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 K^.^^^,\o:tb- X.y.is./h,. 
 
ITALY 11^ TRANSITION: 
 
 PUBLIC SCENES AND PRIVATE OPINIONS 
 
 IN 
 
 THE SPRING OF 1860; 
 
 ILLUSTRATED BY OFFICIAL DOCUMENTS FROM THE PAPAL 
 ARCHIVES OP THE REVOLTED LEGATIONS. 
 
 BY 
 
 WILLIAM ^ferHUR, A.M., 
 
 AUTHOR OP "a mission TO THE MYSORE," "THE SUCCESSFUL 
 MERCHANT," "THE TONGUE OF PIKE," &C,, &0. 
 
 PLFTH EDITION. 
 
 LONDON: HAMILTON, ADAMS. AND CO.; 
 NEW YORK: HARPER AND BROTHERS. 
 
 1861. 
 
LONDON : 
 
 PRINTED BY WILLIAM NICHOLS, 
 
 32, LONDON WALL. 
 
THIS VOLUME 
 
 |s litsrribfb, 
 
 WITH PBOFOUND KESPECT, AND GRATEFUL AFFECTION, 
 
 TO ONE OF ENGLAND S BEST SONS, 
 
 AND OF ITALY S 'WAEMEST FRIENDS, 
 
 THE SEVENTH EAEL OP SHAETESBUEY. 
 
PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. 
 
 Events in Italy have now reached such a point, 
 that everything as to the prospects of the Pope seems 
 to depend on the designs of Napoleon III. As his 
 plans are frequently modelled on those of his uncle, 
 perhaps some light may be derived from an authentic 
 disclosure of what they were. 
 
 The subjoined drafts of Decrees, from the archives 
 of the first Napoleon, are translated from the work 
 referred to in the original Preface, / Luiii dello Stato 
 Romano, by the Cavaliere Gennarelli, Editor of the 
 Government Documents. The manner in which he 
 became possessed of them was this : in 1814 Austria 
 took possession of the archives of the Kingdom of 
 Italy, but the more secret papers were secured by 
 Napoleon's Minister, Aldini. He left them by will 
 to his secretary, who committed them to the friend 
 and relation of his principal, Gennarelli, who now for 
 the first time brings them to the light. 
 
 From these documents it appears that the inten- 
 tions of the Emperor as to the Papacy were : — 
 
 1. That the Pope should possess no territory but 
 the Church and Square of St. Peter's, and the two 
 palaces of the A^atican and the Inquisition. 
 
 3. That the second Papal residence — the Quirinal 
 — was to become an imperial palace. 
 
 3. That the city, with a small strip of barren ter- 
 ritory close round it, and a few mountain towns, 
 should be placed under a Government independent 
 A 3 
 
VI PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. 
 
 both of the Pope and the Kingdom of Italy, but 
 dependent on the Emperor. 
 
 4. That the Pope's revenue should be about thirty 
 to thirty-five thousand pounds a year. 
 
 These mea;sures were concerted in 1808 ; affairs in 
 Spain delayed the execution of them; and when 
 Napoleon, once more victorious at Wagram, resolved 
 to give them effect, provoked by the Pope's excom- 
 munication, he proceeded to the length of removing 
 His Holiness altogether. 
 
 A few articles of a formal character are omitted in 
 the translation. 
 
 N. 69 Pr. r. 
 
 Kingdom of Italy. 
 
 DEAFT OF DECREE. 
 
 Begktered 2T. F. 
 
 Subject of the Decree : 
 
 First Roman Statute. 
 
 N"APOLEON, 
 Sy the Grace of God and bi/ the Constitutions, Fmperor 
 
 of the French, King of Italy, Protector of the Gon- 
 
 federation of the Kingdom. 
 
 To all those to whom these presents shall come, 
 greeting. 
 
 Wishing to restore to the Roman people that form 
 of government which in former times they enjoyed, we 
 have ordered and decreed, and do order and decree, as 
 follows : 
 
 Art. I. Rome is a free imperial city. 
 
 Art. II. The Palace of the Quirinal, with its depen- 
 dencies, is declared an Imperial Palace. 
 
 Art. III. The boundary between the Roman territory 
 and our Kingdom of Italy is fixed by a line which, 
 departing from Certeveri, passes by Baccano, Palestrina, 
 Marino, Albano, Monterotondo, Palombara, Tivoli, and. 
 
PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. Vll 
 
 following a distance of two miles from tbe sea, again 
 touches Certeveri. 
 
 Art. IV. The territory of the villages (paesi) in- 
 tersected by the before-named line constitutes the Circum- 
 scription of Rome, except aU that which lies between the 
 sea and the line itself. 
 
 Art. V. A Senator and a Magistracy of forty Con- 
 servators form the government of the city and of its 
 territory. 
 
 Art. VI. The executive power is vested in the Senator, 
 
 the legislative in the Magistracy of Conservators : the 
 
 Senator initiates laws. The office of Senator is for life, 
 
 that of Conservator for four years. 
 
 ***** 
 
 Art. IX. The Senator is always appointed by ourselves 
 and our successors. For this present time we reserve 
 also the right to appoint the Magistracy of Conservators. 
 Hereafter, when they must be replaced, the Senator fills 
 up vacancies, from a double list presented to him by the 
 Magistracy. 
 
 Kingdom of Italy. 
 
 DEAFT OF DECREE. 
 
 Registered N. -F. 
 
 Subject of the Decree : 
 
 Annexation of the Districts composing the Soman States 
 
 to the Kingdom of Italy. 
 
 NAPOLEON, 
 By the Grace of God and by the Constitutions, Emperor 
 of the French, King of Italy, Protector of the Con- 
 federation of the Kingdom. 
 We have decreed, and do decree, as follows : — 
 Art. I. All the Districts composing the Roman States, 
 with the exception of Rome and its territory, as described 
 in the first Roman Statute, are irrevocably and in per- 
 petuity united to our Kingdom of Italy. 
 
 Art. II. Possession will be formally taken of these 
 districts on day, and the arms of the Kingdom will 
 
 be set up. 
 
 Art. III. On the same day the Code Napoleon will 
 be published. 
 
Vlll PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. 
 
 Art. IV. The Districts, as above annexed, shall form 
 four Departments, viz. : — 
 
 1. The Department of Cii-ceo ; capital, Velletri. 
 
 2. The Department of Cimino ; capital, Viterho. 
 
 3. The Department of Trasimeno ; capital, Perugia. 
 
 4. The Department of Clitunno ; capital, Spoleto. 
 
 A third Decree names the Prince Borghese Sena- 
 tor, and then follows : — 
 
 Kingdom of Italy. 
 DEAFT OF DECEEE. 
 
 Hegistered N. F. 
 
 Suhject of the Decree : 
 Measures with regard to Sis Holiness. 
 
 NAPOLEON, 
 
 By tlie Grace of God and hy the Constitutions, Emperor 
 of the French, King of Italy, Protector of the Con- 
 federation of the Kingdom. 
 
 Considering our fu'st Eoman Statute, we have decreed, 
 and do decree, as follows : — 
 
 Art. I. The Church and Square of St. Peter's, the 
 Palace of the Vatican, and that of the Holy Office, with 
 their dependencies, freely belong to His Holiness. 
 
 Art. II. The Chapter and the building of St. Peter's 
 have preserved to them all their property under such an 
 administration as the Pope shall be pleased to appoint. 
 His Holiness shall receive an annual revenue of a million 
 of Italian lire, and shall preserve all his honours which 
 he has enjoyed in the past. 
 
 Given from our Imperial Palace of St. Cloud this 
 day of September, 1808. 
 
 In GennareUi's work the Decrees are accompanied 
 by the Report presented to the Emperor by his 
 Minister Aldini, and also illustrative historical notes. 
 fl Lutti dello Staio Romano, pp. 33-48.) 
 
 September 29th, 1860. 
 
PREMCE TO THE EIRST EDITION, 
 
 The Documents mentioned on the title page 
 form two ponderous volumes, containing sixteen 
 hundred pages, which cost in Florence fifty-seven 
 francs twelve centimes, about two pounds six 
 shillings. They were collected by a decree of 
 Farinij as Dictator of the >^milia. It was expected 
 that a Congress would assemble at Paris to solve 
 the difficulties arising out of the peace of ViUa 
 Franca; in which case effisrts would be made, to 
 bring the Romagna once more under the dominion 
 of the Pope. The Government which had replaced 
 his, resolved, that the Plenipotentiaries of Europe 
 should have in. their hands the best means of 
 judging as to the justice of the determination felt 
 by the people, to return no more under the temporal 
 authority of His Holiness. Commissioners were 
 
X PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. 
 
 appointed, in the different provinces, to search the 
 archives, and forward documents to the appointed 
 Editor, the Cavaliere Achille Gennarelli. 
 
 Large quantities of records proved to be wanting 
 from several reasons. In Ravenna, the documents 
 connected with " great causes " had been sent to 
 Rome. In Faenza the archives had been burned 
 by the enraged populace. These defects admitted 
 of some reparation; for in other cities corre- 
 spondence of the Ravenna authorities existed; and 
 as to Faenza, leading facts were put upon record 
 under formal attestation of witnesses. But some 
 defects admitted of no remedy. In Ferrai-a, a 
 Secretary General, Tellarini, had spent three days in 
 burning papers : all the Minutes and Decisions of 
 the tremendous Council of Censure had disappeared 
 in every part of the Romagna; and the "^most 
 reserved" correspondence, contained in registers 
 marked P.P., and kept by the Legates themselves, 
 without any intervention of officials, was entirely 
 missing. 
 
 Notwithstanding all this, matter was forthcoming 
 sufficient to furnish the two huge books already 
 issued : these consist of the correspondence of 
 Legates, Pro-Legates, Delegates, Governors, Military 
 and Police Authorities, with one another, and with 
 the Ministers at Rome ; of Judicial Records, Decrees 
 of Synods, Inquisitors, Bishops, and other public 
 
PREFACE TO THE FIKST EDITION. XI 
 
 records. Fourteen thousand documents remain to 
 be published.* 
 
 In the " Documents " use is freely made of italics 
 and small capitals to mark points worthy of special 
 note ; butj as I presume this to be the Editor's work, 
 and not in the originals, all quoted here are given 
 without these helps to eyes unused to detect the full 
 import of official language. In a few instances in 
 the Appendix they are retained. 
 
 In several cases, the substance of a set of documents 
 has been framed into a connected narrative. Here 
 I challenge keen examination, as to the care with 
 which facts are stated. For instance, in the narrative 
 of the death of Garibaldi's wife, striking circumstances 
 generally believed, and perhaps capable of proof by 
 other evidence, are omitted, and nothing given but 
 what the documents in the collection supply. 
 
 The Cavaliere Gennarelli, in publishing an Italian 
 edition of "The Pope and the Congress," has accom- 
 panied it with so much historical matter, as to make 
 
 * See : Relazione a S. E. il Cavaliere Imigi Farini, Governaiore 
 delle Provincie Vniie dell' Emilia; which is prefixed to the first 
 Tolume. The title of the volumes is, II Governo Pontifcio e lo StaU> 
 Romano : Bocumenti preceduti da vna Esposizione Storica, e raccolii, 
 per Becreto del Governo delle Romagne, dal Cav. Achille Gennarelli, 
 Amocato nella sacra Rota, gia Residenfe di Collegia della Pontifioia 
 Academia Archelogica, §'c., See., S~e. Parle Prima, pp. cxv., 246, 
 Parle Seconda, pp. xsxviii., 686, cxi. 
 
XU PKEFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. 
 
 a valuable little book, under the title, " / L/utti dello 
 Stato Romano." As he confines himself chiefly to 
 comments on the Documents edited by himself, I 
 have now and then quoted also from this work ; 
 always distinguishing his statements from what is 
 official. 
 
 For the translations in the Appendix, and a few 
 of those in the body of the book, I am indebted to 
 my brother, Mr. James K. Arthur. 
 
 As to the narrative part of this book, its only 
 value, if it has any, lies in reporting the opinions of 
 persons of all classes, uttered freely to a stranger, who, 
 not being a person of consequence, was the more 
 likely to hear their real views. If it help stayers at 
 home to any idea of the scenes my friends and I wit- 
 nessed, if it give them the least share of the pleasure 
 we enjoyed, and still more if it lead any to a deeper 
 sympathy in the sorrows of the Italian people, a 
 stronger interest in their welfare, and above all to 
 prayer for the blessing of God upon the nation now 
 rising up in their long disjointed provinces, it will 
 not have appeared in vain. 
 
 NoTTiNG Hill, 
 July 4ih, 1860. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTEE I. 
 
 PAGE. 
 
 Savoy pending Annexation 1 
 
 CHAPTEE II. 
 AcKoss Mont Cenis 13 
 
 CHAPTEE III. 
 tuutn, dtjeing the voting upon annexation in 
 
 Central Italy 37 
 
 CHAPTEE IV. 
 Into Lombaedy 67 
 
 CHAPTEE V. 
 Milan, duking the Eejoioings for the An- 
 nexation 77 
 
 CHAPTEE YI. 
 The Geeat Plain 117 
 
 CHAPTEE VII. 
 PiACENZA, Paema, and Modena 137 
 
 CHAPTEE VIII. 
 Bologna, dueing the Geneeal Elections 155 
 
 CHAPTEE IX. 
 Papal Goveenment in the Eomagna, dueing 
 the Ten Yeaes of Eestoeation, as shown 
 BY official Documents 189 
 
XIV CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 PAGE. 
 
 The Apennines 217 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 S'LOKENCE, AT THE AUUIVAL OF THE PEINCE OF 
 CaEIGNANO ; AND ALSO AT THE RECEPTION 
 
 OF VicTOE Emmanuel 335 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 The Suneise Shoee 369 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 CiviTA Vecchia anb the Campagna 385 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 Rome in Holy Week 301 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 Papal Goveenment in Rome, ddeing Ten Yeaes 
 OF Restoeation, as shown by official 
 Documents 387 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 The Wife of Gaeibaldi 437 
 
 The Confoeteeia op the Eeeeaea Case ... 439 
 
 Louis Napoleon Buonapaete 443 
 
 Judgment of the Couet of Bologna 446 
 
 Edict of the Synod at Loeetto 449 
 
 Deceee op an Inqdisitoe-Geneeal 462 
 
tt L 
 
 SAVOY PENDING ANNEXATION. 
 
 B 
 
The train from Lyons worms its way amongst the 
 outlying Alps, like a steamer on a mountain river, 
 which sometimes appears as if she must run against 
 the solid cliffs, but, at the right moment, finds a 
 cunning outlet. The bills of France are passing 
 into those of Savoy, without any chasm to mark the 
 change. "We stop before a pretty, Swiss-looking 
 station, where, on neighbouring doors, we read, 
 " Imperial Custom House," and " Sardinian Custom 
 House." It is the frontier post of Culoz. 
 
 Presenting ourselves to the Sardinian Custom 
 House officer, to have baggage and passports 
 examined, he says, " It is not necessary. If you 
 were entering France from Piedmont, it woiild be so ; 
 but now you are in France and entering Savoy, 
 which is neither Sardinian nor French." This was 
 said with an easy air, showing that whilst all our 
 powers in England, from Palmerston down to 
 Punch, were discussing the probable annexation of 
 Savoy, it had already been settled in the mind 
 of this potentate of the frontier. I said with a 
 smile, "Savoy is Sardinian to-day j to-morrow it 
 may be French." He gave me a patronizing nod, 
 as much as to say, " You are rather intelligent for 
 an Englishman ; " ?.nd then added, " Very probably it 
 will be so." 
 
 C 3 
 
CHAPTEE 1. 
 
 A little way from the frontier line, a noble lake 
 opens out amongst darksome mountains. They 
 press it in on both sides to the very brink. Still for 
 miles and miles it stretches on, gleaming beautifully 
 under the bright sky. Along one shore runs a 
 railway, now burrowing in the mountain's side, now 
 peeping out upon the sunny water, now winding 
 right round the curving shore. It bears the name 
 of Victor Emmanuel. On the opposite side, close 
 under the brows of a stern mountain, is a quaint 
 old abbey, the place where lie the ashes of his fore- 
 fathers, those ancient Counts of Savoy, whose 
 sepulchre is part of the payment, wrung from 
 him by his imperial kinsman, for services in 
 Italy. 
 
 The mountains stand grandly around Chambery, 
 and the sunsets are fine ; but it is a poor country 
 town, exceedingly unlike the capital of anything. 
 The people say it has 20,000 inhabitants, the books 
 say 10,000, and the eye sides with the books. 
 Priars, in the robes of their orders, tell that you are 
 nearing Italy ; newspapers, free and loud in their 
 political opinions, tell that you are not in France. 
 It is a very dull place, in spite of three barracks, 
 four nunneries, and three monasteries. Before the 
 French Revolution there were twenty convents in all. 
 It has one grand street, surpassing anything in most 
 
SAVOY PENDING ANNEXATION. 
 
 English provincial towns, and worthy of Turin. 
 Near it stands a fantastic monuiDent of elephants 
 and fountains, reared to General De Boigne, who in 
 serving the Mahrattas amassed heaps of money, and 
 bestowed nearly three and a half millions of francs 
 on his native town in charities. How India meets 
 one everywhere ! 
 
 A few years ago, coming to Chambery from Geneva, 
 before the railway was opened, we had a commercial 
 traveller in the diligence. The most exaggerated 
 fiction never attributed to its greatest oddity half the 
 antics that man played. On one point he was seri- 
 ous, the connexion of Savoy with France. " Why 
 should we be hooked on, across the mountains, to 
 those Piedmontese? They are not of our blood, 
 they speak another tongue, and as to trade or inter- 
 course ! You consider the sea between France and 
 England a barrier. "What is it to Mont Cenis? 
 You are across in an hour or two, and can cai-ry 
 goods by shiploads ; but to convey a thousaud tons 
 over jNIont Cenis would take the transport corps 
 of an army." 
 
 The physical type of the people of Chambery is 
 not French, Italian, or Swiss j a touch of all; most 
 of the last. They are well-made, and not ill- 
 looking ; but the peasantry are of a low type, high 
 cheek-bone, dull browny-yellow complexion, black, 
 massy hair, and squat person. Although the genera] 
 
D CHAPTER 1. 
 
 stature seems good, and we met ■with a real giant, 
 there is a remarkable number of dwarfs. 
 
 The tombs of the old Savoy Princes lie behind 
 Chambery, and their cradle before it, in the district 
 of Maurienne. The road and the railway both run 
 by the side of the swift Isere, the course of M'hich 
 dark-browed mountains overhang, and vines fringe, 
 and poor but picturesque villages animate. We 
 found that the river had made an eruption upon the 
 railway, and at one place carried it clean away. We 
 were obliged to get into diligences; and here I found 
 myself with a number of Savoyards. Opposite me 
 sat a burly drover. I happened to observe, that in 
 England there was at present a good deal of discus- 
 sion about Savoy, when the drover passionately 
 replied, "We never speak of England here; we; 
 don't like England ; we like France ; we never name 
 England ! " This provoked good-natured and polite 
 remonstrances from his neighbours, who, however, 
 all appeared to share in the political feeling indicated 
 by his ebullition. There was one woman who had, 
 perhaps, a little disinclination to be annexed, but the 
 preference of the others was clearly pronounced. 
 One very intelligent man riade no complaint of the 
 part England took in the matter, except that one 
 Member of Parliament had, in a debate, used the 
 expression, " Perish Savoy ! " I told them the pro- 
 bability was, that the same gentleman would say. 
 
SAVOY PENDING ANNEXATION. 7 
 
 " Perisli England ! " rather than have a war with 
 France. They spoke of their relations with Pied- 
 mont as being nothing better than those of a tribu- 
 tary province : becausCj owing to the barrier of the 
 Alps, they could not have any commercial intercourse 
 with it ; and from the exigencies of Italy, the govern- 
 ment was obliged to give all its thought and money to 
 its Italian possessions ; so that Savoy, poor in itself, 
 was made still poorer, by contributing to national 
 funds, in the benefits of which it had no participation. 
 In changing from the railway, the porters 
 who transferred the luggage uttered some fierce 
 grumbles against the English, calling us by the 
 continental sobriquet, taken from our national 
 vulgar oath, which a sort of rough justice has 
 stereotyped into a nickname, that commemorates 
 both our imperious mode of speaking to foreigners, 
 and our use of bad language. The Englishman's 
 name abroad is too often "the G — d d — n." I 
 felt a sort of blush as these rough, poor, but 
 honest-looking Savoyards muttered, not thinking I 
 heard them, this epithet. It reminded me of another 
 scene. One beautiful Monday morning, near Jebel 
 Eyboon, in the midst of Egyptian desolation, an 
 intelligent Bedouin, returning from a survey of a camp- 
 ing ground he had discovered, brandished a bottle, 
 and cried, " They were English ! this is the token of 
 the Englishman : you can trace him by it anywhere." 
 
» CHAPTER I. 
 
 After another ma upon the railwavj we stopped at 
 St. Jean de Maurienne. This is a valley nobly girt 
 with Alps. One sometimes sees fanciful resem- 
 hlances. I hardly know why this place constantly 
 brought to my mind the Wady Shellal, in the 
 Arabian Desert^ except that the hUls were equally 
 grand and aU-surroundingj but here they have not 
 the same splendid variety of colour. The valley is 
 wider, and vegetation frequent ; for pines grow on 
 the mountain tops, and vineyards enrich their bases, 
 whereas in Shellal all is undisputed rock. The 
 greatest difFerence, however, is that here is a town 
 in the bottom of the valley ; and when your eye has 
 accustomed itself to the snow, you can pick out roof 
 after roof, village after village, spire and tower, far up 
 upon the cold white mountains. What takes men 
 away up there ? By what opposite instincts is the 
 habitation of the world effected ! The gregarious one, 
 which makes the dingiest lane of cities teem with 
 inhabitants ; and the pioneering one, which drives 
 some further and higher than others had reached, 
 and sets them always to wrestle with nature, rather 
 than compete with man. 
 
 On a spring day, in the bright sun, the air of St. 
 Jean is wonderfully refreshing. The snow lies thick 
 upon the upper hUls, tliree yards deep, they say. 
 In the valley it is all gone. A little river and a 
 torrent, in a noisy race to meet the Isere, join under 
 
SAVOY PENDING ANNEXATION. 9 
 
 a quaint wooden bridge. The ground is strewed 
 with boulders brought down in a recent floods which 
 has left the old bed of the torrent dry, and desolated 
 the valley. The hotel was all but swept away ; and, 
 as we have already seen, a little further dovrn, the 
 Isere, triumphing over the engineers, carried off 
 eight or nine miles of their iron way. 
 
 In a short walk up the valley we met with two 
 cases of goitre. The first was a man, — short, ginger- 
 bread colour, low forehead, matted hair, thin voice, 
 very slow in intellect, and the whole base of the 
 neck bulged out. He was painfully disengaging the 
 rich soil from the stony ruin with which the flood 
 had overrun ' the valley. The second was an old 
 woman, more than seventy, pleasant as a child, light- 
 hearted, and full of racy stories ; especially about 
 the fine mineral waters close by, and their efiects, as 
 shown upon the invalids returning from the late 
 wars. She was little goitred in comparison with 
 the man. 
 
 Another old woman was gathering something 
 from among the stones, where to all appearance 
 nothing was to be found. When asked what it was, 
 most civilly she came to show it. It was dandelion 
 for salad. Poor thing ! she looked a picture of 
 decent poverty; and seemed to have no thought 
 of begging. On getting a few sous, how gratefully 
 she said, " You do not know what a service you do 
 
10 CHAPTER I. 
 
 me! I will pray to the good God for you." She then 
 told how poor she was, and her old man had been ill 
 for months, and often they had no bread; but it 
 was not in complaint, but in gratitude for the sous. 
 Talking of the sorrows of life easily led to talk of God's 
 love and mercy ; she cheerfully responded. When I 
 told her of His free mode of giving us absolution of 
 sin, she said, the priest had set her certain penances ; 
 that she had not time to go through them rightly, 
 and her mind was troubled. It was pleasant to tell 
 her how God absolved like a King, freely and of 
 pure mercy, for the sake of His Son alone. 
 
 You may go a good way before you find a purer 
 air than in the valley of St. Jean, or a dirtier walk 
 than through the town and round it. It is worth 
 going some distance to see an English lady picking 
 her steps in the streets, and still more in the out- 
 skirts of the town. As to the floors of the hotel, 
 they seem to rejoice in perfect exemption from suds 
 or scrubbing-brushes. 
 
 Perhaps, in going througii Savoy, you will now 
 and then find yourself asking, " When will the coun- 
 try begin?" as yet you only see mountains. Then 
 you may smile at yourself, and recall the old story of 
 the clown in the city, who could not see the town 
 for houses. These mountains are Savoy. 
 
 '\'\lien I next saw the vaUey of St. Jean de IVIau- 
 rienne, the decree of annexation had passed : troops 
 
SAVOY PENDING ANNEXATION. 11 
 
 of French soldiers were winding among the Alpine 
 passes^ and the Savoyards seemed well content that 
 they and their vines were to belong, henceforth, to 
 the nation to which their language and their interests 
 pointed them. It is a poor country, but beautiful; 
 and with its lakes, its mountains, its vineyards, 
 its glaciers, and its sunsets, if it is henceforth to be 
 known in European diplomacy as the idea, it must, 
 at least, be admitted that the idea is a romantic 
 one. 
 
 In modern warfare, the rifled gun may be a great 
 improvement ; but it is nothing to that crooked one 
 by which a statesman, appearing to aim straight up 
 the street, really shoots round the corner. Pied- 
 mont fought for Milan upon the Tchernaya, and 
 Fj-ance for Savoy upon the lilincio. 
 
C^apt^r u. 
 
 ACROSS MONT CENIS. 
 
The first time I crossed Mont Cenis was in Octo- 
 berj before the pass had become clogged with the 
 great falls of snow. We wound up from Lansle- 
 bourg, in the morning twilight^ with Alps now 
 stretching higher than we could see from the win- 
 dows of the coupe, and now bearing stars upon their 
 shoulders. About sunrise we reached the line of 
 snow, and then the peaks, gloriously blushed into 
 great varieties of colour ; yet beautiful as are those 
 tints, drawn out by the morning sun from the snow 
 of the Alps, I doubt whether they exceed, if indeed 
 they equal, those drawn by the setting one from the 
 peaks of Sinai, where he shines upon rock, and rock 
 alone. Mysterious power and wealth of light ! when 
 heaven really beams upon earth, be it cold snow, or 
 hard rock, all things beam again with splendour. 
 
 The descent of the mountain, on the Italian 
 side, was incomparably grand : the morning sun 
 shining right before you, the sensation of height 
 and depth, the vast range over which the eye swept, 
 and the joy of motion as you galloped down and 
 down. After a while a wide white surface, gleaming 
 and stretching up an opening valley, spread far be- 
 
16 CHAPTER IT. 
 
 neath. For miles and miles away, it sparkled and 
 glistened, narrowing and winding among the hiUs 
 like a lake, — now looking like water, now like snow- 
 wreaths, now like hills and dells of ice. With us 
 was a Savoyard gentleman, who exclaimed, " How 
 like the Mer-de-glace of Mont Blanc!" And we 
 were enchanted with the glacier, — all the more so, 
 because no description had prepared us to expect 
 one. But what was our surprise, to find that this 
 glassy scene was only what, if looking at it 
 from the ground below, we should call " a 
 cloud ; " though, viewed now from the heaven- 
 ward side, it was all sheen and glory, the 
 beauty and wonder of the whole landscape. It was 
 many hundreds of feet below us. I had seen a 
 broader sheet of clouds, lying further down, hiding 
 the plains of the Mysore from the tops of the Neil- 
 gherries ; but, grand as that sight was, it had none 
 of this ice-like witchery. Every approach seemed 
 but to heighten the impression ; for the valley opened 
 out; and as it did so, the seeming glacier spread 
 fm'ther, and grew brighter. 
 
 At length we came near enough to see the light mist 
 floating above the denser body of the cloud. Then trees, 
 the trunks of which were hidden, held up their tops 
 above it into the sunshine ; then a house, the walls of 
 which seemed as if they were under water, had its roof 
 in the full light. Presently the horses' heads go into 
 
ACEOSS MOXT CENTS. 17 
 
 the mysterious mist, and then we ourselves are 
 steeped in it. First of all the mountain peaks 
 disappear, then the trees ; then the sun loses his 
 beams, looks for a while like a red plate of 
 metal, turns darker, and finally is quenched, 
 and at last the horses' heads are the most distant 
 objects within view. Still down we rush through 
 the cloud, as we had rushed down towards it ; and 
 then, in a few minutes more, just as we had gra- 
 dually plunged in, we gradually plunge out of it, 
 and the vale of Susa, our first glimpse of Italv, 
 wooded and watered, and shimmering with tremulous 
 light, opens to the view. 
 
 When we got out, our glacier of the morning 
 hung hundreds of feet overhead, just like an ordi- 
 nary mass of light grey cloud. It made one think, 
 how often, in life, what is a mist, while we are pass- 
 ing through it, and afterwards a cloud, would seem 
 not the gloom, but the beauty of our journey had 
 we the power of looking upon things from the 
 heavenward, instead of the earthward side. 
 
 Good old Colonel , of the Bombay army, who 
 
 was in another part of the diligence, could hardly 
 believe us, at first, that it had not been a glacier ; 
 and then seemed anything but pleased to lose the 
 idea that he had seen one grander than all his 
 imaginations. 
 
 The next time I passed Mont Cenis was in the 
 c 
 
18 CHAPTER II. 
 
 present year, surrounded by a mass of uniform s^ 
 French and Sardinian, and a cloud of smoke. Tlic 
 night was fine, the air, notwithstanding the season, 
 mild, and, I believe, but for the tobacco, would have 
 been pure. On my left was a fine, intelligent French 
 staff-of&cer ; on the right, an educated, shrewd Sar- 
 dinian one ; in the front, other French ones, rough, 
 soldierly, and good-humoured. Before my nationality 
 was discovered, they discussed military organization. 
 Our army passed under review. AH agreed that the 
 British soldier was a fii'st-rate one ; and it was even 
 said, that, owing to the superior education diflused 
 throughout England, he vras, individually, more in- 
 telligent than the French one ; — but as to military 
 organization ! 
 
 " Fine soldiers," said the Piedmontese, " but with- 
 out organization, and badly commanded." 
 
 " O, the English," replied a Frenchman, " they are 
 the Chinese of Europe. They wei-e just the same in 
 the Crimea as they had been at Waterloo ; they had 
 not advanced a step." 
 
 " No wonder all went wrong with them," said the 
 Sardinian. 
 
 " Just imagine ! " strikes in the staff-officer, " they 
 are indeed the Chinese. The other day in Parlia- 
 ment, a Member proposed to abolish that antique 
 abuse which makes the British officer a jest in all 
 the armies of Europe, the purchase of promotion; 
 
ACROSS MONT CENIS. ]9 
 
 and positively a large majority voted for its 
 preservation!" 
 
 A laugh followed, with the remark, "0, really, 
 that, at any - rate, does not belong to our age ! " 
 Something occurred to bring out the fact that I was 
 English, when they asked my opinion on the points 
 just alluded to. I said that there Was one thing in 
 which I did not agree ; namely, that British ofScers 
 -supported the purchase system from self-interest. It 
 was much more from a caste feeling; for really the 
 service was so poorly paid that one could not charge 
 them 'with self-interest in the matter. To this they 
 replied, " That may be ; but a caste feeling applied 
 to a national service, is in itself a mean form of self- 
 interest; and, after all, in a purchase system it is 
 plain that men can get forward who under a system 
 of advance by talent would be left far behind." > 
 
 The allusion to a caste feeling brought remarks on 
 the absurdity of a system that, in England above all 
 countries, shut out the middle class, " England is 
 the nation celebrated for a middle class, but the 
 army is only high and low. England is the country 
 of tempting careers ; the son of a baker or barber, if 
 well educated, may become a peer ; but the army is 
 a blind aUey, into which no man with ambition will 
 enter, unless he has money or patrons. England is the 
 nation of voluntary enlistment, and all inducements 
 to the most pushing class in the country are with- 
 c 3 
 
20 CHAPTER II. 
 
 held. No wonder that the Government is at a loss 
 for meHj and that recruits are generally clowns. 
 And in this day, when the individual intelligence 
 of the man and the non-commissioned oflS.cer is a 
 quality equal in value to ability in the General, tp 
 continue a system that leaves a non-commissioned 
 ofE.cer all but hopeless of a gentleman's position, and 
 so keeps away all who are capable of winning it, but 
 unable to buy it ! " Such is the substance of much 
 that was said. 
 
 This conversation raised a question as to the 
 bsarings of the purchase system, which home dis- 
 cussions would not be likely to bring before one. 
 These foreign soldiers, if called to face an English 
 army, would believe that the men in the chief places 
 were not the best heads, but the best purchasers. 
 How much would this feeling reduce the moral 
 impression made upon a hostile army by a British 
 force? Their opinion might be wrong, but while 
 our system lasts they will hold it. 
 
 The stock argument in defence did not fare -very 
 well. " After all, the British army is well officered." 
 
 " The British army well officered ! It is bravely 
 officered. No men can be braver; but as to being 
 well officered, what is it, in a British army, that 
 breaks down? The soldier? Never. "What broke 
 down in the Crimea, — the soldiers? What broke 
 do\vu in Cabul, when the Affghans annihilated a 
 
ACROSS MONT CENIS. 21 
 
 British forcGj — the soldier? No, the army was 
 badly officered. Those were at the foot who ought 
 to have been at the head. Is it not a fact that the 
 English, at the breaking out of a war, count upon 
 losing for a campaign or two, till the incapable 
 officers are put out of the way, and men fit to 
 command turn up ? " 
 
 As I was not Secretary for War, I let the matter 
 drop as soon as they pleased, feeling that whatever 
 might be the rights of the case, it was not in good 
 hands, and was suffering heavy damage. 
 
 Throughout the night conversation passed upon 
 different topics ; but I was struck with this, that not 
 one word was uttered on any point connected with 
 Savoy, Italy, or France, their relations or their pro- 
 spects, — a tolerably plain indication that these were 
 delicate subjects. "When the others had fallen 
 asleep, the staff officer talked a little to me, first 
 about Savoy, seeming honestly to wonder that 
 England should object to France having the "keys 
 of her own house." I replied that whether France 
 would be better or worse for the possession of 
 Savoy, depended on the correctness of an opinion 
 solemnly pronounced by the Emperor, in his grand 
 proclamation from Milan, to the effect, that in the 
 present day material aggrandizement was not so 
 valuable a power to a nation as moral influence. If 
 this was correct, he, in exchanging the prestige of a 
 
^.i CHAPTER TI. 
 
 disinterested canipaign for the territorial remune- 
 ration of a province, sold a greater for a lesser 
 power. "When we passed on to speak of Italy, he 
 was quite posiHve that the French army would soon 
 be recalled, and said that he had it direct from Marshal 
 Vaillant. " We have done vi'hat we could for thera,, 
 and if they won't take our advice, we must leave them, 
 to take care of themselves. We have not 50,000 
 lives, and (I forget how many) millions of francs, to, 
 throw away every year for them." , One observa- 
 tion rather surprised me. " You have no idea," he 
 said, " how bad a feeling the Piedmontese have 
 toward us. If one of their officers is saluted in the 
 streets by a Frenchman, he looks down upon him, 
 {de haut en has,) as if to say, ' I wonder who you 
 may be.' " . Of the future prospects of Italy, he 
 spoke gloomily. " If Cavour," he said, " could have 
 his own way, things would be brought to magnifi- 
 cent results;' but he is:thwarted by many, and much 
 perplexed by the rash movements of the King." 
 He argued that, between tlie hot-headed patriots on 
 one side, and the priest party, on the other, the 
 constitutional throne would come to the .ground. 
 This, too, had been the vein of the most intelligent 
 Savoyard I heard discussing the question. But the 
 latter said that they, in welcoming annexation with 
 France, counted on the fall of the Napoleon dynasty, 
 and the restora,tion of the national liberties. Ho 
 
ACROSS MONT CENIS. , Jio 
 
 seemed greatly surprised to hear me say, that in 
 England we wished to see some dynasty take root in 
 Prance, caring little which, but desiring repose for 
 our neighbour nation. He had counted that the 
 fall, of a Buonaparte would in itself be a pleasant 
 anticipation for a Briton. 
 
 Throughout the night not an oath or an ungentle- 
 manly word passed the lips of these French and 
 Italian soldiers. 
 
 When I passed the mountain before, the room io 
 the quaint inn at Lanslebourg was very quiet, with 
 an old English Colonel, well known in India, and 
 one or two other travellers: Now there was a large 
 crowd, English, French, Swiss, Savoyards, and 
 Italians, all talking their various languages, and 
 many of them in uniform; The snow here lay thick 
 upon, the ground, thicker than at the same season 
 for thirty years. Wheels could work no highet 
 up the mountain, sledges had to be used; but 
 they were not ^ the graceful things which skim 
 and tinkle along the streets' of New York in. the 
 winter, but simply diligences mounted on sledges 
 instead of wheels. All the enormous baggage had 
 to be unloaded and loaded in the snow. I watched 
 our own conductor, and wondered at his industry, 
 good-humour, and address. When all was over, 
 what a hurried snatch of food he had by way of 
 supper 1 . But with all this he was cheerfid as a lark. 
 
21 CHAPTER II. 
 
 and civil as a gentleman. We w^'re soon packed in 
 again, and the crunch, crunch, ci inch of the sledges 
 upon the snow began, and the s-Qoking commenced 
 anew. 
 
 Up and up, amidst seas of snow, in rolling 
 waves, threatening hiUs, and yawning gulfs. Across 
 these gulfs stretched mysterious lines, which, in the 
 snowy night-light, looked as if the dazzled eye were 
 forming fancy cords in air. When we paused near 
 one of the long stretches, the lines hummed like 
 fairy bees, haunting the dells of snow. It is the 
 song of the wire, murmuring the music of nature's 
 joy at the union of long sundered peoples. It is the 
 voice of Him who delights in the habitable parts of 
 the earth, and who has made of one blood all nations 
 of men. Here, over the everlasting hills, Italy and 
 England are mingling thought and impulse; so 
 that while the lamp kindled at Turin for a triumph 
 of Italy is yet burning, eyes beam at the news 
 around London firesides. Volta and Wheatstone, 
 the suggestive genius of Italy, the plastic power of 
 England, are for evermore united in those wires ; and 
 though, for the time, they bear news of wars, their 
 work is the work of peace. 
 
 Up and up, Alps in front, Alps to the left, Alps to 
 the right, Alps closing in behind ; up with the 
 morning star glowing above the unbroken snow, up 
 windiag, winding, wiuding summits above, chasms 
 
ACROSS MONT CENIS. 25 
 
 beloWj Luge shades flung over the mountain sides, 
 and frail-looking pines hanging on the crags, — up 
 and up, wearily for the horses, cosily for us. Foot- 
 warmers had been borrowed from the railway, and 
 rugs and wraps were made unexpectedly useless. 
 At last came a halt. " Monsieur, something for the 
 ascent," says a postiliou at the window, and he 
 takes his leave. 
 
 Then down we slide, — not as rapidly as in the 
 former descent described ; and after a long run 
 we reach the edge of the deep snow, where the 
 diligences are waiting. The sun was just coming 
 up over the shoulder of an eastwai'd jutting of the 
 mountains, — he might have been leaning upon 
 it. The hills behind were white, and various, and 
 grand ; before, was stretching the valley wherein 
 formerly the cloud had given us the shining spectacle 
 of a glacier. An Alpine village down, down, ! 
 how far down ! was sending up its morning smoke. 
 Where it lay. not a particle of snow was upon the 
 ground. Beyond it, the Dora, a little river which 
 joins the Po at Turin, was racing away to the great 
 plain, looking just as it had done when I saw it last, 
 though in the mean time the legions of France 
 had hurried along it to victory or death ; and had 
 marched back again, some carrying with them their 
 wounds, some mementoes of comrades who would 
 never return. 
 
26 CHAPTER 11. 
 
 After all the packing had been done over again; 
 we were once more in the diligences, leaving our 
 sledges behind. Aa the porter put in the foot- 
 warmers, one of the French officers finding' that, by 
 this time, all the heat was gone, said, with a laugh, 
 " This is like confession. If it does no good, it does 
 no harm." We had then a little talk, and the staff 
 officer said to me, "The holy Father \vill soon blow 
 up, i^'a bientdt sauter,) and where they ^11 put hira 
 who knows 1" 
 
 The nfext time we crossed Mont Cenis, it was far 
 more difficult work. . Fresh snow had just fallen; 
 the wind was blowing high-; the cold pierced through 
 everything; the poor beasts shrank and turned round 
 again and again; the eyelashes of the men were 
 frozen. ' One of the sledges was stuck fast more than 
 an hour and a half in a wreath of snow, and the 
 great, mild mastiff of the St. Bernard breed kept 
 alongside, as if he thought he might be wanted ; but 
 by the skill, caution, and unfailing good humour of 
 all the men, everything went on well ; and after such 
 a night's toil, one could not but feel grateful to the 
 poor fellows who, for a miserable pittance, endure 
 such hardships, watching for the safety of those 
 whom they have never seen before, and may never 
 see a^ain. 
 
^IjHpter m. 
 
 TUEIN, DURING THE YOTING UPON ANNEXATION 
 IN CENTRAL ITALY 
 
In tlie railway carriage from Susa^ we had an Italian 
 lady and gentleman. Both were rather inclined to 
 talk of the French as shallow and vain. Of England 
 they were profoundly ignorant, and learned particu- 
 lars as to our constitution, with frank surprise and 
 sometimes with loud approbation. The lady was 
 from Florence, and disliked the idea of its becoming 
 a provincial city ; the gentleman from Milan, and 
 gloried in the new state of things. In my explana- 
 tions about England, I dwelt on our views of Chris- 
 tianity. The lady listened with eagerness, the gen- 
 tleman rather uneasily, taking every opportunity 
 of dashing back to politics. 
 
 The day was beautiful, and as the valley of tlie 
 Po opened out, backed and fringed by the purple 
 hills, and the snow summits, with the old castles so 
 high, high up, and the quaint carts and clumsy 
 horses, brown men and stately asses, the trellised 
 vines, the mulberries, the English steam-horse racing 
 merrily, and, above all, the rich Italian light, it 
 acted like a charm upon the spirits, and prepared 
 one to hail Turin. 
 
 On first entering Turin, I was more taken by 
 surprise than in any capital I had visited. No- 
 
30 CHAPTER III. 
 
 thing had led me to expect a city of such preten- 
 sions. It is reg-ular, open, and very beautiful. The 
 site is level, the streets rectangular, and the build- 
 ings more uniform, perhaps, than in any other capi- 
 tal. Yet, partly by the help of nature, partly by 
 that of architecture, the impression of sameness is 
 hardly made, or, at least, was not on me. Two 
 notable examples of regular cities are, Carlsruhe, the 
 type of concentric regularity, and Philadelphia, that 
 of the rectangular. The former is oppressively dull, 
 and the latter, noble city as it is, becomes weari- 
 some. But, in Turin, the grand height and scale 
 of the buildings, with the abundance of architectural 
 ornament, prevents dulness in the street-fronts ; 
 and, turn whatever side you may, all openings 
 terminate in. a mountain. Sometimes it is a 
 hill, thickset with villas, on what is called "the 
 Collina," or southern chain, and sometimes it is one 
 of the Alps. In the street called "the Dora 
 Grossa," you have a line, nearly an English mile long, 
 terminated on one side by the fagade of a palace, on 
 the other by an Alp nine thousand feet high. 
 
 The Po, though here not nearly such a river as the 
 Thames at London, is so treated as to be a great 
 ornament to the townj and the street leading up 
 from it towards the palace is really grand, with a 
 row of porticoes on each side, and behind a great 
 church, the Madre di Dio, like the Pantheon of Eome, 
 
TUIUN. 31 
 
 At my second visitj I expected to be less im- 
 pressed than at the first; but here it waSj the same 
 grandj uniform^ airy city^ worthy to be the capital 
 of the young kingdom. It looks as if some one had 
 formed a noble design, and had it nobly carried out. 
 What a contrast to London, which, up and down, in 
 and out, squat, clay-coloured, without plan or dignity, 
 except in the squares, having occasionally a new street 
 struggling up to a worthy scale, and in, perhaps, two 
 of the modern quarters, proofs of design, looks as if it 
 had not been made, but had " grown," like Topsy, and 
 the British constitution ! Yet it has incomparable 
 sites. Were Plolborn and Oxford Street, Ludgate 
 Hill and the Strand, built on some such scale as the 
 streets of Turin, what a city it would be ! Were 
 the line from the Marble Arch to Bayswater turned 
 properly to account, the Rue Rivoli would be beaten 
 hollow. Were the existing quantity of sightly 
 building disposed upon some great plan, no capital 
 could touch it. Had that old glutton of a Cor- 
 poration spent half the money on men of genius 
 it has done on cooks and butchers, instead of 
 every foreigner returning from London to tell 
 what a heap of dingy villages we live in, they 
 would come back to say that London was the 
 worthy mansion of a great family. What influence 
 France gains by the beauty of Paris, and how much 
 we lose by the ugliness of London ! The capital is 
 
33 CHAPTER III. 
 
 to a nation what the family-seat is to an individual : 
 and has as much to do with its social influence in 
 the circle of its neighbours. Our damp climate and 
 quantities of coal-smoke impose upon us greater 
 necessity for attention to civic architecture than lies 
 upon others ; for an inferior building in France or 
 Italy will look better than a superior one in Lon- 
 don; and yetj in this respect^ we have lain com- 
 placently behind our neighbours. 
 
 On leaving the railway station, you almost imme- 
 diately cross a noble street, planted on either side 
 with trees, the Strada del Re. Here, in a con- 
 spicuous place, is a beautiful building, bearing the 
 inscription, " Stand ye in the ways, and see, and 
 ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and 
 walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls." 
 What can this mean ? It is a church ; and yet, in 
 Italy, churches are not wont to have inscriptions 
 from the word of God in the vulgar tongue. You 
 may go through all the cities, from Como to Syra- 
 cuse, and perhaps you will not find, on the house 
 of God, one word of the Bible, that the people can 
 read, either inside or out. 
 
 What then is this ? It is an appeal to antiquity, 
 but an appeal to the Bible, and a challenge to read it. 
 You ask the first passer by, "What is this build- 
 ing?" and the answer is, " It is the church of the 
 Vaudois." What recollections does this answer call 
 
TURIN. 33 
 
 up ! By those strange flashes which show to the 
 mind, in a moment, the shades of past things, you 
 see the Alpine valleys hidden there among those 
 hills, — the obscure and menaced flocks gathering at 
 their peril, and hearing the word of God; you see 
 the advancing soldiers of the House of Savoy ; then 
 fire and blood, tortures and exiles, and the same 
 scene over and over again, at each fresh encounter 
 the hands of Rome growing redder, the name of 
 Vaudois more venerable, until reformed nations 
 arise to call them heirs of the old faith; until, 
 later, the thunders of the revolutionary time silence 
 the bolts of the Vatican, — until, at last, at last, the 
 chains they had borne for ages arc off, and they are 
 permitted, as citizens, to stand erect upon the 
 soil of Italy. And here that old Cluirch, true from 
 the beginning, true through the darkest ages, true 
 against all the Kings, true against the people of 
 her own language, true against the powers Rome 
 could bring to bear upon her, by letters or by 
 arms, is at last permitted to come out from her 
 mountain hiding-place, holding the faith she had 
 received from her remotest fathers ; and, setting her 
 foot in this one free capital of Italy, she turns her 
 face to the land that hunted her so long, and lifts up 
 her hands in prayer that God would wipe away the 
 blood with which it is stained, and send it days of 
 Christian light and rest. 
 
 D 
 
oi CIIArTEB, in. 
 
 It was on a beautiful Sunday morning, with sucli 
 thoughts filling my mind, that I approached thiit 
 f;iir temple. A group was standing at the dooi' : 
 ihey were soldiers, soldiers of the House of Savoy, 
 going in uniform to the Vaudois temple, not to 
 commit havoc, but to worship God, under the pro- 
 tection of law. I never looked at a foreign soldier 
 with such interest before. A medal hung upon the 
 breast of one or two, looking like a half-crown 
 piece ; but, ugly as it was, it had a greater charm for 
 me, just then, than the more tasteful ones of the 
 continental states, — the countenance of Queen Vic- 
 toria was stamped upon it. It was her Crimean 
 memento to the heroes of the Italian army, who had 
 there stood by our side. By the two signs, of the 
 Piedmontese uniform and the English medal, it 
 seemed as if the Houses of Hanover and Savoy 
 joined hands on this church threshold, to uphold the 
 consecrated principle of freedom to worship God. 
 
 In this church I attended services in the French 
 and Italian languages; and in the adjacent school- 
 rooms week-day services in both. On one of the 
 latter occasions the excellent Pastor Meille brought 
 out, with great effect, the fact, that the first Gentile 
 who had received the Gospel was an Italian ; and 
 dwelt ou the special obligation which rested upon their 
 countrymen to cherish the pure Christian religion, 
 and to spread it far and wide. Attached to the 
 
TUEIN. 35 
 
 church are a boys', girls', and infants' schools, and 
 an orphanage. The children in the latter are of 
 Vaudois parents, and are lodged on the premises, 
 and put out to learn trades in Turin, to be sent bade 
 to the valleys, carrying with them the arts they have 
 gained here. Under the same roof is a printnig 
 office, with two presses at work ; and we saw them 
 throwing off the New Testament m large type. 
 They have already a very considerable number of 
 religious books, and regularly publish a paper called 
 "The Good News," which boldly advocates the 
 principles of scriptural religion. 
 
 The peculiarity of the \audois is, that they can- 
 not properly be called Protestants, because, never 
 having acknowledged the authority of Kome, or 
 fallen into her errors, they never had to protest 
 against them, otherwise than by the perpetual 
 struggle of centuries. They are an aboriginal Chris- 
 tian Church, holding the forms and the doctrines 
 handed do^yn from the most distant Christian 
 times. 
 
 Every time I renewed my intercourse with Mr. 
 MeUle, it was with increased esteem ; and all I saw 
 of the Vaudois brethren and their agents, in other 
 parts of Italy, but confirmed the opinion I had con- 
 ceived of them, and increased the affection with 
 which all Reformed Christians are predisposed to 
 regard them. 
 
33 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Beside their congregation, another exists in the 
 town, presided over by a rery remarkable man, Dr. 
 Desantis, formerly a parish Priest in the city of 
 Home. He has now for many years stood his 
 ground as a Pastor upon Italian soil ; and active as 
 Rome is in inventing calumnies against every one 
 whom she calls an apostate priest, his name stands 
 unblemished. Far away from the present scene of 
 his labours, when it appears on the title-page of a 
 book, it insures a large circle of readers. He is a 
 grave, thoughtful, silent, earnest man, with the 
 stamp of a teacher upon him ; and one would greatly 
 desire to see him occupying some position in which 
 the gifts that God has given him, would tell more 
 directly in training minds, for the future enlighten- 
 ment of his country. The converts attached to 
 these two churches are principally from the lower 
 ranks, though many of them persons of education 
 and intelligence. The numbers are sufficient to 
 encourage those who labour there ; yet, as compared 
 with the great mass of the community, so small, as 
 to make no general impression ; and thus both the 
 casual observer who thinks all is in vain, and the 
 practical worker who thinks all hopeful, can easily 
 •cite grounds for their respective opinions. 
 
 On reaching Turin this spring, we found the city 
 ft-caring a gala-day look, flags hanging from the 
 
TURIN. 37 
 
 windows^ streets teeming with peoplSj troops in full 
 dress and new uniform, festive looks, jubilant 
 crowds, — all things bespoke a rejoicing. 
 
 A visit to a hairdresser is seldom lost time, when 
 Tou want to gain a glimpse at the popular mind. It 
 only needed an inquiry to set off the mau who was 
 serving me, in an eloquent strain of exultation. 
 The news of the voting in Central Italy was coming 
 in ; it was all in favour of annexation. It was far 
 beyond what any one expected. There was to be an 
 Italian kingdom. The Italians were to be united at 
 last. The old jealousies were dying out. Also, this 
 was the King's birthday, and he was to go to the 
 theatre to-night; and what a reception he would 
 have ! Then, in a day or two, Farini was to come 
 in from the Emilia, to lay the allegiance of those 
 States at the feet of the King; and in a day or two 
 more Ricasoli was to come bearing the result of the 
 voting in Tuscany : and what receptions they would 
 both have 1 And so on he ran in a tide of patriotic 
 eloquence. How different was this man's strain 
 from that of a Frenchman under anything like 
 similar circumstances ! There was as much feeling ; 
 but, intense as it was, he was grave, almost solemn ; 
 and, what I did not expect, there was scarcely an 
 extravagant word. If he was a fair specimen of men 
 of his class, the intelligence of the people of Turin 
 ought to rank high. 
 
38 CHAPTER III. 
 
 In the streets one was greatly impressed with the 
 appearance of the soldiers : for, being the King's 
 birthday, they were all in new uniform, and better- 
 dressed men I never saw belonging to any army, or 
 men of finer physical proportions. So far as one 
 could judge, they were in strict discipline ; and every- 
 where the townspeople seemed to look upon them 
 with pride. As some regiments marched up before 
 the palace, carrying flags that were gloriously 
 tattered, scarcely able to hang by the staff, the 
 excitement of the people was high. 
 
 Several points seemed to indicate the progress of 
 events in the last few years. The streets were more 
 thronged. The bearing of the people was bolder 
 and livelier. The style of dress for men approached 
 nearer to English fashions. It seemed plain that 
 (except the hat) London ruled the taste for gentle- 
 men, as Paris does that for ladies. At the table 
 d'hote the company was much larger; and, instead 
 of being nearly all foreigners, — English, American, 
 German, and so on, — it consisted chiefly of Italians, 
 and national topics occupied almost every tongue. 
 
 Entering a merchant's office, I delivered a letter 
 of introduction, and found a cordial reception. Two 
 partners took part in the conversation. " What a 
 moment you come at!" they exclaimed: "what 
 a moment ! The voting in Central Italy is all 
 favourable to the annexation. We did not expect 
 
TURIN. 39 
 
 such a magniSceat result. Italy never saw such a 
 day ! We are a natioUj — a nation at last ! We 
 may have troubles, and doubtless -we shall have; but 
 I have confidence that it will all be well." With 
 reference to the past, they seemed to think tha^ the 
 Emperor of the French was well paid by Savoy; 
 and that, however serviceable he had been, they had 
 acquitted their debts to him. 
 
 When I asked what the bearing of all this would 
 be upon the relation of the Italian people to the 
 Church, it was plain that this was just the point 
 upon which their views were the most undefined, and 
 on which they were eager to hear what others might 
 think. I told them plainly that, according to our 
 ideas, many of the superstitions and doctrines found 
 in the modern Churches were not only distinct 
 from the true Christian religion, but totally opposed 
 to it. The old man looked as though a familiar 
 doubt slumbering in his mind, had been started up, 
 and armed. I urged that we ought to learn religion 
 from Christ's own words, the words of His Apostles, 
 the faith and forms of the first age. No man could 
 believe that what they, saw before their eyes in 
 Italy, under the name of Christianity, was the same 
 thing as had been established eighteen centuries ago 
 by the Apostles of our Lord; and the duty of all 
 was, to discover the ancient truths and forms, to 
 adhere to them, and to let all the accretions of the 
 
40 CHAPTEll III. 
 
 middle and modern ages fall away. In reply to all 
 this, nothing was said, but the dark eyes looked 
 approbation. 
 
 After all that I had heard amoDg the Savoyards 
 of their anxiety for annexation to France, it was 
 rather amusing to find that these Piedmontese 
 took it for granted that the measure would be un- 
 \7elcome to the people of Savoy. They were spe- 
 cially sure that when it came to voting in the army, 
 the great majority of the men, and ail the officers, 
 would be for retaining their connexion with Pied- 
 mont. Indeed, the fact had been ascertained. 
 
 In another house of business I found a young, 
 energetic, thoughtful man, who again received me 
 with very great kindness. "You are come," he 
 exclaimed, " at a glorious moment ; you have heard 
 of the voting for the annexation ; all is going far 
 better than we could have expected. The Emperor 
 of the French will surely be satisfied now, and stand 
 no longer in the way of the natural rights of Italy. 
 We have been divided and distracted too long by 
 princes and diplomatists ; it is surely time, then, 
 to let nature have its course, and Italy will be a 
 nation after all. England has stood by us, and we 
 feel it now much more than we did a while ago." 
 When I asked him whether he thought they had a 
 fair probability that the new nation would consoli- 
 date itself and retain its independence, he ackuow- 
 
TURIN. 41 
 
 leclged that their difficulties would be gveat^ arising 
 from Austrian aud Roman hatred^ and French 
 jealousy : but he felt confident as to the future. 
 
 When I gave a hint that it would probably be better 
 not to attempt to revolutionize the provinces still in 
 bonds, but to consolidate the new kingdom, and leave 
 time, and the example of free institutions, to do their 
 work; he energetically protested against the common 
 accusation, that their Government maintained a great 
 propagandist agency for the overthrow of the other 
 Governments of Italy. " Of course," he said, " it 
 would be impossible to be an Italian, or a man living 
 under free institutions, such as we have enjoyed for 
 some years past, and see the re&t of the country in 
 the miserable condition it has been in, without burn- 
 ing for its deliverance, and its union into one strong 
 and independent nation. All that have any heart or 
 head desire this, and avow it before the world. But 
 as to propagandism, the real propaganda has been 
 our institutions; our Parliament, which has discussed 
 national questions ; our press, which has gone every- 
 where, spreading Italian ideas; our army, fighting 
 the Austriaus and the Russians, and fixing upon 
 itself the eyes of Italy ; our refugees, gathered from 
 all the oppressed States, managing to make their 
 friends at home know how difierent things were 
 under the Constitution; and most of all, Cavour, 
 Papa Cavour," — and this word was uttered in tones 
 
42 
 
 CHAPTEIl III. 
 
 of peculiar affection and exultant confidence. " He 
 has so thoi'ouglily gained the confidence of all 
 Italians, that they rally round him, as the symbol of 
 the national life, and wherever his name is heard of, 
 they wish to be united with the system he repre- 
 sents. He is the great propaganda, by force of 
 patriotisnj and talent." 
 
 In the letter of inti'oduction something was said 
 which led him to ask me if I was not an ecclesiastic. 
 " Yes, I am what we call ' a Minister ' or 'Pastor ; ' but 
 it is not the same as a Priest." He wanted to know 
 the difference. " The differences are as great as can 
 be. A Priest is one who professes daily to repeat the 
 sacrifice of the Son of God, and offer it up again for 
 sin. In our vievT, as taught by the New Testament, 
 this is not only without a sanction in Christianity, 
 but wildly contradictory to the spirit and letter 
 of its teaching, and to the example of the Apostles. 
 They ever speak of one Priest only, Jesus Christ, 
 who offered Himself up a sacrifice for the sins of 
 the world; and that sacrifice, once for all, never 
 more to be repeated or simulated. We should as 
 soon think of professing to repeat His miraculous 
 birth, or His resurrection, as His one great sacrifice 
 of Himself." To him this distinction was new and 
 striking. "Again, a Priest is one who tells you that, 
 as he represents an infallible Church, you have only 
 to confide your soul, in matters of salvation, to his 
 
TURIN. 43 
 
 guidance, aud that he will be answerable; that if 
 you obey liim, or the Church, speaking through him, 
 you have discharged your responsibility; and thus, 
 when you put the greatest question that a man can 
 put, 'Vv^hat must I do to obtain remission of my 
 sins? •" he tells you to go to him, to confide them all 
 into his ear, and that he will give you God's abso- 
 lution. This is what uo Apostle ever did. It is a 
 tremendous transaction between two men, of which 
 we find no record or hint in any part of the New 
 Testament. "When men came to St. Peter, asking 
 him what they must do to be saved, he never 
 told them that th.ey must go privately with him, 
 confide the detail of their sins to him, and receive at 
 liis hand the Lord's absolution, as if he were a power 
 standing between them and God. On the contrary, 
 he told them simply to 'repent of their sins, and 
 believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.' He instructed 
 them, set them an example of Christian life, preached 
 to them, held meetings for edification and prayer 
 with them ; but he never assumed to be a necessary 
 medium between them and their Maker." 
 
 "Then," he said, " according to you, the Priest, 
 instead of being a sort of little god on earth, is just 
 a spiritual friend and director ? " " Yes," I said ; 
 "■ and not a director in the absolute sense in which 
 the Church of Rome uses that word ; because we, as 
 Christian Ministers, feel that what vre teach must be 
 
4i CHAPTEIl III. 
 
 strictly according to the word of God; and that it is 
 the duty of Christian people to receive it not impli- 
 citly because we say it, but to prove it by reading 
 the Scriptui'es for themselves, and seeing that what 
 they hear is not the word of man, but is, in truth, 
 the old teaching of Prophets and Apostles. The 
 vi'ork of the Minister is to instruct, and lead, and 
 guide the Church ; but at every point basing his 
 authority and doctrine upon the Scriptures, and, 
 above all, ever pointing the trust of the people away 
 from himself and his own offices, to the one sacrifice 
 of Christ, offered upon the cross, and to His ever- 
 lasting priesthood fulfilled in heaven for us." 
 
 It was strange the interest with which this was 
 listened to ; an interest partly of novelty, partly of 
 politics, — because every such question at the moment 
 bore upon the great national movement, — and partly, 
 let us hope, of a true desire to know what Reformed 
 Christians really thought upon the great question of 
 religion. " Then," I said, smiling, " there is ano- 
 ther great difference : the Priest is sworn not to 
 marry; but we believe that as St. Peter was a 
 married man, and as St. Paul says a Bishop ought 
 to be. Ministers of the Gospel should marry if they 
 choose." He did not smile, but, with a shade ou 
 his face, said, "Ah, then, the Minister is a citizen, 
 and has ties to the country, like other men.^^ 
 
 So far as I could discover, this gentleman 
 
TuniN. 45 
 
 had no disposition to reject Christianity entirely, 
 because of the disgust felt at much that is palmed 
 upon the people under its sacred name. After we 
 had talked a good while upon the distinction be- 
 tween Priest and Minister of the Gospel, he said that 
 a movement had set in among the Piedmontese 
 Clergy, many of them having resolved no longer to 
 confound the temporal with the spiritual authority 
 of the Pope : and he thought that the great 
 body of them would go with the nation. My first 
 impression was, that such a party would include 
 two classes, — free-thinking patriots, and cunning self- 
 seekers ; the conscientious Roman Priest who be- 
 lieves in the Church would be on the other side. 
 It is easy for Englishmen to say that none of the 
 Priests do believe in their own system, that it is 
 impossible men can believe so much absurdity ; but 
 the fact is, that there is no absurdity in which men 
 cannot and do not believe : all absurdities exist sim- 
 ply because somebody does believe in them. There 
 can be no doubt that large bodies of Priests, as well 
 as laymen, as conscientiously believe in the Churc-i 
 of Rome, its dogmas, rites, and traditions, as any 
 man in England believes in his Bible. 
 
 ]\Iuch that I subsequently heard, in various places, 
 modified the first impression as +ji the elements of 
 which the national party among the Priests would be 
 composed. Beside the honest Papist, whose con- 
 
4G cnAi'TEK III. 
 
 science -ivould liold Mm to the Vatic:in, the frcc- 
 tliiakiag patriot, and the time-server, there is a 
 fourth class : Priests -who believe in religion, and 
 have enongh faith in the Church to prevent thcna 
 from breaking with her, or too mnch fear of conse- 
 quences to brave the loss of all, and the malediction 
 of their brethren ; but, at the same time, are sen- 
 sible of the mental bondage in ■n-hich they are held, 
 doubtful of many things sanctioned by Rome, 
 and vrishing in their hearts that, vrithout incurring 
 the hated brand of heresy, they could see their Tray 
 to a Church more resembling the one they find iu 
 such snatches of the Bible as they know, or such 
 records of the first three centuries as thoy ever read 
 at first hand. This class is generally represented as 
 luimerous by men who are acquainted with the 
 inner places of the priesthood. 
 
 From a gentleman so placed as to have the very 
 best political information, I learned that they wers 
 daily expecting from Home a Bull excommunicatiug 
 the King. "To you and me," he said, "this may 
 appear nothing ; " (for he was an Englishman ;) 
 " but the King is a Eoman Catholic, brought up a 
 Roman Catholic, and there is no telling what efleot 
 it may produce upon his mind." I resolved to try 
 what Italians would say upon this subject. The 
 first to whom I named it was a thoroughly intelligent 
 merchant. He simply laughed at it, and said that 
 
TURIN. 47 
 
 it might scare a few women in country places, tut 
 that was all. As to the men, or the people of the 
 towns, it would produce no effect upon them what- 
 ever. "What did I think of it?" I Was free 
 enough to say that to me it appeared not so much in 
 the light of a political absurdity, as of a great wicked- 
 ness. To curse ten millions of people in the name 
 of the Christian religion, on account of a political 
 movement, was surely a bad, a horrible action. If 
 it had any effect at all, it put the souls of those 
 people outside of the kingdom of grace. " Cursing," 
 I said, " is not a Christian work, but blessing. 
 Christ and His Apostles suffered much at the hands 
 of all kinds of men : they fearlessly and tremen- 
 dously denounced sin and classes of sinners, exhibit- 
 ing against them the future judgment and just 
 condemnation of God. But what persecutor or oppo- 
 nent did they ever curse ? " He rubbed his hands, 
 and said, " Ah ! but Rome is used to cursing." 
 
 I next mentioned the subject to a banker in his 
 office. He treated it just in the same way. "Ex-" 
 communication was well enough in past centuries. 
 It has been tried too often. It has no terrors now ; 
 it only disgusts people to see an attempt to use 
 spiritual arms for a political end. Besides, it can 
 have no effect unless it be published in the country ; 
 and the Government will take care that it shall not 
 be so." 
 
48 CHAPTEH, III. 
 
 Upon this latter statement I looked at first as 
 merely a feint to prevent the minds of the people 
 from being affected by the excommunication; but 
 afterwards I found the " Opinione," the leading 
 journal, strongly maintaining the position, that, by 
 ancient concessions of the See of Rome, the House 
 of Savoy was guaranteed for all time against any 
 such acts of the pontifical power, and could pro- 
 tect itself from the publication of ecclesiastical 
 censures among its own subjects. In support of 
 this view it produced formidable documentary evi- 
 dence. With this grave argument the " Opinione " 
 coupled strong representations, that, to give the 
 excommunication fuU effect, it would be necessary 
 for the Pope, before the conclusion of the year of 
 grace 1860, to prepare foi", and eventually to cele- 
 brate, the greatest ceremonial at which Rome had 
 ever presided ; for an excommunication not followed 
 by an auto da fe was only a broadside with blank 
 cartridge. The auto da fe ought to come, if they 
 did not repent within the year ; and it would have 
 to be performed by publicly burning eleven millions 
 of Christians. The only difficulty would lie in 
 catching them ! 
 
 Another gentleman, to whom I spoke on the 
 question of the excommunication, said, "O, let it 
 come. The King is thoroughly prepared. His 
 mind is made up as to his course, and he knows 
 
TURIN. 49 
 
 what to do. The people are prepared; and the 
 Ministry are prepared; even to the point of having 
 prisons ready for any Priests who will dare to pub- 
 lish an excommunication of the King." 
 
 As several had said that perhaps the women 
 would be frightened, I went into a shop where there 
 were four, and no men. Having bought a trifle, I 
 began to talk. How they all went off upon the 
 national topics, like as many alarum clocks trying 
 which would ring the loudest ! " What a moment 
 for Italy ! What a moment for Turin ! What 
 a grand union ! The rest of Italy would soon 
 be with them too. Italy was to be a nation. 
 England had been their friend." After giving 
 them time to effervesce, I threw in a little cold water 
 in the form of a question, — What they would do if 
 the Pope should place them all under excommuni- 
 cation. They broke out again with as much eager- 
 ness as ever, mingled with a dash of indignation. 
 " Let him, let him ! Does he think it will frighten 
 any one ? No, not in the present day. Those were 
 tricks for old times. How dare he excommunicate 
 the King? If the King had done wrong, and he 
 excommunicated him for it, there would be some- 
 thing in it ; but the King has been doing right. He 
 has been working for Italy, and fighting for Italy; 
 and the people have been doing right, — they have 
 been trying to become a nation. That is their duty. 
 
50 CEAPTIiR III. 
 
 and they will be a nation : and they are to he 
 excommunicated for that ! If the Pope do it, it will 
 Imrt nobody but himself. If he shut the churches, 
 never mind; he and his Priests will be forsaken. 
 Let him do it, if he likes." 
 
 I never had, in any part of the world, a more 
 willing audience, than while I talked to them on 
 Church, and Priest, and religion, and blessing, and 
 cursing, and after a long time bade them farewell, 
 with earnest requests to come back again. 
 
 Selecting another shop, which also contained 
 only women, apparently of a superior class to the 
 former, I began to speak to the mistress. She 
 was pale, and very dejected ; perhaps a widow lately 
 bereaved, or, more probably, one who had long been 
 struggling hard for a living. I began, "This is a 
 joyful time in Turin." " Yes, for some," she said, 
 with a sigh. "Not for all? " I asked. "Well, for 
 the men, yes ; but for us poor women ? " "I sup- 
 pose you are afraid that the holy Father will excom- 
 municate you all ? " " O," she cried, " as for that, 
 no ; " and, with rather a pleased look, " I should 
 like to see it." " Like to see it? " I said. " Is it 
 not a very terrible thing, to be put out of the Chris- 
 tian Church by God's Vicar upon earth?" She 
 shrugged her shoulders, and said, "O, that would 
 frighten no one." 
 
 The rest struck in. They declaimed with hearty 
 
TURIN. 51 
 
 good-will against the wickedness of such a threat, 
 and said, if the Pope did it, all the churches would 
 be forsaken. Several times I reminded them of the 
 gravity of coming under the censure of the holy- 
 Father, but always provoked only fresh indignation. 
 At last they appealed to me, and asked if I really 
 believed that it would do them any harm. 
 
 " Well," I said, " as to us English, we have lain 
 under the curse of the holy Father for the last three 
 hundred years ; and we have an idea that, after bear- 
 ing it so long, we are not worse oiF, nor much 
 worse people either, than the Neapolitans and the 
 Romans, who have been so constantly favoured with 
 his benediction.^' They burst out into a laughing 
 shout : " O, only think ! the Euglish under the 
 Pope's curse, and the Neapolitans with his blessing, 
 and that is the effect of it ! " 
 
 1 A similar current of opinion was strongly indi- 
 cated in the press. Wherever the topic was alluded 
 to at all, it was either in a strain of indignation or 
 of ridicule. The graver papers argued, and the light 
 ones published caricatures and jokes. Among the 
 latter, the " Pasquino," the Italian " Punch," had a 
 large plate, entitled, "The jise of a pipe-fusee in 
 1860." It represented the Jupiter of the VaticaU 
 upon his own Olympus, surrounded by the scarlet- 
 hatted gods. He looked very feeble, but in a great 
 rage ; and was hurling down a thunderbolt, labelled 
 E 2 
 
5a CHAPTER III. 
 
 "Excommunication." Below, a crowd of Priests 
 were looking on with terror-stricken air, anticipating 
 the effects of the discharge ; but a sturdy urchin, 
 with a cocked hat, and cocked nose like Victor 
 Emmanuel, stood laughing, with his pipe in his 
 mouth, and held it out so adroitly as just to catch 
 the forked lightning in the bowl of the pipe. 
 
 Another paper, " Fischetto," represented political 
 animals, each taking their own way according to 
 their humour; and there was one "sagacious ani- 
 mal " that had bethought itself of the best use for 
 waste paper, and was just entering a pork-butcher's 
 door, with a great hamper of papers labelled, "Ex- 
 communication," "Censure," "BuU," "Rescript," 
 " Protest," and so on. 
 
 On the other hand, the Jesuits here have an organ 
 called the "Armonia," which does for them in Turin 
 what the " Univers " used to do at Paris. It is chiefly 
 remarkable from the fact, that one of its principal 
 contributors is a member of the Azeglio family, the 
 head of which, the Marquis Roberto, has long been 
 known as a liberal writer. Of late years, he had, in 
 some important votes, taken sides rather with the 
 reactionary pai-ty ; but since the last national move- 
 ment, he has reappeared, holding a pen as bold as that 
 of any other public man; and, in one of his recent 
 writings, does not hesitate to make significant allusion 
 to " the giant of Wittenberg," and to the artifices of 
 
TURIN. 53 
 
 tlie Council of Trent; and lays down the grand prin- 
 ciple that, henceforth^ there are to be but two 
 authorities, — 
 
 In politics, the Constitution : 
 In religion, the New Testament. 
 If the Marquis Azeglio and other statesmen will 
 only abide by this axiom, the future destiny of Italy 
 is assured. Alluding to the Council of Trent, he 
 says, " From that day, progress and liberty always 
 found, as they do to-day, their chief foe in the Court 
 of Rome ; which, with subtle priestly forecast, saw 
 that the ripeness of human reason, and the diffusion 
 of popular knowledge, would assure the demolition 
 of that frail and whited clump of stones with v/bich 
 it has deformed the edifice of the Church founded 
 by Jesus Christ." 
 
 No wonder that the " Buova Novella," the organ 
 of the ancient Italian Church, as represented by the 
 Vaudois, should cite these wards, in which the 
 modern corruptions of Christianity are appealed 
 against, and its ancient and holy foundations called 
 to mind. That Vaudois Church has existed and 
 suffered simply to sustain this appeal to the original 
 truth and purity, against more recent degeneration ; 
 but the " Armonia" makes it a great reproach to 
 the Marquis Roberto d'Azeglio to be praised by the 
 " Buona Novella." " Your father," it says, did so and 
 sOj and so and so i " but the ' Buona Novella ' did not 
 
54! CHAPTER III. 
 
 praise him." He did so and so, and so and so ; " but 
 the ' Buona Novella' did not praise him!" And 
 what becomes of statesmen in the future, whom 
 Jesuit papers do praise ? 
 
 This ]Marquis Roberto d'Azeglio is not to be con- 
 founded with his more celebrated brother, Massimo, 
 or with his own son, who is now Ambassador at our 
 court. Among the prodigies of Italy, perhaps the 
 greatest living is JIassimo d'Azeglio. He is cele- 
 brated as a painter, celebrated as a novelist, cele- 
 brated as a political writer, celebrated as" a soldier, 
 and, above all, celebrated as a statesman. His 
 pictures receive much praise; his pen has exerted 
 as great an influence on the fate of Italy as that of any 
 living man. The tales of his soldiering are heroic, 
 and he bears in his body a soldier's mementoes. 
 "When Italy bowed in sorrow under the disaster 
 of Novara, and young Victor Emmanuel had sadly 
 to take up the crown which his father, Charles 
 Albert, had laid down with a broken heart, the man 
 lie called to his side as Prime Minister of the nev^ 
 constitutional kingdom, setting out on its untried 
 career, staggering with recent blows, and shed- 
 ding many tears over the esile of its founder, 
 was Massimo d'Azeglio. He guided the nation 
 until he had brought upon the stage such men 
 as Cavour and La Marmora; and then, yielding 
 to his love for study and art, went again into 
 
TURIN. 5o 
 
 private life. But in tha late commotions, when 
 ililan became free, and a Governor was to be ap- 
 pointed, the Lombai'ds would have at their head the 
 man whom all trusted, loved, and wondered at. 
 
 He, iu a late publication, alluding to the religious 
 aspects of the national question, declai-es that Italy 
 can never be Protestant; and tries to throw the 
 blame of the Pope's faults upon Austria. He seems 
 to take pleasure in setting vip the distinction be- 
 tween the spiritual and temporal power, hoping to 
 reseue his country from the curse of the one, 
 while yet the Church shall retain to itself the 
 other. 
 
 Time only will show men how inevitably temporal 
 despotism arises out of spiritual, and will make them 
 s?e that tl;e real groundwork of the tyranny of 
 Austria, and of other such countries, is the absolute 
 rule of human souls assumed by the Pope. People 
 in England ai'e ready to think when they hear an 
 Italian statesman profess to distinguish between the 
 spiritual and the temporal authority, that it is merely 
 an artitiee by which he seeks to have his own 
 wav for the moment. With some it maybe; but 
 with many it is perfectly sincere. They sec the 
 Komish religion existing in countries where the 
 Pope has no temporal authority, and naturally con- 
 clude that it may be so in Italy, forgetting that in 
 those countries the people enjoy rights secure J to 
 
56 CHAPTER III. 
 
 them by doctrines totally subversive of the Pope's 
 claims, which protect them from ever being placed 
 under the full force of the spiritual tyranny. If the 
 Pope is the Vicar of God, head and organ of an 
 infallible Church, any power which prevents him 
 from bringing all his spiritual authority to bear 
 on the souls of men, sins against their moral 
 health and eternal hopes, as a ruler who prevented 
 the free fall of rain and sunshine would sin 
 against physical life. Now take the recent de- 
 crees of the Inquisition, (of which one is hereafter 
 inserted,) and do they claim more than such a per- 
 fect possession of a man's soul and principles, as it 
 is natural a Vicar of God and an infallible guide to 
 salvation should claim ? Yet is there upon earth a 
 Government that dare permit such atrocious enact- 
 ments to operate among its people ? "Were one found, 
 could society cohere under it? And if, from the 
 sheer necessity of warding off social chaos and political 
 ruin, every temporal power that ever was, that is, 
 and that can be, is compelled to curb and lame the 
 Pope's spiritual power, how vain is it to protest that 
 it is a sacred thing to bo respected ! Still, let us 
 not accuse those who do so of duplicity. More 
 time, and more sorrows, will teach more truths. 
 
 Another point on which we are liable to think 
 them insincere, is that of religioas liberty. Every 
 Italian of the liberal party professes an abhorrence 
 
TURIN. 57 
 
 of all persecution, and a firm belief in the doctrine 
 that every man should be free to worship God 
 according to his own conscience. Some of them 
 may hold the French distinction between freedom 
 to believe and freedom to worship; but, if so, 
 I never heard any of them allude to it. It 
 is the most silly of absurdities ; for no man 
 can interfere with the liberty of another to believe 
 whatever he likes ; and unless liberty of following 
 and proclaiming your belief exists, there is no reli- 
 gious liberty at all. 
 
 Englishmen, then, finding Italian statesmen avow 
 themselves friends of religious liberty, and yet hear- 
 ing every now and then of a Protestant meeting 
 closed by public force, or a preacher brought before 
 the tribunals and subjected to some sort of penalty, 
 perhaps to imprisonment, lose patience, and regard 
 their professions as a mere blind, to fool the 
 people of free countries ; but this is not just. They 
 sincerely desire to see religious liberty established. 
 The practical difficulties in their way are great, and 
 not easily understood by us. It is not at Turin as 
 in London. With us, the constitution has grown 
 up by degrees, and is in itself the embodiment and 
 power of national law and usage. At Turin the 
 constitution is a modern statute, placed by one 
 royal act in the midst of a great body of ancient 
 laws. It overshadows them ; and, if it live, such 
 
50 CHAPTER III. 
 
 as are unfriendly to it must eventually perish 
 under its sliade. For the present^ however, they 
 stand unrepealed, and some of them materially affect 
 religious questions. Local authorities can apply the 
 old law in the very teeth of the constitution. This- 
 is done frequently. And the statesmen of Italy, 
 bent, above all things, upon teaching the people the 
 sacred duty of keeping law, will support a procedure, 
 when once invested with legal sanction, which they 
 regret as an occurrence, and disapprove as to the 
 principles by which it was prompted. 
 
 While all credit for sincerity in this matter ought to 
 be accorded, on the other hand, one cannot look at the 
 facts which constantly arise without feeling that the 
 public men confront the Priests when temporal motives 
 impel them, but do not show much courage when 
 they have to cany out their own views as to the 
 rights of the human conscience. In the former 
 matters they take the course they believe to be for 
 the national interests, and leave the Priests to rage 
 at will. In the latter they temporize and speak of 
 fears; forgetting that all rights are perilled, if the 
 man himself, the soul within, is not held sacred. 
 They might settle the matter at once by simple laws, 
 taking away all show of legal right to persecute, and 
 by clear and express announcement, that the time 
 had come v/hen the conscience of the poorest 
 Italian was to be protected by the whole power of 
 
TURIN'. 59 
 
 the kingdom of Italy. Let the Priests but feel that 
 the question was settled^ that soul-bonds were all 
 broken by law, and that the public force, whether 
 armed or judicial, was no longer at the disposal of 
 the persecutor, but ever on the side of the perse- 
 cuted ; and they would bow to this order of things 
 much more patiently than they can do in several 
 other matters to which they have learned to 
 submit. 
 
 It is not, however, to be inferred, that in the city 
 of Turin, sensible restraints exist upon religious 
 liberty. There the Protestant Churches are as free 
 as Romish or Greek ones are with us. The Eible is 
 everywhere hawked and sold, Bible- schools are 
 taught, the press issues whatever books any one may 
 please to print, and the spirit of the constitution has 
 free way. Throughout the! great provincial cities 
 the same state of things exists, in the main, though 
 now and then the Courts of Genoa may be found 
 pronouncing a sentence that reads much more like 
 Naples than Sardinia. But in country places irri- 
 tating obstructions are often thrown in the way of 
 religious liberty, and statesmen are slow to interfere 
 effeetually. • 
 
 This subject naturally leads one to think of the 
 Jew family Mortara. To them, as to thousands 
 of others, whose liberties have been outraged under 
 the Papal Government, the free city of Turin has 
 
60 CHAPTER III. 
 
 offered an asylum. No longer able to endure the 
 scene of their family wrongs, they have retired from 
 the Eomagna, to a place where they can dwell under 
 protection for both conscience and person. I called 
 upon them, and met with a very kind reception. 
 The first member of the family I saw, was a little 
 boy of eight or nine years old, whose countenance 
 fell the moment I inquired if they had lately had 
 any news of their little brother at Rome. A sister, 
 of perhaps twelve years of age, when asked the same 
 question, at once showed tears in her eyes. Both 
 said they had not heard anything for a long time. 
 Madame Mortara was pale, sad, and worn with sick- 
 ness. She had been ill for four months, having 
 never recovered the shock of the midnight visit of 
 the police, the abduction of her boy, and her own 
 painfal chases after him. Poor lady! it was some 
 slight satisfaction to be able to tell her the feelings 
 with which Christians in England regarded such 
 acts as that which had violated her motherly rights, 
 and left her heart so mournful, and how entirely 
 they were opposed to the spirit and example of the 
 Christian religion. The name of Sir Culling Eard- 
 ley seemed to be m^usic to her ear, and the little 
 book, " The true Story of Edgar Mortara," though in 
 an unknown tongue, appeared to be a jetvel to her. 
 The daughter mentioned a drama which had been 
 got up and played here. ^ 
 
TURIN. 61 
 
 I could find very little general interest in the case 
 among the people. They all blamed the Priests, 
 but looked on it as rather an ordinary example of 
 what the Papal Government might do ; and thought, 
 if Europe generally had known as much as they, the 
 treatment of the Mortara family would have been 
 taken as nothing remarkable. Signor Mortara him- 
 self acknowledged that all the Italians condemned 
 the Church for its treatment of his boy ; and yet he 
 seemed more disposed than most I met with to 
 speak with respect of the Priests, and gave them 
 credit for influence among the people so long as they 
 confined themselves to religious and avoided temporal 
 matters. 
 
 In the midst of the excitement connected with the 
 arrival of the news of the voting upon annexation, I 
 visited several churches, and found that they were 
 tolerably well attended, and in one or two cases, 
 where special ceremonies were proceeding, the con- 
 gregations were really large. Nor were they, as 
 often stated, composed entirely of women ; but, in 
 some cases at least, there was a very fair proportion 
 of men. It was rare, however, to see a man bow, — 
 very rare. Occasionally one might be found upon 
 his knees, and tlien he was more in earnest than the 
 majority of the women, who appeared as much at 
 liberty to make observations while going through 
 their prayers, as if they had been knitting. 
 
62 CHArTER III. 
 
 At first sight, in Eomish couutiieSj one is struck 
 witli the fact that the churches are always operij and 
 that persons passing go in for a moment or two, and 
 kneel down and repeat a prayer. It is also the 
 custom with those who are more devout, to spend 
 considerable portions of time at their private devo- 
 tions in the church during the day. Impressive as 
 this is at first, after a while one learns that a 
 public place is not, after all, the best scene for 
 private devotion; and that the occasional visit to 
 the church, as a substitute for the closet, is a poor 
 expedient. JMoreover, it gradually comes to mind, 
 that this is the very thing against which our Lord 
 directed His express reproof. He teaches us that a 
 public place is for united worship, and that private 
 prayer is for the secret place between the worshipper 
 and God. 
 
 When the news of the definite result of the voting 
 had been received, and the time of the arrival of 
 Farini was fully known, the appearance of the city 
 became more and more festive; the number of ban- 
 ners increased, signs of preparation for great illumi- 
 nations rose everywhere, the throng in the street 
 was great, men's looks and tones were exultant, and 
 even their footsteps seemed to echo the proud word, 
 " We are a nation.^' At night impatient joy could 
 not wait for the prescribed moment, but burst 
 
TUUIN. G3 
 
 out into partial illuminations. Having witnessed all 
 thiSj and feeling more inclined for a quiet Sunday 
 than for one of crowds and shows, we left Turin 
 for Milan the day before Farini was to arrive. 
 
 When in Rome, I read in the " Civilta Cattolica," 
 "The population of Turin received Farini and 
 Ricasoli in the coldest manner, and that for some 
 reasons which we shall name. First. The Tnrinese 
 side with the Pope, and regard with an evil eye the 
 spoliation of his provinces. Secondly. The popula- 
 tion has a presentiment, a prejudice, a something 
 in the mind which says, ' This can't last ; this won't 
 last.' Thirdly. The city of Turin foresees that even 
 should it last, it would be to it a very heavy loss, 
 because it must necessarily cease to be the 'lapital. 
 For these reasons the illumination of the 18th of 
 March was a very shabby affair; so that the city 
 guard had to go about from house to house, to 
 entreat the citizens in the name of the Mayor to 
 light up; and then on the Sunday an attempt being 
 made to repeat the illumination, nothing could be 
 got but a very few of the smallest lamps, scattered 
 here and there, as many as you could count upon 
 
 your fingers The Turinese prefer keeping their 
 
 money to pay St. Peter's pence."* 
 
 This " Civilth Cattolica" is the one lonely maga- 
 
 • "La Ctmltii Cattolica" for April, ISCO, under the IieaJ Civtitwa 
 Coniemporanea. 
 
64 CHAPTER III. 
 
 zine which comes into the world at Rovnej as the 
 " Giornale di Roma " is the solitary newspaper. 
 The latter is the daily organ of the Papal Govern- 
 ment ; the former the fortnightly one of the Jesuits; 
 and the quotation just given is a fair specimen of the 
 sort of news with which the one and the other illu- 
 minate the people, for whose indulgence such dan- 
 gerous treats are allowed to be prepared. Besides 
 the lies in the above statement, there is a curious 
 blunder; because the 18th of March is first men- 
 tioned, and then the Sunday. Now the Sunday was 
 the 18th, so that I can testify that, two days before 
 the Sunday came, and before the public illuminations 
 were looked for, a great many persons had lit up. 
 "When next in Turin, the waiter at the hotel, learn- 
 ing that we had just come from Florence, asked, — 
 
 " Did you see the King ? " 
 
 " Yes, we saw his reception at Florence." 
 
 " Did they receive him well ? " 
 
 "I have seen many public demonstrations, but 
 never anything like it in this world." 
 
 " O," he said, " but you should have been here to 
 see the arrival of Farini ! " 
 
 "The arrival of Farini?" I said. "That was a 
 very cold affair." 
 
 He looked at me with blank amazement. I said, 
 " When Farini arrived, you gave him a miserably 
 cold reception at Turin, and could not get up a 
 
TURIN. 65 
 
 respectable illumination for him." The man turned all 
 sorts of colours, and asked me why in the world I said 
 that ; that it was an overwhelming demonstration. 
 
 " But/' I saidj " my account of it must be cor- 
 rect ; I read it in Rome, in the Pope's own magazine, 
 the ' Civilta Cattolica.' " 
 
 This relieved him very much, and he burst out 
 into a laugh. 
 
 Going into a money-changer's shop, he said, 
 looking at the coin, "You have been into the 
 South. Did you see the King ? •" 
 
 " Yes, I saw his entrance into Florence." 
 
 " Did they receive him well ? " 
 
 " Such a reception as I never saw in this world. 
 It was a most wonderful demonstration." 
 
 " And the illuminations ? " he said. 
 
 " The illuminations were surpassingly magni- 
 ficent." 
 
 "O, but you ought to have been here to- see the 
 arrival of Farini some weeks ago. That was the thing 
 to see, — the reception we gave him ! And we surpass 
 the world for illuminations : we have here a great 
 genius in that line, a man who is sent for everywhere." 
 
 I repeated to him my statement to the waiter. 
 Then he looked very puzzled and very angry; 
 but at last, when I mentioned the " Civilta Cat- 
 tolica " as my authority, he laughed as one 
 seldom hears an Italian do, — a ringing, loud laugh. 
 
 F 
 
GG CHAPTER III. 
 
 " O, that 's all riglit/' he said ; " very glad that the 
 ' Civilta Cattolica ' should say so. It is the organ 
 of the Jesuits, and of course every body will read it 
 as meaning exactly the opposite of what it says." 
 
 Will Turin remain the capital of the new Italian 
 Kingdom ? This is a question which only time 
 can answer. Should all Italy become united, it is 
 not possible; and even should the present free 
 States consolidate into one Kingdom, the probability 
 of a change of capital would be very strong. But be 
 the future as it may, the part played by Turin in 
 the emancipation of Italy must ever make it a city 
 dear to the memory of Italian patriots. Here, when 
 every other power in Italy bowed to the ground 
 before the foreigner, the standard of independence 
 was raised. Here, while elsewhere Prince and peo- 
 ple were divided, the crown, the nobility, and the 
 commons united to advance the national cause. 
 Here, when the thoughtful and bold were obliged to 
 flee from tyrannies, native or foreign, they found a 
 safe retreat ; and the most illustrious of them, as 
 Parini, Mamiani, Calandrelli, an opportunity to 
 labour in worthy spheres for the good of the 
 fatherland. As the birth-place of the Constitution, 
 and the cradle of modern Italian liberties, what- 
 ever be the future position of Turin, capital or 
 no capital, it will remain in history ilkiminated 
 by the record of great events and brilliant names. 
 
€l^tn it 
 
 INTO LOIBARDY. 
 
 r 2 
 
In the railway carriage were two gentlemen, 
 evidently both of some position in the country : one 
 a tall portly man, very like a North Country 
 English Squire ; the other old and frail, with a lively 
 countenance and French appearance. They were 
 both Piedmontese j but the latter had travelled 
 much, and knew England well. Every now and 
 then they regaled themselves with a private chat ia 
 the Piedmontese dialect, making it so unintelligible 
 that it might as well have been Turkish. 
 
 The different dialects in Italy are one of the 
 strongest proofs of the perfection to which the iso- 
 lating system had been carried, by the petty little 
 States that have cut the country up between them. 
 They are not the mere brogues or accents which we 
 find in diflferent parts of the British Islands, but 
 reaUy deserve to be called separate dialects ; so much 
 so, that the inhabitants of one part of the country 
 can converse in the presence of those of another 
 with tolerable security that they will scarcely be 
 understood; and, as to a foreigner, they put him 
 out of court at once. It will take considerable time 
 before the influence of the press, railways, and 
 
70 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 progressive education, renders the speech of the 
 country tolerably uniform ; but just as political 
 isolation and limited reading tend to the multipli- 
 cation of dialectSj so certainly do union, periodical 
 literature, and frequent intercoui'se tend to give men 
 the comfort of a common speech. 
 
 From our two friends I endeavoured to learn 
 something of their views on passing events ; but, 
 though very cordial and talkative, they kept their 
 opinions out of view. They both blew cold on 
 Garibaldi. As to Cavour they were dumb. They 
 had a good word for the Austrians, had little to say 
 about the prospects of the national cause ; and, alto- 
 gether, took their place, in one's idea, as two fine 
 intelligent friends of things as they used to be. 
 The subject of the approaching excommunication 
 had often proved the means of eliciting something 
 of men's minds. I tried it upon my opposite friend, 
 the tall, strong man ; but he evidently felt uncom- 
 fortable at the thought of it. His was the only 
 countenance on which I had read a fear. Perhaps 
 I was mistaken ; but my impression was, that a real 
 religious fear, such as one might suppose a devout 
 Catholic to feel, agitated his countenance, when re- 
 minded of the fact, that the anathema of the Church 
 against the whole nation was now imminent. Still, 
 if he had the fear, he had not the courage to avow 
 it. As we sped along, the Alps showed gloriously on 
 
INTO LOMBARDY. 71 
 
 the left j and on the right, the southern chain helow 
 Turin, called "the Collina," veered away to meet 
 the Apennines, leaving the great plain of the Po to 
 develope itself by degrees, stretching on, and on, 
 towards Lombardy. We hoped to catch a good 
 sight of Monte Rosa; but it would not come into 
 view. 
 
 The old gentleman, in talking of the sights of 
 Turin, dwelt especially on the armoury; and then, 
 referring to London, spoke of the Tower, and our 
 armoury there. I was obliged to make the confession 
 that I had never been in the Tower. 
 " Where do you live then. Sir ? " 
 " In London." 
 
 " Then you have never been in the Tower ? " 
 " It is too true." 
 
 Turning to one of the ladies of the party, he said, 
 " Pack him up in a band-box, and send him home 
 to England directly." 
 
 These gentlemen left us at Vercelli, one of the 
 posts which attracted some attention during the late 
 war. Soon after we arrived at Novarra, the scene 
 of Radetsky's triumph, and Charles Albert's fall, 
 in 1849. Here was a vast multitude of recruits 
 arriving from the neighbourhood of Genoa, — tall, 
 strong young fellows, apparently full of glee, singing 
 national songs with vociferous enthusiasm. Into 
 our carriage came three officers. What a change 
 
72 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 of wind from that which had blown during the 
 presence of our former companions ! These were 
 all Lombards : one a mere youth, full of fire, and 
 ■quite at home the moment he found we were 
 English; the second was a short, sharp fellow, 
 with great eyes ; the third, tall, and weather-beaten, 
 silent, strong, and self-composed. He had two 
 medals : the one he took off, to show us the counte- 
 nance of our own Queen, from whom he had re- 
 ceived it, for the Crimean campaign; and inquired 
 of the ladies, " Is she as beautiful as this ? " To 
 the second our attention was called, by his com- 
 panion, with pride; for it was the national medal 
 for military valour, equivalent to our Victoria cross. 
 
 When we approached the Ticino, how they did 
 fire up ! Every inch of the way had its own interest. 
 The big eyes of the little oiEcer first gleamed, and 
 then filled with tears. " O ! " he said, " you cannot 
 tell how I feel here. I was a conscript in the Aus- 
 trian army, and deserted to Piedmont ; and for two 
 years dared not cross this line. How I did feel, 
 when the day came that I could march across it, 
 not as a captured deserter, but in my uniform as 
 an Italian soldier, — a common soldier, but still 
 an Italian soldier, in uniform, marching on to 
 Austrian territory ! " " He was longer than 1," 
 he said, pointing, through his teai's, to his tall, 
 medalled friend ; a man of few words. 
 
INTO LOMBARDT. 73 
 
 " Yes," he said, " I was a deserter too ; and for 
 eleven j'cars I could never cross this line, to see my 
 family." 
 
 As we approached Magenta, they pointed out, 
 first, the positions of the troops, then the traces of 
 the battle, the marks of musket-shot and cannon- 
 shot, and the feeling grew higher every moment. 
 Finally came the cross raised to commemorate the 
 dead. Deeply moved, I lifted my hat, and said, 
 "May God establish the liberty of Italy!" The 
 young fellow dropped his eyes, overcome. The 
 tall one gave me such a calm, grateful look ; and 
 the little one seized my hand in both of his, and 
 cried out, " Thanks, thanks ! " 
 
 " Signori, cannon-balls ! Signori, grape-shot ! 
 Signori, a sabre ! Signori, an Austrian s^yord-belt ! 
 Signori, eagles ! Signori, French shot ! " Such 
 was the cry of a crowd of urchins who thronged 
 outside the railing of the station. Our little 
 friend was out in a minute, aud bought some relics 
 for each of us, and then we managed to get a few 
 on our own account. 
 
 They did not blow cold on Garibaldi, though Fanti 
 and La Marmora, and especially Cialdini, seemed the 
 men of their chief confidence. One hint dropped has 
 often recurred to my mind since recent events in the 
 south. " Where is Garibaldi ? " " O," replied the 
 young fellow, " he is in the isle of Capriola, ill ; he 
 
74 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 has a little property there." Then, lifting his hrow 
 and poutmg his lip, " He is there, if not somewhere 
 else, organizing something." 
 
 How they spoke of the King's soldiering ! " He 
 is a soldier ! Just a soldier ! The beau ideal of a 
 soldier ! Why, at the battle of Palestro," said the 
 little officer, "■■when I was fighting away in the thick 
 of it, whom should I see close by me but the King ! 
 and the balls were as free for him as for me. O, he 
 is a soldier ! " 
 
 After the excitement of Magenta was passed, I 
 asked our friends if it would not be a very 
 serious matter if the Holy father laid the King, 
 and army, and nation, under his anathema; but 
 they tossed the excommunication off the point of 
 their noses with soldierly contempt, and gave me 
 a fair opportunity of telling them of the proper 
 work of the Church of Christ. 
 
 Presently they pointed out a convent, saying, 
 " There all the devout gentlemen of Milan come to 
 perform penance." There was something so comical 
 in the expression with which this was said, that one 
 was prompted to inquire what they meant. " O 
 yes, they come here and do penance, and remain in 
 the convent, shut up, for forty days." 
 
 " Indeed ! practising austerities ? " 
 
 "Yes, they pay the monks heavily, and eat and 
 drink in princely style, and walk about the garden, 
 
INTO LOMBARDY. 75 
 
 and come out of their seclusion, absolved by- 
 abundance of good cbeer." 
 
 This was said with so much genuine fun, that, in 
 spite of the gravity of the subject, one could not help 
 laughing. It gave rise to a long conversation on 
 repentance and forgiveness. They soon got out. -of 
 their depth ; and looked queer at me, as if one who 
 talked religion could hardly be a true man. Still, I 
 think, the honest fellows had a sort of instinct, that 
 one did mean something; but off they broke again 
 to this question of the prandial penance. " O, you 
 can buy anything ! If you want to eat what it is a 
 sin to eat, pay, eat, and be innocent ! If you want 
 to marry a person it is a sin to marry, pay, wed, and 
 the blessing of the Churcli be upon you ! It is all a 
 shop." 
 
 " And what is indulgence ? " 1 said. 
 
 " O, indulgence ! that is one shop more." 
 
 " But what is it ? " 
 
 One looked at another, and their theology was 
 hard set. The young fellow attempted an explana- 
 tion, but stopped when he got to purgatory. How- 
 ever, enough, was said to open the way for words 
 about the Redeemer's great ransom for our souls. 
 The night feU, the walls of Milan were passed, and 
 we parted great friends. 
 
K^Ut ir. 
 
 MILAN, DURING THE REJOICINGS FOR THE 
 ANNEXATION. 
 
As we were driving along the ratlier sombre 
 streets of Milan^ they suddenly flashed with torch- 
 lights; and bauds of musiCj and popular acclama- 
 tions, swelled upon the ear. A vast crowd, escorting 
 something that seemed like a procession, swept past 
 iu joyous excitement. It proved that the students 
 from Pavia had just arrived in the town, preparatory 
 to great rejoicings on the morrow; and that this 
 public reception was only a small part of the enthu- 
 siasm which was venting itself. Already, since the 
 battle of Magenta, there had been some hundred 
 illuminations or more ; but to-morrow was to witness 
 an exceedingly grand one, intended to commemo- 
 rate the issue just achieved, the union of Central 
 Italy with the northern State ; and, at the same time, 
 to be the anniversary of the five days of March, 1848, 
 when the Milanese rose and expelled their Austrian 
 masters. As in Turin, however, they had not 
 patience enough to wait for the day fixed for the 
 great illumination, but a night or two previously 
 many had been commencing on their own account ; 
 and, what was worse, the mob had showed a 
 
80 CHAPTER V. 
 
 desire to dictate to those who did not feel in- 
 clined to do so. They had passed several houses, 
 shouting out, " Light up ; " and carried it so far as 
 to compel the poor dames of a convent to obey their 
 wishes, equally against their habits and their political 
 predilections. The Governor gave prompt orders 
 that no such interference should be repeated, and 
 himself took the pains to wait upon the nuns, and 
 express his regret for the annoyance to which they 
 had been subject. I afterwards found at Rome, that 
 the " Civilta CattoUca " laid grievous complaints 
 against him and the northern Government generally, 
 for their disregard of liberty in allowing the nuns to 
 be so ill used. They added that, notwithstanding 
 his visit and promises, the insult had been repeated ; 
 in consequence of which the ladies had been obliged 
 to close their schools and leave the town. So 
 sensitive is Rome to any infraction of the liberty 
 of Rome. 
 
 We found that our hotel was within a few 
 hundred yards of the Cathedral. The Corso is not 
 a wide, but a lofty, street, the end of which opens 
 upon the giant form, which even at night shed upon 
 us, as we gazed from our balcony, a sense of the 
 sublime. Immediately opposite us stood a grandiose 
 modern church, which an overgrown dome prevents 
 from being a beautiful little building ; and its white 
 ooloiu: and dapper columns help to render the con- 
 
MILAN. 81 
 
 trast with the prodigious mass and mysterious 
 tracing of the Cathedral all the more forcible. 
 That night the Corso was as animated a street as 
 could be found in the world. Little remnants of 
 the great procession now and then streamed by with 
 flagSj and torches, and drums. The people shoutea 
 and sang, but apparently with the most perfect good 
 temper and order. The hum of the passers has an 
 unmistakeable note of pleasure, — like that of bees in 
 honey time. A stranger, utterly ignorant of the 
 state of the popular mind, must feel that he 
 had fallen upon' a day when men's hearts were 
 rejoicing. 
 
 There is Milan Cathedral at last ! How won- 
 derful it is ! For the first time in my life, 
 my previous imagination is out-done by a stone 
 building. The first view of the exterior of St. 
 Peter's had disappointed mc. "With this it is 
 just the reverse. Coming upon it from the nar- 
 row Corso, and seeing it in the shade, and feeling 
 its growing vastness, and watching its forest of 
 pinnacles, its wilderness of tracery, delicately 
 taarked against the grey sky, the impression sinks 
 deeper and deeper into the mind, " Wonderful ! 
 "Wonderful! Vfhat a head was that which gave 
 birth to this conception ! How it must have 
 glowed as the great temple sprang forth within it, 
 holding up these pinnacles to heaven, and shedding 
 
 G 
 
82 CUAPTER V. 
 
 down this sense of grandeur upon earth ! 0, to 
 rear up living temples in the souls of men which 
 ^■.'ould transmit to coming ages, not the impression 
 of one's hand or skill, but the spirit of true worship, 
 and the image of God ! " So one goes on, musing, 
 wondering, and enchanted, until the fagade is 
 reached. After a look or two at this, one would 
 rather not have seen it. It is vast, but only vast ; 
 neither beautiful, nor uniform, nor grand, nor 
 delicate ; it is just the caparisoned Goliath of 
 gables. 
 
 The murmur of the awaking nation swells around 
 this stern old Cathedral,, and the night light falls 
 mystically upon it ; and one thinks there of the 
 days of early Christianity, which some of its tra- 
 ditions recall, and the succeeding times of gradual 
 decline, up to the recent point of spiritual degra- 
 dation and temporal woe, and now the great and 
 uncertain future, of which that hum in the city is 
 the voice whose words no ear can tell. Those 
 old walls, and their predecessors, have seen the gra- 
 dual corruption of religion, and the successive wrongs 
 and oppressions of Italy. They now hear the shouts 
 of a hopeful uprising. But what is to be the end ? 
 
 Sauntering back, full of these thoughts, I observed 
 a coffee-house crowded with students, and, of 
 course, went in. The poor fellows seemed as merry 
 and simple as children, with their arms round one 
 
MILAN. 83 
 
 another, laughing and talking in all the heyday of a 
 nevr existence. They had papers to read, freedom 
 to speak their minds, and a country to call their 
 own ! An Englishman might have wondered what 
 they had to make them so happy ; but where 
 these three things are strange, what boons they 
 appear ! 
 
 Instead of heady drinks, which one might expect a 
 multitude of excited youths to order if one were in 
 England, or the swilling of beer which one would 
 certainly see in Germany, nothing was called for 
 but innocent cooling drinks, — a little orange-water, 
 or something of the sort, and very rarely a glass of 
 liqueur. 
 
 Taking up one of the papers, which lay in large 
 numbers round the room, I saw, in great letters, 
 these words : " We are a nation ! We are eleven 
 millions ! For the first time, since ancient Rome, 
 we can to-day use the words, ' We are a nation ! ' 
 Italians have learned to unite. Again we cry, ' We 
 are eleven millions ! ' " and this strange joy of their 
 new-found nationality seemed to throb in the veins 
 of every man you met with. 
 
 What a view that was from the balcony of the 
 hotel, on the Sunday morning ! The fronts of the 
 houses generally have balconies. Every one was 
 covered with crimson. Erom the windows flags 
 were streaming, the bright Italian tri-colour, — green, 
 G 2 
 
SJl CHAPTER V. 
 
 and red, and -white ; having the advantage of fine 
 materia.], exquisite dj'e, and. the Italian light. 
 Fiom every pinnacle of the wondi'ous Cathedral the 
 tri-colour banner v/as streaming ; and away, up in 
 the blue bosom of heaven, from the highest point of 
 the spiie, a broad mass of red, and white, and green, 
 was floating in the air. The roll of the drum 
 announces the National Guard ; their light blue 
 plames form a moving pavement j the flags from the 
 ■windows a ■waving canopy ; and the back-grouud 
 is the bannered Cathedral. Had one planned a 
 sight-seeing journey, it ■would have been impossible 
 to plan for a sight like that. 
 
 Amidst the joy, the noise, the hurry of the streets, 
 ■\ve make our -way to the Swiss Church. There is 
 no confusion. The people are all wonderfully civil; 
 and such as I manage to get into chat with, only 
 need to be set a-going, and they will talk to any 
 extent, and seem really pleased that a foreigner 
 should interest hims:lf in them. In t!ie Swiss 
 Church we found a good congregation, composed 
 chiefly of well dressed people, with a good number 
 of French soldicr.3. At tlie close of the service, 
 Sir. Swalb, the Fj'eijcli Protestant C!;aplain to the 
 troops, accompanied -us. It was but a few minutes 
 before we came upon an ojjen space, the Piazza di 
 Castello, — a vast srjuare, larger than anytliing in 
 London but the pai k:.-. In tiic midst stands a great 
 
MILAN. 85 
 
 altar, on one side a higli platform erected before a 
 building. Around it the National Guards are 
 drawn up with nailitary pomp, and everywhere 
 banners are streaming in all the colours of the 
 rainbow, and especially the favourite tri-colour. At 
 the altar, Priests are celebrating mass, and are going 
 to consecrate the colours of the National Guards. 
 Poor Priests ! Poor blessing ! I saw them blessing 
 the trees of liberty in Paris in 184S : and here they 
 are, blessing colours to be borae against the Pope 
 and his allies ! If I were a Priest, it -would go hard 
 with me to do that ! 
 
 It is not a worthy spectacle either on the side of 
 the Church or of the State. The Churchman is there 
 to do an act which, if be be sincere, is odious and 
 sacrilegious to his conscience; and the State is there 
 to command, or at least invite, apparent sanction from 
 those ajrainst whom it is com';:!clled to struK'sle for 
 existence. The whole affair gives one an uncom- 
 fortable feeling of hollow and supple consciences. 
 Still there had been some little show of sturdine=s 
 among the Milanese Priests. On Friday, when the 
 news of annexation came, all the church-bells were 
 ordered to ring. ]\Iost of them struck up ; but the 
 quick enr of the Milanese soon discovered that one 
 was dumb. The great bell of their old Cathedral, 
 of which they' are so justly proud, had no voice to 
 celebrate the spoliation of the Pope. The chief 
 
86 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Priest had taken upon himself to forbid it. The 
 people rushed into the Cathedral, and found that the 
 ropes were trussed up. They were very angry, but 
 committed no violence. They got the ropes down, 
 and made the great bell ring out with a will, and 
 ling on, till a late hour in the night, proclaiming the 
 joy of Italy at the reduction of Papal power. Tliis, 
 however, appeared to create a division among the 
 Priests ; for an address was inserted in the papers, 
 professing to emanate from a considerable number 
 of the Milanese Clergy, denouncing, in unmeasured 
 terms, the unnatural conduct of men who had been 
 the I'cady servants of Austria, while inflicting all 
 kinds of degradation ou their fellow-countrymen, 
 but who now refused to participate in the na- 
 tional happiness, and even turned the great Cathe- 
 dral itself into a means of insulting the cause 
 that was dear to every Italian heart. Under the 
 frocks of Priests, in many instances, the heart of 
 the patriot beats instead of that of the mere Eo- 
 mish ecclesiastic. 
 
 Into the vast crowd now before me I plunged, 
 going from one part of it to another, and talk- 
 ing right and left, to man and woman, old and 
 young, rich and poor. The worst is, that the poor 
 people talk a dialect which one can hardly under- 
 stand. Everywhere they seemed pleased to converse 
 with a foreigner; and the feeling towards the 
 
MILAM. 87 
 
 English was good. As to- the terrors of the Pope 
 and the excommunication, they did not show a 
 trace of them. Women who looked as if they were 
 little atove the labouring class, said, "Among the 
 lowest class there may be a little fearj but among 
 all others it is too late for that." A sedate man 
 waggishly said, " It is reported that the King will 
 put on a heavy prohibitory duty, and order that the 
 Bull of Excommunication shall not pass the frontier 
 withoat paying." An intelligent, thoughtful look- 
 ing man of about twenty-five turned to two friends 
 who seemed like "fast" young gentlemen, and said, 
 " We must all become Protestants." This was the 
 first time I had heard such an expression from an 
 Italian; I had not named Protestantism, and it 
 took me by surprise. Tbe dandies were startled. 
 I said to them, " I suppose many of you think that 
 a Protestant means one who believes nothing, and is 
 a sort of Atheist; or, at least, that it means some 
 new religion invented in the last century or so." 
 This fixed the attention of the young fellows, who 
 wanted to know in what it difiered from such repre- 
 sentations. I said, " The meaning of Protestantism 
 is simply this, — that in the course of time Christians, 
 looking back to the primitive Church, as traced in 
 the word of God, and in the early creeds and his- 
 tories, became aware that great corruptions had 
 crept in, corruptions derived from the old Paganism 
 
83 CHAPTER V. 
 
 of Rome and other countries that had been im- 
 perfectly Christianized, and gradually mingled with 
 tiewly -invented doctrines, just as in the recent 
 case of the Immaculate Conception. When they 
 had become pi-ofoundly convinced that, to pi'eserve 
 Christianity at all, these abuses must be removed, 
 and a return be made to the old beliefs arid ob- 
 servsnces established by our Lord Himself, thev 
 protested against the imposition upon Christians 
 of any doctrines and practices not taught in the 
 Bible, and especially against all teaching that was 
 repugnant to it : but, protesting against those abuses, 
 they held, and do sacredly hold, all the articles of 
 the Christian faith, as taught by Chj'ist and by His 
 Apostles." 
 
 The thoughtless youths looked downright uneasy. 
 The subject was too serious for them ; and besides, 
 they seemed rather frightened with what sounded 
 like heresy. Still they said nothing. Their elder 
 companion replied very gravely, " O yes, 1 know all 
 about it ; that is the thing for us. Italy will never 
 be right until we have that. I have books, and I have 
 read them, and I know ; " and, turning to his com- 
 rades, he said, " You must read ecclesiastical history. 
 You must read the Vangelo." 
 
 To one after another I spoke, wondering when I 
 was to find the sincere defender of the Church of 
 Rome; such as one would pick up in any crowd in 
 
■ MILAN. 8D 
 
 Ireland; but he did not come. At last I found a 
 very old lady. She was very civile and we had a 
 long chat ; and she appeared surprised that a gentle- 
 man should take an interest in talking to her about 
 the religious aspects of the matter ; and she smiled 
 just as pleasantly as any of them at the idea of 
 the Popov's excommunication doing any harm. It 
 was plain she did not go deep into matters, took 
 them as they came ; — was drifting on tovrards the 
 close of her voyage in the easy way so many gOj with 
 their faces up the stream, looking backward, and 
 thinking little of the rapids which they ai-e neariug, 
 and of the great fall down which their bark is about 
 to go. 
 
 The only way I could account for the fact, that 
 none of those I spoke to showed anything like a dis- 
 position to defend the Church, was by supposing that 
 all those who would come to such a fete, were 
 persons who did not care for the authority of 
 Rome. 
 
 After the mass was over, the troops passed in pro- 
 cession to the platform at the end of the square, on 
 which were standing a brilliant crowd of officials; 
 and here occurred a ceremony which, in the distance, 
 reminded me of that wonderful scene under the Arc 
 de Triomphe in Paris, in April, 1848, when Lamar- 
 tine and his brethren of the Provisional Government 
 sat to review the armv and the National Guai'd for 
 
DO 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 twelve successive hours, having armed men marched 
 past them, and receiving the oaths of allegiance to the 
 Kepublic from the commanding officers. A figure 
 every now and then appeared in the distance, as if 
 delivering some official words; and one naturally- 
 asked if that was Massimo d^Azeglio, the great and 
 popular Governor of Milan. The people around me 
 thought it was ; but he was away that day in Turin, 
 sharing with the King and Cavour the reception of 
 Fariui. 
 
 As the different banners streamed by in the pro- 
 cession, there was one that affected the crowd 
 deeply, — a brilliant banner draped with crape ; and, 
 as I asked what this sign of mourning meant, they 
 said, dropping the voice, " Venezia ! Venezia !" It 
 was the tone men use in the sick-room of a friend. 
 Then came a long streamer all black, with the lion, 
 emblem of Venetia, emblazoned upon it ; and the 
 feeling among the people was intense. 
 
 I was greatly impressed with the order and good 
 temper of this crowd. Whether on the Piazza or in 
 the streets, whether in the height of an exciting 
 moment, or at the ordinary times, thorough good- 
 nature prevailed. Anything like drunkenness or 
 misconduct was not to be seen. 
 
 When the night came, the city lighted up with 
 wonderful splendour; and the glow of the lamps, the 
 waving of the banners, the perpetual rush along the 
 
MILAN. 91 
 
 streetSj the plumes and the helmets, the swell of 
 music, all seemed but as the bees and butterflies to 
 an orchard in blossom ; when the huge Cathedi-al 
 flashed out with lines of light all round its frame, 
 cunningly mingling with the traceiy, and embellish- 
 ing every pinnacle. It was such a sight as one's 
 eye had never seen before, and in the world could not 
 see elsewhere. At a certain moment, the whole vast 
 edifice, spire, roof, body, blushed in the richest 
 crimson. This changed to green, and again to white. 
 About this there was a mystery, a grandeur, and a 
 beauty united ; in the presence of which all recollec- 
 tions failed to offer a comparison. The first fainter 
 tints of the crimson, as it came out upon the warm 
 white marble of the Cathedral, did remind me of that 
 rose blush that may be seen covering the mountains 
 on the Asiatic side of the Red Sea at sunset; but 
 then, when this became intensified several times, 
 with all the fret- work of the great Cathedral in the 
 midst of it, with the spotless sky behind, and a 
 waving world of banners and plumes, over, among, 
 and below, it was, for witchery of the beautiful and 
 the sublime, something unique. 
 
 Is it all a dream ? Am I not at Netting Hill, 
 having fallen asleep over a volume upon unfulfilled 
 prophecy? Is this a real eye that is gazing, and 
 gazing? It is even so. That is the second Cathe- 
 dral in the Romish world, waving with joy-banners. 
 
93 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 gleaming with joy-lamps, and fluslied with successive 
 colours, as if emulating the northern lights; and all 
 to celebrate the disruption of the Pope's kingdom ? 
 It is a sight to gaze at, to ponder, and to foi'gct 
 no moi'e ! 
 
 May brighter lights than these' shine from within 
 all the cathedrals, ere long ! 
 
 This had been a strange Sunday. The only two 
 Sundays the excitement of which it recalled to me, 
 were the first I spent in India, going with INIr. Has- 
 v.'e!l among the crowd at the swinging feast ; and 
 that Sunday at Paris, during- the battle of June, in 
 1848, when, passing through I'anl'.s of Cuirassiers, 
 into the little chapel in the Rue lloyale; we held our 
 service amid the distant sound of cannon, and came 
 out again through crowds of Cuirassiers, with cannon 
 still roaring. 
 
 As one lay looking back on the scenes of the day, 
 comparing the ideas of the different persons con- 
 versed with, remembering how lately one might have 
 suffered for speaking freely on religious topics, and. 
 Iiearing the ceaseless hum, frequently varied by 
 l)ur>ts of singing and music, it was impossible to 
 render an account of one's oTj'n feelinga. On the 
 whole, it was a state of puzzled enjoyment. As to 
 the past, there has been this great change, — an 
 oppressed people is now standing up free; and where 
 intolerance had been enthroned, the word of God is 
 
MILAN. 93 
 
 not bound. As to tlie future, who will interpret 
 it ?. Tliat many-voiced hum is its forerunning note. 
 Its tones are those of human passion, — hatred of 
 the tyrant, exultation for freedom, — new hope 
 of coming strength and victory. IRIaking all abate- 
 ment, these feelings, in the main, are right and 
 laudable. And He who guides tempestuous ele- 
 ments, till their rage ends in the refreshment of 
 nature, can overrule this rush of earthly feeling, and 
 silently work out for Italy v/hat He wrought out for 
 England, amid the darker torrents of passion that 
 drove on Henry VIII. to collision with Eome, 
 
 A merchant on wliom I called early the next 
 morning was slow and sad, with little to say, 
 although courteous as a man could be. He com- 
 plained that, what with the failure of the silkworm, 
 and the commotions of the time, business was sorely 
 depressed ; and told me that the news had arrived 
 that Savoy was nov/ ceded to France. 
 
 Another was as lively and cheerful as the former 
 was depressed. What a time I had come to Milan 
 at! Had I seen the rejoicings yesterday? Was it 
 not delightful? What did I think of the behaviour 
 of the people ? England had taken a lively interest 
 in their welfare; and, ever since ViUafranca, had 
 been their best friend. Preseutly his son, a very fine 
 young man, joined us ; and, when the religious 
 aspects of the new state of things were alluded to. 
 
Qi CUAPTliR V. 
 
 took up the points, put questions, and, when T tad 
 observations to make, urged me on. In came a 
 bright-looking, grey-haired friend, who heartily wcl- 
 coaied an English visitor. The former conversation 
 continued uninterrupted. "I suppose," I said, 
 '■' you Italians think we English are Atheists, and 
 believe nothing ? " The new comer replied, " Now- 
 a-days we know a great deal better. Your nation 
 has more religion, better morals, and more con- 
 science than the Catholic nations." 
 
 " Ay," struck in the young man, " how Sunday is 
 sanctified in England ! " 
 
 While we were in the height of discourse, in came 
 a brother of my host and a lady ; and it was plea- 
 santly explained that this being the day of his patron 
 saint, his friends were paying him visits of congratu- 
 lation. Unfortunately, the brother talked English, 
 and this circumstance brought our conversation to a 
 close, for none of the others understood it ; and 
 like my Italian, his English was club-footed, and 
 hobbled sadly. 
 
 In a book-shop near the Cathedral I saw large 
 placards announcing a pamphlet under the title of, 
 " Anti-Christ is the Pope : Proved from the Holy 
 Scriptures and the Holy Fathers, by Robert Flem- 
 ing," and professing to be published in London. It 
 was plain, at the first glance, that the printing and 
 paper were not English; and, when one came to 
 
MILAN. \)d 
 
 read the paraplilet, internal evidence showed that, 
 though the author had availed himself of Fleming's 
 thoughts, he wrote in a much more telling style, and 
 must have been at work within the last few months, 
 from allusions to passing events. lu the same shop 
 was also announced a pamphlet, "The Protestant 
 Rule of Faith ; " and another pamphlet on the ques- 
 tion of excommunication, showing the conduct of 
 the Republic of Venice when laid under interdict 
 by Pope Paul V. ; and urging Italians to similar 
 firmness, in the event of the Court of Rome pro- 
 ceeding to repeat the outrage. In this the wi-iter 
 endeavours to keep up respect for the spiritual 
 authority of the Pope, while resolutely combating his 
 right to excommunicate for political reasons, and 
 urging courses inconsistent with his own doctrine 
 of the headship of the Pope in spiritual matters. 
 
 " Have you any Bibles ? " I said to the man ; and 
 two or three visitors looked up at the question. 
 
 " No," was his reply. 
 
 " Any New Testaments ? " 
 
 " O, yes." He pulled down a musty volume, 
 which was one of eight. Instead of a Testament, it 
 was a Commentary upon it, without the text. 
 
 " Have you no other New Testament ? " 
 
 " None." 
 
 " Have you any history of modern Rome in 
 Italian?" 
 
96 CnAPTER V. 
 
 Ileturew his Lead aside, as if this was a new ques- 
 tion, which, he wanted to revolve ; but the answer 
 came out, as I knew very well it must do, " No." 
 
 When I inquired of this man what the effect 
 would be if they were all jplaced under excommuni- 
 cation by the Pope, he burst into a humourous 
 laugh, and the customers turned ronnd and smiled. 
 " If the Pope does it," said the bookseller, " he will 
 do it not against us, but against hirnself. We want 
 to see whether he wiU ; for then we shall know whose 
 Vicar he is. He says that he is the Vicar of Christ : 
 now we know what sort of works Christ did, — He 
 blessed men, and saved souls; and if we see the 
 Pope cursing men, cursing a whole kingdom because 
 they have done the best thing they ever did, and try 
 to make their souls be lost, Vi'e know whose work 
 that is, and we shall know whose Vicar he is." 
 
 I found that another bookseller had a Bible. It was 
 ^Martini's, and the price was £2. 8s. (sixty francs.) 
 He had also a copy of the Vulgate, in two beautiful 
 quartos, for about the same. I told him that we had 
 New Testaments at fourpence a-piece, and that they 
 were circulated by the million. He seemed to have 
 had some inkling of such a state of things, but an 
 old gentleman in the shop stared as if I talked very 
 strangely. Here again we got into a long conversa- 
 tion on national and religious subjects. Oa the for- 
 mer the man was free enough ; but on the latter it 
 
MILAN. 97 
 
 appeared evident that lie had a strong leaning to the 
 Pope and the Church ; yet he would not express it. 
 He, also, had never heard of a history of modern 
 Rome in the Italian language. 
 
 Another, who appeared to sell Catholic hooks, 
 talked warmly about the distinction between the 
 spiritual and the temporal power, rejecting the 
 latter, but professing to hold the former in the 
 greatest regard. However, when brought to the 
 practical test of what he would do with the excom- 
 munication, he made the statement that at least 
 thirty Priests, from different parts of the sur- 
 rounding country, had told him, in his own shop, 
 that if it was sent to them by the Bishop, they 
 would not publish it. 
 
 It was surprising that when such books as I have 
 mentioned were publicly advertised in the shops, 
 and when the papers were full of attacks upon 
 Priests and Pope, many of them calculated to do 
 nothing but excite rancour, one could not find a 
 Bible in any accessible place. By the help of pre- 
 vious information, I did find, away in a back street, 
 up a few pair of stairs, in a poor house, a few boxes 
 containing Bibles; and any one who had the same 
 information and the same perseverance might buy 
 them. There were also some hawkers employed in the 
 surrounding country ; but surely it would not be 
 much, if, in such a city as Milan, the Bible Society 
 
 H 
 
98 CHAPTER V. 
 
 went to the expense of taking a good shop, in a 
 good situation, and having the word of God put 
 obviously vrithin the reach of every man in the city. 
 The person in whose charge the Bibles were, seemed 
 an honestj sensible man, thoroughly aware of the 
 comparatively little influence this obscure mode of 
 circulation cnuld have, and wishing to see it supple- 
 mented by something more like a public endeavour. 
 Through Milan runs a canal, on the bridges over 
 which one is reminded of a curious passage in the 
 history of the city. One of its old Dukes, being 
 placed under excommunication by the Pope, received 
 the Bull by the hands of two delegates. He heard 
 it, and had them driven in state until they reached 
 the bridge. They did not know why; but found 
 their carriage suddenly stopped on the bridge, with 
 the water at hand, while they were surrounded by 
 the guards of the Duke, who was a tyrant and a 
 desperado. " My Lords," said the Duke, " whether 
 v.'ould you prefer, to eat or drink ? " They looked 
 at the water, looked at the guards, and said, " Here 
 is too much water to drink; we shall prefer to 
 cat." "Very well, you shall have your choice," he 
 said. The Bull was produced, its parchment cut up 
 in pieces, and the dignitaries of Rome were forced 
 to eat it, and also the leaden seals, by which it was 
 authenticated. Yet this rebellious Duke and the 
 Pope were afterwards good friends. 
 
MILAN. 99 
 
 The present ruler of Milan is of a very different 
 stamp ; the celebrated Massimo d'Azeglio. He 
 is tall and thin, with a countenance upon which 
 painful thinking has left an expression of solemnity, 
 verging on sadness. He carries one of those select 
 heads, built for broad ideas, which more than 
 clearly, impressively, announce a master intellect ; 
 not merely an able man, but one of those whose 
 path is high up, and his view far forward. 
 
 It is very touching to hear such a man say, " Our 
 poor Italy ! I trust that blessings are in store for . 
 her at last. She is a country that God has been 
 pleased terribly to chastise for ten centuries and 
 more. We must hope that He now judges the 
 correction to be sufficient, and that He is about to 
 let us see better days. But I always tell our people 
 that if we are to have a happier lot, we must 
 endeavour to merit it at His hand." In him, such 
 expressions come from the depths of a great and 
 earnest soul, that has long been burdened with 
 the sufferings of his country ; and that, much as he 
 has done to promote the present state of mind, by 
 which Italians are hailing one another all over the 
 country as brethren, would view the result, not as 
 his handiwork, or that of his school, but as the 
 movement of the Hand which does comiuand 
 nations. 
 
 From Milan we mads a day's run up the 
 H 2 
 
100 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Lake of Como, highly enjoying the beauty of the 
 scenery by land and water. It was too early in 
 the spring for the hills to have put on their 
 verdure^ and yet the grandeur and the beauty were 
 extreme. On those waters and in the town, the 
 peaceful fame of Volta appeared to be entirely 
 drowned by the thundering renown of Garibaldi. 
 The honest boatmen, in their terribly difficult dia- 
 lect, delighted to dwell upon the events of the last 
 summer ; and how the fame of Garibaldi passed 
 from mountain to mountain, and lake to lake; and 
 how the Austrians were perplexed, and the people 
 excited ; and how little boys left their homes in 
 crowds, to join the hero's standard, — their fathers 
 and their mothers telling them that they would 
 be of no use, but afterwards finding that they 
 had fought like soldiers ! Some ladies were 
 quite as enthusiastic as the boatmen, pointing 
 out, step by step, the way that Garibaldi's forces 
 came dovm the hills, the posts to which he scattered 
 them, the points at which they opened upon the 
 Austrian pickets, and then the triumphant conclu- 
 sion, when the strong enemy made an ignominious 
 retreat, carrying his splendid artillery away to 
 Camerlata. How delighted they did seem to be told 
 that even in London they might see coffee-houses 
 by the name of Garibaldi, and Garibaldi paletots ; 
 and for the boatmen especially it was a notable 
 
MILAN. 101 
 
 fact, that in London they might see advertised 
 " Garibaldi pipes." 
 
 This enthusiasm for the hero we found, however, 
 by no means universal in the country. One was 
 very often told that Garibaldi was no statesman, that 
 he was not a sound and safe politician, and several 
 items of information of that sortj and even in 
 reference to his soldierly qualities, it would some- 
 times be said, "It is true he is a wonderful 
 soldier, but then we have so many of them." Yet, 
 with all this, it was plain that every Italian talked 
 of his name with a certain pride and con- 
 fidence ; and those who said most by way of draw- 
 back, would often wind it up with the admission, 
 " After all, when the work of hunting the Austrians 
 is to be done, there is nobody like Garibaldi." 
 
 Here we may relate a story from the " Official Docu- 
 ments." It was on the 4th of August, 1849, shortly 
 after Rome had fallen under the arms of the French, 
 that about twenty people were gathered round a farm- 
 house, in the village of Mandriole, near Ravenna. 
 They were labourers, waiting for their week's pay 
 from the steward of the Marquis Guiccioli. A 
 phaeton came up, in which a woman was lying 
 beside the man who drove. He did not look an 
 ordinary man; but the woman was deadly iU. A 
 doctor happened to be there : he felt her pulse, and 
 declared that she was in the last stage of fever. The 
 
102 cnAPTEii V. 
 
 owner of the house had her carried into a room, and 
 laid upon a bed. A little water was brought to her ; 
 she tasted it, and died in her husband's arms. 
 
 Then that strong man lifted up his voice and wept. 
 It was the voice of Garibaldi. It was his Agnes who 
 lay there ; he gave vent to what even a Papal official 
 calls, "outbursts of inconsolable grief;" charged 
 the family to give that body an honourable burial. 
 "Whatever may have been the words, the tone would 
 say, " My Agnes was the heroine wife of a hero." 
 Then he fled from the eyes of the astonished peasants, 
 fled they knew not whither. Into the jaws of the 
 Austrians ? Into the claws of the Pope ? No ; but 
 under the wing of Providence, reserved to reappear 
 at Varese, and Como, and Sicily. 
 
 The peasants at once foresaw that the simple fact 
 of their having allowed Garibaldi's wife to die upon 
 their bed, would expose them to the vengeance of 
 the Papal Government ; and, in hope of escaping, 
 they buried the body in a field. But the Delegate 
 Lovatelli makes haste to tell the most reverend ruler 
 at Bologna, Bedini, that he has sent police, and had 
 the two brothers who owned the house put in prison, 
 and that the Court was preparing for their trial. 
 The men were accused of murdering the wife of Gari- 
 baldi; and, as no case could be made up, it would 
 seem that Bedini applied to the Austrians, to know 
 what punishment they were to sufl'er. To their 
 
MILAN. 103 
 
 credit be it said that this reply was retiarned : 
 " Prom the proceedings of the Civil and Criminal 
 Court of Ravenna, against the brothers Stephen and 
 Joseph Ravaglia, of Mandriole, on suspicion of mur- 
 dering the wife of Garibaldi, it proves that the pro- 
 ceedings have j ustly broken down ; and, considering 
 that the momentary reception accorded to the fugi- 
 tive husband and wife in the house of the Ravaglia 
 was from a mere sense of humanity, and took place 
 before the notification of the 5th of August had been 
 issued, that cannot be cited as having any bearing 
 upon the act : therefore, the better to meet your 
 honoured communication of the 3rd, lettered 
 JI. A. N. 560, in which you beg me to expedite 
 this matter, I directly order the Delegate of Ravenna 
 to discharge the brothers Ravaglia from prison." * 
 
 In returning from Como, I called the attention of 
 a Priest who had just put up his breviary, by 
 making some inquiries, as we passed Monza, respect- 
 ing the convent mentioned in the '" Promessi Sposi " 
 of Manzoai. He at once took up the subject, and 
 talked with literary pleasure of the scenes of that beau- 
 tiful story, which lay just about us. All conversations 
 in Italy, at the time, gradually turned to the questions 
 of the day. He thought that the European powers 
 must interpose to uphold the throne of His Holiness. 
 
 * I)oc:'.me)Ui, port ii., pp. COS-610. See the trausktions, 
 Appcuaix A.. 
 
104 CHAPTER V. 
 
 They had such interests at stake, his independence 
 ■vvas to them all a matter of such vital importance, that 
 they could not be indifferent ; in fact, his position 
 ■was necessary to the Catholic world, a thing not to 
 be compromised on any account. Even Russia and 
 Prussia had a heavy stake in the maintenance of his 
 temporal authority; and, in 1848, Prussia had been 
 one of the first powers to interpose, and would 
 doubtless do so again. Poor fellow ! he used the 
 word "Catholic" so frequently, and with such 
 sonorous emphasis, that I could not help telling him 
 that with us it had a very different meaning from 
 " Roman." At first he seemed unable to imagine what 
 was meant. I said the two words were as irrecon- 
 cileable as "triangle" and "circle." At this he sim- 
 ply gaped. " The one means ' universal,^ a Church 
 in which every Christian of every age and nation, who 
 believes in and follows Christ, is recognised, 
 whatever errors of opinion or forms he may have : 
 the other means a particular Church, which would 
 fain be Empress of all others, and holds accui'sed all 
 Christians, good or bad, who wiU not absolutely 
 submit to her." 
 
 He then began a long, rapid, and very clever 
 oration, uttered with as perfect connexion and fluency 
 as if it came from a Professor's chair. He showed 
 how, after the first Council, the Council of Jerusalem, 
 where St. Peter had originally established his see, he 
 
MILAN. 105 
 
 removed it to the city of Antiochj theuce to Eome ; 
 boWj wherever he went, he carried with him the 
 centre of the Christian world; how he finally estab- 
 lished it in the imperial city, which, in his day, 
 was determined upon as the head of Christendom. 
 Therefore the matter was of apostolic origin ; and in 
 all the ancient Councils, and Fathers, and Creeds, 
 had been recognised as of Divine foundation. 
 
 It was plain enough that this was meant for a final 
 deliverance, and he looked a very strange sort of 
 disappointment, when he heard it quietly said, " The 
 point was never started in the most ancient Coun- 
 cils, and 'Roman' is not to be found in one of the 
 ancient Creeds. The early Councils were summoned 
 not in Rome, but elsewhere ; not by the Bishop of 
 Rome, but by the Emperors or others ; the Bishop 
 of Rome did not preside ; and it was only in compara- 
 tively modern times that anything like a Council was 
 held in Rome, or that the word ' Roman ' found its 
 way into any Creed. In the ancient Creeds you have 
 ' Catholic Church,' but never ' Roman.' " 
 
 " Yes, yes," he said, " we have Catholic, Apostolic, 
 and Roman too." 
 
 "In all the ancient Creeds? " 
 
 "To be sure." 
 
 " In the Apostles' Creed ? " 
 
 " Most certainly, yes. In the Apostles' Creed, of 
 course you have." 
 
106 CHAPTEK V. 
 
 " You have the Breviary in your pocket : will you 
 just do me the favour to look ? " 
 
 He pulled it out without a doubt upon his mind, 
 turned to one place, seemed puzzled j turned to 
 another, looked a good, long, conclusive look, then 
 lifted up his spectacled eye, and said with a good 
 grace, " It is not here." It was plain that a new 
 fact had come before him. 
 
 He then tried the old plan of talking me down ; 
 and as his Italian ran like a mill race, and mine came 
 like liquid from a bottle, with part of the cork in the 
 neck, my poor argument had small chances. Still I 
 did manage to make him hear me say, that creeds 
 and forms, however good, did not make Christians ; 
 that there must be the word of God to instruct, and 
 His Spirit to regenerate. He then broke into a 
 vehement denunciation of the unchristian wickedness 
 of the people generally, laying to that score the fact 
 of tbeir enmity against the Pope and Church; if 
 they were only such Christians as I had mentioned, 
 all would go well. " How can we," I said, " expect 
 a population to be Christian, when, perhaps, tliey 
 have never seen the word of God in their lifetime, 
 and scarcely any of them has ever read a chapter of 
 it ? " To this he assented, apparently without seeing 
 what it implied. I then tried to give an account 
 of what constituted a true conversion of the soul, 
 and renewal of the life in the image of God. This 
 
MILAN. 107 
 
 he heard with real interest, and exclaimed, " Yes ; but 
 only grace can do that." He was good-tempered 
 throughout, and both intelligent and able. 
 
 Would it have been so safe a year before, 
 on that soil of Lombardy, thus openly to discuss 
 with a Priest the vital point of Ptome's claims ? It 
 was Lent, the preaching season : for in the Church 
 of Rome, although there is scarcely any preaching 
 all the year round, (except in a few select places,) in 
 Lent courses of sermons are delivered almost every- 
 where. I heard in a large church a sermon on the 
 duty of love to our neighbours. The congregation 
 was very considerable, with a fair proportion of men. 
 The discourse was, for the most part, unexception- 
 able; a straightforward ordinary exposition of the 
 Christian duty of doing as one would be done by. It 
 was delivered in a perfunctory style, but was quite as 
 good as plenty of sermons one may hear in England. 
 
 During my stay in Milan, I had the opportunity 
 of witnessing a distinguished assembly of Milanese, 
 and to hear the opinions that were freely 
 expressed. The Milanese are tall, grave, and dark. 
 The ladies have often splendid figures and striking 
 faces; but few have the look of what we should 
 call downright womanly happiness. One could not 
 select many and say, " There is a happy young wife," 
 " There is a mother full of the joys of home." 
 IIow much this cast of countenance may have to 
 
108 CHAPTER V. 
 
 do with the long pressure of political suffering, how 
 much with family life, one cannot tell. In a company 
 of about three hundred I did not see more than three 
 ladies or three men with fair hair ; and not a single 
 one with a touch of red in either the hair or the 
 whiskers. It was rather a curious fact, but a fact it 
 was, that nearly all the really pretty girls in the 
 room were noticeable for the quietness of their head- 
 dress and neck-ornaments : not that the others were 
 extravagantly dressed ; for generally, although rich, 
 the attire was in good taste. Upon the great ques- 
 tions of the moment, there was a uniform vein 
 of earnest enthusiasm. When the religious bearings 
 of them were mentioned, there seemed some curi- 
 osity to find what an Englishman thought; and yet, 
 whenever one talked upon religion as if one meant 
 it, an odd sort of look would be given, as if to say, 
 "Are you not another sham?" — that, perhaps, 
 being the normal idea they have of any one who 
 feels on such points. 
 
 A very fine young man came up to ask me if I 
 had lost an eye-glass. 
 
 " This is an interesting time for a stranger to 
 come to Milan," I began. 
 
 " Very much so. I only came yesterday." 
 
 " Then you are not a Milanese ? " 
 
 " No, I am a Roman." 
 
 " liow are things going on at Rome ? " 
 
MILAN. » 109 
 
 " O, as for us, things are as bad as they can be : 
 we are entirely under the Priests, and can do nothing 
 but suffer, and long for the time when we shall be 
 joined to the rest of the nation ; but our great diffi- 
 culty is the Pope. What to do we do nob know." 
 I asked if the Pope, as a man, was not personally 
 liked. He pouted his lips : " He is nobody : Anto- 
 nelli is Pope, Antonelli is everything." He then 
 burst out into the usual strain, inveighiug strongly 
 against the Pope's government. 
 
 In conversation with a Piedmontese politician of 
 great name, when the question of the pending 
 excommunication came up, he smiled, and said, 
 " Well, the Catholic belief is not so absurd as some 
 may think ; for the true Catholic doctrine is, that 
 excommunication has no validity unless pronounced 
 for spiritual offences, and in this case it would be 
 purely on temporal grounds." I replied that this 
 idea was very prevalent among the people, but to 
 me it seemed that, if an excommunication were 
 promulged by the Vicar of Christ, with the 
 Council of the Cardinals, it came with all the autho- 
 rity the Roman Church could give it, whether on 
 one ground or another; and, besides, a temporal 
 injury done to the Vicar of Christ is easily proved 
 to be a spiritual offence. " Nevertheless," he said, 
 " an excommunication on merely political grounds 
 is invalid, according to true Catholic doctrine." 
 
110 CHAPTER V. 
 
 "WeU, of course, I understand Catholic in a 
 different sense ; for to me the words ' Catholic ' and 
 ' Roman ' are not only different, but irrecoacileable 
 terms." 
 
 He seemed rather perplexed, and I continued, " I 
 am a Catholic ; I use the word in the sense of the Apos- 
 tles' Creed, which says, ' I believe in the holy Catholic 
 Church ; ' that I say from my heart : but mark, the 
 word ' Roman ' is not there. Had the Creed been 
 written in modern times, it would not have been 
 expressed as it is ; the word ' Roman ' must have been 
 in, and that would have altered the whole character 
 of it. The Roman is a particular Church ; and 
 when that Creed was written, there was one Catholic 
 Church throughout the world." 
 
 "Yes," he said, " catholicus, 'universal,' yes." 
 
 " Yes, there was then one universal Church, — the 
 Church in Palestine, Asia Minor, Egypt, Greece, 
 Italy, France, Spain, — one Catholic Church, in 
 which all the particular Churches were sisters and 
 equals. There was then no particular Church, not 
 even the mother Church at Jerusalem, that claimed 
 to be dictator to all the others. After the con- 
 version of the Roman Emperors, and the accession of 
 masses of more than half Pagan people as nominal 
 adherents to Christianity, the Bishops of Rome 
 gradually set themselves up to be Emperors of the 
 Chm-ches, as the others had been of the nations. By 
 
MILAN. Ill 
 
 degrees, they procured the subjection of some 
 Chui'ches, and finally made a schism with all the 
 Christian world which would not submit to their 
 dictation. From that time there existed a particular 
 Church, denying and anathematizing all Christians 
 that did not entirely bow down to her. You will 
 never find the word ' Roman ' in ancient creeds, it is 
 only in modern ones, after a particular Church had 
 sought to replace the universal one. What I want 
 to see in Italy is, not that the people should seek a 
 model in England or America, but that they should 
 go back to the New Testament, and to the authentic 
 records of the first Christian age, and find again that 
 ancient pure Church, which was planted in this 
 country by the Apostle Paul, and bring her back to 
 be the blessing and glory of Italy." 
 
 This was listened to, probably with much doubt, 
 but at aU events with perfect patience, and appa- 
 rently some interest. We then spoke upon the 
 character of the Italian people. He said how long 
 and how dreadfully they had been ill-used, and were 
 therefore in many respects behind; but O, how 
 intensely did he seem to love them ! This led to an 
 allusion to Naples; and to the remark that they 
 appeared the worst specimen of the Italian people I 
 had seen. " When in Naples, it appeared to me that 
 the King's palace was the most emblematic building 
 I ever saw ; it was surrounded by aU the symbols 
 
112 CHAPTER V. 
 
 of his government. Upon this side the arsenal^ his 
 first instrument^ Force ; behind it the theatre^ his 
 second instrument, Amusement; below, under the 
 portico, the public letter-writer and his desk, the 
 next instrument. Popular Ignorance." 
 
 My interlocutor, at this point, broke into a quiet 
 laugh, and finished the sentence exactly as I meant 
 to do, " And in front, the Church, the next 
 instrument. Superstition." 
 
 A bending old man, evidently holding some public 
 place, said, "You (the English) have been our best 
 friends all through. We see that now. You have 
 been faithful and disinterested." 
 
 I said, " It is quite true that at the opening of the 
 war we did not approve of it ; for we have no con- 
 fidence in benefits to a nation from the arms of 
 another ; and, besides, we suspected that the 
 Emperor had two objects, — Savoy for himself, and 
 Tuscany for his cousin." 
 
 "Ah," he said, "you saw further than we did. 
 We believed his professions. Well, here we are ! 
 He pays himself well. He went to war for an 
 idea." 
 
 " Yes, and a very practical idea too. Savoy with 
 Mont Blanc and the Alpine lakes, is a lofty and 
 brilliant idea. But still, if Italy be united, you can 
 do without Savoy." 
 
MILAN. 113 
 
 "Ah, I hope so; but we shall have great diffi- 
 culties to pass through yet. Poor Venetia ! What 
 is to become of Venetia? It is terrible to think 
 of all they are suffering ; but the greatest difficulty 
 of all is the Pope. That always has been Italy's 
 trouble, and threatens to be so worse than 
 ever." 
 
 " And what do you suppose will be the end ? " 
 
 " Who can tell ? I don't know." 
 
 " What about the excommunication ? " 
 
 He lowered his voice and said, " It is come ; but 
 it will produce little effect: in Piedmont, perhaps 
 some ; but here in Lombardy, no." (A little while 
 before a Piedmontese officer had been saying that it 
 would produce no effect in Piedmont, but some in 
 Lombardy.) The old man went on, " We are not 
 now in the sixteenth century. Such acts have lost 
 their power. We regret them, but are not afraid." 
 
 " To me," I said, " cursing does not seem to be 
 part of the work of Christ's Church. He gave His 
 Apostles commission to save souls ; but to put them 
 into peril of damnation is not the work of any one 
 commissioned by Him." 
 
 " No, no, no, it is wrong, and ought not to be 
 feared." But this was said with the tone of a man 
 whose convictions spoke, while something in his 
 breast sounded rather hollow, as if an old misgiving 
 troubled him. 
 
114 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 " Wellj for us English of course the malediction 
 of the Holy Father seems a very harmless thing." 
 
 He looked an earnest look which said^ "Do let 
 me hear why." 
 
 "Three centuries, ago that malediction was laid 
 upon us. Since then we never once have had his 
 hlessing. What was England then ? A small, 
 disunited, ignorant, superstitious, third-rate power. 
 From that day dates our national greatness and 
 welfare." 
 
 " Ah," he cried, with a splendid smile upon his 
 grave old face, the light of a well read history 
 kindling up, " Ah ! it was so. From the time of 
 your breach with the Pope your glory began." 
 
 " Yes, and, in spite of his curse, it has steadily 
 grown ; but mark, it has not been a growth of mere 
 political glory, but that has all been founded on the 
 growth of religion and virtue. We have far more 
 religious knowledge and fear of God, and they are 
 increasing in our country. At the period I refer to, 
 our people learned to go and seek for religion in the 
 ■ New Testament." 
 
 " That is the true source of the Christian 
 religion." 
 
 "Yes, there it is as taught by Christ and the 
 Apostles ; and then the proof that the curse of God 
 has not rested where the curse of the Pope rests, 
 and the blessing of God where his blessing abounds. 
 
MILAN. 115 
 
 is to be found in the moral condition of our people, 
 and of those of the States of the Church and Naples. 
 God forbid that I should set up our people as a 
 model ; they are very far from it. We have causes 
 of shame without number ; hut stiU. the fact remains 
 that, in the States of the Church and Naples, con- 
 stantly refreshed with the Pope's benedictions, out 
 of a million people, about two hundred are yearly 
 accused of murder ; and in England only four. 
 Where does the blessing of God rest ? " 
 
 His face beamed as if I had given him a little 
 fortune. Whether his pleasure arose from relief to 
 some fears in his own mind, or from acquiring a fact 
 he could use with others, I could hardly tell. 
 
 " Well," he said, " our poor, poor Italy has 
 suffered. O how iU-used our people have been ! 
 They may well be backward in many things ; but it 
 is pleasant to think you can teU our friends in 
 England that you have found moderation and order 
 among us. After all, Italy may be imited and 
 happy yet." 
 
 There was a weight of sorrow and a tenderness 
 of hope in these words, that would have melted 
 any one. " May God grant it ! " I said with deep 
 feeling. 
 
 " O," he replied, " you cannot tell how sweet it 
 is, after all we have passed through, to hear a 
 foreigner, an Englishman, speak with such heart 
 I 2 
 
116 CHAPTER V. 
 
 of our country. Perhaps she has a future before 
 her." 
 
 I said, "I trust God may have great things in 
 store for her; and, if she became really free, 
 united and enlightened, — in the family of nations 
 Italy will be the fairest sister." The old man looked 
 as if he could have hugged me. 
 
C^a|hr hi 
 
 THE GREAT PLAIN. 
 
The road from Milan to Piacenza leads througli a 
 country as dull as the flats of Egypt. The fields were 
 laid out for rice, and provided, of course, with artificial 
 irrigation. The peasants are sallow, and dried up 
 with fever. One never mistakes the difference 
 between the effect of a healthy sun upon com- 
 plexion, and that of sun combined with malaria. The 
 one gives a hardy brown, deepening regularly, accord- 
 ing as temperature rises or exposure is increased; 
 the other underlays the skin with discoloured matter, 
 combining a sort of chronic jaundice with the hue 
 of mahogany. 
 
 The three things, in man's physical appearance, 
 on which climate tells most obviously, are, the com- 
 plexion, the hair, and the eye. In cold climates the 
 skin is white, the eye blue, or lighter, and the hair 
 fair. The further you go towards the tropics, the 
 darker they all become; and, when to heat are 
 added damp flats and malarious airs, the process 
 of darkening is combined with one which leads 
 to the sallow appearance we see in the feverish 
 regions of America and Italy. Among the Negroes, 
 it has reached a point at which the change in the 
 
120 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 skin appears to offer some protection against 
 deadly external influences. In England, the blue 
 and grey eye, light hair, and fair skin prevail. In 
 France the eye is often brown, but the majority are 
 grey, and light hair is much rarer : a great difference 
 exists, as also in Germany, between North and 
 South. In Italy, a dark grey eye may frequently be 
 found, the bright blue one scarcely ever, except high 
 up in mountains; but the national eye is brown, fre- 
 quently black, and generally prominent. Black hair 
 and a healthy pale complexion are also generally 
 prevalent. But the peasants are often browner than 
 persons of rank in India, who have all their life been 
 kept from the sun. There is no place where one so 
 naturally observes the influence of climate, as going 
 up the Nile. At the mouth of it you find whiteness 
 very little different from that of South Europe, 
 except in those who are much exposed to the sun ; 
 but steadily, as you proceed upwards, the colour 
 deepens, until you come to the thorough black of the 
 Nubian ; the eye at the same time passing from grey 
 or light brown to dark brown, and then intense 
 black; the hair becoming first black in every 
 instance, then stiff and glossy, and then finally 
 beginning to indicate the woolly character, which is 
 to be found fully developed among the real 
 Nigritian families. The animal kingdom shows the 
 same effects in hair, both as to quality and colour ; 
 
THE GREAT PLAIN. 131 
 
 even to this extent, that in tropical countries sheep, 
 instead of a fleece, have hair like a dog. 
 
 Physically, the Italian race is one of the very 
 finest upon the face of the earth. Whether we 
 take tlie Piedmontese or Lombards on the north, 
 the Tuscans and Romans at the centre, or the Nea- 
 politans at the south, everywhere you find magnifi- 
 cent frames of men and women. It may be that 
 they are indolent, as is so frequently said ; but it is 
 hard to go amongst them, watch them in the field, 
 in the workshops, in the towns, without gradually 
 acquiring the conviction that, with proper govern- 
 ment, and fair rewards for industry, they will be 
 everything that ought to be expected from a 
 southern people. It is not fair to look for exactly 
 the same kind of working hardihood in such a 
 climate as that of Italy, as one has a right to expect 
 in England or Scotland. 
 
 Driving along this great plain, one has a clear 
 view of the physical conformation of Italy. To the 
 west and to the north lie the Alps; which are 
 for Italy precisely what the Himalayas and the 
 Hindoo Coosh are for India, protecting it north and 
 west from all the world ; and here, as there, imme- 
 diately at the foot of the mountain wall lies an 
 immense plain, that of the Po, answering very fairly 
 to that of the Ganges. On this plain Turin is the 
 first great city towards the west, and Venice the 
 
123 CHAPTER vr. 
 
 sorrowful Queen of the east. Milan and a host of 
 other great places lie between. Parma and Bologna 
 are upon its southern skirt, and away stretches that 
 fat plain, laying open a territory of inexhaustible 
 riches to one of the fairest skies that ever shone. 
 "Along the south of it run the Apennines ; which, as 
 well as the Alps, are within view at most points. 
 These do not cross the whole continent ; but, turn- 
 ing southward, form the remainder of the country. 
 Beyond the valley of the Po, Italy is scarcely any- 
 thing but the Apennines, their valleys, dells, sum- 
 mits, outlying chains, and sub-chains, with two 
 strips of flat territory between them and the sea on 
 both sides. Very often the mountains encroach 
 upon this little bit of plain, and rush right into the 
 water. We talk of 'the back-bone' of England, but 
 these are really the back-bone of Italy. Herodotus 
 said long ago, that Egypt was the gift of the Nile ; 
 and it might be said, with almost equal justice, that 
 Italy is the gift of the Apennines. The one is a 
 strip in a desert of rock, given by a river ; the other 
 a strip in a desert of water, given by a chain of 
 mountains. 
 
 We passed the town of Melagnano, where the 
 French gave the Austrians a heavy beating ; taking 
 a thousand prisoners, and leaving eight hundred of 
 their own dead. The town was full of the marks 
 of the terrible struggle, and the mound of the dead. 
 
THE GREAT PLAIN. 123 
 
 ■with its simple crosSj was fresh. It was a curious 
 example of the value of local tradition, that we could 
 not learn the name of the General who commanded. 
 My memory suggested Baraguay d'Hilliers, but 
 those mentioned were M'Mahon, Niell, Canrobert. 
 Even a French soldier, whom we met with at Lodi, 
 was very doubtful, but at last said it was Niell. 
 Now this, be it remembered, was only about nine 
 months after the battle had been fought. 
 
 Lodi was our half-way house, as dirty and dull a 
 town as a traveller could wish to see. Of course we 
 went to the Bridge of Lodi ; and, O dear ! how it did 
 spoil one's boyish ideas ! When I read Scott's Life 
 of Napoleon, I should have thought it worth any- 
 thing to see the Bridge of Lodi. It is long, narrow, 
 ugly, built of wood, ill shaped, ill kept, and half 
 burned by the Austrians, — a contemptible-looking 
 affair. Yet, from these dirty planks went forth 
 a blast of fame that bore the name of young 
 Buonaparte into every barrack and every drawing- 
 room of Europe ; — one proof more that, in the 
 career of life, not the splendour of the theatre, but 
 the quality of the actions, carries real power. 
 
 As we were finishing dinner, the waiter most 
 civilly said, in a low voice, but loud enough for the 
 ladies to hear, " The road is not too safe ; you had 
 better not travel on by night." Those ugly words, 
 prettily spoken, brought up images of the plain of 
 
124 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Esdraelon, witli Bedouins, and pistols, and spears. I 
 am not sure but I had rather fall into the hands of 
 an Arab, than of an Italian brigand. I said some- 
 thing by which I hoped to get rid of the waiter; but 
 he gently added, " You had better not go ; unplea. 
 saut things might happen." The ladies heard him ; 
 but all seemed alive to the arts of Italian innkeepers. 
 No one proposed that we should stay for the night. 
 When I ordered our vetlurino to put to the 
 horses, he made no objection. Meeting the waiter, 
 I said reproachfully, " You pretend that the road is 
 not safe." He replied, " I assure you it is not well to 
 travel by night. It is only a few days since the 
 diligence was attacked." 
 
 " You do not mean that there can be any danger 
 before nine o'clock, in the approach to a city like 
 Piacenza ? " 
 
 He seemed rather ashamed, and, feeling certain 
 that we were to go, acknowledged that there could 
 not be any danger before that hour. 
 
 Away we went along the same kind of country, 
 and saw the sun set grandly behind heavy clouds. 
 The night fell, and for three hours we drove along 
 in the dark ; and after the conversation at the inn, be 
 it mentioned to the credit of English women, 
 that though three were in the carriage, the word 
 " brigand " was never named. Whether or not it was 
 the Bridge of Lodi that inspired this heroism, I cannot 
 
THE GREAT PLAIN. 125 
 
 sajj but am inclined to think not ; foi-j after the 
 uncomfortable fashion of English women^ the ladies 
 seemed more offended with the dirt of Lodi, than 
 inspired with its glory. 
 
 For a long time the lamps at the gate of Piacenza 
 gleamed across the plain, as we slowly and wearily 
 made our way to the banks of the Po ; then we came 
 upon a great bridge of boats, loosely put together, to 
 replace the one which the Austrians had destroyed. 
 The river is immensely broad. We passed through 
 ruins upon ruins of fortifications demolished by the 
 Austrians ; then by a huge building, like some two 
 or three of the greatest Manchester warehouses piled 
 together, which we understood was a barrack ; finally 
 through a narrow and dirty street into the hotel. 
 Here we found an odd combination of grandeur, 
 kindness, and dirt. The latter is a very tolerable 
 thing for a well seasoned traveller, as long as it con- 
 tinues inanimate ; but Hve dirt is a serious matter : 
 and in this hotel we found quartered a strong force 
 of the tiny but active police appointed for the 
 punishment of the uncleanly. 
 
 This hotel at Piacenza was on a large scale, and 
 had some grand rooms ; and anything more pleasant 
 than the attention of the people could not be : but it 
 would do discontented folk in England good, if one 
 could only have led them into a part of the establish- 
 ment over which was inscribed the cleanly word. 
 
126 CHAPTBU VI. 
 
 "Baths." Thinking something comfortable might 
 be found under such an announcement, I opened the 
 door, and such a scene of confusion and dirt, though 
 women were washing in it ! 
 
 In the dining room of the hotel at Piacenza was 
 a large company, apparently of men of business, 
 with one lady. Her husband was from Bologna, 
 and was giving the rest stories as to the Papal 
 Government. He talked in a dialect hard to under- 
 stand, and with much rapidity, so that I could catch 
 only the necks and wings of his facts, and I do not 
 attempt to repeat them. When he had run himself 
 out of breath with one story, his wife reminded him 
 of another, and on and on he went. The statements 
 were horrible, and, to us, beyond belief; yet not one 
 word of doubt escaped any person present. I 
 could imagine that I was back again in the Mysore, 
 hearing a knot of Brahmins telling stories of the 
 days of Hyder Ali and Tippoo Sahib. They were 
 tales of fines and imprisonment without any reason 
 given; of hundreds kept in dungeons untried and 
 uncondemned ; of mulcts laid upon whole classes of 
 persons in a day; of plunder concerted between 
 officials and robbers, and prey divided share and 
 share alike ; murderers petted, and thinkers put to 
 death; and Priests and Bishops, Archbishops, and 
 Cardinals, and Legates, all fingering and dividing the 
 spoil. It was something very fearful to hear those 
 
THE GREAT PLAIN. 127 
 
 taleSj and to see the hatred of PriestSj and Church, 
 and Pope, and Rome, — Eonae, odious Rome, — which 
 seethed in that company. There was something in 
 the expression of that hatred, such as I doubt 
 whether a company of Englishmen could, under 
 any circumstances, put on. If any one has seen a 
 man in Rome, when something that might com- 
 promise him is said or done, look round as though 
 all the walls had eyes and ears, he has recognised 
 a species of fear as new to him as if he had never 
 seen a man look afraid before ; a kind of fear that 
 it would be impossible for any man born and 
 brought up under the British flag to throw into 
 his countenance. And so with this hatred. It was 
 not vociferous, but it was dark and hot; and lay 
 down in the secret depths of the men, boiling, 
 and smeUing of blood. Priests, Priests, — blacks, 
 scoundrels, robbers, tyrants, devils. Priests, — how 
 that word Priest was repeated with every tone 
 which detestation could teach ! One could not but 
 shudder to think what a national insurrection would 
 be, led by men like these ; and- the impression came 
 strongly home, how much Italy and Europe owed to 
 the fact that the present national movement is in 
 the hands of men of the highest position, and the 
 very first stamp ; men who have everything to lose 
 and nothing to gain ; and who, however much they 
 may sympathize with the body of the people in what 
 
128 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 they liate and what they desire, have yet knowledge 
 enough of human affairs to feel that, above all 
 things, passion must be kept under, and order and 
 moderation preserved. Instead of the tales of this 
 room, here is one from the " OfBcial Documents." 
 
 The Three Men op Ferrara. 
 
 In 1852, the Austrians arrested, in the city of 
 Ferrara, about forty citizens, on a charge of political 
 conspiracy. The town was struck with horror, 
 which soon increased by news that came from 
 within the prison. The prisoners made it known 
 that they were often put upon bread and water, 
 laden with chains, beaten with sticks and with 
 fists, subjected to the " bench," and other 
 tortures ; that, while one was undergoing this, 
 his companions were obliged to look on ; that 
 they were daily threatened with death ; threatened 
 with having their mothers arrested ; and that the 
 things they were to say, were continually suggested 
 to them; and they were forced by the extreme 
 of pain to confess, against themselves and others, 
 offences that had never occurred. After these repre- 
 sentations had reached a certain height, they 
 managed somehow to get a communication sent to the 
 Count Camillo Trotti, the Mayor of the place ; who 
 
THE GREAT PLAIN. 129 
 
 communicated with the Papal Government; but it 
 had nothing to say to the Austrians but words of 
 encouragement. Representations to the same effect 
 were also sent to the General Commanding in Chief 
 of the French army at Rome, and to Mr. WiUiam 
 M'Alisterj the British Consul at Ferrara. The col- 
 lection contains not only these documents, but a 
 large number of extracts from private notes of the 
 prisoners, in which the words, " bastinade, " irons," 
 " hunger," " torture," " beating," " in chains for two 
 days together," are scattered up and down with fear- 
 ful frequency ; and in which this sentence occurs : 
 
 " As for G , they have bastinaded him two days 
 
 together, and then read him a confession of mine 
 which I had never made." At last, three men out 
 of the number were sentenced to death. Their names 
 were Succi, Malagutti, and Parmeggiani. The public 
 opinion was, that they were all innocent, even of the 
 political offence alleged against them; 
 
 The Austrian General writes to the Pontifical 
 authorities the night before their execution; 
 demands that they should send three " reserved and 
 silent Priests," to be Confessors of the men. One of 
 these Priests, probably as a part of his duty, drew up 
 an account of aU that passed. This was left in the 
 archives of his confraternity, {La Buona Morte,) and 
 is reproduced with the rest of the official documents. 
 This narrative, in the original language, will be 
 
 E 
 
130 I CHAPTER VT. 
 
 found printed in the Appendix ; * but here we give 
 the substance of it. 
 
 On the afternoon of the 15th of March, 1853, the 
 three Confessors were carried to the prison, where 
 they had to wait a long time ; first, for the return of 
 an oCBcer from dinner, and, secondly, because the 
 wife of Succi was screaming dreadfully, and would 
 not be removed from the cell of her husband ; and 
 the wife of Parmeggiani was taken with wild con- 
 vulsions, and blasphemed horribly. These poor 
 women had learnt the fate of their husbands from 
 their own mouth. 
 
 The Priests entered the chamber of Succi, whd was 
 standing uncovered, and guarded by four armed sol- 
 diers, but not in chains. They told him that one of 
 them had come to keep him company, to weep with him, 
 and to " reconcile him to God ; " and that he should 
 choose which. Succi said, in a high tone, " I accept 
 all ; but, as I am the oldest of the three unfortunates, 
 I shall choose for a Confessor the oldest." Then the 
 chief Priest, throwing his arm around his neck, and 
 kissing him on the forehead, said, " It is I." " But," 
 replied the sufferer, " I wish first to make a little 
 will, and to say that the confession, and the written 
 depositions which I have made to the military com- 
 mission, have been extorted from me by violence, by 
 the bench, by bastinading, and by chains; and that 
 
 * Appendix B. , 
 
THE GREAT PLAIN. 131 
 
 they did not merely threaten me^but beat me; and tliat 
 unless I meant to die under the lash, there was no- 
 thing for it, but that I should say what they wished." 
 
 The Priests passed to the cell of Dr. Malagutti. 
 He threw himself upon his knees, weeping bitterly ; 
 he kissed the hands of aU, and then said, "Thank 
 God that I see a Clergyman in this my agony, which 
 has oppressed me since eleven o'clock in the morn- 
 ing." He rose, and said, " I wish to confess all my 
 sins, and to tell you that I have such confidence in 
 the mercy of God, that it appears to be almost a sin 
 of presumption. And let it be known that in my 
 examination I have been forced to say what they 
 wished. I have suffered horrible tortures, which 
 have brought on hssmorrhage. You must all stop 
 with me," he said. He was told that he must 
 choose one. 
 
 " Then," he said, " let it be my schoolfellow, Don 
 Luigi Zaffi." 
 
 Then they went to Parmeggiani. He rose, kept 
 his hat on his head, and said, " You have come to 
 confess me ? I am innocent. I wish to confess in 
 public, in the presence of the Commission, and to 
 say that what I have said and written has been 
 extorted from me by suggestive questions, by irons, r 
 (leaving me an entire month in chains day and 
 night,) by the stick; in consequence of which, they 
 were obliged to take me to the Hospital of the Mar- 
 K 2 
 
133 CnAPTER VI. 
 
 tyrs, where I was for eighteen days." They told him 
 that he must choose one of the three. He looked 
 in the faces of them allj and, knowing one, he burst 
 out weeping, and said, " Father, you have had a wife 
 and children ; you can more easily pity an afflicted 
 father, who is leaving a wife and two marriageable 
 daughters in poverty." Then, seizing him forcibly 
 by the hand, he made him sit down on his bench.* 
 
 Parracggiani wept with strong convulsions. He 
 drank cold water and coffee all the night, and was 
 never silent. He continually spoke of the unjust 
 and iniquitous mode of seeking the truth with tor- 
 tures, " under which both the strong and the weak 
 told lies." He wrote a letter to his wife. He made 
 his will ; he confessed twice, and several times asked 
 for absolution. He went through several acts of 
 devotion. At two o'clock in the morning, he said, 
 " I should like to know if my companions have con- 
 fessed. Go and ask ; and tell them that I have' 
 confessed, and that I ask pardon from them if, in 
 act or word, I have caused them any pain." Succi 
 said, " I ought to ask pardon of him ; and, if we 
 meet before the execution, I will ask him to give me 
 
 * The internal evidence of the narrative shows that it was this Priest 
 who has left the record. Human affections had heen wakened up in 
 him by family ties ; and the command that the Priests should be " close 
 and silent," had not been well executed iu selecting Don Giuseppe 
 Folironieri, 
 
THE GREAT PLAIN. 133 
 
 the kiss of forgiveness." Malagutti was sitting on 
 his bed, with his Confessor, smoking a cigar, and said 
 he had pardoned all, as he hoped God had pardoned 
 him. At seven o'clock in the morning, Parmeggiani 
 and his Confessor went down, and found Malagutti 
 surrounded by soldiers. The Confessor took him by 
 his left hand, holding his own sufferer ia tlie right. 
 They kissed one another. At that moment Succi 
 arrived ; and then they all three kissed, and said, 
 "Adieu." They went into the church, repeating 
 the "Act of Faith." They kneeled at the foot of 
 the altar ; they received the Holy Communion with 
 the utmost devotion. At the reading of the last 
 Gospel they stood up, and Malagutti said aloud, " O, 
 how light I feel ! Lord, grant that the years of life 
 taken away from me may be added to my mother ! " 
 Parmeggiani repeated the prayer, and added, " and to 
 my daughters." When they arrived at the ground 
 of execution, Succi and Parmeggiani declined to 
 be bandaged ; and the latter kneeled down, lifting 
 up his united hands with his eyes closed, repeating, 
 " Jesus," Sec. A lieutenant came, and said he must 
 be bandaged, it was his duty ; and a soldier put a 
 white handkerchief over him, he still continuing on 
 his knees. They then fired upon them into the chest 
 and into the forehead. " Parmeggiani fell upon his 
 face, and never moved. He died like a martyr." 
 
13 i CHAPTER vr. 
 
 On the day of this tragedy^ young Hannibal Bonac- 
 cioli, a student of eighteen, left his home for his 
 classes at the University, and on the way heard 
 what a deed was being done. He stopped; and, 
 meeting some of his comrades, told them to go home 
 and weep. The crime of having said this to several 
 was laid to his charge, and he was thrown into 
 prison. When released, he and his father applied 
 for permission to go to see another brother, living in 
 Turin. This point was not decided without a formal 
 reference to the Central Government at Rome; 
 whence came an order, signed by the most reverend 
 and most terrible name of Matteucci, giving permis- 
 sion for Hannibal and his father to receive passports, 
 but on the condition that, if he once left the State, 
 he was not to return. This was inserted, with 
 the threat, that in case of his re-entering his native 
 country, he should undergo a year of imprisonment. 
 Pive months afterwards, we find another letter from 
 the same Matteucci, directed to the Apostolic Dele- 
 gate of Ferrara, and telling hiin that, as Hannibal had 
 returned to his native town, he must suffer the 
 penalty with which he had been menaced. He was 
 again thrown into prison, and treated worse than a 
 malefactor. In a few months more we find another 
 letter, from Doctor Dino Pesci, also to the Apostolic 
 Delegate; telling him that from childhood he had 
 been the friend of Hannibal, and that he now had one 
 
THE GKEAT PLAIN. 135 
 
 favour to ask. His old companion was all but dying, 
 and suffering terribly ; be entreated permission to go 
 to Mm, that he might pass the nights with him, and 
 some hours of the day, to nurse him in his sickness. 
 But no such comfort was to be allowed to the unfor- 
 tunate prisoner. All that could be obtained was, 
 that when his twelvemonth of imprisonment expired, 
 he should be again set at liberty ; " being subjected 
 to that rigorous political restraint, sanctioned by 
 the fact of his having been imprisoned ior a year." 
 But shortly after the hand of Matteucci wrote this 
 gracious permission, another letter was written to 
 tell him that Hannibal Bonaccioli was dead, — killed 
 slowly, for the crime of having told his comrades to 
 weep for the three men of Ferrara.* 
 
 * The documents illustrating this case are twenty-five in number, 
 and are found in tlie second volume of the "Official Documents," 
 occupying from page 539 to page 565. 
 
Cljaptn* Hi. 
 
 PIACENZA, PAMA, AND lODENA. 
 
The name Piacenza means " cliarm, grace, 
 pleasantness/' &c. Well^ so be it, it is a pretty name, 
 and it is said, in some of the books, that Piacenza is 
 a beautiful city. Certainly the Po rolls by it broad 
 and grand, with the bridge of boats over it, and the 
 many forts built and blown up by the Austrians lie 
 about in suggestive ruins ; but as for the city itself, 
 if one must tell the truth in plain words, it is flat 
 and dirty, without fine buildings or pleasant walks. 
 
 In the piazza two middle-aged men were standing 
 talking in that leisurely way that one so rarely sees 
 in England, just as if talking were the business of 
 life, and standing at the street corner the natural 
 way to' carry it on. They were evidently glad 
 to have their company increased by a foreigner. 
 Their tongues ran as smoothly as all in the country 
 on the questions of the day. They pointed to the 
 placards all over the town, "Victor Emmanuel for 
 ever ! " " Annexation for ever ! " and, " Our Italian 
 King ! our legitimate King for ever ! " for this was 
 the first point we had reached of the territory which 
 had not previously belonged to Piedmont or been 
 conceded by treaty; but had just attached itself by 
 
140 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 the vote of annexation. When the question of the 
 Priests and the Church came up, one of the men 
 showed considerable curiosity to know what I as an 
 Englishman would say, and after awhile he turned to 
 his comrade, and remarked, " They used to tell us 
 that Protestants were not Christians ; that they were 
 a sort of infidels or atheists, or something of that 
 kind; but we know better now. Why, the Pro- 
 testants have more churches than we; they attend 
 them more numerously ; they behave in them with a 
 deal more reverence ; they believe the doctrines of 
 the Christian religion much more firmly, and, what 
 is more, their moral tone is higher ; " and lowering 
 his voice, he said, " and their Priests have families, 
 and are good citizens, like other men." 
 
 Seeing placards upon a book-shop, announcing a 
 set of political sermons, one upon the excommunica- 
 tion, I went in, and, purchasing the whole course, 
 found that the eyes of a considerable number of 
 customers were fixed upon me. The subject of the 
 pamphlets at once led them to talk upon this 
 question. They not only agreed with me, but ran 
 before me, as to the duty of our learning religion 
 directly from Christ and His Apostles through the 
 Bible ; but they did seem puzzled when now and 
 then I put in a word to the effect that personally the 
 Pope was a good kind of man, and insisting that 
 there were many good Priests. Above all, they 
 
PIACENZA, PARMA, AND MODENA. 141 
 
 seemed to think it strange that one spoke of religion 
 and devotion as living things. 
 
 As we were going round the town for a drive, I 
 asked the coachman, — a yellow, knife-nosed fellow, 
 that one would not like to meet between Jerusalem 
 and Jericho, — what the people here said about the 
 excommunication by the Pope. 
 
 " They want to go and knock him on the head," 
 he growled. 
 
 A druggist, into whose shop we had gone, was 
 soon led into a violent onset upon the poor Pope. 
 I put in a good word for the old man, using the 
 expression, "Santo Padre" ("Holy Father"). 
 
 "Santo Padre!" grumbled the druggist, giving us 
 
 a suspicious look; and, turning to Mr. B , he 
 
 asked plump, " Are you Irish ? " Not a little 
 tickled, I said, " No, he is Euglish." 
 
 " O, then, we may talk. The Irish have faith in 
 the Pope. Well for them ! they live far enough 
 away for that. We are too near not to know what 
 the Popes are, and the Cardinals, and the Priests, 
 and the Monks, and the Nuns, and all the rest of 
 them." Then he said, "We Italians know some- 
 thing now about the difference between Rome and 
 the Protestants, and it is high time that we were 
 Protestants too." 
 
 From Piacenza a railway runs along to the east, 
 leaving the Apennines on the right, and the Po on 
 
142 CHAPTER vir. , 
 
 the left. The first capital city to which it brings 
 you is Parma. Here there was an immense crowd 
 around the station ; and I was glad to share an open 
 carriage with a commercial traveller, whose luggage 
 filled it up. Every where the crowds were great, 
 and the excitement high. They had just gathered 
 to witness the first arrival of Piedmontese cavah'y, — a 
 living proof that the annexation had really been 
 accepted by the King, and that possession was taken 
 in his name. What gay uniforms in the street, and 
 what a buzz of triumph and hope ! 
 
 The city is really a fine one as a provincial city ; 
 but we should as soon think of calling Bath or Lea- 
 mington a capital. In fact, it is not equal to either. 
 At the first hotel to which we came, there was " no 
 room,''' at the second "^no room," at the third 
 " no room." How glad I was that, for the moment, 
 my friends and I had parted, they having gone on 
 directly to Bologna ! At last, at one hotel, after we 
 had got the same answer, a waiter ran out and cried, 
 " Yes, there is room." My companion went to see, 
 I sitting and watching the crowd in the streets. 
 After a good while he returned, and, looking out of 
 the corners of both eyes, said, " There is a little bit 
 of a closet, but there is nothing for you ; " and he 
 began to take down his boxes. I bowed and smiled, 
 and said, " There is nothing for me ! " The waiter 
 in a friendly voice cried, " Stop, Sir, perhaps I can 
 
PIACENZA, PAKMA, AND MODENA. 143 
 
 find you a room in a house bard by." Off he went, 
 and I followed. There was a motherly old body in 
 a good large house, with a plentiful allowance of 
 peaceful, self-possessed dirt, that had never been 
 molested by the breath of an Englishwoman. She 
 took me up stairs into a capital room, looking twice 
 as comfortable as one could expect. At the foot of 
 the staircase was a place open to the sky, as is very 
 common in Italian houses ; snow was lying there, 
 which had fallen this winter, I argued ; but, from its 
 colour, it might belong to any post-diluvian era. It 
 had evidently lain long in perfect peace with a rich 
 black paU, except in a spot or two where something 
 had fallen upon it and broken it. An English ostler 
 would have stared at such a thing in a stable-yard, 
 — in fact, it could not be endured. 
 
 After a survey of the town, and visits to coffee- 
 houses, during which I had such a troublesome com- 
 panion of toothache that I could not get into the 
 usual conversations with the people, I returned and 
 had a long fireside chat with the sensible and kind 
 old woman. It seemed rather an event for her to 
 have a live Inglese to enlighten, and she put out her 
 powers with good will. She praised Maria Louisa 
 very much, and said all sorts of bad things of the 
 present Duchess. As to the Pope, the Priests, and 
 Nuns, she had not the same bad feeling as the men, 
 but talked lightly of them all, ''Black in robes. 
 
144 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 and black in heart," she said; " we have a thousand, 
 I dare say, of them in Parma, one sort and another." 
 I had been struck with the number in the streets, 
 most of them looking depressed, a few content, two 
 in angry discussion with citizens, and some, poor 
 fellows, looking really hungry and dirty. One could 
 not help contrasting the difference between the tone 
 in which this woman talked and that of a person of 
 the same class in Connaught, to whom a Priest and a 
 Nun would be something sacred, a Bishop almost 
 super-human, and the Pope rather more than half 
 Divine. 
 
 The air and site of Parma contrasts pleasantly 
 with those of Piacenza, and the people appear to 
 differ a good deal from those of the Lombard plain. 
 They are not taller, but have a fine complexion ; not 
 a few of them have light hair, and many are very 
 handsome. They lie further south, but on more 
 elevated ground. The most beautiful woman I had 
 yet seen in Italy was a young Parmesan lady. 
 
 In the morning the old woman awoke me early ; 
 and talk of dirt as you may. Englishwomen, with 
 all their cleanliness, cannot give one a cup of coffee 
 like that. I was soon in my favourite second-class 
 carriage, having now liberty to choose, as I was 
 alone. It is the real place for observing and picking 
 up, and, as to comfort, only below the first in idea ; 
 for foreigners say that the first class is made for 
 
PIACENZA. PARMA, AND MODENA. 145 
 
 "fools and Englishmen." An old Colonel, three 
 ladies, a thin, sallow, Capuchin Monk, and another 
 gentleman were in the carriage. The Monk had 
 just returned from South America through England. 
 In spite of all one heard against Priests and Friars, 
 something in his suffering countenance said, " I try 
 to keep a conscience void of offence, and am ready to 
 do a good action." He soon left ; and it was really 
 a relief to hear the others in the carriage, after a few 
 remarks upon his sickly looks, say that the Capu- 
 chins were often sincerely religious men. One so 
 generally finds that a belief in goodness, particularly 
 among Priests, is totally wanting, that to hear it 
 expressed in any way is comforting. They did, 
 however, say that many of the Capuchins were all 
 they professed to be, and lived a penitential life. 
 "When asked what they meant by a penitential life, 
 they expressed it as a life of severity and mortifica- 
 tions to the body, but seemed entirely to agree that 
 that could not be the kind of life to which all men 
 were called by the voice of the Christian religion ; 
 that real penitence must consist in abhorring and 
 fleeing from our sins, and following Christ in 
 newness of life. The old Colonel, who had been in 
 the Grand Army with the first Napoleon, and was a 
 Chevalier of the Legion of Honour, said, he had seen 
 a great deal of Protestants in Germany, and Holland, 
 and other countries, and he had been particulaii7 
 
 I. 
 
146 CnAPTER VII. 
 
 struck 'witli their mode of confession ; that instead 
 of one man going alone with the Priest, and trying 
 to tell him all he could rememher, and forgetting a 
 great deal, a number knelt down together in 
 public, and made a general confession to the 
 Almighty, and asked Him to give them absolution. 
 
 This naturally led me to say that in the Book 
 of Psalms and the Epistles in the New Testa- 
 ment we found the confessions of David and 
 Paul; but they were confessions made direct to the 
 Almighty, and never consisted in detailed descrip- 
 tion of ofifences, which, put before a human mind, 
 have never any effect but that of soiling it. They 
 were only such general though deep acknowledg- 
 ments of guilt against God, as serve to show the 
 penitent feeling of the heart, without defiling the 
 imagination of others. The others seemed to be 
 rather surprised to hear a Protestant speak in this 
 way, and were still more so when I repeated as a 
 summary of my faith the Apostles' Creed. They were 
 exceedingly grave, and pulled me up at the word 
 "Catholic," and asked if I believed in that, and 
 wondered at the exposition of it. While all the 
 others were silent and thoughtful, the old Colonel 
 was as sprightly as champagne, and began merrily 
 telling all he had seen in the way of religion. On 
 the whole he thought the Protestants were the best; 
 but it was plain he had not taken much pains to 
 
147 
 
 decide that question. The Quakers he had seen, 
 and took them for rather an odd set, — something 
 very like the Monks, he thought. 
 
 The town of Modena is entered hy a stately gate, 
 and at first presents the aspect of a considerable 
 capital. The Duke's palace is more imposing than 
 any of ours, and at first one is ready to imagine that 
 this little private capital is going to prove a city that 
 would astonish us in England ; but it disap- 
 points, and is much inferior to Parma. It seems 
 odd to find two capitals within an hour or two's run 
 on the railway ; and one cannot wonder that men, 
 instead of being conten* to remain the property of a 
 princeling, should aspire to be members of a great 
 nation. Modena had that air of inferiority to 
 Parma, which almost necessarily follows a harsher 
 form of despotism. It was here that, after the 
 restoration, the Duke said he did not want enlight- 
 ened men, but obedient subjects and submissive 
 Christians ; and the mode of carrying on his govern- 
 ment was such as to lead Farini to say, "In activity 
 he had few equals, in obstinacy scarcely any, in 
 perfidy not one." * Insignificant Prince as he was, 
 he has left a superb palace and rich galleries, which 
 it is worth the while of any traveller to stop at 
 Modena and see. The old Colonel and his party 
 met me in the dining room of the hotel. Two 
 
 * Isloria. d' Italia. 
 L 2 
 
148 CHAPTER vri. 
 
 young volunteers in the uniform of privates Lad 
 joined them, and dined with us. One was the rela- 
 tive of the ladies who accompanied the Colonel, and 
 to see whom they had come j the other was the son 
 of a Count, who had three brothers out as volunteers. 
 That term in Italy means one who not only joins 
 the army without being drawn in the conscrip- 
 tion, but takes no pay. The old man seemed quite 
 young again, and, beside the Cross of the Legion of 
 Honour which he wore, showed me the St. Helena 
 medal, which he had carried in his pocket, and then 
 put it on. He seemed to return with amazing pride 
 the salutations with which. both men and officers 
 met him in the street. The place abounded 
 in soldiers, some of them the raw levies just 
 coming under training, and others the thoroughly 
 formed legions of Piedmont. The old man talked 
 much of the virtues of English ale. In Belgium he 
 had once had a bottle of it, and said it was stronger 
 than wine. "For twenty- four hours," lie cried, "I 
 did not feel that I was upon the earth." Whenever 
 the religious aspects of the questions of the day came 
 into view, which they were constantly doing, the 
 others wanted to hear them discussed, but the poor 
 old Colonel had always some word to put in, such as, 
 " Do you know that before the Prench Kevolution 
 we had twenty convents in Parma? " 
 
 " Twenty convents in that one little city ? " 
 
PIACENZA, PARMA, AND MODENA. 149 
 
 "Yes; and there was one for men liere, and 
 another for women opposite, and an underground 
 passage between the two. Ecco ! " 
 
 On the way to Bologna, I had for companion a 
 very intelligent man, with his daughters. He 
 gloried in the present state of the country ; but with 
 regard to Pope, Cardinal, Priest, arid all their kin, 
 manifested the same sort of hatred which had 
 horrified me among the men in the room at Piacenza. 
 When I asked if we had already passed the Papal 
 frontier, he said, " We have no frontier now. We 
 are formed into the kingdom of Italy. We are a 
 country ; and we shall be a country, not hacked up, 
 and tied tightly in little parcels, so as to be handed 
 about among princelings, as may be most convenient. 
 All that has had its day. The national impulse has 
 been given to the twenty-five millions of Italy, and it 
 is going forward as an avalanche goes, when the 
 hand of spring has touched it upon the mountains. 
 It is moving, and all the Princes and diplomatists in 
 the world may be alarmed, or jealous, or angry, but 
 it is not to be arrested. Frontier ! " he said ; 
 " there used to be a frontier here, between us and 
 that miserable Duke of Modena ; and then a frontier 
 to Parma, and then a frontier to Piedmont, and then 
 a frontier to Tuscany, and then a frontier to IMassa. 
 But that 's all over, thank God." Clapping his 
 hand upon his pocket, where, I suppose, the pass- 
 
150 
 
 CHAPTEK Vir, 
 
 ports used to lie, he said^ " Signore, I leave Bologna 
 now and come backj travelling without a passport, 
 like an Englishman at home." 
 
 A few years ago, the authorities on this frontier 
 were much occupied about a gentleman, travelling 
 with an English passport as Colonel Crawford, but 
 this was not his name. He had just escaped from a 
 Erench state prison. He had been in the Pope's 
 dominions before, and the idea had got abroad that 
 he was about to appear there again, with political 
 designs. Instructions were given that he should be 
 " arrested, and closely confined j " and all manner of 
 vigilance was maintained j still he was not secured, 
 and the authorities grew impatient about the arrest of 
 this " wight." * On a certain day the higher power 
 from Bologna writes to an inferior at Poretta, and 
 tells him, " It has come to our knowledge, that on 
 the night of the 21st instant, (June, 1846,) a young 
 stranger, laden with arms and money, who took up 
 his lodgings at the hotel of Luigi Ferrari, although 
 using a feigned name, was recognised by an Englisli 
 lady as the son of Jerome Buonaparte." He goes 
 on to say how the stranger sent a letter into 
 Bologna to the Count Camerata, son of the Princess 
 Baciocchi, (a member of the Buonaparte family,) 
 who was driven to Porretta by Battista Golinelli, and 
 
 * The word is soggetto. 
 
PIACENZAj PAaMA, AND MODENA. 151 
 
 arrived at eleven o'clock, a.m., on the 23n'l. The 
 stranger met the Count at a mile from his hotel. 
 The Count got out of the carriage, and they walked 
 back together. The Count applied for a passport to 
 Monte Catinij which was refused ; but as the 
 stranger had several passports, they set off towards 
 Tuscany, accompanied by Luigi Ferrari, to the fron- 
 tier, and having a Tuscan subject as guide. And 
 then a severe rebuke is administered to the subor- 
 dinate oflScial for his remissness, because the report 
 was current, that the stranger was Louis Napoleon 
 Buonaparte, lately escaped from the chateau of 
 Ham, the " wight " of whom the Government was in 
 search. 
 
 A second letter tells this official that it is pleasing 
 to find that he had sufficient evidence that the 
 stranger was not Louis Napoleon Buonaparte, of 
 whom the police were in search, but his cousin, the 
 son of Jerome. However, as the report had got 
 abroad, much harm had been done; and, therelore, 
 the censure for not having given information is 
 repeated. 
 
 Prom Porretta the authority had written in great 
 anxiety, on the very day of the alleged arrival, to 
 say that, at his part of the frontier, the suspected 
 " wight " might easily pass ; for no one knew him, 
 and they had no account of his personal appearance. 
 In fact, all that they could ascertain respecting him 
 
153 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 was,. that he was about forty years of age; that is, if 
 the almanacks were correct. He begs, therefore, at 
 once, that means of recognising his person may be 
 forwarded. The reply is to the effect, that they do 
 not possess any means of giving a personal descrip- 
 tion of him, and therefore all -vigilance must be 
 used ; but that the absence of a description is less 
 material, as it often proves that persons who are 
 described as having a beard, turn up well shaved, and 
 vice versdf'' 
 
 * However, the following shows that the defect in information did 
 not always last. 
 
 "ActsN. 59, f. P. N. 
 " Personal marlcs of Prince Louis Napoleon Baonaparte ; — 
 Age, thirty-eight years. 
 Height, a metre and sixty-six centimetres. 
 Hair, chestnut. 
 Eyebrows, ditto. 
 Forehead, middling. 
 Eyes, grey and little. 
 Nose, big. 
 Mouth, middling. 
 Lips, thick. 
 Beard, brown. 
 Moustaches, fair. 
 Chin, pointed. 
 Visage, oval. 
 Complexion, pale. 
 
 Special features. — Head stuck down between the shoulders; 
 shoulders, broad ; back, round ; some grey hairs." 
 
 — "Documents," part i., pp. 55-63. 
 
PIACENZAj PARMAj AND MODENA. 153 
 
 This is a chapter in a remarkable biography* 
 
 * These documents are found in a work of tie Cavaliere Gennarelli, 
 the ofEcial editor of tho Government Documents, issued since then, and 
 entitled, I Lutti dello Stato Romano, e I'Avvenire della Corte di 
 Moma. The documents quoted are given at full length in the 
 Appendix C, but those upon the case are more numerous. 
 
UTlttX hill 
 
 BOLOGNA, DURING THE GENERAL ELECTIONS. 
 
For a city of sucli historical namej both ancient 
 and modenij Bologna does not impress the stranger as 
 other Italian cities do. Like all the places that have 
 been under the Papal Government, it looks as if it 
 had for some centuries been waiting for better times, 
 — things as they might have been some three hun- 
 dred years ago, when it fell under the rule of the Popes, 
 Most of the streets have low medieeval porticoes, of 
 which an idea may be got in our city of Chester, 
 where only enough remain to be a picturesque memo- 
 rial of things that are past. In Bologna they 
 have the effect of giving a stereotyped cast to the 
 whole place. 
 
 The people are tail, darker than any to the north, 
 except those on the flat plaias of Lombardy ; and, 
 for the most part, less cleanly and carefully dressed. 
 The men generally wear those great cloaks, of which 
 a familiar name is " wrap-rascal,''' " and which have 
 too often served the purpose of concealoig a dagger. 
 From the outrageous proportions of crinoline, I 
 thought that it must have been forbidden by the 
 Papal Government, and that the women, now that 
 they had freedom, were taking revenge ; but at Rome 
 
158 CHAPTEE VIII. 
 
 I found that, whatever might be under repres- 
 sion, hoops were free. Judging from English 
 analogies, one would expect that the first general 
 election after a great Revolution would be 
 attended with commotion, if not with turaulti 
 This, however, I had learned not to expect. What.: 
 ever our other political institutions may be, it 
 appears certain that, in making elections 
 instruments of vice, no people has yet come near to 
 us. I have been in Paris when every man there, 
 without exception, was voting under the double heat 
 of French temperament and revolutionary passions ; 
 and yet the whole passed off in as business-like a 
 way, as the drawing of dividends at the Bank of 
 England. So in America ; though there was plenty 
 of discussion before, and of shouting, and firing, 
 and tar barrels, after the election, the process 
 itself was respectable. And here among these 
 Romagnoles, noted for their boiling blood and 
 swift-striking hands, an Englishman might have 
 been in the town, and no more have imagined 
 that it was the day of the general election than 
 that it was Christmas Day in England. Every- 
 thing was conducted with the most perfect decorum, 
 not even a sign of the public tranquillity being dis- 
 turbed. For such men as Count Pepoli, and 
 Minghetti, and others, who were at the head of the 
 public movement, this must have been gratifying in 
 
BOLOGNA. 159 
 
 the higlaest degree; and the formerj wlio knows 
 England thoroughly^ must derive some pleasure from 
 thinking that English people must feel ho\r 
 much better order was observed at this new 
 and first election, than is often to be found in 
 oar own country with all our advantages. To me 
 the greatest marvel of order I had witnessed any- 
 where was in Bologna, because here the people, 
 having been under the rule of Priests, all spoke of 
 them with an intensity of hatred such as one did 
 not meet with either in Piedmont or Lombardy. 
 There the feeling against them was strong enough ; 
 but it was that of men who were able to take care 
 of themselves. Here, on the contrary, it was that 
 of men who had suffered in their tenderest feelings, 
 perhaps in all their interests, and who felt so bitterly 
 that one would have thought it must lead' to deeds 
 of violence. I could not, however, hear of any 
 injury having been done to a Priest from the 
 beginning of the Revolution. In one case, in a day 
 of great popular commotion, when the people 
 were streaming in one direction, two Priests were 
 seen breaking the crowd, and pushing their way in 
 an opposite one ; and all who know a great multitude 
 know that it is not a very safe thing to set oneself 
 against the stream. Count Pepoli himself took the 
 trouble of going to these two imprudent men, and 
 said to them, " Gentlemen, perhaps you may know 
 
160 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 me ; I take the liberty of advising you not to go 
 against the crowd as you are now doing. It is pos- 
 sible you may meet with insults." They told him, 
 however, that they were not afraid of the con- 
 sequences, and pushed on, and, to the pride and 
 pleasure of the good citizens, did not receive one 
 uncivil word. 
 
 Facts like these show the difference between a 
 revolution led by the natural heads of a people, and 
 one in which they side with oppression, and leave 
 the power in the hands of demagogues. Had they, 
 instead of such men as the Pepolis, been at the he9,d 
 of this Romagnole rising, scenes would have been 
 enacted over which human nature might blush for 
 centuries to come. They who most inveigh against 
 the noblemen and philosophers who have placed 
 themselves at the head of the national movement, 
 are the very persons who owe to them every drop 
 of blood in their veins, and every atom of goods that 
 their families can call their own. 
 
 At Bologna we witnessed again the arrival of 
 Piedmontese cavalry. How far the people went out 
 to meet them ! How densely they crowded around 
 the gate !■ How they lined the highway on each 
 side, and waited and chatted pleasantly ! How they 
 covered their windows with banners, and prepared 
 the rich flowers of the country to fling in fragrant 
 welcome to soldiers of their own blood ! And when 
 
BOLOGNA. 161 
 
 at last the waving of the first lances Tras seeuj 
 with what emotion the words, " They come ! They 
 come ! " went through the crowd ! And they did 
 comcj dusty but cheerful, thoroughly equipped for 
 service, on little hardy horses, and led by gallant- 
 looking men. AU through the crowd the welcome 
 given to them was one of boiling enthusiasm. They 
 had often seen soldiers in those streets, but these 
 were not oppressors, but defenders, not a foreign 
 ai-my of occupation, nor a Papal army of oppression. 
 For the first time in their life they could say, " Our 
 own soldiers,^' " Our own cavalry," " Our own 
 officers," " Our own uniform." 
 
 In Bologna, intense as was the feeling against the 
 Priests, the churches seemed well attended. At one, 
 a splendid military festival was celebrated. The 
 National Guards, with arms, and uniform, and bands 
 of music, and flags, made an imposing show, and the 
 whole matter went off with great eclat. 
 
 At the great church of St. Petronius was the 
 largest congregation I ever saw to hear a sermon in 
 a Romish church. Over the pulpit was spread an 
 awning of canvas to assist the voice, and below that 
 a heavy sounding-board. The preacher was a dark 
 Capuchin, who had already during Lent excited 
 much attention. In the very heavy shade created 
 by awning and sounding-board, nothing could 
 be seen but the yellowish oval of his face, 
 
 M 
 
162 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 above the thick black beard which hung down 
 undistinguished in the general gloom. The only- 
 other point visible^ beside this oval, was the white 
 cord round his waist, and the yellow hands when 
 they moved. In darkness that little oval was set, 
 and out of darkness came the deep, rich, pliant 
 voice, and against a background of darkness the 
 white waist-cord lay, and the hands were waved. It 
 was the very thing for Rembrandt to have painted; 
 and some of his disciples ought to have been there. 
 
 He addressed the people by the style of 
 " Signori," {" Gentlemen,^') as I had formerly heard 
 done at Milan ; but with this Priar the term 
 "Gentlemen" came as often as "Beloved" does 
 with some preachers at home. He poured out a 
 torrent of rich sound, modulated with the greatest 
 skill, and adorned by a manly bearing, and, in the 
 main, dignified gesture. He was a speaker of very 
 uncommon power. The Church of Eome does not 
 descend to the reading of sermons. If men can 
 preach, they are employed to do so ; if not, they let it 
 alone. This man could preach, and that with a 
 witness. 
 
 His subject was, "The glory of the Priesthood;" 
 and the proposition he laid down was this, " The 
 defamations uttered by the laity against the Priest- 
 hood, are an impudent injustice." He began by 
 saying that he did not wonder at heretics, and 
 
BOLOGNA. 1G3 
 
 Turks, and atheists, maligning the Priests; but 
 the shocking thing was, that it should be done by- 
 Catholics. In all ages and nations, the Priest had 
 been held in sacred regard. Among the Jews, 
 among the old Egyptians, — of whose ideas the 
 hieroglyphics had given us back some notion, among 
 the Persians, among the Greeks and Romans, the 
 Priest was ever a public power to whom men looked 
 in all the junctures that involved the crises of life : 
 the Brahmin in India, the Mandarin in China, and the 
 Llama in Tartary, wais often treated as a kind of god. 
 So, from the foundation of the Christian Priesthood 
 in all countries, it had been held in lofty honour. 
 But of late it had become the fashion to malign it. 
 They were represented as the enemies of good, 
 the patrons of all evil, obstacles to human pro- 
 gress, dangerous to liberties and repose, and even 
 injurious to family life. He undertook to show 
 that all this was flagrantly unjust. Then he sat 
 down for a moment, gave the people time to 
 breathe, and rose and began. 
 
 " Do you know what is the dignity of a Priest of 
 the Roman Catholic Church? It is the highest 
 dignity under heaven ! Kings are to be honoured, 
 Magistrates are to have their respect too, scholars, 
 discoverers, and poets, all merit honour; but upon 
 tliis earth there is no dignity that for one moment 
 can compare itself with that of the Roman Priest. 
 M 2 
 
1G4 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Do you know who a Priest is ? He is no less than 
 a person who continues here upon earth the sacrifice 
 of the Son of God ! a person who daily renews the 
 great act of the economy of Redemption ! a person 
 who holds the keys of the kingdom of God, and 
 opens or shuts ! a person who, with a few Divine 
 words, changes the elements of bread and wine into 
 the body, blood, soul, and Divinity of Christ! a 
 person who stands between you and God, hearkening 
 to the confession of your sins, and pronouncing over 
 you the absolution given by the Almighty ! a person 
 who, in infancy, makes you members of Christ ; who, 
 in youth, formally inducts you by the Holy Sacra- 
 ment into the communion of saints ; who, when you 
 are young and full of life, consecrates your union 
 with the wife of your choice ; who, in the day of 
 bereavement, brings the consolations of heaven to the 
 dark chambers of your friends ; and who, when your 
 own day of death comes, bids your soul depart in 
 peace ! " All good, all comfort, all true science, all 
 the lights really valuable to men^ had come through 
 the Priest. In the early age the Church had its 
 Chrysostoms, its Augustines, its Cyrils, and a long 
 list, which he repeated with the utmost rapidity, and 
 wonderfully sonorous effect. Now in our modern 
 day it had its equally illustrious roll of names, which 
 again he poured out ■with the same fluency and force. 
 But what was my astonishment, in the midst of 
 
BOLOGNA. 165 
 
 tTiese nameSj to hear those of Lamennais and Gioberti. 
 The Priests had been the patrons of the arts : — here 
 another list of artistes whom they had made, from 
 Michael Angelo to Canova. They had been the 
 fathers of knowledge : — here a long citation of 
 learned and scientific Priests. They had been the 
 founders of all charitable institutions : — and here 
 was really the most eloquent part of his sermoUj but 
 one impossible to report from memory. Selecting 
 every great work in the history of the Church, which 
 had been done by an individual, characterizing it 
 in a word, he concluded each sentence with, 
 " This is the benefit of a Priesthood ! " " Yes, 
 the Priests were the guides of life, the lights of the 
 world; they were the salt of the earth, they were 
 the staff of society, they were the shield of the 
 people, they were the glory of tlie past, they were 
 the hope of the future." Again he sat down, and 
 gave the people the benefit of a long respite. Rising 
 up, he exclaimed, '' But there are bad Priests ! 
 True : there are bad Priests, many of them ; but 
 what does that prove ? There are bad Christians ; 
 but that does not prove that Christianity itself is 
 bad." And so he went on ; but this part of his 
 oration was certainly the least effective. Still it was 
 a grand declamation; real eloquence was joined with 
 earnestness and courage; and, so far as one could 
 judge, the whole was sustained by perfect honesty. 
 
1G6 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 The man seemed to mean every word he said, and 
 to look upon the Priesthood, of which he was 
 the organ, as the one institution upon which 
 the temporal and eternal happiness of mankind 
 depended. The effrontery appeared to cost him 
 little effort, and of the blasphemy into which 
 his grandiose periods often led him he seemed 
 unconscious. The people heard well. A few 
 looked as if his reproaches troubled them; some 
 were evidently angry; but the most part seemed 
 just to say, " He does it very cleverly." Opposite 
 him sat the Chapter of the Cathedral, a numerous 
 body in rich robes, — some of them fine-looking men, 
 but others of dark and dangerous countenances. 
 His enthusiasm did not appear to carry them along. 
 They seemed more uneasy than elated, and as they 
 retired there was more of anxiety than of any other 
 feeling upon their countenances. 
 
 ! how one would have liked to stand up then 
 and preach, giving this honest man and his theme 
 credit for every good man and good action he could 
 justly cite; then, sweeping his false facts and false 
 history to the winds, preach to that throng the one 
 great High Priest, the one sacrifice for sin, the one 
 Mediator between God and man, and tell them of 
 the true, meek, and benign mission of the Minister 
 of the Gospel upon the earth ! One could not do 
 that; but one could pray that He who holds the 
 
BOLOGNA. 167 
 
 stars iu His right handj — and the stars are the 
 messengers of the Churches, — would call many out 
 of darkness to shine on this Italy. 
 
 The singing of the responses at one part of this 
 service was exceedingly fine. The multitude joined, 
 and it was the sort of music that men can enjoy. 
 In contrast with it, the singing in the Protestant 
 French, Swiss, and Italian churches is very mise- 
 rable. They seem to have adopted as an axiom, 
 that a psalm or a hymn is to be only a wail. The 
 music is sweet and good, and, for penitential psalms, 
 very appropriate; but the praise of God is not all 
 plaint, and the emotions of worship not all heavy. 
 Many of David's Psalms are like the cherubim ; they 
 have six wings, and are full of eyes. They are in- 
 tended to mount, and course, and shine, and warble 
 against the very arches of heaven ; and yet these are 
 made to sigh, as if the Protestant Churches had found 
 no music but for the sorrows of the Psalmist. Joy, 
 triumph, outbursts, raptures, flashes of fire, and peals 
 of hallelujah, are the ideal of the music which suits 
 the greater part of David's psalmody ; and especially 
 which suits that of a Christian multitude, redeemed 
 to God, and marching on its way to immortal 
 happiness. In alternation with such music as this, 
 the penitential and solemn strains one so often hears 
 would have great power over the soul ; but where 
 they alone are heard, they become merely soft and 
 
168 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 heavy. By persons trained in them from infancy 
 this is not felt; but, for influence upon the 
 great multitude of men, the defect can hardly be 
 overrated. The singing in the German and Italian 
 Romish churches comes as near to my idea of what 
 Christian singing ought to be, as to its composition 
 and style, as anything I have heard. This remark 
 certainly does not apply to the military music heard 
 in one of the churches of Bologna. 
 
 A shrewd-looking man of the middle class was 
 standing before me, and followed the Monk's sermon 
 with close attention ; his countenance expressing 
 wonder and dislike on the whole, but sometimes a 
 certain kind of doubt. As the congregation was 
 breaking up, I had a few words with him, but we 
 were separated in the crowd. 
 
 The next morning I found, standing under a por- 
 tico of one of the streets, two Bible colporteurs ; 
 honest, intelligent men from Geneva, friends of 
 Mazzarella, who seemed to be diligently doing their 
 work. Had the priestly honours claimed by the 
 Friar still been accorded in Bologna, the first 
 criminals put in prison that day would have been 
 these heretic hawkers of the best Book. 
 
 While I was talking to them, the men I had 
 spoken to in the Cathedral came up, plainly wishing 
 to renew the conversation, which had only been 
 begun the day before. " From what that Friar said 
 
BOLOGNA. 169 
 
 yesterday about Priests, one would conclude that 
 your countries, where there have been most of them, 
 and they have had most power, must be full of good 
 Christians, and all happiness ? " " But it is not so," 
 he said, " it is directly the opposite of that. Look 
 at this country ; while it was under the government 
 of the Priests, the place reeked with crimes ; and 
 now Rome and Naples are the two countries that 
 abound in crime above all in Europe. There is none 
 like them." 
 
 I said that this was quite true ; and that, besides, 
 he would find that the countries where once the 
 Roman Priest, so much lauded yesterday, had 
 possessed all the power, but where now, instead of 
 his word, the light of that Book which these men 
 were selling had been substituted, — the returns of 
 criminal courts showed that there was no comparison 
 between them and the countries where the Priest 
 still reigned. Even where a country was divided 
 into two parts, as, for instance, Ireland, Switzerland, 
 Germany, there was a conspicuous difference in the 
 aihount of crime, in the comfort and intelligence of 
 the people, between those provinces that were or 
 were not under priestly influence ; a difference that 
 might be traced even by the eye of a traveller, in 
 passing from one to the other. " Then," I said, 
 " take the period at which the Reformed nations 
 broke off from the spiritual dominion of Rome : what 
 
170 ■ CnAPTER VIII. 
 
 were then the great powers? Spain, Portugal, 
 Austria, France, the Italian Republics, retained 
 much strength. But Prussia was unknown, Gussia 
 unheard of, England an inconsiderable nation, Hol- 
 land the subject province of Spain, and the other 
 Protestant nations out of account. What had been 
 the course of events since ? Gradually, all the 
 nations that had remained under the spiritual lead- 
 ing of Ptome, had either become feeble by internal 
 degeneration, as Spain and Portugal, or odious 
 externally, as Austria, or tormented with incessant 
 revolutions, as France. They were all periodically 
 the theatre of civil wars ; whereas, the powers free 
 from the spiritual domination of Ftome had steadily 
 risen, and were going on with every promise of 
 increased strength. In the New World it was just 
 the same as in the Old ; even where, in free repub- 
 lics, with virgin continents, and more land than 
 could be occupied, men had every advantage. What 
 was the disastrous condition of IMexico and other 
 States, in which the Priests had great power, as 
 compared with that of the North American Union, 
 and the Canadas ? Where did we trace the disorder 
 and internecine wars, which marked a moral blight, 
 and the prosperity and order which betokened the 
 protection of God ? " 
 
 The exclamations of pleasure and curiosity with 
 which he interrupted and hailed these observations, 
 
BOLOGNA. 171 
 
 led me to go on further. " And suppose you take only 
 the last century^ that page of history which lies TS'ithin 
 the knowledge of all. What has been the course of 
 things during it? At the beginning of it^ Spain and 
 Portugal still retained their colonial empires, and 
 much of their splendour; France had great posses- 
 sions in the East and West Indies ; Prussia had but 
 newly become a kingdom ; England was little moro 
 than the British Isles, with just a few colonies in 
 America ; the United States were not in existence. 
 Now, within that time, Spain and Portugal have lost 
 all their foreign possessions, except some fragments, 
 declined in population, fallen to nothing in moral 
 influence, and become the frequent theatres of civil 
 conflict. France has passed through frightful car- 
 nage, committed by neighbour upon neighbour, and 
 lost all her foreign possessions except Algeria, which 
 she has taken in compensation. Austria has been 
 conquered, and conquered again, and gone through 
 rebellions and disruptions, which are wearing her 
 down. In the mean time, the non-Papal powers 
 have been steadily developing, and that very strongly. 
 Ftussia has grown to gigantic proportions; Prussia has 
 become one of the great powers of Europe; England 
 has added nearly as many subjects as all the Kings 
 of Eiirope have upon the continent ; and the United 
 States of America have come into existence, and 
 reached their present eminence and power." 
 
172 CHAPTER viir. 
 
 The man held his head on one side for a few 
 moments^ thinking, and then shook it, as if to put 
 the facts into their right places : lifting it up again, 
 he said, " No wonder, no wonder ! — No, where 
 Rome has its band and its Priests, all national 
 interests, and all the order of society, must be sub- 
 ordinate to the ruling idea, — the ascendancy of the 
 Priest over the public mind ; and the foundations of 
 manhood are constantly being sapped by a band 
 that has no sympathy with national views." 
 
 " But you do not say that of all the Priests ? " 
 
 " No," he said, " not of all, certainly. There are 
 good ones among them, as everywhere ; but I speak 
 of the general influence and drift of the Priesthood. 
 There must be feebleness and revolutionary elements, 
 where things are conducted as they conduct them." 
 
 " Speaking of revolutions again," said, " you 
 find that all the modern revolutions have their cen- 
 tre and chief provocation in the countries that lie 
 under the Priests. Take 1848, for example; what 
 where the thrones that fell, and the crowns that had 
 to be abdicated ? In France the King chased away ; 
 in Austria the crown abdicated ; in Bavaria the crown 
 abdicated ; in Sardinia the crown abdicated ; in Rome 
 the Prince chased away, and obliged to employ four 
 armies to force him back again upon his people : but 
 all this time the Sovereigns of the non-Papal world 
 held their own; and much as some of the States 
 
BOLOGNA. 173 
 
 were disturbedj things did not come to the point of 
 revolution." 
 
 " O, it is true/' he cried, " it is true ; and no won- 
 der that it is true ! If you only knew the thou- 
 sandth part of what we know, iu this city, you 
 would have the key to it all. I never heard so much 
 said about it in the general, but we know it well in 
 the affairs of every-day life. But what did you think 
 of the Friar?" 
 
 " I thought he was very eloquent, and made the 
 best of his cause ; and he seemed to me a bold, 
 honest man." 
 
 It is really painful to watch the expression of 
 countenance with which an Italian often receives 
 one's declaration of belief in the honesty or good- 
 ness of a Priest. It betrays such a want of faith in 
 any honesty, as must be in itself a terrible moral void 
 in the character. However, passing on from this, which 
 he evidently considered my weakness, I said, " You 
 heard wonderful praise of the Priests : did it strike 
 you, while you were listening to him, that, in the 
 New Testament, this book which these men are 
 trying to spread, neither our Lord nor His Apos- 
 tles ever called any Minister of the Gospel a 
 'Priest?'"* 
 
 " No," he cried, " surely that can't be ! " 
 
 " There is the book. If you take it, and read it 
 * Tte Italian word is " Sacerclole." 
 
17i' CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 through^ you will find that no one of the twelve 
 Apostles was ever called a 'Priest;' that none of 
 their fellow labourers or their disciples, none 
 of those whom they ordained, or sent out to preach 
 in the world, were called ' Priests/ " 
 
 "But is it possible?" he said. "Who, then, 
 were called ' Priests ? ' " 
 
 "The Jewish Priests were so called, but the 
 Christian Ministers never. They had no sacrifice to 
 offer up ; they had only to act as heralds, proclaim- 
 ing to the world that one sacrifice for all sin had 
 been offered up by that one Priest of the human 
 race, the Son of God ; who had gone up to heaven, 
 to intercede for us there day and night, our per- 
 petual High Priest at the right hand of the 
 Almighty, to whom every poor man upon earth had 
 access, if he but lifted up a trusting and a sincere 
 heart." 
 
 " 0," he said, " is it possible ? And there is no 
 talk of Priests in the New Testament ? " 
 
 " Much talk of Jewish Priests, but of Christian 
 Priests none. There is talk of the Minister, tlie 
 Pastor, and teacher." In dwelling on his woj'k 
 and ofiSce, as contra-distinguished from that of the 
 Priest, I was now and then helped out by a very 
 intelligent and earnest observation from the colpor- 
 teurs. By this time some people had joined us, and 
 all took an interest in the conversation ; and soma 
 
BOLOGNA. 175 
 
 one said, " In Eugknd it is not as it is here. Tliere 
 are not assassins, and robbers, and all the viUany tliat 
 we have going on." 
 
 " Don't say so," I said. " In England we have cri- 
 minals enough, — far too many; and we have much rea- 
 son to be ashamed. Yet it is ground for thankfulness 
 that, when we compare the total amount of English 
 crime with that returned in Naples and the States 
 of the Church, or Spain, or Portugal, or even France, 
 offences against human life are few in comparison. 
 But take care that you don't look to England for a 
 model, — for it is not there, — or to America, or to any 
 other country. You will find no true model upon 
 earth. The model for the Christian is there, in that 
 book. It is yonder, in that heaven, where Jesus Christ 
 reigns, and whence He will come to judge us all." 
 
 The amount of desire to hear what a foreigner had 
 to say on such subjects must be strong when a man 
 win stand, while one slowly grinds out such observa- 
 tions in bad Italian. Any man who knows what it 
 is to hear a foreigner attempt to argue in slow and 
 broken language, will form some idea of this. 
 
 The state of feeling with regard to the government 
 of the Priests, indicated in the above conversation, 
 seemed to be universal with aU among whom I spoke 
 in Bologna. 
 
 " Was the Papal Government really as bad as they 
 said ? " I asked of a professional man. 
 
176 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 "As bad as they said? They could never say 
 half how bad it was. In spite of its permanent 
 effects upon the people^ the change since its fall is 
 wonderful. The place was a den of assassins ; now 
 few homicides occur. The police were in league 
 with the robbers, and the Priests with the police. 
 When a great robbery was committed, the culprits, 
 even if imprisoned, were always discharged. They 
 got a share, and the authorities a share. As to 
 assassination, any man who had committed one, 
 if he had only money, could at once make friends 
 with the Priests, and the evidence broke down, 
 and he was set at large. But an honest man 
 who dared to think, was punished without 
 mercy; or a poor man who happened to get into 
 prison, and had no money or friends to carry 
 the Priests' influence for him, might lie there 
 and rot, before they even took the trouble to bring 
 him to trial." 
 
 At the hotel I said to the waiter, " You appear to 
 have many Priests in Bologna." " O, plenty." 
 " All married ? " He looked at me with surprise ; 
 but I seemed quite innocent. " No, not one of them 
 married." "What, none at all?" "No; on the 
 contrary." "Why, how's that? We find in the 
 Gospel that St. Peter was mari'ied." 
 
 "Perhaps he was, I can't say for that; but in 
 Bologna the Priests do not marry, and I assure you 
 
BOLOGNA. 177 
 
 that all over the Papal StateSj wherever I have been, 
 — and I have been in several places, — they don't 
 marry, that is, they don't have wives openly j 
 occultamente." 
 
 Considering how notorious Bologna had been for 
 crime, how constant the excitement of its people 
 against the Papal Government and the Austrians, 
 and how ardent the national temperament, one could 
 not but look upon the perfect order prevailing in the 
 present revolutionary time as one of the greatest 
 marvels of modern society. Once or tvvice there had 
 been danger of trouble. When Garibaldi, for 
 instance, was recalled, the people were greatly 
 excited ; but throughout an entire night the utmost 
 vigilance was exercised by the military and the 
 authorities. The first men of the town might be 
 found in the streets, going about talking to the 
 people in their own dialect tUl three o'clock in the 
 morning. On another occasion some of the lowest 
 class, much like the Lazsaroni of Naples, had shown 
 signs of restlessness, about which the opinion 
 seemed to be that it was stimulated by money and 
 other incitements from the Priests, under pretence 
 of Mazzinian aims; but this also had been easily 
 got over, and now, as before stated, the elections 
 \Tere just completed with exemplary quietness. 
 
 Count Pepoli, who had taken a leading part in 
 preserving oj'der, was returned for two places, one 
 
 N 
 
178 CBIAPTER VIII. 
 
 in the town, and one in fhe country ; and a proof 
 of the readiness of the Priests, either to join from 
 patriotic feeling in the national movement, or to 
 worship the rising sun, lay in this, that the first an- 
 nouncement of his election in the distant place came 
 to him in a congratulatory letter from a Doctor of 
 Divinity, anticipating all other communications. 
 But probably this Priest was one of the many 
 whose hearts long to see their country happy, and 
 who have not sufficient faith in Rome to believe that 
 it is a blessing either to one soul, or to a nation. 
 
 Count Marliani, to whose courtesy I had been 
 much indebted, had also been elected, though absent 
 in London. 
 
 I had the opportunity of conversing upon reli- 
 gious liberty with a gentleman whose influence in the 
 movements of Central Italy had been very great. 
 As all leading Italians do, he expressed entire 
 respect for freedom of worship ; at the same time, 
 being disposed to keep up the spiritual authority of 
 Rome, if only the temporal could be got rid of. 
 This is natural in men who are endeavouring to 
 combine their patriotic duty with certain remnants 
 of religious feelings ; but they will find that they 
 cannot pull down the towers on which the church bells 
 swing, and leave them to make music in mid air. The 
 great bell of St. Peter's needs a solid earthly buttress. 
 
 In speaking of what constituted national stability, 
 
BOLOGNA. 179 
 
 I argued that three foundations were necessary to 
 the repose and equilibrium of a nation^ — a political 
 one, a social one^ and a religious one. 
 
 The religious foundation, faith. 
 
 The social one, the family. 
 
 The political one, the constitution. 
 
 All national institutions rest upon the family, 
 and it upon religion. 
 
 And, " Here it appears to me that France is 
 essentially deficient. She has not a religious foun- 
 dation, for want of faith ; not a social one, for want 
 of families ; not a political one, for want of a consti- 
 tution. Instead of aU these she has substituted 
 military organization, which, for the time, is giving 
 her internal order, and a commanding foreign influ- 
 ence ; but will it last ? All our institutions would 
 lose their stability the moment our social founda- 
 tions became loosened. England is the land of Home ; 
 France, of Glory: the one rests upon the family, 
 the other upon the army ; and it remains to be seen 
 which of the two will, in the long run, be the better." 
 Myinterlocutor replied, "The one is based on the prin- 
 ciple of conservation, the other on that of destruction. 
 It is easy to foresee which has the greater vitality." ■ 
 
 We had several times remarked in going through 
 
 the streets, that the people appeared to regard one 
 
 of the ladies of the party with peculiar attention, 
 
 not unmixed with pleasure. After a while we 
 
 N 2 
 
180 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 began to suspect the cause^ and in Bologna had it 
 confirmed. On a brown silk dress were certain 
 adornments in a tartan pattern, which in Eng- 
 land would have attracted no notice; but the 
 colours were white, red, and green, the Italian tri- 
 colour ; so that this innocent dress was nothing less 
 than a strong political demonstration. We were not 
 a little amused when we discovered it ; but after- 
 wards saw many ladies who had studiously put on 
 the three colours, and yet it was not done near so 
 effectually as it had been in this case by accident. 
 In every form in which it is possible to work in 
 these three colours, you see them ; such as a red 
 handkerchief, green bonnet, and white feather, or 
 vice versa ; and as the name of Cavour is CamiUo, 
 — and Italy abounds everywhere with extremely 
 beautiful camellias, — one of the prettiest forms of the 
 tri-colour is, putting together a white and red 
 camellia, surrounded by their own green leaves. 
 When we were about to start for Rome, the political 
 robe was prudently left behind at Florence. 
 
 It will be remembered that, only a few years ago, 
 the newspapers reported the progress made by the 
 Pope through his dominions : the accounts of con- 
 gratulatory addresses and loyal receptions were 
 affecting. In Bologna one heard such reports of the 
 Papal Government, that it was hard to believe one's 
 ears, — I do not mean hard to believe the things that 
 
BOLOGNA. 181 
 
 were said; for that one did not think ofj they 
 were incredible; but, hard to believe that one 
 was hearing such things in Europe. The worst 
 deeds of Asiatic misrulej that one is wont to hear 
 alleged by "Indians/' as sufficient grounds for 
 sweeping Rajahs off the face of the earth, were upon 
 the lips of every one, as done here in the heart of 
 Christendom. Over and over again one thought, and 
 said, that the only value of such representations was, 
 that they showed what the Papal Government was 
 considered capable of by the people who had lived 
 under it. Several times, appealing to the personal 
 virtues of the Pope, one asked if he had not been 
 received with enthusiasm when he came amongst 
 them. A man said, " He was at first received with a 
 certain degree of cordiality, because along the road, 
 wherever addresses of complaint were presented to 
 him, he returned one answer, that when he arrived 
 at Bologna, he would investigate matters, and make 
 improvements : therefore, the hopes of the people 
 were high, and they did receive him with some 
 warmth. But, when he had been here a while, and 
 nothing was done, public feeling changed, and he 
 left amidst universal contempt." This was the 
 answer of a working man. That of a professional 
 man was, " No, he was not received well at all. He 
 was received as became his dignity. The authorities 
 had orders and money, and got up arches and 
 
182 CHAPTEE VIIT. 
 
 demonstrations. A few of the people^ in hope of 
 reforms, took part in them ; but even they found 
 themselves bitterly disappointed, for he did nothing : 
 and, before he left Bologna, when he passed in the 
 streets, scarcely any one would take the trouble to 
 raise his hat." Instead of repeating here statements 
 as to the character of the Government, which could 
 have no other value than to show the feeling of the 
 people, I will give, as published in the " Documents," 
 a case which occurred in a city still under Papal rule. 
 
 The Three Young Men of Fermo. 
 
 One evening, in February, 1849, while the Repub- 
 lic was still in power, old Canon Corsi fell, mortally 
 stabbed, in the streets of Fermo. He was Professor 
 of eloquence, mild in politics, a friend of the young, 
 kind and charitable; the one Priest in the town 
 universally respected. The public was filled with 
 horror ; the National Guard arose, and seized upon 
 every suspicious man in the place. Appearances 
 were strongly against two, who remained in prison. 
 As an example of the dark hints one hears breathed 
 in the Roman States, it was whispered about Fermo, 
 that this deed had been planned to produce a reac- 
 tion in favour of the Priests, by striking the public 
 mind with horror at the murder of so good a 
 man. 
 
 After the Papal Government had been restored. 
 
BOLOGNA. 183 
 
 heavy blows were dealt to the people of Fermo. 
 " There was not a citizen who, during the Republic, 
 had given the least sign of adhesion, even by simple 
 silence, who was not annoyed, or placed under sur- 
 veillance, or imprisoned, or condemned to the gal- 
 leys, or to exile." ' But this was not enough for 
 Cardinal d'Angelis. Some lives must be taken. 
 Three men were especially obnoxious to the restored 
 Government : — Joseph Caselliui, a young man of 
 good family, who had been an officer in the Repub- 
 lican army; Ignatius Rosettani, a tailor; and Henry 
 Venezia, a coffee-house man : all of hotly liberal 
 politics, bot with names unstained by crime. These 
 three youths were arrested for the murder of 
 Canon Corsi, as accomplices of the two criminals 
 already in prison. Of these, one, called Testori, was 
 an old galley slave, whose life had been a tissue of 
 crime. His cell, it was observed by the political 
 prisoners, who numbered no less than one hundred 
 and thirty-six, soon became the favourite resort of 
 the police. Presently, he had an extra plate of vic- 
 tuals every day; then his bed was provided with a 
 mattress, sheets, and counterpane; and, finally, he 
 was allowed the indulgence of cigars. He was also 
 frequently taken to the police office, which was near 
 the prison, and, on his return, used privately to show 
 money, which had been given to him by his nephew, 
 — he said. 
 
181 CHAPTER Viri. 
 
 It proved that this worthy had sworn informations 
 against the three young men, as accomplices in the 
 murder of the Canon. Two of them met the charge 
 with the best evidence they could, but Casellini had 
 a triumphant answer. He was at the time lying ill 
 of fever, and had the evidence of the doctor who 
 attended him; of the druggist who made up the pre- 
 scriptions ; of the maid who waited upon him ; and 
 of a friend who visited him. Notwithstanding this, 
 his relatives prepared a way of escape for him. 
 "No," he said, "there is not a shadow of proof 
 against me, and conclusive evidence in ray favour. 
 I must be liberated some time; and, were I to 
 escape, a stain would rest on my character." 
 
 Every thing that threats and bribes could do, was 
 tried upon the witnesses, to make them retract. 
 The doctor, Baronciani, was easily won. He recalled 
 his evidence; and, from that day, lived under the 
 double weight of the Government patronage, and 
 the public curse. The friend, Tarini, resisted for 
 a while ; but he had a young wife and three children, 
 VI horn he saw plunged into the deepest poverty : and, 
 rather than they should starve, he betrayed his 
 friend. There remained only the chemist and the 
 maid. The girl was threatened with imprisonment 
 for peijury ; but she was brave ; into prison she 
 went, and there lay for years. Poor old Carlini, the 
 chemist, was so far advanced in age, that to him a 
 
BOLOGNA, 185 
 
 Papal prison was certain death ; lie must either 
 swear away the life of an innocent youth, or lay 
 down his own. He did not hesitate; went to 
 prison, and in natural course to the hospital; 
 and there, "in the presence of all, — of the Curate, 
 and of the Confessor, and of Christ in the sacrament, 
 he swore, — '1 die a victim of the truth.'" The 
 Curate and the Confessor had the courage to leave to 
 old Carlini a testimony of his religious character and 
 praise of his unblemished conduct. 
 
 The three young men were condemned to die with 
 the two malefactors. On the evening before the 
 execution, the Jesuit Castiglioni came to act as Con- 
 fessor; but Testori told him that he did not need 
 to confess ; for he had promises by which he knew 
 lie was not to die. When midnight had passed, and 
 no pardon had come, he began to feel that he, too, 
 was to be executed; and then his dark soul quailed 
 at the prospect before him. In attendance were 
 some brethren of a confraternity called that of 
 "Pity," the rules of which bind them to attend 
 the last hours of men condemned to death. The 
 senior of these was the most revered citizen of 
 Fermo, — the benevolent old Marquis Trevisani, 
 stooping under the weight of seventy-four years. 
 The culprit had him called ; and in the reverend 
 presence of that old man, and of the Priest Cas- 
 tiglioni, he formally declared that the three youths 
 
186 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 were innocent of the death of Corsij and that he had 
 been impelled to say that they were his accomplices, 
 by being told that they had been his accusers. 
 " The old Marquis, overwhelmed with this proof of 
 villany, knew too well in what repute he himself was 
 held by the Government, to think that any inter- 
 ference of his would be of advantage to the inno- 
 cence which he saw, in this awful moment, made, by 
 the hand of Providence, morally triumphant over the 
 murderous power that was striking it down. He 
 urged the Confessor to take a minute of the deposi- 
 tion, and immediately to convey it to the Arch- 
 bishop and the Delegate ; but the Jesuit replied, " I 
 am here to take confessions, not depositions." 
 
 The brothers of the confraternity, who were all 
 noblemen, stood weeping like children ; for they 
 were every one friends of Casellini, and all at that 
 moment impotent to help, though with the proof of 
 his innocence in their hands. The police officer, 
 whose duty it was to take minutes of everything 
 connected with the execution, was called to take 
 down this deposition. He left a space in the page 
 on which he was writing, and asked his superiors 
 if he should write this down. The reply was, "No." 
 
 When the mournful group arrived at the scaffold, 
 what had taken place in private was unknown in the 
 city. Few had gone to witness the murder; but 
 those few were thrilled with horror, when the Jesuit 
 
BOLOGNA. 187 
 
 Castiglioni, commencing the ordinary exhortation, 
 uttered the strange -words, "It is not always the 
 guilty -who die." When the heads of the three 
 young men of Fermo fell one after another, the 
 Jesuit went away to fall upon a sick bed, the 
 people to say, "It is not always the guilty who 
 die." * 
 
 * For the judgment of the Court, see " Documents," vol. ii., pp. 392- 
 396 ; and for the certified narrative given ahove, vol. ii., pp. 572-577. 
 
Cjjiijptei' k 
 
 PAPAL GOVERNMENT IN THE ROIIAGNA, 
 
 DURING THE TEN YEARS OF RESTORATION. 
 
 AS SHOWN BY OFFICIAL DOCUMENTS. 
 
On May 1st, 1849, when the French had laid 
 siege to Rome, the Corporation of Bologna met, and 
 adopted a formal protest, addressed to General 
 Oudinot and the Constituent Assemhly of France, 
 against the attempt to restore a Government "univer- 
 sally condemned by experience,-"' and to make of 
 " a people of three millions a realm of vassals, cut 
 off from the common rights of nations, and held 
 as a feudal tenure, for the will and interests of the 
 Catholic powers." * 
 
 Five days later, an Austrian officer presented him- 
 self to the Magistrates of Ferrara, and demanded 
 that they should send a deputation with full powers 
 to deliver, into the hands of Archbishop Bedini, the 
 submission of the city to the Pontiff. The Magis- 
 trates declared that they had not power for so grave 
 an action, without the consent of the Corporation. 
 It was summoned, and met at ten o'clock at night, 
 in presence of four thousand Austrian soldiers. 
 Thus surrounded, it deliberated at considerable 
 length ; and, by a vote of thirty-seven against six, 
 
 * "Documents," vol. i., p. 13. 
 
]92 
 
 CHAPTEB, IX. 
 
 declared that it had received no authority to act in 
 so grave a matter.* 
 
 The Austrian army soon opened an attack upon 
 Bologna, which was obliged to capitulate. Out of 
 the smoke of the battle came forth a ruler for the 
 conquered city. He was a Priest, an Archbishop, 
 the direct representative of the Vicar of God; his 
 name was Bedini. In a few days he wrote to 
 inform his Government, that he had ventured his 
 sacred person inside the walls : for, he says, " the 
 population was amazed, that the representative of the 
 Government should always be outside the city, sur- 
 rounded by foreigners." He also stated, that he 
 had been obliged to accept the services of the 
 Corporation ; but that it was to be said in their favour, 
 that they had showed great zeal and activity in the 
 cause of order; and, by several interviews, he had 
 now satisfied himself that they were all " choice men." 
 His testimony, as to the character of this body, is 
 to be borne in mind.f Moreover, he added, that 
 on another matter it was necessary for him to say a 
 word to Cardinal Antonelli. When the Austrian 
 General, as one of the terms of capitulation, was agree- 
 ing that the troops should not be disbanded, provided 
 they would take the oath of fidelity to the Sovereign, 
 "I mentioned that my instructions contained this 
 order, — the dissolution of these corps; but the 
 
 * "Documents," toI. i., pp. 16-19. f Idid., pp. iisii., xxxiii. 
 
THE PAPAL GOVEKNMENT OP THE HOMAGNA. 193 
 
 answer to me was that the articles of capitulation 
 bound only the Austrian army, and were in force 
 during the momentary occupation; and, on this 
 account, I considered my own action free when I 
 should come to assume the government of the 
 provinces." Thus the new ruler considered, at the 
 very beginning, that promises were to bind an 
 Austrian General, but not an Archbishop. 
 
 On the 27th of July following, the Corporation, 
 foreseeing that in the event of the Pope's return to 
 Rome, the Constitution he had granted to the 
 country, before his flight, would probably be revoked, 
 held an evening meeting, and recorded its desire 
 "that the restoration of the Prince should not be 
 unaccompanied with the re-establishment of those 
 representative institutions which could not be 
 abolished without oppression to the country; and 
 that they considered that the maintenance of the 
 Constitution would be a sure pledge of conciliation 
 and harmony." 
 
 The Austrian Commander Strasoldi at once 
 wrote to Bedini, telling him that the minutes of 
 this sitting must be taken possession of, and the 
 authors proceeded against; and that if the Arch- 
 bishop did not feel certain of effecting the seizure 
 of the documents without any being made away 
 with, he had better leave the matter to him, the 
 General. To this Bedini replied, that the action 
 o 
 
194 
 
 CUAPTER IX. 
 
 ougLt to 1)3 severe; and that, cs he was 
 not quite certain, if he took it in hand, but 
 that some of tlie papers might disappear, the 
 General had better act at once. Under Austrian 
 orders the police pounced immediately upon the 
 officers of the Corporation, seized the books, dis- 
 covered that the author of the resolution was Count 
 Ranuzzi, took him and tlie Senator of Bologna into 
 custody, and fined the members of the Corporation 
 who had attended in the sum of two thousand 
 crowns. Bediui, apparently foreseeing the effect 
 which this would have upon the minds of the people, 
 and upon his future administration in the Eomagna, 
 positively wrote to his own Government, to say that 
 he had taken no direct part in the proceedings, and 
 had only interposed to mitigate the severity of the 
 Austrians, — he had given explanations and no more. 
 He little thought that this lie, and the letter in 
 Vi^hich he told Strasoldi to take the matter into his 
 hands and to act severely, would both come under 
 the eye of the men whom he punished, and would 
 by them be given to the world.* Thus, at the 
 outset, the Pope's representative goaded every 
 leading man in the city to implacable hostility, 
 which never relented so long as the iU-starrcd 
 restoration continued. 
 
 From the city of Perrara the Delegate writes to 
 
 * " Docunieuts," vol. i., pp. 144, 145. 
 
THE PAPAL GOVERNMENT OP THE EOMAGNA. 195 
 
 his superior at Bologna, under a difficulty. 
 "Thank God/' he says, "the Republic is now 
 fallen, and a beginning made iu restoring the Pope's 
 Gdvernment in Rome." Hence it might be supposed 
 that the official journal, the only one now published 
 there, might be introduced into the Legations ; but 
 as, for the time being, the Papal Government is not 
 restored "in its plenitude and independence," he 
 is not sure whether he may have " fall confidence in 
 the rectitude of the principles" which may be set 
 forth in that print. This, be it remembered, was 
 the only print the people could see, and was directly 
 official. 
 
 The restored Government published a document 
 which it called an amnesty, offering pardon to all 
 who were not excepted; but the exceptions ^Ycre 
 tremendous. Among them were named the 
 chiefs of corps, or general officers; and the way 
 that this part of the compact was kept may be seen 
 by the follo'ning statement of the Cavalierc 
 Gennarelli.* 
 
 There presented himself at Bologna a Lieutenant 
 Colonel Cocchi, who in the capitulation of Ancona, 
 which he had defended, obtained, with others his 
 companions, from the Austrian army, promise of life 
 
 * Luiii dello Siato Eomano, pp. 1., li. 
 
 o 2 
 
196 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 and liberty. But Monsignor, Kepresentative of 
 the Pope, did uot wisli to hear much talk about 
 keeping faith, or respecting in any manner people 
 whom the country might love. He commanded the 
 arrest of Cocchi ; but he, being advised of it, kept out 
 of the way. Then it was that his uncle, unknown 
 to him, went to General Marziani, to whom he told 
 the fact, presenting to him the so-called Decree of 
 Amnesty of Pius IX., absolving officers who were 
 not chiefs of corps, and the capitulation of Ancona. 
 Although Austrian, General Marziani fumed. 
 
 "What does the Priest say?" he asked the 
 Advocate Cocchi, who was speaking with him. [The 
 Priest was Monsignor Bedini.) 
 
 " He says to his constables," (answered Cocchi,) 
 " to carry my nephew to prison." 
 
 " Is it possible ? But he was not a general 
 officer." 
 
 "Monsignor Bedini will have found in some 
 theological book that Lieutenant-Colonels are 
 general officers." 
 
 " And the capitulation ? " 
 
 " That is a matter which concerns you. General." 
 
 "I will write to him im mediately; and if you do 
 me the favour to come to me in a few days, I shall 
 have his answer." 
 
 The Advocate Cocchi returned. The Austrian 
 General, seeing him, said, "Mr. Advocate, the Priest 
 
THE PAPAL GOVERNMENT OF THE ROMAGNA. 197 
 
 has not replied to me^ but your nephew may go at 
 large; nobody will touch him. In any case^ it 
 would be an aiFair of a few minutes." 
 
 " Nobody did touch him. "We who heard this story 
 from the Advocate Cocchi afterwards found the 
 letter of General Marzianij and those of other 
 Austrian Generals, who bitterly reproved the 
 Pontifical Government for the military proscription, 
 which, to strike Majors,Lieutenant-Colonels, heads of 
 squadrons, and staff-officers, classed them all as chiefs 
 of corps. This as general rule, but in fact officers 
 and soldiers of all ranks were constantly exposed to 
 all the frenzy of the Antonelli police." 
 
 In November, 1850, eleven prisoners, who had 
 been lying for eighteen months at Forli, without 
 even being brought to examination, prevailed upon a 
 Bistop to entreat the Apostolic Delegate to give 
 them a trial. He replies, that he is very sorry "not 
 to be able in any way to accede to his recom- 
 mendation; because these prisoners are within the 
 direct jurisdiction of superior authorities, whom he 
 has not failed already to entreat to take some step 
 with regard to them."* 
 
 A year later, the Prelate Stephen Eossi, with his 
 own hand, wrote the following to the Governor of 
 Faenza. " I have gathered from your political note, 
 that you have put into prison some boys, who 
 
 * " Documents," vol. ii., p. 590. 
 
108 CHAPTEK, IX. 
 
 allowed themselves to insult one Nunziati of the 
 borough, and that you have ordered them to be 
 put occasionally upon bread and water. I feel that 
 it is always necessary to use prompt and severe 
 remedies for similar faults ; because, in such a city 
 as Faenza, a little spavk between the people of the 
 borough and those of the city may have fatal con- 
 sequences, unless strongly put down at the begin- 
 ning. Therefore, I applaud the punishment you 
 have inflicted ; and I instruct you not to discontinue 
 it, without my orders; and to place them upon 
 bread and water twice a week. Further, it would 
 be desirable that you should come to an under- 
 standing with the Austrian Commandant in regard to 
 similar annoyances, especially among youag people. 
 You ought to engage the Commandant to use prompt 
 and efScacious punishments whenever a fact of this 
 kind occurs, and when the age and constitution of 
 the person will bear it. In prison, young men rather 
 get worse than become humbled ; and if, instead 
 gf it, (imprisonment,) the Austrian Captain would 
 subject them to a punishment which on several 
 accounts is repugnant to them, we should have no 
 fear of the renewal of such faults." In the original, 
 which remains in the archives of Ravenna, instead of 
 reading as the copy found at Faenza, "a punish- 
 ment which en several accounts is repugnant to 
 them," it says, " which is repugnant to them, on 
 
THE PAPAL GOVERNMENT OF THE EOMAGNA. 199 
 
 account of the shame and the pain;" but the 
 worthy Prelate cancelled these words, and substi- 
 tated the others. 
 
 The "prompt and efficacious punishment" thus 
 smoothly recommended to the Austrians by the 
 Priests, was none other than that of the bastinade.* 
 
 The establishment of this penalty required a 
 peculiar officer, and accordingly we find that such 
 was discovered. The terms of his appointment 
 aj-e taken from a criminal trial whiclx was still 
 proceeding when the "Documents" were printed. 
 "Louis Bazzigotti, v/ho twelve separate times had 
 been imprisoned, and seven times convicted of theft, 
 breach of ban, and swindling, after having endured 
 the sentence, was, either in the year 1850 or 1851, 
 imprisoned anew, by way of precaution. At this 
 time he undertook the employment of cudgel-man, 
 with the monthly pay of fifteen pauls, beside double 
 rations;" but Signer Bazzigotti himself puts out of 
 doubt the important question of the date in his 
 noble history, by saying in his examination, that it 
 was "on the 15th of May, 1851, by appointment of 
 His EsceUency Monsignore Bedini, communicated 
 to him by the Cavaliere Curzi, that he was em- 
 ployed as bastinader, and that he is a Cath- 
 olic." However, good times did not always last 
 with Signer Bazzigotti : after he had conducted 
 
 * "Documeuts/' vol. ii., p. G08. 
 
200 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 himself very -well for two or tliree years, cudgelling 
 his brother Catholics, he made earnest application 
 to be allowed to go out to see his family, promising 
 to return the same day. However, he took a ramble 
 into the country, changed his name, professed him- 
 self a police agent, and extorted money from several 
 people. He was again caught, and carried back to 
 the prison, and then he had to exercise his Catholic 
 ministry as bastinader without any salary. After 
 another year of good conduct, he had his wages 
 restored, and continued in the full enjoyment of 
 fifteen pauls, with double rations, and the privilege 
 of bastinading, under the direct sanction of Bishops 
 and Archbishops, up to the 29th of May, in the year 
 of grace 1859.* 
 
 The condition to which this sort of administration 
 brought the subjects of His Holiness, may be gathered, 
 now and then, from the remonstrances made by the 
 secular officials to those in authority. For instance, 
 under date of the 16th of July, 1853, the local 
 Governor of Faenza thus writes : — 
 
 "Most eevbueki) Exceilenct, 
 
 " Yesterday I went to the prisons for an extraordinary 
 visit. My heart was wrung with grief. Without count- 
 ing those in other prisons, I here found ninety-one. 
 Very few of them are under trial ; several are in the 
 jurisdiction of the Austrians, several under that of the 
 
 * "Doeiuneuts," vol. ii., pp. 95, 96. 
 
THE PAPAL GOVERNMENT OF THE EOMAGNA. 201 
 
 Sacra Consulta, (a high Eoman Court,) but the greater 
 part are imprisoned for precaution, without having been 
 examined, without having been charged, and probably 
 without being suspected. Some have been confined for 
 months, some for years, some for lustres. This is a 
 bleeding wound, and the real cause of the discontent, of 
 the hatred against the authorities, and the spite against 
 the Government. Crime cannot be conquered in this 
 way, by striking in the lump : the people cannot in this 
 way be drawn to love the august Sovereign. Eor the 
 last sanguine facts, three individuals have been arrested 
 by the Governor and Mayor, by order of the Public 
 Prosecutor, and those only have been examined. By 
 order of the Delegate, twelve others were arrested for 
 precaution, but these have nothing to do with those ; 
 either the one or the other are innocent. The outcry 
 is almost general. It is necessary that as to this some 
 firm and rigorous but just step should be taken — have 
 the goodness to tell me what — otherwise I shall not be 
 able to wipe the tears of a hundred families, that are 
 lamenting the imprisonment of parents, of husbands, or 
 sons, and of those hundreds of families that are languish- 
 ing in poverty, because of the absence of the person 
 arrested. 
 
 "When I looked into the records of the Court, I 
 found a mournful void; four hundred and fifty cases 
 have been pending from four to five years, and more. 
 I do not wish to take possession of such a troublesome 
 inheritance ; but at least I do not wish to let the cases 
 that can be heard, sleep." 
 
202 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Then the poor man goes on to beg for help, thp.t 
 he may have some means of expediting matters* 
 
 It is not to be supposed that the officials felt 
 themselves under the obligation of proceeding with 
 the cautious forms of justice habitual in civilized 
 countries. For instance, a certain Captain at 
 Cesena writes to the Governor to report that some 
 of his men have arrested one Ricci, on the charge of 
 having been insolent to them, and the Governor 
 leaves this record upon the case : " That, considering 
 the report made to him, and the want of proof by 
 which he could judicially condemn Ricci, he orders 
 that he shall be imprisoned for eight days by way of 
 correction, with the injunction that he shall have 
 one day the ordinary prison allowance, and the 
 alternate day bread and water. "t 
 
 One would have thought that such a Govern- 
 ment would at least have had the advantages of 
 expedition. 
 
 In the town of Forli, when some executions were 
 taking place contrary to all justice, the people shut 
 their shops, and for this seventy-two of them were 
 fined in sums ranging from three to forty crowns. 
 
 The Government never succeeded in bringing the 
 authorities in Bologna fairly under its hand; and 
 accordingly we find that the Court there, in the year 
 1856, losing all patience at the kind of cases that 
 
 * " Douuments," vol. i., jjp. ii, iS. t Hid., vol. ii., p. CSO. 
 
THE PAPAL GOVEBNMENT OF THE EOMAGNA. 203 
 
 were brought before it, put upon record the judg- 
 ment found in the Appendix, in -which, instead of 
 convicting the prisoners, it declares the police guilty 
 of torture, of extorting false confessions, and of 
 complicity in crimes.* 
 
 The connexion of the police with robbers, and 
 the instigation of crime on the part of the authorities, 
 is an idea so familiar to the minds of the people who 
 have lived under the Papal Government, that a 
 stranger can hardly believe that it is anything more 
 than a morbid state of suspicion ; but this judgment 
 does too much to accredit it : and fouler instances are 
 found in these Documents, but we give this, as 
 coming with the gravity of a formal decision from a 
 Court composed of Judges chosen by Eome. 
 
 The following document only echoes the hundred 
 hints that one hears among the people : it does not 
 prove that the Government was guilty of the turpi- 
 tude mentioned ; it only proves that its own oinccrs 
 took it for granted it might be. It is to be found at 
 page 606 of the second volume. 
 
 " P. S. P. 
 
 " jMost illustkiotjs Sir, 
 
 " It ha\'ing come to the knowledge of this division 
 of police that the Court of Rome has written to the 
 Friars of your countiy, inviting tliem to kill some 
 
 * Appeuili\ D. 
 
204 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Austrians belonging to the garrison stationed in tlie 
 fort there, with a view to cause the principle of non- 
 intervention to be broken through, and that the 
 Austrians might rush in upon our provinces to 
 avenge an outrage which would be laid to the charge 
 of the country people, as an effect of the revolution ; 
 I pray you, illustrious Sir; to have the goodness to 
 inform me if this news is certain, that I may take 
 the necessary resolutions in the matter for the good 
 of our cause. Also, I should pray you to keep up 
 an oflBcial correspondence with this section, in order 
 to the advantage of our common affairs, and I assure 
 you that I shall always be ready to give you such 
 statements as may be necessary." 
 
 Signed " G. Bella Scala;" dated "Ravenna, 
 22nd February, 1831;" and directed " To the Political 
 Section at Ferrara." 
 
 The great inconvenience of the Papal Government 
 was that it had subjects. It executed a great many, 
 — more, indeed, than all the other Governments in 
 Europe put together, Austria excepted ; it imprisoned 
 as many as it could, until there was no more room ; 
 and it exiled not a few.* 
 
 * Gennarelli says, " Monsieur de Corcelles, in his book on the 
 Pontifical Government, dares to print the following words : ' From two 
 to tliree hundred might have been expelled according to the terms of the 
 amnesty first promulgated, but afterwards amended and made milder. 
 However, those were reduced to thirty-eight. The words, "chief of a 
 
THE PAPAL GOVERNMENT OP THE EOMAGNA. 205 
 
 In addition to all these, another expedient occurred 
 to the governing mind of Bedini. We find a letter 
 from no less a person than Eadetzky himself, in 
 which he acknowledges that he has received the 
 Archbishop's proposal to enrol in the Austrian army 
 those Papal subjects who gave cause to fear that they 
 might disturb the public tranquillity. The Field- 
 Marshal tells the Archbishop that his authority is 
 not sufficient to decide upon this proposal, but he 
 refers it to Vienna. Then comes a second letter, in 
 which the generous offer is rather harshly declined ; 
 its most reverend author being told that the Govern- 
 ment does not wish to " destroy tlie exemplary spirit 
 of the imperial army." However, he had another 
 expedient. The Papal soldiers were afflicted with a 
 disease, the chief symptom of which was desertion ; 
 and we find the Austrian General Gravert replying to 
 an application of the same fertUe Bedini, and telling 
 him that he could not undertake to try these 
 
 corps " were interpreted in a way not to designate more tliau eight or 
 nine superior officers.' And in a note he added, ' Twenty members of 
 the Constituent Assembly embarked for France and Piedmont October 
 1st ; fifteen of those who were compromised left by steam-boat on the 
 5th of October, and three others a little later. The category of " chiefs 
 of corps " only led to two exiles.' I don't know," says GcnnareUi, 
 " if lies were ever told with so much hardihood. We beg Monsieur de 
 Corcelles, and the Bishop of Orleans, to read, among the documents 
 of the Pontifical Government, the statistics of the Constituent 
 Assembly and of the chiefs of corps exiled." — Lutli dello Stato 
 Bomano, p. 54, 
 
203 
 
 CIIArTER IX. 
 
 deserters in the Austrian Courts: for that it was a 
 purely military offence, and therefore the Archbishop 
 must deal with them himself by Pontifical 
 law. To Cardinal Antonelli he makes the simple 
 proposal that they should get every province gar- 
 risoned with Austrians, without which, he says, 
 " every effort is vain for the restoration of {he 
 Government upon a sound principle and a basis 
 of order." The only other matter he suggests in 
 the same letter is, that a trer.ty should be concluded 
 with some power for sending a convenient nunibcr 
 of inconvenient subjects across the Atlantic. lie 
 thinks North America would be the best place. 
 Algeria is not favoured, — perhaps too near, — and 
 something or other decides him against South 
 America. He has gone so far as to send to Vienna 
 for a person acquainted with the United States, in 
 order that he might give the Government the 
 necessary information.* 
 
 Zealous as the Archbishop was in his efforts to rid 
 the Papal territory of the bad burden of thinking 
 men, he had subordinates who considered him 
 tame. In April, 1854, from Faenza, we find a 
 Commandant oi gens-d' amies fuming at the restraint 
 under which he lies, and treating the measures of 
 Monsignor Bedini as anything but vigorous. It is 
 to be remembered that at this very time, according 
 
 * "Documents," vol. i., pp. 175, 176. 
 
THE TAPAL GOVERNMENT OF THE ItCJIAGNA. 207 
 
 to a docTiment already quoted, there were more than 
 four hundred cases not even tried in the prisons of 
 Faenza, which is only a place of twenty thousand 
 inhabitants. But the brave Major Doniinicis writes 
 to the Apostolic Delegate at Eavenna, that " if he had 
 in December last written to the Legate that he 
 must send two hundred persons across the seas, and 
 if, since then, he had verbally told the Apostolic 
 Delegate that it would be better to send three 
 hundred, it was because he had turned the matter 
 well over in his mind ; and now he is prepared to 
 say that they must select four hundred of the most 
 dangerous, and send them off/' But then, he says, to 
 propose to arrest three hundred at once is useless, 
 seeing that diiSculties were raised about the first 
 twenty, and the second thirty, and they even 
 hesitated to arrest forty-one. Therefore, to propose 
 the taking of three hundred together would only be 
 to expose themselves to reproach as to the impotency 
 of their efforts, " which impotency will never cease 
 as long as the half measures lately adopted are 
 continued," which some may think to be efiicacious 
 ones, but which, according to his short sight, " are 
 only a lenitive plaister laid upon a limb eaten with 
 cancer." * 
 
 The ofBcial journal of Eome, of the 22nd of 
 March, 1851, quoted in the "Documents," sets 
 
 * " Documents," vol. i., p. 205. 
 
208 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 itself to repel the charge that the Papal Government 
 is unahle to keep down disorder^ and declares, " We 
 ■will now place matters in their true aspect, dealing 
 with facts and not with vain words. Can it be 
 denied that in the Governments of Faenza and 
 Imola, as the result only of two trials, eighty-two 
 persons were shot ; besides whom ten others obtained 
 commutation of a similar sentence into that of 
 the galleys, and thirteen others were condemned to 
 temporary or perpetual prison ? " Hence the official 
 journal argues that the Papal Government is vigo- 
 rous and fully able to maintain order ! What 
 follows T dare not write in words of my own. Gen- 
 narelli says, " The official journal might have added, 
 that the times were improving, because another Judge 
 at Ravenna condemned eight hundred in a single 
 sentence; and this Judge, moreover, was a Cardinal 
 of the holy Roman Catholic Church, and was called 
 Rivarola, who died a few years ago." * 
 
 If the Judges and superior officers were such, 
 we may tell what the subordinates would be. From 
 the harrowing evidence before us, we will only take 
 one example. t It is an extract from the depositions 
 in a process at law. In 1853, one of the witnesses 
 named Cussini says : " The officer of police, 
 Paganini, had me taken down into a cellar, by six 
 
 * Luiti dello Siato Somano, p. ixxix. 
 t " Documenfs," vol. ii., p. 604. 
 
THE PAPAL GOVERNMENT OP THE KOMAGNA. 209 
 
 or seven of his men, where he made them cover my 
 mouth and beat me with sticks, in order that he 
 might teach me what I was to say; and then he 
 began to recount to me, part by part, this crime 
 of house-breaking ; and, for fear of being further 
 bastinaded, I assented to everything." The same 
 witness, at a subsequent examination, said, "The 
 sub-constables will themselves tell you that several 
 days Paganini had me taken into his own office, and 
 thei'C, armed with a knife, he threatened to cut my 
 throat; aud he did give me some slight wounds, 
 insisting that I should confess a crime that I did 
 not know. He took me by the hair, he kicked me ; 
 he gave me blows with his fist, and he beat me in 
 every possible way." Another witness says, " He 
 kept me closely confined for fourteen days, making 
 me hear every night the beatings that he gave to the 
 other prisoners; and making me observe that he set 
 his great dog upon those wretches, and it bit them. 
 He told me that he should treat me in the same way, 
 if I did not tell the truth as to the house-breaking at 
 Olmo ; and then I had to say not only what was 
 true, but also what Paganini wished, in order to 
 exempt me from the cruelties which he used to the 
 others. The cudgelling employed by Paganini is 
 indescribable, and anybody would teU what is not 
 true to escape it." This evidence is confii-med by 
 that of one of the sub-constables, who describes the 
 
5j10 chapter IX. 
 
 manner of action. He says that the " officer put 
 a handkerchief into the mouth of the prisoner that he 
 was going to flog ; then he rolled a sheet about his 
 head, in order that his howls should not be heard ; 
 that he had done this with Cussini, and then beat 
 him with sticksj at which I was present several 
 times, as also three other sub-constables," whom he 
 names. "I take it, that in treating the prisoners in 
 this way, he had the orders of the Governor, of 
 whom he is a great friend, and also of the superiors in 
 Bologna." Another sub-constable says that the blows 
 of the stick given to Cussini anjounted to sixty. 
 
 Amid all these horrors enacted by the Priests in 
 temporal government, they did not neglect spiritual 
 matters. In March, 1S50, a convention of Car- 
 dinals, Bishops, and Archbishops, met in Loretto, 
 and adopted an edict which, by authority of the 
 Pope, was republished in the Lent of 1856. Tliis is 
 directed against the prevalent sins of the country, 
 especially against blasphemy, non-observance of 
 holy days, profanity in churches, violation of fasts, 
 and immorality. The decrees will be found in the 
 Appendix.* It is enacted that all insults offered to 
 the name of God, or the Virgin, or the saints, shall 
 be punished by imprisonment from ten to thirty 
 days, — a slur upon St. Anthony, and an offence 
 against the thrice holy name, being joined together : 
 
 * Appendix E. 
 
THE PAPAL GOVERNMENT OF THE KOMAGNA. 211 
 
 for a second fault, the penalty shall be heavier, and 
 prison fare be sometimes changed for bread and 
 water. In case of obstinacy the full penalties of the 
 canon law must come in " at the will of the Ordi- 
 nary." All those strokes to be laid on at the pri- 
 vate will of a single man ! Keepers of coffee-houses, 
 hotels, public-houses, and eating-houses are bound 
 to reprove and turn out blasphemers ; and, if they 
 cannot do so, immediately to give information to the 
 Holy Office; "and failing this, they wiU be pro- 
 ceeded against with the greatest rigour." 
 
 It is carefully stated that the penalty here 
 expressed does not apply to persons who deliberately 
 utter anything heretical ; that they are not simply 
 blasphemers, but heretics, or suspected of heresy ; 
 and that these must be proceeded with, not sum- 
 marily, as the others, but by canon law ; and, under 
 pain of excommunication in the largest sense, all 
 are charged to inform upon any persons whom they 
 have ever heard uttering heretical blasphemies. 
 
 The non-observance of holy days is to be punished 
 with a fine of from five pauls to three scudi, (from 
 two to twelve shillings,) and with imprisonment 
 of from two to twelve days. The penalty to be 
 doubled for a repetition of the offence. Those who 
 do not keep the fasts are to be punished with the 
 very same penalties. It is formally stated that " the 
 names of informers and witnesses will be kept 
 p 3 
 
212 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 secret;" and immediately following this are tie 
 words, " The fines shall go half for the benefit of 
 sacred buildings, as appointed by the Ordinary, and 
 the other half shall be divided between the informer 
 and the police, if they have had to do with the 
 case ; " and then comes the provision that if the 
 punishment is not fine, but imprisonment, the person 
 convicted, if he has the means, shall pay fifty baiocchi 
 (about two shillings) to the informer and the police. 
 To these decrees are placed the names of three Cardi- 
 nals, four Archbishops, and twelve Bishops. This 
 incitement and bribe to spy and inform is to be put 
 up in the sacristy of every parish church, and in all 
 the houses of entertainment in the country. 
 
 The " Documents " contain a decree of an Inqui- 
 sitor Genera], which will also be found in the Appen- 
 dix,* in which he lays upon all the duty of informing 
 not only against heretics, but those who are suspected 
 or reported to be such, or favourers, or receivers, or 
 defenders of them; and in this respect the poor 
 heretics are put in a much worse position than Jews, 
 Mahometans, and Heathens, because, in their case, 
 nothing is said about persons who are " suspected," 
 or " reported," or who " favour," " receive," or 
 "defend" them, but simply of the open crimi- 
 nals themselves. Another matter upon which 
 all good subjects are bound to inform, with the 
 
 * Appundix F. 
 
THE PAPAL GOVERNMENT OF THE KOMAGNA. 213 
 
 certainty of having their neighbours punished and 
 their own names kept secret, is against all who 
 have done " anything from which can be inferred an 
 express or tacit compact with the devil, by exor- 
 cising, incantations, magic, witchcraft, or offering to 
 him odours, incense, or prayers to find treasure, or 
 doing anything else in which his name and work 
 comes in." KafSrIand and Italy are close together ! 
 
 In addition to all these edicts is another from the 
 Bishop of Senigagli, the native city of Pio Nono, in 
 which he enacts, that young persons affianced shall 
 not be permitted to have private interviews before 
 they are married, or give or receive presents ; and all 
 parents or heads of families are held accountable for 
 preventing disobedience ; and it is positively added, 
 immediately after, that every person who breaks this 
 law will be punished with fifteen days' imprisonment, 
 and he must maintain himself at his own expense ; 
 the presents shall be forfeited, and applied to such 
 pious uses as may be appointed; and then follows, 
 in case of obstinacy, the more terrible but less 
 tangible punishment of excommunication. 
 
 All this seems very horrible as a means of demo- 
 ralizing society, setting neighbour against neighbour, 
 and making every foot tread as if every step was over 
 the hollow echoing chambers of the Inquisition. 
 
 The question naturally comes, "Does any thing 
 practical ever arise from this, in our day?" If you 
 
214 CHAPTEK TX. 
 
 turn to vol. i.^ p. 316, of these "Documents/' you will 
 find that in Bertinora, a city of four thousand inhabi- 
 tants, the Court, composed of five Judges, a Vicar- 
 General, an Archdeacon, and three others, tried 
 Baptist Orlati under the charge of irreverence in 
 church, insulting a Priest, and uttering heresy. The 
 very words of their own sentence charge him with 
 only these ofiences : — attending with disrespect, 
 and without due reverence, in the holy temple, 
 during the celebration of the Divine mysteries ; 
 refusing to give homage to God; showing himself 
 continually sitting with his cap on his head, in 
 church, even while the most holy host was elevated 
 for the adoration of the faithful. When he was 
 charitably admonished by the reverend chief Priest, 
 he did not hesitate to utter vile language, and this 
 to the great scandal of the people assembled in the 
 church; and, in fine, he uttered heretical words, 
 saying that Jesus Christ was one who did not know 
 all, or could not know all, because He would then 
 have sent His Apostles to preach in the New World, 
 which was not discovered ; and also expressing 
 himself that he believed in nothing but death, 
 because it is the end of life, and there is neither 
 paradise nor hell. 
 
 These, then, are the charges of which this man 
 was held guilty. He was rich, educated, and, his 
 Judges say, keen and clever in business. And to 
 
THE PAPAL GOVERNMENT OF THE ROMAGNA. 215 
 
 what is he sentenced? First, to five years in 
 the galleys, for his irreverence in church : — on this 
 point the Court was not unanimous, one Judge 
 demurring. Por the second offence, of insulting the 
 Priestj he is sentenced to a year of imprisonment, 
 after the expiration of his five years, — and that 
 unanimously : — and for the third offence, of uttering 
 heresy, to another year of imprisonment, to begin at 
 the end of the sixth ; and this too, it would appear, 
 was unanimous. Let it be repeated, that the date 
 of this judgment was "Bertinora, the 21st of June, 
 1855." In the Lutii dello Stato Romano, at p. 67, 
 we have the following narrative : — 
 
 Punishment tor Blasphemy. 
 
 In the city of Fermo, two citizens were accused 
 of blasphemy. The Bishop commanded them to be 
 bound and put in prison ; afterwards, on a high day, 
 he had them carried to an open place outside the 
 city gates. They were made to kneel down, and the 
 mordacchia was placed on the lips of one, and on the 
 tongue of the other. One died not many hours 
 after having undergone the punishment, and the life 
 of the other was in great danger. For strangers, 
 who may be ignorant of it, we will teU what the 
 mordacchia is. It is formed of two rods, which at 
 the two extremities can be compressed together by 
 the force of steel springs. The mouth of the 
 
216 CHAPTEE IX. 
 
 sufTerer being opened, his hands and feet tied, and 
 he made to put out his tongue ; the tongue itself is 
 pressed between the rods closed by the springs. 
 Thus the wretch remains with his tongue out 
 of his mouth, tortured by that barbarous instru« 
 ment. Little by little the tongue enlarges, an^ 
 thrusts out the lips. If the victim should refuse to 
 put out the tongue, the executioners take his lips, 
 and press them between the two steel springs; so 
 that the mouth remains closed against respiration, 
 the steel springs stick to the lips, and the anguish 
 of the sufferer cannot vent itself by cries, and 
 escapes only tlirough the eyes, the colour of the face, 
 and frequently by a paroxysm of convulsion. In the 
 execution at Fermo, a doctor declared that the men 
 tortured would die in less than an hour unless the 
 punishment ceased. The barbarity, however, was 
 carried to such an extent, as to compel them to walk 
 to the prison (a mile) with the mordacchia, through 
 which, as we have said, one of them, Luigi Tacchi, 
 died a few hours after. 
 
 One of the last men with whom I talked in 
 Bologna, looking out of an eye where consumption 
 gleamed, said, " Sir, the Almighty is tired of 
 Rome." 
 
C|spto f. 
 
 THE APENNINES. 
 
Looking at tiie map, one is led to ask tow 
 much of the space between Bologna and Florence 
 is occupied by the mountains; but the fact is, 
 that, whatever the map may suggest, the whole 
 is only the Apennines. In nature a chain of 
 mountains is not the same regular thing as upon, 
 a map : it spreads itself out and out ; subsiding 
 ranges falling off from the great central one, until 
 gradually the plain is reached. When the barrier 
 is a river, near the shore it is shallow, and in the 
 middle deep; so, when it is a mountain, near the 
 edges it is low, and in the middle high. By vet- 
 turino* the journey occupies nearly two days. At 
 a short distance from the gates of Bologna, you 
 become engaged in the hills ; and whUe you are upon 
 their last slopes, the Queen of the Arno is delighting 
 your eyes. Our vetturino had a young friend whom 
 he got or took permission to carry to Florence, so 
 that, altogether, we made seven for the mountains. 
 
 The scenes were of ravines, torrents, ridges, peaks, 
 
 * A coachman who carries you in his own carriage, for a journey, 
 however long. 
 
220 CHAPTER X. 
 
 slopes, steepsj and windings ; the view now narrow- 
 ing to a few yards, now sweeping over tracts of 
 mountain wild, now going out and away over terri- 
 tories where, deeply down and distant on the plain, 
 cities showed white like the curling waves of the far- 
 oiF sea. Every now and then two oxen were yoked 
 before our five horses, and tugged away honestly. 
 Cultivation struggled with the mountains. Every few 
 miles, a flat-roofed village of big, but very dirty and 
 uncomfortable houses. At Pianoro I got out, went 
 about the village, and made friends with a boy in a 
 smithy. It was as clean and nice as any smithy I 
 ever saw. The beUows were really grand, made of 
 oak, with fine brass nails, and well preserved leathers, 
 and kept cleaner than the tables in hotels, — a gentle- 
 manly pair of big bellows. The people generally looked 
 pretty well fed and clothed, but they begged almost 
 like Neapolitans. At one village a number of rosy 
 children were whining for " something ;" but one 
 fine little fellow stood by, beside his father, asking 
 nothing. I called him, gave him half a paiil, and 
 took care to tell him that it was because he did not 
 beg. what joy ! and the father seemed as pleased 
 as the child. He cried, "The Signore gives him 
 half a paul because he asked nothing. Ecco ! " 
 The other men standing by evidently felt the rebuke, 
 but did not seem to like it. 
 
 The first time I got out to have a walk, a decent 
 
THE APENNINES. 221 
 
 mountaineer said, "You will have tough work to 
 cross the mountain to-day ; it blows so hard that, 
 high up, it win almost upset your carriage. The 
 last few days it has been terrible ; even the mails 
 were stopped." It did blow; but I said nothing 
 about the prophecy of an upset, and happily, except- 
 ing some personal discomfort, we had no bad effects 
 from the wind. "No brigands? " I asked. "O no, 
 none : while we were under the Priests, there were 
 plenty of brigands ; but since the ItaHan Government 
 came into power, none." 
 
 The young friend of the vetturino, as we tugged 
 up a hill together, said, without being asked, " You 
 see, Signor, the effect of the change from the govern- 
 ment of the Priests. This road used always to be 
 dangerous, robberies going on every day ; now, none." 
 
 The vetturino himself told one of the ladies that 
 the Priests used to disguise themselves as brigands, 
 and do a little business on their own account ; but 
 this was, doubtless, only an illuminated edition of the 
 common story, that the robbers shared spoils with 
 them. When the young man already alluded to was 
 saying these terrible things of the Priests, I reminded 
 him that he must not lay alltheirfaults against religion. 
 
 " O," he said, " no ; you must not think that I am 
 an atheist. I am a Catholic ; but I cannot profess 
 to believe all the things that they teach us. There 
 is a deal of nonsense that no thoughtful man can 
 
222 CHAPTEK X. 
 
 believe; but still I do believe in God and in 
 Christ." 
 
 " Then how do you account for it, that there are 
 so many things you call superstitions and follies, if 
 you say you still believe ? " 
 
 This seemed a point that he had not gone into, 
 and he asked me how it was. " The matter is simply 
 this : religion, as the Apostles planted it, was just 
 as if it had been sent down from heaven : and it had 
 been. It took root upon our earth, a Divine and 
 beneficent thing; and, had its principles been steadily 
 adhered to, would have regenerated all human 
 society. Instead of that, those principles were gradu- 
 ally overlaid with corruptions adopted from the old 
 superstitions of this country and other countries. To 
 this was added the invention of doctrines. By these 
 two, mark, by corruption and invention, one change 
 and another came in, until now the whole is so 
 altered, that it is very difficult to discover the 
 original. It can only be found by going back to 
 the word of God, and studying, in the writings of the 
 Apostles themselves, what sort of Ministers they 
 were, and what the Churches they founded; and 
 that is what all you Italians must do." 
 
 "Well, Signore," he said, "we often say that the reli- 
 gion of the Pope is not the religion of Jesus Christ ; and 
 yet we do not want to give up Jesus Christ; but I sup- 
 pose it is as you say, that things have been changed." 
 
THE APENNINES. 223 
 
 " Yes, almost everything has been changed." 
 " What has been changedj Signore ? " 
 " Worship has been changed. It was a purely 
 spiritual worship ; now Christian temples are full of 
 images, and before these men and women are taught 
 to say their prayers. It was in every man's own 
 tongue, a service of singing, praying, preaching, and 
 in private meetings of mutual exhortation and fellow- 
 ship ; now it is a mystic ceremony, in an unknown 
 tongue. The ministry has been changed. It was a 
 ministry of Pastors and Teachers, whose business it 
 was to instruct the people, and show them Christian 
 examples of all personal and domestic virtues. This 
 has been changed into a Priesthood, which professes 
 to repeat the sacrifice of the Son of God : they never 
 marry, and give themselves out as constituting an 
 infallible body, to whom men must implicitly submit 
 their consciences." 
 
 " Ah ! " he growled, " that is a change." 
 " The Sacraments have been changed. Of old, the 
 very name of the Lord's Supper was the breaking of 
 bread. The Disciples both ate of the bread and 
 drank of the wine ; now, as to the cup, they do not 
 even give it to the people; and as to the bread, 
 it is a wafer, so made that it shall not be broken. 
 Besides this, they have added five other sacraments 
 to the two that were instituted by our Lord." 
 " Dear me, anything else changed ? " 
 
224 CHAPTER X. 
 
 " Yes, the mode of finding absolution is changed." 
 
 "Ah!» 
 
 " In the days of the Apostles, when a man asked 
 what he was to do to find pardon, he was told to 
 repent of his sins, and to believe in the Lord Jesus 
 Christ. Now, they have changed repentance into 
 doing penance ; and, instead of telling men simply 
 to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, they tell them 
 to go in private, and confess all to a Priest, and then 
 believe too ; and the Priest privately pronounces 
 absolution." 
 
 "And do you say that the Apostles did not do 
 that?" 
 
 I looked at him as calmly as I could, and said, 
 " Look into my face, and see if you can trust me." 
 
 " Yes, Signore," he said," I can." 
 
 " Did you ever read the New Testament ? " 
 
 " Never." 
 
 " Well, then, I have read it every word, over and 
 over again ; and I can tell you that in it all there is 
 not a word about any of the twelve Apostles ever 
 having taken a man to confess to himself, or sent 
 him to confess to any Priest whatever, that he might 
 obtain the Priest's absolution. There is no such 
 word." 
 
 " There is no such word ! O dear ! what a 
 change ! Anything else changed ? " 
 
 " Yes," I said, " there is somethmg changed, per- 
 
THE APENNINES. 225 
 
 haps, that you would not think of; even the Com- 
 mandments of God are changed. Do you know the 
 Commandments of God ? " 
 
 " O, yes ! " he said, " I know the Commandments 
 of God." 
 
 " Will you repeat them ? " 
 
 He said, "You know there ai'e Ten Command- 
 ments of God, and five of the Church : which do you 
 mean ? " 
 
 "I mean the Ten Commandments of God." 
 
 " Yes," he said, " I know them." 
 
 " But, first of all, will you tell me what the five 
 Commandments of the Church are ? Which do you 
 learn first in the Catechism ? " 
 
 " O ! in the Catechism, we first learn the five 
 Commandments of the Church." 
 
 " Well, tell me what they are." 
 
 " 1. Hear mass every Sunday, and on other 
 appointed feasts. 2. Fast on the days appointed, 
 and do not eat meat on Friday or Saturday. 3. 
 Confess at least once in the year, and take the Com- 
 nmnion at Easter. 4. Do not mai-ry in forbidden 
 times. 5. Pay the tithes.". 
 
 "Then these," I said, "are the Commandments of 
 the Church ? " 
 
 "Yes, the five Commandments of the Church." 
 
 " And you are taught them before the others ? " 
 
226 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 " YeSj the others are tlie Ten Commandments of 
 God." 
 
 " Very wellj wliat are they ? " 
 
 "1. I am the Lord thy God; thou shalt have 
 no other God before Me. 2. Thou shalt not take 
 the name of God in vain." 
 
 I said, " Are you sure you are correct ? " 
 
 " Yes, Sit," he said, " quite sure. Yes." 
 
 " What, then, is the third ? " 
 
 " Eemember that you keep holy the feasts." 
 
 " Are you sure you are right ? " 
 
 " O yes." * 
 
 " Then what is the fourth ? " 
 
 " Honour your father and mother." 
 
 * The form of the second and third Commandments, as given in the 
 Catechism, often varies. It will be seen that the form here repeated is 
 an abridgment such as may be found in many editions of the Bottrhm 
 Christiana, or Popular Church Catechism, in Italy. In the copy 
 now before me they stand thus : — 
 
 " Q. — Repeat the Commandments of God. 
 
 "A. — The Commandments of God are ten. 1. I am tlie Lord lliy 
 God; thou shalt have no other god before Me. 2. Thou shalt not talie 
 the name of the Lord thy God in vain. 3. Eemember that tliou keep 
 holy the feasts. 4. Honour thy father and thy mother. 5. Thou shalt 
 not kill. 6. Thou shalt not commit fornication. 7. Thou shalt not 
 steal. 8. Do not bear false witness. 9. Thou shalt not covet the 
 wife of another. 10. Thou shalt not covet the goods of another." — • 
 Compendio della DoUrina Christiana ad Vso della Cilta e Diocesi 
 di Comn, di cut per ordine di Mons. Yescovo Caelo Eomano 
 dc'ohono servirsi in avvenire i CaUchisii e Maestri nelle Chicse della 
 DoUrina Christiana, Lut/aiio. 1S55. 
 
THE APENNINES. 227 
 
 "Nowj" I said, "Are you quite sure you are 
 right as to the second? " 
 
 " Certainly," he said ; " of course, I don't forget 
 the Decalogue." 
 
 "Well, now, I have to tell you that these Ten 
 Commandments have been changed." 
 
 "What, Signor? the Commandments of God 
 changed ! " 
 
 " Yes ; I am very sorry to say it, the Command- 
 ments of God have been changed." 
 
 " But is not the law of God unchangeable ? " 
 
 " The law of God is unchangeable, and those Ten 
 Commandments were written by Him with His own 
 finger upon tables of stone, that men might know 
 for ever that these laws could not be changed ; and 
 that, however they might forget them upon earth, 
 the hand of God would maintain them to eternity 
 in heaven. But still the Priests of Rome have 
 changed them." 
 
 " But how ? What change ? " 
 
 " You have been taught by them that the second 
 Commandment is, 'Thou shalt not take the name 
 of the Lord thy God in vain.' Now, none of what 
 you have learned is the exact words of any Com- 
 mandment. They give you the substance of 
 several of them, and what they call the second is 
 the third, and they have cut one Commandment 
 clean out, and thrown it away " 
 Q 2 
 
228 CHAPTER X. 
 
 " 0, Signore ! you don't say that. They would 
 never do that, because they must know that they 
 would be found out." 
 
 " They do know that they are found out. Their 
 own Bible contains a Commandment which in the 
 Catechism iSj as I tell you, thrown away. And do 
 you know what that second Commandment is ? " 
 
 "No; I never heard any second Commandment 
 but the one I have mentioned." 
 
 "Then it is to the effect that people shall not 
 make graven images, or bow down before them and 
 worship them." 
 
 "0 ! " he said, "no wonder they have put that away." 
 
 Ridge after ridge was passed ; the wind grew 
 fiercer, and the view swept over a larger 
 succession of mountains, while the plain stretched 
 out further and further, and gradually grew blue, 
 as we are wont to see distant hills ; but still upon its 
 bosom the cities gleamed in the sun. When we had 
 reached a very high elevation, when the road wound, 
 the mysteriously distant plain would wind too; 
 cities, perhaps a day's journey apart, following each 
 other as in a magic lantern. It was a strange and 
 touching effect, having in it something of awe and 
 mystery. How real earth is, yet how little ! Ilovr 
 widely separated its objects when viewed from the 
 common level ! how near together when viewed from 
 
THE APENNINES. 229 
 
 on high! And away yonderj over the last hillsj 
 beyond and beyond the utmost edge of the hazy 
 plainj and yet on this side of the horizon^ shows a 
 line of steadier^ clearer blue. Certainly it is not 
 mountain, and it looks more like water than land. 
 Is it the Adriatic ? Yes, the Adriatic. Far, far away, 
 not gleaming clearly, like the Dead Sea from Olivet, 
 or spreading out grandly, like the Mediterranean 
 from Nazareth ; but doubtfully visible, like a mirage, 
 yet steady as the sea. As the evening wore on, we 
 passed the frontier, leaving behind the old realms 
 of the Pope, and entering Tuscany. No stoppage, 
 no search, no call for passports. A shut-up Custom- 
 Plouse is a silent monument of divisions at an end. 
 From Piedmont into Lombardy one, into Parma 
 two, into Modena three, into the Romagna four, 
 into Tuscany five. Yes, five old frontiers passed 
 without even seeing a soldier, or undergoing a 
 stoppage ! To a traveller unions are something. 
 
 Almost immediately after passing the frontier, 
 appearances began to change; the fields and hedges 
 bad a more finished look. With all its defects, the 
 Tuscan Government was very different from the 
 Papal one. StiU one would not have thought that 
 up three thousand feet or so above the level of the 
 sea, traces of this difference would appear j but it is 
 so. A change is traceable in the better condition 
 of the land, the houses, the people. 
 
230 CHAPTER X. 
 
 The evening was falling fast ; tlie wind was terribly 
 liigh; the horses said, "We are tired," and, like 
 Gilpin, I responded, " So am 1." We came to a 
 point where a volley of air smote the horses, and 
 shook the carriage ; but in a moment more we were 
 coursing down hill, and down and down, with a great 
 valley widening below, and two torrents meeting in 
 its depth, then hasting away to the Po ; for still we 
 "R'ere to the north of the water-shed of these tough 
 Apennines. 
 
 " That is the house ! " " No ! " " That one ! " 
 " No, here." " No, there ; " as one house and 
 another showed itself, and as one or another chose 
 to guess. At last it did come ; Covigliajo, the lone 
 post-house, almost at the top of the Apennines ; and 
 out we got, right thankful, and gathered up our 
 m.ultifarious wraps, under the eyes of a number of 
 officers billeted here for the night. 
 
 Much as one was impressed with the distant views 
 from the Apennines, I several times thought that I 
 had never crossed a great mountain range which 
 offered less beauty to enliven the grandeur ; but it is 
 to be said that I never before crossed one with a 
 ranting toothache. O, how pleasant was that 
 blazing wood fire in the post-house at Covigliajo, and 
 rooms looking clean and smelling sweet, and a civil 
 old man, whose words were rather hard to under- 
 stand, because they came out from toothless lips ; 
 
THE APENNINES. 231 
 
 bn.t tliis fallen mouth was to me just then a strong 
 title to esteemj for it represented many a day of that 
 sort of suffering I had just been going through. 
 
 "The mountain air is so fine," I said; "but it 
 seems to me not to be particularly good for tooth- 
 ache." 
 
 The old man looked a very long while; "No," 
 he said, as if it was no trifle. Then deepening his 
 tone, he repeated, " No, it tries it worse and worse." 
 
 How thankful and cheery we all were by that cosy 
 fire ! What a dinner the old man gave us ! And 
 then how the ladies brewed poppy-heads, and tried 
 by hot applications to charm away the pain that had 
 been tormenting me for the day ! And thus, at this 
 high part of the world, began my first experience of 
 fomentations. But in spite of the scalded fingers 
 of the ladies, and my wonder at the heroism of nursing, 
 and the poppy-heads, and a good bed, and fatigue, 
 and mountain air, pain was too strong for sleep. 
 
 After four miles of further travelling the next 
 morning, we reach the highest point, and now take 
 the westward slope. The descent is rapid, the views 
 over the mountains again grand. 
 
 Several times during the day the immense range 
 
 of mountains and the variety of chains reminded me 
 
 for a moment of the scene from the top of Serbal, 
 
 in the Sinaitic Desert, and it was the only 
 
 , mountain scenery that ever did. Yet there is no 
 
232 CHAPTER X. 
 
 proper comparison between the two. From Serbal 
 the ridges seen are as distinct^ and, one is ready to 
 say, as numerous, as the roofs of the various streets 
 of London seen from St. Paul's. The extent of the 
 view is far greater than even that from the Apennines, 
 and, strange to say, though there is scarcely a rag of 
 vegetation, except at two points, the variety of colours 
 is vastly grander. 
 
 We soon struck upon the first vines ; then they 
 came more frequeutly, then the air sensibly grew 
 milder, then cultivation began to cover all the hills. 
 In an hour or two we had real vineyards, and nume- 
 rous villages. Violets came out ; hepatica and prim- 
 rose and hellebore, with lilacs budding in the valleys, 
 told us that we were coming nearer and nearer to 
 the Vale of Flora. So it went on, growing greener, 
 warmer, and more flowery, till the last spurs of the 
 mountain were reached, and the valley came into 
 view. The snow was nearly off the mountains, and 
 the sun very bright. Long and far the Arno 
 stretched and gleamed, not hiding, like the Thames 
 from Richmond Hill, but winding in the sun to be 
 seen of all. On we swept, past hills covered with 
 olive and vine, each plant of the latter climbing upon 
 its trusty mulberry, and the three together telling of 
 the country's native wealth — oil, silk, and wine. On 
 among square white houses, and convents upon hill- 
 tops, surrounded by cypresses, heavy-headed palaces. 
 
THE APENNINES. 233 
 
 country carts, so old and ugly, and the people in 
 their odd costumes, and the almond-trees in blossom, 
 and the pervading olive-green. At last, at last the 
 dome, then the tower of the Old Palace, and the 
 glistening bulk of beautiful Florence. All the cold 
 of the mountain, all the fatigue of the ride was for- 
 gotten. We were all merry as larks, and even the 
 surly face-ache owned the mild air, and confined 
 itself to low and stifled grumbles. 
 
 Just as we were scouring along in the enjoyment 
 of this scene, the coachman and his friend called 
 attention to a spectacle at which they joked. A 
 man was leading a mule, another man walking 
 beside it, and on it was seated a Pi'lest in his white 
 surplice. "He is going," they said, "to administer 
 extreme unction to some one who is dying." Ah ! 
 they may ridicule him and his offices ; but that 
 surplice flitting among the olives represents the most 
 tremendous power in this world. Is that a son, or 
 a husband, or a father, that is conducting him ? Be 
 it one or the other, he thinks that man seated on the 
 mule holds in his hand the power to give the soul 
 of his mother, or his wife, or his child, its title to 
 enter the kingdom of God. Pie has probably 
 hastened from his home in terror at the thought 
 that death might arrive before the Priest ; and so over 
 Irish bogs or Italian mountains, or other wild and 
 lonely scenes, men with aching hearts often hurry, 
 
234 CHAPTER X. 
 
 to invoke this mysterious talisman. Other Priest- 
 hoods are content with holding in their hands 
 power over men in this life. The Brahmin leaves the 
 soul of the father, as far as it can be influenced from 
 earth, to the charge of the son, laying upon him the 
 duty of offering the sacrifices that will appease the 
 manes : and it is only the Priests of Rome who have 
 the dread art of first shadowing the spirit of man 
 with their hand at every step of his course below, 
 and then extending their power into the world to 
 come; so that his welfare there depends again upon 
 their intervention. Thus, over survivors, they hold 
 the double inSuence of conveying their own absolu- 
 tion, and, yet more tremendous, of directly con- 
 trolling that of their departed kindred ! The art of 
 selling for money redemption for the dead, is all 
 their own. Do not laugh at that peasant and that 
 Priest; the spectacle has too deep a meaning for 
 that ! 
 
 How would it read in apostolic writing that a 
 disciple from Bethany had hastened into Jerusalem 
 with his ass, to carry out Peter in haste to give the 
 last sacrament to his mother, that she might die 
 absolved ? The son would have hailed the presence 
 of Peter as an additional light in the sick-room ; but 
 with it, or without it, he and his mother would have 
 parted rejoicing in hope of the glory of God. 
 
€\ni^ttx H. 
 
 FLOBENCE, 
 
 AT THE AEEIVAL OF THE PRKCB 
 
 0? CARIGM^'O; AND ALSO AT THE EECEPTION 
 
 OP VICTOR EllIASUEL. 
 
We passed the beantifal gate, the Porta di Gallo, 
 and here, for the first time since landing at Bou- 
 lognOj our passports M-ere asked for. This, then, is 
 a token of the Tuscan autonomy ; but ther are only 
 looked at. On we go by the Piazza S. Marco, on by 
 the grand old Cathedral -srith its rows of parti- 
 coloured marble, and superb tower of the same, and 
 its facade as bald as any ga.ble in England. 
 
 Are we in for a fete again? At Turin the fete 
 of the annexation, and the King's birthday j at 
 Milan, the anniversary of the five days ; at Parma, 
 the first entry of Piedmontese cavalry ; at Bologna, 
 the General Election; and here, at Florence, vrhat 
 can there be ? Banners ! banners ! banners ! it 
 must be a fete too. As we turned into the Httle 
 square by the Arno, just before the "Isew York" 
 Hotel, the head of a Piedmont€se column was 
 winding round the comer, amidst flags, and music, 
 and bouquets, and branches, and aU tokens of 
 interest. " A fete to-day ? " I said to the master 
 of the hotel. " Yes, the troops are coming in to-day, 
 and to-morrow the Prince." ""What Prince?" 
 " Of Carignano, who is coming as Lieutenant of 
 
2S3 CHAPTER SI. 
 
 Tuscany, in the King's place; and the King himself 
 will come next month, after he has opened the Par- 
 liament." The next morning the city was all astir ; 
 every street running over with people, and every 
 window streaming with flags. As to the tone of 
 conversation, it was just the same as elsewhere; 
 with this great advantage, that, instead of speaking 
 a dialect, the people speak Italian, so that a foreigner 
 has a much better chance of understanding and 
 being understood. Between two and three o'clock 
 I was chatting with the people in the street directly 
 before the hotel, when a movement showed that the 
 procession was coming, and much nearer than I had 
 any idea of. Paying for a staud on a bench, I 
 jumped up. In a few minutes came a resplendent 
 show of silken banners, red, white, and green; 
 all carried by working men,' yet not one of 
 cotton or stuff was there. The never-forgotten flag 
 in crape, borne by Venetians, passed amid special 
 tokens of emotion. As to dress, the men were a 
 cross between a London and a Paris crowd : they had 
 not the broadcloth coats or the black hats of the 
 former; but they had not the blouse and cap of 
 Paris. It was generally some sort of coarse woollen 
 coat and felt hat. They were not so clean as a body 
 of London working men, nor so intelligent- looking ; 
 but more polite, and as orderly as any men in this 
 world could be. Immediately after this array of the 
 
I'LOEENCE. 239 
 
 workmen, came the royal carriage, with the Prince 
 of Carignano, — a fine-looking man, apparently about 
 forty, in a splendid uniform. Bouquets poured down 
 upon him from every window in an overwhelming 
 shower. Loud clapping greeted him everywhere ; and 
 now and then the crowd burst into a cheer, at one or 
 two points almost rising to an English " Huzza ! " 
 
 As soon as he had passed, I made my way round 
 by a back street to our party at the hotel. Here, 
 the view embraced the square, densely crowded with 
 human heads, the narrow street before gleaming 
 with banners to the highest story of every house, 
 the stately procession of marching tricolours, each 
 ■with its silken sheen in the joyful light of Florence. 
 What peals of enthusiasm as the Prince turned into 
 the square ! How the bouquets competed for a 
 touch of the carriage, and feU on each side and 
 jostled oije another ; now and then one, happier than 
 the rest,- actually reaching his head. His bows had 
 less of the man, and more of the Prince, than one 
 liked. 
 
 After he had passed, following the stream across 
 the bridge, I soon became aware that they were 
 making by a short cut for the " Pitti Palace," to 
 greet him there. What a strange and grand old 
 pile it is, — Quaker-brown stones clumped together in 
 huge layers, with lower windows caged in by iron 
 gratings to the very top, as if security had never 
 
240 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 passed within that princely threshold. The square 
 before the palace was still but half filled. Seeing 
 one of the doors open, I gradually worked my way 
 to it. Gentlemen and ladies entered, and soon re- 
 appeared among the parties on the roof of the 
 two wings. Talking a little with the sober old 
 ofScial in charge of the door, I said, "I suppose 
 there is no getting up to the roof." "Walk in, 
 Signore," he replied, without a single sign of the "give 
 me a paul " look with which one is so familiar. So 
 in I went, and up the stairs, and got lost here, 
 and into a bed-room there, and into a sitting-room 
 full of ofS.cers elsewhere, and at last on to the roof 
 of one of the wings in good time. There was a 
 sight ! — the square, filled till heads were thick as 
 paving-stones. From the central doors, sweeping 
 down in a curve to the street, was an avenue about 
 fifty yards wide, lined with National Guards, not a 
 soldier to be seen. The packed and throbbing 
 masses, the windows of the houses piled with faces 
 and blazing with flags, the wings of the palace 
 crowded, its stern front with all the windows closed, 
 and below every spot, even to the grating of the 
 windows, with a human being fastened to it, and the 
 living avenue of sky-blue and red, with its files of 
 steel gleaming in such a sun as was then above us, 
 did form a dazzling and inimitable whole. 
 
 The drums beat, and the Guards stand to arms . 
 
FLORENCE. 241 
 
 the bells ring, but they are poor bells compared 
 with the eye-beauties of the place ; and at last the 
 word "Ecco! Ecco ! See! See!" runs through 
 the crowd. It is the first silk banner, and the next, 
 and the next ; and on, and on, the workmen come, 
 bearing them, not into the avenue of Guards, but 
 behind them, among the crowd, which by some 
 magic or other does let them through. Up they 
 work to the palace front, and line the inner edge 
 of the military with such a glory of colour and sheen 
 as these eyes never saw. " See ! see ! see him ! " — it 
 is the carriage slowly struggling along through the 
 crowd, not a step at a time, but half g, step ; coming 
 down that fearfully narrow street that lies between 
 the Palace of the Medici and the quaint old bridge 
 of Florence, on which one might meditate for days, 
 thinking of all the old stories of bridges with houses 
 upon them, that one has read as to London and 
 other cities. 
 
 The moment the carriage is disengaged from the 
 dense crowd, it dashes forward, the arms of the 
 National Guard rising to the salute, and flashing 
 again. Every hand in that great crowd is clapped, 
 every voice lifted up, and flags and pocket-handker- 
 chiefs show joy in every form. He is gone in under 
 the palace porch, to re-appear after a while on the 
 balcony, and make his bow. 
 
 Before this was done, the patience of the people 
 
243 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 begau to be exhausted. They had to call for him 
 again and again ; and a neighbour of mine, first in 
 Italian, then in very bad French, and then with a 
 good Irish accent, expressed his great indignation at 
 his not coming out to show himself. During the 
 delay the National Guard filed off. Everything like 
 a weapon had disappeared. All around the palace 
 was nothing but the great crowd of human beings. 
 They raised one shout more, — " The Prince outside ! 
 The Prince to the balcony ! Let the Prince show 
 his countenance !" — when one of the shutters— for 
 all the windows of the palace were closed — was 
 drawn open, and oilt came the Prince, without a 
 guard behind or a guard before, safe and strong in 
 the midst of a multitude. Then the enthusiasm 
 became incredible. Even the heavy flags waved like 
 ribands ; and as for the pocket-handkerchiefs, they 
 fairly lost their senses. I had seen the fete 
 de la Fraternite in Paris, and many others there ; 
 the great doings at Milan the other day, and of 
 course many national festivities in London : things 
 on a greater scale often ; but for grace, beauty, and 
 feeling, for the gratification of the senses, and for 
 hope that good results were coming, I never saw the 
 equal of this, before that grand but suspicious- 
 looking old palace. 
 
 As one looked down in the intervals of action, 
 how impressive was that mass of heads, human heads, 
 
FLORENCE. 243 
 
 each enclosing its own invisible world of passions, 
 cares, and secrets j each having its account open 
 with eternity; each its sins and coming judgment ! 
 Poor heads ! tossing and waving, and burning with 
 zeal for a great movement. May God send grace 
 upon them ! They seem possessed only with patri- 
 otic thoughts, thoughts so far right, even laudable. 
 But He who is making that sun pour rays on every 
 single head, can easily send beams of light to shine 
 within, and open up new glories to the view and 
 efforts of their souls. O, for an effusion of God's 
 own Spirit upon this multitude ! Surely my prayer 
 was not the only one to that effect which went 
 up there. 
 
 In one of the first visits paid after this exciting 
 scene, I met a poor man who had been ill and suffer- 
 ing. He was one of the first Florentines who, 
 through the reading of the' Bible, had become con- 
 vinced that the Church of Rome did not represent 
 the religion there taught^ and who consequently had 
 drawn upon themselves first the suspicion, and then 
 the severity, of the Government. Count Guicciar- 
 dini had been one who shared with this poor man in 
 the same studies at the fountain of Christianity, in 
 the same resulting convictions, and finally in 
 dangers and sufferings. One day, at a Httle meet- 
 ing in a private house, the police came upon them ; 
 E 2 
 
244 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 seven men were seized, thrown into prison, and 
 sentenced to six months' confinement in the Ma- 
 remma. This last word intimates a punishment 
 which it is impossible to describe, being exposure to 
 death, without a sentence of execution. The Ma- 
 rerama means a malarious district, where every one, 
 and especially those not inured to it, are exposed to 
 fever; and a prison placed here is considered a 
 convenient plan for getting rid of people whom it 
 would not be becoming to hang. However, they 
 were not left in the Maremma, but were finally 
 exiled. These persecutions had been continued 
 from time to time ; the one case which attracted most 
 attention in England, not being that of the Count, 
 but the humljle Madiai. By degrees, however, 
 IBibles found their way in the pocket of one and 
 another, quietly and stealthily, as if crimes and 
 dangers lurked under the cover of the Book; and in 
 the same way that the Reformation took its rise in 
 England, by the reading of the word of God in 
 private first among individuals, then little knots of 
 people, so it has been taking its rise in Florence, 
 and some other parts of Tuscany. The converts 
 resulting from it have been justly described as 
 " children of the incorruptible seed." This is not the 
 result of organization, but just the quiet influence 
 of a few private Christians, united to study that Book, 
 which to the careless man is mysterious and dull. 
 
FLORENCE. 245 
 
 In one of my visits^ at the top of a great number 
 of stairs, I found a fine old woman, -with a fair, 
 happy. Christian countenance. In a ]\Iethodist circle 
 in Yorkshire she would have been called a " mother 
 in Israel." She had clear views of scriptural truth, 
 and had an open eye to public movements. As 
 Lord Normanby^s statements in the House of Lords 
 had made some noise in England, it occurred to me 
 to learn what this old lady would say about them. 
 She affirmed that all his statements about disorders 
 and acts of violence were positively false. As to 
 Giuseppe Dolfi, the baker, whcm he set up to the 
 Lords for abhorrence, she said he was the one most 
 worthy man of the lower classes ; a man who had 
 spent a fortune for the public good. Presently, in 
 came a short country lad : " There is another 
 brother," she said with a smile, and then point- 
 ing to me, " That is a Christian brother from 
 England." I held out my hand cordially, but my 
 new brother planted a kiss of peace upon my 
 cheek. At present there are three Italian Protestant 
 congi'egations worshipping in Florence. One is con- 
 nected with the Vaudois Church, where the Gospel 
 is simply but efficiently preached to an assembly 
 of intelligent and respeotable-looking people : the 
 other two both seem more numerous. In one of 
 them I heard a converted Priest, a simple, but good 
 man, who affectionately urged Cliristian truths upon 
 
246 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 the attention of the people, and that with consider- 
 able moral power. The body to which he is attached 
 assemble on the banks of the Arno, in a private 
 room, for which they are far too numerous, and 
 ought at once to have a large and regular place of 
 worship. The other congregation meet in the 
 Piazza Barbano; and their singing, unlike that in 
 most Protestant congregations on the Continent, 
 would give one an impression of something more 
 than a pensive solemnity. Tliey did sing, throwing 
 heart and soul into it, and making the place ring. 
 These different congregations are evidently going 
 forward, and contain many persons of zeal, and 
 of worthy Christian life. It is much to be regretted 
 that they attach considerable importance to differ- 
 ence of views existing among themselves, as to forms 
 of Church government. Surely there can be no 
 need for Italian Christians to settle all questions of 
 that kind at once ; and if diversities of view exist, 
 what harm can be in that, provided only that 
 they are not magnified into cause of alienation? 
 Episcopalians, Presbyterians, Congregationalists, 
 Plymouth Brethren, Methodists, be they what they 
 may, all preach the same Gospel, differing only in 
 subordinate points ; all enforce the same principles 
 of worship, differing only in forms. And surely the 
 time has come when Christians may give up all 
 claims to infallibility, and believe that divergence 
 
FLOllENCE. 247 
 
 from tlieir own views does not necessarily constitute 
 even a divergence from the truth, much less an 
 opposition to it. 
 
 It was expected at the late revolution that perfect 
 religious liberty would be accorded, and much was 
 gained; but the new Government has shown itself 
 nervous upon this subject. The Priests have threat- 
 ened, and tlie Statesmen have either been afraid, or 
 professed to be so. When a gentleman arrived with 
 a few boxes containing Bibles, the Priest who still 
 held ofBce at the Custom-house, as guardian of the 
 purity of the country, cried out in horror at the 
 sight : " What is going to happen to Tuscany ? " 
 And Ricasoli, if he did not share the spiritual alarm 
 of the worthy father, felt another kind of fear, and 
 prohibited the Bibles, as if they really had been 
 dangerous. Much allowance should be made for 
 timidity in such circumstances, but at the same time 
 we know that it is one of those points which the 
 strong word of a strong man would have settled at once 
 and for ever. Had JElicasoli but said to that Priest, 
 as the public professions of himself and his col- 
 leagues had pledged him to do, " The conscience of 
 man is free in Tuscany, and the Bible is a free 
 book ! " that would have become a law against 
 which the Priests could not stand up. There is a 
 power in the assertion of sacred principles which 
 strcn^ihsns even a weak Government. 
 
248 
 
 CHAPTEIl XI. 
 
 Not only did the interim Tuscan Government 
 permit the exclusion of the Bible, but it permitted 
 several acts of coquetting with the liberty of the 
 congregations in the town; and when Gavazzi 
 arrived, expecting that, in a free country, he could 
 stand up and preach, he was held uuder restraint, 
 not thrown into prison or driven away, as he would 
 have" been at Naples or Eome, but as effectually 
 debarred from lifting up his voice in public* 
 
 Again, in different parts of the country, local 
 ofiScials were allowed to close meetings, with violence 
 and persecution ; and, most of all, the authorities of 
 the great city of Leghorn, pouncing, not upon an 
 unknown evangelist, but upon services formally 
 organized by the Vaudois Church, which is acknow- 
 ledged by the Government of tlie country, put a stop 
 to them by force ; and followed up the blow by for- 
 mal decisions, which read as a severe, not to say 
 incredible, satire upon tlie professions of respect for 
 liberty of religion, and liberty in general, made by 
 the Tuscan Government. 
 
 Such acts being permitted at first, involve great 
 danger for the time to come. It is, however, to bo 
 said on behalf of this Government, that it has 
 secured to the struggling Protestants one or two 
 
 * "While this is passing through the press, I am thaulcfal to learn 
 that his mighty voice is lifted up at last. May God lead and prosper 
 him! 
 
FLORENCE. 249 
 
 necessaries of existeuce. One wlio died at Pon- 
 tedsra^ a town between Florence and Leghorn, and 
 could not there obtain burial, was allowed by the 
 GroverjUDuent to be brought to Florence, and there 
 decently inteiied by his Christian brethren. Thus 
 far tolei'ance to the dead. In another case, permis- 
 sion v/as given to parties married as Protestants, to 
 have their union formally entered upon the public 
 register; and thus began in Tuscany tolerance to 
 families. Again, permission has been obtained to 
 establish a Protestant school, the first, it is sup- 
 posed, which ever existed in Central Italy, in which 
 the Bible forms part of the course of instruction. 
 Great difficulties were thrown in the way. The 
 woman who let the rooms for the school, has received 
 notice to remove from her landlady, the widow of 
 one of the most celebrated Tuscan noblemen on the 
 liberal side. The Magistrate of the district had all 
 the parents of the children summoned before him ; 
 but, when he learned from them that they perfectly 
 knew what sort of a school it was, and were pre- 
 pared to take all the responsibility of sending their 
 children there, he gave it his unqualified sanction. 
 It is therefore proceeding; and, though not nume- 
 rously attended, is a beginning such as they who are 
 specially connected with it may well rejoice in. 
 
 It seems very strange that, at this day, and so 
 near home, we should be struggling for little scraps 
 
■^>J^ ' CUAPTER xr. 
 
 of religious liberty-j in points on whicli it is enjoyed 
 by Christians among the Kaffirs, and Hindoos, 
 and even the Fijians ; but the hard hand of Rome 
 has consolidated European intolerance. 
 
 One day, at the table d'hSte in Florence, I was 
 seated beside a party of bearded Italians. Most 
 Italians are grave ; these seemed deeply so. I crept 
 into talk with my next neighbour, a silent and 
 depressed man. To every allusion to the state of 
 things in Italy, he replied with a sigh. Perhaps he 
 was a friend of fallen or of falling interests? It 
 came out that he was a Eoman, (the whole party 
 were so,) and his heart was sore. He could be got 
 to say little of the state of things. "Was not the 
 Pope a worthy old man ? He shut his mouth des- 
 perately hard, then he just let slide out of it, "Not 
 so bad as some, — a child; an old child; but still a 
 child ; not fit for any public post ; full of vain-glory." 
 After awhile, he warmed a little, and said, " What is 
 to become of us in Rome we don't know. Lately, 
 it has been seriously said, that even France had con- 
 sented that we should be ceded to Naples." How 
 his black Roman eyes looked into one as he uttered 
 this ! We then went fully into the question of the 
 relation of the Pope and Popery to the religion 
 of Christ. lie knew little, but wanted to know. 
 What a look he shot out of those black eyes, when 
 told that even the Decalogue had been changed ! He 
 
FLORENCE. 251 
 
 still lield by the distinction between temporal and 
 spiritual power; but was not prepared with any 
 reason for believing tliat the spiritual power could be 
 acknowledgedj as the Pope claimed it^ without laying 
 the foundation of all kinds of temporal despotism. 
 " Certain it is," he says, " that the Popes have been 
 Italy's plague ; and its plague they must be, as long as 
 they have an existence in it. Whatever becomes of 
 the Pope, he shall not stay in Italy ; that is certain. 
 He may go to Jerusalem, or to Antioch, where the 
 Church took its rise. Those zealous Catholics who 
 think it necessary that he should be a King, may go 
 with him ; they may conquer a kingdom for him, and 
 Vv^e shall all join to guarantee that kingdom so 
 conquered." 
 
 Prom this conversation I went directly to a little 
 evangelical meeting on the banks of the Arno. The 
 room would hold more than a hundred, and it was 
 full. They stood to pray, and they sat to sing, and 
 did it heavily. What a difference between their 
 singing, and that of a knot of peasants yesterday in a 
 cafe. They sang words one could not catch, except, 
 "Italy," "free," "one," "strong," "one from Mont 
 
 Cenis to ," I could not tell. It was a song of 
 
 deliverance, union, battle, and hope. They felt it ; 
 and the music, and the time, and the movement, 
 all was in accordance with their feeling. One could 
 have marched to battle while listening to them. 
 
252 
 
 CHAPTER Xr. 
 
 NoWj is not the work of the Church a deliverance, a 
 union, a battle ? and are we to have no spirit-stirring 
 song? But if the singing was dull, the place was 
 thronged, and the preaching good. The passage of 
 Scripture commented upon was the second chapter 
 of Acts. A clear statement was given of the cha- 
 racter of Christianity as therein displayed; and, 
 every now and then, the contrast between it and 
 what existed under the eyes of the people, was given 
 in language free from bitterness, but keen and tel- 
 ling. For instance, the apostolic reply to those who 
 asked, " What must we do ? " as contrasting with 
 the conduct of a man who would tell you to place 
 yourself under his spiritual direction, and he would 
 take the responsibility of your soul,' — was put so 
 shrewdly as to provoke broad smiles. 
 
 In all the preaching I heard among the Italians, 
 one thing was very plain : they united the two 
 great points, salvation by grace, and the duty of 
 holy living. There was no obscurity on either 
 hand. The pure mercy of God as the only fountain, 
 the obedient life as the only evidence, and the 
 Lord Jesus as the meritorious medium of the one, 
 the perfect example of the other, were ever kept in 
 view; and where people will fully maintain these 
 essentials, one need care comparatively little about 
 minor though not unimportant opinions. In con- 
 versation with one of the Evangelists, as they are 
 
FLORENCE. 253 
 
 called, I found that our -views on Church matters 
 converged and diverged oddly enough. Somehow, 
 we came upon the seventh chapter of Romans. He 
 at once declared against this being the type of a 
 normal Christian. Misunderstanding some objec- 
 tion I took to one of his phrases, as being directed 
 against his general opinion j he went off with great 
 zeal to demonstrate that the gi'ace of God did make 
 us free, did enable us to overcome evil, to walk in 
 newness of life, and to do the will of our Heavenly 
 Father, with a sense of His favour and approval. 
 When he found that I was quite as far as he from 
 believing that the seventh chapter of Romans 
 describes the state of grace into which the Christian 
 is called, and took him into the eighth as the 
 happy sequel, and amplified his own proofs of his 
 position, he wondered and was pleased. 
 
 When we next returned to Florence, the whole 
 town was on tiptoe, expecting an event such as had 
 never occurred before in the long history of the 
 city. Old as it is, and full of illustrious recol- 
 lections with names brilliant in every department 
 of history; still, it had never welcomed its own 
 Italian King. With Princes it had long been fami- 
 liar, and has no record of the time when it was not 
 head of the Tuscan State; but a King, an Italian 
 King, was coming now. The pride of being a 
 
25-1 CIIAPTEE XI. 
 
 capital wliicli had so long lived in Florence, and 
 ■which ^ the most thoughtful men supposed to be so 
 deeply rooted among the people, that no considera- 
 tion would induce them to agree to incorpora- 
 tion in a kingdom, of which Florence was not the 
 Queen; had now given way under that wonderful 
 impulse to national union which seems to have gone 
 through the very nature of the Italians. " God has 
 made our country to be one, and marked His 
 purpose by seas and mountains : h^iman schemers 
 have too long successfully laboured to defeat the 
 design of Providence ; but the day of deliverance is 
 come, and Italy shall be One." This is the ruling 
 thought of every generous and ardent man in the 
 country. 
 
 When the day arrived, it really seemed as if all 
 Tuscany had emptied itself into the streets of the 
 gay little town. Narrow, queer, winding old streets 
 they are. You hardly know why, in going through 
 Florence, you feel so pleased. Such a town in the 
 moist and smoky air of England would be very dull, 
 and soon very, Ycrj ugly. The quays along the 
 Arno are beautiful. Every spot of the town is 
 interesting; many are picturesque, and a few may 
 be called pretty. The view from the Boboli 
 Gardens, where you command the whole city and 
 the suiTounding valley, is one the grandeur and tlie 
 beauty of which no human words will ever convey to 
 
FLORENCE. 255 
 
 any mind. "^Vhat witli flowers, and slirubs, and 
 trees, and statues, and palaces, and towers, and 
 domes j what with the gleaming river, and the vine- 
 yards, and olive-yards, and endless blossoms, and all 
 beautiful things; what with the lower hills and 
 swelling mountains, and the great snowy Apennines, 
 it is something that no one will ever describe or 
 paint. But, after all, it is the light and air which 
 makes the pleasure of the place. Steep all this in a 
 humid atmosphere, brown it with smoke, cover it 
 with clouds, and you will dim every object, lower the 
 spirits, and reduce the vivacity of the eye. 
 
 The air has something in it so soft, as to make 
 you well-pleased with everything. In winter, as all 
 over Italy, there is a breath of snow from the moun- 
 tains, and far into spring more or less of this 
 cooling influence is to be felt ; but when the sun is 
 strong enough to produce a genial warmth, the 
 united effect of the two is something very peculiar. 
 Although the favourite drive of Florence, the 
 Cascine, for extent, undulation of the ground, size 
 of the timber, or any other natural advantage, is not 
 to be named in comparison with Kensington 
 Gardens, a witchery is exerted upon your eye and 
 your spirits which makes you think that it is more 
 beautiful than anything in London. 
 
 Turn wherever one would in this city, on the day 
 of the King's arrival, it was crowds, crowds, crowds. 
 
256 
 
 CHAPTER Xr. 
 
 Townspeople, country people, men and women in 
 the quaint costumes of their villages, or in the 
 conventional dress of Europe j but all polite, all 
 orderly, as if they were in a drawing-room. The 
 preparations were on a scale of elegance and grandeur 
 united. At a few yards' distance the triumphal 
 arches would look like buildings that had stood 
 for years ; all of them good in design, some of them 
 rich and beautiful. Eyes that would pass the 
 marble arch at Hyde Park Corner with little atten- 
 tion, would have been fixed by some of them. It 
 was almost impossible to persuade oneself that all 
 this was done by a few planks, hurriedly put 
 together, and made to look like stone. One column, 
 bearing a statue of the King, in the Piazza Santa 
 Maria Novella, erected by a private gentleman, a 
 Jew, was said to have cost £4,000. The deco- 
 rations at the railway station, where the King was 
 to arrive, were enchanting. The avenue of tricolour 
 flags flying on high, the intervening festoons of bay- 
 leaves scenting the air far around; the flowers, 
 . especially the camellia, red and white, mingling with 
 the bay, and giving at once the national tricolour, 
 a compliment to the King as a victor, and to 
 Cavour as the symbol of his own name; made a 
 combination for the senses and the imagination not 
 to be forgotten. In one of the streets, — that lead- 
 ing direct from the Cathedral to the Old Palace, — at 
 
TLOEENCE. 257 
 
 every few yards, was raised an artificial tree ; not a 
 little bush, but a stately tree, covered thick with 
 camellias; the most extraordinary piece of street 
 decoration I ever saw. 
 
 When the hour for the King's arrival drew nigh, 
 the square in front of the New York Hotel was 
 dense with heads. It was known that upon his 
 arrival at the railway station, cannon would be fired. 
 Just about the anticipated time a thud went through 
 the crowd. Every hand clapped, every voice was 
 lifted up, and, to any one who knows the gravity of 
 those Italians, it was strange to see great men, dark 
 and tall, springing up in the air as you might expect 
 French urchins to do. 
 
 The feeling on the day when her Majesty first 
 visited the city of London was warm and lively, 
 combining veneration for an ancient monarchy with 
 interest in a youthful Queen ; but here the emotion 
 was altogether diflPerent. The man who was coming, 
 whom they had not seen, and could not see for some 
 considerable time, was their "own King," their 
 " Italian King." They never had had one : Princes ■ 
 in plenty, but within their memory these had 
 only been instruments of the enemies of their 
 country ; but now was coming one who was 
 their own King, the representative of a line as 
 ancient as any, but chosen by their hearts and hands 
 because he and his father had fought for the inde- 
 

 CIIAPTEK XI. 
 
 pendence of Italy, and he was prepared to fight again 
 for the independence of Italy. As to attempting to 
 describe the sights^ the sounds, the storms of muEic 
 and of shouts, the waving of banners, the flinging 
 of flowers and bouquets, it is totally out of the 
 question. On canie the King, on his charger, his 
 brilliant staff around him, on in the midst of a 
 hurricane of cheers, and a shower of bays and 
 bouquets. 
 
 And when Cavour made his appearance, the storm 
 that for a moment had lulled after the King's pas- 
 sing, woke up again, and ten thousand voices and ten 
 thousand hands thundered out their joy at the sight 
 of the man ! 
 
 Illuminations and fireworks are generally much 
 the same all the world over ; but there was an 
 amount of genius displayed in the lighting of the 
 houses, of the palace towers, the dome of the 
 Cathedral, and especially in the fireworks along the 
 Arno, when on both sides of the river, with the 
 lividge just before our hotel for the centre iviece, 
 brilliant scenes were blazed ofp, that forbade com- 
 parison with anything one had witnessed in this line. 
 As to extent, of course it would all have been in- 
 cluded in one quarter of London, during the late 
 rejoicings for peace; but as to the combination of 
 effects, no one point could have been selected on 
 that occasion to approach it. 
 
FLORENCE. 259 
 
 Having now seen so many public demonstrations 
 in Italy, it is but due to the people to state, that in 
 every instance they showed the deepest regard for 
 order. In point of good manners, they exceeded 
 any crowds I had ever met with. I did not witness 
 one case of drunkenness, of misconduct, or of angry 
 words, except one sharp passage between an old 
 soldier and a recruit in Milan. The excitements 
 always appeared to be those of pure enjoyment. 
 No hatred or animosity was ever vented, but 
 in each place, when the crape-covered banner of 
 Venetia appeared, there were signs of intense feel- 
 ing, and especially at Florence, on the day of the 
 King's arrival, when it was not carried alone, but 
 accompanied by two others, one borne by Romans, 
 another by Neapolitans. Considering what passion- 
 ate material Italian mobs are made up of, it was 
 almost incredible that regard for order and modera- 
 tion should have so deeply penetrated the masses ; 
 and one could not help looking upon it as a silent 
 token that Providence was preparing to lift up this 
 long-oppressed nation, and to open before it a great 
 career. 
 
 The Civilta Cattolica, in describing the entrance 
 of the King, says that a concourse of curious people 
 was not wanting ; but the truth is that, out of London, 
 I have never seen such a multitude. The greatest 
 throngs in Paris, during the revolutionary time of 
 s 2 
 
260 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 1848^ were not equal to it. The same authority states 
 that when the King looked about the city, and 
 enjoyed the beauties of the Pitti Palace, he said, 
 " A beautiful city ! What a pity one can only see it 
 once ! " How far this may be true, I am not pre- 
 pared to say, nor to speculate upon the probabilities 
 of the Italian Kingdom. Every day that passes, the 
 principles and tendency of union take a greater hold. 
 A mistake was made at first in retaining what they 
 call the Tuscan autonomy, or separate government ; 
 but this cannot last long, if the different parts of the 
 new kingdom hold together. 
 
 To us, one advantage of the abolition of these 
 little States will be, that we shall no longer maintain 
 an Ambassador at a petty and corrupt Court, sur- 
 rounded by swarms of gay persons, whose reputa- 
 tions in the different capitals of Europe have been 
 worn down. Such schools of manners abroad are 
 unfriendly to aU English ideas, national and social ; 
 nothing is more unlilte a true Englishman or English- 
 woman than the sort of creature that has long hung 
 about one of those Courts, and become enamoured 
 of the society abounding there. Their very language 
 is denationalized. 
 
 For all our purposes, one Embassy at Turin is quite 
 enough, and, for the present, England is ably repre- 
 sented by Sir James Hudson, who enjoys the double 
 advantage of being considered by the Italians a 
 
FLORENCE. 261 
 
 staunch friend of their cause, and a model of the 
 social qualities ; while in the eyes of his own coun- 
 trymen he stands as a thorough Englishman. If it 
 be true, as generally stated, that the appearance of 
 the Sardinian army in the Crimea was due to him, 
 then his action upon the history of Italy has had 
 momentous results : for that movement both fixed 
 the eyes of every state in Italy upon that army, and 
 gave the diplomatists of Sardinia a right to lift up 
 their voice in the great Council of Europe. Sir 
 James is blessed with two things of great advantage 
 to a diplomatist, a good presence and winning 
 manners. On a noble pair of English shoulders, he 
 carries as fine a head as King or gentleman need 
 wish for. 
 
 As to the religious prospects of Central Italy, all 
 we need desire is, to see Christians, individuals, or 
 bodies, unite their prayers and exertions to spread 
 that light which is silently but steadily advancing ; 
 and at the same time to see statesmen carrying out | 
 the principles of the Constitution, and giving prac- 
 tical religious liberty. It is one thing to make pro- 
 clamation of a theory, and another to recognise what 
 it implies in the conflicts of every day. i 
 
 It indicates the Catholicity of Christian denomi- 
 nations in England, that we find them supporting 
 the Italian Protestant Churches, without any plans 
 for their denominational advancement. Members 
 
o«0 
 
 CHAPTER Xr. 
 
 of the Church of England, through what is called 
 the Poreign Aid Society, freely render assistance to 
 Churches that have no ecclesiastical afiinity with their 
 own. Members of the Dissenting bodies, through 
 their Continental Society, in the same way render 
 assistance without any denominational agency. The 
 Free Church of Scotland has long had Dr. Stewart 
 at Leghorn, and first Mr. Hannah, and now Mr. 
 M'Dougal, at Florence, who only preach and act 
 directly in English, but who have, in every possible 
 way, and with the greatest utility, encouraged and 
 helped the Italian Christians, especially the Vaudois. 
 Most of those who have been the means of 
 instructing the converts of Central Italy, were Ply- 
 mouth Brethren, whose opinions upon questions 
 of Church order are such, that they cannot help 
 impressing them strongly on all who come under their 
 influence ; and perhaps there is in the Italian mind 
 something favourable to teaching which leads them 
 to an abhorrence of every sort of Church government, 
 confounding all forms of ministry with the dreaded 
 Romish Priesthood. But as their views mature, 
 and their knowledge of the Christian world and 
 of the Christian Scriptures increase, extremes will 
 correct themselves ; and, in the mean time, it is 
 enough for other Christians to know, that those 
 Italians who are imbued most strongly with fears of 
 every constituted Church, are earnest lovers of their 
 
rLORENCB. Sua 
 
 BlblSj zealous preacliers of Christ, and steady, cou- 
 rageous witnesses for all the essentials of Divine 
 truth. A Clergyman of the English Church, well 
 known in Florence, justly said, " However much 
 one may wish that their views with regard to Church 
 government were not so extreme, and however 
 certain one may be that no great Christian move- 
 ment will take place without a change in that point, 
 still they have done and are doing much good, and 
 deserve all the encouragement that any of us can 
 give them." 
 
 The last thing that English Protestants ought 
 to think of doing, would be to impose their on"n 
 ideas upon reformed Italians. Let us only en- 
 courage, invite, and help them forward, and, in 
 minor matters, the good hand of Providence will 
 guide them rightly. We do not know whv± 
 new developement the reform movement in Italy 
 may lead to. A gentleman, apparently conversant 
 with public questions, and accustomed to revolve 
 them, speaking of the effect of the excommunication 
 after it had been issued, said, " This, you will* see, 
 will lead to the union of all Christendom. The 
 Church in Italy will be reformed j the Protestant 
 Churches will draw nearer to us ; and though great 
 difficulties will come in the way, and much time will 
 pass, still the issue will be the union of all Christen- 
 dom." I asked him if by union he meant unifor- 
 
2S4 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 raity in all points of observance and belief; but lie 
 replied, No, he did not see why minor differences 
 might not very well exist without, in the least 
 degree, hindering general union. Plow far the 
 minds of thinkers and public men are turned to the 
 probability of a national reform, I cannot profess to 
 say. Some parties, who ought to know the Priests 
 well, are confident that amongst them large numbers 
 are eager for it. As to politicians, my own impres- 
 sion was that, in general, they had not yet dared to 
 face the question ; that their policy with the Church 
 was the very natural one of meeting each difficulty 
 as it arose, and trying to stave off all others; 
 moving steadily towards the attainment of political 
 liberties, and avoiding as far as possible raising 
 Church questions. 
 
 Persons reading many of the expressions contained 
 in the conversations reported here, will be ready to 
 think that these people would at once become Pro- 
 testants, under a free Government : and, in fact, 
 one of the first things I heard in England, on land- 
 ing, was a statement from a gentleman who had just 
 returned from Florence, to a lady in the railway 
 carriage, that all Northern Italy was ripe for Pro- 
 testantism. This is a rash saying. Northern Italy 
 is nothing of the kind. The people are weary of the 
 Priests, alienated from the Church, resolved to be 
 free, and panting after the union and glory of their 
 
FLORENCE. 265 
 
 country. Many of them are convinced that in reli- 
 gion they have been imposed upon, and that the 
 Church edifice they see around them is not the solid 
 building on the rock reared by Christ and His 
 ApostleSj but " a frail and whited clump of stones." 
 It can hardly be doubted that large numbers, 
 perhaps the majority of the people, and probably a 
 considerable portion of the Priesthood, would be not 
 only ready but glad to join any national reform 
 which would break off their yoke, and render reli- 
 gion more "rational/' as they call it: for in the 
 benefits of this they might partake withotit exposing 
 themselves individually to persecution. If any 
 great Statesman or leading Ecclesiastic were bold 
 enough to initiate such a movement, it is hard to 
 say to what extent it might be carried. Did Cavour 
 and the King avow their independence of Rome, 
 and solemnly reject the pretensions of the Pope to 
 universal dominion, no doubt they would divide the 
 kingdom into two parties ; but there can be little 
 question that the army, and the intelligent portion 
 of the country, would be with them; and future 
 generations of Italians would look upon the move- 
 ment as do the present generations in countries 
 where it has occurred, — ^namely, as the turning-point 
 of national life and vigour. 
 
 Public events appear to tend to a position that will 
 force the State to choose between spiritual indepen- 
 
2G6 chapter' XI. 
 
 deneCj and temporal degradation; and it is by this 
 dilemma that Providence has again and again 
 wrouglit out the rescue of nations. In Italy it 
 may or it may not be so ; my business is not to 
 foretell. 
 
 For the moment the absorption of men's minds in 
 political questions is unfriendly to the quiet process 
 of awakening and conversion. And spiritually- 
 minded meuj looking up to the storm roaring over 
 their heads^ are ready to distrust it, as if it could 
 produce no other than earthly and disturbing results, 
 only leaving men's minds more and more distracted 
 from the eternal things wherev/ith they ought to be 
 engaged. But they forget that in every national 
 deliverance God has been at the same time work- 
 ing by two distinct currents^ — the silent operations 
 of the Spirit upon the minds of individuals, 
 and political movements, by which unconscious 
 crowds have been led to impulses, and unwilling 
 politicians to measures, that have issued in making 
 the way of the Gospel free. Let not, then, the 
 spiritually-minded Italians complain of the public 
 turmoil that is going on around them. 
 
 I heard the dew-drops complaining of the clouds, 
 and saying, "When you keep away, the stars 
 shine sweetly upon the earth, the dew is formed, 
 and the refreshment of creation goes on in quiet- 
 ness worthy of its Author; but when you come, tlio 
 
FLORENCE. 367 
 
 heavens are tlarkened, every tiling on earth caat 
 under a shade, the formation of dew hindered, 
 and storms often arise." 'Ay, but both the one 
 and the other are sent on the same mission, by 
 the same hand ! 
 
C^aptu' dr. 
 
 THE SUNRISE SHOEE. 
 
If you lay your left hand open upon your knee, 
 the space be'tween the thumb and fore-finger repre- 
 sents the Gulf of Genoa; the coast stretching away 
 towards Nice — the thumb — is called Eiviera di 
 Ponente, the " Sun-set Shore/' and the coast 
 stretching towards Tuscany — the finger — the Riviera 
 di LevantCj the " Sun-rise Shore." 
 
 April was smiling^ and breathing, and singing its 
 best along the Vale of Arnq. The tumble-dov.u 
 houses scattered there, as if man's libel on the 
 beauties of the Creator, were so spread around with 
 garden-crops, and hidden by blossoms, that they lost 
 half their ugliness. The old city of Pisa had the 
 huge front of its houses and public buildings covered 
 with preparations for a grand illumination to receive 
 the King. The Leaning Tower hung just as it had 
 done when I saw it before, or as it has been seen for 
 any time these many centuries; and the post-horses 
 swept merrily past it, on the road to the Sunrise 
 Shore, 
 
 Between the mountains and the sea lies a slip of 
 lowland, here perfectly flat, and as fuU of vegetable 
 
273 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 ■wealth and beauty as land can ever be. Tbe air ia 
 soft and warm ; not an air wbicb, like that of the 
 desert, inspires yoa with a courage to do, but that 
 makes it a pleasure to be, that gives one in the bare 
 fact of existing a soft and contented sensation. The 
 further one goes, the richer and fairer the field 
 becomes; or, perhaps, the eye wakes up more and 
 more to a sense of all with which one is surrounded. 
 Vineyards and olive-yards, but such olive-yards as 
 even in Palestine are not to be seen, — the trees not 
 so large and fine as there, but forests of olive, 
 extending far and far, and the flax just beginning to 
 flower, and the almond in blossom, and the cherries 
 and the peaches covered with masses of their own 
 fair bloom, and the orange and lemon, the fruit of 
 the latter glistening in its bower of green, and aloes 
 in the hedges, and occasionally a palm, — altogether 
 the scene was one succession of delights for the 
 senses. Wealth, wealth, wealth ! O, what wealth ! 
 And the glorious mountains about Lucca looking 
 down, and the clear sky, so bright and blue ! But 
 after all that we say of an Italian sky, it is not 
 equal to that of Egypt, nor to that of many parts 
 of America. The most ravishing dome of blue sky 
 my eyes ever looked upon was from Mount Auburn,, 
 near Boston; and the most exquisite sunrise was 
 over the waters of Lake Erie, between Bufl'alo and 
 Niagara. 
 
THE SUNRISE SHORE. ^ 273 
 
 Amid the endless riches and delicate beauties of 
 the region over which we were coursing, there was 
 one drawback. Where were the happy human 
 homes ? where the bright cottages, where the 
 smiling villages ; the tidy farm-yards, the well-kept 
 cattle, and the clean children? Men and women 
 there were, finely formed as need be, and children in 
 plenty too ; but the dwellings ! They did not 
 deserve to be called homes. Sometimes raiserable 
 straw cabins, sometimes square houses with little 
 poking windows, as if every one was afraid both of 
 robbers and the sun ; and around the houses such 
 dirt and disorder, things so out of repair and 
 shapeless, cattle few and ill-tended, women bare- 
 footed, and altogether no sign of wealth, and very 
 little of comfort, as the result of all the generations 
 of civilized labour spent on this most ancient shore 
 of Europe. To judge by the invaluable " ilurray," 
 one would suppose that every town one -was coming 
 to was a place of some importance; for each had 
 its own curious point of history, or its building 
 or pictures well worth seeing, which the writer did 
 no more than note in moderate and just language ; 
 but the imagination beforehand would invest the 
 place with a certain beauty and importance; and 
 when you saw that it was a miserable little town, 
 you felt as if somebody had deceived you. IIow 
 often this occurs; and one blames an author for 
 
 T 
 
274 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 exaggerated description, ■when perhaps, if you after- 
 wards take the pains of carefully reading over the 
 book, you will find that not a word is said but what 
 came from a mind thoroughly determined to repre- 
 sent exactly what it felt ; but somehow your imagi- 
 nation has run ahead of the language, and invested 
 objects with an atmosphere of your own ! This we 
 are in the habit of doing with most things that we 
 have not seen. Take, for instance, the little town 
 of Massa, a place which contains the palace of a 
 Duke and that of a Bishop, which is over-shadowed 
 by perhaps the most beautiful bare mountains in 
 Europe. The beauty of bare mountains is a some- 
 thing that is very hard to be accounted for, and the 
 internal colouring of the stone is seen here better 
 than in any place I know out of Arabia. Vegetation 
 yields a variety of tints that exercises a powerful 
 charm upon the eye. With these warm grey, blue, 
 copper-coloured, and sometimes purple mountains 
 of marble on one hand, with glimpses of the Mediter- 
 ranean to be caught from the surrounding hills, with 
 nature sporting all her greens immediately around 
 it, — the grey green of the olive, the yellow green of 
 the young fig-leaf, the dark green of the pine, and 
 the delicate emerald of the flax, with every imagi- 
 nable blossom, with lemons hanging golden over the 
 walls, and the scents of flowers filling the air; one 
 would think that Massa must be the most delightful 
 
THE SUNRISE SHOEE. 275 
 
 place in the world. Yet^ as, in some of tlie most 
 iDeautifol valleys of England, — say Airedale, for 
 instance, — by manufacturing skill we manage to make 
 as ugly villages as ever defaced nature ; so, by dint 
 of bad government, and inaction, and want of liberty, 
 this Massa is about as stupid a little town as post- 
 horses were ever changed at. One would scarcely 
 engage to live in it, for the palace of both the Duke 
 and the Bishop put together, and aU the lemons, 
 and oranges, and figs, and silk that the neigh- 
 bourhood could yield. 
 
 For those that strike off into the mountain to 
 Carrara, a good post-road is formed; but those 
 who go on straight to Sarzana have the advantage 
 of seeing a piece of such road as is intended for 
 the natives ; and wonderfully bad it is. Yet the 
 poorest vOlages — and poor they are — have around 
 them such wonderful affluence of nature, as makes 
 one feel that under different management this might 
 be the loveliest tract upon earth. When one thinks 
 of the lanes and cottages about our Westmoreland 
 lakes, where nature is comparatively sparing, but 
 where almost every step bears witness to the 
 effects of generations of industry, one cannot help 
 wondering what this country would be if it had been 
 handled in just the same way. Now and then upon 
 the rising ground the glimpses of the sea come in to 
 add to the universal witchery ; and away there to 
 T 3 
 
276 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 the left lies the site of the old Ltinaj the Queen of 
 these Etruscan shores, from which came that terrible 
 Lord of Lima, that Macaulay has sung in his 
 " Lays of Ancient Rome." The mountains gradually 
 press nearer to the sea, until you reach Sarzana, 
 which is a considerable town, and noted as being the 
 cradle of the Buonaparte family; one of whom, a 
 notary here, having emigrated to Corsica, became 
 the founder of that branch whence sprang the 
 present imperial house of France. 
 
 A short way beyond this^ the highlands fairly cut 
 off the path, running down alongside the river 
 Magra, as if to oppose a double barrier, of 
 water and of hill, against further progress. That 
 Magra is a wayward stream, covering an immense 
 space with its bed, but at present only a small one 
 with its waters. You see traces of its periodical 
 rage, in boulders and in wastes. It is but recently 
 that a bridge has been opened across it, and a fine 
 monument to the Sai-dinian Government that work 
 is. One felt inclined to thank them for the privilege 
 of rolling over, on nimble vrheels, instead of going 
 through all the dangers of shipping and unshipping 
 horses, carriage, and passengers; and through the 
 extortion of a parcel of ferrymen, who would perhaps 
 slip a linch-pin, or something of the kind, to detaia 
 you, and get more out of you. The frequency with 
 vt'hich the country is swept by. torrents, that bring 
 
THE SUNRISE SHOKE. 277 
 
 down ruin at certain periods of the year upon a con- 
 siderable tractj constantly suggests the idea of how 
 much might be done, (particularly when one remem- 
 bers that this is the case almost all oyer Italy,) by a 
 Government that would undertake the formation of 
 tanks and other works of irrigation. Under such a 
 sun as that of Italy, those waste waters contained 
 endless wealth, if properly turned to account. The 
 Hindoos, by their system of tanks, have shown us 
 how much may be done to bless hot countries with 
 the advantages of perennial irrigation ; and, if Eng- 
 land only applies to India the resources of its own 
 science and capital, in economizing Indian waters, 
 instead of letting them run to waste, they will tui'n 
 into every form of wealth, both for the subject and 
 the governing country j because eveiy tropical stream 
 is far more than a river of corn, and wine, and oil. 
 
 Immediately to the north of the Magra, the high- 
 lands stand up in conical hills, wooded to the top ; 
 and on one or two of them towns are pitched exactly 
 as in Syria, and with very much the same impres- 
 sion. In the distance, one would think they were 
 beautiful places; and, probably, when you entered 
 them, they would be as dirty and as uncomfortable 
 as need be. 
 
 From this point the road continues among the 
 mountains, first up and then down, until at last the 
 Gulf of Spezzia comes out before the eye, and 
 
278 CilAPTEJl SII. 
 
 presently you are at the level of the sea agaiiij at the 
 door of the picturesque, clean, comfortable hotel of 
 that promising town. 
 
 The Bay, or, as it is called, the Gulf, of Spezzia is 
 capable of accommodating all the fleets of Europe; 
 and is henceforth to become the great naval arsenal of 
 the new kingdom. The town, standing just at the 
 head of this deep inlet, reminds one, in point of situ- 
 ation, of Belfast ; but instead of having behind it 
 the great valley of the Bann, it is closely hemmed in 
 by mountains; — a background which figures better 
 upon canvas, but not so well in ledgers. Approach- 
 ing the place at night, one would fear that its pro- 
 spects of commerce must be veiy limited ; but in the 
 morning, as you begin to ascend those hills under 
 the rays of the early sun, you find what mountains 
 they are ! All the riches of the plain flourish on. 
 their sides, and, like an audience in an amphitheatre, 
 are only the more impressive for the elevation. As the 
 road winds up scientifically, down come peasant girls 
 in their blue petticoat and red boddice, and now aud 
 then a strapping mountaineer, with a living lamb 
 slung over his baqk, striding straight down-hill, by 
 short paths to the town. 
 
 When one has reached the elevation of a few hun- 
 dred feet, the scene excites repeated bursts of admi- 
 ration. The opposite .ridges, with their upland 
 woods and villages, the valley at your feet, with its 
 
THE STJNKISE SHORE. ' 279 
 
 flowering trees and glistening town, the glorious 
 BaVj stretching away to seaward, with its wild coast, 
 and close around you the union of garden beauties 
 and mountain grandeur, altogether form a spectacle 
 almost worth going to Spezzia to see. 
 
 Bays ! How beautiful are bays ! Those that 
 have made the deepest impression upon one's 
 memory, recalled by this, come up for compari- 
 son : — Table Bay and False Bay, the western and 
 eastern portals of the Cape ; New York brilliantly, 
 and Dublin grandly, beautiful; Aboukir, where the 
 eye finds nothing and the memory much; St. Jean 
 d'Acre, with Carmel on the right, Lebanon on the 
 left, the mountains of Nazareth behind, and Tabor 
 only hidden. Two only remain to be compared. Is 
 it the effect of boyish prepossession, or is it not true, 
 that could we spread a Neapolitan sky over Clew 
 Bay, the bay of my boyhood, over its broad sheet 
 of twenty miles of unbroken water, having for 
 its south wall the Spread Eagle mountain of St. 
 Patrick, for its north the hills of Ballycroy ; away 
 out against the Atlantic, Clare Island, nature's 
 gigantic breakwater; and up towards its head, that 
 incomparable labyrinth of more than three hundred 
 islands, — some mere rocks, some sheep-walks, some 
 with a single hut, some with villages ; — is it early 
 prejudice that makes one think that under Italian 
 light this would bear comparison with the Bay of 
 
280 CHAPTEK XII. 
 
 Xaples ; excepting always that one sublime and in- 
 comparable object, tbe burning mountain ? 
 
 The road is excellent, the horses good, the posti- 
 Hons civil ; every new winding brings into view a new 
 sublimity, or a new beauty. Flowers by your feet, 
 blossoms overhead, bare summits up aloft, a com- 
 bination of sunshine and of snow, of spring bloom 
 and winter sternness, — all raise the spirits to the 
 highest point. 
 
 As we were slowly winding up one of the steepest 
 ascents, just before us having a lonely chapel on the 
 shoulder of a mountain, and behind, one of those little 
 towns perched on the very point of a summit, evidently 
 the old nest whence some vulture used to watch, in 
 other days, for his prey, the hills rang with the 
 crack of a musket. It was soon repeated. Every- 
 thing was so cheerful, that one immediately in- 
 terpreted it for a wedding gun ; and there they came, 
 bride and bridegroom, in the bright colours of the 
 mountaineers, and then their troop of friends, all 
 smiling, and after a while two Priests, who had been 
 performing the ceremony away at the lone chapel ; 
 and the guns still rang in the hUls, as the little 
 group went slowly up towards the eagle-nest village. 
 May they have a happy home ! 
 
 Who can teU the wildness and beauty of a valley into 
 which the descent is as rapid as tbat on one side of 
 Grassmere, with its little town, and river at the bottom; 
 
THE SUNKISE SHORE, 281 
 
 its rich crops far up on the hSls, and then the dark 
 snmrnits of serpentine^ barren and rugged^ frowning 
 against the sky ? After a while vre leave behind all 
 the vines and olives^ all the pleasant blossom s, aU 
 the garden scenery : we are in the region of the 
 serpentiaCj and among the ever-chiUing winds. 
 Here the eye travels away over summits of snow ; 
 yonder over the glorious IMediterraneanj in which 
 direction the horizon stretches out and out, untU the 
 eye itself seems following infinity. A few lone flocks 
 remain, — here and there a miserable hut, built for men 
 to keep the way in repair ; and above the very highest 
 points of the pass, where the summits seemed bare, 
 a woman or two were tending cattle. The top 
 of the pass of Velva reached, how gloriously the 
 Mediterranean and the vaUeys open out upon the 
 other side ! And down we go from our elevation 
 of more than 2,000 feet; now with a Tision of bays 
 and promontories, and a little sea-side town, !Mo- 
 neglia, now with the mountain seeming as if it would 
 push us over the precipice. In a little while we 
 are again down upon the sea-shore, where the pretty 
 town of Sestri stands, with its back against a wooded 
 headland, and before it the wide Bay of Chiavari, 
 terminated on the other side by Cape Fino. 
 
 For mUes and miles along the bay the road is level 
 as a floor ; sometimes clifis that look now like marble 
 and now like slate, edging it almost into the water j 
 
}ibZ CHAPTER XII. 
 
 and at other times the plain opening out between 
 the sea and the mountains, where wells for irrigation, 
 not unlike those in India, and aloe hedges, and soft 
 air, make one almost believe that one is in the 
 tropics again. The signs of plenty, if not of com- 
 fort, are abundant; and were the homesteads but 
 orderly and clean, the eye could have little to 
 desire. 
 
 Chiavari is a pretty town, where one gets as good 
 a dinner as traveller need wish for, in ■ a remarkably 
 shoi't time, and then for the mountains once more ! 
 We are soon again high up with the sea under the 
 cliffs close by, and all the beauties of upland vegeta- 
 tion apparently richer and more gloi'ious than ever. 
 After alternating between peeps at the sea, shut up 
 views of the hills, outstretching prospects of the 
 Mediterranean, and the darkness of tunnels through 
 the rock, you reach the hill just above Eecco ; and 
 the sun is in the west, and the Mediterranean all in 
 a glow, and the mountains before you push them- 
 selves out bluff into the sea, in one long succession 
 of promontories ; and far away, gleaming over a wide 
 extent in the sunset, is Genoa the proud. 
 
 A poor working man, who had been toiling 
 towards his native city, in the hope of finding 
 employment there, which he had failed to do 
 in other places, and had got leave for the 
 greater part of the day to sit behind on our car- 
 
THE SUNRISE SHORE. 283 
 
 riage, — with a beaming look pointed and said, 
 "Look at Genoa, look at Genoa!" And even 
 for one ttIio had not been born there, it was a 
 sight to look at ; so far a\¥ay, and yet seeming so 
 queenly by the sea, and in the sun. I had often 
 thought that there was no coast road to be compared 
 with that between Belfast and the Giant's Causeway ; 
 but even it must yield the palm. 
 
 "Without seeing either Naples or the Sunrise Shore, 
 no one can judge of what Italy is. Here you leai-n the 
 secret of much praise and poetry, which, while you 
 are in other parts of the country, appears forced. 
 Garden of Europe, after all! But "in the garden 
 there was a sepulchre;" and in it, until the other 
 day, Keligioa lay buried, under a gorgeous oriental 
 mausoleum ; with Liberty, her eldest son, on the one 
 hand, and on the other. Virtue, her peerless daughter. 
 Art studied and toiled in vain to make up for the loss 
 of them all. But a breath from on high is passing 
 over the land ; there is a stirring among the tombs, 
 the uprising of a host. ]May lie who giveth life 
 guide all this movement to happy and holy 
 ends ! 
 
 As one looks back, and dwells again and again on 
 such scenery as that of the Sunrise Shore, how 
 strongly comes home the impression, that this world 
 is furnished for us by a Father, not a mere Master I 
 In fm-nishing a house for a servant you would 
 
284 CHAPTER xir. 
 
 thinlc of tis health and comfort; but for -whom 
 would you put in flowers and paintings and sing- 
 ing birds, and other tokens of regard for tastes 
 and feelings? Only for a child, or for one whom 
 you loved. 
 
Cljagter %nl 
 
 CIYITA TECCHIA AND THE CAMPAGNA. 
 
A BEiGHT suu rose on a Sunday morning, as 
 we entered the harbour of Civita Vecchia. The 
 place looks rather ragged. A large white flag was 
 flying from a small craft, bearing St. Peter full 
 length in yellow, St. Paul in red ; and above them, 
 the keys of the kingdom of heaven, surmounted by 
 the triple crown of priestly, kingly, and imperial domi- 
 nion on earth. No boats, no stir, no landing, no sign 
 of it! "What are we waiting for?" asks an Irish 
 voice. "Waiting till the police has satisfied itself 
 that we are worthy to set foot on the sacred soil 
 of Civita Vecchia!" A young lady who talked 
 French so well that she must have been educated in 
 France, probably in a convent, told me very 
 authoritatively that I was mistaken; we were not 
 waiting for the Police to examine our credentials, 
 but for the medical authorities to see if we had a 
 clean bill of health : a Priest had told her so. Of 
 course, I held my tongue, and smiled. After a half- 
 hour or so, an oflScial came on board and called out 
 a name. A gentleman came forward and received a 
 "permit" to land. Several freshmen ran to the 
 gangway to share his boat, and came back to inquire 
 
288 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 what was the matter. Soon a second official, and 
 then started another party, which had accompanied a 
 Bishop on board the day before : after them went 
 the Bishop himself. The Frenchmen began to grow 
 testy: they were "only Frenchmen," and had to 
 wait while these Priests, and friends of Priests, had 
 permits sent off for them. As the Bishop left, one 
 of the Frenchmen said, "Ah, the gaillard, he is 
 fond of women; he was surrounded by them all 
 night." There certainly had been nothing to call 
 for this remark, and no Englishman would have 
 thought of making it. The Bishop and the ladies 
 of his party had been perfectly decorous; but the 
 system makes men suspicious. 
 
 As one permit after another came, the youcg lady 
 of the bill of health looked very queer. At last, 
 about two hours after the anchor dropped, one por- 
 tentous man stands on the deck. His hands are full 
 of permits ; he begins calling out name after name ; 
 each man takes his own in silent thankfulness,, 
 scrambles for a boat, and soon touches the well- 
 guarded soil of the Sacred Kingdom. 
 
 The Custom House people were slow, but very 
 civil, and did not beg, or seem to look for bribes, — no 
 small thing for a place so near Rome. We were. 
 glad to get into the Hotel and begin the rest of th< 
 Lord's day : but, I think, all the other passengen 
 went off direct to Rome. After a while, I went out 
 
CIVITA VECCHIA AND THE CAMPAGNA. 289 
 
 for a quiet walk. The street in which the Hotel 
 stands is broad, fringed with high buildings, looking 
 like barracks, which some are. At the head of it, is 
 a kind of old rampart, now undergoing repair and 
 extension, the works on which, to the credit of the 
 Papal Government, were suspended for the Sunday. 
 
 Just as I reached the head of this main street, a 
 man turned the corner, in a condition of indecency 
 not writeable. In Rome such things are to be 
 seen ; but even there only in out-of-the-way places, 
 near the Tiber and in the region of the Mounts, not 
 in main streets. The town is better than the first 
 impression, not so wretched as some others in the 
 Papal States ; yet you feel that you have reached the 
 first stage out of Europe. By your watch you are 
 only a few hours' sail from it ; by other signs you are 
 well into the interior of Asia. 
 
 We heard a Friar preach. He had a little plat- 
 form of about ten feet square erected under the 
 pulpit, evidently to be better heard. On it stood a 
 large crucifix, the knee of the figure reaching to the 
 head of the Friar, who was tall and thin ; and also a 
 gUt chair, with crimson and yellow damask. He 
 began by chanting a prayer at the feet of the image. 
 Then he sat down, 'and began to talk his exordium. 
 The subject was Penitence, or Confession. As he 
 warmed, he stood up, and walked about at long 
 range on the platform. 
 
290 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 He sometimes addressed them as Signori, " Gentle- 
 men;" at others, as Cari, "Beloved;" at others, as 
 Fratelli, " Brethren." It was the first time I had 
 heard the last from an Italian Priest. "My dear 
 brother," he said, " you confess, and think it is all 
 right. But how do you conduct yourself? Ah ! 
 my brother, you are belching blasphemies all the 
 day long ; and when you enter your house, it is like 
 a savage, to abuse your wife, and curse the children." 
 He informed this dear brother, that confession with 
 such fruits was not good. His great point was, to 
 get them to confess. They thought it hard and 
 comfortless, and it was hard to make a good con- 
 fession ; but, if they only forced themselves to it for 
 a little while, they would take a real liking to it. 
 He complimented the beauty of their city, and twice 
 referred to the happiness of living in such a delight- 
 ful place. He wound up by an earnest exhortation 
 to come to confession; and, sitting down in his 
 gilded chair, told a story of a young lady who had 
 committed a shameful sin, which she could not bring 
 herself to confess to her own Priest ; but, finding a 
 Jesuit Father of celebrity, whom he named, preach- 
 ing, as he then was, she confessed to him; but, either 
 she withheld the fact, or some other flaw (what, I did 
 not exactly hear) was in her confession. It came 
 to the knowledge of the Father. She was struck with 
 death, and he had a vision, and saw her soul in hell. 
 
CIVITA VECCHIA AND THE CAMPAGNA. 291 
 
 Talking of their fastingj he made a hit at them 
 which caused a universal smile j but I did not catch 
 the point of the joke. 
 
 Although our baggage had been searched on land- 
 ing, we had to get all we took to the hotel searched 
 again, before leaving on the Monday. Then every 
 separate package was sealed with lead. Our passports 
 were taken from us at the railway, to be delivered 
 to us again in Rome. English was a good deal spoken 
 in the train ; Irish and Belgians seemed to be strong. 
 
 The natural features of the country between Civita 
 Vecchia and Rome are fine. Swelling hills alternate 
 with wide plains, and a rich flat runs along the sea- 
 shore, the desolation of which surpassed my ideas. It 
 forcibly reminded me of the country between Beer- 
 sheba and the Hills of Judah. It was the same cross 
 between a country and a desert, soil and grass, flocks 
 and brush, and an occasional patch of poor cultivation; 
 but no viUageSj no towns, only some of those horrid 
 haystack huts, with here and there a house; in 
 one place a broken bridge, and one or two big 
 buildings, like Government establishments. " Hay- 
 stack hut " seems an odd term, but it is the right one ; 
 they are not bee-hive like Kaffir huts, nor mud like 
 an Irish or Egyptian hovel. They are things exactly 
 like an oblong haystack; a mass of thatch on a 
 frame of wood, with high roof, rather after the Fiji 
 model; and neither plank, nor beam, nor' wall, to be 
 u 3 
 
292 CHAPTER xiir. 
 
 seen ; just thatch^ all thatcli. The first time I saw 
 them was in the Campagna, between Rome and 
 Albano; and it was a good while before the truth 
 dawned upon me^ that they were habitations for the 
 heirs of the Romans. At first I took them to 
 be sheds for my old Indian friends the buffaloes. 
 
 The vegetation on some jungle-tracts proved that 
 the soil is rich. Here and there the buffalo showed 
 his dingy and stupid form, — meet emblem of the 
 soil, an Asiatic beast of burden. At one point of 
 the route, I counted eleven minutes of railway running 
 between one cultivated spot and another ; at a second, 
 no less than seventeen. And is this the continu- 
 ation of the Sunrise Shore? The same land, with 
 a finer sweep of plains, with gentler hills, with more 
 equally distributed waters ; but with a few scattered 
 groups of peasants, instead of multitudes ; with deso- 
 lation, instead of bloom. 
 
 As we sped along amid this natural wealth and 
 artificial penury, a flying column of smoke, to the 
 right, caught my eye. Off the coast of Egypt, and 
 again far up the Nile, I had hailed that flying flag 
 of grimy hue as an English institution. There it is 
 again, the old skyward column of industrious, work- 
 doing, bread-bringing, ugly, useful smoke. " It is the 
 Tiber," I cried ; and as we all looked, a sail or two 
 confirmed the token, and in a few minutes more we 
 were gazing on the yellow tide of the old Roman river. 
 
CIVITA VECCHIA AND THE CAMPAGNA. 293 
 
 After a while, the heights of the Aventine come in 
 view, and there is the great new church of St. PauFs, 
 glowing with internal embellishments, and haunted 
 by fever, till, in summer, it is forsaken even by- 
 Monks. And yonder is the pyramid tomb of Caius 
 Cestus, close by the old walls, and helping the eye 
 to fix upon the English burial-ground, where so 
 many of our nation rest. 
 
 The first time I had seen the Campagna of Rome, 
 was from the north. After leaving Viterbo, I had 
 walked on alone to the top of Monte Cimino, and 
 there enjoyed that wonderful view from a height of 
 nearly tlu-ee thousand feet, in which the eye takes 
 in an immense range of the Apennines, with the 
 valley of the Tiber, including objects that remind 
 you of Fabius and Pio Nono, Virgil and Antonelli; 
 and, although a day's journey distant, through that 
 bright air, one sees an object which first fixes the eye, 
 and then raises the question, " Can that be St. 
 Peter's ? " and then, judging from the natural 
 objects within view, and from the apparent distance, 
 comes the conviction that it must be so. . 
 
 But, 0, where were the glorious cities and the mul- 
 titudes that used to throng these plains ? From that 
 height one went down, passing through some tole- 
 rable villages, and one or two ruinous cities, until 
 the Campagna was fairly reached; and to take for 
 instance the little town of Monterosi as a sample. 
 
294 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 what a scene of filth and ruin and wretchedness it is ! 
 Look at the thing called a butcher's shop; look at 
 the place that is said to be a coffee-house; at the 
 condition of the streets ; at the heads of the chil- 
 dren ; at the clothes of the women ; at the skin of the 
 men ; and then go and look into the little neglected 
 building, with the few miserable daubs, and more 
 miserable statues and tawdry ornaments, that calls 
 itself a church. There is about everything a feel- 
 ing of hopelessness that goes very deep into one's 
 soul. You hardly know which is worsCj — this, 
 or t]\e desolation through which you pass after- 
 wards nearer the Eternal City, over the ancient 
 dwelling-places of the Romans. Bare lands, poor- 
 looking men now and then passing, with carts that 
 in England might be fairly exhibited as agricultural 
 curiosities ; and the only object looking really com- 
 fortable and happy being the asses, which are of a very 
 fine breed, much larger than the Egyptian ones, 
 though not so sprightly ; this is the scene, till all the 
 day you go wondering how bad government can thus 
 lay waste a country. The night had fallen before we 
 entered the gate of Rome. There was in the diligence 
 a Roman and his wife, who had been away for some 
 time, perhaps some years : " There it is," she said, 
 with great feeling, "the capital of the world!" and 
 after all that one had been passing through, the 
 words of the poor lady did strike strangely upon the 
 
CIVITA VECCHIA AND THE CAMPAGNA. 295 
 
 ear ; and as she gazed out upon the Piazza del Popoloj 
 the really beautiful entrance to the city, she clapped 
 her hands with positive delight, and cried, "Look, 
 look, don't you see the gas? Don't you see the 
 gas ? " And it was quite true : there it was. The 
 Government had at last made up its mind to confer 
 upon the city this wonderful advantage of being 
 lighted by gas; but even then it was judiciously 
 restrained to a few of the principal streets. 
 
 At two other points I crossed the Campagna. From 
 Rome to Albano, the desolation appears to be almost 
 perfect; but you have not, as between Civita Vecchia 
 and the city, the same advantage of undulating ground 
 and hills close at hand to relieve the dulness of the 
 scene. Travelling slowly over a flat, looking at nothing 
 but bare lands, where there is some cultivation, but 
 no towns or villages, with a few of those intolerably 
 miserable cabins already described, with buffaloes 
 here and there, and with the memory of thousands 
 and tens of thousands who once rejoiced in manly 
 life upon these plains, the spirits fairly give way. 
 On reaching the far side of that plain, I remember 
 saying to my wife, "After what one has felt this 
 morning,- I doubt whether ever before I had what 
 ought to be called a feeling of melancholy. To 
 see the ruin of a house, if it is not so old that all 
 idea of a family is gone out of memory, is touching ; 
 to see that of a village under the same circumstances, 
 
296 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 still more so; and that of a town, distressing; 
 but never before did I see the ruin of a country^ and 
 of such a country, and all this -vrrought in the name 
 of the Church of Christ." There is room for all the 
 Pope's Irish Brigade to have broad and fertile lands 
 on the Campagna : but fever has rejoiced over deso- 
 lation so long, that woe to the first generation of 
 those who settle here. 
 
 Another line across the Campagna is to Prascati, 
 to which there is now a railway ; and matters are 
 so judiciously arranged, that if before leaving your 
 own door in Rome for the railway office, you 
 put your wife into a private carriage, you may by 
 possibility reach Frascati by rail in time to bid 
 her welcome; but it is not certain, as she may 
 have the start of you. The things are very nicely 
 balanced : you have so long to wait at the oflSce, so 
 far to go to the station, and so long to wait there, 
 and to take it so quietly on the road, and make stops 
 where there are neither towns nor villages to stop 
 for, that if the Government has been compelled to 
 yield to the unseemly innovation of a railway, it 
 does at least avoid anything that could encourage 
 undue intercourse ; and it is perfectly right. It has 
 its own instincts, which tell it that the steam horse 
 is an English charger that carries English ideas. 
 
 The way to Frascati lies through unbroken 
 solitude; the land is for the most part cultivated. 
 
CIVITA VECCHIA AND THE CAMPAGNA. 297 
 
 but where do the people come from ? No town, no 
 vjHage ; the number of houses the whole way, about 
 twelve miles, might easily be counted. The old 
 arches of the Roman aqueducts hold up their giant 
 bones in protest that those valleys were a place for 
 men ; but the solitude around proclaims that for men 
 they are now no place. The moment you touch the 
 hills, the scene changes ; you are in the midst of 
 rich vegetation, vineyards, olives, everything that 
 ought to confer wealth upon a people, everything 
 that does make interest for a traveller; and the 
 memories of immortal Romans meet you at every 
 step ; and some of the greatest names in the history 
 of mind are familiar recollections upon those hills. 
 It was just here that Cicero and his friends used to 
 have those discussions which will refresh and 
 interest human intellects to the latest day. 
 
 One day in Frascati, being weary and waiting 
 for the train, I went into a coffee-house; it was 
 during Holy Week, and Italy was boiling ■with great 
 events. Great events were just occurring at the 
 Court of Rome. There was no paper on the table, 
 no magazines, nothing for any human being to read. 
 It was a nice coffee-house : woyld that we could 
 have such in towns of the size in England, — a place 
 to invite people to go and sit, and spend an hour, 
 looking on beautifully painted walls and ceiling, and 
 enjoying an open and lofty chamber, without spend- 
 
298 CHAPTEH XIII. 
 
 iag money to any ruinous extent^ or incurring temp- 
 tations ! What a civilizing institution tlie coffee- 
 house is ! It evidently has had its effect upon Italy. _ 
 Goldoni, in his Bottega del Caffe, makes one of his 
 characters say, "Formerly brandy used to be in 
 vogue, but now coffee." In England the one great 
 institution is the public-house, the most popular, the 
 most powerful, the most costly of all British institu- 
 tions, and the most abominable one in Europe ; and 
 Mr. Gladstone deserves everlasting gratitude for his 
 statesmanlike endeavours to undermine it. Well, but 
 about this coffee-house ! After I had remained lolling 
 on the comfortable bench for a while alone, in came 
 an old gentleman, and sat down without ordering 
 anything, or seeming to have any idea of ordering. 
 
 " How do you do, Signor Joseph? " said the waiter. 
 
 " O what a windy day ! " 
 
 "Yes, very windy; any news?" 
 
 " no, there is no news." 
 
 " Have you seen the Giornale di Roma ? " 
 
 " no," said the old man, " I have not seen it," 
 — as much as to say, " What 's the use ? " — " I have 
 seen the Civilta Cattolica, and there is nothing in 
 it; just the old things." 
 
 Presently, in came a young man, and, addressing 
 himself also to Signor Joseph, he said, " Is there any 
 news ? " ^ 
 
 " No, none at all ; " and he began to tell that he 
 
' CIVITA VECCHIA AND THE CAMPAGNA. 299 
 
 had heard somethiug or other from Central Italy, 
 repeating some of the facts of several weeks old in a 
 garbled and incorrect form. A middle-aged man now 
 joined the party. 
 
 "Is there anything about General Lamoriciere ? ■" 
 " No," said one ; " No," said another. Had they 
 seen the " Journal of Rome ?" " No," they all said in 
 the same tone, — " What 's the use ? " and old Signor 
 Joseph repeated, once more, " I have seen the Civilta 
 Cattolica, but it is just the solite cose — ^just the old 
 things." 
 
 "But," said the waiter, "you ought to read the 'Ga- 
 zette of Genoa.' That really does contain some news. 
 I used sometimes to see that." Now this •' Gazette 
 of Genoa " is the one paper in the Italian language 
 which this paternal Government allows to cross its 
 frontier ; the only one that does not contain so much 
 poison that it would be dangerous to the political 
 health of the Roman people : and even it is not quite 
 safe, but still it is allowed. Poor fellows ! after all 
 they had a general impression that there was such a 
 place as the world, and that they somehow or other 
 had a sort of connexion with it ; and they would like 
 to have some idea of what it was doing. They 
 seemed very uncomfortable, and fumbling about in 
 the dark, and knowing nothing of what was taking . 
 place outside their little gate. While I was just 
 thinking of the art by which human minds could be 
 shut up in this way, and accounting to myself better 
 
300 
 
 CUAPTEU XIII. 
 
 than I bad done before for tbe glee of the students 
 in the coffee-house at Milan, with the room full of 
 publications, and their own tongues perfectly free, 
 the door opened, and in walked a Priest in his sur- 
 plice, with something in his hand. The men touched 
 their hats to him respectfully enough. He passed 
 on to an inner room. 
 
 " What are they about ? " said one. " He is not 
 going in to visit any one, is he ? " 
 
 Presently the waiter returned, and said he had 
 wanted some little thing ; and then lie gave a grum-. 
 ble, and said, " Ah, he does not leave us his bles- 
 sing ! " The middle-aged man, who seemed the 
 sharpest of the set, said, " No, he has no blessing for 
 anybody but the women." 
 
 "Is Antonio married?" said Signor Joseph. 
 " No, he is not married," was the reply. 
 " H[ow is that ? " 
 
 " Well, there is some talk about the girl going into 
 a convent;" and then began a discussion upon nun- 
 neries, which I certainly shall not repeat ; but the 
 conclusion of it was that the middle-aged man 
 said, "They ought to adopt a law that no nun shall . 
 be admitted under the age of thirty-five. I think 
 that might be tolerably safe." Every now and 
 then these poor fellows would give a furtive glance 
 at the stranger, as if trying to know whetlier he 
 understood them or not, or whether he was one 
 before whom they might speak their minds. 
 
^|agto nil. 
 
 BOME IN HOLY WEEK. 
 
We enter by the Trastevere, (the " over the water " 
 part of Eome,) which looks dingy^ yet less so^ that 
 isj less filthy, than a few years ago. Two Irishmen 
 are with me on the omnibus, one evidently a 
 Romanist, the other doubtfal. Depending on me 
 for interpreting, they feel some respect; but seem 
 to peer hard into my views of the Eternal City, not 
 feeling as yet quite sure of their own. Mine are 
 decidedly behind a veil. Those of my Catholic 
 friend become rather depressed, as bad smells, dirty 
 sights, and despicable-looking Friars encounter us. 
 
 " Is that a Basilica? " asked the friend of doubt- 
 ful colour, pointing to a large and ugly church. 
 " I dare say. My impression is, that ' Plenary 
 AND Perpetual Indulgence,' which is promised by 
 the inscription, indicates a Basilica; but I am not 
 quite clear as to what that promise means." They 
 did not feel disposed to enlighten me. " Is it a 
 Basilica?" I asked a Roman. "Yes, St. Mary of 
 the Trastevere." " And what is meant by ' Plenary 
 and Perpetual Indulgence 7 ' " " O, all the Basilicas 
 have that privilege over the other churches. We 
 
304 
 
 CHAPTER XIV, 
 
 have seven of them; they are the great original 
 Christian churches, and have special privileges, of 
 which that is one." " But what is it ? " " O, you 
 know, if you visit the Basilica, and pray with due 
 devotion, you have indulgence." " Yes, but what is 
 it ? " " It abates the pains of purgatory." " But, 
 if plenary and perpetual, why go to purgatory at 
 all ?" " O, that is an affair for the Priests." 
 
 Through an old lumbering arch, into a sort of 
 Wapping Street, and I, in my ofiBce of interpreter, 
 say to the Catholic, " We are now entering the 
 Street of the Holy Ghost." He attempted a remark, 
 but it stuck in his throat ; and, as I pointed to the 
 words, " Borgo Sanlo Spirito," he evidently felt 
 shocked. The crowds of French soldiers did not 
 escape the notice of his comrade. " What a thing 
 for one Government to be held up at home by 
 another in that way ! " Poor fellow ! it was a 
 depressing process. Grand ideas of beauty, glory, 
 and holiness were crushed with every roll of the 
 omnibus wheels. 
 
 "There's St. Peter's," I cried, glad to relieve 
 him ; but it showed through a vista of dingy houses, 
 adorned, as usual in Rome, with " washing " hanging 
 out of the windows. StiU it was St. Peter's ; and, 
 with one's old admiration of the dome, I felt its 
 grandeur. But he only saw just the dome, with 
 that unbeautiful foreground; and all he said was. 
 
ROME IN HOLT WEEK. 305 
 
 " Why, it 's very like St. Paul's." On to the Bridge 
 of St. Angelo : as I was pointing out the features 
 of Hadrian's tomb, he caught the sign of the Pope's 
 dependency waving in front of it ; and it seemed to 
 produce on him a feeling which reminded me of my 
 own, when I saw the crescent banner of the Turk 
 floating upon Mount Sion. He interrupted my 
 remarks with, " The French flag ! " in a tone so 
 afi'ecting as to sUence one for a time. Ay, the 
 French flag, there at the pass of the Tiber, between 
 the Vatican and the bulk of Rome ! The French 
 flag, not the Pope's, protecting the way to the Chair 
 of St. Peter, protecting the site of the Holy Inqui- 
 sition, protecting the Cardinals and the Monks, and 
 aU the powers of the Church. That flag threw a 
 shadow on the waters of the Tiber, which robbed 
 them of half their glory in the eye of my neighbour. 
 Poor old river! as full, and fresh, and strong as 
 need to be ; but it bears only fishermen on its 
 bosom, and laves but the palaces of Priests, or the 
 abodes of discontented citizens. The one decent 
 vessel that floats on its waters is no child of its 
 banks, but the "English Fire Ship," to borrow a 
 name from the Bedouin Mousa on the shores of the 
 'Red Sea. Instead of men who impose respect upon 
 the world, looking over the bridge with proud and 
 loving eyes, it has on the battlements the stone 
 forms of fantastic angels ! 
 
306 
 
 CHAPTEK XIV. 
 
 How often I exclaimed, while musing upon the 
 banks of the Nile, " What constitutes the identity 
 of a river?" This feeling came back strongly here, 
 at this new sight of the bereaved Tiber. Is it the 
 same river which coursed under Horatius ? Where 
 are the waters that flowed then? Where the earth 
 they touched? Where the buildings they passed 
 by ? Where the men and beasts that drank then ? 
 All gone, never to be gathered again. Not a drop 
 of the stream, or a grain of the sand, or a yard 
 of the bank, the same. Yet it is the Tiber ; the old, 
 old Tiber, of the Kings, the Consuls, the Emperors, 
 the Popes, preserving its place, its complexion, its 
 name, and holding fast its relations to the sky from 
 which it is fed, and the earth out of which it springs, 
 and the sea into which it poured of old its freights 
 of glory, and now pours its forsaken stream. At 
 that point of the Castle St. Angelo, the emblems 
 of its condition meet, — the grand old tomb of 
 Hadrian, the statue-angels of the Bridge, the lively 
 flag of Gaul : — its Captains are dead, its religion 
 is Art, its guardian power the lord of the trans- 
 Alpine tricolour. 
 
 Across the river, our Catholic friend seemed little 
 relieved by the aspect of the city ; better, but yet 
 poor. Soon we were working up the narrow street 
 leading to the Piazza di Spagna ; things looked 
 cleaner. But still, for one who had fancied this city 
 
ROME IN HOLY WEEK. 307 
 
 to be the joy of the whole earthy it is a sober progress. 
 Dublin would beat it ten times over, and any 
 watering-place in England would be ashamed of the 
 comparison. I pointed out the fact that gas-lights 
 had been allowed. He did not seem to think that 
 any wonderful superiority. " We are now coming 
 to- the great street of Rome, the Regent Street, 
 Strand, Oxford Street, and Westbourne Terrace all 
 in one, — the Corso." He communicated this great 
 fact to his friend ; and both looked out for the grand 
 street. After a while he said, "The Corso is the 
 great street ?" I replied, " Yes, the only one that is 
 permitted the dignity of a side pavement." But 
 scarcely had I used the words, when I had to cry, 
 " Well, I declare ! the foot-pavement is extended 
 beyond the Corso ; here is some here." But in a 
 moment we were crossing a street, like a hundred 
 that might be picked out of other cities, and I said, 
 "That is the Corso." The good Catholic took a 
 long look at the high houses and narrow way, at the 
 passable shops and shoals of shovel hats, and he 
 replied, " That 's the Corso." Sackville Street was 
 in his eye. 
 
 The Via Condotti! full of English men and 
 women, and lined with shops for trinkets, silks, 
 and works of art. Pretty things ! What a trade 
 in them might be done with England, if matters 
 were well managed ! 
 
 X 2 
 
30S CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 In the Piazza di Spagna my comrade asks, " What 
 is that ? " pointing to a pillar. " That is the great 
 achievement of the present Pope; the column of 
 the Immaculate Conception : he has added a pillar to 
 Rome, and an article to the faith." 
 
 We set off for the Capitol. The coachman was a 
 shrewd feUow ; and I rode on the box for the sake 
 of talk. We passed that fine old cohimn of Antoninus, 
 which now, as the inscription teUs, is purged from all 
 heathenism, and converted into a good Christian pillar, 
 with the statue of an Apostle replacing that of an 
 Emperor. Then came the Forum of Trajan, and its 
 grand old column too, like the other, covered with 
 rich sculpture ; and at its foot that picturesque group 
 of broken pillars, serving only to tell that once this 
 spot was thronged with life, and shadowed with 
 magnificence. Eound about, houses, with "wash- 
 ing " hanging out of the windows, churches, beggars, 
 French soldiers. Papal gens-d'armes, and foreigners 
 in carriages. A little way up is the Quirinal, the 
 Pope's second palace, a beautiful abode in fine taste, 
 with noble gardens. The first day I saw it, " wash- 
 ing" was hanging out of eleven windows, and the 
 second day out of seven. 
 
 As to the gens-d'armes, they never appeared alone ; 
 always a patrol of five or six together. The Papal 
 soldiers, too, with the blue coat and red pantaloons 
 of the French, were so much like them, that it was 
 
ROME IN HOLY WEEK. 309 
 
 hard to distinguish. On the hat, instead of the 
 outspread eagle, you had the keys of the kingdom 
 of peace, and the tiara of Christ's Vicar. Squads 
 of gens-d'armes and squads of Priests seemed the 
 only thing noticeable ; the former a sign of terror 
 in the Government, the latter a sign of Holy 
 Week. 
 
 Last night a tradesman had surprised me, by 
 replying to some simple question about the state 
 of things in Rome, in a tone of loud complaint. We 
 had given no sign of our opinions ; yet, unlike the 
 caution I had found at a previous visit, oflf he went. 
 "Everything is in a miserable condition : no work 
 for the poor, no trade for the shopkeepers, no hope 
 for any one but the Priests." I said something to 
 the effect that they must find a friend in " the Holy 
 Father." " Santo Padre ! " he said, as an Orange- 
 man might say it : " Santo Padre ! the poor 
 people now cry in his ears, ' Holy Father and dear 
 bread ! Holy Father and dear bread I'" 
 
 " You don't mean that ? " 
 
 " Mean it, that I do— ah ! " 
 
 In keeping with this were the remarks of the 
 coachman, as the Priests passed in troops with that 
 wonderful variety of the species which Rome alone 
 can show, — black, brown, white, and grey ; now with 
 hoods, now with cords, now with red and blue 
 crosses, now with the step of a potentate, now with 
 
310 CHAPTER IIV. 
 
 the box of a beggar; one lean with penancej another' 
 rosy with rural health, another gross with sloth and 
 feeding; now in the Prelate's purple, now in the 
 dirt of a pauper ; some appearing learned, pure, and 
 grave ; many common-place and content, not a few 
 polished men of upper life, and a great multiti\de 
 coarse and low, with no more light of intellect or 
 grace upon their countenances than on those of their 
 brothers who hold the plough or infest the highway. 
 With a few fine exceptions of men with open benign 
 human faces, they all look like dark and lonely men, 
 isolated tools of Rome, watchmen who walk in the 
 dark and spy out all men's ways. 
 
 As I asked questions about this order and that, 
 the coachman gradually got angry. "The people 
 can bear it no longer; this Government of Priests 
 is horrid. They have brought us all to starvation, 
 and they swarm like flies^ and eat and drink." Fop 
 anything that had passed, I might have been a 
 zealous Catholic; and this outburst, corresponding 
 with what I had heard last night, and contrasting 
 with the reserve of former years, took me by surprise. 
 
 So in talking of the late affair between the people 
 and the gens-d' rmes, all was outspoken rancour. 
 Two men, curriers, had been arrested, just because 
 they were known to be liberals. The people hissed. 
 French police moved ; and, encouraged by this sup- 
 port, the Papal gens-d' armes, with drawn swords. 
 
ROME IN HOLY WEEK. 311 
 
 rushed on and slashed away with the flat of the 
 sword, say they; but forty or fifty people were 
 wounded, and some have died. I put down the 
 number that seems to have most votes ; for many 
 talked of it, and the estimate varied greatly. 
 
 Amid such talk we wound through the poor streets 
 lying between the Forum of Trajan and the grand 
 old spot, — the Forum Romanum ; the coachman 
 now and then stopped before a ruin. Now to the 
 top of the tower of the Capitol. There are the 
 gi'and old Sabine Hills, with Tivoli's white houses 
 ghstening on their sides. Then your eye, crossing 
 the valley, rests on the Alban chain. Frascati is 
 plain enough, with its perpetual memento of Cicero, 
 eloquence, and philosophic discourse; and Castel 
 Gondolfo is plain, and the knoll under which lies 
 Albano. Right and left spreads the Campagna; on 
 the right merging its vast flat in a horizon that looks 
 like sea- shore, without showing water, on the left 
 running up to the blue hills ; on both sides waste, 
 no smoke of towns, no sign of villages, no stir of 
 men; the gaunt old forms of Roman aqueducts 
 stalking over the Frascati side of the plain ; and at 
 other points a stern fragment, as if the rusting 
 armour of the dead giants. Near lie the typical 
 heaps of Rome's memorials, the Baths of Caracalla, 
 the Palace of the Caesars, the swelling bulk of the 
 Colosseum. Nearer, the Arch of Constantine, that 
 
312 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 of Titus, the Via Sacra, and, just below, the Roman 
 Forum, with its fragments of ancient temples, and 
 its one entire arch. Three columns here, two there, 
 half a dozen yonder, a few bases in one place, a 
 pavement in another, and a name for each, are all 
 that remains to tell how grand was this spot some 
 lifetimes ago. But few of the stones are left, and 
 none of the men. 
 
 One looks down from that height along that 
 famous way, where these spectre temples and 
 mouldering bones of palaces call up the memory of 
 life, by the sight of death's handiwork. And how 
 one looks and looks, and goes on looking, the eye 
 wandering from the hill of the Palaces to the Titanic 
 heap of the Baths, and then to the Colosseum, still 
 sending up a cry of Heathen mirth and Christian 
 agony, and then to the Arch of Titus, under which 
 Jerusalem sits and weeps, while old Rome triumphs ! 
 
 How strange that among all the historic ruins of 
 Pagan times the idea now represented by living men 
 is always a Bible one ! Among the Pyramids, 
 Moses, — in Nineveh, the Hebrew Kings, — at Athens, 
 the preaching Paid,^here in Rome, the golden 
 candlestick of the temple, the unrecorded martyrs 
 of the Colosseum. What they believed in lives, and 
 yearly grows younger and stronger; but the beUefa 
 against which they stood up have passed away. 
 
 After the great ruins, immediately under one, the 
 
ROME IN HOLT WEEK. 313 
 
 eye seeks out the seven hills. There is the old 
 Aventine close by the Tiber, with its crowning con- 
 ventj a real Mount ; and there, nearer, the Palatine^ 
 cradle of Rome and cinder-heap of her imperial 
 halls, with the odd intruder under its flank, a round, 
 tall chimney, of unmistakeable Manchester family, 
 the English gasworks. These two are plain enough ; 
 so is the Capitoline on which we stand ; so, yonder, 
 far on the left, is the Quirinal, crowned with that 
 long, straight range of buildings, the Pope's palace ; 
 and between it and the Palatine, the other three, 
 Viminal, Esquiline, Cselian, though not traceable as 
 Mounts, are distinguishable as regions, and may be 
 marked by the Lateran Basilica with its grenadier 
 statues, by the two domes of Santa Maria Maggiore, 
 and by the line thence to the Quirinal. 
 
 The modern city comes next. Across the Tiber 
 the high Janiculan, and, beyond, the dome-topped 
 Vatican, closing Rome tightly in with high land; 
 then the mass of St. Angelo, and the lofty heights 
 of the Pincian, and, between, the little wilderness 
 of tiles, towers, and domes; almost hiding the grand 
 outline of the Pantheon, and traversed by the rapid 
 lonely Tiber. No gay boat sporting on his bosom, 
 he travels on, Hke a strong old grandfather on whose 
 knees there are no children to play. 
 
 What an enchanting light ! making common forms 
 lovely. What a mass of historic recollections ! 
 
314 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 What grandeur of natural outline ! What wealth 
 of ancient remains ! and yet what absence of arti- 
 ficial beauty ! The one grand dome on the Vatican 
 hiU is the only fair form of art on which the eye 
 rests. That of the Pantheon is smothered; the 
 ruins are not beauty, but poeti7 in another form. 
 Where are the spires of England, the porticoes of 
 Paris, the minarets of Cairo, the Campanili of Italy ? 
 These church towers are shapeless and graceless; 
 poor, viewed from the ground ; wretched, from above. 
 The minor domes are not large enough to produce 
 an effect. Few cities, with such a site and such a 
 heaven, would look so ragged and so destitute of sky. 
 going beauty. Still the light, that spring of aU love- 
 liness, makes even the modern city pleasant to the 
 eye. How long one could look ! How much one 
 would Hke to be here a whole day alone ! While 
 indulging this thought the first time, the silence was 
 broken by an American voice, saying, "How 
 crooked the Tiber is ! " 
 
 In the evening I began to say something to Maria 
 the servant, a sensible woman, about the people 
 complaining. " O ! " she cried, " it is nothing but 
 sorrow and outcry. The people are all in wretched- 
 ness. They say it is the Priests who do it all. 
 They say they must have a new religion, and that 
 everything is to be changed. But for the moment 
 things are quiet. I don't know, — we are all suffer- 
 
KOME IN HOLY WEEK. 315 
 
 ing; and we are all ignorant and wicked. Your 
 people pray ; but in Rome very few of us ever pray." 
 (I suppose she had seen our family prayer.) " We 
 are all growing brutish. I'm a poor woman that 
 can neither read nor write ; I come from the Sabine 
 Hills. I lost my father and mother, and all my 
 brothers and sisters, — but one sister, — and I had 
 to come to Rome to find service. I have been in 
 this house ever since, — twelve years. I got married 
 because they told me he was a hard-working young 
 man, who would get me a morsel of bread. Buthe 
 can't support me. I'm obliged to be in service all 
 the same. I have been forced to pawn even the 
 rings out of my ears. But my husband has got 
 work now. He is a cook. This has been a sad 
 year for cooks, — so few foreigners ; but he is now 
 
 employed by the Friars of church." 
 
 " By the Friars ! do they need a cook ? " 
 " Ah, it 's they that do,— don't they eat ! " 
 " They eat only plain, penitential dishes ? " 
 " O, fancy ! something else than that ! They eat 
 the best that can be cooked, sweets of all sorts ! " 
 
 At the Lateran, leaving the Basilica, for the 
 moment, we turned to the neighbouring building 
 which covers the Holy Stair. It is a very consider- 
 able structure. There are three parallel staircases, 
 the ones on the right and left being the humble 
 attendants of the sacred one in the middle, by which 
 
316 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 the vulgar may go up, or the pilgrim, after his 
 reverential ascent, come down. In appearance the 
 Holy Stair does not differ from the others. But see, 
 one, two, three; men and women, gentlemen and 
 ladies, townsfolk, peasants, and at least two soldiers, 
 — French soldiers they appear, but the Pope's wear 
 the same uniform, — from the lower steps up to the 
 top, all on their knees, all more or less uttering 
 prayers, all pressing upwards, the greater part 
 patiently and honestly, some dodging and making 
 the feet save the knees, some urging forward in 
 hot haste, some stopping on each step to repeat a 
 prayer, some looking up intently to the " Holy of 
 Holies" at the top. Thirty human beings going 
 through this process ! and they part only of a great 
 stream running the whole week. Luther was once 
 there ! Don't despise them ; they may be as 
 sincerely seeking God as he was. Don't despair of 
 them ; they may be as near receiving a better light. 
 It was on that stair, up there somewhere near the 
 top, perhaps where that lady is toiling, that the voice 
 from above sounded, in the ear of the sturdy yet 
 penitent Monk, 
 
 "The Just shall live by Faith." 
 It was there that the ever memorable illapse of 
 heaven's light fell upon that soul, and that, as he 
 himself tells, the gates of Paradise seemed to open. 
 Moment never forgotten in the heart of Luther ! 
 
EOME IN HOLY WEEK. 317 
 
 Moment ever to be remembered in the history of 
 Ptome, and of the universal Church ! May the same 
 Spirit raise up many similar instruments in our days, 
 and in this place ! 
 
 The stairSj though, at first sight, like the others, 
 are soon seen to be covered with a case of wood, 
 leaving the inner and holy stair to appear in 
 open spaces ; some of which are stained with the 
 blood of the Redeemer. The stair is that which he 
 descended from Pilate's judgment seat ! 
 
 Hence we pass to the top, where is a little dark 
 chapel, closed up, " The Holy of Holies : " you can 
 see through a gi'ating, and read a Latiu inscription 
 to the effect, that there is not upon earth a spot more 
 holy. No woman may enter ! It contains a picture 
 by St. Luke, — an exact likeness of the Saviour, when 
 twelve years old. 
 
 While looking at the door which leads into the spot 
 where the table is kept on which the Last Supper 
 was eaten, we found a Sacristan willing to open 
 and show it. Just after we had seen, up came a 
 
 party. It was the Prince of C , with some 
 
 ladies ; a Canon Prelate, in purple and ermine, was 
 soon in attendance, and, in addition to the Saniissima 
 table, showed a splendid glass box, set in gold, which 
 contained a morsel of the napkin used by our Lord 
 at the Supper. After he had finished with his party, 
 he most politely asked us to walk in, and told the 
 
318 CHAPTEK XIV. 
 
 man to show us. It was hard to see; for the cell 
 was daxkj and the glass sparkled in the candle-light. 
 Stillj a morsel of whitish something was visible inside 
 the casket, and the Custdde reverently averred that it 
 was a true piece of the very napkin used by our 
 Lord. 
 
 Hence we went to the church of the Holy Cross 
 in Jerusalem, where is a true and undoubted piece 
 of the cross. There was more than the usual crowd of 
 beggars, more than the usual display of flowers, — and 
 very beautiful they were, — and brilliant lights, and the 
 floors strewed with leaves and blossoms, and poor old 
 folk half praying, half staring, and now and then 
 chatting and begging in the usual way ; but the 
 true piece of the true cross was not then to be seen. 
 
 Next, to St. Mary the Greater, less holy as a 
 church, grander as an edifice. How fine its nave, 
 with the long colonnade ! and those two side 
 chapels are exquisite. The altar of jasper is in 
 itself a work to wonder at for a long time. 
 
 It is the hour of vespers. Canons in purple and 
 ermine; minor Canons in purple and squirrel 
 hoods. Priests in aU colours, and singers in 
 splendour, crowd the choir. Friars brown, black, 
 and white, spot the church here and there. Count- 
 ing aU these, yon have the bulk of the audience. 
 How can this be? In London, the announcement 
 of such a musical entertainment would secure multi- 
 
ROME IN HOLY WEEK. 319 
 
 tudes at large prices ; here, beggars excepted^ there are 
 not sixty laity of Rome present. The singing is very 
 tine ; but when the Miserere begins, it is something 
 indescribably beautiful. The rise and cadence of that 
 artistic wail, through those domes and colonnades, is 
 almost supernatural : and all the human voice ! and 
 all male voices ! for, in the prudery of Rome, women 
 may not sing in church choirs. 
 
 "What a mystery is music, — invisible, yet making 
 the eye shine ; intangible, yet making all the nerves 
 vibrate ; floating between earth and heaven j falling 
 upon this world as if a strain from that above, 
 ascending to that as a thank-offering from ours ! It 
 is God's gift, and is too lofty for anything but 
 His praise ; too near to the immaterial to be made 
 the minister of sordid pleasure j too clearly destined 
 to mount upwards, to be used for inclining hearts to 
 earth. that the Churches knew how to sing; 
 making music a joy, a triumph, a sunshine song of 
 larks, as well as a midnight song of nightingales ! 
 
 The long-talked-of Excommunication is issued. 
 It has been posted up in the public places of Rome, 
 and it is to be bought for a few baiocchi. All say it 
 has produced no more effect than so many shovel-fuUs 
 of peas thrown among the people. Romans are so 
 much accustomed to fiud misery and crime flourish 
 on soils bedewed with the Pope's benedictions, and 
 to hear of peace, virtue, and liberty in countries 
 
320 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 scorched, not to say burnt up, with his curses, that 
 they have reached a state of mind wherein the one and 
 the other go for the value of the shows wherewith 
 their utterance is accompanied. In this case it 
 was thunder and thunderbolt, hurled indeed by the 
 Jove of the Vatican, with his own red right hand, 
 amid the flames of Cardinal scarlet, and the roar of 
 ecclesiastical storms; but, unlike the potent Joves 
 of other times, who marked their man, and hit his hel- 
 met, if they did not crush his body, the present poor 
 old Thunderer, fearful that the after-clap might fall 
 upon the Vatican, closed his eyes as he launched the 
 bolt ; and, without aiming at any one in particular, 
 favoured a whole nation or two in general with a curse. 
 What ! no one named ? Not a man. A curse, 
 without a head designated for it to rest upon? 
 Even so. A few millions of infected caps, each 
 carrying eternal death to the wearer, cast among a 
 nation, for every one who thinks one will fit to put it 
 on ? Exactly. Not one marked for the sacrilegious 
 head of Victor Emmanuel ? No. Nor for the fiend 
 of all malice, Cavour? Not even for him. Ugly 
 words about the "Government" of Sardinia; but a 
 Government is not a soul, and no soul is marked out 
 by name as heir special of Kome's last curse. The 
 bomb is fired, the piece has recoiled, the shell has 
 burst in high air, and curious people are examining 
 the fragments. Ecco ! 
 
ROME IN HOLY WEEK. 321 
 
 What an approach is that to St. Peter's ! First a 
 grand " circus/' larger than those in Regent Street, 
 formed by two crescent colonnades, of stately height ; 
 then a square, flanked by colonnades ; and then the 
 long, easy steps ; and finally the front of the Basilica. 
 But this disappoints one. It has none of the grace 
 of pure Grecian, or of the soaring splendours of 
 Gothic ; and lacks even the prettiness of good Italian. 
 The stone looks rough, the design ill-composed, with 
 small windows ; and the huge bulk of the Vatican, 
 overtopping it, like a Manchester warehouse, dwarfs 
 it as to height, and destroys all idea of harmony. 
 
 Inside, first a grand vestibule ; then bursts on the 
 eye the resplendent temple, fuU of light, and glowing 
 with every colour that marble ever displayed. 
 Under your feet marble, right, left, marble,— white, 
 red, green, variegated; in statues, in walls, in 
 columns, niches, and piles : mosaics and marble, 
 marble and mosaics, gilding and carving, curious 
 work, and titanic proportions ; vastness, and beauty, 
 and pomp ! " What do you think of it ? " You 
 have had no time to think of it; you are only 
 feeling a rush of sensations, as yet not reflected 
 on. You reach the great altar, which does make a 
 distinct impression, of the grotesque. But the 
 dome, the dome ! You are fairly overwhelmed. 
 You first gaze, theu rest, then gaze again ; then lie 
 down on your back, and look up and up, and won- 
 
322 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 der at the power of thought to conceive and embody 
 such an idea; and then wonder more, that you 
 should feel so much under this small dome, because 
 it is man's handiwork, and often so little under the 
 great one just above it, because it is the work of 
 your own Maker. 
 
 Presently, you turn. and look back ; the nave is no 
 length, — so it seems ; and it ends meanly in a wall, 
 with a few pilasters and small windows. It is a 
 bold word to say " meanly," but one must report one's 
 own impressions. Some, speaking of this apparent 
 shortness of the nave, call it " perfection, the result of 
 the faultless proportions." To make great look little, 
 perfection ! Apply this to the dome ; are its propor- 
 tions bad ? Yet it makes the full impression of its 
 majestic bulk. If it looked small, being as large as 
 it is, would it not be a fault ? It is not that the 
 whole of the building looks so much less than is 
 natural, as seems generally assumed ; for the dome 
 has fuU effect. It is the other parts, chiefly the 
 nave. Murray accounts for the minified appearance, 
 partly by the gigantic statuary, which takes off from 
 the size of the building. This might affect the 
 height, but hardly the length. And if you so stand 
 that the statues are covered in their niches, it is 
 just the same. What is it, then ? Laughed at or 
 not, here is what one's own eye says : It is a fault in 
 proportion. 
 
ROME IN HOLY WEEK. 323 
 
 Stand at the great altar facing the entrance. 
 
 What are you looking into? A tunnel of stone, 
 
 coloured, polished, sculptured, glowing, uplifted stone ; 
 
 but still a tunnel, with petty windows at the end. Only 
 
 four arches in all the length of that nave ! and of those 
 
 b.ut one shows an opening to your eye. Through it 
 
 you see, — but not light, — only stone ! As to the 
 
 other three, you can tell where they are ; but the eye 
 
 strikes against the pier beyond them, without any 
 
 opening. One space to take off the eye from the 
 
 direct line, one breaking in of air and light upon the 
 
 nave, — all the rest stone, stone, — a tunnel. This 
 
 results from the proportion between the pier and the 
 
 arch. One arch is separated from another by a pier 
 
 of thirteen to fifteen paces long ! The pillar is not 
 
 seen in the place, as a support : it is totally dismissed. 
 
 Columns are used to ornament piers and walls, but 
 
 an upholding pillar is not there ; the pier has entirely 
 
 superseded it. The gigantic size of these piers 
 
 drowns the arches, shuts out the air and light, 
 
 prevents the eye from seeing marks of distance, and 
 
 foreshortens the whole. This is the simple account 
 
 of a non-artistic eye ; and if any one choose to go 
 
 from St. Peter's to three other Basilicas, — Santa 
 
 Maria Maggiore, and St. Paul's, where the use of the 
 
 pillar, in a long colonnade, produces a lengthening 
 
 effect, and then St. John's Lateran, where the pier of 
 
 St. Peter's is imitated, — he will, perhaps, be inclined 
 
 Y 2 
 
324 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 to think that the proportion between wall and open 
 space has something to do in the matter. 
 
 It was hard to believe my wife, that much of the 
 brilliant surface of the interior was painted plaster. 
 The impression of its being one various mass of mar- 
 bles has so much to do with the effect, that at first you 
 feel incredulous, then half angry. But so it is. The 
 deception is perfect ; pillars, angles, bases, a,nd pro- 
 jecting parts are real ; flat surfaces sometimes so, but 
 often plaster. This statement was resented by some 
 gentlemen at the table d'hote, as if it had been some- 
 thing said against their mothers ; and a lady, to whom 
 the secret was disclosed in the Cathedral, rushing to the 
 extreme of disappointment, cried, " Shabby place ! " 
 Even some Romans were unaware of the fact. Still, 
 the interior remains a wonder of riches and beauty ; 
 for a military pomp, such as that of Easter Sunday, 
 an incomparable theatre ; and, as a repository of art, 
 sufficient for months of study, though it suffers in 
 value from the fly-away style of the statuary. 
 I On Holy Thursday we made for the Sistine Chapel 
 I in the Vatican : on the colonnaded and vaulted stair- 
 case of marble which leads up to it, stand Swiss guards 
 in their harlequin red, yellow, and blue stripes ; while 
 red Cardinals, purple Prelates, velvet and silk cour- 
 tiers, gay gentlemen, and richly dressed ladies crowd 
 the &tsps, in an upward stream. Helmets and hal- 
 berds at the chapel door. Men standing; women 
 
KOME IN HOLY WEEK. 325 
 
 seated on a side platform (by ticket) ; a vacant plat- 
 form on the other side for the diplomatic circle, and 
 another for "reigning families j" Priests in frocks 
 and robes of hues and materials numberless. Such 
 is the sight in the Pope's own holy place of prayer ! 
 The crowd steadily thickens. Ladies of note are 
 ushered in by robed of&cials. Every now and then, 
 a steel box, or coat of armour, with the shoulders of 
 a Swiss giant inside to work it, crunches its way 
 through the crowd, forcing space for a Cardinal or a 
 dame. I never before saw the use of those steel 
 boxes, but they are excellent instruments, when 
 ■worked by good shoulders, for compelling progress 
 through a reluctant mass of human beings. This 
 exercise was varied with chat in all European 
 tongues, none of it reverent, all about the music, 
 dresses, and shows of the week. 
 
 Now come the great planets of diplomacy with 
 their belts and satellites, wondrous to behold. 
 Around them is a host of asteroids, each having its 
 own orbit to shine in. What a galaxy of stars when 
 all are put together ! Dear me ! in the dimmer sky 
 of our northern realm it would take centuries to wit- 
 ness siich conjunctions, transits, parallaxes, nutations, 
 risings, settings, occultations, eclipses, and revolu- 
 tions. What a mighty influence all these stars must 
 exercise upon the destiny of us poor mortals, who 
 live down here, eighteen inches lower than the plane 
 
326 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 on which these are revolving. There is truth in 
 astrology after all ! Some of my neighbours are 
 trying to read their fortune in the beams of certain 
 stars. One youth thinks that the grand constellation 
 Goyon, in comparison with which " Orion's studded 
 belt was dim," has shot a ray of encouragement. He 
 makes desperate efforts to reach the high sky ; but, 
 just at the last moment, is pushed back among us 
 terrestrials, with a surly protest, "I know General 
 Goyon." Perhaps so; but the constellation shpne 
 on serenely, in spite of his rebuff. 
 
 The higher post for reigning families remained 
 vacant till nearly the last, when a Russian Arch- 
 duchess and her brilliant suite appeared. 
 
 By this time, the pressure was terrible ; the 
 scuffles frequent and rough, worse than in a London 
 crowd ; and the principal talk was, " Well, I hope we 
 are to have good music, after all this." Now and 
 then you did see a woman on her knees, praying, 
 looking round, and adjusting her veil, or scarf, all at 
 the same time. One elderly lady, at the very front 
 of the women's benches, seemed for some minutes in 
 earnest and heart-broken prayer. 
 
 Steel clattering in the cuirasses, steel shining in 
 the helmets, steel held up aloft in the halberds, with 
 soldiers' plumes waving, and the deep buzz, ruzz, 
 duzz, of the crowd, were not sights and sounds of 
 a very devotional kind. Now another squeeze of the 
 
EOME IN HOLY WEEK. 327 
 
 steel boxes j and forwai'd come a few of the Nolle 
 Guard, witli helmet on, plume waving, and sword 
 drawn. 
 
 La ! sol ! fa ! the mass is begun : out it strikes in 
 different forms of song ; now low, now shrill, now 
 rolling on in waves of music. The bass was a low 
 hum in the crowd, and the soprano a wonderful 
 man's voice, concerning which a thing was said in 
 whispers, not very fit to hear in church, and not at 
 all fit to write here. 
 
 "Not equal to last 'night," says one. "There is 
 only that voice worth much," says another; and so 
 on go the remarks ; the incense rises, the halberds 
 flash, the crowd buzzes, and the gale of music 
 hurries, slackens, rises, and dies away. 
 
 I want to see the washing of the Apostles' feet, 
 
 and so Miss and I go down to St. Peter's, while 
 
 the rest stay to witness the procession here. 
 
 The scene is very curious ; soldiers in the porch, 
 soldiers in the nave, people walking, chatting, point- 
 ing, reading, buzz, buzz, buzz. Here and there a 
 Priest or Friar on his knees. A large enclosure for 
 ladies is guarded by gentlemen of the chamber. 
 
 Here I place Miss , and then choose my position. 
 
 It is in the right transept, near the end. Just 
 before me is the Pope's throne, high and lifted up. 
 The triple crown rests on the crossed keys ; and lions 
 hold on high the " banners of the Church," which 
 
328 
 
 CHAPTEK XIV. 
 
 are but flags of a Prince. Upon a globe Providence 
 is seated, with Justice on one side and Charity on 
 the other. 
 
 Gradually Prelates in purple arrive through a side- 
 door, and spread themselves over the seats and steps 
 in the neighbourhood of the throne. 
 
 Thirteen Priests of different nations are chosen to 
 represent the Apostles. Why are they thirteen ? 
 This is a deep question, and is settled by the help of 
 a certain angel, who once appeared when St. Gregory 
 was feeding twelve poor men. How it is proved that 
 the angel's feet needed to be washed, I do not know. 
 
 They come at last, marshalled by dignitaries in 
 purple, themselves in white caps, like those of Der- 
 vishes, or, for non-travelled readers, like linen covers 
 for StUton cheeses ; white capes, white frocks, white 
 trousers, and shining white boots : a clean and 
 quaint, but not graceful, costume. 
 
 As the men in rich robes arrange these white 
 Apostles on their bench, the people around me have 
 their say. " That is an oriental ! " " That is an 
 Armenian \" " Look at the third : what a villain he 
 appears ! " " Ay, but look at the fourth, did you 
 ever see such a perfect type of the hypocrite?" 
 " That's a iine old fellow with the grey beard :" this 
 referred to one whom I could almost have declared I 
 knew, he looked so like some of the Priests one meets 
 in the Levant. " But, 0, the fat one ! See, see the 
 
KOME IN HOLY WEEK, 329 
 
 fat Apostle ! In the middle, too ! What a choice ! 
 He's a Frenchman that ; not a very laborious Apostle ! " 
 These things were said in Italian, French, and 
 English ; few in the latter tongue, and they the 
 least severe. While thus the observers were remark- 
 ing, the Apostles themselves were occupied with their 
 petticoats, putting them right as anxiously as a 
 barn-door beauty in the drawing-room of a Countess. 
 While all but smiling at their innocent dressing, a 
 fine old Belgian Priest, whom I had two or three 
 times spoken to, a handsome, honest-looking man, 
 turned round to me, and, with a beam of delight on 
 his face, said, " 0, is it not an interesting sight ? " 
 To him it was grand. 
 
 The fat Apostle put his hand into his pocket, and 
 pulled out a snufiF-box. It was bran new, perhaps 
 bought for the great occasion, perhaps presented by 
 some of his flock. First he regaled his eyes with a 
 long look at the bright new box. Then he regaled 
 his nose. Then the eyes had their turn ; and betwixt 
 nose and eyes no contest arose ; both were treated ; 
 and the whole person looked supremely content. The 
 faithful, too, such as they were, were entertained. 
 
 Some of the Apostles seemed to try sincerely 
 to settle their thoughts to a prayer; but I doubt 
 whether the best of them got on much better thaa 
 William of Deloraine would have done. It was too 
 exciting for ordinary minds to set themselves steady. 
 
330 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 Presently, in a gallery directly opposite to 'the 
 Apostlesj appeared Ambassadors of another type; 
 gentlemen whose hands, perhaps, might sometimes 
 need to be washed, but who now shone in faultless, 
 decorations. " That is our Ambassador with the red 
 ribbon ! " cries one. " Which is the Duke de Gram- 
 mont ? " asks another ; and so a fire of inquiries and re- 
 cognitions is kept up till the Cardinals begin to arrive. 
 
 Each has his three or four attendants, who proudly 
 follow him, some in purple, all in rich robes : he him- 
 self wearing scarlet and ermine. " Which is that ? 
 and that ? and that ? and where is Antonelli ? " was 
 often asked. At last, " There he is !" I caught 
 sight of a tall back, disappearing between a stout 
 mass of scarlet and a pillar. 
 
 Finally, in came a rush of Priests, with the 
 Pope, closing him round, bearing his train, and fol- 
 lowing him up the steps till he took his seat upon 
 the throne. It was the first time I had seen Pio 
 Nono. He is a fine, a very fine old man. Tall, 
 portly, indeed fat, with a quick step, and open visage, 
 like an English country gentleman. The face beams 
 with apparently true benignity ; but the eye is not 
 easy, and the smile of the lips is not unmixed with 
 a disquiet something at the corners of the mouth. 
 Still he is a noble old man ; and, looking at him, one is 
 much more inclined to follow the common idea in 
 England, that he is a very kind and sincere one. 
 
KOME IN HOLT WEEK. 331 
 
 than tlie representation often (by no means always) 
 given in Rome ; namely, that he is faithless, unfor- 
 giving, and full of vain-glory. Yet even they who say 
 that give him credit for sincerity in matters of reli- 
 gion, and for disinterestedness and purity of manners. 
 
 He sits upon his throne. They offer him a censer, 
 into which he puts incense ; they take off his mitre, 
 and put it on ; they chant, and cross, and bow ; read, 
 and with reverence hold him up a book to kiss ; and 
 take the censer, and wave the incense to this 
 enthroned Priest, in his royal robe of rose colour 
 and gold. To him all eyes turn ; to him knees bow ; 
 to him the incense rises. He sits upon his throne, 
 with superhuman reverence given to him ; and look 
 at his countenance ! Surely this is not a human being, 
 fresh ffom putting ten millions of his fellow-men, ay, 
 of his own neighbours and countrymen, outside of the 
 kingdom of God ! Where are the tears and traces 
 of horror lying upon his soul in connexion with this 
 deed ? He smiles, and smiles, and smiles. 
 
 Again, with knees bowed, the attendant dignitaries 
 take off the rich rose-coloured robe, and disclose a 
 beautiful white dress. With fresh bowing of the 
 knees, a white apron is girded round the white robe. 
 Then the Pope, preceded and followed by dignitaries, 
 hastens over to the Apostles. Before him goes a 
 Cardinal, with a large golden ewer in his hand. 
 Behind, an ecclesiastic with a tray, containing nap- 
 
333 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 liins ; another with a tray of violetsj and a third with 
 a little set of papers. As his Holiness approaches, 
 the Apostles are agitated : their faces change colour : 
 their petticoats shake. The little white boot is ^ 
 slipped off the right footj well washed as ever it was . 
 in its life-time. The Cardinal^ from the golden 
 ewer, pours upon the instep such a wee drop of 
 water ; and then his Holiness, taking a napkin^ gives 
 the foot just a touch • and that napkin falls to the 
 Apostle as a perpetual memory of the day of his 
 honour. Then the head of the Pope bows down to 
 the foot, aud his lips touch the instep. 
 
 Here came in the only piece of real feeling I saw 
 in the whole matter. Just as the Pope stooped to 
 kiss the foot, several of the countenances, and 
 notably that of the fat Apostle, became suifused with 
 emotion. Its meaning was plain enough : " What 
 am I or my father's house, that my feet should be 
 kissed by the Vicar of God ! " 
 
 The Romans often say that the Pope does not kiss 
 the foot, but a bunch of violets, which he lays upon 
 it. This was not the case. Pio Nono really did the 
 work; he kissed the foot. This done, he turned 
 round, took a bouquet of violets and handed it to the 
 Apostle, who, receiving it, bowed, and with wonderful 
 satisfaction kissed the back of the superhuman 
 hand. Then His Holiness took up a little paper, 
 and handed it to the Apostle, who again, with 
 
EOME IN HOLY WEEK. 333 
 
 increasing veneration, kisses the hand. This little 
 paper contains two medals, one gold, and one silver. 
 When I had seen the greater part of the Apostles 
 washed, I thought it would be well to go forward, 
 and try to get a good place at the supper, which was 
 to follow. Moving to the entrance of the ladies' 
 
 platform, where I had left Miss , I waited for 
 
 her. The gentleman in velvet and gold would let 
 only one lady out at a time. They grew impatient. 
 Down at the corner we waiting gentlemen saw a 
 commotion gradually rise among the ladies. It 
 grows hotter. Presently, — Do we see rightly ? Is 
 that a lady on the top of the rail which shuts them 
 in? Is that the light form of a fair girl which 
 comes down upon the church floor with such a 
 souse? And another, and another? jumper follow- 
 ing jumper, — is it possible? Did not all England 
 ring with amusement when something was said in 
 the papers about ladies leaping over the barriers at 
 one of the Queen's drawing-rooms ? But that was a 
 secular place and occasion : here we are in presence 
 of the Pope, twelve Apostles, — and one over, — how 
 many Cardinals I don't know, and Priests enough to 
 man a ship of war ! We are directly under the dome 
 at which all the world wonders, and within a yard 
 or two of the high altar of the High Church of the 
 so-called Catholic world. Never mind, on they go, 
 jump, jump, jump ! A stout Frenchman, after a 
 
334 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 long look of astonishment, cried, " C'est une 
 scandale." And so it was a scandal. 
 
 Going down the nave with a confused notion of 
 these odd scenes, and of the alternating groups and 
 costumes, 1 was suddenly arrested by a line of 
 soldiers drawn diagonally across the church. 
 "What! is the Pope not gone yet?" The reply 
 was that he was changing robes in a side chapel. 
 There stood the soldiers in double file, leaving a 
 wide avenue bayonet-hedged. In a moment passed 
 the word of command, as on parade, " Ground 
 arms ! " Down went the butts of the muskets, 
 clanging on the Cathedral floor. Then in another 
 moment : " Present arms ! " Up rose every piece. 
 Then came a word I had never heard before, at 
 which every soldier knelt. Now appears the poor 
 old man, arrayed in other rich robes, blessing as he 
 went with his two fingers, smiling that constant 
 smile, and seeming to feel neither shame nor sorrow 
 that he was walking in the house of God, amid rows 
 of prostrate men and upheld bayonets. Behind the 
 soldiers no one knelt. What a contrast to Florence, 
 where the Prince of Carignano, before coming out 
 to show himself to the people, waited till every 
 bayonet was gone ! 
 
 Now the rush was up a staircase, — one of those 
 winding ones, which they have in Italy, on which you 
 ascend by a rapid inclined plane, without steps. Up 
 
HOME IN HOLY WEEK. 335 
 
 ■we woundj and up, and across some rooms, till at 
 last out of the grand Sala Regia, on which abut the 
 Sistine and Pauline chapels, we floated in a current 
 of crinoline into a long and lofty hall. Priests and 
 soldiers, soldiers and Priests; ladies and Prelates, 
 Prelates and ladies ; buzz in Italian, buzz in French, 
 buzz in English, buzz in Spanish: and crush and 
 push, question and joke, laugh and elbow-thrust ; 
 such is the scene. Here, on the right, are raised 
 seats for ladies ; in the middle, the floor for gentle- 
 men j and on the left, an elevated table, at which are 
 seated the thirteen Apostles, all on one side. 
 
 It is a resplendent table. Before each Apostle is 
 a statuette of gilded bronze, representiug an Apostle 
 whom he too represents ; and surely between them 
 they ought to give the faithful some idea of the 
 original. But so far as I know, just at that 
 moment the faithful, represented by the company 
 present, are thinking of the originals as much as 
 they would do at a Crystal Palace flower show, a 
 Lord Mayor's feast, a royal ball, or a review. But 
 these pretty statuettes are not common images. 
 They once adorned the holy house of Loretto ; that 
 is, the identical dwelling of Mary the Maid of 
 Nazareth ; which, having stood till the days of the 
 Mohammedans, was about to be defiled by them, 
 when the angels took it up, and, just as the Hindu 
 god Hanuman did with the Himalayas, carried it 
 
336 CUAPTER XIV. 
 
 bodily through ' the air, and planted it in Dalmatia. 
 Here it was again in peril, and its celestial keepers, 
 lifting it once more, just over the Adriatic, lodged 
 it safely in a grove of laurels. Enormous wealth 
 was massed up in this shrine. But when the legions 
 of Buonaparte reached the angel-fenced abode, they 
 found that Pius VI. had thought it best to leave 
 nothing to the charge of celestial guards, but the old 
 wood image of the Virgin ; probably supposing that 
 they were not accustomed to defend, as scrupulously 
 as would be done at Rome, jewels, gold, silver, 
 pearls, and costly robes. Even the holy image, 
 however, proved too earthly a treasure for them to 
 guard. It was carried off by the sans-culottes 
 soldiers, aud for some years was a museum curiosity 
 in Paris, among other images. 
 
 The table is covered with gilded vessels and 
 beautiful flowers. Before it stands the Pope, sur- 
 rounded by his retinue. A Bishop is reading, and 
 might as well be whistling, for anything that can be 
 heard; but they are used to that. Then come 
 thirteen Bishops robed, each bearing a bowl of soup. 
 The first, approaching the Pope, kneels down, and 
 his soup is blessed by the Pontifical hand. It is 
 then placed before St. Peter. The second Bishop 
 kneels likewise,- — gets his soup blessed, — and he 
 places it before St. Andrew. So on, till the thirteen 
 are served. Then come thirteen Prelates, succeed- 
 
EOME IN HOLY WEEK. 337 
 
 iiig to the Bishops; they bear dishes, — they kneel 
 before the source of blessings, — get the benediction 
 on each separate dish, and lay them before the 
 Apostles. Then come the Bishops again, then the 
 Prelates, till each has borne six dishes, making 
 twelve iu all, for each Apostle : and every dish has its 
 separate benediction ! The Pope pours out wine and 
 water for the Apostles, and finally takes his leave. 
 The Apostles eat very well, drink their wine in 
 comfort ; but presently you see going on a process 
 of gathering the "leavings" into baskets or bags 
 under the table. The wine, however, is aU carried 
 away in living bottles ; and, for a closing scene, the 
 Apostles take to pocketing the dessert. Where do 
 the pockets lie ? I could not make out. But it is 
 not a magnificent conclusion for so wonderful a 
 festival. 
 
 Then, the rush for the flowers ! One gets a 
 bunch, another a sprig, another a leaf; and the 
 ladies press for them, and the Prelates are polite, 
 almost gallant; and everybody is merry, and alto- 
 gether ic is as unlike a serious afiair of any sort, as 
 you can imagine. But I saw nothing to justify 
 some accounts, that when the flowers come to be 
 scrambled for, matters between the ladies and the 
 Prelates reach a point of extreme familiarity. 
 
 That afternoon I went into a shop, and got into 
 chat with the stout old woman who ruled over it. 
 
338 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 "Have you been to St. Peter's this morning?" 
 she asked. 
 
 "Yes; have you?" 
 
 " nOj we Romans do not think of going to those 
 ceremonies; they are for foreigners. You like 
 them. Were you not greatly pleased?" 
 
 "Wellj as an exhibition, — a show, — it was very 
 dazzling." 
 
 She looked puzzled, and said, " It is, I suppose, to 
 teach us humility, that the Pope washes the 
 Apostles' feet." 
 
 " How does it teach humility ? " 
 
 " Well, they say it is to teach it." 
 
 " They say so : but how can it teach humility, 
 for one man to come and set himself on a throne in 
 the house of God, and make other men kneel down 
 to him, and wave censers to him; and then, pre- 
 ceded by men in purple, followed by men in purple, 
 himself in the richest robes, to have water poured 
 by a splendid dignitary, out of a golden vessel, in 
 mockery, on a clean foot, which he touches with a 
 napkin, and with his lips, while thousands look on ? 
 Is there a Priest in the wide world so proud, that he 
 would not rejoice to enact the Pope's part in this 
 exhibition ? Is there a true Christian upon earth who 
 would make such a display in doing a good deed?" 
 
 The old lady looked as if this half pleased, half 
 perplexed her : " But did not our Saviour do so ?" 
 
ROME IN HOLT WEEK. 339 
 
 " Our Saviour do so .' He did wash His disciples' 
 feet : but how differently ! They were twelve poor 
 men, with weary, dusty feet, and in a secret obscure 
 chamber ; and He, their Lord and Master, in good 
 earnest washed their dirty feet, without a crowd to 
 look on, or a court to attend Him. That taught us 
 secret service to the real needs of our inferiors. 
 What I saw to-day teaches pompous display of ficti- 
 tious goodness." 
 
 " Agostina ! Agostina ! " cried out the old woman 
 to her daughter, who was in the back shop. " Agos- 
 tina ! come here, and listen to this Signore ! He says, 
 that what our Lord did was not the same at all as what 
 the Pope does ; but as different as can be. Listen ! " 
 
 Agostina looked with the' most intent look that 
 black Roman eyes can shoot, and kept it up while I 
 repeated, and enlarged, and explained, and told of 
 the real ways of Christ and His Apostles, and of the 
 Gospel, in which it is all written, and should be 
 read. She did nothing but look; but the old 
 woman put in a word and a question now and then, 
 and helped me on. 
 
 How different was that silent, searching Roman 
 Agostina, from the shop-women of Turin, whose 
 thoughts were spoken as freely as those of English 
 boys or girls would be in a friendly party ! Was it 
 wholly the difference made by liberty and repression, 
 or partly that, and partly nature ? 
 
 z 2 
 
340 CHAPTEE XIV. 
 
 We took a drive to the Protestant burial-ground, 
 and had a very shrewd coachman, beside whom I 
 sat for the sake of talk. He was astonished at my 
 knowledge of the remains of old Eome, and my 
 seeming ignorance of everything connected with its 
 living men and things. He heard me talk of the 
 ceremoniesj and at first took me for an English 
 Catholic. I could not get a word out of him, in 
 praise of Pope or Priest, beyond this, that the Pope 
 himself was a worthy man. He gladly passed from 
 all such topics, to talk of the diflferent objects we 
 passed. 
 
 There it was at last, that quiet spot, inside the 
 old lonely wall, far outside the modem Rome, be- 
 yond all the remains even of the seven hills. Close 
 by it is a landmark, by which any English eye may 
 find it from the Capitol, or from the railway, as you 
 enter Rome. There is a little pyramid, considerable 
 enough to be marked far away. It is the tomb of 
 some ancient nobody, called Caius Cestus, who be- 
 queathed a pyramid to posterity, having, perhaps, 
 nothing else to bequeath. Beside it lie the remains 
 of many a young English man and woman who, 
 amid the pleasures of Rome, have suddenly fallen 
 by fever; of many whose lengthened age has slowly 
 worn away in this balmy air. O, how balmy it is to- 
 day ! As the gate opens, the western sun pours a 
 flood of orange light among the dark cypresses, and 
 
KOME IN HOLT WEEK. 341 
 
 on the flower-knots which bloom over many a form 
 for ever faded. A more peaceful spot in which to 
 sit by the grave of a friend it would be hard to find. 
 Yet much of this impression is due to that afternoon 
 sun, and this pure overhanging sky. When I first 
 visited it, some years before, it was a dull, I think 
 a rainy, day, and my impressions were not so 
 cheerful. 
 
 We find out one grave, and from it pick a few 
 flowers. There rests a young English lady, whose 
 widowed mother left her here in sorrow and in hope. 
 The names she bore are of note amongst us. As the 
 widow laid her child down, to leave her far from 
 her own probable resting-place, she felt as if she 
 would fain write on the tomb a few Bible words 
 of hope : " Blessed are the dead which die in the 
 Lord." But the poor girl had died a Protestant, 
 though in Rome, and in that day toleration had not 
 reached so far as to allow such an expression of hope 
 to be put up, even in a foreign language, and in an 
 out-of-the-way spot, over a heretic ! So all the 
 widow could obtain permission for was, "This 
 stone is erected by her sorrowing yet rejoicing 
 mother." This was in 1852. 
 
 Either the Government has since grown more 
 indulgent, or Americans are favoured above the 
 English ; for on one or two American graves of more 
 recent date, words from the Bible are to be read. 
 
342 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 plainly declaring the hope of survivors, that the 
 spirit of the departed is at rest. 
 
 After a refreshing visit to this scene of peace, 
 among tombs and flowers, tokens of human decay, 
 and pledges of Divine indulgence; after a moment 
 over the graves of Shelley, and Keats, and Bell, the 
 naturalist, and thoughts of the poverty of man 
 without something more than goods or talents, and 
 the blessedness of man when earth is but what the 
 sea is to the sailor, a restless but sublime path to an 
 unseen haven ; after lingering and lingering again, 
 at last vie were on our way back, and I was beside 
 my friend the coachman. 
 
 He was much more open. He had found us out ; 
 we were Protestant English; and he talked away. 
 I began, as usual, seeking information about the dif- 
 ferent churches. Friars, and Nuns we happened to see. 
 
 " What is the difference between these Capuchins 
 and the Camaldolesi ? " 
 
 He laughed, " Yes, and the Gregorians, and the 
 Dominicans, and the — /' running on with a string 
 of names. 
 
 "Well, what is the diflierence between the one 
 and the other ? " 
 
 "0, each has his own religion. They are all of 
 different religions.* Each order follows its religion. 
 
 * This expression about " different religions " I heard frequently 
 from the common people, in describing the orders. 
 
KOME IN HOLY WEEK. 343 
 
 in its own way^ according to the life of its founder, 
 and the statutes left by him." 
 
 "What do they do?" 
 
 His eye flashed ; but he checked himself. " O, 
 they have their different observances to attend to, — 
 all sorts of ceremonies, and so on; and they have 
 to forget their friends, and lose their natural affec- 
 tions, and keep on in the ways of the convent. Ay, 
 we have some who have not seen a relation for forty 
 years, and never inquire after them, or care for 
 them ; and they call that religion ! We have some 
 who are called ' Buried Alive ; ' they are shut up from 
 every human sight or engagement. Ecco, that 's the 
 kind of thing they like.^' 
 
 "Among the different orders are there some 
 married, and some not ? " 
 
 " Married ! No ; not one Priest in Rome. No, 
 no ; but they do not need to be married " 
 
 " Who is holiest, Priest or Friar ? " 
 
 " O, for that, holiest ! well, I suppose the Friar ; 
 he is most shut off from the world. He lives 
 for the convent, and in it. But, holy as they are, 
 they get everything into their hands. Everything, 
 Signore ! " he cried, giving the horse a cut, and 
 pitching his voice higher ; " they grasp at all we 
 have. Here families have no chance against them. 
 If a man has any property, he must look out and die 
 unexpectedly, or he will have to leave half to the 
 
344 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 Jesuits. Look at that palace," pointing to a ^reat 
 block of houses on the right : " that belongs to such 
 an order. Look at that one," pointing to another : 
 " that belongs to such an order. O, enough ! they 
 ?warm by thousands, and they have all employments 
 in their hands or gift, and all good things are gulped 
 up by them." 
 
 " By thousands ? " I said, quite innocently. 
 
 " Yes, I believe, tens of thousands." 
 
 " And what do they all do ? " 
 
 " Do ! do ! what do they do ? Signore, they eat 
 and drink, and that on the shoulders of the poor." 
 
 Then came a dark look, that Italian dagger-look 
 which makes one shrink ; and striking the footboard 
 with the butt end of his whip, he said, in a tone I 
 shall not easily forget, — 
 
 " Signore, this is a State where they that idle eat, 
 and they that labour starve." 
 
 Poor fellow ! ready made tc the hand of an incen- 
 diary, for any cut-throat work ! I tried to tell him 
 how they must not charge all this on religion ; how 
 holy and beautiful was the Church as Christ insti- 
 tuted it, and as His Apostles left it; how well it 
 was described in the Vangelo, the Gospel-book ; and 
 how equal rights and civil order flourished in coun- 
 tries where that book was in the homes of the poor, 
 and inspired the laws of the ruler. I tried to cool 
 his wrath by saying that among the Priests were 
 
ROME IN HOLY WEEK. 345 
 
 many good ones, whicli he admitted at once ; and 
 above all told him how they and we aUke, each with 
 his own faults on his head, might find mercy at the 
 throne of grace. He seemed to think me rather 
 milk and water, for not hating the Priests more. 
 
 That evening I had the opportunity of talking 
 over matters with men of a very different stamp. 
 Referring to one of the coachman's points, I said, " It 
 cannot be true that the Priests generally will take 
 advantage of a dying man to divert their property 
 from his rightful heirs." 
 
 " True ! " exclaimed one, " of course it is true." 
 
 " One finds it hard to believe that men would so 
 desecrate a death-bed, and pervert their own official 
 influence. In individual cases, of course, we know 
 it i^ done, — but generally ?" 
 
 " Those doubts are fine ! they are thoroughly 
 English ! You find it hard to believe in such 
 viUany ; we find it hard to believe in honest men, 
 especially if they have any garb of religion. No, 
 Signore, no ! families have no chance here. Old, 
 princely families, allied to the Court, whom it suits 
 it to keep up, yes ; but ordinary families, no. If a 
 man has made any money, the Jesuits, by some 
 means, will secure the half. Suppose he has made it 
 in business, they get at him, perhaps, thus : ' You 
 cannot have gained all this without wronging many, 
 knowingly or unknowingly. If you die without 
 
3-16 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 making restitution, your soul ■will be lost. To find 
 out all the individuals from whom you have unjustly 
 gained, would be impossible. Therefore, your only way 
 of making restitution is by leaving it to the Church !' 
 If that fails, they will find out another plan." 
 
 The question as to acts of violence coming under 
 discussion, I found that the chief difference between 
 the reports of cultivated men and those of the rough 
 and poor, lay in the tone in which they were made. 
 Some of the statements in M. About^s book, as to 
 the indulgence shown to assassins, are so revolting 
 to our minds, as to produce scarcely any other efiect 
 than disgust with the writer. But at Piacenza first, 
 among the rough but intelligent men of business in 
 the dining-room, tales respecting Papal rule, gush- 
 ing hot from living lips, and received without a 
 hint of improbability by a large circle of Italians, 
 made me feel that the dreadful fact of an adminis- 
 tration which played lightly with human, life, 
 was familiar to those before me. In Bologna this 
 was made more and more manifest. The scraps of 
 talk one had in crossing the Apennines, all ran in the 
 same direction. In Tuscany, where Papal rule had 
 not existed, the change in this respect was obvious : 
 " assassination" was a word seldom heard. At Rome, 
 again, the talk of blood seemed as natural as in the 
 Romagna, or nearly so. The difference reminded 
 me of that between Americans from the Free and 
 
ROME IN HOLY WEEK. 347 
 
 those from the Slave States: in the one case you 
 hear of topics common to civilized countries ; in the 
 other, a string of animated stories will certainly 
 cause mention of weapons, wounds, and deaths. 
 
 Asking an Englishman who knows Rome as we 
 know our own corners of London, whether such an 
 idea as About gave was not exaggerated, he said, 
 " I wish I could say it was : but when one has been 
 here so long as I, there is something horrible in the 
 familiarity we acquire with such news as that a few 
 men have come by their death. Before the failure 
 of the wine crop, it was an ordinary thing on a Sun- 
 day night, or that of a great holy day, to hear of ten 
 or eleven men being stabbed in and about the Piazza 
 Barberini alone. Since the wine failed, there is less 
 fighting, and consequently fewer assassinations." 
 Still, this was the statement of a foreigner; though 
 of one anything but disposed to exaggerate. In a 
 beautiful hill district, amid rich vineyards and 
 quaint villages, inquiring from a medical gentleman as 
 to the amount of disease in that apparently healthy 
 spot, he said that there was comparatively little for 
 doctors to do, and much less now since the wine 
 had become scarce; for, before that, on every holy 
 day, they counted on having a few cases of stabbing. 
 
 One of the most terrible symptoms is, that 
 nothing is said about it. In England our papers 
 teem with accounts respecting a single murder; 
 
348 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 and it is repeated for months : first, when it occurs ; 
 next, when the inquest sits ; then, when the assizes 
 come ; and finally, when the execution takes place ; 
 the attention of thirty millions of people is directed 
 to the tragedy. But in the Roman States it is no 
 tragedy; it is an accident. Nothing is said about 
 it. The violent death of half a dozen would 
 cause a sensation only in the neighbourhood where it 
 occurred. In a set of prints, bought in any shop in 
 Rome, representing the manners and customs of the 
 people, one of women tearing off each other's hair, 
 and another of men fighting with daggers and 
 rauskets, come in as naturally as a shillelah scuflBe 
 would in pictures of Ireland. 
 
 The connexion between the failure of the vine and 
 the decrease of violence, is a fact worth noting. 
 The wines of South Italy are fiery, as is the case 
 wherever the grape grows on volcanic soil. When 
 one says fiery, of course it means as compared 
 with wine, not with the strong drinks used in Eng- 
 land under the names of "port" and "sherry." 
 It would seem that the exciting wines of Rome 
 have the double tendency which may be marked 
 everywhere, in contrast with that of mild wines. 
 The latter do not produce a diseased appetite, 
 and do not urge to acts of violence. In propor- 
 tion as the strength of drinks increases, so does 
 their tendency to raise a morbid craving. But so 
 
KOME IN HOLT WEEK. 349 
 
 far as I have seen the civilized worlds we are the 
 only nation into the social usages of which, drinking 
 apart from eating, and as a thing for its own sake, is 
 fairly established at the family table. True, the 
 after-dinner hour is now a very different institution 
 from what it once was ; but it continues an hour for 
 Englishmen to devote to wine, after having taken 
 enough with dinner, which when other people do, 
 they are satisfied. One cause is the different 
 strength of the potations : a light wine taken with 
 food excites no thirst for more; a strong drink 
 likes to be taken, for its own sake. 
 
 On Good Friday, I expected to find all Rome 
 delivered up to a holy and solemn day ; but shops 
 were open, flower-stalls in bloom, — and what flower- 
 stalls ! — oflSces busy, studios occupied, waggons 
 rolling, markets full of picturesque groups, chaffing 
 with a will, and the pork-butchers in great activity, 
 preparing for the coming tide of custom when the 
 embargo of Lent comes off. At breakfast a beef- 
 steak appeared on the table quite naturally, as if it 
 was offering no defiance to such great powers as 
 Pope or Cardinal, and at table d'hote no man could 
 have told it was Good Friday anywhere, especially in 
 Rome. Meats of all kinds were served comfort- 
 ably, and either all present were Protestants, or 
 acted as if they were. 
 
350 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 The only ceremony of the day to which one need 
 refer, is that of TenebrtB, or " the Shades/' as cele- 
 brated on Good Friday evening at St. Peter's. It is 
 not in the great church, but in a side chapel, closed 
 up to the time of beginning. 
 
 We expected a multitude. A few dozen people 
 were about, some closing round the gate of the 
 chapel, and others sauntering in the church. 
 Before the service began, they had increased to a 
 few dozens more. There was a great rush for a 
 small number, and then it proved that the seats 
 were few. 
 
 Before the altar was a kind of can('jelabrum, with 
 a triangular form, set round with caudles the colour 
 of palm oil, fifteen in number, and one standing on 
 the apex. There were a couple of score of Canons, 
 minor and major, with at least one Cardinal. A 
 Priest (I do not like to call him Master of the 
 Ceremonies, but I find that term used by Mon- 
 signor Baggs, in his book on Holy Week) waited by 
 the lectern. Now the Chapter sang in chorus ; now the 
 choir came in ; and of all music I have heard, nothing 
 ever left such an impression of a vocal prodigy on ray 
 mind, as the soprano of one man abiong the singers. 
 It was a quality of voice which filled one with amaze- 
 ment; and every additional note but increased the 
 eagerness to listen. Now and then the Canons came 
 to the lectern, with great pomp of approach and return. 
 
ROME IN HOLY WEEK. 351 
 
 As it came to the turn of each, the Master of the 
 Ceremonies approached the side on which the next 
 reader sat, and made a profound bow. The Canon 
 left his seat, walked to the lectern, followed by the 
 waiting man, who lent him his hand to help him to 
 bow his knee ; and altogether waited on him as if he 
 were a lady, or an invalid. The short Psalm was 
 intoned, and sometimes one could catch a word, — 
 but very rarely. The great man and little man 
 bowed to one another ; then the great man walked to 
 his seat, and the little followed to the edge of tlie 
 Canons' benches, where he waited till the great man 
 had reached his place, when he bowed, and was 
 bowed to again. If I had counted the bows, and 
 the times this was repeated, my readers would 
 hardly believe me. Some of the Canons, while 
 before the book, and fresh from bowing to the altar, 
 spat upon the marble floor, as comfortably as a 
 member of the " House " would do in Washington. 
 Some of them would draw out a thick cotton pocket 
 handkerchief, of strong colours, and, rolling it up 
 into the shape of a mower's whetstone, would draw 
 it from end to end across the upper lip, and then 
 draw it back again. 
 
 After each Psalm a candle was extinguished, and 
 thus the original fifteen grew less and less. When 
 only the topmost remained, it was carried behind the 
 altar, and hidden there for a while, and then brought 
 
352 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 out burning. To uninitiated people one disad- 
 vantage of teaching by pantomime is, that they see 
 things which do not explain themselves, much less 
 anything else; whereas teaching by language at 
 least aims at doing both. 
 
 What is all this bowing, marching, and quenching 
 of browny-yellow candles about ? Here is the 
 answer furnished by Monsignor Baggs : — 
 
 " Lamps and candelabra were presented to the sanc- 
 tuary by the faithful during the first ages of persecution ; 
 and in more tranquil times to the Basilicas by Constan- 
 tine and others who erected or dedicated them. They 
 were hghted, as St. Jerome observes, in the daj'-time, 
 ' not to drive away darkness, but as a sign of joy ; ' and 
 therefore the custom of gradually'extinguishing them at 
 the office of Tenebrae we may justly consider with 
 Amalarius as a sign of mourning, or of the sympathy 
 of the Church with her divine and suffering Spouse. 
 The precise number of lights is determined by that of the 
 psalms, which is the same as at ordinary matins of three 
 nocturns. 
 
 " The custom of concealing behind the altar during the 
 last part of the office the last and most elevated caudle, 
 and of bringing it forward burning at the end of the 
 service, is a manifest allusion to the death and resurrec- 
 tion of Christ, whose light, as Micrologus observes, is 
 represented by our burning tapers. ' I am the light of 
 the world.' (John viii. 12.) In the same manner the 
 other candles extinguished one after another may 
 
EOME IN HOLY WEEK. 353 
 
 represent tte Prophets successively put to death before 
 their divine Lord ; and if we consider that the psalms of 
 the Old Testament are recited at the time, this explana- 
 tion may appear more satisfactory than others, which 
 would refer them to the blessed Virgin, the Apostles and 
 Disciples of Christ. In the triangular form of the can- 
 dlestick is contained an evident allusion to the B. 
 Trinity. This candlestick is mentioned in a MS. Ordo 
 of the seventh centm-y published by MahiUon." * 
 
 Another writer, with a name English people are 
 fond of, Mr. C. J. Hemans, gives the following : — 
 
 "After the extinction of the lights, when the 
 strains of the Penitential Psalm commence, the effect 
 of the architecture of such a temple, only the more 
 salient details being discernible in the shadowy obscurity 
 of the hour, greatly contributes to prepare the mind for 
 solemn and rehgious impressions. The effect of stupen- 
 dous vastness is strengthened, rather than weakened, in 
 this wonderful architecture by the twilight gloom. The 
 deep toU of the bell, which breaks upon the silence after 
 the chanted service has ceased, announcing the exposition 
 from the balcony under the cupola of the three relics 
 (the Cross, the Lance, and Volto Santo), dimly dis- 
 tinguished by the taper light reflected on the gold and 
 crystal they are shrined in, has a startling echo through 
 those majestic aisles ; and the exposition itself forms a 
 
 * " The Ceremonies of the Holy Week at Rome. By the Eight Rev. 
 Monsignor Baggs, Bishop of Fella," pp. 43, 44. 
 A A 
 
854 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 remarkably picturesque accessory to the mystic solemnity 
 of the scene. 
 
 " At the close of the Office of TenebrEe a harsh abrupt 
 noise is made by the assistants, which is said to allude 
 to the convulsion of Nature at the hour the Eedeemer 
 expired." * 
 
 A boom of the great bell announces some coming 
 event, and a stir of the people follows. All now 
 turn into the nave. There a procession of digni- 
 taries makes its appearance. The usual hedge 
 of bayonets is planted to keep the way of the 
 Holy Father. He comes, and down fall the poor 
 guards ; while the old man's two fingers move, bles- 
 sing the bent heads and the erect bayonets, and still 
 that smile beams on. I cannot believe that it is, as 
 so many of the people say, assumed, and now set 
 in the muscles; for, apart from it, kindness and 
 good-will appear to dwell in the face. 
 
 Hush! he to whom they kneel down in God's 
 house, has himself found something to kneel to. 
 What is this ? At the ceremony yesterday, he sat 
 on a throne, had knees bent to him, and incense 
 offered to him ; but, from aU the eye could see, there 
 was no being in that house so high as he. Doubt- 
 less had any one been able to hear and understand 
 the words said and sung, they would have found 
 
 * "Lent and the Holy Week in Rome. By C. J. Hemans," p. 125. 
 
ROME IN HOLY WEEK. 355 
 
 allusions to Another, and a Higher. But we heard 
 voices not words, music not wisdom. The ear was 
 for pleasure, the eye only for lessons ; and it 
 reported that the enthroned, incensed one to whom 
 they knelt, knew of no Lord and King. 
 
 But now he hows, down on the church floor ! and 
 lo, up start at that sight all the soldiers from their 
 knees! What does this mean? I do not know 
 what Rome intends to teach by it. It is, however, a 
 great lesson to the eye; and it only says, — Men 
 kneel to thee ; but when thou dost kneel to any 
 higher Power, it is for men to look on at the 
 spectacle. 
 
 And what is it before which he kneels ? A little 
 balcony, high up, some thirty yards or so, on the 
 left of the great altar, is marked, in the general 
 gloom now prevaUing, by lights, and the robed forms 
 of a few Canons. They hold up something in their 
 hands three times in succession. In each case it 
 seems to shine, as if jewels, or glass, or gold, reflect- 
 ed the taper light. Are they pictures, caskets, 
 amulets, or framed documents ? They may be any 
 or all of these, your eye has no good account to 
 give. 
 
 "What are those things the Priests are holding 
 up, as if they meant us to look at them ? " 
 
 " Those, Signore, are the most holy relics." 
 
 " And what is the Pope doing ? " 
 2 A 2 
 
356 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 "The Holy Father is adoring the most holy 
 relics." 
 
 " And pray, -what may the relics be ? " 
 
 " There is the most holy cross, the sacred spear, 
 and the most holy visage." 
 
 These are word for word the answers given by my 
 next neighbour. 
 
 While the Canons were holding np these three 
 objects, the Pope remained kneeling, as also the Car- 
 dinals and dignitaries behind him ; the soldiers stood, 
 and the spectators, except a few here and there. 
 
 As to the genuineness of these relics, I will say 
 nothing. Any reader may find all Home can say to 
 support the tradition. The cross and spear (all 
 know the tale) were found by Helen in Jerusalem ; 
 and the true cross was distinguished from those of 
 the thieves, by its wood curing a dying woman 
 according to some authorities, a dead man according 
 to others. 
 
 The spear was given to Pope Innocent VIII. by 
 Bajazet the Sultan. 
 
 As for the visage : it is an imprint of the counte- 
 nance of Christ; made in the hours of His agony, 
 upon a handkerchief wherewith he was then wiped 
 by St. Veronica, whose statue is just under the bal- 
 cony from which this "most holy" relic is dis- 
 played. What Monsignor Baggs says, as to the 
 " evidence in favour of the relic," is this : — 
 
ROME IN HOLT WEEK. 357 
 
 " As for tlie Volfo Santo, or image of cur Saviour, it 
 was placed in an oratory of the Vatican Basilica bj' John 
 VII. as long ago as 707, as may be seen in Martinetti, 
 Dei pregii delta Basilica Vat. Who St. Veronica or 
 Berenice was, who is said to have wiped our Saviour's face 
 with the handkerchief, is another question, as Benedict 
 XIV. observes, to whom and to Martinetti I shall content 
 myself with referring. It appears that this ancient like- 
 ness of our Saviour was afterwards kept at St. Spirito : six 
 Eoman noblemen had the care of it ; and to each of them 
 was confided one of the sis keys, with which it was locked 
 up. They enjoyed various privileges ; and, among others, 
 says an ancient MS. Chronicle quoted by CanceUieri, ' have- 
 vano questi set ogni anno, da Santo Spirito, due vacclie in 
 die S. Spiritus le quali se magnavano li con gran festa.' 
 In 1410, the Volto Santo was carried back to St. Peter's, 
 where it has ever since remained." * 
 
 And on this evidence, we are to fall dovm upon 
 our knees before a cloth ! On such grounds, the 
 whole pomp of Rome is brought out to teach the 
 world to worship relics ! Things in India are some- 
 times obscene and coarse, and in those respects not 
 to be compared with anything that even Rome ven- 
 tures to graft on Christianity ; but as an elaborate 
 attempt, on the part of the great, to teach supersti- 
 tion t<5 the low, this ceremony of "adoring the 
 major relics " seemed to surpass all I had ever seen. 
 
 * Baggs, p. 88. 
 
358 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 Pour men, who loved Christ with a love stronger 
 than death, wrote His life ; but left no hint of his 
 height, complexion, features, or any one point that 
 could help the mind to a personal image. Others 
 wrote long Epistles, of which he was the Alpha and 
 Omega ; but His form is as much kept out of view 
 as the body of Moses, hidden by the Almighty in an 
 undiscovered grave. The Christian tombs and relics 
 of the first centm'ies show no attempt to make an 
 image of Christ. Too deep a sense of the Divine 
 rested upon the early Church, to permit of any 
 attempt to paint the human, as it appeared in Him. : 
 
 That evening, the long- talked- of excommunica-' 
 tion was put into my hands. It had been posted up 
 in the public places at Rome, notably on the doors 
 of the Lateran Basilica, famous for many such an 
 act. It was now printed in a pamphlet form, for, 
 the benefit of the public. It read much more like a 
 political manifesto than an act of a High Priest j 
 and the mixture of Divine and political subjects, 
 of earthly designs and heavenly claims, is, to minds 
 trained' as ours, almost incomprehensible. It not 
 only pronounces the sentence of the greater ex- 
 communication, which is an entire cutting off 
 from the communion of Christ's body ; and, in the 
 view of Rome, spiritually the same thing as a 
 sentence of outlawry is civilly, — with this one excep- 
 
ROME IN HOLY WEEK. 359 
 
 tion, that the person may repent j but^ in .ddition to 
 thisj it lays the excommunicated persons under all the 
 penalties of the Canon Law ; and no wonder that the 
 " Opinione " of Turin should ask, " What would you 
 say of a Judge who, after having condemned eleven 
 millions of Italians at a stroke to the loss of all 
 civil and political rights, that is, to civil death, 
 should then declare them subject to all the other 
 penalties of the criminal code? There would be 
 nothing for it but to hang him off-hand. It is evi- 
 dent, then, that beyond the excommunication, which, 
 in the opinion of Eome, brings spiritual death, 
 nothing remains but the penalty of the stake ; — a 
 penalty, in fact, sanctioned in the canons of the Inqui- 
 sition, against those who, within a year after the 
 date of the excommunication, shall not give sign of 
 perfect repentance. To this capital execution, in the 
 technology of the holy Inquisition, the name oiauto da 
 fe is given; and while the rebels are burning and 
 roasting, the Dominican Fathers should be devoutly 
 present, reciting the most holy rosary .'' * And yet 
 some amiable members of our House of Commons 
 had the hardihood to say, in the presence of the 
 British public, that the excommunication is not a 
 curse ! The laying on of all the penalties ever 
 devised by Rome against the souls and bodies of 
 
 * L' Opinione, April 19th, 1860. 
 
360 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 men, no curse ! Seeing me examining this 
 document, a Roman gentleman asked, 
 
 "What, have you got that? " 
 
 " Yes ; have not you seen it ? " 
 
 " No." 
 
 "How is that?" 
 
 " I did not knovr that it was separately printed, 
 and I have only seen it posted at the public places. 
 Of course I would not venture to read it there, 
 because I know very well it would not be possible to 
 do so, without having the eyes of two or three spies 
 upon me; and, while reading it, I might lift my 
 brows, or pout my lips, or say, ' Pshaw \' or "I 
 might even forget myself so far as to exclaim, ' That 
 is a lie ! ' and then, poor me 1 " I happened, at that 
 moment, to be reading the part of the document in 
 which complaint was made against the Sardinian 
 Government, for taking away the Romagna by 
 bribery and intimidation ; representing the majority 
 of the people as happy subjects of a beloved Sove- 
 reign. "O, what lies!" said the Roman, "what 
 lies ! " 
 
 " You don't venture to say so ? " 
 
 " Say so ? of course I do. Those things are not 
 written for us ; they are written for people far 
 away." 
 
 A day or two after, in a railway carriage coming 
 from Frascati, a young Priest had this docu- 
 
ROME IN HOLT WEEK. 361 
 
 ment in his hand. A layman saw it, and begged for 
 one look. He handed it back in silence. Another 
 layman beside the Priest put some questions ; and he 
 began to declaim against those who had robbed the 
 Church. After a while, I ventured to say, " May a 
 foreigner ask you what is meant by ' the greater 
 excommunication ? ' " 
 
 "O," he said, "that means, that no one in the 
 world has authority to take it off but the Pope him- 
 self, or to restore the excommunicate persons to the 
 Church ; and, also, under the minor excommunica- 
 tion, a person is not forbidden intercourse with other 
 Christians ; whereas, under the major he is." 
 
 "Then he is entirely outside the kingdom of 
 grace ? " 
 
 " Just so." 
 
 " And if he die in that state ? " 
 
 "Ah!" 
 
 " Against how many people is this directed ? " 
 
 "Against all who have had any hand, act, or 
 part^ in robbing the Church, or encouraging the 
 robbery." 
 
 "All those are to be excluded from every ofiSce 
 of the Church?" 
 
 " Certainly." 
 
 " Then, of course, the Churches all over the 
 Eomagna and Piedmont will be closed ? " 
 
 " "Well, you see no individual is named." 
 
363 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 " 0, they are all meant, but nobody named ; and 
 how then will it be applied ? " 
 
 " Every one, whose conscience tells him that he 
 has had a part in the matter, will apply it to himself. 
 It is more a matter of conscience." 
 
 By this time he was getting rather weary ; and I 
 said, " You will pardon me for asking ; but you know 
 that we are not much accustomed to public curs- 
 ing." The laymen had been listening with intense 
 curiosity, and now one of them struck in. 
 
 " You are from England ? " 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 "ACathoUc?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 At this he looked disappointed. I said, "I am a 
 Catholic, but not a Koman ; " and then gave him my 
 views of the difference between the two. 
 
 " But," said the Priest, " it is impossible to be a 
 Catholic, without being a Roman. St. Peter founded 
 the Roman Church, and his successors are Peter, 
 and apart from Peter there can be no union with the 
 Church. ' Strengthen thy brethren,' were our Lord's 
 words to him. He was the Prince of the Apostles, 
 and the head of the Church in his life ; his successors 
 continued to be so, and there is but the one holy 
 Roman Catholic Apostolic Church." 
 
 " St. Peter founded the Church of Rome ? Where 
 have we the account of that ? " 
 
ROME IN HOLT WEEK. 363 
 
 " In the New Testament." 
 
 •'In what book?" 
 
 " The Acts of the Apostles." 
 
 "I do not remember that. I do remember 
 that St. Paul is mentioned as having come to 
 Rome." 
 
 " O, yesj St. Paul toOj — they were joint founders 
 of the Church in Rome." 
 
 " But are you sure that the account of St. Psfcer 
 having come to Rome and founded the Church here, 
 is in the Acts of the Apostles ? " 
 
 " Certainly." 
 
 " I rather think not." 
 
 " Of course it is," — getting rather warm. 
 
 " Have you a New Testament about you ? " 
 
 " No," he said. 
 
 " Well, permit me to say that in the New Tes- 
 tament there is not one single word on the subject 
 of St. Peter ever having been at Rome; that in 
 the Acts of the Apostles no hint is given of any- 
 thing of the kind." 
 
 "' O, perhaps not," he said ; evidently feeling that 
 my tones were those of one who knew what he said ; 
 " but the Almighty has not thought it necessary to 
 put everything into the Scriptures." 
 
 The look given by the laymen at this passage, 
 made me begin to fear for the forbearance of my. 
 friend ; but he at once put op. a high tone, and gave 
 
364 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 me a real lecture on the value and glory of belong- 
 ing to the true Church. There was such a decided 
 air of authority, that all I ventured to say at the 
 close was, " Well, I believe in the Christian faith, in 
 the old faith of the early Church. The New Testa- 
 ment gives you my faith ; and so far as human words 
 can express it, it is very well set forth in the 
 Apostles' Creed." 
 
 Here he kindled anew. " But," he said, " God 
 does not allow every one to draw his faith out of the 
 Scriptures for himself. He has provided otherwise 
 than that. He has given the authority to Peter, 
 when he said to him, ' Strengthen thy brethren ; ' 
 and Peter, upon whom has devolved this authority, 
 must execute it to all time. *■ Strengthen thy 
 brethren.'" And he went on to argue, as if this 
 comforting word to poor Peter, " When thou art 
 converted, strengthen thy brethren," was a charter 
 for him to take, for all time, the body, soul, and 
 spirit of every Christian, and rule them at his 
 will. 
 
 " Yes," he said ; " I, as an individual, am not to 
 follow my own views, but I am to go to Peter. 
 Peter will tell me what is the mind of the Lord ; 
 Peter will guide me aright ; and if I have done this, 
 then I have acquitted my own responsibility, and I 
 cannot be lost ; for I can say to the Almighty, ' I 
 have used the means appointed by Thyself for my 
 
ROME IN HOLY WEEK. 365 
 
 salvation.'" The man talked as if he thought 
 his words ought to make some impression. 
 
 I simply replied to all this : " That is not my 
 faith. There is not a word of it in the Christian 
 ScriptureSj nor in the early ages of Christianity. 
 Those claims absolutely to rule the souls of men, as 
 the representatives of God upon earth, were never 
 known or made in the early ages of the Church, nor 
 for centuries after the days of the Apostles. - Peter 
 never avowed himself ready to answer for the soul 
 of another; he pointed all to his Lord and 
 Master. Nor did Paul or ' any Apostle ever act 
 otherwise." 
 
 At this he fired a good deal, went ofi" into a 
 long discourse upon the Church's purity and 
 goodness, and said that to him the very hatred 
 and opposition now shown to her, especially by 
 Catholics themselves, was one of the strongest 
 proofs; and that the persecutions which wei'e now 
 raised against her, and the robberies committed upon 
 her, were all manifestations of her Divine origin ; 
 that the Church had suffered much from fire and 
 blood, but had always triumphed in the midst of it, 
 and she would again. 
 
 To hear a Koman Priest on the soil of Rome talk 
 of the Church in connexion with fire and blood, 
 especially in the tone of this young man, made one 
 feel cold. He evidently meant me to understand 
 
866 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 that I was not to go much farther ; and I said very 
 quietly, "Well, my faith is fairly represented 
 in your own remains from the catacombs of Rome. 
 So far as they belong to the three earliest centuries, 
 those old tombs and monuments of the first Chris- 
 tians express in the main my faith." Here he got ' 
 positively angry, and it was plain that I must not 
 proceed ; but there was something in the expression 
 with which our two neighbours followed the conver- 
 sation that was puzzling to an English eye. When- 
 ever the face of the Priest was turned away, they 
 looked at me with the most lively encouragement, as 
 much as to say, " Go on, go on ; " whenever his eye 
 came back towards them, the countenances were as 
 still as if they had neither a thought nor a feeling 
 inside of them. 
 
 On the morning of Easter Sunday, on entering 
 St. Peter's, we found a considerable number of 
 persons already assembled. Near the great altar 
 is one curious black statue, said by some to be 
 an old Roman image of Jupiter; but, whatever 
 its origin, now representing St. Peter. You see a 
 peasant, in blue jacket and red waistcoat, going 
 reverently up, and kissing the black stone toe ; then 
 his wife, in her red petticoat, tight bodice, and 
 picturesque head-dress, bowing down and kissing the 
 toe; and then a decent townswoman, bringing up 
 
ROME IN HOLY WEEK. SG?* 
 
 her little toy, and making Hm kiss the toe of the 
 image; and then a respectable-looking foreigner, 
 apparently a Belgian, with his wife, going up as if 
 he meant to perform this act of devotion, but, when 
 he reached the statue, stopping and looking on. Then 
 you see two old ladies in elegant black dresses, 
 without any bonnet, as the ladies are required to 
 come on those great occasions, and they kiss the toe ; 
 but it is very rare to see persons of this condition 
 do so. 
 
 In India you will ' see viler images and more 
 abject prostration, but not more direct and open 
 image-worship. There is not even a shade of 
 distinction between the idolatry of the one people 
 and the other. A Hindoo, according to his own 
 theories, no more worships wood and stone than a 
 Romanist. On one theory everything is the supreme 
 God, and therefore he may select what object he will 
 for adoration ; on another, by virtue of consecration, 
 the divinity dwells in the image, and it is that which 
 he worships, and not the material. There seems to 
 be no trace anywhere of nations who did not set up 
 this distinction, to save them from the disgrace of 
 worshipping their own handiwork; but no distinc- 
 tions alter the fact, that they make the image, 
 bow down before it, go to it for help, treat it as 
 if it were a being and a God. This is the true 
 idolatry, against which the Old Testament is one 
 
368 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 continual controversyj and the New a glorious 
 counter-institution. 
 
 Within a few yards of this scene is a temporary 
 platform, erected and closed in for the ladies. It is 
 already full. We find a little reserved box, but are 
 refused admission. A nice old Fi-enchman whispers 
 to me, " Just slip the man something, and he '11 let 
 the ladies in." They had no sooner taken their seats 
 than an Italian lady came up, and said very indig- 
 nantly, " That 's the way ; you let those in that will 
 pay." 
 
 With perfect ease and politeness, " O, Signora," 
 he said, " those ladies have come in by the order of 
 an Archbishop ; " and the old Frenchman, giving a 
 cunning look, said, " O, that 's the way at all these 
 festivals." 
 
 Selecting a place close by the high altar, I wait. 
 The crowd gradually increases, or rather the church 
 gradually fills upj for even at the last it is not 
 crowded. Close about me nearly all are foreigners. 
 Two English Clergymen are holding an earnest dis- 
 cussion upon the doctrine of baptismal regeneration. 
 Among the others Antonelli is rather a favourite 
 topic of discourse ; but several Friars coming 
 in interfere with the freedom which had been 
 used. Just above the altar, what is called the 
 tribune, or the choir, is partitioned off by a living 
 rail of soldiers and halberds. Into this holiest place 
 
ROME IN HOLY WEEK. 369 
 
 now and then some privileged person in ribbon and 
 stars passes. Up comes a young Lieutenant in High- 
 land plume and kilt, who makes for the enclosure, 
 expecting that his uniform will carry him in, but, to 
 the amusement of his compatriots, he is sent back. 
 After a while the whole of the nave ia lined with 
 Guards : first, the Swiss Guards, in their harlequin 
 dress, red and yellow and blue hanging in artistic 
 stripes about them, every man as tall as a Horse 
 Guard ; then what are called the Palatine Guards, a 
 body formed from among the citizens, of which one 
 gets two accounts, — that of the Civilia Cattolica being 
 that they have been recruited by a wonderful impulse 
 of loyalty on the part of the respectable citizens; 
 the other, which one may hear among the people, 
 that most respectable men have been turned out, and 
 that they have been filled up by persons whom the 
 police have especially selected. At all events they 
 are beautifully dressed, and make a fine show. Then 
 the Noble Guards appear, — that rare corps of 
 eighty men, every one with a title, dressed nearly 
 like our Horse Guards, and in physical appearance 
 worthy to be compared with them. At last the pro- 
 cession comes in, purple and scarlet, and muslin, and 
 embroidered sUlc, gilded garments, robes of changing 
 red and yellow, golden robes, robes of pure white, 
 of violet, of lemon; white mitres, coloured mitres, 
 gilded mitres; stars, ribbons, and plumes; ecclesi- 
 
 B B 
 
370 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 astieal, courtly, military adornments, flashing steel, 
 clattering muskets ; whole files of men down, down 
 upon their knees ; then, borne aloft, two great fans of 
 ostrich feathers, with a peacock-feather eye upon the 
 top of each ; and then, in the air, the towering tiara, 
 with its three circlets, one for the kingly office, 
 another for the priestly, the third for the union of 
 the priestly, kingly, and imperial. It moves, above 
 helmets, halberds, and plumes, aloft toward the 
 vault of the nave, gliding slowly along ; over it a 
 moving canopy of silk, born on golden staves ; under 
 it, that fine old face, smiling the never-ceasing smile, 
 and the old hand holding itself out, and blessing 
 with the two fingers, as if there was some mystic 
 power in the motion, and a moment must not be 
 lost in conferring the benefits of it upon all around. 
 " The portative throne " is a magnificent chair, set 
 upon a litter, such as a high priest in India may some- 
 times be seen borne upon by his disciples, when he 
 is marching for great religious purposes ; and then 
 at last you see, under this moving pageant, eight 
 men, clothed in deep crimson, bearers of the 
 Vice-god. 
 
 The gliding canopy, the flashing crown, the 
 smiling face, the thrice gorgeous robes, the rich chair, 
 the moving litter, the crimson men, the golden 
 poles, the prostrate helmets and plumes, the flash, 
 flash, flash of steel; the curious, or scrutinizing, or 
 
ROME IN HOLY WEEK. 371 
 
 shocked, or half-adoring glance of so many eyes ; — 
 altogether, it is a wonderful scene ! What is meant 
 by the ceremony ? " The procession represents the 
 Apostles and Disciples passing into Galilee to meet 
 the Saviour; but with still higher meaning, the 
 King of Glory proceeding with the assembly of 
 ransomed spirits from Hades into the realms 
 of bliss; and from this procession all others of 
 the different Sundays of the year have their 
 origin." * 
 
 With this key the meaning of the whole 
 scene is opened. They are acting "the King of 
 Glory entering Paradise." At that moment, you 
 see crowns carried immediately before the throne, 
 beside the one upon the head; and then recoUect 
 that the books tell you that the crown now worn 
 was presented by the present Queen of Spain. 
 King of glory ! Queen of Spain ! House of God ! 
 Men on their knees ! AntoneUi ! Day of Christ's 
 resurrection ! Roman sbirri ! Lamoriciere's first 
 general order issued this holy morning ! What 
 ideas ! The mind is put beyond the stage of 
 revolting, and carried into that of simple bewilder- 
 ment. 
 
 The Swiss had hard work to push us back 
 sufSciently to make way for the procession betweeu 
 us and the altar ; and, when it had passed into the 
 
 * "Lent and the Holy Week in Kome. By C. J. Hcmans," p. 163. 
 
 2 B 2 
 
<3/^ CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 sacred enclosure, there were two thrones, as if one 
 ■was not enough for the King of Glory ; and all we 
 can see now are the fans held high up, telling us 
 that the old man is set upon the ground. As to 
 these fans, Mr. Hemans gives us the following useful 
 information : — 
 
 " The mystic import attached to them is, that as 
 the eyes of peacock's feathers are set in the ostiich 
 plumes, composing these graceful implements, vigi- 
 lance as of many eyes is required from the Pontiff, 
 that he may ever watch for the good of the Catholic 
 commonwealth, and be thus reminded also of how 
 many eyes are fixed upon him, whose actions are 
 scanned by the whole world." How much the 
 Catholic commonwealth is indebted to the peacocks, 
 would be a deep point for discussion. 
 
 As to the import of the thi'one, the same gentle- 
 man informs us that, "in this elevation of the 
 person of the Pontiff, is implied, that the Vicar of 
 Christ is the centre to which the eyes of the faithful 
 should turn, as to a beacon-light on high, for their 
 guidance and consolation." King of Glory ! Vicar 
 of Christ ! Centre for the eyes of the faithful ! 
 Light on high for guidance and consolation ! And 
 it is an Englishman who writes ! 
 
 Just before us is the altar, — the altar of God ; 
 and we see laid upon it the diadems of the Sove- 
 reign, — his crown on the altar, his person on the 
 
HOME IN HOLY WEEK. 373 
 
 throne. Now begins the ceremony; and here the 
 marvellous art of government by shows has its 
 sublimest triumph. From one throne to the other 
 throne, changing mitres, changing robes, changing 
 voices, changing postures: now the steps of the 
 throne lined by what looks, in the distance, like 
 ranks of spirits in white, reminding one of that 
 picture of Martin's, called the Plains of, Heaven. 
 Now you see ranks in red, — now they move, and 
 wave, and circle in mystic changes; every possible 
 combination of colour, of posture, and grouping, to 
 give at the distance a bewildering and dazzling 
 effect. Now, directly before the throne, stands one 
 as it were an angel clothed in silver, holding up a 
 book, and the person and the book together serve as 
 a silver veil ; so that above you see nothing but the 
 brow and the crown of the " King of Glory." All 
 the skill below the sky could not more perfectly have 
 devised the means of conveying to the looker-on the 
 idea of God upon earth. Those who are used to it 
 chat freely, discussing the music and the men. 
 
 The Friars have their word about who this one is, 
 and who that one, and so on. But presently the 
 Pope comes to the altar, and there officiates. M. 
 About says, that he performs his part in the great 
 ceremonies of the Church Ol. He has a hasty walk, 
 but, with that exception, he seemed to be the most 
 impressive man they had to show at Rome. He 
 
374 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 \i'ent through his part of the performance at the 
 altar as if he meant every motion of his hand, every 
 word of his lips. One did believe that the soul of 
 the old man was in it. What was wonderful, you could 
 actually distinguish the ivords ; for nothing is rarer 
 than to be able to catch those of a Priest, even 
 when as near him as we now were ; and at one 
 point, just about the moment of consecration, when, 
 according to his own belief, he was, (as the Friar of 
 Bologna said,) by a few divine words changing the 
 elements of bread and wine into the body, blood, 
 soul, and Divinity of Christ, there was in the fine 
 face of the old man a beam that looked more like 
 happy devotion, than anything I had seen in Rome. 
 The dejected devotion fitting conventual ideas you 
 see upon many countenances ; but this was 
 the only one, except perhaps those of some nuns, 
 where I had marked such an expression as this. At 
 the moment that the host was elevated, trumpets 
 pealed out somewhere — where, one could not tell. 
 Every one gave a different account of the quarter 
 from which the sound came, according to the posi- 
 tion they had been in at the time; and this was the 
 only part of the ceremony that did anything more 
 than make one wonder at the art of Priests, and the 
 simplicity of crowds. It was pure, soft, silvery 
 music, streaming out from you could not tell where, 
 but filling that vast temple, as if two angels had 
 
ROME IN HOLY WEEK. 375 
 
 been whispering, in different parts, and others 
 singing behind them. Of course the soldiers knelt 
 at the elevation of the host, while "the King of 
 Glory " stood at the altar. Down they went : the 
 Friars beside and behind me went upon their knees 
 too. 
 
 Up to this moment I had been in the front 
 rank nest to the Guards; but could not bear 
 the idea of standing before a kneeling man, and 
 therefore stepped back behind a Friar ; for no 
 one else seemed to think of kneeling but the soldiers 
 and the Friars; thereby I lost my good position. 
 The Pope goes back from the altar to the throne, 
 seven candelabra being borne before him, (this is the 
 language of Mr. Hemans,) " mystically bearing refer- 
 ence to the candlesticks amid which appeared the 
 vision of the Son of God to the Evangelist, also 
 to the seven gifts of the Spirit." Here, again, is 
 an attempt to represent the seven lamps before the 
 throne of " the King of Glory." 
 
 I ought to have mentioned that when the Pope 
 came to the altar, the Sacristan had, in his presence, 
 to eat two out of the three wafers that had been 
 prepared, and to drink part of the wine, as a pre- 
 caution against poison. It was not until after being 
 thus assured, that the Vicar of Christ proceeded to 
 turn the remaining wafer " into the body, blood, 
 soul, and Divinity of Christ." Mr. Hemans says 
 
376 CHAPTEK XIV. 
 
 that this, "though a mere" form, is of immemorial 
 usage at the Papal high mass. Then two Cardinal 
 Deacons took their station at the altar, as we are told 
 by the same authority, to represent the two angels 
 who stood at the Sepulchre. After the Pope has 
 gone back to his throne, the host and the chalice 
 are solemnly carried down from the altar along 
 the floor, then up the steps of the throne. Here is 
 he seated in the temple of God, and up to him is 
 carried all that is called God, — he above, it below ; 
 his crown at this moment upon the altar, his en- 
 throned person higher than the sacrament. While 
 others kneel and prostrate themselves to receive it, 
 it is handed to him seated upon his throne. Seated, 
 he takes the host; seated, the chalice from men 
 upon their knees ; but he does not disturb his robe 
 to take the cup in his hands. A golden tube is in 
 it, and through this he sucks a little of the wine. 
 Consecrated particles are presented to him by kneel- 
 ing men, and he distributes them from that tlirone 
 to the angels in white, and red, and gold, and 
 purple, and embroidery, and they again to those who 
 are kneeling around him. After this, the Pontiff 
 again puts on the triple crown, again seats himself 
 on the portative throne, and the chief Priest of St. 
 Peter's presents him with a purse of white velvet, 
 containing the fee for saying mass. 
 
 When the Deacon Cardinals were at the altar, one 
 
ROME IN HOLY WEEK. 377 
 
 stood for a considerable time on our side, — a tall, 
 smooth, well-looking man. The whisper went 
 round everywhere, " Antonelli, Antonelli I " He 
 performed his part of the ceremony with more grace 
 and propriety than many of the Priests, but without 
 any of the apparent interest the old Pope seemed to 
 take in it. He had in his appearance none of the 
 qualities which his reputation would lead one to 
 expect ; neither ferocity nor grossness, nor the 
 marks upon his countenance of those struggles with 
 conscience, through which men go in a long course 
 of heavy misdoing. There he stood, looking down 
 from the altar, apparently pleased with it, the 
 soldiers, himself, the ladies, and all the world. He 
 might not have any body suspecting, or hating, 
 or dreading him ; he rather gave you the 
 impression of one of those smooth, clear-headed, 
 strong, narrow men, just made to ruin Governments 
 by force of the ability they have to push on their 
 own narrow way, until they knock against a wall. 
 In fact, from the peculiar kind of complacency that 
 seemed hardly to smile on his countenance, but 
 rather to underlie it, one could imagine that he took 
 pleasure, as some of those narrow men do, in the 
 idea of being unpopular, taking it as a tribute to 
 their greatness : whereas, personal unpopularity is 
 generally the eflFect of personal faults ; though 
 unpopularity for measures may be simply the result 
 
378 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 of being ahead of your day. It was hard to look on 
 that countenance, and think he was so bad a man 
 as the public voice represents him. One has strong 
 faith in conscience ; and how any one occupying such 
 a place as he does, could commit all the immoralities, 
 peculations, tyrannies, and betrayals of faith, which 
 are laid to his door, without his countenance bearing 
 marks of internal struggles, was very hard to 
 imagine. Naming this to a gentleman occupying a 
 place under the Government, I made him laugh. 
 " Conscience," he said ; " what conscience could you 
 expect Antonelli to have to struggle with ? Do you 
 not know who he was ? " 
 
 "■ O ! it cannot be true that he is the nephew of 
 Gasparoni?" the Dick Turpin of Italy. 
 
 " No, I do not say he was a nephew of his ; but 
 he was a relative. You know very well he belonged 
 to a brigand family at Sonnino ; and what trouble 
 you are to expect a man brought up as a brigand, 
 and then trained as a Priest, to have with con- 
 science, I do not know." 
 
 " But, it cannot be true, that he has played false 
 with the public money, in the way the people say." 
 
 " Where did the money come from ? " he replies. 
 "All the world knows what the Antonelli family 
 were. They were brigands. What are they now ? 
 There are four brothers : the first is the man we are 
 talking of, in whose hands are aU the resources of 
 
ROME IN HOLY WEEK. 379 
 
 the State ; the second is Governor of the Bank ; the 
 third fattens upon monopolies and taxes ; and what is 
 the fourth ? The Stock Exchange agent for the other 
 three. He is to be found in London, Paris, Amster- 
 dam, and so on ; and in all these places the invest- 
 ments of the Antonelli family are something fabu- 
 lous. We know that all that is our money." 
 
 Presently the great procession is formed again. 
 Down it comes from the choir, sweeping past the 
 altar, — Soldiers, Priests, Bishops, mitred Abbots, 
 Cardinals, Senators, Ambassadors, officials of all sorts, 
 going forward, with crowns, and candles, and crosses, 
 and the uplifted throne, and the moving canopy, — 
 until at last in the middle of the nave it suddenly 
 stands. The old man is let down, and goes upon his 
 knees, and immediately the kneeling ranks stand up 
 with a clatter of arms. His face is directed up- 
 wards, as if in adoration; and yet he appears to 
 be looking at some object. Following the line of his 
 eye, you see a few Canons in white up on the little 
 balcony, where the relics are kept, reminding one of 
 Brahmins in white robes up on the top of a car 
 in India J and they are holding up the same un- 
 discernible something we described before,' — the 
 relics. And the Ambassadors of all the Catholic 
 powers, and some Protestant ones, and all this 
 multitude, and this mighty array of armed men, are 
 gathered here to see this poor old man set the world 
 
380 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 the example of adoring relics. While ia this act, 
 he had laid off the tiara, which is again put on, 
 bringing with it the recollection of the Queen of 
 Spain, and Antonelli: — these not holy ideas every 
 now and then cross the mind ; and as the name of 
 one Prelate after another is whispered, stories that 
 you have heard, — such stories as might be gathered 
 up in Windsor about the Court of George the Fourth, 
 put together with some from Cairo about the doings 
 of the Pashas, — come and go, in spite of one's 
 efforts to keep them out. For let it be said, once for 
 all, that when Romans begin to tell stories about 
 the private life of the Vatican, you had better shut 
 your ears. Accounts of cruelty may be repeated iu 
 England without doing any harm, but impurity 
 leaves a soil everywhere. 
 
 Again the throne is up, and the procession formed 
 and, according to usage, the Pope ought to have 
 gone up to the balcony in front of the cathedral, 
 from it to deliver his benediction. To fulfil the ideal 
 of this ceremony, the great space, with its colonnades 
 and fountains, the Vatican on one side and the 
 Basilica in front, ought to be crowded with people 
 the sun shining, the Pope upon the balcony re- 
 splendent in all the glories of his Court ; and then 
 that wonderful voice of his sounding out to the ex- 
 treme length of the place, in sweet and solemn tones, 
 should pronounce the words of the Benediction. But 
 
ROME IN HOLY WEEK. 381 
 
 on this occasion it was not so. The weather had set 
 in gloomy in the morning, and now the rain was 
 pouring down, as it does in Rome, with half tropical 
 hurry. There could be no out-of-door Benediction 
 that day ; so we were surprised all at once, when the 
 procession appeared to be on the point of going 
 away, to find it stop just before where the ladies had 
 got into the private box, and where we then all 
 happened to be. Seated aloft, with the book 
 held up to him, the old man, with the finest grace, 
 with commanding and pleasing notes, intoned so 
 that every child in the Church might have heard 
 him, lifting up his hands : " May the holy Apostles 
 Peter and Paul, in whose power and authority we 
 confide, intercede for us with the Lord. Amen ! 
 Through the prayers and merits of the blessed Mary 
 ever Virgin, and the blessed Michael the Archangel, 
 and the blessed John the Baptist, and the holy 
 Apostles Peter and Paul, and all saints, may the 
 omnipotent God have mercy upon you ! May all 
 your sins be remitted. May Jesus Christ lead you to 
 eternal life. Amen ! Indulgence, absolution, and 
 remission of all your sins, space for true and fruitful 
 repentance, hearts ever contrite, and amendment of 
 life, may the omnipotent and merciful God afibrd 
 you. Amen ! And may thp blessing of the omni- 
 potent God, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, descend 
 upon you, and remain with you ever. Amen ! " It 
 
382 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 was only the last sentence that was pronounced 
 standing ; all the rest came from the potentate seated 
 upon the throne. But as he was pronouncing the 
 word "blessing/' he rose, made the sign of the cross 
 upon the front, then on the one side, then on the 
 other, over the people ; at the word " descend " 
 stretching out his arms to heaven ; and then folding 
 them over his breast with feeling, grace, and power- 
 ful impression. Each motion is regularly prescribed, 
 and to be found in the books. 
 
 The ceremony was over, and that which the 
 Romans looked to as the best part of it was not to 
 come. The rain had stopped the illumination ; there 
 was to be no glory on St. Peter's that night, none 
 of the usual splendid display of fireworks in the 
 beautiful gardens of the Pincian Hill, — as fine a pro- 
 menade as any one need wish for, with full views of 
 existing, and endless recollections of ancient, Rome. 
 The programme of the day had included Lamoriciere's 
 General Order, the ceremonies of the Church, the out- 
 door Benediction, and the fireworks : the two last 
 items failed. 
 
 On my return to Florence I happened again to sit 
 at table next to a Roman alluded to in the chapter 
 on that city, who appeared to have entirely recovered 
 his spirits, and to be full of hope, taking great heart 
 from the doings of that Easter Sunday. General 
 Lamoriciere, appointed in the Pope's name to train 
 
KOME IN HOLY WEEK. 383 
 
 foreigners to kill Italians^ had called the patriots 
 " Mussulmen.-'^ Thus^ as he thought, the Pope had 
 committed a final blunder; the General had made a 
 " buffoon ■'•' of himself; and the conscience of every 
 honest man in the country was engaged against them 
 both. Then, he said, " the weather turned revolu- 
 tionist, and drowned the blessing from the balcony 
 and the illuminations altogether." 
 
 As we left in the midst of a pouring rain, taking 
 a last look on that Basilica, the feelings were as 
 solemn as the weather was dull. And this is the 
 great temple of the Romish Church, and we have 
 been witnessing to-day her highest model of Chris- 
 tian worship ! Except the words of the Benedic- 
 tion, there has not been one syllable for eye to 
 read, or ear to hear, conveying sense to a human 
 mind; and even they were in a dead language. 
 It is a Christian temple^ yet it is full of images; 
 men are bowing down to them, and saying prayers 
 before them, and kissing them. It is a Christian 
 temple, and yet no word either of the law of God, 
 or of the Gospel of Christ, can be read among 
 its innumerable inscriptions in the language of the 
 people. A Christian temple, and yet never does 
 human voice within it read, so as to reach the under- 
 standing, one word that Christ said, or an Apostle 
 wrote. It is a Christian temple, and yet in it one 
 shows himself for the kneeling worship of his fellow 
 
384 ceAPTEii XIV. 
 
 man, receiving honours that earthly Kings do not 
 claim, receiving them in God's house, and before 
 what is called God's altar : when he kneels, men 
 stand up ; when he rises, men kneel down. Words 
 ring in one's ear, foretelling a falling away, and 
 the coming of that strange power, "the man of 
 sin," one of whose characteristics was this, that he 
 should " exalt himself above all that is called God, 
 or that is worshipped ; so that he as God sitteth in 
 the temple of God, showing himself that he is God." 
 The very words of this passage seemed burned into 
 the heart by the proceedings of that morning. He 
 does not say that he is God, but as God sits in the 
 temple ; and, without saying that he is God, " shows 
 himself that he is." Image-worship is bad, and its 
 effects upon the human mind are always debasing, 
 as the history of every heathen and every relapsed 
 Christian nation proves. But there is something in 
 this man-worship more directly degrading and demo- 
 ralizing. Some sophism by which you adore an 
 invisible being through an image may help the mind 
 to escape the sense of base prostration ; but falling 
 down upon the knees in multitudes before a man in 
 the house of God, is such an outrage at once upon all 
 the feelings of humanity, and all the theory, much more 
 the practice, of the Avorship of the Bible, that religion 
 and manliness go down together, and the whole nature 
 falls into the position of a servile instrument of what- 
 
HOME IN HOLY WEEK. 385 
 
 ever may come from the lips of the Vice-God : who 
 is thus adored under the profession of being Vicar of 
 Christj and representing the King of Glory. 
 
 When He who was indeed the Lord of Glory 
 dwelt here amongst us in a human frame, men did 
 behold His glory, but it was another than this : 
 it was a glory full of grace and truth ; and so care- 
 ful was he not to connect any display of Divine 
 majesty with the human form, that only on the 
 occasion when He did permit a supernatural mani- 
 festation to transfigure the marred and humble face 
 that is never described to us. He placed Himself in 
 careful seclusion, with only three chosen witnesses to 
 look upon Him. And when for one single hour he 
 did accept kingly human honours. He took care that 
 a humble steed and a meek bearing should be His 
 protest beforehand against all pomp in His name, 
 and against aU man-worship, under any and every 
 circumstance. After witnessing a scene like that 
 one can no longer be angry at Popery, or rail at 
 Rome. The departm'e from even the very theories 
 of the Bible is too complete. The assumption to 
 represent and even to personate the Godhead, is 
 too unblushing ; the superstition too low ; the claim 
 to entire command of men^s principles and souls, 
 of their moral selves and being, is too dreadful to 
 permit of irritation. The feeling is awe; deep awe 
 and horror. You feel face to face with a destroying 
 c c 
 
386 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 power. Ttose courts and chambers around you 
 whisper of stories that would make you shudder 
 even in Benares or Constantinople. The tracts 
 which encircle the city mourn under the sorrows 
 of desolation and oppression joined together, and 
 seem written over with the woes denounced by the 
 old prophets against apostate lands. 
 
C|apto %h. 
 
 PAPAL GOYERNMENT IN ROME, 
 
 DURING TEN YEARS OF RESTORATION, AS 
 
 SHOWN BY OFFICIAL POCUMENTS. 
 
 2 c 3 
 
The first act of Louis Napoleon Buonaparte as a 
 man was to appear in arms, a rebel against the 
 Government of the Pope ; his first as a ruler was to 
 turn the arms of France against those who had suc- 
 ceeded in overthrowing it. 
 
 When General Oudinot entered Rome at the head 
 of his victorious troops, the people, beaten, but not 
 cowed, surrounded him, crying, "Italy for ever! 
 Liberty for ever ! Down with the temporal power ! " 
 Touched with a soldier's generosity, he displayed his 
 interest, particularly in the officers of the Roman 
 army, who crowded to demand their passports, that 
 they might become voluntary exiles while yet there 
 was time. He begged them to stay, saying that the 
 army would be maintained ; and especially urged this 
 on General Bartolucci, who had held the chief com- 
 mand of the cavalry during the siege; saying, 
 "Why should you refuse to serve a Government 
 which, even if it be that of the Pope, will stiU be 
 both Italian and Constitutional ?" " General," repUed 
 Bartolucci, " I have had too many sorrowful proofs in 
 prisons of what the Clerical Government is, to ven- 
 ture on another. The day will come, perhaps, when 
 
390 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 you -ffiil call to mind these words, and it is not far 
 off. I beg you to give me my passport," 
 
 Five days after he had entered Rome, General 
 Oudinot, in the faith of an honest man, repre- 
 senting a great, and at that moment triumphant, 
 nation, published an important decree, signed with 
 his own name. Its first article dissolved the 
 existing National Guard, to please the restored 
 Government; the second article re-established the 
 National Guard upon its ancient principles; thus 
 giving back to the citizens a material guarantee of 
 their liberties. The General found that the first 
 article was immediately executed ; as to the second, 
 obstacles were interposed which even he was unable 
 to overcome. Thus Rome had the double satisfaction 
 of breaking its own faith, and forcing a great nation, 
 to which it owed its restoration, to appear as its 
 accomplice in the deed. 
 
 The spirit in which the clerical authorities peeped 
 from behind their hedge of French bayonets, was 
 first indicated in this act ; and it is fully expressed in 
 the following Circidar, to be found in the second 
 volume of the "Documents," pp. 649, 650. The 
 Criminal and Civil Court of Fuligno, on April 
 37th, 1849, delivered a judgment, in which it 
 records, how Commissioners visited a convent, 
 found the brother Philip Rossi, Abbot, and Vicar 
 of the Inquisition, who told them that he had 
 
PAPAL GOVEilNMENT IN ROME. 391 
 
 known that they were coining for three days, and 
 had taken care to destroy the documents belonging 
 to the Holy Office, and others besides. The tone in 
 which he did this, roused suspicion; he was 
 searched, and, among the papers found upon him 
 was the following :-^ 
 
 "Circular N. 167. R, P. Alpha +. 
 " Beloved BrethreNj — The God of mercies, before 
 giving His faithful people the glory of Paradise, 
 loves that they should gain the palm of martyrdom. 
 Calamitous vicissitudes which press upon humanity 
 and religion, demand that you, beloved brethren, 
 should use all the means which are in your power, 
 to reconquer all our violated rights, and to destroy 
 the machinations of our enemies. The Liberals, the 
 Jacobites, the Carbonari, the Republicans, are only 
 synonymous terms. They wish to destroy religion, 
 and all its Ministers; we, on the other hand, must 
 destroy, — even to the very ashes of their race. Go 
 on in your zeal, training the Friars in your neigh- 
 bourhood, and the country people, as you have 
 always done in time past; 'tell them that, at the 
 sound of the church bells, they must not be wanting 
 at the holy muster, where every one of us must with- 
 out pity plunge his weapons into the bosoms of the 
 profaners of our most holy religion. Think upon 
 the vows which arise from us to the Almighty: — 
 
393 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 they are to destroy, to the last man, our enemies, 
 not excepting infants; to prevent the vengeance 
 which these would one clay exercise upon our 
 disciples. Then, in fine, see to it, that when we 
 shall send out the cry for reaction, every one of you 
 shall fearlessly imitate us. 
 
 "Alpha + P. C. R. Gaeta, February 15th." 
 
 This document indicates the spirit infused into 
 the working Clergy. So soon as the French , 
 Government became aware how dark were the 
 prospects for the country on which they had forced 
 His Holiness, the President of the Republic inter- 
 posed in that famous letter to Edgar Ney, which 
 served as a public protest, that France could only be 
 the minister of civilized and rational Government. 
 The manner in which this was met will sufficiently 
 appear from the following letter of Cardinal Anto- 
 nelli to the Governors of Provinces, in which he 
 coolly sets aside every intimation conveyed in the 
 President's document, and even says that the 
 French authorities in Rome themselves regarded it 
 with disfavour. 
 
 "Most Illustrious and Reverend Sir, 
 
 "A LETTER which assumcs to be written by the 
 President of the French Republic to Lieutenant- 
 Colonel Ney in Rome, has given increased audacity 
 to the band of libertines, the sworn enemies of the 
 
PAPAL GOVERNMENT IN KOME. 393 
 
 Pontifical Government; and rumours are every- 
 where spread aboutj that it is intended to impose 
 burdensome conditions on the Holy See. The 
 anarchical party, in consequence of these expecta- 
 tionSj displays an insulting attitude, as it believes 
 and hopes to recover itself from the discomfiture it 
 has undergone. But this letter has not any 
 OFFICIAL CHARACTER, being merely the product of a 
 private correspondence. I will add also, that even by 
 the French authorities in Eome it is viewed with 
 displeasure. 
 
 " The Holy Father is seriously occupying himself 
 about giving to his subjects such reforms as he 
 believes useful to their true and solid good ; nor has 
 any power imposed laws upon him in reference to 
 this, he aiming to attain so important an end with- 
 out betrayiug the duties of his own conscience. 
 
 " Profit by this intimation to contradict the false- 
 hood promulgated to the prejudice of public order, 
 and satisfy every one that it is the interest of all the 
 powers to sustain the liberty and independence of 
 the Supreme Pontiff, for the peace of Europe. 
 
 " With sentiments of distinguished esteem, I sub- 
 scribe myself, most Reverend and Illustrious Sir, 
 " Your most affectionate servant, 
 "Gr. Cardinal Antonelli.* 
 
 "Poriici, September 8th, 1849." 
 
 * "Documents," vol. i., p. liv. 
 
394 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 Now came the great question for the Eomans, — 
 whether or not the Constitution, which the Pope had 
 granted them in 1848, would be abolished. Sus- 
 picions that it would were generally entertained; but 
 up to the day of the battle of Novara, the documents 
 issued by the exiled Prince uniformly appealed to 
 the Constitution itself, as an existing pact between 
 him and the nation. In that solemn instrument, 
 the Pope had described the new representative 
 institutions as the re-establishment of an old right 
 of the Roman people. " In ancient times, our 
 boroughs (comuni) had the privilege of self- 
 government, under laws selected by themselves, with 
 the sanction of the Sovereign. The character of 
 modern civilization would not permit that the same 
 form of government should be renewed, because, 
 through the diversity of laws and usages, different 
 municipalities were completely estranged one from 
 another ; but we are now about to confide this prero- 
 gative to two Councils of trusty and patriotic 
 citizens : one of which shall be nominated by us, the 
 other returned from every part of the State, by a 
 fitting form of election." 
 
 Notwithstanding this appeal to the antiquity of 
 the rights embodied in the new Constitution, it 
 might be said that the Pope conceded it under 
 pressure of fear. None, however, will deny that, 
 during Jhe time he stayed in the Neapolitan States, he 
 
PAPAL GOVERNMENT IN KOME. 395 
 
 was a perfectly free agent, and every public docu- 
 ment he issued a spontaneous act. On the 7th of 
 December, (1848,) he put forth a proclamation, for- 
 mally dissolving the two Chambers. In this he 
 appeals to the Constitution, calling it " the funda- 
 mental statute ; " citing the fourteenth article as 
 the law of the realm, in virtue of which he issues the 
 decree. He then prorogues the two Chambers; 
 saying th^t he reserves to himself the right to deter- 
 mine " the day when they shall be convoked anew." 
 On the 13th of December of the same year. Cardinal 
 Antonelli adressed a circular to the Ambassadors at 
 the Papal Court, in which he informs them that, 
 at the date above mentioned, the Holy Father had 
 thought it well to adopt a decree proroguing the 
 Houses, according to the terms of " the fundamental 
 statute." 
 
 On the 18th of February, 1849, Cardinal Anto- 
 nelli addresses to foreign courts a note, in which he 
 refers to the gracious acts whereby the Pontiff had 
 entitled himself to the love and gratitude of his 
 people. " The Holiness of our Lord in the first days of 
 his Pontificate had no other aim than to show bene- 
 ficence to his subjects, providing, in every respect, 
 for their highest good, according to the exigencies of 
 the times." In fact, after having pronounced the 
 words of pardon to those who, for political crimes, 
 were then exiled, or lay in prisons, after having 
 
396 CHAPTER HV. 
 
 instituted the Council of State and the Council of 
 Ministers, and accorded, from the imperious force 
 of circumstances, the institution of the Civic Guard, 
 a new law for a decent liberty of the press, and, in 
 fine, "the fundamental statute for the States of the 
 Church," he had surely a right to that gratitude 
 ■which subjects owe to a Prince who regards them as 
 his children, and was promising them a reign of 
 love ! 
 
 His Holiness had appointed a Commission during 
 his absence, who posted upon the walls of the palace 
 at Castel Gondolfo a formal protest against the 
 things that had been done and were doing in Rome ; 
 and amongst the causes of complaint they allege 
 " the arbitrary dissolution of the Representative 
 Houses." Finally, the Pope himself, in a secret 
 Consistory held in Gaeta, on the 20th of April, when 
 the French were just about laying siege to Rome, 
 delivered an " allocution," in which he appeals to 
 those "largesses which were by us voluntarily and 
 spontaneously conceded in the first days of our Pon- 
 tificate ; " complaining that they had produced no 
 fruit of loyalty in his people ; and he uses this lan- 
 guage : — " Every one of you well knows how a con- 
 stitutional form of government was introduced into 
 Italy, and how, on the 14th day of March, in the 
 last year, came into light the statute conceded by us 
 to our subjects. But as the implacable enemies of 
 
PAPAL GOVERNMENT IN EOME. 397 
 
 order and public repose aim, on all occasions, but to 
 use their efforts against the Pontifical Government, 
 and incessantly to agitate the people with uneasiness 
 and suspicions, by means of the press, of clubs, of 
 committees, and of other artifices, they never wearied 
 of factiously calumniating the Government, although 
 it was using all solicitude and zeal, that the statute 
 so much desired should be published with the 
 greatest possible dispatch." * 
 
 There remained, therefore, no question, first, that 
 the Pope avowed the Constitution to have been his 
 own voluntary act ; and, secondly, that so long as 
 his power to force himself back upon his people 
 was held in doubt, he constantly appealed to it as 
 the fundamental pact existing between him and 
 them. 
 
 Up to that time the people had faith in his pro- 
 bity ; and, however much they suspected those 
 around him, thought Pio Nono incapable of delibe- 
 rately perjuring himself to his subjects. Still the 
 impression began to gain ground that the Constitu- 
 tion would be annulled. 
 
 To the credit of the Marquesses Bevilacqua and 
 Ricci, two of the Pope's high oflScers, they had 
 delivered their solemn protest against his long stay 
 away from his own States, saying that his enemies 
 used it to draw inferences — though unjustly — of 
 
 * See "Documents," vol. i., p. 1. et seq^. 
 
398 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 different political principles from those he publicly 
 professed. They pointed out how useful it would be 
 that the word of the Sovereign should assure the 
 doubtful against " the malignant insinuations, that 
 there may be a tendency in the Councils of the 
 Prince to take away the liberties of the Constitution, 
 and to deviate from the system of benignity which 
 was and is the glory of the reigning Pontiff; " as also 
 the great importance that Government should, in its 
 institutions, " and in every act, observe not only the 
 essence, but the forms, of constitutional government." 
 
 All this proved futile; other counsels prevailed; 
 and at last, on the 12th of September, 1849, 
 appeared that celebrated motu propria, by which the 
 Constitution was brushed aside, as if it had been the 
 dust deposited by the wind of revolution ; and the 
 Court of Eome re-established itself, on the double 
 basis of foreign bayonets and broken faith. The 
 documents from which these facts are drawn, will be 
 found in vol. i., pp. 1-47. 
 
 Then sounded out a word which has often been 
 one of healing to a fevered country, but which, since 
 the day when it fell from the lips of Pio Nono, has 
 ever been the bitterest word his subjects could pro- 
 nounce; and among them one may hear human 
 tones pass through every variation of contempt, 
 anguish, despair, shame, and rage, in pronouncing 
 the sweet word, " Amnesty." 
 
PAPAL GOVERNMENT IN ROME. 399 
 
 Under pretence of pardon a document was issued, 
 in which whole classes were publicly excluded from 
 the mercy naturally expected from a Prince return^ 
 ing to renew interrupted relations with his people : — 
 every member of the Provisional Government^ every 
 member of the Constituent Assembly, every mem- 
 ber of the Triumvirate and the Republican Govern- 
 mentj all the chiefs of the military corps, all who 
 had ever come under any existing penal law ; and, be- 
 sides, every person who had any Government employ- 
 ment, metropolitan, provincial, or municipal, in the 
 army, or in the police, was warned that his appoint- 
 ment would not hold good. Frightful as was the 
 wholesale slaughter of liberties and interests thus 
 decreed upon paper, it was yet more horrible in its 
 mode of execution ; for the clerical authority, as 
 has appeared in the chapter upon the Romagna, 
 stretched its wide terms so as to include all 
 who could be troublesome in the swoop of 
 condemnation. 
 
 Now began a struggle between Governors and 
 people, which has never relaxed for a single day. 
 Among the modes of popular resistance, one was a 
 refusal to smoke tobacco, because it yielded a 
 revenue to the Government ; and in the " OfiBcial 
 Journal " of the 13th of June, 1851, the following 
 article of police intelligence may be found : — -" Mary 
 Biaggi, of the city of Castello, having been convicted. 
 
400 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 upon the testimony of sworn witnesses^ of having 
 insulted peacefiil smokers, has been condemned to 
 receive twenty strokes of the lash. According to the 
 existing laws against the disturbers of public order, 
 she has suffered the penalty at Perugia, on the 9th 
 instant.-" * This penalty of the " lash," and that of 
 the " cudgel," had been freely used for many years, 
 when Cardinal Antonelli thought it well to inscribe 
 it in the laws; and, accordingly, a decree will be 
 found signed by him, and dated on the 30th 
 of July, 1855, in which the punishment of the 
 " cudgel " is formally prescribed. 
 
 The ease with which severe punishments can be 
 applied may be seen from the following, of the 
 preceding reign, signed by Cardinal Beruetti. "As 
 the charge of insulting a policeman, for which L. 
 Sevignano was arrested, has not been proved; 
 and considering the other circumstances, and the 
 not short imprisonment which he suffered ; the 
 Holiness of our Lord, to whom I have submitted 
 the report of the trial, transmitted by your Excel- 
 lency in the dispatch of the 4th instant, has 
 graciously deigned to condescend to accord to him 
 release from prison. At the same time, he is to be 
 laid under solemn injunction to conduct himself well, 
 and he is to be bound by such other conditions as 
 
 * " Documents," vol. i., p. icviiL 
 
PAPAL GOVERNMENT IN ROME. 401 
 
 , your Excellency shall judge necessary, under penalty 
 of penal servitude for five years, to be incurred simply 
 by the fact of transgression, independently of what- 
 ever penalties are assigned by the laws, in case of any 
 ■ other offences." * Thus a man, against whom nothing 
 is proved, who has already suffered a long imprison- 
 ment, is to have hanging over his head, beside all 
 penalties written in the lawsj should he incur 
 them, another dictated by the simple will of the 
 Minister, to be inflicted without the trouble of 
 a trial, and that no less than five years' penal 
 servitude ! 
 
 On the 9th of February, 1851, a Roman of the 
 name of Dreosti, and a French woman of the name of 
 Clarisse, on the Pincian HiU, burned Bengal hghts 
 in the Italian tricolour, — green, white, and red, and 
 they were condemned to twenty years of the galleys ; 
 but the woman being a French subject, and the 
 authorities of that nation interposing, the penalty 
 was commuted into that of exile. On the 17th of 
 February, 1852, four men were condemned by the 
 same Court for the same offence, of burning Bengal 
 lights of the tricolour, — one to two years, and the 
 other to the galleys for life, and the others, one to 
 five years, and the other to twenty years, of the gal- 
 leys. Of these poor fellows, two had the good for- 
 
 tune to be in the Romagna on the 12th of June last, 
 
 * "Documents," vol. ii., p. 595. 
 D D 
 
402 CHAPTEE XT. 
 
 when the government of the Priests fell ; but the 
 others are still in hold* 
 
 On the 6th of September, 1850, sixteen executions 
 took place in the city of Bologna. According to the 
 lavTS of the Roman States, no one can be capitally- 
 punished under age ; and among the sixteen were two 
 minors. This was the case that has given M. About 
 the bitter sarcasm, — that Pio Nono had conferred two 
 years of age upon youths, that they might have the 
 privilege of being hanged. One Joseph IMarchetti 
 was shot for stealing seventy-seven halfpence. 
 
 A new invention was adopted at Rome, well calcu- 
 lated to rase the last foundation of civil morality, 
 and to drive from the hearts of men any remaining 
 idea that they had a home or a country. This con- 
 sisted of a secret Court, established in every province, 
 composed of the Governor or Delegate, of a Coun- 
 cillor, a Priest, and a . private citizen ; but, to 
 the immortal praise of Italians be it told, that the 
 archives of the Romagna do not show a single 
 case in which any private citizen did not refuse the 
 disreputable office tendered to him by the Govern- 
 ment ; and, therefore, those Courts were actually com- . 
 posed only of persons in the public pay. At the head 
 of them all was placed, — not an Italian, but a 
 foreigner, an implacable Spanish Prelate of the name 
 of Avella ; who, more thoroughly legitimist than the 
 
 * " Documents," vol. i., p. icii. 
 
PAPAL GOVERNMENT IN EOME. 403 
 
 Pope himself, would never acknowledge Isabella, 
 but, to the day of his death, called Don Carlos King 
 of Spain. Under the authority of this worthy and 
 his subordinate Councils were placed all persons 
 who held any public or semi-public employment : in 
 the army, the Church, the National Guard, Govern- 
 ment or municipal offices, or factories holding a 
 Government monopoly, — such as tobacco. Their 
 duties were to keep them in surveillance, and deal 
 with them as they pleased. The accused person 
 never had any idea of charge, accuser, judges, or 
 proceedings. AU he knew was that, at a certain 
 moment, a man walked into his house with a sen- 
 tence in his hand, by which he was dismissed, or 
 suspended, or removed to some distant place. 
 
 One day in the streets of Rome one hundred 
 mothers of families lately in comfortable circum- 
 stances knelt down upon the stones with veiled faces, 
 and hands silently held out for charity. The peo- 
 ple rushed in numbers to give them money; and 
 French officers, pale with rage, might be seen giving 
 them their purses entire, and walking away to curse 
 their fate as abettors of abominations. In one house 
 nine chUdren were awaiting the return of the mother, 
 with the fruits of her day's begging ; but it proved 
 that she was in prison for what was naturally 
 looked upon as a public demonstration against the 
 Government. All the documents of these Councils 
 2 D 2 
 
404 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 of Censure had been carefully destroyed throughout 
 the Romagna, so that none of their proceedings were 
 found in the archives ; and all that the present col- 
 lection of documents contains is, the judgments sent 
 from Rome in confirmation of the provincial recom- 
 mendations. From these we shall just give a few 
 specimens. Men are sentenced : " For Levity;" — 
 "For not feeling rightly in matters of politics;" — 
 " For showing himself rather excited ; " — " For 
 having the appearance of one rather inclined to' 
 novelties ;" — " For being imprudently talkative ; " — 
 " Because, when he was sent to Bologna to the office 
 of the High Commissioner, he gave a' very bad outline 
 of Monsignor Bedini;" — "Because he read the 
 papers with a high voice, making digressions or 
 changing his tone, when he read anything blacken- 
 ing the Pontifical Government and the Priests: 
 and he ridiculed Catholic Sovereigns, and especially 
 King Bomba, — that is, the King of Naples;" — and 
 the last we shall quote is, " Because he wiU never be 
 good stuff to cut an employe out of."* 
 
 As one example of the kind of punishment some- 
 times administered, we may quote the words of 
 Cardinal Bernetti : " For M. and R. I wiU send you 
 the orders of removal to remote and unhealthy, 
 places, giving at the same time the names of those 
 who shall replace them at Rimini ; and I shall not 
 
 * " Documents," vol. ii., pp. 597-600. 
 
PAPAL GOVEKNMENT IN ROME. 405 
 
 forget the name of the well-deserving P. G. on the 
 same occasion." * 
 
 When we know what some of the unhealthy places 
 in the Roman States are, a measure of this kind 
 is nothing more than a quiet way of condemning 
 men to die in their beds. 
 
 In the matter of Municipal Governmentj provision 
 was made for giving the right of election to the 
 citizens. Municipal bodies were forbidden to meet 
 or discuss without permission of the Governor of 
 the Province. All votes were null until approved, 
 and all appointments to office. No correspondence 
 was allowed between one Corporation and another; 
 and no address to the Government. To the 
 Corporations, however, was committed the care of 
 public education, with the simple condition that they 
 should be entirely controlled by the Bishop. As to 
 public charities, the Corporations had everything 
 connected with them in charge, except the endow- 
 ments. Still there was a theory of election; and 
 lists of persons eligible, and of the electors, were 
 compiled in 1851 ; only it was ordered that they 
 should contain the names of none but persons 
 whose conduct both political and religious was ir- 
 reprehensible. From these lists the Pope chose ; and 
 after three years had passed, they were to be drawn 
 
 * "Documentfi," voL ii., p. 592. 
 
406 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 up anew : but just before the time^ a circular arrived 
 fi'om the Minister of the Interior, who thouffht it 
 better that the electors should not be convoked, but 
 that the new Corporations should be returned by 
 those now existing. At the end of the next three 
 years, when the time for re-election approached, 
 another circular to the same effect was issued ; and 
 thus, says the editor of the " Official Documents," 
 " the law remains an insult, a printed paper to make 
 sport of the Pope's subjects; but useful to say in 
 diplomatic circles, ' We have a municipal law based 
 upon election/ " 
 
 From the same hand we shall quote a few remarks 
 on the question of finance. When Galli became 
 Minister of Finance, he thought of new appliances 
 for enriching the Treasury, He had three milHons 
 of crowns coined in bronze, the nominal value of 
 which was out of all proportion to the real. He did 
 not alter the Almanac, but simply required that in 
 the course of a year instead of twelve monthly pay- 
 ments of taxes there should be fourteen. Cardinal 
 Antonelli issued a law to punish the landowners 
 of the State for the visitation by which the vine was 
 blighted, by simply ordering them to pay 350,000 
 crowns to remunerate the Government for the loss 
 of its tax, — ^just as if in Ireland the Government had 
 made the people pay in extra taxes the value of all 
 that was lost to it by the potato famine. Here are 
 
PAPAL GOVERNMENT IN ROME. 407 
 
 the words of the Decree : " By reason of adverse 
 vicissitudes experienced by our vine crops, it is 
 difficult to derive from them a satisfactory produce ; 
 and therefore the collection of the regular taxes is 
 deferred, and for it is substituted an impost charged 
 upon the townships of the State, amounting to the 
 annual sum of 350,000 crowns, to begin on the 1st 
 of January, 1855, and to be distributed among 
 the respective townships." 
 
 This, however, was only for the secular subjects of 
 the Pope, and for secular property. The sacred 
 classes fared better. In the same year, 1855, Car- 
 dinal Barberini declares, "that all grapes, corn, and 
 other produce, given to Parish Priests and Canons, 
 as tithes, shall be exempt from taxes, to preserve the 
 rights and privileges of the Church." * 
 
 It is a curious proof how extremes meet, that the 
 Socialist idea of destroying private property, and 
 absorbing all possessions in the State, has never 
 been so near practical developement as under the 
 administration of Rome. When the French occupa- 
 tion terminated in 1814, the Church property was 
 nothing. The time since elapsed is little more than 
 that of one generation, say one and a half: the 
 number of people in the Roman States is but about 
 three millions, and their condition anything but 
 affluent. Yet what amount of property has the 
 
 * "Documents," vol. i., p. 377, , 
 
408 CHAPTER rv. 
 
 Church, by forcing consciences and practising npon 
 death-bedSj drawn, in those comparatively few years, 
 out of that small and poor population ? Not less 
 than thirty millions sterling ! 
 
 The exact amount is concealed, but sufficient data 
 exist to give this result.* The continuance of such 
 a process through a few generations would put an 
 end to private possessions, and make the Church not 
 only sovereign but sole heritor in her own States. 
 The Roman exiles from Umbria and the Marches, 
 in a formal meeting held at Florence in July, 1859, 
 composed of men of position and name, adopted a 
 Protest to the Cabinets of Europe against the 
 Government under which their country groans ; and, 
 among other heavy charges, they say : " It enlarged 
 the mortmain possessions, which threaten to absorb 
 the property of the citizens at no distant time." f 
 
 Here we shall insert the tale of 
 
 An agreeable Executorship. 
 
 We gave, in a former chapter, one story of a 
 Bonaccioli of Perrara, and here we give another. 
 
 * " The mortmain possessions [la possidenza delle mani morte) mnst 
 be held to exceed 47,000,000 scudi of rateable value, (valor caiastale^ 
 which is generally a fourth, and never more than a third, of the real." 
 Forty-seven millions of scndi, mnltiplied by three and a half, are eqaal 
 to thirty millions of pounds. — See "Documents," vol. i., p. 632. 
 
 + " Documents," vol. i., p. ilii. 
 
PAPAL GOVERNMENT IN ROME. 409 
 
 Professor Thomas Bonaccioli, on the death of his 
 insane brother, Francis, the advocate, expected to 
 succeed to his immense fortune of a million scudi, 
 which, in the popular notion of Italians, is much the 
 same as a million sterling with us : in actual value, 
 it is not more than, J220,000. But, to the horror 
 of the old man, a will was produced, dated June 12th, 
 1854, constituting the Archbishop of Ferrara sole 
 executor: but who was the favoured heir? The 
 Church? No. The poor? No. The Friars? The 
 Pope? The Propaganda? Nuns? Convents? or 
 Confraternities? Not any of these. The entire 
 fortune of Francis Bonaccioli was bequeathed to his 
 own soul : and to guard the interests of this legatee, 
 as has been said, the sole executor was the Arch- 
 bishop of Ferrara ! 
 
 Few men in the States of the Church durst enter 
 the lists against an Archbishop, or expose in Court 
 the arts that turn a death in a family into a robbery 
 as well as a bereavement. But Professor Bonaccioli 
 was old, the prize was immense, and his courage was 
 uncommon. Into Court he went, to contest the 
 will on five grounds : 1. The total incapacity of the 
 deceased to devise j 3. Undue influence; 3. Viola- 
 tion of the essential forms of a will, even to want 
 of legal execution; 4. Falsification; 5. Want of a 
 specific and tangible person or object, as legatee. 
 
 The proofs of fraud adduced were so over- 
 
410 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 whelming, that public opinion cried aloud; and even 
 the Court of the Rota Romana twice gave it in 
 favour of the plaintiff. It vcould have done so a third 
 time, but this vras prevented by changing the Judges. 
 
 It became known that the plaintiff had new and 
 crushing evidence to produce against the Archbishop; 
 and then the Government itself resolved to stop the 
 course of a man who, "with a courage not so 
 properly called rare, as positively unique, dared, in a 
 time when no one else would, to unmask before the 
 astonished world the infamous practices adopted in 
 the name of the Church; the atrocious persecutions, 
 the abuse of excommunication, the solemn perjuries, 
 the bribery of witnesses and penmen, and the falsifi- 
 cations in hundreds of documents." This had 
 already gone too far, and it must cease ; but atten- 
 tion was so thoroughly awake, that it could not be 
 terminated by violent means. Professor Bonaccioli 
 was, therefore, pressed to come to Rome, with 
 flattering promises that the Pope himself would 
 become arbitrator, and settle the matter by an 
 equitable compromise. He yielded; and received 
 the Pope's personal assurance that he would arrange 
 the matter, if it was left in his hands. The subject 
 committed his fortune to the honour of the Sovereign. 
 
 For seven months he was kept in Rome, while 
 " the first persons in the State " exhausted all their 
 efforts to cajole, menace, and deceive him. On pre- 
 
PAPAL GOVERNMENT IN HOME. 411 
 
 text of his holding some of the property, legal 
 proceedings were instituted against him. "A chain 
 of snares, a multitude of stratagems fit to turn the 
 head of any one," resulted in a Papal rescript, dated 
 September 4th, 1858, by which the Sovereign who 
 had made himself voluntary arbitrator between the 
 Archbishop and the lawful heir, awarded to the 
 latter a few thousand scudi, scarcely enough to 
 refund the expenses of his four years' litigation.* 
 
 The subject at once presented himself before the 
 Sovereign, delivered in his protest and appeal, and 
 received a promise of further compensation, after a 
 time. This promise was not kept ; and on June 3rd, 
 1859, the Professor once more presented his complaint. 
 
 A few days after, Ferrara was free. The new 
 Government appointed a Board for the administra- 
 tion of charities. The Bonaccioli estate was placed 
 in its hands : and it proved that the Archbishop had, 
 naturally enough, held himself to be "plenipoten- 
 tiary representative of the soul, and free disposer 
 of the estate, without being bound to account to any 
 one." To this Board the plaintiff in the long- 
 
 * Since the first edition appeared, an Italian Advocate, wlio had come 
 to Eugland, as counsel for a Roman nobleman, to watch a case of 
 Church V. Family in our Courts, and who is familiar mth the Bonaccioli 
 will case, has told me that the exact sum (not specified in the document) 
 awarded to the heir-at-law by the Pontifical arbitrator, was siity 
 tliousand, out of a million, scudi. 
 
412 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 pending suit applied; and it is from the legal 
 document, the " bill " put in by his counsel that 
 this narrative is taken. Let us hope that, ere now, 
 the property has returned to honest hands.* 
 
 One of the great arguments for the support of the 
 temporal power of the Pope is, that he may preserve 
 his independence. In what did this consist during 
 the ten years of restoration? These volumes run 
 over with proof that, from the day the Austrians 
 entered his territory until the day they left, he had 
 no subjects, if that word means persons whose obedi- 
 ence a Prince commands, either from loyalty or fear. 
 The people were entirely under the power of foreign 
 authorities, their native Government having scarcely 
 any office but that of collector of taxes, imprisoner, 
 and executioner. 
 
 In the volumes before us, the index of documents 
 showing the subjection of the Pontifical Government 
 to the Austrians, takes up four very large pages, and 
 the contents are exceedingly curious, demonstrating 
 an abdication of the chief functions of government in 
 favour of a foreign power. For instance, a single 
 troop of Pontifical soldiers having been placed in 
 Forli, without express sanction from the Austrians, 
 the General Nobili severely reproves Monsignor 
 Bedinij whose patience hardly bears it ; and he re- 
 
 * "Documents," vol. i., p. 488. 
 
PAPAL GOVERNMENT IN ROME. 413 
 
 pliesj that probably the Minister of "War (Antonelli) 
 will be surprised, as it was done in simple fulfilment 
 of his orders ; at the same time he shows his servility 
 by thanking the General for the courtesy of his note. 
 Cardinal Antonelli replies to Bedinij that " the facts 
 represented to him are much to be lamented ; " and 
 feels keenly how far all this discredits the Pope's 
 authority, and gives advantage to his enemies. But, 
 he says, " in the present circumstances, there is no 
 other means of carrying on affairs ; for although the 
 Sovereign is in the country, the military force is ^^ 
 foreign one:" and therefore he can only instruct 
 Bedini "to do everything in concert with the 
 Austrian military authorities ; " which means, that he 
 do nothing without their leave.* 
 
 It soon proved that the Austrian Generals were 
 not content with the substance of power, but assumed 
 what was more grating to their ecclesiastical coad- 
 jutors, its forms and titles. " General Gortzkowski," 
 writes the unhappy Bedini, "beside his title of 
 Commandant, assumes that of Civil and Military 
 Governor. I thought the time had come to omit 
 this in official correspondence, and therefore for 
 some weeks have not used it. But very soon Count 
 Nobili reclaimed, and laid orders upon me to repair 
 this irregularity."t 
 
 An officer in the Pontifical army is imprisoned by 
 
 » " Documents," Tol. i., p. Ixiii. + Ibid., vol. i., p. 272. 
 
414 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 the AustrianSj and after some time set at liberty ; and. 
 here are the documents in ■which his superiors write 
 to one another, to ask what could be the cause of his 
 arrest ; it being evident that the " civil and military 
 Governors" had not thought it worth while to give 
 them any information on the subject. The Bishop 
 of Cesena, having had his house broken into and 
 robbed, applies to the Austrians for a guard, but is 
 summarily told that he can have none. In the city 
 of Forli, a military courier was robbed ; the Austrians 
 at once laid upon the town a mulct of 3,000 crowns, 
 and the Pontifical Government stands by. 
 
 The Austrians even went so far as to find fault with 
 the Council of Censure itself; which it would seem 
 objected to the interference ; for General Gravert 
 replies to the Legate, that his right to demand from 
 the Council of Censure a report as to any journals 
 distributed in the Legations, rests upon the instruc- 
 tions of the 26th of May, 1849. We shall now give 
 the exact words of a Pontifical Legate. The Austrian 
 authority "avails itself of its attribute of civil 
 government to commit acts which are in direct con- 
 tradiction to the Pontifical authority, and which 
 bring shame and humiliation upon it." 
 
 On their side, an Austrian says, " In my position 
 of civil and military Governor, I cannot forego any 
 arrangement which I consider necessary as a measure 
 of police, in spite of the prohibition of the Minister 
 
PAPAL GOVERNMENT IN EOME. 415 
 
 at Rome, to whom I am not responsible." * This 
 referred to a point upon which the Pontifical autho- 
 rities were very tender, as directly affecting the ob- 
 servances of the Church. They had ordered that the 
 theatre of Bologna, as all in the Pontifical States, 
 should be closed during Lent; but the General 
 wanted his soldiers to be amused, and flies in the 
 face not only of the Legate himself," but of the 
 Government of Rome. 
 
 Again we have these words : — " Your most 
 reverend Excellency will not fail to see in the 
 action of the imperial and royal Commander a 
 decided arrogation of political power : now it is no 
 longer a request, but a decree, and a decree that 
 becomes so much more hurtful to the representatives 
 of the Pontifical authority, as it discredits us in the 
 eyes of the people." All that poor Antonelli can 
 reply to these complaints is, that he "reserves to 
 himself the right to look into the matters." Finally, 
 upon a simple rumour that the National Guard still 
 exists in the city of Cesena, the Austrians quarter a 
 division of soldiers upon the town, and force it to 
 support them by payment of money, and arrest the 
 Governor.* 
 
 These facts are but samples of multitudes which 
 teem all through these volumes, showing that every 
 vestige of independence had been given up, and that 
 
 * " Docaments," vol. i., p. 476. + " Ibtd., p. 257. 
 
416 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 nothing remained but the Pontifical arms displayed 
 over public offices, the right of levying taxes, and 
 administering the penal law. 
 
 But it might be supposed, that at least 
 full independence in spiritual matters was obtained 
 at the great price of this humiliation in 
 temporal ones. Even that, however, was not 
 the case. When the Legate, wearied to death 
 with the outcries of the people, complained to the 
 Austrians, that the farmers, not being allowed to 
 keep arms, were continually subject to pillage and 
 ruin, the reply of the General was characteristic : — 
 "The most eminent Cardinal of Imola wishes to 
 attribute the robberies to the most salutary measure 
 of general disarming ; but does not reflect on the 
 very grave responsibility that weighs on his Clergy 
 for the neglect of moral and religious education, in a 
 generation that contains so many germs of corrup- 
 tion and of crime.^' This coarse rebuke was dated 
 the 14th of August, 1849 j and only three years 
 before, as the General must have known very well, 
 the most eminent Cardinal of Imola was not the 
 dignitary he thus scolded, but no other person than 
 Pio Nono himself, who had long been in charge of 
 that diocese, and upon whom, if on any one, must 
 rest the blame of having brought up the people in the 
 state of corruption of which the General complains.* 
 
 * "Documents," vol. i., p. bcixi. 
 
PAPAL GOVERNMENT IN ROME. 417 
 
 But not only were tlie high clerical powers 
 exposed to these rebuffs ; they were obliged to sell 
 for bayonets many of their most cherished spiritual 
 rights. The immunity of the Priests from civil and 
 mihtary Courts is one of the first of all the privi- 
 leges of Rome held with mortal tenacity. This was 
 surrendered ; and Hugo Bassi, a liberal Priest, was 
 shot by the Austrians immediately upon his arrest. 
 When the Archbishop of Bologna was about to issue 
 his Pastoral, — as Archbishops are fond of doing, — the 
 Austrian General declared that no Prelates could 
 print holy counsels. Pastorals, or anything else, 
 without the placet of their Imperial protectors. 
 And then, what we should have thought utterly 
 unendurable by Roman Ecclesiastics, it is decreed 
 that no religious procession shall be allowed, until 
 authority has first been obtained from the Austrian 
 police. Any one who refers to vol. i., p. 780, will 
 find these incredible facts confirmed. 
 
 It is not to be supposed that in this state of 
 things the dignitaries of the Church were content 
 and patient. They reclaim with bitterness against 
 what they call "the more than despotic" inter- 
 ference of the Austrians ; but it is to be said, with 
 sorrow for human natm'c, that aU their indignation 
 is against acts impairing their own dignity and 
 authority. No sign of protests, as to the barbarities 
 inflicted upon their people; on the contrary, what- 
 
 E E 
 
418 CHAPTER ST, 
 
 ever is to be done in the -way of torture or judicial 
 murder, they seem always too ready to be servants and 
 helpers. In fact, it is the Austrians who, in not a 
 few cases, interfere to rnoderate the rigour of the 
 Priests. The case of the wife of Garibaldi, already 
 given, is one in point. The Governor of S. Arcangelo 
 had arrested a certain Francis Venturi, and endea- 
 voured to prove him guilty, and handed him over to 
 the Austrian Court Martial j but "this imperial 
 and royal Government, civil and military, orders 
 that he shall be set at liberty instantly." In the 
 town of Jesi, the people wished to celebrate a solemn 
 mass for the souls of those who had fallen fighting 
 for their country at Vicenza. The Papal Govern- 
 ment took this as a crime against the State. Many 
 •were punished with the "cudgel," not a few wi^-h 
 fines. Among the rest, three were prosecuted who 
 had not even been in the town on that day. The 
 Austrian Commandant wrote a letter rebuking the 
 Government, and ordered that the fines collected 
 should be restored.* 
 
 General Marziani found in the fort of Urbino 
 some prisoners, who were reported as under the 
 jurisdiction of the civil and military Govern- 
 ment, while the fact was that they had been 
 committed for ofiences long past. " He refused to 
 prosecute them; and he adds, that "persons 
 
 ' * "Documents," vol. ii., pp. CIO, 01] . 
 
PAPAL GOVERNMENT IN ROME. 419 
 
 arrested for precautiou, ouglit not to be kept in 
 prison for ever." 
 
 There was a certain Louis Gardellaj regarding 
 whom one of these documents says, very coolly, that 
 the Austrians, by violence, and by threatening him 
 with death, had wrung from him a promise to inform, 
 within a month, against his brothers-in-law, where 
 they were and what they were doing ; that he had 
 applied to them (the Papal Delegate) to be released 
 from this " cruel engagement," on the 3rd of 
 August, 1850; but as they had taken the necessary 
 measures with the Austrian Commandant, they had 
 immediately proceeded to arrest him.* 
 
 So far did it go that the Papal Government could 
 not deliver passports to its own subjects, — a favour 
 by the way it was very slow to accord, — without 
 having them signed by the Austrian police, and 
 without the applicant being obliged to present him- 
 ' self personally at their ofiBce for that purpose. 
 
 "V^Tiat was perhaps the worst of all was, that when 
 the Legate issued his proclamation regulating the 
 diversions of the Carnival, he had a sharp letter 
 from the Austrian General, telling him that though 
 nothing particular in this document could be objected 
 to, he ought not to have issued any such thing with- 
 out consulting him. Smarting under this, he is 
 reduced to complain that the theatre is kept open 
 
 * "Documents," toI. ii., p. 690. 
 
 2 B 2 
 
430 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 even in Holy Week, without as much as asking his 
 leave, although he had formally commanded that it 
 should be closed all through Lent. 
 
 At present his Holiness is making efforts to pro- 
 cure soldiers from different parts of the world. The 
 editor's index of the complaints in these books by 
 different Legates, Delegates, Governors, and so on, 
 of the animosity of the people to the Government, 
 and the impossibility of getting them to serve it in 
 any capacity, occupies about three pages. One high 
 ofiicial even declares, that not from love of the 
 Austrians, but simply from hatred of the Papal 
 power, the people would sooner choose to be under 
 Austria itself than under the rule of the Priests. 
 Another says, that the soldiers are not to be trusted. 
 Another goes so far as to say, that the whole of the 
 present generation is hopelessly lost; and yet ano- 
 ther does not hesitate to declare that even of the 
 Governors themselves he has anything but a good 
 opinion. And most sorrowful of all. Colonel Freddi 
 begins at last to have doubts of the Austrians; 
 for in the public-houses of Ancona they may be 
 heard singing liberal songs. Under these circum- 
 stances, the most reverend Minister of War has very 
 great difficulty in getting soldiers ; in fact, he is told 
 plainly, that there is no such thing as any Papal force 
 to be depended upon. Although in Forli a depot 
 of enlistment is opened, with high inducements 
 
PAPAL GOVERNMENT IN KOME. 421 
 
 of pay, diet, and bounty, only two enrol 
 tliemselves. Antonelli is willing to have soldiers 
 even as old as thirty-six years of age. He 
 makes several provisions for rendering enlistment 
 easier, and concludes thus: — "Finally, as to moral 
 character, I need not add that iu no case can a cer- 
 tificate of unexceptionable political conduct be dis- 
 pensed with ; but as to criminal conduct, it will be 
 enough if he has not been a galley slave, or under- 
 gone similar disgraceful sentences." 
 
 This being the state of the soldier market among 
 the Pope's own subjects, it is not to be wondered at 
 that he should look for them elsewhere, knowing 
 that far away " Catholic " affection is considerably 
 warmer than nearer home ; for while in Cesena the 
 Corporation refuse to celebrate the anniversary of 
 his coronation, in Ireland his health is sometimes 
 drunk before that of the Queen. 
 
 The sort of reasoning with which the Jesuits sa- 
 tisfy their tender consciences, that it is lawful for the 
 " Chief Shepherd " to bring armed bands from any 
 remote country whence he can allure them, to plunge 
 bayonets or shoot bullets into his near neighbours, 
 may be judged by the opening of an article in a late 
 number of the " Civilta Cattolica : " — 
 
 " If then," says the reverend writer, " the Pontiff 
 may not defend his temporal power with spiritual arms, 
 as those worthies would have it, to whom we replied 
 
422 CHAPTEE IV. 
 
 in the first article of our last numberj can he at least 
 defend it with temporal arms? In this case the 
 means will be harmoniouSj and would resemble that 
 which is done by all the powers in the world, and, 
 indeed, by all living creatures, which, when assailed, 
 defend themselves as they are able, by the imperious 
 instinct of self-preservation. But, ' No,' reply those 
 wiseacres. ' What do you think, does it not ill be- 
 come the Vicar of the God of love to use earthly 
 arms ? For him to lift up the hand ought to be for the 
 single purpose of blessing and of pardoning; and 
 then if the civil sovereignty of the Pope is appointed 
 for a spiritual end, as its defenders say, what incon- 
 sistency can be greater than this, to use material 
 arms for an end which transcends aU the limits and 
 all the conditions of matter ? ' And thus we tumble 
 headlong into that sophism, which would be so con- 
 venient for the invaders and usurpers of part of the 
 States of the Church, which part they would hope is 
 an earnest of the rest. The sophism is this, — that the 
 Pontiff cannot use either spiritual arras or temporal 
 ones, to preserve for the Church its patrimony. 
 Neither canon law nor cannon shot [ne canoni ne 
 cannoni). It therefore must be resigned without 
 the shadow of an obstacle to the first Count Camillo 
 (Cavour) who, by dint of foxy cunning and shameless 
 effrontery, supported by despotic foreign abettors, 
 will take in hand to grasp it. But they count with- 
 
PAPAL GOVERNMENT IN ROME. 433 
 
 out their host. The Catholic world was never less 
 disposed than at this moment to be caught by such 
 fibs. So far from it being the case^ that neither 
 spiritual nor temporal arms can be used for defend- 
 ing the patrimony of the Churchy it is precisely 
 the reverse ; for both one and the other very 
 well can, and in certain circumstances ought to, be 
 employed." 
 
 This amiable article is entitled " Temporal 
 Arms for the Defence of the Spiritual Power ; " 
 and was published on the ]9th of May, in this 
 present year, in the Pontifical city. 
 
 As a final proof of the level to which the Pope 
 stooped, he had no power to refuse, when it was 
 demanded for his beloved Austrians, an indulgence 
 against which the Government whereof he claims to 
 be the alter Ego, has inscribed in the great book of 
 its working laws a dolorous penalty, too well known 
 in the hospitals of Europe. The Pope, with paternal 
 care, undertakes to aid the Austrians in evading that 
 penalty; and the Corporation of Bologna was 
 ordered to defray the expense of securing medical 
 skill for that end. They refused to do so. The 
 Government insisted : the Corporation was sturdy ; 
 and a long correspondence was closed by the follow- 
 ing document, which we shall give with all its 
 marks, from page 487 of the first volume : — 
 
424 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 "3.788. N. 49.564. 
 
 "Most illustrious and most reverend Sir, 
 
 "The Holiness of our Lord has graciously 
 deigned, in the audience of this morning, to appoint 
 Doctor Peter Zuola as first fiscal Surgeon of 
 Bologna, with a monthly pay of fifteen crowns; 
 and, as his substitute, Doctor Julius Borzaghi, 
 vfiih the pay of twelve crowns, on condition that 
 both one and the other shall gratuitously attend to the 
 cure of women of bad life ; the extra allowance which 
 they have hitherto had for that purpose ceasing. 
 
 " I communicate to you, most illustrious Sir, this 
 gracious act of the sovereign will, for your guidance ; 
 and send you the official note of nomination, that 
 you may promptly have it delivered. 
 
 " And I beg to subscribe myself, with sincere 
 esteem of your most illustrious and most reverend 
 Lordship, the devoted servant, 
 
 " Martel, 
 " Minister of the Interior. 
 " Rome, April 22nd, 1857." 
 
 Directed to " Monsignor the Apostolic Commis- 
 sioner of Bologna." 
 
 The words " holy," " sacred," and " holiness," are 
 sadly dragged through the mire at Rome ; and who 
 will fail to reflect on the easy and unembarrassed 
 manner in which " the Holiness of our Lord " is 
 
PAPAL GOVERNMENT IN ROME. 425 
 
 coupled with an effort to enable sinners to sin on 
 with impunity ? 
 
 We have given enough under this head to show 
 that, whatever advantages the Pope may have derived 
 from his kingly position during the last ten 
 yearsj independence in temporal, spiritual, or moral 
 questions was not one of them. 
 
 In the second volume are the following lists : — 
 Those condemned to death and the galleys, 23 
 pages. 
 
 Political exiles, emigrants, and recusants, 12 
 pages. 
 
 Persons shot in the city of Bologna, 6 pages, 186 
 names. 
 
 Persons sentenced in Bologna to be shot, but 
 executed elsewhere, 3 pages, 90 names. 
 
 Police notes on persons suspected and politically 
 compromised in Ferrara, 30 pages, 534 names. 
 
 Persons condemned to death and the galleys, as 
 recorded by political prisoners from memory, in the 
 fortress of Paliono, for Caesar Mazzoni, written by 
 him on fragments of paper in microscopic characters, 
 40 pages, nearly 3000 names. 
 
 Members of the Constituent Assembly exiled, 3 
 pages. 
 
 Persons sent out of the State, and not permitted 
 to return without previous leave of the police, 5 
 pages. 
 
426 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 The effect of this system of government upon the 
 minds of the people, is stated in addresses which 
 ■were presented to the Pope himself, when, in the 
 year 1857, he made the celebrated "progress" 
 through his States ; which, at the time, the " Journal 
 of Kome" paraded before the world as one con- 
 tinual ovation, proving the love and honour with 
 which the Pontiff was regarded by his subjects. In 
 July of that year, the Corporation of Ravenna repre- 
 sented matters as follows : — 
 
 "Most blessed Father, 
 
 "Your august presence in any province of the 
 State must raise in the soul of your subjects the 
 most flattering hopes. If they had easy access 
 to your august presence, or if, at least, they were cer- 
 tain that their petitions would not be concealed by 
 those who surround you, you would be made clearly 
 to see the grave wants that press upon them, and the 
 radical improvements which they permit themselves 
 to anticipate from the justice of the Prince, and the 
 charity of the High Priest. Laws, finances, taxes, 
 municipal affairs, public institutions, — all, all, 
 demand enfranchisement, regulation, reform. O ! 
 do not be deluded by ephemeral pomps, — artificial 
 flatteries, — forced, or rather extorted, by the blood 
 of the poor, and always connected with self-interested 
 designs of the dishonest, and the adulation of cour- 
 
PAPAL GOVERNMENT IN ROME. 427 
 
 tiers ! Those are not your people, — who are 
 anxious to twine for you a crown worthy of the first 
 days of your Pontificate. Wearing it, you will 
 return to Rome with the pride and glory of having 
 restored to the Papacy a degree of power and vene- 
 ration which is the wish of your admirers, and also 
 that of universal Christendom ; and without it, what 
 will become of your people, and what will become of 
 you in the face of the human race, and of history ? " 
 
 It is seldom a Prince hears such language from a 
 Corporation j but what can we say of the following ? 
 
 "Address from the People of the Romagna, 
 
 DELIVERED TO THE PoPE, ON THE 2nd OP 
 
 June, 1857. 
 
 " Your journey in the midst of your people ought 
 to procure you that felicity which a good father feels 
 when entertained by his own children. Around you 
 all is festive, all is joy. But if the Corporations did 
 not cover our wounds, our miseries, under draperies 
 and gold ; if with the sound of the church-bells and the 
 roar of cannon they did not prevent you from hear- 
 ing our lamentations ; if they had enough civil 
 courage to tell you our necessities, our misfortunes, 
 and to let you know what havoc of the persons and 
 property of your subjects is committed in the pro- 
 vinces, the tears which you now shed from joy would 
 
428 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 change into a gush of sorrow and compassion. The 
 first days of your Pontificate opened every generous 
 heart to hope. All Europe applauded your first acts. 
 The world itself admired you. It seemed^ for a 
 momentj that the Cross of the old Pontifi"s was lifted 
 up by you once more, to defend the people against 
 the abuses and tyranny of secular Princes. In that 
 juncture you were sublime. But it was a short in- 
 stant J and from the height in which genius soars 
 you soon descended to the level of mediocrity. 
 Alarmed by the prospect of too grand a future, after 
 having initiated your people in a better way, you 
 have endeavoured to lead them back to the old usages, 
 and to re-establish a state of oppression, called, in 
 the vocabulary of the Government, ' order.' Whether 
 your conduct can be justified by too rapid a move- 
 ment of the people to realize certain ideas, future 
 history will decide. For us, it is enough to note the 
 fact, that ' order ' was restored. The state of things 
 that has followed it, is certainly unknown to you ; 
 and we wish to place it under your eyes, and that 
 only to make you understand that you deceive your- 
 self in imagining your people to be happy with the 
 present political and financial administration. 
 
 " Holy Father, in the year 1850, after some months 
 — for you of trial — you accomplished your return to 
 Rome, and re-established your Government, with aU 
 its forms, because you had been preceded by the 
 
PAPAL GOVEKNMENT IN ROME. 429 
 
 French, Austrian, and Spanish armies, -which had 
 been obliged to give proof of their prowess. Your 
 desire, your pride, was gratified; but how many mis- 
 fortunes rained down upon your people on the ar- 
 rival of these foreign forces ! How many horrors ! 
 Perhaps all were committed without your knowledge ; 
 but all in your name, holy Father ! 
 
 " ^lartial law was declared in all our cities, and 
 shooting, and beating with the stick, without dis- 
 tinction of age, became the order of the day. 
 Informers for gain, and informers from party spirit, 
 rose up everywhere, — and everywhere victims fell. 
 The ' cudgel ' became a remedy for all evils. Con- 
 fessions were wrung, by dint of blows, equally from 
 the alleged political offender, the assassin, and the 
 thief; and the innocent were sometimes obliged to 
 bear the penalty of the guilty, when they had 
 escaped by flight. Commissions, formed of men not 
 the most respectable in society, filled the prisons 
 with youth ; and using the vilest means, they sought 
 tn the proceedings not truth, but, by the most 
 refined persecutions, to give formal proof of their 
 attachment to the Government, whence they might 
 derive a title to lucrative promotion. Anonymous 
 information against a simple citizen was sufficient to 
 throw him into the depths of a prison. The witnesses, 
 always threatened with the galleys, and with the 
 beastly cudgel, most frequently deposed to things 
 
430 CHAPTEK XV. 
 
 that in their consciences they regarded as calumnies, 
 and for which they wept in secret. It appeared that 
 the object was not to discover criminals^ but rather 
 to satiate the thirst of a party for blood. All this 
 in your name^ holy Father I ' 
 
 "Then came the sentences of the (High Court of) 
 Consulta, dictated so much by caprice, that it would 
 be difficult to say which was most evident, — 
 ignorance of facts, or cruelty. And it is a grievous 
 thing to hear that a body of Judges, a moral corps, 
 the motto of which ought to be ' impartiality,' con- 
 demns to the galleys and to death, with a levity that 
 appals ; for, generally speaking, no proof of guilt is 
 manifest in their sentences, by which there is not a 
 city that has not had torn from it some precious 
 citizen ; and, not to speak of all, Senegaglia, your own 
 dear native town, still shudders when she calls to 
 mind the guilty shooting of her most innocent and 
 most virtuous Jerome Simonelli: — and all this in 
 your name, holy Father ! 
 
 "Further, the disarming of all the citizens, even 
 in the rural districts, was the natural consequence 
 of martial law, through which every one has- 
 tened to surrender his defensive arms, at the dif- 
 ferent offices of Police, to avoid being sent to the 
 galleys, or being shot, as happened to those unhappy 
 persons who showed reluctance to obey the supreme 
 command. All, both in town and country, being 
 
PAPAL GOVEKNMENT IN KOME. 431 
 
 disarmed, the field was clear for robbers and 
 assassins to haunt the highways with impunity, and 
 without the least risk of being disturbed. This part 
 of Italy, to the astonishment of the world, afibrds 
 the miserable sight of organized bands of brigands, 
 who took possession of cities and villages, and who 
 insulted in every way the citizens, and even laid 
 enormous contributions upon conquered towns. The 
 striking point is, that all this took place in a State 
 of only three millions of people, where the armies 
 of the two most formidable nations in the world 
 were quartered, for the establishment of order and 
 general tranquillity. But, probably, you were told 
 that aU these crimes were nothing more than a little 
 j)Ocket-picking. What further shall we say of the 
 ordinary civil and military Courts, grown more im- 
 moral than usual through the misery of the times ? 
 In these the poor, without patronage, always fall by 
 the force of gold, if opposed by the rich. In these 
 the barbarous inquisitorial proceedings, often united 
 to ignorance, and sometimes to corruption of the 
 functionaries, leave miserable creatures to waste for 
 an indefinite time in unhealthy prisons, before they 
 can see their lot decided. For the sake of brevity 
 we shall not enumerate all the abuses, all the 
 wrongs, to which are abandoned the people of the 
 little villages left at the discretion of some incapable 
 Governor, or of an officer of police, who bears him- 
 
432 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 self as a General : — and all these abominations you 
 are ignorant of ! 
 
 "But do not imagine, holy Father, that the 
 series of miseries which afflicts your subjects end 
 here. Add to all that has been said, as its conclu- 
 sion, the immense financial deficit, the exorbitant 
 taxes of every kind that are paid for the support 
 of foreign troops, and for the boundless luxury 
 of the Court of Rome and her treasury. This ill- 
 regulated outlay has so wasted the small means 
 of the greater number of the citizens, that nothing 
 remains to them but a future of distressing poverty. 
 The revenues raised are certainly not according to 
 the wants of the State, but according to the extrava- 
 gance of a very bad Administration. 
 
 "And it is truly extravagance to maintain, in a State 
 of three millions, French, Austrian, Spanish, and 
 Papal armies ; nor can it be believed that the pre- 
 servation of order in so small a State should require 
 such an array of force ; for then it would be confessed 
 that the Government had so fallen into contempt by 
 its continual despotism, that it could not possibly 
 exist without a pedestal of bayonets. Woe to that 
 Government which does not maintain itself by influ- 
 ence and persuasion, but rests only upon force, in 
 days when civilization has decreed that at any cost 
 the right of the strong shall no longer prevail 
 against reason ! After all that has been laid before 
 
PAPAL GOVERNMENT IN ROME. 433 
 
 you, ttink within yourself, holy Father^ if a 
 Sovereign, passing through his States where so many 
 wrongs take place, where thousands and thousands 
 of mothers are weeping for their sons in exile, in 
 dungeons, or dead by the hands of the executioner, 
 — think within yourself, if he can be well received, 
 and if the demonstrations which have the appearance 
 of festivity are not rather the effect of fear. Do not 
 delude yourself, O holy Father; and reflect that 
 if it HI becomes a secular Prince to have a realm in 
 which the subjects are governed like beasts of bur- 
 den, in which the caprice and will of man are always 
 substituted for law and reason ; much worse is it 
 if this Prince is the successor of Peter, the head 
 of that religion which has for motto, 'Equality, 
 love, and pardon.' Reflect, and set matters right." 
 
 After the general corruption of Christianity East 
 and West, by the adoption of heathen or semi- 
 heathen practices, from the imperfectly Christianized 
 multitudes who had flocked into the ranks of the 
 Church, subsequent to her public triumph in the Em- 
 pire, two powers arose to dominate over the enfeebled 
 Christians. The one retained the Christian doc- 
 trines, adhered to the corrupt practices, claimed 
 chiefly spiritual domination, and, placing the 
 Scriptures under the shade of tradition, adopted a 
 system of impressing the senses, holding the con- 
 F p 
 
434 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 science by priestly power, and gradually supplanting 
 and overlaying the old truths by adding new 
 dogmas. The other restored, as against both 
 Pagan and Christian idolatry, many of the primitive 
 forms of Christianity ; rejected its cardinal doctrines ; 
 without disowning, supplanted its Scriptures ; based 
 its religious hold on a Book and on the intellect, 
 aided by passion ; and aimed at temporal dominion. 
 Both used the sword ; but only one the Inquisition ; 
 they flourished around the Mediterranean, dividing 
 its shores between them, and thence extending the 
 one North and West, the other South and East. 
 Each took, as its chief seat, one of the capitals of the 
 Roman Empire. Both prepared the way for their 
 social ruin by undermining the Christian family 
 institute, the one adopting the Pagan system of 
 Celibacy, the other that of Polygamy. By the 
 former, Rome has filled Italy in Christian times 
 with the unnatural vice of Heathen countries; by 
 the latter, Islam has wasted its settled nations. 
 "Turkey is perishing for want of Turks," Rome 
 for want of Romans : and all Romish nations that 
 would preserve their strength have been obliged so 
 far to learn from Reformed Christianity as to 
 restrain conventual abuses. 
 
 The decay of these systems has been by opposite 
 causes, as their developement was by opposite 
 tendencies. Islam has lost territory, but held fast 
 
PAPAL GOVERNMENT IN ROME. 435 
 
 the opinion of its own people : a strong proof that 
 even among Southern and Oriental races a spiritual 
 worship has deeper hold than a sensuous one ; that, 
 after all, reason, not imagination, is the imperial 
 faculty in man. Rome lost its strongest races 
 by the revolt of opinion. Both have now long 
 been dependent on foreign support; but, in the 
 case of the Sultan, it is to protect him from the 
 aggression of neighbouring States, or the uprising of 
 conquered races ; with the Pope, it is to sustain him 
 against his own. The former holds his capital, 
 and governs withia his realm ; the latter exists 
 only by force of alien armies bearing down his own 
 people. In Islam the Porte has gone much in 
 advance of the people, in moderating the intolerance 
 of the system, and adopting from Christian nations 
 milder principles and methods, thereby risking its 
 influence and even its existence : in Romanism the 
 people have gone much in advance of the Papacy, in 
 adopting from Reformed Christians ideas of civil and 
 rehgious polity, which have been resisted in theory 
 and practice by Rome till it is imperilled by the 
 conflict. Islam has receded before every form of 
 Christianity; on the North it has lost several 
 provinces to the followers of the Greek Church, on 
 the West Algeria to the quasi Romish French, and 
 on the East the grand Mogul Empire to a Pro- 
 testant power. Never confronted, until lately, with 
 2 F 3 
 
436 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 a non-idolatrous ritual, all its losses Lave been by 
 arms, its people cherishing a proud persuasion of 
 their superior purity of worship. Rome, on the 
 other hand, has had her frontier nations raised, 
 enlightened, and led forward by the influence of 
 Eeformed Christianity correcting and stimulating 
 them ; while her central populations, shut in from 
 this influence by Alps and Pyrenees, have steadily 
 gone downwards, till those she directly rules can no 
 longer beai their miseries, and those who would 
 uphold her are decrepit and powerless. 
 
 A doom overhangs them both. Islam sees all her 
 frontiers falling in, Eome her centre heaving 
 beneath her: humanity, sighing under the feet of 
 both, does not ask, " Will they fall ? " but, " When ? " 
 Freedom, Education, Virtue, Domestic Comfort, 
 Commerce, Science, and Patriotism, all the forms 
 owned by the common consent of mankind as the 
 good angels, attendants of true Religion, cry aloud 
 for their downfall ; and only three forms shriak at 
 the prospect, — Tyranny, Ignorance, and Super- 
 stition. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 Appendix A, page 103.— 2%e Wife of Garibaldi. 
 (See "Documents," vol. ii., pp. 608-610.) 
 
 N. 3454 P. E. 
 
 PONTiriOAl GOTEENMENT PBOTTfTCIAI/ PoMCE OrriCB, 
 
 Eatenna. 
 Most EETEEEin> Excelienoy, 
 
 In my humble comnaunication of the 12th instant, 
 bearing the same number, I submitted to your Excellency, 
 that by means of the inquiries made by the Police and by 
 confidential persons secretly posted about, I have arrived- 
 at a clear knowledge of the facts respecting the unknown 
 body of a woman. There is no longer any doubt 
 that the body is that of the woman who followed 
 G-aribaldi. She was brought dying, on a phaeton, by 
 Gai-ibaldi himself, to the farm-house of the brothers 
 Eavaglia, bailiffs of the Marquis Guiccioli on one of his 
 estates at Mandriole. The woman was suffering from 
 pernicious fever, as it was expres.sed by Doctor Nannini 
 of S. Alberto, who was casually present when they 
 arrived, and felt her pulse. Carried into a chamber, and 
 laid on a bed, the assistance of a glass of water was 
 brought to her ; but she had scarcely imbibed a few drops 
 when she ceased to live. Garibaldi was present, and 
 broke out into bursts of inconsolable grief for such a 
 misfortune, and shortly after took to flight ; charging the 
 
438 APPENDIX. 
 
 family to give the body honourable burial. These facts 
 occurred on the 4th instant, towards evening, in the 
 presence of more than twenty persons, the labourers 
 being assembled to receive their week's wages. 
 
 I, at once, sent poUce to arrest the brothers Eavagha, 
 which has been accomplished ; and the Court is preparing 
 the indictment. It is already ascertained that the above- 
 named farmers, seized with fear of the grave responsibility 
 to which they were exposed, for the momentary shelter 
 given to Graribaldi, and for the death of his wife occurring 
 in their house, adopted the plan of hiding it, and hence 
 buried the body in the fields. 
 
 It win be my duty to inform you of the result of the 
 trial, and in the mean time, with perfect esteem and 
 profound respect, I remain, 
 
 Your most reverend Excellency's 
 
 Most devoted and obhged servant, 
 
 A. LoTATEiiLi, Delegate. 
 
 Ravenna, August 15th, 1849. 
 To S. E. B. Mons. Comm. jExtraordinwry, Bologna. 
 
 N. 1076—576. 
 
 I'rom tTie Imperial and Soyal Civil and Militarg 
 Government. 
 
 DiSCHAEGB 01' THE BeOTHEES EaTAGIiIA TEOM VSD'EB, 
 
 Aebest. 
 
 Feom the judicial proceedings recorded by the Civil 
 and Criminal Court of Ravenna against the brothers 
 Stephen and Joseph Eavaglia of Mandriole, accused of 
 killing the wife of G-aribaldi, we gather that the suit is 
 justly suspended as to this charge ; and considering that 
 the momentary reception accorded to the fugitive husband 
 and wife Garibaldi, in the house of the Eavaglias, from a 
 
APPENDIX. 439 
 
 sense of humanity, took place before the publication of 
 the Notice of August 5th, this cannot be regarded as at 
 all affecting the act in question. 
 
 Therefore better to respond to your valued communica- 
 tion of the 3rd, M. A. N. 560, in which you request 
 me to expedite this affair, I directly order the Signor 
 Delegate of Eavenna instantly to discharge the brothers 
 Eavaglia from prison. 
 
 I return the above-named judicial proceedings, and beg 
 to assure you of my esteem and consideration. 
 
 In the name of the Governor, 
 
 MAEZIAifl. 
 
 Bologna, September 5th, 1849. 
 To S. E. S. Mans. G. Beiini, Commissioner 
 Extraordinary, Bologna. 
 
 Appendix B, page 130. — The Confm-teria of the Ferrara 
 
 Case. 
 
 (See "Documents," vol. ii., pp. 539-545.) 
 
 Conforteria di Luigi Parmeggiani in Cittadella, la nottes 
 
 delli 15 alii 16 Jilarzo 1853. 
 
 Il dopo desinare del giorno 15 Marzo 1853 U tre con- 
 
 fortatori destinati da S. E. il sig. Governatore si portarono 
 
 alia casa del Rev. Sig. Arciprete Presideute alle ore 4 e 
 
 mezza pomeridiane. Mezz' ora dopo entrarono in carrozza 
 
 e furouo condotti in Fortezza. Smontarono sotto U log- 
 
 giato di guardia e si misero a sedere su delle panche e 
 
 vi passarono uu' ora. Venne un Capitano che parlava 
 
 egregiamente 1' itaHano, Ii condusse in ima camera di rice- 
 
 vimento, Ii servi di Caffe, e U pregb di aspettare TUditore 
 
 che pranzava aU' Europa. Dopo 1' ave Maria furono ri- 
 
 condotti nel loggiato come sopra, ed aspettarono ancora 
 
 on' ora, perche la moglie del Sueci iirlava disperatamente^ 
 
440 APPENDIX. 
 
 ne voleya partirsi dalla camera del marito, e quella del 
 Parmeggiani presa da convulsioni impizzi, bestemmiando 
 orribilmente. Queste infelici seppero la fatale destiiiazione 
 del loro consorti dalle loro bocche. 
 
 II Rev. Presidente Guitti, e li tre confortatori entrar 
 rono nella camera del Suoci: stava in piedi a testa sco- 
 perta, guardato a vista da cinque soldati, armati di fucile. 
 II paziente non era legato, ma tutto sciolto. Gli dissero 
 come uno di loro era venuto a tenergli compagnia, a pian- 
 gere con lui, a riconciliarlo con Dio : scegliesse. Succi 
 disse in tuono alto, " lo accetto tutti ; ma poicbe io sono il 
 piu. vecchio dei tre disgraziati, soegliero il confessore piii 
 vecchio." Allora il M. Arciprete, gettandogli le braooia 
 al coUo, e baciandolo in fronte, disse, " Son io." Ma sog- 
 giunse il Paziente : "Prima voglio fare un poco di testa- 
 mento, e dire che la confessione, e deposizione in iscritto 
 che ho fatto alia commissione militare, mi e stata estorta 
 colla violenza, colla panca, col iastone, e colle catene : 
 ne minacciavano solo, ma hattevano, e se non si voleva 
 morire sotto il flagello, lisognava dire quello che essi 
 volevano." 
 
 Passarono dal D. Malagutti. Come li vidde si gittb in 
 ginoecliio piangendo dirottamente, bacib a tutti la mano, 
 e disse : " Sia ringraziato Iddio che veggo un Sacerdote in 
 queste mie angustie obe mi opprimono dalle ore undici 
 antimeridiane : " si alzo e continue : " Io voglio confessare 
 tutti li miei peccati, e dirli che confido tanto nella miseri- 
 cordia di Dio, die mi pare sino peccare di presunzione. E 
 sappiano che Me' miei costituti ho dovuto dire quello che 
 essi volevano; che ho sofferto una tortura orrihile ; che 
 mihanno cagionato una emmoragia di sangwe . . .stiimo tutti 
 con me, non mi abbandonino." Quando gli dissero che 
 scegliesse, disse, " II mio compagno di scuolad'aUora, Don 
 Luigi Zuffi." 
 
APPENDIX. 441 
 
 Passarono dal Parmeggiani. Si alzb da sedere : tenne 
 il cappello in testa e disse, " Sono venuti per conf'essarini ? 
 io sono innocente ; io mi voglio confessare in pubblico, alia 
 presenza della Commissione, e dire che quello ohe ho detto 
 e scritto mi e stato estorto con dimande suggestive, colle 
 catene, lasoiandomi un mese intero incatenato giorno e 
 notte ; col hastone, per cui ho dovuto essere portato alio 
 spedale delle Martiri, e starvi diciotto giorni." Gli si disse 
 che scegliesse uno dei tre : H guardo tutti in volto, e, 
 con osoen done uno, disse piangendo, " Lei Padre, lei che ha 
 avuto moglie e figli, lei, che piu facilmente compatira un 
 Padre afflittissimo, che lascia la moglie, e due figUe da 
 marito nella miseria ; ",e presolo con forza per la mano, se 
 Io fece sedere sulla sua panca. 
 
 Parmeggiani era preso da una forte convulsione e pian- 
 geva. Bevve acqua fresca e caffe tutta notte : voile sem- 
 pre accesa la stufa. Non tacque mai, parlb sempre dell' 
 ingiusto ed iniquo modo di cercare la veriid coi tormenti 
 sotto dei quali mentisce il forte, ed il debole. Scrisse una 
 lettera a sua moglie : fece testamento per li atti Botto- 
 nelli. Si confesso due volte, e voile piii volte V assoluzione. 
 Lesse le proteste dell' anima, ebbe 1' assoluzione Pontificia, 
 efece tutti li atti del Cristiano. Alle ore due dopo mezza- 
 notte Parmeggiani disse, " Saprei pur volentieri se i miei 
 compagni si sono confessati. Vada a sentire, e gli dica 
 che io mi sono confessato, che gli dimando perdono dello 
 scandalo dato coi fatti e colle parole, se fossi stato la 
 cagione delle loro pene." 
 
 11 Confortatore ando dal Succi : era in letto : si alzo ; 
 ed intesa I'ambasciata disse con enfasi, " Io debbo diman- 
 dare perdono a lui, che I'ho sedotto ; e se ci incontreremo 
 prima del supplizio Io prego volermi dare il lacio del per- 
 dono." Si era confessato alia sera da M. Guitti. 
 
 Malagutti fumava un sigaro, seduto al letto col suo 
 
442 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 Confortatore, e disse d'aver perdonato a tutti, come voleva 
 clie Dio perdonasse a lui. 
 
 Alle ore sette della mattina 16, Parmeggiani ed il 
 Confortatore furono fatti discendere nell' atrio : trovarono 
 il Dott. Malagutti in mezzo ai soldati solo, perclie il di 
 lui Confortatore diceva la messa in Chiesa. II Confortatore 
 del Parmeggiani lo prese coUa mano sinistra, perohe coUa 
 destra teneva il suo paziente. Si baciarono. NeEo stesso 
 tempo arrivb Succi, li abbraocio, li bacib tutti due, e gli 
 disse: " Addio." Si SiYvi3.rono 3.11a. Chiesa, dicendo li aftidi 
 fede. Si posero in ginocchio a pie deU'altare. Malagutti 
 e Parmeggiani vollero nuovamente I'assoluzione. Pecero 
 la santa Comunione colli atti preparatori concomitanti e 
 susseguenti con somma divozione. AH' \iItimo Evangelio 
 si alzarono in piedi e Malagutti disse forte : " Quanta mi 
 sembra di essere legqiero ! Signore, li anni di vita che mi 
 si tolgono dateli a mia Madre ! " e Parmeggiani ripete la 
 esclamazione e disse : "alle miefiglie." 
 
 Tomb il Confortatore dal D. Malagutti, e si avviarono 
 al supplizio ; prima Succi, poi Parmeggiani, poi Malagutti. 
 Passarono per la piazza d' arme, per la porta del soccorso,' 
 andarono nelK spaldi detti di san Giacomo : mezz' ora di 
 cammino in tante giravolte, ed a passo lento. Gli si 
 voleva porre la benda alii occhi. Succi e Parmeggiani 
 dissero non essere necessario. Parmeggiani s'inginnoc- 
 chio, uni le mani, chiuse gli occhi, dicendo forte Qesu, ec. 
 Un tenente disse che era suo dovere fossero bendati, ed un 
 soldato gli mise un fazzoletto bianco essendo in ginocchio, 
 ed altri tre spararono i loro fucili nel petto, e neUa fronte. 
 Parmeggiani cadde boccone, e non si mosse piii. E 
 morto come un martire ! 
 
 Firmato. II Confortatore D. G. P. 
 (Note of Commissioners.)— N.B. The letters D. G. P.- 
 mean Don Giuseppe Poltronieri. This worthy Priest, 
 
APPENDIX. 443 
 
 sni the others named in the above Eeport to the Arch- 
 confraternity of the Buona Morte, never left the . con- 
 demned men, so that the facts set forth cannot be 
 impugned by the Austrian or Pontificial Government, 
 and will remain an irrefragable proof of their common 
 barbarity. 
 
 Caelo ATT. MAZZrCCHI. 
 
 Gaetano D. Dokdi. 
 Commissioners in Ferrarafor the Investigation 
 of Documents on the Pontifical Government. 
 Ferrara, December 22nd, 1859. 
 
 Appendix C, page 153. — Louis Napoleon. 
 
 (See "Documents," toI. i., pp. 55-63.) 
 
 Id 24 CHugno, 1846. 
 
 lUTTSTElaSIMO SiaNOEE, 
 
 QuESTADirezione di Polizia e venuta a sapere, che nella 
 notte del 21 corrente arrivo a Porretta un giovane fores- 
 tiere, sconosciuto, carico d'armi e di danaro, il quale 
 avendo preso alloggio nella locanda condotta da Luigi 
 Ferrari sebbene si facesse chiamare con nome finto, venne 
 non pertanto conosciuto da una signora inglese, che abita 
 nella locanda medesima per il figlio di Girolamo Bona- 
 parte. Appena giunto il suddetto incognito mostrb 
 desiderio di vedere e parlare col Contino Napoleone Came- 
 rata figlio della Principessa Baciocchi, e spedita a questo 
 una lettera qui a Bologna, giunse costa precipitosamente 
 verso le ore undiei antimeridiane del giorno 22 condotto 
 dal vetturino Bolognese Battista GoHneUi. Alia distanza 
 di un buon miglio da Porretta il figlio di Girolamo in- 
 eontro per la strada provinciale il Contino Camerata, 
 che smontato dal legno proseguirono a piedi il viaggio 
 ■fino alia locanda, e trattenutosi a Porretta il resto di 
 
444 APPENDIX. 
 
 quella giornata, e la notte successiva, jeri mattina tutti 
 due insieme, si diressero verso la Tosoana sopra "un biroc- 
 cino guidato da un suddito Toscano, ma acoompagnati 
 fino al confine dallo stesso Luigi Terrari. Prima di met- 
 tersi in viaggio il Contino Camerata avrebbe mandato da ' 
 V. S. il riscontrino del Passaporto ritirato nell' entrare in 
 questa oitta per avere il Yisto per i bagni di Monte Catini, 
 ma sebbene ella si riousasse partirono entrambi a quella 
 volta stanteobe rinooguito figlio di Girolamo possedeva 
 piu di un passaporto. La comparsa, e presenza sebbene 
 momentanea del suddetto forestiere destb gran cioalio nel 
 Castello, perche da tutti ritenuto pel Principe Luigi Na- 
 poleone Bonaparte, teste fuggito dal Castello di Ham. 
 
 Tutto cio premesso non posso nascondere la mia sor- 
 presa per il sUenzio serbato da V. S. lUustris. su questo 
 importantissimo incidente, e sopratutto dell' indifferenza 
 da Lei usata, e della forza dei Carabinieri di non darsi 
 pensiero di verificare se fosse realmente stato il Principe 
 Luigi Napoleoue, sul conto del quale non poteva ignorare 
 gli ordini del govemo partecipati alia S. V. lUustris. col 
 ciroolare dispaocio 16 corrente IST." 1199. P. E. di questo 
 Dicastero Politico. 
 
 Non potendo quindi dubitare deUa sussistenza delle 
 cose suespresse, non posso dispensarmi dal riohiedere alia 
 S. V. lUustris. tutti i necessaij scbiarimenti, occupandosi 
 di proposito delk piii riservate, e prudenti verificazioni, 
 e di faa-mi oonoscere il risultato delle di lei investigazioni 
 da praticarsi nel modo il piu ciroospetto, massime presso 
 il looandiere Ferrari anohe rispetto aUe confidenze e dis- 
 corsi, che il suddetto incognito possa avergli fatti, non 
 occultandole essere a mia cognizione, che si sarebbe sbi- 
 lanciato coUo stesso Ferrari, con ardite proposizioni 
 riguardo ad un nipote del Ferrari cbe trovavasi fra i 
 oondannati politici. 
 
APPENDIX. 445 
 
 In attesa di analogo e dettagliato riscontro con distinta 
 stima passo a confennarmi, 
 
 Ctthzi. 
 
 N. 14 Eiservata. 
 
 IlLrSTEISSIMO SiGNOEE, 
 
 Ittteso sempre a potere, per quanto e in me a corri- 
 spondere efficacemente alle ordinanze del Superiore Go- 
 verno, mi affretto a significarle, die il Principe di cui 
 parla il pregiato foglio della S. V. lUustriss.* 17 corr. 
 N. 697 div. V. P. E., potrebbe benissimo sotto mentito 
 nome e con passaporto apparentemente regolare, pene- 
 trare in questo State, e deluderne la piii attenta vigilan- 
 za, giacche quassii non e chi lo conosca di persona, ed 
 e noto appena che conta 1' eta di quarantatre anni circa, 
 se sono veridici gli Almauaccbi cbe annunziarono il di lui 
 nascimento. Ad impedire pertanto che non rimangano 
 vuote di effetto, le viste del G-overno, e ad impedirlo con 
 ogni mezzo possibUe, sara necessario, cbe a pronto corso 
 di posta Ella si compiacoia di farmi tenere la descrizio- 
 ne dei connotati personali di essolui, dei quali faro pron- 
 tissima e riservatissima la partecipazione agli impiegati 
 politici del confine. 
 
 In questa inteUigenza mi raffermo con distinta stima e 
 considerazione 
 
 Della S. V. Illustrissima. 
 
 Porretta, 21 Maggio, 1847. 
 
 Obb. Dev. Servo, 
 AiESSANDEO Ztjiti Sateei. 
 Illustriss. Sig. Col. Cav. Direttore 
 
 della Folizia Frovinciale, Bologiia. 
 
446 APPENDIX. 
 
 N. 751 P. R 
 Al Sig. Govematore di Porretta. 
 
 Li 27 Maggio, 1847. 
 
 iLLrSTEISSIMO SlGITOEB, 
 
 NoN esiste in questo dicastero la indicazione dei con- 
 notati personali del Principe Lnigi Napoleone Bonaparte, 
 6 sarebbe malagevole H poterli con precisione raecogliere. 
 D' altronde essendo costumanza d' oggi gioriio di tenere 
 ora lunga la barba, era totalmente rasa, potrebbero essere 
 erronee le indicazioni che quest' Ufficio potrebbe prooac- 
 ciarsi, e indurre la Forza in qualche equivoco pregiudicevole 
 
 Per la sorveglianza poi cho debbe usarsi in cotesto 
 Governo relativameute alia mentovata persona, puo essere 
 facile il risidtato piii che altrove, atteso il Umitato pas- 
 saggio di forestieri. 
 
 Tanto a riscontro del gradito foglio N. 14 Eis. e pas- 
 se a confermarmi, 
 
 H Col. Dirett. Cuazi. 
 
 Appendix D, page 203. — Judgment of ike Court of Bologna. 
 
 Extract from a Sentence of the Tribunal of Mrst Instance 
 
 of Bologna. 
 
 Pontifical Gotbenmekt. 
 
 In the name of His Holiness Pius IX., happily- 
 reigning. 
 
 Sittings of the days 12th, 13th, and 16th June, 1856. 
 
 The Ciiminal Tribunal and the Civil Tribimal of First 
 Instance, composed of the most illustrious and most ex- 
 cellent gentlemen : — 
 
 The Knight-Advocate Ferdinando Speroni, President. 
 
 Advocate Vicenzo Bubbiani. 
 
 Advocate Ferdinando Mazza. 
 
 Advocate Lorenzo Donato Liverani. 
 
APPENDIX. 447 
 
 To judge the case of the Bolognese people, on account 
 of numerous house-breakings against fifty-nine individuals. 
 
 Senteitce. 
 
 Innumerable crimes of every kind have saddened in late 
 years this city and province. Thefts, robberies, highway 
 robberies, were of constant occurrence, especially in the 
 plains ; and house-breakings, which were committed at 
 every hour and in every place, increasing in number from 
 day to day, the malefactors becoming more daring in pro- 
 portion as they went unpunished; and the proceedings 
 against them remaining incomplete for want of specific 
 grounds. 
 
 A moveable column of the police force,, intrusted to 
 the command of Lieutenant Sirighi, was dispatched to 
 scour the Bolognese plains, to discover the authors of 
 these misdeeds, and to place them in the hands of justice. 
 
 This measure, excellent in itself, has not, however, suc- 
 ceeded in producing all the results that might have been 
 obtained from it, IP is caeeting it into efeect law- 
 ful AND HONEST MEANS HAD BEEN ADOPTED, AND IE WE 
 HAD NOT, ON , THE CONTEAET, TO DEPLOEE SO MANY 
 VIOLENT AND FEEOOIOTIS ACTS, BT WHICH WEEE INSTI- 
 GATED AND BXTOETED EEOM MANY OE THE PEISONEES 
 CONFESSIONS OF THEIE CKIMES, WITH ENOEMOUS ABITSE, 
 AND MOST OPEN TIOLATION OE THE LAWS IN EOECE. 
 
 Whence it has arisen that on every occasion where con- 
 fessions are presented from accused parties, tainted with 
 such incurable vices, the Tribunal, firm in the principle 
 constantly followed, has treated them as null and non- 
 existent. 
 
 Chaege 7th. 
 Whereas, from the character of the accused, from their 
 poverty, and from their close relations of friendship, not 
 
448 APPENDIX. 
 
 only do their asserted spontaneous confessions not cor- 
 roborate, but on the contrary such confessions diminish 
 the force of the other evidence ; and because these con- 
 fessions have been retracted by the parties making them ; 
 and still more, because there are proofs on the record of 
 
 THE INSTIGATIONS AND TIOLENCES USED TO EXTOET 
 THEM. 
 
 Dismissed, &c., &o. 
 
 Chaegb 10th. 
 One after another, the parties making the confessions 
 have retracted them, almost as soon as they saw them- 
 selves out of the prisons and the hands of the police ; and 
 exclaimed against the instigations and the toemenxs. 
 Nor did they fail in proof of these. Evidence, of what- 
 soever sort, issuing from such an impure source, loses its 
 efficiency. 
 
 Chaege 11th. 
 
 Notwithstanding this, to hold them guilty of this 
 
 crime, there exists in reality no other ground beside their 
 
 own confessions, which they afterwards retracted, and 
 
 which on the record are proved to have been instigated 
 
 AND EITOETBD BT EOEOE OE BEATINGS AND TOEMENTS. 
 
 Every one can see what value such proofs merit. 
 Dismissed, &c. 
 
 Chaege 14th 
 
 Also Facchini and Bianchi at first made confession 
 of theft, perfectly in accord with that of Mignani ; but 
 these confessions, although verified in all their parts, 
 have no value, there being strong grounds for believing 
 that they were extoeted bt beatings, as the parties 
 protested when they retracted them. 
 
 Dismissed, &c. 
 
appendix. 449 
 
 Chaegi 16th. 
 
 There are doubtless upon the process such professions, 
 but isolated, and, what is worse, afterwards retracted by 
 the parties making them. Besides, they have been ex- 
 TOETED by means of instigations, and with beatings, 
 as has been established, and are therefore unfit to furnish 
 arguments of proof to their disadvantage. , 
 Charge 21st. 
 
 With respect to Cavazza, there is no charge against 
 him, beyond his miserable condition, and his bad character, 
 his own confession not meriting any value, inasmuch as it 
 has been retracted by him, and because it has been 
 
 rOECIBLT EXTOETED BT THE POLICE BT MEANS OE TOE- 
 
 TITEE, as appears on the record. 
 Dismissed, &c. 
 Here follow the signatures — 
 
 F. Speeoni, President. 
 
 V. BuBBiANi, Judge. 
 
 T. Mazza, Judge. 
 
 L. LrvEEANi, Judge. 
 
 E. Magnani, Chancellor. 
 
 Appendix E, p. 210. — Hdict of the Synod at Loretto. 
 
 (See "Documents," vol. i., pp. 293-301.) 
 
 Edict. 
 
 The Cardinal Archbishop, the Cardinal Bishops, and 
 
 other Archbishops and Bishops of the Marches and the 
 
 Province of Urbino. 
 
 To their most beloved people of these dioceses, peace 
 and benediction in Jesus Christ. 
 
 By means of special authorization of the most eminent 
 Signers, Cardinals, of the S. E. C, interpreters of the 
 High Council of Trent, the Holmess of our Lord, Pope 
 G G 
 
450 APPENDIX, 
 
 Pius IX., happily reigning, by Hs venerated dispatch of 
 the 14itli of June, 1855, has deigned to approve the 
 resolution taken hy the Bishops of the Marches, and of 
 the Province of Urhano, united in ecclesiastical disci- 
 plinary Synod in Loretto, in the months of Pehruary and 
 March of the year 1850. Hence it is that the under- 
 signed Cardinal, Archhishops, and Bishops, in the Lent 
 of the currrent year, 1856, have felt it a sacred duty to 
 publish the decrees, which are thought opportune for the 
 removal of the disorders and scandals which most fre- 
 quently arise amongst Christian people. 
 
 Blasphemy, non-observance of the festivals, profana- 
 tion of churches, breach of fasts, and immorality, are the 
 chief sources of scandal ; and, on this account, our 
 attention has been specially directed to these. 
 
 We shall not here repeat how horrible is blasphemy, 
 by which is directly cursed or dishonoured that God who 
 gives us existence that we may praise and honour Him. 
 How irreligious and hurtful is the non-observance of 
 festivals, both by the grave offence which it offers to God, 
 — who, as Master of time, has chosen for Himself those 
 days, and reserved them for His worship, — and by the 
 loss of good, and incurring of evil, which, according to 
 His infallible promise, accompany it ! How impious is the 
 profanation of churches, which are houses of God, chosen 
 for His especial dwelling, replenished with His majesty, 
 places of prayer and worship ! How insulting to the 
 Chm-ch is the violation of fasts, by the contempt of a pre- 
 cept which, while it injures in no sense, is useful even to 
 the health of the body, and of immense benefit to the 
 soul ! How indecent is immorality, by the degradation 
 of those among whom, as among saints, such acts of 
 micleanness ought not to be named ! 
 
 We shaU also abstain from calling to mind with what 
 
APPENDIX. 451 
 
 severe puBishment God has commanded, in tlie Divine 
 Scriptures, that such offences should be visited ; with 
 what punishment also they are marked in the canon and 
 civil law. All know that, according to the circum- 
 stances of the person and the offence, according to places 
 and times, now excommunication, now prison, now fine, 
 now scourging, now exile, and even death, have always 
 been ordinary pains. 
 
 Without abrogating any statutes now in force, we have 
 here prescribed that which principally tends to repress and 
 impede those scandals. It is with the highest repug- 
 nance that we feel ourselves obhged to publish Decrees 
 directed to this end, as if among Christians there were 
 those who are held to their duty more by fear of our 
 penalties, than by the menaces of the Divine Master 
 Himself; whose temble words we ought always to have 
 present to our minds : " Woe to those by whom offences 
 come ; woe to the world because of offences." 
 
 But since experience assures us, that neither the love of 
 God; nor the force of duty, nor the fear of the eternal 
 and temporal penalties threatened by God, suffices to 
 hinder in some the public violation of Divine and eccle- 
 siastical laws, we, upon whom it rests to forward by our 
 care the salvation of all souls committed to our pastoral 
 charge, can do no otherwise than use the right which God 
 has deposited in our hands, for edification, when necessity 
 demands it, without rendering om-selves responsible for 
 the perdition of those who, by our fault, either do not 
 return from the way of error, or foUow evil examples not 
 punished. 
 
 While, however, we have not been able to evade the 
 
 enactment of penalties against those who should offend, 
 
 under any of the heads already named, the intention of our 
 
 heart has been rather to cui-e than to punish : whence we 
 
 2 G 2 
 
452 APFENDII. 
 
 have made a point of distinguislimg between delinquents 
 who are perverters, and delinquents who are perverts, — 
 that is, those who make themselves public transgressors 
 of the laws of God and of the Church, with a view to 
 diminish or destroy the respect and veneration due to the 
 sacred things, from those who fall into such ofi'ences 
 from want of proper care and consideration, or from those 
 following depraved examples. Against the first, we are 
 obhged to proceed with all the rigour of the canon and 
 civil law ; against the second, however, especially having 
 reflected upon the number of scandals and seductions 
 which have taken place iu recent political and religious 
 commotions, in the hope of securing their emendation by 
 mild penalties, or, rather, by medicinal regime, we have 
 determined to proceed according to the following 
 rules : — 
 
 FiEST Head — Blasphemy. 
 
 Aeticie I. — Blasphemy, and any insults proffered, in 
 the presence of another, against the most holy name of 
 God, of the most Blessed Virgin, or of the saints, shall be 
 summarily punished, by from ten to thirty days' imprison- 
 ment, or by rigorous spiritual exercise, in some rehgious 
 house, at the wiQ of the Ordinary. 
 
 Aeticle II. — For a second offence, the penalty will be 
 more severe ; and the prisoner must pass some days on 
 bread and water, according to the greater or less gravity 
 of the circumstances of the offence, and of the delinquent. 
 
 Aeticle iu. — In obstinate cases, the ordinary penal- 
 ties of the canon and civil law iu force shall be applied, 
 at the will of the Ordinary. 
 
 Aeticle rv. — Keepers of coffee-houses, hotels, public- 
 houses, eating-houses, and such hke, under the penalty of 
 Article I., shall be obliged to correct blasphemers ; and 
 
APPENDIX. 453 
 
 even to expel from their shops, rooms, and places of 
 resort, those who shall persist in blaspheming, after being 
 rebuked. 
 
 Aeticlb t. — In ease that they shall find opposition, 
 and not be able to expel the blasphemers, they shall 
 report immediately to the oflB.cers of the Inquisition, (la 
 Curia,') faihng of which several times, measures of the 
 greatest rigour shall be taken against them. 
 
 Aeticle ti. — ^Under this head it is not intended to 
 comprise those who studiously introduce, either with 
 words or in writing, false principles concerning the- 
 divinity or against the doctrine of the Church, and, in 
 general, those who utter heretical blasphemies ; because 
 these are not simple blasphemers, but dogmatizers and 
 heretics, or, at least, suspected of heresy. Such will be 
 proceeded against in the established forms ; [that is, by 
 the canon and civil law, as opposed to summary punish- 
 ment ;] and here we record the most weighty obhgation 
 that rests upon every one to denounce to the compe- 
 tent ecclesiastical tribunals within the period of one 
 month, under pain of excommunication, in the widest 
 sense, the names of those whom they may have known to 
 utter the above-named and similar perverse principles, or 
 express heretical blasphemies. 
 
 Abticle th. — It being, according to experience, very 
 helpful in impeding blasphemies, to establish a con- 
 fraternity of pious persons, who, vested in a frock, and 
 the head and face covered with a domino, shall go when 
 the Ordinary feek it expedient, and present themselves, 
 either alone or two together, in the resorts and places 
 where this vice is most frequent, to reprove blasphemies 
 in kindly ways, and with brotherly love. Also, the sound 
 of the chief church beU of the pla«e, in 'days and hours 
 dbtermined, (is useful) to call to the memory of every one 
 
454 APPENDIX. 
 
 the engagement both to abstain from blasphemy, and to 
 apply paternal reproof. In every city and district of our 
 diocese, where it does not already exist, shall be formed a 
 confraternity under the title of the Most Holt Namb 
 OP G-OD ; and where this cannot be established, the same 
 duty shall be enjoined upon a confraternity ah'eadycanoni- 
 cally established. And we decree that, in every city and 
 village, the bell of the chief church shall be sounded 
 every quarter of an hour, — every Saturday, at the hour 
 of eight o'clock at night. 
 
 Second Head — The Non-obseetance op Eeasts. 
 
 AeticI/B Till. — ^In the prescribed feast-days, from the 
 midnight preceding to the midnight following, every one 
 shall abstain from every servile work, and from all other 
 work, even though not servile, in days expressly 
 forbidden. 
 
 Aeticle h. — In case of necessity not contemplated in 
 the following articles, every one must obtain a gratuitous 
 permit of us, or of our Vicar-General in the cities, and 
 of the Vicars of the Courts in the districts ; and, failing 
 them, of their own parish Priest. 
 
 Aeticle i. — It is forbidden to hold markets, even on 
 those feast-days. Let them be removed to those days 
 not festivals preceding or following. The same is decreed 
 of fairs. If, however, any of these have hitherto been 
 tolerated on festival days, from a very ancient date, they 
 may be so at present, provided that the shops are shut, 
 and business suspended in the hours of Divine service, 
 according to the terms of the Constit. of Benedict XIV., 
 Ah eo tempore, November 5th, 1745. 
 
 Aeticle zi. — It is equally forbidden to expose in 
 squares or other public places, or to carry round, 
 merchandise of any sort. 
 
APPENDIX. 455 
 
 Aeticle XII. — Those, however, who in fixed and 
 accustomed places sell fish, fruit, vegetables, and other 
 articles of food, will be tolerated, provided they remain 
 distant from the church, in the neighbourhood of which 
 it shall always be forbidden to stand, and keep their 
 merchandise covered, in the time of Divine service ceasing 
 to vend them. 
 
 Aeticle xiii. — All shops, warehouses, ofBces, and 
 similar places must remain always closed, and shall not 
 be opened except in cases where they serve as entrances 
 to private dwellings, for the simple convenience of ingress 
 and egress. 
 
 AeticiiB xiT. — Keepers of coffee-houses, eating- 
 houses, tobacconists, and salt-sellers, pork-butchers, 
 butchers, bakers, sellers of flour and of other eatables, 
 hotel-keepers, publicans, and other wine-vendors, even in 
 private houses, will keep only a wicket open, and without 
 any thing being displayed, except in the time of Divine 
 service, when they shall keep their shops and places of 
 trade entirely closed. 
 
 Aeticle xt. — Barbers, except in the hours of Divine 
 service, and at Easter and Christmas, may keep their 
 doors open, but covered with a curtain. 
 
 Aeticle xti. — Chemists on any day or hour may sell 
 medicine, and may keep their shops sufficiently open to 
 give them light. 
 
 Aeticle xni. — No one shall transport merchandise, 
 or any thing whatever, in carts with beasts, or in auy 
 other manner, unless it be in prosecution of a journey 
 undertaken on a week-day, and after ^having heard the 
 holy Mass. 
 
 Aeticle xtiii. — All baUs are prohibited, as also all 
 games, in coiFee-houses, inns, public-houses, taverns, and 
 such like, and also in public squares and roads, both in 
 
456 APPENDIX. 
 
 cities and in districts ; only in the afternoon, when the 
 holy ceremonies are terminated, games not prohibited by 
 the laws in force shall be tolerated. But to those who 
 play at buttons, ball, foot-hall, or peg-top, and other such 
 games, the neighbourhood of churches, of monasteries, of 
 asylums for orphan girls, and of infirmaries, are all 
 prohibited. 
 
 Aeticee xdc. Tumblers, mountebanks, and other 
 strollers, under whatever name comprehended, shall not 
 mount on the stage, or hold parties, for songs, or other 
 sounds, for the sale of waters, balsams, or such things ; 
 among these are included those vagabonds who expose in 
 the streets or squares little altars, credence tables, or 
 other things connected with statues and sacred images, 
 relating stories, setting forth miracles, selling writs, cards, 
 and other things, under the name of devotion,— all which 
 are prohibited even in days not festivals. 
 
 Aeticle IX. — Public shows and representations, even 
 though religious, shall not take place without 'formal per- 
 mission. 
 
 Aetiole XII. — Every transgression of the decrees ex- 
 pressed under this head, shall be summarily punished by 
 a fine of from five pauls to three soudis, [that is, from two 
 shillings to twelve shillings,] or with imprisonment from 
 two to twelve days ; but fathers, masters, and guardians 
 shall be prosecuted with greater severity, who shall have 
 made their children or their dependents do such forbidden 
 works. 
 
 Aeticle xiii. — For a second offence the penalty wOl 
 be doubled, and also against keepers of coffee-houses, inns, 
 public-houses, and such like, who shall allow games (see 
 Article xvui.) in their shops, and against those who shall 
 hold balls, or lend their rooms, and against those who, 
 enjoying permission to sell in the hours permitted eatables 
 
APPENDIX. , 457 
 
 alone, shall in those hours sell other merchandise, in eva- 
 sion of the law. 
 
 Aeticlb xxin. — In cases of ohstinacy, measures of the 
 utmost rigour shall be taken, according to the guilt of 
 the offence and gravity of the circumstances. 
 
 Thied Head — Peopanation or Chtjeches. 
 
 [Under this head eleven articles describe aU sorts of 
 irreverence ; such as keeping on the hat, not bowing at 
 the elevation of the host, women coming in with their 
 heads uncovered, and other ofiences, and it concludes 
 thus : — ] 
 
 Aeticie sxxxv. — In processions due religious reverence 
 shall be observed ; and when the holy viaticum is met in 
 the public way, the knee must be bowed to the earth, and 
 the head uncovered. 
 
 Aetiole XXXV. — Violators of the above-named regula- 
 tions shall be proceeded against by summary punishment 
 according to the gravity of the fault, and the scandal 
 which it has caused. 
 
 Aeticle XXXVI. — The obstinate shall be punished with 
 heavier pains ; and those who have been several times 
 summarily punished without effect, or who are chargeable 
 with graver faults, shall be pimished according to the 
 forms of the sacred canons, and of the existing penal law, 
 article Isxiv., and following. 
 
 FoTiETH Head — On the Violation op Fasts. 
 
 Aeticle xexvti. — On fast-days, and on those whereon 
 meats are forbidden, if there is just cause, it is lawful to 
 use them in private, under the direction of a physician ; 
 but to avoid scandal, keepers of lodgiug-houses, eating- 
 houses, coffee-houses, inns, and such like, shall not serve 
 
458 APPENDIX. 
 
 forbidden food, except to those persons who shall produce 
 a certificate, signed by both a physician and the parish 
 Priest. 
 
 Aeticle XXXVIII. — Physicians and parish Priests shall 
 not give such certificates, except to persons whom, accord- 
 ing to their knowledge and conscience, they shall judge 
 to have need of the prohibited food. 
 
 Abticle xxxix. — Those who have a lawful dispensa- 
 tion to use prohibited food in days of abstinence and of 
 fast, are forbidden to eat them openly in eating-houses, 
 lodging-houses, coffee-houses, inns, or other places ; they 
 may only take them in separate places or chambers. 
 
 Aetiole XL. — It is truly deplorable that some keepers 
 of lodging-houses, eating-houses, inns, and such like, to 
 the great scandal and wonder of good men, have not 
 ready on days of abstinence Lenten diet to offer to those 
 guests who are not furnished with the certificate of a 
 doctor or parish Priest, as above : they are reminded of 
 the strict duty incumbent upon them not to fail to have 
 in their houses in the days specified this kind of food, and 
 the guilt which on failure of this they wiU incur under a 
 violated law. 
 
 Aeticle xli. — Hosts are not permitted to cook meat 
 on the days indicated; and when persons who have a 
 written licence to use it, shall produce this licence to them, 
 they shall prepare the- food in a place not open to the 
 public. 
 
 Aetiole xlii. — Ofiences against the regulations con- 
 tained under this head shall be summarily punished, as in 
 Article xxi. 
 
 Aetiole xliii. — For a second offence the penalty shall 
 be double ; and those who shall be guilty of multiplied 
 offences, or of open contempt, shall be proceeded against 
 with all the rigour of the existing canon and civil law. 
 
appendix. 459 
 
 Fifth Head — Immoealitt. 
 
 It is forl)idden to give or serve to others in whatever 
 manner, or expose in public under whatever pretext, books, 
 printed papers, and obscene works, under the pain of im- 
 prisonment &om. Jive io fifteen days, besides the forfeit of 
 the articles. 
 
 Aetiole xlt. — Obscene songs, in whatever place or 
 time, shall be punished with imprisonment from three to 
 nine days. 
 
 Aeticle ilti. — Under the same penalty it is forbidden 
 to bathe or fish with the body naked, in public or fre- 
 quented places, or in the neighbourhood of dwellings where 
 the two sexes are mixed together. 
 
 Aetiole xlyii. — Licentious representations of what- 
 ever kind, if in private, shall be pimished by from five to 
 fifteen days of prison; if in public, with double that penalty. 
 
 Aeticle xltiii. — They shall be equally punished who 
 in public-houses, cellars, inns, hotels, or other similar 
 places, shall give accommodation to persons of the two 
 sexes to lose themselves in licentious entertainment ; and 
 if they do not desist, their licences will be suspended. 
 
 Aetiole xlix. — Keepers of hotels, lodging-houses, 
 cofiee-houses, and such like, are forbidden to have in their 
 service women brought under the surveillance of the Holy 
 Office for their bad conduct. In case of transgression, if 
 they continue to retain them, they shall be punished under 
 the preceding article. 
 
 Aetiole l. — Acquaintances suspected of offences con- 
 trary to good morals, when scandals arise, if they shall be 
 continued after admonition, shall be restrained by the 
 commands of the Holy Office, and in case of contravention 
 they shall undergo the penalties determined upon in the 
 command. 
 
460 APPENDIX. 
 
 Aeticle LI. — All those on whom rest the care and 
 custody of young people, when they shall be discovered 
 to connive either at unlawful loves, or shall blameably 
 neglect to remove the occasions of them, if after being 
 admonished they persist, shall be punished with imprison- 
 ment from three to nine days : should the case arise in 
 which the young people responsible to them render them- 
 selves liable to punishment, they shall also be punished 
 with double the penalty, and all prayers and measures 
 which they may take to obtain compensation or repara- 
 tion shall be rejected. 
 
 Aeticle lii. — For second offences in any case what- 
 ever contemplated under this head, penalties may be 
 inflicted according to circumstances. 
 
 Aeticle liii. — Those who shall offend frequently, or 
 be guilty of offences against good manners and decency, 
 especially comprised in the penal laws in force, from 
 Article cliviii. to Article clrxxvii. inclusively, shall be 
 proceeded against according to the forms of the canon 
 and civil law. 
 
 geneeal eegtjlations. 
 
 Aeticle lit. — In all the above-named cases, in order 
 to apply the summary punishments, a simple and speedy 
 procedure will suffice ; when the facts, generally and 
 specially, shall be stated. The names of the informers 
 and witnesses shall be kept secret. 
 
 Aeticle lt. — The fine shall be given, one half to the 
 benefit of places of worship, appointed by the Ordinary ; 
 and the other half shall be divided, part to the informer, 
 and part to the police, if they have had to do with the 
 case. When the punishment shall be other than fine, if 
 the person guilty has the means, he must pay fifty half- 
 pence for the benefit of the informer or police, as above, 
 
APPENDIX. 461 
 
 besides his expenses for victuals and other things as in 
 reason. 
 
 Article lti. — The messengers and other agents of the 
 Holy Office, as also the police, are bound to look diligently 
 to the execution of all that is prescribed in this Edict, 
 and also to proceed immediately to arrest delinquents, if 
 found in the act. 
 
 Aeticle ltii. — If they shall neglect to fulfil this duty, 
 the messengers and agents shall be immediately dismissed ; 
 and as to the police, the superior miKtary authority shall 
 be called upon to take further steps. ' 
 
 Aetiole ltiii. — The present Edict must always be 
 kept publicly posted up in the sacristies of parish churches, 
 and of others most known and frequented, as also in 
 lodging-houses, and eating-houses, and inns, under pain 
 of a fine of twenty half-pence, to be applied as above, 
 Article Iv. 
 
 Aeticle iiix.^Further, this Edict shall be published 
 by the reverend parish Priests from the altars, and posted 
 up in the usual places, after which it shall have the same 
 force as if it had been presented to every individual per- 
 sonally. 
 
 Given at Loretto, on the 8th of March, 1850. 
 
 Philip, Cardinal Archbishop of Fermo, President; 
 John, Cardinal Bishop of Osimo and Cingoli; Dominick, 
 Cardinal Bishop of Sinigaglia; Charles Louis, Cai-dinal 
 Archbishop, Bishop of Jesi ; Antony Maria Benedict, 
 Archbishop, Bishop of Ancona ; Alexander, Archbishop 
 of Urbino ; Felix, Archbishop of Camerino ; Louis, Bishop 
 of Fano ; Francis, Bishop of Fabriano and Matelica ; 
 Boniface, Bishop of Pergola and Cagli ; Eleonoro, Bishop 
 of Montalto ; Francis, Bishop of Sausseverino ; Amadius, 
 Bishop of Macerata and Tolentino ; Guerr' Antony, 
 
462 APPENDIX. 
 
 Bishop of St. Angelo and of TJrbania; Crispin, Bishop 
 of Montefeltro ; Philip, Bishop of Possombrone ; Paithful, 
 Bishop of Ripatransone ; John Francis, Bishop of Eeca- 
 nati and Loretto ; Charles, Bishop of Ascoli ; John Bap- 
 tist Ceruti, Vicar Apostolic of Pisano. 
 
 Appendix P, page 212. — Decree of an Inquisitor- 
 General. 
 
 The Ih-qtjisition and the Moealitx op its Laws. 
 
 (Tlie following Decree has still tTie force of law.) 
 
 DEOEBB. 
 
 We Brother Philip Bertolotti of the Order of Preachers, 
 Master in Sacred Theology in the Cities and Dioceses 
 of Pesaro, Eimini, Pano, Pennabilli, and the lands and 
 places annexed, Inquisitor-G-eneral of the Holy Apostolic 
 See, specially delegated against heretical corruptions : 
 
 We desiring (as is demanded by the duties of the Holy 
 Office imposed on us) that the Catholic faith, without 
 which, as writes the Apostle Paul to the Hebrews, it is 
 impossible to please God, should be preserved within this 
 our jurisdiction from all heretical contagion immaculate 
 and pure; and it being manifest from experience that 
 many from malice or from disobedience, and others from 
 ignorance, do not discharge the most strict ohligation under 
 which they lie to denounce to the Soly Office the offences 
 appertaining to it, and that hence spring up ^things un- 
 becoming, and offences not only against good morals, but 
 expressly against the Catholic faith. We therefore, who 
 should have at heart the glory of God, the full pre- 
 servation and increase of the said holy faith, and the 
 
APPENDIX. 463 
 
 salvation of souls, to prevent all disorder, do, with tlie 
 apostolic authority conceded to us, command, in virtue 
 of holy obedience, and under pain of major excommu- 
 nication, besides the other punishments prescribed by the 
 sacred Canons, Decrees, Constitutions, and Bulls of the 
 Sovereign Pontiff in the spirit of the present Edict, to 
 all and every person of whatever state, grade, condition, 
 or dignity, as well ecclesiastical as secular, that within 
 the term of one month, ten days of which remain assigned 
 for the first, ten days for the second, and ten for the third 
 peremptory term, they shotjld eeteal and judicially 
 NOTii'T to us, or to our Vicars, or the respective Ordi- 
 naries of the places, all and every of that and what they 
 may know concerning those that are heretics, or suspected 
 or slandered as being heretics, or favourers or harbourers 
 or defenders of heretics, or those who have adhered or do 
 adhere to the rites of the Jews or of the Mohammedans 
 or of the Pagans, or have apostatized from the holy 
 Catholic faith. 
 
 Those who have committed or are committing any acts 
 from which one can infer AN expeessed ob tacit cote- 
 NANT WITH THE DEVIL, exercising incantations, magic arts, 
 
 witchcrafts, OEFEEINa SUFEIIMiaATIONS TO THE SAME, 
 
 incense or prayers for finding treasures, or other unlawful 
 means, invoking him or promising obedience to him, or 
 doing other things in which his name or worhs may 
 intervene : Who may have meddled, or who do meddle, 
 in experiments in necromancy, or any sort of magic 
 whatever, with abuse of the sacraments or sacramental 
 things, or of things sacred or blessed. 
 
 Who, not being Priests, with sacrilegious daring have 
 usurped or do usurp the office of celebrating the Holy 
 Mass, or have presumed to administer the Sacrament of 
 Penance to the faithful of Jesus Christ. 
 
464 APPENDIX. 
 
 Who have ahused or do ahuse the Sacrament of 
 Penance, and ' the place of the same, contrary to the 
 Decrees and the apostolic ordinances. 
 
 Who have held or do hold secret conventicles or 
 assemhlies, to the injury, or in contempt, of the holy 
 Catholic religion. 
 
 Who against the blessed God, the most holy Virgin 
 Mary, and against the Saints, have offered or do offer 
 heretical blasphemies, or have committed or are com- 
 miting any act whatsoever of contempt or of injury 
 against the holy images. 
 
 Who, notwithstanding the solemn vow made at the 
 profession of any religious order approved by the Church, 
 and after having taken holy orders, have contracted or 
 are about contracting or endeavouring to contract 
 matrimony. 
 
 Who, their first wife being alive, take a second, or, 
 their first husband being alive, take a second, or who have 
 endeavoured or do endeavour to do this. 
 
 Who have impeded or who do impede in any way the 
 work of the Holy Inquisition, or who in any manner 
 have contravened the Bull of his Holiness Pius V., which 
 commences, Si de proteffendis. , 
 
 Who have made satires, or published writings against 
 the Sigh Pontiff, the Sacred College, the Superiors, the 
 lEeclesiastics, or against the regular orders, or who have 
 composed or published writings of any sort in which may 
 be abuse or profanation of sacred words. 
 
 WTio without the necessary permission may keep in 
 their "possession writings or prints which may contain 
 heresies, or heretical books professedly contrary to 
 religion, or who may read, print, or cause the same to be 
 printed, or who may introduce or cii-culate them under 
 any pretext whatsoever. 
 
APPENDIX. 465 
 
 Such persons as without necessity or leave have eaten 
 or given to eat meat, eggs, or milk foods on forbid- 
 den days, in disregard of the commands of the holy 
 Church. 
 
 "Who have induced any Christian to embrace Judaism, 
 or any other sect contrary to the holy Catholic religion, 
 or who have in any way hindered Jews or Turks from 
 having themselves baptized. Be it declared, however, 
 that the said enumeration of cases hy us specified as to he 
 revealed to tTie Inquisition does not exclude the other 
 cases appertaining thereto, or which are comprised in the 
 Sacred Canons, Decrees, and Bulls of the High Pontiff. 
 Much less is the present Edict intended to derogate from 
 llie other apostolical canonical provisions, and the other 
 Edicts emanating from the Ordinaries or Inquisitors. Be 
 it declared besides tliat those who will not denounce as 
 ordered ly the present lEdict, cannot he absolved from any 
 excommunication incurred by them, until after they have 
 as above Judicially revealed the delinquents. And that 
 although the assigned term of the month may have 
 passed, as above, the obligation still remains to reveal 
 amd denounce under the same penalties until such time as 
 the person possessed of the information shall have effect- 
 ively informed amd denounced. And in order that the 
 present Edict, together with the orders, as well general 
 as special, may come to the knowledge of all, we ordain 
 and command that they be Jcept posted up in the sacristies 
 of the churches belonging as well to the secular as to the 
 regular Clergy. To the end that no one may remain 
 ignorant of the present orders or withdraw himself from 
 obedience, we enjoin tipon all printers, booksellers, Custom 
 Souse officers, tax collectors, gatekeepers, innkeepers, 
 lodging-house keepers, and shopkeepers, all respectively, 
 that they keep posted vp a copy of the present JEdict, in 
 
 H H 
 
466 APPENDIX. 
 
 their respective prmting-houses, book-shops, Custom- 
 houses, gates, inns, lodging-houses, and shops, and in a 
 public place ■where it can be seen and read by all. 
 
 EXHOETATIOTT. 
 
 The principal, rather the only, object of the Inquisi- 
 tion being, as has been said above, the glory of God, the 
 exaltation of the holy faith, and the salvation of souls ; 
 therefore, after having commanded and ordained as above, 
 now vje exhort fraternally all those who may know them- 
 selves to be guilty of some crime appertaining to the 
 Inquisition, to present themselves before us, or before our 
 Vicars, or before the Ordinary of the place, spontaneously^ 
 before being anticipated or denounced by others, and to 
 confess with all sincerity and integrity their errors and 
 their shortcomings ; assuring them that whenevde thet 
 
 HAVE NOT BEEN JLE&ALLT ANTICIPATED BEEOEE ANT 
 
 OTHEE EccLESiASTiCAi TeIbunal, they will be received 
 with howels of ehwrity, and treated with special compas- 
 sion, the natural disposition of this Sacred Tribunal, and 
 in that way without any danger, or without public 
 penance or punishment, they will be absolved and dis- 
 charged, 
 
 PAETIOITEAB OEBBES. 
 
 Pertaining to the orders enjoined by us relative to 
 the printing, introduction, sale, and promulgation of 
 wicked and prohibited books, and being specially in- 
 terested that in the cities and places under our jurisdic- 
 tion should be preserved that purity of faith which, by the 
 grace of the Most High, exists at present, we ordain and 
 expressly command that no one dare to print, introduce, 
 sell, or circulate books within or without the cities or 
 places subject to us, without their having been subjected 
 
APPENDIX. 467 
 
 to the revision of the Inquisition, and of the officer belong- 
 ing to it, under the punishment estabhshed by the Sacred 
 Canons, the general and special Decrees of the Sacred 
 Congregation, and the Apostolic Constitutions which have 
 been issued and promulgated on this subject, and espe- 
 cially by those of Clement VIII., and Gregory XV. 
 
 Besides, as being inseparable from the Orders, Decrees, 
 Edicts of the Supreme Tribunal of the Inquisition at 
 Home, and the Constitutions and Pontifical BuUs respec- 
 tively published and promulgated with respect to the Jews, 
 especially as regards cohabitation and familiarizing with 
 them ; we ordain and command that no one dares to 
 transgress the orders and prescriptions in these cases 
 under the penalties in them expressed and threatened. 
 
 Given at the Inquisition of Pesaro the 15th September, 
 184.1. 
 
 For FiIjIPPO BEETOIiOTTI, 
 
 Inquisitor General, 
 
 AlTTOHTO SbTEEIIH, 
 
 Chancellor General of the Inquisition. 
 ("Documents," vol. i., p. 302.) 
 
 2 H 3 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Absolution, modeof finding, changed, 
 
 224 
 Accusations, suggested and enforced 
 by torture, 208-210, 440, 441, 
 447-449 
 Addresses to the Pope, 426-434 
 Amnesty, the Papal, and its excep- 
 tions, 195-197, 398, 399 
 Antonelli, Cardinal, 192, 293, 
 330, 368, 871, 378-380, 892, 
 393, 395, 400, 406, 413, 415, 
 421 
 Apostles, why thirteen f 328 
 Architectural beauty of cities, 30- 
 
 32 
 Armenia, L', (Jesuit paper,) 62 
 Assassination, official incitement 
 
 to, 203, 204 
 Austria and Austrians, 65, 70, 101 
 102, 122, 128, 129, 140, 177 
 192, 193, 413-420, 425 
 Austrian repression of Papal cruel- 
 ties, 102, 418, 419, 438, 439 
 AzegHo, D', family, 62-64, 99 
 Basilicas, privileges of, 303, 304 
 Bedini, Archbishop, 102, 192-195, 
 205, 206, 404, 413, 414, 488, 
 489 
 Benediction, the out-of-door, 380 
 Bengal lights, punishment for 
 
 burning, 401 
 Bevilacqua, Marquis of, 397 
 Bible Society, the, at Milan, 97, 98 
 Blasphemy, punishment for, 216, 
 
 216, 452, 463 
 Bologna, Corporation of, 191-193, 
 202, 203, 424, 425 
 
 Bologna, Judgment of Court of, 
 
 202, 203, 446-449 
 Bonaccioli, Hannibal, 134 
 Bonaccioli, Professor Thomas, 408— 
 
 412 
 Book shops, 94, 96, 140 
 Bread and water, 128, 202, 211, 
 
 452 
 Buona Novella, La, (Vandois paper,) 
 
 53 
 Capitol, the, 808, 311 
 Capuchin Monks, the, 145 
 Carignano, Prince of, 237-243, 
 
 884 
 Cathedral of Milan, the, 81, 82 
 Catholic and Koman Catholic 104 , 
 
 110, 146, 862-366 
 Catholicity of religious denomina- 
 tions in England, 261, 262 
 Cavour, 22, 41, 42, 54, 70, 90, 
 
 181, 266, 258, 265, 320,422 
 CeHbacy of Priests, 176-179, 343 
 Churches, open for private devotion, 
 
 62 
 Civilti Cattolica, La, 63-66, 181, 
 
 256, 358, 265, 320, 423 
 Climate, its effect on man, 119- 
 
 121 
 Cocchi, Colonel, andthe amnesty, 195 
 Coffee-houses, benefits of, 297, 298 
 Commandments of God changed, 
 
 224, 225 
 Commandments of the Church, 225 
 Como, 100, 102, 103 
 Confession, mode of, 146, 225 
 Confessions of crime suggested, en- 
 forced, and retracted, 208-210 
 
INDEX. 
 
 469 
 
 Constitution, Roman, of 1848, 394- 
 
 398, 402, 403 
 CJouverts from Popery, 136 
 Corcelles, Monsieur de, apology for 
 
 Pontifical Government, 204 
 Corruption and invention, 222 
 Corsi, Canon, murder of, 182 
 Courtship and its laws, 213 
 Council of Censure, 402-404, 414 
 Cudgelman, 199 
 
 Decalogue changed, 225-228, 250 
 De Santis, Dr., 36 
 Deserters from Papal army, 206 
 Despotism, temporal, arises out of 
 
 spiritual, 55 
 Destroy, not excepting infants, 391, 
 
 392 
 Dialects of Italy, dif&culty for tra- 
 vellers, 69, 70i 86 
 Dogs set upon prisoners, 209 
 Do&, Giuseppe, and LordNorman- 
 
 hy, 245 
 Dottrina Christiana, La, 226 
 Drinks, national, 83, 348, 349 
 Duchesses of Parma, 143 
 Duteof Milan and the Papal Bull, 98 
 Dying men and their property, 
 
 343-346, 408-412 
 Eardley, Sir Culling, 60 
 Easter Sunday at Rome, 366 
 Eight hundred condemned in i 
 
 single sentence, 208 
 Elections, morality of, 158, 159 
 England, feeling towards, 6, 40, 
 
 86, 87, 93, 112 
 England, the land of home, 179 
 Enlistment for Papal army, 420- 
 
 422 
 Excommunication, feeling respect- 
 ing, 46-50, 70-74, 87, 95-97, 
 109, 113, 140, 141, 319, 320, 
 358-362 
 Executions, 209, 402, 425, 433, 
 
 440, 441 
 Executorship, an agreeable, 408- 
 
 412 
 False witness, 183-187, 208, 209, 
 419, 420. 440, 441, 447 
 
 Parini, 37, 62, 64, 68, 90, 147 
 Feasts and fasts, punishment for 
 
 non-observance of, 453-458 
 Fermo, three young men of, 182-187 
 Ferrara, three men of, 128-135, 
 
 439-442 
 F^tes, 237 
 Fines, part payment to informers, 
 
 212 
 ForK, 197, 202, 412, 414, 420 
 Frascati, 296, 297, 311, 360 
 FuUguo, judgment of Court of, 
 
 390, 391 
 GaUi on finance, 406 
 Garibaldi, 70, 73, 74, 100, 101, 
 
 177, 418, 437 
 Garibaldi's wife, 101-103, 437-439 
 Gavazzi prevented preaching, 248 
 Gens-d'armes, Papal, 308-310 
 Giornaledi Roma, 64, 298, 299, 426 
 Good Friday in Rome, 349 
 Government of the Priests, 102, 
 109, 126, 127-129, 139, 169- 
 177, 180-183, 207, 208, 210, 
 221, 310, 343, 344, 346, 389- 
 
 391, 401, 402, 407, 412, 428 
 Governor of Milan, Massimo 
 
 d'AzegUo, 54, 90, 99 
 Haystack huts, 291 
 Hemans, Mr. C. J., 353, 354, 371, 
 
 372, 375, 376 
 He may go to Jerusalem or Antioch, 
 
 251 
 He pays himself well, 112 
 Heresy and heretics, 211, 214, 341, 
 
 453, 464 
 Hilliers, Baragnay 'i, 123 
 Historic ruins, idea represented by, 
 
 312 
 Holy Father and dear bread, 309 
 HolyStair, the, 315-317 
 Hudson, Sir James, 260, 261 
 Idea, the, 11, 39, 112 
 Illuminations, 62-65, 79, 80, 90, 
 
 91, 258, 382 
 Images, 366-368, 383, 384 
 Iminorality, penalties for, 458—460 
 Inununity of Priests from jurisdic- 
 
470 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 tion of civil courts disregai'ded by 
 
 Austrians, 417, 418 
 Indulgences, 7B, 303, 304 
 Infonners' and witnesses' names kept 
 
 secret, 211, 403, 430, 460 
 Insolence, pumshment for^ 203 
 Inquisition, the, 211-213, 390, 
 
 391, 453, 4B'9, 460, 462-470 
 Islamism and Romanism, 434-436 
 Italians, physically, 121 
 It is not always the guilty who die, 
 
 187, 430 
 King of Glory, 371-875 
 ladies jumping, 333 
 Lamoriciei'e, 371, 382, 383 
 Lateran, the, 315, 823, 358 
 Light, power of, 16, 29, 279, 813, 
 
 314 
 Lodi, 123, 124 
 
 London, architecture of, 31, 82 
 Loretto, edict of the Synod of, 210, 
 
 449-461 
 Loretto, holy house of, 835, 336 
 Luther on the Holy Starr, 816, 
 
 317 
 Magenta, 73, 74 
 Marble or plaster ? interior of St.- 
 
 Peter's, 324 
 Maremma, the, 244 
 Marliani, Count, 178 
 Medical aid, 424, 425 
 Melegnano, who commanded at the 
 
 battle P 122, 123 
 Milanese, assembly o^ their opi-, 
 
 nions, 107-112 I 
 
 Minister and Priest, distinction 
 
 between, 43, 43, 173, 174 i 
 
 Modena, 147 
 Modem Eome, 818, 814 
 Monterosi, sample of the Campagna, 
 
 293, 294 
 Mortara family, the, visit to, 69, 60 
 Mothers of families, group of one 
 
 hundred begging, 408 
 Motu Proprio, 898 
 Mourning banner, 90, 288 
 Municipal Government, 405, 406 
 Murray, 273, 322 
 
 Naples, King's palace emblematic of 
 his government, 111, 112 
 
 Napoleon III., 21, 22, 39, 40, 150- 
 153, 889, 448-446 
 
 National Guard, 390, 414 
 
 National stability, what constitutes P 
 178,179 
 
 Nave, the, of St. Peter's, fault in 
 proportion, 322 
 
 Ney, M. Edgar, 392, 823 
 
 Nuns of Milan, 80 
 
 0, he is a soldier, 74 
 
 Order, public, 90, 177, 259, 429, 
 432, 433 
 
 Orlati, Baptist, punishment for irre- 
 verence and heresy, 214 216 
 
 Oudinot, General, 889, 390 
 
 Papers to read, 88 
 
 Parma, 142, 147-149 
 
 Fasquino and the excommunication, 
 51 
 
 Passports, 229, 237, 291, 418 
 
 Pepoli, Count, 156-189, 177. 
 178 
 
 Physical conformation of Italy, 121 
 
 Piacen^a, 119, 125, 126, 140, 141, 
 144, 346 
 
 Piedmontese, feeling towards the 
 French, 22 
 
 Piedmontese, not revolutionary pro- 
 pagandists, 41 
 
 Pio Nono, 180, 181, 213, 260, 298, 
 880-884, 840, 873, 374, 394- 
 898. 402, 410, 411. 417, 427, 
 430, 449 
 
 Poison, precautions against, S75, 
 370 
 
 PoUtical robe, the, 179, 180 
 
 Police, PriesiB, and robbers, alleged 
 collusion between, 238 
 
 Pope's curse and his blessing, Eng- 
 land and Naples, 51, 114, 116 
 
 Pope's Irish brigade, lands for, 2,96 
 
 Portative throne, the, 370 
 
 Preaching among reformed Italians, 
 character of, 252 
 
 Priest and his breviary, discussion 
 with, 103-107 
 
INDEX. 
 
 471 
 
 Priest, (Hugo Bassi,) shot by Aus 
 
 trians, 4] 7 
 Priests as patriots, 45, 46, 85, 86, 
 
 97. 178 
 Press iu Roman States, 63, 64 
 
 194, 195 
 Protestant burial ground at Home, 
 
 340-342 
 Protestant congregations at Ho^ 
 
 •rence, 245, 246 
 Protestant and Roman CatboHc 
 
 countries, difference between, 
 
 169-171 
 Purcbase system in tbe army, 18-21 
 Eadetzty, refusal to receive Papal 
 
 snbjects in bis army, 205 
 Reformed Italian Cbristians, views 
 
 of, 262, 263 
 ReUcs, 317, 318, 355-357, 379, 
 
 380 
 Religious liberty and tbe Italian 
 
 patriots, 56-59, 178, 247-250, 
 
 264 
 Religions prospects of Italy, 261 
 Religious orders, differences be 
 
 tween, 342, 343 
 Revolution led by natural beads of 
 
 tbe people, 160, 172 
 River, wbat constitutes tbe identity 
 
 of a, 306 
 Roman railways, 397 
 Rossi, Prelate Stepben, recommends 
 
 tbe bastinade, 199 
 Rota Romana, 410, 411 
 Sacraments cbanged, 223 
 St. Jean de Maurienne, 8-10 
 Savoy, feeling respecting annexa- 
 tion to Prance, 3, 6, 21, 22, 40 
 St. Peter's, 298, 304, 321-324, 327, 
 
 338 
 Secret Court of Censure, 402, 403 
 Sermons, 107, 161-166, 252, 289 
 Seven bills, tbe, 312, 313 
 Sincere defenders of tbe Cburcb, 
 
 wbere are tbey ? 88, 89 
 Singing in cburcbes, 167, 168, 246. 
 
 251, 319 
 
 Sistine Cbapel, 324 
 
 Skies, comparison between tbose of 
 
 Italy, Egypt, and America, 272 
 Soldiers in cburcb, 334 
 Spezzia, Gulf of, 277, 278 
 Steam borse and Englisb ideas, 296 
 Strange Sundays, 92 
 Students in tbe coffee-bouses, 82, 83 
 Subjection of Pontifical Government 
 
 to Austrians, 413-425 
 Subjects, the great inconvenience 
 
 of Papal Government, 204 
 Supper of tbe tbirteeu Apostles, 
 
 335-337 
 Surplice, tbe, among tbe olives, 233, 
 
 234 
 Taxes, 406, 407, 432, 433 
 Teaching humility, 338, 339 
 Temporal and spiritual power of 
 tbe Pope, distinction between, 45, 
 55, 56, 97, 178, 251, 412, 413, 
 421, 423, 434 
 Tenebrse, ceremony of, 350-354 
 They that are idle eat, tbey that 
 
 labour starve, 344 
 Three Lombard officers, 71 
 Tiber, tbe, 293, 305, 306, 313, 314 
 Ticiuo, tbe, 72 
 
 Tobacco, refasal to smoke, 379-400 
 
 Too near, the Italians, not to 
 
 know wbat the Popes are, 
 
 141 
 
 Torture, 128, 208-210, 215, 400, 
 
 404, 405, 418, 426, 430, 440, 
 
 441, 447-449 
 
 Tuscan Government superior to 
 
 Papal, 229 
 Vaudois, the, 32-35, 64, 65, 74, 
 
 245, 262 
 Velva, tbe pass of, 281 
 Venetia, 90,113, 121, 122 
 Vines and violence, 347, 348 
 Washing the Apostles' feet, 327-333 
 We are a nation, 39, 62, 83 
 Wines and their effects, 348, 349 
 Worship cbanged, 223 
 |Tou can buy anything, 75 
 
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