este, to whom he had dedicated his Rinaldo, invited him to the court of Alfonso the Second, duke of Ferrara. A 
 dangerous illness detained him nearly a twelvemonth at Mantua ; and it was not until the last day of October, 15G3, 
 that he arrived in the ducal city. 
 
 From the arrival of Tasso at Ferrara we must date that mingled career of glory and misery which constitutes the 
 greater portion of the poet's life. He appeared at court at the very moment when preparations were making for the 
 reception of the ducal bride. He was in raptures with the beauty and grandeur he saw around him ; the duke and 
 his two sisters, one of the latter the Leonora of his verse, regarded him courteously ; and he worked enthusiastically 
 upon his Jerusalem Delivered, loading it with praises of the house of Este. Forgetful of his Mantuan goddess, Tasso 
 fell in love with the beautiful Lucrezia Bendidio ; and Guarini, one of his rivals, accused him of courting two ladies 
 at once. In 1569, the poet lost his father, and his filial grief produced a severe illness ; from this, however, he 
 recovered, and again joined the circle of courtly festivities. He shortly afterwards visited France ; but before setting 
 out made his will in due form, the articles of bequest being his poems, and certain properties pawned to two Jews. 
 But the most interesting point in the document is the confidence with which he refers his prospective executor to 
 the favour of the princess Leonora for any necessary assistance in carrying out the provisions of his testament. The 
 strong expression which Tasso uses on this occasion, in referring to the princess— per amor mio, "for my sake" — 
 IS employed as an argument by those who connect his subsequent misfortunes with his presumptuous and too openly 
 manifested passion for the princess. Tasso met with a favourable reception from the French king (Charles), and soon 
 after returned to Ferrara. At this period the poet was approaching the zenith of his fame, and was in the enjoy- 
 ment of a happiness destined to be brief. He occupied himself in perfecting the Jerusalem, and wrote his beautiful 
 pastoral, the Aminta, which was performed before the court during the carnival, to the delight of a brilliant assembly. 
 In 1574, he accompanied the duke of Ferrara to Venice, where he sought a printer for his Jerusalem, which after the 
 delay of a year, occasioned by the illness of the poet, issued from the press to confirm the fame of its author. It 
 
SORRENTO. 109 
 
 The promontory of Surrentuiu once bore a temple ol" Minerva, consecrated to that goddess 
 by Ulysses. Pollius Felix:, the friend of Statins, had a villa at .Surn;ntum ; and of the temple 
 of Hercnles which he enlarged, some ruins icniahi to this day. The ruined temples of Nep- 
 tune and Diana are also still existing ; and the reservuh-, repaired by Antoninus Pius in 
 gratitude for the benefits derived from a residence at Surrentum, continues to supply the 
 modern town A\ith water. The extraordinary ravines by Avhich Sorrento is nearly surrounded 
 are amongst the striking features of this singular and beautiful locality. The lofty arches that 
 cross the gorge in our view, are of Roman construction, and over them lies the approach to 
 the eastern gate of the town. Near the bottom of the ravine a steep and narrow path leads 
 to the sea-shore. 
 
 Sorrento enjoys the most temperate climate in Italy, and during the summer months it is 
 crowded with visitants, chiefly English, who make it their head-quarters for excursions to 
 Paestum, Salerno, Capri, and other interesting localities. To the gifted few who can appre- 
 ciate genius, and who delight to trace its "whereabouts," the house of Tasso must be the chief 
 attraction of Sorrento. This edifice is beautifully situated on the lofty rocks overlooking the 
 bay of Naples. It was restored from a dilapidated condition by order of Joseph Bonaparte 
 when king of Naples. This house, the tourists tell us exultingly, is now a palace. When 
 Tasso dwelt there it Avas a temple ! 
 
 might be thought that Tasso had now achieved all that ambition could desire, and would have reposed on his laurels ; 
 but at this time commenced those fits of depression which ultimately, through the malignity of hostile criticism, and 
 unworthy neglect, overthrew a mind too sensitive to endure calmly the rude treatment to which it was exposed. 
 Whilst much of his mental anguish may undoubtedly be referred to his own ardent temperament, there can be no 
 doubt that the house of Este assumed a cold demeanour towards him, and that impotent malice decried his genius ; 
 and how fearfully these vexations must have wrought upon the mind of Tasso, let kindred genius — though less than the 
 thousandth part of his — declare. Many inconsistencies of conduct marked the future career of the poet. Alternately 
 imprecating wrath upon his patron, and suing for re-admission to his presence, his position was truly humiliating. 
 At length, a frenzied outbreak gave Alfonso the power, and with some show of justice, of consigning him to a lunatic 
 hospital, where he remained, from 1579 till 1586, the companion of maniacs. Indeed, he had been driven mad, and 
 frequently during his confinement he exhibited the hallucinations of a confirmed Bedlamite. Upon his liberation from 
 the hospital, Tasso left Ferrara for ever, and repaired to the Mantuan court, where he was received with honour, 
 and began to think himself once more happy. He corrected his prose works, finished his tragedy of Torrismond, and 
 completed and published a narrative poem left unfinished by his father. But his peace of mind was soon interrupted ; 
 he felt that he was now subject to frenzy, and he confessed it. He left Mantua, and wandered from place to place, 
 returning frequently to the same locality only again to leave it. A mortal illness was approaching ; and at this 
 moment, as if in mockery, the Pope granted to Tasso the honour of being crowned in Rome. The poet had three 
 years before desired that honour, and now that it was conceded, he set forward to the capital ; but before the cere- 
 mony could be arranged, he felt his end approaching, and desired permission to retire to the monastery of St. Onofrio, 
 where he expired on the 25th April, 1595, in the fifty-first year of his age. After his death, the ceremony of the 
 coronation proceeded ; his lifeless brow received the laurel wreath, and his body, wrapped in a ma,gnificent toga, was 
 carried by torch-light in solemn procession through the streets of Rome. 
 
 2 E 
 
no 
 
 META— AMALFI. 
 
 M E T A. 
 
 ^ T the northern extremity of the Piano di Sorrento stands the small town of 
 ■^^"^ Meta, surrounded by objects of remarkable beauty and picturesque character, 
 and containing within its precincts the traditional sites of two heathen tem- 
 ples; one of these, supposed to be that of a temple of Minerva, is now occupied 
 by a fine church; and on the other, in the neighbourhood of the Capuchin 
 ''convent, a temple of Venus is said formerly to have stood. This last is now appro- 
 > priated to a sort of fortified farm, named a masseria. The situation of Meta above 
 the sea renders the air fresh and pure, and causes the locality to be much esteemed as 
 a place of residence. In the town are some remarkable ravines, not less striking in 
 their appearance than the one at the Gate of Sorrento. 
 The illustrative view is taken from a point near the village of St. Agnello. Vesuvius is seen 
 on the left, and on the right appears a bold head-land, the base of the jMonte Chiaro. Meta 
 is distant about three miles from Sorrento. 
 
 AMALFI. 
 
 The time has been. 
 When on the quays along the Syrian coast, 
 'Twas ask'd, and eagerly, at break of dawn, 
 " What ships are from Amalfi?" 
 
 Rogers^ 
 
 M HE city of Amalfi, a sea-port in the gulf of Salerno, is in the kingdom of 
 Naples, from whose capital it is distant about thirty miles. The history of 
 this place previous to the sixth century is uncertain and obscure. Tradition 
 assigns the foundation of the city to Hercules and a nymph named Amalfi; 
 and the principal inhabitants are anxious to trace back their descent to 
 certain Roman patricians who, in the fifth and sixth centuries, sought refuge 
 '^j amidst the rocks and recesses of the neighbouring coast, from the inroads of Genseric 
 and Totila. Amalfi ultimately became one of the great republics of Italy, but it has 
 long since fallen from its high estate. After three hundred years of prosperity, it 
 gradually sunk to its present position, that of a fishing-town; but the poverty of a 
 thousand fishermen, as Gibbon remarks, is yet dignified by the remains of an arsenal, 
 a cathedral, and the palaces of royal merchants. 
 
 The ecclesiastical history of Amalfi is recorded with more certainty than its early political 
 annals, yet it is to these last that we shall 'hasten, for what can be more profitless than 
 
AMALFI. Ill 
 
 to dwell at any length npon the thrico-told tale of moiildsli superstition and fraud. The 
 bishops of Amalfi, ^ye are told, have come down in uninterrupted succession from the time of 
 Lf one, who, in 987, was archbishop of this sec. It is further related, that Cardinal Pictro 
 Capuano, on his return from the Ivist, whither he had accompanied the crusaders, brought 
 with him and presented to his native city, the remains of the body of Saint Andrew. These 
 precious relics, deposited in a silver coffin, were on the 8tli of May, 1208, borne in solemn pro- 
 cession to the church of the Holy Apostle. Nearly a century after the deposition of the relics, 
 a miraculous liquor was seen, by an old pilgrim, to ooze from the bones; and it has continued 
 to flow ever since. This liquid, named the manna of Amalfi, has been a constant source of 
 revenue to the church, and to this day it is sought as an unfailing preservative against ship- 
 wreck and sickness. The profits accruing from the sale of the manna were so consideraljle, 
 that, in l-i63, Pius II. ordered the head of the saint to be sent and deposited in the Basilica 
 Vaticana in Rome, hoping thereby to become a sharer in the emoluments. The remains of 
 St. Andrew were not, however, the only treasure that Capuano brought from the East; he 
 appears to have been an indefatigable relic-hunter, and his success was commensurate Avith 
 his zeal. He discovered and brought away the bodies of St. Macario, St. Viot, St. Cosmo, and 
 St. Damiano, the first of whom was an Egyptian cseuobite, and the remaining three were 
 martyrs. In addition to these, he obtained the heads of St. James the Less, St. Basil, and St. 
 Diomed; the skull of St. Pancras; the hand of St. Philip the Apostle; and the arm of St. George 
 the martyr; numerous bones in minute fragments of the Holy Innocents; ihxee. great bones 
 of St. Zacharias, the father of St. John the Baptist; a thorn of the crown of our Saviour; and 
 a fine piece of the wood of the cross; together with many other valuable and authentic relics, 
 qu(B nunc perscribere longiim est — or, as the local historian says, "too numerous to mention." 
 
 The political history of Amalfi dawns in the sixth century, in connection with a ducal 
 authority sanctioned by the exarchs of Ravenna. Subsequentlj^, counts of Amalfi appear; 
 and after these, we find an independent people under their Doges. At a later period the 
 famous count Roger of Sicily either took the city under his protection, or appropriated it 
 as a conquest. It was during his government that the Pisans, availing themselves of the 
 absence of the Amalfians, Avho had accompanied the count to the siege of Aversa, took and 
 sacked Amalfi; and though the latter returned by forced marches to the rescue of their cit}^ 
 the Pisans succeeded in carrying off the celebrated Pandects of Justinian. Whence, or in 
 what manner, the Amalfians obtained this treasure, history does not record; it is supposed, 
 however, to have been purchased by some of the princely merchants trading with Constanti- 
 nople. It Avas believed to be the original copy of the Pandects, in the hand-writing of the 
 emperor himself. The Pisans were afterwards compelled to surrender their prize to Florence; 
 but the date of its seizure by them is sufficient to identify with Amalfi those modern systems 
 of jurisprudence Avhich are based upon the institutes of Justinian. After the sack of the city 
 by the Pisans, Amalfi lost much of the importance it had gained by its commerce, shipping, 
 riches, and acknowledged maritime authority. It was afterwards restored to an independent 
 dukedom, under prince Orsini of Salerno; and the ducal authority was subsequently conferred 
 on Antonio Piccolomini, the nephew of Pope Pius 11. In 1650, this state was conveyed to 
 Ottavio Piccolomini by a formal grant from the king of Spain. But the glory of Amalfi may 
 be said to have terminated with the plunder of the city by the Pisans; for its subsequent 
 partial restoration merely rendered its decline more gradual. 
 
 The character and the numerical strength of the population of Amalfi, in the present day, 
 
112 AMALFI. 
 
 contrast strongly with the busy multitudes that crowded its streets and quays in the tenth and 
 eleventh centuries, when the fleets of its Doges compassed the seas and traded to every known 
 part of the world. The city now contains scarcely three thousand inhabitants, and these are 
 poor fishermen, but in the days of its power and distinction it numbered a population of 50,000 
 inhabitants, composed of industrious artisans and princely merchants. It was one boast of 
 the Amalfians that they coined their own money: — 
 
 ' her coins, 
 
 Silver and gold, circled from clime to clime ; 
 From Alexandria southward to Sennaar, 
 And eastward, through Damascus and Cahul, 
 And Samarcand, to thy great wall Cathay." 
 
 The commerce of the Amalfians naturally directed their attention to maritime jurisprudence, 
 and their celebrated code, the Tawh Amalfltane became the basis of those laws relating to 
 navigation which continue to be acknowledged by commercial nations. 
 
 " Then were the nations by her wisdom swayed ; 
 And every crime on every sea was judged 
 According to her judgments." 
 
 Amalfi shared the general enthusiasm, and joined the crusade for the recovery of the Holy 
 Land from the infidels. Her merchants established an hospital in Jerusalem, which afterwards 
 became the foundation of the famous order of the Knights Hospitallers of Jerusalem, and 
 subsequently of Malta. 
 
 ■ " in Palestine, 
 
 By the way-side, in sober grandeur stood 
 An Hospital, that, night and day, received 
 The pilgrims of the west ; and when 'twas ask'd, 
 ' Who are the noble founders ? ' every tongue 
 At once replied, ' The Merchants of Amalfi.' " 
 
 The historian long claimed for an Amalfian the honour of having invented the Mariner's 
 Compass, but this distinction recent researches have denied ; although it is probable that the 
 citizen Flavins Gioja (1301) improved the instrument and extended its use. 
 
 If the universal consent of history be worth anything, it declares the stability of commercial 
 states to be as unsteady as the waters over which their vessels ride. Amalfi, the rival of 
 Venice and Genoa, whose factories were established in every emporium of the commercial 
 world, has become the habitation of a few fishermen, and its fame is now confined to remini- 
 scences of past glory, and picturesque beauties of site and scenery over which time and con- 
 flicting temporal interests can work little of change. 
 
 — " to him who sails 
 
 Under the shore, a few white villages, 
 
 Scattered above, below, some in the clouds, 
 
 Some on the margin of the dark blue sea. 
 
 And glittering through their lemon-groves, announce 
 
 Theregion of Amalfi." 
 
PyESTUM. 113 
 
 THE TEMPLES OF PJ:STUM. 
 
 They stand between the mountains and the sea ; 
 Awful memorials, but of whom we know not 1 
 
 Bogers. 
 
 LL inqiiii-y concerning Psestum and its temples terminates in a few vague 
 
 '■> guesses; yet these, although historically valueless, add by their very obscurity 
 
 to the interest which attaches to the memorials of a people utterly unknown. 
 
 The silence of history contrasts with the ruined temples of Psestum in a 
 
 „ _^ , manner that powerfully affects the mind. Even the pjTamids of Egypt yield 
 
 (ns^jj^ in point of interest to these ruins : the former are immense structures of a character 
 
 ^ J^ suited to withstand the combined action of tune and the elements, and the mind 
 
 Q; readily admits that they belong to an age which authentic records cannot reach ; the 
 
 ^*'. latter, on the contrary, are edifices of ordinary size, composed of ai'chitectural members 
 
 '^ whose details are liable to injury, and yet so singularly preserved that they might be 
 
 the remains of a people not more than a century distant from ourselves. 
 
 " Time was they stood along the crowded street, 
 Temples of gods ! and on their ample steps 
 What various habits, various tongues beset 
 The brazen gates for prayer and sacrifice ! 
 Time was perhaps the third was sought for justice ; 
 And here the judges sate, and heard, and judged. 
 All silent now !" 
 
 Learned conjecture, taking the place of authentic history, attributes the origin of Psestum 
 to a Phenician or Dorian colony. It was first named Posetan, or Postan, and was dedicated 
 to Neptune. About five hundred years before the Christian era, the primitive inhabitants were 
 expelled by the Sybarites, under whom the city assumed the Greek appellation of Posidonia. 
 The Sybarites, in turn, gave place to the Lucanians, and these last to the Romans, who colo- 
 nized the city and gave it the name of Psestum. The poets, from Virgil to Claudian, allude to 
 the blooming gardens of Psestum, and celebrate " the Psestan roses and their double spring." 
 The final destruction of the city took place in the ninth century, when the Saracens drove out 
 the inhabitants and compelled them to seek refuge in the neighbouring mountains. A Norman 
 plunderer, Robert Guiscard, carried off a great portion of the ruins of Psestum to construct and 
 decorate the cathedral of Salerno. Owing probably to the unhealthiness of the district, the 
 remaining memorials were not discovered till about the middle of the last century, when either 
 a shepherd or a painter is said to have found them in the coui-se of a morning's ramble from 
 Capaccio. 
 
114 REGGIO. 
 
 The great antiquity of the Psestan temples is determined by the style of their architecture, 
 which is characterized by severe simplicity. The Romans seem never to have adopted the 
 genuine Doric style, and since the Sybarites are said to have occupied the neighbouring plain 
 at some distance from the temples, the inference is that these structures were the work of the 
 primitive inhabitants. The temples are three in number. The one nearest to the foreground 
 (referring to our view) is thought by some to have been a curia, or a basilica, and by others a 
 market or exchange, since no vestiges of an altar have been discovered in it. The second 
 building is named the temple of Neptune, and is the most majestic structure of the three. The 
 distant ruin, designated the temple of Ceres, is much smaller than the other two. We shall 
 not occupy space with an extended description of these buildings, since the engraving places 
 them before the reader in a manner so satisfactory as to render textual comment unnecessary. 
 
 After their subjugation by the Romans, the Psestans still retained a fond attachment to the 
 institutions of Greece. Though forced to adopt a foreign dialect, and accommodate themselves 
 to the manners of their conquerors, they were accustomed to assemble annually on one of the 
 great festivals of Greece, to keep alive the memory of their origin, and to vent their lamenta- 
 tions in the ancient tongue of their country. 
 
 " Parents and children mourn 'd, and every year, 
 ('Twas on the day of some old festival,) 
 Met to give way to tears, and once again 
 Talk in the ancient tongue of things gone by." 
 
 K E G G I 0. 
 
 , ICILY is supposed at one time to have joined the Italian peninsula, from 
 which it was afterwards rent by an earthquake ; and in reference to this 
 opinion the etymology of Reggio has been deduced from the Greek '^hym^f, 
 to break. Strabo, however, is of opinion that the ancient name, Rhegium or 
 Regium, refers to the dignity and importance of the city at the time the 
 appellation was given. 
 Reggio, the chief city of Calabria Ulterior, is situated on the Straits of Messina, oppo- 
 site the Sicilian coast. The history of this place commences with certainty about seven 
 hundred years before the Christian era, at which period it was founded by a pai-ty of 
 Zancleeans from Sicily, together with some Chalcidians of Euboea, and Messenians from 
 Peloponnesus. The government of Rhegium was oligarchical for two hundred years, or 
 until A.C. 496, when Anaxilaus II. usurped the sole authority. Under this prince the pros- 
 perity of the Rhegians reached its highest extent; but the latter succeeded in freeing them- 
 selves from the control of the sons of Anaxilaus, and ultimately secured a moderate and stable 
 form of government. By preserving a strict neutrality in the hostilities between the Sicilians 
 and their opponents, the Rhegians long maintained their independence; but they at length 
 fell into the power of Dionysius the tyrant of Syracuse. During the war with Pyrrhus, this 
 
 6 
 
REG G 10. 115 
 
 city, at that time gai'risoned by the Romans, was seized by a body of Campaiiians stationed 
 there for its defence, and Avas exposed to all the licentiousness and rapacity of those mercen- 
 ary troops. After they had held it for ten years, the place was besieged and taken by the 
 Romans, who sent three hundred of its persecutors to Rome, Avhere they were scourged and 
 beheaded. On the fall of the empire, this city shared the common fate of the coast towns of 
 Italy. It suffered severely from the Saracens ; and in 1544 it was reduced to ashes by Bar- 
 barossa. 
 
 Reggio has often experienced fatal calamities from earthquakes. The 'walls of the city, 
 rebuilt after their destruction by Dionysius, were totally overthrown during the great earth- 
 quake that preceded the Social war. In the last century it frequently suffered severely ; and 
 in Februai-y 1783, the same convulsions of the earth which Avere so fatal to Messina and a 
 great part of Calabria, entirely destroyed Reggio. It was long before it arose again from its 
 ruins ; but its importance as the capital of the southern division of Calabria led the Neapolitan 
 government to effect its restoration. The recent formation of a road from Naples to this 
 extremity of the kingdom, must have a favourable influence over the prosperity of Reggio, 
 whose neighbourhood is alike remarkable for its picturesque beauty and the fertility of its soil. 
 The city is built on a gentle declivity. On the sea-side lies the marina, or esplanade, running 
 parallel with the chief street ; and the width of this avenue, and that of the transverse streets, 
 renders Reggio one of the finest cities of the kingdom of Naples. The Straits of Messina, like 
 a vast river, separate it from the shores of Sicily, where the snow-capped and towering Etna 
 rises in all its majesty over the range of lower mountains.* 
 
 Juha, the daughter of Augustus, scandalized Rhegium by her presence, and here terminated 
 her infamous life in exile. Names of worthier note, however, are associated with the ancient 
 city, — those of Cicero, Titus, and St. Paul, the latter of whom records (Acts xxviii. 12, 13) — 
 " And landing at Syracuse, we tarried there tliree days ; and from thence we fetched a compass 
 and came to Rhegium : and after one day the south wind blew, and we came the next day to 
 Puteoli.^' 
 
 * It is in the Straits of Messina, and from Reggio, that the celebrated optical illusion named the Fata 2Iori-/ana, 
 is sometimes witnessed. " This singular exhibition has been frequently seen in the Straits of Messina, between Sicily 
 and the coast of Italy, and whenever it takes place, the people, in a state of exultation, as if it were not only a pleas- 
 ing but a lucky phenomenon, hurry down to the sea, exclaiming, 'Morgana! Morgana!' When the rays of the 
 rising sun form an angle of 45° on the sea of Reggio, and when the surface of the water is perfectly unruffled either 
 by the wind or the current, a spectator placed upon an eminence in the city, and having his back to the sun and his 
 face to the sea, observes upon the surface of the water superb palaces, with their balconies and windows, lofty towers, 
 herds and flocks grazing in wooded valleys and fertile plains, armies of men on horseback and on foot, with multiplied 
 fragments of buildings, such as columns, pilasters, and arches. These objects pass rapidly in succession along the 
 surface of the sea during the brief period of their appearance. The various objects thus enumerated are pictures of 
 palaces and buildings actually existing on shore, and the living objects are of course only seen when they happen to 
 form a part of the general landscape. If at the time that these phenomena are visible the atmosphere is charged 
 with vapour or dense exhalations, the same objects which are depicted upon the sea will be seen also in the air, occu- 
 pying a space which extends from the surface to the height of twenty-five feet. If the air is in a state to deposit dew, 
 and is capable of forming the rainbow, the objects will be seen only on the surface of the sea, and wUl appear fringed 
 with colours, as if seen through a prism." 
 
116 
 
 BENEVENTO 
 
 BENEVENTO. 
 
 CY -ENEVENTO, anciently Benevmtum in the country of the Samnites, is a place 
 I^-'^of some interest to the classical historian. In this neighbourhood stood the 
 " town of Caudium, near which, in a place called CaucUnce Furculce, a Roman 
 army, under S. Veturius . Calvinus and Spurius Posthumius, was compelled 
 to surrender to the Samuites, and to pass beneath the yoke with every mark 
 of degradation. Beneventum was a city of high antiquity, and claimed 
 Diomedes for its founder. It long bore the inauspicious name of Maleventum, which was 
 changed when it became a Roman colony into one of better omen. Its adherence to 
 1\j Rome during the second Punic War, obtained for it the thanks of the senate. After 
 ^ the fall of the empire, this city was possessed in succession by the Goths, the Greeks, 
 and the Lombards. Under the latter people it became an independent principality, and ulti- 
 mately rose to be a dukedom; and after having been governed by various princes, Lombard, 
 Greek, and Norman, it at length fell under the domination of the Roman pontiff. On the 
 French invasion of Italy, and after the conquest of Naples, Bonaparte gave this city 
 to Talleyrand: together with the title of Prince of Benevento; but on the termination of 
 the Napoleon drama it was restored to the papal authority. 
 
 Benevento stands on a gentle elevation, at the foot of a bold ridge of hills. Its northern 
 walls are bathed by the Galore, a river still enjoying its ancient name. A lofty bridge crosses 
 the stream; and near this structure two heaps of stones are pointed out as the memorial of the 
 burial place of Count Manfred of Suabia. This nobleman long maintained a struggle against 
 Charles of Anjou and the pope; but at length, in January 1266, he suffered a signal defeat 
 near Benevento, and rushing into the midst of his enemies, fell amongst a heap of slain. 
 Charles, in a letter to the Roman pontiff, represented that the body of Manfred had received 
 honourable sepulture; but this honourable interment consisted merely in throwing the corpse 
 into a ditch, and permitting every soldier in the army to cast a stone upon it. 
 
 The citadel of Benevento, a structure of moderate but picturesque proportions, erected in 
 1323, is situated outside the city gates. The cathedral is a large fabric in the Saracenic style, 
 but composed of ancient materials, the remains of imperial times. It is supported within by 
 fifty columns of white marble, forming on each side a double aisle. Relics of Roman great- 
 ness may be traced at Benevento, in the remains of an amphitheatre and the ancient walls of 
 the city, and in minor details of architectural decoration. The chief antiquity, however, is 
 the triumphal arch of Trajan, forming one of the gates of the city. It consists of a single 
 arch, and is of Parian marble, and entire, with the exception of a part of the cornice. Both 
 sides are adorned with four Corinthian pillars raised on high pedestals. The frieze, panels, 
 and indeed every part within and v\dthout the arch, are covered with rich sculptures, allusive 
 to the achievements of the emperor. This triumphal arch is considered the most perfect thing 
 of the kind existing; it appears, however, to be wanting in simplicity, the decorations being so 
 crowded as to leave no repose for the eye, and no plane surface to give relief to the sculptures. 
 
ISOLA DI SORA. II7 
 
 The climate of Benevento is humid and heavy, and strilcingly in contrast with the pure air 
 of Naples. The town has on the whole a good appearance; and it offers in the present day a 
 better reception to travellers than it formerly afforded to Horace and his friends. 
 
 Teudimus liiiio recta Boaoventum, ubi sedulus liospes. 
 Pone macros, arsit, turdos dum versat in igne. 
 Nam vaga per vcterom dilapso flamma culinam, 
 Vulcaiio, siimmum properabat lambere tectum. 
 Convivas avidos croiiam servosque timeutos 
 Turn rapere, atque omiies restinguere vello videres. 
 
 Eor. Sat. I. v. 71— 7(J. 
 
 At our next Inn our host was almost burn'd, 
 While some lean thrushes at the fire he turn'd. 
 Through his old kitchen rolls the god of fire, 
 And to the roof the vagrant flames aspire; 
 But hunger all our terrors overcame; 
 We fly to save our meat, and quench the flame. 
 
 Francis. 
 
 ISOLA DI SORA, 
 
 SOLA DI SORA, a town of the tenth or eleventh century, is situated about 
 two miles below the ancient Sora, which was successively held by the 
 Sorani, the Samnites, and the Romans. The neighbourhood of Sora is rendered 
 classical by recollections of Cicero. The Arpine villa of the orator, the spot where 
 the scene of his Dialogues with Atticus and Quintus on Legislation is laid, was 
 situated in a valley watered by the Fibrenus. Everything in this locality is asso- 
 ciated with the name of Cicero : an old ivy-mantled toAver is still known as La Torre di 
 Cicerone ; and the foundation of an ancient bridge, some remains of which exist, is 
 attributed to the father of Cicero. 
 The town of Isola is referred to in some records of the eleventh century under the 
 title of Insula flliorum Petri (the island of the sons of Peter) which Petrus Avas a castaldus, or 
 governor, of the district. The castle, to which the modern town owes its origin, is situated 
 on a mass of rock that divides the stream of the Liris, which owing to this impediment in its 
 course forms two cascades, the one a perpendicular fall of ninety-six feet, and the other a 
 torrent rushing down an inclined plane of six hundred palms in extent. The divided waters 
 insulate the castle and the town of Isola at its foot, and hence the latter has obtained its 
 name. Isold once belonged to the Cantelmi family, until they, with other of the Italian 
 nobles, conspired against Ferdinand, who in consequence reduced these feudal chiefs to sub- 
 mission, and bestowed their domains upon his adherents. The last possessor of this 
 
118 
 
 SUBIACO. 
 
 principality resigned it to the Neapolitan government in exchange for other estates, and it has 
 ever since formed part of the regal territory. The castle is still exteriorly an object of 
 regard, but the " base uses " to which it is now applied, have destroyed the claims of the 
 interior to any notice beyond that which is accorded by the Neapolitan cloth merchants, for 
 whose fabrics it serves as a manufactory. Near the site of Cicero's villa, a Cartaria, or paper- 
 mill has been established, which supplies the greater part of the paper consumed in the 
 kingdom of Naples. This mill, seen in our view a little beyond the castle, on the right, is 
 driven by the waters of the Fibrenus, which, after they have done their work at the factory, 
 are led with considerable taste through the pleasure grounds of the proprietor. 
 
 Isola contains about three thousand inhabitants, all of whom are either directly or indirectly 
 interested in the manufactures of cloth, paper, or iron-wire, to which the modem town owes 
 its prosperity. Its connection with the Roman States has occasionally involved it in calamity. 
 At some periods in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries it was devastated by troops of 
 brigands, one of which, under a celebrated commander named Papone, used to levy taxes, and 
 assume all the privileges of a feudal sovereign. On the first entrance of the French, in 1798' 
 it underwent disasters of a similar nature, to which it was too often subjected at later periods, 
 in consequence of the unsubmitting disposition of the natives. 
 
 SUBIACO. 
 
 UBIACO is a beautiful little town, situated in the valley of the Anio, and 
 surrounded by mountains which range as offsets from the Apennines. It is 
 distant forty-four miles from Rome, and is much resorted to by artists for 
 the picturesque scenery of its neighbourhood. The establishment of 
 Monachism in Italy is intimately connected with this locality. It was here 
 that the eremite, St. Benedict, in 515, composed those rules of monastic 
 life which he afterwards imposed upon his community of monks, which thus became 
 the leading order of regular monachism in Europe. 
 
 Subiaco derived its ancient name of SuNaqueiim from the artificial lakes of the Villa 
 of Nero, below which it was built. The ruins of this viUa are still to be seen, about 
 a mile from the town, and they take an interest from the record of Tacitus that it was 
 here the cup of the tyrant was dashed from his lips by lightning, and the table at which he 
 was reclming overthrown. In the vicinity of these ruins is the celebrated monastery of Santa 
 Scholastica, founded in the fifth century. This building is remarkable for its three cloisters, 
 the work of different ages, and it was once famous for its library; but the most interesting 
 incident connected with its history is the introduction of the printing-press into Italy by the 
 German printers Sweynheim and Pannartz. About a mile from Santa Scholastica stands the 
 monastery of St. Benedict, environed by scenery of the grandest character. The building is 
 

ASSIST. 110 
 
 of different dates, and is built against the i-oclcy liill on nine ai-clics of considerable height, and 
 consists of two stories. The cave in Avhicli St. Benedict lived in solitude, and where he wrote 
 his rules of monastic life, is underneath the building. It is identified by some authorities 
 with the oracle of Faunus, Avho according to tradition reigned in Italy 1300 years B.C., and 
 was exalted into a deity after his death. If this conjecture is correct, the Holy Cave of 
 Subiaco is the most venerable retreat of lying oracles extant. It contains a statue of its 
 second oracle, St. Benedict, by Bernini. 
 
 The dai-k and narrow streets of Subiaco present a repulsive aspect. The church was built 
 by Pius VI., Avho was abbot of the monastery for many years ])efore his elevation to the papal 
 chair. The abbatical palace, seated on the summit of the rock, was erected by the same 
 pontiff. This edifice was anciently a residence of the popes, and was then accessible by a 
 cai-riage road, but has long ceased to be so. The town of Subiaco seated on an eminence, 
 crowned with this ancient castle, offers a scene of singular attraction and beauty. 
 
 A S S I S I, 
 
 CONVENT OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 let none who speak 
 
 Of that place, say Assisi ; for its name 
 Were lamely so delivered ; but the East,* 
 To call things rightly be it henceforth styled. 
 
 Paradiso, xi. 48 — 50. 
 
 ;^^ROPERTIUS, Cimabue, Giotto, Dante, and Metastasio, names commanding 
 
 /A2) homage, render Assisi deeply interesting to every lover of the sister arts of 
 
 poetry and painting. Propertius, a native of the ancient Assisium, is 
 
 regarded by classical scholars as the rival of TibuUus in elegiac verse. The 
 
 paintings of Cimabue and Giotto gave a proud distinction to Assisi in the 
 
 thirteenth and fourteenth centuries; and Dante, their contemporary, celebrates in 
 
 immortal verse their artistic triumphs and the piety of St. Francis, whose religious 
 
 fervour powerfully influenced their genius. Metastasio, the operatic i)oet of Italv, 
 
 was born at Assisi at the close of the seventeenth century. He was the son of a 
 
 common soldier. 
 
 Of the ancient Assisium we know nothing beyond its having been the birth-place 
 of Propertius; but some remains of aqueducts and tombs, and of a theatre, together with a 
 temple of Minerva, now converted into the church of Santa Maria della Minerva, bear testi- 
 
 * Dante styles Assisi the " East," by way of eminence, in compliment to St. Francis. 
 
 — — > 
 
120 ASSISI. 
 
 monj to its importance in the days of elder Italy, The middle age history of Assisi refers 
 almost exclusively to the foundation of a religious brotherhood, named the order of St. 
 Francis. The founder of this community was a native of Assisi; and a little church, the 
 Chiesa Nuova, occupies the spot where he was born. Here is shown the prison in which he 
 was confined by his father, who was exceedingly provoked by his prodigal distribution of alms. 
 From the brotherhood of St. Francis several reformed orders have sprung, and to one of these, 
 the order of the Holy Apostles, belongs the Sagro Convento, or Holy Convent of St. Francis, a 
 building to which, in every sense, a catholic interest is attached. For the csdholic pat^ticular there 
 is the body of St. Francis deposited in the subterranean conventual church; and for the catholic 
 univei'sal there are the frescoes of Cimabue and Giotto, adorning the roof and walls of the 
 upper and middle churches. 
 
 The Sagro Convento was raised in the brief space of two years, in the interval between 
 1228 and 1230. It is an immense structure, and its walls in former times enclosed a greater 
 number of monks than even the great monastery of Monte Casino. Including the subterranean 
 church which forms the mausoleum of St. Francis, there are three churches rising one above 
 another. The upper church is a fine specimen of Gothic, with lancet windows of painted glass. 
 The roof and walls are decorated with frescoes by Cimabue, embracing a variety of subjects 
 amongst which are leading incidents in sacred history from the Creation to the Descent from 
 the Cross, together with passages in the life of St. Francis, some of which last are attributed 
 to Giotto. The seats in the choir were carved by one of the monks of the convent at the end 
 of the fifteenth century. ' The campanile of this church is a massive pile, with stau's a cordoni, 
 and commands from its summit an extensive and interesting prospect. The middle church 
 has a gloomy and low appearance, but is rich in treasures of art. Giotto's three paintings of 
 the Franciscan virtues, Poverty, Chastity, and Obedience, and a fourth named the glorification 
 of St. Francis, occupy the four triangular compartments of the vault. In the cross-aisle is 
 the celebrated Crucifixion by Pietro Cavallino, the pupil of Giotto, a fresco admired by Michael 
 Angelo for its grandeur. In other divisions of the building, and in the adjoining chapels, are 
 interesting works of art belonging to the school of Cimabue. The convent and its cloisters 
 are not less interesting than the triple church. They contain a series of heads of eminent 
 Franciscans by Adone Doni; and in the refectory is a fine painting of the Last Supper by 
 Solimene. 
 
 Besides the Sagro Convento, Assisi contains other structures of great interest both as regards 
 their architecture and internal decoration. Amongst these may be named the church of Santa 
 Chiara enriched with the frescoes of Giotto; the cathedral dedicated to St. Rufinus the first 
 bishop of Assisi; and the church of Santa Maria della Minerva, to which is attached the 
 magnificent portico of the ancient temple of Minerva. 
 
 The city is surrounded Avith battlements and towers, and commanded by a lofty ruined 
 citadel; and these features, combined with a long line of aqueducts, render Assisi one of 
 the most picturesque scenes in Italy. A great fair is held here annually from the 21st July to 
 the 1st August, during which period the grant of indulgences brings a multitude of visitors 
 from all parts of Catholic Europe. Assisi is celebrated for the manufacture of needles and 
 iron files; and of the former articles the yeai-ly produce is four thousand pounds' weight. 
 
tii<iim(tu/hwf(y '''0itAr' ^v^^s h if^^^ftiftiuitfljr ^11) injiittw III- )\ 
 
 
W' 
 
LORETTO. 12i 
 
 L 11 E T T 0. 
 
 A brace of sinners, for ikj good, 
 
 Were ordcrod to the Virgin Mary's ^llrine, 
 Who at Loretto dwelt in wax, stone, wood, 
 
 And, in a curl'd white wig, look'd wond'rous fine. 
 
 Wolcot. 
 
 ^'\i^"-^^^^^^ antique fame belongs to Loretto, ^vllicll is, nevertheless, the most famous 
 locality in the known world. But u-hat a celebrity is that in which it 
 , '^ rejoices ! The distinction of having been, for five centuries and a half, the 
 '* depository of a dilapidated cottage which the catholic wisdom of ages has 
 decreed, and continues to decree, ought to be verily and indeed taken and 
 received as the identical house of Joseph the carpenter, wherein he, together 
 with the Virgin Mary, and the infant Christ, dwelt at Nazareth ! And let no heretic 
 throw discredit on the holy legend, for a pious hermit, accompanied by sixteen persons 
 of reputation, made a journey to compare the walls of the house with the foundations 
 remaining at Nazareth ; and, moreover, the bricks are alive to this day at Loretto, to 
 confirm the truth of old tradition. 
 
 When the crusaders abandoned Palestine, in 1291, the house of the Virgin, we are told, was 
 borne through the air by angels aad deposited in Dalmatia, where it appears to have met witli 
 little respect, for its divine carriers, three years afterwards, transported it thence to the oppo- 
 site sea-shore of Italy, when two brothers quarrelled for the possession of it, and one slew the 
 other. After this tragical event the angels resumed theu- labours, and carried the sacred 
 habitation to the very spot where it is now fixed, which at that time was in the midst of a 
 forest. Persons were found to bear testimony that they had seen the house hovering in the 
 air, and many declared that they had found it in the morning on a spot which they knew to 
 have been vacant the evening before. An old lady, named Lauretta, upon whose land it ulti- 
 mately rested, had credulity or craft enough to assist in maintaining this monstrous tale, and 
 thus gained the identification of her name with the miracle. 
 
 The miracle of Loretto gradually attracted the attention of the whole Christian world. 
 Princes and prelates, rich and poor, hastened with pious alacrity to offer their devotions before 
 the holy house. Gifts and votive offerings accumulated ; a magnificent church Avas erected ; 
 gold, silver, and diamonds blazed around every altar, and heaps of treasures loaded the shelves 
 of the sacristy ; various edifices arose in the vicinity of the new temple, and Loretto became a 
 populous city. 
 
 The Chiesa della Santa Casa, or Church of the Holy House, is a noble structure, planned l\v 
 Bramante, and built in the form of a cross. Under the dome stands the Santa Casa, a build- 
 ing of brick, about thirty feet long, and fourteen feet high. The smoke of numberless lamps 
 
 2 II 
 
122 L R E T T 0. 
 
 has so much discoloured the structure, that the material of which it is composed is not readily 
 ascertained, except in some places where sceptical heretics have scraped the surface. The 
 Romanists deny that it is brick, and affirm that it is a reddish grey stone unknown in Italy ; 
 but neither the denial nor the assertion can stand in the face of a fact. And why, after all, 
 be so squeamish about the material ? The miracle ought to be accounted so much the greater, 
 if the angelic bearers not only conveyed the holy house beyond the reach of the infidel, but 
 also converted the Syrian stone into veritable Italian hick. The interior of the Santa Casa is 
 divided by a silver rail into two parts of unequal dimensions. In the largest division is an 
 altar ; and in the lesser one, which is considered peculiarly holy, is a cedar image of the 
 Virgin, placed over the chimney-piece. This image is decked in glittering robes, wears a trij)le 
 crown, and is adorned with precious stones. She holds an image of the infant Jesus, and a 
 globe. Her face is of an Ethiopian hue, and reseraljles that of an Eastern idol adorned with 
 barbai'ic pomp, rather than that of the meek and lowly mother of Christ. The exterior of the 
 house is cased with Carrara marble, enriched with hassi rillevi of subjects from the life of the 
 Virgin, executed by the most distinguished sculptors of Italy. The church which enshrines 
 the Santa Casa is profusely decorated, and contains not less than twenty chapels, many of 
 which possess fine pictures, and admirable mosaic copies of the works of Barroccio, Luchero, 
 and others. The wealth heaped upon " the Virgin Mary's shrine " was immense ; it is still 
 great, but the French laid sacrilegious hands not only upon the Queen of Heaven herself, but 
 also upon her dowry.; and when Napoleon afterwards, in 1801, restored our Lady of Loretto to 
 the pope, he quite forgot to return the small matter of trinkets and bijouterie. Lassels, whose 
 travels in Italy were published in 1670, describes some of the treasures of the Santa Casa, 
 which for the edification of our readers we catalogue at the foot of the page.* 
 
 The city of Loretto is beautifully situated on the brow of a hill overlooking the Adriatic, and 
 is distant from the sea little more than two miles. The approach from Foligno is striking. 
 
 * An altar of silver, the gift of Cosmo II., Great Duke of Florence ; a lamp of gold, as large as two men could 
 carry, the votive offering of the Senate of Venice in a time of plague ; two great candlesticks of pure gold, the gift of 
 Magdelena d'Austria, grand Duchess of Florence ; an old cupboard, with some little earthen dishes, the moveahle 
 estate of St. Joseph ; a door of silver, provided for aforesaid cupboard by a Duke of Parma ; a window of the holy 
 house enriched with silver, said window having afforded ingress to the saluting angel ; many silver lamps ; the statue 
 of the Virgin and her Son, done by St. Luke ; the vesti, or vails, of the Virgin, of divers colours and stuffs, whereof 
 one, valued at forty thousand crowns, and presented by the Infanta Isabella of Flanders, is studded with diamonds to 
 the number of three thousand, and over- wrought with twenty thousand pearls; crowns of diamonds for the Virgin and 
 Child, given by a Queen of France ; a fleece of rich jewels, presented by a Prince of Transylvania, and covering the 
 breast of the Virgin's statue ; a collar of rubies, pearls, and diamonds, with a rich cross attached, given by Cardinal 
 Sfondrati ; a glory of precious stones, adorning the niche in which the statue stands ; a row of lamps of pure gold as 
 big as a man's head, one whereof exceeds the rest, and was the gift of Sigismond, King of Polonia ; to which add a 
 profusion of rich vows and presents from great princes. But the treasury of the Santa Casa contained even greater 
 riches than those enumerated. Here were entire services for the altar in amber, agate, lapis lazuli, and crystal ; 
 precious stones in prodigal excess ; and piles of costly things of which even to write a catalogue would prove a 
 laborious penance. Let us not, however, omit special mention of the richly enamelled three-cornered jewel, with the 
 picture of the Blessed Virghi, the votive offering of two Bohemian Counts and a Gentleman, who were unceremoniously 
 pitched from a high window in Prague, by the Cahinists, and yet, in consequence of tlie Virgin's intercession, received 
 no damage from the fall ! 
 
A N C N A. 
 
 723 
 
 From this point the dome of the Cliiosa (h>ll;i Santa (!asa fonns a pi-oiiiiiicnt object ; on the 
 left hes the fertile valley of the Musoiie, and around are the remains of the forest in which 
 the holjf house at length found an ahiding rest. 
 
 A N C N A. 
 
 |3^ HE name of Ancona is derived from the Greek ay-Auv, and is supposed to 
 
 refer to the form of the promontory upon A\'hicli the cit}^ is built. This 
 
 place is distant about fourteen miles from Loretto. Though situated so 
 
 nearly together, these two localities differ in a very marked manner from 
 
 each other. Loretto relies for its prosperity on the multitudes of pilgrims 
 
 and devotees that visit the far-famed shrine, and supports its torpid inhabi- 
 
 ^itants on the wages of imposture; whilst Ancona presents a scene of commercial bustle 
 
 and activity, and finds emplojauent for its citizens in the useful occupations of maritime 
 
 trade. 
 
 We learn from Strabo that Ancona was built by a band of Syracusan patriots, who 
 fled from the tyi-anny of Dionysius, and settled upon this coast. It is supposed by 
 some to have had even an earlier existence, since it is mentioned, in the Periplus of Scylax, 
 as having belonged to the Umbri ; but this authority is by no means decisive, it being subject 
 of dispute' AAith the learned whether the Periplus is really the work of the author whose 
 name it bears. Under the Romans, Ancona became a famous sea-port ; and in the reign of 
 Trajan those magnificent works were constructed which remain objects of admiration to the 
 present day. Its situation on the coast, and its importance as a seat of maritime power, 
 exposed it to the vicissitudes common to so many towns of Jtaly, after the fall of the empire. 
 In 5.50 it was besieged by Totda, and in the same century it was seized and plundered by the 
 Lombards, after whom came the Saracens, who surpassed their predecessors in outrage and 
 oppression. It next became a free city, and in the twelfth century it was one of the most 
 important towns of the league of Lombardy. In 1173, Ancona was besieged by C'ln-istian, 
 Archbishop of Mayence, "\\ho had been sent into Italy by Frederick Barbarossa as his 
 representative. This memorable siege famishes many examjdes of patriotism and heroic 
 self-devotion. The Venetians, the allies of the Archbishop, had built a A^ast ship, named II 
 Mondo. Wooden towers of great height and magnitude had been erected on the deck of this 
 colossal ship, which was considered as the very centre of the power of the fleet. A priest of 
 Ancona, observing the havoc which it occasioned, resolved to attempt its destruction. lie 
 swam out boldly towards the vessel, bearing an axe between his teeth, and succeeded in 
 
^24 ANCONA. 
 
 cutting the cables and turning the ship adrift amongst its allies, thereby rendering it a source 
 of mischief to the besiegers themselves. After this daring performance he effected his escape 
 from the Venetians who pursued him, and reached the shore uninjured. Another example of 
 courage was given by a woman, who rushed with a lighted torch and set fire to a wooden 
 tower erected by the besiegers. She stood calmly at the base of the tower, regardless of the 
 missiles aimed at her, and there remained until the flames had spread over the entire battery 
 of the enemy. It was during the famine occasioned by this siege, that the young mother, 
 called " the heroine of Ancona," performed an act of exalted and noble charity, characteristic 
 of her sex. This woman, who was young, handsome, and of high birth, observed a soldier too 
 much exhausted to obey the summons which called him to battle. She withdrew her breast 
 from the lips of her infant and offered it to the wai-rior, who thus refreshed went forth with 
 his comrades to the defence of his country. Another example is given, in which fortitude 
 and tenderness are equally conspicuous. A woman beheld her sons perishing for want of - 
 sustenance, and having no other means of satisfying their hunger, she yielded to the great 
 necessity and opened a vein in her left arm, and from her own blood she formed by culinary 
 preparation, a costly food that prolonged the lives of her children at the imminent risk of her 
 
 own. 
 
 Ancona continued in the enjoyment of its privileges, as an independent territor}^ until 
 1532, when Gonzaga, general of Clement VII., under the specious pretext of defending it 
 aeainst the Turks, erected a fort and filled the city with papal troops. It thus became 
 incorporated with the papal states ; the aristocratic constitution which had existed for nearly 
 two centuries was overthrown ; the senators were expelled, and the principal nobles banished. 
 It remained in connection with the holy see tmtil 1798, when it was seized by the French, who 
 in the following year surrendered it to the united forces of the Russians, Austrians, and the 
 Turks. In 1808 it was again in the possession of the French, and formed part of the territory 
 of Napoleon, as King of Italy. Finally, in 1814, the city was restored to the papal govern- 
 ment. 
 
 Few cities present a more imposing exterior than Ancona, but it is only externally that it 
 is either striking or beautiful ; the streets are dark and narrow ; and, with the exception of 
 the Marina, which was laid out by order of Pius VI., the Avhole interior has a miserable 
 character common to the coast towns of Italy. The magnificent Mole of Trajan, and the 
 triumphal arch erected in his honour, are the objects of chief interest. The greatest part of 
 the Mole still remains, a solid compact wall, formed of huge stones bound together by iron, 
 and rising to a considerable height above the level of the sea ; it serves now merely as a 
 protection to the quays that are built within it. The New Mole, which is much lower, stands 
 close to that of Trajan, and sustains a triumphal arch, of the Tuscan order, erected in honour 
 of Clement XII., and raised in manifest rivalry of the one dedicated to the empei'or, yet 
 serving, at most, only as a foil to the beauties of the imperial monument. The arch of 
 Trajan is still entire, though stripped of its metallic ornaments ; the order is Corinthian ; the 
 materials Parian marble. It was formerly decorated with statues, biists, and probably 
 inferior ornaments of bronze, but these were all destroyed by the gothic invaders of Italy, 
 whose avarice and rapacity defaced every building and monument in which either bronze or 
 iron was found. 
 
 The Cathedral, dedicated to San Ciriaco, the first bishop of Ancona, is built upon a com- 
 
p» 
 
BOLOGNA. 
 
 125 
 
 manding eminence overlooking the town and liarl)oiir. 
 temple of Venus, to which Juvenal n\akos allusion : — 
 
 It occuiiics the site of :iii ancient 
 
 Aiito domum N'muuns, (inaui Ponca sustinot Ancon. 
 
 Jnrcnal, iy. 39. 
 
 Whcvo ^"enus' shrine does fair Aucona grace. 
 
 iJn/den. 
 
 The present structure is of different dates, ranging from the tenth to the fourteenth centur}^ 
 Many portions of the heathen temple are incorporated with the Christian edifice, a circum- 
 stance too often observable in the churches of Italy, Avhere the idolatry of ancient Rome is 
 frequently brought to mind not less by the buildings themselves, than by the ecclesiastical 
 ceremonies enacted within them. 
 
 Aucona, with its suburbs, numbers a population of more than thirty-five thousand inhabi- 
 tants. It is divided into two parts, the Old City and the New City ; the former occupies the 
 highest ground, and is the resort of the poorer classes ; and the latter, situated on the slopes 
 and along the shores of the sea, is inhabited by merchants and others, who form the wealthier 
 portion of the community. This maritime city is the birth-place of Carlo Maratta. It enjoys, 
 however, another distinction more generally appreciated, namely, the beauty of its women ; 
 to which let us add the more enduring distinction implied in the testimony of Eustace, Avho 
 says that the morals of the people of Ancona are acknowledged to be pure, and the conduct of 
 their females unimpeachable. 
 
 B T. G N A. 
 
 1 ISTORY recognises in Bologna the Etruscan Felsina, the capital of the 
 twelve cities of the Etrurian league. Its foundation is attributed to King 
 ^" Felsinus who reigned in Etruria 984 years before Christ. From his succes- 
 sor, Bona, the cit,y obtained the new appellation of Bononia. Some 
 antiquaries, however, refer the change of name to that period (b. c. 191) 
 when the possession passed from the Gauls to the Romans. It attached itself to the 
 fortunes of Anton}-, and the celebrated meeting between him and Octavius took place 
 on a small island in the river Rhenus, between IModena and Bologna. In the reign of 
 Claudius, Bononia sustained such extensive injury from fire, that a grant of ten million 
 sestertii was made from the public treasury for its repair. The first Christian church 
 (dedicated to St. Felix) was built here in the third century ; but this edifice was destroyed in 
 the persecution under Dioclesian. Several distinguished persons endured the pains of 
 martyrdom at Bononia in the first centuries of the Christian era. 
 
 2i 
 
126 BOLOGNA. 
 
 Bononia appears to have suffered less from the barbarians than other places in the north 
 of Italy ; and in the middle ages it became independent of the German emperors, and at length 
 obtained a charter from Henry V., (1112) granting to its citizens the right of choosing their 
 own magistrates and municipal authorities. It subsequently became one of the foremost 
 cities of the Guelphic league, and maintained a fierce contest with the Ghibelline party, which 
 terminated with the signal defeat of the latter. Towards the end of the thirteenth century 
 the city was divided into two rival factions named the Lambertazzi and the Gieremei, whose 
 feuds arose out of a domestic tragedy. The Gieremei attached themselves to the Guelphs, 
 and the Lambertazzi became the leaders of the Ghibellines.* The mediation of Nicholas III. 
 was sought to appease this strife, but the tyranny of his legate interrupted the peace which his 
 intervention had procured. A revolution took place in 1334, which ended in the sale of the 
 city to the Visconti of Milan. After a period of anarchy, during which it frequently changed 
 masters, Bologna was at length compelled to acknowledge the supremacy of the papal power, 
 to which it has ever since been subject. Its position Avas temporarily changed by Napoleon, 
 but whea his star ceased to be in the ascendant, the former order of things returned, and the 
 city Avas restored to the pontifical government. 
 
 The ecclesiastical annals of Bologna are inflated and of great pretensions, and give an odour 
 of sanctity to the city, exceeded only by that of Rome itself. We shall pass these by. The 
 University founded by the emperor Theodosius, a. d. 425, is celebrated for a succession of dis- 
 tinguished professors, amongst whom Mezzofariti, formerly professor of Greek and the Oriental 
 lanffuaffes, but now the Prefect of the Vatican and a Cardinal, claims especial notice. This 
 extraordinary man is said to be master of forty languages ; but the roundness of the number 
 may excite suspicion that there is some exaggeration, and more particularly since Mezzofanti 
 himself has disclaimed such extensive acquirements. It is, however, abundantly evident that 
 
 * We have already noticed {see Florence, page 26) that the protracted contest between the Guelphs and Ghibel- 
 lines, the former the partisans of the church and the latter those of the emperor, was made subservient to the 
 revengeful quarrels which occasionally arose between the noble families of Italy. We take the present opportunity 
 of correcting a slight error into which an unfaithful authority led us, at page 26. We there stated that " a young 
 man of the Buondelmonti family had been betrothed to a young lady of the family Uberti;" whereas the lady was 
 of the Amidei family. The Amidei took counsel of their kinsmen how they ought to resent the insult offered them 
 by the Buondelmonti, upon which Mosca degli Uberti advised the assassination of the faithless lover. 
 
 The strife between the Guelphs and Ghibellines being so important a feature in the middle age history of Italy, a 
 brief account of its origin cannot be unacceptable. We give it as narrated by Giovanni Fiorentino. — " There formerly 
 resided in Germany two wealthy and well-born individuals, whose names were Guelfo and Ghibellino, very near 
 neighbours, and greatly attached to each other. Returning together one day from the chase, there unfortunately 
 arose some difference of opinion as to the merits of one of their hounds, which was maintained on both sides so very 
 warmly, that from being almost inseparable friends and companions, they became each other's deadliest enemies. 
 The division increasing, both sides collected parties of followers to annoy each other. The neighbouring lords and 
 barons divided, according to their motives, either with the Guelf or the Ghibelline, and many serious affi-ays took place, 
 and several persons fell victims to the feud. Ghibellino, being hard pressed, sought assistance from Frederick the 
 First, the reigning emperor ; upon which Guelfo applied to the pope, Honorius II. , who was then at variance with 
 the emperor. It was thus that the apostolic see became connected with the Guelfs, and the emperor with the Ghibel- 
 lines; and it was thus that a vile hound became the origin of a deadly hate between two nobles;" nor this alone, for 
 it became the foundation of a national quarrel that deluged the principal cities of Italy with blood. We have seen 
 how the feud was introduced into the city of Florence. Its introduction into Pistoia was in the following manner. 
 
BOLOGNA. 127 
 
 lie has a great Imowledft-e of languages; ulthougli, il' we may trust a lady's judgment on such 
 a point, he has sacrificed to these iriixil triumi)hs tlu; uc(iuiremcnt of any very jjrofound kiiow- 
 ledo'B. Such an opinion is cortiiinly not inconsistent with ordinary experience ; for we believe 
 it has seldom been obser\ed of persons having a great aptitude for the attainment of languages, 
 that they are also remarkable for mental power. Indeed, the study of languages, if jmrsued 
 beyond moderate lunits, produces paralysis of the mind. 
 
 Bologna derives celebrity from its scliool of painting, which numbers many illustrious names. 
 The first academy of art in Bologna was opened Ijy Franco Bolognese, one of the early fol- 
 lowers of Giotto. But the greatest epoch of this school Avas led on by the three Caracci, ^\\\o 
 introduced a style of painting entirely new, and overthrew many of the venerated and long 
 established maxims of art. To these masters, and to their pu])ils, Domenichino and Guido, 
 the school of Bologna is chiefly indebted for its fame. Our limited space forbids us to dwell 
 upon the merits of these painters, or to attempt an enumeration of their works. The churches 
 of Bologna teem with their labours, and the Gallery of the Academy is a treasury of art of 
 which the most laboured description could convey no adequate idea. To name only a few of 
 the paintings : in the Gallery are found the Madonna and Child of Ludovico Caracci ; the 
 Communion of St. Jerome, hy Agostino Caracci ; the Martyrdom of St. Agnes, by Domeni- 
 chino ; tlie Madonna della Pieta of Guido, and his Massacre of the Innocents ; the Magdalen of 
 Guercino ; the Santa Cecilia of Raphael ; and the Madonna and Child of Parmegiano. In the 
 church of San Stefano is the Saint Ursula of Simon of Bologna ; the cathedral possesses the 
 celebrated painting of the Annunciation, the last work of Ludovico Caracci ; and the chm-ch 
 of St. Bartolommeo contains the Nativity by Agostino Caracci. But it is hopeless to attempt 
 even an indication of the leading works of art existing in the palaces, churches, and public 
 institutions at Bologna. 
 
 The streets in Bologna are narrow, and the exterior of the public buildings is by no means 
 
 In that city flourished a noble family, named the Canoellieri, the offspring of one father by two wives. A division 
 arose between the brothers in consequence of a rivalry in the affections of a lovely and enchanting girl; and the family 
 separated into two parties, the offspring of the first wife taking the title of Bianchi, and the brothers of the second 
 marriage that of Negri, or Neri. In a skirmish that followed, the Neri sustained a defeat, whereupon they sent 
 their relative, the rival of the Bianchi, to offer terms and entreat forgiveness. The latter would listen to no accom- 
 modation, but satiated their vengeance by chopping off the right hand of the youth. This cruel action raised the 
 indignation of the whole city, which thus became implicated in the family quarrel. The citizens endeavoured to avert 
 the coming evil by an appeal to the Florentines, who caused the partisans on both sides to be sent to Florence. But 
 this had no other effect than to transfer the bloody feuds of the Bianchi and the Neri to Florence, where the former 
 sided with the Ghibellines, and the latter with the Guelphs. The Bianchi with their Florentine adherents subse- 
 quently returned to Pistoia, and drove the Guclphic favourers of the Neri into exile. 
 
 The incident alluded to in our text, wliich served to foment the national quarrel in Bologna was this. Bonifazio 
 Gieremei souglit and won the affections of Imelda Lambcrtazzi. The brothers of Iraolda having found the lovers in 
 company with each other, dragged Bonifazio from their sister's presence and dispatidied him with a poisoned dagger. 
 Imelda afterwards returned to her lover, and endeavoured to i-cstori^ him by sucking the poison from the wound, 
 but failed in the generous effort, and sacrificed her own life. The families instantly declared war against each other, 
 and the Great Place was a scene of battle and bloodshed for forty days. Jt was not until six years afterwards that a 
 reconciliation was accomplished, when these families and their adherents once more met on the scene of their first 
 struggle to exchange the kiss of pcnc(^ 
 
128 BOLOGNA. 
 
 proportioned to the fame and to the opulence of the city. The cathedral is comparatively a 
 modern edifice, its original dating back no farther than 1605. The exterior is in the Roman, 
 and the interior in the Corinthian style. The church of San Petronio presents an imposing 
 appearance, but the most interesting circumstance connected with it is the meridian of Cassijii, 
 which is traced on its pavement.* An arcade of the extraordinary length of three miles, con- 
 ducts to the church of the Madonna di S. Luca. This remarkable work was raised by the 
 A^oluntary contributions of persons of every class in Bologna, for the purpose of accommo- 
 dating in all seasons and in all weather, the crowds who flock to pay their devotions to the 
 Virgui. At the annual fete of the Madonna the arcade presents an exciting scene, in which, 
 however, little of the solemnity of a religious festival is observable. 
 
 Two brick towers, the Torre Asinelli and the Torre Garisenda, attract the traveller's atten- 
 tion by their slenderness and height, and yet more by their inclination from the perpendicular. 
 In this last respect they resemble the tower of Pisa, and the cause of inclination is generally 
 admitted to be the same in both cases, namely, a sinking of the earth. The towers of Bologna 
 do not incline in the same direction, but towards each other ; and the Torre Garisenda has 
 the greatest inclination of the two. 
 
 The situation of Bologna offers very few points whence a favourable view of the city can be 
 obtained. Our engraving exhibits it as seen from the descent of the hill of San Michael in 
 Bosco. In this view, the cathedral, and other striking objects, including the leaning towers, 
 form the most conspicuous features.f 
 
 ■* This meridian -was originally drawn by Ignatio Dante, but Cassini, in 1653, conceived the idea of extending and 
 correcting it, a task which he completed in two years. The results of this scientific achievement furnished more 
 correct tables of the sun than had previously existed, by which the quantities of parallax and refraction were deter, 
 mined with an exactness unknown before. The son of this celebrated man followed up his father's labours, and by a 
 remeasurement of the meridian discovered the true figure of the earth. Other branches of the Cassini family 
 advanced the elements of geographical science to a high degree of perfection. 
 
 t There is a facetious novel by Giovanni Fiorentino, relating to a Bolognese student, which is worthy of mention, 
 since it suggested to Shakspeare several of the most amusing scenes in " The Merry Wives of Windsor." The 
 incidents of the novel, in brief, are these : — The student entreats his tutor to instruct him in the art of making love, 
 a proposition to which the worthy professor, who esteems himselfan adept in this branch of the Attmaniijes, readily assents. 
 The scholar makes rapid progress under his teacher, but unfortunately, and quite unknowingly, chooses the professor's 
 wife as his subject — to speak surgically. The amusement of the novel turns on the dilemmas of the poor professor, 
 who can sfcarcely restrain his jealousy, yet dares not come to an explanation. At length, when matters are tendino- 
 to an awful crisis, the student becomes aware of his position and makes a sudden retreat to Rome, having discovered 
 that he has been " learning too much at other people's expense." The fertile imagination of our great dramatic poet 
 has given a ten-fold interest to the incidents of the novel. In the latter, the student, who has been endeavouring to 
 obtain the lady's love, is hastily hidden from the eyes of the professor under a heap of linen ; but it remained for 
 Shakspeare to invent all the humours of the buck-basket. The student eff'ects his ultimate escape from the professor 
 by a mere act of audacity on the part of his wife ; but does not, like "the old woman of Brentford," receive iu 
 retiring the dramatic justice of " Master Ford's " cudgel. 
 
FERRARA. ^^g 
 
 F E R R A R A. 
 
 - "xf^ 
 
 LOOMY remains of departed grandeur are now the principal features of the 
 ducal city of the house of Este, a princely family of distinguished lineage, 
 from which the royalty of Britain traces a direct descent. " People talk," 
 says a captivating writer, "of a city of the dead, and the phrase is 
 very poetically strong, but it mIU not do for Ferrara ; and yet, beyond 
 all comparison, Ferrara has the saddest aspect to my fancy that ever city pre- 
 sented. It is not dead, for there are human beings still living and moving about in 
 its melancholy, desolate-looking streets ; but it looks like the last, ragged, rotten, 
 , ^li) remnant of a worn out world, struggling as it were for vital breath, and very nearly 
 breathing its last sigh." Yet, despite of its gloom and desolation, Ferrara pre- 
 sents attractions such as few cities in Italy can offer ; there Ariosto laughed, and Tasso 
 groaned ; and there " Parasina " and her paramour expiated their great offence, for which — 
 such are human sympathies — they have been immortalized by the poet. But more of these 
 anon. 
 
 Ferrara has no classical history. Its origin is referred to the fifth century ; but nothing of 
 interest is recorded concerning it until its association with the house of Este, in the twelfth 
 century. This family, in the person of its representative, Azzo of Este, established its authority 
 in Ferrara by an act of violence. Marchesella, the only descendant of the Adelardi, who had 
 long exercised the chief authority amongst the Ferrarese, was forcibly seized by Azzo, who by 
 marriage with her secured the recognition of his sovereignty. He transmitted the government 
 to his son, Azzo VI., who, in 1208, received homage from the citizens, and power to nominate 
 Ms successor. Thus Ferrara presented the first example of a free Italian city surrendering its 
 liberty to a lord, and became the first of those principalities into which Italy was soon after 
 divided. 
 
 The descendants of the house of Este came to be acknowledged as hereditary princes, hold- 
 ing generally of the pope, though sometimes asserting their independence. In 1452, Paul II. 
 gave to Borso d'Este the title of Duke of Ferrara. An historical incident, connected Avith the 
 reign of this ducal sovereign, forms the subject of an interesting novel by Niccolo Granucci. A 
 youth, named Polidoro, obtained the affections of the beautiful Ortensia, to whose charms a 
 host of admirers were paying homage. At one of their secret meetings the lover prevailed 
 upon his mistress to receive a ring as a pledge of his love, and the seal of their betrothment. 
 Scarcely had he retired, before a rival suitor attempted a forcible entrance at Ortensia's win- 
 dow. The maiden seized a sword that hung in her apartment, and struck the intruder so 
 violently that he fell to the ground mortally wounded. The cries and groans of the dying man 
 brought the officers of justice to the spot, and they, in their search for the assassin, laid hands 
 upon Polidoro, who still lingered near Ortensia's residence. The lover, fearing to compromise 
 his mistress, urged nothing in his defence, and his silence being received as an acknowledg- 
 
 2k 
 
1^0 JF E R R A R A. 
 
 ment of his guilt, he was sentenced to death. When Ortensia learned the danger in which her 
 lover stood, she threw aside maidenly fear, and sought Duke Borso, to whom she related all 
 the circumstances of the suitor's death, and besought pardon for the innocent Polidoro. The 
 duke not only granted her reasonable request, but also interested himself to obtain the consent 
 of the two families to the union of the lovers. This he effected; and when he joined the hands 
 of Ortensia and Polidoro, he made this naive remark to his courtiers, " I think she did well to 
 put the other poor fellow first out of his pain ; he could not have borne this." 
 
 The dukedom of Ferrara descended, in the sixteenth century, to Alfonso I., whose reign is 
 rendered illustrious by its association with the lays of Ariosto. The immediate patron of the 
 poet was the duke's brother, the Cardinal Ippolito, who after having been made a prince of the 
 church by Alexander Borgia, when only thirteen years of age, distinguished himself through 
 life by his vices and brutality. It is related of him, that on one occasion a lady repelled his 
 advances by declaring that she preferred his brother Giulio's eyes to Ippolito's whole body ; 
 upon which the monstrous villain hired two ruffians to put out his brother's eyes, and he is even 
 said to have been present whilst this act of cruelty was performed. We need not be surprised 
 to learn that Ippolito proved an ungenerous patron. He appears to have retained Ariosto in 
 no higher capacity than that of a jester and court drudge. When the poet presented to him 
 his Orlando Furioso, he repaid its author with insult, couched in terms so disgustingly offen- 
 sive as to be unfit for repetition. 
 
 Alfonso II. was the patron of Tasso, and the liberality of his patronage may be gathered 
 from the biography of the poet [Sorrento, page 107). It must, however, be admitted that Tasso 
 was an unruly pet, and perhaps Alfonso might have proved more generous, if the poet had 
 shown more prudence. The extinction of the legitimate branch of the Este family, on the 
 death of Alfonso II., enabled Clement Vlll., in 1597, to attach Ferrara to the papal territory. 
 
 The visitor to Ferrara regards with great interest the naked desolation of the old ducal 
 palace, in whose apartments Tasso breathed forth his eloquent verses, and, if fame speaks truly, 
 excited passionate love in the breast of a princess. Since the publication of Byron's " Pari- 
 sina,*' the ciceroni have determined all the localities of that tale of crime, and they lead the 
 visitor from room to room with a precision that has too much the air of contrivance. A brief 
 extract from Gibbon reveals all that needs be told relative to this revolting incident. " Under 
 the reign of Nicholas III.," (early in the fifteenth century,) " Ferrara was polluted with a 
 domestic tragedy. By the testimony of an attendant, and his own observation, the Marquis of 
 Este discovered the incestuous loves of his wife Parasina, and Hugo his bastard son, a beauti- 
 ful and vaUant youth. They were beheaded in the castle by the sentence of a father and 
 husband, who published his shame, and siirvived their execution." 
 
 The prison of Tasso in the Hospital of St. Anne, excites much sentimental commiseration. 
 The dungeon in which he was at first confined is horrible enough, but the poet passed only a 
 few months of his captivity there ; and probably he would never have been consigned to this 
 place, if his patron had not really believed him to be mad. It is not very long since, that chains, 
 and stripes, and dungeon-gloom, were deemed necessary and wholesome coercion for maniacs; 
 we must not, therefore, charge Alfonso with cruelty for treating a supposed lunatic according 
 to ordinary rule ; and, more especially, when we learn from Tasso himself, that at the end of 
 eight months he was removed to an apartment in which he could walk about sxidphibsophize. 
 The house of the gay and light-hearted Ariosto, and the Public Library where his manuscripts, 
 
c- 
 
 f 
 
 ^ 
 
 ^O 
 
 y 
 
PADUA. 131 
 
 together with his chair and inkstand, are exhibited to the worshippers of genius, form the 
 third great point of attraction in Ferrara. 
 
 Ferrara obtained some eminence by its school of painting, founded and patronized by the 
 Este family. In its palmy days this city contained nearly one hundred thousand inhabitants, 
 but its population decreased rapidly after the death of Alfonso II. ; and at the present time it 
 scarcely exceeds one-fourth of its former strength. Ferrara is not ^vanting in churches, and 
 public buildings, nor in remains of art, but there is an oppressive gloom pervading the place, 
 and were it not for the stirring associations connected with its past history, few visitors would 
 venture within its melancholy precincts. 
 
 PADUA. 
 
 ^EW cities, — says Eustace, " can boast of an origin so ancient and so honour- 
 able, and not many can pretend to have enjoyed for so long a period so much 
 glory and prosperity, as Padua." Its foundation is attributed to Antenor, 
 a Trojan prince, and a relative of Priam, but upon no better authority than 
 poetical tradition, and the discovery, in 1274, of an old sarcophagus, which the 
 Paduans believe to be the tomb of Antenor, biit which is considered by antiquaries 
 to be a monument of some prince of the middle ages. There can be no question, 
 however, regarding the antiquity of Padua, for we learn from Tacitus that the ancient 
 Patavium was accustomed to celebrate its origin, and the name of its supposed 
 founder, in annual games, said to have been instituted by Antenor; and Livy relates 
 that a naiimacJiia, exhibited annually on one of the rivers which water the town, perpetuated 
 the memory of a signal victory obtained by the Paduans long before their union with Rome. 
 When the city afterwards submitted to the genius of Rome, it was treated rather as a friendly 
 ally than as a conquered province. It shared in all the privileges and honours of the capital; 
 and in the days of Strabo, it reckoned five hundred Roman knights among its citizens, and 
 could send into the field twenty thousand armed men. At this time, also, she was celebrated 
 for commercial enterprise, and drew by her cloth and woollen manufactures no small portion 
 of the tribute of the provinces from the Roman treasury. After having shared the glory of 
 Rome, Padua partook of her disasters, and fell under the yoke of the barbarians. The city 
 was held in succession by the Goths, the Lombards, the Franks, and the Germans, and during 
 the long period of its vassalage its fortunes vibrated between the favour and the caprice of 
 its wayward tyrants. To escape the vengeance of the Lombards, the remains of its ancient 
 inhabitants fled to the Rialto, and formed a union with the Venetian republic, reserving to 
 themselves the privileges of their own laws and institutions. The consideration that Venice 
 was founded by citizens of Padua, who flying before Alaric and Attila, took refuge in the 
 solitary isles of the Adriatic, might perhaps have reconciled the Paduans to partial submission, 
 and prompted the Venetians to offer a generous union. We afterwards find Padua taking 
 
132 PADUA. 
 
 place, as a free republic, beside the sister states of Verona, Vicenza, Ferrara, and Mantua. In 
 the fifteenth century it was besieged by the Venetians, and after enduring great extremities 
 yielded submission; and it continued thereafter in union with Venice until 1797, when this 
 republic was dismembered by the French. After the fall of Napoleon, it became part of the 
 Lombardo-Venetian dependency of Austria.* 
 
 Padua was once celebrated for learning and art ; but its famous University has sunk in 
 reputation, and in the department of art it can now only refer to the works of Cimabue, 
 Giotto, and Andrea Mantegna. It still presents the aspect of an impressive city, containing 
 public buildings, religious and civil, of great interest and of some beauty. The vast structure, 
 on the left of our view, is the Palazza della Ragione, upon which has been raised a town hall, 
 the largest building of the kind in Europe. It is 260 feet long, 80 feet wide, and 80 feet high. 
 The church of St. Anthony is a remarkable structure, with domes and minaret spires, giving 
 it the appearance of a Turkish mosque. It is rich in sculpture, painting, and decorations, and 
 contains a magnificent fresco of the Crucifixion. The University, of which the tower appears 
 in our view, was founded by Frederick II., early in the thirteenth century. Under the 
 government of Venice, this institution numbered six thousand students. The pseudo sarco- 
 phagus of Antenor stands at the corner of a street under a laldacchino, or stone canopy, and 
 is worthy of observation as a monument of high antiquity. It was long afOrmed that Livy 
 was born at Padua, but it is now certain that this event occurred at Abano, a place within 
 the Paduan territory. The good citizens, however, contend manfully for ancient honom-s, 
 and still point out a house in the Strada di San Giovanni as having been the residence of 
 Livy ! They, moreover, possess the mortal remains of the historian, if the contents of a leaden 
 coffin, discovered early in the fifteenth century, can be safely taken for them. 
 
 * The middle age history of Padua is full of horrors. In the thirteenth century, that execrable tyrant, Ezzohno 
 Romano, carried his oppressive enormities so far, that Alexander IV. directed his legate, the Archbishop of Ravenna, 
 to preach a crusade against him, as an accursed monster whom it was the duty of mankind to destroy. This tyrant 
 was a Grhibelline, a creature of Frederick II. ; had he been a Guelph, the pope might not have been so indignant at 
 his atrocities, for the papal power had, on several occasions, creatures not less infamous than Ezzolino. The Venetians 
 rose against him, in 1256, when Padua endured all the miseries of storm and pillage for seven days. Ezzolino, who 
 was at that time absent from the city, charged the loss of the place against the Paduans themselves, and revenged 
 himself by sacrificing, in various ways, eleven thousand citizens who formed part of his army. His only redeeming 
 quality, consummate military skill, prolonged his fate ; but he was ultimately hunted down, wounded, and taken 
 prisoner by three Ghibelline chiefs, who had discovered by mutual revelations that he had treacherous designs against 
 each of them. The death of this monster was in keeping with all the acts of his life. He refused surgical aid, tore 
 the bandages from his wounds, and expired. Dante (Inferno lii. 110) has consigned this tyrant to the river of blood, 
 in which are found all who have injured their neighbours. And the castle of Romano, the birth-place of Ezzolino, is 
 thus alluded to by the same poet: — 
 
 In that part 
 
 Of the depraved Italian land, which lies 
 
 Between Rialto and the fountain springs 
 
 Of Brenta and Piava, there doth rise. 
 
 But to no lofty eminence, a hill. 
 
 From whence erewhile a fire-brand did descend. 
 
 That sorely shent the region. 
 
 Paradiso, ix. 25 — 31. 
 
F" 
 
YENICE. 
 
 133 
 
 VENICE. 
 
 JEtius. A race of heroes 
 
 Meet in the bosom of the Adriatic, 
 And change to seats of rest the unstable seas. 
 With many a bridge they join the scatter'd isles. 
 And with huge works repel the ocean's tide, 
 While from afar the wond'ring traveller 
 Sees mighty waUs and marble domes arise. 
 Where vessels once have sailed. 
 
 Val. Who has not heard 
 Of fam'd Antenor's race ? To us 'tis known, 
 That when the flames of war were kindled first 
 By Attila, they left their fields and towns, 
 And in the bosom of the sea maintain'd 
 Their threatened liberty : full well we know 
 What wide extent their rising city forms ; 
 In future times what may we hope to view it, 
 Since thus its infant state ? 
 
 jJStius. Ciusar, I trace 
 The seeds of mighty actions yet to come : 
 The subject seas shall fear this people's nod ; 
 The rage of powerful kings they shall resist ; 
 Shall bear to distant realms their spreading sails, 
 And Asia's purple tyrants strike with fear. 
 
 Metastasio. JStius, Act 1, Scene 2. 
 
 USTICE did but restore the balance of her scales when she gave sentence 
 against Venice. When this city first arose upon its hundred isles, it -svas the 
 hallowed retreat of a beleagured people, unable to resist their barbarian 
 enemies, yet daring to be free. Its after importance as a maritime republic, 
 and the power and authority of its Doges, rendered it the rival of that mighty 
 empire of which in its origin it was the remnant. Indeed it had features 
 of greatness that admitted no comparison ; its history was an illustrious iso- 
 lation. But the luxury and vice that ever follow in the train of national wealth, cor- 
 rupted her citizens ; and universally acknowledged authority begat tyranny in the 
 hearts of her nobles. Popular insurrections, and the mutual jealousies of the patricians, 
 led to an inquisitorial form of government, and the establishment of a fearful council 
 which condemned in secret, and from whose sentence there was no appeal. Then, " the Lion's 
 Mouth," the general receptacle for accusations, gaped nightly for its victims ; and nobles and 
 private citizens daily disappeared, no one dared to ask, but all knew, whither. The vicious 
 
 2l 
 
 ^ikJf 
 
 \3 
 
134 VENICE. 
 
 trembled, for they were esteemed dangerous ; and the virtuous were in no less peril, for they 
 were the objects of suspicion. Venice was self-doomed, long before her hour of overthrow 
 arrived ; and her catastrophe, when at length it came, excited no sympathy beyond poetical 
 regrets and sentimental lamentations. 
 
 The ancient Venetia was a province of Cisalpine Gaul, and the Veneti proper were a people 
 located in northern Italy, Avhose descendants became the founders of Venice. The Veneti long 
 maintained a separate and independent existence; they afterwards entered into friendly 
 alliance with Rome ; and ultimately, in the time of Augustus, they and their country were 
 identified with the population and territory of the empire. They appear no more as a distinct 
 people until the fall of the empire, in the beginning of the fifth century, at which period the 
 inhabitants of Patavium (now Padua), one of the cities of Venetia, fled before Alaric, and took 
 refuge on the sand-banks and north-western shores of the Hadrian Gulf. It was not, however, 
 until 452, when Attila and his Huns spread desolation over Italy, that numerous refugees from 
 the different cities of the Veneti, established themselves permanently on the islands of the 
 Lagune, or shallows, that border the whole Venetian coast. 
 
 " A few, in fear 
 Flying avay from him whose boast it was, 
 That the grass grew not where his horse had trod, 
 Gave birth to Venice." 
 
 The first settlement was upon the island of Rialto, where the Patavians had some time 
 before established a commercial station ; and the refugees being principally of the poorer 
 classes, they gladly availed themselves of the existing buildings, content to foUow the occupa- 
 tion of fishermen, and to enjoy freedom from the outrages of the barbarian invaders of the 
 empire. The Rialto is the principal island of the Lagune, upon Avhich in the eighth century 
 arose the city of Venice. So early, however, as 421 the modern city may be said to have had 
 its foundation in the erection of the Church of San Jacopo di Rialto, an ecclesiastical edifice 
 that continues to be held in great veneration, and which is said to retain, after all its repairs 
 and restorations, much of its original form and structure. 
 
 The ocean-refuge of the Veneti was first named " the Port of the Deserted City," a title at 
 once expressive of thankfulness and regret. Before the towns on the mainland arose from 
 their ashes, the foundations of an independent government had been laid in the new State. In 
 697, a chief magistrate was elected under the title of Doge, or Duke, whose oflftce was for life, 
 and in whom was vested an authority little less than absolute. An abuse of this unlimited 
 power led to the assassination of the third Doge, and the temporary abolition of the ducal 
 office, which five years afterwards was restored. The renewal of this office brought with it 
 fresh abuses of authority, and the aid of Pepin Avas sought to carry the election of a popular 
 Doge. This wily monarch gladly availed himself of the opportunity for reducing the power of 
 the republic ; but his designs were defeated by the boldness and patriotism of Angelo Partici- 
 pazio, who received a just recompence in his advancement to the ducal chair. The son of this 
 prince succeeded him ; and in his reign (827) " the Translation of St. Mark" took place. This 
 event, which is associated with all the subsequent glories of Venice, Avas marked by an incident 
 of an extremely ludicrous character. The remains of the Saint were reposing in a church at 
 
VENICE. 13d 
 
 Alexandria, at the time when some Vonetinn ships arrived in tliat port ; and t]:e captains of 
 these ships prevailed upon the priests, anIio had the cnstody of the holy treasure, to deliver it 
 into their hands. The transfer was hoth difficult and dangerous, owing to the attachment of 
 the populace to their Saint ; and the following ingenious expedient was adopted to convey 
 the remains on board. The body was })laced in-a basket stuffed with herbs, and covered with 
 joints of pork, and the porters Mho bore it made their way to the vessel by crying aloud, 
 " Khansir, Khansir!" (pork, pork!) on hearing which every Mussulman hastily avoided contact 
 with the forbidden flesh. The saintly remains are said to have preserved the ship, in circum- 
 stances of great peril, on its homeward voyage. On its arrival at Venice, the joy of the people 
 knew no bounds. They had an ancient tradition that St. Mark, in his travels, once visited 
 Aqudeia, and also touched at the Hundred Isles, where a prophetic vision declared to him 
 that his bones should one day repose upon them. The arrival of the remains was therefore 
 regarded as a most auspicious omen. Venice was solemnly consigned to the protection of the 
 Saint ; his eflfigy, or that of his Lion, was blazoned on the standards and impressed upon the 
 coin; and thenceforward the gathering cry of the armies of the Republic was " Viva San 
 Marco .'" Nearly two hundred and seventy years after this occurrence, the Saint indicated 
 symptoms of displeasure and disappeared; but afterwards, to the joy of the city, he returned, 
 to confer upon it additional benefits. In 901, the magnificent Church of St. Mark was raised, 
 as the mausoleum of the Saint and the national temple of the Venetian state. 
 
 In the time of the doge, Candiano II., (932,) occurred the romantic incident of "the Brides of 
 Venice." According to ancient irsage, the marriages of the chief families were celebrated publicly, 
 and the same day and hour witnessed the imion of numerous betrothed. On the eve of the 
 feast of the Purification, a bridal procession embarked for Olivolo, the residence of the Patriarch, 
 and proceeded to the cathedral. The corsairs of Istria, watching their opportunity, rushed into 
 the sacred edifice and cai-ried off the brides with all their costly adornings. The Doge, who 
 Avas present, hastily assembled his galleys, overtook the ravishers before they had cleared the 
 shallows of the Lagune, slew them to a man, and brought back the maidens in triumph. The 
 memory of this event was long preserved by an annual procession of Venetian women, on the 
 eve of the Purification. The trunk-makers of Olivolo formed the greater part of the creAv that 
 rescued the brides, and to rcAvard their bravery the Doge bade them demand some privilege. 
 They requested an annual visit from the Doge. " What," said the prince, " if it should prove 
 rainy?" To this they replied, " We will send you hats to cover your heads, and if you are 
 thirsty we will give you drink." To commemorate the question and reply, the priest of Santa 
 Maria annually presented to the Doge, on his visit to Olivolo, two flasks of wine, tAvo oranges, 
 and tAvo hats. This ceremony formed part of the Marian Games Avhich Avere afterAvards, in 
 the palmiest days of the republic, celebrated Avith so much pomp and magnificence. But Ave 
 must not linger amidst the early romance of Venice. 
 
 In 991, the ducal seat AA^as filled by Pietro Urseolo II., an enterprising prince, Avho opened 
 up the avenues of commerce for the Venetians, by forming for them the most advantageous 
 alliances ; whilst he gave security to their maritime operations by the total overthroAv of 
 the Istriote pirates. An amusing instance is recorded of the luxury Avhich, in the eleventh 
 century, found its Avay to Venice. A female of Constantinoj^le, Avho shared the croAvn of the 
 Doge, banished plain AA^ater from her toilet, and used only the richest and most fragrant 
 medicated preparations. She refused also to touch her meat except Avith a golden fork. This 
 
136 VENICE. 
 
 dainty fair one died of a lingering disease, and her sufferings were regarded by the people 
 as a divine judgment, whence we may infer that lavish expenditure and indulgence were not 
 at this period generally prevalent in Venice. The republic joined in the general Crusade 
 against the infidels ; not so much from religious enthusiasm, as from motives of state policy. 
 Her naval armament besieged and reduced T3Te and Ascalon, and well nigh annihilated the 
 Saracen power. These successes awoke the jealousies of the Greeks ; but Venice was then the 
 undisputed mistress of the sea ; and her fleet swept and desolated the coast of the Eastern 
 empire. The doge, Dominico Michieli, returned to Venice, and after his death this epitaph 
 was engraven upon his tomb. Terror Gi^cecorum jacet Tiic — The terror of the Greeks lies here. 
 
 Towards the close of the eleventh century the Venetians took up the cause of Alexander 
 III. against Frederick Barbarossa; and when the doge, Liani, returned to Venice in triumph, 
 the pope met him as he landed, and presented him with a ring as a token of his espousal to 
 the sea. Hence originated that imposing ceremony annually witnessed on the Adriatic, when 
 the doge, in his gorgeous state galley, the Bucentaur, went forth in pomp and triumph to 
 renew his first espousal, by dropping a golden ring into the bosom of his betrothed. And 
 proud and significant was the greeting that he offered to his bride : " We wed thee with this 
 ring, in token of our true and perpetual sovereignty." The ceremony is retained to this day ; 
 but the romance of the pageant fled, when the winged lion gave place to the eagle of Austria. 
 
 The Venetians date a proud period of their history from the close of the twelfth century, 
 when Enrico Dandolo was elected to the ducal seat. If, however, we separate from the glories 
 of this vaunted era, the spoils of Avar and the territorial additions obtained by the Venetians, 
 there is little else to claim exalted admiration. Venice was solicited to equip a naval arma- 
 ment for the transport of the united forces of the Fourth Crusade. The Doge and the Council 
 fixed the terms of the contract in the true spirit of merchants, and secured, in mercantile 
 phrase, a safe transaction. Dandolo himself, though upwards of eighty years of age, went 
 forth with his fleet, and for the purpose, as the sequel will show, of making the expedition 
 subservient to the political advantages of the Venetian State. The pope (Innocent III.) sanc- 
 tioned the crusade, and confirmed the treaty with Venice, upon the express condition that the 
 allied powers should not direct their arms against Christian princes, unless compelled to do so 
 by violence, or other unavoidable necessity, and in any case the consent of the papal see was 
 first to be obtained. The Doge, however, taking advantage of a deficiency in the payments of 
 the contract, diverted the expedition from its legitimate object before the day of embarkation, 
 and prevailed upon the knights and barons to reduce the city of Lara, then under the protec- 
 tion of the King of Hungary. This Avas accordingly done; and the spoils of the city were 
 equally divided between the Venetians and the French. Shortly after this transaction, Dan- 
 dolo is said to have been bribed by the Sultan of Damascus to postpone or frustrate the 
 original design of the expedition. Be this as it may, the fleet, in place of sailing for the Holy 
 Land, invested and took the city of Constantinople; and in the subsequent partition of the 
 Greek Empire, Venice obtained an extent of territory that added greatly to her maritime 
 power. The allied forces seem to have du-ected then- crusade against Art. Scarcely one of 
 those monuments which had rendered Constantinople the wonder of nations, was thought 
 worthy of preservation; and it is recorded of Dandolo, as an especial honour, that he had 
 suflacient taste to appropriate and carry off the four horses of gilt bronze which afterwards 
 graced the western porch of the basilica of St. Mark. 
 
VENICE. 137 
 
 In 1289, the Inquisition was establisliecl in Venice; but rather as the antagonist, than the 
 coadjutor of the Roman institution. Venice yielded, at any time, little more than a nominal 
 obedience to the pope, and uniformly disregarded his authority when it interfered with her 
 own interests or designs. She deemed it incompatible with her safety, that the heresies of 
 the ducal state should be judged by the papal see; but instead of openly defying the pontiff 'f? 
 power, she established an ecclesiastical tribunal, resembling the Holy Office, which, although 
 nominally under the authority of the church, was truly and actually controlled by the Doge 
 and Council. Nothing could be done by this Inquisition without the consent of the Doge, and 
 the knowledge of the Council, to whom everything was to be revealed; whilst no appeal was 
 to be made to the pontiff either to confirm its proceedings or to annul its sentence. The design 
 of the Venetian Inquisition seems to have been to strengthen the government, and to curb the 
 authority of Rome. 
 
 At the opening of the fourteenth century, Venice had possessed herself of Ferrara, which 
 was claimed by the pope as the property of the pontificate, and the refusal of the republic to 
 yield it up, led to an open rupture with the papal see. The ducal territory was laid under 
 interdict ; and Venice for the first time was disturbed by the Guelph and Ghibelline factions. 
 Nor was this all : the Italian States, and indeed the whole of Europe, regarded this conjunc- 
 ture as a favourable moment for vengeance. The factories of the republic were pillaged, her 
 merchandize Avas confiscated, her ships were seized, and her residents and mariners either 
 kOled or sold into slavery. The Venetians added to these evils by internal disorder. A con- 
 spiracy was formed for the assassination of the Doge ; but the latter detected the approach of 
 insurrection, and made the necessary preparations to meet it. When the conspirators had 
 nearly approached the ducal palace, they found themselves suddenly confronted by a strong 
 array of soldiery. After a bloody contest the insurgents were defeated ; and the gibbet and 
 the axe put a fearful and hideous period to the transaction. The success Avhich had nearly 
 attended this conspiracy led the government to devise measures for the prevention of a similar 
 outbreak. And now it was that the famous Council of Ten was instituted ; a body invested 
 with plenary inquisitorial authority, whose spies, present everywhere and seen nowhere, per- 
 mitted nothing to escape observation, and who hourly carried to the Council a report of their 
 surveillance. The machinery was so perfect in its details, and so secret in its operations, that 
 not a thing could be done nor a word be spoken, in any way affecting the State, of which the 
 Council did not receive a particular account ; and the information was so privately obtained 
 and conveyed, that the mysterious Ten could choose their time for action without exciting 
 suspicion. The very name of the Council became a byword of terror. Its proceedings were 
 never known, and its sentences were never promulgated ; but thus much was knowm, that 
 things of which the popular ear had heard nothing, were first published by the Ten, and that 
 individuals daily disappeared from their accustomed places of resort, and were seen no more. 
 
 In 1354, Marino Faliero ascended the ducal seat. Byron's tragedy has rendered the name 
 of this doge deeply interesting to the English reader ; but the doge of the poet and the doge 
 of history are two widely different persons. Byron wanted a hero, and he made one of Faliero, 
 by justifying treasons which admit of no justification, and ennobling a character whose only 
 remarkable lineaments were pride and ungovernable wrath. At the time -when Faliero took 
 his seat, the power of the oligarchy infringed the authority of the doge to such an extent that 
 the latter was little more than an illustrious prisoner, the mere nominal head of the State, 
 
 2 m 
 
138 VENICE. 
 
 bearing the whole weight of popular odium, yet so cu-Gumscribed in his functions as to have 
 no control over the proceedings of the legislature. Faliero could not brook the indignities 
 which he suffered ; and an incident occurred shortly after his accession, that cai-ried his fury 
 beyond all bounds, and hurried him into that treason against his country which brought him 
 to the block. The doge, though advanced in years, had married a young and beautiful wife. 
 A gallant of the court who had been reproved by Faliero, vented his spleen by writing upon 
 the back of the ducal chair a few words equally offensive to the doge and his wife. Faliero 
 waited impatiently to hear the sentence which the Forty would pass upon the bold offender ; 
 and when he learned that it extended only to two months' imprisonment, and a twelvemonth's 
 banishment from Venice, he could not contain his rage. At this juncture the prince met with 
 Bertuccio Israello, admiral of the arsenal, who claimed from him redress for a blow which he 
 received from one of the nobles. " What wouldst thou have me do for thee ?" was his answer. 
 " Think upon the shameful gibe which hath been written concerning me, and think on the 
 manner in which they have punished that ribald, Michele Steno, who wrote it ; and how the 
 Council of XL. respect our person!" To this the admiral replied by divulging a conspiracy 
 then on foot for the destruction of the oligarchy ; and Faliero at length consented to be a 
 partner in an insurrection to overthrow the State of which he was himself the head. For 
 many nights successively the conspirators conferred with the doge in the diical palace, and 
 arranged with him the massacre of the entire aristocracy, and the dissolution of the existing 
 government. The unprecedented boldness of the transaction veiled its proceedings. Govern- 
 ment spies would scarcely seek for evidence of treason in the ducal chamber. The argus-eyed 
 Council for once was at fault, and Venice was upon the verge of a revolution. It was only 
 the evening before the day of insurrection (15th April, 1355,) that Beltramo of Bergamo, one 
 of the conspirators, called upon his patron, Nicolo Lioni, and with a view to save his life, 
 entreated him to remain at home on the morrow. The singularity of the request led to inquu-y, 
 and inquiry terminated in a revelation of the plot. Beltramo was immediately secured ; 
 instant measures were taken for the arrest of the criminals ; and nothing remained but to 
 award punishment to the offenders. The ringleaders were hanged ; and Faliero, by sentence 
 of the Council of Ten, was beheaded on the landing of the Giant's Stairs leading to the ducal 
 residence. His name was erased from the Golden Book, and his portrait excluded from the 
 Hall of the Great Council. The frame which ought to have contained his portrait remains to 
 this day covered with a black veil, inscribed with these words : Hie est locus Marini Feletro 
 decapitati pn^o crwiinibus — This is the place of Marino Faliero, beheaded for his offences. 
 
 We pass over a century and arrive at the reign of Francesco Foscari. This doge obtained 
 the ducal honours with difficulty, continued to sustain them when they had become a weari- 
 some burden, and at length surrendered them under circumstances of suffering and misery 
 that scarcely have a parallel. In 1433, ten years after his accession, he wished to retire from 
 authority, but the council refused his request, and even exacted from him an oath that he 
 would never abdicate. He had already lost three out of four sons, and to Giacopo the survivor, 
 he looked for the solace of his age, and the perpetuation of his name. He contracted a mar- 
 riage for this son with the family of Contarini, and from that event drew an augury of future 
 happiness. Within four years after his marriage, Giacopo was denounced to the Council of 
 Ten, as having received presents from foreign princes. The unhappy son was extended upon 
 the rack in the presence of his own parent; but the agonies of torture compelled no confession; 
 
VENICE. 139 
 
 and his father pronoimccd the sentence Avhic.h banished him for life to Napoli di Romania. 
 Five yetu-s afterwai-ds he was recalled from exile on suspicion of having instigated a domestic 
 to murder Hermolao Donate, the chief of the Ten. Again he suflered the exquisite tortures 
 of the rack, and persisting in a denial of his guilt, he was now banished to Candia. Notwith- 
 standing his sulferings, he yearned for his native land, and addressed a letter to the duke of 
 Milan, imploring his intercession with the Senate for remission of punishment. This letter 
 was conveyed to the Council of Ten; and Giacopo was once more recalled to answer the crime 
 of having solicited a foreign government for aid. For the third time a father was compelled 
 to Avitness the agonies of a son; thirty times was the victim raised upon the cord; and when 
 nature at length gave Avay, he was carried bleeding and insensible to the apartments of the 
 Doge. He was sent back again to his Candian prison, but had scarcely reached it ere he 
 expired. The dregs of the cup of affliction still remained for the unhappy father. That very 
 Council which had extorted an oath from the Doge that he would never abdicate, now forcibly 
 deposed him. He surrendered the ducal ensigns, and prepared to leave the palace; but when 
 it was suggested to him that he should retire privately, the spirit of the old man revived, and 
 he answered proudly, " By these steps I entered, by these I will retire;" then, leaning upon his 
 brother's arm, he slowly descended the Giant's Stairs. On the fifth day after his deposition, he 
 died; his death being occasioned by suppressed agitation on hearing the bell of the Campanile 
 announce the election of his successor in office. The miseries of the Foscari are referred to 
 the vengeance of Giacopo Loredano, whose father and uncle's deaths were attributed to them. 
 Loredano had made an entry in his ledger debiting the elder Foscari with the murder of his 
 relatives, and when the death of the old man was reported to him, he calmly turned up the 
 entry, and wrote on the credit side — "He has paid vie." In the reign of Francisco Foscari, the 
 Inquisition of State was established. It consisted of three members, "the invisible three," 
 two chosen from the Council of Ten, and one from the Council of the Doge. No ecclesiastic, 
 nor any person interested in the Court of Rome, was eligible for the ofl&ce of State Inquisitor, 
 even though he were one of the Ten. " The statutes of this fearful tribunal exceed every 
 other product of human wickedness, in premeditated, deliberate, systematic, unmixed, undis- 
 sembled flagitiousness." Enormities have been revealed that make the flesh creep, and the 
 blood run cold; but these form a small part only of the foul deeds enacted by this horrible 
 tribunal. Who shall compute the number of unhappy victims who on entering the ducal 
 palace received the greeting of a smile, and were then conducted by the Bridge of Sighs to the 
 State Dungeons, whence they returned no more! 
 
 At the close of the fifteenth century Venice had arrived at the period of her loftiest eleva- 
 tion. Her maritime stations extended from the I'o to the eastern boundaries of the Mediter- 
 ranean and the mouth of the Don ; and in these she gathered and dispersed the merchandize 
 of the entire known world. Her silk manufactures supplied the nations with their most costly 
 attire. Spain and England contributed fleeces for her unrivalled cloths ; and the flax of Lom- 
 bardy formed the material of her linens. Her laboratories prepared the choicest chemical 
 preparations ; her glass-houses furnished mirrors for regal saloons, and beads for the naked 
 African ; and her printing press, established not more than fifteen years after the discovery of 
 the art, gave an impulse to literature. At this period the celebrated Aldus Manutius, the 
 inventor of the Italic letter, collected around him the most learned men of the age, and fi-om 
 the literary ckcle which he formed, emanated those choice specimens of typography whose 
 
140 VENICE. 
 
 excellence is still a theme of admiration. Such were a few of the resources of the city which 
 the fishermen of the Rialto founded on the fall of elder Rome. The territory, during the 
 lapse of a thousand years, had stretched from the Lagune, over the fairest provinces of Northern 
 Italy; " and Venice swayed on the adjoining t&rra Jirma, the principality of Ravenna, Trevi- 
 sano and its dependencies, Padua, Vicenza, Verona, Crema, Brescia, and Bergamo. Friuli 
 connected her with Istria ; Lara, Spoleto, and the Dalmatic Islands, with Albania ; Zante and 
 Corfu continued the chain to Greece and the Morea, and numerous islands in the Archipelago 
 supplied the remaining links with Candia and Cyprus." 
 
 The commencement of the sixteenth century witnessed the formation of the League of 
 Cambrai ; a junction between the powers of France, Spain, and Germany, nominally directed 
 to the adjustment of differences between Venice and the Duke of Gueldres, but in point of fact 
 having no other object than the ruin of the Venetian republic. The French defeated the 
 Venetians with great loss at Agnadello, and the news of the disaster spread terror throughout 
 the ducal city. A single blow had shattered in pieces the goodly fabric of continental dominion 
 which it had cost Venice the toil of a century to erect. But amidst the clamours and terrors 
 of the populace, the Senate preserved its calmness and dignity. No available provision for 
 the exigency was overlooked ; and the most wise and determined measures were concerted for 
 the defence of the Lagune. By a master-stroke of policy, the Senate released the endangered 
 provinces from all obligation of fidelity, and left them at liberty to make such terms with their 
 opponents as their individual circumstances might require: and by this means they secured 
 their attachment to the republic, and the probability of re-union whenever the chances of war 
 should take a favom-able turn. Having obtained a reconciliation Avith the pope, Venice began 
 to retrieve her losses, or at least to resist with some measure of success the offensive opera- 
 tions directed against her. She afterwards formed an alliance with France, and the peace of 
 Cambrai, which followed, gave her time to prepare for a renewal of hostilities. In a subse- 
 quent war with the Turks, the Venetians were again worsted ; and a cessation of arms was 
 at length procured by the Council of Ten, who on this occasion assumed the most absolute 
 authority, and gave plenary powers to their envoy, without entering into any communication 
 with other branches of the government. For thirty years after the peace with Turkey, Venice 
 enjoyed tranquillity ; and this season of repose was favourable to the cultivation of the Arts. 
 Palladio and Scamozzi adorned the ducal city with rich and imposing architecture ; and the 
 Florentine Sansovino erected the Mint, the Library of St. Mark, and the Procuratie Nuove, 
 and sculptured the noble statues of Mars and Neptune which still guard the Giant's Stairs. 
 At this period also the Venetian school of painting was brought to its height by Titian, Tinto- 
 retto, and Paolo Veronese, to whom were entrusted the design and execution of a brilliant 
 series of historical pictures for the Hall of the Great Council. The only reward bestowed upon 
 Titian was an appointment to a civic oflftce, yielding no greater emolument than three hundred 
 crowns annually ; and even this trifling patent was encumbered with a condition at once 
 laborious and humiliating, namely, that of painting a portrait of every doge who succeeded 
 during his lifetime, for eight croivns a head. On the accession of Lorenzo Priuli in 1556, 
 Titian, then in his seventy-ninth year, discontinued his task ; nevertheless, he lived twenty 
 years longer, painted many other pictures, and even at last fell a victim, not to any ordinary 
 disorder, but to the plague. 
 
 We diverge from the general history of Venice to narrate briefly the story of Bianca Cappello, 
 
VENICE. 141 
 
 whose early amour, and subsequent ambition ruul i-iiincs, have been grcedly seized upon by 
 poets and novelists. In the reign of Nicolo Daponte (1578), Uartolommeo Cappello, a noble 
 Venetian, had a daughter named Bianea, for whom it was his chief olyect to procure an alli- 
 ance suitable to her great beauty and the dignity of her birth. The maiden, however, had 
 fixed her affections on Pietro Buonavcntura, a Florentine youth who filled no higher station 
 than that of cashier in the bank of the Salviati, not far from the Palazzo Cappelli. False 
 keys and the aid of a governess procured for Bianca nightly egress from her father's palace ; 
 but the stolen interviews thus obtained with her lover, soon led to urgent necessity for flight, 
 to avoid the wrath and vengeance of Bartolommeo, and to conceal the maiden's shame from 
 the eyes of Venice. The lovers escaped by night in a gondola, and having reached terra 
 firma, proceeded to Florence, where they besought protection of the young prince Francisco, 
 son of Cosmo de' jMedici. Francisco interposed in vain between the lovers and the relatives 
 of Bianca ; the latter was for ever renounced by her father, who even obtained an edict from 
 the Council of Ten, by which a reward of two thousand ducats was offered for the head of 
 Pietro. The young exiles had not long sojourned at Florence when Francisco became 
 enamoured of Bianca ; and scarcely had the prince completed his nuptials with Joanna of 
 Austria, before he appointed Pietro his master of the robes, and established Bianca magnifi- 
 cently as his mistress. Pietro was shortly afterwards murdered in the streets, and probably 
 by Francisco's orders. Bianca now ruled the prince according to her caprice, and even 
 resorted to the superstitions of the time to confii-m her dominion over him. Nor was she 
 content with this ; for knowing that Francisco was desu'ous of male issue, which his marriage 
 bed had not produced, she feigned appearances that promised the realization of his wishes. 
 At a suitable time she lodged in different quarters of the city three women at the eve of con- 
 finement, and adroitly presented to Francisco, as his son, the issue of one of these mothei-s. 
 These women she afterwards removed out of the way by poison ; and shortly after, a Bolognese 
 lady, her confidante, was dismissed on a visit to her native city, and murdered on the road. 
 This last victim survived long enough to reveal the transaction in which she had taken part , 
 and the monstrous guilt of Bianca Avas thus made known to the Cardinal de' Medici, the 
 brother of Francisco. Meantime the consort of the prince died in child-bed of grief; and the 
 indignation of the Cardinal and the people threatened a separation between the guilt}' pair. But 
 Bianca had obtained a power over Francisco "s\'hich he vainly endeavoured to resist ; and after 
 having yielded to a private marriage with her, he at length boldly and openly presented her 
 to the people as his bride. He dispatched an embassy to Venice to demand Bianca as a 
 daughter of St. Mark. The Cappelli remembered no longer the dishonour of their relative ; 
 and the Ten forgot their denunciations of vengeance. The ambassadors were treated with high 
 distinction, and on their return were accompanied by a deputation from Venice to assist at 
 the second nuptials of Francisco and Bianca. But the ducal honours with which Bianca was 
 invested were of brief duration. The Cardinal de' Medici partly through fear, and partly from 
 disgust, concerted measures for her destruction, \\hi\t these measures were is not known ; 
 but the means by which the Medici were accustomed to work in the pursuit of vengeance or 
 ambition are known ; and the sudden death of Francisco and Bianca, A\ithin a few hours of 
 each other, favours the suspicion of their removal by poison. Bianca was interred privately 
 in the crypt of San Lorenzo at Florence ; her title of Grand Duchess was erased from all 
 public documents, and in its room was substituted, la pessima Bianca — the vile Bianca. 
 
 2n 
 
142 VENICE. 
 
 We descend to the reign of Antonio Priuli (1618), in which occurred the conspiracy whose 
 incidents are rendered familiar, though in a distorted form, by St. Real's romance, and the 
 " Venice Preserved " of Otway. The romance is a travestie of history, intermixed with much 
 irrelevant matter, the mere creation of the writer's brain ; and Otway's coarse and boisterous 
 tragedy is a poetical extravaganza, in which character is violated, not delineated ; a drama for 
 rabid sentimentalists who delight to contemplate pathetic villains and hysterical women. 
 History affords but few particulars regarding the conspiracy. Sir Henry Wotton, who was the 
 English ambassador at Venice in 1618, thus alludes to it in a general way: " The whole town 
 is here at present in horror and confusion upon the discovering of a foul and fearful conspiracy 
 of the French against this State ; whereof no less than thirty have already suffered very 
 condign punishment, between men strangled in prison, drowned in the silence of the night, 
 and hanged in public view ; and yet the bottom is invisible." The facts that can be gathered in 
 detail are meagre. It appears that in the summer of 1617, Jacques Pierre, a Norman pirate, 
 fled from the service of the Duke d'Ossuna of Spain, and found employment as a subordinate 
 at the arsenal of Venice. Scarcely had he arrived in the Lagune, before he denounced himself 
 as the chief agent of the Duke d'Ossuna and the Spanish ambassador, for the accomplishment 
 of a plot to Are the city of Venice, to seize and massacre the nobles, to overthrow the existing 
 government, and to transfer the State to the Spanish crown. For ten months he was allowed 
 to communicate on the one hand with his complotters, and on the other with the Inquisition 
 of State ; but at the expiration of that term, he was seized by the Council of Ten, and drowned. 
 The Ten had kept the depositions of Pierre secret ; and it was not until three or four hundred 
 Frenchmen and Spaniards had been delivered to the executionei', and the body of Renault, the 
 companion of Pierre, was discovered, suspended by one foot on a gibbet, on the Piazzetta, that 
 the people had any knowledge of the great peril that had been averted. An apocryphal 
 account of the plot states that on the very eve of its explosion, Jafl&er, one of the conspirators, 
 touched by the magnificence of the Espousals of the Adriatic, which he had just witnessed, 
 Avas shaken from his stern purpose, and revealed the conspiracy. Whilst, however, this last 
 incident is beyond all question a figment, it is difllcult to say hoAv much of the previous narra- 
 tive is true. We see a smile upon the face of our readers on the discovery that Belvidera's 
 sorrows are all moonshine, that Jaffier is a phantom of the heat-oppressed brain, and the 
 magnanimous Pierre a vulgar, piratical cut-throat, undignified even by crime. 
 
 Twenty years before the downfall of the republic, Venice had sunk into a modern Sybaris ; 
 her political influence was gone, her possessions had fallen from her, the national spirit was 
 extinguished ; she was content to be a general mart of pleasure, and a pandemonium of crime. 
 Every day had its festival, whose pomp and circumstance formed the serious occupation of the 
 nobles and people. The patricians were the presidents of gaming establishments, and the hired 
 servants of the proprietors, who frequently were rich Jews. Shylock then fed fat the ancient 
 grudge he owed them. A Venetian noble had now become so abject in mind, that no personal 
 indignity could excite honourable resentment. When insulted, he confided his revenge to the 
 arm of the hired assassin. The general use of masks emboldened both sexes, and all degrees, 
 to indulge in the grossest depravity of behaviour. Courtezans had houses allotted them, and 
 funds set apart for their use ; and parents did not hesitate to barter their daughters for unhal- 
 lowed gains. 
 
 "The Republic Ms lived," was the pithy exclamation of Napoleon, when, in 1797, he deter- 
 
VENICE. 143 
 
 mined on the final overthrow of Venice. On tlic l^tli May of the same year, tlie' noljles 
 prostrated their city at the feet of the French general, "and proclaimed that the most ancient 
 government in the world, which had just completed the eleventh century of its sway, was no 
 longer in existence." In the following year, the city was ceded to Austria, under whose 
 dominion it remains. The ancient majesty of Venice is recalled, at the present day, by relics 
 of former magnificence; and the latest period of its decline continues to be reflected in the 
 censurable manners that still prevail in this once " glorious city in the sea." 
 
 Before St. Mark still glo-w his steeds of brass, 
 
 Their gilded collars glittering in the sun ; 
 
 But is not Doria's menace come to pass ? 
 
 Are they not bridled ? Venice, lost and won, 
 
 Her thirteen hundred years of glory done, 
 
 Sinks, like a sea-weed, into whence she rose I 
 
 Childe Harold. 
 
 THE RIALTO AND PONTE DI RIALTO. 
 
 The Rialto has been rendered a household word by Shakspeare, but it is not necessary that 
 Ave should summon up Shylock the Jew, and "the gentle lady married to the Moor," since 
 their association with the scene before us is familiar to young and old. The Rialto and the 
 Ponte di Rialto take their names from the Isola di Rialto, the island whereon they are built. 
 The Rialto is the Exchange, or place of concourse for the merchants; and the Ponte di Rialto, 
 the celebrated bridge so often mentioned, is one of the links that connect the hundred isles of 
 Venice. The buildings on the right of our view were erected after the fire of 1513, Avhich 
 laid nearly the whole city in ruins. The nearest structure, supported by arcades, is a portion 
 of the Fabbrico Nuovo, and adjoining it is the Fabbrico Vecchio; the latter is now appropri- 
 ated to the Imperial Tribunal of Justice, and the building beyond it, which interrupts the view 
 of the Bridge, is ,the seat of the Imperial Tribunal of Appeal. Through the arcades of the 
 Fabbrico Vecchio lies the approach to the Exchange. Sabellico, whose work on Venice was 
 published in 1492, a few years before the great fire, says of the Exchange, — " There the mer- 
 chants meet in a noble piazza, in Avhich all the commercial affairs of the city, and that is to 
 say of the world, are transacted. It is crowded, Avith scarcely any intervention, from morning 
 to night. Yet in spite of the crowd, there is no bustle, no altercation, no struggling, no quarrel." 
 The Bridge of the Rialto Avas originally constructed of Avood. The ]iresent structure was 
 built in the year 1591, by Antonio da Ponte. The Venetians regard it as the finest arch in 
 the Avorld, and endeavour to add to its distinction by attributing its design cither to Palladio, 
 or to Michael Angelo. It has three passages, of Avhich the one in the centre is the Avidest; 
 and on either side are rows of shops, occupied chiefly by joAvellers and haberdashers. Beyond 
 the Bridge, is seen the toAver of the church of St. Salvadore. The large building on the left 
 
144 VENICE. 
 
 of the view, contains the Offices of the Excise and Finance. An edifice, anciently named 
 the Fondaca di Tedeschi, was the commercial factory of the Germans in the thirteenth century, 
 and prior to that period, the residence of the Signory of Venice. This old buildmg was 
 destroyed by fire in 1505, and the present structm-e, which is said to contam two hundred 
 chambers, was erected on its site by Giovanni Giocondo of Verona. Giorgione was employed 
 to paint the fagade fronting the Great Canal, and the grand entrance was adorned by Titian, 
 and the praises lavished on the latter were so ungrateful to the ear of Giorgione, that he ever 
 after renounced all intimacy with his pupil. 
 
 BAPTISTERY OF ST. MARK. 
 
 The Church of St. Mark, from its first foundation in the tenth century, until its final com- 
 pletion in 1111, was an object of especial regard to the Doges, who devoted themselves to 
 its progress and adornment. Its excess of ornament, in columns and screens, statues, 
 arabesques, and mosaics, destroys the impressive effect which its scale of grandeur and magni- 
 tude would otherwise have produced. It is difficult to describe its architecture. The original 
 plan was a Greek cross, and the adornments are Byzantine, Sjo-iac, and Gothic, with much 
 that cannot be referred to any known type or style. The subdued light renders the interior 
 very striking, although under a stronger illumination the elaborate ornaments would distract 
 the eye, and produce a meretricious effect. San Marco is set with rich objects won by Vene- 
 tian enterprise and valour. In the principal front, there are five hundred splendid columns 
 of precious marbles, of various colours; some polygonal, some with Armenian and Syrian 
 inscriptions deeply engraven, the whole presenting a multiform enigma to the mind. The 
 character of the entire building is rich and strange, full of mystery and meaning. 
 
 The chapel of the Baptistery is enriched with mosaics of the eleventh and twelfth centuries, 
 representing, amongst other subjects, the baptism of Christ. One of the bronze doors is said 
 to have been brought from the basilica of St. Sophia, at Constantinople. The Benetier, or water 
 vase, is a work in porphyry, of the fifteenth century. It is supported by an antique altar of 
 Greek sculpture, ornamented with dolphins and tridents, the attributes of Neptune, which 
 though not inappropriate to Venice, can by no stretch of fancy be construed into emblems of 
 St. Mark. A statue of the Baptist in bronze, the Avork of Francisco Segala, is placed over 
 the font. The chapel of the Baptistery contains the tomb of Andrea Dandolo, the last Doge 
 who obtained the honour of interment in St. Mark's. He was "an intrepid warrior and a 
 skilful politician, the friend of Petrarch, and the oldest historian of Venice, as his ancestor was 
 the greatest hero." 
 

 '" ■' T Si 
 
 
 
 
f: 
 
BASSANO— VICENZA. 145 
 
 BASS AN 0. 
 
 ASSANO is beautifully situated on the Brenta, at the foot of the Trentine 
 4>) Alps. The history of this place can be traced no farther back than to the 
 thirteenth century, at which period it was a town of the Trevisano, a district 
 under the government of the Ezzelini family. In the early part of the 
 fourteenth century, it was included in an extensive principality possessed by 
 (L,^ the Delia Scala ; and in a few years afterwards it fell into the power of Venice. The 
 r^ Venetians lost possession in the war of Chiozza, but subsequently regained it, and they 
 H^ continued thenceforward to hold the place until the dismemberment of their republic by 
 (^ Napoleon. The battle of Bassano was the last great contest by which Napoleon endea- 
 voured to sustain his po-\ver in Italy. 
 
 Bassano is seldom A'isited by tourists, owing to its not lying in the direct routes ordinarily 
 taken by travellers ; the beauty of its scenery might, notwithstanding, claim more extensive 
 regard. The approach to the city, by the road from Trent to Venice, is so picturesque as to be 
 scarcely rivalled even in Italy. 
 
 VICENZA. 
 
 lHE history of Vicenza offers few events sufficiently remarkable to demand 
 especial notice. As the ancient Vicentia, or Vicetia, it is classed amongst 
 the municipal towns by Tacitus. On the fall of the empire it suffered from 
 the barbarians ; and at a subsequent period it incurred the displeasure of 
 Frederick II. for its atttichment to the Guelphic cause. After having for 
 some time formed part of the Venetian territories on terra firma, it was apportioned by 
 the League of Cambrai, to pope Julius II. The republic afterwards recovered posses- 
 sion, and Vicenza continued under the government of Venice until the French invasion 
 in 1798. When the power of Napoleon was annihilated in Italy, this city, with its 
 dependencies, -was annexed to the Austrian territory. 
 
 2 
 
146 VICENZA. 
 
 Vicenza owes its chief distinction to the fame of its architect, the celebrated Palladio, who 
 flourished in the sixteenth century. Some of his most famous works adorn his native city; 
 and amongst these may he named the Palazzo della Ragione, or Court of Justice, and the 
 Pallazzo Prefettizio, the house of the chief magistrate; both which edifices come immediately 
 into the foreground of our view. The style of Palladio is marked by severity, and is formed 
 from the ancient temples and the works of Vitruvius. Palladian architecture was introduced 
 into England by Inigo Jones, whose works are worthy imitations of the Italian master; but 
 since his time no one in this country seems to have imbibed the spirit of Palladio, for scarcely 
 a single edifice constructed by the followers of Inigo Jones exhibits anything better than a 
 servile copy of his style, a,nd an evident ignorance of its capabilities. British architects, to 
 the present day, appear to delight in incongruities, or if not so, they certainly want mental 
 power and correct taste, since their most elaborate efforts are too frequently "a chaos of dis- 
 jointed things." In our own city, and within the last five or six years, an architect of some 
 pretensions supported the loggia of a public edifice, consisting of a heavy pediment and mas- 
 sive Corinthian columns, upon slender Ionic pillars! True, the latter were removed, and a 
 solid rusticated basement substituted in their room; still, "we cannot but remember such 
 things were, that were most frightfulto us." "Can such things be, and overcome us like a 
 summer's cloud, without our special wonder?" 
 
 Our view of Vicenza represents the Piazza de' Signori. In the centre are the two columns 
 erected by the Venetians, who were accustomed to set up, in all the towns they conquered, 
 the national pillars of the ducal city. The nearest building on the right hand is the Palazzo 
 della Ragione, or more properly Palladio's fagades, the interior Palazzo being an ancient 
 gothic building, of the age of Theodoric, which Palladio restored and enlarged. These fagades 
 are considered the best works of the Italian architect. They consist of two noble loggie, 
 tier above tier, the uppermost Ionic, and the hwer Doric. The Campanile, adjoining the 
 Palazzo della Ragione, is a graceful structure occupying an area of little more than 
 twenty square feet, and rising to three hundred feet in height. On the left of our view, and 
 opposite to the Palazzo before mentioned, is the Palazzo Prefettizio. This building is in the 
 Corinthian style, and is a skilful adaptation of the Roman triumphal arch to a palatial 
 residence. 
 
 Upon the festival of Corpus Christi, a singular pageant, named the Rua, is exhibited at 
 Vicenza. It consists of an enormous car, sixty feet in height, formed of temples and pyra- 
 mids, surrounded by a combination of wheels, upon which, as they revolve, men, women, and 
 children maintain their equilibrium, whilst the car itself is hauled along by about an hundred 
 men. Tradition refers the origin of this procession to the achievements of the knights, 
 Bassano and Verlato, who relieved the city from the atrocities of the tyrant Ezzelino. 
 
 The Sette commune, or Seven Communes, are seen from Vicenza. These Alpine villages are 
 regarded with great interest by the historian as the residence of a people who for tAvo thousand 
 years have kept themselves apart from the rest of the world. The Cimbri and Teutones, two 
 tribes from the northern Chersonesus, invaded Italy in the year of Rome 640, and were 
 defeated, and almost extirpated by Marius, in the neighbourhood of Verona. The few who 
 escaped the vengeance of the conquerors, took refuge in the neighbouring mountains, and 
 formed a little colony, which, either from its poverty, its insignificance, or its retired position, 
 has remained undisturbed for nearly two thousand years. These people retain the tradition 
 
BRESCIA. 147 
 
 of their origin, and tliougli surroimdod by Italians, still pivsci'vc; their Teutonic language. 
 Frederick IV. of Denmark visited this singular colou}^ discoursed witli the inhabitants in 
 Danish, and found their idiom perfectly intelligible. 
 
 ^-1 ! 
 
 BRESCIA. 
 
 ■S-'^ 'f^^^^-^Si FTER the fall of the Roman empire, Brescia, ^hich boasted its splendour and 
 I'^vox/^r-li^ >•'" distinction under the Csesars, suffered great severities at the hands of Alaric 
 \.., /,;i/_lA\ iC-' / and Attila. It was afterwards conquered by the Lombards, from Avhom it passed 
 to the Franks; and when the power of the latter people declined, it submitted 
 to Otho I. of Saxon3% from whom it received many privileges. It partook of 
 the miseries of the Guelpli and Ghibelline contest; and its entire middle age histor}' 
 ^ ,y':(>)^ is composed of records of suffering. In 1222, an earthquake overthrew the principal 
 C;^ buildings, and destroyed a large number of the inhabitants ; and this calamity was 
 W succeeded by all the horrors of pestilence and famine. The bishops, nobles, and people 
 ^ were constantly at variance ; and to this perpetual cause of disquiet was added the 
 successive occupation of its citadel by turbulent and ambitious neighbours. It Avas taken in 
 succession by Ezzelino, the tyrant of Padua, by the Pallavicini of Cremona, the Torriani of 
 MUan, and the Scaglieri of Verona ; and it at length fell under the power of the A'isconti of 
 Milan, from whose intolerable tyranny it sought escape by submission to the Venetian republic. 
 When the league of Cambrai was entered into for the overthrow of Venice, Brescia was cap- 
 tured by the French (1512), under their celebrated leader, Gaston de Foix. The citizens 
 hoisted the standard of St. IMark, and drove out their oppressors ; but the citadel remained in 
 the hands of the enemy. Gaston de Foix advanced upon the city with an army of 12.000 men, 
 the flower of the French chivalry, and summoned it to surrender, under a menace that if he 
 were resisted not a single life should be spared. The citizens replied by a mortal defiance. 
 The forlorn hope of the French was led by the famous chevalier Bayard, who on mounting 
 the breast-Avork received a dangerous A\'ound, and Avas carried from the scene of strife by two 
 archers. The fall of Bayard, Avho was supposed to be mortally Avounded, increased the fury 
 of the assailants, and seven thousand defenders of the city Avere slain in the heat of the con- 
 flict. But the fearful outrages and atrocities that folloAved during the sack of the city have 
 scarcely a parallel. Men, Avomen, and children, to the number of fort3'-six thousand, Avere 
 ferociously slaughtered; and "the floAver of the French chiA^alry" paused in their Avork of 
 blood, only to indulge in shameful barbarities and violence towards tlie Aveaker sex, or to 
 satiate then- avarice by the most capricious plunder. The bodty Avas immense: ducats Avere 
 counted by the handful, and cloth of gold Avas measured by the lance. The miseries of Avar 
 were succeeded by famine and pestilence ; amd Brescia has not, to this day, fully recovered 
 the loss of population she sustained in the opening of the sixteenth century. 
 
148 BRESCIA. 
 
 Two incidents are recorded in connection witli this memorable assault that deserve especial 
 mention ; the one, as an example of the brutal ferocity of the conquerors ; and the other as a 
 solitary redeeming feature in their conduct. As the crowds pressed forward to the churches 
 to find a refuge from the soldiery, the latter inflicted five sabre-wounds on the skull and face 
 of a child in the arms of its mother. This child survived, but in consequence of its wounds 
 never acquired the faculty of speech, and hence obtained the name of Tartaglia, — the same 
 Tartaglia who became one of the greatest mathematicians of the age, and to whom modern 
 algebraical science is principally indebted. The other incident refers to the Chevalier Bayard. 
 The archers Avho bore him from the assault, took him to the house of a noble family named 
 Cigola, whose cowardly master had fled to a monastery, leaving his wife and daughters 
 exposed to the brutality of the French soldiery. Bayard observed, amidst his own sufferings, 
 the terror and distress of these ladies, and ordered a guard to be placed at the door of the 
 house to secure its inmates from outrage and pillage. During two months both mother and 
 daughters nursed him with woman's tenderness, and when at length he was sufl&ciently 
 restored to dispense with their attentions, the mother offered him a casket containing two 
 thousand five hundred ducats as a ransom for herself and children. Bayard raised her from 
 her suppliant posture, and begged, as the only return for the protection his presence had 
 afforded them, that she would permit him to bid adieu to her daughters. On their entrance, 
 he presented each with a thousand ducats from the casket as a marriage portion, and directed 
 that the remaining five hu,ndred should be given to some poor nuns who had been pillaged. 
 When he took his leave, one of the young ladies presented him with a pair of rich bracelets 
 woven of her own hair, and the other proffered for his acceptance an embroidered purse. These 
 the gallant knight accepted; he placed the bracelets on his arm and the purse on his sleeve, 
 and declared that whilst he lived he would wear them for the honour of their donors. 
 Although this incident is vaunted by the French historians in honour of their chivalry, it can 
 in fact only be taken as a testimony to the character of the individual knight whom they have 
 themselves separated from his compeers by the title of " Chevalier sans peur et sans reproche," 
 — The Knight without fear and without disgrace. 
 
 Brescia returned in 1516 to the government of Venice. Its subsequent history records two 
 awful visitations of the plague, the one in 1575, and the other in 1630 ; and in 1769, the ex- 
 plosion of a powder magazine destroyed all the buildings in its vicinity, and kUled a great 
 number of the citizens. It was in the latter year that the Brescians aided the French against 
 Venice. Since 1814, the city has been subject to Austria. At the present day Brescia is a 
 flourishing city containing 40,000 inhabitants. It is pleasantly situated, and prospects of 
 great beauty are obtained from the neighbouring heights. Among the numerous Roman 
 antiquities, the most remarkable is a recently exhumed temple, supposed to have been dedi- 
 cated to Hercules by Vespasian, and whose portico bears strong resemblance to that of the 
 Pantheon. A museum of antiquities has been founded in the temple, under the direction of 
 Signer Girolamo loli, to whom the antiquarian world is indebted for the recovery of the temple 
 itself. Brescia is remarkable for its two cathedrals; the Duomo Vecchio, said to have been built 
 by the dukes of Lombardy : and the Duomo Nuovo, begun in 1604 from the designs of Giovanni 
 Battista Lantana, but of which the cupola remained unfinished until 1825. The Brescian 
 school of painting has produced works of great merit, but the glory of its members is absorbed 
 in that of the Venetian school. The churches and palazzi are decorated with the paintings of 
 
^>''!^fn:>i iifSMi'>^\W^iJfif^4-^)^iv^Se'J:<!rtSHo J.-. ifti^^&cuitjMwiyrt-i.---^ 
 
 <§v 
 
ROCC/V D'ANFO— BERGAMO 
 
 149 
 
 native artists, amongst wlioni wo may name Alcssandro Buonvicino, called iiho II Moretlo, 
 the fomidei- of the school ; Ricchino, a pupil of Moretto ; Gaudini, a pupil of Paul Veronese ; 
 and Sebastian Conca. The works of the latter, however, exhibit only the decline of art in 
 Italy. 
 
 ROCCA D'ANFO, 
 
 LAGO D IDRO. 
 
 , / of the district 
 
 U-. 
 
 DRO, the ancient Edrum or Edrinus, is a small village at the southern 
 extremity of the Lago d'Idro, or Lake of Idro. The road on the eastern side 
 of the lake terminates at this village ; but on the other side a carriage road from 
 the Val Sabbia is continued above the precipices overhanging the lake, and passing 
 Rocca d'Anfo, proceeds as far as Ladrone on the confines of the Tyrol. The Lago 
 d Idro lies out of the travelling route, and is little known except to the inhabitants 
 but to the lover of the picturesque, it offers beauties of no mean cha- 
 
 racter. 
 
 ■^^ The illustrative view is rendered generally interesting from its being the battle-field 
 
 J upon which a fierce conflict took place between the French and Austrians, in July of 1796. 
 
 Prior to this contest, the Austrians had checked the career of Napoleon, and even driven his 
 
 troops triumphantly before them ; but the results of the battle of Rocca d'Anfo changed the 
 
 face of affairs, and restored success to the army of the French republic. 
 
 BERGAMO. 
 
 
 jjl OT a few of the cities of Italy are, in their history, " as like as one pea to 
 another." After having enjoyed more or less celebrity under the republic or 
 
 fj, 
 
 the empire of Rome, they experienced one common visitation from the bar- 
 barians, afterwards shared in the turbulence of the middle ages, and ultimately 
 fell under the yoke of a foreign despot. Bergamo is included in this class ; and 
 the only distinctions that individualize it, are the tradition of its great antiquity, and 
 the fact of its having been the birth-place and early residence of the father of Tasso. 
 
 There are not many objects of striking interest in Bergamo. Under the portico of 
 the Palazzo Vecchio, is a statue of Tasso, in Carrara marble. One of the most remark- 
 able buildings is the Fie?^a, a vast quadrangle, with three gates on each side, and courts 
 
 2 V 
 
150 LOUVERE. 
 
 and streets. An annual fair, which traces its origin to the year 913, is held in this place on 
 the feast of St. Bartholomew. The Fiera contains six hundred shops ; and during the fair of 
 1833, goods, of which one-third consisted of silk, were sold to the amount of more than one 
 million sterling. 
 
 LOUVEEE, 
 
 ON THE LAKE OF ISEO. 
 
 RAVELLERS in Italy pursue the beaten track, from which they are rarely 
 
 tempted to diverge, hence many retired scenes of great beauty never fall 
 under their observation, and amongst these localities Louvere claims a dis- 
 tinguished place. This district was anciently inhabited by the Euganei, a 
 people expelled from their native abodes by the Veneti. According to Pliny, 
 they held at one time thirty-four towns in this neighbourhood, all of which were 
 admitted to the rights of Latin cities by Augustus. Descending to the twelfth century, 
 we find Louvere an arena of the Guelph and Ghibelline contest, that universal curse to 
 the cities of Italy. From this period, however, we are to date the modern population 
 of the district, which was previously but thinly inhabited. The exiles from other cities 
 sought and found a refuge on the banks of the Lago d'lseo from the fierce vengeance of party 
 strife. Louvere afterwards suffered great extremities, when its inhabitants Avere opposed to 
 Pandolfo Malatesta, the lord of Bergamo. This nobleman advanced upon the town, and took 
 it ; he then lighted a candle and commanded every resident to depart, on pain of death, before 
 it was consumed. 
 
 Louvere was the residence of Lady Mary Wortley Montague, who in a letter to her daughter, 
 the Countess of Bute, describes the condition of the town and neighbourhood a century ago. — 
 "This extraordinary spot of land is almost unknown to the rest of the world; and indeed does 
 not seem to be destined by nature to be inhabited by human creatures; and I believe never 
 would have been so without the cruel civil war between the Guelphs and Ghibellines. Before 
 that time here were only the huts of a few fishermen, who came, at certain seasons, on account 
 of the fine fish with which this lake abounds, particularly trouts, as large and red as salmon. 
 The lake is different from any other I ever saw or read of, being the colour of the sea, rather 
 deeper, tinged with green, which convinces me that the surrounding mountains are full of 
 minerals, and, it may be, rich in mines yet undiscovered, as well as quarries of marble, from 
 whence the churches and houses are ornamented, and even the streets paved, Avhich, if polished 
 and laid with art, would look like the finest mosaic work, being a variety of beautiful colours. 
 I ought to retract the honourable title of street, none of them being broader than an alley, 
 and impassable for any wheel-carriage except a Avheel-barrow. This town, which is the largest 
 of twenty-five that are built on the banks of the Lake of Iseo, is nearly two miles long, and 
 the figure of a semicircle, and situated at the northern extremity. If it was a regular range 
 
v'^ -1. r:''\ 
 
 
roMO. 
 
 151 
 
 of building, it would appoiiv magnificont, but hcino- iouuded jircidciitally by lliosc wlio .soiiolit 
 a refuge fi'om the violiMU'c of tlio tiuies, it is ,a mixture of shops and palaces, g.uilcns and 
 houses, which ascend a mile liigli in a confusion wliicli is not disagrccalde. After lliis salutary 
 water was found, and the purity of the air was experienccid, many people of quality chos(; it 
 for their summer residence, and eral)eHislied it A\ith several fine edifices. It was populous 
 and flourishing till that latal })lague which overran all Europe in the year 1020. It made a 
 terrible ravage in this place; the poor were almost destroyed, and the rich deserted it. Since 
 that time it has never recovered its. former splendour; few of the nobility returned; it is now 
 only frequented during the water-drinking season. Several of the ancient palaces are 
 degraded into lodging-houses, and others stand empty in a ruinous condition; one of these I 
 have bought." 
 
 Lonvere is. in the present day, a flourishing little town, and is still improving. The late 
 Count Luigi Tadini built a fine palace, with an extensive facade towards the lake, and formed 
 a museum of natural history, and a gallery of paintings and statuary. The best inn in Lou- 
 vere is the Canon d'Oro, kept by the rioblc family of Celcri. We marvel that this circumstance 
 alone does not attract a certain class of rich parvenvii to the locality. They delight to "gall 
 the kibe" of aristocracy; and for the expenditure of a few ducats at the Casa Celeria, they 
 might summon the representative of tlie Celeri to unstrap their portmanteaus, and give a 
 polish — to their boots. 
 
 C M 
 
 |HE people of Como claim a Greek origin, and pride themselves on a descent 
 more ancient than that of Roman cities. After the fall of the empire, this 
 place was held successively by the Goths, the Lombards, and the Franks. 
 In the middle ages it espoused the Ghibelline interest, and Avas thus led 
 into contests with its Guelphic neighbours, the Milanese, by whona it was 
 taken and burned in 1127. It was gradually rebuilt, and regained its inde- 
 pendence, but at length fell irrecoverably under the power of Milan, and took part in 
 all the subsequent political vicissitudes of that city. 
 
 Como is the the birth-place of Pliny, whose villa on the neighbouring lake is one 
 of the points of attraction to travellers; an intermitting spring establishes the identity 
 of the locality beyond all dispute. Amongst other eminent citizens, the Comasques 
 delight to enumerate Caninius Rufus and Cains Cecilius, early Latin poets; Paulus Jovius, the 
 bishop and historian; Rezzonico, the poet; and the popes, Innocent XI. and Clement XIIL 
 There is, however, one name connected with Como, which in many respects claims pre-eminent 
 regard, namely, that of Volta, to whose discoveries electricity and modern chemistry are so 
 much indebted. 
 
152 COMO. 
 
 The Cathedral of Como is deemed one of the finest ecclesiastical structures of the middle ages. 
 It was founded in 1396, and built of marbles from the neighbouring quarries. The fagade of 
 white marble is broad and striking, and the interior derives grandeur from the capacity of its 
 dome and nave, and the sombre and impressive character that prevails throughout. The 
 church of St. Fedele, an ancient edifice, is also remarkable for the character of its architecture. 
 The city, including its suburbs, is said to contain upwards of eighteen thousand inhabitants. 
 Tt has several silk- works and manufactories of woollen cloths; and in literary and scientific 
 associations, and educational institutions, it claims precedence over many of the more impor- 
 tant cities of Italy. 
 
 Access to the Lake of Como has been greatly facilitated, in recent years, by the introduction 
 of steamers on the lake, and the construction of admirable roads along its shores. The pas- 
 sage down the lake was formerly by a heavy, dangerous boat, which started in the evening 
 from Gravedona, and stopped at the villages to collect passengers to the market of Como, 
 which was reached with difficulty, in the morning, except when foul weather baffled the boat- 
 men's skill, and exposed all on board to imminent peril. On reaching Como, the peasant was 
 compelled to hasten his transactions to secure his return home the same evening. Now, how- 
 ever, he rests tranquilly till six or eight in the morning, reaches Como in time to manage his 
 business leisurely, and arrives at his home, even if situated at the upper extremity of the 
 lake, long before night-fall. So much for steam, which some romantic blockheads have Mown 
 up as an intruder upon the quiet lake, but which, so far as we can ascertain, has never blown 
 up them in return; on the contrary, it has contributed to the picturesque of Lake Como, and 
 blessed its villagers with advantages they never before enjoyed. The road on the shores of 
 the lake is one of the finest works of modern engineering science. It is carried by a succes- 
 sion of terraces and galleries from village to village, and through scenes of the most striking 
 beauty. As this road leads to Milan by Lecco, alvoiding Como, travellers who desire to enjoy 
 the scenery of that branch of the lake which leads from the promontory of Bellagio to Como, 
 must make its tour in a steamer, or hire a boat to visit the villas and villages which occupy a 
 thousand picturesque sites around its shores. 
 
 The Tower of Baradello, situated on a conical sand-stone hill, forms a remarkable featm-e 
 in the scenery of Como. Originally erected by the Gauls, it became in different ages a strong- 
 hold of the power temporarily predominant. During the French possession of Italy, this tower 
 was employed as a telegraphic station; but the wily Austrian has dispensed with all these 
 means of communication in Lombardy, esteeming them, we apprehend, dangerous rather than 
 serviceable. The hill and tower of Baradello are situated too far to the right to fall within 
 the Umits of our view. 
 
w 
 
•#;■• 4^ 
 
 lic^ 
 
 .^ 
 
 ^x 
 
VARESE. 153 
 
 V A R E S E. 
 
 FROM THE SACEO MONTE. 
 
 (5- '^ 
 
 ''^^.-:,>5^!/^' BEAUTIFUL, extensive, and diversified prospect is obtained from the Sacro 
 
 "^^"^^^rir \'Xi ) "^ ^^^^*^^' °^' Calvary, as it is sometimes named, a commanding eminence situ- 
 ^^^'^^'C'/-^ ated about two miles from the unimportant city of Vfirese. In the ascent 
 //0J^^Y^ from Vnrese, the traveller, after passing fifteen chapels, arrives at the church 
 
 ^^^lC^;"^i^ of tlie IMadonna, on the summit of the Sacro Monte. The sanctity of this 
 
 i''-'^>iJ?iJ' edifice makes it the resort of religious pilgrims, and the pilgrims of art are attracted 
 
 ^Ix" thither by the beauty of its architecture and pictures. It has also its absurdities : one, 
 
 a statue of the Vu-gin, attributed to St. Luke ; and another, a dried crocodile, said to be 
 
 the remains of a fearful dragon destroyed by the power of the Madonna. 
 
 From the Sacro Monte the traveller looks down upon the picturesque sites of the 
 chapels which he passed in the ascent ; and below them lie Varese, the surrounding villas, and 
 a hundred campagnas and palaces. On the right is the lake of Varese, beyond it the l;ike of 
 Monate, and still more distant, a part of the Lago Maggiore. The vie^^' is bounded, in this 
 direction, by the Alps, which blend with the haze and indistinctness of the distant plains. 
 The eye sweeps round the panorama, taking in the Alps, and the mountains which bound the 
 lakes of Lugano and Como, together with the rich intervening country. Slilan is said to be 
 sonietimes distinguishable in the view. The elevation from which the spectator sm-vej^s this 
 prospect, is about two thousand feet above the lake of Varese. 
 
 The neighbourhood of Varese is associated with many historical recollections. It was at vm 
 early period a district of the Insubrian Gauls; and about 170 B.C. it fell, together with other 
 territories of the Cisalpine Gauls, into the hands of the Romans. About sixty years later, the 
 Cimbrians descended upon the country ; and on the decline of Rome, the northern barbarians 
 laid it waste, in their passage to the interior of Italy. The senseless battles of jarring creeds, 
 and the conflict between the temporal and ecclesiastical powers, involved it in the common 
 miseries of the dark ages. And still later, it suffered severely from the people of Como, ^^'ho 
 resented its attachment to their Milanese enemies. Its plains have been the riena of a 
 thousand battles ; and from the time of Bellovesus, the Gaul, B.C. 610, down to the French 
 invasion at the close of the last century, it was a place of sacrifice where rapine and ambition 
 offered up their hecatombs of victims. 
 
 The Lago di Varese, or lake of Varese, is of an oval form, about twelve miles in length, and 
 six in breadth. Its banks slope gently to the verge of the water, and are covered with 
 luxuriant vegetation. Fields of deep verdure, bordered by lofty trees ; hills covered with 
 thickets ; villas shaded with pines and poplars ; and villages encircled ^^'ith vineyards, attract 
 the traveller's regard wherever he turns his eye, and charm him by the combination of pic- 
 turesque beauty which they present to his view. 
 
 2 Q 
 
154 MILAN. 
 
 MILAN. 
 
 : EW cities in Italy can rank with Milan, which has brought down to modern 
 times a great.part of its ancient celebrity, and preserved through nearly all 
 the periods of its eventful history a happy mediocrity of fame and magnifi- 
 cence. The ancient Mediolanum, the original of Milan, was founded by the • 
 1 Insubrian Gauls, Avhilst Rome itself was in its infancy. In the reign of Tarquinius 
 Priscus, or that of his successor Ancus Martius, it had gradually risen to be a city of 
 some importance. And in the year of Rome 532 (A.D. 221), it was possessed of 
 strength sufficient to withstand a Roman army, and required the united efforts of two 
 consuls, M. Marcellus and C. Cornelius Scipio, to effect its capture. Under the Roman 
 republic, it enjoyed tranquillity for many ages, increased in extent and opulence, 
 improved in the polite arts, and became the seat of an academy honoured with the appellation 
 of Novce Athence — New Athens. When the Roman empire gave way, and even the imperial 
 city, with all her lofty prerogatives of majesty and fame, saw her streets deserted, and her 
 pomp withering under the influence of warring powers, Mediolanum flourished in population 
 and splendour, and became, not indeed the nominal but oftentimes the real seat of empire. 
 Decorated with temples and j)orticoes, baths and amphitheatres, and a general magnificence of 
 architecture, it claimed, under the Valentinians, equality of rank with the best cities of the 
 empire. But the invasion of Italy by Attila, in the time of Valentinian III., commenced an 
 era of disasters, in which Mediolanum took its share. Attila visited it in his fuiy, and first 
 plundered, then butchered its inhabitants. After him came the Goths, under Vitiges, who 
 burned a great part of the city. Then followed the Lombards, by whom it was sacked, and 
 afterwards abandoned to contempt and insignificance It was restored to much of its former 
 dignity by Charlemagne ; and again suffered reverses under Barbarossa, who razed it to the 
 ground, and even, it is said, passed the ploughshare over its ruins. But this same prince almost 
 immediately assisted in its restoration, and thus laid the foundation of modern Milan. The 
 prosperity of the new city is identified with the Visconti, a family descended from Visconti, 
 archbishop and " Perpetual Lord of Milan," in 1276. In the fourteenth century, the repre- 
 sentatives of this family ranked amongst the most powerful princes in Italy, and extended their 
 authority over all Lombardy north of the Po, and over several cities and states south of that 
 river. Unfortunately for Milan, and indeed for all Italy, the Visconti formed matrimonial 
 connections with the dynasty of France, which, on the extinction of this family, laid claim to the 
 Milanese territory. The battle of Pavia at length broke the French power in Italy, and secured 
 the possession of Milan to Spain, and eventually to Austria, which retained it, with a few intervals 
 of incidental and temporary incursions, till the invasion of Napoleon. On the expulsion of the 
 French, Milan was again placed under Austrian rule. 
 
 Milan is a great and splendid city, nearly eleven miles in circumference; but its general 
 appearance, according to Eustace, does not correspond with its reputation, the streets being 
 
MILAN. 155 
 
 neither uniformly wide nor regailar, and tlic ediliccs ol' niaj^iiirK^cucc or hc-uilj licinf,^ few in 
 number. Amongst tlie latter, the Duomo, or (l-itliedral, claims jirioiity ol' iiotici;, as the great 
 point of attraction to visitors. This edifice is situated almost in the centici of the city, and 
 occupies the site of the ancient Basilica, which was destroyed by Attila. A second building 
 was accidentally destroyed by fire in lO?;!, and a third was demolished by Daibarossa. The 
 present structure, the fourth ei-ection, Avas begun by (uovanni Galcazzo Visconti, on the 15th 
 iiay K^Sti. Since the day A\'hen the foundation-stone Avas laid, scaffolds ha\c always been 
 standing in some part of the building. The octagon cnpola Avas not vaulted till 1522; the 
 tliree Avestern divisions, or arches, of the nave Avere not completed till 1685; the c(^nj-al towoi- 
 and spire Avere only finished in 177-J; at a later period the slumbering Avorks Avere revived by 
 Napoleon; and the Austrian has since added his quota to the hdiours of nearly fiA-e centuries; 
 still there is more to do, and (/ millennium, if not the millennium, seems destined to arrive before 
 the sound of the mallet and chisel shall cease to be heard. The A\'est front of the Duomo is 
 uniA-ersally execrated as the great flaAv in the building, a mixture of Italianized Roman and 
 Gothic unique in ugliness. Apart from this repulsive feature, the exterior is magnificently 
 grand. Its snoAvy pinnacles, Avith their delicate tracery, and the multitude of statues equally 
 Avhite, Avith Avhich it is decorated, rising toAvards the bright blue sky, look like some exquisite 
 piece of sculpture executed in molten silver. AVith some incongruities, it possesses great 
 excellence; every one vicAvs it Avith delight, and carries its image in his memory when he can 
 no longer recal the features of other structures presented in his travels. The interior of the 
 edifice has an air of lightness and elegance that offers a striking contrast to the heavy internal 
 arrangement Avhich characterises other celebrated ecclesiastical structures. The extreme 
 slenderness of the clustered pillars Avhich rise A\-ithout intervention to the A^ault, permits the 
 eye to range over the Avhole extent of the interior. The pillars are more than ninety feet 
 in height; and the clustre does not exceed eight feet in diameter. These elegant shafts, Avith 
 the lofty arches and lustrous Avails, and the numberless niches all filled Avith marble figures, 
 give the building an appearance that is novel even in Italy, and singularly majestic. In ma- 
 terials, the cathedral of ^lilan surpasses all other churches, the noblest of Avhich are only lined 
 and coated Avith marble, Avhile this is entirely built, paved, vaulted, and roofed Avith the same 
 substance, and that of the Avhitest and most resplendent kind. The most remarkable object 
 in the interior of the Duomo is the subterranean chapel in which the body of San Carlo Bar- 
 romeo reposes. This illustrious individual AA'as archbishop of Milan about the middle of the 
 sixteenth century. The course of his life is illustrated in a number of (ilti-rUtevi, chased and 
 wrought in silver gilt, Avhich adorn the Avails of the chapel. These repreLcnt the birth of San 
 Carlo; his Presidency of the Provincial Council of Milan, in 1505, in Avhich canons Avere enacted 
 virtually protesting against the abuses of the Roman chm-ch; his distribution of his domain of 
 Oria to the poor; his public administration of the sacrament during the great plague; the 
 attempt to assassinate him ; hisdeatli; and his reception into paradise. The body of the saint 
 reposes in a shrine of rock crystal behind the high altar; it is stretched at full length, dressed 
 in pontifical robes, with the crosier and mitre; but the face, disfigured by decay, contrasts 
 hideously with the splendom- of the vestments A\'hich c(jvor the body. St. Ambrose is another 
 name of interest connected Avith the Duomo, and more particularly Avith the Basilica Ambrosiana, 
 AA'here his remains are interred. It Avas at the door of this last edifice that he met the emperor 
 Theodosius and refused him admission, — an incident rendered famihar by Vandyke's painting. 
 
i56 
 
 PAVIA. 
 
 We pass by the numerous edifices, lay and ecclesiastical, that might claim particular regard 
 in a more extended page than ours, and briefly advert to two points of interest, the one 
 the Ambrosian Library, and the other the Coenaculum, or repository of the Last Supper, by 
 Da Vinci. The library, founded by a member of the Borromeo family, contains about forty 
 thousand volumes, and more than fifteen thousand manuscripts, and includes a gallery of 
 pictures, statues, antiques, and medals. But the most unique treasure is a voluminous manu- 
 script of Leonardi da Vinci, filled with sketches, which testifies that his genius ranged over 
 all the sciences at pleasure, and shone with equal lustre in poetry, painting, architecture, and 
 philosophy. The Coenaculum, a name applied somewhat affectedly to the refectory of the 
 Dominican convent, contains the last fading, fragile relics of Leonardo da Vinci's great master- 
 piece, the Last Supper. The original painting was executed in oil, a circumstance much to be 
 regretted, for had it been a fresco its beauties might have come down to us unimpaired. At 
 an early period the colour separated from the wall, curled, and peeled off; and to repair the 
 ruin into which it had fallen artists were from time to time employed to re-paint j)ortions of 
 the composition. It is now in the last stage of decay, and those parts which bear the impress 
 of Da Vinci's hand alone, are inappreciable except by the lover and student of art. One can- 
 not suppress a feeling of indignation to read that the French soldiery amused themselves by 
 firing at this painting, as at a target, directing an especial aim at the head of the Saviour. 
 Nor is our indignation less to be told that the doai^ cut through the painting was made by the 
 monks for readiness of access to the refectory. 
 
 PAVIA. 
 
 iAVIA derives no celebrity from classical history. Under its ancient name 
 )>^ of Ticinum a few allusions are made to it, merely sufficient to attest its 
 existence in the republican and imperial ages of Rome. Between the sixth 
 and eighth centuries its name was changed to Papia, afterwards softened by 
 Italian euphony into Pavia. It became a considerable city under Theodoric 
 and his successors, and the Lombard princes made it the capital of their dominions. 
 The residence of the Lombardic sovereigns occupied the site of the present Castello, 
 erected by Galeazzo Visconti between 1460 and 1469. tin this building were .pre- 
 served the treasures of literature and art collected by Giovanni Galeazzo, the ft-iend 
 and protector of Petrarch, consisting of manuscripts, armour, and natural curiosities. 
 Petrarch is lavish in his praise of Galeazzo's liberality and magnificence, but he fails to 
 record the fact that his patron, in a fit of passion, hanged his architect after the completion of 
 
■***/, / 
 
 ■■m 
 
 \ 
 
PAVrA. 
 
 157 
 
 the edifice. When the Castello was disniantlcMl by Louis XIT., its treasures were carried to 
 France. Pavia is indebted to tlie Visconti for its principal buildinirs, the Duomo, the cliurch 
 of Santa Maria de Cami)anouva, and the covered bridge over the Ticino, and also for the restora- 
 tion of its university. Their sovereignty, however, was a tyranny galling and oppressive to 
 all who fell under its domination ; and if their memory be not execrated in the present day, 
 it is simply because the ocular and tangible witnesses of their liberality and magnificence are 
 more obtrusive than the page of history wliich records their misdeeds. It is recorded of Pavia, 
 that in her republican days she sent fifteen thousand men to the crusades, a number equal to 
 half her present population. The citizens have on various occasions exhibited a degree of 
 spirit near akin to that of the old Romans. More than once they repelled the French from 
 their walls; and it was in the celebrated battle of Pavia that Francis I. "lost all but 
 honour." In their last struggle with the French, the Pavians abated nothing of their 
 wonted courage, but on that occasion, their good genius deserted them, and their city was 
 compelled to admit a conqueror. The excesses committed by Napoleon's army will compare 
 with the foulest atrocities of barbai-ian and media3val times ; and the massacre of Pavia stands 
 in fearful relief amidst the scenes of blood and carnage by which the Achilles of France sought 
 to revive the empire of Charlemagne. 
 
 Amongst the churches of Pavia, that of San Pietro in Ccelo Aureo is worthy of mention 
 from its having been the resting place of Boethius, the author of the " Consolation of Philo- 
 sophy," who flourished early in the sixth century. The edifice has been in ruins for many 
 ages. The ciceroni point out amidst the square towers which continue to form the striking 
 features of Pavia, the identical tower in Avhich Boethius was confined by Theodoric ; but that 
 this is not the prison into which the Consul was thrown for his opposition to the Arians, is 
 manifest from two facts : the tower of Boethius disappeared in 1584, and the one now substi- 
 tuted for it is neither known to occupy the same site, nor is it of sufficient age to claim iden- 
 tity with a structure of the fifth or sixth century. The cathedral contains the tomb of St. 
 Augustine, a curious and interesting work, richly decorated with innumerable bassi-rilieri, and 
 nearly one hundred statues, and bearing evidence of its having been executed in the latter part of 
 the fourteenth century. It is said to have been removed hither when the church of San 
 Pietro in Coelo Aureo was destroyed ; but there is an evident anachronism in the tradition, 
 that renders the whole account of this tomb apocryphal. 
 
 At the distance of three or four miles from Pavia, is the church and convent of Certosa 
 founded by Galeazzo Visconti in 1396, to atone for the murder of his uncle, whose dominions 
 he had usurped. This splendid edifice is situated in a noble park, and forms one of the most 
 imposing pictures imaginable. The most celebrated sculptors in Italy are said to have been 
 employed during three centuries in ornamenting the facade of the church. The interior is 
 even more beautiful than the exterior. The rarest marbles, alabasters, mosaics, sculptm-e, 
 carvings in ivory and busts in gold, silver, bronze, and pietro-dm-o, inlaid with precious gems, 
 paintings, and gilding, are lavishly distributed all over it. A detailed description of the gor- 
 geous splendour of this institution would carry us beyond our limits. Let it suffice to say that 
 the monks of Certosa are lodged right royally. 
 
 The University of Pavia, founded by Charlemagne in 774, still numbers about sixteen hun- 
 dred students, and the most celebrated names of Italy have dignified its professorships. 
 
 -^ R 
 
158 COLLEGE AT LA TORRE, 
 
 THE WALDENSIAN COLLEGE AT LA TORRE, 
 
 VAL LUCERNA, PIEDMONTE. 
 
 j'.HE illustrative view represents the opening of the valley of Lucerna into 
 the plains of the Po. The town of Lucerna is seen at the base of the distant 
 mountains ; that of La Torre is in a great measure concealed by the fore- 
 ground. The interest of the view, apart from its picturesque features, 
 centres in the Waldensian College, an edifice of no great pretensions in 
 itself, but dignified by the purposes for which it was built. 
 "^ The Waldenses go back to a much more remote antiquity than is usually assigned to 
 them. Their name literally signifies the dwellers in the valleys, but its derivation has 
 been sought in connection with the name of Peter Waldus, a rich citizen of Lyons, who 
 formed a religious community in 1170, known by the appellation of the Lyonists, or the 
 Poor Men of Lyons. The ancient Waldenses, and the Waldensians of the twelfth century, 
 can be identified only in the similarity of their religious views, and their contendings for the 
 pure and simple faith preached and enforced by the Apostles. The modern term Vaudois is 
 derived from Valdo or Vaud, each of which is merely a variation of the name of Waldus. 
 The application of this term to the inhabitants of the Piedmontese valleys is incorrect, 
 since they ought to be regarded as descendants from the ancient native reformers of Italy. 
 The early histoiy of the Waldenses is enveloped in considerable obscurity, but then- great 
 antiquity is admitted even by their enemies. Rainerus the Dominican, an Inquisitor in the 
 thirteenth century, says that their heresy " existed, according to some, from the time of 
 Silvester, and according to others, from the days of the Apostles." The same writer, 
 in conjunction with other two, afiirms that the Waldenses dated their own origin and 
 the defection of the Roman communion from the reign of Silvester, A. D. 314. Leo, 
 who fiourished in the reign of Constantine, they regarded as their founder. Roman- 
 ism, at this period, ceased to be Christianity, and the inhabitants of the valleys left 
 the unholy communion. Other testimony declares that the Waldenses multiplied wonder- 
 fully, and spread themselves throughout all the countries of Europe. We ought rather 
 to say their prindfles spread far and wide, since the defenders of these principles in 
 various countries were distinguished by as various appellations, such as Cathari, Leonists, 
 Wickliflfltes, Bohemians, and Albigensians. Pius II. states, in his History of Bohemia, that 
 the Waldenses rejected purgatory, image- worship, sacramental confession, extreme unction 
 invocation of saints, prayer for the dead, and the use of oil and chrism in baptism. Petavius 
 represents them as opposed to the papal supremacy, indulgences, purgatory, fasts, festivals, 
 and saint-invocation. They denied the doctrine of transubstantiation; declared the celibacy 
 of the clergy to be unscriptural; reduced the sacraments to two, namely. Baptism and the 
 Supper; and rejected the worship of the Virgin herself, afl&rming that remission of sins can 
 be obtained through Christ alone. An enemy (Rainerus, before quoted) has testified to "their 
 
COLLEGE A T L A TOR I{ E. 1 ;-,[) 
 
 sobriety, modcstv, chastity, and t('in]ier;iiico; and Micii- aversion to tavcins, halls, vanity, anger, 
 scurrility, detraction, levity, swearing-, and lalseliood." It is further i-ecoided of them, that 
 '•a boy could ssrarcely he fomul among them, but, if (luestioned on his religion, could, Avifh 
 readiness, give a reason for his faith. Tribute they paid with the utmost punctuality; and ij 
 prevented for a time by t'i\ il Avar, they discharg(>(l this debt on the return of ])eace." Here 
 then, we have a race of men upon A\hom judgment has been pronounced by their enemies and 
 persecutors. Of Avliat have they been guilty? Verily of this : They have been from the first 
 corruption of the Church doAvn to the present day, witnesses against error, and upholders of 
 Apostolic doctrine; they have testified to their fnith by works that are its natural result; they 
 have delighted to make Christianity known, and to impress its requirements upon their youth 
 as a reasonable service; and they have ever been obedient to the civil power, giving constantly 
 unto Csesar that Avhich is Caesar's, and to God that Avhich is God's. But how were these 
 Christian graces regarded by those A\'ho could not deny 'their existence? Rejection of error 
 AA-as accounted obstinate heresy; deep, fervent piety Avas branded as mere enthusiasm; holiness 
 of life, as a cunning pretence ; and the spread of truth, as an unhalloAved warfare against the 
 head of the church. Crusade upon crusade Avas sent forth against these unoffending people 
 and Rome did all that lay in her poAver to extirpate to the very roots the name and doctrines of 
 the Waldenses, but a remnant was ever left to bear faithful Avitness; often cast down, but never 
 destroyed, the AA'aldenses continue, to this day, to exhibit all the grandeur of truth and all 
 the beauty of holiness. The persecution of the Waldenses has ever exhibited on the part of 
 their oppressors a ruthless vengeance and a brutal ferocity; Avhilst their OAvn defensive operations 
 are marked by magrranimity, and — if Ave may use the expression — the very chivalry of the 
 Cross. Cold and unsjonpathizing must that heart be, that does not gioAv at the remembrance 
 of their expatriation, and their subsequent "glorious return" to the valleys the}^ loved, under the 
 guidance of Arnaud, their pastor and leader. Persecution assumes a more moderate aspect in 
 the present da}', but it has lost none of its bitterness; despotic enactments, and the Jesuit Aviles 
 of a predominant hierarchy, are still labouring for the extinction of the Waldenses. Treaties 
 have, indeed, been made in their favour, and even the temporal poA^'er under Avhich they live has 
 occasionally shown a disposition to lenity ; but these treaties have been violated, and the 
 friendly temporal authority has been compelled to rescind or to counteract its favourable 
 decrees. The Waldenses must Avait a final deliverance until the Protestant Avorld shall rise up, 
 by some divine impulse, to break in pieces that chain of many links, AA'hose iron has for ages 
 entered into the souls of men. 
 
 The Waldensian College at La Torre originated in a munificent donation entrusted to Dr. Gilly. 
 an English clergyman. Before its erection, the Waldensian clej-gy Avere educated at GencA^a. Dr. 
 Gilly thought that the donation could not be better employed than in the building and endoAv- 
 ment of an institution in Avhich the Waldensian youth might receive a sound classical educa- 
 tion, combined Avith orthodox theological instruction. In connection Avith the College, tAvo 
 grammar-schools have been built, one at La Torre and the other at Pomaretto. The hostility 
 of the Romanists has increased since the founding of the College, and a priory has been 
 established at La Torre to overaAve the Waldenses. 
 
160 
 
 FORT BARD. 
 
 FORT BARD, VAL D'AOSTA. 
 
 ; ORT BARD is a citadel of great strength, seated on Mont Albaredo, a stu- 
 pendous mass of rock which rises in one of the narrow gorges of the Val 
 d'Aosta, the defile through which Italy is entered by the passes of St. Ber- 
 nard. A position so strong by nature was obviously fitted for a point of 
 defence ; and we meet with early mention of the locality as an arena of contest in 
 which a handful of men disputed the passage of a numerous host. According to tra- 
 dition, Hannibal entered Italy by the Val d'Aosta, and there is evidence to show that 
 this Avas the probable route of his descent. About 134 B.C., the Salassi, who then 
 inhabited the valley, repulsed a Roman army, and compelled the legions to retreat 
 with the loss of ten thousand men. These people were reduced in the time of 
 Auo-ustus, when the Romans built Augusta Prsetoria (now Aosta) on the site of Cordele, the 
 Sallasian city. On the fall of the empire, Aosta was taken and sacked by the Lombards, who, 
 in turn, were expelled by Charlemagne. In the tenth century the fortress was built to com- 
 mand all ingress and egress to and from the valley. After a protracted siege, this citadel was 
 taken by Amadeus IV., in 1252 ; and since that period it has been in the possession of the 
 Dukes of Savoy, or of the Kings of Sardinia. 
 
 The most interesting incident in the history of Fort Bard is connected with Napoleon's 
 descent into Italy. In May, 1800, the French army, having passed the Great St. Bernard, 
 attempted a passage through the Val d'Aosta. The reduction of Fort Bard had been repre- 
 sented to Napoleon as an easy affair ; and great was his chagrin to find so serious an obstacle 
 interrupting his path. He had already learned that the Austrian general was hastening to 
 enclose him in the valley ; and his soldiers were provided only with rations for a few days, 
 with no possibility of receiving fresh supplies in their present position. Two days were lost in 
 devising means for effecting the passage, when at length Berthier suggested that they should 
 find or make a passage up the precipitous sides of Mont Albaredo. This Avas undertaken and 
 accomplished in an incredibly short time, and a safe passage procured for the men ; but the 
 path was impracticable for the cannon and artillery waggons. Another assault was attempted, 
 but with no better success than former ones. Marmont now proposed to strew the road with 
 straw and manure, and after binding the wheels of the cannon with hay-bands, to take them 
 at night under the guns of the Fort through the village of Bard. This manoeuvre suc- 
 ceeded, not Avithout discovery by the Austrian in command of the Fort, but without any 
 serious loss. In less than a month after this bold exploit, the battle of Marengo was won, 
 and the eagle of Napoleon spread its wings over Italy. 
 
 PRINTEH by W. G. BLAOKIE and CO.. VlLl.AFrELD, Ql^lSGOW.