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+The Project Gutenberg eBook of Pilgrimage from the Alps to the Tiber, by
+James Aitken Wylie
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: Pilgrimage from the Alps to the Tiber
+       Or The Influence of Romanism on Trade, Justice, and Knowledge
+
+
+Author: James Aitken Wylie
+
+
+
+Release Date: March 9, 2009  [eBook #28294]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PILGRIMAGE FROM THE ALPS TO THE
+TIBER***
+
+
+E-text prepared by Frank van Drogen, Greg Bergquist, and the Project
+Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net)
+
+
+
+Transcriber's note:
+
+   The punctuation and spelling from the original text have been
+   preserved faithfully. Only obvious typographical errors have
+   been corrected.
+
+
+
+
+
+PILGRIMAGE FROM THE ALPS TO THE TIBER.
+
+Or
+
+The Influence of Romanism on Trade, Justice, and Knowledge.
+
+by
+
+REV. J.A. WYLIE, LL.D.
+
+Author of "The Papacy," &c. &.c.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Edinburgh
+Shepherd & Elliot, 15, Princes Street.
+London: Hamilton, Adams, & Co.
+MDCCCLV.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+
+ CHAPTER I.
+                                                           PAGE
+ THE INTRODUCTION,                                            1
+
+ CHAPTER II.
+ THE PASSAGE OF THE ALPS,                                     8
+
+ CHAPTER III.
+ RISE AND PROGRESS OF CONSTITUTIONALISM IN PIEDMONT,         23
+
+ CHAPTER IV.
+ STRUCTURE AND CHARACTERISTICS OF THE VAUDOIS VALLEYS,       43
+
+ CHAPTER V.
+ STATE AND PROSPECTS OF THE VAUDOIS CHURCH,                  62
+
+ CHAPTER VI.
+ FROM TURIN TO NOVARA--PLAIN OF LOMBARDY,                    83
+
+ CHAPTER VII.
+ FROM NOVARA TO MILAN--DOGANA--CHAIN OF THE ALPS,            94
+
+ CHAPTER VIII.
+ CITY AND PEOPLE OF MILAN,                                  105
+
+ CHAPTER IX.
+ ARCO DELLA PACE--ST AMBROSE,                               119
+
+ CHAPTER X.
+ THE DUOMO OF MILAN,                                        126
+
+ CHAPTER XI.
+ MILAN TO BRESCIA--THE REFORMERS,                           137
+
+ CHAPTER XII.
+ THE PRESENT THE IMAGE OF THE PAST,                         152
+
+ CHAPTER XIII.
+ SCENERY OF LAKE GARDA--PESCHIERA--VERONA,                  158
+
+ CHAPTER XIV.
+ FROM VERONA TO VENICE--THE TYROLESE ALPS,                  168
+
+ CHAPTER XV.
+ VENICE--DEATH OF NATIONS,                                  178
+
+ CHAPTER XVI.
+ PADUA--ST ANTONY--THE PO--ARREST,                          198
+
+ CHAPTER XVII.
+ FERRARA--RENÉE AND OLYMPIA MORATA,                         209
+
+ CHAPTER XVIII.
+ BOLOGNA AND THE APENNINES,                                 216
+
+ CHAPTER XIX.
+ FLORENCE AND ITS YOUNG EVANGELISM,                         237
+
+ CHAPTER XX.
+ FROM LEGHORN TO ROME--CIVITA VECCHIA,                      262
+
+ CHAPTER XXI.
+ MODERN ROME,                                               276
+
+ CHAPTER XXII.
+ ANCIENT ROME--THE SEVEN HILLS,                             289
+
+ CHAPTER XXIII.
+ SIGHTS IN ROME--CATACOMBS--PILATE'S STAIRS--PIO NONO, &C., 302
+
+ CHAPTER XXIV.
+ INFLUENCE OF ROMANISM ON TRADE,                            333
+
+ CHAPTER XXV.
+ INFLUENCE OF ROMANISM ON TRADE--(CONTINUED),               352
+
+ CHAPTER XXVI.
+ JUSTICE AND LIBERTY IN THE PAPAL STATES,                   366
+
+ CHAPTER XXVII.
+ EDUCATION AND KNOWLEDGE IN THE PAPAL STATES,               401
+
+ CHAPTER XXVIII.
+ MENTAL STATE OF THE PRIESTHOOD IN ITALY,                   415
+
+ CHAPTER XXIX.
+ SOCIAL AND DOMESTIC CUSTOMS OF THE ROMANS,                 430
+
+ CHAPTER XXX.
+ THE ARGUMENT FROM THE WHOLE, OR, ROME HER OWN WITNESS,     447
+
+
+
+
+ROME,
+
+AND
+
+THE WORKINGS OF ROMANISM
+
+IN ITALY.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+THE INTRODUCTION.
+
+
+I did not go to Rome to seek for condemnatory matter against the Pope's
+government. Had this been my only object, I should not have deemed it
+necessary to undertake so long a journey. I could have found materials
+on which to construct a charge in but too great abundance nearer home.
+The cry of the Papal States had waxed great, and there was no need to go
+down into those unhappy regions to satisfy one's self that the
+oppression was "altogether according to the cry of it." I had other
+objects to serve by my journey.
+
+There is one other country which has still more deeply influenced the
+condition of the race, and towards which one is even more powerfully
+drawn, namely, Judea. But Italy is entitled to the next place, as
+respects the desire which one must naturally feel to visit it, and the
+instruction one may expect to reap from so doing. Some of the greatest
+minds which the pagan world has produced have appeared in Italy. In that
+land those events were accomplished which have given to modern history
+its form and colour; and those ideas elaborated, the impress of which
+may still be traced upon the opinions, the institutions, and the creeds
+of Europe. In Italy, too, empire has left her ineffaceable traces, and
+art her glorious footsteps. There is, all will admit, a peculiar and
+exquisite pleasure in visiting such spots: nor is there pleasure only,
+but profit also. One's taste may be corrected, and his judgment
+strengthened, by seeing the masterpieces of ancient genius. New trains
+of thought may be suggested, and new sources of information opened, by
+the sight of men and of manners wholly new. But more than this,--I
+believed that there were lessons to be learned there, which it was
+emphatically worth one's while going there to learn, touching the
+working of that politico-religious system of which Italy has so long
+been the seat and centre. I had previously been at some little pains to
+make myself acquainted with this system in its principles, and wished to
+have an opportunity of studying it in its effects upon the government of
+the country, and the condition of the people, as respects their trade,
+industry, knowledge, liberty, religion, and general happiness. All I
+shall say in the following pages will have a bearing, more or less
+direct, upon this main point.
+
+It is impossible to disjoin the present of these countries from the
+past; nor can the solemn and painful enigma which they exhibit be
+unriddled but by a reference to the past, and that not the immediate,
+but the remote past. There is truth, no doubt, in the saying of the old
+moralist, that nations lose in moments what they had acquired in years;
+but the remark is applicable rather to the accelerated speed with which
+the last stages of a nation's ruin are accomplished, than to the slow
+and imperceptible progress which usually marks its commencement. Unless
+when cut off by the sudden stroke of war, it requires five centuries at
+least to consummate the fall of a great people. One must pass,
+therefore, over those hideous abuses which are the immediate harbingers
+of national disaster, and which exclusively engross the attention of
+ordinary inquirers, and go back to those remote ages, and those minute
+and apparently insignificant causes, amid which national declension,
+unsuspected often by the nation itself, takes its rise. The destiny of
+modern Europe was sealed so long ago as A.D. 606, when the Bishop of
+Rome was made head of the universal Church by the edict of a man stained
+with the double guilt of usurpation and murder. Religion is the parent
+of liberty. The rise of tyrants can be prevented in no other way but by
+maintaining the supremacy of God and conscience; and in the early
+corruptions of the gospel, the seeds were sown of those frightful
+despotisms which have since arisen, and of those tremendous convulsions
+which are now rending society. The evil principle implanted in the
+European commonwealth in the seventh century appeared to lie dormant for
+ages; but all the while it was busily at work beneath those imposing
+imperial structures which arose in the middle ages. It had not been cast
+out of the body politic; it was still there, operating with noiseless
+but resistless energy and terrible strength; and while monarchs were
+busily engaged founding empires and consolidating their rule, it was
+preparing to signalize, at a future day, the superiority of its own
+power by the sudden and irretrievable overthrow of theirs. Thus society
+had come to resemble the lofty mountain, whose crown of white snows and
+robe of fresh verdure but conceal those hidden fires which are
+smouldering within its bowels. Under the appearance of robust health, a
+moral cancer was all the while preying upon the vitals of society,
+eating out by slow degrees the faith, the virtue, the obedience of the
+world. The ground at last gave way, and thrones and hierarchies came
+tumbling down. Look at the Europe of our day. What is the Papacy, but an
+enormous cancer, of most deadly virulency, which has now run its course,
+and done its work upon the nations of the Continent. The European
+community, from head to foot, is one festering sore. Soundness in it
+there is none. The Papal world is a wriggling mass of corruption and
+suffering. It is a compound of tyrannies and perjuries,--of lies and
+blood-red murders,--of crimes abominable and unnatural,--of priestly
+maledictions, socialist ravings, and atheistic blasphemies. The whine of
+mendicants, the curses, groans, and shrieks of victims, and the demoniac
+laughter of tyrants, commingle in one hoarse roar. Faugh! the spectacle
+is too horrible to be looked at; its effluvia is too fetid to be
+endured. What is to be done with the carcase? We cannot dwell in its
+neighbourhood. It would be impossible long to inhabit the same globe
+with it: its stench were enough to pollute and poison the atmosphere of
+our planet. It must be buried or burned. It cannot be allowed to remain
+on the surface of the earth: it would breed a plague, which would
+infect, not a world only, but a universe. It is in this direction that
+we are to seek for instruction; and here, if we are able to receive it,
+thirty generations are willing to impart to us their dear-bought
+experience. Lessons which have cost the world so much are surely worth
+learning.
+
+But I do not mean to treat my readers to lectures on history, instead of
+chapters on travel. It is not an abstract disquisition on the influence
+of religion and government, such as one might compose without stirring
+from his own fire-side, which I intend to write. It is a real journey we
+are about to undertake. You shall have facts as well as
+reflections,--incidents as well as disquisitions. I shall be grave,--as
+who would not at the sight of fallen nations?--but "when time shall
+serve there shall be smiles." You shall climb the Alps; and when their
+tops begin to burn at sunrise, you shall join heart and song with the
+music of the shepherd's horn, and the thunder of a thousand torrents, as
+they rush headlong down amid crags and pine-forests from the icy
+summits. You shall enter, with pilgrim feet, the gates of proud
+capitals, where puissant kings once reigned, but have passed away, and
+have left no memorial on earth, save a handful of dust in a
+stone-coffin, or a half-legible name on some mouldering arch. The solemn
+and stirring voice of Monte Viso, speaking from the midst of the Cottian
+Alps, will call you from afar to the martyr-land of Europe. You shall
+worship with the Waldenses beneath their own Castelluzzo, which covers
+with its mighty shadow the ashes of their martyred forefathers, and the
+humble sanctuary of their living descendants. You shall count the towns
+and campaniles on the broad Lombardy. You shall pass glorious days on
+the top of renowned cathedrals, and sit and muse in the face of the
+eternal Alps, as the clouds now veil, now reveal, their never-trodden
+snows. You shall cross the Lagunes, and see the winged lion of St Mark
+soaring serenely amid the bright domes and the ever calm seas of Venice,
+where you may list
+
+ "The song and oar of Adria's gondolier,
+ Mellowed by distance, o'er the waters sweep."
+
+You shall travel long sleepless nights in the _diligence_, and be
+ferried at day-break over "ancient rivers." You shall tread the
+grass-grown streets of Ferrara, and the deserted halls of Bologna, where
+the wisdom-loving youth of Europe erst assembled, but whose solitude now
+is undisturbed, save by the clank of the Croat's sabre, or the
+wine-flagon of the friar. You shall visit cells dim and dank, around
+which genius has thrown a halo which draws thither the pilgrim, who
+would rather muse in the twilight of the naked vault, than wander amid
+the marble glories of the palace that rises proudly in its
+neighbourhood. You shall go with me, at the hour of vespers, to aisled
+cathedrals, which were ages a-building, and the erection of which
+swallowed up the revenues of provinces,--beneath whose roof, ample
+enough to cover thousands and tens of thousands, you may see a solitary
+priest, singing a solemn dirge over a "Religion" fallen as a dominant
+belief, and existing only as a military organization; while statues,
+mute and solemn, of mailed warriors, grim saints, angels and winged
+cherubs, ranged along the walls, are the only companions of the
+surpliced man, if we except a few beggars pressing with naked knees the
+stony floor. You shall see Florence,--
+
+ "The brightest star of star-bright Italy."
+
+You shall be stirred by the craggy grandeur of the Apennines, and
+soothed by the living green of the Tuscan vales, with their hoar
+castles, their olives, their dark cypresses, and their forests,--
+
+             "Where beside his leafy hold
+ The sullen boar hath heard the distant horn,
+ And whets his tusks against the gnarled thorn."
+
+You shall taste the vine of Italy, and drink the waters of the Arno. You
+shall wander over ancient battle-fields, encounter the fierce Apennine
+blast, and be rocked on the Mediterranean wave, which the sirocco heaps
+up, huge and dark, and pours in a foaming cataract upon the strand of
+Italy. Finally, we shall tread together the sackcloth plain on which
+Rome sits, with the leaves of her torn laurel and the fragments of her
+shivered sceptre strewn around her, waiting with discrowned and
+downcast head the bolt of doom. Entering the gates of the "seven-hilled
+city," we shall climb the Capitol, and survey a scene which has its
+equal nowhere on the earth. Mouldering arches, fallen columns, buried
+palaces, empty tombs, and slaves treading on the dust of the conquerors
+of the world, are all that now remain of Imperial Rome. What a scene of
+ruin and woe! When the twilight falls, and the moon begins to climb the
+eastern arch, mark how the Coliseum projects, as if in pity, its mighty
+shadow across the Forum, and covers with its kindly folds the mouldering
+trophies of the past, and draws its mantle around the nakedness of the
+Cæsars' palace, as if to screen it from the too curious eye of the
+visitor. Rome, what a history is thine! One other tragedy, terrible as
+befits the drama it closes, and the curtain will drop in solemn, and, it
+may be, eternal silence.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+THE PASSAGE OF THE ALPS.
+
+     The Rhone--Plains of Dauphiny--Mont Blanc and the "Reds"--Landscape
+     by Night--Democratic Club in the _Diligence_--Approach the
+     Alps--Festooned Vines--Begin the Ascent--Chamberry--Uses of War--An
+     Alpine Valley--Sudden Alternations of Beauty and
+     Grandeur--Travellers--Evening--Grandeur of Sunset--Supper at
+     Lanslebourg--Cross the Summit at Midnight--Morning--Sunrise among
+     the Alps--Descent--Italy.
+
+
+It was wearing late on an evening of early October 1851 when I crossed
+the Rhone on my way to the Alps. It had rained heavily during the day,
+and sombre clouds still rested on the towers of Lyons behind me. The
+river was in flood, and the lamps on the bridge threw a troubled gleam
+upon the impetuous current as it rolled underneath. It was impossible
+not to recollect that this was the stream on the banks of which Irenæus,
+the disciple of Polycarp, himself the disciple of John, had, at almost
+the identical spot where I crossed it, laboured and prayed, and into the
+floods of which had been flung the ashes of the first martyrs of Gaul.
+These murky skies formed no very auspicious commencement of my journey;
+but I cherished the hope that to-morrow would bring fair weather, and
+with fair weather would come the green valleys and gleaming tops of the
+Alps, and, the day after, the sunny plains of Italy. This fair vision
+beckoned me on through the deep road and the scudding shower.
+
+We struck away into the plains of Dauphiny,--those great plains that
+stretch from the Rhone to the Alps, and which offer to the eye, as seen
+from the heights that overhang Lyons, a vast and varied expanse of wood
+and meadow, corn-field and vineyard, city and hamlet, with the snowy
+pile of Mont Blanc rising afar in the horizon. On the previous evening I
+had climbed these heights, so stately and beautiful, with convents
+hanging on their sides, and a chapel to Mary crowning their summit, to
+renew my acquaintance, after an interval of some years' absence, with
+the monarch of the Alps. I was greatly pleased to find, especially in
+these times, that my old friend had not grown "red." Since I saw him
+last, changes not a few had passed upon Europe, and more than one
+monarch had fallen; but Mont Blanc sat firmly in his seat, and wore his
+icy crown as proudly as ever.
+
+Since my former visit to Lyons the "Reds" had made great progress in all
+the countries at the foot of the Alps. Their party had been especially
+progressive in Lyons; so much so as to affect the nomenclature of the
+hills that overlook that city on the north. That hill, which is nearly
+wholly covered with the houses and workshops of the silk-weavers, is now
+known as the "red mountain," its inhabitants being mostly of that
+faction; while the hill on the west of it, that, namely, which I had
+ascended on the evening before, and which is chiefly devoted to
+ecclesiastical persons and uses, is called the "white mountain." But
+while men had been changing their faith, and hills their names, Mont
+Blanc stood firmly by his old creed and his old colours. There he was,
+dazzlingly, transcendently white, defying the fuller's art to whiten
+him, and shading into dimness the snowy robe of the priest; looking
+with royal majesty over his wide realm; standing unchanged in the midst
+of a theatre of changes; abiding for ever, though kingdoms at his feet
+were passing away; pre-eminent in grace and glory amidst his princely
+peers; and looking the earthly type of that eternal and all-glorious
+One, who stands supreme and unapproachable amid the powers, dominions,
+and royalties of the universe.
+
+The night wore on without any noticeable event, or any special
+interruption, save what was occasioned necessarily by our arrival at the
+several stages, and the changes consequent thereon of horses and
+postilions. There was a rag of a moon overhead,--at least so one might
+judge from the hazy light that struggled through the fog,--by the help
+of which I kept watching the landscape till past midnight. Then a spirit
+of drowsiness invaded me. It was not sleep, but sleep's image, or
+sleep's counterfeit,--an uneasy trance, in which a confused vision of
+tall trees, with their head in the clouds, and very long and very narrow
+fields, marked off by straight rows of very upright poplars, and large
+heavy-looking houses, with tall antique roofs, kept marching past,
+without variety and without end. I would wake up at times and look out.
+There was the same picture before me. I would fall back into my trance
+again, and, an hour or so after, I would again wake up; still the
+identical picture was there. I could not persuade myself that the
+_diligence_ had moved from the spot, despite the rumbling of its wheels
+and the jingling of the horses' bells. All night long the same
+changeless picture kept moving on and on, ever passing, yet never past.
+
+I may be said to have crossed the Alps amid a torrent of curses. My
+place was in the _banquette_, the roomiest and loftiest part of the
+lofty _diligence_, and which, perched in front, and looking down upon
+the inferior compartments of the _diligence_, much as the attics of a
+three-storey house look down upon the lower suits of apartments,
+commands a fine view of the country, when it is daylight and clear
+weather. There sat next me in the _banquette_ a young Savoyard, who
+travelled with us as far as Chamberry, in the heart of the Alps; and on
+the other side of the Savoyard sat the _conducteur_. This last was a
+Piedmontese, a young, clever, obliging fellow, with a voluble tongue,
+and a keen dark eye in his head. Scarce had we extricated ourselves from
+the environs of Lyons, or had got beyond the reach of the guns that look
+so angrily down upon it from the heights, till these two broke into a
+conversation on politics. The conversation soon warmed into an energetic
+and vehement discussion, or philippic I should rather say. Their
+discourse was far too rapid, and I was too unfamiliar with the language
+in which it was uttered to do more than gather its scope and drift. But
+I could hear the names of France and Austria repeated every other
+sentence; and these names were sure to be followed by a volley of
+curses, fierce, scornful, and defiant. Austria was cursed,--France was
+cursed: they were cursed individually,--they were cursed
+conjunctly,--once, again, and a hundred times. What were the politics of
+the passengers in the other compartments of the diligence I know not;
+but little did they wot that they had a democratic club overhead, and
+that more treason was spouted that night in their company than might
+have got us all into trouble, had there been any evesdropper in any
+corner of the vehicle. When I chanced to awake, they were still at it.
+The harsh grating sound of the anathemas haunted me during my sleep
+even. It was like a rattling hail-shower, or like the continuous
+corruscations of lightning,--the lightning of the Alps. Had it been
+possible for the authorities to know but a tithe of what was spoken
+that night by my two neighbours, their journey would have been short:
+they would have been shot at the next station, to a certainty.
+
+With the night, the dream-like landscape, and the maledictory harangues
+which had haunted me during the darkness, passed away, and the morning
+found us nearing the mountains. The Alps open upon you by little. One
+who has never climbed these hills imagines himself standing at their
+feet, and looking up the long unbroken vista of fields, vineyards,
+forests, and naked rocks, to the eternal snows of their summit. Not so.
+They do not come marching thus upon you in all their grandeur to
+overwhelm you. To see them thus, you must stand afar off,--at least
+fifty miles away. There you can take in the whole at a glance, from the
+beauteous fringe of stream, and hamlet, and woodland, that skirts their
+base, to the white serrated line that cuts so sharply the blue of the
+firmament. Nearer them,--unless, indeed, in the great central valleys,
+where you can see the icy fields hanging in the firmament at an awful
+distance above you,--their snow-clad summits are invisible, being hidden
+by an intervening sea of ridges, that are strewn over with rocks, or
+wave darkly with pines.
+
+As we approached the mountains, they offered to the eye a beauteous
+chain of verdant hills, with the morning mists hanging on their sides.
+The torrents were in flood from the recent rains; the woods had the rich
+tints of autumn upon them; but the charm of the scene lay in the
+beautiful festoonings of the vine. The uplands before me were barred by
+what I at first took to be long horizontal layers of fleecy cloud. On a
+nearer approach, these turned out to be the long branchy arms of the
+vine. The vine-stock is made to lean against the cut trunk of a chestnut
+or poplar tree, and its branches are bent horizontally, and extended
+till they meet those of the neighbouring vine-stock, which have been
+similarly dealt with. In this way, continuous lines of luxuriant
+foliage, with pendulous blood-red clusters in their season, may be made
+to run for miles together along the hill-side. There might be from
+thirty to forty parallel lines in those I now saw. Tinted with the
+morning sun, and relieved against the deep verdure of the mountain, they
+appeared like stripes of amber, or floating lines of cloud fringed with
+gold.
+
+It was the Mont Cenis route I was traversing,--the least rugged of all
+the passes of the Alps, and the same by which Hannibal, as some suppose,
+passed into Italy. The day cleared up into one of unusual brilliancy. We
+began to ascend by a path cut in the rock of the mountain, having on our
+left an escarpment of limestone several hundred feet high, and on our
+right a deep gorge, with a white foaming torrent at its bottom. The
+frontier chain passed, we descended into a rich valley, with a fine
+stream flowing through it, and the poor town of Les Echelles hiding from
+view in one of its angles. These noble valleys are sadly blotted by
+filth and disease. The contrast offered betwixt the noble features of
+nature and the degraded form of man is painful and humiliating. Bowed
+down by toil, stolid with ignorance, disfigured with the goitre, struck
+with cretinism, the miserable beings around you do more to sadden you
+than all that the bright air and glorious hills can do to exhilarate
+you.
+
+The valley where we now were was a complete _cul de sac_. It was walled
+in all round by limestone hills of great height, and the eye sought in
+vain for visible outlet. At length one could see a white line running
+half-way up the mountain's face, and ending in an opening no bigger than
+a pigeon-hole. We slowly climbed this road,--for road it was; and when
+we came to the diminutive opening we had seen from the valley below, it
+expanded into a tunnel,--one of the great works of Napoleon,--which ran
+right through the mountain, and brought us out on the other side. We now
+traversed a narrow and rocky ravine, which at length expanded into a
+magnificent valley, rich in vines and fruit-trees of all kinds, and
+overhung by lofty mountains. On this plain, surrounded by the living
+grandeur of nature, and the faded renown of its monastic and
+archiepiscopal glory, and half-buried amid foliage and ruins, sits
+Chamberry, the capital of Savoy.
+
+At Chamberry our route underwent a change. Beauty now gave place to
+grandeur; but still a grandeur blended with scenes of exquisite
+loveliness. These I cannot stay to describe at length. The whole day was
+passed in winding and climbing among the hills. We toiled slowly to rise
+above the plains we had left, and to approach the region where winter
+spreads out her boundless sea of ice and snow. We followed the
+magnificent road which we owe to the genius of Napoleon. The fruits of
+Marengo are gone. Austerlitz is but a name. But the passes of the Alps
+remain. "When will it be ready for the transport of the cannon?"
+enquired Napoleon respecting the Simplon road. War is a rough pioneer;
+but without such a pioneer to clear the way the world would stand still.
+Look back. What do you see throughout the successive ages? War, with his
+red eye, his iron feet, and his gleaming brand, marching in the van; and
+commerce, and arts, and Christianity, following in the wake of this
+blood-besmeared Anakim. Such has ever been the order of procession.
+Mankind in the mass are a sluggish race, and will march only when the
+word of command is sounded from iron-throated, hoarse-voiced war. Look
+at the Alps. What do you see? A gigantic form, busy amid the blinding
+tempests and the eternal ice of their summits. With herculean might he
+rends the rocks and levels the mountains. Who is he, and what does he
+there? That is war, in the person of Napoleon, hewing a path through
+rocks and glaciers, for the passage of the Bible and the missionary.
+Under the reign of the Mediator the promise to Christianity is, All is
+yours. War is yours, and Peace is yours.
+
+As we passed on, innumerable nooks of beauty opened to the eye, and
+romantic peaks ever and anon shot up before us. Now the path led along a
+meadow, with its large bright flowers; and now along the brink of an
+Alpine river, with its worn bed and tumultuous floods. Now it rounded
+the shoulder of a hill; and now it lost itself in some frightful gorge,
+where the overhanging mountain, with its drapery of pine forests, made
+it dark as midnight almost. You emerge into daylight again, and begin
+the same succession of green meadow, pine-clad hill, foaming torrent,
+and black gorge. Thus you go onward and upward. At length white Alps
+begin to look down upon you, and give you warning that you are nearing
+those central regions where eternal winter holds his seat amid pinnacles
+of ice and wastes of snow.
+
+Let us take an individual picture. The road has made a sudden turn; and
+a valley, hitherto concealed by the mountains, opens unexpectedly. It is
+some three or four miles long; and the road traverses it straight as the
+arrow's flight, till it loses itself amid the rocks and foliage at the
+bottom of the mountain which you see lying across the valley. On this
+hand is a stream of water, clear as crystal; on that is the ridgy, wavy,
+lofty mass of a purple Alp. The bright air and light incorporate, as it
+were, with the substance of the mountain, and spiritualize it, so that
+it looks of mould intermediate betwixt the earth and the firmament. The
+path is bordered with the most delicious verdure, fresh and soft as a
+carpet, and freckled with the dancing shadows of the trees. On this
+hand is a chalet, with a vine climbing its wall and mantling its
+doorway; on that is a verdant knoll, planted a-top with chestnut trees;
+and from amidst their rich, massy foliage, the little spire of the
+church, with its glittering vane, looks forth. Near it is the curé's
+house, buried amidst flower-blossoms, the foliage of vines, and the
+shadows of the sycamore and chestnut. There is not a spot in the little
+valley which beauty has not clothed and decked with the most painstaking
+care; while grandeur has built up a wall all round, as if to keep out
+the storms that sometimes rage here. It looks so quiet and tranquil, and
+is so shut in from the great world outside, that one thinks of it as a
+spot which happy beings from another sphere might come to visit, and
+where he might list the melody of their voices, as they walk at
+even-tide amid the bowers of this earthly Eden.
+
+The road makes another turn, and the scene is changed in a moment,--in
+the twinkling of an eye. The happy valley is gone,--it has vanished like
+a dream; and a scene of stern, savage, overpowering sublimity rises
+before you. Alp is piled upon Alp, chasms yawn, torrents growl, jutting
+rocks threaten; and far over head is the dark pine forest, amid which
+you can descry, perhaps, the frozen billows of the glacier, or have
+glimpses of those still higher and drearier regions where winter sits on
+her eternal throne, and holds undivided sway. Your farther progress is
+completely barred. So it looks. A cyclopean wall rises from earth to
+heaven. The gate of rock by which you entered seems to have closed its
+ponderous jaws behind you, and shut you in,--there to remain till some
+supernatural power rend the mountains and give you egress. The mood of
+mind changes with the scene. The beauty soothed and softened you; now
+you grow impulsive and stern. The awful forms around you blend with the
+soul, as it were, and impart something of their own vastness to it. You
+feel yourself carried into the very presence of that Power which sank
+the foundations of the mountains in the depths of the earth, and built
+up their giant masses above the clouds; which hung the avalanche on
+their brow, clove their unfathomable abysses, poured the river at their
+feet, and taught the forked lightning to play around their awful icy
+steeps. You seem to hear the sound of the Almighty's footsteps still
+echoing amid these hills. There passes before you the shadow of
+Omnipotence; and a great voice seems to proclaim the Godhead of Him "who
+hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and meted out heaven
+with the span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure, and
+weighed the mountains in scales and the hills in a balance."
+
+The road was comparatively solitary. We passed at times a waggoner, who
+was conveying the produce of the plains to some village among the
+mountains; and then a couple of pedestrians, with the air of tradesmen,
+on their way perhaps to a Swiss town to seek employment; and next a
+cowherd, driving home his herds from the glades of the forest; and now
+an occasional gendarme would present himself, and force you to remember,
+what you would willingly have forgotten amid such scenes, that there
+were such things as armies in the world; and sometimes the long, dark
+figure of the curé, reading his breviary to economize time, might be
+seen gliding along before you, representative of the murky superstition
+that still fills these valleys, and which, indeed, you can read in the
+stolid face of the Savoyard, as he sits listlessly under the broad
+easings of his cottage roof.
+
+Anon the evening came, walking noiselessly upon the mountains, and
+shedding on the spirit a not unpleasant melancholy. The Alps seemed to
+grow taller. Deep masses of shade were projected from summit to summit.
+Pine forest, and green vale, and dashing torrent, and quiet hamlet, all
+retired from view, as if they wished to go to sleep beneath the friendly
+shadows. A deep and reverent silence stole over the Alps, as if the
+stillness of the firmament had descended upon them. Over all nature was
+shed this spirit of quiet and profound tranquillity. Every tree was
+motionless. The murmur of the brook, the wing of the bird, the creak of
+our diligence, the voices of the postilion and _conducteur_, all felt
+the softening influence of the hour.
+
+But mark! what glory is this which begins to burn upon the crest of the
+snowy Alps? First there comes a flood of rosy light, and then a deep
+bright crimson, like the ruby's flash or the sapphire's blaze, and then
+a circlet of flaming peaks studs the horizon. It looks as if a great
+conflagration were about to begin. But suddenly the light fades, and
+piles of cold, pale white rise above you. You can scarce believe them to
+be the same mountains. But, quick as the lightning, the flash comes
+again. A flood of glory rolls once more along their summits. It is a
+last and mighty blaze. You feel as if it were a struggle for life,--as
+if it were a war waged by the spirits of darkness against these
+celestial forms. The struggle is over: the darkness has prevailed. These
+mighty mountain torches are extinguished one after one; and cold,
+ghastly piles, of sepulchral hue, which you shiver to look up at, and
+which remind you of the dead, rise still and calm in the firmament above
+you. You feel relieved when darkness interposes its veil betwixt you and
+them. The night sets in deep, and calm, and beautiful, with troops of
+stars overhead. The voice of streams, all night long, fills the silent
+hills with melodious echoes.
+
+We now threaded the black gorge of the Arc, passing, unperceived in the
+darkness, Fort Lesseillon, which, erecting its tiers of batteries above
+this tremendous natural fosse, looks like a mailed warrior guarding the
+entrance to Italy. It was eleven o'clock, and we were toiling up the
+mountain. We had left all human habitations far below, as we thought,
+when suddenly we were startled by a peal of village bells. Never had
+bells sounded sweeter in my fancy than those I now heard in these dreary
+regions. These were the convent bells of the little village of
+Lanslebourg, which lies at the foot of the summit of the Mont Cenis.
+Here we were to sup. It was a sort of Arbour in the midst of the hill
+Difficulty, where we Pilgrims might refresh ourselves before beginning
+our last and steepest ascent. It was a most substantial repast, as all
+suppers in that part of the world are; and we had the pleasure of
+thinking that we were perhaps the highest supper party in Europe. It was
+our last meal before crossing the mountain, and passing from the modern
+to the ancient world; for the ridge of the Alps is the limit that
+divides the two. On this side are modern times; on that are the dark
+ages. You retrograde five full centuries when you step across the line.
+We ate our supper, as did the Israelites their last meal in Egypt, with
+our loins girded,--scarce even our greatcoats put off, and our staff in
+our hand.
+
+Now for the summit. We started at midnight. Above us was an ebon vault,
+studded thick with large bright stars. Around us was the awful silence
+of the mountains. The night was luminous; for in that elevated region
+darkness is unknown, save when the storm-cloud shrouds it. Of our party,
+some betook them to the diligence, and were carried over asleep; others
+of us, leaving the vehicle to follow the road, which zig-zags up to the
+summit, addressed ourselves to the old route, which winds steeply
+upward, now through forests of stunted firs, now over a matting of
+thick, short grass, and now over the bare debris-strewn scalp of the
+mountain. The convent bells followed us with their sweet chimes up the
+hill, and formed a link between us and the living world below. The
+echoes of our voices were strangely loud. They rung out in the thin
+elastic air, as if all we said had been caught up and repeated by some
+invisible being,--some genius of the mountains. The hours wore away; and
+so delighted were we with the novelty of our position,--climbing the
+summits of the Alps at midnight,--that they seemed but so many minutes.
+
+Ere we were aware, the night was past, and the dawn came upon us; and
+with the dawn, new and stupendous glories burst forth. How fresh and
+holy the young day, as it drew aside the curtains of the east, and
+smiled upon the mountains! The valleys were buried under a fathomless
+ocean of haze; but the pearly light, sown by the rosy hand of morn,
+fringed the mountain ridges, and a multitudinous sea of silvery waves
+spread out around us. The dawn stole on, waxing momentarily; and the
+great white Alps, which had been standing all night around us so silent,
+and cold, and sepulchral-like, in their snowy shrouds, now began to grow
+palpable and less dream-like. The stars put out their fires as the pure
+crystal light mounted into the sky. Each successive scene was
+lovely,--inexpressibly lovely,--but momentary. We wished we could have
+stereotyped it till we had had time to admire it; but while we were
+gazing it had passed and was gone, like the other glories of the world.
+But, lo! the sun is near. Mighty torch-bearers run before his chariot,
+and cry to the rocks, the pine-forests, the torrents, the glaciers, the
+vine-clad vales, the flower-enamelled glades, the rivers, the cities,
+that their king is coming. Awake and worship! A mighty Alp, whose
+loftier stature or more favourable position gives it the start of all
+the others, has caught the first ray; and suddenly, as if an invisible
+hand had kindled it, it rises into the firmament, a pyramid of flame,
+soft, mild, yet gloriously bright, like a dome of living sapphire. While
+you gaze, another flashes upon you, and another, and another, and at
+length the whole horizon is filled with gigantic pyres. The stupendous
+vision has risen so suddenly, that you almost look if you may see the
+seraph which has flown round and kindled these mighty torches. The glory
+is inexpressible, and on a scale so vast, that you have no words to
+describe it. You can scarce believe it to be reflected light which gives
+such glory to these mountains. They are so rosy, so vividly, intensely
+radiant, that you feel as if that boundless effulgence emanated from
+themselves,--were flowing forth from some hidden fountain of light
+within. It is like no other scene of earthly glory you ever saw. You can
+compare it only to some celestial city which has been let down from the
+firmament upon the tops of the mountains, with its glittering turrets,
+its domes of sapphire, and its wall of alabaster, needing no sun or
+other source of earthly light to enlighten and glorify it. But while you
+gaze, it is gone. The sun is up, and the mighty mountain-torches which
+had carried the tidings of his coming to the countries beneath are
+extinguished.
+
+It was now full day, and we had reached the summit of the pass. Above us
+were still the snow-clad peaks; but the road does not ascend higher. We
+now crossed the frontier, and were in Italy. A little rocky plain
+surrounded by weather-beaten peaks, a deep blue lake, and a sea of bare
+ridges in front, were all that we saw of Italy. The road now began
+sensibly to decline, and the diligence quickened its pace. We soon
+reached the ridges before us, and began to descend over the brow of the
+Alps, which are steep and perpendicular as a wall almost, on their
+southern side. You first traverse a region covered with immense
+lichen-clothed boulders; next come stretches of heath; then stunted
+firs: by and by fruit and forest trees begin to make their appearance;
+next comes the lovely acacia; and last of all the vine, tall and
+luxuriant, veiling the peasant's cot with its shadow. The road is
+literally a series of hanging stairs, which zig-zag down the face of the
+mountain. At certain points the rock is perforated; at others it is hewn
+into terraces; and at others the path rests on vast substructions of
+masonry. Now an immense rock leans over the road, and now you find
+yourself on the edge of some frightful precipice, with the gulph running
+right down many thousands of feet, and a white torrent at the bottom,
+boiling and struggling, but unable to make itself heard at that height
+on the mountain. The turns are frequent and sharp; and the heavy,
+overladen vehicle, in its furious downward career, gives a swing at
+each, as if it would cut short the passage into Italy, and land the
+passenger, sooner than he wishes, at the bottom. At length, after four
+hours' riding, the descent is accomplished. The scene has changed in the
+twinkling of an eye. The plain is as level as a floor. The warm
+sun,--the brilliant sky,--the luxuriant vines,--the handsome
+architecture,--the picturesque costumes,--the dark oval faces, and black
+fiery eyes of the natives,--all tell you that it is a new world into
+which you have entered,--that this is ITALY.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+RISK AND PROGRESS OF CONSTITUTIONALISM IN PIEDMONT.
+
+     First Entrance into Italy--Never can be Repeated--The Cathedral of
+     Turin--The Royal Palace--The Museum--Egyptian
+     Mummies--Reflections--Landmark of the Vaudois Valleys--Piedmontese
+     House of Commons--Piedmontese Constitution--Perils that surrounded
+     it--Providentially shielded from these--Numbers and Wealth of the
+     Priesthood--Want of Public Opinion--Rise of a Free Press--Its
+     Power--The _Gazetta del Popolo_--The Bible quoted by the
+     Journalists--The flourishing State of the Country--The Waldensian
+     Temple and Congregation--Workmen's Clubs--The Capuchin Monastery--A
+     Capuchin Friar--Sunset.
+
+
+One can enter Italy for the first time only once. For, however often we
+may climb the Alps, and tread the land that lies stretched out at their
+base, it is with a cold pulse, compared with the fever of excitement
+into which we are thrown by the first touch of that soil. The charm is
+flown; the tree of knowledge has been plucked; and never more can we
+taste the dreamy yet intense delight which attended the first unfolding
+of the gates of the Alps, and the first rising of the fair vision of
+Italy.
+
+In truth, the Italy which one comes to see on his second visit is not
+the Italy that first drew him across the Alps. That was the Italy of
+history, or rather of his own imagination. The fair form his fancy was
+wont to conjure up, draped in the glowing recollections of empire and of
+arms, and encompassed with the halo of heroic deeds, he can see no more.
+There meets him, on the other side of the Alps, a vision very unlike
+this. The Italy of the Cæsars is gone; and where she sat is now a poor,
+naked, cowering thing, with a chain upon her arm,--the Italy of the
+Popes. But the fascination attends the traveller some short way into
+that land. Indeed, he is loath to lose it, and would rather see Italy
+through the warm colourings of history, and the bright hues of his own
+fancy, than look upon her as she is.
+
+I shall never forget the intense excitement that thrilled me when I
+found myself rolling along on the magnificent avenue of pollard-elms,
+that runs all the way from Rivoli to Turin. The voluptuous air, which
+seemed to fill the landscape with a dreamy gaiety; the intense sunlight,
+which tinted every object with extraordinary brilliancy, from the bright
+leaves overhead, to the burning domes of Turin in front; the dark eyes
+of the natives, which flashed with a fervour like that of their own sun;
+the Alps towering above me, and running off in a vast unbroken line of
+glittering masses,--all contributed to form a picture of so novel and
+brilliant a kind, that it absolutely produced an intoxication of
+delight.
+
+I passed a few days at Turin; and the pleasure of my stay was much
+enhanced by the society of my friend the Rev. John Bonar, whom I had met
+at Chamberry, _en route_, with his family, for Malta. We visited
+together the chief objects of interest in the capital of Piedmont. The
+churches we saw of course. And though we had been carried blindfolded
+across the Alps, and set down in the cathedral of Turin, the statuary
+alone would have told us that we were in Italy. The most unpractised eye
+could see at once the difference betwixt these statues and those of the
+Transalpine churches. The Italian sculptors seemed to possess some
+secret by which they could make the marble live. Some half-dozen of
+priests, with red copes (I presume it was a martyr's day, for on such
+days the Church's dress is red), ranged in a pew near the altar, were
+singing psalms. Whether the good men were thinking of their dinner, I
+knew not; but they yawned portentously, wrung their hands with an air of
+helplessness, and looked at us as if they half expected that we would
+volunteer to do duty for an hour or so in their stead. A bishop chanting
+his psalter under the groined roof of cathedral, and a covenanter
+praying in his hill-side cave, would form an admirable picture of two
+very different styles of devotion. There were some dozen of old women on
+the floor, whom the mixed motive of saying their prayers and picking up
+a chance alms seemed to have drawn thither. From the Duomo we went to
+the King's palace. We walked through a suit of splendid apartments,
+though not quite accordant in their style of ornament and comfort with
+our English ideas. The floor and roof were of rich and beautiful
+mosaics; the walls were adorned with the more memorable battles of the
+Sardinian nation; and the furniture was minutely and elaborately inlaid
+with mother-of-pearl. Three rooms more particularly attracted my
+attention. The first contained the throne of the kings of Savoy,--a
+gilded chair, under a crimson canopy, and surrounded by a gilt railing.
+I thought, as I gazed upon it, how often the power of that throne had
+lain heavily upon the poor Waldenses. The other room contained the bed
+on which King Charles Albert died. It is yet in my readers'
+recollection, that Charles Albert died at Oporto; but the whole
+furniture of the room in which he breathed his last was transported,
+together with his ashes, to Turin. It was an affecting sight. There it
+stood, huddled into a corner,--a poor bed of boards, with a plain
+coverlet, such as a Spanish peasant might sleep beneath; a chest of deal
+drawers; and a few of the necessary utensils of a sick chamber. The
+third room contained the Queen's bed of state. Its windows opened
+sweetly upon the fine gardens of the palace, where the first ray, as it
+slants downwards from the crest of the Alps into the valley of the Po,
+falls on the massy foliage of the mulberry and the orange. On the table
+were some six or eight books, among which was a copy of the Psalms of
+David. "It is very fine," said my friend Mr Bonar, glancing up at the
+gilded canopy and silken hangings of the bed, and poking his hand at the
+same time into its soft woolly furnishings, "but nothing but blankets
+can make it comfortable."
+
+From the palace we passed to the Museum. There you see pictures,
+statues, coins stamped with the effigies of kings that lived thousands
+of years ago, and papyrus parchments inscribed with the hieroglyphics of
+old Egypt, and other curiosities, which it has required ages to collect,
+as it would volumes to describe. Not the least interesting sight there
+is the gods of Egypt,--cats, ibises, fish, monkeys, heads of calves and
+bulls, all lying in their original swathings. I looked narrowly at these
+divinities, but could detect no difference betwixt the god-cat of Egypt
+and the cats of our day. Were it possible to re-animate one of them, and
+make it free of our streets, I fear the god would be mistaken for an
+ordinary quadruped of its own kind, pelted and worried by mischievous
+boys and dogs, as other cats are. I do not know that a modern priest of
+Turin has any very good ground for taunting an old Egyptian priest with
+his cat-worship. If it is impossible to tell the difference betwixt a
+cat which is simply a cat, and a cat which is a god, it is just as
+impossible to tell the difference betwixt a bread-wafer which is simply
+bread, and a bread-wafer which is the flesh and blood, the soul and
+divinity, of Christ.
+
+Seeing in Egypt the gods died, it will not surprise the reader that in
+Egypt men should die. And there they lay, the brown sons and daughters
+of Mizraim, side by side with their gods, wrapt with them in the same
+stoney, dreamless slumber. One mummy struck me much. It lay in a stone
+sarcophagus, the same in which the hands of wife or child mayhap had
+placed it; and there it had slept on undisturbed through all the changes
+and hubbub of four thousand years. Over the face was drawn a thin cloth,
+through which the features could be seen not indistinctly. Now, thought
+I, I shall hear all about old Egypt. Perhaps this man has seen Joseph,
+or talked with Jacob, or witnessed the wonders of the exodus. Come, tell
+me your name or profession, or some of the strange events of your
+history. Did you don the mail-coat of the warrior, or the white robe of
+the priest? Did you till the ground, and live on garlic; or were you
+owner of a princely estate, and wont to sit on your house-top of
+evenings, enjoying the delicious twilight, and the soft flow of the
+Nile? Come now, tell me all. The door of a departed world seemed about
+to open. I felt as if standing on its threshold, and looking in upon the
+shadowy forms that peopled it. But ah! these lips spoke not. With the
+Rosetta stone as the key, I could compel the granite slabs and the brown
+worn parchments around me to give up their secrets. But where was the
+key that could open that breast, and read the secrets locked up in it?
+
+And this form had still a living owner! This awoke a train of thought
+yet more solemn. Who, what, and where is he? Anxious as I had been to
+have the door of that mysterious past in which he had lived opened to
+me, I was yet more anxious to look into that more mysterious and awful
+future into which he had gone. What had he seen and felt these four
+thousand years? Did the ages seem long to him, or was it but as a few
+days since he left the earth? I went close up to the dark curtain, but
+there was no opening,--no chink by which I could see into the world
+beyond. Will no kind hand draw the veil aside but for a moment? There it
+has hung unlifted age after age, concealing, with its impenetrable
+folds, all that mortals would most like to know. Myriads and myriads
+have passed within, but not one has ever given back voice, or look, or
+sign, to those they left behind, and from whom never before did they
+conceal thought or wish. Why is this? Do they not still think of us? Do
+they not still love us? Would they softly speak to us if they could?
+What gulf divides them? Ah! how silent are the dead!
+
+Close by the great highway into Italy lie the "Valleys of the Vaudois."
+One might pass them without being aware of their near presence, or that
+he was treading upon holy ground;--so near to the world are they, and
+yet so completely hidden from it. Ascend the little hill on the south of
+Turin, and follow with your eye the great wall of the Alps which bounds
+the plain on the north. There, in the west, about thirty miles from
+where you stand, is a tall pyramidal-shaped mountain, towering high
+above the other summits. That is Monte Viso, which rises like a
+heaven-erected beacon, to signify from afar to the traveller the land of
+the Waldenses, and to call him, with its solemn voice, to turn aside and
+see the spot where "the bush burned and was not consumed." We shall make
+a short, a very short visit to these valleys, than which Europe has no
+more sacred soil. But first let us speak of some of the bulwarks which
+an all-wise Providence has erected in our day around a Church and people
+whose existence is one of the great living miracles of the world.
+
+The revolutions which swept over Italy in 1848 were the knell of the
+other Italian States, but to Piedmont they were the trumpet of liberty.
+No man living can satisfactorily explain why the same event should have
+operated so disasterously for the one, and so beneficially for the
+other. No reason can be found in the condition of the country itself:
+the thing is inexplicable on ordinary principles; and the more
+intelligent Piedmontese at this day speak of it as a miracle. But so is
+the fact. Piedmont is a constitutional kingdom; and I went with M.
+Malan, himself a Waldensian, and a member of the Chamber of Deputies, to
+see the hall where their Parliament sits. A spacious flight of steps
+conducts to a noble hall, in form an ellipse, and surmounted by a dome.
+At one end of the ellipse hangs a portrait of the President, and
+underneath is his richly gilt chair, with a crimson-covered table before
+it. Right in front of the Speaker's chair, on a lower level, is placed
+the tribune, which much resembles the precentor's desk in a Scottish
+church. The tribune is occupied only when a Minister makes a Ministerial
+declaration, or a Convener of a Committee gives in his Report. An open
+space divides the tribune from the seats of the members. These last run
+all round the hall, in concentric rows of benches, also covered with
+crimson. "There, on the right," said M. Malan, "sit the priest party. In
+the front are the Ministerial members; on the left is my seat. There is
+an extreme left to which I do not belong: I have not passed the
+constitutional line. This lower tier of galleries is for the conductors
+of the press and the diplomatic corps; this higher gallery is for ladies
+and military men. We are 204 members in all. We have a member for every
+twenty-five thousand inhabitants. Our population is four millions and a
+half. Our House of Peers contains only ninety members. The King has the
+privilege of nominating to it, but peers so created are only for life."
+
+It was, in truth, a marvellous sight;--a free and independent Parliament
+meeting in the ancient capital of the bigoted Piedmont, with a free
+press and a public looking on, and one of the long proscribed Vaudois
+race occupying a seat in it. The more I thought of it, the more I
+wondered. The causes which had led to so extraordinary a result seemed
+clearly providential. When King Charles Albert in 1848 gave his subjects
+a Constitution, no one had asked it, and few there were who could value
+it, or even knew what a Constitution meant. One or two public writers
+there were who said that public opinion demanded it; but, in sooth,
+there was then no public opinion in the country. Soon after this the
+campaign in Lombardy was commenced, and the result of that campaign
+threatened the Piedmontese Constitution with extinction. The Piedmontese
+army was beaten by the Austrians, and had to make a hasty and inglorious
+retreat into their own country. Every one then expected that Radetzky
+would march upon Turin, put down the Constitution, and seize upon
+Sardinia. Contrary to his usual habits, the old warrior halted on the
+frontier, as if kept back by an invisible power, and the Constitution
+was saved. Then came the death of Charles Albert, of a broken heart, in
+Oporto, whither he had fled; and every one believed that the Piedmontese
+charter would accompany its author to the tomb. The dispositions and
+policy of the new king were unknown; but the probability was that he
+would follow the example of his brother sovereigns of Italy, all of whom
+had begun to revoke the Constitutions which they had so recently
+inaugurated with solemn oaths. Happily these fears were not realized.
+The new perils passed over, and left the Constitution unscathed. King
+Victor Immanuel,--a constitutional monarch simply by accident,--turned
+out a good-natured, easy-minded man, who loved the chase and his country
+seat, and found it more agreeable to live on good terms with his
+subjects, and enjoy a handsome civil list,--which his Parliament has
+taken care to vote him,--than to be indebted for his safety and a
+bankrupt exchequer to the bayonets of his guards. Thus marvellously,
+hitherto, in the midst of dangers at home and re-action abroad, has the
+Piedmontese charter been preserved. I dwell with the greater minuteness
+on this point, because on the integrity of that charter are suspended
+the civil liberties of the Church of the Vaudois. When I was in Turin
+the Constitution was three years old; but even then its existence was
+exceedingly precarious. The King could have revoked it at any moment;
+and there was not then, I was assured by General Beckwith,--who knows
+the state of the Piedmontese nation well,--moral power in the country to
+offer any effectual resistance, had the royal will decreed the
+suppression of constitutional government. "But," added he, "should the
+Constitution live three years longer, the people by that time will have
+become so habituated to the working of a free Constitution, and public
+opinion will have acquired such strength, that it will be impossible for
+the monarch to retrace his steps, even should he be so inclined." It is
+exactly three years since that time, and the state of the Piedmontese
+nation at this moment is such as to justify the words of the sagacious
+old man.
+
+The first grand difficulty in the way of the Constitution was, the
+numbers and power of the priesthood. In no country in Europe,--not even
+in France and Austria, when their size is compared,--were the benefices
+so numerous, or their holders so luxuriously fed. Piedmont was the
+paradise of priests. The ecclesiastical statistics of that kingdom,
+furnished to the French journal _La Presse_, on occasion of the
+introduction of the bill for suppressing the convents, on the 8th of
+January 1855, reveals a state of things truly astonishing.
+Notwithstanding that the population is only four and a half millions,
+there are in Sardinia 7 archbishops; 34 bishops; 41 chapters, with 860
+canons attached to the bishoprics; 73 simple chapters, with 470 canons;
+1100 livings for the canons; and, lastly, 4267 parishes, with some
+thousands of parish priests. The domain of the Church represents a
+capital of 400 millions of francs, with a yearly revenue of 17 millions
+and upwards. This enormous wealth is divided amongst the clergy in
+proportions grossly unequal. The 41 prelates of Sardinia enjoy a revenue
+of nearly a million and a half of francs, which is double what used to
+maintain all the bishops of the French empire. The Archbishop of Turin
+has an income of 120,000 francs, which is more than the whole bench of
+Belgian bishops. The other prelates are paid in proportion. As a set-off
+to this wealth, there are in Sardinia upwards of 2000 curates, not one
+of whom has so much as 800 francs, or about L.35 sterling. These are
+thus tempted to prey upon the people. Such is the terrible organization
+which the King and Parliament have to encounter in carrying out their
+reforms, and such is the fearful incubus which has pressed for ages upon
+the social rights and industrial energies of the Piedmontese people.
+
+But this is but a part of the great sacerdotal army encamped in
+Piedmont. There are 71 religious orders besides, divided into 604
+houses, containing in all 8563 monks and nuns. The expense of feeding
+these six hundred houses, with their army of eight thousand strong,
+forms an item of two millions and a-half of francs, and represents a
+capital of forty-five millions. The greatest admirer of these
+fraternities will scarce deny that this is a handsome remuneration for
+their services; indeed, we never could make out what these services
+really are. They do not teach the youth, or pray with the aged. For
+reading they have no taste; and to write what will be read, or preach
+what will be listened to, is far beyond their ability. Their pious hands
+disdain all contact with the plough, and the loom, and the spade. They
+share with their countrymen neither the labours of peace, nor the
+dangers of war. They lounge all day in the streets, or about the wine
+shops; and, when the dinner-hour arrives, they troop home-wards, to
+retail the gossip of the town over a groaning board and a well-filled
+flagon. Thus they fatten like pigs, being about as cleanly, but scarce
+as useful. It is not surprising that a bill should at last have reached
+the Chambers, proposing, _first_, the better distribution of the
+revenues of the Church, equal to a fourth of the kingdom; and, _second_,
+the suppression of those "houses," the rules of which bind over their
+members to sheer, downright idleness, leaving only those who have some
+show of public duty to perform. The priests denounce the bill as
+"spoliation and robbery" of course, and prophesy all manner of things
+against so wicked a kingdom. Doubtless it is daring impiety in the eyes
+of Rome to forbid a man with a shaven crown and a brown cloak to play
+the idler and vagabond. We are only surprised that the people of
+Piedmont have so long suffered their labours to be eaten up by an order
+of men useless, and worse than useless.
+
+Another grand difficulty in Piedmont was the absence of a middle
+class,--wealthy, intelligent, and independent. No one felt that he had
+rights, and you never heard people saying there, as you may do in
+Britain, "this is my right, and I will have it." A feeling of individual
+right, and of responsibility,--for the two go together,--was then
+just beginning to dawn upon the popular mind. This was accompanied
+by a certain amount of disorganizing influence; not that of
+Socialism,--which, happily, scarce existed in Piedmont,--but that of
+self-action. Every one was feeling his own way. The priests, of course,
+were exceedingly wroth, and loudly accused Protestantism as the cause of
+all this commotion in men's minds. Alas! there was no Protestantism in
+Piedmont, for it had been one of the most bigoted kingdoms in Italy. It
+was their own handiwork; for a tyranny always produces a democracy. As
+if by a miracle, a powerful and popular press started up in Turin. The
+writers in the _Opinione_ and the _Gazetta del Popolo_, acting, I
+suspect, on a hint given by some Vaudois that there was an old book, now
+little known, that would help them in the war they were now waging, went
+to the Bible, and, finding that it made against the priests, were
+liberal in their quotations from it. Their most telling hits were the
+extracts from Scripture; and finding it so, they quoted yet more
+largely. The priests were much concerned to see Holy Scripture so far
+profaned as to be quoted in newspapers, and exposed freely to the gaze
+of the vulgar. But what could they do? Their own literary qualifications
+did not warrant them to enter the lists with these writers: they had
+forgot the way to preach, unless at Lent; they could work the
+confessional, but even it began to be silenced by the powerful artillery
+of the press. At an earlier stage they might have roused the peasantry,
+and marched upon the Constitution, whose life they knew was the death of
+their power; but it was too late in 1851. An attempt of this sort made a
+year or two after, among the peasantry of the Val d'Aosta, turned out a
+miserable failure. Thus, a movement which in other countries came
+forward under the sanction of the priesthood, from the very outset in
+Piedmont took a contrary direction, and set in full against the Church.
+Since that day liberty has been working itself, bit by bit, into the
+action of the Constitution, and the feelings of the people; and now, I
+believe, neither King nor Parliament, were they so inclined, could put
+it down.
+
+The sum of the matter then is, that of all the kingdoms which the era of
+1848 started in the path of free government, the brave little State of
+Piedmont alone has persevered to this day. Amid the wide weltering sea
+of Italian anarchy and despotism, here, and here alone, liberty finds a
+spot on which to plant her foot. Again we ask, why is this? There is
+nothing in the past history of the country,--nothing in the present
+state of the nation,--which can account for it. We must look elsewhere
+for a solution; and we do not hesitate to avow our firm conviction, that
+a special Providence has shielded the Constitution of Piedmont, because
+with that Constitution is bound up the liberties of the ancient martyr
+Church of the Vaudois. It was the only one of the Italian Constitutions
+that carried in it so sacred a guarantee of permanency. On the 17th of
+February 1848 (the day is worth remembering), Charles Albert, by a royal
+edict, admitted the Waldenses to the enjoyment of all civil and
+political rights, in common with the rest of their fellow-subjects. Now,
+for the first time in a thousand years, the trumpet of liberty sounded
+amid the Vaudois valleys; and the shout of joy which the Alps sent back
+seemed like the first response to the prayer which had so often ascended
+from these hills, "How long, O Lord." Would not Sodom have been spared
+had ten righteous men been found in it? and why not Piedmont, seeing the
+Waldensian Church was there? Yes, Piedmont is the little Zoar of the
+Italian plains! Little may its people reck to whom it is they owe their
+escape. It is nevertheless a truth that, but for the poor Vaudois, whom,
+instigated by the Pope, they long and ruthlessly laboured to
+exterminate, their country would have been at this day in the same
+gulph of social demoralization and political re-action with Tuscany, and
+Naples, and Rome. These last were taken, and Piedmont escaped.
+
+And the country is truly flourishing. It has thriven every day since
+Charles Albert emancipated the Vaudois. No one can cross its frontier
+without being struck with the contrast it presents to the other Italian
+States. While they are decaying like a corpse, it is flourishing like
+the chestnut-tree of its own mountains. The very faces of the people may
+tell you that the country is free and prosperous. Its citizens walk
+about with the cheerful, active air of men who have something to do and
+to enjoy, and not with the listless, desponding, heart-sick look which
+marks the inhabitants of the other States of Italy. Here, too, you miss
+that universal beggary and vagabondism that disfigure and pollute all
+the other countries of the Peninsula. What rich loam the ploughman turns
+up! What magnificent vines shade its plains! Public works are in
+progress, railways have been formed, and new houses are building. Not
+fewer than a hundred houses were built in Turin last year, which is
+more, I verily believe, than in all the other Italian towns out of
+Piedmont taken together. Thus, while the other States of Italy are
+foundering in the tempest, Piedmont lives because it carries the Vaudois
+and their fortunes.
+
+From the hall of the Chamber of Deputies I went with M. Malan to the
+office of the _Gazetta del Popolo_, to be introduced to its editors. The
+_Gazetta del Popolo_ is a daily paper, with a circulation of 15,000;
+and, being sold at a penny, is universally read by the middle and lower
+classes. It is the _Times_ of Piedmont. Its editors are men of great
+talent, and write with the practical good sense and racy style of
+Cobbett. They are not religious men, neither are they Romanists, though
+nominally connected with the Church of the State; but they are warm
+advocates of constitutional government, hearty haters of the Papacy, and
+have done much to enlighten the public mind, and loosen it from
+Romanism. They first of all made inquiries respecting the external
+resemblance of Puseyistic and Popish worship, as I had seen the latter
+in Italy. They made yet more eager inquiries respecting the progress and
+prospects of Puseyism in England, and about a then recent declaration of
+the Archbishop of Canterbury, to the effect that there were only two
+Bishops in the Church of England that had gone over to Puseyism. They
+seemed to feel that the fortunes of the Papacy would turn mainly upon
+the fortunes of Puseyism in England. As regarded the Archbishop, I
+replied, that I believed in the substantial accuracy of his statement,
+that there were not more than two members of the episcopate who could be
+held to be decided Puseyites; and as regarded the progress of Puseyism,
+I said, that it had been making great and rapid progress, but that the
+papal aggression, in my humble opinion, had dealt a somewhat heavy blow
+to both Popery and Puseyism,--that so long as Romanism came begging for
+toleration, it had found great favour in the eyes of the liberals; but
+when it came claiming to govern, it had scared away many of its former
+supporters, who had come to know it better,--and that the Protestant
+feeling which the aggression had evoked on the part of the Court, the
+Parliament, and the people, had tended to discourage Romanism, and all
+kindred or identical creeds. They were delighted to hear this, and said
+that they would baptize the fact in the _Gazetta del Popolo_, "the
+assassination of the Papacy by Cardinal Wiseman." Their paper, M. Malan
+afterwards told me, is published on Sabbaths as well (there are worse
+things done on that day in Italy, even by bishops), on which day they
+print their weekly sermon. "You won't preach," say they to the priests;
+"therefore we will;" and it is in their Sabbath sheet that they make
+their bitterest assaults upon the priesthood. They quote largely from
+Scripture: not that they wish to establish evangelical truth, of which
+they know little, but because they find such quotations to be the most
+powerful weapons which they can employ against the Papacy. In truth,
+they advertised in this way the Bible to their countrymen, many of whom
+had never heard of such a book till then.
+
+I was inexpressibly delighted to find such men in Turin wielding such
+influence, and took the liberty of saying at parting, that we in England
+had beheld with admiration the noble stand Piedmont had made in behalf
+of constitutional government,--that we were watching with intense
+interest the future career of their nation,--that we were cherishing the
+hope that they would manfully maintain the ground they had taken
+up,--and that in England, and especially in Scotland, we felt that the
+root of all the despotism of the Continent was the Papacy,--that the way
+to strike for liberty was to strike at Rome,--and that till the Papacy
+was overthrown, never would the nations of the world be either free or
+happy. They assured me that in these sentiments they heartily concurred,
+and that they were the very ideas they were endeavouring to propagate.
+They gave me, on taking leave, a copy of that morning's paper as a
+_souvenir_; and on examining it afterwards, I found that the topic of
+its leading article was quite in the vein of our conversation. The great
+bulk of the liberal party in Piedmont shared even then the ideas of the
+editors of the _Gazetta del Popolo_, and felt that to lay the
+foundations of constitutional liberty, they needs must raze those of
+Rome. This is a truth; and not only so,--it is the primal truth in the
+science of European liberty. This truth only now begins to be
+understood on the Continent. It is the main lesson which the re-action
+of 1849 has been overruled to teach. All former insurrections have been
+against kings and aristocrats: even in 1848 the Italians were willing to
+accept the leadership of the Pope. The perfidies and atrocities of which
+they have since been the victims have burned the essential tyranny of
+the papal system into their minds; and the next insurrection that takes
+place will be against the Papacy.
+
+A constitution, a free press, and a public opinion, are but the outward
+defences of a divine and immortal principle, which, rooted in the soil
+of Piedmont, has outlived a long winter, and is now beginning to bud
+afresh, and to send forth goodlier shoots than ever. To this I next
+turned. Conducted by M. Malan, I went to the western quarter of Turin,
+where, amid the gardens and elegant mansions of the suburbs, workmen
+were digging the foundations of what was to be a spacious building. On
+this spot the Dominicans in former ages had burned the bodies of the
+martyrs; and now the Waldensian temple stands here,--a striking proof,
+surely, of the immortality of truth,--to rise, and live, and speak
+boldly, on the very spot where she had been bound to a stake, burned,
+and extinguished, as the persecutor believed. This church, not the least
+elegant in a city abounding with elegant structures, has since been
+opened, and is filled every Sabbath with well-nigh a thousand
+auditors,--the largest congregation, I will venture to say, in Turin.
+
+In 1851 I could visit the cradle of this movement. It had its first rise
+in the labours of Felix Neff, twenty-five years before; but it was not
+till the revolution of 1848 that it appeared above ground. Even in 1851,
+colportage among the Piedmontese was prohibited, though it was allowable
+to print or import the Bible for the use of the Waldenses, and the
+Government winked at its sale to their Roman Catholic fellow-subjects. I
+was shown in M. Malan's banking office the Bible depot, and was
+gratified to find that the sales which were made to applicants only had
+during the past year amounted to a thousand copies. Evening meetings
+were held every day of the week, in various parts of Turin, at which the
+Bible was read, and points of controversy betwixt Christianity and
+Romanism eagerly discussed. The Rev. M. Meille, the able editor of the
+_Buona Novella_,--a paper then just starting,--informed me that not
+fewer than ninety persons had been present at the meeting superintended
+by him the night before. These week-day assemblages, as well as the
+Sabbath audiences, were of a very miscellaneous character,--Vaudois, who
+had come to Turin to be servants, for, prior to the revolution, they
+could be nothing else; Piedmontese tradesmen; Swiss, Germans, and
+Italian refugees, to whom three pastors ministered,--one in French, one
+in German, and a third in the Italian tongue. There were then not fewer
+than ten re-unions every week in Turin. The idea, too, had been started
+of taking advantage of the workmen's clubs for the propagation of the
+gospel. A network of such societies covered northern and central Italy.
+The clubs in Turin corresponded with those in Genoa, Alessandria, and
+all the principal towns of Piedmont; and these again with similar clubs
+in central Italy; and any new theory or doctrine introduced into one
+soon made the round of all. The plan adopted was to send evangelical
+workmen into these clubs, who were listened to as they propounded the
+new plan of justification by faith. The clubs in Turin were first
+leavened with the gospel; thence it was extended to Genoa, and gradually
+also to central Italy. While the _prolétaires_ in France were discussing
+the claims of labour, the workmen in Piedmont were canvassing the
+doctrines of the New Testament; and hence the difference betwixt the
+two countries.
+
+It was now drawing towards sunset, and I purposed enjoying the
+twilight,--delicious in all climates, but especially in Italy,--on the
+terrace of the College or Monastery of the Capuchins. This monastery
+stands on the Collina, a romantic height on the south of Turin, washed
+by the Po, with villas and temples on its crest and summits. I took my
+way through the noble street that leads southwards, halting at the
+book-stalls, and picking out of their heaps of rubbish an Italian copy
+of the Catechism of Bossuet, Bishop of Meaux. The Collina was all in a
+blaze; the windows of the Palazzo Regina glittered in the setting beams;
+and the dome of the Superga shone like gold. Crossing the Po, I ascended
+by the winding avenue of shady acacias, which are planted there to
+protect the cowled heads of the fathers from the noonday sun. One of the
+monks was winding his way up hill, at a pace which gave me full
+opportunity of observing him. A little black cap covered his scalp; his
+round bullet-head, which bristled with short, thick-set hairs, joined
+on, by a neck of considerably more than the average girth, to shoulders
+of Atlantean dimensions. His body was enveloped in a coarse brown
+mantle, which descended to his calves, and was gathered round his middle
+with a slender white cord. His naked feet were thrust into sandals. The
+features of the "religious" were coarse and swollen; and he strode up
+hill before me with a gait which would have made a peaceful man, had he
+met him on a roadside in Scotland, give him a wide offing. Parties of
+soldiers wounded in the late campaign were sauntering in the square of
+the monastery, or looking over the low wall at the city beneath. Their
+pale and sickly looks formed a striking contrast to the athletic forms
+of the full-fed monks. It was inexplicable to me, that the youth of
+Sardinia, immature and raw, should be drafted into the army, while such
+an amount of thews and sinews as this monastery, and hundreds more,
+contained, should be allowed to run to waste, or worse. If but for their
+health, the monks should be compelled to fight the next campaign.
+
+The sun went down. Long horizontal shafts of golden light shot through
+amidst the Alps; their snows glittered with a dazzling whiteness:
+whiteness is a weak term;--it was a brilliant and lustrous glory, like
+that of light itself. Anon a crimson blush ran along the chain. It
+faded; it came again. A wall of burning peaks, from two to three hundred
+miles in length, rose along the horizon. Eve, with her purple shadows,
+drew on; and I left the mountains under a sky of vermilion, with Monte
+Viso covering with its shadow the honoured dust that sleeps around it,
+and pointing with its stony finger to that sky whither the spirits of
+the martyred Vaudois have now ascended. It seemed to say, "Come and
+see."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+STRUCTURE AND CHARACTERISTICS OF THE VAUDOIS VALLEYS.
+
+     Journey to "Valleys"--Dinner at Pignerolo--Grandeur of
+     Scenery--Associations--Bicherasio--Procession of
+     _Santissimo_--Connection betwixt the History and the Country of the
+     Vaudois--The Three Valleys of Martino, Angrona, and Lucerna--Their
+     Arrangement--Strength--Fertility--La Tour--The Castelluzzo--Scenery
+     of the Val Lucerna--The Manna of the Waldenses--Populousness of the
+     Valleys--Variety of Productions--The Roman Flood and the Vaudois
+     Ark.
+
+
+The Valleys of the Vaudois lie about thirty miles to the south-west of
+Turin. The road thither it is scarce possible to miss. Keeping the lofty
+and pyramidal summit of Monte Viso in your eye, you go straight on, in a
+line parallel with the Alps, along the valley of the Po, which is but a
+prolongation of the great plain of Lombardy. On my way down to these
+valleys, I observed on the roadside numerous little temples, which the
+natives, in true Pagan fashion, had erected to their deities. The niches
+of these temples were filled with Madonnas, crucifixes, and saints,
+gaunt and grizzly, with unlighted candles stuck before them, or rude
+paintings and tinsel baubles hung up as votive offerings. The
+signboards--especially those of the wine venders--were exceedingly
+religious. They displayed, for the most part, a bizarre painting of the
+Virgin, and occasionally of the Pope; and not unfrequently underneath
+these personages were a company of heretics, such as those I was going
+to visit, sweltering in flames. Were a Protestant vintner to sell his
+ale beneath a picture of Catholics burning in hell, I fear we should
+never hear the last of it. But I must say, that these pictures seemed
+the production of past times. They were one and all sorely faded, as if
+their owners were beginning to be somewhat ashamed of them, or lacked
+zeal to repair them. The _conducteur_ of the stage had an Italian
+translation of Mr Gladstone's well-known pamphlet on Naples in his hand,
+which then covered all the book-stalls in Turin, and was read by every
+one. This led to a lively discussion on the subject of the Church,
+between him and two fellow-travellers, to whom I had been introduced at
+starting, as Waldenses. I observed that, although he appeared to come
+off but second best in the controversy, he bore all with unruffled
+humour, as if not unwilling to be beaten. At length, after a ride of
+twenty miles over the plain, in which the husbandman, with plough as old
+in its form as the Georgics, was turning up a soil rich, black, and
+glossy as the raven's wing, we arrived at Pignerolo, a town on the
+borders of the Vaudois land.
+
+The two Vaudois and myself adjourned to the hotel to dine. Even in this
+we had an instance of changed times. In this very town of Pignerolo a
+law had been in existence, and was not long repealed, forbidding, under
+severe penalties, any one to give meat or drink to a Vaudois. The
+"Valleys" were only ten miles distant, and we agreed to walk thither on
+foot. Indeed, all such spots must be so visited, if one would feel their
+full influence. Leaving Pignerolo, the road began to draw into the bosom
+of the mountains, and the scenery became grander at every step. On the
+right rose the hills of the Vaudois, with knolls glittering with woods
+and cottages scattered at their feet. On the left, long reaches of the
+Po, meandering through pasturages and vineyards, gleamed out golden in
+the western sun. The scenery reminded me much of the Highlands at
+Comrie, only it was on a scale of richness and magnificence unknown to
+Scotland.
+
+After advancing a few miles, I chanced to turn and look back. The change
+the mountains had undergone struck me much. A division of Alps, tall and
+cloud-capped, appeared to have broken off from the main army, and to
+have come marching into the plain; and while the mountains were closing
+in upon us behind, they appeared to be falling back in front, and
+arranging themselves into the segment of a vast circle. A magnificent
+amphitheatre had risen noiselessly around us. On all sides save the
+south, where a reach of the valley was still visible, the eye met only a
+lofty wall of mountains, hung in a rich and gorgeous tapestry of bright
+green pasturages and shady pine-forests, with the frequent sunlight
+gleam of white chalets. The snows of their summits were veiled in masses
+of cloud, which the southerly winds were bringing up upon them from the
+Mediterranean. I seemed to have entered some stately temple,--a temple
+not of mortal workmanship,--which needed no tall shaft, no groined roof,
+no silver lamps, no chisel or pencil of artist to beautify it, and no
+white-robed priest to make it holy. It had been built by Him whose power
+laid the foundations of the earth, and hung the stars in heaven; and it
+had been consecrated by sacrifices such as Rome's mitred priests never
+offered in aisled cathedral. Nor had it been the scene only of lofty
+endurance: it had been the scene also of sweet and holy joys. There the
+Vaudois patriarchs, like Enoch, had "walked with God;" there they had
+read his Word, and kept his Sabbaths. They had sung his praise by these
+silvery brooks, and kneeled in prayer beneath these chestnut trees.
+There, too, arose the shout of triumphant battle; and from those valleys
+the Vaudois martyrs had gone up, higher than these white peaks, to take
+their place in the white-robed and palm-bearing company. Can the spirit,
+I asked myself, ever forget its earthly struggles, or the scene on which
+they were endured? and may not the very same picture of beauty and
+grandeur now before my eye be imprinted eternally on the memory of many
+of the blessed in Heaven?
+
+There was silence on plain and mountain,--a hush like that of a
+sanctuary, reverent and deep, and broken only by the flow of the torrent
+and the sound of voices among the vineyards. I could not fail to observe
+that sounds here were more musical than on the plain. This is a
+peculiarity belonging to mountainous regions; but I have nowhere seen it
+so perceptible as here. Every accent had a fullness and melody of tone,
+as if spoken in a whispering gallery. Right in the centre of the circle
+formed by the mountains was the entrance of the Vaudois valleys. The
+place was due north from where we now were, but we had to make a
+considerable detour in order to reach it. A long low hill, rough with
+boulders and feathery with woods, lay across the mouth of these valleys;
+and we had to go round it on the west, and return along the fertile vale
+which divides it from the high Alps, whose straths and gorges form the
+dwellings of the Waldenses.
+
+A dream it seemed to be, walking thus within the shadow of the Vaudois
+hills. And then, too, what a strange chance was it which had thrown me
+into the society of my two Waldensian fellow-travellers! They had met me
+on the threshold of their country, as if sent to bid me welcome, and
+conduct my steps into a land which the prayers and sufferings of their
+forefathers had for ever hallowed. They could not speak a word of my
+tongue; and to them my transalpine Italian was not more than
+intelligible. Yet, such is the power of a common sympathy, the
+conversation did not once flag all the way; and it had reference, of
+course, to one subject. I told them that I was not unacquainted with
+their glorious history;--that from a child I had known the noble deeds
+of their fathers, who had received an equal place in my veneration with
+the men of old, "who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought
+righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouth of lions. And others
+had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover, of bonds and
+imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted,
+were slain with the sword; they wandered about in sheepskins and
+goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented; of whom the world was
+not worthy;"--and that, next to the hills of my own land, hallowed, too,
+with martyr-blood, I loved the mountains within whose shadow my
+wandering steps had now brought me. The eyes of my Vaudois friends
+kindled; they were not unconscious, I could see, of their noble lineage;
+and they were visibly touched by the circumstance that a stranger from a
+distant land--drawn thither by sympathy with the great struggles of
+their nation--should come to visit their mountains. Every object in any
+way connected with their history, and especially with their
+persecutions, was carefully pointed out to me. "There," said they, "is
+our frontier church, the first of the Vaudois candles," pointing to a
+white edifice that gleamed out upon us amid woods and rocks, on the
+summit of a hill, soon after leaving Pignerolo. They mentioned, too,
+with peculiar emphasis, the year of the last great massacre of their
+brethren. The memory of that transaction, I feel assured, will perish
+only with the Vaudois race. Nor can I forget the evident pride with
+which, on nearing the valley of Lucerne, they pointed to the giant form
+of their Castelluzzo, now looming through the shades of night, and told
+me that in the caves of that mighty rock their fathers found shelter,
+when the valley beneath was covered with armed men.
+
+Nowhere had I seen more luxuriant vines. They were festooned, too, after
+the manner of those I had seen among the Alps; but here the effect was
+more beautiful. They were literally stretched out over entire fields in
+an unbroken web of boughs. Clothed with luxuriant foliage, they looked
+like another azure canopy extended over the soil. There was ample room
+beneath for the ploughman and his bullocks. The golden beams, struggling
+through the massy foliage, fell in a mellow and finely tinted shower on
+the newly ploughed soil. Wheat is said to ripen better beneath the
+vine-shade than in the open sun. The season of grapes was shortly past;
+but here and there large clusters were still pendent on the bough.
+
+Hitherto, although we had been skirting the Vaudois territory, we had
+not set foot upon it. The line which separates it from the rest of
+Piedmont touches the small town of Bicherasio, on the western flank of
+the low hill I have mentioned; and the roofs of the little town were
+already in sight. Passing, on the left, a white-walled mass-house on a
+small height, with the priest looking at us from amid the autumn-tinted
+vine leaves that shaded the wall, we entered the town of Bicherasio. The
+first sight we saw was a procession advancing up the street at
+double-quick time. I was at first sorely puzzled what to make of it.
+There was an air of mingled fun and gravity on the faces of the crowd;
+but the former so greatly predominated, that I took the affair for a
+frolic of the youths of Bicherasio. First came a squad of dirty boys,
+some of whom carried prayer-books: these were followed by some dozen or
+so of young women in their working attire, ranged in line, and carrying
+flambeaux. In the centre of the procession was a tall raw-boned priest,
+of about twenty-five years of age, with a little box in his hand. His
+head was bare, and he wore a long brown dress, bound with a cord round
+his middle. A canopy of crimson cloth, sorely soiled and tarnished, was
+borne over him by four of the taller lads. He had a flurried and wild
+look, as if he had slept out in the woods all night, and had had time
+only to shake himself, and put his fingers through his hair, before
+being called on to run with his little box. The procession closed, as it
+had opened, with a cloud of noisy and dirty urchins hanging on the rear
+of the priest and his flambeaux-bearing company. The whole swept past us
+at such a rapid pace, that I could only, by way of divining its object,
+open large wondering eyes upon it, which the large-boned lad in the
+brown cloak noticed, and repaid with a scowl, which broke no bones,
+however. "He is carrying the _santissimo_," said my fellow-travellers,
+when the procession had passed, "to a dying man." We passed the line,
+and set foot on the Vaudois territory. Being now on privileged soil, and
+safe from any ebullition which the scant reverence we had paid the
+procession of the _santissimo_ might have drawn upon us, we entered a
+small albergo, and partook together of a bottle of wine. Our long walk,
+and the warmth of the evening, made the refreshment exceedingly
+agreeable. By way of commending the qualities of their soil, my
+companions remarked, that "this was the vine of the land." I felt
+disposed to deal with it as David did with the water of the well of
+Bethlehem, for here--
+
+ "The nurture of the peasant's vines
+ Hath been the martyr's blood!"
+
+It was dark before I reached La Tour; but one of my
+fellow-travellers--the other having left us at San Giovanni--accompanied
+me every footstep of the way, having passed his own dwelling two full
+miles, to do me this kindness.
+
+I must remind the reader, that this is simply a look in upon the
+Vaudois, on my way to Rome. I purpose here no description in full of the
+territory of the Vaudois, or of the people of the Vaudois. Their hills
+were shrouded in cloud and rain all the while I lived amongst them; and
+although my intention was to visit on foot every inch of their country,
+and more especially the scenes of their great struggles, I was
+compelled, after waiting well nigh a week, to take my departure without
+having accomplished this part of my object. Leaving, then, the seeing
+and describing these famous valleys to some possibly future day, all I
+shall attempt here is to convey some idea of the structural
+arrangement--the osteology, if I may call it so--of the Waldensian
+territory, and the general condition of the Waldensian people. First, of
+their country.
+
+A country and its people can never well be separated. The former, with
+silent but ceaseless influence, moulds the genius and habits of the
+latter, and determines the character of their history. It marks them out
+as fated for slavery or freedom,--degradation or glory. The country of
+the Vaudois is the material basis of their history; and the sublime
+points of their scenery join in, as it were, with the sublime passages
+of their nation. Without such a country, we cannot conceive how the
+Vaudois could have escaped extermination. The fertility and grandeur of
+their valleys were no chance gifts, but special endowments, having
+reference to the mighty moral struggle of which they were the destined
+theatre. It is this sentiment that forms the living spirit in the
+beautiful lines of Mrs Hemans, entitled, "The Hymn of the Vaudois
+Mountaineers:"--
+
+ For the strength of the hills we bless thee.
+   Our God, our fathers' God.
+ Thou hast made thy children mighty,
+   By the touch of the mountain sod.
+ Thou hast fixed our ark of refuge
+   Where the spoiler's foot ne'er trod;
+ For the strength of the hills we bless thee,
+   Our God, our fathers' God!
+
+ We are watchers of a beacon
+   Whose light must never die;
+ We are guardians of an altar
+   'Midst the silence of the sky.
+ The rocks yield founts of courage,
+   Struck forth as by thy rod;
+ For the strength of the hills we bless thee,
+   Our God, our fathers' God!
+
+ For the dark resounding caverns,
+   Where thy still small voice is heard;
+ For the strong pines of the forests
+   That by thy breath are stirred;
+ For the storms on whose free pinions
+   Thy spirit walks abroad;
+ For the strength of the hills we bless thee,
+   Our God, our fathers' God!
+
+ The banner of the chieftain
+   Far, far below us waves;
+ The war horse of the spearman
+   Cannot reach our lofty caves.
+ Thy dark clouds wrap the threshold
+   Of freedom's last abode;
+ For the strength of the hills we bless thee,
+   Our God, our fathers' God!
+
+ For the shadow of thy presence
+   Round our camp of rock outspread;
+ For the stern defiles of battle,
+   Bearing record of our dead;
+ For the snows and for the torrents,
+   For the free heart's burial sod;
+ For the strength of the hills we bless thee,
+   Our God, our fathers' God!
+
+We read in the Apocalypse, that "the woman fled into the wilderness,
+where she had a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a
+thousand two hundred and threescore days." "A place prepared"
+undoubtedly implies a special arrangement and a special adaptation, in
+the future dwelling of the Church, to the mission to be assigned her.
+The "wilderness" of the Apocalypse, we are inclined to think, is the
+great chain of the Alps; and the "place prepared" in that wilderness, we
+are also inclined to think, are the Cottian Alps, and more especially
+those valleys in the Cottian Alps which the confessors, known as the
+Vaudois, inhabited. Long after Rome had subjugated the plains, she
+possessed scarce a foot-breadth among the mountains. These, throughout
+well-nigh their entire extent, from where the Simplon road now cuts the
+chain, to the sea, were peopled by the professors of the gospel. They
+were a Goshen of light in the midst of an Egypt of darkness; and in
+these peaceful and sublime solitudes holy men fed their flocks amid the
+green pastures and beside the clear waters of evangelical truth. But
+persecution came: it waxed hot; and every succeeding century beheld
+these confessors fewer in number, and their territory more restricted.
+At last all that remained to the Vaudois were only three valleys at the
+foot of Monte Viso; and if we examine their structure, we will find them
+arranged with special reference to the war the Church was here called to
+wage.
+
+The three valleys are the Val Martino, the Val Angrona, and the Val
+Lucerna. Nothing could be simpler than their arrangement; at the same
+time, nothing could be stronger. The three valleys spread out like a
+fan,--radiating, as it were, from the same point, and stretching away in
+a winding vista of vineyards, meadows, chestnut groves, dark gorges, and
+foaming torrents, to the very summits and glaciers of the Alps. Nearly
+at the point of junction of the Val Angrona and the Val Lucerna stands
+La Tour, the capital of the valleys. It consists of a single street (for
+the few off-shoots are not worth mentioning) of two-storey houses,
+whitewashed, and topped with broad eves, which project till they leave
+only a narrow strip of sky visible overhead. The town winds up the hill
+for a quarter of a mile or so, under the shadow of the famous
+Castelluzzo,--a stupendous mountain of rock, which shoots up, erect as a
+column on its pedestal, to a height of many thousands of feet, and, in
+other days, sheltered, as I have said, in its stony arms, the persecuted
+children of the valleys, when the armies of France and Savoy gathered
+round its base. How often I watched it, during my stay there, as its
+mighty form now became lost, and now flashed forth from the mountain
+mists! Over what sad scenes has that rock looked! It has seen the
+peaceful La Tour a heap of smoking ruins, and the clear waters of the
+Pelice, which meander at its feet, red with the blood of the children of
+the valleys. It has heard the wrathful execrations of armed men
+ascending where the prayers and praises of the Vaudois were wont to
+come, borne on the evening breeze,--scenes unspeakably affecting, but
+which, nevertheless, from the principle which they embodied, and the
+Christian heroism which they evoked, add dignity to humanity itself.
+When we would rebut those universal libels which infidels have written
+upon our race, we point to the Vaudois. However corrupt whole nations
+and continents may have been, that nature which could produce the
+Vaudois must have originally possessed, and be still capable of having
+imparted to it, God-like qualities.
+
+The strength of the Vaudois position, as I take it, lies in this, that
+the three valleys have their entrance within a comparatively narrow
+space. The country of the Vaudois was, in fact, an immense citadel, with
+its foundation on the rock, and its top above the clouds, and with but
+one gate of entrance. That gate could be easily defended; nay, it _was_
+defended. He who built this mighty fortress had thrown up a rampart
+before its gate, as if with a special eye to the protection of its
+inmates. The long hill of which I have already spoken, which rises to a
+height of from four to five hundred feet, lies across the opening of
+these valleys, at about a mile's breadth, and serves as a wall of
+defence. But even granting that this entrance should be forced, as it
+sometimes was, there were ample means within the mountains themselves,
+which were but a congeries of fortresses, for prolonging the contest.
+The valleys abound with gorges and narrow passages, where one man might
+maintain the way against fifty. There were, too, escarpments of rock,
+with galleries and caves known only to the Vaudois. Even the mists of
+their hills befriended them; veiling them, on some memorable instances,
+from the keen pursuit of their foes. Thus, every foot-breadth of their
+territory was capable of being contested, and _was_ contested against
+the flower of the French and Sardinian armies, led against them in
+overwhelming numbers, with a courage which Rome never excelled, and a
+patriotism which Greece never equalled.
+
+I found, too, that it was "a good land" which the Lord their God had
+given to the Vaudois,--"a land of brooks of water, of fountains and
+depths that spring out of valleys and hills; a land of wheat, and
+barley, and vines, and fig-trees, and pomegranates; a land of oil, olive
+and honey." The same architect who built the fortress had provisioned
+it, so to speak, and that in no stinted measure. He who placed
+magazines of bread in the clouds, and rained it upon the Israelites
+when they journeyed through the desert, had laid up store of corn, and
+oil, and wine, in the soil of these valleys; so that the Vaudois, when
+their enemies pressed them on the plain, and cut off their supplies from
+without, might still enjoy within their own mountain rampart abundance
+of all things.
+
+On the first morning after my arrival, I walked out along the Val
+Lucerna southward. Flowers and fruit in rich profusion covered every
+spot of ground under the eye, from the banks of the stream to the skirts
+of the mist that veiled the mountains. The fields, which were covered
+with the various cultivation of wheat, maize, orchards, and vineyards,
+were fenced with neatly dressed hedge-rows. The vine-stocks were
+magnificently large, and their leaves had already acquired the fine
+golden yellow which autumn imparts. At a little distance, on a low hill,
+deeply embosomed in foliage, was the church of San Giovanni, looking as
+brilliantly white as if it had been a piece of marble fresh from the
+chisel. Hard by, peeping out amidst fruit-bearing trees, was the village
+of Lucerna. On the right rose the mighty wall of the Alps; on the left
+the valley opened out into the plain of the Po, bounded by a range of
+blue-tinted hills, which stretched away to the south-west, mingling in
+the distant horizon with the mightier masses of the Alps. The sun now
+broke through the haze; and his rays, falling on the luxuriant beauty of
+the valley, and on the more varied but not less rich covering of the
+hill-side,--the pasturages, the winding belts of planting, the white
+chalets,--lighted up a picture which a painter might have exhibited as a
+relic of an unfallen world, or a reminiscence of that garden from which
+transgression drove man forth.
+
+After breakfast, I sallied out to explore the valley of Lucerne, at the
+entrance of which is placed, as I have said, La Tour, the capital of the
+Waldenses. My intention was to trace its windings all the way, past the
+village and church of Bobbio, and up the mountains, till it loses itself
+amid the snows of their summits,--an expedition which was brought to an
+abrupt termination by the black clouds which came rolling up the valley
+at noon like the smoke of a furnace, followed by torrents of rain.
+Threading my way through the narrow winding street of La Tour, and
+skirting the base of the giant Castelluzzo, I emerged upon the open
+valley. I was enchanted by its mingled loveliness and grandeur. Its
+bottom, which might be from one to two miles in breadth, though looking
+narrower, from the titanic character of its mountain-boundary, was, up
+to a certain point, one continuous vineyard. The vine there attains a
+noble stature, and stretches its arms from side to side of the valley in
+rich and lovely festoons, veiling from the great heat of the sun the
+golden grain which grows underneath. On either hand the mountains rise
+to the sky, not bare and rocky, but glowing with the vine, or shady with
+the chestnut, and pouring into the lap of the Vaudois, corn, and wine,
+and fruit. Their sides were covered throughout with vineyards,
+corn-fields, glades of green pasturages, clumps of forests and
+fruit-trees, mansions and chalets, and silvery streamlets, which
+meandered amid their terraces, or leaped in flashing light down the
+mountain, to join the Pelice at its bottom. Not a foot-breadth was
+barren. This teeming luxuriance attested at once the qualities of the
+soil and sun, and the industry of the Vaudois.
+
+As I proceeded up the Val Lucerna, the same scene of mingled richness
+and magnificence continued. The golden vine still kept its place in the
+bottom of the valley, and stretched out its arms in very wantonness, as
+if the limits of the Val Lucerna were too small for its exuberant and
+generous fruitfulness. The hills gained in height, without losing in
+fertility and beauty. They offered to the eye the same picture of
+vine-rows, pasturages, chestnut-groves, and chalets, from the torrent at
+their bottom, up to the edge of the floating mist that covered their
+tops. At times the sun would break in, and add to the variety of lights
+which diversified the landscape. For already the hand of autumn had
+scattered over the foliage her beautiful tints of all shades, from the
+bright green of the pastures, down through the golden yellow of the
+vine, to the deep crimson of those trees which are the first to fade.
+
+A farther advance, and the aspect of the Val Lucerna changed slightly.
+The vineyards ceased on the level grounds at the bottom of the valley,
+and in their place came rich meadow lands, on which herds were grazing.
+The hills on the left were still ribbed with the vine. On the right,
+along which, at a high level on the hill-side, ran the road, the
+chestnut groves became more frequent, and large boulders began
+occasionally to be seen. It was here that the rolling mass of cloud, so
+fearfully black, that it seemed of denser materials than vapour, which
+had followed me up hill, overtook me, and by the deluge of rain which it
+let fall, effectually forbade my farther progress.
+
+The same shower which forbade my farther exploration of the Val Lucerna,
+arresting me, with cruel interdict, as it seemed, on the very threshold
+of a region teeming with grandeur, and encompassed with the halo of
+imperishable deeds, threw me, by a sort of compensatory chance, upon the
+discovery of another most interesting peculiarity of the Waldensian
+territory. The heavy rain compelled me to seek shelter beneath the
+boughs of a wide-spread chestnut-tree; and there, for the space of an
+hour, I remained perfectly dry, though the big drops were falling all
+around. Soon a continuous beating, as if of the fall of substances from
+a considerable height on the ground, attracted my attention,--tap, tap,
+tap. The sound told me that something was falling bigger and heavier
+than the rain-drops; but the long grass prevented me at first seeing
+what it was. A slight search, however, showed me that the tree beneath
+which I stood was actually letting fall a shower of nuts. These nuts
+were large and fully ripened. The breeze became slightly stronger, and
+the fruit shower from the trees increased so much, that a soft muffled
+sound rang through the whole wood. It was literally raining food. Some
+millions of nuts must have fallen that day in the Val Lucerna. I saw the
+young peasant girls coming from the chalets and farm-houses, to glean
+beneath the boughs; and a short time sufficed to fill their sacks, and
+send them back laden with the produce of the chestnut-tree. These nuts
+are roasted and eaten as food; and very nutritious food they are. In all
+the towns of northern Italy you see persons in the streets roasting them
+in braziers over charcoal fires, and selling them to the people, to whom
+they form no very inconsiderable part of their food. I have oftener than
+once, on a long ride, breakfasted on them, with the help of a cluster of
+grapes, or a few apples. This was the manna of the Waldenses. And how
+often have the persecuted Vaudois, when driven from their homes, and
+compelled to seek refuge in those high altitudes where the vine does not
+grow, subsisted for days and weeks upon the produce of the
+chestnut-tree! I could not but admire in this the wise arrangement of
+Him who had prepared these valleys as the future abode of his Church.
+Not only had He taught the earth to yield her corn, and the hills wine,
+but even the skies bread. Bread was rained around their caves and
+hiding-places, plenteous as the manna of old; and the Vaudois, like the
+Israelites, had but to gather and eat.
+
+I came also to the conclusion, that the land which the Lord had given to
+the Waldenses was a "large" as well as a "good" land. It is only of late
+that the Vaudois have been restricted to the three valleys I have named;
+but even taking their country as at present defined, its superficial
+area is by no means so inconsiderable as it is apt to be accounted by
+one who hears of it as confined to but three valleys. Spread out these
+valleys into level plains, and you find that they form a large country.
+It is not only the broad bottom of the valley that is cultivated;--the
+sides of the hills are clothed up to the very clouds with vineyards and
+corn-lands, and are planted with all manner of trees, yielding fruit
+after their kind. Where the husbandman is compelled to stop, nature
+takes up the task of the cultivator; and then come the chestnut-groves,
+with their loads of fruit, and the short sweet grass on which cattle
+depasture in summer, and the wild flowers from which the bees elaborate
+their honey. Overtopping all are the fields of snow, the great
+reservoirs of the springs and rivers which fertilize the country. This
+arrangement admitted, moreover, of far greater variety, both of climate
+and of produce, than could possibly obtain on the plain. There is an
+eternal winter at the summit of these mountains, and an almost perpetual
+summer at their feet.
+
+In accordance with this great productiveness, I found the hills of the
+Vaudois exceedingly populous. They are alive with men, at least as
+compared with the solitude which our Scottish Highlands present. I had
+brought thither my notions of a valley taken from the narrow winding and
+infertile straths of Scotland, capable of feeding only a few scores of
+inhabitants. Here I found that a valley might be a country, and contain
+almost a nation in its bosom.
+
+But, not to dwell on other peculiarities, I would remark, that such a
+dwelling as this--continually presenting the grandest objects--must have
+exerted a marked influence upon the character of the inhabitants. It was
+fitted to engender intrepidity of mind, a love of freedom, and an
+elevation of thought. It has been remarked that the inhabitants of
+mountainous regions are less prone than others to the worship of images.
+On the plain all is monotony. Summer and winter, the same landmarks, the
+same sky, the same sounds, surround the man. But around the dweller in
+the mountains,--and especially such mountains as these,--all is variety
+and grandeur. Now the Alps are seen with their sunlight summits and
+their shadowless sides; anon they veil their mighty forms in clouds and
+tempests. The living machinery of the mist, too, is continually varying
+the landscape, now engulphing valleys, now blotting out crags and
+mountain peaks, and suspending before the eye a cold and cheerless
+curtain of vapour; anon the curtain rises, the mist rolls away, and
+green valley and tall mountain flash back again upon you, thrilling and
+delighting you anew. What variety and melody of sounds, too, exist among
+the hills! The music of the streams, the voices of the peasants, the
+herdsman's song, the lowing of the cattle, the hum of the villages. The
+winds, with mighty organ-swell, now sweep through their mountain gorges;
+and now the thunder utters his awful voice, making the Alps to tremble
+and their pines to bow.
+
+Such was the land of the Vaudois; the predestined abode of God's Church
+during the long and gloomy period of Anti-christ's reign. It was the ark
+in which the one elect family of Christendom was to be preserved during
+the flood of error that was to come upon the earth. And I have been the
+more minute in the description of its general structure and
+arrangements, because all had reference to the high moral end it was
+appointed to serve in the economy of Providence.
+
+When of old a flood of waters was to be sent on the world, Noah was
+commanded to build an ark of gopher wood for the saving of his house.
+God gave him special instructions regarding its length, its breadth, its
+height: he was told where to place its door and window, how to arrange
+its storeys and rooms, and specially to gather "of all food that is
+eaten," that it might be for food for him and those with him. When all
+had been done according to the Divine instructions, God shut in Noah,
+and the flood came.
+
+So was it once more. A flood was to come upon the earth; but now God
+himself prepared the ark in which the chosen family were to be saved. He
+laid its foundations in the depths, and built up its wall of rock to the
+sky. A door also made He for the ark, with lower, second, and third
+storeys. It was beautiful as strong. Corn, wine, and oil were laid up in
+store within it. All being ready, God said to his persecuted ones in the
+early Church, "Come, thou and all thy house, into the ark." He gave them
+the Bible to be a light to them during the darkness, and shut them in.
+The flood came. Century after century the waters of Papal superstition
+continued to prevail upon the earth. At length all the high hills that
+were under the whole heaven were covered, and all flesh died, save the
+little company in the Vaudois ark.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+STATE AND PROSPECTS OF THE VAUDOIS CHURCH.
+
+     Dawn of the Reformation--Waldensian Territory a Portion of
+     Italy--Two-fold Mission of Italy--Origin of the Vaudois--Evidence
+     of Romanist Historians--Evidence of their own Historians--Evidence
+     arising from the Noble Leyçon from their Geographical
+     Position--Grandeur of the Vaudois Annals--Their Martyr Age--Their
+     Missionary Efforts--Present
+     Condition--Population--Churches--Schools--Stipends--Students--Social
+     and Moral Superiority--Political and Social Disabilities--The Year
+     1848 their Exodus--Their Mission--A Sabbath in the Vaudois
+     Sanctuary--Anecdote--Lesson Taught by their History.
+
+
+How often during the long night must the Vaudois have looked from their
+mountain asylum upon a world engulphed in error, with the mingled wonder
+and dismay with which we may imagine the antediluvian fathers gazing
+from the window of their ark upon the bosom of the shoreless flood! What
+an appalling and mysterious dispensation! The fountains of the great
+deep had a second time been broken up, and each successive century saw
+the waters rising. Would Christianity ever re-appear? Or had the Church
+completed her triumphs, and finished her course? And was time to close
+upon a world shrouded in darkness, with nought but this feeble beacon
+burning amid the Alps? Such were the questions which must often have
+pressed upon the minds of the Vaudois.
+
+Like Noah, too, they sent forth, from time to time, messengers from
+their ark, to go hither and thither, and see if yet there remained
+anywhere, in any part of the earth, any worshippers of the true God.
+They returned to their mountain hold, with the sorrowful tidings that
+nowhere had they found any remnant of the true Church, and that the
+whole world wondered after the beast. The Vaudois, however, had power
+given them to maintain their testimony. In the midst of universal
+apostacy, and in the face of the most terrible persecutions, they bore
+witness against Rome. And ever as that Church added another error to her
+creed, the Vaudois added another article to their testimony; and in this
+way Romish idolatry and gospel truth were developed by equal stages, and
+an adequate testimony was maintained all through that gloomy period. The
+stars of the ecclesiastical firmament fell unto the earth, like the
+untimely figs of the fig-tree; but the lamp of the Alps went not out.
+The Vaudois, not unconscious of their sacred office, watched their
+heaven-kindled beacon with the vigilance of men inspired by the hope
+that it would yet attract the eyes of the world. At length--thrice
+welcome sight!--the watch-fires of the German reformers, kindled at
+their own, began to streak the horizon. They knew that the hour of
+darkness had passed, and that the time was near when the Church would
+leave her asylum, and go forth to sow the fields of the world with the
+immortal seed of truth.
+
+We must be permitted to remark here, that the fact that the Waldensian
+territory is really a part of Italy, and that the Vaudois, or Valdesi,
+or People of the Valleys (for all three signify the same thing), are
+strictly an Italian people, invests ITALY with a new and interesting
+light. In all ages, Pagan as well as Christian, Italy has been the seat
+of a twofold influence,--the one destructive, the other regenerative. In
+classic times, Italy sent forth armies to subjugate the world, and
+letters to enlighten it. Since the Christian era, her mission has been
+of the same mixed character. She has been at once the seat of idolatry
+and the asylum of Christianity. Her idolatry is of a grosser and more
+perfected type than was the worship of Baal of old; and her Christianity
+possesses a more spiritual character, and a more powerfully operative
+genius, than did the institute of Moses. We ought, then, to think of
+Italy as the land of the martyr as well as of the persecutor,--as not
+only the land whence our Popery has come, which has cost us so many
+martyrs of whom we are proud, and has caused the loss of so many souls
+which we mourn,--but also as the fountain of that blessed light which
+broke mildly on the world in the preaching of John Huss, and more
+powerfully, a century afterwards, in the reformation of the sixteenth
+century. Though there was no audible voice, and no visible miracle, the
+Waldenses were as really chosen to be the witnesses of God during the
+long night of papal idolatry, as were the Jews to be his witnesses
+during the night of pagan idolatry. They are sprung, according to the
+more credible historical accounts, from the unfallen Church of Rome;
+they are the direct lineal descendants of the primitive Christians of
+Italy; they never bowed the knee to the modern Baal; their mountain
+sanctuary has remained unpolluted by idolatrous rites; and if they were
+called to affix to their testimony the seal of a cruel martyrdom, they
+did not fall till they had scattered over the various countries of
+Europe the seed of a future harvest. Their death was a martyrdom endured
+in behalf of Christendom; and scarcely was it accomplished till they
+were raised to life again, in the appearance of numerous churches both
+north and south of the Alps. Why is it that all persons and systems in
+this world of ours must die in order to enter into life? We enter into
+spiritual life by the death of our old nature; we enter into eternal
+life by the death of the body; and Christianity, too, that she might
+enter into the immortality promised her on earth, had to die. The words
+of our Lord, spoken in reference to his own death, are true also in
+reference to the martyrdom of the Waldensian Church:--"Verily verily, I
+say unto you, except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it
+abideth alone; but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit."
+
+The first question touching this extraordinary people respects their
+origin. When did they come into being, and of what stock are they
+sprung? This question forces itself with singular power upon the mind of
+the traveller, who, after traversing cities and countries covered with
+darkness palpable as that of Egypt of old, and seeing nought around him
+but image-worship, lights unexpectedly, in the midst of these mountains,
+upon a little community, enjoying the knowledge of the true God, and
+worshipping Him after the scriptural and spiritual manner of prophets
+and apostles of old. He naturally seeks for an explanation of a fact so
+extraordinary. Who kindled that solitary lamp? Their enemies have
+striven to represent them as dissenters from Rome of the twelfth and
+thirteenth centuries; and it is a common error even among ourselves to
+speak of them as the followers of Peter Waldo, the pious merchant of
+Lyons, and to date their rise from the year 1160. We cannot here go into
+the controversy; suffice it to say, that historical documents exist
+which show that both the Albigenses and the Waldenses were known long
+before Peter Waldo was heard of. Their own traditions and ancient
+manuscripts speak of them as having maintained the same doctrine "from
+time immemorial, in continued descent from father to son, even from the
+times of the apostles." The Nobla Leyçon,--the Confession of Faith of
+the Vaudois Church, of the date of 1100,--claims on their behalf the
+same ancient origin; Ecbert, a writer who flourished in 1160--the year
+of Peter Waldo--speaks of them as "perverters," who had existed during
+many ages; and Reinerus, the inquisitor, who lived a century afterwards,
+calls them the most dangerous of all sects, because the most ancient;
+"for some say," adds he, "that it has continued to flourish since the
+time of Sylvester; others, from the time of the apostles." This last is
+a singular corroboration of the authenticity of the Nobla Leyçon, which
+refers to the corruptions which began under Sylvester as the cause of
+their separation from the communion of the Church of Rome. Rorenco, the
+grand prior of St Roch, who was commissioned to make enquiries
+concerning them, after hinting that possibly they were detached from the
+Church by Claude, the good Bishop of Turin, in the eighth century, says
+"that they were not a new sect in the ninth and tenth centuries."
+Campian the Jesuit says of them, that they were reputed to be "more
+ancient than the Roman Church." Nor is it without great weight, as the
+historian Leger observes, that not one of the Dukes of Savoy or their
+ministers ever offered the slightest contradiction to the oft-reiterated
+assertions of the Vaudois, when petitioning for liberty of conscience,
+"We are descendants," said they, "of those who, from father to son, have
+preserved entire the apostolical faith in the valleys which we now
+occupy."[1] We have no doubt that, were the ecclesiastical archives of
+Lombardy, especially those of Turin and Milan, carefully searched,
+documents would be found which would place beyond all doubt what the
+scattered proofs we have referred to render all but a certainty.
+
+The historical evidence for the antiquity of the Vaudois Church is
+greatly strengthened by a consideration of the geographical position of
+"the Valleys." They lie on what anciently was the great high-road
+between Italy and France. There existed a frequent intercourse betwixt
+the Churches of the two countries; pastors and private members were
+continually going and returning; and what so likely to follow this
+intercourse as the evangelization of these valleys? There is a tradition
+extant, that the Apostle Paul visited them, in his journey from Rome to
+Spain. Be this as it may, one can scarce doubt that the feet of Irenæus,
+and of other early fathers, trod the territory of the Vaudois, and
+preached the gospel by the waters of the Pelice, and under the rocks and
+chestnut trees of Bobbio. Indeed, we can scarce err in fixing the first
+rise of the Vaudois Churches at even an earlier period,--that of
+apostolic times. So soon as the Church began to be wasted by
+persecution, the remote corners of Italy were sought as an asylum; and
+from the days of Nero the primitive Christians may have begun to gather
+round those mountains to which the ark of God was ultimately removed,
+and amid which it so long dwelt.
+
+   "I go up to the ancient hills,
+     Where chains may never be;
+   Where leap in joy the torrent rills;
+ Where man may worship God alone, and free.
+
+   There shall an altar and a camp
+     Impregnably arise;
+   There shall be lit a quenchless lamp,
+ To shine unwavering through the open skies.
+
+   And song shall 'midst the rocks be heard,
+     And fearless prayer ascend;
+   While, thrilling to God's holy Word,
+ The mountain-pines in adoration bend.
+
+   And there the burning heart no more
+     Its deep thought shall suppress;
+   But the long-buried truth shall pour
+ Free currents thence, amidst the wilderness."
+
+How could a small body of peasants among the mountains have discovered
+the errors of Rome, and have thrown off her yoke, at a time when the
+whole of Europe received the one and bowed to the other? This could not
+have happened in the natural order of things. Above all, if they did not
+arise till the twelfth or thirteenth century, how came they to frame so
+elaborate and full a testimony as the _Noble Lesson_ against Rome? A
+Church that has a creed must have a history. Nor was it in a year, or
+even in a single age, that they could have compiled such a creed. It
+could acquire form and substance only in the course of centuries,--the
+Vaudois adding article to article, as Rome added error to error. We can
+have no reasonable doubt, then, that in the Vaudois community we have a
+relic of the primitive Church. Compared with them, the house of Savoy,
+which ruled so long and rigorously over them, is but of yesterday. They
+are more ancient than the Roman Church itself. They have come down to us
+from the world before the papal flood, bearing in their heaven-built and
+heaven-guarded ark the sacred oracles; and now they stand before us as a
+witness to the historic truth of Christianity, and a living copy, in
+doctrine, in government, and in manners, of the Church of the Apostles.
+
+Fain would we tell at length the heroic story of the Vaudois. We use no
+exaggerated speech,--no rhetorical flourish,--but speak advisedly, when
+we say, that their history, take it all in all, is the brightest, the
+purest, the most heroic, in the annals of the world. Their martyr-age
+lasted five centuries; and we know of nothing, whether we regard the
+sacredness of the cause, or the undaunted valour, the pure patriotism,
+and the lofty faith, in which the Vaudois maintained it, that can be
+compared with their glorious struggle. This is an age of hero-worship.
+Let us go to the mountains of the Waldenses: there we will find heroes
+"unsung by poet, by senators unpraised," yet of such gigantic stature,
+that the proudest champions of ancient Rome are dwarfed in their
+presence. It was no transient flash of patriotism and valour that broke
+forth on the soil of the Vaudois: that country saw sixteen generations
+of heroes, and five centuries of heroic deeds. Men came from pruning
+their vines or tending their flocks, to do feats of arms which Greece
+never equalled, and which throw into the shade the proudest exploits of
+Rome. The Jews maintained the worship of the true God in their country
+for many ages, and often gained glorious victories; but the Jews were a
+nation; they possessed an ample territory, rich in resources; they were
+trained to war, moreover, and marshalled and led on by skilful and
+courageous chiefs. But the Waldenses were a primitive and simple people;
+they had neither king nor leader; their only sovereign was Jehovah;
+their only guides were their _Barbes_. The struggle under the Maccabees
+was a noble one; but it attained not the grandeur of that of the
+Vaudois. It was short in comparison; nor do its single exploits, brave
+as they were, rise to the same surpassing pitch of heroism. When read
+after the story of the Vaudois, the annals of Greece and Rome even,
+fruitful though they be in deeds of heroism, appear cold and tame. In
+short, we know of no other instance in the world in which a great and
+sacred object has been prosecuted from father to son for such a length
+of time, with a patriotism so pure, a courage so unshrinking, a
+devotion so entire, and amidst such a multitude of sacrifices,
+sufferings, and woes, as in the case of the Vaudois. The incentives to
+courage which have stimulated others to brave death were wanting in
+their case. If they triumphed, they had no admiring circus to welcome
+them with shouts, and crown them with laurel; and if they fell, they
+knew that there awaited their ashes no marble tomb, and that no lay of
+poet would ever embalm their memory. They looked to a greater Judge for
+their reward. This was the source of that patriotism, the purest the
+world has ever seen, and of that valour, the noblest of which the annals
+of mankind make mention.
+
+Innocent III., who hid under a sanctimonious guise the boundless
+ambition and quenchless malignity of Lucifer, was the first to blow the
+trumpet of extermination against the poor Vaudois. And from the middle
+of the thirteenth to the end of the seventeenth century they suffered
+not fewer than thirty persecutions. During that long period they could
+not calculate upon a single year's immunity from invasion and slaughter.
+From the days of Innocent their history becomes one long harrowing tale
+of papal plots, interdicts, excommunications, of royal proscriptions and
+perfidies, of attack, of plunder, of rapine, of massacre, and of death
+in every conceivable and horrible way,--by the sword, by fire, and by
+unutterable tortures and torments. The Waldenses had no alternative but
+to submit to these, or deny their Saviour. Yet, driven to arms,--ever
+their last resource,--they waxed valiant in fight, and put to flight the
+armies of the aliens. They taught their enemies that the battle was not
+to the strong. When the cloud gathered round their hills, they removed
+their wives and little ones to some rock-girt valley, to the caverns of
+which they had taken the precaution of removing their corn and oil, and
+even their baking ovens; and there, though perhaps they did not muster
+more than a thousand fighting men in all, they waited, with calm
+confidence in God, the onset of their foes. In these encounters,
+sustained by Heaven, they performed prodigies of valour. The combined
+armies of France and Piedmont recoiled from their shock. Their invaders
+were almost invariably overthrown, sometimes even annihilated; and their
+sovereigns, the Dukes of Savoy, on whose memory there rests the
+indelible blot of having pursued this loyal, industrious, and virtuous
+people with ceaseless and incredible injustice, cruelty, treachery, and
+perfidy, finding that they could not subdue them, were glad to offer
+them terms of peace, and grant them new guarantees of the quiet
+possession of their ancient territory. Thus an invisible omnipotent arm
+was ever extended over the Vaudois and their land, delivering them
+miraculously in times of danger, and preserving them as a peculiar
+people, that by their instrumentality Jehovah might accomplish his
+designs of mercy towards the world.
+
+Nor were the Waldenses content simply to maintain their faith. Even when
+fighting for existence, they recognised their obligations as a
+missionary Church, and strove to diffuse over the surrounding countries
+the light that burned amid their own mountains. Who has not heard of the
+Pra de la Torre, in the valley of Angrona? This is a beautiful little
+meadow, encircled with a barrier of tremendous mountains, and watered by
+a torrent, which, flowing from an Alpine summit, _La Sella Vecchia_,
+descends with echoing noise through the dark gorges and shining dells of
+the deep and romantic valley. This was the inner sanctuary of the
+Vaudois. Here their _Barbes_ sat; here was their school of the prophets;
+and from this spot were sent forth their pastors and missionaries into
+France, Germany, and Britain, as well as into their own valleys. It was
+a native and missionary of these valleys, Gualtero Lollard, which gave
+his name, in the fourteenth century, to the Lollards of England, whose
+doctrines were the day-spring of the Reformation in our own country. The
+zeal of the Vaudois was seen in the devices they fell upon to distribute
+the Bible, and along with that a knowledge of the gospel. Colporteurs
+travelled as pedlars; and, after displaying their laces and jewels, they
+drew forth, and offered for sale, or as a gift, a gem of yet greater
+value. In this way the Word of God found entrance alike into cottage and
+baronial castle. It is a supposed scene of this kind which the following
+lines depict:--
+
+ Oh! lady fair, these silks of mine
+   Are beautiful and rare,--
+ The richest web of the Indian loom
+   Which beauty's self might wear;
+ And these pearls are pure and mild to behold,
+   And with radiant light they vie:
+ I have brought them with me a weary way;--
+   Will my gentle lady buy?
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+ Oh! lady fair, I have got a gem,
+   Which a purer lustre flings
+ Than the diamond flash of the jewell'd crown
+   On the lofty brow of kings:
+ A wonderful pearl of exceeding price,
+   Whose virtue shall not decay,--
+ Whose light shall be as a spell to thee,
+   And a blessing on the way!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+ The cloud went off from the pilgrim's brow,
+   As a small and meagre book,
+ Unchased by gold or diamond gem,
+   From his folding robe he took.
+ Here, lady fair, is the pearl of price;--
+   May it prove as such to thee!
+ Nay, keep thy gold--I ask it not;
+   _For the Word of God is free!_
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+ And she hath left the old gray halls,
+   Where an evil faith hath power,
+ And the courtly knights of her father's train,
+   And the maidens of her bower;
+ And she hath gone to the Vaudois vale,
+   By lordly feet untrod,
+ Where the poor and needy of earth are rich
+   In the perfect love of God!
+
+But, turning from this inviting theme, to which volumes only could do
+justice, let us lift the curtain, and look at this simple, heroic
+people, as they appear now, after the "great tribulation" of five
+centuries. The Protestant population of "the Valleys" is 22,000 and
+upwards. They have fifteen churches and parishes, and twenty-five
+persons in all engaged in the work of the ministry. This was their state
+in 1851. Since then, two other parishes, Pignerolo and Turin, have been
+added. To each church a school is attached, with numerous sub-schools.
+It is to the honour of the Vaudois that they led the way in that system
+of general education which is extending itself, more or less, in every
+State in Europe. Repeated edicts of the Waldensian Table rendered it
+imperative upon the community to provide means of religious and
+elementary education for all the children capable of receiving it. They
+have a college at La Tour, fifteen primary schools, and upwards of one
+hundred secondary schools. The whole Waldensian youth is at school
+during winter. In their congregations, the sacrament of the Supper is
+dispensed four times in the year; and it is rare that a young person
+fails to become a communicant after arriving at the proper age. There
+are two preaching days at every dispensation of the ordinance; and the
+collections made on these occasions are devoted to the poor. There was
+at that time no plate at the church-door on ordinary Sabbaths; and no
+contributions were made by the people for the support of the gospel. I
+presume this error is rectified now, however; for it was then in
+contemplation to adopt the plan in use in Scotland, and elsewhere, of a
+penny-a-week subscription. The stipends of the Waldensian pastors are
+paid from funds contributed by England and Holland. Each receives
+fifteen hundred francs yearly,--about sixty-two pounds sterling. Their
+incomes are supplemented by a small glebe, which is attached to each
+_living_. The contribution for the schools and the hospitals is
+compulsory. In their college, in 1851, there were seventy-five students.
+Some were studying for the medical profession, some for commercial
+pursuits; others were qualifying as teachers, and some few as pastors.
+
+The Waldenses inhabit their hills, much as the Jews did their Palestine.
+Each man lives on his ancestral acres; and his farm or vineyard is not
+too large to be cultivated by himself and his family. There are amongst
+them no titles of honour, and scarce any distinctions of rank and
+circumstances. They are a nation of vine-dressers, husbandmen, and
+shepherds. In their habits they are frugal and simple. Their peaceful
+deportment and industrial virtues have won the admiration, and extorted
+the acknowledgments, even of their enemies. In the cultivation of their
+fields, in the breed and management of their cattle and their flocks, in
+the arrangements of their dairies, and in the cleanliness of their
+cabins, they far excel the rest of the Piedmontese. To enlarge their
+territory, they have had recourse to the same device with the Jews of
+old; and the Vaudois mountains, like the Judæan hills, exhibit in many
+places terraces, rising in a continuous series up the hill-side, sown
+with grain or planted with the vine. Every span of earth is cultivated.
+
+The Vaudois excel the rest of the Piedmontese in point of morals, just
+as much as they excel them in point of intelligence and industry. All
+who have visited their abodes, and studied their character, admit, that
+they are incomparably the most moral community on the Continent of
+Europe. When a Vaudois commits a crime,--a rare occurrence,--the whole
+valleys mourn, and every family feels as if a cloud rested on its own
+reputation. No one can pass a day among them without remarking the
+greater decorum of their deportment, and the greater kindliness and
+civility of their address. I do not mean to say that, either in respect
+of intelligence or piety, they are equal to the natives of our own
+highly favoured Scotland. They are surrounded on all sides by
+degradation and darkness; they have just escaped from ages of
+proscription; books are few among their mountains; and they have
+suffered, too, from the inroads of French infidelity; an age of
+Moderatism has passed over them, as over ourselves; and from these evils
+they have not yet completely recovered. Still, with all these drawbacks,
+they are immensely superior to any other community abroad; and, in
+simplicity of heart, and purity of life, present us with no feeble
+transcript of the primitive Church, of which they are the
+representatives.
+
+The lotus-flower is said to lift its head above the muddy current of the
+Nile at the precise moment of sunrise. It was indicative, perhaps, of
+the dawning of a new day upon the Vaudois and Italy, that that Church
+experienced lately a revival. That revival was almost immediately
+followed by the boon of political and social emancipation, and by a new
+and enlarged sphere of spiritual action. The year 1848 opened the doors
+of their ancient prison, and called them to go forth and evangelize.
+Formerly, all attempts to extend themselves beyond their mountain abode,
+and to mingle with the nations around them, were uniformly followed by
+disaster. The time was not come; and the integrity of their faith, and
+the accomplishment of their high mission, would have been perilled by
+their leaving their asylum. But when the revolutions of 1848 threw the
+north of Italy open to their action, then came forth the decree of
+Charles Albert, declaring the Vaudois free subjects of Piedmont, and the
+Church of "the Valleys" a free Church. The disabilities under which the
+Waldenses groaned up till this very recent period may well astonish us,
+now that we look back to them. Up till 1848 the Waldensian was
+proscribed, in both his civil and religious rights, beyond the limits of
+his own valleys. Out of his special territory he dared not possess a
+foot-breadth of land; and, if obliged to sell his paternal fields to a
+stranger, he could not buy them back again. He was shut out from the
+colleges of his country; he could not practise as a member of any of the
+learned professions; every avenue to distinction and wealth was closed
+against him,--his only crime being his religion. He could not marry but
+with one of his own people; he could not build a sanctuary,--he could
+not even bury his dead,--beyond the limits of "the Valleys." The
+children were often taken away and trained in the idolatrous rites of
+Romanism, and the unhappy parents had no remedy. They were slandered,
+too, to their sovereigns, as men marked by hideous deformities; and
+great was the surprise of Charles Albert to find, on a visit he paid to
+the Valleys but a little before granting their emancipation, that the
+Vaudois were not the monsters he had been taught to believe. I have been
+told, that to this very day they carry their dead to the grave in open
+coffins, to give ocular demonstration of the falsehood of the calumnies
+propagated by their enemies, that the corpses of these heretics are
+sometimes consumed by invisible flames, or carried off by evil spirits
+before burial. But now all these disabilities are at an end. The year
+1848 swept them all away; and a bulwark of constitutional feeling and
+action has since grown up around the Vaudois, cutting off the prospect
+of these disabilities ever being re-imposed, unless, indeed, Austria and
+France should combine to put down the Piedmontese constitution. But
+hitherto that nation which gave religious liberty to the people of God
+has had its own political liberties wonderfully protected.
+
+The year 1848, then, was the "exodus" of the Vaudois. And why were they
+brought out of their house of bondage? Surely they have yet a work to
+do. Their great mission, which was to bear witness for the truth during
+the domination of Antichrist, they nobly fulfilled; but are they to have
+no part in diffusing over the plains of Italy that light which they so
+long and so carefully preserved? This undoubtedly is their mission. All
+the leadings of Providence declare it to be so. They were visited with
+revival, brought from their Alpine asylum, had full liberty of action
+given them, all at the moment that Italy had begun to be open to the
+gospel. They are the native evangelists of their own country: let them
+remember their own and their fathers' sufferings, and avenge themselves
+on Rome, not with the sword, but the Bible. And let British Christians
+aid them in this great work, assured that the door to Rome and Italy
+lies through the valleys of the Vaudois.
+
+The last day of my sojourn in the Waldensian territory was Sabbath the
+19th of October, and I worshipped with that people,--rare enjoyment!--in
+their sanctuary. The day broke amid high winds and torrents of rain. The
+clouds now veiled, now revealed, the hill-side, with its variously
+tinted foliage, and its white torrents dashing headlong to the vale. The
+mighty form of the Castelluzzo was seen struggling through mists; and
+high above the winds rose the roar of the swollen waters. At a quarter
+before ten, the church-bell, heard through the pauses of the storm, came
+pealing from the heights. The old church of La Tour,--the new and more
+elegant fabric which stands in the village was not then opened,--is
+sweetly placed at the base of the Castelluzzo, embowered amid vines and
+fragrant foliage, and commanding a noble view of the plains of Piedmont.
+Even amidst the driving mists and showers its beauty could not fail to
+be felt. The scenery was--
+
+ "A blending of all beauties, streams and dells,
+ Fruits, foliage, crag, wood, corn-field, mountain, vine."
+
+General Beckwith did me the honour to call at my hotel, and I walked
+with him to the church. Outside the building--for worship had not
+commenced--were numerous little conversational parties; and around it
+lay the Vaudois dead, sleeping beneath the shadow of their giant rock,
+and free, at last and for ever, from the oppressor. They had found
+another "exodus" from their house of bondage than that which King
+Charles Albert had granted their living descendants. We entered, and
+found the schoolmaster reading the liturgy. This service consists of two
+chapters of the Bible, with at times the reflections of Ostervald
+annexed; during it the congregation came dropping in,--the husbandmen
+and herdsmen of the Val Lucerna,--and took their seats. In a little the
+elders entered in a body, and seated themselves round a table in front
+of the pulpit. Next came the pastor, habited, like our Scotch ministers,
+in gown and bands, when the regent instantly ceased. The pastor began
+the public worship by giving out a psalm. He next offered a prayer,
+read the ten commandments, and then preached. The sermon was an
+half-hour's length precisely, and was recited, not read; for I was told
+the Waldenses have a strong dislike to read discourses. The minister of
+La Tour is an old man, and was trained under an order of things
+unfavourable to that higher standard of pulpit qualification, and that
+fuller manifestation of evangelical and spiritual feeling, which, I am
+glad to say, characterize all the younger Waldensian pastors. The people
+listened with great attention to his scriptural discourse; but I was
+sorry to observe that there were few Bibles among them,--a circumstance
+that may be explained perhaps with reference to the state of the
+weather, and the long distance which many of them have to travel. The
+storm had the effect at least of thinning the audience, and bringing it
+down from about 800, its usual number, to 500 or so. The church was an
+oblong building, with the pulpit on one of the side walls, and a deep
+gallery, resting on thick, heavy pillars, on the other. The men and
+women occupied separate places. With this exception, I saw nothing to
+remind me that I was out of Scotland. One may find exactly such another
+congregation in almost any part of our Scottish Highlands, with this
+difference, that the complexions of the Vaudois are darker than that of
+our Highlanders. They have the same hardy, weather-beaten features, and
+the same robust frames. I saw many venerable and some noble heads among
+them,--men who would face the storms of the Alps for the lost wanderer
+of the flock, and the edicts and soldiers of Rome for their home-steads
+and altars. There they sat, worshipping their fathers' God, amid their
+fathers' mountains,--victorious over twelve centuries of proscription
+and persecution, and holding their sanctuaries and their hills in
+defiance of Europe. In the evening Professor Malan preached in the
+schoolhouse of Margarita, a small village on the ascent from La Tour to
+Castelluzzo. He discoursed with great unction, and the crowded audience
+hung upon his lips.
+
+On my way back to my hotel, Professor Malan narrated to me a touching
+anecdote, which I must here put down. Monsignor Mazzarella was a judge
+in one of the High Courts of Sicily; but when the atrocities of the
+re-action began, he refused to be a tool of the Government, and resigned
+his office. He came to Turin, like numerous other political refugees;
+and in one of the re-unions of the workmen, he learned the doctrine of
+"justification by faith." Soon thereafter, that is, in the summer of
+1851, he and a few companions paid a visit to the Vaudois Church. A
+public meeting, over which Professor Malan presided, was held at La
+Tour, to welcome M. Mazzarella and his friends. Professor Malan
+expressed his delight at seeing them in "the Valleys;" welcomed them as
+the first fruits of Italy; and, in the name of the Vaudois Church, gave
+them the right hand of fellowship. The reply of the converted exiles was
+truly affecting, and moved the assembly to tears. Rising up, Mazzarella
+said, "We are the children of your persecutors; but the sons have other
+hearts than the fathers. We have renounced the religion of the
+oppressor, and embraced that of the Vaudois, whom our ancestors so long
+persecuted. You have been the people of God, the confessors of the
+truth; and here before you this night I confess the sin of my fathers in
+putting your fathers to death." Mazzarella at this day is an evangelist
+in Genoa. In his speech we hear the first utterance of repentant
+Christendom. "The sons also of them that afflicted thee shall come
+bending unto thee; and all they that despised thee shall bow themselves
+down at the soles of thy feet; and they shall call thee the city of the
+Lord, the Zion of the Holy One of Israel."
+
+I had now been well nigh a week in "the Valleys." A dream long and
+fondly cherished had become a reality; and next morning I started for
+Turin.
+
+The eventful history of the Vaudois teaches one lesson at least, which
+we Protestants would do well to ponder at this hour. The measures of the
+Church of Rome are quick, summary, and on a scale commensurate with the
+danger. Her motto is instant, unpitying, unsparing, utter extermination
+of all that oppose her. Twice over has the human mind revolted against
+her authority, and twice over has she met that revolt, not with
+argument, but with the sword. In the eleventh and twelfth centuries the
+Waldensian movement had grown to such a head, that the dominion of Rome
+was in imminent jeopardy. Had she delayed, the Reformation would have
+been anticipated by some centuries. She did not delay. She cried for
+help to the warriors of France and Savoy; and, by the help of some
+hundred thousand soldiers, she put down the Waldensian movement as an
+aggressive power. The next revolt against her authority was the
+Reformation. Here again she boldly confronted the danger. She grasped
+her old weapon; and, by the help of the sword and the Jesuits, she put
+down that movement in one half the countries of Europe, and greatly
+weakened it in the other half.
+
+We are now witnessing a third revolt against her authority; and it
+remains to be seen how the Church of Rome will deal with it. Will she
+now adopt half measures? Will she now falter and draw back,--she that
+never before feared enemy or spared foe? Will that Church that quenched
+in blood the Protestantism of the Waldenses,--that put down the
+Reformation in France by one terrible blow,--that by the help of
+dungeons and racks banished the light from Italy and Spain,--will that
+Church, we ask, spare the Protestantism of Britain? What folly and
+infatuation to think that she will! What matters it that, in rooting out
+British Protestantism, she should shed oceans of blood, and sound the
+death-knell of a whole nation? These are but dust in the balance to her:
+her dominion must be maintained at all costs. Her motto still is,--let
+Rome triumph though the heavens should fall. But she tells us that she
+repents. Repents, does she? She has grown pitiful, and tender hearted,
+has she? She fears blood now, and starts at the cry of murdered nations!
+Ah! she repents; but it is her clemency, not her crimes, of which she
+repents. She repents that she did not make one wide St Bartholomew of
+Europe; that when she planted the stake for Huss, and Cranmer, and
+Wishart, she did not plant a million of stakes. Then the Reformation
+would not have been. Yes, she repents, deeply, bitterly repents, her
+fatal blunder. But it will not be her fault, the _Univers_ assures us,
+if she have to repent such a blunder a second time. Let us hear the
+priests speaking through one of the country papers in France:--"The wars
+of religion were not deplorable catastrophes; these great butcheries
+renewed the life of France. The incense cast away the smell of the
+corpses, and psalms covered the noise of angry shouts. Holy water washed
+away all the bloody stains. With the Inquisition, the most beautiful
+weather succeeded to storms, and the fires that burned the heretics
+shone like supernatural torches." The hand that wrote these lines would
+more gladly light the faggot. Let only the present regime in France last
+a few years, and the priests will again rejoice in seeing the colour of
+heretic blood. There cannot and will not be peace in the world, they
+say, till for every Protestant a gibbet or stake has been erected, and
+not one man left to carry tidings to posterity that ever there was such
+a thing as Protestantism on the earth.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+FROM TURIN TO NOVARA.
+
+     At Turin begins Pilgrimage to Rome--Description of
+     _Diligence_--Dora Susina--Plain of Lombardy--Its Boundaries--Nursed
+     by the Alps--Lessons taught thereby--The Colina--Inauspicious
+     Sunset--The Road to Milan--The Po--Its Source--Tributaries and
+     Function--Evening--Home remembered in a Foreign Land--Inference
+     thence regarding Futurity--Thunderstorm among the
+     Alps--Thunderstorm on the Plain of Lombardy--Grandeur of the
+     Lightning--Enter Novara at Day-break.
+
+
+I had two objects in view in crossing the Alps. The first was to visit
+the land of the Vaudois; the second was to see Rome. The first of these
+objects I had accomplished in part; the second remained to be
+undertaken.
+
+This plain of Piedmont was the richest my foot had ever trodden; but
+often did I turn my eyes wistfully towards the Apennines, which, like a
+veil, shut out the Italy of the Romans and the City of the Seven Hills.
+At Turin, which the Po so sweetly waters, and over which the snow-clad
+hills of the Swiss fling their noble shadows, properly begins my journey
+to Rome.
+
+I started in the _diligence_ for Milan about four of the afternoon of
+the 21st October. Did you ever, reader, set foot in a _diligence_? It is
+a castle mounted on wheels, rising storey upon storey to a fearful
+height. It is roomy withal, and has apartments enough within its
+leathern walls for well-nigh the population of a village. There is the
+glass _coupé_ in front, the drawing-room of the house. There is the
+_interieur_, which you may compare, if you please, to the dining-room,
+only there you do not dine; and there is the _rotundo_, a sort of cabin
+attached, the limbo of the establishment, in which you may find
+half-a-dozen unhappy wights for days and nights doing penance. Then, in
+the very fore-front of this moving castle--hung in mid air, as it
+were--there is the _banquette_. It is the roomiest of all, and has,
+moreover, spacious untenanted spaces behind, where you may stow away
+your luggage; and, being the loftiest compartment, it commands the
+country you may happen to traverse. On this account the _banquette_ was
+the place I almost always selected, unless when so unfortunate as to
+find it already bespoke. Half-hours are of no value in the south of the
+Alps, and a very liberal allowance of this commodity was made us before
+starting. At last, however, the formidable process of loading was
+completed, and away we went, rumbling heavily over the streets of Turin
+to the crack of the postilion's whip and the music of the horses' bells.
+
+On emerging from the buildings of the city, we crossed the fine bridge
+over the Dora Susina, an Alpine stream, which attains almost the dignity
+of a river, and which, swollen by recent rains, was hurrying on to join
+the Po. Our course now lay almost due east, over the great plain of
+Lombardy; and there are few rides in any part of the world which can
+bring the traveller such a succession of varied, rich, and sublime
+sights. The plain itself, level as the floor of one's library, and
+wearing a rich carpeting, green at all seasons, of fruits and verdure,
+ran out till it touched the horizon. On the north rose the Alps, a
+magnificent wall, of stature so stupendous, that they seemed to prop
+the heavens. On the south were the gentler Apennines. Between these two
+magnificent barriers, this goodly plain--of which I know not if the
+earth contains its equal--stretches away till it terminates in the blue
+line of the Adriatic. On its ample bosom is many a celebrated spot, many
+an interesting object. It has several princely cities, in which art is
+cultivated, and trade flourishes to all the extent which Austrian
+fetters permit. Its old historic towns are numerous. The hoar of eld is
+upon them. It has rags of castles and fortresses which literally have
+braved for a thousand years the battle and the breeze. It has spots
+where empires have been lost and won, and where the dead of the tented
+field sleep their dreamless sleep. It has fine old cathedrals, with
+their antique carvings, their recumbent statues of old-world bishops,
+and their Scripture pieces by various masters, sorely faded; and here
+and there, above the rich foliage of its various woods, like the tall
+mast of a ship at sea, is seen the handsome and lofty campanile, so
+peculiar to the architecture of Lombardy.
+
+The great Alps look down with most benignant aspect upon this plain.
+They seem quite proud of it, and nurse it with the care and tenderness
+of a parent. Noble rivers not a few--the Ticino, the Adige, and streams
+and torrents without number--do they send down, to keep its beauty ever
+fresh. These streams cross and re-cross its green bosom in all
+directions, forming by their interlacings a curious network of silvery
+lines, like the bright threads in the mine, or the white veins in the
+porphyritic slab. Observe this little flower, with its bright petals,
+growing by the wayside. That humble flower owes its beauty to yonder
+chain. From the frozen summits of the Alps come the waters at which it
+daily drinks. And when the dog-days come, and a fiery sun looks down
+upon the plain from a sky that is cloudless for months together, and
+when every leaf droops, and even the tall poplar seems to bow itself
+beneath the intolerable heat, the mountains, pitying the panting plain,
+send down their cool breezes to revive it. Would that from the lofty
+pinnacles of rank and talent there descended upon the lower levels of
+society an influence equally wholesome and beneficent! Were there more
+streams from the mountain, there would be more fruits upon the plain.
+The world would not be the scorched desert which it is, in which the
+vipers of envy and discontent hiss and sting; but a fragrant garden,
+full of the fruits of social order and of moral principle. Truly, man
+might learn many a useful lesson from the earth on which he treads: the
+great, to dispense freely out of their abundance,--for by dispensing
+they but multiply their blessings, as Mont Blanc, by sending down its
+streams to enrich the plain, feeds those snows which are its glory and
+crown,--and the humble, the lesson of a thankful reciprocation. This
+plain does not drink in the waters of the Alps, and sullenly refuse to
+own its obligations. Like a duteous child, it brings its yearly offering
+to the foot of Mont Blanc,--fields of golden wheat, countless vines with
+their blood-red clusters, fruits of every name, and flowers of every
+hue;--such is the noble tribute which this plain, year by year, lays at
+the feet of its august parent. There is but one drawback to its
+prosperity. Two sombre shadows fall gloomily athwart its surface. These
+are Austria and Rome.
+
+The plain of Lombardy is so broad, and the road to Milan by Novara is so
+much on a level with its general surface, that the eye catches the
+distant Apennines only at the more elevated points. The screen which
+here, and for miles after leaving Turin, shuts out the view of the
+Apennines, is the Colina. The Colina is a range of lovely hills, which
+rise to a height of rather more than 1200 feet, and run eastward along
+the plain a few miles south of the Milan road. Soft and rich in their
+covering, picturesque in their forms, and indented with numerous dells,
+they look like miniature Alps set down on the plain, nearly equidistant
+from the great white hills on the north and the purple peaks on the
+south. The sun was near his setting; and his level rays, passing through
+fields of vapour,--presages of storm,--and shorn of the fiery brilliancy
+which is wont at eve to set these hills on a blaze, fell softly upon the
+dome of the Superga, and lighted up the white villas which stud the
+mountain by hundreds and hundreds throughout its whole extent. Vividly
+relieved by the deep azure of the vineyards, and looking, from their
+distance, no bigger than single blocks, these villas reminded one of a
+shower of marble, freshly fallen, and glittering in pearly whiteness in
+the setting rays.
+
+The road, which to me had an almost sacred character, being the
+beginning of my journey to Rome, was a straight line,--straight as the
+arrow's flight,--between fields of rich meadow land, and rows of elms
+and poplars, which ran on and on, till, in the far distance, they
+appeared to converge to a point. It was a broad, macadamized,
+substantial highway, of about thirty feet in width, having a white line
+of curb-stones placed eight or ten paces apart; outside of which was an
+excellent pathway for foot passengers. On the left rose the Alps, calm
+and majestic, clothed in the purple shadows of evening.
+
+I have mentioned the Po as flowing past Turin. This stream is doubtless
+the relic of that mighty flood which covered, at some former period, the
+vast space between the Alps and the Apennines, from the Graian and
+Cottian chains on the west, to the shores of the Adriatic on the east.
+As the waters drained off, this central channel alone was left, to
+receive and convey to the sea the innumerable torrents which are formed
+by the springs and snows of the mountains. The noble river thus formed
+is called the Po,--the pride of Italy, and the king of its streams. The
+Greeks, who clothed it with fable, and drowned Phaeton in its stream,
+called it Eridanus. Its Roman appellation was Padus, which in course of
+time resolved itself into its present name, the Po. Unlike the Nile,
+which rolls in solemn and solitary majesty through Egypt without
+permitting one solitary rill to mingle with its flood, the Po welcomes
+every tributary, and accepts its help in discharging its great function
+of giving drink to every flower, and tree, and field, and city, in broad
+Lombardy. It receives, in its course through Piedmont alone, not fewer
+than fifty-three torrents and rivers; and in depth and grandeur of
+stream it is not unworthy of the praises which the Greek and Roman poets
+lavished upon it. The cradle of this noble stream is placed in the
+centre of the ancient territory of the Vaudois, whose most beautiful
+mountain, Monte Viso, is its nursing parent. A fountain of crystal
+clearness, placed half-way up this hill, is its source. Thence it goes
+forth to water Piedmont and Venetian-Lombardy, and to mingle at last
+with the clear wave of the Adriatic,--emblem of those living waters
+which were to go forth from this same land into all quarters of Europe.
+
+The sun had now set; and I marked that this evening no golden beams
+among the mountains, no burning peaks, attended his departure. He went
+in silent sadness, like a friend quitting a circle which he fears may
+before his return be visited with calamity. With him departed the glory
+of the scene. The vine-clad Colina, erst sparkling with villas, put out
+its lights, and resolved itself into a dark bank, which leaned,
+cloud-like, against the sky. The stupendous white piles on the left drew
+a thin night vapour around them, and retired from the scene, like some
+mighty spirit gathering his robe about him, and leaving the earth,
+which his presence had enlightened, dark and solitary. The plain lay
+before us a sombre expanse, in which all objects--towns, spires, and
+forests--were fast blending into one darkly-shaded and undefined
+picture. Dwellers in _diligences_, as well as dwellers in hotels, must
+sleep if they can; but the hour for "turning in" had scarce arrived, and
+meanwhile, I remember, my thoughts took strongly a homeward direction.
+
+With these, of course, I shall not trouble the reader; only I must be
+permitted to mention a misconception into which I had fallen, in
+connection with my journey, and into which it is possible others may
+fall in similar circumstances. One is apt to imagine, before starting,
+that should he reach such a country as Italy, he will there feel as if
+home was very distant, and the events of his former life far removed in
+point of time. He thinks that a journey across the Alps has somehow a
+talismanic power to change him. He crosses the Alps, but finds that he
+is the same man still. Home has come with him: the friendships, the
+joys, the sorrows, of his past existence are as near as ever; nay, far
+nearer, for now he is alone with them; and though he goes southward, and
+kingdoms and mountain-chains are between him and his native country, he
+cannot feel that he is a foot-breadth more distant than ever. He moves
+about through strange lands in a shroud of home feelings and
+recollections.
+
+How wretched, thought I, the man whom guilt chases from his country! He
+flies to distant lands in the hope of shaking off the remembrance of his
+crime. He finds that, go where he will, the spectre dogs his steps. In
+Paris, in Milan, in Rome, the grizzly form starts up before him. He must
+change, not his country, but his heart--himself--before he can shake off
+his companion.
+
+May not the same principle be applicable, in some extent, to our
+passage from earth into the world beyond? When at home in Scotland, I
+had thought of Italy as a distant country; but now that I was in Italy,
+Scotland seemed very near--much nearer than Italy had done when in
+Scotland. We who are dwellers on earth think of the state beyond as very
+remote; but once there, may we not feel as if earth was in close
+proximity to us,--as if, in fact, the two states were divided by but a
+narrow gulph? Certain it is that the passage across it will work in us
+no change; and, like the stranger in a foreign country, we shall enter
+with an eternal shroud of joys and sorrows, springing out of the deeds
+and events of our present existence.
+
+I found that if in this region the day had its beauty, the night had its
+sublimity and terrors. I had years before become familiar with the
+phenomena of thunder-storms among the Alps; and one who has seen
+lightning only in the sombre sky of Britain can scarce imagine its
+intense brilliancy in these more southern latitudes. With us it breaks
+with a red fiery flicker; there it bursts upon you like the sun, and
+pours a flood of noonday light over earth and sky. One evening, in
+particular, I shall never forget, on which I saw this phenomenon in
+circumstances highly favourable to its finest effect. I had walked out
+from Geneva to pass a few hours with the Tronchin family, whose mansion
+stands on the southern shores of the lake. It was evening; and the deep
+rolling of the thunder gave us warning that a storm had come on. We
+stepped out upon the lawn to enjoy the spectacle; for in the vicinity of
+the Alps, whose summits attract the fluid, the lightning is seldom
+dangerous to life. All was dark as midnight; not even the front of the
+mansion could we see. In a moment the flash came; and then it was
+day,--boundless, glorious day. All nature was set before us as if under
+the light of a cloudless sun. The lawn, the blue lake, the distant
+Alpine summits, the landscape around, with its pines, villas, and
+vineyards, all leaped out of the womb of night, stood in vivid intense
+splendour before the eye, and in a twinkling was again gone. This
+amazing transition from midnight to noonday, and from noonday to
+midnight, was repeated again and again. I was now to witness the
+sublimities of a thunder-storm on the plain of Lombardy.
+
+Right before us, on the far-off horizon, gleams of light began to shoot
+along the sky. The play of the electric fluid was so rapid and
+incessant, as to resemble rather the continuous flow of light from its
+fountain, than the fitful flashes of lightning. At times these gleams
+would mantle the sky with all the soft beauty of moonlight, and at
+others they would dart angrily and luridly athwart the horizon. Soon the
+storm assumed a grander form. A ball of fire would suddenly blaze forth,
+in livid, fiery brilliancy; and, remaining motionless, as it were, for
+an instant, would then shoot out lateral streams or rays, coloured
+sometimes like the rainbow, and quivering and fluttering like the
+outspread wings of eagles. One's imagination could almost conceive of it
+as being a real bird, the ball answering to the body, while the flashes
+flung out from it resembled the wings, which were of so vast a spread,
+that they touched the Apennines on the one hand, and the Alps on the
+other.
+
+The storm took yet another form, and one that increased the sublimity of
+the scene, by adding a slight feeling of uneasiness to the admiration
+with which we had contemplated it so far. A cloud of pitchy darkness
+rose in the south, and crossed the plain, shedding deepest night in its
+track, and shooting its fires downward on the earth as it came onwards.
+It passed right over our heads, enveloping us for the while (like some
+mighty archer, with quiver full of arrows) in a shower of flaming
+missiles. The interval between the flashes was brief,--so very brief,
+that we were scarcely sensible of any interval at all. There was not
+more than four seconds between them. The light was full and strong, as
+if myriads and myriads of bude lights had been kindled on the summits of
+the Apennines. In short, it was day while it lasted, and every object
+was visible, as if made so by the light of the sun. The horses which
+dragged our vehicle along the road,--the postilion with the red facings
+on his dress,--the meadows and mulberry woods which bordered our
+path,--the road itself, stretching away and away for miles, with its
+rows of tall poplars, and its white curb-stones, dotted with waggons and
+couriers, and a few foot-passengers,--and the red autumnal leaves, as
+they fell in swirling showers in the gust,--all were visible. Indeed, we
+may be said to have performed several miles of our journey under broad
+daylight, excepting that these sudden revelations of the face of nature
+alternated with moments of profoundest night. At length the big
+rain-drops came rattling to the earth; and, to protect ourselves, we
+drew the thick leathern curtain of the _banquette_, buttoning it tight
+down all around. It kept out the rain, but not the lightning. The seams
+and openings of the covering seemed glowing lines of fire, as if the
+_diligence_ had been literally engulphed in an ocean of living flame.
+The whole heavens were in a roar. The Apennines called to the Alps; the
+Alps shouted to the Apennines; and the plain between quaked and trembled
+at the awful voice. At length the storm passed away to the north, and
+found its final goal amid the mountains, where for hours afterwards the
+thunder continued to growl, and the lightnings to sport.
+
+Order being now restored among the elements, we endeavoured to snatch
+an hour's sleep. It was but a dreamy sort of slumber, which failed to
+bestow entire unconsciousness to external objects. Faded towns and tall
+campaniles seemed to pass by in a ghost-like procession, which was
+interrupted only by the arrival of the _diligence_ at the various
+stages, where we had to endure long, weary halts. So passed the night.
+At the first dawn we entered Novara. It lay, spread out on the dusky
+plain, an irregular patch of black, with the clear, silvery crescent of
+a moon hanging above it.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+THE INTRODUCTION.
+
+     Novara--Examination of Passports--Dawn--Monks prefer Dim Light to
+     Clear--Battle of Novara, and its Results--The
+     Ticino--Croats--Austrian Frontier and Dogana--Examination of Books
+     and Baggage--Grandeur of the Alps from this Point--Contrast betwixt
+     the Rivers and the Governments of Italy--Proof from thence of the
+     Fall--Providence "from seeming Evil educing Good"--Rich but
+     Monotonous Scenery of the Plain--Youth of the Alps, and Decay of
+     the Lombard nations--The only Remedy--An Expelled Democrat--First
+     View of Milan.
+
+
+Novara, of course, like all decent towns in Lombardy and elsewhere, at
+four in the morning was a-bed, and our heavy vehicle, as its harsh
+echoes broke roughly on the silent streets, sounded strangely loud. We
+were driven right into a courtyard, to have our passports examined. We
+had left Turin the evening before, with a clean bill of political
+health, duly certified by three legations,--the Sardinian, the English,
+and the Austrian; and in so short a journey--not to speak of the flood
+and fire we had passed through--it was scarce possible that we could
+have contracted fresh pollution. We were examined anew, however, lest
+the plague-spot should have broken out upon us. All was found right, and
+we were let go to a neighbouring restaurant, where we swallowed a cup of
+coffee,--our only meal betwixt Turin and Milan. After a full hour's
+halt, we re-mounted the _diligence_, and set forth.
+
+On emerging from the streets of the city, I found the east in the glow
+of dawn. Still, and pure, and calm broke the light; and under its ray
+the rich plain awoke into beauty, forgetful of the fiery bolts which had
+smitten it, and the darkness and destruction which had so lately passed
+across it. "Hail, holy light!" exclaims the bard of "Paradise." Yes,
+light is holy. It is undefiled and pure, as when "God saw the light that
+it was good." Man has ravaged the earth and reddened the seas; but light
+has escaped his contaminating touch, and is still as God made it,
+unless, indeed, when man imprisons it within the stained glass of the
+cathedral, and then obligingly helps its dimness by lighting a score or
+so of tapers. Did no monk ever think of putting a stained window in the
+east, and compelling the sun to ogle the world through spectacles? "The
+light is good," said He who created it, as He saw it darting its first
+pure beam across creation. Not so, says the Puseyite; it is not good
+unless it is coloured.
+
+I looked with interest on the plains around Novara; for there, albeit no
+trace of the bloody fray remains, the army of Charles Albert in 1848 met
+the host of Radetzky; and there the fate of the campaign for Italian
+independence was decided. The battle which was fought on these plains
+led to the destruction of King Charles Albert, but not to the
+destruction of his kingdom of Sardinia,--though why Radetzky did not
+follow up his victory by a march on Turin, is to this hour a mystery.
+Nay, though it sounds a little paradoxical, it is probable that this
+battle, by destroying the king, saved the kingdom. Had Charles Albert
+survived till the re-action set in 1849 and 1850, there is too much
+reason to fear, from his antecedents, that he would have thrown himself
+into the current with the rest of the Italian rulers; and so Sardinia
+would have missed the path of constitutional liberty and material
+development which it has since, under King Victor Emanuel, so happily
+pursued. Had that happened, the horizon of Italy, dark as it is at this
+hour, would have been still darker, and the peninsula, from the Alps to
+Sicily, would not have contained a single spot where the hunted friends
+of liberty could have found asylum.
+
+We soon approached the Ticino, the boundary between Sardinia and
+Austrian Lombardy. The Ticino is a majestic river, here spanned by one
+of the finest bridges in Italy. It contains eleven arches; is of the
+granite of Mount Torfano; and, like almost all the great modern works in
+Italy, was commenced by Napoleon, though finished only after his fall.
+Here, then, was the gate of Austria; and seated at that gate I saw three
+Croats,--fit keepers of Austrian order.
+
+I was not ignorant of the hand these men had had in the suppression of
+the revolution of 1848, and of the ruthless tragedies they were said to
+have enacted in Milan and other cities of Lombardy; and I rode up to
+them in the eager desire of scrutinizing their features, and reading
+there the signs of that ferocity which had given them such wide-spread
+but evil renown. They sat basking themselves on a bench in front of the
+Dogana, with their muskets and bayonets glittering in the sun. They were
+lads of about eighteen, of decidedly low stature, of square build, and
+strongly muscular. They looked in capital condition, and gave every sign
+that the air of Lombardy agreed with them, and that they had had their
+own share at least of its corn and wine. They wore blue caps, gray
+duffle greatcoats like those used by our Highlanders, light blue
+pantaloons fitting closely their thick short leg, and boots which rose
+above the ankle, and laced in front. The prevailing expression on their
+broad swarthy faces was not ferocity, but stolidity. Their eyes were
+dull, and contrasted strikingly with the dark fiery glances of the
+children of the land. They seemed men of appetites rather than passions;
+and, if guilty of cruel deeds, were likely to be so from the dull, cold,
+unreflecting ferocity of the bull-dog, rather than from the warm
+impulsive instincts of the nobler animals. In stature and feature they
+were very much the barbarian, and were admirably fitted for being what
+they were,--the tools of the despot. No wonder that the _ideal_ Italian
+abominates the _Croat_.
+
+The Dogana! So soon! 'Twas but a few miles on the other side of the
+Ticino that we passed through this ordeal. But perhaps the river,
+glorious as it looks, flowing from the democratic hills of the Swiss,
+may have infected us with political pravity; so here again we must
+undergo the search, and that not a mere _pro forma_ one. The _diligence_
+vomits forth, at all its mouths, trunks, carpet-bags, and packages,
+encased, some in velvet, some in fir-deals, and some in brown paper. The
+multifarious heap was carried into the Dogana, and its various articles
+unroped, unlocked, and their contents scattered about. One might have
+thought that a great fair was about to begin, or that a great Industrial
+Exhibition was to be opened on the banks of the Ticino. The hunt was
+especially for books,--bad books, which England will perversely print,
+and Englishmen perversely read. My little stock was collected, bound
+together with a cord, and sent in to the chief douanier, who sat,
+Radamanthus-like, in an inner apartment, to judge books, papers, and
+persons. There is nothing there, thought I, to which even an Austrian
+official can take exception. Soon I was summoned to follow my little
+library. The man examined the collection volume by volume. At last he
+lighted on a number of the _Gazetta del Popolo_,--the same which I have
+already mentioned as given me by the editors in Turin. This, thought I,
+will prove the dead fly in my box of ointment. The sheet was opened and
+examined. "Have you," said the official, "any more?" I could reply with
+a clear conscience that I had not. To my surprise, the paper was
+returned to me. He next took up my note-book. Now, said I to myself,
+this is a worse scrape than the other. What a blockhead I am not to have
+put the book into my pocket; for, except in extreme cases, the
+traveller's person is never searched. The man opened the thin volume,
+and found it inscribed with mysterious and strange characters. It was
+written in short-hand. He turned over the leaves; on every page the same
+unreadable signs met the eye. He held it by the top, and next by the
+bottom: it was equally inscrutable either way. He shut it, and examined
+its exterior, but there was nothing on the outside to afford a key to
+the mystic characters within. He then turned to me for an explanation of
+the suspicious little book. Affecting all the unconcern I could, I told
+him that it contained only a few commonplace jottings of my journey. He
+opened the book; took one other leisurely survey of it; then looked at
+me, and back again at the book; and, after a considerable pause, big
+with the fate of my book, he made me a bland bow, and handed me the
+volume. I was equally polite on my part, inly resolving, that
+henceforward Austrian douanier should not lay finger on my note-book.
+
+The halt here was one of from two to three hours, which were spent in
+unlading the _diligence_, opening and locking trunks,--for in Austria
+nothing is done in a hurry, save the trial and execution of Mazzinists.
+But the long halt was nothing to me: I could not possibly lose time, and
+I could scarce be stopped at the wrong place; and certainly the bridge
+of the Ticino is the very spot one would select for such a halt, were
+the matter left in one's own choice. It commands the finest assemblage
+of grand objects, in a ride abounding in magnificent objects throughout.
+Having been pronounced, in passport phrase, "good to enter
+Austria,"--for my carpet-bag was clean, though doubtless my mind was
+foul with all sorts of notions which, in the latitude of Austria, are
+rankly heretical,--(and, by the way, of what use is it to search trunks,
+and leave breasts unexplored? Here is an imperfection in the system,
+which I wonder the Jesuits don't correct)--having, I say, had the
+Croat-guarded gates of Austria opened to me till I should find it
+convenient to enter, I retraced the few paces which divided the Dogana
+from the bridge, and stood above the rolling floods of the Ticino.
+
+Refreshing it verily was to turn from the petty tyrannies of an Austrian
+custom-house, to the free, joyous, and glorious face of nature. Before
+me were the Alps, just shaking the cold night mists from their shaggy
+pine-clad sides, as might a lion the dew-drops from his mane. Here rose
+Monte Rosa in a robe of never-fading glory and beauty; and there stood
+Mont Blanc, with his diadem of dazzling snows. The giant had planted his
+feet deep amid rolling hills, covered with villages, and pine-forests,
+and rich pastures. Anywhere else these would have been mountains; but,
+dwarfed by the majestic form in whose presence they stood, they looked
+like small eminences, scattered gracefully at his base, as pebbles at
+the foot of some lofty pile. On his breast floated the fleecy clouds of
+morn, while his summit rose high above these clouds, and stood, in the
+calm of the firmament, a stupendous pile of ice and snow. Never had I
+seen the Alps to such advantage. The level plain ran quite up to them,
+and allowed the eye to take their full height from their flower-girt
+base to their icy summit. Hundreds and hundreds of peaks ran along the
+sky, conical, serrated, needle-shaped, jagged, some flaming like the
+ruby in the morning ray, others dazzlingly white as the alabaster.
+
+As I bent over the parapet, gazing on the flood that rolled beneath, I
+could not help contrasting the bounty of nature with the oppression of
+man. Here had this river been flowing through the long centuries,
+dispensing its blessings without stop or grudge. Day and night, summer
+and winter, it had rolled gladsomely onwards, bringing verdure to the
+field, fruitage to the bough, and plenty to the peasant's cot. Now it
+laved the flower on its brink,--now it fed the umbrageous sycamore and
+the tall poplar on the plain,--and now it sent off a crystal streamlet
+to meander through corn-field and meadow-land. It exacted nothing of man
+for the blessings it so unweariedly dispensed. It gave all freely.
+Whether, said I to myself, does Italy owe most to its rivers or to its
+Governments? Its rivers give it corn and wine: its Governments give it
+chains and prisons. They load the patient Lombard with burdens that
+press him down into toil and poverty; or they lead him away to shed his
+blood and lay his bones in a foreign soil. Why is it that all the
+functions of nature are beneficent? Even the storms that rage around
+Mont Blanc, the ice of its eternal winter, yield only good. Here they
+come, a river of crystal water, decking with living green this
+far-spreading plain. But the institutions of man are not so. From their
+frozen summits have too oft, alas! descended, not the peaceful river,
+but the thundering avalanche, burying in irretrievable ruin, man, with
+his labours and hopes. I suspect, however, that this is a narrow as well
+as a sombre philosophy. Doubtless the great fact of the Fall is written
+on the face of life. Nevertheless, we have a strong belief that the
+mighty schemes of Providence, like the arrangements of external nature,
+will all in the end become dispensers of good; that those evil systems
+which have burdened the earth, like those mountains of ice and snow
+which rise on its surface, have their uses, though as yet we stand too
+near them, and too much within the sphere of their tempests and their
+avalanches, fully to comprehend these uses. We must descend into the
+low-lying plains of the future, and contemplate them afar off; and then
+the glaciers and tempests of these moral Mont Blancs may dissolve into
+tender showers and crystal rivers, which will fructify and gladden the
+world.
+
+In a few minutes I must leave the bridge of the Ticino. Could I, when
+far away,--in the seclusion of my own library, for instance,--bid the
+Alps rise before me, in stupendous magnificence, as now? I turned round,
+and fixed my gaze on the tamer objects of the plain; then back again to
+the mountains; but every time I did so, I felt the scene as new. Its
+glory burst on me as if seen for the first time. Alas! thought I, if
+this majestic image has so faded in the interval of a few moments, what
+will it be years after? A scene like this, it is true, can never be
+forgotten; but it is but a dwarfed picture that lives in the memory; and
+it is well, perhaps, it should be so; for were one to see always the
+Alps, with what eyes would one look upon the tamer though still romantic
+hills of his own country! And we may extend the principle. There are
+times when great truths--eternal verities--flash upon the soul in Alpine
+magnitude. It is a new world that discloses itself, and we are thrilled
+by its glory; but for the effective discharge of ordinary duties, it is
+better, perhaps, that these stupendous objects should be seen "as
+through a glass darkly," though still seen.
+
+All too soon was the _diligence_ ready to start. From the bridge of the
+Ticino the scenery was decidedly tamer. The Alps fell more into the
+background, and with their white peaks disappeared the chief glory of
+the scene. The plain was so level, and its woods of mulberry and walnut
+so luxuriant, that little could be seen save the broad road, with its
+white lines of curb-stones running on and on, and losing itself in the
+deep foliage of the plain. Its windings and turnings, though coming only
+at an interval of many miles, were a pleasant relief from the sameness
+of the journey. Occasionally side views of great fertility opened upon
+us. There were the small farms of the Lombard; and there was the tall
+Lombard himself, striding across his fields. If the farms were small,
+amends was made by the largeness of the farm-house. There was no great
+air of comfort about it, however. It wanted its little garden, and its
+over-arching vine-bough, which one sees in the happier cantons of
+Switzerland; and the furrowed and care-shaded face of the owner bespoke
+greater acquaintance with hard labour than with the dainties which the
+bounteous earth so freely yields. The Lombard plants, but another eats.
+We could see, too, how extensively and thoroughly irrigated was the
+plain. Numerous canals, brim-full of water, the gift of the Alps,
+traversed it in all directions; and by means of a system of sluices and
+aqueducts the surrounding fields could be flooded at pleasure. The plain
+enjoys thus the elements of a boundless fertility, and is the seat of an
+almost eternal summer.
+
+ Hic Ver perpetuum, atque alienis mensibus Æstas.
+
+But the little towns we passed looked so very old and tottering, and the
+inhabitants, too, appeared as much oppressed with years or cares as the
+heavy dilapidated architecture amid which they dwelt, and out of which
+they crept as we passed by, that one's heart grew sad. How evident was
+it that the immortal spirit was withered, and that the land, despite its
+images of grandeur and sublimity, nourished a stricken race! The Alps
+were still young, but the men that lived within their shadow had grown
+very old. Their ears had too long been familiar with the clank of
+chains, and their hearts were too sad to catch up the utterances of
+freedom which came from their mountains. The human soul was dying, and
+will die, unless new fire from a celestial source descend to rekindle
+it. Architecture, music, new constitutions, the ever glorious face of
+nature itself, will not prevent the approaching death of the continental
+nations. There is but one book in the world that can do it,--the Book of
+Life. Unfold its pages, and a more blessed and glorious effulgence than
+that which lights up the Alps at sunrise will break upon the nations;
+but, alas! this cannot be so long as the Jesuit and the Croat are there.
+We saw, too, on our journey, other things that did not tend to put us
+into better spirits. As we approached Milan, we met a couple of
+gensdarmes leading away a poor foot-sore revolutionist to the frontier.
+Ah! said I inly, could the Jesuits look into my breast, they would find
+there ideas more dangerous to their power, in all probability, than
+those that this man entertains; and yet, while he is expelled, I am
+admitted. No thanks to them, however. I rode onwards. League followed
+league of the richest but the most unvaried scenery. Campanile and
+hamlet came and went: still Milan came not. I strained my eyes in the
+direction in which I expected its roofs and towers to appear, but all to
+no purpose. At length there rose over the green woods that covered the
+plain, as if evoked by enchantment, a vision of surpassing beauty. I
+gazed entranced. The lovely creation before me was white as the Alpine
+snows, and shot up in a glorious cluster of towers, spires, and
+pinnacles, which flashed back the splendours of the mid-day sun. It
+looked as if it had sprung from under the chisel but yesterday. Indeed,
+one could hardly believe that human hands had fashioned so fair a
+structure. It was so delicate, and graceful, and aerial, and unsullied,
+that I thought of the city which burst upon the pilgrims when they had
+got over the river, or that which a prophet saw descending out of
+heaven. Milan, hid in rich woods, was before me, and this was its
+renowned Cathedral.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+CITY AND PEOPLE OF MILAN.
+
+     The Barrier--Beautiful Aspect of the City--Hotel Royale--History of
+     Milan--Dreariness of its Streets--Decay of Art--Decay of Trade--The
+     Cathedral--Beauty, not Sublimity, its Characteristic--Its Exterior
+     described--The Piazza of the Cathedral--Austrian Cannon--Pamphlets
+     on Purgatory--Punch--Punch _versus_ the Priest--Church and State in
+     Italy--Austrian Oppression--Confiscation of Estates in
+     Lombardy--Forced Loans--Niebuhr's Idea that the Dark Ages are
+     returning.
+
+
+It was an hour past noon when the _diligence_, with its polyglot
+freight, drove up to the harrier. There gathered round the vehicle a
+white cloud of Austrian uniforms, and straightway every compartment of
+the carriage bristled with a forest of hands holding passports. These
+the men-at-arms received; and, making them hastily up into a bundle, and
+tying them with a piece of cord, they despatched them by a special
+messenger to the Prefect; so that hardly had we entered the Porta
+Vercellina, till our arrival was known at head-quarters. There was
+handed at the same time to each passenger a printed paper, in which the
+same notification was four times repeated,--first in Italian, next in
+French, then in German, and lastly in English,--enjoining the holder,
+under certain penalties, to present himself within a given number of
+hours at the Police Office.
+
+It was under these conditions,--a pilgrim from a far land,--that I
+appeared at the gates of Milan. The passport detention seemed less an
+annoyance here than I had ever felt it before. The beauteous city,
+sitting so tranquilly amidst the sublimest scenery, seemed to have
+something of a celestial character about it. It looked so resplendent,
+partly by reason of the materials of which it is built, and partly by
+reason of the sun that shone upon it as an Italian sun only can shine,
+that none but pure men, I felt, might dwell here, and none but pure men
+might enter at its gates. There were white sentinels at its portals;
+rows of white houses formed its exterior; and in the middle of the city,
+floating above it,--for it seemed to float rather than to rest on
+foundations,--was its snow-white temple,--a place too holy almost, as it
+seemed, for human worship and human worshippers; and then the city had
+for battlements a glorious wall, white as alabaster, which rose to the
+clouds. Everything conspired to cheat the visitor into the belief that
+he had come at last to an abode where every hurtful passion was hushed,
+and where Peace had fixed her chosen seat.
+
+"All right," shouted the passport official: the gensdarmes, who guarded
+the path with naked bayonet, stepped aside; and the quick, sharp crack
+of the postilion's whip set the horses a-moving. We skirted the spacious
+esplanade, and saw in the distance the beauteous form of the Arco della
+Pace. We had not gone far till the drum's roll struck upon the ear, and
+a long glittering line of Austrian bayonets was seen moving across the
+esplanade. It was evident that the time had not yet come to Milan, all
+glorious as she seemed, when men "shall learn war no more." We plunged
+into a series of narrow streets, which open on the Mercato Vecchio. We
+crossed the Corso, and came out upon the broad promenade that traverses
+Milan from the square of the Duomo to the Porta Orientale. We soon found
+ourselves at the _diligence_ office; and there, our little colony of
+various nations breaking up, I bade adieu to the good vehicle which had
+carried me from Turin, and took my way to the Hotel Royale, in the
+Contrada dei tre Re.
+
+At the first summons of the porter's bell the gate opened. On entering,
+I found myself in what had been one of the palaces of Milan when the
+city was in its best days. But the Austrian eagle had scared the native
+princes and nobles of the Queen of Lombardy, who were gone, and had left
+their streets to be trodden by the Croat, and their palaces to be
+tenanted by the wayfarer. The buildings of the hotel formed a spacious
+quadrangle, three storeys high, with a finely paved court in the centre.
+I was conducted up stairs to my bed-room, which, though by no means
+large, and plainly furnished, presented the luxury of extreme
+cleanliness, with its beautifully polished wooden floor, and its
+delicately white napery and curtains. The saloon on the ground-floor
+opened sweetly into a little garden, with its fountain, its bit of
+rock-work, and its gods and nymphs of stone. The apartment had a
+peculiarly comfortable air at breakfast-time. The hissing urn, flanked
+by the tea-caddy; the rich brown coffee, the delicious butter, and the
+not less delicious bread, the produce of the plains around, not
+unnaturally white, as with us, but golden, like the wheat when it waves
+in the autumnal sun; and the guests, mostly English, which assembled
+morning after morning,--made the return of this hour very pleasant.
+Establishing myself at the Albergo Reale for this and the two following
+days, I sallied out, to wander everywhere and see everything.
+
+Milan is of ancient days; and few cities have seen greater changes of
+fortune. In the reign of Diocletian and Maximilian it became the capital
+of the western empire, and was filled with the temples, baths, theatres,
+and other monuments which usually adorn royal cities. The tempest which
+Attila, in the middle of the fifth century, conducted across the Alps,
+fell upon it, and swept it away. Scarce a vestige of the Roman Milan has
+come down to our day. A second Milan was founded, but only to fall, in
+its turn, before the arms of Frederick Barbarossa. There was a strong
+vitality in its site, however; and a third Milan,--the Milan of the
+present day,--arose. This city is a huge collection of churches and
+barracks, cafés and convents, theatres and palaces, traversed by narrow
+streets, ranged mostly in concentric circles round its grand central
+building, the Duomo. The streets, however, that lead to its various
+ports, are spacious thoroughfares, adorned with noble and elegant
+mansions. Such is the arrangement of the town in which I now found
+myself.
+
+I sought everywhere for the gay Milan,--the white-robed city I had seen
+an hour ago,--but it was gone; and in its room sat a silent and sullen
+town, with an air of most depressing loneliness about it. There were few
+persons on the streets; and these walked as if they dragged a chain at
+their heels. I passed through whole streets of a secondary character,
+without meeting a single individual, or hearing the sound of man or of
+living thing. It seemed as if Milan had proclaimed a fast and gone to
+church; but when I looked into the churches, I saw no one there save a
+solitary figure in white, in the distance, bowing and gesticulating with
+extraordinary fervour, in the presence of dumb pictures and dim tapers.
+How can a worship in which no one ever joins edify any one? I could
+discover no signs of a flourishing art. There were not a few pretty and
+some beautiful things in the shop-windows; but the latter were all
+copies generally of the more striking natural objects in the
+neighbourhood, or of the works of art in the city, the productions of
+other times,--things which a dying genius might produce, but not such as
+a living genius, free to give scope to her invention, would delight to
+create. Such was the art of Milan,--the feeble and reflected gleam of a
+glory now set. As regards the trade of Milan,--a yet more important
+matter,--I could see almost no signs of it either. There were walking
+sticks, and such things, in considerable variety in the shops; but
+little of more importance. The fabrics of the loom, and the productions
+of the plane, the forge, and the printing press, which crowd our cities
+and dwellings, and give honest bread to our artizans, were all wanting
+in Milan. How its people contrived to get through the twenty-four hours,
+and where they got their bread, unless it fell from the clouds, I could
+not discover.
+
+What an air of languor and weariness on the faces of the people! Amid
+these heavy-hearted and dull-eyed loiterers, what a relief it would have
+been to have met the soiled jacket, the brawny arm, and the manly brow,
+of one of our own artizans! I felt there were worse things in the world
+than hard work. Better it were to roll the stone of Sisyphus all
+life-long, than spend it in such idleness as weighs upon the cities of
+Italy. Better the clang of the forge than the rattle of the sabre. The
+Milanese seemed looking into the future; and a dismal future it is, if
+one may judge from their looks,--a future full of revolutions, to
+conduct, mayhap, to freedom; more probably to the scaffold.
+
+I turned sharply round the corner of a street, and there, as if it had
+risen from the earth, was the Cathedral. As the sun breaking through a
+fog, or an Alpine peak flashing through mists, so burst this
+magnificent pile upon me; and its sudden revelation dispelled on the
+instant all my gloomy musings. I could only stand and gaze. Beauty, not
+sublimity, is the attribute of this pile. Beauty it rains around it in a
+never-ending, overflowing shower, as the sun does light, or Mont Blanc
+glory. I sought for some one presiding idea, simple and grand, which
+might take its place in the mind, and dwell there as an image of glory,
+never more to fade; but I could find no such idea. The pile is the slow
+creation of centuries, and the united conception of innumerable minds,
+which have clubbed their ideas, so to speak, to produce this Cathedral.
+Quarries of marble and millions of money have been expended upon it; and
+there is scarce an architect or sculptor of eminence who has flourished
+since the fourteenth century, who has not contributed to it some
+separate grace or glory; and now the Cathedral of Milan is perhaps the
+most numerous assemblage of beauties in stone which the world contains.
+Impossible it were to enumerate the elegances that cover it from top to
+bottom,--its carved portals, its flying buttresses, its arabesque
+pilasters, its richly mullioned windows, its basso-reliefs, its
+beautiful tracery, and its forest of snow-white pinnacles soaring in the
+sunlight, so calm and moveless, and yet so airy and light, that you fear
+the nest breeze will scatter them. You can compare it only to some
+Alpine group, whose flashing peaks shoot up by hundreds around some
+snow-white central summit.
+
+The building, too, is populous as a city. There are upwards of three
+thousand statues upon it, and places for a thousand more. Here stands a
+monk, busy with his beads,--there a mailed warrior,--there a mitred
+bishop,--there a pilgrim, staff in hand,--there a nun, gracefully
+veiled,--and yonder hundreds of seraphs perched upon the loftier
+pinnacles, and looking as if a white cloud of winged creatures from the
+sky had just lighted upon it.
+
+I purposed to-morrow to climb to the roof, and thence survey the plains
+of Lombardy and the chain of the Alps; so, turning away from the door, I
+made the tour of the square in which the Cathedral stands. I came first
+upon a row of cannon, so pointed as to sweep the square. Behind the
+guns, piled on the pavement, were stacks of arms, and soldiers loitering
+beside them. Ah! thought I, these are the loving ties that bind the
+people of Lombardy to the House of Hapsburg. The priest's chant is heard
+all day long within that temple; and outside there blend with it the
+sentinel's tramp and the drum's roll. I passed on, and came next upon a
+most unusual display of literature. Four-paged pamphlets in hundreds lay
+piled upon stalls, or were ranged in rows against the wall. The subjects
+discussed in these pamphlets were of a high spiritual cast, and woodcuts
+were freely employed to aid the reader's apprehension. These latter
+belonged to a very different style of art from that conspicuous in the
+Cathedral, but they had the merit of great plainness; and a glance at
+the woodcut enabled one to read at once the story of the pamphlet. The
+wall was all a-blaze with flames; and I saw the advantage of an
+infallible Church to teach one secrets which the Bible does not reveal.
+The sin chiefly insisted on was that of despising the priest; and the
+punishment awaiting it was set before me in a way I could not possibly
+mistake. Here, for instance, was a wealthy sinner, who lay dying in a
+splendid mansion. With horrible impiety, the man had refused the wafer,
+and ordered the priest about his business, despite the imploring tears
+of wife and family, who surrounded his bed. A glance at the other
+compartment of the picture showed the consequence of this. There you
+found the man just launched into the other world. A crowd of black
+fiends, hideous to behold, had seized upon the poor soul, and were
+dragging it down into a weltering gulf of lurid flame. In another
+picture you had an equally graphic illustration of the happiness of
+obeying Mother Church. Here lay one dying amid beads, crucifixes, and
+shaven crowns. The devil was fleeing from the house in terror; and in
+the compartment devoted to the spiritual world, the soul was following a
+benevolent-looking gentleman, who carried a big key, and was walking in
+the direction of a very magnificent mansion on a high hill, where, I
+doubt not, a welcome and hospitable reception waited both. The same
+lesson was repeated along the wall times without number.
+
+Here was the doctrine of purgatory as incontestably proved as painted
+flames, and images of creatures with tails who tormented other creatures
+who had no tails, could prove it. If there was no purgatory, how could
+the painters of an infallible Church ever have given so exact a
+representation of it? And exact it must have been, else the priests
+would never have allowed these pictures to be hung up here, under their
+very eye. This was as much as to write "_cum privilegio_" underneath
+them. The whole scenery of purgatory was here most vividly depicted.
+There were fiends flying off with souls, or tossing them with pitchforks
+into the flames. There were boiling cauldrons, red-hot gridirons,
+cataracts of fire, and innumerable other modes of torment. A walk along
+this infernal gallery was enough, one would have thought, to make the
+boldest purgatory-despiser quail. But no one who has a little spare
+cash, and is willing to part with it, need fear either purgatory or the
+devil. In the large marble house in the centre of the square one might
+buy at a reasonable rate an excision of some thousands of years from
+his appointed sojourn in that gloomy region. And doubtless that was one
+reason for bringing this purgatorial gallery and the indulgence-market
+into such close proximity. It reminded the people of the latter
+inestimable blessing; and without some such salutary impulse the traffic
+in indulgences might flag.
+
+I could not but remark, that the only person for whom these
+extraordinary representations appeared to have any attractions was
+myself. Not so the exhibition on the other side of the square. Having
+perused with no ordinary interest, though, I fear, with not much profit,
+this "Theory of a Future State," I crossed the quadrangle, passing right
+under the eastern towers of the Cathedral, and came suddenly upon a knot
+of persons gathered round a tall rectangular box, in which was enacting
+the melo-drama of Punch. These persons were enjoying the fun with a
+relish which was noways abated by the spectacle over the way. The whole
+thing was acted exactly as I had seen it before; but to me it was a
+novelty to hear Punch, and all the other interlocutors in the piece,
+discourse in the language in which Dante had sung, and in which I had
+heard, just before leaving Scotland, Gavazzi declaim. In all lands Punch
+is an astute scoundrel; but, strange to say, in all lands the popular
+feeling is on his side. His imperturbable coolness and truculent villany
+procured him plaudits among the Milanese, as I had seen them do
+elsewhere. Courage and self-possession are valuable qualities, and for
+their sake we sometimes forgive bad men and bad causes; whereas, from
+nothing do we more instinctively recoil than from hypocrisy. On this
+principle it is, perhaps, that we have a sort of liking for Punch,
+incorrigible scoundrel as he is; and that great criminals, who rob and
+murder at the head of armies, we deify, while little ones we hang.
+
+I had now completed my tour of the Cathedral, and could not help
+reflecting on the miscellaneous, and apparently incongruous, character
+of the spectacles grouped together in the square. In the middle was the
+great temple, in which priests, in stole and mitre, celebrated the high
+mysteries of their Church. In one of the angles were rows of mounted
+cannon, and a forest of bayonets. In another was seen the whole process
+of refining souls in purgatory. Strange, that if men here are shut up in
+prisons and hulks amid desperadoes, they come out more finished villains
+than they entered; whereas hereafter, if men are shut up with even worse
+characters, amid blazing fires, glowing gridirons, and cauldrons of
+boiling lead, they come out perfected in virtue. They pass at once from
+the society of fiends, where they have been whipped, roasted, and I know
+not what, to the society of angels. This is a strange schooling to give
+dignity to the character and conscious purity to the mind. And yet Rome
+subjects all her sons to this discipline for a longer or shorter period.
+Much do we marvel, that the same process which unfits men for
+associating with respectable people here should be the very thing to
+prepare them for good society hereafter. The other side of the square
+Punch had all to himself; and Punch, I saw, was the favourite. The
+inhabitants of Milan kept as respectable a distance from the painted
+fiends as if they had been veritable Satans, ready to clutch the
+incautious passer-by, and carry him off to their den. They kept the same
+respectable distance from the Austrian cannon; and these were no painted
+terrors. And as regards the Cathedral, scarce a solitary foot crossed
+its threshold, though there,--astounding prodigy!--He who made the
+worlds was Himself made many times every day by the priests. But Punch
+had a dense crowd of delighted spectators around him; and yet he
+competed with the priest at immense disadvantage. Punch played his part
+in a humble wooden shed, while the priest played his in a magnificent
+marble Cathedral, with a splendid wardrobe to boot. Still the people
+seemed to feel, that the only play in which there was any earnestness
+was that which was enacted in the wooden box. A stranger from India or
+China, who was not learned in either the religion or the drama of
+Europe, would probably have been unable to see any great difference
+between the two, and would have taken both for religious performances;
+concluding, perhaps, that that in the Cathedral was the established
+form, while that in the wooden box was the disestablished; in short,
+that Punch had been a priest at some former period of his life, and sung
+mass and sold indulgences; but that, imbibing some heterodox notions, or
+having fallen into some peccadillo, such as eating flesh on Friday, he
+had been unfrocked and driven out, and compelled to play the priest in a
+wooden tabernacle.
+
+To return once more to the paintings and woodcuts illustrative of the
+punitive and purgative processes of purgatory, and which were in a style
+of art that demonstratively shows, that if Italy is advancing in the
+knowledge of a future life, she is retrograding in the arts of the
+present,--to recur, I say, to these, there rested some doubt, to say the
+least of it, over their revelations of the world to come; but there
+rested no doubt whatever over their revelations of the present condition
+of Church and State in Italy. On this head the cannon and woodcuts told
+far more than the priests wished, or perhaps thought. They showed that
+both the State and the Church in that country are now reduced to their
+_ultima ratio_, brute force. The State has lost all hope of governing
+its subjects by giving them good laws, and inspiring them with loyalty;
+and the Church has long since abandoned the plan of producing obedience
+and love by presenting great truths to the mind. Both have found out a
+shorter and more compendious policy. The State, speaking through her
+cannon, says, "Obey me or die;" and the Church, speaking through
+purgatory, says, "Believe me or burn." There is one comfort in this,
+however,--the present system is obviously the last. When force gives
+way, all gives way. The Church will stand, doubtless, because they tell
+us she is founded on a rock; but what will become of the State? When men
+can be awed neither by painted fiends nor real cannon, what is to awe
+them? Indeed, we shrewdly suspect, that even now the fiends would count
+for little, were it not for the fiends incarnate, in the shape of
+Croats, by which the others are backed. The Lombards would boldly face
+the gridirons, cauldrons, and stinging creatures gathered in the one
+corner of the square at Milan, if they but knew how to muzzle the cannon
+which are assembled in the other.
+
+In truth, things in this part of the world are not looking up. A
+universal serfdom and barbarism are slowly creeping over all men and all
+systems. The Government of Austria has become more revolutionary than
+the Revolution itself. By violating the rights of property, it has
+indorsed the worst doctrines of Socialism. That Government has, in a
+great number of instances, seized upon estates, without making out a
+title to them by any regular process of law. After the attempted
+outbreak at Milan in 1852, the landed property of well-nigh all the
+royalist emigrants was swept away by a decree of sequestration. The
+_Milan Gazette_ published a list of seventy-two political refugees whose
+property has been laid under sequestration in the provinces of Milan,
+Como, Mantua, Lodi, Pavia, Brescia, Cremona, Bergamo, and Sondrio. In
+this list we find the names of many distinguished persons, such as
+Count Arese, the two Counts Borromeo, General Lechi, Duke Litta, Count
+Litta, Marquis Pallavicini, Marquis Rosales, Princess Belgioso. The
+pretext for seizing their estates was, that their owners had contributed
+to the revolutionary treasury; which was incredible to those who know
+the difference in feeling and views which separate the royalist emigrant
+nobles of Lombardy from the democratic republicans that follow Mazzini.
+In truth, the Government of Vienna needs their estates; and, imitating
+the example of the French Convention, and furnishing another precedent
+for Socialism when it shall come into power, it seized them without any
+colour of right or form of law. Another branch of the scourging tyranny
+of Austria is the system of forced loans. Some of the wealthiest
+families of Lombardy have been impoverished by these, and, of course,
+thrown into the ranks of the disaffected. The Austrian method of making
+slavery maintain itself is also peculiarly revolting. The hundred
+millions raised annually in Venetian Lombardy, instead of being spent in
+the service of these provinces, are devoted to the payment of the troops
+that keep down Hungary. The soldiers levied in Italy are sent into the
+German provinces; and those raised in Croatia are employed in keeping
+down Italy. Thus Italy holds the chain of Hungary, and Hungary, in her
+turn, that of Italy; and so insult is added to oppression.
+
+The very roots of liberty are being dug out of the soil. The free towns
+have lost their rights; the provinces their independence; and the
+tendency of things is towards the formation of great centralized
+despotisms. Thus an Asiatic equality and barbarism is sinking down upon
+continental Europe. So much is this the case, that some of the thinking
+minds in Germany are in the belief that the dark ages are returning. The
+following passage in the "Life and Letters of Niebuhr," written less
+than two months before his death in 1831, is almost prophecy:--
+
+"It is my firm conviction that we, particularly in Germany, are rapidly
+hastening towards barbarism; and it is not much better in France.
+
+"That we are threatened with devastation such as that two hundred years
+ago, is, I am sorry to say, just as clear to me; and the end of the tale
+will be, _despotism enthroned amidst universal ruin. In fifty years, and
+probably much less, there will be no trace left of free institutions, or
+the freedom of the press, throughout all Europe, at least on the
+Continent_. Very few of the things which have happened since the
+revolution in Paris have surprised me."
+
+The half of that period has scarce elapsed, and the prognostication of
+Niebuhr has been all but realized. At this hour, Piedmont excepted,
+there is _no trace left of free institutions, or the freedom of the
+press_, in Southern and Eastern Europe. Nor will these nations ever be
+able to lift themselves out of the gulph into which they have fallen.
+Revolution, Socialism, war, will only hasten the advent of a centralized
+despotism. We know of only one agency,--even Christianity,--which, by
+reviving the virtue and self-government of the individual, and the moral
+strength of nations, can recover their liberties. If Christianity can be
+diffused, well; if not, I do firmly believe with Niebuhr that, on the
+Continent at least, we shall have a return of "the dark ages," and
+"despotism enthroned amidst universal ruin."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+ARCO DELLA PACE.
+
+     Depressing Effect produced by Sight of Slavery--The Castle of
+     Milan--Non-intercourse of Italians and Austrians--Arco della
+     Pace--Contrasted with the Duomo--Evening--Ambrose--Milanese
+     Inquisition--The Two Symbols.
+
+
+It was now drawing towards evening; and I must needs see the sun go down
+behind the Alps. There are no sights like those which nature has
+provided for us. What are embattled cities and aisled cathedrals to the
+eternal hills, with their thunder-clouds, and their rising and setting
+suns? Making my exit by the northern gate of the city, I soon forgot, in
+the presence of the majestic mountains, the narrow streets and clouded
+faces amid which I had been wandering. Their peaks seemed to look
+serenely down upon the despots and armies at their feet; and at sight of
+them, the burden I had carried all day fell off, and my mind mounted at
+once to its natural pitch. How crushing must be the endurance of
+slavery, if even the sight of it produces such prostration! Day by day
+it eats into the soul, weakening its spring, and lowering its tone, till
+at last the man becomes incapable of noble thoughts or worthy deeds;
+and then we condemn him because he lies down contentedly in his chains,
+or breaks them on the heads of his oppressors.
+
+Emerging from the lanes of the city, I found myself on a spacious
+esplanade, enclosed on three of its sides by double rows of noble elms,
+and bounded on the remaining side by the cafés and wine-shops of the
+city, filled with a crowd of loquacious, if not gay, loiterers. In the
+middle of the esplanade rose the Castle of Milan,--a gloomy and majestic
+pile, of irregular form, but of great strength. It was on the top of
+this donjon that the beacon was to be kindled which was to call Lombardy
+to arms, in the projected insurrection of 1852. The soft green of the
+esplanade was pleasantly dotted by white groupes in the Austrian
+uniform, who loitered at the gates, or played games on the sward. But
+neither here nor in the cafés, nor anywhere else, did I ever see the
+slightest intercourse betwixt the soldiers and the populace. On the
+contrary, the two seemed on every occasion to avoid each other, as men,
+not only of different nations, but of different eras.
+
+There are two monuments, and only two, in Italy, which redeem its modern
+architecture from the reproach of universal degeneracy. One of these is
+the Triumphal Arch of Milan, known also as the Arco della Pace. It was
+full in view from where I stood, rising on the northern edge of the
+esplanade, with the line of road stretching out from it, and running on
+and on towards the Alps, over which it climbs, forming the famous
+Simplon Pass. I crossed the plain in the direction of the Arco della
+Pace, to have a nearer inspection of it. It was more to my taste than
+the Duomo. The Cathedral, much as I admired it, had a bewildering and
+dissipating effect. It presented a perfect universe of towers,
+pinnacles, and statues, flashing in the Italian sun, and in the yet more
+dazzling splendour of its own beauty. But, stript of the tracery with
+which it is so profusely covered, and the countless statues that nestle
+in its niches, it would be a withered, naked, and unsightly thing, like
+a tree in winter. Not so the arch to which I was advancing. It rose
+before me in simple grandeur. It might be defaced,--it might grow old;
+but its beauty could not perish while its form remained. It presents but
+one simple and grand idea; and, seen once, it never can be forgotten. It
+takes its place as an image of beauty, to dwell in the mind for ever. To
+look upon it was to draw in concentration and strength.
+
+I found this arch guarded by a Croat,--beauty in the keeping of
+barbarism. Much I wondered what sensations it could produce in such a
+mind: of course, I had no means of knowing. I touched the arch with my
+palm, to ascertain the quality of its polish and workmanship. The Croat
+made a threatening gesture, which I took as a hint not to repeat the
+action. I walked under it,--walked round it,--viewed it on all sides;
+but why should I describe what the engraver's art has made so familiar
+all over Europe? And such is the power of a simple and sublime
+idea,--whether the pen or the chisel has given it body,--to transmit
+itself, and retain its hold on the mind, that, though I had only now
+seen the Arco della Pace for the first time, I felt as if I had been
+familiar with it all my life; and so, doubtless, does my reader. The
+little squat figure, with the swarthy face, and dull, cold eye, that
+kept pacing beside it, watched me all the while my survey was going on.
+Sorely must it have puzzled him to discover the cause of the interest I
+took in it. Most probably he took me for a necromancer, whose simple
+word might transport the arch across the Alps.
+
+The very spirit of peace pervaded the scene around the Arco della Pace.
+Peace descended from the summits of the Alps, and peace breathed upon
+me from the tops of the elms. It was sweet to see the gathering of the
+shadows upon the great plain; it was sweet to see the waggoner come
+slowly along the great Simplon road; it was sweet to see the husbandman
+unyoke his bullocks, and come wending his way homeward over the rich
+ploughed land, beneath the beautiful festoonings of the vine; sweet even
+were the city-stirs, as, mellowed by distance, they broke upon the ear;
+but sweeter than all was it to mark the sun's departure among the Alps.
+One might have fancied the mountains a wall of sapphire inclosing some
+terrestrial paradise,--some blessed clime, where hunger, and thirst, and
+pain, and sorrow, were unknown. Alas! if such were Lombardy, what meant
+the Croat beside me, and the black eagle blazoned on the flag, that I
+saw floating on the Castle of Milan? The sight of these symbols of
+foreign oppression recalled the haggard faces and toil-bent frames I had
+seen on my journey to Milan. I thought of the rich harvests which the
+sun of Lombardy ripens only that the Austrian may reap them, and the
+fertile vines which the Lombard plants only that the Croat may gather
+them. I thought of the sixty thousand expatriated citizens whose lands
+the Government had confiscated, and of the victims that pined in the
+fortresses and dungeons of Lombardy; and I felt that truly this was no
+paradise. To me, who could demand my passport and re-cross the Alps
+whenever I pleased, these mountains were a superb sight; but what could
+the poor Lombard, whom Radetzky might order to prison or to execution on
+the instant, see in them, but the walls of a vast prison?
+
+The light was fast fading, and I re-crossed the esplanade, on my way
+back to the city. High above its roofs, rose the spires and turrets of
+the Duomo, looking palely in the twilight, and reminding one of a
+cluster of Norwegian pines, covered with the snows of winter. As I
+slowly and musingly pursued my way, my mind went back to the better days
+of Milan. Here Ambrose had lived; and how oft, at even-tide, had his
+feet traversed this very plain, musing, the while, on the future
+prospects of the Church. Ah! little did he think, that what he believed
+to be the opening day was but a brief twilight, dividing the pagan
+darkness now past from the papal night then fast descending. But to the
+Churches of Lombardy it was longer light than to those of southern
+Italy. Ambrose went to the grave; but the spirit of the man who had
+closed the Cathedral gates in the face of the Goths of Justina, and
+exacted a public repentance of the Emperor Theodosius, lived after him.
+From him, doubtless, the Milanese caught that love of independence in
+spiritual matters which long afterwards so honourably distinguished
+them. They fought a hard battle with Rome for their religious freedom,
+but the battle proved a losing one. It was not, however, till towards
+the twelfth century, when every other Church in Christendom almost had
+acknowledged the claims of Rome, and an Innocent was about to mount the
+throne of the Vatican, that the complete subjugation of the Churches of
+Lombardy was effected. When the sixteenth century, like the breath of
+heaven, opened on the world, the Reformation began to take root in
+Lombardy. But, alas! the ancient spirit of the Milanese revived for but
+a moment, only to be crushed by the Inquisition. The arts by which this
+terrible tribunal was introduced into the duchy finely illustrate the
+policy of Rome, which knows so well how to temporize without
+relinquishing her claims. Philip II. proposed to establish this tribunal
+in Milan after the Spanish fashion; and Pope Pius IV. at first favoured
+his design. But finding that the Milanese were determined to resist, the
+pontiff espoused their cause, and told them, in effect, that it was not
+without reason that they dreaded the Spanish Inquisition. It was, he
+said, a harsh, cruel, inexorable Court--(he forgot that he had
+sanctioned it by a bull)--which condemned men without trial; but he had
+an Inquisition of his own, which never did any one any harm, and which
+his subjects in Rome were exceedingly fond of. This he would send to
+them. The Milanese were caught in the trap. In the hope of getting rid
+of the Spanish Inquisition, they accepted the Roman one, which proved
+equally fatal in the end. The degradation of Lombardy dates from that
+day. The Inquisition paved the way for Austrian domination. The
+familiars of the Holy Office were the avant couriers of the black eagles
+and Croats of the house of Hapsburg.
+
+In the arch behind me, so simple withal, and yet so noble in its design,
+and whose beauty, dependent on no adventitious helps or meretricious
+ornaments, but inherent in itself, was seen and felt by all, I saw, I
+thought, a type of the Gospel; while the many-pinnacled and
+richly-fretted Cathedral before me seemed the representative of the
+Papacy. As stands this arch, in simple but eternal beauty, beside the
+inflated glories of the Duomo, so stands the gospel amid the spurious
+systems of the world. They, like the Cathedral, are elaborate and
+artificial piles. The stones of which they are built are absurd
+doctrines, burdensome rites, and meaningless ceremonies. In beautiful
+contrast to their complexity and inconsistency, the Gospel presents to
+the world one simple and grand idea. They perplex and weary their
+votaries, who lose themselves amid the tangled paths and intricate
+labyrinths with which they abound. The Gospel, on the other hand, offers
+a plain and straight path to the enquirer, which, once found, can never
+be lost. These systems grow old, and, having lived their day, return to
+the earth, out of which they arose. The Gospel never dies,--never grows
+old. Fixed on an immoveable basis, it stands sublimely forth amid the
+lapse of ages and the decay of systems, charming all minds by its
+simplicity, and subduing all minds by its power. It says nothing of
+penances, nothing of pilgrimages, nothing of tradition, nor of works of
+supererogation, nor of efficacious sacraments dispensed by the hands of
+an apostolically descended clergy: its one simple and sublime
+announcement is, that _Eternal Life is the Free Gift of God through the
+Death of his Son_.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+THE DUOMO OF MILAN.
+
+     Interior Disappoints at First Sight--Expands into
+     Magnificence--Description of Interior--Mummy of San Carlo
+     Borromeo--His too early Canonization--A Priest at Mass--The Two
+     Mysteries--Distinction between Religion and Worship--Roof of
+     Cathedral--Aspect of Lombardy from thence--Ascend to the Top of
+     Tower--Objects in the Square--Miniature of the World--The Alps from
+     the Cathedral Roof--Martyr Associations--A Future Morning.
+
+
+My next day was devoted to the Cathedral. Entering by the great western
+doorway,--a low-browed arch, rich in carving and statuary,--I pushed
+aside the thick, heavy quilt that closes the entrance of all the Italian
+churches, and stood beneath the roof. My first feeling was one of
+disappointment; so great was the contrast betwixt the airy and sunlight
+beauty of the exterior, and the massive and sombre grandeur within. The
+marble of the floor was sorely fretted by the foot: its original colours
+of blue and red had passed into a dingy gray, chequered with the
+variously-tinted light which flowed in through the stained windows. The
+white walls and unadorned pillars looked cold and naked. Beggars were
+extending their caps towards you for an alms. On the floor rose a stack
+of rush-bottomed chairs, as high as a two-storey house,--as if the
+priests, dreading an eméute, had made preparations by throwing up a
+barricade. A carpenter, mounted on a tall ladder, was busied, with
+hammer and nails, suspending hangings of tapestry along the nave, in
+honour, I presume, of some saint whose fête-day was approaching. The dim
+light could but feebly illuminate the many-pillared, long-aisled
+building, and gave to the vast edifice something of a cavern look.
+
+But by and by the eye got attempered; and then, like an autumnal haze
+clearing away from the face of the landscape, and revealing the glories
+of green meadow, golden field, and wooded mountain, the obscurity that
+wrapped pillar and aisle gradually brightened up, and the temple around
+me began to develope into the noblest proportions and the most
+impressive grandeur. Some hundred and fifty feet over head was suspended
+the stone roof; and one could not but admire the lightness and elegance
+of its groined vaultings, and the stately stature of the columns that
+supported it. Their feet planted on the marble floor, they stood,
+bearing up with unbowing strength, through the long centuries, the
+massive, stable, steadfast roof, from which the spirit of tranquillity
+and calm seemed to breathe upon you. On either hand three rows of
+colossal pillars ran off, forming a noble perspective of well nigh five
+hundred feet. They stretched away over transept and chancel, towards the
+great eastern window, which, like a sun glowing with rosy light, was
+seen rising behind the high altar, bearing on its ample disc the
+emblazoned symbols of the Book of the Apocalypse. The aisles were deep
+and shadowy; and through their forests of columns there broke on the
+sight glimpses of monumental tombs and altars ranged against the wall. I
+passed slowly along in front of these beautiful monuments, and read
+upon their marble the names of warriors and cardinals, some of whom
+still keep their place on the page of history. It took me some three
+hours to make the circuit of the Cathedral; but I shall not spend as
+many minutes in describing the works of art--some of them marvels of
+their kind--which passed under my eye; for my readers, I suspect, would
+not thank me for doing worse what the guide-books have done better.
+Below the great window in the apsis,--the same that contains what is one
+of the earliest of modern commentaries on the Book of Revelation,--the
+pavement was perforated by a number of small openings; and on looking
+down, I could see a subterranean chamber, with burning lamps. Its wall
+was adorned with pictures like the great temple above: and I could
+plainly hear the low chant of priests issuing from it. I had lighted, in
+short, upon a subterranean chapel; and here, in a shrine of gold and
+silver, lay embalmed the body of a former Archbishop of Milan--San Carlo
+Borromeo. Through the glass-lid of the coffin you could see the
+half-rotten corpse,--for the skill of the embalmer had been no match for
+the stealthy advances of decay,--tricked out in its gorgeous vestments,
+with the ring glittering on its finger, and the mitre pressing upon its
+fleshless skull. San Carlo Borromeo is the patron saint of Milan; and
+hence these perpetual lamps and ceaseless chantings at his tomb. The
+black withered face and naked skull grin horribly at the flaunting
+finery that surrounds him; and one almost expects to see him stretch out
+his skeleton hands, and tear it angrily in rags. The unusually short
+period of thirty years was all that intervened betwixt the death and the
+canonization of San Carlo; and his mother, who was alive at the time,
+though a very aged woman, had the peculiar satisfaction of seeing her
+son placed on the altars of Rome, and become an object of worship,--a
+happiness which, so far as we know, has not been enjoyed by mortal
+mother since the days of Juno and other ladies of her time. We do not
+envy San Carlo his honours; but we submit whether it was judicious to
+confer them just so soon. Before decreeing worship to one, would it not
+be better to let his contemporaries pass from the stage of time?
+Incongruous reminiscences are apt to mix themselves up with his worship.
+San Carlo had been like other children when young, we doubt not, and was
+none the worse of the castigation he received at times from the hand of
+her whose duty it now became to worship him. His mother little dreamt
+that it was an infant god she was chastising. "He was a pleasant
+companion," said a lady, when informed of the canonization of St Francis
+de Sales, "but he cheated horribly at cards." "When I was at Milan,"
+says Addison, "I saw a book newly published, that was dedicated to the
+present head of the Borromean family, and entitled, _A Discourse on the
+Humility of Jesus Christ, and of St Charles Borromeo_."
+
+I came round, and stood in front of the high altar. It towers to a great
+height, looking like the tall mast of a ship; and, could any supposable
+influence throw the marble floor on which it rests into billows, it
+might ride safely on their tops, beneath the stone roof of the
+Cathedral. A priest was saying mass, and some half-dozen of persons on
+the wooden benches before the chancel were joining in the service. It
+was a cold affair; and the vastness of the building but tended to throw
+an air of insignificance over it. The languid faces of the priest and
+his diminutive congregation brought vividly to my recollection the crowd
+of animated countenances I had seen outside the same building, around
+Punch, the day before. The devotion before me was a dead, not a living
+thing. It had been dead before the foundations of this august temple
+were laid. But it loved to revisit "the glimpses" of these tapers, and
+to grimace and mutter amid these shadowy aisles. To nothing could I
+compare it but to the skeleton in the chapel beneath, that lay rotting
+in a shroud of gorgeous robes. It was as much a corpse as that skeleton,
+and, like it too, it bore a shroud of purple and scarlet, and fine linen
+and gold, which concealed only in part its ghastliness. Were Ambrose to
+come back, he would once more close his Cathedral gates, but this time
+in the face of the priests.
+
+"Without controversy," says the apostle, "great is the mystery of
+godliness. God was manifest in the flesh." "Without controversy, great
+is the mystery of" iniquity. "God was manifest in the" mass. These are
+the two INCARNATIONS--the two MYSTERIES. They stand confronting one
+another. Romish writers style the mass emphatically "the mystery;" and
+as that dogma is a capital one in their system, it follows that their
+Church has _mystery_ written on her forehead, as plainly as John saw it
+on that of the woman in the Apocalypse. But farther, what is the
+principle of the mass? Is it not that Christ is again offered in
+sacrifice, and that the pain he endures in being so propitiates God in
+your behalf? Is not, then, the area of Europe that is covered with
+masses "_the place where our Lord was crucified_?"
+
+The stream can never rise higher than its source; and so is it with
+worship. That worship that cometh of man cannot, in the nature of
+things, rise higher than man. The worship of Rome is manifestly
+man-contrived. It may be expected, therefore, to rise to the level of
+his tastes, but not a hairbreadth higher. It may stimulate and delight
+his faculties, such as they are, but it cannot regenerate them. At the
+best, it is only the æsthetic faculties which the worship of Rome calls
+into exercise. It presents no truth to the mind, and cannot therefore
+act upon the moral powers. God is unseen: He is hidden in the dark
+shadow of the priest. How, then, can He be regarded with confidence or
+love? The doctrine of the atonement,--the central glory of the Christian
+system,--is unknown. It is eclipsed by the mass. If you want to be
+religious,--to obtain salvation,--you buy masses. You need not cultivate
+any moral quality. You need not even be grateful. You have paid the
+market-price of the salvation you carry home, and are debtor to no one.
+
+Those who speak of the worship of the Church of Rome as well fitted to
+make men devout, only betray their complete ignorance of all that
+constitutes worship. Men must be devout before they can worship. There
+is no error in the world more common than that of putting worship for
+religion. Worship is not the cause, but the effect. Worship is simply
+the expression of an inward feeling, that feeling being religion; and
+nothing is more obvious, than that till this feeling be implanted, there
+can be no worship. The man may bow, or chant, or mutter; he cannot
+worship. He may be dazzled by fine pictures, but not melted into love or
+raised to hope by glorious truths. Moral feelings can be produced not
+otherwise than by the apprehension of moral truths; but in the Church of
+Rome all the great verities of revelation lie out of sight, being
+covered with the dense shadow of symbol and error. A single verse of
+Scripture would do more to awaken mind and produce devotion than all the
+statues and fine pictures of all the cathedrals in Italy.
+
+I got weary at last of these shadowy aisles and the priests' monotonous
+chant; and so, paying a small fee, I had a low door in the south
+transept opened to me; and, groping my way up a stair of an hundred and
+fifty steps, or rather more, I came out upon the top of the Cathedral. I
+had left a noble temple, but only to be ushered into a far nobler,--its
+roof the blue vault, its floor the great Lombardy plain, and its walls
+the Alps and Apennines. The glory of the temple beneath was forgotten by
+reason of the greater glory of that into which I had entered. It was not
+yet noon, and the morning mists were not yet wholly dissipated. The Alps
+and the Apennines were imprisoned in a shroud of vapour. Nevertheless
+the scene was a noble one. Lombardy was level as the sea. I have seen as
+level and as circular an expanse from a ship's deck, when out of sight
+of land, but nowhere else. One of the most prominent features of the
+scene were the long straight rows of the Lombardy poplar, which, rooted
+in its native soil, and drinking its native waters, shoots up into the
+most goodly stature and the most graceful form. And then, there were
+glimpses of beautifully green meadows, and long silvery lines of canals;
+and all over the plain there peeped out from amidst rich woods, the
+white walls of hamlets and towns, and the tall, slender Campanile. The
+country towards the north was remarkably populous. From the gates of
+Milan to the skirts of the mists that veiled the Alps the plain was all
+a-gleam with white-walled villages, beautifully embowered. A fairer
+picture, or one more suggestive of peace and happiness, is perhaps
+nowhere to be seen. But, alas! past experience had taught me, that these
+dwellings, so lovely when seen from afar, would sink, on a near
+approach, into ill-furnished and filthy hovels, with inmates groaning
+under the double burden of ignorance and poverty.
+
+When the more distant objects allowed me to attend to those at hand, I
+found that I was not alone on the Cathedral's roof. There were around me
+an assembly of some thousands. The only moving figure, it is true, was
+myself: the rest stood mute and motionless, each in his little house of
+stone; but so eloquent withal, in both look and gesture, that you half
+expected to find yourself addressed by some one in this life-like crowd
+of figures.
+
+I ascended to the different levels by steps on the flying buttresses. A
+winding staircase in a turret of open tracery next carried me to the
+Octagon, where I found myself surrounded by a new zone of statues. Here
+I again made a long halt, admiring the landscape as seen under this new
+elevation, and doing my best to scrape acquaintance with my new
+companions. I now prepared for my final ascent. Entering the spire, I
+ascended its winding staircase, and came out at the foot of the pyramid
+that crowns the edifice. Higher I could not go. Here I stood at a height
+of about three hundred and fifty feet, looking down upon the city and
+the plain. I had left the grosser forms of monks and bishops far
+beneath, and was surrounded--as became my aerial position--with winged
+cherubs, newly alighted, as it seemed, on the spires and turrets which
+shot up like a forest at my feet. Here I waited the coming of the Alps,
+with all the impatience with which an audience at the theatre waits the
+rising of the curtain.
+
+Meanwhile, till it should please Monte Rosa and her long train of
+white-robed companions to emerge, I had the city spectacles to amuse me.
+There was Milan at my feet. I could count its every house, and trace the
+windings of its every street and lane, as easily as though it had been
+laid down upon a map. I could see innumerable black dots moving about in
+the streets,--mingling, crossing, gathering in little knots, then
+dissolving, and the constituent atoms falling into the stream, and
+floating away. Then there came a long white line with nodding plumes;
+and I could faintly hear the tramp of horses; and then there followed a
+mustering of men and a flashing of bayonets in the square below. I sat
+watching the manoeuvres of the little army beneath for an hour or so,
+while drum and clarionet did their best to fill the square with music,
+and send up their thousand echoes to break and die amid the spires and
+statues of the Cathedral. At last the mimic war was ended, and I was
+left alone, with the silent and moveless, but ever acting statues around
+and below me. What a picture, thought I, of the pageantry of life, as
+viewed from a higher point than this world! Instead of an hour, take a
+thousand years, and how do the scenes shift! The golden spectacle of
+empire has moved westward from the banks of the Euphrates to those of
+the Tiber and the Thames. You can trace its track by the ruins it has
+left. The field has been illuminated this hour by the gleam of arts and
+empire, and buried in the darkness of barbarism the next. Man has been
+ever busy. He has builded cities, fought battles, set up thrones,
+constructed systems. There has been much toil and confusion, but, alas!
+little progress. Such would be the sigh which some superior being from
+some tranquil station on high would heave over the ceaseless struggle
+and change in the valley of the world. And yet, amid all its changes,
+great principles have been taking root, and a noble edifice has been
+emerging.
+
+But, lo! the mists are rising, and yonder are the Alps. Now that the
+curtain is rent, one flashing peak bursts upon you after another. They
+come not in scores, but in hundreds. And now the whole chain, from the
+snowy dome of the Ortelles in the far-off Tyrol, to the beauteous
+pyramid of Monte Viso in the south-western sky, is before you in its
+noble sweep of many hundreds of miles, with thousands of snowy peaks,
+amid which, pre-eminent in glory, rises Monte Rosa. Turning to the
+south, you have the purple summits of the Apennines rising above the
+plain. Between this blue line in the south and that magnificent rampart
+of glaciers and peaks in the north, what a vast and dazzling picture of
+meadows, woods, rivers, cities, with the sun of Italy shining over all!
+
+Ye glorious piles! well are ye termed everlasting. Kings and kingdoms
+pass away, but on you there passes not the shadow of change. Ye saw the
+foundations of Rome laid;--now ye look down upon its ruins. In
+comparison with yours, man's life dwindles to a moment. Like the flower
+at your foot, he blooms for an instant, and sinks into the tomb. Nay,
+what is a nation's duration, when weighed against thine? Even the
+forests that wave on your slopes will outlast empires. Proud piles, how
+do ye stamp with insignificance man's greatest labours! This glorious
+edifice on which I stand,--ages was it in building; myriads of hands
+helped to rear it; and yet, in comparison with your gigantic masses,
+what is it?--a mere speck. Already it is growing old;--ye are still
+young. The tempests of six thousand winters have not bowed you down.
+Your glory lightened the cradle of nations,--your shadows cover their
+tomb.
+
+But to me the great charm of the Alps lay in the sacred character which
+they wore. They seemed to rise before me, a vast temple, crowned, as
+temple never was, with sapphire domes and pinnacles, in which a holy
+nation had worshipped when Europe lay prostrate before the Dagon of the
+Seven Hills. I could go back to a time when that plain, now covered,
+alas! with the putridities of superstition, was the scene of churches in
+which the gospel was preached, of homes in which the Bible was read, of
+happy death-beds, and blessed graves,--graves in which, in the sublime
+words of our catechism, "the bodies of the saints being still united to
+Christ, do rest in their graves till the Resurrection." Sleep on, ye
+blessed dead! This pile shall crumble into ruin; the Alps dissolve,
+Rome herself sink; but not a particle of your dust shall be lost. The
+reflection recalled vividly an incident of years gone by. I had
+sauntered at the evening hour into a retired country churchyard in
+Scotland. The sun, after a day of heavy rain, was setting in glory, and
+his rays were gilding the long wet grass above the graves, and tinting
+the hoar ruins of a cathedral that rose in the midst of them, when my
+eye accidentally fell upon the following lines, which I quote from
+memory, carved in plain characters upon one of the tombstones:--
+
+ The wise, the just, the pious, and the brave,
+ Live in their death, and flourish from the grave.
+ Grain hid in earth repays the peasant's care,
+ And evening suns but set to rise more fair.
+
+There are no such epitaphs in the graveyards of Lombardy; nor could
+there be any such in that of Dunblane, but for the Reformation.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+MILAN TO BRESCIA.
+
+     Biblioteca Ambrosiana--A Lamp in a Sepulchre--The
+     Palimpsests--Labours of the Monks in the Cause of
+     Knowledge--Cardinal Mai--He recovers many valuable Manuscripts of
+     the Ancients which the Monks had Mutilated--Ulfila's Bible--The War
+     against Knowledge--The Brazent Serpent at Sant' Ambrogio--Passport
+     Office--Last Visit to the Duomo and the Arco Della Pace--The Alps
+     apostrophized--Dinner at a Restaurant--Leave Milan--Procession of
+     the Alps--Treviglio--The River Adda--The Postilion--Evening, with
+     dreamy, decaying Borgos--Caravaggio--Supper at
+     Chiari--Brescia--Arnold of Brescia.
+
+
+The morning of my last day in Milan was passed in the Biblioteca
+Ambrosiana. This justly renowned library was founded in 1609 by Cardinal
+Borromeo, the cousin of that Borromeo whose mummy lies so gorgeously
+enshrined in the subterranean chapel of the Duomo. This prelate was at
+vast care and expense to bring together in this library the most
+precious manuscripts extant. For this purpose he sent learned men into
+every part of Europe, with instructions to buy whatever of value they
+might be fortunate enough to discover, and to copy such writings as
+their owners might be unwilling to part with. The Biblioteca Ambrosiana
+is worth a visit, were it only to see the first public library
+established in Europe. There were earlier libraries, and some not
+inconsiderable ones, but only in connection with cathedrals and
+colleges; and access to them was refused to all save to the members of
+these establishments. This, on the contrary, was opened to the public;
+and, with a liberality rare in those days, writing materials were freely
+supplied to all who frequented it. The library buildings form a
+quadrangle of massive masonry, with a grave, venerable look, becoming
+its name. The collection is upwards of 80,000 volumes; but, what is not
+very complimentary to the literary tastes of the prefetto and honorary
+canons of Sant' Ambrogio, the curators of the library, they are
+arranged, not according to their subjects, but according to their sizes.
+This library reminded me of a lamp in an Etrurian tomb. There was light
+enough in that hall to illuminate the whole duchy of the Milanese, could
+it but find an outlet. As it is, I fear a few straggling rays are all
+that are able to escape. There is no catalogue of the books, save some
+very imperfect lists; and I was told that there is a pontifical bull
+against making any such. I saw a few visitors in its halls, attracted,
+like myself, by its curiosities; but I saw no one who had come to
+restore volumes they had read, and receive others in their room. The
+modern inhabitant of Milan gives his days and nights to the café and the
+club,--not to the library. He lives and dies unpolluted by the printing
+press,--an execrable invention of the fifteenth century, from which a
+paternal Government and an infallible Church employ their utmost
+energies to shield him. The works of dead authors he dare not read; the
+productions of living ones he dare not print; and the only compositions
+to which he has access are the decrees of the Austrian police, and the
+Catechism of the Jesuit. He fully appreciates, of course, the care taken
+to preserve the purity of his political and religious faith, and will
+one day show the extent of his gratitude.
+
+I saw in this library the famous _Palimpsests_. My readers know, of
+course, what these are. The _Palimpsests_ are little books of vellum,
+from which an original and ancient writing has been erased, to make room
+for the productions of later ages and of other pens. These pages bore
+originally the thoughts of Virgil and Livy, and, in short, of almost all
+the great writers of pagan, antiquity; but the monks, who did not relish
+their pagan notions, thought the vellum would be much better bestowed if
+filled with their own homilies. The good fathers conceived the project
+of enlightening and evangelizing the world by purging of its paganism
+all the vellum in Europe; and, being much intent on their object, they
+succeeded in it to an amazing extent.
+
+ "A second deluge learning did o'errun,
+ And the monks finished what the Goths begun."
+
+Our readers have often seen with what rapidity a fog swallows up a
+landscape. They have marked, with a feeling of despair, golden peak and
+emerald valley sinking hopelessly in the dank drizzle. So the classics
+went down before the monks. The ancients were set a-trudging through the
+world in a monk's cowl and a friar's frock. On the same page from which
+Cicero had thundered, a monk now discoursed. Where Livy's pictured
+narrative had been, you found only a dull wearisome legend. Where the
+thunder of Homer's lyre or the sweet notes of Virgil's muse had
+resounded, you heard now a dismal croak or a lugubrious chant. Such was
+the strange metamorphosis which the ancients were compelled to endure at
+the hands of the' monks; and such was the way in which they strove to
+earn the gratitude of succeeding ages by the benefits they conferred on
+learning.
+
+It gives us pleasure to say that Cardinal Mai was amongst the most
+distinguished of those who undertook the task of setting free the
+imprisoned ancients,--of stripping them of the monk's hood and the
+friar's habit, and presenting them to the world in their own form. He
+laboured in the Biblioteca Ambrosiana, and succeeded in exhuming from
+darkness and dust the treasures which neglect and superstition had
+buried there. In the number of the works which the monks had
+palimpsested, and which Mai rescued from destruction, we may cite some
+fragments of Homer, with a great number of paintings equally ancient,
+and of which the subjects are taken from the works of this great poet;
+the unpublished writings of Cornelius Fronto; the unpublished letters of
+Antoninus Pius, of Marcus Aurelius, of Lucius Verus, and of Appian; some
+fragments of discourses of Aurelius Symmachus; the Roman Antiquities of
+Dionysius of Halicarnassus, which were up to that time imperfect;
+unpublished fragments of Plautus, of Isæus, of Themistius; an
+unpublished work of the philosopher Porphyrius; some writings of the Jew
+Philo; the ancient interpreters of Virgil; two books of the Chronicles
+of Eusebius Pamphilus; the VI. and XIV. Sibylline Books; and the six
+books of the Republic of Cicero. I saw, too, in the Biblioteca
+Ambrosiana, fragments of the version of the Bible made in the middle of
+the fourth century, by Ulfila, bishop of the Mæsogoths. The labours of
+the bishop underwent a strange dispersion. The gospels are at Upsala;
+the epistles were found at Wolfenbuttel; while a portion of the Acts of
+the Apostles and of the Old Testament were extracted from the
+palimpsests. The original writing--the superincumbent rubbish being
+removed--looked out in a bold, well defined character, in as fresh a
+black, in some places, as when newly written; in others, in a dim, rusty
+colour, which a practised eye only could decipher. Thus the war against
+knowledge has gone on. The Caliph Omer burnt the Alexandrine library.
+Next came the little busy creatures the monks, who, mothlike, ate up the
+ancient manuscripts. Last of all appeared the Pope, with his Index
+Expurgatorius, to put under lock and key what the Caliph had spared, and
+the monks had not been able to devour. The torch, the sponge, the
+anathema, have been tried each in its turn. Still the light spreads.
+
+I cannot enter on the other curious manuscripts which this library
+contains; nor have I anything to say of the numerous beautiful portraits
+and pictures with which its walls are adorned. The _Cenacolo_, or "Last
+Supper," by Leonardo da Vinci, in the refectory of the Dominican
+convent, is fast perishing. It has not yet "lost all its original
+brightness," and is mightier in its decay than most other pictures are
+in the bloom and vigour of their youth. I recollect the great Scottish
+painter Harvey saying to me, that he was more affected by "that ruin,"
+than he was by all the other works of art which he saw in Italy. The
+grandeur of the central head has never been approached in any copy. One
+thing I regret,--I did not visit the Sant' Ambrogio, and so missed
+seeing the famous brazen serpent which is to hiss just before the world
+comes to an end. This serpent is the same that Moses made in the
+wilderness, and which Hezekiah afterwards brake in pieces: at least it
+would be heresy in Milan not to believe this. It must be comfortable to
+a busy age, which has so many things to think of without troubling
+itself about how or when the world is to end, to know that, if it must
+end, due warning will be given of that catastrophe. The vineyards of
+Lombardy are good, and monks, like other men, occasionally get thirsty;
+and it might spoil the good fathers' digestion were the brazen serpent
+of Sant' Ambrogio to hiss after dinner. But doubtless it will be
+discreet on this head. There is said to be in some one of the
+graveyards of Orkney, a tombstone on which an angel may be seen blowing
+a great trumpet with all his might, while the dead man below is made to
+say, "When I hear this, I will rise." The stone-trumpet will be heard to
+blow, we daresay, about the same time that the serpent of Sant' Ambrogio
+will be heard to hiss.
+
+I was now to bid farewell to Milan, and turn my face towards the blue
+Adriatic. But one unpleasant preliminary must first be gone through. The
+police had opened the gates of Milan to admit me, and the same
+authorities must open them for my departure. I walked to the passport
+office, where the officials received me with great politeness, and bade
+me be seated while my passport was being got ready. This interesting
+process was only a few minutes in doing; and, on payment of the
+customary fee, was handed me "all right" for Venice, bating the
+innumerable intermediate inspections and _visés_ by the way; for a
+passport, like a chronometer, must be continually compared with the
+meridian, and put right. I put my passport into my pocket; but on
+opening it afterwards, I got a surprise. Its pages were getting covered
+all over with little creatures with wings, and, as my fancy suggested,
+with stings,--the black eagles of Austria. How was I to carry in my
+pocket such a cage of imps? How was I to sleep at night in their
+company? Should they take it into their head to creep out of my book,
+and buzz round my bed, would it not give me unpleasant dreams? And yet
+part with them I could not. These black, impish creatures must be my
+pioneers to Venice.
+
+I now made haste to take my last look of the several objects which had
+endeared themselves to me during my short stay. I felt towards them as
+friends,--long known and beloved friends; and never should I turn and
+look on the track of my past existence without seeing their forms of
+beauty, dim and indistinct, it might be, as the haze of lapsed time
+should gather over them; still, always visible,--never altogether
+blotted out. I walked round the Cathedral for the last time. There it
+stood,--beauty, like an eternal halo, sitting rainbow-like upon its
+towers and pinnacles. Its thousand statues and cherubs stood silent and
+entranced, tranquil as ever, all unmoved by the city's din, reminding
+one of dwellers in some region of deep and unbroken bliss. "Glorious
+pile!" said I, apostrophizing it, "I am but a pilgrim, a shadow; so are
+all who now look on thee,--shadows. But you will continue to delight the
+ages to come, as you have done those that are past." I had a run, too,
+to the _Piazza di Armi_, to see Beauty incarnate, if I may so express
+myself, in the form of the Arco della Pace. It is a gem, the brightest
+of its kind that earth contains. The faultless grace of its form is
+finely set off by the overwhelming Alpine masses in the distance, which
+seemed as if raised on purpose to defend it, and which rise, piled one
+above another, in furrowed, jagged, unchiselled, fearful sublimity.
+
+I came round by the boulevard of the Porte Orientale, on my way back to
+the city. It is a noble promenade. Above are the boughs of the
+over-arching elms; on this hand are the city domes and cathedral spires,
+with their sweet chimes continually falling on the ear; and on that are
+the suburban gardens, with the poplars and campaniles rising in stately
+grace beyond. The glorious perspective is terminated by the Alps. As the
+breezes from their flashing summits stirred the leaves overhead, they
+seemed to speak of liberty. I wonder the Croat don't impose silence on
+them. What right have they, by their glowing peaks, and their free play
+of light and shade, and their storms, and their far-darting lightnings,
+to stir the immortal aspirations in man's bosom? These white hills are
+great, unconquerable democrats. They will continually be singing hymns
+in praise of liberty. Yet why they should, I know not. Milan is deaf.
+Why preach liberty to men in chains? Surely the Alps,--the free and
+joyous Alps,--which scatter corn and wine from their horn of plenty so
+unweariedly, have no delight in tormenting the enslaved nations at their
+feet. Why do ye not, ye glorious mountains, put on sackcloth, and mourn
+with the mourning nations beneath you? How can ye look down on these
+dungeons, on these groaning victims, on the tears of so many widows and
+orphans, and yet wear these robes of beauty, and sing your song of
+gladness at sunrise? Or do ye descry from afar the coming of a better
+era? and is the glory that mantles your summits the kindling of an
+inward joy at the prospect of coming freedom? and are these whisperings
+of liberty the first utterances of that shout with which you will
+welcome the opening of the tomb and the rising of the nations?
+
+The formidable process of loading the _diligence_ was not yet completed.
+There was a perfect Mont Blanc of luggage to transfer from the courtyard
+to the top of the _diligence_, not in a hurry, but calmly and
+deliberately. The articles were to be selected one by one, and put upon
+the top, and taken down again, and laid in the courtyard, and put up a
+second time, and perhaps a third time; and after repeated attempts and
+failures, and a reasonable amount of vociferation and emphatic
+ejaculations on the part of postilions and commissionaires, the thing
+was to be declared completed, and finally roped down, and the great
+leathern cover drawn over all. Still the process would be got through
+before the hour of table d'hote at the Albergo de Reale. I must needs
+therefore dine at a restaurant. I betook me to one of these
+establishments hard by the _diligence_ office, and took my place at a
+small table, with its white napery, small bottle of wine, and roll of
+Lombardy bread, in the same room with some thirty or so of the merchants
+and citizens of Milan. I intimated my wish to dine _à la carte_; and
+instantly the waiter placed the tariff before me, with its list of
+dishes and prices. I selected what dishes I pleased, marking, at the
+same time, what I should have to pay for each. I dined well, having
+respect to the journey of two days and a night I was about to begin, and
+knowing, too, that an Italian _diligence_ halts only at long intervals.
+The reckoning, I thought, could be no dubious or difficult matter. I
+knew the dishes I had eaten, and I saw the prices affixed, and I
+concluded that a simple arithmetical process would infallibly conduct me
+to the aggregate cost. But when my bill was handed me (a formality
+dispensed with in the case of those beside me), I found that my
+reckoning and that of "mine host" differed materially. The sum total on
+his showing was three times greater than on mine. I was curious to
+discover the source of this rather startling discrepancy in so small a
+sum. I went over again the list of eaten dishes, and once more went
+through the simple arithmetical process which gave the sum total of
+their cost, but with no difference in the result. It was plain that
+there was some mysterious quality in the arithmetic, or some nice
+distinctions in the cookery, which I had not taken into account, which
+disturbed my calculations. I became but the more anxious to have the
+riddle explained. In my perplexity I applied to the waiter, who referred
+me to his master. The day was hot; and boiling, stewing, and roasting,
+is hot work; and this may account for the passion into which my simple
+interrogatory put "mine host." "It was a just bill, and must be paid." I
+hinted that I did not impugn its justice, but simply craved some
+explanation about its items. Whereupon mine host, becoming cooler,
+condescended to inform me that I had not dined exactly according to the
+_carte_; that certain additions had been made to certain dishes; and
+that it did not become an Englishman to inquire farther into the matter.
+If not so satisfactory as might be wished, this defence was better than
+I had expected; so, paying my debts to Boniface, I departed, consoling
+myself with the reflection, that if I had three times more to pay than
+my neighbours, having fared neither better nor worse than they, I had,
+unlike these poor men, eaten my dinner without fetters on my hands.
+
+This time the _banquette_ of the _diligence_, with all its rich views,
+was bespoke, so I had to content myself with the _interieur_. It was
+roomy, however; there were but four of us, and its window admitted, I
+found, ample views of meadow and mountain. We drove to the station of
+the Venice railway, pleasantly situated amid orchards and extra-mural
+albergos. The horses were taken out, and the immense vehicle was lifted
+up,--wheels, baggage, passengers and all,--and put upon a truck. Away
+went the long line of carriages,--away went the _diligence_, standing up
+like a huge leathern castle upon its truck; while the engine whistled,
+snorted, screeched, groaned, and uttered all sorts of irreverent and
+every-day sounds, just as if the Alps had not been looking down upon it,
+and classic towns ever and anon starting up beside its path: a glorious
+vision of fresh meadows, bordered with little canals, brimful of water,
+and barred with the long shadows of campanile and sycamore,--for the sun
+was westering,--shot past us. The Alps came on with more slow and
+majestic pace. As peak after peak passed by, it seemed as if the whole
+community of hills had commenced a general march on Monte Viso, with all
+their crags, glaciers, and pine-forests. One might have thought that
+Sovran Blanc had summoned the nobles and high princes of his kingdom to
+meet him in his hall of audience, to debate some weighty point of Alpine
+government. An august assembly as ever graced monarch's court, in their
+robes of white and their cornets of eternal ice, would these tall and
+proud forms present.
+
+Treviglio, beyond which the railway has not yet been opened, was reached
+in less than two hours. When near the town, the vast mirror of the blue
+Como, spread out amid the dark overhanging mountains, burst upon us.
+From it flowed forth the Adda, which we crossed. As its mighty stream,
+burning in the sunset, rolled along, it spangled with glory the green
+plain, as the milky-way the firmament. There is nothing in nature like
+these Alpine rivers. They fill their banks with such a wasteful
+prodigality of water, and they go on their way with a conscious might,
+as if they felt that behind them is an eternally exhaustless source. Let
+the sun smite them with his fiercest ray; they dread him not. Others may
+shrink and dry up under his beam: their fountains are the snows of a
+thousand winters.
+
+On reaching the station, our _diligence_,--including passengers, and all
+that pertained to them,--was lifted from its truck and put on wheels,
+and once more stood ready to move, in virtue of its own inherent power,
+that is, so soon as the horses should be attached. This operation was
+performed in the calm eve, amid the glancing casements of the little
+town, on which the purple hills and the tall silent poplars looked
+complacently down.
+
+Away we rumbled, the declining light still resting sweetly on the woods
+and hamlets. There are no postilions in the world, I believe, who can
+handle their whip like those of Italy. In very pride and joy our
+postilion cracked his whip, till the woods rang again. He took a
+peculiar delight in startling the echoes of the old villages, and the
+ears of the old villagers. Each report was like that of a
+twelve-pounder. This continual thunder, kept up above their heads, did
+not in the least affright the horses: they rather seemed proud of a
+master who could handle his whip in so workmanlike a fashion. He could
+so time the strokes as to make not much worse melody than that of some
+music-bells I have heard. He could play a tune on his whip.
+
+We passed, as the evening thickened its shadows, several ancient
+_borgos_. Gray they were, and drowsy, as if the sleep of a century
+weighed them down. They seemed to love the quiet, dying light of eve;
+and as they drew its soft mantle around them, they appeared most willing
+to forget a world which had forgotten them. They had not always led so
+quiet a life. Their youth had been passed amid the bustle of commerce;
+their manhood amid the alarms and rude shocks of war; and now, in their
+old age, they bore plainly the marks of the many shrewd brushes they had
+had to sustain when young. The houses were tall and roomy, and their
+architecture of a most substantial kind; but they had come to know
+strange tenants, that is, those of them that _had_ tenants, for not a
+few seemed empty. At the doors of others, dark withered faces looked
+out, as if wondering at the unusual din. I felt as if it were cruel to
+rouse these quiet slumber-loving towns, by dragging through their
+streets so noisy a vehicle as a _diligence_.
+
+We passed Caravaggio, famous as the birthplace of the two great painters
+who have both taken their name from their city,--the Caravacchi. We
+passed, too, the little Mozonnica, that is, all of it which the
+calamities of the middle ages have left. Darkness then fell upon us,--if
+a firmament begemmed with large lustrous stars could be called dark.
+The night wore on, varied only by two events of moment. The first was
+supper, for which we halted at about eleven o'clock, in the town of
+Chiari. At eleven at night people should think of sleeping,--not of
+eating. Not so in Italy, where supper is still the meal of the day. An
+Italian _diligence_ never breakfasts, unless a small cup of coffee,
+hurriedly snatched while the horses are being put to, can be called
+such. Sometimes it does not even dine; but it never omits to sup. The
+supper chamber in Chiari was most sumptuously laid out,--vermicelli
+soup, flesh, fowls, cheese, pastry, wine,--every viand, in short, that
+could tempt the appetite. But at midnight I refused to be tempted,
+though most of the other guests partook abundantly. I was much struck,
+on leaving the town, with the massive architecture of the houses, the
+strength of the gates, and other monuments of former greatness. Imagine
+Edinburgh grown old and half-ruined, and you have a picture of the towns
+of Italy, which was a land of elegant stone-built cities at a time when
+the capitals of northern Europe were little better than collections of
+wooden sheds half-buried in mire.
+
+There followed a long ride. Sleep, benignant goddess, looked in upon us,
+and helped to shorten the way. What surprised me not a little was, how
+soundly my companions snoozed, considering how they had supped. The
+stages passed slowly and wearily. At length there came a long, a very
+long halt. I roused myself, and stepped out. I was in a spacious street,
+with the cold biting wind blowing through it. The horses were away; the
+postilions had disappeared; some of the passengers were perambulating
+the pavement, and the rest were fast asleep in the _diligence_, which
+stood on the causeway, like a stranded vessel on the beach. On
+consulting my watch, I found it was three in the morning, and in answer
+to my inquiries I was told that I was in Brescia,--a famous city; but I
+should have preferred to visit it at a more seasonable hour. "The best
+feelings," says the poet, "must have victual," and the most classic
+towns must have sleep; so Brescia, forgetful that famous geographers who
+lived well-nigh two thousand years ago had mentioned its name, and that
+famous poets had sung its streams, and that it still contains
+innumerable relics of its high antiquity, slept on much as a Scotch
+village would have done at the same hour.
+
+Time is of no value on the south of the Alps. This long halt at this
+unseasonable hour was simply to set down an honest woman who had come
+with us from Milan. She was as big well-nigh as the _diligence_ itself;
+but what caused all our trouble was, not herself, but her trunk. It lay
+at the bottom of an immense pile of baggage, which rose on the top of
+the vehicle; and before it could be got at, every article had to be
+taken down, and put on the pavement. Of course, the baggage had to be
+put back, and the operation was gone through most deliberately and
+leisurely. A full hour and a half was consumed in the process; and the
+passengers, having no place to retire to, did their best to withstand
+the chill night air by a quick march on the street.
+
+So, these silent midnight streets I was treading were those of
+Brescia,--Brescia, within whose walls had met the valour of the
+mountains and the arts of the plain. I was now treading where pagan
+temples had once stood, where Christian sanctuaries had next arisen, and
+where there had been disciples not a few when the light of the
+Reformation broke on northern Italy. I remembered, too, that this was
+the city of "Arnold of Brescia," one of the reformers before the
+Reformation. Arnold was a man of great learning, an intrepid champion
+of the Church's purity, and the founder of the "Arnoldists," who
+inherited the zeal and intrepidity of their master.
+
+On the death of Innocent II., in the middle of the twelfth century,
+Arnold, finding Rome much agitated from the contests between the Pope
+and the Emperor, urged the Romans to throw off the yoke of a priest, and
+strike for their independence. The Romans lacked spirit to do so; and
+when, seven centuries afterwards, they came to make the attempt under
+Pius IX., they failed. Arnold was taken and crucified, his body reduced
+to ashes, and it was left to time, with its tragedies, to vindicate the
+wisdom of his advice, and avenge his blood; but to this hour no such
+opportunity of freeing themselves from thraldom as that which the
+Brescians then missed has presented itself.
+
+                   "Time flows,--nor winds,
+ Nor stagnates, nor precipitates his course;
+ But many a benefit borne upon his breast
+ For human-kind sinks out of sight, is gone,
+ No one knows how; nor seldom is put forth
+ An angry arm that snatches good away,
+ Never perhaps to re-appear."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+THE PRESENT THE IMAGE OF THE PAST.
+
+     Failure of the Reformation in Italy--Causes of this--Italian
+     Martyrs--Their great Numbers--Consequences of rejecting the
+     Reformation--The _Present_ the Avenger of the _Past_--Extract from
+     the _Siècle_ to this Effect--An "Accepted Time" for
+     Nations--Alternative offered to the several European Nations in the
+     Sixteenth Century--According to their Choice then, so is their
+     Position now--Protestant and Popish Nations contrasted.
+
+
+Of the singular interest that attaches to Italy during the first days of
+the Reformation I need not speak. The efforts of the Italians to throw
+off the papal yoke were great, but unsuccessful. Why these efforts came
+to nought would form a difficult but instructive subject of inquiry.
+They failed, perhaps, partly from being made so near the centre of the
+Roman power,--partly from the want of union and comprehension in the
+plans of the Italian reformers,--partly by reason of the dependence of
+the petty princes of the country upon the Pope,--and partly because the
+great sovereigns of Europe, although not unwilling that the Papacy
+should be weakened in their own country, by no means wished its
+extinction in Italy. But though Italy did not reach the goal of
+religious freedom, the roll of her martyrs includes the names of
+statesmen, scholars, nobles, priests, and citizens of all ranks. From
+the Alps to Sicily there was not a province in which there were not
+adherents of the doctrines of the Reformation, nor a city of any note in
+which there was not a little church, nor a man of genius or learning who
+was not friendly to the movement. There was scarce a prison whose walls
+did not immure some disciple of the Lord Jesus; and scarce a public
+square which did not reflect the gloomy light of the martyr's pile. Much
+has been done, by mutilating the public records, to consign these events
+to oblivion, and the names of many of the martyrs have been
+irretrievably lost; still enough remains to show that the doctrines of
+the Reformation were then widely spread, and that the numbers who
+suffered for them in Italy were great. Need I mention the names of
+Milan, of Vicenza, of Verona, of Venice, of Padua, of Ferrara,--one of
+the brightest in this constellation,--of Bologna, of Florence, of
+Sienna, of Rome? Most of these cities are renowned in the classic
+annals; all of them shared in the wealth and independence which the
+commerce of the middle ages conferred on the Italian republics; all of
+them figure in the revival of letters in the fifteenth century; but they
+are encompassed by a holier and yet more unfading halo, as the spots
+where the Italian reformers lived,--where they preached the blessed
+truths of the Bible to their countrymen,--and where they sealed their
+testimony with their blood. "During the whole of this century," that is,
+the sixteenth, says Dr M'Crie, in his "Progress and Suppression of the
+Reformation in Italy," "the prisons of the Inquisition in Italy, and
+particularly at Rome, were filled with victims, including persons of
+noble birth, male and female, men of letters, and mechanics. Multitudes
+were condemned to penance, to the galleys, or other arbitrary
+punishments; and from time to time individuals were put to death." "The
+following description," says the same historian, "of the state of
+matters in 1568 is from the pen of one who was residing at that time on
+the borders of Italy:--'At Rome some are every day burnt, hanged, or
+beheaded. All the prisons and places of confinement are filled; and they
+are obliged to build new ones. That large city cannot furnish jails for
+the number of pious persons which are continually apprehended.'"
+
+I had time to ruminate on these things as I paced to and fro in the
+empty midnight streets of Brescia. Methought I could hear, in the silent
+night, the cry of the martyrs whose ashes sleep in the plains around,
+saying, "How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge
+our blood on them that dwell on the earth!" Yes; God has judged, and is
+avenging; and the doom takes the very form that the crime wore. An era
+of dungeons, and chains, and victims, has again come round to Italy; but
+this time it is "the men which dwell on the" papal "earth" that are
+suffering. When the Italians permitted Arnold, and thousands such as he,
+to be put to death, they were just opening the way for the wrath of the
+Papacy to reach themselves, which it has now done. Ah! little do those
+who gnash their teeth in the extremity of their torments, and curse the
+priests as the authors of these, reflect that their own and their
+fathers' wickedness, still unrepented of, has not less to do with their
+present miseries than the priestly tyranny which they so bitterly and
+justly execrate. In those ages these men were the _tools_ of the
+priesthood; in this they are its _victims_. Thus it is that the Present,
+in papal Europe, and especially in Italy, rises stamped with the
+likeness of the Past. The _Siècle_ of Paris, while the _Siècle_ was yet
+free, brought out this fact admirably, when it reminded the champions of
+Popery that the horrors of the first French Revolution were not new
+things, but old, which the Jacobins inherited from the Papists; and went
+on to ask them "if they have forgotten that the Convention found all the
+laws of the Terror written upon the past? The Committee of Public Safety
+was first contrived for the benefit of the monarchy. Were not the
+commissions called revolutionary tribunals first used against the
+Protestants? The drums which Santerre beat round the scaffolds of
+royalists followed a practice first adopted to drown the psalms of the
+reformed pastors. Were not the fusilades first used at the bidding of
+the priests to crush heresy? Did not the law of the suspected compel
+Protestants to nourish soldiers in their houses, as a punishment for
+refusing to go to mass? Were not the houses burned down of those who
+frequented Protestant preaching? Were not the properties of the
+Protestant emigrants confiscated? Did not the Marshal Nouilles order a
+war against bankers? Was not the law of the maximum, which regulated
+prices, practised by the regency? Was not the law of requisition for the
+public roads practised to prepare the roads for Queen Marie Leczinska?
+It is true, many priests perished in the Terror, but they were men of
+terror perishing by terror,--men of the sword perishing by the sword."
+
+I could not help feeling, too, when reflecting upon the state of
+Brescia, and of all the towns of Italy, and, indeed, of all the
+countries of Europe, that to nations, as well as individuals, there is
+"an accepted time" and a "day of salvation," which if they miss, they
+irremediably perish. If they enter not in when the door is open, it is
+in vain that they knock when it is shut. The same sentiment has been
+expressed by our great poet, in the well-known lines,--
+
+ "There is a tide in the affairs of men,
+ Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;
+ Omitted, all the voyage of their lives is bound
+ In shallows and in miseries."
+
+The sixteenth century started the European nations in a new career, and
+put it in the power of each to choose the principle of will or
+authority,--the compendious principle according to which both Church and
+State were governed under the Papacy, or that of law,--expressing not
+the will of one man, but the collective reason of the nation,--the
+distinctive principle of government under Protestantism. The century in
+question placed government by the canon law or government by the Bible
+side by side, and invited the nations of Europe to make their choice.
+The nations made their choice. Some ranged themselves on this side, some
+on that; and the sixteenth century saw them standing abreast, like
+competitors at the ancient Olympic games, ready, on the signal being
+given, to dart forward in the race for victory.
+
+They did not stand abreast, be it observed. The several competitors in
+this high race did not start on equally advantageous terms. The rich and
+powerful nations declared for Popery and arbitrary government; the weak
+and third-rate ones, for Protestantism. On one side stood Spain, then at
+the head of Europe,--rich in arts, in military glory, in the genius and
+chivalry of its people, in the resources of its soil, and mistress,
+besides, of splendid colonies. By her side stood France,--the equal of
+Spain in art, in civilization, in military genius, and inferior only to
+her proud neighbour in the single article of colonies. Austria came
+next, and then Italy. Such were the illustrious names ranged on the one
+side. All of them were powerful, opulent, highly civilized; and some of
+them cherished the recollections of imperishable renown, which is a
+mighty power in itself. We have no such names to recount on the other
+side. Those nations which entered the lists against the others were but
+second and third-rate Powers: Britain, which scarce possessed a
+foot-breadth of territory beyond her own island,--Holland, a country
+torn from the waves,--the Netherlands and Prussia, neither of which were
+of much consideration. In every particular the Protestant nations were
+inferior to the Papal nations, save in the single article of their
+Protestantism: nevertheless, that one quality has been sufficient to
+counterbalance, and far more than counterbalance, all the advantages
+possessed by the others. Since the day we speak of, what a different
+career has been that of these nations! Three centuries have sufficed to
+reverse their position. Civilization, glory, extent of territory, and
+material wealth, have all passed over from the one side to the other. Of
+the Protestant nations, Britain alone is more powerful than the whole of
+combined Europe in the sixteenth century.
+
+But, what is remarkable also, we find the various nations of Europe at
+this hour on the same side on which they ranged themselves in the
+sixteenth century. Those that neglected the opportunity which that
+century brought them of adopting Protestantism and a free government are
+to this day despotic. France has submitted to three bloody revolutions,
+in the hope of recovering what she criminally missed in the sixteenth
+century; but her tears and her blood have been shed in vain. The course
+of Spain, and that of the Italian States, have been not unsimilar. They
+have plunged into revolutions in quest of liberty, but have found only a
+deeper despotism. They have dethroned kings, proclaimed new
+constitutions, brought statesmen and citizens by thousands to the block;
+they have agonized and bled; but they have been unable to reverse their
+fatal choice at the Reformation.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+SCENERY OF LAKE GARDA--PESCHIERA--VERONA.
+
+     Lake Garda--Memories of Trent--The Council of Trent fixed the
+     Destiny as well as Creed of Rome--Questions for Infallibility--Why
+     should Infallibility have to grope its Way?--Why does it reveal
+     Truth piecemeal?--Why does it need Assessors?--The Immaculate
+     Conception--Town of Desenzano--Magnificent Bullocks--Land of
+     Virgil--Grandeur of Lake Garda--The Iron Peschiera--The Cypress
+     Tree--Verona--Imposing Appearance of its Exterior--Richness and
+     Beauty of surrounding Plains--Palmerston.
+
+
+When the morning broke we were skirting the base of the Tyrolese Alps. I
+could see masses of snow on some of the summits, from which a piercingly
+cold air came rushing down upon the plains. In a little the sun rose;
+and thankful we were for his warmth. Day was again abroad on the waters
+and the hills; and soon we forgot the night, with all its untoward
+occurrences. The face of the country was uneven; and we kept alternately
+winding and climbing among the spurs of the Alps. At length the
+magnificent expanse of Lake Garda, the Benacus of the ancients, opened
+before us. In breadth it was like an arm of the sea. There were one or
+two tall-masted ships on its waters; there were fine mountains on its
+northern shore; and on the east the conspicuous form of Monte Baldo
+leaned over it, as if looking at its own shadow in the lake. With the
+Lago di Garda came the memories of Trent; for at the distance of twenty
+miles or so from its northern shore is "the little town among the
+mountains," where the famous Council assembled, in which so many things
+were voted to be true which had been open questions till then, but to
+doubt which now were certain and eternal anathema.
+
+The Reformation addressed to Rome the last call to reconsider her
+position, and change her course while yet it was possible. It said to
+her, in effect, Repent now: to-morrow it will be too late. Rome gave her
+reply when she summoned the Council of Trent. That Council crystallized,
+so to speak, the various doubtful opinions and dogmas which had been
+floating about in solution, and fixed the creed of Rome. It did
+more,--it fixed her doom. Amid these mountains she issued the fiat of
+her fate. When she published the proceedings of Trent to the world, she
+said, "Here I stand; I cannot do otherwise; so help me----." To whom did
+she make her appeal? To the Emperor in the first place, when she prayed
+for the vengeance of the civil sword; and to the Prince of Darkness in
+the second, when she invoked damnation on all her opponents. Then her
+course was irrevocably fixed. She dare not now look behind her: to
+change a single iota were annihilation. She must go forward, amid
+accumulating errors, and absurdities, and blasphemies: amid opposing
+arts and sciences, and knowledge, she must go steadily onward,--onward
+to the precipice!
+
+It is interesting to mark, as we can in history, first, the feeble
+germinations of a papal dogma; next, its waxing growth; and at last,
+after the lapse of centuries, its full development and maturity. It is
+easy to conceive how a mere human science should advance only by slow
+and gradual stages,--astronomy, for instance, or geology, or even the
+more practical science of mechanics. Their authors have no infallible
+gift of discerning truth from error. They must observe nature; they must
+compare facts; they must deduce conclusions; they must correct previous
+errors; and this is both a slow and a laborious process. But
+Infallibility is saved all this labour. It knows at once, and from the
+beginning, all that is true, and all that is erroneous. It does so, or
+it is not Infallibility. Why, then, was it not till the sixteenth
+century that Infallibility gave anything like a fixed and complete creed
+to the Church? Why did it permit so many men, in all preceding ages, to
+live in ignorance of so many things in which it could so easily have
+enlightened them? Why did it permit so many questions to be debated,
+which it could so easily have settled? Why did it not give that creed to
+the Church in the first century which it kept back till the sixteenth?
+Why does it deal out truth piecemeal,--one dogma in this century,
+another in the next, and so on? Why does it not tell us all at once? And
+why, even to this hour, has it not told us all, but reserved some very
+important questions for future decision, or revelation rather?
+
+If it is replied that the Pope must first collect the suffrages of the
+Catholic bishops, this only lands us in deeper perplexities. Why should
+the Pope need assessors and advisers? Can Infallibility not walk alone,
+that it uses crutches? Can an infallible man not know truth from error
+till first he has collected the votes of fallible bishops? Why should
+Infallibility seek help, which it cannot in the nature of things need?
+
+If it is further replied, that this Infallibility is lodged betwixt the
+Pope and the Council, we are only confronted with greater difficulties.
+Is it when the decree has been voted by the Council that it becomes
+infallible? Then the Infallibility resides in the Council. Or is it
+when it is confirmed by the Pope that it becomes infallible? In that
+case the Infallibility is in the Pope. Or is it, as others maintain,
+only when the decree has been accepted by the Church that it is
+infallible, and does the Pope not know whether he ought to believe his
+own decree till he has heard the judgment of the Church? We had thought
+that Infallibility was one and indivisible; but it seems it may be
+parted in twain; nay, more, it may be broken down into an indefinite
+number of parts; and though no one of these parts taken separately is
+Infallibility, yet taken together they constitute Infallibility. In
+other words, the union of a number of finite quantities can make an
+infinite. Sound philosophy, truly!
+
+If we go back, then, as the Ultramontanist will, to the dogma that the
+seat of Infallibility is the chair of Peter, the question returns, why
+cannot, or will not, the Pope determine in one age what he is able and
+willing to determine in another? The dogma of the Immaculate Conception
+of the Virgin, for instance, if it is a truth now, was a truth in the
+first age, when it was not even dreamed of; it was a truth in the
+twelfth century, when it _was_ dreamed of; it was a truth in the
+seventeenth century, when it gave rise to so many scandalous divisions
+and conflicts; and yet it was not till December 1854 that Infallibility
+pronounced it to be a truth, and so momentous a truth, that no one can
+be saved who doubts it. Will any Romanist kindly explain this to us? We
+can accept no excuses about the variety of opinion in the Church, or
+about the darkness of the age. No haze, no clouds, can dim an infallible
+eye. Infallibility should see in the dark as well as in the daylight;
+and an infallible teacher is bound to reveal all, as well as to know
+all.
+
+And how happens it, too, that the Pope is infallible in only one
+science,--even the theological? In astronomy he has made some terrible
+blunders. In geography he has taken the earth to be a plain. In
+politics, in trade, and in all ordinary matters, he is daily falling
+into mistakes. He cannot tell how the wind may blow to-morrow. He cannot
+tell whether the dish before him may not have poison in it. And yet the
+man who is daily and hourly falling into mistakes on the most common
+subjects has only to pronounce dogmatically, and he pronounces
+infallibly. He has but to grasp the pen, with a hand, it may be, like
+Borgia's, fresh from the poisoned chalice or the stiletto, and
+straightway he indites lines as holy and pure as ever flowed from the
+pen of a Paul or a John!
+
+The road now led down upon the lake, which lay gleaming like a sheet of
+silver beneath the morning sun. We entered the poor, faded, straggling
+town of Desenzano, where the usual motley assemblage of commissionaires,
+albergo-masters, dwarfs, beggars, and idlers of all kinds, waited to
+receive us. The poor old town crept close in to the strand, as if a
+draught of the crystal waters would make it young again. It reminded me
+of the company of halt, blind, and impotent folk which lay at the pool
+of Bethesda. So lay paralytic Desenzano by the shores of the Lake Garda.
+Alas! sunshine and storm pass across the scene, clothing the waters and
+the hills with alternate beauty and grandeur; but all changes come alike
+to the poor, tradeless, bookless, spiritless town. Whether summer comes
+in its beauty or winter in its storms, Desenzano is old, withered, dying
+Desenzano still. I hurried to an albergo, swallowed a cup of coffee, and
+rejoined the _diligence_.
+
+Our course lay along the southern shore of the lake, over a fine rolling
+country, richly covered with vineyards, and where the rich red soil was
+being ploughed with bullocks. Such bullocks I had never before seen. The
+stateliest of their kind which graze the meadows of England and
+Scotland are but as grasshoppers in comparison. Truly, I saw before me
+the Anakims of the cattle tribe. To them the yoke was no burden. As they
+marched on with vast outspread horns, they could have dragged a hundred
+ploughs after them. They were not unworthy of Virgil's verse. And it
+gave additional charms to the region to think that Mantua, the poet's
+birthplace, lay not a long way to the south, and that, doubtless, the
+author of the Bucolics often visited in his youth this very spot, and
+walked by the margin of these waters, and marked the light and shade on
+these noble hills; or, turning to the rich agricultural country on the
+right, had seen exactly such bullocks as those I now saw, drawing
+exactly such ploughs, and making exactly such furrows in the red earth;
+and, spreading the beauty of his own mind over the picture, he had gone
+and imprinted it eternally on his page. The true poet is a real
+clairvoyant. He may not give you the shape, or colour, or size of
+objects; he may not tell how tall the mountains, or how long the
+hedge-rows, or how broad the fields; but by some wonderful art he can
+convey to your mind what is present to his own. On this principle it
+was, perhaps, that the landscape, with all its scenery, was familiar to
+me. I had seen it long years before. These were the very fields, the
+very bullocks, the very ploughs, the very swains, my imagination had
+painted in my schoolboy days, when I sat with the page of the great
+pastoral poet of Italy open before me,--too frequently, alas! only open.
+On these shores, too, had dwelt the poet Catullus; and a doubtful ruin
+which the traveller sees on the point of the long sharp promontory of
+Sermio, which runs up into the lake from the south, still bears the name
+of Catullus' Villa. If these are the ruins of Catullus' house, which is
+very questionable, he must have lived in a style of magnificence which
+has fallen to the lot of but few poets.
+
+The complexion of a day or of a lifetime may hang upon the commonest
+occurrence. A shoe here dropped from the foot of one of the horses; and
+the postilion, diving into the recesses of the _diligence_, and drawing
+forth a box with the requisite tools, began forthwith, on the highway,
+the process of shoeing. I stepped out, and walked on before, thankful
+for the incident, which had given me the opportunity of a saunter along
+the road. You can _see_ nature from the windows of your carriage, but
+you can _converse_ with her only by a quiet stroll amidst her scenes. On
+the right were the great plains which the Po waters, finely mottled with
+meadow and corn-field, besprint with chestnut trees, mulberries, and
+laurels, and fringed, close by the highway, with rolling heights, on
+which grew the vine. On the left was the far expanding lake, with its
+bays and creeks, and the shadows of its stately hills mirrored on its
+surface. It looked as if some invisible performer was busy shifting the
+scenes for the traveller's delight, and spreading a different prospect
+before his eye at every few yards. New bays were continually opening,
+and new peaks rising on the horizon. "It was so rough with tempests when
+we passed by it," says Addison, "that it brought into my mind Virgil's
+description of it."
+
+ "Here, vexed by winter storms, _Benacus_ raves,
+ Confused with working sands and rolling waves;
+ Rough and tumultuous, like a sea it lies;
+ So loud the tempest roars, so high the billows rise."
+
+I saw it in more peaceful mood. Cool and healthful breezes were blowing
+from the Tyrol; and the salubrious character of the region was amply
+attested by the robust forms of the inhabitants. I have seldom seen a
+finer race of men and women than the peasants adjoining the Lake Garda.
+They were all of goodly stature, and singularly graceful and noble in
+their gait.
+
+In a few hours we approached the strong fortress of Peschiera. We passed
+through several concentric lines of fortifications, walls, moats,
+drawbridges, and sloping earthen embankments, in which cart-loads of
+balls, impelled with all the force which powder can give, would sink and
+be lost. In the very heart of these grim ramparts, like a Swiss hamlet
+amid its mountain ranges, or a jewel in its iron-bound casket, lay the
+little town of Peschiera, sleeping quietly beside the blue and
+full-flooded Mincio, Virgil's own river:--
+
+ "Where the slow Mincius through the valley strays;
+ Where cooling streams invite the flocks to drink,
+ And reeds defend the winding water's brink."
+
+It issues from the lake, and, flowing underneath the ramparts, freshens
+a spot which otherwise wears sufficiently the grim iron-visaged features
+of war. Nothing can surpass the grandeur of Lake Garda, which here
+almost touches the walls of the fortress. It lies outspread like the
+sea, and runs far up to where the snow-clad summits of the Tyrol prop
+the northern horizon.
+
+Leaving behind us the iron Peschiera and the blue Garda, we held on our
+way over an open, breezy country, where the stony and broken scenery of
+the mountains began to mingle with the rich cultivation of the plains.
+It reminded me of the line where the lowlands of Perthshire join its
+highlands. Here the cypress tree met me for the first time. The familiar
+form of the poplar,--now too familiar to give pleasure,--disappeared,
+and in its room came the less stately but more graceful and beautiful
+form of the cypress. The cypress is silence personified. It stands wrapt
+in its own thoughts. One can hardly see it without asking, "What ails
+thee? Is it for the past you mourn?" Yet, pensive as it looks, its
+unconscious grace fills the landscape with beauty.
+
+Verona, gilded by the beams of Shakspeare's mighty genius, and by the
+yet purer glory of the martyrs of the Reformation, was in sight miles
+before we reached it. It reposes on the long gentle slope of a low hill,
+with plenty of air and sunlight. The rich plains at its feet, which
+stretch away to the south, look up to the old town with evident
+affection and pride, and strive to cheer it by pouring wheat, and wine,
+and fruits into its markets. Its appearance at a distance is imposing,
+from its numerous towers, and the long sweep of its forked battlements,
+which seem to encircle the whole acclivity on which the town stands,
+leaving as much empty space within their lines as might contain
+half-a-dozen Veronas. Its environs are enchanting. Behind it, and partly
+encircling it on the east, are an innumerable array of low hills, of the
+true Italian shape and colour. These were all a-gleam with white villas;
+and as they sparkled in the sunlight, relieved against the deep azure of
+the mountains, they showed like white sails on the blue sea, or stars in
+the dark sky. At its gates we were met, of course, by the Austrian
+gendarmerie. To have the affair of the passport finished and over as
+quickly as possible, I unfolded the sheet, and carelessly hung it over
+the window of the carriage. The corner of the paper, which bore, in
+tall, bold characters, the name of her Majesty's Foreign Secretary,
+caught the eye of a passenger. "PALMERSTON!" "PALMERSTON!" he shouted
+aloud. Instantly there was a general rush at the document; and fearing
+that it should be torn in pieces, which would have been an awkward
+affair for me, seeing without it it would be impossible to get forward,
+and nearly as impossible to get back, I surrendered it to the first
+speaker, that it might be passed round, and all might gratify their
+curiosity or idolatry with the sight of a name which abroad is but a
+synonym for "England." After making the tour of the _diligence_, the
+passport was handed out to the gendarme, who, feeling no such intense
+desire as did the passengers to see the famous characters, had waited
+good-naturedly all the while. The man surveyed with grim complacency a
+name which was then in no pleasant odour with the statesmen and
+functionaries of Austria. In return he gave me a paper containing
+"permission to sojourn for a few hours in Verona," with its co-relative
+"permission to depart." I felt proud of my country, which could as
+effectually protect me at the gates of Verona as on the shores of the
+Forth.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+FROM VERONA TO VENICE.
+
+     Interior of Verona--End of World seemingly near in Italy--The Monks
+     and the Classics--A Cast-Iron Revolutionist--A Beautiful
+     Glimpse--Railway Carriages--Railway Company--Tyrolese Alps--Dante's
+     Patmos--Vicenza--Padua--The Lagunes--The Omnibus or
+     Gondola--Silence of City--Sail through the Canals--Charon and his
+     Boat--Piazza of Saint Mark.
+
+
+The gates of Verona opened, and the enchantment was gone. He who would
+carry away the idea of a magnificent city, which the exterior of Verona
+suggests, must go round it, not through it. The first step within its
+walls is like the stroke of an enchanter's wand. The villa-begemmed
+city, with its ramparts and its cypress-trees, takes flight, and there
+rises before the traveller an old ruinous town, with dirty streets and a
+ragged and lazy population. It reminds one of what he meets in tales of
+eastern romance, where young and beautiful princesses are all at once
+transformed by malignant genuises into old and withered hags.
+
+In truth, on entering an Italian town one feels as if the last trumpet
+were about to sound. The world, and all that is in it, seems old--very
+old. Man is old, his dwellings are old, his works are old, and the very
+earth seems old. All seems to betoken that it is the last age, and that
+the world is winding up its business, preparatory to the final closing
+of the drama. Commerce, the arts, empire,--all have taken their
+departure, and have left behind only the vestiges of their former
+presence. The Italians, living in a land which is but a sort of
+sepulchre, look as if they had voted that the world cannot outlast the
+present century, and that it is but a waste of labour to rebuild
+anything or repair anything. Accordingly, all is allowed to go to
+decay,--roads, bridges, castles, palaces; and the only thing which is in
+any degree cared for are their churches. Why make provision for
+posterity, when there is to be none? Why erect new houses, when those
+already built will last their time and the world's? Why repair their
+mouldering dwellings, or renew the falling fences of their fields, or
+replace their dying olives with young trees, or even patch their own
+ragged garments? The crack of doom will soon be upon them, and all will
+perish in the great conflagration. They account it the part of wisdom,
+then, to pass the interval in the least fatiguing and most agreeable
+manner possible. They sip their coffee, and take their stroll, and watch
+the shadows as they fall eastward from their purple hills. Why should
+they incur the toil of labouring or thinking in a world that is soon to
+pass away, and which is as good as ended already?
+
+Of Verona I can say but little. My stay there, which was not much over
+the hour, afforded me no opportunity for observation. Its famous
+Amphitheatre, coeval with the great Coliseum at Rome, and the best
+preserved Roman Amphitheatre in the world, I had not time to visit. Its
+numerous churches, with their frescoes and paintings, I less regret not
+having seen. Its _Biblioteca Capitolare_, which is said to be an
+unwrought quarry of historic and patristic lore, I should have liked to
+visit. There, too, the monks of the middle ages were caught tripping.
+"Sophocles or Tacitus," in the words of Gibbon, "had been compelled to
+resign the parchment to missals, homilies, and the golden legend." The
+"Institutes of Caius," which were the foundation of the Institutes of
+Justinian, were discovered in this library palimpsested. A rumour had
+been spread that the author of the Pandects had reduced the "Institutes
+of Caius" to ashes, that posterity might not discover the source of his
+own great work. Gibbon ventured to contradict the scandal, and to point
+to the monks as the probable devastators. His sagacity was justified
+when Niebuhr discovered in the Biblioteca Capitolare of Verona these
+very Institutes beneath the homilies of St. Jerome. Verona yet retains
+one grand feature untouched by decay or time,--the river Adige,--which,
+passing underneath the walls, dashes through the city in a magnificent
+torrent, spanned by several noble bridges of ancient architecture, and
+turns in its course several large floating mills, which are anchored
+across the stream. The market-place, a large square, was profusely
+covered with the produce of the neighbouring plains. I purchased a roll
+of bread and a magnificent cluster of grapes, and lunched in fine style.
+
+At Verona the railway resumes, and runs all the way to Venice. What a
+transition from the _diligence_--the lumbering, snail-paced
+_diligence_--to the rail. It is like passing by a single leap from the
+dark ages to modern times. Then only do you feel what you owe to Watt.
+In my humble opinion, the Pope should have put the steam-engine into the
+Index Expurgatorius. His priests in France have attended at the opening
+of railways, and blessed the engines. What! bless the steam-engine!
+Sprinkle holy water on the heads of Mazzini and Gavazzi. For what are
+these engines, but so many cast-iron Mazzinis and Gavazzis. The Pope
+should have anathematized the steam-engine. He should have cursed it
+after the approved pontifical fashion, in standing and in running, in
+watering and in coaling. He should have cursed it in the whole structure
+of its machinery,--in its funnel, in its boiler, in its piston, in its
+cranks, and in its stopcocks. I can see a hundred things which are sure
+to be crushed beneath its ponderous wheels. I can see it tearing
+ruthlessly onwards, and dashing through prejudices, opinions, usages,
+and time-honoured and venerated institutions, and sweeping all away like
+so many cobwebs. Was the Argus of the Vatican asleep when this wolf
+broke into the fold? But _in_ he is, and the Pope's bulls will have
+enough to do to drive him out. But more of this anon.
+
+The station of the railway is on the east of the town, in a spot of
+enchanting loveliness. It was the first and almost the only spot that
+realized the Italy of my dreams. It was in a style of beauty such as I
+had not before seen, and was perfect in its kind. The low lovely hills
+were ranged in crescent form, and were as faultless as if Grace herself
+had moulded them on her lathe. Their clothing was a deep rich purple.
+White villas, like pearls, sparkled upon them; and they were dotted with
+the cypress, which stood on their sides in silent, meditative, ethereal
+grace. The scene possessed not the sublime grandeur of Switzerland, nor
+the rugged picturesqueness of Scotland: its characteristic was the
+finished, spiritualized, voluptuous beauty of Italy. But hark! the
+railway-bell rings out its summons.
+
+The carriages on the Verona and Venice Railway are not those
+strong-looking, crib-like machines which we have in England, and which
+seem built, as our jails and bridewells are, in anticipation that the
+inmates will do their best to get out. They are roomy and elegant
+saloons (though strong in their build), of about forty feet in length,
+and may contain two hundred passengers a-piece. They are fitted up with
+a tier of cushioned seats running round the carriage, and two sofa-seats
+running lengthways in the middle. At each end is a door by which the
+guard enters and departs, and passes along the whole train, as if it
+were a suit of apartments. So far as I could make out, I was the only
+_Englese_ in the carriage, which was completely filled with the citizens
+and peasantry of the towns and rural districts which lay on our
+route,--the mountaineer of the Tyrol, the native of the plain, the
+inhabitant of the city of Verona, of Vicenza, of Venice. There was a
+greater amount of talk, and of vehement and eloquent gesture, than would
+have been seen in the same circumstances in England. The costume was
+varied and picturesque, and so too, but in a less degree, the
+countenance. There were in the carriage tall athletic forms, reared amid
+the breezes and vines of the Tyrol; and there were noble faces,--faces
+with rich complexions, and dark fiery eyes, which could gleam in love or
+burn in battle, and which bore the still farther appendage of moustache
+and beard, in which the wearer evidently took no little pride, and on
+which he bestowed no little pains. The company had somewhat the air of a
+masquerade. There was the Umbrian cloak, the cone-shaped beaver, the
+vest with its party-coloured lacings. There were the long loose robe and
+low-crowned hat of the priest, with its enormous brim, as if to shade
+the workings of his face beneath. There was the brown cloak of the
+friar; and there were hats and coats of the ordinary Frank fashion. The
+Leghorn bonnet is there unknown, as almost all over the Continent,
+unless among the young girls of Switzerland; and the head-gear of the
+women mostly was a plain cotton napkin, folded on the brow and pinned
+below the chin,--a custom positively ugly, which may become a mummy or a
+shaven head, but not for those who have ringlets to show. Some with
+better taste had discarded the napkin, and wore a smart cap. On the
+persons of not a few of the females was displayed a considerable amount
+of value, in the shape of gold chains, rings, and jewellery. This is an
+indication, not of wealth, but of poverty and stagnant trade. It was a
+custom much in use among oriental ladies before banks were established.
+
+The plains eastward of Verona on the right were amazingly rich, and the
+uplands and heights on the left were crowned with fine castles and
+beautiful little temples. Yet the beauty and richness of the region
+could not soothe Dante for his lost Florence. For here was his "Patmos,"
+if we may venture on imagery borrowed from the history of a greater
+seer; and here the visions of the Purgatorio had passed before his eye.
+After a few hours' riding, the fine hills of the Tyrolese Alps came
+quite up to us, disclosing, as they filed past, a continuous succession
+of charming views. When the twilight began to gather, and they stood in
+their rich drapery of purple shadows, their beauty became a thing
+indescribable. We saw Vicenza, where, of all the spots in Italy, the
+Reformation found the largest number of adherents, and where Palladio
+arose in the sixteenth century, to arrest for a while, by his genius,
+the decay of the architectural arts in Italy. We saw, too, the gray
+Padua looking at us through the sombre shadows of its own and the day's
+decline. We continued our course over the flat but rich country beyond;
+and as night fell we reached the edge of the Lagunes.
+
+I looked out into the watery waste with the aid of the faint light, but
+I could see no city, and nothing whereon a city could stand. All was
+sea; and it seemed idle to seek a city, or any habitation of man, in the
+midst of these waters. But the engine with its great red eye could see
+farther into the dark; and it dashed fearlessly forward, and entered on
+the long bridge which I saw stretching on and away over the flood, till
+its farther end, like that of the bridge which Mirza saw in vision, was
+lost in a cloud. I could see, as we rode on, on the bosom of the flood
+beneath us, twinkling lights, which were probably lighthouses, and black
+dots, which we took for boats. After a five miles' run through scenery
+of this novel character, the train stopped, and we found that we had
+arrived, not in a cloud or in a quicksand, as there seemed some reason
+to fear, but in a spacious and elegant station, brilliantly lighted with
+gas, and reminding one, from its sudden apparition and its strange site,
+of the fabled palace of the Sicilian Fairy Queen, only not built, like
+hers, of sunshine and sea-mist. We were marched in file past, first the
+tribunal of the searchers, and next the tribunal of the passport
+officials; and then an Austrian gendarme opening to each, as he passed
+this ordeal, the door of the station-house, I stepped out, to have my
+first sight, as I hoped, of the Queen of the Adriatic.
+
+I found myself in the midst of the sea, standing on a little platform of
+land, with a cloudy mass floating before me, resembling, in the
+uncertain light, the towers and domes of a spectral city. It was now for
+the first time that I realized the peculiar position of Venice. I had
+often read of the city whose streets were canals and whose chariots were
+gondolas; but I had failed to lay hold of it as a reality, and had
+unconsciously placed Venice in the region of fable. There was no missing
+the fact now. I was hemmed in on all sides by the ocean, and could not
+move a step without the certainty of being drowned. What was I to do? In
+answer to my inquiries, I was told that I must proceed to my hotel in
+an omnibus. This sounded of the earth, and I looked eagerly round to see
+the desired vehicle; but horses, carriage, wheels, I could see none. I
+could no more conceive of an omnibus that could swim on the sea, than
+the Venetians could of a gondola that could move on the dry land. I was
+shown a large gondola, to which the name of omnibus was given, which lay
+at the bottom of the stairs waiting for passengers. I descended into it,
+and was followed by some thirty more. We were men of various nations and
+various tongues, and we took our seats in silence. We pushed off, and
+were soon gliding along on the Grand Canal. Not a word was spoken.
+Although we had been a storming party sent to surprise an enemy's fort
+by night, we could not have conducted our proceedings in profounder
+quiet. There reigned as unbroken a stillness around us, as if, instead
+of the midst of a city, we had been in the solitude of the high seas. No
+foot-fall re-echoed through that strange abode. Sound of chariot-wheel
+there was none. Nothing was audible but the soft dip of the oar, and the
+startled shout of an occasional gondolier, who feared, perhaps, that our
+heavier craft might send his slim skiff to the bottom. In about a
+quarter of an hour we turned out of the Grand Canal, and began threading
+our way amid those innumerable narrow channels which traverse Venice in
+all directions. Then it was that the dismal silence of the city fell
+upon my heart. The canals we were now navigating were not over three
+yards in width. They were long and gloomy; and tall, massive palaces,
+sombre and spectral in the gloom, rose out of the sea on either hand.
+There were columns at their entrances, with occasional pieces of
+statuary, for which time had woven a garland of weeds. Their lower
+windows were heavily grated; their marble steps were laved by the idle
+tide; and their warehouse doors, through which had passed, in their
+time, the merchandise of every clime, had long been unopened, and were
+rotting from age. As we pursued our way, we passed under low-browed
+arches, from which uncouth faces, cut in the stone, looked down upon us,
+and grinned our welcome. The voice of man, the light of a candle, the
+sound of a millstone, was not there. It seemed a city of the dead. The
+inhabitants had lived and died ages ago, and had left their palaces to
+be tenanted by the mermaids and spirits of the deep, for other occupants
+I could see none. Spectral fancies began to haunt my imagination. I
+conceived of the canal we were traversing as the Styx, our gondola as
+the boat of Charon, and ourselves as a company of ghosts, who had passed
+from earth, and were now on our silent way to the inexorable bar of
+Rhadamanthus. A more spectral procession we could not have made, with
+our spectral boat gliding noiselessly through the water, with its
+spectral steersman, and its crowd of spectral passengers, though my
+fancy, instead of being a fancy, had been a reality. All things around
+me were sombre, shadowy, silent, as Hades itself.
+
+Suddenly our gondola made a rapid sweep round a tall corner. Then it was
+that the Queen of the Adriatic, in all her glory, burst upon us,--
+
+ "Looking a sea Cybele, fresh from ocean,
+ Rising with her tiara of proud towers."
+
+We were flung right in front of the great square of St. Mark. It was
+like the instantaneous raising of the curtain from some glorious vision,
+or like the sudden parting of the clouds around Mont Blanc; or, if I may
+use such a simile, like the unfolding of the gates of a better world to
+the spirit, after passing through the shadows of the tomb. The spacious
+piazza, bounded on all sides with noble structures in every style of
+architecture, reflected the splendour of a thousand lamps. There was
+the palace of the Doge, which I knew not as yet; and there, on its lofty
+column, was the winged lion of St Mark, which it was impossible not to
+know; and, crowding the piazza, and walking to and fro on its marble
+floor, was a countless multitude of men in all the costumes of the
+world. With the deep hum of voices was softly blended the sound of the
+Italian lute. A few strokes of the oar brought us to the Hotel dell'
+Europa. I made a spring from the gondola, and alighted on the steps of
+the hotel.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+CITY OF VENICE.
+
+     Sabbath Morning--Beauty of Sunrise on the Adriatic--Worship in S.
+     Mark's--Popish Sabbath-schools--Sale of Indulgences for Living and
+     Dead--An Astrologer--How the Venetians spend their Sabbath
+     Afternoon and Evening--The Martyrs of Venice--A Young Englishman in
+     Trouble--The Doge's Palace--The Stone Lions--The Prisons of
+     Venice--The Venetians Discard their Old God, and adopt a New--The
+     Gothic Tower--The Academy of Fine Arts--The Moral of Venice--Why do
+     Nations Die?--Common Theory Unsatisfactory--History hitherto a
+     Series of ever-recurring Cycles, ending in
+     Barbarism--Instances--The "Three-score and Ten" of Nations--The
+     Solution to be sought with reference to the False Religions--The
+     Intellect of the Nation outgrows these--Conscience is
+     Dissolved--Virtue is Lost--Slavery and Barbarism
+     ensue--Christianity only can give Immortality to Nations--Decadence
+     of Civilization under Romanism--A Papist foretelling the Doom of
+     Popery.
+
+
+The deep boom of the Austrian cannon awoke me next morning at day-break.
+I remembered that it was Sabbath; and never had I seen the Sabbath dawn
+amidst a silence so majestic. More tranquil could not have been its
+first opening in the bowers of Eden. In this city of ocean there was no
+sound of hurrying feet, no rattle of chariot-wheel, nor any of those
+multitudinous noises that distract the cities of earth. There was
+silence on the domes of Venice, silence on her seas, silence in the air
+around her. In a little the sun rose, and shed a flood of glory on the
+Lagunes. It would be difficult to describe the grandeur of the scene,
+which has nothing elsewhere of the kind to equal it,--the white marble
+city, serenely seated on the bosom of the Adriatic, with the Lagunes
+outspread in the morning sun like a mirror of molten gold. But, alas! it
+was only a glorious vision; for the power and wealth of Venice are
+departed.
+
+                         "The long file
+ Of her dead Doges are declined to dust.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+                                   Empty halls,
+ Thin streets and foreign aspects, such as must
+ Too oft remind her who and what enthrals,
+ Have flung a desolate cloud o'er Venice' lovely walls."
+
+The gun which had awaked me reminds the Queen of the Adriatic every
+morning that the day of her dominion and glory is over, and that the
+night has come upon her,--a night, the deep unbroken shadows of which,
+even the bright morning that was now opening on the Adriatic could not
+dispel.
+
+After breakfast I hurried to the church of S. Mark. Mass was proceeding
+as usual; and a large crowd of worshippers,--spectators I should rather
+say,--stood densely packed in the chancel. If I except the Madeleine in
+Paris, I have nowhere seen in a Roman Catholic church an attendance at
+all approximating even a tolerable congregation, save here. I remarked,
+too, that these were not the beggars which usually form the larger
+proportion of the attendance, such as it is, in Roman churches. The
+people in S. Mark's were well dressed, though it was not easy to
+conceive where these fine clothes had come from, seeing the sea has now
+failed Venice, and land she never possessed. This was the first symptom
+I saw (I met others in the course of the day) that in Venice the Roman
+religion has a stronger hold upon the people than in the rest of Italy.
+It is an advantage in this respect to be some little distance from Rome,
+and to have an insular position. Besides, I believe that the priests in
+Venetian Lombardy, and, I presume, in Venice also, are men of more
+reputable lives than their brethren in other parts of the Peninsula.
+Anciently it was not so. Venice was wont to be termed "the paradise of
+monks." There no pleasure allowable to a man of the world was forbidden
+to a priest. The Senate, jealous of everything that might abridge its
+authority, encouraged this relaxation of the Church's discipline, in the
+hope of lowering the influence of its clergy with the people.
+
+S. Mark's is an ancient, quaint-looking pile, with the dim hoar light of
+history around it. On its threshold Pope Alexander III. met the Emperor
+Frederick in 1177, and, with pride unabated by his enforced flight from
+Rome in the disguise of a cook, put his foot upon the monarch's neck,
+repeating the words of the psalm,--"Thou shalt tread upon the lion and
+adder." This high temple of the Adriatic is vast and curious, but
+wanting in effect, owing to the low roof and the gloomy light. The
+Levant was searched for columns and marbles to decorate it; acres of
+gold-leaf have been expended in gilding it; and every corner is stuck
+full of allegorical devices, some of which are so very ingenious, that
+they have not yet been read. The priests wore a style of dress admirably
+befitting the finery of the Cathedral; for their vestments were
+bespangled with gold and curious devices. What a contrast to the simple
+temple and the plain earnest worshippers with whom I had passed my
+former Sabbath amid the Vaudois hills! But the God of the Vaudois,
+unlike the wafer-god of the priests, "dwelleth not in temples made with
+hands."
+
+Passing along on the narrow paved footpaths which tie back to back the
+long lofty ranges of the city,--the fronts being filled with the
+ocean,--I visited several of its one hundred and twenty churches. I
+found mass ended, and the congregation, if any such there had been,
+dismissed; but I saw what was even more indicative of a reviving
+superstition: in every church I entered I found classes of boys and
+girls under instruction. The Sabbath-school system was in full operation
+in Venice, in Rome's behalf. The boys were in charge of the young
+priests; and the girls, of the nuns and sisters. In some cases, laymen
+had been pressed into the service, and were occupied in unfolding the
+mysteries of transubstantiation to the young mind. Seating myself on a
+bench in presence of a class of boys, I watched the course of
+instruction. Their text-book was the "Catechism of Christian Doctrine,"
+which contains the elements of the Roman faith, as fixed by the Council
+of Trent. The boys were repeating the Catechism to the teacher. No
+explanations were given, for the process was simply that of fixing
+dogmas in the memory,--of conveying as much of fact, or what professed
+to be so, as it was possible to convey into the mind without awakening
+the understanding. The boys were taught to _believe_, not _reason_; and
+those who acquitted themselves best had little medals and pictures of St
+Francis given them as prizes. I remarked that most of the shops were
+shut: indeed, so little business is done in Venice, that this involved
+no sacrifice to the traders. As it was, however, the city contrasted
+favourably with Paris; than the Sabbaths of which, I know of nothing
+more terrible on earth. I remarked, too, that if the trade of the
+Adriatic is at an end, and beggars crowd the quays which princes once
+trod, and gondolas, in funereal black, glide gloomily through those
+waters which rich argosies ploughed of old, the spiritual traffic of
+Venice flourishes more than ever. I read on the doors of all the
+churches, "INDULGENCES SOLD HERE FOR THE LIVING AND THE DEAD, AS IN
+ROME." What matters it that the Adriatic is no longer the highway of the
+world's merchandise, and that India is now closed to Venice? Is not the
+whole of Peter's treasury open to her; and, to facilitate the enriching
+commerce, have not the priests obligingly opened a direct road to the
+celestial mine, to spare the Venetians the necessity of the more
+circuitous path by the Seven Hills? Happy Venice! her children may be
+starved now, but paradise is their's hereafter.
+
+After noon each betook himself to what pastime he pleased. Not a few
+opened their shops. Others gathered round an astrologer,--a personage no
+longer to be seen in the cities of the west,--who had taken his stand on
+the _Riva degli Schiavoni_, and there, begirt with zone inscribed with
+cabalistic characters, and holding in his hand his wizard's staff, was
+setting forth, with stentorian voice, his marvellous power of healing by
+the combined help of the stars and his drugs. By the way, why should the
+profession of astrology and the cognate arts be permitted to only one
+class of men? In the middle ages, two classes of conjurors competed for
+the public patronage, but with most unequal success. The one class
+professed to be master of spells that were all-powerful over the
+elements of the material world,--the air, the earth, the ocean. The
+other arrogated an equal power over the invisible and spiritual world.
+They were skilled in a mysterious rite, which had power to open the
+gates of purgatory, and dismiss to a happier abode, souls there immured
+in woe. The pretensions of both were equally well founded: both were
+jugglers, and merited to have fared alike; but society, while it
+lavished all its credence and all its patronage upon the one, denounced
+the other as impostors. One colossal system of necromancy filled Europe;
+but the age gave the priest a monopoly; and so jealously did it guard
+his rights, that the conjuror who did not wear a cassock was banished or
+burned. We can assign no reason for the odium under which the one lay,
+and the repute in which the other was held, save that the art, though
+one, was termed witchcraft in the one case, and religion in the other.
+The one was compelled to shroud his mysteries in the darkness of the
+night, and seek the solitary cave for the performance of his spells. The
+arts of the other were performed in magnificent and costly cathedrals,
+in presence of admiring assemblies. The latter were the licensed dealers
+in magic; and, enjoying the public patronage, they carried their
+pretensions to a pitch which their less favoured brethren dared not
+attempt to rival. They juggled on a gigantic scale, and the more
+enormous the cheat, the better was it received. They rapidly grew in
+numbers and wealth. Their chief, the great Roman necromancer, enjoyed
+the state of a temporal prince, and had a whole kingdom appropriated to
+his use, that he might suitably support his rank and dignity as
+arch-conjuror.
+
+But to return to Venice;--the great stream of concourse flowed in the
+direction of the _Giardini Pubblici_, which are a nook of one of the
+more southerly islands on which the city stands, fitted up as a
+miniature landscape, its lilliputian hills and vales being the only ones
+the Venetians ever see. The intercourse betwixt Venice and the Continent
+has no doubt become more frequent since the opening of the railway; but
+formerly it was not uncommon to find persons who had never been on the
+land, and who had no notion of ploughs, waggons, carts, gardens, and a
+hundred other things that seem quite inseparable from the existence of a
+nation. Twilight came, walking with noiseless sandals on the seas. A
+delicious light mantled the horizon; the domes of the city stood up with
+silent sublimity into the sky; and over them floated, in the deep
+azure, a young moon, thin as a single thread, and bright as the polished
+steel.
+
+                   "A silver bow,
+ New bent in heaven."
+
+When darkness fell on the Lagunes, the glories of the piazza of San
+Marco again blazed forth. What with cafés and countless lamps, a flood
+of light fell upon the marble pavement, on which some ten or twelve
+thousand people, rich and poor, were assembled, and were being regaled
+with occasional airs from a numerous band. The Sabbath closed in the
+Adriatic not altogether so tranquilly as it had opened.
+
+The Venetians have long been famous for their peculiar skill in
+combining devotion with pleasure,--more devout than home in the morning,
+and gayer than Paris in the evening. Such has long been the character of
+the Queen of the Adriatic. She has been truly, as briefly described by
+the poet,--
+
+ "The revel of the earth, the mask of Italy!"
+
+Once a better destiny appeared to be about to dawn on Venice. In the
+sixteenth century the Reformation knocked at her gates, and for a moment
+it seemed as if these gates were to be opened, and the stranger
+admitted. Had it been so, the chair of her Doge would not now have been
+empty, nor would Austrian manacles have been pressing upon her limbs.
+"The evangelical doctrine had made such progress," writes Dr M'Crie, "in
+the city of Venice, between the years 1530 and 1542, that its friends,
+who had hitherto met in private for mutual instruction and religious
+exercises, held deliberations on the propriety of organizing themselves
+into regular congregations, and assembling in public." Several members
+of the Senate were favourable to it, and hopes were entertained at one
+time that the authority of that body would be interposed in its behalf.
+This hope was strengthened by the fact, that when Ochino ascended the
+pulpit, "the whole city ran in crowds to hear their favourite preacher."
+But, alas! the hope was delusive. It was the Inquisition, not the
+Reformation, to which Venice opened her gates; and when I surveyed her
+calm and beautiful Lagunes, my emotions partook at once of grief and
+exultation,--grief at the remembrance of the many midnight tragedies
+enacted on them, and exultation at the thought, that in the seas of
+Venice there sleeps much holy dust awaiting the resurrection of the
+just. "Drowning was the mode of death to which they doomed the
+Protestants," says Dr M'Crie, "either because it was less cruel and
+odious than committing them to the flames, or because it accorded with
+the customs of Venice. But if the _autos da fe_ of the Queen of the
+Adriatic were less barbarous than those of Spain, the solitude and
+silence with which they were accompanied were calculated to excite the
+deepest horror. At the dead hour of midnight the prisoner was taken from
+his cell, and put into a gondola or Venetian boat, attended only,
+besides the sailors, by a single priest, to act as confessor. He was
+rowed out into the sea, beyond the Two Castles, where another boat was
+in waiting. A plank was then laid across the two gondolas, upon which
+the prisoner, having his body chained, and a heavy stone affixed to his
+feet, was placed; and, on a signal given, the gondolas retiring from one
+another, he was precipitated into the deep." "We can do nothing against
+the truth," says the apostle. Venice is rotting in her Lagunes: the
+Reformation, shaking off the chains with which men attempted to bind it,
+is starting on a new career of progress.
+
+Next morning, at breakfast in my hotel, formerly the palace of the
+Giustiniani, I met a young Englishman, who had just come from Rome. He
+had the misfortune to be of the same name with one on the "suspected
+list," and for this offence he was arrested on entering the Austrian
+territory; and, though allowed to come on to Venice, his passport was
+taken from him, and his journey to England, which he meant to make by
+way of Trieste and Vienna, stopped. The list to which I have referred,
+which is kept at all the continental police offices, and which the eye
+of policeman or sbirro only can see, has created a sort of inquisition
+for Europe. The poor traveller has no means of knowing who has denounced
+him, or why; and wherever he goes, he finds a vague suspicion
+surrounding him, which he can neither penetrate nor clear up, and which
+exposes him to numberless and by no means petty annoyances. I
+accompanied my friend, after breakfast, to the _Prefecture_, to transact
+my own passport matters, and was glad to find that the authorities were
+now satisfied that he was not the same man who figured on the black
+list. Still they had no apology, no reparation, to offer him: on the
+contrary, he was informed that he must submit to a detention of two or
+three days more, till his passport should be forwarded from the
+provincial office where it was lying. His misfortune was my advantage,
+for it gave me an intelligent and obliging companion for the rest of the
+day; and we immediately set out to visit together all the great objects
+in Venice. It would be preposterous to dwell on these, for an hundred
+pens have already described them better; and my object is to advert to
+one great lesson which this fallen city,--for the sea, which once was
+the bulwark and throne of Venice, is now her prison,--teaches.
+
+Betaking ourselves to a gondola, we passed down the Giudecca, Canal. We
+much admired--as who would not?--the-noble palaces which on either hand
+rose so proudly from the bosom of the deep, yet invested with an air of
+silent desolation, which made the heart sad, even while their beauty
+delighted the eye. We disembarked at the stairs of the _piazzetta_ of S.
+Mark, and repaired to the Doge's palace,--the dwelling of a line of
+rulers haughtier than kings, and the throne of a republic more
+oppressive than tyrannies. We walked through its truly majestic halls,
+glowing with great paintings from Venetian history; and visited its
+senatorial chamber, and saw the vacant places of its nobles, and the
+empty chair of its Doge. There was here no lack of materials for
+moralizing, had time permitted. She that sat as a Queen upon the
+waves,--that said, "I am of perfect beauty,"--that sent her fleets to
+the ends of the earth, and gathered to her the riches and glory of all
+nations,--alas! how is she fallen! "The princes of the sea" have "come
+down from their thrones, and" laid "away their robes, and put off their
+broidered garments." "What city is like" Venice,--"like the destroyed in
+the midst of the sea!"
+
+We passed out between the famous stone lions, which, even so late as the
+end of the last century, no Venetian could look on but with terror.
+There they sat, with open jaws, displaying their fearfully significant
+superscription, "_Denunzie secrete_,"--realizing the poet's idea of
+republics guarded by dragons and lions. The use of these guardian lions
+the Venetians knew but too well. Accusations dropped by spies and
+informers into their open mouths, were received in a chamber below. Thus
+the bolt fell upon the unsuspicious citizen, but the hand from which it
+came remained invisible. Crossing by the "bridge of sighs,"--the canal,
+_Rio de Palazzo_, which runs behind the ducal palace,--we entered the
+state prisons of Venice. In the dim light I could discern what seemed a
+labyrinth of long narrow passages; traversing which, we arrived at the
+dungeons. I entered one of them: it was vaulted all round; and its only
+furniture, besides a ring and chain, was a small platform of boards,
+about half a foot from the floor, which served as the prisoner's bed. In
+the wall of the cell was a small aperture, by which the light might be
+made to stream in upon the prisoner, when the jailor did not wish to
+enter, simply by placing the lamp in an opposite niche in the passage.
+Here crime, despair, madness, and sometimes innocence, have dwelt.
+Horrible secrets seemed to hover about its roof, and float in its air,
+and to be ready to break upon me from every stone of the dungeon. I
+longed, yet trembled, to hear them. But silent they are, and silent they
+will remain, till that day when "the sea shall give up its dead." There
+are yet lower dungeons, deep beneath water-mark, but I was told that
+these are now walled up.
+
+We emerged again upon the marble piazzetta; and more welcome than ever
+was the bright light, and the noble grace of the buildings. At its
+southern extremity, where the piazzetta looks out upon the Adriatic, are
+two stately granite columns; the one surmounted by St Theodore, and the
+other by the lion of St Mark. These are the two gods of Venice. They
+were to the Republic what the two calves were to Israel,--their
+all-powerful protectors; and so devoutly did the Venetians worship them,
+that even the god of the Seven Hills became jealous of them. "The
+Venetians in general care little about God," says an old traveller,
+"less about the Pope, but a great deal about St Mark." St Theodore
+sheltered the Republic in its infancy; but when it grew to greatness, it
+deemed it unbecoming its dignity to have only a subordinate for its
+tutelar deity. Accordingly, Venice sought and obtained a god of the
+first water. The Republic brought over the body of St Mark, enshrined it
+in a magnificent church, and left its former patron no alternative but
+to cross the Lagunes, or occupy a second place.
+
+Before bidding adieu to the piazza of St Mark, around which there
+hovers so many historic memories, and which every style of architecture,
+from the Greek and the Byzantine down to the Gotho-Italian, has met to
+decorate, and which, we may add, in point of noble grace and chaste
+beauty is perhaps not excelled in the world, we must be allowed to
+mention one object, which appeared to us strangely out of keeping with
+the spot and its edifices. It is the tall Gothic tower that rises
+opposite the Byzantine front of S. Mark's Cathedral. It attains a height
+of upwards of three hundred feet, and is used for various purposes,
+which, however, it could serve equally well in some other part of
+Venice. It strikes one the more, that it is the one deformity of the
+place. It reminded me of the entrance of a clown at a royal levee, or
+the appearance of harlequin in a tragedy.
+
+Betaking ourselves again to a gondola, and gliding noiselessly along the
+grand canal,--
+
+ "For silent rows the songless gondolier,"
+
+we visited the _Academia delle Belle Arte_. It resembled a great and
+elaborately compiled work on painting, and I could there read off the
+history of the rise and progress of the art in Venice. The several
+galleries were arranged, like the successive chapters of a book, in
+chronological order, beginning with the infancy of the art, and going on
+to its full noon, under the great masters of the Lombard
+school,--Titian, Paul Veronese, Tintoretto, and others. The pictures of
+the inner saloons were truly magnificent; but on these I do not dwell.
+
+Let us sit down here, in the midst of the seas, and meditate a little on
+the great _moral_ of Venice. We shall let the poet state the case:--
+
+                       "Her daughters had their dowers
+ From spoils of nations, and the exhaustless East
+ Poured in her lap all gems in sparkling showers.
+ In purple was she robed, and of her feast
+ Monarchs partook, and deem'd their dignity increased."
+
+But now, after power, wealth, empire, have come corruption, slavery,
+ruin; and Venice,--
+
+ "Her thirteen hundred years of freedom done,
+ Sinks, like a sea-weed, into whence she rose."
+
+But the course which Venice has run is that of all States which have yet
+appeared in the world. History is but a roll of defunct empires, whose
+career has been alike; and Venice and Rome are but the latest names on
+the list. Egypt, Chaldea, Tyre, Greece, Rome,--to all, as if by an
+inevitable law, there came, after the day of civilization and empire,
+the night of barbarism and slavery. This has been repeated again and
+again, till the world has come to accept of it as its established
+course. We see States emerging from infancy and weakness slowly and
+laboriously, becoming rich, enlightened, powerful; and the moment they
+seemed to have perfected their civilization, and consolidated their
+power, they begin to fall. The past history of our race is but a history
+of efforts, successful up to a certain point, but only to a certain
+point; for whenever that point has been reached, all the fruits of past
+labour,--all the accumulations of legislators, philosophers, and
+warriors,--have been swept away, and the human family have found that
+they had to begin the same laborious process over again,--to toil
+upwards from the same gulph, to be overtaken by the same disaster.
+History has been simply a series of ever-recurring cycles, ending in
+barbarism. This is a discouraging aspect of human affairs, and throws a
+doubtful shadow upon the future; but it is the aspect in which history
+exhibits them. The Etrurian tombs speak of an era of civilization and
+power succeeded by barbarism. The mounds of Nineveh speak of a similar
+revolution. The day of Greek glory sank at last in unbroken night. At
+the fall of the Roman empire, barbarism overspread Europe; and now the
+cycle appears to have come round to the nations of modern Europe. Since
+the middle of last century there has been a marked and fearfully rapid
+decline in all the States of continental Europe. The entire region south
+of the Alps, including the once powerful kingdoms of Italy and Spain, is
+sunk in slavery and barbarism. France alone retains its civilization;
+but how long is it likely to retain it, with its strength undermined by
+revolution, and its liberties completely prostrated? Niebuhr has given
+expression in his works to his decided opinion, _that the dark ages are
+returning_. And are we not at this moment witnessing an attempted
+repetition of the Gothic invasion of the fourth century, in the
+barbarian north, which is pressing with ever-growing weight upon the
+feeble barrier of the East?
+
+                         "Nations melt
+ From power's high pinnacle, when they have felt
+ The sunshine for a while, and downward go
+ Like lauwine loosen'd from the mountain's belt."
+
+But why is this? It would almost seem, when we look at these examples
+and facts, as if there were some malignant influence sporting with the
+world's progress,--some adverse power fighting against man, baulking all
+his efforts at self-advancement, and compelling him, Sysiphus-like, to
+roll the stone eternally. Has the Creator set limits to the life of
+kingdoms, as to that of man? Certain it is, they have seldom survived
+their twelfth century. The most part have died at or about their twelve
+hundred and sixtieth year. Is this the "three-score-and-ten" of nations,
+beyond which they cannot pass?
+
+The common explanation of the death of nations is, that power begets
+wealth, wealth luxury, and luxury feebleness and ruin. But we are unable
+to accept this as a satisfactory account of the matter. It appears a
+mere _statement_ of the fact,--not a _solution_ of it. It is evidently
+the design of Providence that nations should live happily in the
+abundant enjoyment of all good things; and that every human being should
+have all that is good for him, of what the earth produces, and the
+labour of man can create. Then, why should affluence, and the other
+accessories of power, have so uniformly a corrupting and dissolving
+effect upon society? This the common theory leaves unexplained. There is
+no necessary connection betwixt the enjoyment of abundance and the
+corruption of nations. The Creator surely has not ordained laws which
+must necessarily result in the death of society.
+
+The real solution, we think, it is not difficult to find. All religions,
+one excepted, which have hitherto appeared in the world, have been
+unable to hold the balance between the _intellect_ and the _conscience_
+beyond a certain stage; and therefore, all kingdoms which have arisen
+hitherto have been unable to exist beyond a certain term. So long as a
+nation is in its childhood, a false religion affords room enough for the
+free play of its intellect. Its religion being regarded as true and
+authoritative, the conscience of the nation is controlled by it. So long
+as conscience is upheld, law has authority, individual and social virtue
+is maintained, and the nation goes on acquiring power, amassing wealth,
+and increasing knowledge. But whenever it attains a certain stage of
+enlightenment, and a certain power of independent thinking, it begins to
+canvass the claims of that religion which formerly awed it. It
+discovers its falsehood, the national conscience breaks loose, and an
+era of scepticism ensues. With the destruction of conscience and the
+rise of scepticism, law loses its authority, individual honour and
+social virtue decline, and slavery or anarchy complete the ruin of the
+state. This is the course which the nations of the world have hitherto
+run. They have uniformly begun to decline, not when they attained a
+certain amount of power or of wealth, but when they attained such an
+amount of intellectual development as set free the national conscience
+from the restraints of religion, or what professed to be so. No false
+religion can carry a nation beyond a certain point; because no such
+religion can stand before a certain stage of light and inquiry, which is
+sure to be reached; and when that stage is reached,--in other words,
+whenever the intellect dissolves the bonds of conscience,--the basis of
+all authority and order is razed, and from that moment national decline
+begins. Hence, in all nations an era of scepticism has been
+contemporaneous with an era of decay.
+
+Let us take the ancient Romans as an example. In the youth of their
+nation their gods were revered; and in the existence of a national
+conscience, a basis was found for law and virtue; and while these lasted
+the empire flourished. But by and by the genius of its great thinkers
+leavened the nation; an era of scepticism ensued; that scepticism
+inaugurated an age of feeble laws and strong passions; and the
+declension which set in issued at length in downright barbarism.
+
+Papal Rome has run the very same course. The feeble intellect of the
+European nations accepted Romanism as a religion, just as the Romans
+before them had accepted of paganism. But the Reformation introduced a
+period of growing enlightenment and independent thinking; and by the end
+of the eighteenth century, Romanism had shared the fate which paganism
+had done before it. The masses of Europe generally had lost faith in it
+as a religion; then came the atheism of the French school; an era of
+feeble laws and strong passions again returned; the selfish and
+isolating principle came into play; and at this moment the nations of
+continental Europe are rapidly sinking into barbarism. Thus, the history
+of the race under the reign of the false religions exhibits but
+alternating fits of superstition and scepticism, with their
+corresponding eras of civilization and barbarism. And it necessarily
+must be so; because, these religions not being compatible with the
+indefinite extension of man's knowledge, they do not secure the
+continued action and authority of conscience; and without conscience,
+national progress, and even existence, is impossible.
+
+Is there, then, no immortality in reserve for nations? Must they
+continue to die? and must the history of our race in all time coming be
+just what it has been in all time past,--a series of rapidly alternating
+epochs of partial civilization and destructive barbarism? No. He who is
+the former of society is the author of the Bible; and we may be sure
+that there is a beautiful meetness and harmony between the laws of the
+one and the doctrine of the other. Christianity alone can enable society
+to fulfil its terrestrial destiny, because it alone is true, and, being
+true, it admits of the utmost advancement of the human understanding. In
+its case the centrifugal force of the intellect can never overcome the
+centripetal power of the conscience. It has nothing to fear from the
+advance of science. It keeps pace with the human mind, however rapid its
+progress. Nay, more; the more the human mind is enlarged, the more
+apparent becomes the truth of Christianity, and, by consequence, the
+greater becomes the authority of conscience. Under the reign of
+Christianity, then, there is no point in the onward progress of society
+where conscience dissolves, and leaves man and nations devoid of virtue;
+there is no point where conviction compels man to become a sceptic, and
+scepticism pulls him down into barbarism. As the atmosphere which
+surrounds our planet supplies the vital element alike to the full-grown
+man and to the infant, so Christianity supplies the breath of life to
+society in all its stages,--in its full-grown manhood, as well as in its
+immature infancy. There is more meaning than the world has yet
+understood in the statement that the Gospel has brought "life and
+immortality to light." Its Divine Founder introduced upon the stage that
+system which is the _life_ of nations. The world does not furnish an
+instance of a nation that has continued to be Christian, that has
+perished. We believe the thing to be impossible. While great Rome has
+gone down, and Venice sits in widowed glory on the Adriatic, the poor
+Waldenses are still a people. The world tried but could not extinguish
+them. Christianity is synonymous with life: it gives immortality to
+nations here, and to the individual hereafter. Hence Daniel, when
+unfolding the state of the world in the last age, gives us to understand
+that, when once thoroughly Christianized, society will no longer be
+overwhelmed by those periodic lapses into barbarism which in every
+former age has set limits to the progress of States. "And in the days of
+those kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom which shall never
+be destroyed." Unlike every preceding era, immortality will then be the
+chief characteristic of nations.
+
+But must it not strike every one, in connection with this subject, that
+in proportion as Romanism developes itself, the nations under its sway
+sink the deeper into barbarism? This fact Romanist writers now see and
+bewail. What stronger condemnation of their system could they pronounce?
+For surely if religion be of God, it must, like all else that comes
+from Him, be beneficent in its influence. He who ordained the sun to
+irradiate the earth with his light, and fructify it with his warmth,
+would not have given a religion that fetters the understanding and
+barbarises the species. And yet, if Romanism be divine, He has done so;
+for the champions of that Church, compelled by the irresistible logic of
+facts, now tacitly acknowledge that a decaying civilization is following
+in the wake of Roman Catholicism in every part of the world. Listen, for
+instance, to the following confession of M. Michel Chevalier, in the
+_Journal des Debats_:--
+
+"I cannot shut my eyes to the facts that militate against the influence
+of the Catholic spirit,--facts which have transpired more especially
+during the last third of a century, and which are still in
+progress,--facts that are fitted to excite in every mind that
+sympathises with the Catholic cause, the most lively apprehensions. On
+comparing the respective progress made since 1814 by non-Catholic
+Christian nations, with the advancement of power attained by Catholic
+nations, one is struck with astonishment at the disproportion. England
+and the United States, which are Protestant Powers, and Russia, a Greek
+Power, have assumed to an incalculable degree the dominion of immense
+regions, destined to be densely peopled, and already teeming with a
+large population. England has nearly conquered all those vast and
+populous regions known under the generic name of India. In America she
+has diffused civilization to the extreme north, in the deserts of Upper
+Canada. Through the toil of her children, she has taken possession of
+every point and position of an island,--New Holland (Australia),--which
+is as large as a continent; and she has been sending forth her fresh
+shoots over all the archipelagos with which the great ocean is studded.
+The United States have swollen out to a prodigious extent, in wealth
+and possessions, over the surface of their ancient domain. They have,
+moreover, enlarged on all sides the limits of that domain, anciently
+confined to a narrow stripe along the shores of the Atlantic. They now
+sit on the two oceans. San Francisco has become the pendant of New York,
+and promises speedily to rival it in its destinies. They have proved
+their superiority over the Catholic nations of the New World, and have
+subjected them to a dictatorship which admits of no farther dispute. To
+the authority of these two Powers,--England and the United
+States,--after an attempt made by the former on China, the two most
+renowned empires of the East,--empires which represent nearly the
+numerical half of the human race,--China and Japan,--seem to be on the
+point of yielding. Russia, again, appears to be assuming every day a
+position of growing importance in Europe. During all this time, what way
+has been made by the Catholic nations? The foremost of them all, the
+most compact, the most glorious,--France,--which seemed fifty years ago
+to have mounted the throne of civilization, has seen, through a course
+of strange disasters, her sceptre shivered and her power dissolved. Once
+and again has she risen to her feet, with noble courage and indomitable
+energy; but every time, as all expected to see her take a rapid flight
+upward, fate has sent her, as a curse from God, a revolution to paralyze
+her efforts, and make her miserably fall back. Unquestionably, since
+1789 the balance of power between Catholic civilization and non-Catholic
+civilization has been reversed."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+PADUA.
+
+     Doves of Venice--Re-cross the Lagunes--Padua--Wretchedness of
+     Interior--Misery of its Inhabitants--Splendour of its Churches--The
+     Shrine of St Antony--His Sermon to a Congregation of Fishes--A
+     Restaurant in Padua--Reach the Po at Day-break--Enter Peter's
+     Patrimony--Find the Apostles again become Fishermen and
+     Tax-Gatherers--Arrest--Liberty.
+
+
+Contenting myself with a hasty perusal of the great work on painting
+which the academy forms, and which it had taken so many ages and so many
+various masters to produce, I returned again to the square of St Mark.
+Doves in thousands were assembled on the spot, hovering on wing at the
+windows of the houses, or covering the pavement below, at the risk, as
+it seemed, of being trodden upon by the passengers. I inquired at my
+companion what this meant. He told me that a rich old gentleman by last
+will and testament had bequeathed a certain sum to be expended in
+feeding these fowls, and that, duly as the great clock in the Gothic
+tower struck two, a certain quantity of corn was every day thrown from a
+window in the piazza. Every dove in the "Republic" is punctual to a
+minute. There doves have come to acquire a sort of sacred character,
+and it would be about as hazardous to kill a dove in Venice, as of old a
+cat in Egypt. We wish some one would do as much for the beggars, which
+are yet more numerous, and who know no more, when they get up in the
+morning, where they are to be fed, than do the fowls of heaven. Trade
+there is none; "to dig," they have no land, and, even if they had, they
+are too indolent; they want, too, the dove's wing to fly away to some
+happier country. Their seas have shut them in; their marble city is but
+a splendid prison. The story of Venice is that of Tyre over again,--her
+wealth, her glory, her luxuriousness, and now her doom. But we must
+leave her. Bidding adieu, on the stairs of St Mark, to the partner of
+the day's explorations, with a regret which those only can understand
+who have had the good fortune to meet an intelligent and estimable
+companion in a foreign land, I leaped into a gondola, and glided away,
+leaving Venice sitting in silent melancholy beauty amid her tideless
+seas.
+
+Traversing again the long bridge over the Lagunes, and the flat country
+beyond, covered with memorials of decay in the shape of dilapidated
+villas, and crossing the full-volumed Brenta, rolling on within its
+lofty embankments, I sighted the fine Tyrolean Alps on the right, and,
+after a run of twenty-four miles, the gray towers of Padua, at about a
+mile's distance from the railway, on the left.
+
+Poor Padua! Who could enter it without weeping almost. Of all the
+wretched and ruinous places I ever saw, this is the most wretched and
+ruinous,--hopelessly, incurably ruinous. Padua does, indeed, look
+imposing at a little distance. Its fine dome, its numerous towers, the
+large vine-stocks which are rooted in its soil, the air of vast
+fertility which is spread over the landscape, and the halo of former
+glory which, cloud-like, rests above it, consort well with one's
+preconceived ideas of this once illustrious seat of learning, which
+even the youth of our own land were wont to frequent; but enter
+it,--alas the dismal sight!--ruins, filth, ignorance, poverty, on every
+hand. The streets are narrow and gloomy, from being lined with heavy and
+dark arcades; the houses, which are large, and bear marks of former
+opulence, are standing in many instances untenanted. Not a few stately
+mansions have been converted into stables, or carriers' sheds, or are
+simply naked walls, which the dogs of the city, or other creatures, make
+their den. The inhabitants, pale, emaciated, and wrapt in huge cloaks,
+wander through the streets like ghosts. Were Padua a heap of ruins,
+without a single human being on or near its site, its desolation would
+be less affecting. An unbearable melancholy sat down upon me the moment
+I entered it, and the recollection oppresses me at the distance of three
+years.
+
+In the midst of all this ruin and poverty, there rise I know not how
+many duomos and churches, with fine cupolas and towers, as if they meant
+to mock the misery upon which they look. They are the repositories of
+vast wealth, in the shape of silver lamps, votive offerings, paintings,
+and marbles. To appropriate a penny of that treasure in behalf of the
+wretched beings who swarm unfed and untaught in their neighbourhood,
+would bring down upon Padua the terrible ire of their great god St
+Antony. He is there known as "Il Santo" (the saint), and has a gorgeous
+temple erected in his honour, crowned with not less than eight cupolas,
+and illuminated day and night by golden lamps and silver candlesticks,
+which burn continually before his shrine. "There are narrow clefts in
+the monument that stands over him," says Addison, "where good Catholics
+rub their beads, and smell his bones, which they say have in them a
+natural perfume, though very like apoplectic balsam; and, what would
+make one suspect that they rub the marble with it, it is observed that
+the scent is stronger in the morning than at night." Were the precious
+metals and the costly marbles which are stored up in this church
+transmuted into current coin, the whole province of Padua might be
+supplied with ploughs and other needful implements of agriculture. But
+it is better that nature alone should cultivate their fields, and that
+the Paduans should eat only what she is pleased to provide for them,
+than that, by robbing the shrine of St Antony, they should forfeit the
+good esteem of so powerful a patron, "the thrice holy Antony of Padua;
+the powerful curer of leprosy, tremendous driver away of devils,
+restorer of limbs, stupendous discoverer of lost things, great and
+wonderful defender from all dangers."
+
+The miracles and great deeds of "the saint" are recorded on the tablets
+and bas-reliefs of the church. His most memorable exploit was his
+"preaching to an assembly of fishes," whom, "when the heretics would not
+regard his preaching," says his biographer, "he called together, in the
+name of God, to hear his holy Word." The congregation and the sermon
+were both extraordinary; and, if any reader is curious to see what a
+saint could have to say to a congregation of fishes, he will find the
+oration quoted _ad longam_ in "Addison's Travels." The mule on which
+this great man rode was nearly as remarkable as his master. With a
+devotion worthy of the mule of St Antony, he left his hay, after a long
+fast, to be present at mass. The modern Paduans, from what I saw of
+them, fast quite as oft and as long as Antony's mule; whether they are
+equally punctual at mass I do not know.
+
+My stay in Padua extended only from four in the afternoon till nine at
+night. The hours wore heavily, and I sought for a restaurant where I
+might dine. I was fortunate enough at length to discover a vast hall, or
+shed I should rather say, which was used as a restaurant. Some rich and
+noble Paduan had called it his in other days; now it received as guests
+the courier and the wayfarer. Its massive walls were quite naked, and
+enclosed an apartment so spacious, that its extremities were lost in
+darkness. Some dozen of small tables, all ready for dinner being served
+upon them, occupied the floor; and some three or four persons were
+seated at dinner. I took my seat at one of the tables, and was instantly
+served with capillini soup, and the usual _et ceteras_. I made a good
+repast, despite the haunted look of the chamber. On the conclusion of my
+dinner I repaired to the market-place, and, till the hour of _diligence_
+should arrive, I began pacing the pavement beneath the shadow of the
+town-hall, which looks as if it had been built as a kind of anticipation
+of the crystal palace, and the roof of which is said to be the largest
+unsupported by pillars in the world. It covers--so the Paduans
+believe--the bones of Livy, who is claimed as a native of Padua. It was
+here Petrarch died, which has given occasion to Lazzarini to join
+together the cradle of the historian and the tomb of the poet, in the
+following lines addressed to Padua:--
+
+ Here was he born whose lasting page displays
+   Rome's brightest triumphs, and who painted best;
+   Fit style for heroes, nor to shun the test,
+   Though Grecian art should vie, and Attic lays.
+ And here thy tuneful swan, Arezzo lies,
+   Who gave his Laura deathless name; than whom
+   No bard with sweeter grace has poured the song.
+ O, happy seat! O, favoured by the skies!
+   What store and store is thine, to whom belong
+   So rich a cradle and so rich a tomb!
+
+I bought a pennyworth of grapes from one of the poor stall-keepers, and,
+in return for my coin, had my two extended palms literally heaped. I can
+safely say that the vine of Padua has not declined; the fruit was
+delicious; and, after making my way half through my purchase, I
+collected a few hungry boys, and divided the fragments amongst them.
+
+It was late and dark when, ensconced in the interior of the _diligence_,
+we trundled out of the poor ruined town. The night was dreary and
+somewhat cold; I courted sleep, but it came not. My companions were
+mostly young Englishmen, but not of the intellectual stamp of the
+companion from whom I had parted that morning on the quay of Venice.
+They appeared to be travelling about mainly to look at pictures and
+smoke cigars. As to learning anything, they ridiculed the idea of such a
+thing in a country where there "was no society." It did not seem to have
+occurred to them that it might be worth while learning how it had come
+to pass that, in a country where one stumbles at every step on the
+stupendous memorials of a past civilization and knowledge, there is now
+no society. At length, after many hours' riding, we drew up before a
+tall white house, which the gray coat and bayonet of the Croat, and the
+demand for passports, told me was a police office. It was the last
+dogana on the Austrian territory. We were next requested to leave the
+_diligence_ for a little. The day had not yet broke, but I could see
+that we were on the brink of a deep and broad river, which we were
+preparing to cross, but how, I could not discover, for I could see no
+bridge, but only something like a raft moored by the margin of the
+stream. On this frail craft we embarked, horses, _diligence_,
+passengers, and all; and, launching out upon the impetuous current, we
+reached, after a short navigation, the opposite shore. The river we had
+crossed was the Po, and the craft which had carried us over was a _pont
+colant_, or flying bridge. This was the frontier of the Papal States;
+and now, for the first time, I found myself treading the sacred soil of
+Peter's patrimony.
+
+Peter, in the days of his flesh, was a fisherman; but some of his
+brother apostles were tax-gatherers; and here was the receipt of custom
+again set up. Both "toll" and "fishing-net," I had understood, were
+forsaken when their Master called them; but on my arrival I found the
+apostles all busy at their old trades: some fishing for men at Rome; and
+others, at the frontiers, levying tribute, both of "the children" and of
+"strangers;" for on looking up, I could see by the dim light a low
+building, like an American log-house, standing at a little distance from
+the river's brink, with a huge sign-board stuck up over the door,
+emblazoned with the keys and the tiara. This told me that I was in the
+presence of the Apostolic Police-Office,--an ecclesiastical institution
+which, I doubt not, has its authority somewhere in the New Testament,
+though I cannot say that I have ever met with the passage in my readings
+in that book; but that, doubtless, is because I want the Church's
+spectacles.
+
+When one gets his name inserted in an Italian way-bill, he delivers up
+his passport to the _conducteur_, who makes it his business to have it
+viséed at the several stations which are planted thick along all the
+Italian routes,--the owner, of course, reckoning for the charges at the
+end of the journey. In accordance with this custom, our _conducteur_
+entered the shed-like building I have mentioned, to lay his way-bill and
+his passports before the officials within. In the interim, we took our
+places in the vehicle. The _conducteur_ was in no hurry to return, but I
+dreaded no evil. I had had a wakeful night; and now, throwing myself
+into my nook in the _diligence_, the stillness favoured sleep, and I was
+half unconscious, when I found some one pulling at my shoulder, and
+calling on me to leave the carriage. "What is the matter?" I inquired.
+"Your passport is not _en règle_," was the reply. "My passport not
+right!" I answered in astonishment; "it has been viséed at every
+police-office betwixt and London; and especially at those of Austria,
+under whose suzerainty the territory of Ferrara is, and no one may
+prevent me entering the Papal States." The man coolly replied, "You
+cannot go an inch farther with us;" and proceeded to take down my
+luggage, and deposit it on the bank. I stept out, and bade the man
+conduct me to the people inside. Passing under the papal arms, we
+threaded a long narrow passage,--turned to the left,--traversed another
+long passage,--turned to the left again, and stood in a little chamber
+dimly lighted by a solitary lamp. The apartment was divided by a bench,
+behind which sat two persons,--the one a little withered old man, with
+small piercing eyes, and the other very considerably younger and taller,
+and with a face on which anxiety or mistrust had written fewer sinister
+lines. They quickly told me that my passport was not right, and that I
+could not enter the Papal States. I asked them to hand me the little
+volume; and, turning over its pages, I traced with them my progress from
+London to the Po, and showed that, on the testimony of every
+passport-office and legation, I was a good man and true up to the
+further banks of their river; and that if I was other now, I must have
+become so in crossing, or since touching their soil. They gave me to
+understand, in reply, that all these testimonies went for nothing,
+seeing I wanted the _imprimatur_ of the papal consul in Venice. I
+assured them that omission was owing to misinformation I had received in
+Venice; that the Valet de Place (an authority in all such matters) at
+the Albergo dell' Europa had assured me that the two visées I had got in
+Venice were quite enough; and that the pontifical visée could be
+obtained in Ferrara or Bologna; and entreated them to permit me to go on
+to Ferrara, where I would lay my passport before the authorities, and
+have the error rectified. I shall never forget the emphasis with which
+the younger of the two officials replied, "Non possum." I had often
+declined "possum" to my old schoolmaster in former days, little dreaming
+that I was to hear the vocable pronounced with such terrible meaning in
+a little cell, at day-break, on the banks of the Po. The postilion
+cracked his whip,--I saw the _diligence_ move off,--and the sound of its
+retreating wheels seemed like a farewell to friends and home. A sad,
+desolate feeling weighed upon me as I turned to the faces of the
+police-officers and gendarmes in whose power I was left. We all went
+back together into the little apartment of the passport office, where I
+opened a conversation with them, in order to discover what was to be
+done with me,--whether I was to be sent back to Venice, or home to
+England, or simply thrown into the Po. I made rapid progress in my
+Italian studies that day; and had it been my hap to be arrested a dozen
+days on end by the papal authorities, I should by that time have been a
+fluent Italian speaker. The result of much questioning and explanation
+was, that if I liked to forward a petition to the authorities in
+Ferrara, accompanied by my passport, I should be permitted to wait where
+I was till an answer could be returned. It was my only alternative; and,
+hiring a special messenger, I sent him off with my passport, and a
+petition craving permission to enter "the States," addressed to the
+Pontifical Legation at Ferrara. Meanwhile, I had a gendarme to take care
+of me.
+
+To while away the time, I sallied out, and sauntered along the banks of
+the river. It was now full day: and the cheerful light, and the noble
+face of the Po,--here a superb stream, equal almost to the Rhine at
+Cologne,--rolling on to the Adriatic, chased away my pensiveness. The
+river here flows between lofty embankments,--the adjoining lands being
+below its level, and reminding one of Holland; and were any
+extraordinary inundation to happen among the Alps, and force the
+embankments of the Po, the territory around Ferrara, if not also that
+city itself, would infallibly be drowned. A few lighters and small
+craft, lifting their sails to the morning sun, were floating down the
+current; and here and there on the banks was a white villa,--the remains
+of that noble setting of palaces which adorned the Po when the House of
+D'Este vied in wealth and splendour with the larger courts of Europe.
+Prisoners must have breakfast; and I found a poor café in the little
+village, where I got a cup of coffee and an egg,--the latter unboiled,
+by the way; and discussed my meal in presence of the gendarme, who sat
+opposite me.
+
+Toward noon the messenger returned, and to my joy brought back the papal
+permission to enter "the States." Light and short as my constraint had
+been, it was sufficient to make me feel what a magic influence is in
+liberty. I could again go whither I would; and the poor village of Ponte
+Lagoscuro, and even the faces of the two officials, assumed a kindlier
+aspect. Bidding these last, whose Italian urbanity had won upon me,
+adieu, I started on foot for Ferrara, which lay on the plain some five
+miles in advance. The road thither was a magnificent one; but I learned
+afterwards that I had Napoleon to thank for it; but alas, what a picture
+the country presented! The water was allowed to stagnate along the path,
+and a thick, green scurf had gathered upon it. The rich black soil was
+covered with weeds, and the few houses I saw were mere hovels. The sun
+shone brilliantly, however, and strove to gild this scene of neglect and
+wretchedness. The day was the 28th of October, and the heat was that of
+a choice summer day in Scotland, with a much balmier air. I hurried on
+along the deserted road, and soon, on emerging from a wood, sighted the
+town of Ferrara, which stretched along the plain in a low line of
+roofs, with a few towers breaking the uniformity. Presenting my "pass"
+to the sentinel at the barrier, I entered the city in which Calvin had
+found an asylum and Tasso a prison.
+
+Poor fallen Ferrara! Commerce, learning, the arts, religion, had by
+turns shed a glory upon it. Now all is over; and where the "Queen of the
+Po" had been, there sits on the darkened plain a poor city, mouldering
+into dust, with the silence of a sepulchre around it. I entered the
+suburbs, but sound of human voice there was none; not a single human
+being could I see. It might be ages since these streets were trodden,
+for aught that appeared. The doors were closed, and the windows were
+stanchioned with iron. In many cases there was neither door nor window;
+but the house stood open to receive the wind or rain, the fowls of
+heaven, or the dogs of the city, if any such there were. I passed on,
+and drew nigh the centre of the town; and now there began to be visible
+some signs of vitality. Struck at the extremities, life had retreated to
+the heart. A square castellated building of red brick, surrounded on all
+sides by a deep moat, filled with the water of the Po, and guarded by
+Austrian soldiers, upreared its towers before me. This was the Papal
+Legation. I entered it, and found my passport waiting me; and the tiara
+and the keys, emblazoned on its pages, told me that I was free of the
+Papal States.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+FERRARA.
+
+     Lovely in its Ruins--Number and Wealth of its Churches--Tasso's
+     Prison--Renée's Palace--Calvin's Chamber--Influence of Woman on the
+     Reformation--Renée and her Band--Re-union above--Utter Decay of its
+     Trade, its Manufactures, its Knowledge.
+
+
+Even in its ruins Ferrara is lovely. It wears in the tomb the sunset
+hues of beauty. Its streets run out in straight lines, and are of noble
+breadth and length. Unencumbered with the heavy arcades that darken
+Padua, the marble fronts of its palaces rise to a goodly height, covered
+with rich but exceedingly sweet and chaste designs. On the stone of
+their pilasters and door-posts the ilex puts forth its leaf, and the
+vine its grapes; and the carving is as fresh and sharp, in many
+instances, as if the chisel were but newly laid aside. But it is
+melancholy to see the long grass waving on its causeways, and the ivy
+clinging to the deserted doorways and balconies of palatial residences,
+and to hear the echoes of one's foot sounding drearily in the empty
+street.
+
+I passed the afternoon in visiting the churches. There is no end of
+these, and night fell before I had got half over them. It amazes one to
+find in the midst of ruins such noble buildings, overflowing with
+wealth. Pictures, statuary, marbles, and precious metals, dazzle, and at
+last weary, the traveller, and form a strange contrast to the desolate
+fields, the undrained swamps, the mouldering tenements, and the beggarly
+population, that are collected around them. Of the churches of Ferrara,
+we may say as Addison of the shrine of Loretto, "It is indeed an amazing
+thing to see such a prodigious quantity of riches lie dead and
+untouched, in the midst of so much poverty and misery as reign on all
+sides of them. If these riches were all turned into current coin, and
+employed in commerce, they would make Italy the most flourishing country
+in the world."
+
+Two objects specially invited my attention in Ferrara: the one was the
+prison of Tasso,--the other the palace of Renée, the Duchess of Ferrara.
+Tasso's prison is a mere vault in the courtyard of the hospital of St
+Anna, built up at one end with a brick wall, and closed at the other by
+a low and strong door. The floor is so damp that it yields to the foot;
+and the arched roof is so low that there is barely room to stand
+upright. I strongly doubt whether Tasso, or any other man, could have
+passed seven years in this cell and come out alive. It is written all
+over within and without with names, some of them illustrious ones.
+"Byron" is conspicuous in the crowd, cut in strong square characters in
+the stone; and near him is "Lamartine," in more graceful but smaller
+letters.
+
+Tasso seems to have regarded his country as a prisoner not less than
+himself, and to have strung his harp at times to bewail its captivity.
+The dungeon "in which Alphonso bade his poet dwell" was dreary enough,
+but that of Italy was drearier still; for it is Italy, fully more than
+the poet, that may be regarded as speaking in the following lines, which
+furnish evidence that, along with Dante, and all the great minds of the
+period, Torquato Tasso had seen the hollowness of the Papal Church, and
+felt the galling bondage which that Church inflicts on both the
+intellect and the soul.
+
+ "O God, from this Egyptian land of woe,
+   Teeming with idols and their monstrous train,
+   O'er which the galling yoke that I sustain
+   Like Nilus makes my tears to overflow,
+ To thee, her land of rest, my soul would go:
+   But who, ah! who will break my servile chain?
+   Who through the deep, and o'er the desert plain
+   Will aid and cheer me, and the path will show?
+ Shall God, indeed, the fowls and manna strew,--
+   My daily bread? and dare I to implore
+   Thy pillar and thy cloud to guide me, Lord?
+ Yes, he may hope for all who trusts thy word.
+   O then thy miracles in me renew;
+   Thine be the glory, and my boasting o'er."
+
+From the reputed prison of Tasso I went to see the roof which had
+sheltered the presiding intellect of the Reformation,--John Calvin.
+Tasso's glory is like a star, burning with a lovely light in the deep
+azure; Calvin's is like the sun, whose waxing splendour is irradiating
+two hemispheres. The palace of the illustrious Renée,--now the Austrian
+and Papal Legations, and literally a barrack for soldiers,--has no
+pretensions to beauty. Amid the graceful but decaying fabrics of the
+city, it erects its square unadorned mass of dull red, edged with a
+strip of lawn, a few cypresses, and a moat brim-full of water, which not
+only surrounds it on all sides, but intersects it by means of arches,
+and makes the castle almost a miniature of Venice. Good part of the
+interior is occupied as passport offices and guard-rooms. The staircase
+is of noble dimensions. Some of the rooms are princely, their panellings
+being mostly covered with paintings, but not of the first excellence.
+The small room in the southern quadrangle which Calvin is said to have
+occupied is now fitted up as an oratory; and a very pretty little
+show-room it is, with its marble altar-piece, its silver candlesticks,
+its crucifixes, and, in short, all the paraphernalia of such places. If
+there be any efficacy in holy water, the little chamber must by this
+time be effectually cleansed from the sad defilement of the
+arch-heretic.
+
+Ferrara is indissolubly connected with the Reformation in Italy. In
+fact, it was the centre of the movement in the south of the Alps. This
+distinction it owed to its being the residence of Renée, the daughter of
+Louis XII. of France, and wife of Hercules II., Duke of Ferrara. This
+lady, to a knowledge of the ancient classics and contemporary
+literature, and the most amiable and generous dispositions, added a deep
+love of evangelical truth, and gladly extended shelter to the friends of
+the Reformation, whom persecution now forced to leave their native
+country. Thus there came to be assembled round her a galaxy of talent,
+learning, and piety. If we except John Calvin, who was known during his
+brief sojourn of three months as Charles Heppeville, the two noblest
+minds in this illustrious band were women,--Renée and Olympia Morata.
+The cause of the Reformation lies under great obligations to woman;
+though the part she acted in that great drama has never been
+sufficiently acknowledged.[2] In the heart of woman, when sanctified by
+Divine grace, there lies concealed under a veil of gentleness and
+apparent timidity, a fund of fortitude and lofty resolution, which
+requires a fitting occasion to draw it forth; but when that occasion
+arrives, there is seen the strength and grandeur of the female
+character. For woman, whatever is noble, beautiful, and sublime, has
+peculiar attractions. A just cause, overborne by power or numbers,
+appeals peculiarly to her unselfish nature; and thus it has happened
+that the Reformation sometimes found in woman its most devoted disciple
+and its most undaunted champion. Who can tell how much the firmness and
+perseverance of the more prominent actors in these struggles were owing
+to her wise and affectionate counsels? And not only has she been the
+counsellor of man,--she has willingly shared his sufferings; and the
+same deep sensibility which renders her so shrinking on ordinary
+occasions, has at these times given her unconquerable strength, and
+raised her above the desolation of a prison,--above the shame and horror
+of a scaffold. Of such mould were the two illustrious women I have
+mentioned,--the accomplished Renée, the daughter of a king of France,
+and the yet more accomplished Olympia Morata, the daughter of a
+schoolmaster and citizen of Mantua.
+
+To me these halls were sacred, for the feet which had trodden them three
+centuries ago. They were thronged with Austrian soldiers and passport
+officials; but I could people them with the mighty dead. How often had
+Renée assembled her noble band in this very chamber! How often here had
+that illustrious circle consulted on the steps proper to be taken for
+advancing their great cause! How often had they indulged alternate fears
+and hopes, as they thought now of the power arrayed against them, and
+now of the progress of the truth, and the confessors it was calling to
+its aid in every city of Italy! And when the deliberations and prayers
+of the day were ended, they would assemble on this lawn, to enjoy, under
+these cypresses, the delicious softness of the Italian twilight. Ah! who
+can tell the exquisite sweetness of such re-unions! and how
+inexpressibly soothing and welcome to men whom persecution had forced
+to flee from their native land, must it have been to find so secure a
+haven as this so unexpectedly opened to receive them! But ah! too soon
+were they forced out upon an ocean of storms. They were driven to
+different countries and to various fates,--some to a life of exhausting
+labour and conflict, some to exile, and some to the stake. But all this
+is over now: they dread the dungeon and the stake no more; they are
+wanderers no longer, having come to a land of rest. Renée has once again
+gathered her bright band around her, under skies whose light no cloud
+shall ever darken, and whose calm no storm shall ever ruffle. But do
+they not still remember and still speak of the consultations and sweet
+communings which they had together under the shady cypress trees, and
+the still, rich twilights of Ferrara?
+
+Ferrara was the first town subject to the Pope I had entered; and I had
+here an opportunity of marking the peculiar benefits which attend
+infallible government. This city is only less wretched than Padua; and
+the difference seems to lie rather in the more cheerful look of its
+buildings, than in any superior wealth or comfort enjoyed by its people.
+Its trade is equally ruined; it is even more empty of inhabitants; its
+walls, of seven miles' circuit, enclose but a handful of men, and these
+have a wasted and sickly look, owing to the unhealthy character of the
+country around. The view from its ramparts reminded me of the prospect
+from the walls of York. The plain is equally level; the soil is
+naturally more rich; but the drainage and cultivation of the English
+landscape are wanting. The town once enjoyed a flourishing trade in
+hemp,--an article which found its way to our dockyards; but this branch
+of traffic now scarcely exists. The native manufactures of Ferrara have
+been ruined; and a feeble trade in corn is almost all that is left it.
+How is this? Is its soil less fertile? Has its natural canal, the Po,
+dried up? No; but the Government, afraid perhaps that its fields would
+yield too plenteously, its artizans become too ingenious, and its
+citizens too wealthy in foreign markets, has laid a heavy duty on its
+exports, and on every article of home manufacture. Hence the desolate
+Polesina without, and the extinct forges and empty workshops within, its
+walls. A city whose manufactures were met with in all the markets of
+Europe is now dependent for its own supply on the Swiss. The ruin of its
+trade dates from its annexation to the Papal States. The decay of
+intelligence has kept pace with that of trade. At the beginning of the
+sixteenth century Ferrara was one of the lights of Europe: now I know
+not that there is a single scholar in its university; and its library of
+eighty thousand volumes and nine hundred manuscripts, among which are
+the Greek palimpsests of Gregory Nazianzen and Chrysostom, and the
+manuscripts of Ariosto and Tasso, is becoming, equally with Ariosto's
+dust, which reposes in its halls, the prey of the worm.
+
+I have to thank the papal police at Ponte Lagoscuro for the opportunity
+of seeing Ferrara; for, with the bad taste which most travellers in
+Italy display on this head, I had overlooked this town, and booked
+myself right through to Bologna. I lodged at a fine old hotel, whose
+spacious apartments left me in no doubt that it had once belonged to
+some of the princely families of Ferrara. I saw there, however, men who
+had "a lean and hungry look," and not such as Cæsar wished to have about
+him,--"fat, sleek-headed men, and such as sleep o' nights;" and my
+suspicions which were awakened at the time have since unfortunately been
+confirmed, for I read in the newspapers, rather more than a year ago,
+that the landlord had been shot.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+BOLOGNA AND THE APENNINES.
+
+     Road from Ferrara to Bologna--Wayside Oratories--Miserable
+     Cultivation--Barbarism of People--Aspect of Bologna--Streets,
+     Galleries, and Churches of its Interior--Decay of Art--San
+     Petronio--View of Plain from Hill behind Bologna--Tyranny of
+     Government--Night Arrests--Ruinous Taxation--Departure from
+     Bologna--Brigands--The Apennines--Storm among these Mountains--Two
+     Russian Travellers--Dinner at the Tuscan Frontier--Summit of the
+     Pass--Halt for the Night at a Country Inn--The Hostess and her
+     Company--Supper--Resume Journey next Morning--First Sight of
+     Florence.
+
+
+On the morrow at ten I took my departure for Bologna. It was sweet to
+exchange the sickly faces and unnatural silence of the city for the
+bright sun and the living trees. The road was good,--so very good, that
+it took me by surprise. It was not in keeping with the surrounding
+barbarism. Instead of a hard-bottomed, macadamized highway, which
+traversed the plain in a straight line, bordered by noble trees, I
+should have expected to find in this region of mouldering towns and
+neglected fields, a narrow, winding, rutted path, ploughed by torrents
+and obstructed by boulders; and so, I am sure, I should have done, had
+any of the native governments of Italy had the making of this road. But
+it had been designed and executed by Napoleon; and hence its excellence.
+His roads alone would have immortalized him. They remain, after all his
+victories have perished, to attest his genius. Would that that genius
+had been turned to the arts of peace! Conquerors would do well to ponder
+the eulogium pronounced on a humble tailor who built a bridge out of his
+savings,--that the world owed more to the scissors of that man than to
+the sword of some conquerors.
+
+Along the road, at short intervals, were little temples, where good
+Catholics who had a mind might perform their devotions. This reminded me
+that I was now in Peter's patrimony,--the holy land of Romanism; and
+where, it was presumed, the wayfarer would catch the spirit of devotion
+from the soil and air. The hour of prayer might be past,--I know not;
+but I saw no one in these oratories. Little shrines were perched upon
+the trees, formed sometimes of boards, at others simply of the cavity of
+the trunk; while the boughs were bent so as to form a canopy over them.
+Little images and pictures had been stuck into these shrines; but the
+rooks,--these black republicans,--like the "reds" at Rome, had waged a
+war for possession, and, pitching overboard the little gods that
+occupied them, were inhabiting in their room. The "great powers" were
+too busy, or had been so, in the restoration of greater personages, to
+take up the quarrel of these minor divinities. A strange silence and
+dreariness brooded over the region. The land seemed keeping its
+Sabbaths. The fields rested,--the villages were asleep,--the road was
+untrodden. Had one been dropt from the clouds, he would have concluded
+that it was but a century or so since the Flood, and that these were the
+rude primitive great-grandchildren of Noah, who had just found their way
+into these parts, and were slowly emerging from barbarism. The fields
+around afforded little indication of such an instrument as the plough;
+and one would have concluded from the garments of the people, that the
+loom was among the yet uninvented arts. The harnessings of the horses
+formed a curiously tangled web of thong, and rope, and thread, twisted,
+tied, and knotted. It would have puzzled OEdipus himself to discover
+how a horse could ever be got into such gear, or, being in, how it ever
+could be got out. There seemed a most extraordinary number of beggars
+and vagabonds in Peter's patrimony. A little congregation of these
+worthies waited our arrival at every village, and whined round us for
+alms so long as we remained. Others, not quite so ragged, stood aloof,
+regarding us fixedly, as if devising some pretext on which to claim a
+paul of us. There were worse characters in the neighbourhood, though
+happily we saw none of them. But at certain intervals we met the
+Austrian patrol, whose duty it was to clear the road of brigands. Peter,
+it appeared to us, kept strange company about him,--idlers, beggars,
+vagabonds, and brigands. It must vex the good man much to find his dear
+children disgracing him so in the eyes of strangers.
+
+These dismal scenes accompanied us half the way. We then entered the
+Bolognese, and things began to look a little better. Bologna, though
+under the Papal Government, has long been famous for nourishing a hardy,
+liberty-loving people, though, if report does them justice, extremely
+licentious and infidel. Its motto is "_libertas_;" and the air of
+liberty is favourable, it would seem, to vegetation; for the fields
+looked greener the moment we had crossed the barrier. Soon we were
+charmed with the sight of Bologna. Its appearance is indeed imposing,
+and gives promise of something like life and industry within its walls.
+A noble cluster of summits,--an offshoot of the Apennines,--rises
+behind the city, crowned with temples and towers. Within their bosky
+declivities, from which tall cypress-trees shoot up, lie embowered
+villas and little watch-towers, with their glittering vanes. At the foot
+of the hill is spread out the noble city, with its leaning towers and
+its tall minaret-looking steeples. The approach to the walls reminded me
+that below these ramparts sleeps Ugo Bassi. I afterwards searched for
+his resting-place, but could find no one who either would or could show
+me his tomb. A more eloquent declaimer than even Gavazzi, I have been
+assured by those who knew him, was silenced when Ugo Bassi fell beneath
+the murderous fire of the Croat's musket.
+
+After the death-like desertion and silence of Ferrara, the feeble bustle
+of Bologna seemed like a return to the world and its ways. Its streets
+are lined with covered porticoes, less heavy than those of Padua, but
+harbouring after nightfall, says the old traveller ARCHENHOLTZ, robbers
+and murderers, of whom the latter are the more numerous. He accounts for
+this by saying, that whereas the robber has to make restitution before
+receiving absolution, the murderer, whether condemned to die or set at
+liberty, receives full pardon, without the "double labour," as Sir John
+Falstaff called it, of "paying back." Its hundred churches are vast
+museums of sculpture and painting. Its university, which the Bolognese
+boast is the oldest in Europe, rivalled Padua in its glory, and now
+rivals it in its decay. Its two famous leaning towers,--the rent in the
+bottom of one is quite visible,--are bending from age, and will one day
+topple over, and pour a deluge of old bricks upon the adjoining
+tenements. Its "Academy of the Fine Arts" is, after Rome and Florence,
+the finest in Italy. It is filled with the works of the Caracci,
+Domenichino, Guido Albani, and others of almost equal celebrity. I am no
+judge of such matters; and therefore my reader need lay no stress upon
+my criticisms; but it appeared to me, that some paintings placed in the
+first rank had not attained that excellence. The highly-praised "Victory
+of Sampson over the Philistines," I felt, wanted the grandeur of the
+Hebrew Judge on this the greatest occasion of his life; although it gave
+you a very excellent representation of a thirsty man drinking, with rows
+of prostrate people in the background. Other pieces were disfigured by
+glaring anachronisms in time and dress. The artist evidently had drawn
+his inspiration, not from the _Bible_, but from the _Cathedral_. The
+Apostles in some cases had the faces of monks, and looked as if they had
+divided their time betwixt Liguori and the wine-flagon. Several
+Scriptural personages were attired in an ecclesiastical dress, which
+must have been made by some tailor of the sixteenth century. But there
+is one picture in that gallery that impressed me more than any other
+picture I ever saw. It is a painting of the Crucifixion by Guido. The
+background is a dark thundery mass of cloud, resting angrily above the
+dimly-seen roofs and towers of Jerusalem. There is "darkness over all
+the land;" and in the foreground, and relieved by the darkness, stands
+the cross, with the sufferer. On the left is John, looking up with
+undying affection. On the right is Mary,--calm, but with eyes full of
+unutterable sorrow. Mary Magdalene embraces the foot of the cross: her
+face and upper parts are finely shaded; but her attitude and form are
+strongly expressive of reverence, affection, and profound grief. There
+are no details: the piece is simple and great. There are no attempts to
+produce effect by violent manifestations of grief. Hope is gone, but
+love remains; and there before you are the parties standing calm and
+silent, with their great sorrow.
+
+It so happened that the exhibition of the works of living artists was
+open at the time, and I had a good opportunity of comparing the present
+with the past race of Italian painters. I soon found that the race of
+Guidos was extinct, and that the pencil of the masters had fallen into
+the hands of but poor copyists. The present artists of Italy have given
+over painting saints and Scripture-pieces, and work mostly in portraits
+and landscapes. They paint, of course, what will sell; and the public
+taste appears decidedly to have changed. There was a great dearth of
+good historical, imaginative, and allegorical subjects; too often an
+attempt was visible to give interest to a piece by an appeal to the
+baser passions. But the living artists of that country fall below not
+only their great predecessors, but even the artists of Scotland. This
+exhibition in Bologna did not by any means equal in excellence or
+interest the similar exhibition opened every spring in Edinburgh. The
+statuary displayed only beauty and voluptuousness of form: it wanted the
+simple energy and the chastened grandeur of expression which
+characterize the statuary of the ancients, and which have made it the
+admiration of all ages.
+
+The only god whom the Bolognese worship is San Petronio. His temple, in
+which Charles V. was crowned by Clement VII., stands in the Piazza
+Maggiore, the forum of Bologna in the middle ages, and rivals the
+"Academy" itself in its paintings and sculptures. Though the façade is
+not finished, nor likely soon to be, it is one of the largest churches
+in Italy, and is a fine specimen of the Italian Gothic. In a little side
+chapel is the head of San Petronius himself, certified by Benedict XIV.
+On the forms on the cathedral floor lie little framed pictures of the
+saint, with a prayer addressed to him. I saw a country girl enter the
+church, drop on her knees, kiss the picture, and recite the prayer. I
+afterwards read this prayer, though not on bended knee; and can certify
+that a grosser piece of idolatry never polluted human lips. Petronio
+was addressed by the same titles in which the Almighty is usually
+approached; as, "the most glorious," "the most merciful."
+
+           "Towards him they bend
+ With awful reverence prone; and as a god
+ Extol him equal to the Highest in heaven."
+
+Higher blessings, whether for time or for eternity, than those for which
+the devotee was directed to supplicate San Petronio, man needs not, and
+God has not to bestow. Daily bread, protection from danger, grace to
+love San Petronio, grace to serve San Petronio, pardon, a happy death,
+deliverance from hell, and eternal felicity in Paradise,--all who
+offered this prayer,--and other prayer was unheard beneath that
+roof,--supplicated of San Petronio. The Church of Rome affirms that she
+does not pray _to the_ saints, but _through_ them,--namely, as
+intercessors with Christ and God. This is no justification of the
+practice, though it were the fact; but it is not the fact. In protestant
+countries she may insert the name of God at the end of her prayers; but
+in popish countries she does not deem it needful to observe this
+formality. The name of Christ and of God rarely occurs in her popular
+formulas. In the Duomo of Bologna, the only god supplicated,--the only
+god known,--is San Petronio. The tendency of the worship of the Church
+of Rome is to efface God from the knowledge and the love of her members.
+And so completely has this result been realized, that, as one said, "You
+might steal God from them without their knowing it." Indeed, that "Great
+and Dreadful Name" might be blotted out from the few prayers of that
+Church in which it is still retained, and its worship would go on as
+before. What possible change would take place in the Duomo of San
+Petronio at Bologna, and in thousands of other churches in Italy,
+though Rome was to decree in _words_, as she does in _deeds_, that
+"_there is no God_?"
+
+On the second day of my stay at Bologna I ascended the fine hill on the
+north of the city. A noble pillared arcade of marble, three miles in
+length, leads up to the summit. At every twelve yards or so is an
+alcove, with a florid painting of some saint; and at each station sits a
+poor old woman, who begs an alms of you, in the name of the saint
+beneath whose picture she spins her thread,--her own thread being nearly
+ended. There met me here a regiment of little priests, of about an
+hundred in number, none of whom seemed more than ten years of age, and
+all of whom wore shoes with buckles, silk stockings, breeches, a loose
+flowing robe, a white-edged stock, and shovel hat,--in short, miniature
+priests in dress, in figure, and in everything save their greater
+sportiveness. On the summit is a magnificent church, containing one of
+those black madonnas ascribed to Luke, and said to have been brought
+hither by a hermit from Constantinople in the twelfth century. Be this
+as it may, the black image serves the Bolognese for an occasion of an
+annual festival, kept with fully as much hilarity as devotion.
+
+From the summit one looks far and wide over Italy. Below is spread out
+the plain of Lombardy, level as the sea, and as thickly studded with
+white villas as the heavens with stars. On the north, the cities of
+Mantua and Verona, and numerous other towns and villages, are visible.
+On the east, the towers and cathedral roofs of Ferrara are seen rising
+above the woods that cover the plain; and the view is bounded by the
+Adriatic, which, like a thin line of blue, runs along the horizon. On
+the south and west is the hill country of the Apennines, among whose
+serrated peaks and cleft sides is many a lovely dell, rich in waters,
+and vines, and olive trees. The distant country towards the
+Mediterranean lay engulphed in a white mist. A violent electrical action
+was going on in it, which, like a strong wind moving upon its surface,
+raised it into billows, which appeared to sweep onward, tossing and
+tumbling like the waves of ocean.
+
+I had taken up my abode at the Il Pellegrino, one of the best
+recommended hotels in Bologna,--not knowing that the Austrian officers
+had made it their head-quarters, and that not a Bolognese would enter
+it. At dinner-time I saw only the Austrian uniform around the table.
+This was a matter of no great moment. Not so what followed. When I went
+to bed, there commenced overhead a heavy shuffling of feet, and an
+incessant going and coming, with slamming of doors, and jolting of
+tables, which lasted all night long. A sad tragedy was enacting above
+me. The political apprehensions are made over-night in the Italian
+towns; and I little doubt that the soldiers were all night busily
+engaged in bringing in prisoners, and sending them off to jail. The
+persons so arrested are subjected to moral and physical tortures, which
+speedily prostrate both mind and body, and sometimes terminate in death.
+Loaded with chains, they are shut up in stinking holes, where they can
+neither stand upright nor lie down at their length. The heat of the
+weather and the foul air breed diseases of the skin, and cover them with
+pustules. The food, too, is scanty, often consisting of only bread and
+water. The Government strive to keep their cruel condition a secret from
+their relatives, who, notwithstanding, are able at times to penetrate
+the mystery that surrounds them, but only to have their feelings
+lacerated by the thought of the dreadful sufferings undergone by those
+who are the objects of their tenderest affection. And what agony can be
+more dreadful than to know that a father, a husband, a son, is rotting
+in a putrid cell, or being beaten to death by blows, while neither
+relief nor sympathy from you can reach the sufferer? The case of a young
+man of the name of Neri, formerly healthy and handsome, found its way to
+the public prints. Broken down by blows, he was carried to the military
+hospital in an almost dying condition, where an English physician, in
+company with an Austrian surgeon, found him with lacerated skin, and the
+vertebral bones uncovered. He was enduring at the same time so acute
+pain from inflammation of the bowels, that he was unable, but by hints,
+to express his misery. It was here that the atrocities of the Papal
+Nuncio BEDINI were perpetrated,--the same man who was afterwards chased
+from the soil of America by a storm of execration evoked against him by
+the friends and countrymen of the victims who had been tortured and shot
+during his sway in Bologna. In short, the acts of the Holy Office are
+imitated and renewed; so that numbers, distracted and maddened by the
+torments which they endure, avow offences which they never committed,
+and name accomplices whom they never had; and the retractations of these
+unhappy beings are of no avail to prevent new arrests. The Bolognese are
+permitted to weep their complicated evils only in secret; to do so
+openly would be charged as a crime.
+
+The fiscal oppression is nearly as unbearable as the political and
+social. The taxation, both as regards its amount and the mode of
+enforcing it, is ruinous to the individual, and operates as a fatal
+check to the progress of industry. The country is eaten up with foreign
+soldiers. The great hotels in all the principal towns resemble casernes.
+The reader may judge of my surprise on opening my bed-room door one
+morning, to find that a couple of Croats had slept on the mat outside of
+it all night. It might be a special mark of honour to myself; but I
+rather think that they are accustomed to bivouac in the passages and
+lobbies. The eternal drumming in the streets is enough to deafen one for
+life. To the traveller it is sufficiently annoying; how much more so to
+the Bolognese, who knows that that is music for which he must pay dear!
+Since 1848, the aggregate of taxation between Leghorn and Ancona has
+been increased about 40 per cent.; and the taxes are levied upon a
+principle of arbitrary assessment which compels the rich to simulate
+poverty, as in Turkey, lest they should be stripped of their last
+farthing. In Bologna, the payments of the house and land tax, which used
+to be made every two months, are now collected for the same sums every
+seven weeks; and a per centage is added at the pleasure of the
+Government, of which no one knows the amount till the collector calls
+with his demand. In other towns an income-tax is levied upon trades and
+professions, framed upon no rule but the supposed capabilities of the
+individual assessed to pay. Bologna, I may note, although in the Papal
+States, is now quite an Austrian town. The Austrians have there
+six-and-twenty pieces of artillery, and are building extensive barracks
+for cavalry and infantry. Bologna belongs to that part of the Papal
+States called the Four Legations, where, whether it pleases the Pope to
+be so protected or not, it is now quite understood that the Austrians
+have come to stay. The officer in command at Bologna styles himself its
+civil as well as military governor.
+
+On the third day after my arrival, I started at four of the morning for
+Florence. It was dark as we rode through the streets of Bologna; and our
+_diligence_, piled a-top with luggage, smashed several of the oil-lamps,
+which dangled on cords at a dangerous proximity to the causeway. I don't
+know that the Bolognese would miss them, for we left the street very
+little, if at all, darker than we found it. I looked forward with no
+little interest to the day's ride, which was to lie among the dells of
+the Apennines, and to terminate at eve with the fair sight of the Queen
+of the Arno. How unlike the reality, will appear in the sequel. In half
+an hour we came in the dim light to a little valley, where the village
+bell was sweetly chiming the matins. I note the spot because I narrowly
+missed being an actor in a tragedy which took place here the very next
+morning. I may tell the story now, though I anticipate somewhat. I was
+sitting at the table d'hote in Florence three days after, when the
+gentleman on my right began to tell the company how he had travelled
+from Bologna on the Saturday previous, and how he and all his
+fellow-passengers had been robbed on the way. They had got to the spot I
+have indicated, when suddenly a little band of brigands, which lay in
+ambush by the wayside, rushed on the _diligence_. Some mounted on the
+front, and attended to the outside passengers; others took charge of
+those in the _interieur_. Now it was, when the passengers saw into what
+hands they had fallen, that nothing was heard but groaning in all parts
+of the _diligence_. Our informant, who sat next the window in the
+_interieur_, was seized by the collar, a long knife was held to his
+breast, and he was admonished to use all diligence in making over to his
+new acquaintance any worldly goods he had about him. He had to part with
+his gold watch and chain, his breast-pin, and sundry other articles of
+jewellery; but his purse and sovereigns he contrived to drop among the
+straw at the bottom of the vehicle. All the rest fared as he did, and
+some of them worse, for they lost their money as well as jewels. These
+grave proceedings were diversified by a somewhat humorous incident. The
+coachman had providently put his dinner in the form of a sausage, rolled
+in brown paper, under his seat. This is the form in which Austrian
+zwanzigers are commonly made up; and the brigands, fancying the
+coachman's sausage to be a roll of silver zwanzigers, seized on it with
+avidity, and bore it off in triumph. They were proceeding to rifle the
+baggage, when, hearing the horse-patrol approaching, they plunged into
+the thicket as suddenly as they had appeared. The morning chimes were
+sounding, as on the previous day, while this operation was going on. But
+what is not a little extraordinary is, that all this took place within
+two miles of the city gates of Bologna, where there could not be fewer
+than twelve thousand Austrian soldiers. But these, I presume, were too
+much engaged on this, as on previous nights, in apprehending and
+imprisoning the citizens in the Pope's behalf, to think of looking after
+brigands. In Peter's privileged patrimony one may rob, murder, and break
+every command of the decalogue, and defy the police, provided he obey
+the Church. Were I to travel that road again, I would provide myself
+with a tinsel watch and appendages, and a sausage carefully rolled up in
+paper, to avoid the unpleasantness of meeting such wellwishers
+empty-handed.
+
+In another half hour we came to the spurs of the Apennines. The day was
+breaking, and its light, I hoped, would lay open many a sweet dell and
+many a romantic peak, before evening. These hopes, as, alas! too often
+happens in the longer journey of life, were to be suddenly dashed. I
+felt a warm, suffocating current of air breathing over the valley, and
+looked up to see the furnace whence, as I supposed, it proceeded. This
+was the sirocco, the herald of the tempest that soon thereafter burst
+upon us. Masses of whitish cloud came rolling over the summits of the
+hills; furious gusts came down upon us from the heights; and in a few
+minutes we found ourselves contending with a hurricane such as I have
+never seen equalled save on one other occasion. The cloud became
+fearfully black, and made the lightning the more awful as it touched
+with fire the peaks around us, and bathed in an ocean of flame the vines
+and hamlets on the hill-side. Terrible peals of thunder broke over us;
+and these were followed by torrents of rain, which the furious winds
+dashed against our vehicle with the force and noise of a cataract.
+We had to make our way up the mountain's side in the face of this
+tempest. At times more than a dozen animals were yoked to our
+_diligence_,--horses, oxen, and beasts of every kind which we could
+press into the service; while half-a-dozen postilions, shouting and
+cracking their whips, strove to urge the motley cavalcade onward. Still
+we crept up only by inches. The road in most cases wound over the very
+peak of the mountain; and there the tempest, rushing upon us from all
+sides at once, threatened to lay our vehicle, which shook and quivered
+in the blast, flat on its side, or toss it into the valley below. The
+storm continued to rage with unabated violence from day-break till
+mid-day; and, by favour of horses, bullocks, and postilions, we kept
+moving on at the rate of two miles an hour, now climbing, now
+descending, well knowing that at every summit a fresh buffeting awaited
+us.
+
+I had as my companions on this journey, two Russian gentlemen, with whom
+afterwards, at several points of my tour, I came into contact. They were
+urbane and intelligent men, full of their own country and of the Czar,
+yet professing great respect for England, which they had just visited,
+and looking down with a contempt they were at little pains to conceal,
+upon the Frenchmen and Italians among whom they were moving. They
+possessed the sobriety of mind, the turn for quiet, shrewd observation,
+in short, much of the physical and intellectual stamina, of Englishmen,
+with just a shade less of the exquisite polish which marks the latter
+wherever they are met with. These, no doubt, were favourable specimens
+of the Russian nation; but it is such men who give the tone to a State,
+while the masses below execute their designs. I have ever since felt
+that, should we ever meet that people on the field of battle, the
+contest would be no ordinary one. I recollect one of these gentlemen
+meeting me on the streets of Rome some weeks afterwards, and informing
+me that he had been the day before to visit the ball on the top of St
+Peter's, and that he had been delighted at seeing his Emperor's name, in
+his Emperor's own handwriting, inside the ball, with a few lines beneath
+the signature, stating that he had stood in that ball, and had there
+prayed for Mother Holy Russia,--a fact full of significance.
+
+About mid-day we came, wet, and weary, and cold, to the Duana on the
+Tuscan frontier, where was a poor inn, at which, after our passports had
+been viséed, and our trunks and carpet-bags plumbed, we dined. There
+were some twenty of us at table; a priest taking the top, and the
+_conducteur_ the bottom. I remember that two persons of the party kept
+their hats on at table, and that these were the priest and a poor
+country lad,--the priest because he presided perhaps, and the countryman
+because, not knowing the etiquette of the point, he wisely determined to
+follow in that, as in greater matters, the priest. Our dinner consisted
+of coarse broth, black bread, buffalo beef, and wine of not the sweetest
+flavour; but what helped us was an excellent appetite, for we had not
+breakfasted beyond a few chestnuts and grapes picked up at the poor
+villages through which we passed. We obtained, however, an hour's
+shelter from the elements.
+
+We resumed our journey, and in about an hour's ride we gained the
+central chain of the Apennines. Happily the tempest had moderated
+somewhat; for this, lying midway between the two seas, is ordinarily the
+stormiest point of the pass. We crossed it, however, with less
+inconvenience than we had looked for. The summits, which had hitherto
+been conical, with vines straggling up their sides, now became rounded,
+or ran off in serrated lines, with sides scarred with tempests and
+strewn with stones. The scenery was bleak and desolate, as that of the
+Grampian pass leading by Spittal of Glenshee to Dee-side. But as we
+continued our descent, the richly wooded glens returned; the clouds
+rose; and at one time I ventured to hope that I should yet have my first
+sight of Florence under a golden sky, and that Milton's description
+might, after all, be applicable to this day of storms:--
+
+ "As when from mountain-tops the dusky clouds
+ Ascending, while the north wind sleeps, o'erspread
+ Heaven's cheerful face, the low'ring element
+ Scowls o'er the darken'd landskip snow or shower;
+ If chance the radiant sun, with farewell sweet,
+ Extend his evening beam, the fields revive,
+ The birds their notes renew, and bleating herds
+ Attest their joy, that hill and valley rings."
+
+But the hope was short-lived: no Florence was I to see that night; nor
+was note of bird to gladden the dells. The mists again fell, and hid in
+premature night those fine valleys, so famous in Florentine history,
+which we were now approaching. We wound round hills, traversed deep
+ravines, heard on every side the thunder of the swollen torrents, and,
+when the parting vapour permitted, had glimpses of the luxuriant woods
+of myrtle and laurel that clothe these valleys,--
+
+ "Where round some mouldering tower pale ivy creeps,
+ And low-brow'd rocks hang nodding o'er the deeps."
+
+At last we found ourselves on the banks of a broad and swollen
+river,--the Save,--with no means of transit save a dismantled bridge,
+so sorely shattered by the flood, that it was an even question whether
+our vehicle might not, like the last straw on the dromedary's back, sink
+the structure outright.
+
+We dismounted, and, by the help of lights, measured first the bridge,
+and next the _diligence_, and found that the breadth of the former
+exceeded that of the latter by just two inches. The passengers passed on
+foot; the _diligence_, with the baggage, came after; and so all arrived
+safely on the other side. Our first care was to assemble a council of
+war in the poor inn which stood on the spot, and deliberate what next to
+do.
+
+The _conducteur_ opened the debate. "We had," he said, "twenty miles of
+road still before us; the way lay through deep ravines, and over
+torrents which the rains must have rendered impassable: it would be long
+past midnight till we should reach Florence,--if we should ever reach
+it: his opinion was, therefore, that we ought to stay where we were;
+nevertheless, if we insisted, he would go on at all risks." So
+counselled our leader; and if we wanted an argument on the other side,
+we had only to look around. The walls of the inn were naked and black;
+the floor was covered inch-deep with slime, the deposit of the flood
+which had that day broke into the dwelling; and the place was evidently
+unequal to the "entertainment" of such a number of "men and horses" as
+had thus unexpectedly been thrown upon it. It is not wonderful, in these
+circumstances, that a small opposition party sprung up, headed by an
+English lady, whose delicate slippers were never made for such a floor
+as that on which she now stood. She could see no danger in going on, and
+urged us to set forward. Better counsels prevailed, however; and we
+resolved to endure the evils we knew, rather than adventure on those we
+knew not.
+
+The next matter to be negotiated was supper, of which the aspect of the
+place gave no great promise. The landlady was a thin, wiry, black,
+voluble Tuscan. "Have you beef?--Have you cheese?--Have you
+macaroni?"--inquired several voices in succession. "Oh, she had all
+these, and a great many dainties besides, in the morning; but the
+flood,--the flood!" The same flood, however, which had swept off our
+hostess's larder, had swept in a great deal of good company, and she was
+evidently resolved on setting the one evil over against the other. She
+now showered upon us a long, rapid, and vehement address; and he who has
+not heard the Tuscan discourse does not know what volubility is. "What
+does she say?" I inquired at one of my two Russian friends. "She says
+very many words," he replied, "but the meaning is moneys, moneys." "Have
+you any coffee?" I asked. "Oh, coffee! delightful coffee; but it had
+gone sailing down the flood." "And it carried off the eggs too, I
+suppose?" "No; I have eggs." We resolved to sup on eggs. A fire of logs
+was kindled up stairs, and a table was extemporized out of some deals.
+In a quarter of an hour in came our supper,--black bread, fried eggs,
+and a skein of wine. We fell to; but, alack! what from the smut of the
+chimney and the dust of the pan, the eggs were done in the _chiaro
+scuro_ style; the wine had so villanous a twang, that a few sips of it
+contented me; and the bread, black as it was, was the only thing
+palatable. I got the landlady persuaded to boil me an egg; and though
+the Italian peasants only dip their eggs in hot water, and serve them up
+raw, it was preferable to the conglomerate of the pan. We made merry,
+however, over our poor meal and the grateful warmth of the fire; and
+somewhere towards midnight we entertained the question of going to bed.
+We had avoided the topic as long as possible, from a foreboding that our
+hostess would present us with some rueful tale of blankets lost in the
+flood. Besides, we were not without misgivings that, should the clouds
+return and the river rise as before, house and all might follow the
+other things down the stream, and no one could tell where we might find
+ourselves on awakening. On broaching the subject, however, we found to
+our delight, that cribs, couches, shakedowns, and all sorts of
+contrivances, with store of cloaks, garments, and blankets, had been got
+ready for our use.
+
+We were told off into parties; and the first to be sorted were the two
+Russians, an Italian, and myself. We four were shown into a room, which,
+to our great surprise, contained two excellent four-posted beds, one of
+which was allotted to the two Russian gentlemen, and the other to the
+Italian and myself. Our mode of turning in was somewhat novel. The
+Russians put away simply their greatcoats, and lay down beneath the
+coverlet. My bed-fellow the Italian took up a position for the night by
+throwing himself, as he was, on the top of the bed-clothes. Not
+approving of either mode, I slipped off both greatcoat and coat, and,
+covering myself with the blankets, soon forgot in sleep all the mishaps
+of the day.
+
+The voice of the _conducteur_ shouting at the door of our apartment
+awakened us before day-break. Our company mustered with what haste they
+could, and we again betook us to the road,
+
+ "While the still morn went out with sandals gray."
+
+The path lay along the banks of the torrent Carza, and the valley we
+found frightfully scarred by the flood of the former day. Fierce
+torrents rushing from the hills had torn the fences, ploughed up the
+road, piled up hillocks of mud among the vineyards, and covered with
+barren sand, or strewn with stones, many an acre of fine meadow. Had we
+attempted the path in the darkness, our course must have found a speedy
+termination. At length, ascending a steep hill, we found ourselves
+overlooking the valley of the Arno.
+
+Every traveller taxes his descriptive powers to the utmost to paint the
+view from this hill-top; and I verily believe that, seen under a
+cloudless sky, it is one of the most enchanting landscapes in the world.
+The numberless conical hills,--the white villas and villages, which lie
+as thick as if the soil had produced them,--the silvery stream of the
+Arno,--the rich chestnut and olive woods,--the domes of the Italian
+Athens,--the songs,--the fragrance,--and the great wall of the Apennines
+bounding all,--must present a picture of rare magnificence. But I saw it
+under different conditions, and must needs describe it as it appeared.
+
+Sub-Apennine Italy was before me, and it seemed the Italy I had dreamed
+of, could I only see it; but, alas! it was blotted with mists, and
+overshadowed by a black canopy of cloud. Outspread, far as the eye could
+extend southward, was a landscape of ridges and conical tops, separated
+by winding wreaths of white mist, giving to the country the aspect of an
+ocean broken up into creeks, and bays, and channels, with no end of
+islands. The hills were covered to their very summits with the richest
+vegetation; and the multitude of villages sprinkled over them lent them
+an air of great animation. The great chain of the Apennines, with
+rolling masses of cloud on its summits, ran along on the east, and
+formed the bounding wall of the prospect. Below us there floated on the
+surface of the mist an immense dome, looking like a balloon of huge size
+about to ascend into the air. It did not ascend, however; but,
+surrounded by several tall shafts and towers which rose silently out of
+the mist, it remained suspended over the same spot. Like a buoy at sea
+affixed to the place where some noble vessel lies entombed, this dome
+told us that engulphed in this ocean of vapour lay FLORENCE, with her
+rich treasures of art, and her many stirring recollections and
+traditions.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+FLORENCE AND ITS YOUNG EVANGELISM.
+
+     Beauty of Position--Focus of Italian Art--Education on the Æsthetic
+     Principle--Effects as shown in the Character and Manners of the
+     Florentines--The result not Civilization, but Barbarism--The
+     Artizans of Britain surpass the Florentines in Civilization--Early
+     English Scholars at Florence--Man's Power for
+     Good--Savonarolo--History of present Religious Movement in
+     Tuscany--Condition of Tuscan Government and Priesthood prior to
+     1848--Attempts to introduce Religious Books--The Priests compel the
+     Government to interfere--The Revolution of 1848--The Bible
+     translated and seized--Visit of Vaudois Pastors--Secret Religious
+     Press--Work now carried on by the Converts--Denunciation of DEATH
+     for Bible Reading--Great Increase of Converts
+     notwithstanding--Present State and Prospects of Movement--Leave
+     Florence--Beauty of the Vale of the Arno--Pisa--Arrive at Leghorn.
+
+
+Of Florence "the Beautiful," I must say that its beauty appeared scarce
+equal to its fame. In an age when the capitals of northern Europe were
+of wood, the Queen of the Arno may have been without a rival on the
+north of the Alps; but now finer streets, handsomer squares, and nobler
+façades, may be seen in any of our second-rate towns. But its dome, by
+Brunelleschi, the largest in the world,--its tall campanile,--its
+baptistry, with its beautiful gates,--and its public statuary,--are
+worthy of all admiration. Its environs are superb.
+
+Florence is sweetly embosomed in an amphitheatre of mountains, of the
+most lovely forms and the richest and brightest colouring. Castles and
+convents crown their summits; while their slopes display the pillar-like
+cypress, the gray olive, the festooned vine, with a multitude of
+embowered villas. On the north-east, right in the fork of the Apennines,
+lie the bosky and wooded dells of Valombrosa. On the north, seated on a
+pyramidal hill, is the ancient Fiesole, which the genius of Milton has
+touched and immortalized. On the west are the spacious lawns and parks
+of the Grand Duke; while the noble valley runs off to the south-west,
+carpeted with vines, or covered with chestnut woods, with the Arno
+stealing silently through it in long reaches to the sea. During my stay,
+the girdling Apennines were tipped with the snows of winter; and when
+the sun shone out, they formed a gleaming circlet around the green
+valley, like a ring of silver enclosing an enormous emerald. I saw the
+sun but seldom, however. The bad weather which had overtaken me amid the
+Apennines descended with me into the valley of the Arno; and murky
+clouds, with torrents of rain, but too often obscured the sky. But I
+could fancy the delicious beauty of a summer eve in Florence, with the
+still balmy air enwrapping the purple hills, the tall cypresses, the
+domes, and the gently stealing waters. In spring the region must be a
+very paradise. Indeed, spring is seldom absent from the banks of the
+Arno; for though at times savage Winter is heard growling amid the
+Apennines, he dare seldom venture farther than midway down their slopes.
+
+I cannot recall the past glories of Florence, or even touch on Cosmo's
+"immortal century;" I cannot speak of its galleries, so rich in
+painting, so unrivalled in statuary; nor can I enter its Pitti palace,
+with its hanging gardens; or the city churches, with their store of
+frescoes and paintings; or its Santa Crocé, with its six mighty
+tombs,--those even of Dante, Galileo, Machiavelli, Michael Angelo,
+Alfieri, Leonardo Aretino. The size of Florence brings all these objects
+within a manageable distance; and, during my stay of well-nigh a week, I
+visited them, as any one may do, almost every day. But every traveller
+has entered largely into their description, and I pass them over, to
+touch on other things more rarely brought into view.
+
+Florence is the focus of Italian art; and here, if anywhere, one can see
+the effect of educating a population solely on the æsthetic principle.
+The Florentines have no books, no reading-rooms, no public lectures, no
+preaching in their churches even, bating the occasional harangue of a
+monk. They are left to be trained solely by fine pictures and lovely
+statues. From these they are expected to learn their duties as men and
+as citizens. The sole employment of the people is to produce these
+things; their sole study, to be able to admire them. The result is not
+civilization, but barbarism. Nor can it well be otherwise. We find the
+"beautiful" abundantly in nature, but never dissociated from the
+"useful;" teaching us that it cannot be safely sought but in union with
+what is true and good; and that we cannot make it "an end" without
+reversing the whole constitution of our nature. When a people make the
+love of "the beautiful" their predominant passion, they rapidly decline
+in the better and nobler qualities. The beautiful yields only enjoyment;
+and those who live only to enjoy soon become intensely selfish. That
+enjoyment, moreover, is immediate, and so affords no room for the
+exercise of patience and foresight. A race of triflers arise, who think
+only of the present hour. They are wholly undisciplined in the higher
+qualities of mind,--in perseverance and self-control; and, being
+withdrawn from the contemplation of facts and principles, they become
+incapable of attending to the useful duties of life, and are wholly
+unable to rise to the higher efforts of virtue and patriotism. The
+Italian Governments, for their own ends, have restricted their subjects
+to the fine arts, but at the expense of the trade, the agriculture, and
+the civilization, of their dominions. The fabric of British power was
+not raised on the æsthetic principle. Take away our books, and give us
+pictures; shut up our schools and churches, and give us museums and
+galleries; instead of our looms and forges, substitute chisels and
+pencils; and farewell to our greatness. The artizan of Birmingham or
+Glasgow is a more civilised man than the same class in the Italian
+cities. His dwelling, too, displays an amount of comfort and elegance
+which few in Italy below the rank of princes, and not always they, can
+command. The condition of the Italian people shows conclusively that the
+predominating study of "the beautiful" has a most corrupting and
+enfeebling effect. In fact, their pictures have paved the way for their
+tyrants; and when one marks their demoralizing effects, he feels how
+salutary is the restriction of the Decalogue against their use in Divine
+worship. If pictures and images lead to idolatry in the Church, their
+exclusive study as infallibly produces serfdom in the State.
+
+In the early dawn of the Reformation, several of our own countrymen
+visited the city of the Medici, that they might have access to the works
+of antiquity which Cosmo had collected, and enjoy the converse of the
+learned men that thronged his palace. "William Selling," says D'Aubigné,
+"a young English ecclesiastic, afterwards distinguished at Canterbury by
+his zeal in collecting valuable manuscripts,--his fellow-countrymen,
+Grocyn, Lilly, and Latimer, 'more bashful than a maiden,'--and, above
+all, Linacre, whom Erasmus ranked above all the scholars of Italy,--used
+to meet in the delicious villa of the Medici, with Politian,
+Chalcondyles, and other men of learning; and there, in the calm evenings
+of summer, under that glorious Tuscan sky, they dreamt romantic visions
+of the Platonic philosophy. When they returned to England, these learned
+men laid before the youth of Oxford the marvellous treasures of the
+Greek language." We are repaying the debt, by sending to that land a
+better philosophy than any these learned men ever brought from it. This
+leads us to speak of the religious movement in progress in Tuscany.
+
+After all, man's power for evil is extremely limited. The very opposite
+is the ordinary estimate. When we mark the career of a conqueror like
+Napoleon, or the withering effects of an organization like that of Rome,
+and compare these with the feeble results of a preacher like Savonarola,
+whose body the fire reduced to ashes, and whose disciples persecution
+speedily scattered, we say that man's power to destroy his species is
+almost omnipotent,--his power to benefit them scarce appreciable. But
+spread out the long cycles of history and the long ages of the world,
+and you learn that the triumphs of evil, though sudden, are temporary,
+and those of truth slow but eternal. A true word spoken by a single man
+has in it more power than armies, and will, in the long run, do more to
+bless than all that tyrannies can do to blight mankind. Savonarola,
+feeble as he seemed, and unprotected as he was, wielded a power greater
+than that of Rome. The truths sown by the preacher on the banks of the
+Arno so many centuries ago are not yet dead. They are springing up; and,
+long after Rome shall have passed away, they will be a source of
+liberty, of civilization, of arts, and of eternal life, to his
+countrymen.
+
+A political storm heralded the quiet spring-time of evangelical truth
+which has of late blessed that land. Prior to 1848, although there had
+been no change for the better in the law, a very considerable degree of
+practical liberty was enjoyed by the subjects of Tuscany. The Tuscans
+are naturally a quiet, well-behaved people; the Grand Duke was an easy,
+kind-hearted man; his Government was exceedingly mild; and, as he
+conducted himself towards his people like a father, he was greatly
+beloved by them. Tuscany at that period was universally acknowledged to
+be the happiest province of Italy.
+
+The priesthood of those days were a good-natured, easy set of men also.
+They had never known opposition. They could not imagine the possibility
+of anything occurring to endanger their power, and therefore were
+exceedingly tolerant in the exercise of it. They were an illiterate and
+ill-informed race. An Abbatte of their own number assured Dr Stewart, so
+far back as 1845, that there was not one amongst them, from the
+Archbishop downwards, who could read Hebrew, nor half-a-dozen who could
+be found among the upper orders who could read Greek. They were masters
+of as much Latin as enabled them to get through the mass; but they were
+wholly unskilled in the modern tongues of Europe, and entire strangers
+to modern European literature. Though poorly paid, they durst not eke
+out their means of subsistence by entering into any trade. Many of them
+were fain to become major domos in rich families, and might be seen
+chaffering in the markets in the public piazza, and weighing out flour,
+coffee, and oil to the servants at home. No priest can say more than one
+mass a-day; and for that he is paid one lira, or eightpence sterling.
+
+Such being the state of matters, little notice was taken of what foreign
+Protestants might be doing. The priests were secure in their ignorance,
+and deemed it impossible that any attempt would be made to introduce the
+diabolical heresies of Luther among their orthodox flocks. Indeed,
+these flocks were removed almost beyond the reach of contamination, not
+so much by the vigilance of the priests, as by their own ignorance and
+bigotry. The degree of popular enlightenment may be judged of from the
+following circumstance which happened to Dr Stewart, and of which the
+Doctor himself assured me Soon after his first coming into Tuscany in
+1845, he came into contact with a countryman, who, on being told that he
+was a Protestant minister, began instantly to scrutinize his lower
+extremities, to ascertain whether he had cloven hoofs. The priests had
+told the people that Protestants were just devils in disguise.
+
+The Government, I have said, was a mild one. It was more: it was
+affected with the usual Italian sluggishness and indolence,--the _dolce
+far niente_; and accordingly it winked at innumerable ongoings, so long
+as these did not attract public attention. Bibles and religious
+Protestant works were introduced secretly, the Government knowing it,
+but winking at it, as the Church did not complain. The arrest of the
+deputation from the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland to the
+Holy Land in 1839 was an exception to what I have now stated, but such
+an exception as confirms the general statement. The deputation, with the
+ignorance of us Britishers abroad for the first time, imagined that
+because Leghorn was a free port, they were free to give away Bibles,
+tracts, and all kinds of religious books; and accordingly they made
+vigorous use of their time. Scarcely had they stepped on shore when they
+commenced a liberal distribution of Bibles, books on the "Evidences,"
+and other valuable works, among the boatmen, facchini, and beggars. It
+did not occur to them, that of those to whom they gave these books, few
+could read, and none were able to appreciate them. Many persons who
+received these books carried them to the priests, who, confounded at
+the suddenness as well as the boldness of the assault, carried them to
+the police, and the police to the Government; and before the deputation
+had been an hour and a half in Thomson's hotel, they were under arrest.
+It was the Church which compelled the Government to interfere; and it is
+the Church which is now driving forward the civil power in its mad
+career of persecution. As a proof that we bring no heavier charge
+against the priests than they deserve, we may mention, that in 1849 Dr
+Stewart was summoned to appear before the delegate of Government, to
+answer for having allowed one or two Italian Protestant ministers to
+preach in his pulpit. The delegate informed him that the Government was
+not taking this step of its own accord, but that the Archbishop of
+Florence was compelling the Government to put the law in force, and that
+the Archbishop was the prosecutor in the case.
+
+The old statute of Ferdinand I., which allows to foreigners the full
+exercise of their religion within the city of Leghorn, was taken
+advantage of to open the Scotch church there. This was in 1845. It was
+two years after this,--in the winter of 1847-48,--that the religious
+movement first developed itself,--full six months before the revolutions
+and changes of 1848. The work was at first confined almost entirely to a
+handful of foreigners--Captain Pakenham; M. Paul, a Frenchman, and the
+Swiss pastor in Florence;---- at----; and Mr Thomson, Vice-Consul at
+Leghorn. Count Guicciardini was the only Florentine connected with the
+movement. It was resolved to print and circulate such books as were
+likely to pass the censorship, and might be openly sold by all
+booksellers. The censor of that day was a remarkably liberal man, and he
+gave his consent very willingly. Five or six little volumes were printed
+in that country; but the people were not yet prepared for such a step;
+the books lay unsold, and were got into circulation only by being given
+away as presents. But the very fact that the friends of the movement had
+been able to print and publish such works openly at Florence, with the
+approbation of the censor, greatly encouraged them. It was next proposed
+to attempt to get the censor's approbation to an edition of the New
+Testament; and the work was before him waiting his imprimatur, when the
+revolutions of 1848 broke over Italy with the suddenness of one of its
+own thunder-storms.
+
+I cannot go particularly into the changes that followed, and which are
+known to my readers through other sources,--the flight of the Grand
+Duke,--the new Tuscan Constitution,--the free press. The political for a
+time buried the religious. Captain Pakenham, taking advantage of the
+liberty enjoyed under the republic, commenced printing an edition of
+Martini's Bible (the Romanist version), believing that it would be more
+acceptable than Diodati's (the Protestant version). Before he had got
+the book put into circulation, the re-action commenced, the Grand Duke
+returned, and the work was seized. When engaged in making the seizure,
+the gendarmes pressed a young apprentice printer to tell them whether
+there were any more copies concealed. The lad replied that he had only
+one suggestion to offer, which was, that, now they had seized the book,
+they should seize the author too. And who is he? eagerly inquired the
+gendarmes, preparing to start on the chase. Jesus Christ, was the lad's
+reply.
+
+Meanwhile the revolution had greatly enlarged the privileges of the
+Waldensian Church in Piedmont, and three of her pastors, MM. Malan,
+Meille, and Geymonat, arrived in Florence in the winter of 1848-49, for
+the purpose of making themselves more familiar with the tongue and
+accent of the Tuscans, in order to be able to avail themselves of the
+greater openings of usefulness now presented to them, both in their own
+country and in central Italy.
+
+They preached occasionally, and attended the prayer-meeting, which now
+greatly increased, and which was the only one at this time among the
+Florentines. Having by their visit helped forward the good work, these
+evangelists, after a six months' stay in Florence, returned to their own
+country.
+
+A full year elapsed between the departure of the Waldensian brethren and
+the movement among the Florentines to obtain an Italian pastor. After
+much deliberation they resolved on this step, and in May 1850 a
+deputation set out for the Valleys, which, arriving at La Tour,
+prevailed on Professor Malan to accept of the charge at Florence. M.
+Malan returned to that city, and, on the 1st of July 1850, began his
+ministry, among a little flock of thirty persons, in the Swiss chapel
+Via del Seraglio, in which the Grisons had a right to Italian service.
+The work now went rapidly forward. Formerly there had been but one
+re-union; now there were ten in Florence alone, besides others in the
+towns and villages adjoining. M. Malan had service once a fortnight in
+Italian; and so large was the attendance, that the chapel, which holds
+four hundred, was crowded to the door with Florentine converts or
+inquirers. The priests took the alarm. They wrought upon the mind of the
+deformed Archduchess,--a great bigot, and sister to the Grand Duke. A
+likely tool she was; for she had made a pilgrimage to Rimini, and
+offered on the shrine of the winking Madonna a diamond tiara and
+bracelet. The result I need not state. The immediate result was, that
+the Italian service was put a stop to in January 1851; and the final
+result was the banishment of Malan and Geymonat from Tuscany in the May
+of that year,--the expulsion of the pastors being accompanied with
+circumstances of needless severity and ignominy. Geymonat, after lying
+two days in the Bargello of Florence, was brought forth and conducted on
+foot by gendarmes, chained like an assassin, to the Piedmontese
+frontier. On this miserable journey he was thrust every night into the
+common prison, along with characters of the worst description, whose
+blasphemies he was compelled to hear. The foul air and the disgusting
+food of these places made him sometimes despair of coming out alive; but
+he had his recompense in the opportunities which he thus enjoyed of
+preaching the gospel to the gendarmes by the way, and to the keepers of
+the prisons, some of whom heard him gladly.
+
+The departure of the Vaudois pastors threw the work into the hands of
+the native converts, by whom it has been carried on ever since. It is to
+be feared that, in the absence of pastors, not a little that is
+political is mixed with the religious. It is difficult forming an
+estimate of the numbers of the converts and inquirers. They have
+meetings in all the towns of Tuscany and Lucca, between whom a constant
+intercourse is maintained. Each member subscribes two crazzia a-week for
+the purchase of Protestant religious books. To supply these books, two
+presses are at work,--one in Turin, the other in Florence. The latter is
+a secret press, which the police, with all their efforts, have not been
+able to this day to discover. The Bible can be got into Tuscany with
+great difficulty; yet the demand for it is greater than ever. The
+converts have been tried by every mode of persecution short of death;
+yet their numbers grow. The prisons are full with political and
+religious offenders; yet fresh arrests continually take place in
+Florence.
+
+The first and more notable instance of persecution on which the
+Government of Tuscany ventured, after the banishment of Count
+Guicciardini and his companions, was the imprisonment of Francesco and
+Rosa Madiai, for reading the Word of God in the Italian language. The
+sufferings of these confessors turned out for the furtherance of the
+Gospel. The attention of many of their own countrymen was drawn to the
+cause of their sufferings; and the bigotry of the Grand Duke, or rather
+of the Court of Rome, with which the Tuscan Government had entered into
+a concordat for the suppression of heresy, was proclaimed before all
+Europe. A Protestant deputation visited Florence to intercede in behalf
+of these confessors; but their plea found so little favour with the
+Grand Duke, that he immediately issued a decree, reviving an old law
+which makes all offences against the religion of the State punishable
+_by death_. To provide for carrying the decree into effect, a guillotine
+was imported from Lucca, and an executioner was hired at a salary of ten
+pounds a month. As if this were not sufficiently explicit, the Grand
+Duke told his subjects that he was "_determined to root out
+Protestantism from his State, though he should be handed down to
+posterity as a monster of cruelty_." Neither the spectacle of the
+guillotine nor the terrible threat of the Grand Duke could arrest the
+progress of the good work. The Bible was sought after, and read in
+secret; and the numbers who left the communion of the Romish Church grew
+and multiplied daily. In the beginning of 1853, the Protestants, or
+Evangelicals as they prefer to call themselves in Tuscany, were
+estimated at many thousands. I doubt not that this estimate was correct,
+if viewed as including all who had separated their interests from the
+Church of Rome; but I just as little doubt that a majority of these, if
+brought to the test, rather than suffer would have denied the Gospel.
+Many of them knew it only as a political badge, not as a _new life_.
+But, on the judgment of those who had the best means of knowing, there
+were at least _a thousand_ in Tuscany who had undergone a change of
+heart, and were prepared to confess Christ on the scaffold. To hunt out
+these peaceful ones, and bring them to punishment, is the grand object
+of the priesthood; and in the confessional they have an instrumentality
+ready-made for the purpose. Taking advantage of the greater timidity of
+the female mind, it has become a leading question with the confessor,
+"Does your husband read the Bible? Has he political papers?" Alas!
+according to the ancient prophecy, the brother delivers up the brother
+to death. I heard of some affecting cases of this sort when I was in
+Florence. Of the fifty persons, or thereabouts, who were then in prison
+on religious grounds, not a few had been accused by their own relatives,
+the accusation being extorted by the threat of withholding absolution.
+At the beginning of the English Reformation, with an infernal refinement
+of cruelty, children were often compelled to light the faggots which
+were to consume their parents; and in Tuscany at this hour, the
+trembling wife is compelled, by the threat of eternal damnation, to
+disclose the secret which is to consign the husband to a dungeon. The
+police are never far from the confessor's box, and wait only the signal
+from it, what house to visit, and whom to drag to prison. As with us in
+former days, the Bible is secreted in the most unlikely places; it is
+read at the dead hour of night; and the prayers and praises that follow
+are offered in whispering accents,--for fear of the priests and the
+guillotine.
+
+Every subsidiary agency that might further the progress of the truth has
+been suppressed by the Government. All the liberal papers have been put
+down. They appeared again and again under new names, but only to
+encounter, under every form, the veto of the authorities. At last their
+whole printing establishments were confiscated. The public press having
+been silenced, the secret one continued to speak to the Tuscans from
+its hiding-place; and its voice was the more heard that the other was
+dumb. Besides Bibles, a variety of religious books have issued from it,
+and have been widely circulated. Among the translated works spread among
+the Tuscans are D'Aubigné's "History of the Reformation," M'Crie's
+"Suppression of the Reformation in Italy," "The Mother's Catechism,"
+Watts' "Catechism," "The Pilgrim's Progress," and a variety of religious
+tracts. The prohibition of a book by the Government is sure to be
+followed by a universal demand for it; and the Government decree is thus
+the signal for going to press with a new edition of the forbidden work.
+Mr Gladstone's letters on Naples were prohibited by Government; and the
+very means adopted to keep the Tuscans ignorant of what Englishmen
+thought of the state of Naples, and of the Continent generally, only led
+to its being better known. Though not a single copy of these letters was
+to be seen in the shops or on the stalls, they found their way into
+every one's hands. The same thing happened to Count Guicciardini. The
+Government prohibited his statement, and all Florence read it. The
+well-known hatred of the priests to the Bible has been its best
+recommendation in the eyes of the Tuscans. Thus the Government finds
+that it cannot move a step without inflicting deadly damage on its own
+interests. Its interposition is fatal only to the cause it seeks to
+help. To prohibit a book is to publish it; to bring a man to trial is to
+give liberty an opportunity of speaking through his advocate; to cast a
+confessor of the Lord Jesus into prison is but to erect a light-house
+amidst the Tuscan darkness. The Government and the priesthood find that
+their efforts are foiled and their might paralyzed by a mysterious
+power, which they know not how to grapple with. The guillotine has stood
+unused: not that any scruples of conscience or any feelings of humanity
+restrain the priests; fain would they bring every convert to the
+scaffold if they dared; but the odium which they well know would attend
+such a deed deters them; and they anxiously wait the coming of a time
+when it may be safe to do what could not be done at present but at the
+risk of damaging, and perhaps ruining, their cause. It does not follow
+that the Tuscan priesthood have not the guilt of blood to answer for. If
+the confessors of the Gospel in that land are not perishing by the
+guillotine, they are pining in prisons, and sinking into the grave, by
+reason of the choking stench, the disgusting vermin, and the
+insufficient food, to which they are exposed.
+
+But the condition of these victims, perishing unknown and unpitied in
+the fangs of an ecclesiastical tyranny, is not the most distressing
+spectacle which Tuscany at this hour presents. Theirs is an enviable
+state, compared with that of the great body of the people. These occupy
+but a larger prison, and groan in yet stronger fetters; while their
+captivity is uncheered by any such hope as that which sustains the
+Tuscan confessors of the truth. Mistrust of their Church is widely
+spread in the country. There is no religion in Tuscany. There is as
+little morality. The marriage vow is but little regarded, and the
+seducer boasts of his triumphs over married chastity, as if they were
+praiseworthy deeds. Thousands have plunged into atheism. Of those who
+have not gone this length, the great body are dissatisfied, ill at ease,
+without confidence in the doctrines of Rome, but ignorant of a more
+excellent way. Straitly shut up, they grope blindfolded round the walls
+of their prison-house, wistfully turning their eyes to any ray of light
+that strikes in through its crevices. How this state of things may end
+is known only to God;--whether in the gradual spread of Gospel light,
+and the peaceful fall of that system which has so long enthralled the
+intellect and soul of the Tuscans; or whether, as a result of the
+growing exasperation and deepening horrors of these bondsmen, they may
+give a violent wrench to the pillars of the ecclesiastical and social
+fabric, and pull it down upon the heads of themselves and their
+oppressors.
+
+I may avail myself of this opportunity of introducing a few recent facts
+relative to the analogous work in Genoa; and this I do because these
+facts are of a character which may enable the reader more clearly to
+conceive of the present religious condition of Italy, and the state of
+the movement in that country.
+
+The north of Italy and kingdom of Sardinia, as I have already said,
+since the Constitution granted in 1848, is open to the promulgation of
+evangelical truth; that is, it may be taught in almost every conceivable
+way, provided it is not done offensively or obtrusively. While the
+religion of the State is Roman Catholic, there is toleration and liberty
+of conscience to all; indeed, there is _no religion_ at all. The king
+cares for none of these things, and most of his Ministers are at one
+with him. The present Ministry is Liberal; and Count Cavour is, to all
+intents and purposes, Radical. It is said that he declares he will never
+rest until Sardinia is another England. The Constitution is something
+very similar to that of England, and only requires to be developed. The
+present Government, however, is more liberal than the Constitution; and
+the Constitution gives more liberty than the majority of the people are
+yet able to receive: hence collision frequently takes place. Old
+statutes are still unrepealed; and the priest party compels the
+Government to do things which they are very unwilling to do. For
+example, one of the Cereghini was recently tried, and condemned to pay a
+fine of two hundred pauls, and go to prison for four months, for having
+some little thing to do in publishing a small controversial catechism
+against the Romish Church, and vending it rather too openly. An appeal
+was made against the sentence, and it stands unexecuted, and will do.
+As a matter of law, the executive Government is obliged to take up such
+cases and deal with them; and the nobility or priesthood--for they are
+one and the same--are ever on the look-out for such cases. The case of
+Captain Pakenham, who was expelled from Sardinia, comes under this head.
+The Constitution is the same now as it was then; only it is further
+developed in the minds of the people, and the same offence would not now
+likely meet the same unjust punishment, or create the same stir among
+the people, as it did then. But Captain Pakenham need not have been
+expelled from the State if our British Ministers in Sardinia had done
+their duty; but they are sometimes only too glad to get quit of such men
+as Captain Pakenham. If they had protested against the sentence, it
+would never have been executed. Such a thing would never have occurred
+to an American subject. "British residents or travellers in Italy,"
+writes one to us, "will never have any comfort or satisfaction under the
+union-jack, until the present race of consuls and plenipotentiaries,
+sitting in high places, truckling with petty kings and grand dukes, is
+hanged, every one of them. There is an obliging old consul at Rome who
+might be exempted."
+
+The following extract from a letter written in March last, and addressed
+to ourselves, from the Rev. David Kay, the able pastor of the Scotch
+congregation in Genoa, will be read with deep interest. We know none who
+knows better than Mr Kay the condition of Sardinia, or is more familiar
+with all that has been done and is doing there. What he says of the
+moral condition of Genoa may be taken as a fair sample of the other
+towns and States of Italy. None of them are superior to Genoa in this
+respect, and most of them, we believe, are below it. Alas! the picture
+is a sad one.
+
+"Nothing could be more foolish or detrimental to the evangelical work
+in Sardinia than for every man and woman who enters the country, to pass
+through it or spend a few months even, to commence 'doing something,' as
+they generally express it. They scatter Bibles and tracts broad-cast,
+without knowing anything of the people they give them to; and
+nine-tenths of these books are carried forthwith to the priest or the
+pawnshop, generally the former, and are burned. This does not affect
+them much, perhaps, because they will soon be off; but it renders the
+position of those stationed in the country very precarious. The priest
+likes very much to collect all the Bibles, Testaments, tracts, &c., into
+a heap, and, before setting the match to them, bring some of his English
+friends to see them. This is no exaggeration. At least two such cases
+have come under my notice. Knowledge and prudence are very essential
+qualities,--some knowledge of the country and its people, and some
+little common sense to use that knowledge well. If our British
+travellers and residents would give the Italians a better example of how
+the Sabbath ought to be kept, and is kept, by the serious in Britain,
+and let precept for the most part alone,--the real missionary work to be
+done by people competent,--generally speaking, they would advance the
+work far more than by the way they often adopt. We talk of liberal
+Sardinia; but _liberal_ is a relative term, and all who know Sardinia
+will only apply it relatively. When an injudicious thing is done, or
+even when a lawful thing is done injudiciously, we soon see where the
+liberty of Sardinia is. It is as lawful for a man to have a thousand
+Italian Bibles in his house as to have a thousand copies of 'Rob Roy.'
+Both packages come regularly through the custom-house, and duty is paid
+for them; and yet the other day in Nice several houses were searched by
+the gendarmes, and all Bibles and tracts carried away. This is contrary
+to the Constitution of the country, and yet it was done. Englishmen will
+make a cry about it, and demand justice (a thing generally sold to the
+highest bidder); but it is no use,--only harm will be done by it. Every
+day things in _kind_ differing in _degree_ are done throughout the
+State. The long and short of the matter is this; the minds of the people
+must open, and be allowed time to open gradually, ere the liberal
+Constitution of Sardinia can be applied to its full extent. And it is
+the forgetting this, or not knowing it, that usually brings these things
+about. Something, perhaps a very common thing, and quite lawful, and
+done every day, is done in a foolish way, and a foolish thing is done by
+the executive Government to meet it. It is not the present
+generation,--it has been too long under the yoke,--but the rising
+generation, that will exhibit the new Constitution. The grand secret is
+to do as much as possible,--and almost anything may be done,--and say
+nothing about it. It is truly interesting to watch the gradual opening
+up of the long shut kingdom, and very exciting to give every day a
+stronger blow to the wedge that opens it. I remember well, when I came
+here, nearly two years ago, Italian Bibles could not be got into Genoa,
+as other goods, by paying the duty on them, although it was perfectly
+lawful then, as now, to bring them in that way. For a year past we have
+got all the Bibles the Bible-senders of Britain will send us. Hundreds
+or thousands of them can be brought through the custom-house without any
+difficulty. We are anxiously waiting the arrival of six thousand at this
+moment. And yet a month has not passed since four thousand religious
+books,--less mischievous by far than the Bible,--were sent from our port
+to Marseilles. They could not be landed in any part of his Majesty's
+dominions. From these facts you will see that we live in a kingdom of
+practical contradictions.
+
+"The priests, meanwhile, are by no means idle. They are instructing
+their people in the dogmas of their Church; and for this they have
+classes in the evening,--the zealous at least, among them have. Apart
+from their petty persecution in preventing us getting a place of worship
+(the affair of the 'Madre di Dio' you know all about, as also their
+general story of every convert being paid), they send missionaries to
+England once or twice a-year, (there is a priest whom I know just now
+returned), who bring, generally prostitutes, but women of a better order
+if they can find them, put them into a convent, to train, and, when
+trained, send them out to strengthen the Catholics here in their faith,
+and, if possible, bring back to the fold those who have gone to
+Geymonat; and highly accomplished trustworthy dames they send home to
+England to bring out others, or remain there and proselytise; or they
+send them here and there among the English on the Continent, sometimes
+to profess one thing and sometimes another. A few weeks ago one tried
+her skill upon us residing in Genoa, and partially succeeded. Her tale
+was, that she was the daughter of an English clergyman, who came abroad
+with her aunt, travelling in great style of course, and was put into a
+convent, and kept there against her will; and now she had contrived to
+make her escape, and perfectly trembled when she saw a priest, or even
+heard one named; and, although of high family, was ready to teach or do
+anything in an English family, to be out of reach of the priests. The
+things she told were most harrowing, and some of them very true-like.
+One English gentleman here thought of taking her into his family as
+governess, until he should get her father to come for her. I was asked
+to visit her at his house, and hear her woeful history. I went; but the
+line 'Timeo Danaos,' &c., was ever forcing itself upon me as I walked
+musingly along to the house, which was a little distance out of town.
+While hearing her long unconnected string of falsehoods, the thing that
+astonished me was, why the Roman Catholic priests should have chosen
+such an ugly woman to do such a piece of work; and not only had she the
+most forbidding appearance of any woman I ever saw, but she was the most
+illiterate; not a single sentence came correctly from her lips, and, in
+pronunciation, the letter 'h' ever was prefixed to the 'aunt' and the
+'Oxford,'--the very quintescence of Cockneyism. It was clear to my mind
+that she had 'done' the priests, and the sequel proves my suspicions to
+be correct. That day before she left, she discovered that she was
+suspected, and very prudently threw off her mask very soon after. Her
+correct history we are only getting bit by bit; but all we have learned
+convinces us that she has deceived the Italian priest, who knows very
+little of English, by persuading him that she is the daughter of an
+English clergyman, and very highly connected in England. You have enough
+of the story to see the kind of plot regularly carried on. What they
+expected to gain by passing her off upon us, we cannot tell, unless that
+they wished to know earlier and more fully our movements. There is an
+English pervert here just now,--a weak fool, but an educated one,--on a
+mission to Geymonat's people, to assure them that they have committed a
+great sin. Having proved both systems of religion, he can judge, and
+there is no comfort whatever in the Protestant. He has taken up his
+abode here, and is prosecuting his mission vigorously.
+
+"A traveller passing through Genoa, and visiting the churches,
+particularly on a feast-day, would fancy that the Genoese, or, indeed,
+the Catholics in Sardinia generally, are the most devoted Catholics in
+Italy. Many have gone away with that impression. The reason is this. All
+who attend the churches in Genoa do so from choice,--from religious
+motives; and even feel, in these days of heresy, that they are wearing
+the martyr's crown,--standing firmly for the true Church, while all
+without are scoffers; whereas in the Tuscan, Roman, and Neapolitan
+States, people attend church from compulsion. If they are not in church
+on certain days, and at mass, they are immediately suspected. I believe
+the male population of Italy is one moving mass of infidelity. Sardinia
+is professedly so. In Genoa not one young man in a hundred attends
+church. If you see him there, it is to select a pretty woman for his own
+purposes. Morality is at a very low ebb,--lower far than you can have
+any idea of. Every man is sighing after his neighbour's wife; and he
+confesses it, and talks as gallantly of his conquest as if he had fought
+on the heights of Alma. A stranger walking the streets in the evening
+would not suppose this, for he would not be attacked, as in a town in
+Britain; but they have their dens, and licensed ones too. Shocking as it
+may appear, these houses are regularly licensed by the Government; and
+medical men visit them once every week for sanitary purposes. The
+defilement of the marriage-bed is little or nothing thought of. Marriage
+here is generally a money speculation, and is very frequently brought
+about through means of regular brokers or agents, who receive a per
+centage on the bride's dowry. A woman without a pretty good dowry has
+very little chance of a husband, unless she is young and very pretty,
+and willing to accept an old man. There are very few women in Geymonat's
+congregation. The converts are nearly all men."
+
+While we rejoice in the spread of the light, we cannot but marvel at the
+mysterious connection which may be traced between the first and the
+second reformations in Italy, as regards the spots where this divine
+illumination is now breaking out. We have already adverted to the
+progress of the Gospel in the sixteenth century in so many of the
+cities of Italy, and the long roll of confessors and martyrs which every
+class of her citizens contributed to furnish. Not only did these men, in
+their prisons and at their stakes, sow the seeds of a future harvest,
+but they appear to have earned for the towns in which they lived, and
+the families from which they were sprung, a hereditary right, as it
+were, to be foremost in confessing that cause at every subsequent era of
+its revival. We cannot mark but with a feeling of heartfelt gratitude to
+God, in whose sight the death of his saints is precious, and who, by the
+eternal laws of his providence, has ordained that the example of the
+martyr shall prove more powerful and more lasting than that of the
+persecutor, that on the _self-same spots_ where these men died of old,
+the same mighty movement has again broken out. And not only are the same
+cities of Turin, and Milan, and Venice, and Genoa, and Florence,
+figuring in this second reformation of Italy, but the same families and
+the same names from which God chose his martyrs in Italy three centuries
+ago are again coming forward, and offering themselves to the dungeon,
+and the galleys, and the scaffold, in the cause of the Gospel. Does not
+this finely illustrate the indestructible nature of truth, which enables
+it to survive a long period of dormancy and of apparent death, and to
+flourish anew from what seemingly was its tomb? And does it not also
+shed a beautiful light upon the order of the providence of God, whereby
+he remembers and revisits the seed of the righteous man, and keeps his
+mercy to a thousand generations of them that fear Him?
+
+On Wednesday the 6th of November, after a stay of well-nigh a week in
+Florence, I took my departure by rail for Pisa. The weather was still
+wild and wintry, and the Apennines were white with snow to almost their
+bottom. The railway runs along the valley, close to the Arno, which,
+swollen with the rains, had flooded the vineyards and meadows in many
+places. A truly Italian vale is that of the Arno, whose silvery stream
+in ordinary times is seen winding and glistening amid the olives and the
+chestnut groves which border its course. When evening came, a deep
+spiritual beauty pervaded the region. As we swept along, many a romantic
+hill rose beside our path, with its clustering village, its mantling
+vines, and its robe of purple shadows; and many a long withdrawing
+ravine opened on the right and left, with its stream, and its crags, and
+its olives, and its castles. What would we have given for but a minute's
+pause, to admire the finer points! But the engine held its onward way,
+as if its course had been amidst the most indifferent scenery in the
+world. It made amends, however, for the enchanting views which it swept
+into oblivion behind, by perpetually opening in front others as lovely
+and fascinating. The twilight had set, and the moon was shining
+brightly, when we reached the station at Pisa.
+
+The Austrian soldier who kept the gate challenged me as I passed, but I
+paid no attention, and hurried on. Had he secured my passport, I would
+infallibly have been detained a whole day. I traversed the long winding
+streets of the decaying town, crossed the Arno, on which the city
+stands, and, coming out on the other side of Pisa, found myself in
+presence of its fine ecclesiastical buildings. A moon nearly full, which
+seemed to veil while it in reality heightened their beauty, enabled me
+to see these venerable edifices to advantage. The hanging tower is a
+beautiful pile of white marble; the Cathedral is one of the most
+chastely elegant specimens of architecture in all Italy; the baptistry,
+too peculiar to be classic, is, nevertheless, a tasteful and elegant
+design. Having surveyed these lovely creations of the wealth and genius
+of a past age, I returned in time to take my seat in the last train for
+Leghorn.
+
+The country betwixt Pisa and the coast is perfectly flat, and the
+flooded Arno had converted it into a sea. I could see nothing around me
+but a watery waste, above which the railway rose but a few inches. I
+felt as if again amid the Lagunes of Venice. After an hour and a half's
+riding, we reached Leghorn, where I took up my abode at Thomson's hotel,
+so well and so favourably known to English travellers. After my long
+sojourn in Italian _albergi_, whose uncarpeted floors, and chinky
+windows and doors, are but ill fitted to resist the winds and cold of
+winter, I sat down in "Thomson's,"--furnished as it is with all the
+comforts of an English inn,--with a feeling of home-comfort such as I
+have rarely experienced.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+FROM LEGHORN TO ROME.
+
+     First Sight of the Mediterranean--Embark at Leghorn--Elba--Italian
+     Coast--Civita Vecchia--Passport Offices--Aspect and Population of
+     Civita Vecchia--Papal Dungeons--Start for Rome--First View of the
+     Campagna--Its Desolation--Changed Times--The Postilion--The
+     Road--The Milestones--First Sight of the Eternal City--The
+     Gate--Desolate Look of the City by Night--The Pope's Custom-House
+     and Custom-House Officer.
+
+
+I rose early next morning, and walked down to the harbour, to have my
+first sight of the Mediterranean,--that renowned sea, on whose shores
+the classic nations of antiquity dwelt, and art and letters arose,--on
+whose waters the commerce of the ancient world was carried on, and the
+battles of ancient times fought,--whose scenery had often inspired the
+Greek and Latin poets,--and the grandeur of whose storms Inspiration
+itself had celebrated. A stiff breeze was blowing, and a white curl
+crested the wave, and freckled the deep blue of the waters. The
+Mediterranean looked young and joyous in the morning sun, as when it
+bore the fleets of Tyre, or heard the victorious shouts of Rome, albeit
+it is now edged with mouldering cities, and listens only to the clank of
+chains and the sigh of enslaved nations.
+
+Early in the forenoon I waited on the Rev. Dr Stewart, the accomplished
+minister of the Free Church in Leghorn. He opened freely to me his ample
+stores of information on the subject of Tuscany, and the work in
+progress in that country. We called afterwards on Mr Thomas Henderson, a
+native of Scotland, but long settled in Leghorn as a merchant. This kind
+and Christian man has since, alas! gone to his grave; but the future
+historian of the Reformation in Italy will rank him with those pious
+merchants in our own land who in former days consecrated their energy
+and wealth to the work of furthering the Gospel, and of sheltering its
+poor persecuted disciples. After sojourning so long among strange faces
+and strange tongues, it was truly pleasant to meet two such
+friends,--for friends I felt them to be, though never till that day had
+I seen their faces.
+
+At four of the afternoon I embarked in the steamer for Civita Vecchia,
+the port of Rome. The vessel I did not like at first: it was dirty,
+crowded, and, from some fault in the loading, lurched over while a stiff
+breeze was rising. By and by we got properly under weigh, and swept
+gallantly over the waves, along the coast, whose precipices and
+headlands were getting indistinct in the fading twilight. I walked the
+deck till past midnight, watching the moon as she rode high amid the
+scud overhead, and the beacon-lights of the island of Elba, as they
+gleamed full and bright astern. "What of the night?" I asked the
+helmsman. "Buono notte, Signore," was the reply. I descended to my
+berth.
+
+I awoke at four of the morning, and found the steamer labouring in a
+rolling sea. The sirocco was blowing, and a huge black wave rolled up
+before it from the south. The distant coast stretched along on the left,
+naked and iron-bound, with the high lands of Etruria rising behind it. I
+wondered whether that coast had looked as unkindly to Æneas, when first
+he cast anchor on it after long ploughing the deep? We drew towards that
+silent shore, where signs of man and his labours we could discover none;
+and in an hour or so a small bay opened under the vessel's bows. The
+swell was rising every moment, and the steamer made some magnificent
+bounds in taking the entrance to the harbour. We entered the port of
+Civita Vecchia at six, passing between the two round towers, with their
+tiers of guns looking down upon us; and cast anchor in the ample basin,
+protected by the lofty walls of the forts, over which the green-topped
+waves occasionally looked as if enraged at missing their prey. Here we
+were, but not a man of us could land till first our passports had been
+submitted to the authorities on shore. The passengers, who were of all
+classes, from the English nobleman with his equipage and horses, down to
+the lazzaroni of Naples, crowded the deck promiscuously; and amongst
+them I was happy to meet again my two Russian friends, with whom I had
+shared the same bed-room among the Apennines. In about an hour and a
+half we were boarded by a police-officer. Forming us into a row on deck,
+and calling our names one by one, this functionary handed to each a
+billet, permitting the holder to go ashore, on condition of an instant
+compearance at the pontifical police-office. An examination of the
+baggage followed. This done, I leaped into one of the small boats which
+lay alongside the steamer, and was rowed to the quay at a few strokes,
+but for which service I had to recompense the boatman with about as many
+pauls. No sooner had I set foot on shore, than the everlasting passport
+bother began. The "apostolic consul" at Florence had certified me as
+"good for Rome;" the governor of Leghorn had but the day before done the
+same; but here were I know not how many officials, all assuring me that
+without their signatures in addition, Rome I should never see. First
+came the English consul, who graciously gave me--what Lord Palmerston
+had already given--permission to travel in the Papal States, charging me
+at the same time five pauls. I could not help saying, that it was all
+very well for nations that made no pretensions to liberty to sell to
+their subjects the right of moving over the earth, but that it appeared
+to me to be somewhat inconsistent in Britain to do so. The consul looked
+as if he could not bring himself to believe that he had heard aright.
+The number of my visa told me that I was the 4318th Englishman who had
+entered the port of Civita Vecchia that season. I next took my way to
+the French consulate in the town-hall. I found the ante-chamber filled
+with Etrurian antiquities, in which the district adjoining Civita
+Vecchia on the north is particularly rich; and the sight of these was
+more than worth the moderate charge of one paul, which was made for my
+visée. At length I got this business off my hand; and, having secured my
+seat in the _diligence_ for Rome, I had leisure to take a stroll through
+the town.
+
+Civita Vecchia, though the port of Rome, and raised thus above its
+original insignificance, is but a poor place. A black hill leans over it
+on the north, and a naked beach, dreary and silent, runs off from it on
+the south. A small square, overlooked by stately mansions, emblazoned
+with the arms of the consuls of the various nations, forms its nucleus,
+from which numerous narrow and wriggling streets run out, much like the
+claws of a crab, from its round bulby body. It smells rankly of garlic
+and other garbage, and would be much the better would the Mediterranean
+give it a thorough cleansing once a-week. Its population is a motley and
+worshipful assemblage of priests, monks, French soldiers, facini, and
+beggars; and it would be hard to say which is the idlest, or which is
+the dirtiest. They seemed to be gathered promiscuously into the
+caffés,--priests, facini, and all,--rattling the dice and sipping
+coffee. Every one you come in contact with has some pretext or other for
+demanding a paulo of you. The Arabs of the desert are not more greedy of
+_backsheish_. A gentleman, as well dressed as I was at least, made up to
+me when I had taken my seat in the _diligence_, and, after talking five
+minutes on indifferent subjects, ended by demanding a paulo. "For what?"
+I asked, with some little surprise. "For entertaining Signore," he
+replied. Yet why blame these poor people? What can they do but beg?
+Trade, husbandry, books,--all have fled from that doomed shore.
+
+There are three conspicuous buildings in Civita Vecchia. Two of these
+are hotels; the third and largest is a prison. This is one of the State
+prisons of the Pope. Rising story above story, and meeting the traveller
+on the very threshold of the country, it thrusts somewhat too
+prominently upon his notice the Pope's peculiar method of propagating
+Christianity,--namely, by building dungeons and hiring French bayonets.
+But to do the Pope justice, he is most unwearied in Christianizing his
+subjects after his own fashion. His prisons are well-nigh as numerous as
+his churches; and if the latter are but thinly attended, the former are
+crowded. He is a man "instant in season and out of season," as a good
+shepherd ought to be: he watches while others sleep; for it is at night
+that his sbirri are most active, running about in the darkness, and
+carrying tenderly to a safe fold those lambs which are in danger of
+being devoured by the Mazzinian wolves, or ensnared by Bible heretics.
+But to be serious,--when one finds as many prisons as churches in a
+territory ruled over by a minister of the Gospel, he begins to feel that
+there is something frightfully wrong somewhere.
+
+When I passed the fortress of Civita Vecchia, many a noble heart lay
+pining within its walls. No fewer, I was assured, than two thousand
+Romans were there shut up as galley-slaves, their only crime being, that
+they had sought to substitute a lay for a sacerdotal Government,--the
+regime of constitutionalism for that of infallibility. In this prison
+the renowned brigand Gasperoni, the uncle of the prime minister of the
+Pope, Antonelli, had been confined; but, being too much in the way of
+English travellers, he was removed farther inland. This man was wont to
+complain loudly to those who visited him, of the cruel injustice which
+the world had done his fair fame. "I have been held up," he was used to
+say, "as a person who has murdered hundreds. It is a foul calumny. I
+never cut more than thirty throats in my life." He had had, moreover, to
+carry on his profession at a large outlay, having to pay the Pope's
+police an hundred scudi a-month for information.
+
+At last mid-day came, and off we started for Rome. We trundled down the
+street at a tolerable pace; and one could not help feeling that every
+revolution of the wheel brought him nearer the Eternal City. Suddenly
+our course was brought to an unexpected stop. Another examination of
+passports and baggage at the gate! not, I verily believe, in the hope of
+finding contraband wares, but of having a pretext to exact a few more
+pauls. The half-hour wore through, though wearily. The gate was flung
+open; and there lay before us a blackened expanse, stretching far and
+wide, dreary and death-like, terminated here by the sea, and there by
+the horizon,--the Campagna di Roma. I turned for relief to the ocean,
+all angry with tempest as it was; and felt that its struggling billows
+were a more agreeable sight than the tomb-like stillness of the plain.
+The sirocco was still blowing; and the largest breakers I ever saw were
+tumbling on the beach. The only bright and pleasant thing in the
+picture was the shining, sandy coast, with its margin of white foam. It
+ran off in a noble crescent of fifty miles, and was seen in the far
+distance terminating in the low sandy promontory of Fumacina, where the
+Tiber falls into the sea. Alas! what vicissitudes had that coast been
+witness to! There, where the idle wave was now rolling, rode in other
+days the galleys of Rome; and there, where the stifling sirocco was
+sweeping the herbless plain, rose the villas of her senators, amid the
+bloom and fragrance of the orange and the olive. To that coast Cæsar had
+loved to come, to inhale its breezes, and to pass, in the society of his
+select friends, those hours which ambition left unoccupied. But what a
+change now! There was no sail on that sea; there was no dwelling on that
+shore: the scene was lonely and desolate, as if keel had never ploughed
+the one, nor human foot trodden the other.
+
+I had seated myself in front of the vehicle, in the hope of catching the
+first glimpse of St Peter's, as its dome should emerge above the plain;
+but so wretched were our cattle, that though we started at mid-day, and
+had only fifty miles of road, night fell long before we reached the
+gates of the Eternal City. I saw the country well, however, so long as
+daylight lasted. We kept in sight of the shore for twenty-five miles;
+and glad I was of it; for the waves, with their crest of snow and voice
+of thunder, seemed old friends, and I shuddered to think of plunging
+into that black silent wilderness on the left. At the gate of Civita
+Vecchia the desolation begins; and such desolation! I had often read
+that the Campagna was desolate; I had come there expecting to find it
+desolate; but when I saw that desolation I was confounded. I cannot
+describe it; it must be seen to be conceived of. It is not that it is
+silent;--the Highlands of Scotland are so. It is not that it is
+barren;--the sands of Arabia are so. They are as they were and should
+be. But not so the Campagna. There is something frightfully unnatural
+about its desolation. A statue is as still, as silent, and as cold, as
+the corpse; but then it never had life; and while you love to gaze on
+the one, the other chills you to the heart. So is it with the Campagna.
+While the sands of the desert exhilarate you, and the silence of the
+Swiss or Scottish Highlands is felt to be sublime, the desolation of the
+Campagna is felt to be unnatural: it overawes and terrifies you. Such a
+void in the heart of Europe, and that, too, in a land which was the home
+of art,--where war accumulated her spoils, and wealth her
+treasures,--and which gave letters and laws to the surrounding
+world,--is unspeakably confounding. One's faith is staggered in the past
+history of the country. The first glance of the blackened bosom of the
+Campagna makes one feel as if he had retrograded to the barbarous ages,
+or had been carried thousands and thousands of miles from home, and set
+down in a savage country, where the arts had not yet been invented, or
+civilization dawned. Its surface is rough and uneven, as if it had been
+tumbled about at some former period; it is dotted with wild bushes; and
+here and there lonely mounds rise to diversify it. There are no houses
+on it, save the post-houses, which are square, tower-like buildings,
+having the stables below and the dwellings above. It has its patches of
+grass, on which herds depasture, followed by men clothed in sheepskins
+and goatskins, and looking as savage almost as the animals they tend. It
+is, in short, a wilderness, and more frightful than the other
+wildernesses of the earth, because the traveller feels that here there
+is the hand of doom. The land lies scathed and blackened under the curse
+of the Almighty. To Rome the words of the prophet are as applicable as
+to Babylon, whom she resembled in sin, and with whom she is now joined
+in punishment: "Because of the wrath of the Lord, it shall not be
+inhabited, but it shall be wholly desolate. Every one that goeth by
+Babylon shall be astonished, and hiss at all her plagues. Cut off the
+sower from Babylon, and him that handleth the sickle in the time of
+harvest. I will also make it a possession for the bittern, and pools of
+water. And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, shall be as when God
+overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah: it shall never be inhabited, neither dwelt
+in from generation to generation; but wild beasts of the deserts shall
+lie there, and their houses shall be full of doleful creatures, and owls
+shall dwell there, and satyrs shall dance there."
+
+About half-way to Rome the road parted company with the shore, and we
+turned inland over the plain. The night came on with drifting showers,
+which descended in torrents, lashing the naked plain, and battering our
+vehicle with the force and noise of a waterspout. And though at length
+the moon rose, and looked out at times from the cloud, she had nothing
+to show us but houseless, treeless desolation; and, as if scared at what
+she saw, she instantly hid her face in another mass of vapour. The
+stages were short, and the halts long; for which the postilion had but
+too good excuse, in the tangled web of thong and cord which formed the
+harnessings of his horses. The harnessing of an Italian _diligence_ is a
+mystery to all but an Italian postilion. The postilion, on arriving at a
+stage, has to get down, shake himself, stride into the post to announce
+his arrival, unharness his horses, lead them deliberately into the
+stable, bring out the fresh ones, transfer the same harness to their
+backs, put them to, gulp down his glass of brandy, address a few more
+last observations to the loiterers, and, finally, light his cigar. He
+then mounts with a flourish of his whip; but his wretched nags are not
+able to proceed at a quicker trot than from three to four miles an
+hour. He meets very probably a brother of the trade, who has been at
+Rome, and is returning with his horses. He dismounts on the road,
+inquires the news, and mounts again at his pleasure. In short, you are
+completely in the postilion's power; and he is quite as much an autocrat
+in his way as the Czar himself. He sings, it may be, but his song is the
+very soul of melancholy,--
+
+ "Roma, Roma, Roma, non e piu,
+ Come prima era."
+
+It needed but a glance at that pale moon, and drifting cloud, and naked
+plain, to tell me that "Rome was not now as in her first age."
+
+As the night grew late, the inquiries became more frequent, "Are we not
+yet at Rome?" We were not yet at Rome; but we did all that men could
+with four, and sometimes six, half-starved animals, bestrode by drowsy
+postilions, to reach it. Now we were labouring in deep roads,--now
+fording impetuous torrents,--and now jolting along on the hard pavement
+of the Via Aurelia. By the glimpses of the moon we could see the
+milestones by the roadside, with "ROME" upon them. Seldom has writing
+thrilled me so. To find a name which fills history, and which for thirty
+centuries has extorted the homage of the world, and still awes it,
+written thus upon a common milestone, and standing there amid the
+tempest on the roadside, had in it something of the sublime. Was it then
+a reality, and not a dream? and should I in a very short time be in Rome
+itself,--that city which had been the theatre of so many events of
+world-wide influence, and which for so many ages had borne sway over all
+the kings and kingdoms of the earth? Meanwhile the night became darker,
+and the torrents of rain more frequent and more heavy.
+
+Towards midnight we began to climb a low hill. We could see that there
+was cultivation upon it, and, unless we were mistaken, a few villas. We
+had passed its summit, and were already engaged in the descent, when a
+terrific flash of lightning broke through the darkness, and tipped with
+a fiery radiance every object around us. On the left was the old hoary
+wall, with a whitish bulby mass hanging inside of it. On the right was a
+steep bank, with a few straggling vines dripping wet. The road between,
+on which we were winding downwards, was deep and worn. I had had my
+first view of Rome; but in how strange a way! In a few minutes we were
+standing at the gate.
+
+Some little delay took place in opening it. The moments which one passes
+on the threshold of Rome are moments he never can forget. While waiting
+there till it should please the guard to open that old gate, the whole
+history of the wonderful city on whose threshold I now stood seemed to
+pass before my mind,--her kings, her consuls, her emperors,--her
+legislators, her orators, her poets,--her popes,--all seemed to stalk
+solemnly past, one after one. There was the great Romulus; there was the
+proud Tarquin; there was Scylla with his laurel, and Livy with his page,
+and Virgil with his lay, and Cæsar with his diadem, and Brutus with his
+dagger; there was the lordly Augustus, the cruel Nero, the beastly
+Caligula, the warlike Trajan, the philosophic Antoninus, the stern
+Hildebrand, the infamous Borgia, the terrible Innocent; and last of all,
+and closing this long procession of shades, came one, with shuffling
+gait and cringing figure, who is not yet a shade,--Pio Nono. The creak
+of the old gate, as the sentinel undid its bolt and threw back its
+ponderous doors, awoke me from my reverie.
+
+We were stopped the moment we had entered the gate, and desired to
+mount to the guard-room. In a small chamber on the city-wall, seated at
+a table, on which a lamp was burning, we found a little tight-made
+brusque French officer, busied in overhauling the passports. Declaring
+himself satisfied after a slight survey, he hinted pretty plainly that a
+few pauls would be acceptable. "Did you ever," whispered my Russian
+friend, "see such a people?" We were remounting our vehicle, when a
+soldier climbed up, with musket and fixed bayonet, and forced himself in
+between my companion and myself, to see us all right to the
+custom-house, and to take care that we dropped no counterband goods by
+the way. Away we trundled; but the Campagna itself was not more solitary
+than that rain-battered and half-flooded street. No ray streamed out
+from window; no sound or voice of man broke the stillness; no one was
+abroad; the wind moaned; and the big drops fell heavily upon the plashy
+lava-paved causeway; but, with these exceptions, the silence was
+unbroken; and, to add to the dreariness, the city was in well-nigh total
+darkness.
+
+I intently scrutinized the various objects, as the glare of our lamps
+brought them successively into view. First there came a range of massive
+columns, which stalked past us, wearing in the sombre night an air of
+Egyptian grandeur. They came on and on, and I thought they should never
+have passed. Little did I dream that this was the piazza of St Peter's,
+and that the bulb I had seen by favour of the lightning was the dome of
+that renowned edifice. Next we found ourselves in a street of low, mean,
+mouldering houses; and in a few moments thereafter we were riding under
+the walls of an immense fortress, which rose above us, till its
+battlements were lost in the darkness. Then turning at right angles, we
+crossed a long bridge, with shade-like statues looking down upon us from
+either parapet, and a dark silent river flowing underneath. I could
+guess what river that was. We then plunged into a labyrinth of streets
+of a rather better description than the one already traversed, but
+equally dreary and deserted. We kept winding and turning, till, as I
+supposed, we had got to the heart of the city. In all that way we had
+not met a human being, or seen aught from which we could infer that
+there was a living creature in Rome. At last we found ourselves in a
+small square,--the site of the Forum of Antoninus, though I knew it not
+then,--in one of the sides of which was an iron gate, which opened to
+receive us, _diligence_ and all, and which was instantly closed and
+locked behind us; while two soldiers, with fixed bayonets, took their
+stand as sentinels outside. It was a vast barn-looking, cavern-like
+place, with mouldering Corinthian columns built into its massive wall,
+and its roof hung so high as to be scarce visible in the darkness. It
+had been a temple of Antoninus Pius, and was now converted into the
+Pope's dogana or custom-house.
+
+In a few minutes there entered a dapper, mild-faced, gentle-mannered,
+stealthy-paced man, with a thick long cloak thrown over his shoulders,
+to protect him from the night air. The Pope's dogana-master stood before
+us. He paced to and fro in the most unconcerned way possible; and though
+it was past midnight, and trunks and carpet-bags were all open and
+ready, he seemed reluctant to begin the search. Nevertheless the baggage
+was disappearing, and its owners departing at the iron gate,--a mystery
+I could not solve. At length this most affable of dogana-masters drew up
+to me, and in a quiet way, as if wishing to conceal the interest he felt
+in me, he shook me warmly by the hand. I felt greatly obliged to him for
+this welcome to Rome, but would have felt more so if, instead of this
+salute, he had opened the gate and let me go. In about five minutes he
+again came round to where I stood, and, grasping my hand a second time,
+gave it a yet heartier squeeze. I was at a loss to explain this sudden
+friendship; for I was pretty sure this exceedingly agreeable gentleman
+had never seen me till that moment. How long this might have lasted I
+know not, had not a person in the dogana, compassionating my dullness,
+stepped up to me, and whispered into my ear to give the searcher a few
+paulos. I was a little scandalized at this proposal to bribe his
+Holiness's servant; but I could see no chance otherwise of having the
+iron gate opened. Accordingly, I got ready the requisite douceur; and,
+waiting his return, which soon happened, took care to drop the few pauls
+into his palm at the next squeeze. On the instant the gate opened.
+
+But alas! I was in a worse plight than ever. There was no commissario to
+be had at that hour. I was in total darkness; not a door was open; nor
+was there an individual in the street; and, recollecting the reputation
+Rome had of late acquired for midnight assassinations, I began to grow a
+little apprehensive. After wandering about for some time, I lighted on a
+French sentry, who obligingly led me to a caffé hard by, which is kept
+open all night. There I found a young German, an artist evidently, who,
+having finished his coffee, politely volunteered to conduct me to the
+Hotel d'Angleterre.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+MODERN ROME.
+
+     Tower of Capitol best Site for studying Topography of
+     Rome--Resemblance in the Sites of great Cities--Site of
+     Rome--Campagna di Roma--Its Extent and Boundaries--Ancient
+     Fertility and Magnificence--Modern Desolation of Campagna--Approach
+     to Rome from the North--Etruria--Solitariness of this once famous
+     Highway--First Sight of Rome--The Flaminian Way--The Porta del
+     Popolo--The Piazza del Popolo--Its Antiquities--Pincian
+     Hill--General Plan of Rome--The Corso--The Via Ripetta--The Via
+     Babuina--Population--Disproportionate Numbers of Priests--Variety
+     of Ecclesiastical Costumes--Dresses of the various Orders--Their
+     indescribably Filthy Appearance--The ordinary Priest--The Priest's
+     Face--The Beggars--Want of Arrangement in its Edifices--Rome an
+     unrivalled Combination of Grandeur and Dirt.
+
+
+One of my first days in Rome was passed on the top of the tower of the
+Capitol. It is incomparably the best spot on which to study the
+topography of the Eternal City, with that of the surrounding region.
+Here one stands between the living and the dead,--between the city of
+the Cæsars, which lies entombed on the Seven Hills, with the vine, the
+ivy, and the jessamine mantling its grave, and the city of the Popes,
+spread out with its cupolas, and towers, and everlasting chimes, on the
+low flat plain of the Campus Martius. The world has not such another
+ruin,--so vast, colossal, and magnificent,--as Rome. Let us sketch the
+features of the scene as they here present themselves.
+
+There would appear to be a law determining the _site_, as well as the
+_character_, of great events. It has often been remarked, that there is
+a resemblance between all the great battle-fields of the world. One
+attribute in especial they all possess, namely, that of vastness;
+inspiring the mind of the spectator with an idea of grandeur, to which
+the recollection of the carnage of which they were the scene adds a
+feeling of melancholy. The Troy and the Marathon of the ancient world
+have found their representative in the modern one, in that gloomy
+expanse in Flanders where Napoleon witnessed the total defeat of his
+arms and the final overthrow of his fortunes. We would make the same
+remark regarding great capitals. There is a family likeness in their
+sites. The chief cities of the ancient world arose, for the most part,
+on extensive plains, nigh some great river; for rivers were the
+railroads of early times. I might instance queenly Thebes, which arose
+in the great valley of the Nile, with a boundary of fine mountains
+encircling the plain on which it stood. Babylon found a seat on the
+great plain of Chaldea, on the banks of the Euphrates. Niniveh arose on
+the same great plain, on the banks of the Tigris, with the glittering
+line of the snowy Kurdistan chain bounding its horizon. To come down to
+comparatively modern times, ROME has been equally fortunate with her
+predecessors in a site worthy of her greatness and renown. No one needs
+to be told that the seat of that city, which for so many ages held the
+sceptre of the world, is the CAMPAGNA DI ROMA.
+
+I need not dwell on the magnificence of that truly imperial plain, to
+which nature has given, in a country of hills, dimensions so goodly.
+From the foot of the Apennines it runs on and on for upwards of an
+hundred miles, till it meets the Neapolitan frontier at Terracina. Its
+breadth from the Volscian hills to the sea cannot be less than forty
+miles. Towards the head of this great plain lies Rome, than which a
+finer site for the capital of a great empire could nowhere have been
+found. By nature it is most fertile; its climate is delicious. It is
+watered by the Tiber, which is seen winding through it like a thread of
+gold. A boundary of glorious hills encloses it on all sides save the
+south-west. On the south-east are the gentle Volscians, clothed with
+flourishing woods and sparkling with villas. Running up along the plain,
+and lying due east of Rome, are the Sabine hills, of a deep azure
+colour, with a fine mottling of light and shade upon their sides.
+Shutting in the plain on the north, and sweeping round it in a
+magnificent bend towards the west, are the craggy and romantic
+Apennines. Such was the stage on which sat invincible, eternal Rome.
+This plain was traversed, moreover, by thirty-three highways, which
+connected the city with every quarter of the habitable globe. Its
+surface exhibited the richest cultivation. From side to side it was
+covered with gardens and vineyards, in the verdure and blossoms of an
+almost perpetual spring; amid which rose the temples of the gods of
+Rome, the trophies of her warriors, the tombs and monuments of her
+legislators and orators, and the villas and rural retreats of her
+senators and merchants. Indeed, this plain would seem, in imperial
+times, to have been one vast city, stretching out from the white strand
+of the Mediterranean to the summit of the Volscian hills.
+
+But in proportion to its GRANDEUR then is its DESOLATION now. From the
+sea to the mountains it lies silent, waste, unploughed, unsown,--a
+houseless, treeless, blackened wilderness. "Where," you exclaim, "are
+its highways?" They are blotted out. "Where are its temples, its
+palaces, its vineyards?" All swept away. Scarce a heap remains, to tell
+of its numerous and magnificent structures. Their very ruins are ruined.
+The land looks as if the foot of man had never trodden it, and the hand
+of man never cultivated it. Here it rises into melancholy mounds; there
+it sinks into hollows and pits: like that plain which God overthrew, it
+neither is sown nor beareth. It is inhabited by the fox, haunted by the
+brigand, and frequented in spring and autumn by a few herdsmen, clad in
+goats'-skins, and living in caves and wigwams, and reminding one, by
+their savage appearance, of the satyrs of ancient mythology. It is
+silent as a sepulchre. John Bunyan might have painted it for his "Valley
+of the Shadow of Death."
+
+I shall suppose that you are approaching Rome from the north. You have
+disengaged yourself from the Apennines,--the picturesque Apennines,--in
+whose sunny vales the vine still ripens, and on whose sides the olive
+still lingers. You are advancing along a high plateau which rises here
+and there into conical mounts, on which sits some ancient and renowned
+city, dwindled now into a poor village, whose inhabitants are
+husbandmen, and who move about oppressed by the languor that weighs upon
+this whole land. Beneath your feet are subterranean chambers, in which
+mailed warriors sleep,--for it is the ancient land of Etruria over which
+your track lies. Before the wolf suckled Romulus, this soil had
+nourished a race of heroes. The road, so filled in former times by a
+never-failing concourse of legions going forth to battle or returning in
+triumph,--of consuls and legates bearing the high behests of the senate
+to the subject provinces,--and of ambassadors and princes coming to sue
+for peace, or to lay their tributary gifts at the feet of Rome,--is now
+solitary and untrodden, save by the traveller from a far country, or the
+cowled and corded pilgrim whose vow brings him to the shrine of the
+apostles. Stacks of mouldering brickwork attract the eye by the
+wayside,--the remains of temples and monuments when the land was in its
+prime. You scarce take note of the scattered and stunted olives which
+are dying through age. The fields are wretchedly tilled, where tilled at
+all. The country appears to grow only the more desolate, and the silence
+the more dreary and unsupportable, as you advance. "Roma! Roma!" is
+chanted forth in melancholy tones by the postilion. "Roma" is graven on
+the milestones; but you cannot persuade yourself that Rome you shall
+find in the heart of a desert like this. You have gained the brow of a
+low hill; you have passed the summit, and got half-way down the
+declivity; when suddenly a vision bursts on your sight that rivets you
+to the spot. There is the Tiber rolling its yellow floods at your feet;
+and there, spread out in funereal gloom between the mountains and the
+sea, is the CAMPAGNA DI ROMA. The spectacle is sublime, despite its
+desolation. There is but one object in the vast expanse, but that is
+truly a majestic one. Alone, on the silent plain, judgment-stricken and
+sackcloth-clad, occupying the same spot where she "glorified herself and
+lived deliciously," and said in her heart, "I sit a queen, and am no
+widow, and shall see no sorrow," is ROME.
+
+You are to cross the Tiber. Already your steps are on the Pons Milvius,
+where Christianity triumphed over Paganism in the person of Constantine,
+and over the parapet of which Maxentius, in his flight, flung the
+seven-branched golden candlestick, which Titus brought from the temple
+of Jerusalem. The Flaminian way, which you are now to traverse, runs
+straight to the gate of Rome. In front is the long line of the city
+walls, within which you can descry the proud dome of St Peter's, the
+huge rotundity of St Angelo, or "Hadrian's Mole," and a host of inferior
+cupolas and towers, which in any other city would suffice to give a
+character to the place, but are here thrown into the shade by the two
+unrivalled structures I have named. You are not less than two miles from
+the gate; yet such are the purity and transparency of an Italian sky,
+that every stone almost in the old wall,--every scar which the hand of
+time or the ravages of war have made in it,--is visible. As you advance,
+Monte Mario rises on the right, with a temple on its crest, and rows of
+pine-trees and cypresses on its sides. On the left, at a goodly
+distance, are seen the purple hills of Frascati and Albano, with their
+delicate chequering of light and shadow, and the Tiber, appearing to
+burst like a river of gold from their azure bosom. The beauty of these
+objects is much heightened by the blackness of the plain around.
+
+We now enter Rome. The square in which we find ourselves,--the Porta del
+Popolo,--is worthy of Rome. It is a clean, neatly-paved quadrangular
+area, of an hundred and fifty by an hundred yards in extent, edged on
+all sides by noble mansions. Fronting you as you enter the gate are the
+domes of two fine churches, in one of which Luther preached when he was
+in Rome. Between them the Corso is seen shooting out in a long narrow
+line of lofty façades, traversing the entire length of the city from
+north to south. On the right is the house of Mr Cass, the United States'
+consul, behind which rises a series of hanging gardens. There was dug
+the grave of Nero; but the ashes of the man before whom the world
+trembled cannot now be found. On the left rises the terraced slope of
+the Pincian hill, with its galleries, its statues, its stately
+cypresses, and its noble carriage-drive. On the opposite declivity are
+the gardens of Sallust, looking down on the _campus sceleratus_, where
+the unfaithful vestal-virgins were burned.
+
+In the middle of the spacious area is a fine fountain, whose waters are
+received into a spacious basin, guarded by marble lions. And there,
+too, stands the obelisk of Rhamses I., severe and solemn, a stranger,
+like ourselves, from a far land. This is the same which that monarch
+erected before the Temple of the Sun in Heliopolis, the ON of Scripture,
+and which Augustus transported to Rome. It is a single block of red
+granite, graven from top to bottom with hieroglyphics, which it is quite
+possible the eyes of Moses may have scanned. When that column was hewn,
+not a stone had been laid on the Capitol, and the site of Rome was a
+mere marsh; yet here it stands, with its mysterious scroll still unread.
+Speak, stranger, and tell us, with thy deep Coptic voice, the secrets of
+four thousand years ago. Say, wouldst thou not like to revisit thy
+native Nile, and spend thine age beside the tombs of the Pharaohs, the
+companions of thy youth, and amidst the congenial silence of the sands
+of Egypt?
+
+The traveller who would enjoy the finest view of the modern city must
+ascend the Pincian hill. In the basin beneath him he beholds spread out
+a flat expanse of red-tiled roofs, traversed by the long line of the
+Corso, and bristling with the tops of innumerable domes, columns, and
+obelisks. Some thirty or forty cupolas give an air of grandeur to the
+otherwise uninteresting mass of red; and conspicuous amongst these, over
+against the spectator, is the princely dome of St Peter's, and the huge
+bulk of the Castle of St Angelo. The Tiber is seen creeping sluggishly
+at the base of the Janiculum, the sides of which are thinly dotted with
+villas and gardens, while its summit is surmounted by a long stretch of
+the old wall.
+
+Standing in the Piazza del Popolo, the person is in a good position for
+comprehending the arrangement of modern Rome. Here three streets have
+their rise, which, running off in diverging lines, like spokes from the
+nave of a wheel, traverse the city, and form, with the cross streets
+which connect them, the osteology of the Eternal City. This at least is
+the arrangement which obtains till you reach the region lying around the
+Capitol, which is an inextricable network of lanes, courts, and streets.
+The centre one of the three streets we have indicated is the Corso. It
+is a good mile in length, and runs straight south, extending from the
+Flaminian gate to almost the foot of the Capitol. To an English eye it
+is wanting in breadth, though the most spacious street in Rome. It is
+but indifferently kept in point of cleanliness, though the most
+fashionable promenade of the Romans. Here only you find anything
+resembling a flag-pavement: all the other streets are causewayed from
+side to side with small sharp pieces of lava, which pain the foot at
+every step. The shops are small and dark, resembling those of our third
+and fourth-rate towns, and exhibiting in their wares a superabundance of
+cameos, mosaics, Etruscan vases, and statuary,--these being almost the
+sole native manufacture of Rome. It is adorned with several truly noble
+palaces, and with the colonnades and porticos of a great number of
+churches. It was the boast of the Romans that the Pope could say mass in
+a different church every day of the year. This, we believe, is true,
+there being more than three hundred and sixty churches in that city, but
+not one copy of the Bible that is accessible by the people.
+
+The second street,--that on the right,--is the Via Ripetta, which leads
+off in the direction of St Peter's and the Vatican. It takes one nigh
+the tomb of Augustus, now converted into a hippodrome; the Pantheon,
+whose pristine beauty remains undefaced after twenty centuries; the
+Collegio Romano; and, towards the foot of the Capitol, the Ghetto,--a
+series of mean streets, occupied by the Jews. The third street,--that on
+the left,--is the Via Babuino. It traverses the more aristocratic
+quarter of Rome,--if we can use such a phrase in reference to a city
+whose nobles are lodging-house keepers, and live--
+
+                         "Garreted
+ In their ancestral palace,"--
+
+running on by the Piazza di Spagna, which the English so much frequent,
+to the Quirinal, the Pope's summer palace, and the form of Trajan, whose
+column, after the many copies which have been made of it, still stands
+unrivalled and unapproached in beauty.
+
+ "And though the passions of man's fretful race
+ Have never ceased to eddy round its base,
+ Not injured more by touch of meddling hands
+ Than a lone obelisk 'mid Nubian sands."
+
+On the Corso there is considerable bustle. The little buying and selling
+that is done in Rome is transacted here. Half the population that one
+sees in the Corso are priests and French soldiers. The population of
+Rome is not much above an hundred thousand; its ecclesiastical persons,
+however, are close on six thousand. Let us imagine, if we can, the state
+of things were the ecclesiastics of all denominations in Scotland to be
+doubled, and the whole body to be collected into one city of the size of
+Edinburgh! Such is the state of Rome. The great majority of these men
+have no duty to do, beyond the dreary and monotonous task of the daily
+lesson in the breviary. They have no sermons to write and preach; they
+do not visit the sick; they have no books or newspapers; they have no
+family duties to perform. With the exception of the Jesuits, who are
+much employed in the confessional, the whole fraternity of regulars and
+seculars, white, black, brown, and gray, live on the best, and literally
+do nothing. But, of course, six thousand heads cannot be idle. The
+amount of mischief that must be continually brewing in Rome,--the wars
+that shake convents,--the gossip and scandal that pollute society,--the
+intrigues that destroy families,--may be more easily imagined than told.
+Were the secret history of that city for but one short week to be
+written, what an astounding document it would be! and what a curious
+commentary on that mark of a "true Church," _unity_! Well were it for
+the world were the plots hatched in Rome felt only within its walls.
+
+On the streets of the Eternal City you meet, of course, every variety of
+ecclesiastical costume. The eye is at first bewildered with the motley
+show of gowns, cloaks, cowls, scapulars, and veils; of cords, crosses,
+shaven heads, and naked feet,--provoking the reflection what a vast deal
+of curious gear it takes to teach Christianity! There you have the long
+black robe and shovel hat of the secular priest; the tight-fitting frock
+and little three-cornered bonnet of the Jesuit; the shorn head and black
+woollen garment of the Benedictine;--there is the Dominican, with his
+black cloak thrown over his white gown, and his shaven head stuck into a
+slouching cowl;--there is the Franciscan, with his half-shod feet, his
+three-knotted cord, and his coarse brown cloak, with its numerous
+pouches bulging with the victuals he has been begging for;--there is the
+Capuchin, with his bushy beard, his sandaled feet, his patched cloak,
+and his funnel-shaped cowl, reminding one of Harlequin's cap;--there is
+the Carmelite, with shaven head begirt with hairy continuous crown,
+loose flowing robe, and broad scapular;--there is the red gown of the
+German student, and the wallet of the begging friar. This last has been
+out all morning begging for the poor, and is now returning with
+replenished wallet to his convent on the Capitol, where dwell monks now,
+as geese aforetime. After dining on the contents of his well-filled
+sack, with a slight addition from the vineyards of the Capitol, he will
+scatter the crumbs among the crowd of beggars which may be seen at this
+hour climbing the convent stairs.
+
+But however these various orders may differ in the colour of their
+cloaks or the shape of their tonsure, there is one point in which they
+all agree,--that is, dirt. They are indescribably filthy. Clean water
+and soap would seem to be banished the convents, as indulgences of the
+flesh which cannot be cherished without deadly peril to the soul, and
+which are to be shunned like heresy itself. They smell like goats; and
+one trembles to come within the droppings of their cloak, lest he should
+carry away a few little _souvenirs_, which the "holy man" might be glad
+to part with. A fat, stalwart, bacchant, boorish race they are, giving
+signs of anything but fasting and flagellation; and I know of nothing
+that would so dissipate the romance which invests monks and nuns in the
+eyes of some, like bringing a ship-load of them over to this country,
+and letting their admirers see and smell them.
+
+Even the ordinary priest appears but little superior to the monk in the
+qualities we have named. Dirty in person, slovenly in dress, and wearing
+all over a careless, fearless, bullying air, he looks very little the
+gentleman, and, if possible, less the clergyman. But in Rome he can
+afford to despise appearances. Is he not a priest, and is not Rome his
+own? Accordingly, he plants his foot firmly, as if he felt, like Antæus,
+that he touches his native earth; he sweeps the crowd around with a
+full, scornful, defiant eye; and should Roman dare to measure glances
+with him, that brow of brass would frown him into the dust. In Rome the
+"priest's face" attains its completest development. That face has not
+its like among all the faces of the world. It is the same in all
+countries, and can be known under every disguise,--a soldier's uniform
+or a porter's blouse. At Maynooth you may see it in all stages of
+growth; but at Rome it is perfected; and when perfected, there is an
+entire blotting out of all the kindly emotions and human sympathies, and
+there meets the eye something that is at once below and above the face
+of man. If we could imagine the scorn, pride, and bold bad daring of one
+of Milton's fallen angels, grafted on a groundwork of animal appetites,
+we should have a picture something like the priest's face.
+
+The priests will not be offended should the beggars come next in our
+notice of the Eternal City. The beggars of Rome are almost an
+institution of themselves; and, though not chartered, like the friars,
+their numbers and their ancient standing have established their rights.
+What is it that strikes you on first entering the "Holy City?" Is it its
+noble monuments,--its fine palaces,--its august temples? No; it is its
+flocks of beggars. You cannot halt a moment, but a little colony gathers
+round you. Every church has its beggar, and sometimes a whole dozen. If
+you wish to ascertain the hours of any ceremony in a church, you are
+directed to ask its beggar, as here you would the beadle. Every square,
+every column, every obelisk, every fountain, has its little colony of
+beggars, who have a prescriptive right to levy alms of all who come to
+see these objects. We shall afterwards advert to the proof thence
+arising as to the influence of the system of which this city is the
+seat.
+
+Rome, though it surpasses all the cities of the earth in the number,
+beauty, and splendour of its public monuments, is imposing only in
+parts. It presents no effective _tout ensemble_. Some of its noblest
+edifices are huddled into corners, and lost amid a crowd of mean
+buildings. The Pantheon rises in the fish-market. The Navonna Mercato,
+which has the finest fountain in Italy, is a rag-fair. The church of
+the Lateran is approached through narrow rural lanes. The splendid
+edifice of St Paul's stands outside the walls, in the midst of swamps
+and marshes so unwholesome, that there is not a house near it. The
+meanest streets of Rome are those that lie around St Peter's and the
+Vatican. The Corso is in good part a line of noble palaces; but in other
+parts of the city you pass through whole streets, consisting of large
+massive structures, once comfortable mansions, but now squalid, filthy,
+and unfurnished hovels, resembling the worst dens of our great cities.
+It cannot fail to strike one, too, as somewhat anomalous, that there
+should be such a vast deal of ruins and rubbish in the _Eternal_ City.
+And as regards its sanitary condition, there may be a great deal of
+holiness in Rome, but there is very little cleanliness in it. When a
+shower falls, and the odour of the garbage with which the streets are
+littered is exhaled, the smell is insufferable. One had better not
+describe the spectacles that one sees every day on the marble stairs of
+the churches. The words of Archenholtz in the end of last century are
+still applicable:--"Filth," says he, "infects all the great places of
+Rome except that of St. Peter's; nor would this be excepted from the
+general rule, but that it lies at greater distance from the dwellings.
+It is incredible to what a pitch filthiness is carried in Rome. As
+palaces and houses are mostly open, their entrance is usually rendered
+unsufferable, being made the receptacle of the most disgustful wants."
+In fine, Rome is the most extraordinary combination of grandeur and
+ruin, magnificence and dirt, glory and decay, which the world ever saw.
+We must distinguish, however: the grandeur has come down to the Popes
+from their predecessors,--the filth and ruin are their own.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+ANCIENT ROME--THE SEVEN HILLS.
+
+     Site of Ancient Rome--Calm after the Storm--The Seven Hills--Their
+     General Topography--The Aventine--The Palatine--The Ruins of the
+     Palace of Cæsar--View of Ruins of Rome from the Palatine--The
+     Cælian--The Viminale--The Quirinal--Other two Hills, the Janiculum
+     and the Vatican--The Forum--The Arch of Titus--The Coliseum--The
+     Mamertine Prison--External Evidence of Christianity--Rome furnishes
+     overwhelming Proofs of the Historic Truth of the New
+     Testament--These stated--The Three Witnesses in the Forum--The
+     Antichrist come--_Coup d'OEil_ of Rome.
+
+
+But where is the Rome of the Cæsars, that great, imperial, and
+invincible city, that during thirteen centuries ruled the world? If you
+would see her, you must seek for her in the grave. You are standing, I
+have supposed, on the tower of the Capitol, with your face towards the
+north, gazing down on the flat expanse of red roofs, bristling with
+towers, columns, and domes, that covers the plain at your feet. Turn now
+to the south. There is the seat of her that once was mistress of the
+world. There are the Seven Hills. They are furrowed, tossed, cleft; and
+no wonder. The wars, revolutions, and turmoils of two thousand years
+have rolled their angry surges over them; but now the strife is at an
+end; and the calm that has succeeded is deep as that of the grave.
+These hills, all unconscious of the past, form a scene of silent and
+mournful beauty, with fragments of temples protruding through their
+soil, and humble plants and lowly weeds covering their surface.
+
+The topography of these famous hills it is not difficult to understand.
+If you make the Capitoline in which you stand the centre one, the
+remaining six are ranged round it in a semi-circle. They are low broad
+swellings or mounts, of from one to two miles in circumference. We shall
+take them as they come, beginning at the west, and coming round to the
+north.
+
+First comes the AVENTINE. It rises steep and rocky, with the Tiber
+washing its north-western base. It is covered with the vines and herbs
+of neglected gardens, amid which rises a solitary convent and a few
+shapeless ruins. At its southern base are the baths of Caracalla, which,
+next to the Coliseum, are the greatest ruin in Rome.
+
+Descend its eastern slope,--cross the valley of the Circus Maximus,--and
+you begin to climb the PALATINE hill, the most famous of the seven. The
+Palatine stands forward from the circular line, and is divided from
+where you stand only by the little plain of the Forum. It was the seat
+of the first Roman colony; and when Rome grew into an empire, the palace
+of the Cæsars rose upon it, and the Palatine was henceforward the abode
+of the world's master. The site is nearly in the middle of ancient Rome,
+and commands a fine view of the other hills, the Capitol only
+overtopping it. The imperial palace which rose on its summit must have
+been a conspicuous as well as imposing object from every part of the
+city. Three thousand columns are said to have adorned an edifice, the
+saloons, libraries, baths, and porticos of which, the wealth and art of
+ancient Rome had done their utmost to make worthy of their imperial
+occupant. A dark night has overwhelmed the glory that once irradiated
+this mount. It is now a huge mountain of crumbling brickwork, bearing on
+its broad level top a luxuriant display of cabbages and vines, amid
+which rise the humble walls of a convent, and a small but tasteful
+villa, which is owned, strange to say, by an Englishman. The proprietor
+of the villa and the little colony of monks are now the only inhabitants
+of the Palatine. In walking over it, you stumble upon blocks of marble,
+remains of terraces, vaults still retaining their frescoes, arches,
+porticos, and vast substructions of brickwork, all crushed and blended
+into one common ruin. In these halls power dwelt and crime revelled: now
+the owl nestles in their twilight vaults, and the ivy mantles their
+crumbling ruins. The western side of this mound rises steep and lofty,
+crested with a row of noble cypress trees. They are tall and upright,
+and wear in the mind's eye a shadowy shroud of gloom, looking like
+mourners standing awed and grief-stricken beside the grave of the
+Cæsars. When the twilight falls and the stars come out, their dark
+moveless figures, relieved against the sky, present a sight peculiarly
+impressive and solemn.
+
+The general aspect and condition of the Palatine have been sketched by
+Byron with his usual power:--
+
+ "Cypress and ivy, weed and wallflower, grown,
+ Matted and massed together, hillocks heaped
+ On what were chambers, arch crushed, column strown
+ In fragments, choked up vaults, and frescoes steeped
+ In subterranean damps, where the owl peeped,
+ Deeming it midnight;--temples, baths, or halls,
+ Pronounce who can; for all that learning reaped
+ From her research hath been, that these are walls.
+ Behold the imperial mount! 'tis thus the mighty falls."
+
+But Cowper rises to a yet higher pitch, and reads the true moral which
+is taught by this fallen mount. For to Rome may we apply his lines on
+the fall of the once proud monarchy of Spain.
+
+ "Art thou, too, fallen, Iberia? Do we see
+ The robber and the murderer weak as we?
+ Thou that hast wasted earth, and dared despise
+ Alike the wrath and mercy of the skies,
+ Thy pomp is in the grave, thy glory laid
+ Low in the pits thine avarice has made.
+ We come with joy from our eternal rest,
+ To see the oppressor in his turn oppressed.
+ Art thou the god, the thunder of whose hand
+ Rolled over all our desolated land,
+ Shook principalities and kingdoms down,
+ And made the mountains tremble at his frown?
+ The sword shall light upon thy boasted powers,
+ And waste them, as thy sword has wasted ours.
+ 'Tie thus Omnipotence his law fulfils,
+ And Vengeance executes what Justice wills."
+
+One day I ascended the Palatine, picking my steps with care, owing to
+the abominations of all kinds that cover the path, to spend an hour on
+the mount, and survey from thence the mighty wrecks of empire strewn
+around it. The steps of the stair by which I ascended were formed of
+blocks of marble, the half-effaced carvings on which showed that they
+had formed parts of former edifices. Protruding from the soil, and
+strewn over its surface, were fragments of columns and capitols of
+pillars. I emerged on the summit at the spot where the vestibule of
+Nero's palace is supposed to have stood. I thought of the guards, the
+senators, the ambassadors, that had crowded this spot,--the spoils,
+trophies, and monuments, that had adorned it; and my heart sank at the
+sight of its naked desolation and dreary loneliness. The flat top of the
+hill ran off to the south, covered with a various and somewhat
+incongruous vegetation. Here was a thicket of laurels, and there a
+clump of young oaks; here a garden of vines, and there rows of cabbages.
+A monk, habited in brown, was looking out at the door of his convent;
+and one or two women were busy among the vegetables, making up a load
+for market. On the farther edge of the hill rose the tall, moveless,
+silent cypresses of which I have spoken. On the right rose the square
+tower of the Capitol, with the perperine substructions of its
+Tabularium, coeval with the age of the kings; and skirting its base were
+the cupolas of modern churches, and the nodding columns of fallen
+temples, beautiful even in their ruin, and more eloquent than Cicero,
+whose living voice had often been heard on the spot where they now
+moulder in silent decay. A little nearer was the naked, jagged front of
+the Tarpeian rock, crested a-top with gardens, and its base buried in
+rubbish, which is slowly gaining on its height. In front was a noble
+bend of the Tiber, rolling on in mournful majesty, amid the majestic
+silence of these mighty desolations. Beyond were the red roofs and mean
+streets of the Trastevere, with the empty upland slope of the Janiculum,
+crowned by the line of the gray wall. Behind, and immediately beneath
+me, was the Forum, where erst the Romans assembled to enact their laws
+and choose their magistrates. A ragged line of ghastly ruins,--porticos
+without temples, and temples without porticos, their noble vaultings
+yawning like caverns in the open day,--was seen bounding its farther
+edge. Its floor was a rectangular expanse of shapeless swellings and
+yawning pits. Here reposed a herd of buffaloes; there a little drove of
+swine; yonder stood a row of carts; and in the midst of these noways
+picturesque objects rose the gray arch of Titus. At its base sat a
+beggar; while an artist, at a little distance, was sketching it with the
+calotype. A peasant was traversing the Via Sacra, bearing to his home a
+supply of city-baked bread. A dozen or two of old men with spades and
+barrows were clearing away the earth from the ruins of the Temple of
+Venus and Rome. In the south-eastern angle of the plain rose the titanic
+bulk of the Coliseum, fearfully gashed and torn, yet sublime in its
+decay. Over the furrowed and ragged summits of the Cælian and Esquiline
+mounts were seen the early snows, glittering on the peaks of the
+Volscian and Sabine range. Such was the scene which presented itself to
+me from the top of the Palatine. How different, I need not say, from
+that which must have often met the eye of Cæsar from the same point,
+prompting the proud boast,--"Is not this great" Rome, "that I have built
+for the house of the kingdom, by the might of my power, and for the
+honour of my majesty?" "How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son
+of the morning! How art thou cut down to the ground, that didst weaken
+the nations!... Is this the man that did make the earth to
+tremble,--that did shake kingdoms,--that made the world as a wilderness,
+and destroyed the cities thereof?"
+
+A little eastward of the Palatine, and seen over its shoulder, as
+surveyed from the tower of the Capitol, is the CÆLIAN Mount. Its summit
+is marked by the ruins of an ancient edifice,--the Curia Hostilia,--and
+the statued front of a modern temple,--the church of S. John Lateran,
+which is even more renowned in the pontifical annals than the other is
+in classic story. Moving your eye across the valley of the Forum, it
+falls upon the flat surface of the ESQUILINE. It is marked, like the
+former, by an ancient ruin and a modern edifice. Amid its vineyards and
+rural lanes rise the massive remains of the baths of Titus, and the
+gorgeous structure of Maria Maggiore. The VIMINALE comes next; but
+forming, as it did, a plain betwixt the Esquiline and the Quirinal, it
+is difficult to trace its limits. It is distinguishable mainly by the
+baths of Dioclesian, now a French barrack, and the church of San
+Lorenzo, which occupies its highest point. The QUIRINAL is the last of
+the Seven Hills. It is covered with streets, and crowned with the summer
+palace and gardens of the Pope.
+
+Thus have we made the tour of the Seven Hills, commencing at the
+Aventine on the extreme right, and proceeding in a semicircular line
+over the low swellings which lie in their peaceful covering of flower
+and weed, onward to the Quirinal, which rises, with its glittering
+casements, on the extreme left. They hold in their arms, as it were,
+modern Rome, with the Tiber, like a golden belt, tying in the city, and
+bounding the Campus Martius, on which it is seated. On the west of the
+Tiber are other two hills, which, though not of the seven, are worth
+mentioning. The first is the JANICULUM, with the _Trastevere_ at its
+base. The inhabitants of this district pride themselves on their pure
+Roman blood, and look down upon the rest of the inhabitants as a mixed
+race; and certainly, if ferocious looks and continual frays can make
+good their claim, they must be held as a colony of the olden time,
+which, nestling in this nook of Rome, have escaped the intermixtures and
+revolutions of eighteen centuries. It has been remarked that there is a
+striking resemblance between their faces and those of the ancient
+Romans, as graven on the arch of Titus. They are the nearest neighbours
+of the Pope, whose own hill, the VATICAN, rises a little to the north of
+them. On the Vatican mount stood anciently the circus of Nero; and here
+many of the early Christians, amid unutterable torments, yielded up
+their lives. On the spot where they died have arisen the church of St
+Peter and the palace of the Vatican,--now but another name for whatever
+is formidable to the liberties of the world.
+
+But beyond question, the spot of all others the most interesting in Rome
+is the Forum. You look right down into it from where you stand. Whether
+it be the eloquence, or the laws, or the victories, or the magnificent
+monuments of ancient Rome, the light reflected from them all is
+concentrated on this plain. How often has Tully spoken here! How often
+has Cæsar trodden it! Over that very pavement which the excavations have
+laid bare, the chariots of Scylla, and of Titus, and of a hundred other
+warriors, have rolled. But the triumphs which this plain witnessed, once
+deemed eternal, are ended now; and the clods which that Italian slave
+turns up, or which that priest treads on so proudly, are perchance part
+of the dust of that heroic race which conquered the world. The tombs of
+the Cæsars are empty now, and their ashes have been scattered long since
+over the soil of Rome. Of the many beautiful edifices that stood around
+this plain, not one remains entire: a few mouldering columns, half
+buried in rubbish, or dug out of the soil, only remain to show where
+temples stood. But there is one little arch which has survived that dire
+tempest of ruin in which temple and tower went down,--the Arch of Titus,
+which has sculptured upon its marble the sad story of the fall of
+Jerusalem and the captivity of the Jews. That little arch, wonderful to
+tell, stands between two mighty ruins,--the fallen palace of the Cæsars
+on the one hand, and the kingly but ruined mass of the Coliseum on the
+other.
+
+As regards the Coliseum, architects, I believe, do not much admire it;
+but to myself, who did not look at it with a professional eye, it seemed
+as if I had never seen a ruin half so sublime. I never grew weary of
+gazing upon it. It rises amid the hoar ruins of Rome, scarred and rent,
+yet wearing an eternal youth; for with the most colossal size it
+combines in the very highest degree simplicity of design and beauty of
+form. To stand on its area, and survey the sweep of its broken benches,
+is to feel as if you were standing in the midst of an amphitheatre of
+hills, and were gazing on concentric mountain-ranges. How powerfully do
+its associations stir the soul! How many spirits now in glory have died
+on that arena! The Romans, we shall suppose, have been occupied all day
+in witnessing mimic fights, which display the skill, but do not
+necessarily imperil the life, of the combatants. But now the sun is
+westering; the shadow of the Palatine begins to creep across the Forum,
+and the villas on the Alban hills burn in the setting rays, and the
+Romans, before retiring to their homes, demand their last grand
+spectacle,--the death of some poor unhappy captive or gladiator. The
+victim steps upon the arena amid the deep stillness of the overwhelming
+multitude. It is no mimic combat his: he is "appointed to death." This
+lets us into the peculiar force of Paul's words, "I think that God hath
+set forth us the apostles last, as it were, appointed to death; for we
+are made a spectacle unto the world, and to angels, and to men."
+
+But the most touching recollection connected with this city is
+this,--even that part of the Word of God was written in it, and that a
+greater than Cæsar has trodden its soil. A few paces below where we
+stand is the Mamertine prison, in whose dungeons, it is probable, Paul
+was confined; for this was the state-prison, and offences against
+religion were accounted state-offences. It is hewn in the rock of the
+Capitoline hill, dungeon below dungeon; and when surveying it, I could
+not but feel, that among all the exploits of Roman valour, there was not
+one half so heroic as that of the man who, with a cruel death staring
+him in the face, could sit down in this dungeon, where day never dawned,
+and write these heroic words,--"I am now ready to be offered, and the
+time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight; I have
+finished my course; I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up
+for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge,
+shall give me at that day; and not to me only, but unto all them also
+that love his appearing."
+
+Here I may be allowed to allude to a branch of the external evidence of
+Christianity which has not received all the notice to which it is
+entitled. When surveying from the tower of the Capitol the ruins of
+ancient Rome, I felt strongly the absurdity--the almost idiotcy--of
+denying the historic truth of Christianity. On such a spot one might as
+well deny that ancient Rome existed, as deny that Christianity was
+preached here eighteen centuries ago, and rose upon the ruins of
+paganism. At the distance of Rome, and amid the darkness of Italian
+ignorance, we can conceive of a Roman holding that the life of Knox is a
+fable,--that no such man ever existed, or ever preached in Scotland, or
+ever effected the Reformation from Popery. But bring him to the Castle
+Hill of Edinburgh,--bid him look round upon city and country, studded
+with the churches and schools of the reformed faith, planted by
+Knox,--show him the mouldering remains of the old cathedrals from which
+the priesthood and faith of Rome were driven out,--and, unless his mind
+is constituted in some extraordinary way, he would no longer doubt that
+such a man as Knox existed, and that Scotland has been reformed from
+Romanism to Presbyterianism. So is it at Rome. Around you are the
+temples of the ancient paganism. Here are ruins still bearing the
+inscriptions and effigies of the pagan deities and the pagan rites. Can
+any sane man doubt that paganism once reigned here? You can trace the
+history of its reign still graven on the ruins of Rome; but you can
+trace it down till only seventeen centuries ago: then it suddenly stops;
+a new writing appears upon the stones; a new religion has acquired the
+ascendancy in Rome, and left its memorials graven upon pillar, and
+column, and temple. Can any man doubt that Paul visited this city,--that
+he preached here, as the "Acts of the Apostles" records,--and that,
+after two centuries of struggles and martyrdoms, the faith which he
+preached triumphed over the paganism of Rome? Look along the Via
+Sacra,--that narrow paved road which leads southward from the Capitol:
+the very stones over which the chariot of Scylla rolled are still there.
+The road runs straight between the Palatine Mount, where the ivy and the
+cypress strive to mantle the ruins of the palace of the Cæsars, and the
+wonderful and ever beautiful structure of the Coliseum. In the valley
+between is a beautiful arch of marble,--the Arch of Titus. The palace of
+the world's master lies in ruins on the one side of it; the Coliseum,
+the largest single structure which human hands ever created, stands
+rent, and scarred, and bowed, on the other; and between these two mighty
+ruins this little arch rises entire. What a wonderful providence has
+spared it! On that arch is graven the record of the fall of Jerusalem
+and the captivity of the Jews; and the great fact of the existence of
+the Old Testament economy is also attested upon it; for there plainly
+appears on the stone, the furniture of the temple, the golden
+candlestick, the table of shew-bread, and the silver trumpets. But
+further, about two miles to the south of Rome are the Catacombs. In
+these catacombs, which, not unlike the coal-mines of our own country,
+traverse under ground the Campagna for a circuit of many miles, the
+early Christians, lived during the primitive persecutions. There they
+worshipped, there they died, and there they were buried; and their
+simple tombstones, recording that they died in peace, and in the hope of
+eternal life through Christ, are still to be seen to the number of many
+thousands. How came these tombstones there, if early Christianity and
+the early martyrs be a fable? If Christianity be a forgery, the arch of
+Titus, with its sacred symbols, is also a forgery; the catacombs, with
+all their tombstones, are also a forgery; and the hundred monuments in
+Rome, with the traces of early Christianity graven upon them, are also a
+forgery; and the person or persons who forged Christianity, in order to
+give currency to their forgery, must have been at the incredible pains
+of building the arch of Titus, and chiselling out its sculpture work;
+they must have dug out the catacombs, and filled them, with infinite
+labour, with forged tombstones; and they must have covered the monuments
+of Rome with forged inscriptions. Would any one have been at the pains
+to have done all this, or could he have done it without being detected?
+When the Romans rose in the morning, and saw these forged inscriptions,
+they must have known that they were not there the day before, and would
+have exposed the trick. But the idea is absurd, and no man can seriously
+entertain it whom an inveterate scepticism has not smitten with the
+extreme of senility or idiotcy. There is far more evidence at Rome for
+the historic truth of Christianity than for the existence of Julius
+Cæsar or of Scipio, or of any of the great men whose existence no one
+ever takes it into his head to doubt.
+
+Here, in the Forum, are THREE WITNESSES, which testify respectively to
+three leading facts of Christianity. These witnesses are,--the Arch of
+Titus, the fallen Palace on the Palatine, and the Column of Phocas. The
+Arch of Titus proclaims the end of the Old Testament economy; for there,
+graven on its marble, is the record of the fall of the temple, and the
+dispersion of the Jewish nation. The ruin on the Palatine tells that
+the "let" which hindered the revelation of the Man of Sin has now been
+"taken out of the way," as Paul foretold; for there lies the prostrate
+throne of the Cæsars, which, while it stood, effectually forbade the
+rise of the popes. But this solitary pillar, which stands erect where so
+many temples have fallen, with what message is it freighted? It
+witnesses to the rise of Antichrist. That column rose with the popes;
+for Phocas set it up to commemorate the assumption of the title of
+Universal Bishop by the pastor of Rome; and here has it been standing
+all the while, to proclaim that "that wicked" is now revealed, "whom the
+Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with
+the brightness of his coming." Such is the united testimony borne by
+these three Witnesses,--even that the Antichrist is come.
+
+To complete this _coup d'oeil_ of Rome, it is necessary only that we
+transfer our gaze for an instant to the more distant objects. Though
+swept, as the site of Rome now is, with the besom of destruction, the
+outlines, which no ruin can obliterate, are yet grand as ever.
+Immediately beneath you are the red roofs and glittering domes of the
+city; around is a gay fringe of vineyards and gardens; and beyond is the
+dark bosom of the Campagna, stretching far and wide, meeting the horizon
+on the west and south, and confined on the east and north by a wall of
+glorious hills,--the sweet Volscians, the blue Sabines, the craggy
+Apennines, with their summits--at least when I saw them--hoary with the
+snows of winter. Spectacle terrible and sublime! Ruin colossal and
+unparalleled! The Campagna is a vast hall, amid the funereal shadows and
+unbroken stillness of which repose in mournful state the ASHES OF ROME.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+STRIKING OBJECTS IN ROME.
+
+     The Baths of Caracalla--The Catacombs--Evidence thence arising
+     against Romanism--The Scala Santa, or Pilate's Stairs--Peasants
+     from Rimini climbing them--Irreverence of Devotees--Unequal Terms
+     on which the Pope offers Heaven--Church of Ara Cæli--The Santissimo
+     Bambino--Conversation with the Monks who exhibit it--The Ghetto, or
+     Jew's Quarter--Efforts to Convert them to Romanism--Tyrannical
+     Restrictions still imposed upon them--Their Ineradicable
+     Characteristics of Race--The Vatican--The Apollo Belvedere--Pio
+     Nono--His Dress and Person--St Peter's--Its Grandeur and
+     Uselessness--Motto on Egyptian Obelisk--Gate of San
+     Pancrazio--Graves of the French--The Convents--Exhibition of
+     Nuns--Collegio Romano and Father Perrone--An American Student--The
+     English Protestant Chapel--Preaching there--American
+     Chaplain--Collection in Rome for Building a Cathedral in
+     London--Sermon on Immaculate Conception in Church of Gesu--Ave
+     Maria--Family Worship in Hotel--Early Christians of Rome--Paul.
+
+
+I have already mentioned my arrival at midnight, and how thankful I was
+to find an open door and an empty bed at the Hotel d'Angleterre. The
+reader may guess my surprise and joy at discovering next morning that I
+had slept in a chamber adjoining that of my friend Mr Bonar, from whom I
+had parted, several weeks before, at Turin. After breakfast, we sallied
+out to see the Catacombs. I had found Rome in cloud and darkness on the
+previous night; and now, after a deceitful morning gleam, the storm
+returned with greater violence than ever. Torrents swept the streets;
+the lightning was flashing on the old monuments; fearful peals of
+thunder were rolling above the city; and we were compelled oftener than
+once during our ride to seek the shelter of an arched way from the
+deluge of rain that poured down upon us. Skirting the base of the
+Palatine, and emerging on the Via Appia, we arrived at the Baths of
+Caracalla, which we had resolved to visit on our way to the Catacombs.
+No words can describe the ghastly grandeur of this stupendous ruin,
+which, next to the Coliseum, is the greatest in Rome. Besides its
+saloons, theatre, and libraries, it contained, it is said, sixteen
+hundred chairs for bathers. As was its pristine splendour, so now is its
+overthrow. Its cyclopean walls, and its vast chambers, the floors of
+which are covered to the depth of some twelve or twenty feet with fallen
+masses of the mosaic ceiling, like immense boulders which have rolled
+down from some mountain's top, are spread over an area of about a mile
+in circuit. The ruins, here capped with sward and young trees, there
+rising in naked jagged turrets like Alpine peaks, had a romantic effect,
+which was not a little heightened by the alternate darkness of the
+thunder-cloud that hung above them, and the incessant play of the
+lightning among their worn pinnacles.
+
+Resuming our course along the Appian Way, we passed the tomb of the
+Scipios; and, making our exit by the Sebastian gate, we came, after a
+ride of two miles in the open country, to the basilica of San
+Sebastiano, erected over the entrance to the Catacombs. Pulling a bell
+which hung in the vestibule, a monk appeared as our cicerone, and we
+might have been pardoned a little misgiving in committing ourselves to
+such a guide through the bowels of the earth. His cloak was old and
+tattered, his face was scourged with scorbutic disease, misery or
+flagellation had worn him to the bone, and his restless eye cast uneasy
+glances on all around. He carried in his hand a little bundle of tallow
+candles, as thin and worn as himself almost; and, having lighted them,
+he gave one to each of us, and bade us follow. We descended with him
+into the doubtful night. The place was a long shaft or corridor, dug out
+of the brown tuffo rock, with the roof about two feet overhead, and the
+breadth two thirds or so of the height. The descent was easy, the
+turnings frequent, and light there was none, save the glimmerings of our
+slender tapers. The origin of the Catacombs is still a disputed
+question; but the most probable opinion is, that they were formed by
+digging out the pozzolana or volcanic earth, which was used as a cement
+in the great buildings of Rome. They extend in a zone round the city,
+and form a labyrinth of subterranean galleries, which traverse the
+Campagna, reaching, according to some, to the shore of the
+Mediterranean. He who adventures into them without a guide is infallibly
+lost. They speak at Rome of a professor and his students, to the number
+of sixty, who entered the Catacombs fifty years ago, and have not yet
+returned. Certain it is, that many melancholy accidents have occurred in
+them, which have induced the Government to wall them up to a certain
+extent. I had not gone many yards till I felt that I was entirely at the
+mercy of the monk, and that, should he play me false, I must remain
+where I was till doomsday.
+
+But what invests the Catacombs with an interest of so touching a kind is
+the fact, that here the Christian Church, in days of persecution, made
+her abode. What! in darkness, and in the bowels of the earth? Yes: such
+were the Christians which that age produced. At every few paces along
+the galleries you see the quadrangular excavations in which the dead
+were laid. There, too, are the niches in which lamps were placed, so
+needful in the subterranean gloom; and occasionally there opens to your
+taper a large square chamber, with its walls of dark-brownish tuffo and
+its stuccoed roof, which has evidently been used for family purposes, or
+as a chapel. How often has the voice of prayer and praise resounded
+here! The Catacombs are a stupendous monument of the faith and constancy
+of the primitive Church. You have the satisfaction here of knowing that
+you have the very scenes before you that met the eyes of the first
+Christians. Time has not altered them; superstition has not disfigured
+them. Such as they were when the primitive believers fled to them from a
+Nero's cruelty or a Domitian's tyranny, so are they now.
+
+These remarkable excavations were well known down till the sixth
+century. Amid the barbarism of the ages that succeeded, all knowledge of
+them was lost; but in the beginning of the sixteenth century, when the
+art of printing had been invented, and the world could profit by the
+discovery, the Catacombs were re-opened. Most of the gravestones were
+removed to the Vatican, and built into the _Lapidaria Galleria_, where I
+spent a day copying them; but so accurately have they been described by
+Maitland, in his "Church in the Catacombs," that I beg to refer the
+reader who wishes farther information respecting these deeply
+interesting memorials, to his valuable work. They are plain, unchiselled
+slabs of marble, with simple characters, scratched with some sharp
+instrument by the aid of the lamp, recording the name and age of the
+person whose remains they enclosed, to which is briefly added, "in
+peace," or "in Christ." Piety here is to be tested, not by the
+profession on the tombstone, but by the sacrifice of the life. A palm
+branch carved on the stone is the usual sign of martyrdom. I saw a few
+slabs still remaining as they had been placed seventeen centuries ago,
+fastened into the tuffo rock with a cement of earth. When the Catacombs
+were opened, a witness rose from the dead to confront Rome. No trace has
+been discovered which could establish the slightest identity in
+doctrine, in worship, or in government, between the present Church of
+Rome and the Church of the Catacombs.
+
+Will the reader accompany me to another and very different scene? We
+leave these midnight vaults, and tread again the narrow lava-paved
+Appian road; and through rural lanes we seek the summit of the Cælian
+mount, where stands in statued pomp the church of St John Lateran. Here
+are shown the _Scala Santa_ which were brought from Jerusalem, and which
+the Church of Rome certifies as the very stairs which Christ ascended
+when he went to be judged of Pilate. On the north side of the quadrangle
+is an open building, with three separate flights of steps leading up
+from the pavement to the first floor. The middle staircase, which is
+covered with wood to preserve the marble, is the _Scala Santa_, which it
+is lawful to ascend only on your knees. Having reached the top, you may
+again use your feet, and descend by either of the other two stairs.
+Placed against the wall at the foot of the Scala Santa, is a large
+board, with the conditions to be observed in the ascent. Amongst other
+provisions, no one is allowed to carry a cane up the Scala Santa, nor is
+dog allowed to set foot on these stairs. On the pavement stood a
+sentry-box; and in the box sat a little dark-visaged man, so very
+withered, so very old, and so very crabbed, that I almost was tempted to
+ask him whether he had been imported along with the stairs. He rattled
+his little tin-box violently, which seemed half full of small coins, and
+invited me to ascend. "What shall I have for doing so?" I asked.
+"Fifteen years' indulgence," was the instant reply. There might be about
+fifteen steps in the stair, which was at the rate of a year's
+indulgence for every step. The terms were fair; for with an ordinary
+day's work I might lay up some thousands of years' indulgence. There was
+but one drawback in the matter. "I don't believe in purgatory," I
+rejoined. "What is that to me?" said the old man, tartly, accompanying
+the remark with a quick shrug of the shoulders and a curl of his thin
+lip.
+
+I turned to the staircase. Three peasant lads from Rimini--where the
+Madonna still winks, and good Catholic hearts still believe--were
+piously engaged in laying up a stock of merit against a future day, on
+the Scala Santa. Swinging the upper part of their bodies, and holding
+their feet aloft lest their wooden-soled shoes should touch the precious
+marble, or rather its wooden casing, they were slowly making way on the
+steps. In a little they were joined by a Frenchman, with his wife and
+little daughter; and the whole began a general march up the staircase.
+Whether it was the greater vigour of their piety, or the greater vigour
+of their limbs, I know not; but the peasants had flung themselves up
+before the lady had mastered five steps of the course. It occurred to me
+that this way of earning heaven was not one that placed all on a level,
+as they should be. These strong sinewy lads were getting fifteen years'
+indulgence with no greater effort than it cost the lady to earn five.
+The party, on reaching the top, entered a room on the right, and dropt
+on their knees before a little box of bones which stood in one corner,
+then before a painting of the Saviour which hung in the other; muttered
+a few words of prayer; and, descending the lateral stairs, commenced
+over again the same process. In no time they had laid up at least a
+hundred years' indulgence a-piece. The Frenchman and his lady went
+through the operation with a grave face; but the peasants quite lost the
+mastery over theirs, and the building rung with peals of laughter at
+the ridiculous attitudes into which they were compelled to throw
+themselves. Even in the little chapel above, bursts of smothered
+merriment interrupted their prayers. I looked at the little man in the
+box, to see how he was taking it; but he was true to his own remark,
+"What is that to me?" Indeed, this behaviour by no means detracted from
+the merit of the deed, or shortened by a single day the term of
+indulgence, in the estimation of the Italians. _Their_ understanding of
+devotion and _ours_ are totally different. With us devotion is a mental
+act; with them it is a mechanical act, strictly so. The mind may be
+absent, asleep, dead; it is devotion nevertheless. These peasants had
+undertaken to climb Pilate's staircase on their knees; not to give
+devout or reverent feelings into the bargain: they had done all they
+engaged to do, and were entitled to claim their hire. The staircase, as
+my readers may remember, has a strange connection with the Reformation.
+One day, as Luther was dragging his body up these steps, he thought he
+heard a voice from heaven crying to him, _The just shall live by faith._
+Amazed, he sprang to his feet. New light entered into him. Luther and
+the Reformation were advanced a stage.
+
+From the Scala Santa in the Lateran I went to see the Santissimo Bambino
+in the church of Ara Cæli, on the Capitol. This church is squatted on
+the spot where stood the temple of Jupiter Ferretrius of old. It is one
+of the largest churches in Rome, and is unquestionably the ugliest. A
+magnificent staircase of an hundred and twenty-four steps of Parian
+marble leads up to it; but the church itself is as untasteful as can
+well be imagined. It presents its gable to the spectator, which is
+simply a vast unadorned expanse of brick, the breadth greatly exceeding
+the height, and terminating a-top in a sort of coping, that looks like a
+low, broad chimney, or rather a dozen chimneys in one. The edifice
+always reminded me of a short, stout Quaker, with a brim of even more
+than the usual breadth, standing astride on the Capitol. Entering by the
+main doorway in the west, I passed along the side aisle, on my way to
+the little chapel near the altar where the Bambino is kept. The wall
+here was covered with little pictures in thousands, all in the homeliest
+style of the art, and representing persons falling into the sea, or
+tumbling over precipices, or ridden over by carts. These were votive
+offerings from persons who had been in the situations represented, and
+who had been saved by the special interposition of Mary. Arms, legs, and
+heads of brass, and in some instances of silver, bore testimony to the
+greater wealth or the greater devotion of others of the devotees.
+Passing through a door on the left, at the eastern extremity of the
+church, I entered the little chapel or side closet, in which the Bambino
+is kept. Here two barefooted monks, with not more than the average dirt
+on their persons, were in attendance, to show me the "god." They began
+by lighting a few candles, though the sunlight was streaming in at the
+casement. I was near asking the monks the same question which the
+Protestant inhabitants of a Hungarian village one day put to their
+Catholic neighbours, as they were marching in procession through their
+streets,--"Is your god blind, that you burn candles to him at mid-day?"
+The tapers lighted, one of the friars dropped on his knees, and fell to
+praying with great vigour. I fear my deportment was not so edifying as
+the place and circumstances required; for I could see that ever and anon
+the monk cast side-long glances at me, as at a man who was scarce worthy
+of so great a sight as was about to be shown him. The other monk,
+drawing a key from under his cloak, threw open the doors of a sort of
+cupboard that stood against the wall. The interior was fitted up not
+unlike the stage of a theatre. A tall figure, covered with a brown
+cloak, stood leaning on a staff in the foreground. By his side stood a
+female, considerably younger, and attired in an elegant robe of green.
+These two regarded with fixed looks a little cradle or casket at their
+feet. The background stretched away into a hilly country, amid whose
+knolls and dells were shepherds with their flocks. The figures were
+Joseph and Mary, and the vista beyond was meant to represent the
+vicinity of Bethlehem. Taking up the casket, the monk, with infinite
+bowings and crossings, undid its swathings, and solemnly drew forth the
+Bambino. Poor little thing! it was all one to it whether one or a
+hundred candles were burning beside it: it had eyes, but saw not. It was
+bandaged, as all Italian children are, from head to foot, the swathings
+enveloping both arms and legs, displaying only its little feet at one
+extremity, and its round chubby face at the other. But what a blaze! On
+its little head was a golden crown, burning with brilliants; and from
+top to toe it was stuck so full of jewels, that it sparkled and
+glittered as if it had been but one lustrous gem throughout.
+
+Two women, who had taken the opportunity of an Inglise visiting the
+idol, now entered, leading betwixt them a little child, and all three
+dropped on their knees before the Bambino. I begged the monk to inform
+me why these women were here on their knees, and praying. "They are
+worshipping the Bambino," he replied. "Oh! worshipping, are they?" I
+exclaimed, in affected surprise; "how stupid I am; I took it for a piece
+of wood." "And so it is," rejoined the monk; "but it is miraculous; it
+is full of divine virtue, and works cures." "Has it wrought any of
+late?" I inquired. "It has," replied the religioso; "it cured a woman of
+dropsy two weeks ago." "In what quarter of Rome did she live?" I asked.
+"She lived in the Vatican," replied the Franciscan. "We have some great
+doctors in the city I come from," I said; "we have some who can take off
+an arm, or a leg, or a nose, without your feeling the slightest pain;
+but we have no doctor like this little doctor. But, pray tell me, why do
+you permit the cardinals or the Pope ever to die, when the Bambino can
+cure them?" The monk turned sharply round, and gave me a searching
+stare, which I stood with imperturbable gravity; and then, taking me for
+either a very dull or a very earnest questioner, he proceeded to explain
+that the cure did not depend altogether on the power of the Bambino, but
+also somewhat on the faith of the patient. "Oh, I see how it is," I
+replied. "But pardon me yet farther; you say the Bambino is of wood, and
+that these honest women are praying to it. Now I have been taught to
+believe that we ought not to worship wood." To make sure both of my
+interrogatories and of the monk's answers, I had been speaking to him
+through my friend Mr Stewart, whose long residence in Rome had made him
+perfectly master of the Italian tongue. "Oh," replied the Franciscan,
+"_all Christians here worship it_." But now the signs had become very
+manifest that my inquiries had reached a point beyond which it would not
+be prudent to push them. The monk was getting very red in the face; his
+motions were growing quick and violent; and, with more haste than
+reverence, he put back his god into its crib, and prepared to lock it up
+in its press. His fellow monk had started to his feet, and was rapidly
+extinguishing the candles, as if he smelt the unwholesome air of heresy.
+The women were told to be off; and the exhibition closed with somewhat
+less show of devotion than it had opened.
+
+Here, by the banks of the Tiber, as of old by the Euphrates, sits the
+captive daughter of Judah; and I went one afternoon towards twilight to
+visit the Ghetto. It is a narrow, dark, damp, tunnel-like lane. Old
+Father Tiber had been there but a day or two previously, and had left,
+as usual, very distinct traces of his visit, in the slime and wet that
+covered the place. Formerly it was shut in with gates, which were locked
+every night at Ave Maria: now the gates are gone, and the broken and
+ragged door-posts show where they had hung. Opposite the entrance of the
+Ghetto stands a fine church, with a large sculpture-piece over its
+portal, representing a crucifix, surrounded with the motto, which meets
+the eye of the Jew every time he passes out or comes in, "All day long I
+have stretched forth my hands unto a gainsaying and disobedient people."
+The allusion here, no doubt, is to their unwillingness to pay their
+taxes, for that is the only sense in which the Pope's hands are all day
+long stretched out towards this people. Recently Pio Nono contracted a
+loan for twenty-one millions of francs, with the house of Rothschild;
+and thus, after persecuting the race for ages, the Vicar of God has come
+to lean for the support of his tottering throne upon a Jew. To do the
+Pope justice, however, the Jews in Rome are gathered once a-year into a
+church, where a sermon is preached for their conversion. The spectacle
+is said to be a very edifying one. The preacher fires off from the
+pulpit the hardest hits he can; and the Jews sit spitting, coughing, and
+making faces in return; while a person armed with a long pole stalks
+through the congregation, and admonishes the noisiest with a firm sharp
+rap on the head. The scene closes with a baptism, in which, it is
+affirmed, the same Jew sometimes plays the same part twice, or oftener
+if need be.
+
+The tyrannical spirit of Popery is seen in the treatment to which these
+descendants of Abraham are subjected in Rome, down to the present hour.
+Inquisitors are appointed to search into and examine all their books;
+all Rabbinic works are forbidden them, the Old Testament in Hebrew only
+being allowed to them; and any Jew having any forbidden book in his
+possession is liable to the confiscation of his property. Nor is he
+permitted to converse on the subject of religion with a Christian. They
+are not permitted to bury their dead with religious pomp, or to write
+inscriptions on their tombstones; they are forbidden to employ Christian
+servants; and if they do anything to disturb the faith of a Jewish
+convert to Romanism, they are subject to the confiscation of all their
+goods, and to imprisonment with hard labour for life; they are not
+allowed to sell meat butchered by themselves to Christians, nor
+unleavened bread, under heavy penalties; nor are they permitted to sleep
+a night beyond the limits of their quarters, nor to have carriage or
+horses of their own, nor to drive about the city in carriages, nor to
+use public conveyances for journeying, if any one object to it.
+
+Enter the Ghetto, and you feel instantly that you are among another
+race. An indescribable languor reigns over the rest of Rome. The Romans
+walk the streets with their hands in their pockets, and their eyes on
+the ground, for a heavy heart makes the limbs to drag. But in the Ghetto
+all is activity and thrift. You feel as if you had been suddenly
+transported into one of the busiest lanes of Glasgow or Manchester.
+Eager faces, with keen eyes and sharp features, look out upon you from
+amid the bundles of clothes and piles of all kinds of articles which
+darken the doors and windows of their shops. Scarce have you crossed the
+threshold of the Ghetto when you are seized by the button, dragged
+helplessly into a small hole stuffed with every imaginable sort of
+merchandise, and invited to buy a dozen things at once. No sooner have
+you been let go than you are seized by another and another. The women
+were seated in the doors of their shops and dwellings, plying busily
+their needle. One fine Jewish matron I marked, with seven buxom
+daughters round her, all working away with amazing nimbleness, and
+casting only a momentary glance at the stranger as he passed. How
+inextinguishable the qualities of this extraordinary people! Here, in
+this desolate land, and surrounded by the overwhelming torpor and
+laziness of Rome, the Jews are as industrious and as intent on making
+gain as their brethren in the commercial cities of Britain. I drew up
+with a young lad of about twenty, by way of feeling the pulse of the
+Ghetto; but though I tried him on both the past and the present, I
+succeeded in striking no chord to which he would respond. He seemed one
+of the prophet's dried bones,--very dry. Seventy years did their fathers
+dwell by the Euphrates; but here, alas! has the harp of Judah hung upon
+the willow for eighteen centuries. Beneath the dark shadow of the
+Vatican do they ever think of the sunny and vine-clad hills of their
+Palestine?
+
+I spent days not a few in the saloons of the Vatican. Into these noble
+chambers,--six thousand in number, it is said,--have been gathered all
+the masterpieces of ancient art which have been dug up from the ruins of
+villas, and temples, and basilicas, where they had lain buried for ages.
+Of course, I enter on no description of these. Let me only remark, that
+though I had seen hundreds of copies of some of these sculptures,--the
+Apollo Belvedere and the Laocoon, for instance,--no copy I had ever seen
+had given me any but the faintest idea of the transcendent beauty and
+power of the originals. The artist, I found, had flung into them,
+without the slightest exaggeration of feature, a tremendous energy, an
+intense life, which perhaps no coming age will ever equal, and certainly
+none surpass. What a sublime, thrilling, ever-acting tragedy, for
+instance, is the Laocoon group! But from these efforts of a genius long
+since passed from the earth, I pass to one who represents in his living
+person a more tragical drama than any depicted in marble in the halls of
+the Vatican. One day as I was wandering through these apartments, the
+rumour ran through them that the Pope was going out to take an airing. I
+immediately ran down to the piazza, where I found a rather shabby coach
+with red wheels, to which were yoked four coal-black horses, with a very
+fat coachman on the box, in antique livery, and two postilions astride
+the horses, waiting for Pius. Some half-dozen of the _guardia nobile_,
+mounted on black horses, were in attendance; and, loitering at the
+bottom of the stairs, were the stately forms of the Swiss guards, with
+their shining halberds, and their quaint striped dress of yellow and
+purple. I had often heard of the Pope in the symbols of the Apocalypse,
+and in the pages of history as the antichrist; and now I was to see him
+with the eye in the person of Pio Nono. After waiting ten minutes or so,
+the folding doors in an upper gallery of the piazza were thrown open,
+and I could see a head covered with a white skull-cap,--the Popes never
+wear a wig,--passing along the corridor, just visible above the stone
+ballustrade. In a minute the Pope had descended the stairs, and was
+advancing along the open pavement to his carriage. The Swiss guard stood
+to their halberds. A Frenchman and his lady,--the same, if I mistake
+not, whom I had seen on the Scala Santa,--spreading his white
+handkerchief on the causeway, uncovered and dropped on his knees; a row
+of German students in red gowns went down in like manner; a score or so
+of wretched-looking old men, who were digging up the grass in the
+piazza, formed a prostrate group in the middle; and a little knot of
+Englishmen,--some four of us only,--stood erect at about six yards from
+the line of the procession.
+
+Pio Nono, though king of the kings of the earth, was attired with severe
+simplicity. His sole dress, save the skull-cap I have mentioned, and red
+slippers, was a gown of white stuff, which enveloped his whole person
+from the neck downwards, and looked not unlike a camlet morning
+dressing-gown. A small cross which dangled on his breast was his only
+ornament. The fisherman's ring I was too far off to see. In person he is
+a portly, good-looking gentleman; and, could one imagine him entering
+the pulpit of a Scotch Secession congregation, or an English Methodist
+one, his appearance would be hailed with looks of satisfaction. His
+colour was fresher than the average of Italy; and his face had less of
+the priest in it than many I have seen. There was an air of easy good
+nature upon it, which might be mistaken for benevolence, blended with a
+smile, which appeared ever on the point of breaking into a laugh, and
+which utterly shook the spectator's confidence in the firmness and good
+faith of its owner. Pius stooped slightly; his gait was a sort of amble;
+there was an air of irresolution over the whole man; and one was tempted
+to pronounce,--though the judgment may be too severe,--that he was half
+a rogue, half a fool. He waived his hand in an easy, careless way to the
+students and Frenchman, and made a profound bow to the English party.
+
+St Peter's is close by: let us enter it. As among the Alps, so here at
+first, one is altogether unaware of the magnitudes before him. What
+strikes you on entering is the vast sweep of the marble floor. It runs
+out before you like a vast plain or strath, and gives you a colossal
+standard of measurement, which you apply unconsciously to every
+object,--the pillars, the statues, the roof; and though these are all
+colossal too, yet so nicely are they proportioned to all around them,
+that you take no note of their bulk. You pass on, and the grandeur of
+the edifice opens upon you. Beneath you are rows of dead popes; on
+either side rise gigantic statues and monuments which genius has raised
+to their memory; and in front is the high altar of the Roman world,
+towering to the height of a three-story house, yet looking, beneath that
+sublime roof, of only ordinary size. You are near the reputed tombs of
+Peter and Paul, before which an hundred golden lamps burn day and night.
+And now the mighty dome opens upon you, like the vault of heaven itself.
+You begin to feel the wondrous magnificence of the edifice in which you
+stand, and you give way to the admiration and awe with which it inspires
+you. But next moment comes the saddening thought, that this pile,
+unrivalled as it is among temples made with hands, is literally useless.
+There is no worship in it. Here the sinner hears no tidings of a free
+salvation. This temple but enshrines a wafer, and serves once or twice
+a-year as the scene of an idle pageant on the part of a few old men.
+
+Nay, not only is it useless,--it is one of the strongholds which
+superstition has thrown up for perpetuating its sway over the world. You
+see these few poor people kneeling before these burning lamps. Their
+prayer is directed, not upwards through that dome to the heavens above
+it, but downwards into that vault where sleep, as they believe, the
+ashes of Peter and Paul. Rome has ever discouraged family worship, and
+taught men to pray in churches. Why? To increase the power of the Church
+and the priesthood. A country covered with households in which family
+worship is kept is like a country covered with fortresses;--it is
+impregnable. Every house is a citadel, and every family is a little
+army. Or mark yonder female who kneels before the perforated brazen
+lattice of yonder confessional-box. She is whispering her sins into the
+ear of a shaven priest, who receives them into his own black heart. It
+is but a reeking cess-pool, not a fountain of cleansing, to which she
+has come. Such are the uses of St Peter's,--a temple where the _Church_
+is glorified at the expense of _religion_. Its high altar stops the way
+to the throne of grace, and its priest bars your access to a Redeemer's
+blood.
+
+And how was this temple built? Romanists speak of it as a monument of
+the piety of the faithful. But what is the fact? Did it not come out of
+the foul box of Tetzel the indulgence-monger? Every stone in it is
+representative of so much sin. With all its grandeur, it is but a
+stupendous monument of the follies and vices, the crimes and the
+superstition, of Christendom in the ages which preceded the Reformation.
+It has cost Rome dear. We do not allude to the twelve millions its
+erection is said to have cost, but to the mighty rent to which it gave
+rise in the Roman world. In the centre of the magnificent piazza of St
+Peter's stands an Egyptian obelisk, brought from Heliopolis, with the
+words graven upon it, "Christ reigns." Verily that is a great truth; and
+there are few spots where one feels its force so strongly as here. The
+successive paganisms of the world have been overruled as steps in the
+world's progress. Their corruptions have been based upon certain great
+truths, which they have written, as it were, upon the general mind of
+the world. The paganism which flourished where that column was hewn was
+an admission of _God's existence_, though it strove to divert attention
+from the truth on which it was founded, by the multitude of false gods
+which it invented. In like manner, the paganism that flourishes, or
+rather that is fading, where this column now stands, is an admission of
+the _necessity of a Mediator_; though it strives, as its predecessor
+did, to hide this glorious truth under a cloud of spurious mediators.
+But we see in this how every successive move on the part of idolatry has
+in reality been a retreat. Truth is gradually advancing its parallels
+against the citadel of error, and the world is toiling slowly upward to
+its great rest. Thus Christ shows that He reigns.
+
+From this silent prophet at the Pope's door, let us skirt along the
+Janiculum, to the gate of San Pancrazio. The site is a commanding one;
+and you look down into the basin in which Rome reposes, where many a
+cupola, and tower, and pillared façade, rises proudly out of the red
+roofs that cover the Campus Martius. If it is toward sunset, you can see
+the sheen of the villas which are sprinkled over the Sabine and Volscian
+hills, and are much struck with the fine amphitheatre which the
+mountains around the city form. What must have been the magnificence of
+ancient Rome, with her seven hills, and her glorious Campagna, with such
+a mountain-wall! But let us mark the old gate. It was here that the
+struggle betwixt the French and the Romans took place in 1849. The wall
+is here of brick,--very old, and of great breadth; and if struck with a
+cannon ball, it would crumble into dust by inches, but not fall in
+masses: hence the difficulty which the French found of breaching it. The
+towers of the gate are dismantled, and the top of the wall for some
+thirty yards is of new brick; but, with these exceptions, no other
+traces remain of the bloody conflict which restored the Pope to his
+throne. Of old, when Dagon fell, and the human head rolled in one
+direction and the fishy tail lay in another, "they took Dagon," we are
+told, and, fastening together the dissevered parts, "they set him in his
+place again." Idol worshippers are the same in all ages. Oftener than
+once has the Dagon of the Seven Hills fallen; the crown has rolled in
+one direction; the "palms of his hands" have been seen in another; and
+only the sacerdotal stump has remained; but the kings of Europe have
+taken Dagon, and, by the help of bayonets, have "set him in his place
+again;" and, having set up _him_ who could not set up himself, have
+worshipped him as the prop of their own power. What I had come hither to
+see especially was the graves of those who had fallen. On the left of
+the road, outside the gate, I found a grassy plateau, of some half-dozen
+acres, slightly furrowed, but bearing no such indications as I expected
+to find of such carnage as had here taken place. A Roman youth was
+sauntering on the spot; and, making up to him, I asked him to be so good
+as show me where they had buried the Frenchmen. "Come along," said he,
+"and I will show you the French." We crossed the plateau in the
+direction of a vineyard, which was enclosed with a stone-wall. The gate
+was open, and we entered. Stooping down, the youth laid hold on a
+whitish-looking nodule, of about the size of one's fist, and, holding it
+out to me, said, "that, Signor, is part of a Frenchman." I thought at
+first the lad was befooling me; but on examining the substance, I found
+that it was animal matter calcined, and had indeed formed part of a
+human being. The vineyard for acres and acres was strewn with similar
+masses. I now saw where the French were buried. The siege took place in
+the heat of summer; and every evening, when the battle was over, the
+dead were gathered in heaps, and burned, to prevent infection; and there
+are their remains to this day, manuring the vineyards around the walls.
+I wonder if the evening breezes, as they blow over the Janiculum, don't
+waft across the odour to the Vatican.
+
+Let us descend the hill, and re-enter the city. There is a class of
+buildings which you cannot fail to note, and which at first you take to
+be prisons. They are large, gloomy-looking houses, of from three to
+four stories, with massive doors, and windows closed with strong upright
+iron stanchions, crossed with horizontal bars, forming a network of iron
+of so close a texture, that scarce a pigeon could squeeze itself
+through. Ah, there, you say, the brigand or the Mazzinist groans! No;
+the place is a convent. It is the dwelling, not of crime, but of
+"heavenly meditation." The beings that live there are so perfectly
+happy, so glad to have escaped from the evil world outside, and so
+delighted with their paradise, that not one of them would leave it,
+though you should open these doors, and tear away these iron bars. So
+the priests say. Is it not strange, then, to confine with bolt and bar
+beings who intend anything but escape? and is it not, to say the least,
+a needless waste of iron, in a country where iron is so very scarce and
+so very dear? It would be worth while making the trial, if only for a
+summer's day, of opening these doors, and astonishing Rome with the
+great amount of happiness within it, of which, meanwhile, it has not the
+least idea. I have seen the dignitaries entering, but no glimpse could I
+obtain of the interior; for immediately behind the strong outer door is
+an inner one, and how many more I know not. Mr Seymour has told us of a
+nun, while he was in Rome, who found her way out through all these doors
+and bars; but, instead of fleeing back into her paradise, she rushed
+straight to the Tiber, and sought death beneath its floods.
+
+But although I never was privileged to see the interior of a Roman
+convent, I saw on one occasion the inmates of these paradises. During my
+sojourn in that city, it was announced that the nuns of a certain
+convent were to sing at Ave Maria, in a church adjoining the Piazza di
+Spagna; and I went thither to hear them. The choristers I did not see;
+they sat in a remote gallery, behind a screen. Their voices, which in
+clearness and brilliancy of tone surpassed the finest instruments, now
+rose into an overpowering melodious burst, and now died away into the
+sweetest, softest whispers. Within the low rail, their faces fronting
+the altar, and their backs turned on the audience, sat a row of
+spectres. Start not, reader; spectres they were,--fleshless, bloodless
+spectres. I saw them enter: they came like the sheeted dead; they wore
+long white dresses; their faces were pale and livid, like those that
+look out upon you from coffins; their forms were thin and wasted, and
+cast scarce a shadow as they passed between you and the beams of the
+sinking sun. Their eyes they lifted not, but kept them steadfastly fixed
+on the ground, over which they crept noiselessly as shadows creep. They
+sat mute and moveless, as if they had been statues of cold marble, all
+the while these brilliant notes were rolling above them. But I observed
+they were closely watched by the priests. There were several beside the
+altar; and whichever it was who happened for the moment to be
+disengaged, he turned round, and stood regarding the nuns with that
+stern anxious look with which one seeks to control a mastiff or a
+maniac. Were the priests afraid that, if withdrawn for a moment from the
+influence of their eye, a wail of woe would burst forth from these poor
+creatures? The last hallelujah had been pealed forth,--the shades of eve
+were thickening among the aisles,--when the priests gave the signal to
+the nuns. They rose, they moved; and, with eyes which were not lifted
+for a moment from the floor on which they trod, they disappeared by the
+same private door by which they had entered. I have seen gangs of galley
+slaves,--I have seen the husbands and sons of Rome led away manacled
+into banishment,--I have seen men standing beneath the gallows; but
+never did I see so woe-struck a group as this. Than have gone back with
+these nuns to their "paradise," as it is cruelly termed, I felt that I
+would rather have lain, where the lost nun is, in the Tiber.
+
+Before visiting Italy, I had read and studied the lectures of Father
+Perrone, Professor of Dogmatic Theology in the Collegio Romano, and had
+had frequent occasion to mention his name in my own humble pages; for I
+had nowhere found so clear a statement of the views held by the Church
+of Rome on the important doctrine of Original Sin, as that given in the
+Father's writings, and few had spoken so plainly as he had done on the
+wickedness of toleration. Being in Rome, I was naturally desirous of
+seeing the Father, and hearing him prelect. Accompanied by a young Roman
+student, whose acquaintance I had the happiness to make, but whose name
+I do not here mention, I repaired one day to the Collegio Romano,--a
+fine quadrangular building; and, after visiting its library, in whose
+"dark unfathomed caves" lies full many a monkish gem, I passed to the
+class-room of Professor Perrone. It was a lofty hall, benched after the
+manner of our own class-rooms, and hung round with portraits of the
+Professor's predecessors in office,--at least I took them for such. A
+tall pulpit rose on the end wall, with a crucifix beside it. The
+students were assembling, and mustered to the number of about an
+hundred. They were raw-boned, seedy-looking lads, of from seventeen to
+twenty-two. They all wore gowns, the majority being black, but some few
+red. Had I been a rich man, and disposed to signalize my visit to the
+Collegio Romano by some appropriate gift, I would have presented each of
+its students with a bar of soap, with directions for its use. In a few
+minutes the Professor entered, wearing the little round cap of the
+Jesuits. With that quiet stealthy step (an unconscious struggle to pass
+from matter into spirit, and assume invisibility) which is inseparable
+from the order, Father Perrone walked up to the pulpit stairs, which,
+after doffing his cap, and muttering a short prayer before the crucifix,
+he ascended, and took his place. It may interest those who are familiar
+with his writings, to know that Father Perrone is a man of middle size,
+rather inclined to obesity, with a calm, pleasant, thoughtful face,
+which becomes lighted up, as he proceeds, with true Italian vivacity.
+His lecture for the day was on the Evidences; and of course it was not
+the heretics, but the infidels, whom he combated throughout. In the
+number of his students was a young Protestant American, whom I first met
+in the house of the Rev. Mr Hastings, the American chaplain, where I
+usually passed my Sabbath evenings. This young man had chalked out for
+himself the most extraordinary theological course I ever heard of. He
+had first of all gone through a full curriculum in one of the old
+orthodox halls of the United States; he had then passed into Germany,
+where he had taken a course of neology and philosophy; and now he had
+come to Rome, where he intended to finish off with a course of Romanism.
+I ventured to engage him in a conversation on what he had learned in
+Germany; but we had not gone far till both found that we had lost
+ourselves in a dark mist; and we were glad to lay hold on an ordinary
+topic, as a clue back to the daylight. The young divine purposed
+returning to his native land, and spending his days as a Presbyterian
+pastor.
+
+Will the reader go back with me to the point where we began our
+excursion through Rome,--the Flaminian Gate? I invite the reader's
+special attention to a building on the right. It stands a few paces
+outside the gate. The building possesses no architectural attractions,
+but it is illustrative of a great principle. The first floor is occupied
+as a granary; the second floor is occupied as a granary; the third
+floor,--how is it occupied,--the attic story? Why, it is the English
+Protestant Church! Here is the toleration which the Pope grants us in
+Rome. There are from six hundred to a thousand English subjects resident
+in Rome every winter; but they dare not meet within the walls to open
+the Bible, or to worship God as his Word enjoins. They must go out
+without the gate, as if they were evil-doers; they must climb the stairs
+of this granary, as if they meditated some deed of darkness; and only
+when they have got into this garret are they at liberty to worship God.
+The Pope comes, not in person, but in his cardinals and priests, to
+Britain; and he claims the right of building his mass-houses, and of
+celebrating his worship, in every town and village of our empire. We
+permit him to do so; for we will fight this great battle with the
+weapons of toleration. We disdain to stain our hands or tarnish our
+cause by any other: these we leave to our opponents. But when we go to
+Rome, and offer to buy with our money a spot of ground on which to erect
+a house for the worship of God, we are told that we can have--no, not a
+foot's-breadth. Why, I say, the gospel had more toleration in Pagan
+Rome, aye, even when Nero was emperor, than it has in Papal Rome under
+Pio Nono. When Christianity entered Rome in the person of the Apostle
+Paul, did the tyrant of the Palatine strike her dumb? By no means. For
+the space of two years, her still small voice ceased not to be heard at
+the foot of the Capitol. "And Paul dwelt two whole years in his own
+hired house [in Rome], and received all that came in unto him; preaching
+the kingdom of God, and teaching those things which concern the Lord
+Jesus Christ, with all confidence, no man forbidding him." Let any
+minister or missionary attempt to do so now, and what would be his fate?
+and what the fate of any Roman who might dare to visit him? Instant
+banishment to the one,--instant imprisonment to the other. The Pope has
+set up the symbol of intolerance and persecution at his gate. He has
+written over the portals of Rome, as Dante over the gates of hell, "All
+ye who enter here, abandon"--God.
+
+I do not say that the place is incommodious internally. The stigma lies
+in the proscription put upon Protestant worship. It is held to be an
+abomination so foul, that it cannot be tolerated within the walls of
+Rome. And the same spirit which banishes the worship to a garret, would
+banish the worshipper to a prison, or condemn him to a stake, if it
+dared. The same principle that makes Rome lock her earthly gates against
+the Protestant now, makes her lock her heavenly gates against him
+eternally.
+
+There are, however, annoyances of a palpable and somewhat ludicrous kind
+attending this expulsion of the Protestant worship beyond the walls. The
+granary to which I have referred adjoins the cattle and pig market. In
+Rome, although it is a mortal sin to eat the smallest piece of flesh on
+a Friday, it is no sin at all to buy and sell swine's flesh on a
+Sabbath. Accordingly, the pig-market is held on Sabbath; and it is
+customary to drive the animals into the back courts of the English
+meeting-house before carrying them to market. So I was informed, when at
+Rome, by a member of the English congregation. The uproar created by the
+animals is at times so great as to disturb the worshippers in the attic
+above, who have been under the necessity of putting their hands into
+their pockets, and buying food for the swine, in order to keep them
+quiet during the hours of divine service. Thus the English at Rome are
+able to conduct their worship with some degree of decorum only when both
+cardinals and swine are propitious. Should either be out of humour,--a
+thing conceivable to happen to the most obese cardinal and the
+sweetest-tempered pig,--the English have but little chance of quiet.
+Nor is that the worst of it. I read not long since in the public
+journals, a letter from a Romish dignitary,--Dr Cahill, if I mistake
+not,--who, with an immense amount of bravery, stated that there was no
+Roman Catholic country in the world where full toleration was not
+enjoyed; and that, as regarded Rome, any Roman might change his religion
+to-morrow with perfect impunity. He might adopt Protestantism or
+Quakerism, or any other ism he pleased, provided he could show that he
+was not acting under the compulsion of a bribe. But how stands the fact?
+I passed three Sabbaths in Rome; I worshipped each Sabbath in the
+English Protestant chapel; and what did I see at the door of that
+chapel? I saw two gendarmes, with a priest beside them to give them
+instructions. And why were they there? They were there to observe all
+who went in and out at that chapel; and provided a Roman had dared to
+climb these stairs, and worship with the English congregation, the
+gendarmes would have seized him by the collar, and dragged him to the
+Inquisition. So much for the liberty the poor Romans enjoy to change
+their religion. The writer of that letter with the same truth might have
+told the people of England that there is no such city as Rome in all the
+world.
+
+I was much taken with the ministrations of the Rev. Francis B. Woodward,
+the resident chaplain, on hearing him for the first time. He looked like
+one whose heart was in his work, and I thought him evangelical, so far
+as the absence of all reference to what Luther has termed "the article
+of a standing or a falling Church" allowed me to form an opinion. But
+next Sabbath my confidence was sorely shaken. Mr Woodward was proceeding
+in a rich and sweetly pious discourse on the necessity of seeking and
+cultivating the gifts of the Spirit, and of cherishing the hope of
+glory, when, towards the middle of his sermon, the evangelical thread
+suddenly snapped. "How are we," abruptly asked the preacher, "to become
+the sons of God?" I answer, by baptism. By baptism we are made children
+of God and heirs of heaven. But should we fall from that happy state,
+how are we to recover it? I answer, by penance. And then he instantly
+fell back again into his former pious strain. I started as if struck,
+and looked round to see how the audience were taking it. But I could
+discover no sign that they felt the real significancy of the words they
+had just heard. It seemed to me that the English chaplain was outside
+the gate for the purpose of showing men in at it; and were I the Pope,
+instead of incurring the scandal of banishing him beyond the walls, I
+would assign him one of the best of the many hundred empty churches in
+Rome. The Rev. Mr Hastings, the American chaplain, conducted worship in
+the dining-room of Mr Cass, the American Consul, to a little
+congregation of some thirty persons. He was a good man, and a sound
+Protestant, but lacked the peculiar qualities for such a sphere. He has
+since passed from Rome and the earth, and joined, I doubt not, albeit
+disowned as a heretic in the city in which he laboured, "the General
+Assembly and Church of the first-born" on high.
+
+I have already mentioned that the priests boast that the Pope could say
+mass in a different church every day of the year. Nevertheless there is
+next to no preaching in Rome. In Italy they convert men, not by
+preaching sermons, but by giving them wafers to swallow,--not by
+conveying truth into the mind, but by lodging a little dough in the
+stomach. Hence many of their churches stand on hill-tops, or in the
+midst of swamps, where not a house is in sight. During my sojourn of
+three weeks, I heard but two sermons by Roman preachers. I was
+sauntering in the Forum one day, when, observing a little stream of
+paupers--(how could such go to the convents to beg if they did not go to
+sermon?)--flowing into the church of San Lorenzo, I joined in the
+procession, and entered along with them. At the door was a tin-box for
+receiving contributions for erecting a temple in London, where "their
+poor destitute fellow-countrymen might hear the true gospel." Were these
+"destitute fellow-countrymen" in Rome, the Pope would find accommodation
+for them in some one of his dungeons; but with the English Channel
+between him and them, he builds with paternal care a church for their
+use. We doubt not the exiles will duly appreciate his kindness. Every
+twentieth person or so dropped a little coin into the box as he passed
+in. A knot of some one or two hundreds was gathered round a wooden
+stage, on which a priest was declaiming with an exuberance of vehement
+gesture. On the right and left of him stood two hideous figures, holding
+candles and crucifixes, and enveloped from head to foot in sackcloth.
+They watched the audience through two holes in their masks; and I
+thought I could see a cowering in that portion of the crowd towards
+which the muffled figures chanced for the time to be turned. I felt a
+chilly terror creeping over me as the masks turned their great goggle
+eyes upon me; and accordingly withdrew.
+
+The regular weekly sermon in Rome is that preached every Sabbath
+afternoon in the church of the Jesuits. This church is resplendent
+beyond all others in the Eternal City, in marbles and precious stones,
+frescoes and paintings. Here, too, in magnificent tombs, sleep St
+Ignatius, the founder of the order, and Cardinal Bellarmin, one of the
+"Church's" mightiest champions. Its ample roof might cover an assembly
+of I know not how many thousands. About half-way down the vast floor, on
+the side wall, stood the pulpit; and before it were set some scores of
+forms for the accommodation of the audience, which might amount to from
+four hundred to six hundred, chiefly elderly persons. At three o'clock
+the preacher entered the pulpit, and, having offered a short prayer in
+silence, he replaced on his head his little round cap, and flung himself
+into his theme. That theme was one then and still very popular (I mean
+with the preachers,--for the people take not the slightest interest in
+these matters) at Rome,--the Immaculate Conception. I can give only the
+briefest outline of the discourse; and I daresay that is all my readers
+will care for. In proof of the immunity of Mary from original sin, the
+preacher quoted all that St Jerome, and St Augustine, and a dozen
+fathers besides, had said on the point, with the air of a man who deemed
+these quotations quite conclusive. Had they related to the theory of
+eclipses, or been snatches from some old pagan poet in praise of Juno,
+the audience would have been equally well pleased with them. I looked
+when the father would favour his audience with a few proofs from St
+Matthew and St Luke; but his time did not permit him to go so far back.
+He next appealed to the miracles which the Virgin Mary had wrought. I
+expected much new information here, as my memory did not furnish me with
+any well-accredited ones; but I was somewhat disappointed when the
+preacher dismissed this branch of his subject with the remark, that
+these miracles were so well known, that he need not specify them. Having
+established his proposition first from tradition, and next from
+miracles, the preacher wound up by declaring that the Immaculate
+Conception was a doctrine which all good Catholics believed, and which
+no one doubted save the children of the devil and the slaves of hell.
+The sermon seemed as if it had been made to answer exactly the poet's
+description:--
+
+ "And when they list, their lean and flashy songs
+ Grate on their scrannel pipes of wretched straw;
+ The hungry sheep look up, and are not fed,
+ But, swollen with wind, and the rank mist they draw,
+ Rot inwardly, and foul contagion spread;
+ Besides what the grim wolf, with privy paw,
+ Daily devours apace, and nothing sed;
+ But that two-handed engine at the door
+ Stands ready to smite once, and smite no more."
+
+When this edifying sermon was ended, "Ave Maria" began. A train of
+white-robed priests entered, and gathered in a cloud round the high
+altar. The organ sent forth its thunder; the flashing censers shot
+upwards to the roof, and, as they rose and fell, emitted fragrant
+wreaths of incense. The crowd poured in, and swelled the assembly to
+some thousands; and when the priests began to chant, the multitude which
+now covered the vast floor dropped on their knees, and joined in the
+hymn to the Virgin. This service, of all I witnessed in Rome, was the
+only one that partook in the slightest degree of the sublime.
+
+I must except one other, celebrated in an upper chamber, and _truly_
+sublime. It was my privilege to pass my first Sabbath in Rome in the
+society of the Rev. John Bonar and that of his family, and at night we
+met in Mr Bonar's room in the hotel, and had family worship. I well
+remember that Mr Bonar read on this occasion the last chapter of that
+epistle which Paul "sent by Phebe, servant of the Church at Cenchrea,"
+to the saints at Rome. The disciples to whom the Apostle in that letter
+sends greetings had lived in this very city; their dust still slept in
+its soil; and were they to come back, I felt that, if I were a real
+Christian, we would recognise each other as dear brethren, and would
+join together in the same prayer; and as their names were read out, I
+was thrilled and melted, as if they had been the names of beloved and
+venerated friends but newly dead:--"Greet Priscilla and Aquila, my
+helpers in Christ Jesus; who have for my life laid down their own necks;
+unto whom not only I give thanks, but also all the churches of the
+Gentiles. Likewise _greet_ the church that is in their house. Salute my
+well-beloved Epenetus, who is the first fruits of Achaia unto Christ.
+Greet Mary, who bestowed much labour on us. Salute Andronicus and Junia,
+my kinsmen and my fellow-prisoners, who are of note among the apostles,
+who also were in Christ before me. Greet Amplias, my beloved in the
+Lord. Salute Urbane, our helper in Christ, and Stachys my beloved.
+Salute Apelles, approved in Christ. Salute them which are of
+Aristobulus' _household_. Salute Herodion my kinsman. Greet them that be
+of the _household_ of Narcissus, which are in the Lord. Salute Tryphena
+and Tryphosa, who labour in the Lord. Salute the beloved Persis, which
+laboured much in the Lord. Salute Rufus, chosen in the Lord, and his
+mother and mine. Salute Asyncritus, Phlegon, Hermas, Patrobas, Hermes,
+and the brethren which are with them. Salute Philologus and Julia,
+Nereus and his sister, and Olympas, and all the saints which are with
+them."
+
+Uppermost in my mind, in all my wanderings in and about Rome, was the
+glowing fact that here Paul had been, and here he had left his
+ineffaceable traces. I touched, as it were, scriptural times and
+apostolic men. Had he not often climbed this Capitol? Had not his feet
+pressed, times without number, this lava-paved road through the Forum?
+These Volscian and Sabine mountains, so lovely in the Italian sunlight,
+had often had his eye rested upon them! I began to love the soil for his
+sake, and felt that the presence of this one holy man had done more to
+hallow it than all that the long race of emperors and popes had done to
+desecrate it.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+INFLUENCE OF ROMANISM ON TRADE.
+
+     The Church the Destroyer of the Country--The Pontifical Government
+     just the Papacy in Action--That Government makes Men _Beggars_,
+     _Slaves_, _Barbarians_--Influence of Pontifical Government on
+     Trade--Iron--Great Agent of Civilization--Almost no Iron in Papal
+     States--The Church has forbidden it--Prohibitive Duties on
+     Iron--Machinery likewise prohibited--Antonelli's Extraordinary
+     Note--Paucity of Iron-Workmen and Mechanics in the Papal
+     States--Barbarous Aspect of the Country--Roman Ploughs--Roman
+     Carts--How Grain is there Winnowed--Husbandry of Italy--Its
+     Cabins--Its Ragged Population--Its Farms--Ruin of its
+     Commerce--Isolation of Rome--Reasons why--Proposed Railway from
+     Civita Vecchia to Ancona--Frustrated by the Government--Wretched
+     Conveyance of Merchandise--Pope's Steam Navy--Papal
+     Custom-houses--Bribery--Instances.
+
+
+It is time to concentrate my observations, and to make their light
+converge around that evil system that sits enthroned in this old city.
+Of all the great ruins in Italy, the greatest by far is the Italians
+themselves. The ruin of the Italians I unhesitatingly lay at the door of
+the Church;--she is the nation's destroyer. When I first saw the Laocoon
+in the Vatican, I felt that I saw the symbol of the country;--there was
+Italy writhing in the folds of the great Cobra di Capella, the Papacy.
+
+I cannot here go into the ceremonies practised at Rome, and which
+present so faithful a copy, both in their forms and in their spirit, of
+the pagan idolatry. Nor can I speak of the innumerable idols of gold and
+silver, wood and stone, with which their churches are crowded, and
+before which you may see votaries praying, and priests burning incense,
+all day long. Nor can I speak of the endless round of fêtes and
+festivals which fill up the entire year, and by which the priests seek
+to dazzle, and, by dazzling, to delude and enthral, the Romans. Nor can
+I detain my readers with tales and wonders of Madonnas which have
+winked, and of the blind and halt which have been cured, which knaves
+invent and simpletons believe. Nor can I detail the innumerable frauds
+for fleecing the Romans;--money for indulgences,--money for the souls in
+purgatory,--money for eating flesh on Friday,--money for votive
+offerings to the saints. The church of the Jesuits is supposed to be
+worth a million sterling, in the shape of marbles, paintings, and
+statuary; and in this way the capital of the country is locked up, while
+not a penny can be had for making roads or repairing bridges, or
+promoting trade and agriculture. I cannot enter into these matters: I
+must confine my attention to one subject,--THE PONTIFICAL GOVERNMENT.
+
+When I speak of the Pontifical Government, I just mean the Papacy. The
+working of the Papal Government is simply the working of the Papacy; for
+what is that Government, but just the principles of the Papacy put into
+judicial gear, and employed to govern mankind? It is the Church that
+governs the Papal States; and as she governs these States, so would she
+govern all the earth, would we let her. The Pontifical Government is
+therefore the fairest illustration that can be adduced of the practical
+tendency and influence of the system. I now arraign the system in the
+Government. I am prepared to maintain, both on general principles, and
+on facts that came under my own observation while in Rome, that the
+Pontifical Government is the most flagitiously unjust, the most
+inexorably cruel, the most essentially tyrannical Government, that ever
+existed under the sun. It is the necessary, the unchangeable, the
+eternal enemy of liberty. I say, looking at the essential principles of
+the Papacy, that it is a system claiming infallibility, and so laying
+reason and conscience under interdict,--that it is a system claiming to
+govern the world, not _by_ God, but _as_ God,--that it is a system
+claiming supreme authority in all things spiritual, and claiming the
+same supreme authority, though indirectly, in all things temporal,--that
+it sets no limits to its jurisdiction, but, on the contrary, makes that
+jurisdiction to range indiscriminately over heaven, earth, and hell.
+Looking at these principles, which no Papist can deny to be the
+fundamental and vital elements of his system, I maintain that, if there
+be any one thing more than another ascertained and indisputable within
+the compass of man's knowledge, it is this, that the domination of a
+system like the Papacy is utterly incompatible with the enjoyment of a
+single particle of liberty on the part of any human being. And I now
+proceed to show, that the conclusion to which one would come, reasoning
+from the essential principles of this system, is just the conclusion at
+which he would arrive by observing the workings of this system, as
+exhibited at this day in Italy.
+
+I shall arrange the facts I have to state under three heads:--_First_,
+Those that relate to the TRADE of the Roman States: _second_, Those that
+relate to the administration of JUSTICE: and _third_, Those that relate
+to EDUCATION and KNOWLEDGE. I shall show that the Pontifical Government
+is so conducted as regards Trade, that it can have no other effect than
+to make the Romans _beggars_. I shall show, in the second place, that
+the Pontifical Government is so conducted as regards Justice, that it
+can have no other effect than to make the Romans _slaves_. And I shall
+show, in the third place, that the Pontifical Government is so conducted
+as regards Education, that it can have no other effect than to make the
+Romans _barbarians_. This is the threefold result that Government is
+fitted to work out: this is the threefold result it has wrought out. It
+has made the Romans beggars,--it has made the Romans slaves,--it has
+made the Romans barbarians. Observe, I do not touch the religious part
+of the question. I do not enter on any discussion respecting Purgatory,
+or Transubstantiation, or the worship of the Virgin. I look simply at
+the bearings of that system upon man's temporal interests; and I
+maintain that, though man had no hereafter to provide for, and no soul
+to be saved, he is bound by every consideration to resist a system so
+destructive to the whole of his interests and happiness in time.
+
+I come now to trace the workings of the Papacy on the Trade of the Papal
+States. But here I am met, on the threshold of my subject, by this
+difficulty, that I am to speak of what scarce exists; for so effectually
+has the Pontifical Government developed its influence in this direction,
+that it has all but annihilated trade in the Papal States. If you except
+the manufacture of cameos, Roman mosaics, a little painting and
+statuary, there is really no more trade in the country than is
+absolutely necessary to keep the people from starvation. The trade and
+industry of the Roman States are crushed to death under a load of
+monopolies and restrictive tariffs, invented by infallible wisdom for
+protecting, but, as it seems to our merely fallible wisdom, for
+sacrificing, the industry of the country.
+
+Let us take as our first instance the Iron Trade. We all know the
+importance of iron as regards civilization. Civilization may be said to
+have commenced with iron,--to have extended over the earth with iron;
+and so closely connected are the two, that where iron is not, there you
+can scarce imagine civilization to be. It is by iron in the form of the
+plough that man subjugates the soil; and it is by iron in the form of
+the sword that he subjugates kingdoms. What would our country be without
+its iron,--without its railroads, its steam-ships, its steam-looms, its
+cutlery, its domestic utensils? Almost all the comforts and conveniences
+of civilized life are obtained by iron. You may imagine, then, the
+condition of the Papal States, when I state that iron is all but unknown
+in them. It is about as rare and as dear as the gold of Uphaz. And why
+is it so? There is abundance of iron in our country; water-carriage is
+anything but expensive; and the iron manufacturers of Britain would be
+delighted to find so good a market as Italy for their produce. Why,
+then, is iron not imported into that country? For this simple reason,
+that the Church has forbidden its introduction. Strange, that it should
+forbid so useful a metal where it is so much needed. Yet the fact is,
+that the Pope has placed its importation under an as stringent
+prohibition almost as the importation of heresy: perhaps he smells
+heresy and civilization coming in the wake of iron. The duty on the
+introduction of bar-iron is two baiocchi la libbra, equivalent to fifty
+dollars, or £12 10s., per ton; which is about twice the price of
+bar-iron in this country. This duty is prohibitive of course.
+
+The little iron which the Romans possess they import mostly from
+Britain, in the form of pig-iron; and the absurdity of importing it in
+this form appears from the fact that there is no coal in the States to
+smelt it,--at least none has as yet been discovered: wood-char is used
+in this process. When the pig-iron is wrought up into bar-iron, it is
+sold at the incredible price of thirty-eight Roman scudi the thousand
+pounds, which is equivalent, in English money, to £23 15s. per ton, or
+four times its price in Britain. The want of the steam-engine vastly
+augments the cost of its manufacture. There is a small iron-work at
+Terni, eighty miles from Rome, which is set down there for the advantage
+of water-power, which is employed to drive the works. The whole raw
+material has to be carted from Rome, and, when wrought up, carted back
+again, adding enormously to the expense. There is another at Tivoli,
+also moved by water-power. The whole raw material has, too, to be carted
+from Rome, and the manufactured article carted back, causing an outlay
+which would soon more than cover the expense of steam-engine and fuel.
+At Terni some sixty persons are employed, including boys and men. The
+manager is a Frenchman, and most of the workmen are Frenchmen, with
+wages averaging from forty to fifty baiocchi; labourers at the works
+have from twenty-five to thirty baiocchi per day,--from a shilling to
+fifteenpence.
+
+During the reign of Gregory XVI. machinery was admitted into the Papal
+States at a nominal duty, or one baiocchi the hundred Roman pounds. It
+is not in a day that a country like Italy can be taught the advantage of
+mechanical power. The Romans, like every primitive people, are apt to
+cleave to the rude, unhandy modes which they and their fathers have
+practised, and to view with suspicion and dislike inventions which are
+new and strange. But they were beginning to see the superiority of
+machinery, and to avail themselves of its use. A large number of
+hydraulic presses, printing presses, one or two steam-engines, a few
+threshing-mills, and other agricultural implements, were introduced
+under this nominal duty; and, had a little longer time been allowed, the
+country would have begun to assume somewhat of a civilized look. But
+Gregory died; and, as if to show the utter hopelessness of anything
+like progress on the part of the Pontifical Government, it was the
+present Pope who took the retrograde step of restoring the law shutting
+out machines. Cardinal Tosti, the Treasurer to Gregory's Government, was
+succeeded by his Excellenza Monsignor (now Cardinal) Antonelli, one of
+the earliest official acts of whom was the appending a note to the
+tariff on machinery, which subjected machines, all and sundry, to the
+duty imposed in the tariff on their component parts. For example, a
+machine composed of iron, brass, steel, and wood, according to
+Antonelli's note, would have to pay separate duty on each of the
+materials composing it. The way in which the thing was done is a fine
+sample of the spirit and style of papal legislation, and shows how the
+same subtle but perverted ingenuity, the same specious but hypocritical
+pretexts, with which the theological part of the system abounds, are
+extended also to its political and civil managements. Antonelli did not
+rescind the tariff; he but appended a note, the quiet but sure effect of
+which was to render it null. He did not tax machines as a whole; they
+were still free, viewed in their corporate capacity: he but taxed their
+individual parts. This ingenious legislator, by a saving clause,
+exempted from the operation of his note _machines of new invention_,
+which, after being proved to be such, were to be admitted at the nominal
+duty! What machines would not be of new invention in the Roman States,
+where there is absolutely no machinery, saving--with all reverence for
+the apostolic chamber--the guillotine?
+
+But farther, Antonelli, to show at once his ingenuity and philanthropy,
+enacted that machines which had never before been introduced into the
+States should be admitted at the nominal duty. Mark the extent of the
+boon herein conferred on Italy. We shall suppose that one of each of the
+industrial and agricultural machines in use in Britain is admitted into
+the Roman States under this law. It is admitted duty-free. Well, but the
+second plough, or the second loom, or the second steam-engine, arrives.
+It must pay a prohibitive duty. It is not a new machine. You can make as
+many as you please from the one already introduced, says Antonelli. But
+who is to make them? There are no mechanics deserving the name in Rome;
+who, by the way, are the very people Antonelli said he meant to benefit.
+But, apart from the want of mechanical skill, there is the dearth of the
+raw material; for maleable iron was selling in Rome at upwards of £21
+per ton, at a time when the cost of bar-iron in this country was only
+from £6 to £7 per ton. Such insane legislation on the part of the
+sacerdotal Government could not be committed through ignorance or
+stupidity. There must be some strong reason that does not appear at
+first sight for this wholesale sacrifice of the interests of the
+country. We shall speak of this anon: meanwhile we pursue our statement.
+
+Antonelli supported his note,--that note which ratified the banishment
+of the arts from Italy, and gave barbarism an eternal infeftment in the
+soil,--by affirming that it was passed in order to encourage l'industria
+dello Stato; which is as if one should say that he had cut his
+neighbour's throat to protect his life; for certainly Antonelli's note
+cut the throat of industry. Well, one would think, seeing this
+legislation was meant to protect the industry of the State and the
+interests of the iron-workmen, that these iron-workmen must be a large
+body. How many iron-workmen are there in the Papal States? An hundred
+thousand? One thousand? There are not more in all than one hundred and
+fifty! And for these one hundred and fifty iron-workmen (to which we may
+add the seventy cardinals, the most of whom are speculators in iron),
+the rest of the community is put beyond the pale of civilization, the
+ordinary arts and utensils are proscribed, improvement is at a
+stand-still, and the country is doomed to remain from age to age in
+barbarism.
+
+And what is the aspect of the country? It is decidedly that of a
+barbarous land. Everything has an old-world look, as if it belonged to
+the era of the Flood. Iron being so enormously dear, its use is
+dispensed with wherever it is possible. Almost all implements of
+agriculture, of carriage, almost all domestic utensils, and many tools
+of trade, are made of wood. In consequence, they do very little work;
+and that little but indifferently well. Nothing could be more primitive
+than the _plough_ of the Romans. It consists of a single stick or lever,
+fixed to a block having the form of a sock or coulter, with a projection
+behind, on which the ploughman puts his foot, and assists the bullocks
+over a difficulty. The work done by this implement we would not call
+ploughing: it simply scratches the surface to the depth of some three or
+four inches, with which the poor husbandman is content. The soil is in
+general light, but it might be otherwise tilled; and, were it so, would
+yield far other harvests than those now known in Italy. Their _carts_,
+too, are of the rudest construction, and may be regarded as ingenious
+models of the form which should combine the largest bulk with the least
+possible use. They have high wheels, and as wide-set as those in our
+country, with nothing to fill the dreary space between but an
+uncouth-looking nut-shell of a box. The infallible Government of the
+Pope has not judged it beneath it to legislate in reference to them.
+They must be made of a certain prescribed capacity, and stamped for the
+purchase and sale of lime and pozzolano. In this happy country, all
+things, from the Immaculate Conception down to the pozzolano cart, are
+cared for by the sacerdotal Government. The open-bodied carts have bars
+(the length and distance apart of which are also regulated by the
+pontiff) placed on the trams, and are licensed for the sale of green
+wood, which must be sold at from three and a half to four dollars a
+load. The barozza is another open-bodied cart, with bars placed around
+the trams, and contains about twelve sacks of wood-char, which is sold
+at from eight to ten dollars. This is the fuel of the country, and, when
+kindled, does well enough for cooking. It gives considerable heat and
+but little smoke, but lacks the cheerfulness and comfort of an English
+fire-side, which is unknown in Rome.
+
+Every agricultural process is conducted in the same rude and slovenly
+way. And how can it be otherwise, when the Church, for reasons best
+known to itself, denies the people the use of the indispensable
+instruments? It solemnly legislates that one British plough may be
+imported; and graciously permits its subjects, in a land where there are
+no mechanics, to make as many additional ploughs as they need. Is it not
+peculiarly modest in these men, who show so little wisdom in temporal
+matters, to ask the entire world to surrender its belief to them in
+things spiritual and divine?
+
+Every one knows how we winnow corn in Britain. How do they conduct that
+process at Rome? A cart-load of grain is poured out on the barn-floor;
+some dozen or score of women squat down around it, and with the hand
+separate the chaff from the wheat, pickle by pickle. In this way a score
+of women may do in a week what a farmer in our country could do easily
+in a couple of hours. An effort was made to persuade the predecessor of
+the present Pontiff, Gregory XVI., to sanction the admission into Rome
+of a winnowing-machine. Its mode of working and uses were explained to
+the Pontiff. Gregory shook his head; for Infallibility indicates its
+doubts at times, just as mortals do, by a shake of the head. It was a
+dangerous thing to introduce into Rome, said the infallible Gregory.
+Perhaps it was; for if the Romans had begun to winnow grain, they might
+have learned to winnow other things besides grain.
+
+The husbandry of Italy, as a system, is in a most backward state. Its
+cultivation is the cultivation of Ireland. And yet Italy is excelled by
+few countries on earth, perhaps by none, in point of its external
+defences, and its inexhaustible internal resources; which, however,
+under its present Government, are utterly wasted. On the north it is
+defended by the wall of the Alps, and on all its other sides by the
+ocean, whose bays offer boundless facilities for commerce. The plains of
+Lombardy are eternally covered with flowers and fruit. The valleys of
+Tuscany still boast the olive, the orange, and the vine. The wide waste
+of the Campagna di Roma is of the richest soil, and, spread out beneath
+the warm sun, might mingle on its surface the fruits of the torrid with
+those of the temperate zones. Instead of this, Italy presents to the
+traveller's eye a deplorable spectacle of wretched cabins, untilled
+fields, and a population oppressed by sloth and covered with rags. The
+towns are filled mostly with idlers and beggars. With all my inquiries,
+I could never get a clear idea of how they live. The alms-houses are
+numerous; for when a Government puts down trade, it must build hospitals
+and poor's-houses, or see its subjects die of starvation. In Rome, for
+example, besides the convents, where a number of poor people get a meal
+a day,--a sufficiently meagre one,--there is the government
+_Beneficenza_, which the more intelligent part account a great curse.
+Some fifteen hundred or two thousand persons, many of them able-bodied
+men, receive fifteen baiocchi,--sevenpence half-penny,--per day, in
+return for which they pouter about with barrows, removing earth from
+the old ruins, or cleaning the streets, which are none the cleaner, or
+picking grass in the square of the Vatican. Many deplorable tales are
+told in Rome of these people, and of the dire sacrifice made of the
+female portion of their families. But the grand resource is beggary,
+especially from foreigners; and if a beggar earn a penny a day, he will
+make a shift to live. He will purchase half a pound of excellent
+macaroni with the one baiocchi, and a few apples or grapes with the
+other; and thus he is provided for for the day. The inhabitants of these
+countries do not eat so substantially as we do. Should he earn nothing,
+he has it in his choice to steal or starve. This is the prolific source
+of brigandage and vagabondism.
+
+In the country, the peasants (and there almost all are peasants) live by
+cultivating a small patch of land. The farms, like those in Ireland, are
+mere crofts. The proprietor, who lives in the city, provides not only
+the land, but the implements and cattle also, and in return receives a
+stipulated portion of the fruits. His share is often as high as a half,
+never lower than a fourth. The farmer is a tenant-at-will most commonly,
+but removals are rare; and sometimes, as in Ireland, the same lands
+remain in the occupation of the same families for generations. Their
+conical little hills, with their peasant villages a-top, are curiously
+ribbed with a particoloured vegetation, each family cultivating their
+couple of acres after their own fashion; while the plain is not
+unfrequently abandoned to marshes, or ruins, or wild herbage. To dig
+drains, to clear out the substructions, to re-open the ancient
+water-courses, or to follow any improved system of cropping, is far
+beyond the enterprise of the poor farmer. He has neither skill, nor
+capital, nor savings. If nature takes the matter into her own hand,
+well; if not, one bad harvest irretrievably lands him in famine. Thus,
+with a soil and climate not excelled perhaps in the world, the
+husbandman drags out his life in poverty, and is often on the very brink
+of starvation. Whatever beauty and fertility that land still retains, it
+owes to nature, not to man. Indeed, it is now only the skeleton of Italy
+that exists, with here and there patches of its former covering,--nooks
+of exquisite beauty, which strike one the more from the desolation that
+surrounds them. But its cultivated portions are every year diminishing.
+Its woods and olives are fast disappearing; and by and by the very
+beasts of the field will be compelled to leave it, and the King of the
+Seven Hills, could we conceive of his remaining behind, will be left to
+reign in undisputed and unenvied supremacy over the storks and frogs,
+and other animals, that breed and swarm in its marshes.
+
+The commerce of Italy, too, is extinct. How can it be otherwise? Under
+their terrible stagnation and death of mind, the Italians produce
+nothing for export. In that country there are no factories, no mining
+operations, no ship-building, no public works, no printing presses, no
+tools of trade. In short, they create nothing but a few articles of
+vertu; and even in those arts in which alone their genius is allowed to
+exert itself, foreigners excel them. The best sculptors and painters at
+Rome are Englishmen. And as regards their soil, which might send its
+wheat, and wine, and olives, all delicious naturally, to every part of
+the world, its harvests are now able but to feed the few men who live in
+the country. As to imports, both raw and manufactured, which the Romans
+need so much, we have seen how the sacerdotal Government takes effectual
+means to prevent these reaching the population. The Pontiff has enclosed
+his territory with a triple wall of protective duties and monopolies, to
+keep out the foreign merchant; and thus not only are the Romans
+forbidden to labour for themselves, but they are prevented profiting by
+the labour of others. There is a monopoly of sugar-refining, a monopoly
+of salt-making, and, in short, of every thing which the Romans most
+need. These monopolies are held by the favourites of the Government; and
+though generally the houses that hold them are either unwilling or
+unable to make more than a tithe of what the Romans would require, no
+other establishment can produce these articles, and they cannot be
+imported but at a ruinous duty.
+
+We are reminded of another grievance under which the Romans groan. The
+few articles that are landed on their coast have to encounter tedious
+and almost insuperable delays before they can find their way to the
+capital. This is owing to the wretched state of the communication, which
+is kept purposely wretched in order to isolate Rome and the Romans from
+the rest of the world. That Church likes to sit apart and keep intact
+her venerable prestige, which would be apt to be contemned were it
+looked at close at hand. She dreads, too, to let her people come in
+contact with the population of other States. A few thousands of English
+aristocracy she can afford to admit annually within her territory. Their
+money she needs, and their indifference gives her no uneasiness. But to
+have the mass of a free people circulating through her capital would be
+a death-blow to her influence. She deems it, then, a wise policy, indeed
+a necessary safeguard, to make the access such as only money and time
+can overcome, though at the sacrifice of the trade and comforts of the
+people. Repeated attempts have been made to connect Rome with the rest
+of Europe; but hitherto, through the singularly adroit management of the
+Government, all such attempts have been fruitless.
+
+In 1851 the long talked of concession for railways in the Roman States
+was obtained by Count Montalembert. The railways were to be constructed
+by foreign money and foreign agency, of course. A line from Rome to
+Ancona, and another from Rome to Civita Vecchia, were talked of, which
+would have put the Eternal City in immediate communication with the
+Adriatic and the Mediterranean. _Che belle cose!_ the Italians might be
+heard uttering wherever grouped. It looked too well; an extravagant
+guarantee was offered to the Intraprendenti (contractors) by the Roman
+Government. The Parisian Count was to procure capitalists for the
+undertaking. The general opinion at the time was, that the Government
+was insincere in their extravagant guarantee; and they stipulated with
+the Count a condition as to time, calculated, as was supposed, to
+frustrate the undertaking. In this, however, the Government was
+outwitted; for capitalists were found within the prescribed time,
+engineers appointed, and contracts entered into. The iron-works of Terni
+and Tivoli amalgamated, in the hope of doing an extensive business by
+manufacturing the rails, &c.; and announced in their prospectus the
+intention of working the La Tolfa ironstone near Civita Vecchia. Many
+were induced to sink money in this amalgamated concern, and there it
+fruitlessly remains. The affray at Ferrara put the scutch upon the
+mighty railway scheme.
+
+Were the Government in earnest on the subject of railways, sufficient
+capital might easily be raised to construct a line between Rome and
+Civita Vecchia, which would be of incalculable benefit to Rome. Vessels
+of heavy burden can discharge at the port of Civita Vecchia. Merchandise
+could thence be transmitted by rail to Rome, where its arrival could be
+calculated on to half an hour; and of what immense advantage would this
+be, contrasted with the present maritime conveyance, which keeps
+merchants in expectation of goods for days and weeks, and not
+unfrequently for a whole month, with bills of lading in hand from
+Marseilles, Genoa, Leghorn, Naples, and Sicily, by vessels carrying from
+fifty to a hundred and fifty tons! The entrance to the mouth of the
+Tiber at Fuma-Cina is both difficult and dangerous; so much so, that
+sailing masters will not hazard the attempt if the weather is in the
+least degree stormy. They are obliged frequently to return to Civita
+Vecchia or Leghorn, until the weather will permit their entering the
+river at Fuma-Cina. There their vessels require to be lightened, or
+partly discharged into barges, there not being sufficient water in the
+Tiber to allow them to ascend to Rome; the average depth of water
+throughout the year being from four to five feet, which is only
+sufficient for the Pope's navy force, employed in tugging barges from
+Fuma-Cina to Rome. It is not the least important part of the Roman
+merchants' business to know that their long-expected goods have entered
+the river. This is ascertained at the custom-house at Ripa Grande, where
+the intelligence is chronicled every evening, on return of the navy
+force.
+
+That navy consists of three small steamers, thirty horse power, and a
+dredging boat. Two of the steamers are kept for the traffic between
+Fuma-Cina and the custom-house at Rome. The other is employed on the
+upper part of the river, starting from the Ripetta in Rome for the
+Sabina country, going up about forty miles, and returning with wine,
+oil, Indian corn, and wood for fuel, green and charred. The dredging
+boat is scarcely ever used. The constantly filthy state of the river
+causes so much deposit, that the machine is unable to overcome it.
+
+There are custom-houses, of course, on all the frontiers. A very
+respectable amount of bribery is done in these places: indeed, I never
+could see that much business of any other sort was transacted in them. I
+have already stated, that the first thing I was compelled to do on
+entering Rome was to give a bribe, in order to escape from the old
+temple of Antoninus, in which I unexpectedly found myself locked up. I
+met an intelligent Scotchman in Rome, who had newly returned from
+Naples, and who had to endure a half-day's detention at Terra Cina
+because he refused to pay the ransom of six scudi put upon his trunks,
+and insisted on their being searched. Corruption pervades all classes of
+functionaries. In Rome itself there are two custom-houses; one for
+merchandise imported by sea, and the other for overland goods. The hours
+for business are from nine o'clock till twelve o'clock. Declarations for
+relieving goods must be made betwixt nine and eleven, the other hour
+being appropriated to winding up the business of the preceding two
+hours. Almost everything which the country produces, whether for man or
+for beast, on entering the city has to pay duty at the gate. This is
+termed _Dazio di Consumo_. This department of the revenue is farmed out
+to an officer, whose servants are stationed at the gates for the purpose
+of uplifting the duty; and there, as in all the other Government
+custom-houses, much systematic cheating goes on. As an example, I may
+relate what happened to my friend Mr Stewart, whose acquaintance I had
+the good fortune to make in Rome, and whose information on all matters
+of trade in the Roman States, well known to him from long practical
+experience, was not only of the highest value, but was the means of
+affording me an insight into the workings of Romanism on the temporal
+condition of its subjects, such as few travellers have an opportunity of
+attaining. Mr Stewart was engaged to take charge of the one little
+iron-work in the city; and the transaction I am about to relate in his
+own words took place when he was entering the gates. "Along with my
+furniture," says he, "I had a trunk containing wearing-apparel and two
+_pocket-pistols_. The latter, I knew, were prohibited, and made the
+agent employed to pass the articles acquainted with the dilemma, which
+he heartily laughed at,--by way, I suppose, of having a bone to pick.
+'Leave the matter to me,' said he, adding, 'the officials must be
+recompensed, you know.' That of course; and, to be reasonable, he
+inquired if I would give three dollars, for which sum he would guarantee
+their safety. I consented to this in preference to losing them, or being
+obliged to send them out of the country. Notwithstanding the agent's
+assurance, I felt naturally anxious at the barefaced transaction, which
+was coolly gone about. When the trunk should have been examined, the
+attention of the officials was voluntarily directed to some other
+article, while the agent's porters turned the trunk upside down, chalked
+it, and replied to the query, that it had been examined, and was not
+even opened, which the officials well knew, and for the consideration of
+three dollars they betrayed trust. The trunk might have contained
+jewellery, or even _screw-nails_,--both pay a high duty. The latter
+especially, being made at Tivoli, are prohibited, or admitted at the
+prohibitive duty of twenty-five baiocchi the Roman pound,--sufficient to
+illustrate what might have been the result of this transaction in a
+mercantile point of view, not to speak of the opportunity afforded for
+introducing the _Bible_. The officials are all indifferently
+remunerated, and thus do business for themselves at the cost of the
+Government. They are also very incapable for the discharge of their
+duty. For example, the _Governor_ of the custom-house seriously asked
+me, preparatory to making a declaration for a _steam-boiler_, whether
+it was made of _wood_ or of _iron_. The boiler was not before him; but
+the idea of a steam-boiler of wood from the lips of the Governor of a
+custom-house was astounding."
+
+"Books of all kinds are taken to the land custom-house, where the
+_Revisore_ is stationed for books alone. The _Revisore_ speaks English
+tolerably well."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV.
+
+INFLUENCE OF ROMANISM ON TRADE--(CONTINUED).
+
+     Why does the Church systematically discourage
+     Trade?--Railways--Much needed--Church opposes them--Could not a man
+     take a journey of twenty or two hundred miles and be a good
+     Catholic?--Motion is Liberty--Motion contributed to overthrow the
+     Serfdom of the Middle Ages--Popes understand the connection between
+     Motion and Liberty--Romans chained to the Soil--Gregory XVI. and
+     the Iron-bridge--Gas in Rome--Spread of the Malaria--The Pontine
+     Marshes--Neglect of Soil--Number of Paupers--How the Church
+     prevents the Cultivation of the Campagna--Church Lands in England
+     and Scotland--The price which Italy pays for the Papacy--Whether
+     would the old Roman Woman or an old Scotch Woman make the better
+     Ruler?
+
+
+Let us pause here, and inquire into the cause of this most deplorable
+state of matters. Is not the Papal Government manifestly sacrificing its
+own interests? Would it not be better for itself were Italy covered with
+a prosperous agriculture and a flourishing trade? Were its cities filled
+with looms and forges, would not its people have more money to spend on
+masses and absolutions? and, instead of the Government subsisting on
+foreign loans, and being always on the eve of bankruptcy, it might fill
+its exchequer from the vast resources of the country, and have,
+moreover, the pleasure of seeing around it a prosperous and happy
+people.
+
+This is all very true. None knows better the value of money than Rome;
+but she knows, too, the infinite hazard of acquiring it in the way of
+allowing trade and industry to enter the Papal States. Indeed, to do so
+would be to record sentence of banishment against herself. Every one
+must have remarked the difference betwixt the artizan of Birmingham and
+the peasant of Ireland. They seem to belong to two different races of
+men almost. The former is employed in making a certain piece of
+mechanism, or in superintending its working. He is compelled to
+calculate, to trace effects to their causes, and to study the relations
+of the various parts before him to the whole. In short, he is taught to
+think; and that thinking power he applies to all other subjects. His
+habits of life teach him to ask for reasons, and to accept of opinions
+only on evidence. The mind of the latter lies dead. Were Italy filled
+with a race of men like the first, the papacy could not live a day. Were
+trade, and machinery, and wealth to come in, the torpor of Italy would
+be broken up; and--terrible event to the papacy!--mind would awaken.
+What though the Pope reigns over a wasted land and a nation of beggars?
+he _does_ reign; he counts for a European sovereign; and his system
+continues to exist as a power. As men in shipwreck throw overboard food,
+jewels, all, to save life, so Romanism has thrown all overboard to save
+itself. Nothing could be a stronger proof of this than the fact that, as
+the effects and benefits of trade become the more developed, the
+pontifical Government tightens its restrictions. The note of Antonelli,
+the present ruling spirit of the papacy, was the most prohibitive ever
+framed against the introduction of iron, in other words, of
+civilization. This is the price which Italy must pay for the Pope and
+his religion. She cannot participate in the advantages of foreign trade;
+she cannot enjoy the facilities and improvements of modern times;
+because, were she to enjoy these, she would lose the papacy. She must be
+content to remain in the barbarism of the middle ages, covered with that
+moral malaria which has smitten all things in that doomed land, and
+under the influence of which, the cities, the earth itself, and man, for
+whom it was made, are all sinking into one common ruin.[3]
+
+We have yet other illustrations of the pestiferous influence of Romanism
+on the temporal happiness of its subjects. We have already alluded to
+the determined manner in which the Pontifical Government has hitherto
+withstood the introduction of railways. And yet, if there be a country
+in Europe where railways are indispensable, it is the Papal States. The
+roads in the territory blessed by the Government of Christ's vicar, are
+more like canals than roads, with this difference, that there is too
+little water in them for floating a boat, and far too much for
+comfortable travelling. Besides, they are infested by brigands, whose
+pursuit a railway might enable you to distance. But a railway the
+subjects of the Pontifical Government cannot have. And why?
+
+One would think that the mere mode of conveyance is a very harmless
+affair. What is it to the Pontifical Government whether the peasant of
+the Alban hills, or the citizen of Bologna, or the merchant of Ancona,
+visit Rome on foot, or in his waggon, or by rail? Is he not the same
+man? Will his ride convert him into a heretic, or shake his faith in
+Peter's successor? or will the laying down of a few miles of railroad
+weaken the foundations of that Church which boasts that she is founded
+on a rock, and that the gates of hell themselves shall not prevail
+against her? Or if it be said that it is not the mode of the journey,
+but the length of the journey, what difference can it make whether the
+man travel twenty miles or two hundred miles? The stability of the
+Church cannot be seriously endangered by a few miles less or more. Is
+the Pope's system of so peculiar a kind, that though it is possible for
+the man who walks twenty miles on foot to believe in it, it is wholly
+impossible for the man who rides two hundred miles by rail to do so? We
+know of no Roman doctor who has attempted to fix the precise number of
+miles which a good Catholic may travel from home without endangering his
+salvation. One would think that all this is plain enough; that there is
+no element of danger here; and yet the sharper instincts of the papacy
+have discovered that herein lies danger, and great danger, to its power.
+If the influence of Rome is to be preserved, it is not enough that the
+Bible be put out of existence, that the missionary be banished, and that
+the art of printing, and all means of diffusing ideas, be proscribed and
+exterminated: the very right of moving over the earth must be taken from
+man. Even _motion_ must be placed under anathema.
+
+We have a saying that _knowledge is power_. I would say that _motion is
+liberty_. The serfdom of the middle ages was in good degree maintained
+by binding man to the soil. Astriction to the soil was at once the
+foundation and the symbol of that serfdom. The baron became the master
+of the body of the man; he became also the master of his mental ideas.
+But when the serf acquired the power of locomotion, he laid the
+foundation of his emancipation; and from that hour feudalism began to
+crumble. As the serfs' power of motion enlarged, their liberty
+enlarged. As formerly they had known slavery by its symbol
+_immovability_, so now they tasted freedom by its symbol _motion_. The
+serf travelled beyond the valley in which he was born; he saw new
+objects; he met his fellow-men; and learned to think. At last motion was
+perfected; the steam-engine hissed past him, and he felt that now he was
+completely unchained. I do not give this as a theory of the rise and
+progress of modern liberty; but unquestionably there is a close and
+intimate connection between motion and liberty.
+
+The Popes are shrewd enough to see this connection; and herein lies
+their opposition to railroads. They have attempted, and still do
+attempt, to perpetuate papal serfdom, by tying their subjects to their
+paternal acres and their native town. Were my reader living in London or
+in Edinburgh, and wished to visit Chelsea or Portobello, how would he
+proceed? Go to the railway station and buy a ticket, and his journey is
+made. But were the country under the Pontifical Government, he would
+find it impossible to manage the matter quite so expeditiously. He must
+first present himself at the office of the prefect of police. He must
+state where he wishes to go to; what business he has there; how long he
+intends remaining. He must give his name, his age, his residence, and a
+certificate, if required, from his parish priest; and then, should the
+object of his journey be approved of, a description of his person will
+be taken down, a passport will be made out, for which he must pay some
+six or eight pauls; and after this process has been gone through, but
+not sooner, he may set out on his little journey. Very few of those who
+live in Rome were ever more than outside its walls. Even the nobles have
+the utmost difficulty in getting so far as Civita Vecchia; very few of
+them ever saw the sea. The Popes know that ideas as well as merchandise
+travel by rail; and that if the Romans are allowed to go from home, and
+to see new objects, new faces, and to hear new ideas, a process will be
+commenced which will ultimately, and at no distant day, undermine the
+papacy. But among men of ordinary intelligence there will be but one
+opinion regarding a system that sees an enemy not only in the Bible, but
+in the most necessary and useful arts,--in the steam-ship, in the
+railroad, in the electric telegraph; in short, in all the improvements
+and usages of civilized life. Such a system assuredly has perdition
+written upon its forehead.
+
+The late Pope Gregory XVI. would not allow even an iron bridge to be
+thrown across the Tiber. The Romans solicited this, to get rid of a
+ferry-boat by which the Tiber is crossed at the point in question; but
+no; an iron bridge there could not be. And why? Ah, said Gregory, if we
+have an iron bridge in Rome, we shall next have an iron road; and if we
+have an iron road, "_adio_," the papacy will take its departure, and
+that by steam.
+
+But the Pope had another reason for withholding his sanction from the
+iron bridge; and as that reason shows how some wretched crotchet,
+springing from their miserable system, is sure to start up on all
+occasions, and defeat the most needed improvement, I shall here state
+what it was. At the point where it was wished to have the bridge
+erected, the Tiber flows between two populous regions of the city. There
+is in consequence a considerable concourse, and the passengers are
+carried over, as I have said, in a ferry-boat, for which a couple of
+baiocchi is paid by each person to the ferryman. The money thus
+collected forms part of the revenues of a certain church in Rome, where
+the priests who receive it sing masses for the souls in purgatory. If
+you abolish the ferry-boat, it was argued, you will abolish the penny;
+and if you abolish the penny, what is to become of the poor souls in
+purgatory? and for the sake of the _souls_, the _living_ were forced to
+do without the bridge.
+
+I need scarcely say that there is no gas in Rome. And sure I am, if
+there be a dark spot in all the universe,--a place above all others
+needing light of all kinds, moral, mental, and physical,--it is this
+dark dungeon termed Rome. It has a few oil-lamps, swung on cords, at
+most respectable distances from one another; and you see their hazy,
+sickly, dying gleam far above you, making themselves visible, but
+nothing besides; and after sunset, Rome is plunged in darkness,
+affording ample opportunity for assassinations, robberies, and evil
+deeds of all kinds. I know not how many companies have been formed to
+light Rome with gas. An attempt was made to light in this way the
+Eternal City during the pontificate of Gregory XVI. A deputation went to
+the Vatican, and told the Pope that they would light his capital with
+gas. "Gas!" exclaimed Gregory, who had an owl-like dread of light of all
+kinds; "there shan't be gas in Rome while I am in Rome." Gregory is not
+in Rome now; Pio Nono is in the Vatican: but the same oil-lamps which
+lighted the Rome of Gregory XVI. still flourish in the Rome of Pio
+Nono.[4]
+
+All have heard of the Pontine Marshes,--a chain of swamps which run
+along the foot of the Volscian Mountains, and are the birthplace of the
+malaria,--a white vapour, which creeps snake-like over the country, and
+smites with deadly fever whoever is so foolhardy as to sleep on the
+Campagna during its continuance. These marshes, I understand, are
+increasing; and the malaria is increasing in consequence. That fatal
+vapour now comes every summer to the gates of Rome: it covers a certain
+quarter of the city, which, I was told, is uninhabitable during its
+continuance; and if nothing be done to lessen the malaria at its source,
+it will, some century or half century after this, envelope in its
+pestilential folds the whole of the Eternal City, and the traveller will
+gaze with awe on the blackened ruins of Rome, as he does on those of
+Babylon on the plain of Chaldea: so, I say, will he see the heaps of
+Rome on the wasted bosom of the Campagna deserted by man, and become the
+dwelling-place of the dragons and satyrs of the wilderness. But matters
+are not come to this yet. An English company (for every attempted
+improvement in Rome has originated with English skill and capital) was
+formed some years ago, to drain the Pontine Marshes. They went to the
+Vatican; and Sir Humphrey Davy being then in Rome, they induced him to
+accompany them, in the hope that his high scientific authority would
+have some weight with the Pontiff. They stated their object, which was
+to drain the Pontine Marshes. They assured the Pontiff it was
+practicable to a very large extent; and they pointed out its manifold
+advantages, as regarded the health of the country, and other things.
+"Drain the Pontine Marshes!" exclaimed Pope Gregory, in a tone of
+surprise and horror at this new project of these everlastingly scheming
+English heretics,--"Drain the Pontine Marshes! God made the Pontine
+Marshes; and if He had intended them to be drained, He would have
+drained them himself."
+
+The barrenness that afflicts all countries which are the seat of a false
+religion is a public testimony of the Divine indignation against
+idolatry. For the sin of man the earth was originally cursed: and
+wherever wicked systems exist, there a manifest curse rests upon the
+earth. The Mohammedan apostacy and the Roman apostacy are now seated in
+the midst of wildernesses. And, to make the fact more striking, these
+lands, which are deserts now, were anciently the best cultivated on the
+globe. There stood the proudest of earth's cities,--there the arts
+flourished,--and there men were free after the measure of ancient
+freedom. All this is at an end long since. Ruins, silence, and a sickly
+and sinking population, are the mournful spectacles which greet the eye
+of the traveller in Papal and Mohammedan countries. Thus God bears
+outward testimony against the Papal and Mohammedan systems. He has
+cursed the ground for their sakes; not in the way of miracle,--not by
+sending an angel to smite it, or by raining brimstone upon it, as he did
+on Sodom: the angel that has smitten the dominions of the Pope and of
+the False Prophet,--the brimstone and fire which have been rained upon
+them,--are the wicked systems which have there grown up, and by which
+Government has been rendered blind, infatuated, and tyrannical, and man
+stupid, indolent, and vicious. But the laws the Almighty has
+established, according to which idolatry necessarily and uniformly
+blights the earth and the men who live upon it, only show that his
+indignation against these evil systems is unchangeable and eternal, and
+will pursue them till they perish. Of this the state of the plain around
+Rome, the _Agro Romano_, forms a terrible example.
+
+I have endeavoured in former chapters to exhibit a picture of the
+frightful desolation of this once magnificent plain. He that set his
+mark on the brow of the first murderer has set his mark on this plain,
+where so much blood has been shed. "Now art thou cursed from the earth,
+which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother's blood from thy
+hand. When thou tillest the ground it shall not henceforth yield unto
+thee her strength." But God has cursed this plain through the
+instrumentality of this evil system the Papacy, and I shall show you
+how.
+
+I have already shown that there is not, and cannot be, anything like
+trade in Rome, beyond what is necessary to repair the consumpt of
+articles in daily use. In the absence of trade there is a proportionate
+amount of idleness; and that idleness, in its turn, breeds beggary,
+vagabondism, and crime. The French Prefect, Mr Whiteside tells us,
+published a statistical account of Rome; and how many paupers does he
+say there are in it? Why, not fewer than thirty thousand. Thirty
+thousand paupers in one city, and that city, in its usual state, of but
+about a hundred and twenty thousand inhabitants! Subtract the priests,
+the English residents, and the French soldiers, and every third man is a
+beggar. I was fortunate enough one evening to meet, in a certain shop in
+Rome, an intelligent Roman, willing to talk with me on the state of the
+country. The shopkeeper, as soon as he found the turn the conversation
+had taken, discreetly stepped out, and left it all to ourselves. "I
+never in all my life," I remarked, "saw a city in which I found so many
+beggars. The people seem to have nothing to do, and nothing to eat.
+There are here some hundred thousand of you cooped up within these old
+walls, and one half the population do nothing all day long but whine at
+the heels of English travellers, or hang on at the doors of the
+convents, waiting their one meal a-day. Why is this? Outside the walls
+is a magnificent plain, which, were it cultivated, would feed ten Romes,
+instead of one. Why don't you take picks, or spades, or
+ploughs,--anything you can lay hands on,--and go out to that plain, and
+dig it, and plant it, and sow it, and reap it, and eat and drink, and be
+merry?" "Ah! so we would," said he. "Then, why don't you?" "We dare
+not," he replied. "Dare not! Dare not till the earth God has given
+you?" "It is the Church's," he said. "But come now," said he, "and I
+will explain how it comes to be so." He went on to say, that one portion
+of the Campagna was gifted to the convents in Rome, another portion was
+gifted to the nunneries, another to the hospitals, and another to the
+pontifical families,--that is, to the sons and daughters, or, as they
+more politely speak in Rome, the nephews and nieces, of the Popes. These
+were the owners of the great Roman plain; and in their hands almost
+every acre of it was locked up, inaccessible to the plough, and
+inaccessible to the people. Even in our country it is found that
+corporations make the worst possible landlords, and that lands in the
+possession of such bodies are always less productive than estates
+managed in the ordinary way. But what sort of farming are we to expect
+from such corporations as we find in the city of Rome? What skill or
+capital have a brotherhood of lazy monks, to enable them to cultivate
+their lands? What enterprise or interest have a sisterhood of nuns to
+farm their property? They know they shall have their lifetime of it, and
+that is all they care for. Accordingly, they let their lands for
+grazing, on payment of a mere trifle of annual rent; and so the Campagna
+lies unploughed and unsown. A tract of land extending from Civita
+Vecchia to well nigh the gates of Rome,--which would make a Scotch
+dukedom or a German principality,--belonging to the _San Spirito_, does
+little more, I was told, than pay its working. The land labours under an
+eternal entail, which binds it over to perpetual sterility. It is God's,
+_i.e._ it is the Church's; and no one,--no, not even the Pope,--dare
+alienate a single acre of it. No Pope would set his face to such a piece
+of reformation, well knowing that every brotherhood and sisterhood in
+Rome would rise in arms against him. And even though he should screw his
+courage to such an encounter, he is met by the canon law. The Pope who
+shall dare to secularize a foot-breadth of land which has been gifted to
+the Church is by that law accursed. Here, then, is the price which the
+Romans pay for the Papacy. Outside the walls of the city lie the estates
+of the Church, depastured at certain seasons by a few herds, tended by
+men clad in skins, and looking as savage as the animals they tend; while
+inside the walls are some hundred thousand Romans, enduring from one
+year's end to another all the miseries of a partial famine. Nor is there
+the least hope that matters will mend so long as the Papacy lasts. For
+while the Papacy is in Italy, the Campagna, once so populous and rich,
+will be what it now is,--a desert.
+
+And the Papal States, lapsed into more than primeval sterility, overrun
+by brigandage and beggary, are the picture of what Britain would be
+under the Papacy. Let the Roman Church get the upper hand in this
+country, and, be assured, the first thing it will do will be to demand
+back every acre of land that once belonged to it. Before the
+Reformation, half the lands of England, and a third of the lands of
+Scotland, were in the possession of the Church. She keeps a chart of
+them to this hour: she knows every foot-breadth of British soil that at
+any time belonged to her: she holds its present possessors to be robbers
+and sacrilegious men; and the first moment she has the power, she will
+compel them to disgorge what she holds to be ill-gotten wealth, and
+endow her with the broad acres she once possessed. Nor will she stop
+here. By haunting death-beds,--by putting in motion the machinery of the
+confessional,--by the threat of purgatory in this case, and the lure of
+paradise in that,--she will speedily add to her former ample domain. And
+what will our country then become? We shall have Mother Church for
+landlord; and while she feasts daily at her sumptuous board, we shall
+have what the Romans now have,--the crumbs. We shall have monks and
+nuns for our farmers; and under their management, farewell to the
+smiling fields, the golden harvests, and the opulent cities, of Scotland
+and England. Our country will again become what it was before the
+Reformation,--a land of moors, and swamps, and forests, with a few
+patches of indifferent cultivation around our convents and abbacies.
+Vagabondism, lay and sacerdotal, will flourish once more in Britain;
+trade and commerce will be put down, as savouring of independence and
+intelligence; indolence and beggary will be sanctified; and troops of
+friars, with wallets on their backs, impudence on their brows, and
+profanity and filthiness on their tongues, will scour the country,
+demanding that every threshold and every purse shall be open to them.
+This result will come as surely as to-morrow will come, provided we
+permit the Papacy to raise its head once more among us.
+
+Let no one imagine that this terrible wreck of man, and of all his
+interests,--of civilization, of industry, of trade and commerce,--has
+happened of chance, and that there is no connection between this
+deplorable state of matters and the system which has prevailed in Italy.
+On the contrary, it is the direct, the necessary, and the uniform result
+of that system. The barbarian hates art because he does not understand
+its uses, and dreads its power. But the hatred the Pope bears to the
+useful arts is not that of the barbarian. It is the intelligent, the
+consistent hatred of a man who knows what he is about. It is the hatred
+of a man who comprehends both the character of his own system, and the
+tendency of modern improvements, and who sees right well, that if these
+improvements are introduced, the Papacy must fall. Self-preservation is
+the first law of systems, as of individuals; and the Papacy, feeling the
+antagonism between itself and these things, ever has and ever will
+resist them. It cannot tolerate them though it would. Speculatists and
+sentimentalists may talk as they please; but the destruction of that
+system is the first requisite to the regeneration of Italy.
+
+Such, then, is the condition of Italy at this day. Were we to find a
+state of things like this in the centre of Africa, or in some barbarous
+region thousands and thousands of miles away from European literature,
+arts, and influences, where the plough and the loom had yet to be
+invented, it would by no means surprise us. But to find a state of
+matters like this in the centre of Europe,--in Italy, once the head of
+civilization and influence, the birthplace of modern art and
+letters,--is certainly wonderful. But the wonder is completed when we
+reflect that this state of things obtains under a Government claiming to
+be guided by a higher than mortal sagacity,--a Government which says
+that it never did, and never can, err,--a Government that is
+supernatural and infallible. Supernatural and infallible! Why, I say, go
+out into the street,--stop the first old woman you meet,--carry her to
+Rome,--put a three-storied cap on her head,--enthrone her on the high
+altar in St Peter's,--burn incense before her, and call her
+infallible,--I say that old woman will be a more enlightened ruler that
+Pio Nono. The old Scotch woman or English woman would beat the old Roman
+woman hollow.
+
+The facts I have stated are sad enough; but the more harrowing picture
+of the working of the papal system has yet to be shown.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI.
+
+JUSTICE AND LIBERTY IN THE PAPAL STATES.
+
+     Justice the Pillar of the State--Claim implied in being God's
+     Vicar, namely, that the Pope governs the World as God would govern
+     it, were He personally present in it--No Civil Code in the Papal
+     States--Citizens have no Rights save as Church Members--No Lay
+     Judges--The Pontifical Government simply the Embodiment of the
+     Papacy--Courts of Justice visited--Papal Tribunals--The
+     Rota--Signatura--Cassation--Exceptional Tribunals--Apostolical
+     Chamber--House of Peter--Justice bought and sold at Rome--POLITICAL
+     JUSTICE--Gregorian Code--Case of Pietro Leoni--Accession of Pius
+     IX.--His Popularity at first--Re-action--Case of Colonel
+     Calendrelli--The Three Citizens of Macarata--The Hundred Young Men
+     of Faenza--Butchery at Sinigaglia--Horrible Executions at
+     Ancona--Estimated Number of Political Prisoners 30,000--Pope's
+     Prisons described--Horrible Treatment of Prisoners--The Sbirri--The
+     Spies--Domiciliary Restraint--Expulsions from Rome--Imprisonment
+     without reason assigned--Manner in which Apprehensions are
+     made--Condemnations without Evidence or Trial--Misery of Rome--The
+     Pope's Jubilee.
+
+
+We turn now to the JUSTICE of the Papal States. Alas! if in the
+preceding chapters on _Trade_ we were discoursing on what does not
+exist, we are now emphatically to speak of what is but a shadow, a
+mockery. To say that in the Papal States Justice is not,--that it is a
+negation,--is only to state half the truth. Were that all, thankful
+indeed would the Romans be. But, alas! in the seat of Justice there sits
+a stern, irresponsible, lawless power, before which virtue is
+confounded and dumb, and wickedness only can stand erect.
+
+On the importance of justice to the welfare of society I need not
+enlarge. It is the main pillar of the State. But where are you to look
+for justice,--justice in its unmixed, eternal purity,--if not at Rome?
+Rome is the seat of the Vicar of God. Ponder, I pray you, all that this
+title imports. The Vicar of God is just God on earth; and the government
+of God's Vicar is just the government of God. It is the possession and
+exercise of the same authority, the same attributes, the same moral
+infallibility, and the same moral omnipotence, in the government of
+mankind, which God possesses and exercises in the government of the
+universe. The government of the Pope is a model set up on the earth,
+before kings and nations, of God's righteous and holy government in the
+heavens. As I, the Vicar of Christ, govern men, so would Christ himself,
+were he here in the Vatican, govern them. If the claim advanced by the
+Pope, when he takes to himself the title of God's Vicar, amounts to
+anything, it amounts to this,--to all this, and nothing less than this.
+
+The case being so, where, I ask, are you entitled to look for justice,
+if not at Rome? This is her throne: here she sits, or should, according
+to the theory of the popedom, high above the disturbing and blinding
+passions of earth, serenely calm and inexorably true, weighing all
+actions in her awful scales, and giving forth those solemn awards which
+find their response in the universal reason and conscience of mankind.
+If so, what mean these dungeons? Why these trials shrouded in secrecy?
+Why this clanking of chains, and that cry which has gone up to heaven,
+and which pleads for justice there? Come near, I pray you, and look at
+the Pope's justice; enter his tribunals, and see the working of his
+courts; listen to the evidence which is there received, and the
+sentences which are there pronounced; visit his dungeons and galleys;
+and then tell me what you think of the administration of this man who
+styles himself God's Vicar.
+
+Let me first of all give prominence to the fact that in the Papal States
+there is no _civil_ code. It is a purely _spiritually_ governed region.
+The Church sustains herself as judge in _all_ causes, and holds her law
+as sufficiently comprehensive in its principles, and sufficiently
+flexible and practical in its special provisions, to determine all
+questions that can arise, of whatever nature,--whether relating to the
+body or the soul of man, to his property or his conscience. By what is
+strictly and purely church law are all things here adjudicated, for
+other law there is none. That law is the decretals and bulls of the
+popes. Only think of such a code! The Roman jurisprudence amounts to
+many hundreds of volumes, and its precedents range over many centuries,
+so that the most plodding lawyer and the most industrious judge may well
+despair of ever being able to tell exactly what the law says on any
+particular case, or of being able to find a clue to the true
+interpretation, granting that he sincerely wishes to do so, through the
+inextricable labyrinth of decisions by which he is to be guided. This
+law was made by the Church and for the Church, and gives to the citizen,
+as such, no right or privilege of any kind. Whatever rights the Roman
+possesses, he possesses solely in his character of Church member; he has
+a right to absolution when he confesses; a right to the undisturbed
+possession of his goods when he takes the sacrament; but he has no
+rights in his character of citizen; and when he falls out of communion
+with the Church, he falls at the same time from all rights whatever. He
+is beyond the pale of the Church, and beyond the pale of the law. Our
+freethinkers, who are so ready to fraternise with the Romanists, would
+do well to consider how they would like this sort of regimen.
+
+Let me, in the second place, give prominence to the fact, that in the
+Papal States there are no lay judges. There all are "anointed prelates."
+This applies to all the tribunals, from the highest to the lowest. In
+short, the whole machinery of the Government is priestly. Its head is a
+priest,--the Pope; its Prime Minister is a priest; its Chancellor of the
+Exchequer is a priest; its Secretary at War is a priest; all are
+priests. These functionaries cannot be impeached. However gross their
+blunders, or glaring their malversations, they are secure from censure;
+because to punish them would be to say that they had erred, and to say
+that they had erred would be to impeach the infallibility of the
+Pontifical Government. A treasurer who enriches himself and robs the
+exchequer may be promoted to the cardinalate, but cannot be censured.
+The highest mark of displeasure on which the popes have ventured in such
+cases has been, to appoint to a dignity with a very inadequate salary.
+The Government of the Papal States, both in its _law_ and in its
+_administration_, being strictly sacerdotal, the great fairness of the
+test we are now applying to the Papacy is undeniable. It would be very
+unfair to try the religion of Britain by the government of Britain, or
+to charge on Christianity the errors, the injustice, and the oppression
+which our rulers may commit, because our religion is one thing, and our
+Government is another. But it is not so in the Papal States. There the
+Church is the Government. The papal Government is simply the embodiment
+of the papal religion. And I cannot conceive a fairer, a more accurate,
+or a more comprehensive test of the genius and tendency of a religion,
+than simply the condition of that country where the making of the law,
+the administration of the law, the control of all persons, the
+regulation of all affairs, and the adjudication of all questions, are
+done by that religion; and where, with no one impediment to obstruct it,
+and with every conceivable advantage to aid it, it can exhibit all its
+principles and accomplish all its objects. If that religion be true, the
+condition of such country ought to be the most blessed on the face of
+the earth.
+
+One day I visited the courts of justice, which are on Mount Citorio. We
+ascended a spacious staircase (I say we, for Mr Stewart, the intelligent
+and obliging companion of my wanderings in Rome, was with me), and
+entered a hall crowded with a number of shabby-looking people. We turned
+off into a side-room, not larger than one's library, where the court was
+sitting. Behind a table slightly raised, and covered with green cloth,
+sat two priests as judges. A counsel sat with them, to assist
+occasionally. On the wall at their back hung a painting of Pont. Max.
+Pius IX.; and on the table stood a crucifix. The judges wore the round
+cap of the Jesuits. I saw men in coarse bombazeen gowns, which I took
+for macers: these, I soon discovered, were the advocates. They were
+clownish-looking men, with great lumpish hands, and an unmistakeably
+cowed look. They addressed the court in short occasional speeches in
+Latin; for it is one of the privileges of the Roman people to have their
+suits argued in a tongue they don't understand. There were some
+half-dozen people lounging in the place. There was an air of unconcern
+and meanness on the court, and all its practitioners and attendants;
+but, being infallible, it can dispense with the appearance of dignity. I
+asked Mr Stewart to conduct me to the criminal court, which was sitting
+in another apartment under the same roof. He showed me the door within
+which the assize is held, but told me at the same time, that neither
+myself nor any one in Rome could cross that threshold,--the judge, the
+prisoner, his advocate, the public prosecutor, and the guard, being the
+only exceptions. Let me now describe the machinery by which justice, as
+it is called, is administered.
+
+The judges, I have said, are prelates; and as in Rome the administration
+of justice is a low occupation compared with the Church, priests which
+are incapable, or which have sinned against their order, are placed on
+the tribunals. A prelate who has a knowledge of jurisprudence is a
+phenomenon; hence the judges do not themselves examine the merits of
+causes, but cause them to be investigated by a private auditor, whom
+they select from the practising counsel. According to the report of this
+individual, the members of the tribunal pronounce their judgment, no
+matter what objections may be pled, or arguments offered, to the
+contrary. This system gives rise, as may well be conceived, to
+innumerable acts of partiality and injustice.
+
+There is a tribunal of appeal for the Romagnias, another for the
+Marshes, and a third for the Capitol. Besides these, there are tribunals
+of the third class throughout the States. The tribunal of appeal for the
+Capitol is the ROMAN ROTA. Before this court our own Henry, and the
+other kings of Europe, carried their causes, in those days when the Pope
+was really a grand authority, and ruled Christendom. Having now little
+business as regards monarchs and the international quarrels of kingdoms,
+it has been converted into a tribunal for private suits. It still
+shrouds itself in its mediæval secresy, which, if it robs its decisions
+of public confidence, at least screens the ignorance of its judges from
+public contempt. There are, besides, the tribunals of the _Signatura_
+and of _Cassation_, in which partiality examines, incompetence
+pronounces judgment, delays exhaust the patience and the money of the
+suitors, and the decent veil of a dead language wraps up the illegality.
+
+Besides these, there are the _exceptional_ tribunals, which are very
+numerous. Among them the chief is the _ecclesiastical_ jurisdiction, so
+extensive, that it is sufficient that some very trifling interest of a
+priest, or of some charity fund, or even of a Jew or a recent convert,
+is concerned, to transfer the cause to the bar of the privileged
+tribunal. The jurisdiction of the exceptional tribunal is exercised in
+the provinces by the vicar-general of the bishop; and in Rome the suits
+are laid before the private auditors of the cardinal-vicar, and of the
+bishop _in partibus_, his assistant. The auditors pronounce judgment in
+the name of the cardinal or the bishop, who signs it without any
+examination on his part. The suits which concern the public finances are
+decided by the exceptional tribunal, and a tribunal called the "_Plena
+Camera_" (full chamber); and any private person who might chance to gain
+his cause is condemned, as an invariable maxim, to pay the costs.
+Exceptional tribunals are to be found in very many parochial places,
+especially in those parishes near Rome where the judges are named by,
+and are removable at the will of, the baron. It can easily be imagined
+what sort of a chance any one may have who should have a suit with the
+baron. Besides all these, we must not omit the _Reverend Apostolical
+Chamber_, always on the brink of bankruptcy, which has been in the habit
+of exacting contributions, that they may sell to speculators the
+revenues of succeeding years. Thus private families, invested with
+iniquitous privileges, extort money from the unfortunate labourers, by
+royal authority and the help of the bailiff.
+
+There is another tribunal which should be styled _monstrous_, rather
+than by the milder term of exceptional; this is the "_Fabbrica di S.
+Petro_" (house of St Peter.) To this was granted, by the caprice of the
+Pope, the right to claim from the immediate or distant heirs of any
+testator, _even at remote epochs_, the sum of unpaid legacies for pious
+purposes. The Cardinal Arch-Priest and the Commons, who represent the
+pretended creditor, are judges between themselves and the presumed
+debtor. They search the archives; they open and they close testamentary
+documents not ever published; they arbitrarily burden the estates of the
+citizens with mortgages or charges; and they commence their proceedings
+where other tribunals leave off,--that is, by an execution and seizure,
+under the pretence of securing the credits not yet determined upon. To
+the commissaries of this strange tribunal in the provinces is awarded
+the fifth of the sum claimed. Whosoever desires to settle the question
+by a compromise is not permitted to attempt it, unless he shall first
+have satisfied this fifth, and paid the expenses, besides the fees of
+the fiscal advocate. If any one should have the rare luck to gain his
+suit, as, for instance, by producing the receipt in full, he must
+nevertheless pay a sum for the judgment absolving him.
+
+The presidents of the tribunals--the minor judges, comprising the
+private auditors of the Vicar of Rome--have the power of legitimatizing
+all contracts for persons affected by legal incapacity. This is
+generally done without examination, and merely in consideration of the
+fee which they receive. It would take a long chapter to narrate the sums
+which have been, by a single stroke of the pen, wrongfully taken from
+poor widows and orphans. Incapacity for the management of one's affairs
+is sometimes pronounced by the tribunal, but very frequently is decreed
+by the prelate-auditor of the Pope, without any judicial formality. Thus
+any citizen may at any moment find himself deprived of the direction of
+his private affairs and business.
+
+Such is the machinery employed for dispensing justice by a man who
+professes to be the infallible fountain of equity, and the world's
+teacher as regards the eternal maxims of justice. Justice! The word is a
+delusion,--a lie. It is a term which designates a tyranny worse than any
+under which the populations of Asia groan.[5]
+
+It would be wearisome to adduce individual cases, even were I able
+to do so. But, indeed, the vast corruption of the _civil justice_
+of the Papal States must be evident from what I have said. A
+law so inextricable!--judges so incompetent, who decide without
+examining!--tribunals which sit in darkness! Why, justice is not
+dispensed in Rome; it is bought and sold; it is simply a piece of
+merchandise; and if you wish to obtain it, you cannot, but by going to
+the market, where it is openly put up for sale, and buying it with your
+money. Mr Whiteside, a most competent witness in this case, who spent
+two winters in Rome, and made it his special business to investigate the
+Roman jurisprudence, both in its theory and in its practice, tells us in
+effect, in his able work on Italy, that if you are so unfortunate as to
+have a suit in the Roman courts, the decision will have little or no
+reference to the merits of the cause, but will depend on whether you or
+your opponent is willing to approach the judgment-seat with the largest
+bribe. Such, in substance, is Mr Whiteside's testimony; and precisely
+similar was the evidence of every one whom I met in Rome who had had any
+dealings with the papal tribunals.
+
+But I turn to the political justice of the Papal States,--a department
+even more important in the present state of Italy, and where the
+specific acts are better known. Let us look first at the tribunal set up
+in Rome for the trial of all crimes against the State. And let the
+reader bear in mind, that offences against the Church are crimes against
+the State, for there the Church is the State. A secret, summary, and
+atrocious tribunal it is, differing in no essential particular from that
+sanguinary tribunal in Paris where Robespierre passed sentence, and the
+guillotine executed it. The Gregorian Code[6] enacts, that in cases of
+sedition or treason, the trial may take place by a commission nominated
+by the Pope's Secretary; that the trial shall be secret; that the
+prisoner shall not be confronted with the witnesses, or know their
+names; that he may be examined in prison and by torture. The accused,
+according to this barbarous code, has no means of proving his
+innocence, or defending his life, beyond the hasty observations on the
+evidence which his advocate, who is appointed in all cases by the
+tribunal, may be able to make on the spur of the moment. This tribunal
+is simply the Inquisition; and yet it is by this tribunal that the Pope,
+who professes to be the first minister of justice on earth, governs his
+kingdom. No man is safe at Rome. However innocent, his liberty and life
+hang by a single thread, which the Government, by the help of such a
+tribunal as this, may snap at any moment.
+
+This is the established, the legal course of papal justice. Let the
+reader lift his eyes, and survey, if he have courage, the wide weltering
+mass of misery and despair which the Papal States present. We cannot
+bring all into view; we must permit a few only to speak for the rest.
+Here they come from a region of doom, to tell to the free people of
+Britain, if they will hear them, the dread secrets of their
+prison-house; and, we may add, to warn them, "lest they also come into
+this place of torment." I shall first of all take a case that occurred
+before the Revolution, lest any one should affirm of the cases that are
+to follow, that the Pontifical Government had been exascerbated by the
+insurrection, and hurried into measures of more than usual severity.
+This case I give on the authority of Mr Whiteside, who, being curious to
+see a _political process_ in the Roman law, after some trouble procured
+the following, which, having been compiled under the orders of Pius IX.,
+may be relied on as strictly accurate. Pietro Leoni had acted as
+official attorney to the poor. Well, in 1831, under the pontificate of
+Gregory XVI., he was arrested on a charge of being a member of a
+political club. He was brought to trial, acquitted, set free, but
+deprived of his office, though why I cannot say, unless it was for the
+crime of being innocent. To sustain an aged father, a wife and children,
+Pietro had to work harder than ever. In 1836 he was again
+arrested,--suddenly, without being told for what,--hurried to the Castle
+of St Angelo, in the dungeons of which he had to undergo a rigorous
+examination, from which nothing could be elicited. He was not released,
+however, but kept there, till witnesses could be found or hired. At
+length a certain vine-dresser came forward to accuse Leoni. One day,
+said the vine-dresser, Pietro Leoni, whom he had never seen till then,
+came to his door, and, after a short conversation with him, in the
+presence of his sons, handed him a manuscript relating to a _reform
+society_, of which, he said, he had been a member for years. The
+vine-dresser buried this document at the bottom of a tree in his garden.
+The spot was searched, but nothing was found; his strange story was
+contradicted by his wife and sons; and the Pontifical Government could
+not for very shame condemn him on such evidence; but neither did they
+let him go. A full year passed over him in the dungeons of St Angelo. At
+last three additional witnesses--(their names never were known)--were
+produced against him. And what did they depose? Why, that they had heard
+some one say that he had heard Pietro Leoni say, that he (Leoni) was a
+member of a secret society; and on this hearsay evidence did the
+Pontifical Government condemn the poor attorney to a life-long slavery
+in the galleys. We find him ten long years thereafter still in the
+dungeons of the Castle of St Angelo, and writing the Pope in a strain
+which one would think might have moved a heart of stone. The petition is
+printed in the process. It begins,--
+
+     "Most holy father, divest yourself of the splendours of royalty,
+     and, dressed in the garb of a private citizen, cause yourself to be
+     conducted into these subterranean prisons, where there is buried,
+     not an enemy of his country, not a violator of the laws, but an
+     innocent citizen, whom a secret enemy has calumniated, and who has
+     had the courage to sustain his innocence in presence of a judge
+     prejudiced or corrupted.... Command this living tomb to be opened,
+     and ask an unhappy man the cause of his misfortunes."
+
+And concludes thus,--
+
+     "But, holy father, neither the prolonged imprisonment of ten years,
+     nor separation from my family, nor the total ruin of my earthly
+     prospects, should ever reduce me to the baseness of admitting a
+     crime which I did not commit. And I call God to witness that I am
+     innocent of the accusation brought against me; and that the true
+     cause of my unjust condemnation was, and is, a private pique and
+     personal enmity.... Listen, therefore, to justice,--to the humble
+     entreaties of an aged father,--a desolate wife,--unhappy
+     children,--who exist in misery, and who with tears of anguish
+     implore your mercy."
+
+Did the heart of Gregory relent? Did he hasten to the prison, and beg
+his prisoner to come forth? Ah, no: the petition was received, flung
+aside, and forgotten; and Pietro Leoni continued to lie in the dungeons
+of St Angelo till death came to the Vatican, and Gregory went to his
+account, and the prison-doors of St Angelo were opened, as a matter of
+course, not of right, on the accession of a new Pope. No wonder that
+Lambruschini and Marini, the chief actors in the atrocities committed
+under Gregory, resisted that amnesty by which Pietro Leoni, and hundreds
+more, were raised from the grave, as it were, to proclaim their
+villanies. I give this case because it occurred before the Revolution,
+and is a fair sample, as a Roman advocate assured Mr Whiteside, of the
+calm, every-day working of the Pontifical Government under Gregory XVI.
+I come now to relate other cases, if possible more affecting, which came
+under my own cognizance, more or less, while in Rome.
+
+But let me first glance at the rejoicings that filled Rome on the
+accession of Pius IX. A bright but perfidious gleam heralded the night,
+which has since settled down so darkly on the Papal States. The scene I
+describe in the words of Mr Stewart, who was an eye-witness of it:--"I
+was at Rome when Pope Pius IX. made his formal triumphal entrance into
+the city by the Porta del Popolo, where was a magnificent arch entering
+to the Corso. The arch was erected specially for the occasion, and
+executed with much artistic skill. Banners were waving in profusion
+along the Corso, bearing, some of them, very far-fetched epithets; while
+every balcony and window was studded with gay and admiring citizens, all
+alike eager in demonstrating their attachment to the Holy Father.
+Nothing, in fact, could exceed the gaiety of the scene: all and sundry
+seemed bent on the one idea of displaying their loyalty. What with
+garlands of flowers, white handkerchiefs, and vivas, the feelings were
+worked up to such a pitch, that the _young nobles_, when the state
+carriage arrived at the Piazza Colonna, actually unyoked the horses, and
+scampered off with carriage and Pope, to the Quirinal Palace, nearly a
+mile. This ebullition of feeling was undoubtedly the result of the
+general amnesty, and the bright expectations then cherished of a new era
+for Italy." Such an ebullition may appear absurd, and even childish, to
+us, who have been so long accustomed to liberty; but we must bear in
+mind that the Romans had groaned in fetters for centuries, and these, as
+they believed, had now been struck off for ever. "Was there," asked Mr
+Whiteside of a sculptor in Rome, "really affecting yourself, any
+practical oppression under old Gregory?" The artist started. "No man,"
+said he, "could count on one hour's security or happiness: I knew not
+but there might be a spy behind that block of marble: the pleasure of
+life was spoiled. I had three friends, who, supping in a garden near
+this spot, were suddenly arrested, flung into prison, and lay there,
+though innocent, till released by Pio Nono." As regards the amnesty of
+Pio Nono, which so intoxicated the Romans, it is common for popes to
+make political capital of the errors and crimes of their predecessors;
+and as regards his reforming policy, which deluded others besides the
+Italians, it was a very transparent dodge to restore the papacy to its
+old supremacy. The Cobra di Capella relaxed its folds on Italy for a
+moment, to coil itself more firmly round the rest of the world. Of this
+none are now better aware than the Romans.
+
+The re-action,--the flight,--the Republic,--the bombardment,--the return
+to the Vatican on a path deluged with his subjects' blood,--all I pass
+over. But how shall I describe or group the horrors that have darkened
+and desolated the Papal States from that hour to this? What has their
+history been since, but one terrible tale of apprehensions,
+proscriptions, banishments, imprisonments, and executions, the full
+recital of which would make the ear of him that hears it to tingle? Nero
+and Caligula were monsters of crime; but their capricious tyranny, while
+it fell heavily on individuals, left the great body of the empire
+comparatively untouched. But the tyranny of the Pope penetrates every
+home, and crushes every person and thing. There was not under Nero a
+tenth part of the misery in Rome which there is now. Were the acts of
+Nero and of Pio to be fully written, I have not a doubt,--I am
+certain,--that the government of the imperial despot would be seen to be
+liberty itself, compared with the measureless, remorseless,
+inappeasable, wide-wasting tyranny of the sacerdotal one. The diadem was
+light indeed, compared with the tiara. The little finger of the Popes is
+thicker than the loins of the Cæsars. The sights I saw, and the facts I
+heard, actually poisoned my enjoyment of Rome. What pleasure could I
+take in statues and monuments, when I saw the wretched beings that
+lived beside them, and marked the faces on which despair was painted,
+the forms that grief had bowed to the very dust, the dead men who
+wandered in the streets and about the old ruins, as if they sought, but
+could not find, their graves? Ah! there _is_ not, there never _was_, on
+earth a tyranny like the Papacy. But let me come to particulars.
+
+I shall first narrate the story of Colonel Calendrelli. It was told me
+by our own consul in Rome, Mr Freeborn, who knew intimately the colonel,
+and deeply interested himself in his case. Colonel Calendrelli was
+treasurer at war during the Republic. The Republic came to an end; the
+Pontifical Government returned; and Colonel Calendrelli, being unable to
+get away along with the other agents and friends of the Republic, was,
+of course, apprehended by the restored Government. It was necessary to
+find some pretext on which to condemn the colonel; and what, does the
+reader think, was the charge preferred against Colonel Calendrelli? Why,
+it was this, that the colonel had embezzled the public funds to the
+amount of twenty scudi. Twenty scudi! How much is that? Only five pounds
+sterling! That Colonel Calendrelli, a gentleman, a scholar, a man on
+whose honesty a breath had never been blown, should risk character and
+liberty for five pounds sterling! Why, the Pontifical Government should
+have made it five hundred or five thousand pounds, if they wished to
+have the accusation believed. Well, then, on the charge of defrauding
+the public treasury to the extent of twenty Roman scudi was Colonel
+Calendrelli brought to trial, and condemned! Condemned to what? To the
+galleys. Nor does that bring fully out the iniquity of the sentence. Our
+consul in Rome assured me that he had investigated the case, from his
+friendship for the colonel, and that the matter stood thus:--The colonel
+had engaged a man to do a piece of work, for which he was to receive
+five pounds as wages. The work was done, the wages were paid, the man's
+receipt was tendered, and the witnesses in whose presence the money had
+been paid bore their testimony to the fact. All these proofs were before
+Mr Freeborn. Nay, more; the papal tribunal that tried the case was told
+that all these witnesses and documents were ready to be produced. And
+yet, in the teeth of this evidence, completely establishing the
+innocence of Colonel Calendrelli, which, indeed, no one doubted, was the
+colonel condemned to the galleys; and when I was in Rome, he was working
+as a galley-slave on the high-road near Civita Vecchia, chained to
+another galley-slave. This is a sample of the pontifical justice. Take
+another case.
+
+The tragedy I am now to relate was consummated during my stay in the
+Eternal City. In the town of Macerata, to the east of Rome, it happened
+one day that a priest was fired at as he was passing along the street at
+dusk. He was not shot, happily;--the ball, missing the priest, sank deep
+in a door on the other side of the way. This happened under the
+Republic; and the police either could not or would not discover the
+perpetrator of the deed. The thing was the talk of the town for a day or
+so, and was then forgotten for ever, as every one thought. But no. The
+Republic came to an end; back came the pontifical police to Macerata;
+and then the affair of the priest was brought up. The prefect had not
+been installed in his office many days till a person presented himself
+before him, and said, "I am the man who shot at the priest." "You!"
+exclaimed the prefect. "Yes; and I was hired to shoot him by----,"
+naming three young men of the town, who had been the most active
+supporters of the Republic. These were precisely the three young men, of
+all others in Macerata, whom it was most for the interest of the Papacy
+to get rid of. That very day these three young men were apprehended.
+They were at last brought to trial; and will it be believed, that on the
+solitary and uncorroborated testimony of a man who, according to his own
+confession, was a hired assassin,--and surely I do the man no injustice
+if I suppose that, if he was willing for money to commit murder, he
+might be willing for money, or some priestly consideration, to commit
+perjury,--on the single and unsupported evidence, I say, of this man, a
+hired assassin according to his own confession, were these three young
+men condemned? And to what? To death!--and while I was in Rome they were
+actually guillotined! I saw their sentence placarded on the Piazza
+Colonna on the morning after my arrival in Rome. This writing of doom
+was the first thing I read in that city. It bore the names of the
+accused, the alleged crime, and an abstract of the evidence, or, I
+should say, volunteered statement, of the would-be assassin. It had the
+terrible guillotine at the top, and the fisherman's ring at the bottom;
+and though I had known nothing more of the case than the Government
+account of it, as contained in that paper, I would have said that it was
+enough to cover any Government with eternal infamy. Indeed, I don't
+believe that there is a Government under the sun, save the Pope's, that
+would have done an atrocity like it. I had some talk with our consul, Mr
+Freeborn, about that case too, and he assured me that, bad as these
+cases were, they were not worse than scores, aye, hundreds, that to his
+knowledge had been perpetrated in Rome, and all over the Papal States,
+since the return of the Pontifical Government. He added, that if Mr
+Gladstone would come to Rome, and visit the prisons, and examine the
+state of the country generally, he would have a more harrowing tale to
+unfold than that with which he had recently thrilled the British public
+on the subject of Naples: that in Naples there was still something like
+trade, but in Rome there was nothing but downright grinding misery.
+
+There are few tales in any history more harrowing than the following.
+The events were posterior to my visit to Rome, and were published at the
+time in the American _Crusader_. It happened that several papal
+proconsuls were slain in the city of Faenza: all of them had served
+under Gregory XVI., in the galleys, as felons and forgers. Being
+favoured by the papal power, they tried to deserve it by becoming the
+tyrants of the unhappy population. When the gloomy news of their
+tragical end reached the Holy Father, the answer returned to the
+governor of that city, as to what he should do in such a case, as the
+true perpetrators could not be found, was, "_Arrest all the young men of
+Faenza!_" and more than a hundred youths were immediately snatched away
+from the bosom of their families, handcuffed and chained, thrown into
+the city prisons, and distributed afterwards among the gangs of
+malefactors, whose lives had been a continual series of robberies and
+murders! Thirty of these unfortunate victims were marched off to Rome,
+where they were locked up in a dungeon. Innocent as well as unconscious
+of the crime of which they were accused, they supplicated the President
+of the Sacred Consulta,--who is an anointed prelate,--asking only for
+justice; not for mercy and forgiveness, but for a regular trial. All was
+useless; the archbishop had neither ear nor heart, and the petition was
+forgotten. Thinking that, after all, even at Rome, and even among the
+high dignitaries of the Church of Sodom and Gomorrah, there might be
+found a man of human feeling, they wrote a second petition, which was
+this time addressed to a different personage of the Church, his
+Excellency Mgr. Mertel, Minister of Grace and Justice!
+
+The prisoners asserted to the high papal functionary the illegality of
+their arrest,--their sufferings without any imputation of guilt,--the
+painful condition of their families, increased still more by the famine
+which now desolates the Roman States, and the want of their support. The
+supplicants were brought before Mgr. Mertel, who, feigning pity and
+interest for the sufferers (attention, reader!) offered them the choice
+of _ten years in the chain-gang, or to be transported to the United
+States_, the _refugium peccatorum_! They protested; but of what benefit
+is a legal and natural protest to thirty poor defenceless and guiltless
+young men, loaded with chains by a papal bureaucrat, surrounded by fifty
+ruffians armed to the teeth?
+
+On the night of the 5th of May 1853, the sepulchral silence of the
+subterranean prisons of St Angelo was interrupted by the rattling of
+keys and muskets. The thirty young citizens of Faenza were called out of
+their dens, and one by one, bending under his fetters, was escorted to a
+steamer waiting on the muddy Tiber to carry them to a distant land! The
+beautiful moon of Italy, as some call it, was shining benevolently over
+Rome and her iniquities; the streets, deserted by the people, were
+trodden by French patrols; all was silent as the grave itself; and not a
+friend was there to bid them adieu; not a relative to speak a consoling
+word to the departing; and none to acquaint the unfortunates who
+remained behind with their terrible calamity! This was their parting
+from Rome, at three o'clock, after midnight! But let us follow the
+victims of papal fury over the wide waters. Cast into the steerage,
+always handcuffed, the vessel rolling in a heavy and tempestuous sea,
+these wretched young men remained eighty hours in a painful position,
+till they reached Leghorn, where they were conducted to the quarantine,
+as though affected with leprosy and plague, and thence embarked for New
+York, where they arrived totally destitute of clothes and means of
+subsistence.
+
+The autumn of 1852 will be long remembered in the Papal States, from the
+occurrence of numerous tragedies of a like deplorable character.
+Sixty-five citizens of Sinigaglia had been apprehended on the charge of
+being concerned in the political disturbances of 1848,--an accusation on
+which the Pope himself might have been apprehended. These citizens,
+however, had not been so prudent as to turn when the Pope did. In the
+August of 1852 they were all brought to trial before the Sacra Consulta
+of Rome, with the exception of thirteen who had made their escape.
+Twenty-eight of these persons were condemned to the galleys for life,
+and twenty-four were sentenced to be shot. These unhappy men displayed
+great unconcern at their execution,--some singing the _Marseillaise_,
+others crying _Viva Mazzini_. The Swiss troops, not the Austrian
+soldiers, were made the executioners in this case.
+
+The Sinigaglia trials were followed by similar prosecutions at Ancona,
+Jesi, Pesaro, and Funa, where unhappy groupes of citizens, indicted for
+political offences, waited the tender mercies which the "Holy Father"
+dispenses to his _figli_ by the hands of Swiss and Austrian carabiniers.
+Let us state the result at Ancona.
+
+The executions took place on the 25th of October 1852, and they may be
+reckoned amongst the most appalling ever witnessed. The sentence was
+officially published at Rome after the execution, and contained, as
+usual, simply the names of the judges and the prisoners, a summary of
+the evidence unsupported by the names of any witnesses, and the penalty
+awarded--_death_. The victims were nine in number. The sacerdotal
+Government gave them a priest as well as a scaffold, but only one would
+accept the insulting mockery. The others, being hopelessly recusant,
+were allowed to intoxicate themselves with rum. "The shooting of them
+was entrusted to a detachment of Roman artillerymen, armed with short
+carbines, old-fashioned weapons, many of which missed fire, so that at
+the first discharge some of the prisoners did not fall, but ran off,
+with the soldiers pursuing and firing at them repeatedly; others crawled
+about; and one wretch, after being considered dead, made a violent
+exertion to get up, rendering a final _coup de grace_ necessary." The
+writer who recorded these accounts added, that other executions were to
+follow, and that, if these wholesale slaughters were necessary, they
+ought, in the dominions of a pontifical sovereign, to be conducted with
+more delicacy, that is, in a more summary fashion. In truth, such
+executions are a departure from the approved pontifical method of
+killing,--which is not by fusillades and in open day, but in silence and
+night, by the help of the rack and the dungeon.
+
+I cannot go into any minute detail of the imprisonments, banishments,
+and massacres by which the Pope has signalized his return to his palace
+and the chair of Peter. But I may state a few facts, from which some
+idea of their number may be gathered. When Pio Nono fled from Rome to
+Gaeta, what was the amount of its population? Not less than a hundred
+and sixty thousand. I conversed with a distinguished literary Englishman
+who chanced to visit Rome at the time I speak of, and who assured me
+that there could not be fewer than two hundred thousand in Rome then,
+for Italians had flocked thither from every country under heaven,
+expecting a new era for their city and nation. But I shall give the Pope
+the benefit of the smaller number. When he fled, there were, I shall
+suppose, only a hundred and sixty thousand human beings in his city of
+Rome. Take the same Rome six months after his return, and how many do
+you find in it? According to the most credible accounts, the population
+of the Eternal City had dwindled down to little above a hundred
+thousand. Here are sixty thousand human beings lacking in this one city.
+What has become of them? Where have they gone to? I shall suppose that
+some were fortunate enough to escape to Malta, some to Belgium, some to
+England, and others to America. I shall suppose that twenty thousand
+contrived to get away. And let me here do justice to Mr Freeborn, the
+British consul, who saved much blood by issuing British passports to
+these unhappy men when the French entered Rome. Twenty thousand, I shall
+suppose, made good their flight. But thirty thousand and upwards are
+still lacking. Where are your subjects, Pio Nono? Were we to put this
+interrogatory to the Pope, he would reply, I doubt not, as did another
+celebrated personage in history, "Am I my brother's keeper?" But ah!
+might not the same response as of old be made to this disclaimer, "The
+voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground?" Again we
+say, Where are your subjects, Pio Nono? Ask any Roman, and he will tell
+you where these men are. Ask our own consul, Mr Freeborn, and he will
+tell you where they are. They are, those of them that have not been
+shot, rotting at this hour at the bottom of the Pope's dungeons. That is
+where they are.
+
+There is a singular unanimity in Rome amongst all parties, as to the
+number of political prisoners now under confinement. This I had many
+opportunities of testing. I met a Roman one evening in a book-shop, and,
+after a rather lengthened conversation, I said to him, "Can you tell me
+how many prisoners there are at present in the Roman States?" "No," he
+replied, "I cannot." "But," I rejoined, "have you no idea of their
+number?" He solemnly said, "God only knows." I pressed him yet farther,
+when he stated, that the common estimate, which he believed to be not
+above the truth, rather under, was, that there were not fewer than
+thirty thousand political prisoners in the various fortresses and
+dungeons of the Papal States. Thirty thousand was the estimate of Mr
+Freeborn. Thirty thousand was the estimate of Mr Stewart, who, mingling
+with the Romans, knew well the prevailing opinion. Of course, precise
+accuracy is unattainable in such a case. No one ever counted these
+prisoners. No list of them is kept,--none that is open to the public eye
+at least; but it is well known, that there is scarce a family in Rome
+which does not mourn some of its members lost to it, and scarce an
+individual who has not an acquaintance in prison; and I have little
+doubt that the Roman estimate is not far from the truth, and that it is
+just as likely to be below as above it. When I was in Rome, all the
+jails in the city were crowded. The cells in the Castle of St
+Angelo,--those subterranean dungeons where day never dawned, and where
+the captive's groan can never reach a human ear,--were filled. All the
+great fortresses throughout the country,--the vast ranges of
+galley-prisons at Civita Vecchia, the fortress of Ancona, the castle of
+Bologna, the fortress of Ferrara, and hundreds of minor prisons over the
+country,--all were filled,--filled, do I say! they were
+crowded,--crowded to suffocation with choking, despairing victims. In
+the midst of this congeries of dungeons, surrounded by clanking chains
+and weeping captives, stands the chair of the "Holy Father."
+
+Let us take a look into these prisons, as described to me by reputable
+and well-informed parties in Rome. These prisons are of three classes.
+The first class consists of cells of from seven to eight feet square.
+The space is little more than a man's height when he stands erect, and a
+man's length when he stretches himself on the floor, and can contain
+only that amount of atmospheric air necessary for the consumption of one
+person. These cells are now made to receive two prisoners, who are
+compelled to divide betwixt them the air adequate for only one. The
+second class consists of cells constructed to hold ten persons each. In
+the present great demand for prison-room these are held to afford ample
+accommodation for a little crowd of twenty persons. Their one window is
+so high in the wall, that the wretched men who are shut in here are
+obliged to mount by turns on each other's shoulders, to obtain a breath
+of air. Last of all comes the common prison. It is a spacious place,
+containing from forty to fifty persons, who lie day and night on straw
+too foul for a stable. It matters not what the means of the prisoner may
+be; he must wear the prison dress, and live on the prison diet. The
+jailor is empowered, should the slightest provocation be offered, to
+flog the prisoner, or to load his limbs so heavily with irons, that he
+scarce can move. And who are they who tenant these places? Violators of
+the law,--brigands, murderers? No! Those who have been dragged thither
+are the very _elite_ of the Roman population. There many of them lie for
+years, without being brought to trial; and if they thus escape the
+scaffold, they perish more slowly, but not less surely, and much more
+miserably, by the pestilential air, the unwholesome food, and the
+horrible treatment of the jail. Nor is this the worst of it. I was told
+by those in Rome who had the best opportunities of knowing, but whose
+names I do not here choose to mention, that the sufferings of the
+prisoners had been much aggravated,--indeed, made unendurable,--by the
+expedient of the Government which confines malefactors and desperadoes
+along with them. These characters are permitted to have their own way in
+the prisons; they lord it over the rest, compel them to do the most
+disgusting offices, and attempt even outrages on their person, which
+propriety leaves without a name. Their sufferings are indescribable. The
+consequence of this accumulation of horrors,--foul air, insufficient
+food, and the fearful society with which the walls and chains of their
+prison compel them to mingle,--is, that a great many of the prisoners
+have died, some have sought to terminate their woe by suicide, while
+others have been carried raving to a madhouse. Mr Freeborn assured me
+that several of his Roman acquaintances had been carried to these places
+sane men, as well as innocent men, and, after a short confinement, they
+had been brought out maniacs and madmen. He would have preferred to have
+seen them shot at once. It is a prelate who has charge of these prisons.
+
+I have described the higher machinery which the Pope employs,--the
+tribunals,--judges,--the secret process,--the tyrannous Gregorian Code;
+let me next bring into view the inferior machinery of the Pontifical
+Government. The Roman _sbirri_ have an European reputation. One must be
+no ordinary villain,--he must be, in short, a perfected and finished
+scoundrel,--to merit a place in this honourable corps. The _sbirri_ are
+chiefly from the kingdom of Naples. They dress in plain clothes, go in
+twos and threes, are easily distinguished, and are permitted to carry
+larger walking-sticks than the Romans, whom the French commandant has
+forbidden to come abroad with any but the merest twig. Some of these
+spies wear spurs, the better to deceive and to succeed in their fiendish
+work. No disguise, however, can conceal the _sbirro_. His look, so
+unmistakeably villanous, proclaims the spy. These fellows will not be
+defeated in their purposes. They carry, it is said, _articles of
+conviction_, that is, political papers, on their person, which they use,
+in lack of other material, to compass the ruin of their victim. They can
+stop any one they please on the street, compel him to produce his
+papers, and, when they choose not to be satisfied with them, march him
+off to prison. When they visit a house where they have resolved to make
+a seizure, they search it; and if they do not find what may criminate
+the man, they drop the papers they have brought with them, and swear
+that they found them in the house. What can solemn protestations do
+against armed ruffians, backed by hireling judges, who, like Impaccianti
+and Belli, have been taken from the bagnio and the galleys, thrust into
+orders, and elevated to the bench, to do the work of their patrons?[7]
+Such must show that they deserve promotion. The people loathe and dread
+the _sbirri_, knowing that whatever they do in their official capacity
+is done well, and speedily followed up by those in authority.
+
+But there is a class in the service of the Pontifical Government yet
+more wicked and dangerous. What! exclaims the reader, more wicked and
+dangerous than the _sbirri_! Yes, the _sbirri_ profess to be only what
+they are,--the base tools of a tyrannical Government, which seems to
+thirst insatiably for vengeance; but there exists an invisible power,
+which the citizen feels to be ever at his side, listening to his every
+word, penetrating his inmost thought, and ready at any moment to effect
+his destruction. At noonday, at midnight, in society, in private, he
+feels that its eye is upon him. He can neither see it nor avoid it.
+Would he flee from it, he but throws himself into its jaws. I refer to a
+class of vile and abandoned men, entirely at the service of the
+Government, whose position in society, agreeable manners, flexibility
+of disposition, and thorough knowledge of affairs, which they study for
+base ends, and handle most adroitly in conversation, enable them to
+penetrate the secret feelings of all classes. They now condemn and now
+applaud the conduct of Government, as the subject and circumstances
+require, and all to extract an unfriendly sentiment against those in
+authority, if such there be in the mind of the man with whom they are
+conversing. If they succeed, the person is immediately denounced; an
+arrest follows, or domiciliary restraint. The numbers that have found
+their way to prison and to the galleys through this secret and
+mysterious agency are incredible. Nor can any man imagine to himself the
+dreadful state of Rome under this terrible espionage. The Roman feels
+that the air around him is full of eyes and ears; he dare not speak; he
+dreads even to think; he knows that a thought or a look may convey him
+to prison.
+
+The oppression is not of equal intensity in all cases. Some are
+subjected only to domiciliary restraint. In this predicament are many
+respectably connected young men. They are told to consider themselves as
+prisoners in their own houses, and not to appear beyond the threshold,
+but at the penalty of exchanging their homes for the common jail.
+Others, again, whose apparent delinquency has been less, are allowed the
+freedom of the open air during certain specified hours. At the expiry of
+this time they must withdraw to their houses: Ave Maria is in many cases
+the retiring hour.
+
+Another tyrannical proceeding on the part of the Government, which was
+productive of wide-spread misery, was the compelling hundreds of people,
+from the labourer to the man in business, to leave Rome for their place
+of birth. These measures, which would have been oppressive under any
+circumstances, were rendered still more oppressive by the shortness of
+the notice given to those on whom this sentence of expulsion fell. Some
+had twenty-four hours, and others thirty-six, to prepare for their
+departure. The labourer might plead that he had no money, and must beg
+his way with wife and children. The man in business might justly
+represent that to eject him in this summary fashion was just to ruin
+him; for his business could not be properly wound up; it must be
+sacrificed. But no appeal was sustained; no remonstrance was listened
+to. The stern mandate must be obeyed, though the poor man should die on
+the road. Go he must, or be conveyed in irons. And, as regards those who
+were fortunate enough to reach their native villages, alas! their
+sufferings did then but begin. These villages, in most cases, did not
+need them, and could afford no opening in the line of business or of
+labour in which they had been trained. They were houseless and workless
+in their native place; and, if they did not die of a broken heart, which
+many of them did, they went "into the country," as they say in
+Italy,--that is, they became brigands, or are at this hour dragging out
+the remainder of their lives in poverty and wretchedness.
+
+How atrociously, too, have many of the Romans been carried from their
+business to prison. Against these men neither proof nor witness existed;
+but a spy had denounced them, or they had fallen under the suspicions of
+the Government, and there they are in the dungeon. Their families might
+starve, their business might go to the dogs, but the vengeance of the
+Government must be satiated. Such persons are confined for a longer or
+shorter period, according to the view taken of their character or
+associates; and if nothing be elicited by the secret ordeal of
+examination, the prison-door is opened, and the prisoner is requested to
+go home. No apology is offered; no redress is obtained.
+
+Such cases, I was told, were numerous. One such came to my knowledge
+through Mr Stewart. An acquaintance of his, a druggist, was one day
+dragged summarily from his business, and lodged in jail, where he was
+detained a whole month, although to this hour he has not been told what
+he had done, or said, or thought amiss. During the Constitution this man
+had been called in, in his scientific capacity simply, to superintend an
+electric telegraph which ran, if I mistake not, betwixt the Capitol and
+St Peter's. But beyond this he had taken no political action and
+expressed no political sentiment whatever. He knew well that this would
+avail him nothing; and glad he was to escape from incarceration with the
+remark, _meno male, alias_, it might have been worse.
+
+They say that the Inquisition was an affair of the sixteenth century;
+that its fires are cold; its racks and screws are rusted; and that it
+would be just as impossible to bring back the Inquisition as to bring
+back the centuries in which it flourished. That is fine talking; and
+there are simpletons who believe it. But look at Rome. What is the
+Government of the Papal States, but just the Government of the
+Inquisition? There there are midnight apprehensions, secret trials,
+familiars, torture by flogging, by loading with irons, and other yet
+more refined modes of cruelty,--in short, all the machinery of the Holy
+Office. The canon law, whose full blessing Italy now enjoys, is the
+Inquisition; for wherever the one comes, there the other will follow it.
+Let me describe the secresy and terror with which apprehensions are made
+at Rome. The forms of the Inquisition are closely followed herein. The
+deed is one of darkness, and the darkest hours of the twenty-four,
+namely, from twelve till two of the morning, are taken for its
+perpetration. At midnight half a dozen _sbirri_ proceed to the house of
+the unhappy man marked out for arrest. Two take their place at the
+door, two at the windows, and two at the back-door, to make all sure.
+They knock gently at the door. If it is opened, well; if not, they knock
+a second time. If still it is not opened, it is driven in by force. The
+_sbirri_ rush in; they seize the man; they drag him from his bed; there
+is no time for parting adieus with his family; they hurry him through
+the streets to prison. That very night, or the next, his trial is
+proceeded with,--that is, when it is intended that there shall be
+further proceedings; for many, as we have said, are imprisoned for long
+months, without either accusation or trial. But what a mockery is the
+trial! The prisoner is never confronted with his accuser, or with the
+impeaching witnesses. He is allowed no opportunity of disproving the
+charge; sometimes he is not even informed what that charge is. He has no
+means of defending his life. He has no doubt an advocate to defend him;
+but the advocate is always nominated by the court, and is usually taken
+from the partizans of the Government; and nothing would astonish him
+more than that he should succeed in bringing off his prisoner. And even
+when he honestly wishes to serve him, what can he do? He has no
+exculpatory witnesses; he has had no time to expiscate facts; the
+evidence for the prosecution is handed to him in court; and he can make
+only such observations as occur at the moment, knowing all the while
+that the prisoner's fate is already determined on. Sometimes the
+prisoner, I was told, is not even produced in court, but remains in his
+cell while his liberty and life are hanging in the balance. At day-break
+his prison-door opens, and the jailor enters, holding in his hand a
+little slip of paper. Ah! well does the prisoner know what that is. He
+snatches it hastily from the jailor's hands, hurries with it to his
+grated window, through which the day is breaking, holds it up with
+trembling hands, and reads his doom. He is banished, it may be, or he
+is sentenced to the galleys; or, more wretched still, he is doomed to
+the scaffold. Unhappy man! 'twas but last eve that he laid him down in
+the midst of his little ones, not dreaming of the black cloud that hung
+above his dwelling; and now by next dawn he is in the Pope's dungeons,
+parted from all he loves, most probably for ever, and within a few hours
+of the galleys or the scaffold.
+
+I saw these men taken out of Rome morning by morning,--that is, such of
+them as were banished. They passed under the windows of my own apartment
+in the Via Babuino. I have seen as many as twenty-four led away of a
+morning. They were put by half-dozens into carts, to which they were
+tied by twos, and chained together, as if they had been brigands. Thus
+they moved on to the Flaminian gate, each cart escorted by a couple of
+mounted gendarmes. The spectacle, alas! was too common to find
+spectators; not a Roman followed it, or showed that he was conscious of
+it, save by a mournful look at the melancholy cavalcade from his window,
+knowing that what was their lot to-day might be his to-morrow. And what
+the appearance and apparent profession of these men? Those I saw had
+much the air of intelligent and respectable artizans; for I believe it
+is this class that are now bearing the brunt of the papal tyranny. The
+higher classes were swept off before, and the rage of the Government is
+now venting itself in a lower and wider sphere. An intelligent
+Scotchman, who had charge of the one iron-shop in the Corso, informed me
+that now all the tolerably skilled workmen had been so weeded out of the
+city by the Pope, that it was scarce possible to find hands to do the
+little work that requires to be done in Rome. If there be among my
+readers a mechanic who has been indifferent to the question between this
+country and the Papacy, as one the settlement of which could not affect
+his interests either way, I tell him he never made a greater mistake all
+his life. If the Papacy succeed, his interests will be the very first to
+suffer, in the ruin of trade. Nor will that suffice; if a skilled man,
+he will be held to be a dangerous man; and, having taken from him his
+bread, the Papacy will next take from him his liberty, as she is now
+doing to his brethren in Rome.
+
+And what becomes of the families of these unhappy men? This is the most
+painful part of the business. Their livelihood is gone; and nothing
+remains but to go out into the street and beg,--to beg, alas! from
+beggars. It is not unfrequent in Rome to find families in competence
+this week, and literally soliciting alms the next. You may see matrons
+deeply veiled, that they may not be known by their acquaintances,
+hanging on at the doors of hotels, in the hope of receiving the charity
+of English travellers. Shame on the tyranny that has reduced the Roman
+matrons to this! Nor is even this the worst. Deprived of their
+protectors, moral ruin sometimes comes in the wake of the physical
+privations and sufferings by which these families are overtaken. Thus
+the misery of Rome is widening every day. Ah! could I bring before my
+readers the picture of that doomed city;--could I show them Rome as it
+sits cowering beneath the shadow of this terrible tyranny;--could I make
+them see the cloud that day and night hangs above it;--could I paint the
+sorrow that darkens every face; the suspicion and fear that sadden the
+Roman's every word and look;--could I tell the number of the broken
+hearts and the desolate hearths which these old walls enclose;--ah,
+there is not one among my readers who would not give me his tears as
+plenteously as ever the clouds of heaven gave their rain. And he who
+styles himself God's Vicar sees all this misery! Sees it, do I say! he
+is the author of it. It is to uphold his miserable throne that these
+prisons are filled, and that these widows and orphans cry in the
+streets. And yet he tells us that his reign is a model of Christ's
+reign. 'Tis a fearful blasphemy. When did Christ build dungeons, or
+gather _sbirri_ about him, or send men to the galleys and the scaffold?
+Is that the account which we have of his ministry? No; it is very
+different. "The Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the
+meek; he hath sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty
+to the captive, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound." A
+few months ago, when the Pope proclaimed his newest invented dogma,--the
+Immaculate Conception,--he gave, in honour of the occasion, a grand
+jubilee to the Roman Catholic world. We all know what a jubilee is.
+There is a vast treasury above, filled with the merits of Pio Nono and
+of such as he, out of which those who have not enough for their own
+salvation may supplement their deficiencies. At the Pope's girdle hangs
+the key of this treasury; and when he chooses to open it, straightway
+down there comes a shower of celestial blessings. Well, the Pope told
+his children throughout the world that he meant to unlock this treasury;
+and bade his children be ready to receive with open arms and open
+hearts, this vast beneficence of his. Ah! Pio Nono, this is not the
+jubilee we wish. Draw your bolts; break the fetters of your thirty
+thousand captives; open your dungeons, and give back the fathers, the
+husbands, the sons, the brothers, which you have torn from their
+families. Put off your robe, quit your palace, take the Bible in your
+hand, and go round the world preaching the gospel, as your Master did.
+Do this, and we shall have had a jubilee such as the world has not seen
+for many a long year. But ah! you but mock us,--bitterly, cruelly mock
+us,--when you deny us blessings which it is in your power to give, and
+offer us those which are not yours to bestow. But it is a mockery which
+will return, and at no distant day, in sevenfold vengeance upon, we say
+not Pio Nono, but the papal system. Untie the fetters of these men; make
+them free for but a few hours; and with what terrible emphasis will they
+demand back the friends whom the Papacy has buried in dungeons or
+murdered on the open scaffold! They will seek their lost sons and
+brothers with an eye that will not pity, and a hand that will not spare.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII.
+
+EDUCATION AND KNOWLEDGE IN THE PAPAL STATES.
+
+     Education of a Roman Boy--Seldom taught his Letters--Majority of
+     Romans unable to Read--Popular Literature of Italy--- Newspaper of
+     the Roman States--Censorship of the Press--Studies in the Collegio
+     Romano--Rome unknown at Rome--Schools spring up under the
+     Republic--Extinguished on the Return of the Pope--Conversation with
+     three Roman Boys--Their Ideas respecting the Creator of the World,
+     Christ, the Virgin--Questions asked at them in the
+     Confessional--Religion in the Roman States--Has no
+     Existence--Ceremony mistaken for Devotion--Irreverence--The Six
+     Commands of the Church--Contrast betwixt the Cost and the Fruits of
+     the Papal Religion--Popular Hatred of the Papacy.
+
+
+The influence of Romanism on trade, and industry, and justice, has been
+less frequently a theme of discussion than its influence on knowledge.
+While, therefore, I have dwelt at considerable length on the former, I
+shall be very brief under the present head. I shall here adduce only a
+few facts which I had occasion to see or hear during my stay in the
+Papal States. The few schoolmasters which are found in Italy are not a
+distinct class, as with us; they are priests, and mostly Jesuits. There
+are three classes of catechisms used in the schools; the pupil beginning
+with the lowest, and of course finishing off with the highest. But of
+what subjects do these catechisms treat? A little history, one would
+say, that the pupil may have some notion of what has been before him;
+and a little geography, that he may know there are such things as land
+and sea, and cities beyond, which he cannot see, shut up in Rome. With
+us, the lowest amount of education that ever receives the name comprises
+at least the three R's, as they are termed,--Reading, Writing, and
+'Rithmetic. But these are far too mundane matters for a Jesuit to occupy
+his time in expounding. The education of the Italian youth is a
+thoroughly religious one, taking the term in its Roman sense. The little
+catechisms I have spoken of are filled with the weightier matters of
+their law,--the miracles wrought by the staff of this saint, the cloak
+of that other, and the relics of a third; the exalted rank of the
+Virgin, and the homage thereto appertaining; Transubstantiation, with
+all the uncouth and barbarous jargon of "substances" and "accidents" in
+which that mystery is wrapped up. An initiation into these matters forms
+the education of the Roman boy; and after he has been locked up in
+school for a certain length of time, he is turned adrift, to begin the
+usual aimless life of the Italian. It does not follow, because he has
+been at school, that he can read. He is seldom taught his letters;
+better not, lest in after life he should come in contact with books.
+And, despite the vigilance of the censorship and the Index, bad books,
+such as the Bible, are finding their way into the Roman States; and it
+is better, therefore, not to entrust the people with the key of
+knowledge; for nothing is so useless as knowledge under an infallible
+Church. The matters which the Italian youth are taught they are taught
+by rote. "Ignorance is the mother of devotion,"--a maxim sometimes
+quoted with a sneer, but one which embodies a profound truth as regards
+that kind of devotion which is prevalent at Rome.
+
+I have seen estimates by Gavazzi and other Italians, of the proportion
+who can read in the Roman States. It is somewhere about one in a
+hundred. The reader will take the statement at what it is worth. I had
+no means of testing its accuracy; but all my inquiries on the subject
+led me to believe that the overwhelming majority cannot read. And where
+is the use of learning one's letters in a land where there are no books;
+and there are none that deserve the name in Rome. The book-stalls in
+Italy are heaped with the veriest rubbish: the "Book of Dreams," "Rules
+for Winning at the Lottery," "The Five Dolours of the Virgin," "Tracts
+on the Miracles of the Saints," "Relations," professedly given by Christ
+about his sufferings, and said to have been found in his sepulchre, and
+in other places equally likely. At Rome, on the streets at least, where
+all other kinds of rubbish are tolerated, even this rubbish is not
+suffered to exist; for there, book-stalls I saw none. There are,
+however, one or two miserable book-shops where these things may be had.
+
+There was but one newspaper (so called, I presume, because it contained
+no news) published in Rome at the time of my visit,--the _Giornale di
+Roma_, which, I presume, still occupies the field alone. It contains a
+daily list of the arrivals and departures (foreigners, of course, for
+the gates of Rome never open to the Romans), the proclamations of the
+Government, the days of the lottery, and such matters. Under the foreign
+head were chronicled the consecration of Catholic temples, the visits of
+royal personages, a profound silence being observed on all political
+facts and speculations. And this is all the Romans can know, through
+legitimate channels, of what is going on beyond the walls of Rome. A
+daily paper was started during the Republic, and admirably managed; but,
+of course, it was suppressed on the return of the Papal Government. A
+few copies of the _Times_ reach Rome every morning. They are not given
+out till towards mid-day, for they must first be read; and if the
+"editorials" are not to the taste of the Sacred College, they are not
+given out at all. The paper, during my short stay, was stopped for
+nearly a week on end; and the disappointment was the greater, that
+rumours were then current in Rome that something was on the tapis in
+Paris, and that the change in the constitution of France, whatever it
+might be, would not be postponed till the May of 1852, as was then
+believed in the north of Europe, but would be attempted in the beginning
+of December 1851. The tidings of the _coup d'etat_, which met me on the
+morning of the 3d December in the south of France, brought the full
+realization of these rumours. In the _Giornale di Roma_ not a strayed
+dog can be advertised without permission of the censor. In Brescia there
+is a censorship for gravestones; and in Rome a strict watch is kept over
+the English burying-ground, lest any one should write a verse of
+Scripture above a heretic's grave. The expression of thought is more
+dreaded than brigandage.
+
+Those who aspire to the learned professions go to the Collegio Romano.
+But let the reader mark how the Roman Church here, as everywhere else,
+contrives to keep up the show of educating, and takes care all the while
+to impart the smallest possible amount of knowledge,--constructs a
+machinery which, through some mischievous perversion, is without
+results. The Collegio Romano has a numerous staff of professors, who
+prelect on theology, logic, history, mathematics, natural philosophy,
+and other branches. This looks well; but observe its working. All the
+lectures are delivered in Latin, which differs considerably from the
+modern Italian; and as the Roman youth spend only one year in the study
+of the Latin tongue before entering the Collegio Romano, the lectures
+might nearly as well, so far as the run of the students is concerned, be
+in Arabic. Nine-tenths of the young men leave the Collegio Romano as
+learned as they entered it. The higher priesthood are educated at the
+_Sapienza_, where, I believe, a thorough training in theological
+dialectics is given.
+
+It is impossible not to see that the Italians are a people of quick
+perceptions, lively sensibilities, and warm and kindly dispositions; but
+it is just as impossible not to see that they are deplorably untaught.
+The stranger is mortified to find that he knows far more of their ruins
+and of their past history than they themselves do. The peasant wanders
+over the huge mounds that diversify the Seven Hills, or traverses the
+Appian, or passes under the arch of Titus, without knowing or caring who
+erected these structures, or having even a glimmering of the heroic
+story in which they were, so to speak, the actors. When he looks back
+into the past, all is night. Nowhere is Rome so little known as in Rome
+itself. How different was it when the Pope received Italy! Then Italy
+occupied the van of civilization. And when the Byzantine empire fell,
+and the scholars of the East fled westward, carrying with them the rich
+treasures of the Greek language and literature, learning had a second
+morning in Italy. Famous colleges arose, to which the youth of Europe
+repaired. Philosophers and poets of imperishable name shed a lustre upon
+the country; but the Roman Church soon discovered that Italy was
+acquiring knowledge at the expense of its Romanism, and she applied the
+band to the national mind. And now that same Italy that once held aloft
+the lamp of knowledge to the world is herself in darkness, and, sad
+sight! is seen, with quenched orbs, groping about in the midnight.
+
+And yet proofs are not wanting to show that, were the interdict of the
+Church taken off, Italy would at once throw herself into the race, and
+might soon rival the most successful of her contemporaries. Most of my
+readers, I doubt not, are familiar with the name of M. Leone Levi, now
+engaged on the great work of the codification of the commercial laws of
+the three kingdoms, and their assimilation to the continental codes. The
+fact I am now to state, and which speaks volumes as regards the efforts
+of "the Church" to educate Italy, I had from this gentleman; and to
+those who know him, any testimony of mine to his intelligence and
+uprightness is superfluous. M. Leone Levi, an Italian Jew, was born at
+Ancona, but eventually settled in England. During the Roman Republic, he
+paid a visit to Italy. But such a change! He scarce knew his native
+Italy,--it was so unlike the Italy he had left. In every town, and
+village, and rural district, schools had sprung up since the fall of the
+Pontifical Government. There were day-schools and night-schools,
+week-day-schools and Sabbath-schools. The young men and young women had
+forgotten their "light loves," and were busied in educating themselves,
+and in educating the little boys and girls below them. The country
+appeared to have resolved itself into a great educational institute. He
+was inexpressibly delighted. Such a change he had never dared to hope
+for in his native land. But ah! back came the Pope; and in a week,--in
+one short week,--every one of these schools was closed. The Roman youth
+are again handed over to the Jesuit. Italy is again sunk in its old
+torpor and stagnation; and one black cloud of barbaric ignorance extends
+from the Mediterranean to the Adriatic.
+
+I sat down one day on the steps of the temple of Vesta, which, though
+gray and crumbling with age, is one of the most beautiful of the ruins
+of Rome. Three boys came about me to beg a few baiocchi. The youngest
+boy, I found, was ten years, and the oldest fifteen. I took the
+opportunity of putting a few questions to them, judging them a fair
+sample of the Roman youth. My queries were pitched low enough. "Can you
+tell me," I asked, "who made the world?" The question started a subject
+on which they seemed never to have thought before. They stood in a muse
+for some seconds; and then all three looked round them, as if they
+expected to see the world's Maker, or to read His name somewhere. At
+last the youngest and smartest of the three spoke briskly up,--"The
+masons, Signor." It was now my turn to feel the excitement of a new
+idea. Yet I thought I could see the train of thought that led to the
+answer. The masons had made the baths of Caracalla; the masons had made
+the Coliseum, and those other stupendous structures which in bulk rival
+the hills, and seem as eternal as the earth on which they rest; and why
+might not the masons have made the whole affair? I might have puzzled
+the boy by asking, "But who made the masons?" My object, however, was
+simply to ascertain the amount of his knowledge. I demurred to the
+proposition that the masons had made the world, and desired them to try
+again. They did try again, and at last the eldest of the three found his
+way to the right answer,--"God." "Have you ever heard of Christ?" I
+asked. "Yes." "Who is he? Can you tell me anything about him?" I could
+elicit nothing under these heads. "Whose Son is he?" I then asked. "He
+is Mary's Son," was the reply. "Where is Christ?" I inquired. "He is on
+the Cross," replied the boy, folding his arms, and making the
+representation of a crucifix. "Was Christ ever on earth?" I asked. He
+did not know. "Are you aware of anything he ever did?" He had never
+heard of anything that Christ had done. I saw that he was thinking of
+those hideous representations which are to be seen in all the churches
+of Rome, of a man hanging on a cross. That was the Christ of the boys.
+Of Christ the Son of the living God,--of Christ the Saviour of
+sinners,--and of his death as an atonement for human guilt,--they had
+never heard. In a city swarming with professed ministers of the gospel,
+these boys knew no more of Christianity than if they had been
+Hottentots. I next inquired respecting Mary, and here the boys seemed
+more at home. "Who is she?" "She is God's mother." "Where is she?" "She
+is in that church," pointing to the church on one side of the
+piazza,--the Bocca di Verita, if I mistake not,--before which criminals
+are sometimes executed; "and in that," pointing to the church on the
+other side of the piazza. "She is here, there, everywhere." "Was Mary
+ever on earth?" "Yes," was the answer. "What did she do when here?"
+"Oh," replied the little boy, "that is an antique affair: I was not here
+then." "Do you go to church?" I asked the eldest boy. "Yes." "Do you
+take the sacrament?" "I have taken it four times." I learned afterwards
+that the priests are attempting to seize upon the rising generation in
+Italy, by compelling all the children from twelve years and upwards to
+go to mass. "Do you go to confession?" I next asked. "Yes, I confess."
+"Do other boys and girls, your acquaintances, go to confession?" "Yes,
+all go," he replied. "We meet the priest in church on Sabbath, and he
+tells us when to come and confess." "Well, when you go to confess, what
+does the priest ask you?" "He asks me if I steal, and do other bad
+actions." "When you confess that you have done a bad action, what then?"
+"The first time I do it, the priest pardons me." "If you confess it a
+second time, what happens?" "The second time he beats me with a rod."
+"Does the priest ask you about anything else?" I inquired. "Yes," he
+rejoined; "he asks me about my father and my mother." "What does he ask
+you about them?" "He asks me if they do dirty actions," said the boy.
+Now, here the enormity and vileness of the confessional peeped out. Here
+one can see how the confessor can look into every hearth, and into every
+heart, in Rome. The priests had dragged this young boy into their den,
+and taught him to play the spy on his father and mother. The hand that
+fed him, the bosom that cherished him, he must learn to betray. I appeal
+to the fathers and mothers of Britain, whether, than see their children
+degraded to such infamous purposes, they would not an hundred times
+rather see them laid in the silent grave. Yet some are labouring to
+introduce the confessional among us. Should they succeed, it will be the
+garrotte on the throat of English liberty.
+
+As regards RELIGION in Italy, this is an inquiry that lies rather beyond
+the limits I have marked out for myself. I may be permitted, however, a
+few remarks. It appeared to me that the very idea of religion had
+perished among the Italians. Not only had they lost the thing itself,
+but they had lost the power of conceiving of it. Religion unquestionably
+is a state of mind towards God; and devotion is a mental act resulting
+from that state of mind. We cannot conceive of an automaton performing
+an act of devotion, or of being religious; and yet, if religion be what
+it is taken to be at Rome, there is nothing to hinder an automaton being
+religious, nay, far more religious than flesh and blood, inasmuch as
+timber and iron will not so soon wear out under incessant crossings and
+genuflections. Religion at Rome is to kiss a crucifix; religion at Rome
+is to climb Pilate's stairs; religion at Rome is to repeat by rote a
+certain number of prayers before some beautiful painting or statue; or
+to remain a certain number of hours on one's bare knees on the paved
+floor; or to wear a hair-shirt. Of religion as a mental act,--as an act
+of faith, and love, and reverence,--the Italian is not able to form
+even the idea. Hence the want of decorum that shocks a stranger on
+visiting the Italian churches. He finds bishops at the altar unable to
+restrain their sallies of wit and their bursts of laughter. And after
+this, what can he look for among the ordinary worshippers? The young man
+can go through his devotions perfectly well, and make love all the while
+to the young woman at his side. Young ladies can count their beads to
+the Virgin, and continue their gossip on matters of dress or scandal. It
+never occurs to them that this in the least deteriorates their worship.
+The beads have been counted, and an Ave Maria said with each; and what
+more does the Church require? Religion as a feeling of the mind, and
+devotion as an act of the soul, are unknown to them. I recollect meeting
+in the rural lanes leading from St John Lateran to the church of Maria
+Maggiore, a small party of Roman girls, who were strangely mixing mirth
+and worship,--chatting, laughing, and singing hymns to the Virgin,--just
+as Scotch maidens on a harvest field might diversify their labours with
+"Home, Sweet Home," or any other air. This irreverent familiarity shows
+itself in other ways, after the manner of the ancient pagans, who took
+strange liberties with their gods. When the drawing of the lottery is
+about to take place, the Romans most devoutly supplicate the Virgin for
+success; but should their number come out a blank, they may be heard
+reviling her in the open street, and applying to her every conceivable
+epithet of abuse.
+
+So far as the moral code of Romanism is concerned, sinless perfection is
+no difficult attainment. The commands of the Church are six; and these
+six have quite thrown into the shade the ten of the decalogue. They are
+the payment of tithes,--the not marrying in the prohibited seasons,--the
+hearing of mass on Sundays and festivals,--the keeping of the
+prescribed fasts,--confession once a-year at least,--and the taking of
+the communion in Easter week. The last two are strictly enforced. On the
+approach of Easter, the priest goes round and gives a ticket to every
+parishioner; and if these are not returned through the confessional, a
+policeman waits on the person, and tells him that he has been remiss in
+his religious duties, and must submit himself to the Church's
+discipline, which he, the Church's officer, has come to administer to
+him in the Church's penitentiary or dungeons. Innumerable are the
+methods taken by the Romans to evade confession, among which the more
+common is to hire some one to confess for them. Others, though they go,
+confess nothing of moment. "You all here believe in the Pope and
+purgatory," I remarked to a commissario one day. "A few old women do,"
+he replied. "Do _you_ not believe in them?" I asked. "I believe in one
+God; but I do not believe in one priest," said he. "I hope you will say
+so next time you go to confession," I observed. "I don't confess," he
+replied. "How can you avoid confessing?" I enquired. "I pay an old
+woman," he answered, "who can confess for me every day if she pleases."
+There is not a greater contrast in the world than that which exists
+betwixt the cost of the papal religion and its fruits,--betwixt the
+numbers and wealth of the clergy, and the knowledge and morality of the
+people. Under these heads we append below some very instructive
+notices.[8]
+
+In fine, one word will suffice to describe the religion of Rome; and
+that word is ATHEISM. There may be exceptions, but as a general rule
+the Romans believe in nothing. And how can it be otherwise? Of the
+gospel they know absolutely nothing beyond what the priest tells them;
+even that he, the priest, can change a wafer into God, and, by giving it
+to people to eat, can save them from hell. This the Romans cannot
+believe; and therefore their creed is a negation. In the room of
+indifference, which could not be said to believe or disbelieve, because
+it never thought on the subject, has now come intense hatred of the
+Papacy, from the destruction of the nation's hopes under Pio Nono. He
+who seven years ago heard the streets of Rome echoing to the cry that
+she alone was _La Regina delle Genti_,--"sat a queen, and should see no
+sorrow,"--can best form an estimate of the terrible re-action that has
+followed the tumult of that hour, and can best understand how it has
+happened, that now the hatred wherewith the Italians hate the Papacy is
+greater than the love wherewith they loved it. Tradition, by its
+fooleries,--the mass, by its monstrosity,--the priest, by his
+immoralities,--and, above all, the Pope, by his perfidy and
+tyranny,--have made the papal religion to stink in the nostrils of the
+great mass of the Roman people. You might as well look for religion in
+pandemonium itself, as in a country groaning under such a complication
+of vices and miseries. Nay, there is more faith in pandemonium than in
+Rome; for we are told that the devils believe and tremble; but in Rome,
+generally speaking, there is faith in nothing. And for this fearful
+state of matters the Papacy, beyond all question, is responsible.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII.
+
+MENTAL STATE OF THE PRIESTHOOD IN ITALY.
+
+     First Impressions in Rome erroneous--The unseen Rome--Her
+     devotement to one thing--In what light do the Priests in Italy
+     regard their own System?--Can they possibly believe their Cheats to
+     be Miracles?--A goodly number of the Priests Infidels--Others never
+     thought on the subject--Some have strong Misgivings--Others
+     convinced of the Falsehood of that Church, but lack Courage or
+     Opportunity to leave it--Making Allowance for all these Classes,
+     the Majority of Priests do believe in their System--The Explanation
+     of this--The real Ruler in the Church of Rome, not the Pope, nor
+     the Cardinals, nor the Jesuits, but the System--Human
+     Machinery--The Pontiff--The College of Cardinals--Antonelli--The
+     Bishops and Priests--The Jesuits--Their Activity and Importance at
+     Rome--Their Appearance described.
+
+
+When an Englishman visits the Eternal City, he is very apt, during the
+first days of his sojourn, to underrate the power and influence of the
+Papal system. At home he has been used to see power associated with
+splendour, and surrounded with the fruits and monuments of intelligence.
+At Rome everything on which he sets his eye bears marks of a growing
+barbarism and decay. Outside the walls of the city is a vast desert,
+attesting the utter extinction of industry. Within is an air of
+stagnation and idleness, which bespeaks the utter absence of all mental
+activity. A very considerable portion of the population have no
+occupation but begging. The naked heads, necks, and feet of the monks
+and friars are offensive from want of cleanliness. The higher
+ecclesiastics even are coarse and vulgar men. The fine monuments reared
+by the taste and wealth of former ages want keeping. Their churches,
+despite the paintings and statuary with which they are filled, are
+rendered disagreeable by the beggars that haunt them, and the incense
+that is continually burned in them. Their very processions do not rise
+above a tawdry half-barbaric grandeur; and one must be far gone in the
+Puseyite malady before such exhibitions can inspire him with anything
+like reverence. The visitor looks around on this strange scene, so
+unlike what his imagination had pictured, and exclaims, "Where and in
+what lies the secret of this city's power?" Here there is neither art,
+nor industry, nor wealth, nor knowledge! Here all the bodily and all the
+mental faculties of man appear to be folded up in a worse than mediæval
+stupor. Where are the elements of that power for which this city is
+renowned, and by which she is able to thwart and control the civilized
+and powerful Governments of the north of Europe? Would, says he to
+himself, that those who venerate Rome when divided from her by the Alps
+and the ocean, would come here and see with their own eyes her
+contemptible vileness and inconceivable degradation; and that those
+statesmen who are moved by a secret fear to bow the knee to her, would
+come hither and mark the baseness of her before whom they are content to
+lower the honour and independence of their country! Such, we say, are
+the first impressions of the visitor to Rome.
+
+But a few days suffice to correct this erroneous estimate. The person
+looks around him; he looks below him. There he discovers the real Rome.
+It is not the Rome that is seen,--it is the Rome that is unseen,--before
+which the nations tremble. Beneath his feet are tremendous agencies at
+work. There are the pent-up fires that shake the globe. Rome, cut off
+from all the world, and surrounded by leagues of silent and blackened
+deserts, is the centre of energies that rest not day nor night, and the
+action of which is felt at the very extremities of the earth. It seems,
+indeed, as if Rome had been set free from all the anxieties and labours
+which occupy the minds and hands of the rest of the world, of very
+purpose that she might attend to only one thing. The labours of the
+husbandman and the artificer she has forborne. Like the lilies of the
+field, she toils not, neither does she spin. She sits in the midst of
+her deserts, like the sorceress on the heath, or the conspirator in his
+den, hatching plots against the world. Rome is the pandemonium of the
+earth, and the Pope is the Lucifer of the world's drama. Fallen he is
+from the heaven of power and grandeur which he occupied in the twelfth
+century; and he and his compeers lie sunk in a very gulph of anarchy and
+barbarism. Lifting up his eyes, he beholds afar off the happy nations of
+Protestantism, reaping the reward of a free Bible and a free Government,
+in the riches of their commerce and the stability of their power. The
+sight is tormenting and intolerable, and the pontiff is stung thereby
+into ceaseless attempts to retrieve his fall. If he cannot mount to his
+old seat, and sit there once more in superhuman pride and unapproachable
+power above the bodies and the souls of men, he may at least hope to
+draw down those he so much envies into the same gulph with himself.
+Hence the villanies and plots of all kinds of which Rome is full, and
+which form a source of danger to the nations of Christendom, from which
+they may hope to be delivered only when the Papacy shall have been
+finally destroyed.
+
+What I propose here is to sketch the _mental state_ of the priests of
+Italy, so far as my opportunities enabled me to judge. The subject is
+more recondite than the foregoing; the facts are less accessible; and my
+statements must partake more of the inferential than did those embraced
+in the former branches of the subject.
+
+The first question that arises is, in what light do the priests in Italy
+regard their own system? Do they look upon it as an unrivalled compound
+of imposture and tyranny,--a cunning invention for procuring mitres,
+tiaras, purple robes, and other good things for themselves? or do they
+regard it as indeed founded in truth, and clothed with the sanction of
+heaven? They are behind the scenes, and have access to see and hear many
+things which are not meant for the eye and ear of the public. The man
+who pulls the strings of a winking Madonna can scarce persuade himself,
+one should think, that the movement that follows is the effect of
+supernatural power. The priest who liquefies the blood of St Januarius
+by the warmth of his hand or the warmth of the fire, must know that what
+he has performed is neither more nor less than a very ordinary juggle.
+The monk who falls a rummaging in the Catacombs, or in any of the old
+graveyards about Rome, and finds there a parcel of decayed bones, which
+he passes off as those of Saint Theodosia or Saint Anathanasius, but
+which are as likely to be the bones of an old pagan, or a Goth, or a
+brigand, can hardly believe, one should suppose, his own tale. If the
+Pope believes in his own relics, what conceptions must he have of Peter?
+What a strange configuration of body must he believe the apostle to have
+had! Peter must have been a man with some dozen of heads; with a score
+of arms, and a hundred fingers or so on each arm; in short, a perfect
+realization of the old pagan fable of the giant Briareus. The Pope must
+believe this, or he must believe that he gives his attestation to what
+is not true. Above all, one can hardly imagine it possible that any man
+in whom reason had not been utterly quenched could believe in the
+monstrous dogma of transubstantiation. What! can a priest at any hour he
+pleases give existence to Him who exists from eternity? Can he enclose
+within a little silver box that Almighty One whom the heaven, even the
+heaven of heavens, cannot contain? Let a man confess at the bar of the
+High Court of Edinburgh that he believes himself to be God, and the
+Court will pronounce that that man is insane, and will hold him
+incompetent to manage his affairs. And yet every Roman Catholic priest
+professes to believe a more startling dogma,--even that he is the
+creator of God. And yet, instead of calling that insanity, we must, I
+suppose, call it religion. Seeing, then, the priests are called every
+day to do things which their senses must tell them are juggles, and to
+profess their belief in dogmas which their reason must tell them are
+monstrous and blasphemous absurdities, is it possible, you ask, that the
+priests in Italy can believe in their own system? I must here say, that
+I do think the majority of them do believe in it.
+
+A goodly number of the priests of Italy are infidels. They no more
+believe in the Pope than they believe in the pagan Jupiter. But then,
+were they to speak out their disbelief, and to say that purgatory is a
+mere bugbear for frightening men and getting their money, they know that
+a dungeon would instantly be their lot; and infidelity has little of the
+martyr spirit in it. These men, like Leo the Tenth, as thorough an
+infidel as ever lived, hold that it would be the height of folly to
+quarrel with a fable that brings them so much gain. Others are mere
+worldly men. They were never at the pains to inquire whether their
+system is true or false. They sing their mass in the morning; they pass
+their forenoons at the café, sipping coffee, and taking a hand at
+cards; a stoup of wine washes down a substantial dinner; and, after a
+saunter along the Corso, or an airing on the Pincian, they doff their
+clerical vestments, and go to sup with the nuns, who have the reputation
+of being excellent cooks.
+
+Others there are whose minds are occasionally visited by strong
+misgivings. The cloud, so to speak, will open for a moment, and reveal
+to their astonished sight, not the majestic form of Truth, but a
+gigantic and monstrous imposture. A mysterious hand at times lifts the
+veil, and lo! they find themselves in the presence, not of a divinity,
+but of a demon. They disclose their doubts when they next go to
+confession. My son, says the father confessor, these are the suggestions
+of the Evil One. You must arm yourself against the Tempter by fasting
+and penance. A hair shirt or an iron girdle is called in to silence the
+voice of reason and the remonstrances of conscience; and here the matter
+ends. And there are a few--in every age there have been a few such--in
+the Church of Rome, and at present they are very considerably on the
+increase, who, in the midst of darkness, by some wondrous means have
+seen the light. A tract, a Bible, or some Protestant friend whom
+Providence had thrown in their way, or some one of the few passages of
+Scripture inserted in their Breviary, may have taught them a better way
+than that of Rome. Instead of stopping short at the altar of Mary, or at
+any of the thousand shrines which Rome has erected as so many barriers
+between the sinner and God, they go at once to the Divine mercy-seat,
+and pour their supplications direct into the ear of the Great Mediator.
+You ask, why do these men remain in a Church which they see to be
+apostate? Fain would they fly, but they know not how or where. They lift
+their eyes to the Alps on the one side,--to the ocean on the other.
+Alas! they may surmount these barriers; but more difficult still than
+to scale the mountains or to traverse the ocean is it to escape beyond
+the power of Rome. Woe to the unhappy man who begins to feel his
+fetters! He awakes to find that he is in a wide prison, with a sentinel
+posted at every outlet: escape seems hopeless; and the man buries his
+secret in his breast.
+
+Some few there are who, more daring by nature, or specially strengthened
+from above, adventure on the immense hazards of flight. Of these, some
+are caught, thrown into a dungeon, and are heard of no more. Others find
+their way to England, or some other Protestant State. But here new
+trials await them. They are ignorant of our language perhaps. They find
+themselves among strangers, whose manners seem to them cold and distant.
+They are without means of living; and, carrying with them too, it may
+be, some of the stains of their former profession, they encounter
+difficulties which are the more stumbling that they are unexpected. On
+these various grounds, the number of priests who leave the Church of
+Rome has been, and always will be, small, till some great revolution or
+upbreak takes place in that Church.
+
+But, making the most ample allowance for all these classes,--for the men
+who are atheists and infidels,--for the mere worldings, whose only tie
+to their Church is the gain it brings them,--and for those who are
+either doubters, or whose doubts have passed into full conviction that
+the Church of the Pope is not the Church of Jesus Christ,--making, I
+say, full allowance for all these, I have little doubt that the majority
+of the priests in Italy,--it may be not much more than a majority, but
+still a majority,--are sincere believers in their system.
+
+They are not ignorant of the frauds, the knaveries, the fables, and
+hypocrisies, by which that system is supported. They cannot shut their
+eyes to these, which they regard, in fact, as sanctified by the end to
+which they are devoted; but they separate between these and the system
+itself; and though they cannot tell the line where truth ends and
+falsehood begins, still they look upon their system, on the whole, as
+founded in truth, and carrying with it the sanction of Heaven. Indeed,
+belief is a weak term to express the power the system has over them. It
+is rather a paralyzing awe, a freezing terror, like that with which his
+grim deity inspires the barbarian, which holds captive the strongest
+mind, and lays reason and conscience prostrate in the dust. Such I
+believe to be the state of mind of the greater number of the Italian
+priesthood.
+
+But how comes this? What is it which has produced this universal
+slavery? Is it the Pope? Is it the cardinals? Is it the Jesuits? No; for
+these men, though the tyrants of others, are themselves slaves. All are
+bound by the same chain of adamant, to the car of the same demon. A
+mournful procession of dead men truly, with the triple crown in front,
+and the sandals of the barefooted Capuchin bringing up the rear. What is
+it, I repeat, that holds the whole body in subjection, from the Pope
+down to the friar? It is the system, the abstract system, with its
+overwhelming prestige,--that system which lives on though popes die; the
+genius of the Papacy, if you will. This is the real monarch of that
+spiritual kingdom.
+
+A little power of mental abstraction,--and the subtile genius of the
+Italian gives him that power in a high degree,--will enable any one to
+separate betwixt the system and its agents. Some one has remarked, that
+he could form an abstraction of a lord mayor, not only without his
+horse, and gown, and gold chain, but even without the stature, features,
+hands, and feet of any particular lord mayor. The same can be done of
+the Papacy. We can form an abstraction of the Papacy not only without
+the tiara and the keys, but even without the stature and lineaments, the
+hands and feet, of any particular Pope. When we have formed such an
+abstraction, we have got the real ruler of the Papacy. That it is the
+system that is the dominant power in the Church of Rome, is evident from
+this one fact, namely, that councils have sometimes deposed the Pope to
+save the Papacy. There is in the Pope's kirk, then, a power greater than
+the Pope. The system has taken body and shape, as it were, and sits upon
+the Seven Hills, a mysterious, awe-inspiring divinity or demon; and the
+Pope, equally with the friar, bows his head and does obeisance. Wherever
+the pontiff looks,--whether backward into history, or around him in the
+world,--there are the monuments of this ever living, ever present, and
+all pervading power. It requires more force than the mind of fallen man
+is capable of, to believe that a system which has filled history with
+its deeds and the world with its trophies, which has compelled the
+homage of myriads and myriads of minds, and before which the haughtiest
+conquerors and the most puissant intellects have bowed with the docility
+of children, is, after all, an unreality,--a mere spectre of the middle
+ages,--a ghost conjured up by credulity and knavery from the tombs of
+defunct idolatries. This, I say, is the true state of things in Italy.
+Its priesthood are subdued by their own system,--by its high claims to
+antiquity,--its world-wide dominion,--its imposing though faded
+magnificence,--its perverted logic,--its pseudo sanctity. These not only
+carry it over the reason, but in some degree over the senses also; and
+the more fully persuaded the priests are of the truth and divinity of
+their system, they feel only the more fully warranted to employ fraud
+and force in its support,--the winking Madonna to convince one class,
+and the dungeon and the iron chain to silence the other.
+
+Having spoken of the abstract and spiritual power that reigns over
+Italy, and, I may say, over the whole Catholic world, let me now speak
+of the corporeal and human machinery by which the Papacy is carried on.
+
+First comes the Pope. Pio Nono is a man of sixty-three. His years and
+the various misfortunes of his reign sit lightly upon him. Were the Pope
+much given to reflection, there are not wanting unpleasant topics enough
+to darken the clear Italian sunlight, as it streams in through the
+windows of the Vatican palace. Once was he chased from Rome; and now
+that he is returned, can he call Rome his own? Not he. The real master
+of Rome is the commandant of the French garrison. And while outside the
+walls are the dead whom he slew with the sword of France, inside are the
+living, whose sullen scowl or fierce glare he may see through the French
+files, as he rides out of an afternoon.[9] But Pio Nono takes all in
+good part. There is not a wrinkle on his brow; no unpleasant thought
+appears to shade the jovial light of his broad face. He sits down to
+dinner with evidently a good appetite; he sleeps soundly at night, and
+troubles not his poor head by brooding over misfortunes which he cannot
+mend, or charging himself with the direction of plots which he is not
+competent to manage. But, if not fitted to take the lead in cabinets,
+nature has formed him to shine in a procession. He has a portly figure,
+a face radiant with blandness, dissimulation, and vanity; and he looks
+every inch the Pope, as he is carried shoulder-high in St Peter's, and
+sits blazing in his jewelled tiara and purple robes, between two huge
+fans of peacocks' feathers. To these accomplishments he adds that of a
+fine voice; and when he gives his blessing from the balcony of St
+Peter's, or assembles the Romans in the Forum, as he did on a late
+occasion, when he lifted up hands dripping with his subjects' blood, to
+call his hearers to repentance, his tones ring out, in the deep calm air
+of Rome, clear and loud as those of a bell. Such is the man who is the
+nominal head of the Papacy. We say the _nominal_ head; for such a system
+as the Papacy, involving the consideration of so many interests, and
+requiring such skilful steering to clear the rocks and quicksands amid
+which the bark of Peter is now moving, demands the presence at the helm
+of a steadier hand and a clearer eye than those of Pio Nono.
+
+I come next to the College of Cardinals. In so large a body we find, as
+might be expected, various grades of both intellectual and moral
+character; and of course there are the corresponding indications on
+their faces. An overbearing arrogance, which always communicates to the
+countenance an air of vulgarity, more or less, is a very prevailing
+trait. The average intellect in the sacred college is not so high as one
+would expect in men who have risen to the top of their profession; and
+for this reason, perhaps, that birth has fully more to do with their
+elevation than talent or services. One scrutinises their faces curiously
+when one remembers that these men are the living representatives of the
+apostles. They profess to hold the rank, to be clothed with the
+functions, and to inherit the supernatural endowments, of the first
+inspired preachers. There you may look for the burning eloquence of a
+Paul, the boldness of a Peter, the love of a John, the humility,
+patience, zeal, of all. You go round the circle, and examine one by one
+the faces of these living Pauls and Peters. Verily, if their prototypes
+were like their modern representatives, the spread of the gospel at
+first was by far the mightiest miracle the world ever saw. On one you
+find the unmistakeable marks of sordid appetite and self-indulgence: on
+another, low intrigue has imprinted the most sinister lines: a third is
+a mere man of the world;--his prayers and vigils have been kept at the
+shrine of pleasure. But along with much that is sordid and worldly,
+there are astute and far-seeing minds in the sacred college; and
+foremost in this class stands Antonelli. His pale face, and clear, cold,
+penetrating eye, reveal the presiding genius of the Papacy. He is the
+Prime Minister of the Pope; and though his is not the brow on which the
+tiara sits, he is the real head of the system. From his station on the
+Seven Hills his keen eye watches and directs every movement in the papal
+world. Those mighty projects which the Papacy is endeavouring to realize
+in every part of the earth have their first birth in his fertile and
+daring brain.
+
+His family are well known at Rome, and some of his ancestors were men of
+renown in their own way. His uncle was the most famous Italian brigand
+of modern times, and his exploits are still celebrated in the popular
+songs of the country. The occupation of the yet more celebrated nephew
+is not so dissimilar after all; for what is Antonelli, but the leader of
+a crew of bandits, whose hordes scour Europe, arrayed in sacerdotal
+garb, and in the name of heaven rob men of their wealth, their liberty,
+and their souls, and carry back their booty to their den on the Seven
+Hills.
+
+Next come the Bishops and Priests. These men are the agents and spies of
+the cardinals, as the cardinals of the Pope. The time which they are
+required to devote to spiritual, or rather, I should say, to official
+duties, is small indeed. To study the Scriptures, visit the sick,
+instruct the people, which form the proper work of ministers of the
+gospel, are duties altogether unknown in Rome. There, as I have said,
+they convert and save men, not by preaching, but by giving them wafers
+to swallow. This is a short and simple process; and when a priest has
+gone through this pantomime once, he can repeat it all his days after
+without the slightest preparation. Their time and energies, therefore,
+can be almost wholly devoted to other work. And what is that work? It
+is, in short, to propagate their superstition, and rivet the fetters of
+the priesthood upon the population. The bishops and priests manage the
+upper classes; and for the lower grades of Romans there are friars and
+monks of every order and of every colour. The city swarms with these
+men. The frogs and lice of Egypt were not more numerous, and certainly
+not more filthy. Unwashed and uncombed, they enter, with their sandalled
+feet and shaven crowns, every dwelling, and penetrate into every bosom.
+You see them in the wine-shops; you see them mixing with the populace on
+the street; while others, with wallets on their backs, may be seen
+climbing the stairs of the houses, for the double purpose of begging for
+the poor, but in reality for their own paunch, and of retailing the
+latest miracle, or some thousand times told legend. Thus the darkness is
+carried down to the very bottom of society; and while the Pope and his
+cardinals sit at the summit in gilded glory, the monk, in robe of serge
+and girdle of rope, is busied at the bottom; and, to support their
+individual and united action, the priests have two powerful institutions
+at Rome, like foot soldiers advancing under cover of artillery,--the
+Confessional and the Inquisition.
+
+But emphatically _the_ order at Rome is the Jesuits. They are the prime
+movers in all that is done there, as well as the keenest supporters of
+the Papacy in all parts of the world. They are the most indefatigable
+confessors, as well as the most eloquent preachers. Their regularity is
+like that of nature itself. Every hour of the day has its duty; and
+their motions are as punctual as that of the heavenly bodies. Duly every
+morning as the clock strikes five, they are at the altar or in the
+confessional. Their head-quarters are at the Gesu. I shall suppose that
+the reader is passing through the long corridor of that magnificent
+church. Every three or four paces is a door, leading to a small
+apartment, which is occupied by a father. Outside each door hangs a
+sheet of paper, on which the father puts a list of the employments for
+the day. When he goes out, he sticks a pin opposite the piece of
+business which has called him away, so that, should any one call and
+find him not within, he can know at once, by consulting the card, how
+the father is occupied, and whether he is accessible at that particular
+time. Among the items of business which usually appear on the card,
+"conference" is now one of very frequent occurrence, which indicates no
+inconsiderable amount of business, having reference to foreign parts, at
+present on the hands of the order.
+
+I shall suppose that the reader is passing along the Corso. Has he
+marked that tall thin man who has just passed him,
+
+ "Walking in beauty like the night?"
+
+There is an air of tidiness in his dress, and of comparative cleanliness
+on his person. He wears a small round cap, with three corners; or, if a
+hat, one of large brim. Neither cowl nor scapular fetters his motions; a
+plain black gown, not unlike a frock-coat, envelopes his person. How
+softly his footsteps fall! You scarce hear their sound as he glides past
+you. His face, how unruffled! As the lake, when the winds are asleep,
+hides under a moveless surface, resplendent as a sheet of gold, the dark
+caverns at its bottom, so does this calm, impassable face the workings
+of the heart beneath. This man holds in his hands the threads of a
+conspiracy which is exploding at that moment, mayhap in China, or in the
+Pacific, or in Peru, or in London.
+
+He is at Rome at present, and appears in his proper form and dress as a
+Jesuit. But that man can change his country, he can change his tongue,
+and, Proteus-like, multiply his shapes among mankind. Next year that man
+whom you now meet on the streets of Rome may be in Scotland in the
+humble guise of a pedlar, vending at once his earthly and his spiritual
+wares. Or he may be in England, acting as tutor in some noble family, or
+in the humbler capacity of body-servant to a gentleman, or, it may be,
+filling a pulpit in the Church of England. He may be a Protestant
+schoolmaster in America, a dictator in Paraguay, a travelling companion
+in France and Switzerland, a Liberal or a Conservative--as best suits
+his purpose--in Germany, a Brahmin in India, a Mandarin in China. He can
+be anything and everything,--a believer in every creed, and a worshipper
+of every god,--to serve his Church. Rome has hundreds of thousands of
+such men spread over all the countries of the world. With the ring of
+Gyges, they walk to and fro over the earth, seeing all, yet themselves
+unseen. They can unlock the cabinets of statesmen, and enter unobserved
+the closets of princes. They can take their seat in synods and
+assemblies, and dive into the secrets of families. Their grand work is
+to sow the seeds of heresies in Churches and of dissensions in States,
+that, when the harvest of strife and division is fully matured, Rome may
+come in and reap the fruits.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX.
+
+SOCIAL AND DOMESTIC CUSTOMS OF THE ROMANS.[10]
+
+     A Roman House--Wretched Dwellings of Working-Classes--How Working
+     Men spend their Leisure Hours--Roman mode of reckoning
+     Time--Handicrafts and Trades in Rome--Meals--Breakfast, Dinner,
+     &c.--Games--Amusements--Marriages--Deaths and Funerals--Wills
+     tampered with--Popular regard to Omens--Superstitions connected
+     with the Pope's Name--Terrors of the Priesthood--Weather, and
+     Journey Homeward.
+
+
+I shall now endeavour to bring before my readers, in a short chapter,
+the daily inner life of Rome. First of all, let us take a peep into a
+Roman dwelling. The mansions of the nobility and the houses of the
+wealthier classes are built on the plan of the ancient Romans. There is
+a portal in front, a paved court in the middle, a quadrangle enclosing
+it, with suites of apartments running all round, tier on tier, to
+perhaps four or five stories. The palaces want nothing but cleanliness
+to make them sumptuous. They are of marble, lofty in style, and chaste
+though ornate in design. The pictures of the great masters that once
+adorned them are now scattered over northern Europe, and the frames are
+filled with copies. For this the poverty or extravagance of their owners
+is to blame. The best pictures in Rome are those in the churches, and
+these are sadly dimmed and obscured by the smoke of the incense. A
+fire-place in a Roman house is a sort of phenomenon; and yet the climate
+of Rome, unless at certain times, is not that balmy, intoxicating
+element which we imagine it to be. During my stay there, I had to
+encounter alternate deluges of rain, with lightning, and cutting blasts
+of the Tramontana. The comfort of an Italian house, especially in
+winter, depends more on its exposure to the sun than on any arrangement
+for heating it. Some few, however, have fire-places in the rooms. The
+kitchen is placed on the top of the house,--the very reverse of its
+position with us. The ends sought hereby are safety, and the convenience
+of discharging the culinary effluvia into the atmosphere. The fire-place
+is unique, and not unlike that of a smithy. There is a cap for sparks;
+and about three feet above the floor stands a stone sole, in which holes
+are cut for the _fornelli_, which are square cast-iron grated boxes for
+holding the wood char, upon which the culinary utensils are placed.
+These are but ill adapted for preparing a roast. John Bull would look
+with sovereign contempt, or downright despair, according to the state of
+his stomach, on the thing called a roast in Rome. There it is seldom
+seen beyond the size of a beef-steak. Much small fry is roasted with a
+ratchet-wheel and spit. This is wound up with a weight, and revolves
+over the fire, which is strewed upon the hearth.
+
+The working classes generally purchase their meals cooked in the
+_Osteria Cucinante_, where food and wine are to be had. These are
+numerous in Rome. They may be fairly called the homes of the working
+classes, for there they lounge so long as their baiocchi last. The
+houses of the working classes are comfortless in the extreme. They are
+of stone, and roomy, but unfurnished. A couple of straw-bottomed chairs
+and a bed make up generally the entire furnishings of a Roman house.
+Indeed, the latter article appears to be the only reason for having a
+house at all. So soon as the day's labour is over, the working men
+resort to the wine and eating shops and coffeehouses, where they remain
+till the time of shutting, which is two and three hours of the night.
+The Roman reckoning of the day begins at Ave Maria, which is a quarter
+of an hour after sunset. The first hour of the night is consequently an
+hour after Ave Maria, from which the Romans reckon consecutively till
+the twenty-fourth hour. As the sun sets earlier or later, according to
+the season of the year, the hours vary of course, and the same period of
+the day that is indicated by the twelfth hour at the time of equinox, is
+indicated by the eleventh hour in midsummer, and the thirteenth hour in
+midwinter. This is very annoying to travellers from the north of Europe.
+"What o'clock is it?" you ask; and are told in reply, "It is the
+eighteenth hour and three quarters." To find the time of day from this
+answer, you must calculate from Ave Maria, with reference to the time of
+sunset at that particular season of the year. Mid-day is announced in
+Rome by the firing of a cannon from the castle of St Angelo. The French
+reckon time as we do, and may possibly, before they leave Rome, teach
+the Romans to adopt the same mode of reckoning.
+
+When I stated in a former chapter that trade there is not in Rome, my
+readers, of course, understood me to mean that it was comparatively
+annihilated, not totally extinguished. The Romans must have houses,
+however poor; clothes, however homely; and food, however plain; and the
+supply of these wants necessitates the existence, to a certain extent,
+of the various trades and handicrafts. But in Rome these exist in an
+embryotic state, and are carried on after the most antiquated
+modes,--much as in Britain five hundred years ago. The principal public
+works,--for by this name must we dignify the little quiet concerns in
+the Eternal City,--are situated in the neighbourhood of Trastevere, the
+decidedly plebeian quarter of Rome, although it would not do to say so
+to a Trasteverian. There are woollen manufactories and candle
+manufactories. The chief customer of the latter is the Church. The
+armoury and mint are contiguously situated to St Peter's. The tanning of
+hides is extensively carried on along the banks of the Tiber, whose
+classic "gold" is not unfrequently streaked with oozy streams of a dirty
+white. Flour-mills are numerous. Amid the brawls which disturb the
+Trastevere, the ear can catch the ring of the shuttle, for there a few
+hand-loom weavers pursue their calling. There is a tobacco manufactory
+in the same quarter; and I must state, for truth compels me, that most
+of the Roman women take snuff. From the windows of the Vatican Museum
+one can see the tile and brick maker busy at his trade behind the
+palace. Extensive potteries exist near to Ripa Grande, where the most of
+the kitchen and chamber utensils for city and country are made. I may
+here note, that most of the cooking utensils of the working man are of
+earthenware, and stand the fire remarkably well.
+
+There are about a score of soap-works in Rome, but the soap manufactured
+in these establishments is abominable. My friend Mr Stewart informed me
+that he brought a soap-boiler from Glasgow, who understood his business
+thoroughly, and had soap made in Rome as we have it in this country, but
+without the palm-oil. This ingredient was not used, because, not being
+in the tariff, it was thought that, should it be imported, it would in
+all probability be classed under "perfumeries," and charged an
+exorbitant duty. The soap being a new thing in Rome, and unlike the
+nauseous stuff there in use, a clamour was raised against it, to the
+effect that it produced sickness, and caused headache and vomiting. The
+Roman ladies, in certain circumstances, are most fastidious about
+smells, though why they should in Rome, of all places in Europe, is most
+unaccountable. The Government, compassionating their sufferings, seized
+a parcel of the soap, and caused it to be analyzed by a chemist. The
+chemist's report was not unfavourable; nevertheless, owing to the strong
+prejudice against the article, the sale was so limited, that its
+manufacture had to be discontinued as unremunerative. Besides the trades
+already enumerated, there are in the Eternal City marble-cutters,
+mosaics and cameo workers, sculptors and painters, vine-dressers,
+olive-dressers, vegetable cultivators, silk-worm rearers, and a few
+manufacturers of silk scarfs. There are, too, in a feeble state, the
+trades connected with the making and mending of clothes, the building
+and repairing of houses. And to feel how feeble these trades are, it is
+only necessary to see the garments of the Romans, how coarse in material
+and how uncourtly in cut. The peasant throws a sheep's skin over him,
+and is clad; the lower classes of the towns look as if they fabricated
+their own garments, from the spinning upwards. To the best of my
+knowledge, there was only one house being built in all Rome when I was
+there; and that was rising on an old foundation near the Capitol. The
+makers of votive offerings and wax-candles for the saints are a more
+numerous class than the masons in Rome. Washer-women form a numerous
+body, as do lodging-house keepers,--a class that includes many of the
+nobles. The clerks are numberless, and very ill paid, having in many
+cases to attend two or three employers to eke out a living. Men are
+invariably employed as house-servants in Rome. They cook, clean the
+chambers, make up the beds, in short, do everything that is necessary to
+be done in a house.
+
+The workman begins his day's labour at six or seven, as the season of
+the year may be. He breakfasts on coffee, or on coffee and milk in equal
+proportions, or on warm milk alone. Bread is used, which he soaks in his
+tumbler of coffee. Few take butter; fewer still eggs or ham, for
+pecuniary reasons. Many of the working classes take soup of bread paste;
+others take salad and olive-oil with bread. The peasantry cut up their
+coarse bread, saturate it with olive-oil, dust it over with pepper, and
+eat it along with _finocchio_ (fennel), the vegetable being unboiled.
+Roasted or boiled chestnuts are extensively used at all times of the
+day. They are to be had on the streets; many making a living by roasting
+and selling these fruits.
+
+Mid-day is the common dining hour. The meal generally consists of soup
+of bread, herbs, paste, or macaroni, butcher-meat, fowls, snails (white,
+fed on grass), frogs, entrails of fowls and young birds, omelettes,
+sausages, salad with olive-oil, dried olives, fruit, and wine, according
+to the circumstances of the person. The country people during harvest
+make their dinner of coarse bread, to which they add a few cloves of
+garlic, a little goat's-milk cheese, and sour wine diluted with water.
+Many live on bread alone, with wine. Supper is generally a substantial
+meal, consisting more or less of the same materials as are used for
+dinner, salad and wine never failing. Tomatoes are extensively used, ate
+alone, or serving for all kinds of dinner and supper stews. Green figs
+are much used. Polenda is a universal article of food amongst the
+peasantry. It is Indian corn ground and boiled, and made to take the
+place that _porridge_ does in Scotland, with this difference, that it is
+boiled in pork fat.
+
+The amusements of the working classes are not numerous. Moro and the
+bowls are their two principal games. The first is generally played at in
+twos, and is not unlike our schoolboy game of _odds_ or _evens_. The
+Romans, at this game, however, put themselves into the attitude of
+gladiators,--each naming a number, and extending at the same time so
+many fingers; and the party that names the number corresponding with the
+number of fingers extended by both is the victor. So many _guesses_
+constitute the game. The attitude and airs of the combatants in this
+simple game,--which seems fitter for children than for men,--are very
+ridiculous. The other chief amusement of the Romans is bowls. These are
+made of wood. So many hands are ranged on this side, and an equal number
+on that; and the game proceeds more or less after the fashion of
+curling. The feast days,--which are numerous in Rome,--on which labour
+is interdicted under a heavy penalty, are mostly passed at bowls; as the
+Sabbaths, on which labour is also forbidden, though under a much smaller
+penalty, are generally with the drawing of the lottery. All places of
+rendezvous beyond the walls have the sign of the balls, along with the
+accompanying intimation, _Vino, Bianco e Rosso_. Encircling the
+courtyard adjoining the house is a broad straw-shed or canopy, beneath
+which the crowd assembles, young and old, male and female, gathering
+round small tables, and discussing the _fiasci_ of Orvieto and toast.
+The game is proceeding all the while in their neighbourhood, the stakes
+being so many more flasks of the choice wine of Orvieto. This continues
+till Ave Maria, when the crowd break up, withdraw to the city, and,
+after a visit to the wine-shops within the walls, go home, and (as I
+was naïvely told by a Scotch lady resident in Rome) beat their wives as
+much as they do in England.
+
+In the coffeehouses the grand sources of amusement are dice and drafts,
+along with backgammon and billiards. The latter two games are confined
+to the upper and middle classes. Most of the upper classes, I believe,
+have billiard-rooms at home, for family use and conversazione-party
+amusement. In the absence of newspapers, journals, and books, it would
+be impossible, without these expedients, to get through the evening. All
+who can afford to attend the theatre (more properly opera), do so as
+regularly as the night comes; and the scenes and acts which they there
+witness form the basis of Italian conversation. It is at least a safe
+subject. No Roman who has the fear of a prison before him would discuss
+politics in a mixed company. In Rome there is an utter dearth of
+employment for young men. They dare not travel; they cannot visit a
+neighbouring town without the permission of Government, which is only
+sometimes to be had; they have nothing to read; and one can imagine, in
+these circumstances, the utter waste of mental and moral energies which
+must ensue among this class in Rome. These young men have a sore battle
+to keep up appearances. They do their utmost absolutely for a cigar and
+cane; but their success is not always such as so great ingenuity and
+patience deserve. You may see them in half-dozens, lounging for hours
+about the coffeehouses, without, in many cases, spending more than a
+single baiocchi on coffee, and sometimes not even that.
+
+Marriage is negotiated, not by the young persons, but by the parents.
+The mother charges herself with everything appertaining to the making of
+the match, conducting even the correspondence. Of course, to address a
+billet doux to the young lady would be to infringe upon the prerogatives
+of mamma, which must ever be held inviolate if success is seriously
+aimed at. The mother receives all such epistles, and answers them in the
+daughter's behalf. The young lady is closely watched, and is never left
+a moment in the society of her intended partner previous to marriage,
+unless in the presence of a third party. The Romans thus marry by sight,
+and have no means, so far at least as regards personal intercourse, of
+ascertaining the dispositions, tastes, intelligence, and habits of each
+other. After marriage the lady is free. She may visit and receive
+visitors; and has now an opportunity for like and dislike; and may be
+tempted possibly to use it all the more that she had no such opportunity
+before.
+
+From marriages I pass to deaths and funerals. The usages customary on
+the last illness of a Roman I cannot better describe than by referring
+to a case which my friend Mr Stewart had occasion to witness. It was
+that of a clerk in the Roman savings bank, an acquaintance of his, and a
+young man of some means. In 1846 he caught fever, and, after lingering
+for three weeks, died. Relatives he had none; and my friend never met
+any one with the patient save the priest, whose duty it was to
+administer the last sacrament, and to do so in time. The sick man's
+chamber was curiously arranged. On the bed-cover were laid three
+crucifixes: one was four feet in length; the other two were of smaller
+size. This safeguard against the demons was further reinforced by the
+addition of a palm-branch, and a few trifling pictures of the Virgin and
+saints. On the wall, above the bed, hung a frame, containing a picture
+of the Virgin Mary, executed in the ordinary style, with lighted candles
+beside it. Two were placed on each side, and to these was added _una
+mazza di fiori_. Notwithstanding all this he died. The body was then
+carried to church for the last services, preparatory to consignment to
+the burying-ground of Saint Lorenzo. A single word pointing to that
+blood that cleanseth from all sin would have been of more avail than all
+this idle array; but that word was not spoken.
+
+Towards the close of life, especially if the person be wealthy, the
+priests and monks grow very assiduous in their attentions, and the
+relatives become in proportion uneasy. I was introduced at Rome to a
+Signor Bondini, who had a wealthy relative in the _Regno di Napoli_, on
+the verge of eighty, and very infirm. There was a monastery in his
+immediate neighbourhood, and the monks of that establishment were in
+daily attendance upon him. His friends in Rome felt much anxiety
+regarding the disposal of his property. How the matter ended I know not;
+but I trust, for the sake of my acquaintance, that all went well. Nor do
+friends feel quite safe even after the "will" has been ratified by the
+testator's death. There is a tribunal, as I have formerly stated, for
+revising wills,--the S. Visita,--which assumes large powers. Of this a
+curious instance occurred recently. A Signor Galli, cousin of the
+minister of that name already mentioned, died in the July of 1854, and
+left his whole property, amounting to about fifty thousand pounds, to
+neither relatives nor priests, but to works of benevolence for the
+relief of the poor. The trustee under the deed was proceeding to plan a
+workhouse or an asylum for infirm old men, when the Chapter of St
+Peter's claimed the money, on the ground that, as the works of
+benevolence were not specified in the will, the funds were the property
+of St Peter's. Some hundreds of old men are employed in the repairs
+continually going on about that church, and the Chapter meant to spend
+the money in that way. Meanwhile the S. Visita put in its claim in
+opposition to the Chapter, and awarded the property for masses for the
+soul of the departed; deeming, doubtless, that the whole would be little
+enough to expiate the well-known liberal opinions of the deceased. So
+stands the matter at present. It is impossible to say whether the money
+will be spent in paving the Piazza San Pietro, or in masses; as to the
+relief of the poor, that is now out of the question.
+
+It is customary for Roman families to desert the dead, that is, to leave
+the body in the hands of the priests and monks, who perform the
+necessary offices to the corpse, conduct the funeral, and sing masses
+for the soul of the departed. The pomp and display of the one, and the
+length and number of the other, are regulated entirely by the
+circumstances of the deceased's family. A more ghastly procession than
+the funeral one cannot imagine. Instead of a company of grave men,
+carrying with decorous sorrow to its final resting-place the body of
+their departed brother, you meet what you take to be a procession of
+ghouls. The coffin, borne shoulder-high, comes along the street,
+followed by a long line of figures, enveloped from head to foot in black
+serge gowns, with holes for the eyes. They march along, carrying large
+black crosses and tallow candles, and using their voices in something
+which is betwixt a chant and a howl. The sight suggests only the most
+dismal associations. But it has its uses, and that is, to move the
+living to be liberal in masses to rescue the soul from the power of the
+demons, of which no feeble representation is exhibited in this ghostly
+and unearthly procession.
+
+The modern Italians pay great regard to omens; and, in the important
+affairs of life, are guided rather by considerations of lucky and
+unlucky than the maxims of wisdom. The name of the present Pope the
+Romans hold to be decidedly of evil omen; so much so, that to affix it
+anywhere is to make the person or thing a mark for calamity. And I was
+told a curious list of instances corroborative of this opinion. The
+first year of the reign of Pius was marked by an unprecedented and
+disastrous flood. The Tiber rose so high in Rome, that it drowned the
+stone lions in the Piazza del Popolo, flooded the city, and filled the
+Corso to a depth that compelled the citizens to have recourse to boats.
+The Government had a great cannon named after the Pope, which was used
+in the war of independence sanctioned by Pius in 1848. The cannon Pio
+was taken by the Austrians, although it was afterwards restored. There
+was a famous steamer, the property of the Papal Government, named "Pia,"
+which plied on the Adriatic. That steamer shared the fate of all that
+bears the Pope's name. It was taken, too, by the Austrians, but not
+returned; though, for a reason I shall afterwards state, better it had
+been sent back. I was wandering one afternoon amid the desolate mounds
+outside the walls on the east, when I saw a cloud of frightful blackness
+gather over Rome, and several intensely vivid bolts shoot downward. When
+I entered the city, I found that the "Porta Pia" had been laid in ruins,
+and that the occurrence had revived all the former impressions of the
+Romans regarding the evil significancy of the Pope's name. All who came
+to his aid in his reforming times, they say, were smitten with disaster
+or sudden death. He never raises his hands to bless but down there comes
+a curse. I was not a little struck, in the winter following my return
+from Rome, to read in the newspapers, that this same steamer Pia, of
+which I had heard mention made in Rome as having about it a magnet of
+evil in the Pope's name, had gone down in the Adriatic, with all on
+board. It was one of the two vessels which carried the suite of the
+Russian Grand Dukes when they visited Venice in the winter of 1852, and,
+encountering a tempest on its return, perished, with some two hundred
+persons, consisting of crew and soldiers.
+
+As regards the affection which the Romans bear to Pope and Papacy, I
+was assured by Mr Freeborn, our consul in Rome, that there is not a
+priest in that city who had two hours to live when the last French
+soldier shall have marched out at the gate. All who had resided for some
+time in Rome, and knew the state of feeling in the population, shuddered
+to think of what would certainly happen should the French be withdrawn.
+I have been told by those who visited Rome more recently, that the
+Romans now do not ask for so much as two hours. "Give us but half an
+hour," say they, "and we undertake that the Papacy shall never again
+trouble the world." No true Protestant can wish, or even hope, to put
+down the system in this way; nevertheless it is a fact, that the Romans
+have been goaded to this pitch of exasperation, and the slightest change
+in the political relations of Europe might precipitate on Rome and the
+Papal States an avalanche of vengeance. The November of 1851 was a time
+of almost unendurable apprehension to the priests. With reference to
+France, then on the eve of the _coup d'etat_, though not known to be so
+save in Rome,--where I am satisfied it was well known,--the priests, I
+was told by those who had access to know, said, "We tremble, we tremble,
+for we know not how we shall finish!" They were said to have their
+pantaloons, et cetera, all ready, to escape in a laic dress. Assuredly
+the curse has taken effect upon the occupants of the Vatican not less
+than on the inhabitants of the Ghetto. "Thy life shall hang in doubt
+before thee, and thou shalt fear day and night, and shalt have none
+assurance of thy life."
+
+Among other things that did not realize my expectations in Italy was the
+weather. During my stay in Rome there were dull and dispiriting days,
+with the Alban hills white to their bottom. Others were clear, with the
+piercingly cold Tramontana sweeping the streets; but more frequently
+the sirocco was blowing, accompanied with deluges of rain, and flashes
+of lightning that made the night luminous as the day, and peals that
+rocked the city on its foundations. One Sabbath evening we had a slight
+shock of earthquake; and I began to think that I had come to see the
+volcanic covering of the Campagna crack, and the old hulk which has been
+stranded on it so long sink into the abyss. My homeward journey was
+accomplished so far in the most dismal weather I have ever seen. I
+started from Rome on a Monday afternoon, in a Veturino carriage, with
+two Roman gentlemen as my companions. It was the Civita Vecchia road,
+for my purpose was to go by sea to France. We reached the half-way house
+some hours after dark; and, having supped, we were required to conform
+to the rule of the house, which was to retire, not to bed, but to our
+vehicle, which stood drawn up on the highway, and pass the night as best
+we could. I awoke at day-break, and found the postilion yoking the
+horses in a perfect hurricane of wind and rain. We reached Civita
+Vecchia at breakfast-time, and found the Mediterranean one roughened
+expanse of breakers, with the white waves leaping over the mole, and
+violently rocking the vessels in the harbour. The steamers from Naples
+to Marseilles were a week over due, and the agents could not say when
+one might arrive. Time pressed; and after wandering all day about the
+town,--one of the most wretched on earth,--and seeing the fiery sun find
+his bed in the weltering ocean, I took my seat in the _diligence_ for
+Rome.
+
+This was the third time I had passed through that land of death the
+Campagna; and that night in especial I shall never forget. My companions
+in the _interieur_ were two Dutch gentlemen, and a lady, the wife of one
+of them. The rain fell in deluges; the frequent gleams showed us each
+other's faces; and the bellowing thunder completely drowned the rattle
+of our vehicle. The long weary night wore through, and about four of the
+morning we came to the old gate. My passport had been viséd with
+reference to a sea-voyage; and to explain my change of route to the
+officials in Civita Vecchia and at the gate of Rome, and persuade them
+to make the corresponding alterations, cost me some little trouble, and
+a good many paulos into the bargain. I succeeded, fortunately, for
+otherwise I should have had to submit to a detention of several days.
+How to make the homeward journey had now become a serious question. The
+weather had made the sea unnavigable; and the Alps, now covered to a
+great depth with ice and snow, could be crossed only on sledges. I
+resolved on going by land to Leghorn,--a wearisome and expensive route,
+but one that would show me the old Etruria, with several cities of note
+in Italian history. The _diligence_ for Florence was to start in an
+hour. I hurried to the office, and engaged the only seat that remained
+unbespoke, in the coupé happily, with a Russian and Italian gentleman as
+companions. I made my final exit by the Flaminian gate; and as I crossed
+the swollen Tiber, and began to climb the height beyond, the first rays
+of the morning sun were slanting across the Campagna, and tinging with
+angry light the troubled masses of cloud that hung above the many-domed
+city.
+
+For a few hours the ride was pleasant. All around lay the neglected
+land, thinly besprinkled with forlorn olives, but without signs of man,
+save where a crumbling village might be seen crowning the summit of the
+little conical hills that form so striking a feature in the Etrurian
+landscape. When we had reached the spurs of the Apennines the storm
+fell. The air was thickened with alternate showers of sleet and snow. We
+had to encounter torrents in the valleys, and drifted wreaths on the
+heights; in short, the journey was to the full as dreary as one through
+the Grampians would have been at the same season. There was little to
+tempt us to leave our vehicle at the few villages and towns where we
+halted, for they seemed half-drowned in rain and mud. Late in the
+afternoon we reached Viterbo, and stopped to eat a wretched dinner. We
+found in the hotel but little of that abundance of which the magnificent
+vine-stocks in the adjoining fields gave so goodly promise. Starting
+again at dusk, the ladies of the party inquired where the patrol was
+that used to accompany travellers through the brigand-haunted country of
+Radicofani, on which we were about to enter; but could get no
+satisfactory answer. We skirted the lake of Bolsena, with its rich but
+deserted shores, and its fine mountains of oak. Soon thereafter darkness
+hid from us the country; but the frequent gleams of lightning showed
+that it was wild and desolate as ever traveller passed through. It was
+naked, and torn, and scathed, as if fire had acted upon it, which,
+indeed, it had, for our way now lay amidst extinct volcanoes. Towards
+midnight the _diligence_ suddenly stopped. "Here are the brigands at
+last," said I to myself. I jumped out; and, stretched on the road,
+pallid and motionless, lay the foremost postilion. Had he been shot, or
+what had happened? He was a raw-boned lad of some eighteen, wretchedly
+clad, and worse fed; and he had swooned through fatigue and cold. We
+brought him round with a little brandy; and, setting him again on his
+nags, we continued our journey.
+
+I recollect of awaking at times from troubled sleep, to find that we
+were zig-zagging up the sides of mountains tall and precipitous as a
+sugar-loaf, and entering beneath the portals of towns old and crumbling,
+perched upon their very summit. A more desolate sight than that which
+met the eye when day broke I never saw. Every particle of soil seemed
+torn from the face of the country; and, as far as the eye could reach,
+plain and hill-side lay under a covering of marl, which was grooved and
+furrowed by torrents. "Is this Italy?" I asked myself in astonishment.
+As the day rose, both weather and scenery improved. Towards mid-day, the
+green beauteous mount on which Sienna, with its white buildings and its
+cathedral towers, is situated, rose in the far distance; and, after many
+hours winding and climbing, we entered its walls.
+
+At Sienna we exchanged the _diligence_ for the railway, the course of
+which lay through a series of ravines and valleys of the most
+magnificent description, and thoroughly Tuscan in their character. We
+had torrents below, crags crowned with castles above, vines, chestnuts,
+and noble oaks clothing the steep, and purple shadows, such as Italy
+only can show, enrobing all. I reached Pisa late in the evening; and
+there a substantial supper, followed by yet more grateful sleep, made
+amends for the four previous days' fasting, sleeplessness, and
+endurance. I passed the Sabbath at Leghorn; and, starting again on
+Monday _via_ Marseilles, and prosecuting my journey day and night
+without intermission, save for an hour at a time, came on Saturday
+evening to the capital of happy England, where I rested on the morrow,
+"according to the commandment."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX.
+
+THE ARGUMENT FROM THE WHOLE, OR, ROME HER OWN WITNESS.
+
+
+When one goes to Rome, it is not unreasonable that he should there look
+for some proofs of the vaunted excellence of the Roman faith. Rome is
+the seat of Christ's Vicar, and the centre of Christianity, as Romanists
+maintain; and there surely, if anywhere, may he expect to find those
+personal and social virtues which have ever flourished in the wake of
+Christianity. To what region has she gone where barbarism and vice have
+not disappeared? and in what age has she flourished in which she has not
+moulded the hearts of men and the institutions of society into
+conformity with the purity of her own precepts, and the benevolence of
+her own spirit? She has been no teacher of villany and cruelty,--no
+patron of lust,--no champion of oppression. She has known only
+"whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever
+things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of
+good report." Her great Founder demanded that she should be tried by her
+fruits; and why should Rome be unwilling to submit to this test? If the
+Pope be Christ's Vicar, his deeds cannot be evil. If Romanism be
+Christianity, or rather, if it alone be Christianity, as its champions
+maintain, Rome must be the most Christian city on the earth, and the
+Romans examples to the whole human race, of industry, of sobriety, of
+the love of truth, and, in short, of whatever tends to dignify and exalt
+human character. On the assumption that the Christianity of the Seven
+Hills is the Christianity of the New Testament, Rome ought to be the
+seat of just laws, of inflexibly upright and impartial tribunals, and of
+wise, paternal, and incorruptible rulers. Is it so? Is Christ's Vicar a
+model to all governors? and is the region over which he bears sway
+renowned throughout the earth as the most virtuous, the most happy, and
+the most prosperous region in it? Alas! the very opposite of all this is
+the fact. There is not on the face of the earth a region more barren of
+everything Christian, and of everything that ought to spring from
+Christianity, than is the region of the Seven Hills. And not only do we
+there find the absence of all that reminds us of Christianity, or that
+could indicate her presence; but we find there the presence, on a most
+gigantic scale, and in most intense activity, of all the elements and
+forms of evil. When the infidel would select the very strongest proofs
+that Christianity cannot possibly be Divine, and that its influence on
+individual and national character is most disastrous, he goes to the
+banks of the Tiber. The weapons which Voltaire and his compeers wielded
+with such terrible effect in the end of last century were borrowed from
+Rome. Now, why is this? Either Christianity is to a most extraordinary
+degree destructive of all the temporal interests of man, or Romanism is
+not Christianity.
+
+The first part of the alternative cannot in reason be maintained.
+Christianity, like man, was made in the image of Him who created her;
+and, like her great Maker, is essentially and supremely benevolent. She
+is as much the fountain of good as the sun is the fountain of light; and
+the good that is in the minor institutions which exist around her comes
+from her, just as the mild effulgence of the planets radiates from the
+great orb of day. She cherishes man in all the extent of his diversified
+faculties, and throughout the vast range of his interests, temporal and
+eternal. But Romanism is as universal in her evil as Christianity is in
+her good. She is as omnipotent to overthrow as Christianity is to build
+up. Man, in his intellectual powers and his moral affections,--in his
+social relations and his national interests,--she converts into a wreck;
+and where Christianity creates an angel, Romanism produces a fiend.
+Accordingly, the region where Romanism has fixed its seat is a mighty
+and appalling ruin. Like some Indian divinity seated amidst the blood,
+and skulls, and mangled limbs of its victims, Romanism is grimly seated
+amidst the mangled remains of liberty, and civilization, and humanity.
+Her throne is a graveyard,--a graveyard that covers, not the mortal
+bodies of men, but the fruits and acquisitions, alas! of man's immortal
+genius. Thither have gone down the labours, the achievements, the hopes,
+of innumerable ages; and in this gulph they have all perished. Italy,
+glorious once with the light of intelligence and of liberty on her brow,
+and crowned with the laurel of conquest, is now naked and manacled. Who
+converted Italy into a barbarian and a slave? The Papacy. The growth of
+that foul superstition and the decay of the country have gone on by
+equal stages. In the territory blessed with the pontifical government
+there is--as the previous chapters show--no trade, no industry, no
+justice, no patriotism; there is neither personal worth nor public
+virtue; there is nothing but corruption and ruin. In fine, the Papal
+States are a physical, social, political, and moral wreck; and from
+whatever quarter that _religion_ has come which has created this wreck,
+it is undeniable that it has not come from the New Testament. If it be
+true that "a tree is known by its fruits," the tree of Romanism was
+never planted by the Saviour.
+
+With such evidence before him as Italy furnishes, can any man doubt what
+the consequence would be of admitting this system into Britain? If there
+be any truth in the maxim, that like causes produce like effects, the
+consequences are as manifest as they are inevitable. There is a force of
+genius, a versatility and buoyancy, about the Italians, which fit them
+better than most to resist longer and surmount sooner the influence of a
+system like the Papacy; and yet, if that system has wrought such
+terrible havoc among them,--if it has put them down and keeps them
+down,--where is the nation or people who may think to embrace Romanism,
+and yet escape being destroyed by it? Assuredly, should it ever gain the
+ascendancy in this country, it will inflict, and in far shorter time,
+the same dire ruin upon us which it has inflicted on Italy.
+
+Let no man delude himself with the idea that it is simply a _religion_
+which he is admitting, and that the only change that would ensue would
+be merely the substitution of a Romanist for a Protestant creed. It is a
+_scheme of Government_; and its introduction would be followed by a
+complete and universal change in the political constitution and
+government of the country. The Romanists themselves have put this matter
+beyond dispute. Why did the Papists divide _territorially_ the country?
+Why did they assume _territorial_ titles? and why do they so
+pertinaciously cling to these titles? Why, because their chief aim is to
+erect a territorial and political system, and they wish to secure, by
+fair means or foul, a pretest or basis on which they may afterwards
+enforce that system by political and physical means. Have we forgotten
+the famous declaration of Wiseman, that his grand end in the papal
+aggression was to introduce canon law? And what is canon law? The
+previous chapters show what canon law is. It is a code which, though
+founded on a religious dogma, namely, that the Pope is God's Vicar, is
+nevertheless mainly temporal in its character. It claims a temporal
+jurisdiction; it employs temporal power in its support,--the _sbirri_,
+Swiss guards, and French troops at Rome, for instance; and it visits
+offences with temporal punishment,--banishment, the galleys, the
+carabine, and guillotine. In its most modified form, and as viewed under
+the glosses of the most dexterous of its modern commentators and
+apologists, it vests the Pope in a DIRECTING POWER, according to which
+he can declare _null_ all constitutions, laws, tribunals, decisions,
+oaths, and causes contrary to good morals, in other words, contrary to
+the interests of the Church, of which he is the sole and infallible
+judge; and all resistance is punishable by deprivation of civil rights,
+by confiscation of goods, by imprisonment, and, in the last resort, by
+death. In short, it vests in the Pope's hands all power on earth,
+whether spiritual or temporal, and puts all persons, ecclesiastical and
+secular, under his foot. A more overwhelming tyranny it is impossible to
+imagine; for it is a tyranny that unites the voice with the arm of
+Deity. We challenge the Romanist to show how he can inaugurate his
+system in Britain,--set up canon law, as he proposes,--without changing
+the constitution of the country. We affirm, on the grounds we have
+stated, that he cannot. This, then, is no battle merely of churches and
+creeds; it is a battle between two kingdoms and two kings,--the Pope on
+one side, and Queen Victoria on the other; and no one can become an
+abettor of the pontiff without being thereby a traitor to the sovereign.
+
+And with the fall of our religion and liberty will come all the
+demoralizing and pauperizing effects which have followed the Papacy in
+Italy. Mind will be systematically cramped and crushed; and everything
+that could stimulate thought, or inspire a love for independence, or
+recall the memory of a former liberty, will be proscribed. We cannot
+have the Papacy and open tribunals. We cannot have the Papacy and free
+trade: our factories will be closed, as well as our schools and
+churches; our forges silenced, as well as our printing presses. Motion
+even will be forbidden; or, should our railways be spared, they will
+convey, in lack of merchandise, bulls, palls, dead men's bones, and
+other such precious stuff. Our electric telegraph will be used for the
+pious purpose of transmitting absolutions and pardons, and our express
+trains for carrying the host to some dying penitent. The passport system
+will very speedily cure our people of their propensity to travel; and,
+instead of gadding about, and learning things which they ought not, they
+will be told to stay at home and count their beads. The _Index_ will
+effectually purge our libraries, and give us but tens where we have now
+thousands. Alas for the great masters of British literature and song!
+The censorship will make fine work with our periodic literature, pruning
+the exuberance and taming the boldness of many a now free pen. Our
+clubs, from Parliament downwards, will have their labours diminished, by
+having their sphere contracted to matters only on which the Church has
+not spoken; and our thinkers will be taught to think aright, by being
+taught not to think at all. We must contract a liking for consecrated
+wafers and holy water; and provide a confessor for ourselves, our wives,
+and daughters. We must eat only fish on Friday, and keep the Church's
+holidays, however we may spend the Sabbath. We must vote at the bidding
+of the priest; and, above all, take ghostly direction as regards our
+last will and testament. The Papacy will overhaul all our political
+rights, all our social privileges, all our domestic and private affairs;
+and will alter or abrogate as it may find it for our and the Church's
+good. In short, it will dig a grave, in which to bury all our privileges
+and rights together, rolling to that grave's mouth the great stone of
+Infallibility.
+
+Nor let us commit the error of under-estimating the foe, or of thinking,
+in an age when intelligence and liberty are so diffused, that it is
+impossible that we can be overcome by such a system as the Papacy. We
+have not, like the early Christians, to oppose a rude, unwieldy, and
+gross paganism; we are called to confront an idolatry, subtle, refined,
+perfected. We encounter error wielding the artillery of truth. We
+wrestle with the powers of darkness clothed in the armour of light. We
+are called to combat the instincts of the wolf and tiger in the form of
+the messenger of peace,--the Satanic principle in the angelic costume.
+Have we considered the infinite degradation of defeat? Have we thought
+of the prison-house where we will be compelled to grind for our
+conqueror's sport,--the chains and stakes which await ourselves and our
+posterity? And, even should our lives be spared, they will be spared to
+what?--to see freedom banished, knowledge extinguished, science put
+under anathema, the world rolled backwards, and the universe become a
+vast whispering gallery, to re-echo only the accents of papal blasphemy.
+
+This atrocious and perfidious system is at this hour triumphant on the
+Continent of Europe. Britain only stands erect. How long she may do so
+is known only to God; but of this I am assured, that if we shall be able
+to keep our own, it will be, not by entering into any compromise, but by
+assuming an attitude of determined defiance to the papal system. There
+must be no truckling to foreign despots and foreign priests: the bold
+Protestant policy of the country must be maintained. In this way alone
+can we escape the immense hazards which at present threaten us. And
+what a warning do the nations of the Continent hold out to us! They
+teach how easily liberty may be lost, but how infinite the sacrifices it
+takes to recover it. A moment's weakness may cost an age of suffering.
+If we let go the liberty we at present enjoy, none of us will live to
+see it regained. Look at the past history of the Papacy, and mark how it
+has retained its vulpine instincts in every age, and transmitted from
+father to son, and from generation to generation, its inextinguishable
+hatred of man and of man's liberties. Look at it in the Low Countries,
+and see it overwhelming them under an inundation of armies and
+scaffolds. Look at it in Spain, and see it extinguishing, amid the fires
+of innumerable _autos da fe_, the genius, the chivalry, and the power of
+that great nation. Look at it in France, whose history it has converted
+into an ever-recurring cycle of revolutions, massacres, and tyrannies.
+Look at it in the blood-written annals of the Waldensian valleys,
+against which it launched crusade after crusade, ravaging their soil
+with fire and sword, and ceasing its rage only when nothing remained but
+the crimson stains of its fearful cruelty. And now, after creating this
+wide wreck,--after glutting the axe,--after flooding the scaffold, and
+deluging the earth itself with human blood,--it turns to you, ye men of
+England and Scotland! It menaces you across the narrow channel that
+divides your country from the Continent, and dares to set its foul print
+on your free shore! Will you permit it? Will you tamely sit still till
+it has put its foot on your neck, and its fetter on your arm? Oh! if you
+do, the Bruce who conquered at Bannockburn will disown you! The Knox who
+achieved a yet more glorious victory will disown you! Cranmer, and all
+the martyrs whose blood cries to heaven against it, while their happy
+spirits look down from their thrones of light to watch the part you are
+prepared to play in this great struggle, will disown you! Your children
+yet unborn, whose faith you will thus surrender, and whose liberty you
+will thus betray, will curse your very names. But I know you will not.
+You are men, and will die as men, if die you must, nobly fighting for
+your faith and your liberties. You will not wait till you are drawn out
+and slaughtered as sheep, as you assuredly will be if you permit this
+system to become dominant. But if you are prepared to die, rather than
+to live the slaves of a detestable and ferocious tyranny like this, I
+know that you shall not die; for I firmly believe, from the aspects of
+Providence, and the revelations of the Divine Word, that, menacing as
+the Papacy at present looks, its grave is dug, and that even now it
+totters on the brink of that burning abyss into which it is destined to
+be cast; and if we do but unite, and strike a blow worthy of our cause,
+we shall achieve our liberties, and not only these, but the liberties of
+nations that stretch their arms in chains to us, under God their last
+hope, and the liberties of generations unborn, who shall arise and call
+us blessed.
+
+ THE END.
+
+ EDINBURGH: PRINTED BY MILLER AND FAIRLY.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] See the Antiquity of the Waldenses treated of at length in Leger's
+"Histoire de l'Eglise Vaudoise;" and Dr Gilly's "Waldensian Researches."
+
+[2] The author would soften his strictures on this head by a reference
+to the truly interesting volume on the "Ladies of the Reformation," by
+his talented friend the Rev. James Anderson.
+
+[3] I have before me a list of prices current (Prezzo Corrente Legale de
+generi venduti nella piazza di Roma dal di 28 Febbraro al di 5 Marzo
+1852), from which it appears, that sculpture, paintings, tallow, bones,
+skins, rags, and pozzolano, comprise all the exports from the Papal
+States. What a beggarly list, compared with the natural riches of the
+country! In fact, vessels return oftener _without_ than _with_ lading
+from that shore.
+
+[4] It was so when the author was in Rome. The enterprising company of
+Fox & Henderson have since succeeded in overcoming the pontifical
+scruples, and bringing gas into the Eternal City; Cardinal Antonelli
+remarking, that he would accept of _their_ light in return for the light
+_he_ had sent to England.
+
+[5] As illustrative of our subject, we may here quote what Mr Whiteside,
+M.P., in his interesting volumes, "Italy in the Nineteenth Century,"
+says of the estimation in which all concerned with the administration of
+justice are held at Rome:--
+
+"The profession of the law is considered by the higher classes to be a
+base pursuit: no man of family would degrade himself by engaging in it.
+A younger son of the poorest noble would famish rather than earn his
+livelihood in an employment considered vile. The advocate is seldom if
+ever admitted into high society in Rome; nor can the princes (so called)
+or nobles comprehend the position of a barrister in England. They would
+as soon permit a _facchino_ as an advocate to enter their palaces; and
+they have been known to ask with disdain (when accidentally apprised
+that a younger son of an English nobleman had embraced the profession of
+the law), what could induce his family to suffer the degradation?
+Priests, bishops, and cardinals, the poor nobles or their impoverished
+descendants, will become,--advocates or judges, never. The solution of
+this apparent inconsistency is to be found in the fact, that in most
+despotic countries the profession of the law is contemptible. In Rome it
+is particularly so, because no person places confidence in the
+administration of the law, the salaries of the judges are small, the
+remuneration of the advocate miserable, and all the great offices
+grasped by the ecclesiastics. Pure justice not existing, everybody
+concerned in the administration of what is substituted for it is
+despised, often most unjustly, as being a participator in the
+imposture."
+
+[6] See book vii., chap. x.
+
+[7] Monsignor Marini, who was head of the police under Gregory XVI., and
+the infamous tool in all the arrests and cruelties of Lambruschini, was
+made a cardinal by the present Pope. All Rome said, let the next
+cardinal be the public executioner. Talent, certainly, has fair play at
+Rome, when a policeman, and even the hangman, may aspire to the chair of
+Peter.
+
+[8] WHAT THE ROMAN RELIGION COSTS.
+
+The following statistics of the wealth of the clergy in the Roman States
+are taken from the American _Crusader_:--
+
+"The clergy in the Roman States realize from the funds a clear income of
+two millions two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. From the cattle
+they have another income of one hundred thousand dollars; from the
+canons, three hundred thousand dollars; from the public debt another
+income of one million two hundred and fifty thousand dollars; from the
+priests' individual estates, two hundred and fifty thousand dollars;
+from the portions assigned by law to nuns, five hundred thousand
+dollars; from the celebration of masses, two millions one hundred and
+fifty thousand dollars; from taxes on baptisms, forty-five thousand
+dollars; from the tax on the Sacrament of Confirmation, eighteen
+thousand dollars; from the celebration of marriages, twenty-five
+thousand dollars; from the attestations of births, nine thousand
+dollars; from other attestations, such as births, marriages, deaths, &c.
+&c., nine thousand seven hundred and fifty dollars; from funerals, six
+hundred thousand dollars; from the gifts to begging-orders, one million
+eight hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars; from the gifts for
+motives of benevolence or festivities, or maintenance of altars and
+lights, or for celebrating mass for the souls in purgatory, two hundred
+thousand dollars; from the tithes exacted in several parts of the Roman
+States according to the ancient rigour, one hundred and fifty thousand
+dollars; from preaching and panegyrics, according to the regular taxes,
+one hundred and fifty thousand dollars; from seminaries for entrance
+taxes and other rights belonging to the students, besides the boarding,
+fifteen thousand dollars; from the chancery for ecclesiastical
+provisions, for matrimonial licenses, for sanatives, &c. &c., fifty
+thousand dollars; from benedictions during Easter, thirty thousand
+dollars; from offerings to the miraculous images of Virgin Marys and
+Saints, seventy-five thousand dollars; from _triduums_ for the sick, or
+for prayers, five hundred thousand dollars; from benedictions to fields,
+cattle, nuptial-beds, &c. &c., nine thousand dollars.
+
+"All these incomes, which amount to _ten million five hundred and ten
+thousand seven hundred and fifty dollars_, are realized and enjoyed by
+the secular and regular clergy, composed in all of sixty thousand
+individuals, including nuns, without mentioning the incomes allowed them
+from foreign countries, for the chancery and other cosmopolite
+congregations.
+
+"It is further to be observed, that in this calculation are not
+comprised the portions which the Romans call _passatore_, which the
+laity pay to the clergy; such as purchase, permutation, resignation, and
+ordination taxes; patents for confessions, preaching, holy oils,
+privileged altars, professors' chairs, and the like, which will make up
+another amount of a million of dollars; nor those other taxes called
+_pretatico_, which are paid by the Jews to the parish priest for
+permission to dwell without the Jews' quarter; nor those for the ringing
+of bells for dying persons, or those who are in agony; nor those which
+cripples pay for receiving in Rome the visit of the wooden child of the
+_celestial altar_, who must always go out in a carriage, accompanied by
+friars called _minori observanti_, Franciscan friars, whose incomes they
+collect and govern. The value of charitable edifices (which are not
+registered, being exempt from all dative) is not comprised either; and
+the same exemption is extended to churches; although all these buildings
+cost the inhabitants of the State several millions of expense for
+provisional possession, and displays of ceremonies and feasts which are
+celebrated in them."
+
+WHAT THE ROMAN RELIGION YIELDS.
+
+A distinguished English gentleman, who has spent many years as a
+resident or in travelling in various papal countries in Europe, in a
+recent speech in London has presented some deeply interesting facts
+concerning vice and crime in Papal and Protestant countries. He
+possessed himself of the Government returns of every Romanist Government
+on the Continent. We have condensed and will state its results.
+
+In England, four persons for a million, on the average, are committed
+for murder per year. In Ireland there are nineteen to the million. In
+Belgium, a Catholic country, there are eighteen murders to the million.
+In France there are thirty-one. Passing into Austria, we find
+thirty-six. In Bavaria, also Catholic, sixty-eight to the million; or,
+if homicides are struck out, there will be thirty. Going into Italy,
+where Catholic influence is the strongest of any country on earth, and
+taking first the kingdom of Sardinia, we find twenty murders to the
+million. In the Venetian and Milanese provinces there is the enormous
+result of forty-five to the million. In Tuscany, forty-two, though that
+land is claimed as a kind of earthly paradise; and in the Papal States
+not less than one hundred murders for the million of people. There are
+ninety in Sicily; and in Naples the result is more appalling still,
+where public documents show there are _two hundred_ murders per year to
+the million of people!
+
+The above facts are all drawn from the civil and criminal records of the
+respective countries named. Now, taking the whole of these countries
+together, we have seventy-five cases of murder for every million of
+people. In Protestant countries,--England, for example,--we have but
+four for every million. Aside from various other demoralizing influences
+of Popery, the fact now to be named beyond doubt operates with great
+power in cheapening human life in Catholic countries. The Protestant
+criminal believes he is sending his victim, if not a Christian, at once
+to a miserable eternity; and this awful consideration gives a terrible
+aspect to the crime of murder. But the Papist only sends his victim to
+purgatory, whence he can be rescued by the masses the priest can be
+hired to say for his soul; or his own bloody hand and heart will not
+hinder him from doing that office himself. We think the above facts in
+regard to vice and crime in the two great departments of Christendom
+worthy the most serious pondering of every friend of morality and
+virtue.
+
+[9] Martinus Scriblerus says, that "the Pope's band, though the finest
+in the world, would not divert the English from burning his Holiness in
+effigy on the streets of London on a Guy Fawkes' day;" nor, I may add,
+the Romans from burning him in person on the streets of Rome any day,
+were the French away.
+
+[10] For much of the information contained in this chapter I am indebted
+to my intelligent friend Mr Stewart.
+
+
+
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+<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of Pilgrimage from the Alps to the Tiber, by James Aitken Wylie</title>
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+<h1 class="pg">The Project Gutenberg eBook of Pilgrimage from the Alps to the Tiber, by
+James Aitken Wylie</h1>
+<pre>
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at <a href = "http://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a></pre>
+<p>Title: Pilgrimage from the Alps to the Tiber</p>
+<p>       Or The Influence of Romanism on Trade, Justice, and Knowledge</p>
+<p>Author: James Aitken Wylie</p>
+<p>Release Date: March 9, 2009  [eBook #28294]</p>
+<p>Language: English</p>
+<p>Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1</p>
+<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PILGRIMAGE FROM THE ALPS TO THE TIBER***</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3 class="pg">E-text prepared by Frank van Drogen, Greg Bergquist,<br />
+    and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team<br />
+    (http://www.pgdp.net)</h3>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<div class="tn">
+
+<p class="center"><big><b>Transcriber&#8217;s Note</b></big></p>
+
+<p class="noin">The punctuation and spelling from the original text have been preserved faithfully. Only obvious
+typographical errors have been corrected.</p>
+
+</div>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr class="full" />
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h1>PILGRIMAGE</h1>
+
+<p class="center">FROM</p>
+
+<h1>THE ALPS TO THE TIBER.</h1>
+<hr />
+
+
+<h1>PILGRIMAGE</h1>
+
+<p class="center">FROM</p>
+
+<h1>THE ALPS TO THE TIBER.</h1>
+
+<p class="center">OR</p>
+
+<p class="t1"><big>THE INFLUENCE OF ROMANISM</big></p>
+
+<p class="center">ON</p>
+
+<p class="center"><big>TRADE, JUSTICE, AND KNOWLEDGE.</big><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+BY
+<br />
+<big>REV. J.A. WYLIE, LL.D.</big><br />
+<br />
+<small>AUTHOR OF "THE PAPACY," &amp;c. &amp;.c.</small><br />
+<br /><br /><br /><br />
+<br />
+EDINBURGH<br />
+<br />
+SHEPHERD &amp; ELLIOT, 15, PRINCES STREET.<br />
+<br />
+LONDON: HAMILTON, ADAMS, &amp; CO.<br />
+<br />
+<small>MDCCCLV.</small><br />
+</p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+<h2><a name="CONTENTS" id="CONTENTS"></a>CONTENTS.</h2>
+
+
+<div class='center'>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="Contents">
+<tr>
+ <td align='center'><a href="#CHAPTER_I">CHAPTER I.</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+ <td align='right' colspan='2'><small>PAGE</small></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+ <td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Introduction</span>,</td>
+ <td align='right'>1</td>
+</tr>
+<tr class="tr1">
+ <td align='center'><a href="#CHAPTER_II">CHAPTER II.</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+ <td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Passage of the Alps</span>,</td>
+ <td align='right'>8</td>
+</tr>
+<tr class="tr1">
+ <td align='center'><a href="#CHAPTER_III">CHAPTER III.</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+ <td align='left'><span class="smcap">Rise and Progress of Constitutionalism in Piedmont</span>,</td>
+ <td align='right'>23</td>
+</tr>
+<tr class="tr1">
+ <td align='center'><a href="#CHAPTER_IV">CHAPTER IV.</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+ <td align='left'><span class="smcap">Structure and Characteristics of the Vaudois Valleys</span>,</td>
+ <td align='right'>43</td>
+</tr>
+<tr class="tr1">
+ <td align='center'><a href="#CHAPTER_V">CHAPTER V.</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+ <td align='left'><span class="smcap">State and Prospects of the Vaudois Church</span>,</td>
+ <td align='right'>62</td>
+</tr>
+<tr class="tr1">
+ <td align='center'><a href="#CHAPTER_VI">CHAPTER VI.</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+ <td align='left'><span class="smcap">From Turin To Novara&mdash;Plain of Lombardy</span>,</td>
+ <td align='right'>83</td>
+</tr>
+<tr class="tr1">
+ <td align='center'><a href="#CHAPTER_VII">CHAPTER VII.</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+ <td align='left'><span class="smcap">From Novara To Milan&mdash;Dogana&mdash;chain of the Alps</span>,</td>
+ <td align='right'>94</td>
+</tr>
+<tr class="tr1">
+ <td align='center'><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">CHAPTER VIII.</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+ <td align='left'><span class="smcap">City and People of Milan</span>,</td>
+ <td align='right'>105</td>
+</tr>
+<tr class="tr1">
+ <td align='center'><a href="#CHAPTER_IX">CHAPTER IX.</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+ <td align='left'><span class="smcap">Arco Della Pace&mdash;St Ambrose</span>,</td>
+ <td align='right'>119</td>
+</tr>
+<tr class="tr1">
+ <td align='center'><a href="#CHAPTER_X">CHAPTER X.</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+ <td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Duomo of Milan</span>,</td>
+ <td align='right'>126</td>
+</tr>
+<tr class="tr1">
+ <td align='center'><a href="#CHAPTER_XI">CHAPTER XI.</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+ <td align='left'><span class="smcap">Milan To Brescia&mdash;The Reformers</span>,</td>
+ <td align='right'>137</td>
+</tr>
+<tr class="tr1">
+ <td align='center'><a href="#CHAPTER_XII">CHAPTER XII.</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+ <td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Present the Image of the Past</span>,</td>
+ <td align='right'>152</td>
+</tr>
+<tr class="tr1">
+ <td align='center'><a href="#CHAPTER_XIII">CHAPTER XIII.</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+ <td align='left'><span class="smcap">Scenery of Lake Garda&mdash;Peschiera&mdash;Verona</span>,</td>
+ <td align='right'>158</td>
+</tr>
+<tr class="tr1">
+ <td align='center'><a href="#CHAPTER_XIV">CHAPTER XIV.</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+ <td align='left'><span class="smcap">From Verona To Venice&mdash;The Tyrolese Alps</span>,</td>
+ <td align='right'>168</td>
+</tr>
+<tr class="tr1">
+ <td align='center'><a href="#CHAPTER_XV">CHAPTER XV.</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+ <td align='left'><span class="smcap">Venice&mdash;Death of Nations</span>,</td>
+ <td align='right'>178</td>
+</tr>
+<tr class="tr1">
+ <td align='center'><a href="#CHAPTER_XVI">CHAPTER XVI.</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+ <td align='left'><span class="smcap">Padua&mdash;St Antony&mdash;The Po&mdash;Arrest</span>,</td>
+ <td align='right'>198</td>
+</tr>
+<tr class="tr1">
+ <td align='center'><a href="#CHAPTER_XVII">CHAPTER XVII.</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+ <td align='left'><span class="smcap">Ferrara&mdash;Ren&eacute;e and Olympia Morata</span>,</td>
+ <td align='right'>209</td>
+</tr>
+<tr class="tr1">
+ <td align='center'><a href="#CHAPTER_XVIII">CHAPTER XVIII.</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+ <td align='left'><span class="smcap">Bologna and the Apennines</span>,</td>
+ <td align='right'>216</td>
+</tr>
+<tr class="tr1">
+ <td align='center'><a href="#CHAPTER_XIX">CHAPTER XIX.</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+ <td align='left'><span class="smcap">Florence and Its Young Evangelism</span>,</td>
+ <td align='right'>237</td>
+</tr>
+<tr class="tr1">
+ <td align='center'><a href="#CHAPTER_XX">CHAPTER XX.</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+ <td align='left'><span class="smcap">From Leghorn to Rome&mdash;Civita Vecchia</span>,</td>
+ <td align='right'>262</td>
+</tr>
+<tr class="tr1">
+ <td align='center'><a href="#CHAPTER_XXI">CHAPTER XXI.</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+ <td align='left'><span class="smcap">Modern Rome</span>,</td>
+ <td align='right'>276</td>
+</tr>
+<tr class="tr1">
+ <td align='center'><a href="#CHAPTER_XXII">CHAPTER XXII.</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+ <td align='left'><span class="smcap">Ancient Rome&mdash;The Seven Hills</span>,</td>
+ <td align='right'>289</td>
+</tr>
+<tr class="tr1">
+ <td align='center'><a href="#CHAPTER_XXIII">CHAPTER XXIII.</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+ <td align='left'><span class="smcap">Sights in Rome&mdash;Catacombs&mdash;Pilate's Stairs&mdash;Pio Nono, &amp;c.</span>,</td>
+ <td align='right'>302</td>
+</tr>
+<tr class="tr1">
+ <td align='center'><a href="#CHAPTER_XXIV">CHAPTER XXIV.</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+ <td align='left'><span class="smcap">Influence of Romanism on Trade</span>,</td>
+ <td align='right'>333</td>
+</tr>
+<tr class="tr1">
+ <td align='center'><a href="#CHAPTER_XXV">CHAPTER XXV.</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+ <td align='left'><span class="smcap">Influence of Romanism on Trade&mdash;(continued)</span>,</td>
+ <td align='right'>352</td>
+</tr>
+<tr class="tr1">
+ <td align='center'><a href="#CHAPTER_XXVI">CHAPTER XXVI.</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+ <td align='left'><span class="smcap">Justice and Liberty in the Papal States</span>,</td>
+ <td align='right'>366</td>
+</tr>
+<tr class="tr1">
+ <td align='center'><a href="#CHAPTER_XXVII">CHAPTER XXVII.</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+ <td align='left'><span class="smcap">Education and Knowledge in the Papal States</span>,</td>
+ <td align='right'>401</td>
+</tr>
+<tr class="tr1">
+ <td align='center'><a href="#CHAPTER_XXVIII">CHAPTER XXVIII.</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+ <td align='left'><span class="smcap">Mental State of the Priesthood in Italy</span>,</td>
+ <td align='right'>415</td>
+</tr>
+<tr class="tr1">
+ <td align='center'><a href="#CHAPTER_XXIX">CHAPTER XXIX.</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+ <td align='left'><span class="smcap">Social and Domestic Customs of the Romans</span>,</td>
+ <td align='right'>430</td>
+</tr>
+<tr class="tr1">
+ <td align='center'><a href="#CHAPTER_XXX">CHAPTER XXX.</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+ <td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Argument from the Whole, or, Rome her own Witness</span>,</td>
+ <td align='right'>447</td>
+</tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+
+<hr /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</a></span></p>
+<p class="t2">ROME,</p>
+
+<p class="center">AND</p>
+
+<p class="t2">THE WORKINGS OF ROMANISM<br />
+<br />
+IN ITALY.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 30%;" />
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I.</h3>
+
+<h4>THE INTRODUCTION.</h4>
+
+
+<p class="noin"><span class="smcap">I did</span> not go to Rome to seek for condemnatory matter against the Pope's
+government. Had this been my only object, I should not have deemed it
+necessary to undertake so long a journey. I could have found materials
+on which to construct a charge in but too great abundance nearer home.
+The cry of the Papal States had waxed great, and there was no need to go
+down into those unhappy regions to satisfy one's self that the
+oppression was "altogether according to the cry of it." I had other
+objects to serve by my journey.</p>
+
+<p>There is one other country which has still more deeply influenced the
+condition of the race, and towards which one is even more powerfully
+drawn, namely, Judea. But Italy is entitled to the next place, as
+respects the desire which one must naturally feel to visit it, and the
+instruction one may<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</a></span> expect to reap from so doing. Some of the greatest
+minds which the pagan world has produced have appeared in Italy. In that
+land those events were accomplished which have given to modern history
+its form and colour; and those ideas elaborated, the impress of which
+may still be traced upon the opinions, the institutions, and the creeds
+of Europe. In Italy, too, empire has left her ineffaceable traces, and
+art her glorious footsteps. There is, all will admit, a peculiar and
+exquisite pleasure in visiting such spots: nor is there pleasure only,
+but profit also. One's taste may be corrected, and his judgment
+strengthened, by seeing the masterpieces of ancient genius. New trains
+of thought may be suggested, and new sources of information opened, by
+the sight of men and of manners wholly new. But more than this,&mdash;I
+believed that there were lessons to be learned there, which it was
+emphatically worth one's while going there to learn, touching the
+working of that politico-religious system of which Italy has so long
+been the seat and centre. I had previously been at some little pains to
+make myself acquainted with this system in its principles, and wished to
+have an opportunity of studying it in its effects upon the government of
+the country, and the condition of the people, as respects their trade,
+industry, knowledge, liberty, religion, and general happiness. All I
+shall say in the following pages will have a bearing, more or less
+direct, upon this main point.</p>
+
+<p>It is impossible to disjoin the present of these countries from the
+past; nor can the solemn and painful enigma which they exhibit be
+unriddled but by a reference to the past, and that not the immediate,
+but the remote past. There is truth, no doubt, in the saying of the old
+moralist, that nations lose in moments what they had acquired in years;
+but the remark is applicable rather to the accelerated speed with which
+the last<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span> stages of a nation's ruin are accomplished, than to the slow
+and imperceptible progress which usually marks its commencement. Unless
+when cut off by the sudden stroke of war, it requires five centuries at
+least to consummate the fall of a great people. One must pass,
+therefore, over those hideous abuses which are the immediate harbingers
+of national disaster, and which exclusively engross the attention of
+ordinary inquirers, and go back to those remote ages, and those minute
+and apparently insignificant causes, amid which national declension,
+unsuspected often by the nation itself, takes its rise. The destiny of
+modern Europe was sealed so long ago as <span class="caps">A.D.</span> 606, when the Bishop of
+Rome was made head of the universal Church by the edict of a man stained
+with the double guilt of usurpation and murder. Religion is the parent
+of liberty. The rise of tyrants can be prevented in no other way but by
+maintaining the supremacy of God and conscience; and in the early
+corruptions of the gospel, the seeds were sown of those frightful
+despotisms which have since arisen, and of those tremendous convulsions
+which are now rending society. The evil principle implanted in the
+European commonwealth in the seventh century appeared to lie dormant for
+ages; but all the while it was busily at work beneath those imposing
+imperial structures which arose in the middle ages. It had not been cast
+out of the body politic; it was still there, operating with noiseless
+but resistless energy and terrible strength; and while monarchs were
+busily engaged founding empires and consolidating their rule, it was
+preparing to signalize, at a future day, the superiority of its own
+power by the sudden and irretrievable overthrow of theirs. Thus society
+had come to resemble the lofty mountain, whose crown of white snows and
+robe of fresh verdure but conceal those hidden fires which are
+smouldering within its bowels. Under the appearance of robust health, a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span>
+moral cancer was all the while preying upon the vitals of society,
+eating out by slow degrees the faith, the virtue, the obedience of the
+world. The ground at last gave way, and thrones and hierarchies came
+tumbling down. Look at the Europe of our day. What is the Papacy, but an
+enormous cancer, of most deadly virulency, which has now run its course,
+and done its work upon the nations of the Continent. The European
+community, from head to foot, is one festering sore. Soundness in it
+there is none. The Papal world is a wriggling mass of corruption and
+suffering. It is a compound of tyrannies and perjuries,&mdash;of lies and
+blood-red murders,&mdash;of crimes abominable and unnatural,&mdash;of priestly
+maledictions, socialist ravings, and atheistic blasphemies. The whine of
+mendicants, the curses, groans, and shrieks of victims, and the demoniac
+laughter of tyrants, commingle in one hoarse roar. Faugh! the spectacle
+is too horrible to be looked at; its effluvia is too fetid to be
+endured. What is to be done with the carcase? We cannot dwell in its
+neighbourhood. It would be impossible long to inhabit the same globe
+with it: its stench were enough to pollute and poison the atmosphere of
+our planet. It must be buried or burned. It cannot be allowed to remain
+on the surface of the earth: it would breed a plague, which would
+infect, not a world only, but a universe. It is in this direction that
+we are to seek for instruction; and here, if we are able to receive it,
+thirty generations are willing to impart to us their dear-bought
+experience. Lessons which have cost the world so much are surely worth
+learning.</p>
+
+<p>But I do not mean to treat my readers to lectures on history, instead of
+chapters on travel. It is not an abstract disquisition on the influence
+of religion and government, such as one might compose without stirring
+from his own fire-side, which I intend to write. It is a real journey we
+are about to undertake.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span> You shall have facts as well as
+reflections,&mdash;incidents as well as disquisitions. I shall be grave,&mdash;as
+who would not at the sight of fallen nations?&mdash;but "when time shall
+serve there shall be smiles." You shall climb the Alps; and when their
+tops begin to burn at sunrise, you shall join heart and song with the
+music of the shepherd's horn, and the thunder of a thousand torrents, as
+they rush headlong down amid crags and pine-forests from the icy
+summits. You shall enter, with pilgrim feet, the gates of proud
+capitals, where puissant kings once reigned, but have passed away, and
+have left no memorial on earth, save a handful of dust in a
+stone-coffin, or a half-legible name on some mouldering arch. The solemn
+and stirring voice of Monte Viso, speaking from the midst of the Cottian
+Alps, will call you from afar to the martyr-land of Europe. You shall
+worship with the Waldenses beneath their own Castelluzzo, which covers
+with its mighty shadow the ashes of their martyred forefathers, and the
+humble sanctuary of their living descendants. You shall count the towns
+and campaniles on the broad Lombardy. You shall pass glorious days on
+the top of renowned cathedrals, and sit and muse in the face of the
+eternal Alps, as the clouds now veil, now reveal, their never-trodden
+snows. You shall cross the Lagunes, and see the winged lion of St Mark
+soaring serenely amid the bright domes and the ever calm seas of Venice,
+where you may list</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+"The song and oar of Adria's gondolier,<br />
+Mellowed by distance, o'er the waters sweep."<br />
+</p>
+
+<p class="noin">You shall travel long sleepless nights in the <i>diligence</i>, and be
+ferried at day-break over "ancient rivers." You shall tread the
+grass-grown streets of Ferrara, and the deserted halls of Bologna, where
+the wisdom-loving youth of Europe erst assembled, but whose solitude now
+is undisturbed, save by the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span> clank of the Croat's sabre, or the
+wine-flagon of the friar. You shall visit cells dim and dank, around
+which genius has thrown a halo which draws thither the pilgrim, who
+would rather muse in the twilight of the naked vault, than wander amid
+the marble glories of the palace that rises proudly in its
+neighbourhood. You shall go with me, at the hour of vespers, to aisled
+cathedrals, which were ages a-building, and the erection of which
+swallowed up the revenues of provinces,&mdash;beneath whose roof, ample
+enough to cover thousands and tens of thousands, you may see a solitary
+priest, singing a solemn dirge over a "Religion" fallen as a dominant
+belief, and existing only as a military organization; while statues,
+mute and solemn, of mailed warriors, grim saints, angels and winged
+cherubs, ranged along the walls, are the only companions of the
+surpliced man, if we except a few beggars pressing with naked knees the
+stony floor. You shall see Florence,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+"The brightest star of star-bright Italy."<br />
+</p>
+
+<p class="noin">You shall be stirred by the craggy grandeur of the Apennines, and
+soothed by the living green of the Tuscan vales, with their hoar
+castles, their olives, their dark cypresses, and their forests,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+<span style="margin-left: 6em;">"Where beside his leafy hold</span><br />
+The sullen boar hath heard the distant horn,<br />
+And whets his tusks against the gnarled thorn."<br />
+</p>
+
+<p class="noin">You shall taste the vine of Italy, and drink the waters of the Arno. You
+shall wander over ancient battle-fields, encounter the fierce Apennine
+blast, and be rocked on the Mediterranean wave, which the sirocco heaps
+up, huge and dark, and pours in a foaming cataract upon the strand of
+Italy. Finally, we shall tread together the sackcloth plain on which
+Rome sits, with the leaves of her torn laurel and the fragments of her
+shivered sceptre strewn around her,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span> waiting with discrowned and
+downcast head the bolt of doom. Entering the gates of the "seven-hilled
+city," we shall climb the Capitol, and survey a scene which has its
+equal nowhere on the earth. Mouldering arches, fallen columns, buried
+palaces, empty tombs, and slaves treading on the dust of the conquerors
+of the world, are all that now remain of Imperial Rome. What a scene of
+ruin and woe! When the twilight falls, and the moon begins to climb the
+eastern arch, mark how the Coliseum projects, as if in pity, its mighty
+shadow across the Forum, and covers with its kindly folds the mouldering
+trophies of the past, and draws its mantle around the nakedness of the
+C&aelig;sars' palace, as if to screen it from the too curious eye of the
+visitor. Rome, what a history is thine! One other tragedy, terrible as
+befits the drama it closes, and the curtain will drop in solemn, and, it
+may be, eternal silence.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span></p>
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II.</h3>
+
+<h4>THE PASSAGE OF THE ALPS.</h4>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang">The Rhone&mdash;Plains of Dauphiny&mdash;Mont Blanc and the "Reds"&mdash;Landscape
+by Night&mdash;Democratic Club in the <i>Diligence</i>&mdash;Approach the
+Alps&mdash;Festooned Vines&mdash;Begin the Ascent&mdash;Chamberry&mdash;Uses of War&mdash;An
+Alpine Valley&mdash;Sudden Alternations of Beauty and
+Grandeur&mdash;Travellers&mdash;Evening&mdash;Grandeur of Sunset&mdash;Supper at
+Lanslebourg&mdash;Cross the Summit at Midnight&mdash;Morning&mdash;Sunrise among
+the Alps&mdash;Descent&mdash;Italy. </p></div>
+
+
+<p class="noin"><span class="smcap">It</span> was wearing late on an evening of early October 1851 when I crossed
+the Rhone on my way to the Alps. It had rained heavily during the day,
+and sombre clouds still rested on the towers of Lyons behind me. The
+river was in flood, and the lamps on the bridge threw a troubled gleam
+upon the impetuous current as it rolled underneath. It was impossible
+not to recollect that this was the stream on the banks of which Iren&aelig;us,
+the disciple of Polycarp, himself the disciple of John, had, at almost
+the identical spot where I crossed it, laboured and prayed, and into the
+floods of which had been flung the ashes of the first martyrs of Gaul.
+These murky skies formed no very auspicious commencement of my journey;
+but I cherished the hope that to-morrow would bring fair weather, and
+with fair weather would come the green valleys and gleaming<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span> tops of the
+Alps, and, the day after, the sunny plains of Italy. This fair vision
+beckoned me on through the deep road and the scudding shower.</p>
+
+<p>We struck away into the plains of Dauphiny,&mdash;those great plains that
+stretch from the Rhone to the Alps, and which offer to the eye, as seen
+from the heights that overhang Lyons, a vast and varied expanse of wood
+and meadow, corn-field and vineyard, city and hamlet, with the snowy
+pile of Mont Blanc rising afar in the horizon. On the previous evening I
+had climbed these heights, so stately and beautiful, with convents
+hanging on their sides, and a chapel to Mary crowning their summit, to
+renew my acquaintance, after an interval of some years' absence, with
+the monarch of the Alps. I was greatly pleased to find, especially in
+these times, that my old friend had not grown "red." Since I saw him
+last, changes not a few had passed upon Europe, and more than one
+monarch had fallen; but Mont Blanc sat firmly in his seat, and wore his
+icy crown as proudly as ever.</p>
+
+<p>Since my former visit to Lyons the "Reds" had made great progress in all
+the countries at the foot of the Alps. Their party had been especially
+progressive in Lyons; so much so as to affect the nomenclature of the
+hills that overlook that city on the north. That hill, which is nearly
+wholly covered with the houses and workshops of the silk-weavers, is now
+known as the "red mountain," its inhabitants being mostly of that
+faction; while the hill on the west of it, that, namely, which I had
+ascended on the evening before, and which is chiefly devoted to
+ecclesiastical persons and uses, is called the "white mountain." But
+while men had been changing their faith, and hills their names, Mont
+Blanc stood firmly by his old creed and his old colours. There he was,
+dazzlingly, transcendently white, defying the fuller's art to whiten
+him,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span> and shading into dimness the snowy robe of the priest; looking
+with royal majesty over his wide realm; standing unchanged in the midst
+of a theatre of changes; abiding for ever, though kingdoms at his feet
+were passing away; pre-eminent in grace and glory amidst his princely
+peers; and looking the earthly type of that eternal and all-glorious
+One, who stands supreme and unapproachable amid the powers, dominions,
+and royalties of the universe.</p>
+
+<p>The night wore on without any noticeable event, or any special
+interruption, save what was occasioned necessarily by our arrival at the
+several stages, and the changes consequent thereon of horses and
+postilions. There was a rag of a moon overhead,&mdash;at least so one might
+judge from the hazy light that struggled through the fog,&mdash;by the help
+of which I kept watching the landscape till past midnight. Then a spirit
+of drowsiness invaded me. It was not sleep, but sleep's image, or
+sleep's counterfeit,&mdash;an uneasy trance, in which a confused vision of
+tall trees, with their head in the clouds, and very long and very narrow
+fields, marked off by straight rows of very upright poplars, and large
+heavy-looking houses, with tall antique roofs, kept marching past,
+without variety and without end. I would wake up at times and look out.
+There was the same picture before me. I would fall back into my trance
+again, and, an hour or so after, I would again wake up; still the
+identical picture was there. I could not persuade myself that the
+<i>diligence</i> had moved from the spot, despite the rumbling of its wheels
+and the jingling of the horses' bells. All night long the same
+changeless picture kept moving on and on, ever passing, yet never past.</p>
+
+<p>I may be said to have crossed the Alps amid a torrent of curses. My
+place was in the <i>banquette</i>, the roomiest and loftiest part of the
+lofty <i>diligence</i>, and which, perched in front,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span> and looking down upon
+the inferior compartments of the <i>diligence</i>, much as the attics of a
+three-storey house look down upon the lower suits of apartments,
+commands a fine view of the country, when it is daylight and clear
+weather. There sat next me in the <i>banquette</i> a young Savoyard, who
+travelled with us as far as Chamberry, in the heart of the Alps; and on
+the other side of the Savoyard sat the <i>conducteur</i>. This last was a
+Piedmontese, a young, clever, obliging fellow, with a voluble tongue,
+and a keen dark eye in his head. Scarce had we extricated ourselves from
+the environs of Lyons, or had got beyond the reach of the guns that look
+so angrily down upon it from the heights, till these two broke into a
+conversation on politics. The conversation soon warmed into an energetic
+and vehement discussion, or philippic I should rather say. Their
+discourse was far too rapid, and I was too unfamiliar with the language
+in which it was uttered to do more than gather its scope and drift. But
+I could hear the names of France and Austria repeated every other
+sentence; and these names were sure to be followed by a volley of
+curses, fierce, scornful, and defiant. Austria was cursed,&mdash;France was
+cursed: they were cursed individually,&mdash;they were cursed
+conjunctly,&mdash;once, again, and a hundred times. What were the politics of
+the passengers in the other compartments of the diligence I know not;
+but little did they wot that they had a democratic club overhead, and
+that more treason was spouted that night in their company than might
+have got us all into trouble, had there been any evesdropper in any
+corner of the vehicle. When I chanced to awake, they were still at it.
+The harsh grating sound of the anathemas haunted me during my sleep
+even. It was like a rattling hail-shower, or like the continuous
+corruscations of lightning,&mdash;the lightning of the Alps. Had it been
+possible for the authorities to know<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span> but a tithe of what was spoken
+that night by my two neighbours, their journey would have been short:
+they would have been shot at the next station, to a certainty.</p>
+
+<p>With the night, the dream-like landscape, and the maledictory harangues
+which had haunted me during the darkness, passed away, and the morning
+found us nearing the mountains. The Alps open upon you by little. One
+who has never climbed these hills imagines himself standing at their
+feet, and looking up the long unbroken vista of fields, vineyards,
+forests, and naked rocks, to the eternal snows of their summit. Not so.
+They do not come marching thus upon you in all their grandeur to
+overwhelm you. To see them thus, you must stand afar off,&mdash;at least
+fifty miles away. There you can take in the whole at a glance, from the
+beauteous fringe of stream, and hamlet, and woodland, that skirts their
+base, to the white serrated line that cuts so sharply the blue of the
+firmament. Nearer them,&mdash;unless, indeed, in the great central valleys,
+where you can see the icy fields hanging in the firmament at an awful
+distance above you,&mdash;their snow-clad summits are invisible, being hidden
+by an intervening sea of ridges, that are strewn over with rocks, or
+wave darkly with pines.</p>
+
+<p>As we approached the mountains, they offered to the eye a beauteous
+chain of verdant hills, with the morning mists hanging on their sides.
+The torrents were in flood from the recent rains; the woods had the rich
+tints of autumn upon them; but the charm of the scene lay in the
+beautiful festoonings of the vine. The uplands before me were barred by
+what I at first took to be long horizontal layers of fleecy cloud. On a
+nearer approach, these turned out to be the long branchy arms of the
+vine. The vine-stock is made to lean against the cut trunk of a chestnut
+or poplar tree, and its<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span> branches are bent horizontally, and extended
+till they meet those of the neighbouring vine-stock, which have been
+similarly dealt with. In this way, continuous lines of luxuriant
+foliage, with pendulous blood-red clusters in their season, may be made
+to run for miles together along the hill-side. There might be from
+thirty to forty parallel lines in those I now saw. Tinted with the
+morning sun, and relieved against the deep verdure of the mountain, they
+appeared like stripes of amber, or floating lines of cloud fringed with
+gold.</p>
+
+<p>It was the Mont Cenis route I was traversing,&mdash;the least rugged of all
+the passes of the Alps, and the same by which Hannibal, as some suppose,
+passed into Italy. The day cleared up into one of unusual brilliancy. We
+began to ascend by a path cut in the rock of the mountain, having on our
+left an escarpment of limestone several hundred feet high, and on our
+right a deep gorge, with a white foaming torrent at its bottom. The
+frontier chain passed, we descended into a rich valley, with a fine
+stream flowing through it, and the poor town of Les Echelles hiding from
+view in one of its angles. These noble valleys are sadly blotted by
+filth and disease. The contrast offered betwixt the noble features of
+nature and the degraded form of man is painful and humiliating. Bowed
+down by toil, stolid with ignorance, disfigured with the goitre, struck
+with cretinism, the miserable beings around you do more to sadden you
+than all that the bright air and glorious hills can do to exhilarate
+you.</p>
+
+<p>The valley where we now were was a complete <i>cul de sac</i>. It was walled
+in all round by limestone hills of great height, and the eye sought in
+vain for visible outlet. At length one could see a white line running
+half-way up the mountain's face, and ending in an opening no bigger than
+a pigeon-hole. We slowly climbed this road,&mdash;for road it was; and when
+we came to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span> the diminutive opening we had seen from the valley below, it
+expanded into a tunnel,&mdash;one of the great works of Napoleon,&mdash;which ran
+right through the mountain, and brought us out on the other side. We now
+traversed a narrow and rocky ravine, which at length expanded into a
+magnificent valley, rich in vines and fruit-trees of all kinds, and
+overhung by lofty mountains. On this plain, surrounded by the living
+grandeur of nature, and the faded renown of its monastic and
+archiepiscopal glory, and half-buried amid foliage and ruins, sits
+Chamberry, the capital of Savoy.</p>
+
+<p>At Chamberry our route underwent a change. Beauty now gave place to
+grandeur; but still a grandeur blended with scenes of exquisite
+loveliness. These I cannot stay to describe at length. The whole day was
+passed in winding and climbing among the hills. We toiled slowly to rise
+above the plains we had left, and to approach the region where winter
+spreads out her boundless sea of ice and snow. We followed the
+magnificent road which we owe to the genius of Napoleon. The fruits of
+Marengo are gone. Austerlitz is but a name. But the passes of the Alps
+remain. "When will it be ready for the transport of the cannon?"
+enquired Napoleon respecting the Simplon road. War is a rough pioneer;
+but without such a pioneer to clear the way the world would stand still.
+Look back. What do you see throughout the successive ages? War, with his
+red eye, his iron feet, and his gleaming brand, marching in the van; and
+commerce, and arts, and Christianity, following in the wake of this
+blood-besmeared Anakim. Such has ever been the order of procession.
+Mankind in the mass are a sluggish race, and will march only when the
+word of command is sounded from iron-throated, hoarse-voiced war. Look
+at the Alps. What do you see? A gigantic form, busy amid the blinding
+tempests and the eternal ice of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span> their summits. With herculean might he
+rends the rocks and levels the mountains. Who is he, and what does he
+there? That is war, in the person of Napoleon, hewing a path through
+rocks and glaciers, for the passage of the Bible and the missionary.
+Under the reign of the Mediator the promise to Christianity is, All is
+yours. War is yours, and Peace is yours.</p>
+
+<p>As we passed on, innumerable nooks of beauty opened to the eye, and
+romantic peaks ever and anon shot up before us. Now the path led along a
+meadow, with its large bright flowers; and now along the brink of an
+Alpine river, with its worn bed and tumultuous floods. Now it rounded
+the shoulder of a hill; and now it lost itself in some frightful gorge,
+where the overhanging mountain, with its drapery of pine forests, made
+it dark as midnight almost. You emerge into daylight again, and begin
+the same succession of green meadow, pine-clad hill, foaming torrent,
+and black gorge. Thus you go onward and upward. At length white Alps
+begin to look down upon you, and give you warning that you are nearing
+those central regions where eternal winter holds his seat amid pinnacles
+of ice and wastes of snow.</p>
+
+<p>Let us take an individual picture. The road has made a sudden turn; and
+a valley, hitherto concealed by the mountains, opens unexpectedly. It is
+some three or four miles long; and the road traverses it straight as the
+arrow's flight, till it loses itself amid the rocks and foliage at the
+bottom of the mountain which you see lying across the valley. On this
+hand is a stream of water, clear as crystal; on that is the ridgy, wavy,
+lofty mass of a purple Alp. The bright air and light incorporate, as it
+were, with the substance of the mountain, and spiritualize it, so that
+it looks of mould intermediate betwixt the earth and the firmament. The
+path is bordered with the most delicious verdure, fresh and soft as a
+carpet, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span> freckled with the dancing shadows of the trees. On this
+hand is a chalet, with a vine climbing its wall and mantling its
+doorway; on that is a verdant knoll, planted a-top with chestnut trees;
+and from amidst their rich, massy foliage, the little spire of the
+church, with its glittering vane, looks forth. Near it is the cur&eacute;'s
+house, buried amidst flower-blossoms, the foliage of vines, and the
+shadows of the sycamore and chestnut. There is not a spot in the little
+valley which beauty has not clothed and decked with the most painstaking
+care; while grandeur has built up a wall all round, as if to keep out
+the storms that sometimes rage here. It looks so quiet and tranquil, and
+is so shut in from the great world outside, that one thinks of it as a
+spot which happy beings from another sphere might come to visit, and
+where he might list the melody of their voices, as they walk at
+even-tide amid the bowers of this earthly Eden.</p>
+
+<p>The road makes another turn, and the scene is changed in a moment,&mdash;in
+the twinkling of an eye. The happy valley is gone,&mdash;it has vanished like
+a dream; and a scene of stern, savage, overpowering sublimity rises
+before you. Alp is piled upon Alp, chasms yawn, torrents growl, jutting
+rocks threaten; and far over head is the dark pine forest, amid which
+you can descry, perhaps, the frozen billows of the glacier, or have
+glimpses of those still higher and drearier regions where winter sits on
+her eternal throne, and holds undivided sway. Your farther progress is
+completely barred. So it looks. A cyclopean wall rises from earth to
+heaven. The gate of rock by which you entered seems to have closed its
+ponderous jaws behind you, and shut you in,&mdash;there to remain till some
+supernatural power rend the mountains and give you egress. The mood of
+mind changes with the scene. The beauty soothed and softened you; now
+you grow impulsive and stern. The awful forms<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span> around you blend with the
+soul, as it were, and impart something of their own vastness to it. You
+feel yourself carried into the very presence of that Power which sank
+the foundations of the mountains in the depths of the earth, and built
+up their giant masses above the clouds; which hung the avalanche on
+their brow, clove their unfathomable abysses, poured the river at their
+feet, and taught the forked lightning to play around their awful icy
+steeps. You seem to hear the sound of the Almighty's footsteps still
+echoing amid these hills. There passes before you the shadow of
+Omnipotence; and a great voice seems to proclaim the Godhead of Him "who
+hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and meted out heaven
+with the span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure, and
+weighed the mountains in scales and the hills in a balance."</p>
+
+<p>The road was comparatively solitary. We passed at times a waggoner, who
+was conveying the produce of the plains to some village among the
+mountains; and then a couple of pedestrians, with the air of tradesmen,
+on their way perhaps to a Swiss town to seek employment; and next a
+cowherd, driving home his herds from the glades of the forest; and now
+an occasional gendarme would present himself, and force you to remember,
+what you would willingly have forgotten amid such scenes, that there
+were such things as armies in the world; and sometimes the long, dark
+figure of the cur&eacute;, reading his breviary to economize time, might be
+seen gliding along before you, representative of the murky superstition
+that still fills these valleys, and which, indeed, you can read in the
+stolid face of the Savoyard, as he sits listlessly under the broad
+easings of his cottage roof.</p>
+
+<p>Anon the evening came, walking noiselessly upon the mountains, and
+shedding on the spirit a not unpleasant melancholy. The Alps seemed to
+grow taller. Deep masses of shade were<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span> projected from summit to summit.
+Pine forest, and green vale, and dashing torrent, and quiet hamlet, all
+retired from view, as if they wished to go to sleep beneath the friendly
+shadows. A deep and reverent silence stole over the Alps, as if the
+stillness of the firmament had descended upon them. Over all nature was
+shed this spirit of quiet and profound tranquillity. Every tree was
+motionless. The murmur of the brook, the wing of the bird, the creak of
+our diligence, the voices of the postilion and <i>conducteur</i>, all felt
+the softening influence of the hour.</p>
+
+<p>But mark! what glory is this which begins to burn upon the crest of the
+snowy Alps? First there comes a flood of rosy light, and then a deep
+bright crimson, like the ruby's flash or the sapphire's blaze, and then
+a circlet of flaming peaks studs the horizon. It looks as if a great
+conflagration were about to begin. But suddenly the light fades, and
+piles of cold, pale white rise above you. You can scarce believe them to
+be the same mountains. But, quick as the lightning, the flash comes
+again. A flood of glory rolls once more along their summits. It is a
+last and mighty blaze. You feel as if it were a struggle for life,&mdash;as
+if it were a war waged by the spirits of darkness against these
+celestial forms. The struggle is over: the darkness has prevailed. These
+mighty mountain torches are extinguished one after one; and cold,
+ghastly piles, of sepulchral hue, which you shiver to look up at, and
+which remind you of the dead, rise still and calm in the firmament above
+you. You feel relieved when darkness interposes its veil betwixt you and
+them. The night sets in deep, and calm, and beautiful, with troops of
+stars overhead. The voice of streams, all night long, fills the silent
+hills with melodious echoes.</p>
+
+<p>We now threaded the black gorge of the Arc, passing, unperceived<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span> in the
+darkness, Fort Lesseillon, which, erecting its tiers of batteries above
+this tremendous natural fosse, looks like a mailed warrior guarding the
+entrance to Italy. It was eleven o'clock, and we were toiling up the
+mountain. We had left all human habitations far below, as we thought,
+when suddenly we were startled by a peal of village bells. Never had
+bells sounded sweeter in my fancy than those I now heard in these dreary
+regions. These were the convent bells of the little village of
+Lanslebourg, which lies at the foot of the summit of the Mont Cenis.
+Here we were to sup. It was a sort of Arbour in the midst of the hill
+Difficulty, where we Pilgrims might refresh ourselves before beginning
+our last and steepest ascent. It was a most substantial repast, as all
+suppers in that part of the world are; and we had the pleasure of
+thinking that we were perhaps the highest supper party in Europe. It was
+our last meal before crossing the mountain, and passing from the modern
+to the ancient world; for the ridge of the Alps is the limit that
+divides the two. On this side are modern times; on that are the dark
+ages. You retrograde five full centuries when you step across the line.
+We ate our supper, as did the Israelites their last meal in Egypt, with
+our loins girded,&mdash;scarce even our greatcoats put off, and our staff in
+our hand.</p>
+
+<p>Now for the summit. We started at midnight. Above us was an ebon vault,
+studded thick with large bright stars. Around us was the awful silence
+of the mountains. The night was luminous; for in that elevated region
+darkness is unknown, save when the storm-cloud shrouds it. Of our party,
+some betook them to the diligence, and were carried over asleep; others
+of us, leaving the vehicle to follow the road, which zig-zags up to the
+summit, addressed ourselves to the old route, which winds steeply
+upward, now through forests<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span> of stunted firs, now over a matting of
+thick, short grass, and now over the bare debris-strewn scalp of the
+mountain. The convent bells followed us with their sweet chimes up the
+hill, and formed a link between us and the living world below. The
+echoes of our voices were strangely loud. They rung out in the thin
+elastic air, as if all we said had been caught up and repeated by some
+invisible being,&mdash;some genius of the mountains. The hours wore away; and
+so delighted were we with the novelty of our position,&mdash;climbing the
+summits of the Alps at midnight,&mdash;that they seemed but so many minutes.</p>
+
+<p>Ere we were aware, the night was past, and the dawn came upon us; and
+with the dawn, new and stupendous glories burst forth. How fresh and
+holy the young day, as it drew aside the curtains of the east, and
+smiled upon the mountains! The valleys were buried under a fathomless
+ocean of haze; but the pearly light, sown by the rosy hand of morn,
+fringed the mountain ridges, and a multitudinous sea of silvery waves
+spread out around us. The dawn stole on, waxing momentarily; and the
+great white Alps, which had been standing all night around us so silent,
+and cold, and sepulchral-like, in their snowy shrouds, now began to grow
+palpable and less dream-like. The stars put out their fires as the pure
+crystal light mounted into the sky. Each successive scene was
+lovely,&mdash;inexpressibly lovely,&mdash;but momentary. We wished we could have
+stereotyped it till we had had time to admire it; but while we were
+gazing it had passed and was gone, like the other glories of the world.
+But, lo! the sun is near. Mighty torch-bearers run before his chariot,
+and cry to the rocks, the pine-forests, the torrents, the glaciers, the
+vine-clad vales, the flower-enamelled glades, the rivers, the cities,
+that their king is coming. Awake and worship! A mighty Alp, whose
+loftier stature or more favourable position gives it the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span> start of all
+the others, has caught the first ray; and suddenly, as if an invisible
+hand had kindled it, it rises into the firmament, a pyramid of flame,
+soft, mild, yet gloriously bright, like a dome of living sapphire. While
+you gaze, another flashes upon you, and another, and another, and at
+length the whole horizon is filled with gigantic pyres. The stupendous
+vision has risen so suddenly, that you almost look if you may see the
+seraph which has flown round and kindled these mighty torches. The glory
+is inexpressible, and on a scale so vast, that you have no words to
+describe it. You can scarce believe it to be reflected light which gives
+such glory to these mountains. They are so rosy, so vividly, intensely
+radiant, that you feel as if that boundless effulgence emanated from
+themselves,&mdash;were flowing forth from some hidden fountain of light
+within. It is like no other scene of earthly glory you ever saw. You can
+compare it only to some celestial city which has been let down from the
+firmament upon the tops of the mountains, with its glittering turrets,
+its domes of sapphire, and its wall of alabaster, needing no sun or
+other source of earthly light to enlighten and glorify it. But while you
+gaze, it is gone. The sun is up, and the mighty mountain-torches which
+had carried the tidings of his coming to the countries beneath are
+extinguished.</p>
+
+<p>It was now full day, and we had reached the summit of the pass. Above us
+were still the snow-clad peaks; but the road does not ascend higher. We
+now crossed the frontier, and were in Italy. A little rocky plain
+surrounded by weather-beaten peaks, a deep blue lake, and a sea of bare
+ridges in front, were all that we saw of Italy. The road now began
+sensibly to decline, and the diligence quickened its pace. We soon
+reached the ridges before us, and began to descend over the brow of the
+Alps, which are steep and perpendicular as a wall<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span> almost, on their
+southern side. You first traverse a region covered with immense
+lichen-clothed boulders; next come stretches of heath; then stunted
+firs: by and by fruit and forest trees begin to make their appearance;
+next comes the lovely acacia; and last of all the vine, tall and
+luxuriant, veiling the peasant's cot with its shadow. The road is
+literally a series of hanging stairs, which zig-zag down the face of the
+mountain. At certain points the rock is perforated; at others it is hewn
+into terraces; and at others the path rests on vast substructions of
+masonry. Now an immense rock leans over the road, and now you find
+yourself on the edge of some frightful precipice, with the gulph running
+right down many thousands of feet, and a white torrent at the bottom,
+boiling and struggling, but unable to make itself heard at that height
+on the mountain. The turns are frequent and sharp; and the heavy,
+overladen vehicle, in its furious downward career, gives a swing at
+each, as if it would cut short the passage into Italy, and land the
+passenger, sooner than he wishes, at the bottom. At length, after four
+hours' riding, the descent is accomplished. The scene has changed in the
+twinkling of an eye. The plain is as level as a floor. The warm
+sun,&mdash;the brilliant sky,&mdash;the luxuriant vines,&mdash;the handsome
+architecture,&mdash;the picturesque costumes,&mdash;the dark oval faces, and black
+fiery eyes of the natives,&mdash;all tell you that it is a new world into
+which you have entered,&mdash;that this is <span class="smcap">Italy</span>.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span></p>
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III.</h3>
+
+<h4>RISK AND PROGRESS OF CONSTITUTIONALISM IN PIEDMONT.</h4>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang">First Entrance into Italy&mdash;Never can be Repeated&mdash;The Cathedral of
+Turin&mdash;The Royal Palace&mdash;The Museum&mdash;Egyptian
+Mummies&mdash;Reflections&mdash;Landmark of the Vaudois Valleys&mdash;Piedmontese
+House of Commons&mdash;Piedmontese Constitution&mdash;Perils that surrounded
+it&mdash;Providentially shielded from these&mdash;Numbers and Wealth of the
+Priesthood&mdash;Want of Public Opinion&mdash;Rise of a Free Press&mdash;Its
+Power&mdash;The <i>Gazetta del Popolo</i>&mdash;The Bible quoted by the
+Journalists&mdash;The flourishing State of the Country&mdash;The Waldensian
+Temple and Congregation&mdash;Workmen's Clubs&mdash;The Capuchin Monastery&mdash;A
+Capuchin Friar&mdash;Sunset. </p></div>
+
+
+<p class="noin"><span class="smcap">One</span> can enter Italy for the first time only once. For, however often we
+may climb the Alps, and tread the land that lies stretched out at their
+base, it is with a cold pulse, compared with the fever of excitement
+into which we are thrown by the first touch of that soil. The charm is
+flown; the tree of knowledge has been plucked; and never more can we
+taste the dreamy yet intense delight which attended the first unfolding
+of the gates of the Alps, and the first rising of the fair vision of
+Italy.</p>
+
+<p>In truth, the Italy which one comes to see on his second visit is not
+the Italy that first drew him across the Alps. That was the Italy of
+history, or rather of his own imagination.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span> The fair form his fancy was
+wont to conjure up, draped in the glowing recollections of empire and of
+arms, and encompassed with the halo of heroic deeds, he can see no more.
+There meets him, on the other side of the Alps, a vision very unlike
+this. The Italy of the C&aelig;sars is gone; and where she sat is now a poor,
+naked, cowering thing, with a chain upon her arm,&mdash;the Italy of the
+Popes. But the fascination attends the traveller some short way into
+that land. Indeed, he is loath to lose it, and would rather see Italy
+through the warm colourings of history, and the bright hues of his own
+fancy, than look upon her as she is.</p>
+
+<p>I shall never forget the intense excitement that thrilled me when I
+found myself rolling along on the magnificent avenue of pollard-elms,
+that runs all the way from Rivoli to Turin. The voluptuous air, which
+seemed to fill the landscape with a dreamy gaiety; the intense sunlight,
+which tinted every object with extraordinary brilliancy, from the bright
+leaves overhead, to the burning domes of Turin in front; the dark eyes
+of the natives, which flashed with a fervour like that of their own sun;
+the Alps towering above me, and running off in a vast unbroken line of
+glittering masses,&mdash;all contributed to form a picture of so novel and
+brilliant a kind, that it absolutely produced an intoxication of
+delight.</p>
+
+<p>I passed a few days at Turin; and the pleasure of my stay was much
+enhanced by the society of my friend the Rev. John Bonar, whom I had met
+at Chamberry, <i>en route</i>, with his family, for Malta. We visited
+together the chief objects of interest in the capital of Piedmont. The
+churches we saw of course. And though we had been carried blindfolded
+across the Alps, and set down in the cathedral of Turin, the statuary
+alone would have told us that we were in Italy. The most unpractised eye
+could see at once the difference betwixt<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span> these statues and those of the
+Transalpine churches. The Italian sculptors seemed to possess some
+secret by which they could make the marble live. Some half-dozen of
+priests, with red copes (I presume it was a martyr's day, for on such
+days the Church's dress is red), ranged in a pew near the altar, were
+singing psalms. Whether the good men were thinking of their dinner, I
+knew not; but they yawned portentously, wrung their hands with an air of
+helplessness, and looked at us as if they half expected that we would
+volunteer to do duty for an hour or so in their stead. A bishop chanting
+his psalter under the groined roof of cathedral, and a covenanter
+praying in his hill-side cave, would form an admirable picture of two
+very different styles of devotion. There were some dozen of old women on
+the floor, whom the mixed motive of saying their prayers and picking up
+a chance alms seemed to have drawn thither. From the Duomo we went to
+the King's palace. We walked through a suit of splendid apartments,
+though not quite accordant in their style of ornament and comfort with
+our English ideas. The floor and roof were of rich and beautiful
+mosaics; the walls were adorned with the more memorable battles of the
+Sardinian nation; and the furniture was minutely and elaborately inlaid
+with mother-of-pearl. Three rooms more particularly attracted my
+attention. The first contained the throne of the kings of Savoy,&mdash;a
+gilded chair, under a crimson canopy, and surrounded by a gilt railing.
+I thought, as I gazed upon it, how often the power of that throne had
+lain heavily upon the poor Waldenses. The other room contained the bed
+on which King Charles Albert died. It is yet in my readers'
+recollection, that Charles Albert died at Oporto; but the whole
+furniture of the room in which he breathed his last was transported,
+together with his ashes, to Turin. It was an affecting sight. There it
+stood,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span> huddled into a corner,&mdash;a poor bed of boards, with a plain
+coverlet, such as a Spanish peasant might sleep beneath; a chest of deal
+drawers; and a few of the necessary utensils of a sick chamber. The
+third room contained the Queen's bed of state. Its windows opened
+sweetly upon the fine gardens of the palace, where the first ray, as it
+slants downwards from the crest of the Alps into the valley of the Po,
+falls on the massy foliage of the mulberry and the orange. On the table
+were some six or eight books, among which was a copy of the Psalms of
+David. "It is very fine," said my friend Mr Bonar, glancing up at the
+gilded canopy and silken hangings of the bed, and poking his hand at the
+same time into its soft woolly furnishings, "but nothing but blankets
+can make it comfortable."</p>
+
+<p>From the palace we passed to the Museum. There you see pictures,
+statues, coins stamped with the effigies of kings that lived thousands
+of years ago, and papyrus parchments inscribed with the hieroglyphics of
+old Egypt, and other curiosities, which it has required ages to collect,
+as it would volumes to describe. Not the least interesting sight there
+is the gods of Egypt,&mdash;cats, ibises, fish, monkeys, heads of calves and
+bulls, all lying in their original swathings. I looked narrowly at these
+divinities, but could detect no difference betwixt the god-cat of Egypt
+and the cats of our day. Were it possible to re-animate one of them, and
+make it free of our streets, I fear the god would be mistaken for an
+ordinary quadruped of its own kind, pelted and worried by mischievous
+boys and dogs, as other cats are. I do not know that a modern priest of
+Turin has any very good ground for taunting an old Egyptian priest with
+his cat-worship. If it is impossible to tell the difference betwixt a
+cat which is simply a cat, and a cat which is a god, it is just as
+impossible to tell the difference betwixt a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span> bread-wafer which is simply
+bread, and a bread-wafer which is the flesh and blood, the soul and
+divinity, of Christ.</p>
+
+<p>Seeing in Egypt the gods died, it will not surprise the reader that in
+Egypt men should die. And there they lay, the brown sons and daughters
+of Mizraim, side by side with their gods, wrapt with them in the same
+stoney, dreamless slumber. One mummy struck me much. It lay in a stone
+sarcophagus, the same in which the hands of wife or child mayhap had
+placed it; and there it had slept on undisturbed through all the changes
+and hubbub of four thousand years. Over the face was drawn a thin cloth,
+through which the features could be seen not indistinctly. Now, thought
+I, I shall hear all about old Egypt. Perhaps this man has seen Joseph,
+or talked with Jacob, or witnessed the wonders of the exodus. Come, tell
+me your name or profession, or some of the strange events of your
+history. Did you don the mail-coat of the warrior, or the white robe of
+the priest? Did you till the ground, and live on garlic; or were you
+owner of a princely estate, and wont to sit on your house-top of
+evenings, enjoying the delicious twilight, and the soft flow of the
+Nile? Come now, tell me all. The door of a departed world seemed about
+to open. I felt as if standing on its threshold, and looking in upon the
+shadowy forms that peopled it. But ah! these lips spoke not. With the
+Rosetta stone as the key, I could compel the granite slabs and the brown
+worn parchments around me to give up their secrets. But where was the
+key that could open that breast, and read the secrets locked up in it?</p>
+
+<p>And this form had still a living owner! This awoke a train of thought
+yet more solemn. Who, what, and where is he? Anxious as I had been to
+have the door of that mysterious past in which he had lived opened to
+me, I was yet more anxious to look into that more mysterious and awful
+future<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span> into which he had gone. What had he seen and felt these four
+thousand years? Did the ages seem long to him, or was it but as a few
+days since he left the earth? I went close up to the dark curtain, but
+there was no opening,&mdash;no chink by which I could see into the world
+beyond. Will no kind hand draw the veil aside but for a moment? There it
+has hung unlifted age after age, concealing, with its impenetrable
+folds, all that mortals would most like to know. Myriads and myriads
+have passed within, but not one has ever given back voice, or look, or
+sign, to those they left behind, and from whom never before did they
+conceal thought or wish. Why is this? Do they not still think of us? Do
+they not still love us? Would they softly speak to us if they could?
+What gulf divides them? Ah! how silent are the dead!</p>
+
+<p>Close by the great highway into Italy lie the "Valleys of the Vaudois."
+One might pass them without being aware of their near presence, or that
+he was treading upon holy ground;&mdash;so near to the world are they, and
+yet so completely hidden from it. Ascend the little hill on the south of
+Turin, and follow with your eye the great wall of the Alps which bounds
+the plain on the north. There, in the west, about thirty miles from
+where you stand, is a tall pyramidal-shaped mountain, towering high
+above the other summits. That is Monte Viso, which rises like a
+heaven-erected beacon, to signify from afar to the traveller the land of
+the Waldenses, and to call him, with its solemn voice, to turn aside and
+see the spot where "the bush burned and was not consumed." We shall make
+a short, a very short visit to these valleys, than which Europe has no
+more sacred soil. But first let us speak of some of the bulwarks which
+an all-wise Providence has erected in our day around a Church and people
+whose existence is one of the great living miracles of the world.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span></p><p>The revolutions which swept over Italy in 1848 were the knell of the
+other Italian States, but to Piedmont they were the trumpet of liberty.
+No man living can satisfactorily explain why the same event should have
+operated so disasterously for the one, and so beneficially for the
+other. No reason can be found in the condition of the country itself:
+the thing is inexplicable on ordinary principles; and the more
+intelligent Piedmontese at this day speak of it as a miracle. But so is
+the fact. Piedmont is a constitutional kingdom; and I went with M.
+Malan, himself a Waldensian, and a member of the Chamber of Deputies, to
+see the hall where their Parliament sits. A spacious flight of steps
+conducts to a noble hall, in form an ellipse, and surmounted by a dome.
+At one end of the ellipse hangs a portrait of the President, and
+underneath is his richly gilt chair, with a crimson-covered table before
+it. Right in front of the Speaker's chair, on a lower level, is placed
+the tribune, which much resembles the precentor's desk in a Scottish
+church. The tribune is occupied only when a Minister makes a Ministerial
+declaration, or a Convener of a Committee gives in his Report. An open
+space divides the tribune from the seats of the members. These last run
+all round the hall, in concentric rows of benches, also covered with
+crimson. "There, on the right," said M. Malan, "sit the priest party. In
+the front are the Ministerial members; on the left is my seat. There is
+an extreme left to which I do not belong: I have not passed the
+constitutional line. This lower tier of galleries is for the conductors
+of the press and the diplomatic corps; this higher gallery is for ladies
+and military men. We are 204 members in all. We have a member for every
+twenty-five thousand inhabitants. Our population is four millions and a
+half. Our House of Peers contains<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span> only ninety members. The King has the
+privilege of nominating to it, but peers so created are only for life."</p>
+
+<p>It was, in truth, a marvellous sight;&mdash;a free and independent Parliament
+meeting in the ancient capital of the bigoted Piedmont, with a free
+press and a public looking on, and one of the long proscribed Vaudois
+race occupying a seat in it. The more I thought of it, the more I
+wondered. The causes which had led to so extraordinary a result seemed
+clearly providential. When King Charles Albert in 1848 gave his subjects
+a Constitution, no one had asked it, and few there were who could value
+it, or even knew what a Constitution meant. One or two public writers
+there were who said that public opinion demanded it; but, in sooth,
+there was then no public opinion in the country. Soon after this the
+campaign in Lombardy was commenced, and the result of that campaign
+threatened the Piedmontese Constitution with extinction. The Piedmontese
+army was beaten by the Austrians, and had to make a hasty and inglorious
+retreat into their own country. Every one then expected that Radetzky
+would march upon Turin, put down the Constitution, and seize upon
+Sardinia. Contrary to his usual habits, the old warrior halted on the
+frontier, as if kept back by an invisible power, and the Constitution
+was saved. Then came the death of Charles Albert, of a broken heart, in
+Oporto, whither he had fled; and every one believed that the Piedmontese
+charter would accompany its author to the tomb. The dispositions and
+policy of the new king were unknown; but the probability was that he
+would follow the example of his brother sovereigns of Italy, all of whom
+had begun to revoke the Constitutions which they had so recently
+inaugurated with solemn oaths. Happily these fears were not realized.
+The new perils passed over, and left the Constitution<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span> unscathed. King
+Victor Immanuel,&mdash;a constitutional monarch simply by accident,&mdash;turned
+out a good-natured, easy-minded man, who loved the chase and his country
+seat, and found it more agreeable to live on good terms with his
+subjects, and enjoy a handsome civil list,&mdash;which his Parliament has
+taken care to vote him,&mdash;than to be indebted for his safety and a
+bankrupt exchequer to the bayonets of his guards. Thus marvellously,
+hitherto, in the midst of dangers at home and re-action abroad, has the
+Piedmontese charter been preserved. I dwell with the greater minuteness
+on this point, because on the integrity of that charter are suspended
+the civil liberties of the Church of the Vaudois. When I was in Turin
+the Constitution was three years old; but even then its existence was
+exceedingly precarious. The King could have revoked it at any moment;
+and there was not then, I was assured by General Beckwith,&mdash;who knows
+the state of the Piedmontese nation well,&mdash;moral power in the country to
+offer any effectual resistance, had the royal will decreed the
+suppression of constitutional government. "But," added he, "should the
+Constitution live three years longer, the people by that time will have
+become so habituated to the working of a free Constitution, and public
+opinion will have acquired such strength, that it will be impossible for
+the monarch to retrace his steps, even should he be so inclined." It is
+exactly three years since that time, and the state of the Piedmontese
+nation at this moment is such as to justify the words of the sagacious
+old man.</p>
+
+<p>The first grand difficulty in the way of the Constitution was, the
+numbers and power of the priesthood. In no country in Europe,&mdash;not even
+in France and Austria, when their size is compared,&mdash;were the benefices
+so numerous, or their holders so luxuriously fed. Piedmont was the
+paradise of priests. The ecclesiastical statistics of that kingdom,
+furnished to the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span> French journal <i>La Presse</i>, on occasion of the
+introduction of the bill for suppressing the convents, on the 8th of
+January 1855, reveals a state of things truly astonishing.
+Notwithstanding that the population is only four and a half millions,
+there are in Sardinia 7 archbishops; 34 bishops; 41 chapters, with 860
+canons attached to the bishoprics; 73 simple chapters, with 470 canons;
+1100 livings for the canons; and, lastly, 4267 parishes, with some
+thousands of parish priests. The domain of the Church represents a
+capital of 400 millions of francs, with a yearly revenue of 17 millions
+and upwards. This enormous wealth is divided amongst the clergy in
+proportions grossly unequal. The 41 prelates of Sardinia enjoy a revenue
+of nearly a million and a half of francs, which is double what used to
+maintain all the bishops of the French empire. The Archbishop of Turin
+has an income of 120,000 francs, which is more than the whole bench of
+Belgian bishops. The other prelates are paid in proportion. As a set-off
+to this wealth, there are in Sardinia upwards of 2000 curates, not one
+of whom has so much as 800 francs, or about L.35 sterling. These are
+thus tempted to prey upon the people. Such is the terrible organization
+which the King and Parliament have to encounter in carrying out their
+reforms, and such is the fearful incubus which has pressed for ages upon
+the social rights and industrial energies of the Piedmontese people.</p>
+
+<p>But this is but a part of the great sacerdotal army encamped in
+Piedmont. There are 71 religious orders besides, divided into 604
+houses, containing in all 8563 monks and nuns. The expense of feeding
+these six hundred houses, with their army of eight thousand strong,
+forms an item of two millions and a-half of francs, and represents a
+capital of forty-five millions. The greatest admirer of these
+fraternities will scarce deny that this is a handsome remuneration for
+their<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span> services; indeed, we never could make out what these services
+really are. They do not teach the youth, or pray with the aged. For
+reading they have no taste; and to write what will be read, or preach
+what will be listened to, is far beyond their ability. Their pious hands
+disdain all contact with the plough, and the loom, and the spade. They
+share with their countrymen neither the labours of peace, nor the
+dangers of war. They lounge all day in the streets, or about the wine
+shops; and, when the dinner-hour arrives, they troop home-wards, to
+retail the gossip of the town over a groaning board and a well-filled
+flagon. Thus they fatten like pigs, being about as cleanly, but scarce
+as useful. It is not surprising that a bill should at last have reached
+the Chambers, proposing, <i>first</i>, the better distribution of the
+revenues of the Church, equal to a fourth of the kingdom; and, <i>second</i>,
+the suppression of those "houses," the rules of which bind over their
+members to sheer, downright idleness, leaving only those who have some
+show of public duty to perform. The priests denounce the bill as
+"spoliation and robbery" of course, and prophesy all manner of things
+against so wicked a kingdom. Doubtless it is daring impiety in the eyes
+of Rome to forbid a man with a shaven crown and a brown cloak to play
+the idler and vagabond. We are only surprised that the people of
+Piedmont have so long suffered their labours to be eaten up by an order
+of men useless, and worse than useless.</p>
+
+<p>Another grand difficulty in Piedmont was the absence of a middle
+class,&mdash;wealthy, intelligent, and independent. No one felt that he had
+rights, and you never heard people saying there, as you may do in
+Britain, "this is my right, and I will have it." A feeling of individual
+right, and of responsibility,&mdash;for the two go together,&mdash;was then just
+beginning to dawn upon the popular mind. This was accompanied<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span> by a
+certain amount of disorganizing influence; not that of
+Socialism,&mdash;which, happily, scarce existed in Piedmont,&mdash;but that of
+self-action. Every one was feeling his own way. The priests, of course,
+were exceedingly wroth, and loudly accused Protestantism as the cause of
+all this commotion in men's minds. Alas! there was no Protestantism in
+Piedmont, for it had been one of the most bigoted kingdoms in Italy. It
+was their own handiwork; for a tyranny always produces a democracy. As
+if by a miracle, a powerful and popular press started up in Turin. The
+writers in the <i>Opinione</i> and the <i>Gazetta del Popolo</i>, acting, I
+suspect, on a hint given by some Vaudois that there was an old book, now
+little known, that would help them in the war they were now waging, went
+to the Bible, and, finding that it made against the priests, were
+liberal in their quotations from it. Their most telling hits were the
+extracts from Scripture; and finding it so, they quoted yet more
+largely. The priests were much concerned to see Holy Scripture so far
+profaned as to be quoted in newspapers, and exposed freely to the gaze
+of the vulgar. But what could they do? Their own literary qualifications
+did not warrant them to enter the lists with these writers: they had
+forgot the way to preach, unless at Lent; they could work the
+confessional, but even it began to be silenced by the powerful artillery
+of the press. At an earlier stage they might have roused the peasantry,
+and marched upon the Constitution, whose life they knew was the death of
+their power; but it was too late in 1851. An attempt of this sort made a
+year or two after, among the peasantry of the Val d'Aosta, turned out a
+miserable failure. Thus, a movement which in other countries came
+forward under the sanction of the priesthood, from the very outset in
+Piedmont took a contrary direction, and set in full against the Church.
+Since that day liberty<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span> has been working itself, bit by bit, into the
+action of the Constitution, and the feelings of the people; and now, I
+believe, neither King nor Parliament, were they so inclined, could put
+it down.</p>
+
+<p>The sum of the matter then is, that of all the kingdoms which the era of
+1848 started in the path of free government, the brave little State of
+Piedmont alone has persevered to this day. Amid the wide weltering sea
+of Italian anarchy and despotism, here, and here alone, liberty finds a
+spot on which to plant her foot. Again we ask, why is this? There is
+nothing in the past history of the country,&mdash;nothing in the present
+state of the nation,&mdash;which can account for it. We must look elsewhere
+for a solution; and we do not hesitate to avow our firm conviction, that
+a special Providence has shielded the Constitution of Piedmont, because
+with that Constitution is bound up the liberties of the ancient martyr
+Church of the Vaudois. It was the only one of the Italian Constitutions
+that carried in it so sacred a guarantee of permanency. On the 17th of
+February 1848 (the day is worth remembering), Charles Albert, by a royal
+edict, admitted the Waldenses to the enjoyment of all civil and
+political rights, in common with the rest of their fellow-subjects. Now,
+for the first time in a thousand years, the trumpet of liberty sounded
+amid the Vaudois valleys; and the shout of joy which the Alps sent back
+seemed like the first response to the prayer which had so often ascended
+from these hills, "How long, O Lord." Would not Sodom have been spared
+had ten righteous men been found in it? and why not Piedmont, seeing the
+Waldensian Church was there? Yes, Piedmont is the little Zoar of the
+Italian plains! Little may its people reck to whom it is they owe their
+escape. It is nevertheless a truth that, but for the poor Vaudois, whom,
+instigated by the Pope, they long and ruthlessly laboured to
+exterminate,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span> their country would have been at this day in the same
+gulph of social demoralization and political re-action with Tuscany, and
+Naples, and Rome. These last were taken, and Piedmont escaped.</p>
+
+<p>And the country is truly flourishing. It has thriven every day since
+Charles Albert emancipated the Vaudois. No one can cross its frontier
+without being struck with the contrast it presents to the other Italian
+States. While they are decaying like a corpse, it is flourishing like
+the chestnut-tree of its own mountains. The very faces of the people may
+tell you that the country is free and prosperous. Its citizens walk
+about with the cheerful, active air of men who have something to do and
+to enjoy, and not with the listless, desponding, heart-sick look which
+marks the inhabitants of the other States of Italy. Here, too, you miss
+that universal beggary and vagabondism that disfigure and pollute all
+the other countries of the Peninsula. What rich loam the ploughman turns
+up! What magnificent vines shade its plains! Public works are in
+progress, railways have been formed, and new houses are building. Not
+fewer than a hundred houses were built in Turin last year, which is
+more, I verily believe, than in all the other Italian towns out of
+Piedmont taken together. Thus, while the other States of Italy are
+foundering in the tempest, Piedmont lives because it carries the Vaudois
+and their fortunes.</p>
+
+<p>From the hall of the Chamber of Deputies I went with M. Malan to the
+office of the <i>Gazetta del Popolo</i>, to be introduced to its editors. The
+<i>Gazetta del Popolo</i> is a daily paper, with a circulation of 15,000;
+and, being sold at a penny, is universally read by the middle and lower
+classes. It is the <i>Times</i> of Piedmont. Its editors are men of great
+talent, and write with the practical good sense and racy style of
+Cobbett. They are not religious men, neither are they Romanists, though
+nominally<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span> connected with the Church of the State; but they are warm
+advocates of constitutional government, hearty haters of the Papacy, and
+have done much to enlighten the public mind, and loosen it from
+Romanism. They first of all made inquiries respecting the external
+resemblance of Puseyistic and Popish worship, as I had seen the latter
+in Italy. They made yet more eager inquiries respecting the progress and
+prospects of Puseyism in England, and about a then recent declaration of
+the Archbishop of Canterbury, to the effect that there were only two
+Bishops in the Church of England that had gone over to Puseyism. They
+seemed to feel that the fortunes of the Papacy would turn mainly upon
+the fortunes of Puseyism in England. As regarded the Archbishop, I
+replied, that I believed in the substantial accuracy of his statement,
+that there were not more than two members of the episcopate who could be
+held to be decided Puseyites; and as regarded the progress of Puseyism,
+I said, that it had been making great and rapid progress, but that the
+papal aggression, in my humble opinion, had dealt a somewhat heavy blow
+to both Popery and Puseyism,&mdash;that so long as Romanism came begging for
+toleration, it had found great favour in the eyes of the liberals; but
+when it came claiming to govern, it had scared away many of its former
+supporters, who had come to know it better,&mdash;and that the Protestant
+feeling which the aggression had evoked on the part of the Court, the
+Parliament, and the people, had tended to discourage Romanism, and all
+kindred or identical creeds. They were delighted to hear this, and said
+that they would baptize the fact in the <i>Gazetta del Popolo</i>, "the
+assassination of the Papacy by Cardinal Wiseman." Their paper, M. Malan
+afterwards told me, is published on Sabbaths as well (there are worse
+things done on that day in Italy, even by bishops), on which day they
+print their weekly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span> sermon. "You won't preach," say they to the priests;
+"therefore we will;" and it is in their Sabbath sheet that they make
+their bitterest assaults upon the priesthood. They quote largely from
+Scripture: not that they wish to establish evangelical truth, of which
+they know little, but because they find such quotations to be the most
+powerful weapons which they can employ against the Papacy. In truth,
+they advertised in this way the Bible to their countrymen, many of whom
+had never heard of such a book till then.</p>
+
+<p>I was inexpressibly delighted to find such men in Turin wielding such
+influence, and took the liberty of saying at parting, that we in England
+had beheld with admiration the noble stand Piedmont had made in behalf
+of constitutional government,&mdash;that we were watching with intense
+interest the future career of their nation,&mdash;that we were cherishing the
+hope that they would manfully maintain the ground they had taken
+up,&mdash;and that in England, and especially in Scotland, we felt that the
+root of all the despotism of the Continent was the Papacy,&mdash;that the way
+to strike for liberty was to strike at Rome,&mdash;and that till the Papacy
+was overthrown, never would the nations of the world be either free or
+happy. They assured me that in these sentiments they heartily concurred,
+and that they were the very ideas they were endeavouring to propagate.
+They gave me, on taking leave, a copy of that morning's paper as a
+<i>souvenir</i>; and on examining it afterwards, I found that the topic of
+its leading article was quite in the vein of our conversation. The great
+bulk of the liberal party in Piedmont shared even then the ideas of the
+editors of the <i>Gazetta del Popolo</i>, and felt that to lay the
+foundations of constitutional liberty, they needs must raze those of
+Rome. This is a truth; and not only so,&mdash;it is the primal truth in the
+science of European liberty. This truth only now begins to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span> be
+understood on the Continent. It is the main lesson which the re-action
+of 1849 has been overruled to teach. All former insurrections have been
+against kings and aristocrats: even in 1848 the Italians were willing to
+accept the leadership of the Pope. The perfidies and atrocities of which
+they have since been the victims have burned the essential tyranny of
+the papal system into their minds; and the next insurrection that takes
+place will be against the Papacy.</p>
+
+<p>A constitution, a free press, and a public opinion, are but the outward
+defences of a divine and immortal principle, which, rooted in the soil
+of Piedmont, has outlived a long winter, and is now beginning to bud
+afresh, and to send forth goodlier shoots than ever. To this I next
+turned. Conducted by M. Malan, I went to the western quarter of Turin,
+where, amid the gardens and elegant mansions of the suburbs, workmen
+were digging the foundations of what was to be a spacious building. On
+this spot the Dominicans in former ages had burned the bodies of the
+martyrs; and now the Waldensian temple stands here,&mdash;a striking proof,
+surely, of the immortality of truth,&mdash;to rise, and live, and speak
+boldly, on the very spot where she had been bound to a stake, burned,
+and extinguished, as the persecutor believed. This church, not the least
+elegant in a city abounding with elegant structures, has since been
+opened, and is filled every Sabbath with well-nigh a thousand
+auditors,&mdash;the largest congregation, I will venture to say, in Turin.</p>
+
+<p>In 1851 I could visit the cradle of this movement. It had its first rise
+in the labours of Felix Neff, twenty-five years before; but it was not
+till the revolution of 1848 that it appeared above ground. Even in 1851,
+colportage among the Piedmontese was prohibited, though it was allowable
+to print or import the Bible for the use of the Waldenses, and the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span>
+Government winked at its sale to their Roman Catholic fellow-subjects. I
+was shown in M. Malan's banking office the Bible depot, and was
+gratified to find that the sales which were made to applicants only had
+during the past year amounted to a thousand copies. Evening meetings
+were held every day of the week, in various parts of Turin, at which the
+Bible was read, and points of controversy betwixt Christianity and
+Romanism eagerly discussed. The Rev. M. Meille, the able editor of the
+<i>Buona Novella</i>,&mdash;a paper then just starting,&mdash;informed me that not
+fewer than ninety persons had been present at the meeting superintended
+by him the night before. These week-day assemblages, as well as the
+Sabbath audiences, were of a very miscellaneous character,&mdash;Vaudois, who
+had come to Turin to be servants, for, prior to the revolution, they
+could be nothing else; Piedmontese tradesmen; Swiss, Germans, and
+Italian refugees, to whom three pastors ministered,&mdash;one in French, one
+in German, and a third in the Italian tongue. There were then not fewer
+than ten re-unions every week in Turin. The idea, too, had been started
+of taking advantage of the workmen's clubs for the propagation of the
+gospel. A network of such societies covered northern and central Italy.
+The clubs in Turin corresponded with those in Genoa, Alessandria, and
+all the principal towns of Piedmont; and these again with similar clubs
+in central Italy; and any new theory or doctrine introduced into one
+soon made the round of all. The plan adopted was to send evangelical
+workmen into these clubs, who were listened to as they propounded the
+new plan of justification by faith. The clubs in Turin were first
+leavened with the gospel; thence it was extended to Genoa, and gradually
+also to central Italy. While the <i>prol&eacute;taires</i> in France were discussing
+the claims of labour, the workmen in Piedmont were canvassing the
+doctrines<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span> of the New Testament; and hence the difference betwixt the
+two countries.</p>
+
+<p>It was now drawing towards sunset, and I purposed enjoying the
+twilight,&mdash;delicious in all climates, but especially in Italy,&mdash;on the
+terrace of the College or Monastery of the Capuchins. This monastery
+stands on the Collina, a romantic height on the south of Turin, washed
+by the Po, with villas and temples on its crest and summits. I took my
+way through the noble street that leads southwards, halting at the
+book-stalls, and picking out of their heaps of rubbish an Italian copy
+of the Catechism of Bossuet, Bishop of Meaux. The Collina was all in a
+blaze; the windows of the Palazzo Regina glittered in the setting beams;
+and the dome of the Superga shone like gold. Crossing the Po, I ascended
+by the winding avenue of shady acacias, which are planted there to
+protect the cowled heads of the fathers from the noonday sun. One of the
+monks was winding his way up hill, at a pace which gave me full
+opportunity of observing him. A little black cap covered his scalp; his
+round bullet-head, which bristled with short, thick-set hairs, joined
+on, by a neck of considerably more than the average girth, to shoulders
+of Atlantean dimensions. His body was enveloped in a coarse brown
+mantle, which descended to his calves, and was gathered round his middle
+with a slender white cord. His naked feet were thrust into sandals. The
+features of the "religious" were coarse and swollen; and he strode up
+hill before me with a gait which would have made a peaceful man, had he
+met him on a roadside in Scotland, give him a wide offing. Parties of
+soldiers wounded in the late campaign were sauntering in the square of
+the monastery, or looking over the low wall at the city beneath. Their
+pale and sickly looks formed a striking contrast to the athletic forms
+of the full-fed monks. It<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span> was inexplicable to me, that the youth of
+Sardinia, immature and raw, should be drafted into the army, while such
+an amount of thews and sinews as this monastery, and hundreds more,
+contained, should be allowed to run to waste, or worse. If but for their
+health, the monks should be compelled to fight the next campaign.</p>
+
+<p>The sun went down. Long horizontal shafts of golden light shot through
+amidst the Alps; their snows glittered with a dazzling whiteness:
+whiteness is a weak term;&mdash;it was a brilliant and lustrous glory, like
+that of light itself. Anon a crimson blush ran along the chain. It
+faded; it came again. A wall of burning peaks, from two to three hundred
+miles in length, rose along the horizon. Eve, with her purple shadows,
+drew on; and I left the mountains under a sky of vermilion, with Monte
+Viso covering with its shadow the honoured dust that sleeps around it,
+and pointing with its stony finger to that sky whither the spirits of
+the martyred Vaudois have now ascended. It seemed to say, "Come and
+see."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span></p>
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV.</h3>
+
+<h4>STRUCTURE AND CHARACTERISTICS OF THE VAUDOIS VALLEYS.</h4>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang">Journey to "Valleys"&mdash;Dinner at Pignerolo&mdash;Grandeur of
+Scenery&mdash;Associations&mdash;Bicherasio&mdash;Procession of
+<i>Santissimo</i>&mdash;Connection betwixt the History and the Country of the
+Vaudois&mdash;The Three Valleys of Martino, Angrona, and Lucerna&mdash;Their
+Arrangement&mdash;Strength&mdash;Fertility&mdash;La Tour&mdash;The Castelluzzo&mdash;Scenery
+of the Val Lucerna&mdash;The Manna of the Waldenses&mdash;Populousness of the
+Valleys&mdash;Variety of Productions&mdash;The Roman Flood and the Vaudois
+Ark. </p></div>
+
+
+<p class="noin"><span class="smcap">The</span> Valleys of the Vaudois lie about thirty miles to the south-west of
+Turin. The road thither it is scarce possible to miss. Keeping the lofty
+and pyramidal summit of Monte Viso in your eye, you go straight on, in a
+line parallel with the Alps, along the valley of the Po, which is but a
+prolongation of the great plain of Lombardy. On my way down to these
+valleys, I observed on the roadside numerous little temples, which the
+natives, in true Pagan fashion, had erected to their deities. The niches
+of these temples were filled with Madonnas, crucifixes, and saints,
+gaunt and grizzly, with unlighted candles stuck before them, or rude
+paintings and tinsel baubles hung up as votive offerings. The
+signboards&mdash;especially those of the wine venders&mdash;were exceedingly
+religious. They displayed,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span> for the most part, a bizarre painting of the
+Virgin, and occasionally of the Pope; and not unfrequently underneath
+these personages were a company of heretics, such as those I was going
+to visit, sweltering in flames. Were a Protestant vintner to sell his
+ale beneath a picture of Catholics burning in hell, I fear we should
+never hear the last of it. But I must say, that these pictures seemed
+the production of past times. They were one and all sorely faded, as if
+their owners were beginning to be somewhat ashamed of them, or lacked
+zeal to repair them. The <i>conducteur</i> of the stage had an Italian
+translation of Mr Gladstone's well-known pamphlet on Naples in his hand,
+which then covered all the book-stalls in Turin, and was read by every
+one. This led to a lively discussion on the subject of the Church,
+between him and two fellow-travellers, to whom I had been introduced at
+starting, as Waldenses. I observed that, although he appeared to come
+off but second best in the controversy, he bore all with unruffled
+humour, as if not unwilling to be beaten. At length, after a ride of
+twenty miles over the plain, in which the husbandman, with plough as old
+in its form as the Georgics, was turning up a soil rich, black, and
+glossy as the raven's wing, we arrived at Pignerolo, a town on the
+borders of the Vaudois land.</p>
+
+<p>The two Vaudois and myself adjourned to the hotel to dine. Even in this
+we had an instance of changed times. In this very town of Pignerolo a
+law had been in existence, and was not long repealed, forbidding, under
+severe penalties, any one to give meat or drink to a Vaudois. The
+"Valleys" were only ten miles distant, and we agreed to walk thither on
+foot. Indeed, all such spots must be so visited, if one would feel their
+full influence. Leaving Pignerolo, the road began to draw into the bosom
+of the mountains, and the scenery became<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span> grander at every step. On the
+right rose the hills of the Vaudois, with knolls glittering with woods
+and cottages scattered at their feet. On the left, long reaches of the
+Po, meandering through pasturages and vineyards, gleamed out golden in
+the western sun. The scenery reminded me much of the Highlands at
+Comrie, only it was on a scale of richness and magnificence unknown to
+Scotland.</p>
+
+<p>After advancing a few miles, I chanced to turn and look back. The change
+the mountains had undergone struck me much. A division of Alps, tall and
+cloud-capped, appeared to have broken off from the main army, and to
+have come marching into the plain; and while the mountains were closing
+in upon us behind, they appeared to be falling back in front, and
+arranging themselves into the segment of a vast circle. A magnificent
+amphitheatre had risen noiselessly around us. On all sides save the
+south, where a reach of the valley was still visible, the eye met only a
+lofty wall of mountains, hung in a rich and gorgeous tapestry of bright
+green pasturages and shady pine-forests, with the frequent sunlight
+gleam of white chalets. The snows of their summits were veiled in masses
+of cloud, which the southerly winds were bringing up upon them from the
+Mediterranean. I seemed to have entered some stately temple,&mdash;a temple
+not of mortal workmanship,&mdash;which needed no tall shaft, no groined roof,
+no silver lamps, no chisel or pencil of artist to beautify it, and no
+white-robed priest to make it holy. It had been built by Him whose power
+laid the foundations of the earth, and hung the stars in heaven; and it
+had been consecrated by sacrifices such as Rome's mitred priests never
+offered in aisled cathedral. Nor had it been the scene only of lofty
+endurance: it had been the scene also of sweet and holy joys. There the
+Vaudois patriarchs, like Enoch, had "walked with God;"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span> there they had
+read his Word, and kept his Sabbaths. They had sung his praise by these
+silvery brooks, and kneeled in prayer beneath these chestnut trees.
+There, too, arose the shout of triumphant battle; and from those valleys
+the Vaudois martyrs had gone up, higher than these white peaks, to take
+their place in the white-robed and palm-bearing company. Can the spirit,
+I asked myself, ever forget its earthly struggles, or the scene on which
+they were endured? and may not the very same picture of beauty and
+grandeur now before my eye be imprinted eternally on the memory of many
+of the blessed in Heaven?</p>
+
+<p>There was silence on plain and mountain,&mdash;a hush like that of a
+sanctuary, reverent and deep, and broken only by the flow of the torrent
+and the sound of voices among the vineyards. I could not fail to observe
+that sounds here were more musical than on the plain. This is a
+peculiarity belonging to mountainous regions; but I have nowhere seen it
+so perceptible as here. Every accent had a fullness and melody of tone,
+as if spoken in a whispering gallery. Right in the centre of the circle
+formed by the mountains was the entrance of the Vaudois valleys. The
+place was due north from where we now were, but we had to make a
+considerable detour in order to reach it. A long low hill, rough with
+boulders and feathery with woods, lay across the mouth of these valleys;
+and we had to go round it on the west, and return along the fertile vale
+which divides it from the high Alps, whose straths and gorges form the
+dwellings of the Waldenses.</p>
+
+<p>A dream it seemed to be, walking thus within the shadow of the Vaudois
+hills. And then, too, what a strange chance was it which had thrown me
+into the society of my two Waldensian fellow-travellers! They had met me
+on the threshold of their country, as if sent to bid me welcome, and
+conduct my<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span> steps into a land which the prayers and sufferings of their
+forefathers had for ever hallowed. They could not speak a word of my
+tongue; and to them my transalpine Italian was not more than
+intelligible. Yet, such is the power of a common sympathy, the
+conversation did not once flag all the way; and it had reference, of
+course, to one subject. I told them that I was not unacquainted with
+their glorious history;&mdash;that from a child I had known the noble deeds
+of their fathers, who had received an equal place in my veneration with
+the men of old, "who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought
+righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouth of lions. And others
+had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover, of bonds and
+imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted,
+were slain with the sword; they wandered about in sheepskins and
+goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented; of whom the world was
+not worthy;"&mdash;and that, next to the hills of my own land, hallowed, too,
+with martyr-blood, I loved the mountains within whose shadow my
+wandering steps had now brought me. The eyes of my Vaudois friends
+kindled; they were not unconscious, I could see, of their noble lineage;
+and they were visibly touched by the circumstance that a stranger from a
+distant land&mdash;drawn thither by sympathy with the great struggles of
+their nation&mdash;should come to visit their mountains. Every object in any
+way connected with their history, and especially with their
+persecutions, was carefully pointed out to me. "There," said they, "is
+our frontier church, the first of the Vaudois candles," pointing to a
+white edifice that gleamed out upon us amid woods and rocks, on the
+summit of a hill, soon after leaving Pignerolo. They mentioned, too,
+with peculiar emphasis, the year of the last great massacre of their
+brethren. The memory of that transaction, I feel assured, will perish
+only with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span> the Vaudois race. Nor can I forget the evident pride with
+which, on nearing the valley of Lucerne, they pointed to the giant form
+of their Castelluzzo, now looming through the shades of night, and told
+me that in the caves of that mighty rock their fathers found shelter,
+when the valley beneath was covered with armed men.</p>
+
+<p>Nowhere had I seen more luxuriant vines. They were festooned, too, after
+the manner of those I had seen among the Alps; but here the effect was
+more beautiful. They were literally stretched out over entire fields in
+an unbroken web of boughs. Clothed with luxuriant foliage, they looked
+like another azure canopy extended over the soil. There was ample room
+beneath for the ploughman and his bullocks. The golden beams, struggling
+through the massy foliage, fell in a mellow and finely tinted shower on
+the newly ploughed soil. Wheat is said to ripen better beneath the
+vine-shade than in the open sun. The season of grapes was shortly past;
+but here and there large clusters were still pendent on the bough.</p>
+
+<p>Hitherto, although we had been skirting the Vaudois territory, we had
+not set foot upon it. The line which separates it from the rest of
+Piedmont touches the small town of Bicherasio, on the western flank of
+the low hill I have mentioned; and the roofs of the little town were
+already in sight. Passing, on the left, a white-walled mass-house on a
+small height, with the priest looking at us from amid the autumn-tinted
+vine leaves that shaded the wall, we entered the town of Bicherasio. The
+first sight we saw was a procession advancing up the street at
+double-quick time. I was at first sorely puzzled what to make of it.
+There was an air of mingled fun and gravity on the faces of the crowd;
+but the former so greatly predominated, that I took the affair for a
+frolic of the youths of Bicherasio. First came a squad of dirty boys,
+some<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span> of whom carried prayer-books: these were followed by some dozen or
+so of young women in their working attire, ranged in line, and carrying
+flambeaux. In the centre of the procession was a tall raw-boned priest,
+of about twenty-five years of age, with a little box in his hand. His
+head was bare, and he wore a long brown dress, bound with a cord round
+his middle. A canopy of crimson cloth, sorely soiled and tarnished, was
+borne over him by four of the taller lads. He had a flurried and wild
+look, as if he had slept out in the woods all night, and had had time
+only to shake himself, and put his fingers through his hair, before
+being called on to run with his little box. The procession closed, as it
+had opened, with a cloud of noisy and dirty urchins hanging on the rear
+of the priest and his flambeaux-bearing company. The whole swept past us
+at such a rapid pace, that I could only, by way of divining its object,
+open large wondering eyes upon it, which the large-boned lad in the
+brown cloak noticed, and repaid with a scowl, which broke no bones,
+however. "He is carrying the <i>santissimo</i>," said my fellow-travellers,
+when the procession had passed, "to a dying man." We passed the line,
+and set foot on the Vaudois territory. Being now on privileged soil, and
+safe from any ebullition which the scant reverence we had paid the
+procession of the <i>santissimo</i> might have drawn upon us, we entered a
+small albergo, and partook together of a bottle of wine. Our long walk,
+and the warmth of the evening, made the refreshment exceedingly
+agreeable. By way of commending the qualities of their soil, my
+companions remarked, that "this was the vine of the land." I felt
+disposed to deal with it as David did with the water of the well of
+Bethlehem, for here&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+"The nurture of the peasant's vines<br />
+Hath been the martyr's blood!"<br />
+</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span></p><p class="noin">It was dark before I reached La Tour; but one of my
+fellow-travellers&mdash;the other having left us at San Giovanni&mdash;accompanied
+me every footstep of the way, having passed his own dwelling two full
+miles, to do me this kindness.</p>
+
+<p>I must remind the reader, that this is simply a look in upon the
+Vaudois, on my way to Rome. I purpose here no description in full of the
+territory of the Vaudois, or of the people of the Vaudois. Their hills
+were shrouded in cloud and rain all the while I lived amongst them; and
+although my intention was to visit on foot every inch of their country,
+and more especially the scenes of their great struggles, I was
+compelled, after waiting well nigh a week, to take my departure without
+having accomplished this part of my object. Leaving, then, the seeing
+and describing these famous valleys to some possibly future day, all I
+shall attempt here is to convey some idea of the structural
+arrangement&mdash;the osteology, if I may call it so&mdash;of the Waldensian
+territory, and the general condition of the Waldensian people. First, of
+their country.</p>
+
+<p>A country and its people can never well be separated. The former, with
+silent but ceaseless influence, moulds the genius and habits of the
+latter, and determines the character of their history. It marks them out
+as fated for slavery or freedom,&mdash;degradation or glory. The country of
+the Vaudois is the material basis of their history; and the sublime
+points of their scenery join in, as it were, with the sublime passages
+of their nation. Without such a country, we cannot conceive how the
+Vaudois could have escaped extermination. The fertility and grandeur of
+their valleys were no chance gifts, but special endowments, having
+reference to the mighty moral struggle of which they were the destined
+theatre. It is this sentiment that forms the living spirit in the
+beautiful lines of Mrs Hemans, entitled, "The Hymn of the Vaudois
+Mountaineers:"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span>For the strength of the hills we bless thee.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Our God, our fathers' God.</span><br />
+Thou hast made thy children mighty,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">By the touch of the mountain sod.</span><br />
+Thou hast fixed our ark of refuge<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Where the spoiler's foot ne'er trod;</span><br />
+For the strength of the hills we bless thee,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Our God, our fathers' God!</span><br />
+<br />
+We are watchers of a beacon<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Whose light must never die;</span><br />
+We are guardians of an altar<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">'Midst the silence of the sky.</span><br />
+The rocks yield founts of courage,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Struck forth as by thy rod;</span><br />
+For the strength of the hills we bless thee,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Our God, our fathers' God!</span><br />
+<br />
+For the dark resounding caverns,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Where thy still small voice is heard;</span><br />
+For the strong pines of the forests<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">That by thy breath are stirred;</span><br />
+For the storms on whose free pinions<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Thy spirit walks abroad;</span><br />
+For the strength of the hills we bless thee,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Our God, our fathers' God!</span><br />
+<br />
+The banner of the chieftain<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Far, far below us waves;</span><br />
+The war horse of the spearman<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Cannot reach our lofty caves.</span><br />
+Thy dark clouds wrap the threshold<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Of freedom's last abode;</span><br />
+For the strength of the hills we bless thee,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Our God, our fathers' God!</span><br />
+<br />
+For the shadow of thy presence<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Round our camp of rock outspread;</span><br />
+For the stern defiles of battle,<br />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Bearing record of our dead;</span><br />
+For the snows and for the torrents,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">For the free heart's burial sod;</span><br />
+For the strength of the hills we bless thee,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Our God, our fathers' God!</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>We read in the Apocalypse, that "the woman fled into the wilderness,
+where she had a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a
+thousand two hundred and threescore days." "A place prepared"
+undoubtedly implies a special arrangement and a special adaptation, in
+the future dwelling of the Church, to the mission to be assigned her.
+The "wilderness" of the Apocalypse, we are inclined to think, is the
+great chain of the Alps; and the "place prepared" in that wilderness, we
+are also inclined to think, are the Cottian Alps, and more especially
+those valleys in the Cottian Alps which the confessors, known as the
+Vaudois, inhabited. Long after Rome had subjugated the plains, she
+possessed scarce a foot-breadth among the mountains. These, throughout
+well-nigh their entire extent, from where the Simplon road now cuts the
+chain, to the sea, were peopled by the professors of the gospel. They
+were a Goshen of light in the midst of an Egypt of darkness; and in
+these peaceful and sublime solitudes holy men fed their flocks amid the
+green pastures and beside the clear waters of evangelical truth. But
+persecution came: it waxed hot; and every succeeding century beheld
+these confessors fewer in number, and their territory more restricted.
+At last all that remained to the Vaudois were only three valleys at the
+foot of Monte Viso; and if we examine their structure, we will find them
+arranged with special reference to the war the Church was here called to
+wage.</p>
+
+<p>The three valleys are the Val Martino, the Val Angrona, and the Val
+Lucerna. Nothing could be simpler than their arrangement; at the same
+time, nothing could be stronger.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span> The three valleys spread out like a
+fan,&mdash;radiating, as it were, from the same point, and stretching away in
+a winding vista of vineyards, meadows, chestnut groves, dark gorges, and
+foaming torrents, to the very summits and glaciers of the Alps. Nearly
+at the point of junction of the Val Angrona and the Val Lucerna stands
+La Tour, the capital of the valleys. It consists of a single street (for
+the few off-shoots are not worth mentioning) of two-storey houses,
+whitewashed, and topped with broad eves, which project till they leave
+only a narrow strip of sky visible overhead. The town winds up the hill
+for a quarter of a mile or so, under the shadow of the famous
+Castelluzzo,&mdash;a stupendous mountain of rock, which shoots up, erect as a
+column on its pedestal, to a height of many thousands of feet, and, in
+other days, sheltered, as I have said, in its stony arms, the persecuted
+children of the valleys, when the armies of France and Savoy gathered
+round its base. How often I watched it, during my stay there, as its
+mighty form now became lost, and now flashed forth from the mountain
+mists! Over what sad scenes has that rock looked! It has seen the
+peaceful La Tour a heap of smoking ruins, and the clear waters of the
+Pelice, which meander at its feet, red with the blood of the children of
+the valleys. It has heard the wrathful execrations of armed men
+ascending where the prayers and praises of the Vaudois were wont to
+come, borne on the evening breeze,&mdash;scenes unspeakably affecting, but
+which, nevertheless, from the principle which they embodied, and the
+Christian heroism which they evoked, add dignity to humanity itself.
+When we would rebut those universal libels which infidels have written
+upon our race, we point to the Vaudois. However corrupt whole nations
+and continents may have been, that nature which could produce the
+Vaudois must have originally possessed, and be still capable of having
+imparted to it, God-like qualities.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span></p><p>The strength of the Vaudois position, as I take it, lies in this, that
+the three valleys have their entrance within a comparatively narrow
+space. The country of the Vaudois was, in fact, an immense citadel, with
+its foundation on the rock, and its top above the clouds, and with but
+one gate of entrance. That gate could be easily defended; nay, it <i>was</i>
+defended. He who built this mighty fortress had thrown up a rampart
+before its gate, as if with a special eye to the protection of its
+inmates. The long hill of which I have already spoken, which rises to a
+height of from four to five hundred feet, lies across the opening of
+these valleys, at about a mile's breadth, and serves as a wall of
+defence. But even granting that this entrance should be forced, as it
+sometimes was, there were ample means within the mountains themselves,
+which were but a congeries of fortresses, for prolonging the contest.
+The valleys abound with gorges and narrow passages, where one man might
+maintain the way against fifty. There were, too, escarpments of rock,
+with galleries and caves known only to the Vaudois. Even the mists of
+their hills befriended them; veiling them, on some memorable instances,
+from the keen pursuit of their foes. Thus, every foot-breadth of their
+territory was capable of being contested, and <i>was</i> contested against
+the flower of the French and Sardinian armies, led against them in
+overwhelming numbers, with a courage which Rome never excelled, and a
+patriotism which Greece never equalled.</p>
+
+<p>I found, too, that it was "a good land" which the Lord their God had
+given to the Vaudois,&mdash;"a land of brooks of water, of fountains and
+depths that spring out of valleys and hills; a land of wheat, and
+barley, and vines, and fig-trees, and pomegranates; a land of oil, olive
+and honey." The same architect who built the fortress had provisioned
+it, so to speak, and that in no stinted measure. He who placed
+magazines<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span> of bread in the clouds, and rained it upon the Israelites
+when they journeyed through the desert, had laid up store of corn, and
+oil, and wine, in the soil of these valleys; so that the Vaudois, when
+their enemies pressed them on the plain, and cut off their supplies from
+without, might still enjoy within their own mountain rampart abundance
+of all things.</p>
+
+<p>On the first morning after my arrival, I walked out along the Val
+Lucerna southward. Flowers and fruit in rich profusion covered every
+spot of ground under the eye, from the banks of the stream to the skirts
+of the mist that veiled the mountains. The fields, which were covered
+with the various cultivation of wheat, maize, orchards, and vineyards,
+were fenced with neatly dressed hedge-rows. The vine-stocks were
+magnificently large, and their leaves had already acquired the fine
+golden yellow which autumn imparts. At a little distance, on a low hill,
+deeply embosomed in foliage, was the church of San Giovanni, looking as
+brilliantly white as if it had been a piece of marble fresh from the
+chisel. Hard by, peeping out amidst fruit-bearing trees, was the village
+of Lucerna. On the right rose the mighty wall of the Alps; on the left
+the valley opened out into the plain of the Po, bounded by a range of
+blue-tinted hills, which stretched away to the south-west, mingling in
+the distant horizon with the mightier masses of the Alps. The sun now
+broke through the haze; and his rays, falling on the luxuriant beauty of
+the valley, and on the more varied but not less rich covering of the
+hill-side,&mdash;the pasturages, the winding belts of planting, the white
+chalets,&mdash;lighted up a picture which a painter might have exhibited as a
+relic of an unfallen world, or a reminiscence of that garden from which
+transgression drove man forth.</p>
+
+<p>After breakfast, I sallied out to explore the valley of Lucerne,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span> at the
+entrance of which is placed, as I have said, La Tour, the capital of the
+Waldenses. My intention was to trace its windings all the way, past the
+village and church of Bobbio, and up the mountains, till it loses itself
+amid the snows of their summits,&mdash;an expedition which was brought to an
+abrupt termination by the black clouds which came rolling up the valley
+at noon like the smoke of a furnace, followed by torrents of rain.
+Threading my way through the narrow winding street of La Tour, and
+skirting the base of the giant Castelluzzo, I emerged upon the open
+valley. I was enchanted by its mingled loveliness and grandeur. Its
+bottom, which might be from one to two miles in breadth, though looking
+narrower, from the titanic character of its mountain-boundary, was, up
+to a certain point, one continuous vineyard. The vine there attains a
+noble stature, and stretches its arms from side to side of the valley in
+rich and lovely festoons, veiling from the great heat of the sun the
+golden grain which grows underneath. On either hand the mountains rise
+to the sky, not bare and rocky, but glowing with the vine, or shady with
+the chestnut, and pouring into the lap of the Vaudois, corn, and wine,
+and fruit. Their sides were covered throughout with vineyards,
+corn-fields, glades of green pasturages, clumps of forests and
+fruit-trees, mansions and chalets, and silvery streamlets, which
+meandered amid their terraces, or leaped in flashing light down the
+mountain, to join the Pelice at its bottom. Not a foot-breadth was
+barren. This teeming luxuriance attested at once the qualities of the
+soil and sun, and the industry of the Vaudois.</p>
+
+<p>As I proceeded up the Val Lucerna, the same scene of mingled richness
+and magnificence continued. The golden vine still kept its place in the
+bottom of the valley, and stretched out its arms in very wantonness, as
+if the limits of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span> the Val Lucerna were too small for its exuberant and
+generous fruitfulness. The hills gained in height, without losing in
+fertility and beauty. They offered to the eye the same picture of
+vine-rows, pasturages, chestnut-groves, and chalets, from the torrent at
+their bottom, up to the edge of the floating mist that covered their
+tops. At times the sun would break in, and add to the variety of lights
+which diversified the landscape. For already the hand of autumn had
+scattered over the foliage her beautiful tints of all shades, from the
+bright green of the pastures, down through the golden yellow of the
+vine, to the deep crimson of those trees which are the first to fade.</p>
+
+<p>A farther advance, and the aspect of the Val Lucerna changed slightly.
+The vineyards ceased on the level grounds at the bottom of the valley,
+and in their place came rich meadow lands, on which herds were grazing.
+The hills on the left were still ribbed with the vine. On the right,
+along which, at a high level on the hill-side, ran the road, the
+chestnut groves became more frequent, and large boulders began
+occasionally to be seen. It was here that the rolling mass of cloud, so
+fearfully black, that it seemed of denser materials than vapour, which
+had followed me up hill, overtook me, and by the deluge of rain which it
+let fall, effectually forbade my farther progress.</p>
+
+<p>The same shower which forbade my farther exploration of the Val Lucerna,
+arresting me, with cruel interdict, as it seemed, on the very threshold
+of a region teeming with grandeur, and encompassed with the halo of
+imperishable deeds, threw me, by a sort of compensatory chance, upon the
+discovery of another most interesting peculiarity of the Waldensian
+territory. The heavy rain compelled me to seek shelter beneath the
+boughs of a wide-spread chestnut-tree; and there,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span> for the space of an
+hour, I remained perfectly dry, though the big drops were falling all
+around. Soon a continuous beating, as if of the fall of substances from
+a considerable height on the ground, attracted my attention,&mdash;tap, tap,
+tap. The sound told me that something was falling bigger and heavier
+than the rain-drops; but the long grass prevented me at first seeing
+what it was. A slight search, however, showed me that the tree beneath
+which I stood was actually letting fall a shower of nuts. These nuts
+were large and fully ripened. The breeze became slightly stronger, and
+the fruit shower from the trees increased so much, that a soft muffled
+sound rang through the whole wood. It was literally raining food. Some
+millions of nuts must have fallen that day in the Val Lucerna. I saw the
+young peasant girls coming from the chalets and farm-houses, to glean
+beneath the boughs; and a short time sufficed to fill their sacks, and
+send them back laden with the produce of the chestnut-tree. These nuts
+are roasted and eaten as food; and very nutritious food they are. In all
+the towns of northern Italy you see persons in the streets roasting them
+in braziers over charcoal fires, and selling them to the people, to whom
+they form no very inconsiderable part of their food. I have oftener than
+once, on a long ride, breakfasted on them, with the help of a cluster of
+grapes, or a few apples. This was the manna of the Waldenses. And how
+often have the persecuted Vaudois, when driven from their homes, and
+compelled to seek refuge in those high altitudes where the vine does not
+grow, subsisted for days and weeks upon the produce of the
+chestnut-tree! I could not but admire in this the wise arrangement of
+Him who had prepared these valleys as the future abode of his Church.
+Not only had He taught the earth to yield her corn, and the hills wine,
+but even the skies bread. Bread was rained around their<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span> caves and
+hiding-places, plenteous as the manna of old; and the Vaudois, like the
+Israelites, had but to gather and eat.</p>
+
+<p>I came also to the conclusion, that the land which the Lord had given to
+the Waldenses was a "large" as well as a "good" land. It is only of late
+that the Vaudois have been restricted to the three valleys I have named;
+but even taking their country as at present defined, its superficial
+area is by no means so inconsiderable as it is apt to be accounted by
+one who hears of it as confined to but three valleys. Spread out these
+valleys into level plains, and you find that they form a large country.
+It is not only the broad bottom of the valley that is cultivated;&mdash;the
+sides of the hills are clothed up to the very clouds with vineyards and
+corn-lands, and are planted with all manner of trees, yielding fruit
+after their kind. Where the husbandman is compelled to stop, nature
+takes up the task of the cultivator; and then come the chestnut-groves,
+with their loads of fruit, and the short sweet grass on which cattle
+depasture in summer, and the wild flowers from which the bees elaborate
+their honey. Overtopping all are the fields of snow, the great
+reservoirs of the springs and rivers which fertilize the country. This
+arrangement admitted, moreover, of far greater variety, both of climate
+and of produce, than could possibly obtain on the plain. There is an
+eternal winter at the summit of these mountains, and an almost perpetual
+summer at their feet.</p>
+
+<p>In accordance with this great productiveness, I found the hills of the
+Vaudois exceedingly populous. They are alive with men, at least as
+compared with the solitude which our Scottish Highlands present. I had
+brought thither my notions of a valley taken from the narrow winding and
+infertile straths of Scotland, capable of feeding only a few scores of
+inhabitants.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span> Here I found that a valley might be a country, and contain
+almost a nation in its bosom.</p>
+
+<p>But, not to dwell on other peculiarities, I would remark, that such a
+dwelling as this&mdash;continually presenting the grandest objects&mdash;must have
+exerted a marked influence upon the character of the inhabitants. It was
+fitted to engender intrepidity of mind, a love of freedom, and an
+elevation of thought. It has been remarked that the inhabitants of
+mountainous regions are less prone than others to the worship of images.
+On the plain all is monotony. Summer and winter, the same landmarks, the
+same sky, the same sounds, surround the man. But around the dweller in
+the mountains,&mdash;and especially such mountains as these,&mdash;all is variety
+and grandeur. Now the Alps are seen with their sunlight summits and
+their shadowless sides; anon they veil their mighty forms in clouds and
+tempests. The living machinery of the mist, too, is continually varying
+the landscape, now engulphing valleys, now blotting out crags and
+mountain peaks, and suspending before the eye a cold and cheerless
+curtain of vapour; anon the curtain rises, the mist rolls away, and
+green valley and tall mountain flash back again upon you, thrilling and
+delighting you anew. What variety and melody of sounds, too, exist among
+the hills! The music of the streams, the voices of the peasants, the
+herdsman's song, the lowing of the cattle, the hum of the villages. The
+winds, with mighty organ-swell, now sweep through their mountain gorges;
+and now the thunder utters his awful voice, making the Alps to tremble
+and their pines to bow.</p>
+
+<p>Such was the land of the Vaudois; the predestined abode of God's Church
+during the long and gloomy period of Anti-christ's reign. It was the ark
+in which the one elect family of Christendom was to be preserved during
+the flood of error<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span> that was to come upon the earth. And I have been the
+more minute in the description of its general structure and
+arrangements, because all had reference to the high moral end it was
+appointed to serve in the economy of Providence.</p>
+
+<p>When of old a flood of waters was to be sent on the world, Noah was
+commanded to build an ark of gopher wood for the saving of his house.
+God gave him special instructions regarding its length, its breadth, its
+height: he was told where to place its door and window, how to arrange
+its storeys and rooms, and specially to gather "of all food that is
+eaten," that it might be for food for him and those with him. When all
+had been done according to the Divine instructions, God shut in Noah,
+and the flood came.</p>
+
+<p>So was it once more. A flood was to come upon the earth; but now God
+himself prepared the ark in which the chosen family were to be saved. He
+laid its foundations in the depths, and built up its wall of rock to the
+sky. A door also made He for the ark, with lower, second, and third
+storeys. It was beautiful as strong. Corn, wine, and oil were laid up in
+store within it. All being ready, God said to his persecuted ones in the
+early Church, "Come, thou and all thy house, into the ark." He gave them
+the Bible to be a light to them during the darkness, and shut them in.
+The flood came. Century after century the waters of Papal superstition
+continued to prevail upon the earth. At length all the high hills that
+were under the whole heaven were covered, and all flesh died, save the
+little company in the Vaudois ark.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span></p>
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V.</h3>
+
+<h4>STATE AND PROSPECTS OF THE VAUDOIS CHURCH.</h4>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang">Dawn of the Reformation&mdash;Waldensian Territory a Portion of
+Italy&mdash;Two-fold Mission of Italy&mdash;Origin of the Vaudois&mdash;Evidence
+of Romanist Historians&mdash;Evidence of their own Historians&mdash;Evidence
+arising from the Noble Ley&ccedil;on from their Geographical
+Position&mdash;Grandeur of the Vaudois Annals&mdash;Their Martyr Age&mdash;Their
+Missionary Efforts&mdash;Present
+Condition&mdash;Population&mdash;Churches&mdash;Schools&mdash;Stipends&mdash;Students&mdash;Social
+and Moral Superiority&mdash;Political and Social Disabilities&mdash;The Year
+1848 their Exodus&mdash;Their Mission&mdash;A Sabbath in the Vaudois
+Sanctuary&mdash;Anecdote&mdash;Lesson Taught by their History. </p></div>
+
+
+<p class="noin"><span class="smcap">How</span> often during the long night must the Vaudois have looked from their
+mountain asylum upon a world engulphed in error, with the mingled wonder
+and dismay with which we may imagine the antediluvian fathers gazing
+from the window of their ark upon the bosom of the shoreless flood! What
+an appalling and mysterious dispensation! The fountains of the great
+deep had a second time been broken up, and each successive century saw
+the waters rising. Would Christianity ever re-appear? Or had the Church
+completed her triumphs, and finished her course? And was time to close
+upon a world shrouded in darkness, with nought but this feeble beacon
+burning<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span> amid the Alps? Such were the questions which must often have
+pressed upon the minds of the Vaudois.</p>
+
+<p>Like Noah, too, they sent forth, from time to time, messengers from
+their ark, to go hither and thither, and see if yet there remained
+anywhere, in any part of the earth, any worshippers of the true God.
+They returned to their mountain hold, with the sorrowful tidings that
+nowhere had they found any remnant of the true Church, and that the
+whole world wondered after the beast. The Vaudois, however, had power
+given them to maintain their testimony. In the midst of universal
+apostacy, and in the face of the most terrible persecutions, they bore
+witness against Rome. And ever as that Church added another error to her
+creed, the Vaudois added another article to their testimony; and in this
+way Romish idolatry and gospel truth were developed by equal stages, and
+an adequate testimony was maintained all through that gloomy period. The
+stars of the ecclesiastical firmament fell unto the earth, like the
+untimely figs of the fig-tree; but the lamp of the Alps went not out.
+The Vaudois, not unconscious of their sacred office, watched their
+heaven-kindled beacon with the vigilance of men inspired by the hope
+that it would yet attract the eyes of the world. At length&mdash;thrice
+welcome sight!&mdash;the watch-fires of the German reformers, kindled at
+their own, began to streak the horizon. They knew that the hour of
+darkness had passed, and that the time was near when the Church would
+leave her asylum, and go forth to sow the fields of the world with the
+immortal seed of truth.</p>
+
+<p>We must be permitted to remark here, that the fact that the Waldensian
+territory is really a part of Italy, and that the Vaudois, or Valdesi,
+or People of the Valleys (for all three signify the same thing), are
+strictly an Italian people, invests ITALY with a new and interesting
+light. In all ages, Pagan as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span> well as Christian, Italy has been the seat
+of a twofold influence,&mdash;the one destructive, the other regenerative. In
+classic times, Italy sent forth armies to subjugate the world, and
+letters to enlighten it. Since the Christian era, her mission has been
+of the same mixed character. She has been at once the seat of idolatry
+and the asylum of Christianity. Her idolatry is of a grosser and more
+perfected type than was the worship of Baal of old; and her Christianity
+possesses a more spiritual character, and a more powerfully operative
+genius, than did the institute of Moses. We ought, then, to think of
+Italy as the land of the martyr as well as of the persecutor,&mdash;as not
+only the land whence our Popery has come, which has cost us so many
+martyrs of whom we are proud, and has caused the loss of so many souls
+which we mourn,&mdash;but also as the fountain of that blessed light which
+broke mildly on the world in the preaching of John Huss, and more
+powerfully, a century afterwards, in the reformation of the sixteenth
+century. Though there was no audible voice, and no visible miracle, the
+Waldenses were as really chosen to be the witnesses of God during the
+long night of papal idolatry, as were the Jews to be his witnesses
+during the night of pagan idolatry. They are sprung, according to the
+more credible historical accounts, from the unfallen Church of Rome;
+they are the direct lineal descendants of the primitive Christians of
+Italy; they never bowed the knee to the modern Baal; their mountain
+sanctuary has remained unpolluted by idolatrous rites; and if they were
+called to affix to their testimony the seal of a cruel martyrdom, they
+did not fall till they had scattered over the various countries of
+Europe the seed of a future harvest. Their death was a martyrdom endured
+in behalf of Christendom; and scarcely was it accomplished till they
+were raised to life again, in the appearance of numerous churches<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span> both
+north and south of the Alps. Why is it that all persons and systems in
+this world of ours must die in order to enter into life? We enter into
+spiritual life by the death of our old nature; we enter into eternal
+life by the death of the body; and Christianity, too, that she might
+enter into the immortality promised her on earth, had to die. The words
+of our Lord, spoken in reference to his own death, are true also in
+reference to the martyrdom of the Waldensian Church:&mdash;"Verily verily, I
+say unto you, except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it
+abideth alone; but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit."</p>
+
+<p>The first question touching this extraordinary people respects their
+origin. When did they come into being, and of what stock are they
+sprung? This question forces itself with singular power upon the mind of
+the traveller, who, after traversing cities and countries covered with
+darkness palpable as that of Egypt of old, and seeing nought around him
+but image-worship, lights unexpectedly, in the midst of these mountains,
+upon a little community, enjoying the knowledge of the true God, and
+worshipping Him after the scriptural and spiritual manner of prophets
+and apostles of old. He naturally seeks for an explanation of a fact so
+extraordinary. Who kindled that solitary lamp? Their enemies have
+striven to represent them as dissenters from Rome of the twelfth and
+thirteenth centuries; and it is a common error even among ourselves to
+speak of them as the followers of Peter Waldo, the pious merchant of
+Lyons, and to date their rise from the year 1160. We cannot here go into
+the controversy; suffice it to say, that historical documents exist
+which show that both the Albigenses and the Waldenses were known long
+before Peter Waldo was heard of. Their own traditions and ancient
+manuscripts speak of them as having maintained the same doctrine<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span> "from
+time immemorial, in continued descent from father to son, even from the
+times of the apostles." The Nobla Ley&ccedil;on,&mdash;the Confession of Faith of
+the Vaudois Church, of the date of 1100,&mdash;claims on their behalf the
+same ancient origin; Ecbert, a writer who flourished in 1160&mdash;the year
+of Peter Waldo&mdash;speaks of them as "perverters," who had existed during
+many ages; and Reinerus, the inquisitor, who lived a century afterwards,
+calls them the most dangerous of all sects, because the most ancient;
+"for some say," adds he, "that it has continued to flourish since the
+time of Sylvester; others, from the time of the apostles." This last is
+a singular corroboration of the authenticity of the Nobla Ley&ccedil;on, which
+refers to the corruptions which began under Sylvester as the cause of
+their separation from the communion of the Church of Rome. Rorenco, the
+grand prior of St Roch, who was commissioned to make enquiries
+concerning them, after hinting that possibly they were detached from the
+Church by Claude, the good Bishop of Turin, in the eighth century, says
+"that they were not a new sect in the ninth and tenth centuries."
+Campian the Jesuit says of them, that they were reputed to be "more
+ancient than the Roman Church." Nor is it without great weight, as the
+historian Leger observes, that not one of the Dukes of Savoy or their
+ministers ever offered the slightest contradiction to the oft-reiterated
+assertions of the Vaudois, when petitioning for liberty of conscience,
+"We are descendants," said they, "of those who, from father to son, have
+preserved entire the apostolical faith in the valleys which we now
+occupy."<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> We have no doubt that, were the ecclesiastical archives<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span> of
+Lombardy, especially those of Turin and Milan, carefully searched,
+documents would be found which would place beyond all doubt what the
+scattered proofs we have referred to render all but a certainty.</p>
+
+<p>The historical evidence for the antiquity of the Vaudois Church is
+greatly strengthened by a consideration of the geographical position of
+"the Valleys." They lie on what anciently was the great high-road
+between Italy and France. There existed a frequent intercourse betwixt
+the Churches of the two countries; pastors and private members were
+continually going and returning; and what so likely to follow this
+intercourse as the evangelization of these valleys? There is a tradition
+extant, that the Apostle Paul visited them, in his journey from Rome to
+Spain. Be this as it may, one can scarce doubt that the feet of Iren&aelig;us,
+and of other early fathers, trod the territory of the Vaudois, and
+preached the gospel by the waters of the Pelice, and under the rocks and
+chestnut trees of Bobbio. Indeed, we can scarce err in fixing the first
+rise of the Vaudois Churches at even an earlier period,&mdash;that of
+apostolic times. So soon as the Church began to be wasted by
+persecution, the remote corners of Italy were sought as an asylum; and
+from the days of Nero the primitive Christians may have begun to gather
+round those mountains to which the ark of God was ultimately removed,
+and amid which it so long dwelt.</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"I go up to the ancient hills,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Where chains may never be;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Where leap in joy the torrent rills;</span><br />
+Where man may worship God alone, and free.<br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">There shall an altar and a camp</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Impregnably arise;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">There shall be lit a quenchless lamp,</span><br />
+To shine unwavering through the open skies.<br />
+<br />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span><span style="margin-left: 1em;">And song shall 'midst the rocks be heard,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">And fearless prayer ascend;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">While, thrilling to God's holy Word,</span><br />
+The mountain-pines in adoration bend.<br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And there the burning heart no more</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Its deep thought shall suppress;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">But the long-buried truth shall pour</span><br />
+Free currents thence, amidst the wilderness."<br />
+</p>
+
+<p>How could a small body of peasants among the mountains have discovered
+the errors of Rome, and have thrown off her yoke, at a time when the
+whole of Europe received the one and bowed to the other? This could not
+have happened in the natural order of things. Above all, if they did not
+arise till the twelfth or thirteenth century, how came they to frame so
+elaborate and full a testimony as the <i>Noble Lesson</i> against Rome? A
+Church that has a creed must have a history. Nor was it in a year, or
+even in a single age, that they could have compiled such a creed. It
+could acquire form and substance only in the course of centuries,&mdash;the
+Vaudois adding article to article, as Rome added error to error. We can
+have no reasonable doubt, then, that in the Vaudois community we have a
+relic of the primitive Church. Compared with them, the house of Savoy,
+which ruled so long and rigorously over them, is but of yesterday. They
+are more ancient than the Roman Church itself. They have come down to us
+from the world before the papal flood, bearing in their heaven-built and
+heaven-guarded ark the sacred oracles; and now they stand before us as a
+witness to the historic truth of Christianity, and a living copy, in
+doctrine, in government, and in manners, of the Church of the Apostles.</p>
+
+<p>Fain would we tell at length the heroic story of the Vaudois. We use no
+exaggerated speech,&mdash;no rhetorical flourish,&mdash;but speak advisedly, when
+we say, that their history, take it all in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span> all, is the brightest, the
+purest, the most heroic, in the annals of the world. Their martyr-age
+lasted five centuries; and we know of nothing, whether we regard the
+sacredness of the cause, or the undaunted valour, the pure patriotism,
+and the lofty faith, in which the Vaudois maintained it, that can be
+compared with their glorious struggle. This is an age of hero-worship.
+Let us go to the mountains of the Waldenses: there we will find heroes
+"unsung by poet, by senators unpraised," yet of such gigantic stature,
+that the proudest champions of ancient Rome are dwarfed in their
+presence. It was no transient flash of patriotism and valour that broke
+forth on the soil of the Vaudois: that country saw sixteen generations
+of heroes, and five centuries of heroic deeds. Men came from pruning
+their vines or tending their flocks, to do feats of arms which Greece
+never equalled, and which throw into the shade the proudest exploits of
+Rome. The Jews maintained the worship of the true God in their country
+for many ages, and often gained glorious victories; but the Jews were a
+nation; they possessed an ample territory, rich in resources; they were
+trained to war, moreover, and marshalled and led on by skilful and
+courageous chiefs. But the Waldenses were a primitive and simple people;
+they had neither king nor leader; their only sovereign was Jehovah;
+their only guides were their <i>Barbes</i>. The struggle under the Maccabees
+was a noble one; but it attained not the grandeur of that of the
+Vaudois. It was short in comparison; nor do its single exploits, brave
+as they were, rise to the same surpassing pitch of heroism. When read
+after the story of the Vaudois, the annals of Greece and Rome even,
+fruitful though they be in deeds of heroism, appear cold and tame. In
+short, we know of no other instance in the world in which a great and
+sacred object has been prosecuted from father to son for such a length
+of time, with a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span> patriotism so pure, a courage so unshrinking, a
+devotion so entire, and amidst such a multitude of sacrifices,
+sufferings, and woes, as in the case of the Vaudois. The incentives to
+courage which have stimulated others to brave death were wanting in
+their case. If they triumphed, they had no admiring circus to welcome
+them with shouts, and crown them with laurel; and if they fell, they
+knew that there awaited their ashes no marble tomb, and that no lay of
+poet would ever embalm their memory. They looked to a greater Judge for
+their reward. This was the source of that patriotism, the purest the
+world has ever seen, and of that valour, the noblest of which the annals
+of mankind make mention.</p>
+
+<p>Innocent III., who hid under a sanctimonious guise the boundless
+ambition and quenchless malignity of Lucifer, was the first to blow the
+trumpet of extermination against the poor Vaudois. And from the middle
+of the thirteenth to the end of the seventeenth century they suffered
+not fewer than thirty persecutions. During that long period they could
+not calculate upon a single year's immunity from invasion and slaughter.
+From the days of Innocent their history becomes one long harrowing tale
+of papal plots, interdicts, excommunications, of royal proscriptions and
+perfidies, of attack, of plunder, of rapine, of massacre, and of death
+in every conceivable and horrible way,&mdash;by the sword, by fire, and by
+unutterable tortures and torments. The Waldenses had no alternative but
+to submit to these, or deny their Saviour. Yet, driven to arms,&mdash;ever
+their last resource,&mdash;they waxed valiant in fight, and put to flight the
+armies of the aliens. They taught their enemies that the battle was not
+to the strong. When the cloud gathered round their hills, they removed
+their wives and little ones to some rock-girt valley, to the caverns of
+which they had taken the precaution of removing their corn and oil, and
+even<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span> their baking ovens; and there, though perhaps they did not muster
+more than a thousand fighting men in all, they waited, with calm
+confidence in God, the onset of their foes. In these encounters,
+sustained by Heaven, they performed prodigies of valour. The combined
+armies of France and Piedmont recoiled from their shock. Their invaders
+were almost invariably overthrown, sometimes even annihilated; and their
+sovereigns, the Dukes of Savoy, on whose memory there rests the
+indelible blot of having pursued this loyal, industrious, and virtuous
+people with ceaseless and incredible injustice, cruelty, treachery, and
+perfidy, finding that they could not subdue them, were glad to offer
+them terms of peace, and grant them new guarantees of the quiet
+possession of their ancient territory. Thus an invisible omnipotent arm
+was ever extended over the Vaudois and their land, delivering them
+miraculously in times of danger, and preserving them as a peculiar
+people, that by their instrumentality Jehovah might accomplish his
+designs of mercy towards the world.</p>
+
+<p>Nor were the Waldenses content simply to maintain their faith. Even when
+fighting for existence, they recognised their obligations as a
+missionary Church, and strove to diffuse over the surrounding countries
+the light that burned amid their own mountains. Who has not heard of the
+Pra de la Torre, in the valley of Angrona? This is a beautiful little
+meadow, encircled with a barrier of tremendous mountains, and watered by
+a torrent, which, flowing from an Alpine summit, <i>La Sella Vecchia</i>,
+descends with echoing noise through the dark gorges and shining dells of
+the deep and romantic valley. This was the inner sanctuary of the
+Vaudois. Here their <i>Barbes</i> sat; here was their school of the prophets;
+and from this spot were sent forth their pastors and missionaries into
+France, Germany, and Britain, as well as into their own valleys. It<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span> was
+a native and missionary of these valleys, Gualtero Lollard, which gave
+his name, in the fourteenth century, to the Lollards of England, whose
+doctrines were the day-spring of the Reformation in our own country. The
+zeal of the Vaudois was seen in the devices they fell upon to distribute
+the Bible, and along with that a knowledge of the gospel. Colporteurs
+travelled as pedlars; and, after displaying their laces and jewels, they
+drew forth, and offered for sale, or as a gift, a gem of yet greater
+value. In this way the Word of God found entrance alike into cottage and
+baronial castle. It is a supposed scene of this kind which the following
+lines depict:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+Oh! lady fair, these silks of mine<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Are beautiful and rare,&mdash;</span><br />
+The richest web of the Indian loom<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Which beauty's self might wear;</span><br />
+And these pearls are pure and mild to behold,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And with radiant light they vie:</span><br />
+I have brought them with me a weary way;&mdash;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Will my gentle lady buy?</span><br />
+</p>
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+<p class="poem">
+Oh! lady fair, I have got a gem,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Which a purer lustre flings</span><br />
+Than the diamond flash of the jewell'd crown<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">On the lofty brow of kings:</span><br />
+A wonderful pearl of exceeding price,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Whose virtue shall not decay,&mdash;</span><br />
+Whose light shall be as a spell to thee,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And a blessing on the way!</span><br />
+</p>
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+<p class="poem">
+The cloud went off from the pilgrim's brow,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">As a small and meagre book,</span><br />
+Unchased by gold or diamond gem,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">From his folding robe he took.</span><br />
+Here, lady fair, is the pearl of price;&mdash;<br />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span><span style="margin-left: 1em;">May it prove as such to thee!</span><br />
+Nay, keep thy gold&mdash;I ask it not;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>For the Word of God is free!</i></span><br />
+</p>
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+<p class="poem">
+And she hath left the old gray halls,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Where an evil faith hath power,</span><br />
+And the courtly knights of her father's train,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And the maidens of her bower;</span><br />
+And she hath gone to the Vaudois vale,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">By lordly feet untrod,</span><br />
+Where the poor and needy of earth are rich<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">In the perfect love of God!</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>But, turning from this inviting theme, to which volumes only could do
+justice, let us lift the curtain, and look at this simple, heroic
+people, as they appear now, after the "great tribulation" of five
+centuries. The Protestant population of "the Valleys" is 22,000 and
+upwards. They have fifteen churches and parishes, and twenty-five
+persons in all engaged in the work of the ministry. This was their state
+in 1851. Since then, two other parishes, Pignerolo and Turin, have been
+added. To each church a school is attached, with numerous sub-schools.
+It is to the honour of the Vaudois that they led the way in that system
+of general education which is extending itself, more or less, in every
+State in Europe. Repeated edicts of the Waldensian Table rendered it
+imperative upon the community to provide means of religious and
+elementary education for all the children capable of receiving it. They
+have a college at La Tour, fifteen primary schools, and upwards of one
+hundred secondary schools. The whole Waldensian youth is at school
+during winter. In their congregations, the sacrament of the Supper is
+dispensed four times in the year; and it is rare that a young person
+fails to become a communicant after arriving at the proper age. There
+are two preaching days at every<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span> dispensation of the ordinance; and the
+collections made on these occasions are devoted to the poor. There was
+at that time no plate at the church-door on ordinary Sabbaths; and no
+contributions were made by the people for the support of the gospel. I
+presume this error is rectified now, however; for it was then in
+contemplation to adopt the plan in use in Scotland, and elsewhere, of a
+penny-a-week subscription. The stipends of the Waldensian pastors are
+paid from funds contributed by England and Holland. Each receives
+fifteen hundred francs yearly,&mdash;about sixty-two pounds sterling. Their
+incomes are supplemented by a small glebe, which is attached to each
+<i>living</i>. The contribution for the schools and the hospitals is
+compulsory. In their college, in 1851, there were seventy-five students.
+Some were studying for the medical profession, some for commercial
+pursuits; others were qualifying as teachers, and some few as pastors.</p>
+
+<p>The Waldenses inhabit their hills, much as the Jews did their Palestine.
+Each man lives on his ancestral acres; and his farm or vineyard is not
+too large to be cultivated by himself and his family. There are amongst
+them no titles of honour, and scarce any distinctions of rank and
+circumstances. They are a nation of vine-dressers, husbandmen, and
+shepherds. In their habits they are frugal and simple. Their peaceful
+deportment and industrial virtues have won the admiration, and extorted
+the acknowledgments, even of their enemies. In the cultivation of their
+fields, in the breed and management of their cattle and their flocks, in
+the arrangements of their dairies, and in the cleanliness of their
+cabins, they far excel the rest of the Piedmontese. To enlarge their
+territory, they have had recourse to the same device with the Jews of
+old; and the Vaudois mountains, like the Jud&aelig;an hills, exhibit in many<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span>
+places terraces, rising in a continuous series up the hill-side, sown
+with grain or planted with the vine. Every span of earth is cultivated.</p>
+
+<p>The Vaudois excel the rest of the Piedmontese in point of morals, just
+as much as they excel them in point of intelligence and industry. All
+who have visited their abodes, and studied their character, admit, that
+they are incomparably the most moral community on the Continent of
+Europe. When a Vaudois commits a crime,&mdash;a rare occurrence,&mdash;the whole
+valleys mourn, and every family feels as if a cloud rested on its own
+reputation. No one can pass a day among them without remarking the
+greater decorum of their deportment, and the greater kindliness and
+civility of their address. I do not mean to say that, either in respect
+of intelligence or piety, they are equal to the natives of our own
+highly favoured Scotland. They are surrounded on all sides by
+degradation and darkness; they have just escaped from ages of
+proscription; books are few among their mountains; and they have
+suffered, too, from the inroads of French infidelity; an age of
+Moderatism has passed over them, as over ourselves; and from these evils
+they have not yet completely recovered. Still, with all these drawbacks,
+they are immensely superior to any other community abroad; and, in
+simplicity of heart, and purity of life, present us with no feeble
+transcript of the primitive Church, of which they are the
+representatives.</p>
+
+<p>The lotus-flower is said to lift its head above the muddy current of the
+Nile at the precise moment of sunrise. It was indicative, perhaps, of
+the dawning of a new day upon the Vaudois and Italy, that that Church
+experienced lately a revival. That revival was almost immediately
+followed by the boon of political and social emancipation, and by a new
+and enlarged sphere of spiritual action. The year 1848 opened the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span> doors
+of their ancient prison, and called them to go forth and evangelize.
+Formerly, all attempts to extend themselves beyond their mountain abode,
+and to mingle with the nations around them, were uniformly followed by
+disaster. The time was not come; and the integrity of their faith, and
+the accomplishment of their high mission, would have been perilled by
+their leaving their asylum. But when the revolutions of 1848 threw the
+north of Italy open to their action, then came forth the decree of
+Charles Albert, declaring the Vaudois free subjects of Piedmont, and the
+Church of "the Valleys" a free Church. The disabilities under which the
+Waldenses groaned up till this very recent period may well astonish us,
+now that we look back to them. Up till 1848 the Waldensian was
+proscribed, in both his civil and religious rights, beyond the limits of
+his own valleys. Out of his special territory he dared not possess a
+foot-breadth of land; and, if obliged to sell his paternal fields to a
+stranger, he could not buy them back again. He was shut out from the
+colleges of his country; he could not practise as a member of any of the
+learned professions; every avenue to distinction and wealth was closed
+against him,&mdash;his only crime being his religion. He could not marry but
+with one of his own people; he could not build a sanctuary,&mdash;he could
+not even bury his dead,&mdash;beyond the limits of "the Valleys." The
+children were often taken away and trained in the idolatrous rites of
+Romanism, and the unhappy parents had no remedy. They were slandered,
+too, to their sovereigns, as men marked by hideous deformities; and
+great was the surprise of Charles Albert to find, on a visit he paid to
+the Valleys but a little before granting their emancipation, that the
+Vaudois were not the monsters he had been taught to believe. I have been
+told, that to this very day they carry their dead to the grave in open
+coffins, to give ocular <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span>demonstration of the falsehood of the calumnies
+propagated by their enemies, that the corpses of these heretics are
+sometimes consumed by invisible flames, or carried off by evil spirits
+before burial. But now all these disabilities are at an end. The year
+1848 swept them all away; and a bulwark of constitutional feeling and
+action has since grown up around the Vaudois, cutting off the prospect
+of these disabilities ever being re-imposed, unless, indeed, Austria and
+France should combine to put down the Piedmontese constitution. But
+hitherto that nation which gave religious liberty to the people of God
+has had its own political liberties wonderfully protected.</p>
+
+<p>The year 1848, then, was the "exodus" of the Vaudois. And why were they
+brought out of their house of bondage? Surely they have yet a work to
+do. Their great mission, which was to bear witness for the truth during
+the domination of Antichrist, they nobly fulfilled; but are they to have
+no part in diffusing over the plains of Italy that light which they so
+long and so carefully preserved? This undoubtedly is their mission. All
+the leadings of Providence declare it to be so. They were visited with
+revival, brought from their Alpine asylum, had full liberty of action
+given them, all at the moment that Italy had begun to be open to the
+gospel. They are the native evangelists of their own country: let them
+remember their own and their fathers' sufferings, and avenge themselves
+on Rome, not with the sword, but the Bible. And let British Christians
+aid them in this great work, assured that the door to Rome and Italy
+lies through the valleys of the Vaudois.</p>
+
+<p>The last day of my sojourn in the Waldensian territory was Sabbath the
+19th of October, and I worshipped with that people,&mdash;rare enjoyment!&mdash;in
+their sanctuary. The day broke amid high winds and torrents of rain. The
+clouds now<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span> veiled, now revealed, the hill-side, with its variously
+tinted foliage, and its white torrents dashing headlong to the vale. The
+mighty form of the Castelluzzo was seen struggling through mists; and
+high above the winds rose the roar of the swollen waters. At a quarter
+before ten, the church-bell, heard through the pauses of the storm, came
+pealing from the heights. The old church of La Tour,&mdash;the new and more
+elegant fabric which stands in the village was not then opened,&mdash;is
+sweetly placed at the base of the Castelluzzo, embowered amid vines and
+fragrant foliage, and commanding a noble view of the plains of Piedmont.
+Even amidst the driving mists and showers its beauty could not fail to
+be felt. The scenery was&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+"A blending of all beauties, streams and dells,<br />
+Fruits, foliage, crag, wood, corn-field, mountain, vine."<br />
+</p>
+
+<p class="noin">General Beckwith did me the honour to call at my hotel, and I walked
+with him to the church. Outside the building&mdash;for worship had not
+commenced&mdash;were numerous little conversational parties; and around it
+lay the Vaudois dead, sleeping beneath the shadow of their giant rock,
+and free, at last and for ever, from the oppressor. They had found
+another "exodus" from their house of bondage than that which King
+Charles Albert had granted their living descendants. We entered, and
+found the schoolmaster reading the liturgy. This service consists of two
+chapters of the Bible, with at times the reflections of Ostervald
+annexed; during it the congregation came dropping in,&mdash;the husbandmen
+and herdsmen of the Val Lucerna,&mdash;and took their seats. In a little the
+elders entered in a body, and seated themselves round a table in front
+of the pulpit. Next came the pastor, habited, like our Scotch ministers,
+in gown and bands, when the regent instantly ceased. The pastor began
+the public worship by giving out a psalm.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span> He next offered a prayer,
+read the ten commandments, and then preached. The sermon was an
+half-hour's length precisely, and was recited, not read; for I was told
+the Waldenses have a strong dislike to read discourses. The minister of
+La Tour is an old man, and was trained under an order of things
+unfavourable to that higher standard of pulpit qualification, and that
+fuller manifestation of evangelical and spiritual feeling, which, I am
+glad to say, characterize all the younger Waldensian pastors. The people
+listened with great attention to his scriptural discourse; but I was
+sorry to observe that there were few Bibles among them,&mdash;a circumstance
+that may be explained perhaps with reference to the state of the
+weather, and the long distance which many of them have to travel. The
+storm had the effect at least of thinning the audience, and bringing it
+down from about 800, its usual number, to 500 or so. The church was an
+oblong building, with the pulpit on one of the side walls, and a deep
+gallery, resting on thick, heavy pillars, on the other. The men and
+women occupied separate places. With this exception, I saw nothing to
+remind me that I was out of Scotland. One may find exactly such another
+congregation in almost any part of our Scottish Highlands, with this
+difference, that the complexions of the Vaudois are darker than that of
+our Highlanders. They have the same hardy, weather-beaten features, and
+the same robust frames. I saw many venerable and some noble heads among
+them,&mdash;men who would face the storms of the Alps for the lost wanderer
+of the flock, and the edicts and soldiers of Rome for their home-steads
+and altars. There they sat, worshipping their fathers' God, amid their
+fathers' mountains,&mdash;victorious over twelve centuries of proscription
+and persecution, and holding their sanctuaries and their hills in
+defiance of Europe. In the evening Professor Malan preached in the
+schoolhouse of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span> Margarita, a small village on the ascent from La Tour to
+Castelluzzo. He discoursed with great unction, and the crowded audience
+hung upon his lips.</p>
+
+<p>On my way back to my hotel, Professor Malan narrated to me a touching
+anecdote, which I must here put down. Monsignor Mazzarella was a judge
+in one of the High Courts of Sicily; but when the atrocities of the
+re-action began, he refused to be a tool of the Government, and resigned
+his office. He came to Turin, like numerous other political refugees;
+and in one of the re-unions of the workmen, he learned the doctrine of
+"justification by faith." Soon thereafter, that is, in the summer of
+1851, he and a few companions paid a visit to the Vaudois Church. A
+public meeting, over which Professor Malan presided, was held at La
+Tour, to welcome M. Mazzarella and his friends. Professor Malan
+expressed his delight at seeing them in "the Valleys;" welcomed them as
+the first fruits of Italy; and, in the name of the Vaudois Church, gave
+them the right hand of fellowship. The reply of the converted exiles was
+truly affecting, and moved the assembly to tears. Rising up, Mazzarella
+said, "We are the children of your persecutors; but the sons have other
+hearts than the fathers. We have renounced the religion of the
+oppressor, and embraced that of the Vaudois, whom our ancestors so long
+persecuted. You have been the people of God, the confessors of the
+truth; and here before you this night I confess the sin of my fathers in
+putting your fathers to death." Mazzarella at this day is an evangelist
+in Genoa. In his speech we hear the first utterance of repentant
+Christendom. "The sons also of them that afflicted thee shall come
+bending unto thee; and all they that despised thee shall bow themselves
+down at the soles of thy feet; and they shall call thee the city of the
+Lord, the Zion of the Holy One of Israel."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span></p><p>I had now been well nigh a week in "the Valleys." A dream long and
+fondly cherished had become a reality; and next morning I started for
+Turin.</p>
+
+<p>The eventful history of the Vaudois teaches one lesson at least, which
+we Protestants would do well to ponder at this hour. The measures of the
+Church of Rome are quick, summary, and on a scale commensurate with the
+danger. Her motto is instant, unpitying, unsparing, utter extermination
+of all that oppose her. Twice over has the human mind revolted against
+her authority, and twice over has she met that revolt, not with
+argument, but with the sword. In the eleventh and twelfth centuries the
+Waldensian movement had grown to such a head, that the dominion of Rome
+was in imminent jeopardy. Had she delayed, the Reformation would have
+been anticipated by some centuries. She did not delay. She cried for
+help to the warriors of France and Savoy; and, by the help of some
+hundred thousand soldiers, she put down the Waldensian movement as an
+aggressive power. The next revolt against her authority was the
+Reformation. Here again she boldly confronted the danger. She grasped
+her old weapon; and, by the help of the sword and the Jesuits, she put
+down that movement in one half the countries of Europe, and greatly
+weakened it in the other half.</p>
+
+<p>We are now witnessing a third revolt against her authority; and it
+remains to be seen how the Church of Rome will deal with it. Will she
+now adopt half measures? Will she now falter and draw back,&mdash;she that
+never before feared enemy or spared foe? Will that Church that quenched
+in blood the Protestantism of the Waldenses,&mdash;that put down the
+Reformation in France by one terrible blow,&mdash;that by the help of
+dungeons and racks banished the light from Italy and Spain,&mdash;will that
+Church, we ask, spare the Protestantism of Britain?<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span> What folly and
+infatuation to think that she will! What matters it that, in rooting out
+British Protestantism, she should shed oceans of blood, and sound the
+death-knell of a whole nation? These are but dust in the balance to her:
+her dominion must be maintained at all costs. Her motto still is,&mdash;let
+Rome triumph though the heavens should fall. But she tells us that she
+repents. Repents, does she? She has grown pitiful, and tender hearted,
+has she? She fears blood now, and starts at the cry of murdered nations!
+Ah! she repents; but it is her clemency, not her crimes, of which she
+repents. She repents that she did not make one wide St Bartholomew of
+Europe; that when she planted the stake for Huss, and Cranmer, and
+Wishart, she did not plant a million of stakes. Then the Reformation
+would not have been. Yes, she repents, deeply, bitterly repents, her
+fatal blunder. But it will not be her fault, the <i>Univers</i> assures us,
+if she have to repent such a blunder a second time. Let us hear the
+priests speaking through one of the country papers in France:&mdash;"The wars
+of religion were not deplorable catastrophes; these great butcheries
+renewed the life of France. The incense cast away the smell of the
+corpses, and psalms covered the noise of angry shouts. Holy water washed
+away all the bloody stains. With the Inquisition, the most beautiful
+weather succeeded to storms, and the fires that burned the heretics
+shone like supernatural torches." The hand that wrote these lines would
+more gladly light the faggot. Let only the present regime in France last
+a few years, and the priests will again rejoice in seeing the colour of
+heretic blood. There cannot and will not be peace in the world, they
+say, till for every Protestant a gibbet or stake has been erected, and
+not one man left to carry tidings to posterity that ever there was such
+a thing as Protestantism on the earth.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span></p>
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI.</h3>
+
+<h4>FROM TURIN TO NOVARA.</h4>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang">At Turin begins Pilgrimage to Rome&mdash;Description of
+<i>Diligence</i>&mdash;Dora Susina&mdash;Plain of Lombardy&mdash;Its Boundaries&mdash;Nursed
+by the Alps&mdash;Lessons taught thereby&mdash;The Colina&mdash;Inauspicious
+Sunset&mdash;The Road to Milan&mdash;The Po&mdash;Its Source&mdash;Tributaries and
+Function&mdash;Evening&mdash;Home remembered in a Foreign Land&mdash;Inference
+thence regarding Futurity&mdash;Thunderstorm among the
+Alps&mdash;Thunderstorm on the Plain of Lombardy&mdash;Grandeur of the
+Lightning&mdash;Enter Novara at Day-break. </p></div>
+
+
+<p class="noin"><span class="smcap">I had</span> two objects in view in crossing the Alps. The first was to visit
+the land of the Vaudois; the second was to see Rome. The first of these
+objects I had accomplished in part; the second remained to be
+undertaken.</p>
+
+<p>This plain of Piedmont was the richest my foot had ever trodden; but
+often did I turn my eyes wistfully towards the Apennines, which, like a
+veil, shut out the Italy of the Romans and the City of the Seven Hills.
+At Turin, which the Po so sweetly waters, and over which the snow-clad
+hills of the Swiss fling their noble shadows, properly begins my journey
+to Rome.</p>
+
+<p>I started in the <i>diligence</i> for Milan about four of the afternoon of
+the 21st October. Did you ever, reader, set foot in a <i>diligence</i>? It is
+a castle mounted on wheels, rising storey<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span> upon storey to a fearful
+height. It is roomy withal, and has apartments enough within its
+leathern walls for well-nigh the population of a village. There is the
+glass <i>coup&eacute;</i> in front, the drawing-room of the house. There is the
+<i>interieur</i>, which you may compare, if you please, to the dining-room,
+only there you do not dine; and there is the <i>rotundo</i>, a sort of cabin
+attached, the limbo of the establishment, in which you may find
+half-a-dozen unhappy wights for days and nights doing penance. Then, in
+the very fore-front of this moving castle&mdash;hung in mid air, as it
+were&mdash;there is the <i>banquette</i>. It is the roomiest of all, and has,
+moreover, spacious untenanted spaces behind, where you may stow away
+your luggage; and, being the loftiest compartment, it commands the
+country you may happen to traverse. On this account the <i>banquette</i> was
+the place I almost always selected, unless when so unfortunate as to
+find it already bespoke. Half-hours are of no value in the south of the
+Alps, and a very liberal allowance of this commodity was made us before
+starting. At last, however, the formidable process of loading was
+completed, and away we went, rumbling heavily over the streets of Turin
+to the crack of the postilion's whip and the music of the horses' bells.</p>
+
+<p>On emerging from the buildings of the city, we crossed the fine bridge
+over the Dora Susina, an Alpine stream, which attains almost the dignity
+of a river, and which, swollen by recent rains, was hurrying on to join
+the Po. Our course now lay almost due east, over the great plain of
+Lombardy; and there are few rides in any part of the world which can
+bring the traveller such a succession of varied, rich, and sublime
+sights. The plain itself, level as the floor of one's library, and
+wearing a rich carpeting, green at all seasons, of fruits and verdure,
+ran out till it touched the horizon. On the north rose the Alps, a
+magnificent wall, of stature so stupendous, that they seemed to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span> prop
+the heavens. On the south were the gentler Apennines. Between these two
+magnificent barriers, this goodly plain&mdash;of which I know not if the
+earth contains its equal&mdash;stretches away till it terminates in the blue
+line of the Adriatic. On its ample bosom is many a celebrated spot, many
+an interesting object. It has several princely cities, in which art is
+cultivated, and trade flourishes to all the extent which Austrian
+fetters permit. Its old historic towns are numerous. The hoar of eld is
+upon them. It has rags of castles and fortresses which literally have
+braved for a thousand years the battle and the breeze. It has spots
+where empires have been lost and won, and where the dead of the tented
+field sleep their dreamless sleep. It has fine old cathedrals, with
+their antique carvings, their recumbent statues of old-world bishops,
+and their Scripture pieces by various masters, sorely faded; and here
+and there, above the rich foliage of its various woods, like the tall
+mast of a ship at sea, is seen the handsome and lofty campanile, so
+peculiar to the architecture of Lombardy.</p>
+
+<p>The great Alps look down with most benignant aspect upon this plain.
+They seem quite proud of it, and nurse it with the care and tenderness
+of a parent. Noble rivers not a few&mdash;the Ticino, the Adige, and streams
+and torrents without number&mdash;do they send down, to keep its beauty ever
+fresh. These streams cross and re-cross its green bosom in all
+directions, forming by their interlacings a curious network of silvery
+lines, like the bright threads in the mine, or the white veins in the
+porphyritic slab. Observe this little flower, with its bright petals,
+growing by the wayside. That humble flower owes its beauty to yonder
+chain. From the frozen summits of the Alps come the waters at which it
+daily drinks. And when the dog-days come, and a fiery sun looks down
+upon the plain from a sky that is cloudless for months together,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span> and
+when every leaf droops, and even the tall poplar seems to bow itself
+beneath the intolerable heat, the mountains, pitying the panting plain,
+send down their cool breezes to revive it. Would that from the lofty
+pinnacles of rank and talent there descended upon the lower levels of
+society an influence equally wholesome and beneficent! Were there more
+streams from the mountain, there would be more fruits upon the plain.
+The world would not be the scorched desert which it is, in which the
+vipers of envy and discontent hiss and sting; but a fragrant garden,
+full of the fruits of social order and of moral principle. Truly, man
+might learn many a useful lesson from the earth on which he treads: the
+great, to dispense freely out of their abundance,&mdash;for by dispensing
+they but multiply their blessings, as Mont Blanc, by sending down its
+streams to enrich the plain, feeds those snows which are its glory and
+crown,&mdash;and the humble, the lesson of a thankful reciprocation. This
+plain does not drink in the waters of the Alps, and sullenly refuse to
+own its obligations. Like a duteous child, it brings its yearly offering
+to the foot of Mont Blanc,&mdash;fields of golden wheat, countless vines with
+their blood-red clusters, fruits of every name, and flowers of every
+hue;&mdash;such is the noble tribute which this plain, year by year, lays at
+the feet of its august parent. There is but one drawback to its
+prosperity. Two sombre shadows fall gloomily athwart its surface. These
+are Austria and Rome.</p>
+
+<p>The plain of Lombardy is so broad, and the road to Milan by Novara is so
+much on a level with its general surface, that the eye catches the
+distant Apennines only at the more elevated points. The screen which
+here, and for miles after leaving Turin, shuts out the view of the
+Apennines, is the Colina. The Colina is a range of lovely hills, which
+rise to a height of rather more than 1200 feet, and run eastward along<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span>
+the plain a few miles south of the Milan road. Soft and rich in their
+covering, picturesque in their forms, and indented with numerous dells,
+they look like miniature Alps set down on the plain, nearly equidistant
+from the great white hills on the north and the purple peaks on the
+south. The sun was near his setting; and his level rays, passing through
+fields of vapour,&mdash;presages of storm,&mdash;and shorn of the fiery brilliancy
+which is wont at eve to set these hills on a blaze, fell softly upon the
+dome of the Superga, and lighted up the white villas which stud the
+mountain by hundreds and hundreds throughout its whole extent. Vividly
+relieved by the deep azure of the vineyards, and looking, from their
+distance, no bigger than single blocks, these villas reminded one of a
+shower of marble, freshly fallen, and glittering in pearly whiteness in
+the setting rays.</p>
+
+<p>The road, which to me had an almost sacred character, being the
+beginning of my journey to Rome, was a straight line,&mdash;straight as the
+arrow's flight,&mdash;between fields of rich meadow land, and rows of elms
+and poplars, which ran on and on, till, in the far distance, they
+appeared to converge to a point. It was a broad, macadamized,
+substantial highway, of about thirty feet in width, having a white line
+of curb-stones placed eight or ten paces apart; outside of which was an
+excellent pathway for foot passengers. On the left rose the Alps, calm
+and majestic, clothed in the purple shadows of evening.</p>
+
+<p>I have mentioned the Po as flowing past Turin. This stream is doubtless
+the relic of that mighty flood which covered, at some former period, the
+vast space between the Alps and the Apennines, from the Graian and
+Cottian chains on the west, to the shores of the Adriatic on the east.
+As the waters drained off, this central channel alone was left, to
+receive and convey to the sea the innumerable torrents which are formed
+by the springs and snows of the mountains. The<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span> noble river thus formed
+is called the Po,&mdash;the pride of Italy, and the king of its streams. The
+Greeks, who clothed it with fable, and drowned Phaeton in its stream,
+called it Eridanus. Its Roman appellation was Padus, which in course of
+time resolved itself into its present name, the Po. Unlike the Nile,
+which rolls in solemn and solitary majesty through Egypt without
+permitting one solitary rill to mingle with its flood, the Po welcomes
+every tributary, and accepts its help in discharging its great function
+of giving drink to every flower, and tree, and field, and city, in broad
+Lombardy. It receives, in its course through Piedmont alone, not fewer
+than fifty-three torrents and rivers; and in depth and grandeur of
+stream it is not unworthy of the praises which the Greek and Roman poets
+lavished upon it. The cradle of this noble stream is placed in the
+centre of the ancient territory of the Vaudois, whose most beautiful
+mountain, Monte Viso, is its nursing parent. A fountain of crystal
+clearness, placed half-way up this hill, is its source. Thence it goes
+forth to water Piedmont and Venetian-Lombardy, and to mingle at last
+with the clear wave of the Adriatic,&mdash;emblem of those living waters
+which were to go forth from this same land into all quarters of Europe.</p>
+
+<p>The sun had now set; and I marked that this evening no golden beams
+among the mountains, no burning peaks, attended his departure. He went
+in silent sadness, like a friend quitting a circle which he fears may
+before his return be visited with calamity. With him departed the glory
+of the scene. The vine-clad Colina, erst sparkling with villas, put out
+its lights, and resolved itself into a dark bank, which leaned,
+cloud-like, against the sky. The stupendous white piles on the left drew
+a thin night vapour around them, and retired from the scene, like some
+mighty spirit gathering his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span> robe about him, and leaving the earth,
+which his presence had enlightened, dark and solitary. The plain lay
+before us a sombre expanse, in which all objects&mdash;towns, spires, and
+forests&mdash;were fast blending into one darkly-shaded and undefined
+picture. Dwellers in <i>diligences</i>, as well as dwellers in hotels, must
+sleep if they can; but the hour for "turning in" had scarce arrived, and
+meanwhile, I remember, my thoughts took strongly a homeward direction.</p>
+
+<p>With these, of course, I shall not trouble the reader; only I must be
+permitted to mention a misconception into which I had fallen, in
+connection with my journey, and into which it is possible others may
+fall in similar circumstances. One is apt to imagine, before starting,
+that should he reach such a country as Italy, he will there feel as if
+home was very distant, and the events of his former life far removed in
+point of time. He thinks that a journey across the Alps has somehow a
+talismanic power to change him. He crosses the Alps, but finds that he
+is the same man still. Home has come with him: the friendships, the
+joys, the sorrows, of his past existence are as near as ever; nay, far
+nearer, for now he is alone with them; and though he goes southward, and
+kingdoms and mountain-chains are between him and his native country, he
+cannot feel that he is a foot-breadth more distant than ever. He moves
+about through strange lands in a shroud of home feelings and
+recollections.</p>
+
+<p>How wretched, thought I, the man whom guilt chases from his country! He
+flies to distant lands in the hope of shaking off the remembrance of his
+crime. He finds that, go where he will, the spectre dogs his steps. In
+Paris, in Milan, in Rome, the grizzly form starts up before him. He must
+change, not his country, but his heart&mdash;himself&mdash;before he can shake off
+his companion.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span></p><p>May not the same principle be applicable, in some extent, to our
+passage from earth into the world beyond? When at home in Scotland, I
+had thought of Italy as a distant country; but now that I was in Italy,
+Scotland seemed very near&mdash;much nearer than Italy had done when in
+Scotland. We who are dwellers on earth think of the state beyond as very
+remote; but once there, may we not feel as if earth was in close
+proximity to us,&mdash;as if, in fact, the two states were divided by but a
+narrow gulph? Certain it is that the passage across it will work in us
+no change; and, like the stranger in a foreign country, we shall enter
+with an eternal shroud of joys and sorrows, springing out of the deeds
+and events of our present existence.</p>
+
+<p>I found that if in this region the day had its beauty, the night had its
+sublimity and terrors. I had years before become familiar with the
+phenomena of thunder-storms among the Alps; and one who has seen
+lightning only in the sombre sky of Britain can scarce imagine its
+intense brilliancy in these more southern latitudes. With us it breaks
+with a red fiery flicker; there it bursts upon you like the sun, and
+pours a flood of noonday light over earth and sky. One evening, in
+particular, I shall never forget, on which I saw this phenomenon in
+circumstances highly favourable to its finest effect. I had walked out
+from Geneva to pass a few hours with the Tronchin family, whose mansion
+stands on the southern shores of the lake. It was evening; and the deep
+rolling of the thunder gave us warning that a storm had come on. We
+stepped out upon the lawn to enjoy the spectacle; for in the vicinity of
+the Alps, whose summits attract the fluid, the lightning is seldom
+dangerous to life. All was dark as midnight; not even the front of the
+mansion could we see. In a moment the flash came; and then it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span> was
+day,&mdash;boundless, glorious day. All nature was set before us as if under
+the light of a cloudless sun. The lawn, the blue lake, the distant
+Alpine summits, the landscape around, with its pines, villas, and
+vineyards, all leaped out of the womb of night, stood in vivid intense
+splendour before the eye, and in a twinkling was again gone. This
+amazing transition from midnight to noonday, and from noonday to
+midnight, was repeated again and again. I was now to witness the
+sublimities of a thunder-storm on the plain of Lombardy.</p>
+
+<p>Right before us, on the far-off horizon, gleams of light began to shoot
+along the sky. The play of the electric fluid was so rapid and
+incessant, as to resemble rather the continuous flow of light from its
+fountain, than the fitful flashes of lightning. At times these gleams
+would mantle the sky with all the soft beauty of moonlight, and at
+others they would dart angrily and luridly athwart the horizon. Soon the
+storm assumed a grander form. A ball of fire would suddenly blaze forth,
+in livid, fiery brilliancy; and, remaining motionless, as it were, for
+an instant, would then shoot out lateral streams or rays, coloured
+sometimes like the rainbow, and quivering and fluttering like the
+outspread wings of eagles. One's imagination could almost conceive of it
+as being a real bird, the ball answering to the body, while the flashes
+flung out from it resembled the wings, which were of so vast a spread,
+that they touched the Apennines on the one hand, and the Alps on the
+other.</p>
+
+<p>The storm took yet another form, and one that increased the sublimity of
+the scene, by adding a slight feeling of uneasiness to the admiration
+with which we had contemplated it so far. A cloud of pitchy darkness
+rose in the south, and crossed the plain, shedding deepest night in its
+track, and shooting its<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span> fires downward on the earth as it came onwards.
+It passed right over our heads, enveloping us for the while (like some
+mighty archer, with quiver full of arrows) in a shower of flaming
+missiles. The interval between the flashes was brief,&mdash;so very brief,
+that we were scarcely sensible of any interval at all. There was not
+more than four seconds between them. The light was full and strong, as
+if myriads and myriads of bude lights had been kindled on the summits of
+the Apennines. In short, it was day while it lasted, and every object
+was visible, as if made so by the light of the sun. The horses which
+dragged our vehicle along the road,&mdash;the postilion with the red facings
+on his dress,&mdash;the meadows and mulberry woods which bordered our
+path,&mdash;the road itself, stretching away and away for miles, with its
+rows of tall poplars, and its white curb-stones, dotted with waggons and
+couriers, and a few foot-passengers,&mdash;and the red autumnal leaves, as
+they fell in swirling showers in the gust,&mdash;all were visible. Indeed, we
+may be said to have performed several miles of our journey under broad
+daylight, excepting that these sudden revelations of the face of nature
+alternated with moments of profoundest night. At length the big
+rain-drops came rattling to the earth; and, to protect ourselves, we
+drew the thick leathern curtain of the <i>banquette</i>, buttoning it tight
+down all around. It kept out the rain, but not the lightning. The seams
+and openings of the covering seemed glowing lines of fire, as if the
+<i>diligence</i> had been literally engulphed in an ocean of living flame.
+The whole heavens were in a roar. The Apennines called to the Alps; the
+Alps shouted to the Apennines; and the plain between quaked and trembled
+at the awful voice. At length the storm passed away to the north, and
+found its final goal amid the mountains, where for hours afterwards the
+thunder continued to growl, and the lightnings to sport.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span></p><p>Order being now restored among the elements, we endeavoured to snatch
+an hour's sleep. It was but a dreamy sort of slumber, which failed to
+bestow entire unconsciousness to external objects. Faded towns and tall
+campaniles seemed to pass by in a ghost-like procession, which was
+interrupted only by the arrival of the <i>diligence</i> at the various
+stages, where we had to endure long, weary halts. So passed the night.
+At the first dawn we entered Novara. It lay, spread out on the dusky
+plain, an irregular patch of black, with the clear, silvery crescent of
+a moon hanging above it.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span></p>
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII.</h3>
+
+<h4>THE INTRODUCTION.</h4>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang">Novara&mdash;Examination of Passports&mdash;Dawn&mdash;Monks prefer Dim Light to
+Clear&mdash;Battle of Novara, and its Results&mdash;The
+Ticino&mdash;Croats&mdash;Austrian Frontier and Dogana&mdash;Examination of Books
+and Baggage&mdash;Grandeur of the Alps from this Point&mdash;Contrast betwixt
+the Rivers and the Governments of Italy&mdash;Proof from thence of the
+Fall&mdash;Providence "from seeming Evil educing Good"&mdash;Rich but
+Monotonous Scenery of the Plain&mdash;Youth of the Alps, and Decay of
+the Lombard nations&mdash;The only Remedy&mdash;An Expelled Democrat&mdash;First
+View of Milan. </p></div>
+
+
+<p class="noin"><span class="smcap">Novara</span>, of course, like all decent towns in Lombardy and elsewhere, at
+four in the morning was a-bed, and our heavy vehicle, as its harsh
+echoes broke roughly on the silent streets, sounded strangely loud. We
+were driven right into a courtyard, to have our passports examined. We
+had left Turin the evening before, with a clean bill of political
+health, duly certified by three legations,&mdash;the Sardinian, the English,
+and the Austrian; and in so short a journey&mdash;not to speak of the flood
+and fire we had passed through&mdash;it was scarce possible that we could
+have contracted fresh pollution. We were examined anew, however, lest
+the plague-spot should have broken out upon us. All was found right, and
+we were let go to a neighbouring restaurant, where we swallowed a cup of
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span>coffee,&mdash;our only meal betwixt Turin and Milan. After a full hour's
+halt, we re-mounted the <i>diligence</i>, and set forth.</p>
+
+<p>On emerging from the streets of the city, I found the east in the glow
+of dawn. Still, and pure, and calm broke the light; and under its ray
+the rich plain awoke into beauty, forgetful of the fiery bolts which had
+smitten it, and the darkness and destruction which had so lately passed
+across it. "Hail, holy light!" exclaims the bard of "Paradise." Yes,
+light is holy. It is undefiled and pure, as when "God saw the light that
+it was good." Man has ravaged the earth and reddened the seas; but light
+has escaped his contaminating touch, and is still as God made it,
+unless, indeed, when man imprisons it within the stained glass of the
+cathedral, and then obligingly helps its dimness by lighting a score or
+so of tapers. Did no monk ever think of putting a stained window in the
+east, and compelling the sun to ogle the world through spectacles? "The
+light is good," said He who created it, as He saw it darting its first
+pure beam across creation. Not so, says the Puseyite; it is not good
+unless it is coloured.</p>
+
+<p>I looked with interest on the plains around Novara; for there, albeit no
+trace of the bloody fray remains, the army of Charles Albert in 1848 met
+the host of Radetzky; and there the fate of the campaign for Italian
+independence was decided. The battle which was fought on these plains
+led to the destruction of King Charles Albert, but not to the
+destruction of his kingdom of Sardinia,&mdash;though why Radetzky did not
+follow up his victory by a march on Turin, is to this hour a mystery.
+Nay, though it sounds a little paradoxical, it is probable that this
+battle, by destroying the king, saved the kingdom. Had Charles Albert
+survived till the re-action set in 1849 and 1850, there is too much
+reason to fear, from his antecedents, that he would have thrown himself
+into the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span> current with the rest of the Italian rulers; and so Sardinia
+would have missed the path of constitutional liberty and material
+development which it has since, under King Victor Emanuel, so happily
+pursued. Had that happened, the horizon of Italy, dark as it is at this
+hour, would have been still darker, and the peninsula, from the Alps to
+Sicily, would not have contained a single spot where the hunted friends
+of liberty could have found asylum.</p>
+
+<p>We soon approached the Ticino, the boundary between Sardinia and
+Austrian Lombardy. The Ticino is a majestic river, here spanned by one
+of the finest bridges in Italy. It contains eleven arches; is of the
+granite of Mount Torfano; and, like almost all the great modern works in
+Italy, was commenced by Napoleon, though finished only after his fall.
+Here, then, was the gate of Austria; and seated at that gate I saw three
+Croats,&mdash;fit keepers of Austrian order.</p>
+
+<p>I was not ignorant of the hand these men had had in the suppression of
+the revolution of 1848, and of the ruthless tragedies they were said to
+have enacted in Milan and other cities of Lombardy; and I rode up to
+them in the eager desire of scrutinizing their features, and reading
+there the signs of that ferocity which had given them such wide-spread
+but evil renown. They sat basking themselves on a bench in front of the
+Dogana, with their muskets and bayonets glittering in the sun. They were
+lads of about eighteen, of decidedly low stature, of square build, and
+strongly muscular. They looked in capital condition, and gave every sign
+that the air of Lombardy agreed with them, and that they had had their
+own share at least of its corn and wine. They wore blue caps, gray
+duffle greatcoats like those used by our Highlanders, light blue
+pantaloons fitting closely their thick short leg, and boots which rose
+above the ankle, and laced in front. The<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span> prevailing expression on their
+broad swarthy faces was not ferocity, but stolidity. Their eyes were
+dull, and contrasted strikingly with the dark fiery glances of the
+children of the land. They seemed men of appetites rather than passions;
+and, if guilty of cruel deeds, were likely to be so from the dull, cold,
+unreflecting ferocity of the bull-dog, rather than from the warm
+impulsive instincts of the nobler animals. In stature and feature they
+were very much the barbarian, and were admirably fitted for being what
+they were,&mdash;the tools of the despot. No wonder that the <i>ideal</i> Italian
+abominates the <i>Croat</i>.</p>
+
+<p>The Dogana! So soon! 'Twas but a few miles on the other side of the
+Ticino that we passed through this ordeal. But perhaps the river,
+glorious as it looks, flowing from the democratic hills of the Swiss,
+may have infected us with political pravity; so here again we must
+undergo the search, and that not a mere <i>pro forma</i> one. The <i>diligence</i>
+vomits forth, at all its mouths, trunks, carpet-bags, and packages,
+encased, some in velvet, some in fir-deals, and some in brown paper. The
+multifarious heap was carried into the Dogana, and its various articles
+unroped, unlocked, and their contents scattered about. One might have
+thought that a great fair was about to begin, or that a great Industrial
+Exhibition was to be opened on the banks of the Ticino. The hunt was
+especially for books,&mdash;bad books, which England will perversely print,
+and Englishmen perversely read. My little stock was collected, bound
+together with a cord, and sent in to the chief douanier, who sat,
+Radamanthus-like, in an inner apartment, to judge books, papers, and
+persons. There is nothing there, thought I, to which even an Austrian
+official can take exception. Soon I was summoned to follow my little
+library. The man examined the collection volume by<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span> volume. At last he
+lighted on a number of the <i>Gazetta del Popolo</i>,&mdash;the same which I have
+already mentioned as given me by the editors in Turin. This, thought I,
+will prove the dead fly in my box of ointment. The sheet was opened and
+examined. "Have you," said the official, "any more?" I could reply with
+a clear conscience that I had not. To my surprise, the paper was
+returned to me. He next took up my note-book. Now, said I to myself,
+this is a worse scrape than the other. What a blockhead I am not to have
+put the book into my pocket; for, except in extreme cases, the
+traveller's person is never searched. The man opened the thin volume,
+and found it inscribed with mysterious and strange characters. It was
+written in short-hand. He turned over the leaves; on every page the same
+unreadable signs met the eye. He held it by the top, and next by the
+bottom: it was equally inscrutable either way. He shut it, and examined
+its exterior, but there was nothing on the outside to afford a key to
+the mystic characters within. He then turned to me for an explanation of
+the suspicious little book. Affecting all the unconcern I could, I told
+him that it contained only a few commonplace jottings of my journey. He
+opened the book; took one other leisurely survey of it; then looked at
+me, and back again at the book; and, after a considerable pause, big
+with the fate of my book, he made me a bland bow, and handed me the
+volume. I was equally polite on my part, inly resolving, that
+henceforward Austrian douanier should not lay finger on my note-book.</p>
+
+<p>The halt here was one of from two to three hours, which were spent in
+unlading the <i>diligence</i>, opening and locking trunks,&mdash;for in Austria
+nothing is done in a hurry, save the trial and execution of Mazzinists.
+But the long halt was nothing to me: I could not possibly lose time, and
+I could<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span> scarce be stopped at the wrong place; and certainly the bridge
+of the Ticino is the very spot one would select for such a halt, were
+the matter left in one's own choice. It commands the finest assemblage
+of grand objects, in a ride abounding in magnificent objects throughout.
+Having been pronounced, in passport phrase, "good to enter
+Austria,"&mdash;for my carpet-bag was clean, though doubtless my mind was
+foul with all sorts of notions which, in the latitude of Austria, are
+rankly heretical,&mdash;(and, by the way, of what use is it to search trunks,
+and leave breasts unexplored? Here is an imperfection in the system,
+which I wonder the Jesuits don't correct)&mdash;having, I say, had the
+Croat-guarded gates of Austria opened to me till I should find it
+convenient to enter, I retraced the few paces which divided the Dogana
+from the bridge, and stood above the rolling floods of the Ticino.</p>
+
+<p>Refreshing it verily was to turn from the petty tyrannies of an Austrian
+custom-house, to the free, joyous, and glorious face of nature. Before
+me were the Alps, just shaking the cold night mists from their shaggy
+pine-clad sides, as might a lion the dew-drops from his mane. Here rose
+Monte Rosa in a robe of never-fading glory and beauty; and there stood
+Mont Blanc, with his diadem of dazzling snows. The giant had planted his
+feet deep amid rolling hills, covered with villages, and pine-forests,
+and rich pastures. Anywhere else these would have been mountains; but,
+dwarfed by the majestic form in whose presence they stood, they looked
+like small eminences, scattered gracefully at his base, as pebbles at
+the foot of some lofty pile. On his breast floated the fleecy clouds of
+morn, while his summit rose high above these clouds, and stood, in the
+calm of the firmament, a stupendous pile of ice and snow. Never had I
+seen the Alps to such advantage. The level plain ran quite up to them,
+and allowed the eye to take<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span> their full height from their flower-girt
+base to their icy summit. Hundreds and hundreds of peaks ran along the
+sky, conical, serrated, needle-shaped, jagged, some flaming like the
+ruby in the morning ray, others dazzlingly white as the alabaster.</p>
+
+<p>As I bent over the parapet, gazing on the flood that rolled beneath, I
+could not help contrasting the bounty of nature with the oppression of
+man. Here had this river been flowing through the long centuries,
+dispensing its blessings without stop or grudge. Day and night, summer
+and winter, it had rolled gladsomely onwards, bringing verdure to the
+field, fruitage to the bough, and plenty to the peasant's cot. Now it
+laved the flower on its brink,&mdash;now it fed the umbrageous sycamore and
+the tall poplar on the plain,&mdash;and now it sent off a crystal streamlet
+to meander through corn-field and meadow-land. It exacted nothing of man
+for the blessings it so unweariedly dispensed. It gave all freely.
+Whether, said I to myself, does Italy owe most to its rivers or to its
+Governments? Its rivers give it corn and wine: its Governments give it
+chains and prisons. They load the patient Lombard with burdens that
+press him down into toil and poverty; or they lead him away to shed his
+blood and lay his bones in a foreign soil. Why is it that all the
+functions of nature are beneficent? Even the storms that rage around
+Mont Blanc, the ice of its eternal winter, yield only good. Here they
+come, a river of crystal water, decking with living green this
+far-spreading plain. But the institutions of man are not so. From their
+frozen summits have too oft, alas! descended, not the peaceful river,
+but the thundering avalanche, burying in irretrievable ruin, man, with
+his labours and hopes. I suspect, however, that this is a narrow as well
+as a sombre philosophy. Doubtless the great fact of the Fall is written
+on<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span> the face of life. Nevertheless, we have a strong belief that the
+mighty schemes of Providence, like the arrangements of external nature,
+will all in the end become dispensers of good; that those evil systems
+which have burdened the earth, like those mountains of ice and snow
+which rise on its surface, have their uses, though as yet we stand too
+near them, and too much within the sphere of their tempests and their
+avalanches, fully to comprehend these uses. We must descend into the
+low-lying plains of the future, and contemplate them afar off; and then
+the glaciers and tempests of these moral Mont Blancs may dissolve into
+tender showers and crystal rivers, which will fructify and gladden the
+world.</p>
+
+<p>In a few minutes I must leave the bridge of the Ticino. Could I, when
+far away,&mdash;in the seclusion of my own library, for instance,&mdash;bid the
+Alps rise before me, in stupendous magnificence, as now? I turned round,
+and fixed my gaze on the tamer objects of the plain; then back again to
+the mountains; but every time I did so, I felt the scene as new. Its
+glory burst on me as if seen for the first time. Alas! thought I, if
+this majestic image has so faded in the interval of a few moments, what
+will it be years after? A scene like this, it is true, can never be
+forgotten; but it is but a dwarfed picture that lives in the memory; and
+it is well, perhaps, it should be so; for were one to see always the
+Alps, with what eyes would one look upon the tamer though still romantic
+hills of his own country! And we may extend the principle. There are
+times when great truths&mdash;eternal verities&mdash;flash upon the soul in Alpine
+magnitude. It is a new world that discloses itself, and we are thrilled
+by its glory; but for the effective discharge of ordinary duties, it is
+better, perhaps, that these stupendous objects should be seen "as
+through a glass darkly," though still seen.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span></p><p>All too soon was the <i>diligence</i> ready to start. From the bridge of the
+Ticino the scenery was decidedly tamer. The Alps fell more into the
+background, and with their white peaks disappeared the chief glory of
+the scene. The plain was so level, and its woods of mulberry and walnut
+so luxuriant, that little could be seen save the broad road, with its
+white lines of curb-stones running on and on, and losing itself in the
+deep foliage of the plain. Its windings and turnings, though coming only
+at an interval of many miles, were a pleasant relief from the sameness
+of the journey. Occasionally side views of great fertility opened upon
+us. There were the small farms of the Lombard; and there was the tall
+Lombard himself, striding across his fields. If the farms were small,
+amends was made by the largeness of the farm-house. There was no great
+air of comfort about it, however. It wanted its little garden, and its
+over-arching vine-bough, which one sees in the happier cantons of
+Switzerland; and the furrowed and care-shaded face of the owner bespoke
+greater acquaintance with hard labour than with the dainties which the
+bounteous earth so freely yields. The Lombard plants, but another eats.
+We could see, too, how extensively and thoroughly irrigated was the
+plain. Numerous canals, brim-full of water, the gift of the Alps,
+traversed it in all directions; and by means of a system of sluices and
+aqueducts the surrounding fields could be flooded at pleasure. The plain
+enjoys thus the elements of a boundless fertility, and is the seat of an
+almost eternal summer.</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+Hic Ver perpetuum, atque alienis mensibus &AElig;stas.<br />
+</p>
+
+<p class="noin">But the little towns we passed looked so very old and tottering, and the
+inhabitants, too, appeared as much oppressed with years or cares as the
+heavy dilapidated architecture<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span> amid which they dwelt, and out of which
+they crept as we passed by, that one's heart grew sad. How evident was
+it that the immortal spirit was withered, and that the land, despite its
+images of grandeur and sublimity, nourished a stricken race! The Alps
+were still young, but the men that lived within their shadow had grown
+very old. Their ears had too long been familiar with the clank of
+chains, and their hearts were too sad to catch up the utterances of
+freedom which came from their mountains. The human soul was dying, and
+will die, unless new fire from a celestial source descend to rekindle
+it. Architecture, music, new constitutions, the ever glorious face of
+nature itself, will not prevent the approaching death of the continental
+nations. There is but one book in the world that can do it,&mdash;the Book of
+Life. Unfold its pages, and a more blessed and glorious effulgence than
+that which lights up the Alps at sunrise will break upon the nations;
+but, alas! this cannot be so long as the Jesuit and the Croat are there.
+We saw, too, on our journey, other things that did not tend to put us
+into better spirits. As we approached Milan, we met a couple of
+gensdarmes leading away a poor foot-sore revolutionist to the frontier.
+Ah! said I inly, could the Jesuits look into my breast, they would find
+there ideas more dangerous to their power, in all probability, than
+those that this man entertains; and yet, while he is expelled, I am
+admitted. No thanks to them, however. I rode onwards. League followed
+league of the richest but the most unvaried scenery. Campanile and
+hamlet came and went: still Milan came not. I strained my eyes in the
+direction in which I expected its roofs and towers to appear, but all to
+no purpose. At length there rose over the green woods that covered the
+plain, as if evoked by enchantment, a vision of surpassing beauty. I
+gazed entranced. The lovely<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span> creation before me was white as the Alpine
+snows, and shot up in a glorious cluster of towers, spires, and
+pinnacles, which flashed back the splendours of the mid-day sun. It
+looked as if it had sprung from under the chisel but yesterday. Indeed,
+one could hardly believe that human hands had fashioned so fair a
+structure. It was so delicate, and graceful, and aerial, and unsullied,
+that I thought of the city which burst upon the pilgrims when they had
+got over the river, or that which a prophet saw descending out of
+heaven. Milan, hid in rich woods, was before me, and this was its
+renowned Cathedral.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span></p>
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII.</h3>
+
+<h4>CITY AND PEOPLE OF MILAN.</h4>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang">The Barrier&mdash;Beautiful Aspect of the City&mdash;Hotel Royale&mdash;History of
+Milan&mdash;Dreariness of its Streets&mdash;Decay of Art&mdash;Decay of Trade&mdash;The
+Cathedral&mdash;Beauty, not Sublimity, its Characteristic&mdash;Its Exterior
+described&mdash;The Piazza of the Cathedral&mdash;Austrian Cannon&mdash;Pamphlets
+on Purgatory&mdash;Punch&mdash;Punch <i>versus</i> the Priest&mdash;Church and State in
+Italy&mdash;Austrian Oppression&mdash;Confiscation of Estates in
+Lombardy&mdash;Forced Loans&mdash;Niebuhr's Idea that the Dark Ages are
+returning. </p></div>
+
+
+<p class="noin"><span class="smcap">It</span> was an hour past noon when the <i>diligence</i>, with its polyglot
+freight, drove up to the harrier. There gathered round the vehicle a
+white cloud of Austrian uniforms, and straightway every compartment of
+the carriage bristled with a forest of hands holding passports. These
+the men-at-arms received; and, making them hastily up into a bundle, and
+tying them with a piece of cord, they despatched them by a special
+messenger to the Prefect; so that hardly had we entered the Porta
+Vercellina, till our arrival was known at head-quarters. There was
+handed at the same time to each passenger a printed paper, in which the
+same notification was four times repeated,&mdash;first in Italian, next in
+French, then in German, and lastly in English,&mdash;enjoining the holder,
+under certain penalties,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span> to present himself within a given number of
+hours at the Police Office.</p>
+
+<p>It was under these conditions,&mdash;a pilgrim from a far land,&mdash;that I
+appeared at the gates of Milan. The passport detention seemed less an
+annoyance here than I had ever felt it before. The beauteous city,
+sitting so tranquilly amidst the sublimest scenery, seemed to have
+something of a celestial character about it. It looked so resplendent,
+partly by reason of the materials of which it is built, and partly by
+reason of the sun that shone upon it as an Italian sun only can shine,
+that none but pure men, I felt, might dwell here, and none but pure men
+might enter at its gates. There were white sentinels at its portals;
+rows of white houses formed its exterior; and in the middle of the city,
+floating above it,&mdash;for it seemed to float rather than to rest on
+foundations,&mdash;was its snow-white temple,&mdash;a place too holy almost, as it
+seemed, for human worship and human worshippers; and then the city had
+for battlements a glorious wall, white as alabaster, which rose to the
+clouds. Everything conspired to cheat the visitor into the belief that
+he had come at last to an abode where every hurtful passion was hushed,
+and where Peace had fixed her chosen seat.</p>
+
+<p>"All right," shouted the passport official: the gensdarmes, who guarded
+the path with naked bayonet, stepped aside; and the quick, sharp crack
+of the postilion's whip set the horses a-moving. We skirted the spacious
+esplanade, and saw in the distance the beauteous form of the Arco della
+Pace. We had not gone far till the drum's roll struck upon the ear, and
+a long glittering line of Austrian bayonets was seen moving across the
+esplanade. It was evident that the time had not yet come to Milan, all
+glorious as she seemed, when men "shall learn war no more." We plunged
+into a series of narrow streets, which open on the Mercato Vecchio. We
+crossed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span> the Corso, and came out upon the broad promenade that traverses
+Milan from the square of the Duomo to the Porta Orientale. We soon found
+ourselves at the <i>diligence</i> office; and there, our little colony of
+various nations breaking up, I bade adieu to the good vehicle which had
+carried me from Turin, and took my way to the Hotel Royale, in the
+Contrada dei tre Re.</p>
+
+<p>At the first summons of the porter's bell the gate opened. On entering,
+I found myself in what had been one of the palaces of Milan when the
+city was in its best days. But the Austrian eagle had scared the native
+princes and nobles of the Queen of Lombardy, who were gone, and had left
+their streets to be trodden by the Croat, and their palaces to be
+tenanted by the wayfarer. The buildings of the hotel formed a spacious
+quadrangle, three storeys high, with a finely paved court in the centre.
+I was conducted up stairs to my bed-room, which, though by no means
+large, and plainly furnished, presented the luxury of extreme
+cleanliness, with its beautifully polished wooden floor, and its
+delicately white napery and curtains. The saloon on the ground-floor
+opened sweetly into a little garden, with its fountain, its bit of
+rock-work, and its gods and nymphs of stone. The apartment had a
+peculiarly comfortable air at breakfast-time. The hissing urn, flanked
+by the tea-caddy; the rich brown coffee, the delicious butter, and the
+not less delicious bread, the produce of the plains around, not
+unnaturally white, as with us, but golden, like the wheat when it waves
+in the autumnal sun; and the guests, mostly English, which assembled
+morning after morning,&mdash;made the return of this hour very pleasant.
+Establishing myself at the Albergo Reale for this and the two following
+days, I sallied out, to wander everywhere and see everything.</p>
+
+<p>Milan is of ancient days; and few cities have seen greater<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span> changes of
+fortune. In the reign of Diocletian and Maximilian it became the capital
+of the western empire, and was filled with the temples, baths, theatres,
+and other monuments which usually adorn royal cities. The tempest which
+Attila, in the middle of the fifth century, conducted across the Alps,
+fell upon it, and swept it away. Scarce a vestige of the Roman Milan has
+come down to our day. A second Milan was founded, but only to fall, in
+its turn, before the arms of Frederick Barbarossa. There was a strong
+vitality in its site, however; and a third Milan,&mdash;the Milan of the
+present day,&mdash;arose. This city is a huge collection of churches and
+barracks, caf&eacute;s and convents, theatres and palaces, traversed by narrow
+streets, ranged mostly in concentric circles round its grand central
+building, the Duomo. The streets, however, that lead to its various
+ports, are spacious thoroughfares, adorned with noble and elegant
+mansions. Such is the arrangement of the town in which I now found
+myself.</p>
+
+<p>I sought everywhere for the gay Milan,&mdash;the white-robed city I had seen
+an hour ago,&mdash;but it was gone; and in its room sat a silent and sullen
+town, with an air of most depressing loneliness about it. There were few
+persons on the streets; and these walked as if they dragged a chain at
+their heels. I passed through whole streets of a secondary character,
+without meeting a single individual, or hearing the sound of man or of
+living thing. It seemed as if Milan had proclaimed a fast and gone to
+church; but when I looked into the churches, I saw no one there save a
+solitary figure in white, in the distance, bowing and gesticulating with
+extraordinary fervour, in the presence of dumb pictures and dim tapers.
+How can a worship in which no one ever joins edify any one? I could
+discover no signs of a flourishing art. There were not a few pretty and
+some beautiful things in the shop-windows;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span> but the latter were all
+copies generally of the more striking natural objects in the
+neighbourhood, or of the works of art in the city, the productions of
+other times,&mdash;things which a dying genius might produce, but not such as
+a living genius, free to give scope to her invention, would delight to
+create. Such was the art of Milan,&mdash;the feeble and reflected gleam of a
+glory now set. As regards the trade of Milan,&mdash;a yet more important
+matter,&mdash;I could see almost no signs of it either. There were walking
+sticks, and such things, in considerable variety in the shops; but
+little of more importance. The fabrics of the loom, and the productions
+of the plane, the forge, and the printing press, which crowd our cities
+and dwellings, and give honest bread to our artizans, were all wanting
+in Milan. How its people contrived to get through the twenty-four hours,
+and where they got their bread, unless it fell from the clouds, I could
+not discover.</p>
+
+<p>What an air of languor and weariness on the faces of the people! Amid
+these heavy-hearted and dull-eyed loiterers, what a relief it would have
+been to have met the soiled jacket, the brawny arm, and the manly brow,
+of one of our own artizans! I felt there were worse things in the world
+than hard work. Better it were to roll the stone of Sisyphus all
+life-long, than spend it in such idleness as weighs upon the cities of
+Italy. Better the clang of the forge than the rattle of the sabre. The
+Milanese seemed looking into the future; and a dismal future it is, if
+one may judge from their looks,&mdash;a future full of revolutions, to
+conduct, mayhap, to freedom; more probably to the scaffold.</p>
+
+<p>I turned sharply round the corner of a street, and there, as if it had
+risen from the earth, was the Cathedral. As the sun breaking through a
+fog, or an Alpine peak flashing through<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span> mists, so burst this
+magnificent pile upon me; and its sudden revelation dispelled on the
+instant all my gloomy musings. I could only stand and gaze. Beauty, not
+sublimity, is the attribute of this pile. Beauty it rains around it in a
+never-ending, overflowing shower, as the sun does light, or Mont Blanc
+glory. I sought for some one presiding idea, simple and grand, which
+might take its place in the mind, and dwell there as an image of glory,
+never more to fade; but I could find no such idea. The pile is the slow
+creation of centuries, and the united conception of innumerable minds,
+which have clubbed their ideas, so to speak, to produce this Cathedral.
+Quarries of marble and millions of money have been expended upon it; and
+there is scarce an architect or sculptor of eminence who has flourished
+since the fourteenth century, who has not contributed to it some
+separate grace or glory; and now the Cathedral of Milan is perhaps the
+most numerous assemblage of beauties in stone which the world contains.
+Impossible it were to enumerate the elegances that cover it from top to
+bottom,&mdash;its carved portals, its flying buttresses, its arabesque
+pilasters, its richly mullioned windows, its basso-reliefs, its
+beautiful tracery, and its forest of snow-white pinnacles soaring in the
+sunlight, so calm and moveless, and yet so airy and light, that you fear
+the nest breeze will scatter them. You can compare it only to some
+Alpine group, whose flashing peaks shoot up by hundreds around some
+snow-white central summit.</p>
+
+<p>The building, too, is populous as a city. There are upwards of three
+thousand statues upon it, and places for a thousand more. Here stands a
+monk, busy with his beads,&mdash;there a mailed warrior,&mdash;there a mitred
+bishop,&mdash;there a pilgrim, staff in hand,&mdash;there a nun, gracefully
+veiled,&mdash;and yonder<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span> hundreds of seraphs perched upon the loftier
+pinnacles, and looking as if a white cloud of winged creatures from the
+sky had just lighted upon it.</p>
+
+<p>I purposed to-morrow to climb to the roof, and thence survey the plains
+of Lombardy and the chain of the Alps; so, turning away from the door, I
+made the tour of the square in which the Cathedral stands. I came first
+upon a row of cannon, so pointed as to sweep the square. Behind the
+guns, piled on the pavement, were stacks of arms, and soldiers loitering
+beside them. Ah! thought I, these are the loving ties that bind the
+people of Lombardy to the House of Hapsburg. The priest's chant is heard
+all day long within that temple; and outside there blend with it the
+sentinel's tramp and the drum's roll. I passed on, and came next upon a
+most unusual display of literature. Four-paged pamphlets in hundreds lay
+piled upon stalls, or were ranged in rows against the wall. The subjects
+discussed in these pamphlets were of a high spiritual cast, and woodcuts
+were freely employed to aid the reader's apprehension. These latter
+belonged to a very different style of art from that conspicuous in the
+Cathedral, but they had the merit of great plainness; and a glance at
+the woodcut enabled one to read at once the story of the pamphlet. The
+wall was all a-blaze with flames; and I saw the advantage of an
+infallible Church to teach one secrets which the Bible does not reveal.
+The sin chiefly insisted on was that of despising the priest; and the
+punishment awaiting it was set before me in a way I could not possibly
+mistake. Here, for instance, was a wealthy sinner, who lay dying in a
+splendid mansion. With horrible impiety, the man had refused the wafer,
+and ordered the priest about his business, despite the imploring tears
+of wife and family, who surrounded his bed. A glance at the other
+compartment of the picture showed the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span> consequence of this. There you
+found the man just launched into the other world. A crowd of black
+fiends, hideous to behold, had seized upon the poor soul, and were
+dragging it down into a weltering gulf of lurid flame. In another
+picture you had an equally graphic illustration of the happiness of
+obeying Mother Church. Here lay one dying amid beads, crucifixes, and
+shaven crowns. The devil was fleeing from the house in terror; and in
+the compartment devoted to the spiritual world, the soul was following a
+benevolent-looking gentleman, who carried a big key, and was walking in
+the direction of a very magnificent mansion on a high hill, where, I
+doubt not, a welcome and hospitable reception waited both. The same
+lesson was repeated along the wall times without number.</p>
+
+<p>Here was the doctrine of purgatory as incontestably proved as painted
+flames, and images of creatures with tails who tormented other creatures
+who had no tails, could prove it. If there was no purgatory, how could
+the painters of an infallible Church ever have given so exact a
+representation of it? And exact it must have been, else the priests
+would never have allowed these pictures to be hung up here, under their
+very eye. This was as much as to write "<i>cum privilegio</i>" underneath
+them. The whole scenery of purgatory was here most vividly depicted.
+There were fiends flying off with souls, or tossing them with pitchforks
+into the flames. There were boiling cauldrons, red-hot gridirons,
+cataracts of fire, and innumerable other modes of torment. A walk along
+this infernal gallery was enough, one would have thought, to make the
+boldest purgatory-despiser quail. But no one who has a little spare
+cash, and is willing to part with it, need fear either purgatory or the
+devil. In the large marble house in the centre of the square one might
+buy at a reasonable rate an <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span>excision of some thousands of years from
+his appointed sojourn in that gloomy region. And doubtless that was one
+reason for bringing this purgatorial gallery and the indulgence-market
+into such close proximity. It reminded the people of the latter
+inestimable blessing; and without some such salutary impulse the traffic
+in indulgences might flag.</p>
+
+<p>I could not but remark, that the only person for whom these
+extraordinary representations appeared to have any attractions was
+myself. Not so the exhibition on the other side of the square. Having
+perused with no ordinary interest, though, I fear, with not much profit,
+this "Theory of a Future State," I crossed the quadrangle, passing right
+under the eastern towers of the Cathedral, and came suddenly upon a knot
+of persons gathered round a tall rectangular box, in which was enacting
+the melo-drama of Punch. These persons were enjoying the fun with a
+relish which was noways abated by the spectacle over the way. The whole
+thing was acted exactly as I had seen it before; but to me it was a
+novelty to hear Punch, and all the other interlocutors in the piece,
+discourse in the language in which Dante had sung, and in which I had
+heard, just before leaving Scotland, Gavazzi declaim. In all lands Punch
+is an astute scoundrel; but, strange to say, in all lands the popular
+feeling is on his side. His imperturbable coolness and truculent villany
+procured him plaudits among the Milanese, as I had seen them do
+elsewhere. Courage and self-possession are valuable qualities, and for
+their sake we sometimes forgive bad men and bad causes; whereas, from
+nothing do we more instinctively recoil than from hypocrisy. On this
+principle it is, perhaps, that we have a sort of liking for Punch,
+incorrigible scoundrel as he is; and that great criminals, who rob and
+murder at the head of armies, we deify, while little ones we hang.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span></p><p>I had now completed my tour of the Cathedral, and could not help
+reflecting on the miscellaneous, and apparently incongruous, character
+of the spectacles grouped together in the square. In the middle was the
+great temple, in which priests, in stole and mitre, celebrated the high
+mysteries of their Church. In one of the angles were rows of mounted
+cannon, and a forest of bayonets. In another was seen the whole process
+of refining souls in purgatory. Strange, that if men here are shut up in
+prisons and hulks amid desperadoes, they come out more finished villains
+than they entered; whereas hereafter, if men are shut up with even worse
+characters, amid blazing fires, glowing gridirons, and cauldrons of
+boiling lead, they come out perfected in virtue. They pass at once from
+the society of fiends, where they have been whipped, roasted, and I know
+not what, to the society of angels. This is a strange schooling to give
+dignity to the character and conscious purity to the mind. And yet Rome
+subjects all her sons to this discipline for a longer or shorter period.
+Much do we marvel, that the same process which unfits men for
+associating with respectable people here should be the very thing to
+prepare them for good society hereafter. The other side of the square
+Punch had all to himself; and Punch, I saw, was the favourite. The
+inhabitants of Milan kept as respectable a distance from the painted
+fiends as if they had been veritable Satans, ready to clutch the
+incautious passer-by, and carry him off to their den. They kept the same
+respectable distance from the Austrian cannon; and these were no painted
+terrors. And as regards the Cathedral, scarce a solitary foot crossed
+its threshold, though there,&mdash;astounding prodigy!&mdash;He who made the
+worlds was Himself made many times every day by the priests. But Punch
+had a dense crowd of delighted spectators around him; and yet he
+competed with the priest at immense<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span> disadvantage. Punch played his part
+in a humble wooden shed, while the priest played his in a magnificent
+marble Cathedral, with a splendid wardrobe to boot. Still the people
+seemed to feel, that the only play in which there was any earnestness
+was that which was enacted in the wooden box. A stranger from India or
+China, who was not learned in either the religion or the drama of
+Europe, would probably have been unable to see any great difference
+between the two, and would have taken both for religious performances;
+concluding, perhaps, that that in the Cathedral was the established
+form, while that in the wooden box was the disestablished; in short,
+that Punch had been a priest at some former period of his life, and sung
+mass and sold indulgences; but that, imbibing some heterodox notions, or
+having fallen into some peccadillo, such as eating flesh on Friday, he
+had been unfrocked and driven out, and compelled to play the priest in a
+wooden tabernacle.</p>
+
+<p>To return once more to the paintings and woodcuts illustrative of the
+punitive and purgative processes of purgatory, and which were in a style
+of art that demonstratively shows, that if Italy is advancing in the
+knowledge of a future life, she is retrograding in the arts of the
+present,&mdash;to recur, I say, to these, there rested some doubt, to say the
+least of it, over their revelations of the world to come; but there
+rested no doubt whatever over their revelations of the present condition
+of Church and State in Italy. On this head the cannon and woodcuts told
+far more than the priests wished, or perhaps thought. They showed that
+both the State and the Church in that country are now reduced to their
+<i>ultima ratio</i>, brute force. The State has lost all hope of governing
+its subjects by giving them good laws, and inspiring them with loyalty;
+and the Church has long since abandoned the plan of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span>producing obedience
+and love by presenting great truths to the mind. Both have found out a
+shorter and more compendious policy. The State, speaking through her
+cannon, says, "Obey me or die;" and the Church, speaking through
+purgatory, says, "Believe me or burn." There is one comfort in this,
+however,&mdash;the present system is obviously the last. When force gives
+way, all gives way. The Church will stand, doubtless, because they tell
+us she is founded on a rock; but what will become of the State? When men
+can be awed neither by painted fiends nor real cannon, what is to awe
+them? Indeed, we shrewdly suspect, that even now the fiends would count
+for little, were it not for the fiends incarnate, in the shape of
+Croats, by which the others are backed. The Lombards would boldly face
+the gridirons, cauldrons, and stinging creatures gathered in the one
+corner of the square at Milan, if they but knew how to muzzle the cannon
+which are assembled in the other.</p>
+
+<p>In truth, things in this part of the world are not looking up. A
+universal serfdom and barbarism are slowly creeping over all men and all
+systems. The Government of Austria has become more revolutionary than
+the Revolution itself. By violating the rights of property, it has
+indorsed the worst doctrines of Socialism. That Government has, in a
+great number of instances, seized upon estates, without making out a
+title to them by any regular process of law. After the attempted
+outbreak at Milan in 1852, the landed property of well-nigh all the
+royalist emigrants was swept away by a decree of sequestration. The
+<i>Milan Gazette</i> published a list of seventy-two political refugees whose
+property has been laid under sequestration in the provinces of Milan,
+Como, Mantua, Lodi, Pavia, Brescia, Cremona, Bergamo, and Sondrio. In
+this list we find the names of many distinguished persons, such as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span>
+Count Arese, the two Counts Borromeo, General Lechi, Duke Litta, Count
+Litta, Marquis Pallavicini, Marquis Rosales, Princess Belgioso. The
+pretext for seizing their estates was, that their owners had contributed
+to the revolutionary treasury; which was incredible to those who know
+the difference in feeling and views which separate the royalist emigrant
+nobles of Lombardy from the democratic republicans that follow Mazzini.
+In truth, the Government of Vienna needs their estates; and, imitating
+the example of the French Convention, and furnishing another precedent
+for Socialism when it shall come into power, it seized them without any
+colour of right or form of law. Another branch of the scourging tyranny
+of Austria is the system of forced loans. Some of the wealthiest
+families of Lombardy have been impoverished by these, and, of course,
+thrown into the ranks of the disaffected. The Austrian method of making
+slavery maintain itself is also peculiarly revolting. The hundred
+millions raised annually in Venetian Lombardy, instead of being spent in
+the service of these provinces, are devoted to the payment of the troops
+that keep down Hungary. The soldiers levied in Italy are sent into the
+German provinces; and those raised in Croatia are employed in keeping
+down Italy. Thus Italy holds the chain of Hungary, and Hungary, in her
+turn, that of Italy; and so insult is added to oppression.</p>
+
+<p>The very roots of liberty are being dug out of the soil. The free towns
+have lost their rights; the provinces their independence; and the
+tendency of things is towards the formation of great centralized
+despotisms. Thus an Asiatic equality and barbarism is sinking down upon
+continental Europe. So much is this the case, that some of the thinking
+minds in Germany are in the belief that the dark ages are returning. The
+following passage in the "Life and Letters of Niebuhr," written<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span> less
+than two months before his death in 1831, is almost prophecy:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"It is my firm conviction that we, particularly in Germany, are rapidly
+hastening towards barbarism; and it is not much better in France.</p>
+
+<p>"That we are threatened with devastation such as that two hundred years
+ago, is, I am sorry to say, just as clear to me; and the end of the tale
+will be, <i>despotism enthroned amidst universal ruin. In fifty years, and
+probably much less, there will be no trace left of free institutions, or
+the freedom of the press, throughout all Europe, at least on the
+Continent</i>. Very few of the things which have happened since the
+revolution in Paris have surprised me."</p>
+
+<p>The half of that period has scarce elapsed, and the prognostication of
+Niebuhr has been all but realized. At this hour, Piedmont excepted,
+there is <i>no trace left of free institutions, or the freedom of the
+press</i>, in Southern and Eastern Europe. Nor will these nations ever be
+able to lift themselves out of the gulph into which they have fallen.
+Revolution, Socialism, war, will only hasten the advent of a centralized
+despotism. We know of only one agency,&mdash;even Christianity,&mdash;which, by
+reviving the virtue and self-government of the individual, and the moral
+strength of nations, can recover their liberties. If Christianity can be
+diffused, well; if not, I do firmly believe with Niebuhr that, on the
+Continent at least, we shall have a return of "the dark ages," and
+"despotism enthroned amidst universal ruin."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span></p>
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX.</h3>
+
+<h4>ARCO DELLA PACE.</h4>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang">Depressing Effect produced by Sight of Slavery&mdash;The Castle of
+Milan&mdash;Non-intercourse of Italians and Austrians&mdash;Arco della
+Pace&mdash;Contrasted with the Duomo&mdash;Evening&mdash;Ambrose&mdash;Milanese
+Inquisition&mdash;The Two Symbols. </p></div>
+
+
+<p class="noin"><span class="smcap">It</span> was now drawing towards evening; and I must needs see the sun go down
+behind the Alps. There are no sights like those which nature has
+provided for us. What are embattled cities and aisled cathedrals to the
+eternal hills, with their thunder-clouds, and their rising and setting
+suns? Making my exit by the northern gate of the city, I soon forgot, in
+the presence of the majestic mountains, the narrow streets and clouded
+faces amid which I had been wandering. Their peaks seemed to look
+serenely down upon the despots and armies at their feet; and at sight of
+them, the burden I had carried all day fell off, and my mind mounted at
+once to its natural pitch. How crushing must be the endurance of
+slavery, if even the sight of it produces such prostration! Day by day
+it eats into the soul, weakening its spring, and lowering its tone, till
+at last the man becomes incapable of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span> noble thoughts or worthy deeds;
+and then we condemn him because he lies down contentedly in his chains,
+or breaks them on the heads of his oppressors.</p>
+
+<p>Emerging from the lanes of the city, I found myself on a spacious
+esplanade, enclosed on three of its sides by double rows of noble elms,
+and bounded on the remaining side by the caf&eacute;s and wine-shops of the
+city, filled with a crowd of loquacious, if not gay, loiterers. In the
+middle of the esplanade rose the Castle of Milan,&mdash;a gloomy and majestic
+pile, of irregular form, but of great strength. It was on the top of
+this donjon that the beacon was to be kindled which was to call Lombardy
+to arms, in the projected insurrection of 1852. The soft green of the
+esplanade was pleasantly dotted by white groupes in the Austrian
+uniform, who loitered at the gates, or played games on the sward. But
+neither here nor in the caf&eacute;s, nor anywhere else, did I ever see the
+slightest intercourse betwixt the soldiers and the populace. On the
+contrary, the two seemed on every occasion to avoid each other, as men,
+not only of different nations, but of different eras.</p>
+
+<p>There are two monuments, and only two, in Italy, which redeem its modern
+architecture from the reproach of universal degeneracy. One of these is
+the Triumphal Arch of Milan, known also as the Arco della Pace. It was
+full in view from where I stood, rising on the northern edge of the
+esplanade, with the line of road stretching out from it, and running on
+and on towards the Alps, over which it climbs, forming the famous
+Simplon Pass. I crossed the plain in the direction of the Arco della
+Pace, to have a nearer inspection of it. It was more to my taste than
+the Duomo. The Cathedral, much as I admired it, had a bewildering and
+dissipating effect. It presented a perfect universe of towers,
+pinnacles, and statues, flashing in the Italian sun, and in the yet more
+dazzling<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span> splendour of its own beauty. But, stript of the tracery with
+which it is so profusely covered, and the countless statues that nestle
+in its niches, it would be a withered, naked, and unsightly thing, like
+a tree in winter. Not so the arch to which I was advancing. It rose
+before me in simple grandeur. It might be defaced,&mdash;it might grow old;
+but its beauty could not perish while its form remained. It presents but
+one simple and grand idea; and, seen once, it never can be forgotten. It
+takes its place as an image of beauty, to dwell in the mind for ever. To
+look upon it was to draw in concentration and strength.</p>
+
+<p>I found this arch guarded by a Croat,&mdash;beauty in the keeping of
+barbarism. Much I wondered what sensations it could produce in such a
+mind: of course, I had no means of knowing. I touched the arch with my
+palm, to ascertain the quality of its polish and workmanship. The Croat
+made a threatening gesture, which I took as a hint not to repeat the
+action. I walked under it,&mdash;walked round it,&mdash;viewed it on all sides;
+but why should I describe what the engraver's art has made so familiar
+all over Europe? And such is the power of a simple and sublime
+idea,&mdash;whether the pen or the chisel has given it body,&mdash;to transmit
+itself, and retain its hold on the mind, that, though I had only now
+seen the Arco della Pace for the first time, I felt as if I had been
+familiar with it all my life; and so, doubtless, does my reader. The
+little squat figure, with the swarthy face, and dull, cold eye, that
+kept pacing beside it, watched me all the while my survey was going on.
+Sorely must it have puzzled him to discover the cause of the interest I
+took in it. Most probably he took me for a necromancer, whose simple
+word might transport the arch across the Alps.</p>
+
+<p>The very spirit of peace pervaded the scene around the Arco della Pace.
+Peace descended from the summits of the Alps,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span> and peace breathed upon
+me from the tops of the elms. It was sweet to see the gathering of the
+shadows upon the great plain; it was sweet to see the waggoner come
+slowly along the great Simplon road; it was sweet to see the husbandman
+unyoke his bullocks, and come wending his way homeward over the rich
+ploughed land, beneath the beautiful festoonings of the vine; sweet even
+were the city-stirs, as, mellowed by distance, they broke upon the ear;
+but sweeter than all was it to mark the sun's departure among the Alps.
+One might have fancied the mountains a wall of sapphire inclosing some
+terrestrial paradise,&mdash;some blessed clime, where hunger, and thirst, and
+pain, and sorrow, were unknown. Alas! if such were Lombardy, what meant
+the Croat beside me, and the black eagle blazoned on the flag, that I
+saw floating on the Castle of Milan? The sight of these symbols of
+foreign oppression recalled the haggard faces and toil-bent frames I had
+seen on my journey to Milan. I thought of the rich harvests which the
+sun of Lombardy ripens only that the Austrian may reap them, and the
+fertile vines which the Lombard plants only that the Croat may gather
+them. I thought of the sixty thousand expatriated citizens whose lands
+the Government had confiscated, and of the victims that pined in the
+fortresses and dungeons of Lombardy; and I felt that truly this was no
+paradise. To me, who could demand my passport and re-cross the Alps
+whenever I pleased, these mountains were a superb sight; but what could
+the poor Lombard, whom Radetzky might order to prison or to execution on
+the instant, see in them, but the walls of a vast prison?</p>
+
+<p>The light was fast fading, and I re-crossed the esplanade, on my way
+back to the city. High above its roofs, rose the spires and turrets of
+the Duomo, looking palely in the twilight, and reminding one of a
+cluster of Norwegian pines, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span>covered with the snows of winter. As I
+slowly and musingly pursued my way, my mind went back to the better days
+of Milan. Here Ambrose had lived; and how oft, at even-tide, had his
+feet traversed this very plain, musing, the while, on the future
+prospects of the Church. Ah! little did he think, that what he believed
+to be the opening day was but a brief twilight, dividing the pagan
+darkness now past from the papal night then fast descending. But to the
+Churches of Lombardy it was longer light than to those of southern
+Italy. Ambrose went to the grave; but the spirit of the man who had
+closed the Cathedral gates in the face of the Goths of Justina, and
+exacted a public repentance of the Emperor Theodosius, lived after him.
+From him, doubtless, the Milanese caught that love of independence in
+spiritual matters which long afterwards so honourably distinguished
+them. They fought a hard battle with Rome for their religious freedom,
+but the battle proved a losing one. It was not, however, till towards
+the twelfth century, when every other Church in Christendom almost had
+acknowledged the claims of Rome, and an Innocent was about to mount the
+throne of the Vatican, that the complete subjugation of the Churches of
+Lombardy was effected. When the sixteenth century, like the breath of
+heaven, opened on the world, the Reformation began to take root in
+Lombardy. But, alas! the ancient spirit of the Milanese revived for but
+a moment, only to be crushed by the Inquisition. The arts by which this
+terrible tribunal was introduced into the duchy finely illustrate the
+policy of Rome, which knows so well how to temporize without
+relinquishing her claims. Philip II. proposed to establish this tribunal
+in Milan after the Spanish fashion; and Pope Pius IV. at first favoured
+his design. But finding that the Milanese were determined to resist, the
+pontiff<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span> espoused their cause, and told them, in effect, that it was not
+without reason that they dreaded the Spanish Inquisition. It was, he
+said, a harsh, cruel, inexorable Court&mdash;(he forgot that he had
+sanctioned it by a bull)&mdash;which condemned men without trial; but he had
+an Inquisition of his own, which never did any one any harm, and which
+his subjects in Rome were exceedingly fond of. This he would send to
+them. The Milanese were caught in the trap. In the hope of getting rid
+of the Spanish Inquisition, they accepted the Roman one, which proved
+equally fatal in the end. The degradation of Lombardy dates from that
+day. The Inquisition paved the way for Austrian domination. The
+familiars of the Holy Office were the avant couriers of the black eagles
+and Croats of the house of Hapsburg.</p>
+
+<p>In the arch behind me, so simple withal, and yet so noble in its design,
+and whose beauty, dependent on no adventitious helps or meretricious
+ornaments, but inherent in itself, was seen and felt by all, I saw, I
+thought, a type of the Gospel; while the many-pinnacled and
+richly-fretted Cathedral before me seemed the representative of the
+Papacy. As stands this arch, in simple but eternal beauty, beside the
+inflated glories of the Duomo, so stands the gospel amid the spurious
+systems of the world. They, like the Cathedral, are elaborate and
+artificial piles. The stones of which they are built are absurd
+doctrines, burdensome rites, and meaningless ceremonies. In beautiful
+contrast to their complexity and inconsistency, the Gospel presents to
+the world one simple and grand idea. They perplex and weary their
+votaries, who lose themselves amid the tangled paths and intricate
+labyrinths with which they abound. The Gospel, on the other hand, offers
+a plain and straight path to the enquirer, which, once found, can never
+be lost. These systems grow old, and, having lived their day,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span> return to
+the earth, out of which they arose. The Gospel never dies,&mdash;never grows
+old. Fixed on an immoveable basis, it stands sublimely forth amid the
+lapse of ages and the decay of systems, charming all minds by its
+simplicity, and subduing all minds by its power. It says nothing of
+penances, nothing of pilgrimages, nothing of tradition, nor of works of
+supererogation, nor of efficacious sacraments dispensed by the hands of
+an apostolically descended clergy: its one simple and sublime
+announcement is, that <i>Eternal Life is the Free Gift of God through the
+Death of his Son</i>.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span></p>
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X.</h3>
+
+<h4>THE DUOMO OF MILAN.</h4>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang">Interior Disappoints at First Sight&mdash;Expands into
+Magnificence&mdash;Description of Interior&mdash;Mummy of San Carlo
+Borromeo&mdash;His too early Canonization&mdash;A Priest at Mass&mdash;The Two
+Mysteries&mdash;Distinction between Religion and Worship&mdash;Roof of
+Cathedral&mdash;Aspect of Lombardy from thence&mdash;Ascend to the Top of
+Tower&mdash;Objects in the Square&mdash;Miniature of the World&mdash;The Alps from
+the Cathedral Roof&mdash;Martyr Associations&mdash;A Future Morning. </p></div>
+
+
+<p class="noin"><span class="smcap">My</span> next day was devoted to the Cathedral. Entering by the great western
+doorway,&mdash;a low-browed arch, rich in carving and statuary,&mdash;I pushed
+aside the thick, heavy quilt that closes the entrance of all the Italian
+churches, and stood beneath the roof. My first feeling was one of
+disappointment; so great was the contrast betwixt the airy and sunlight
+beauty of the exterior, and the massive and sombre grandeur within. The
+marble of the floor was sorely fretted by the foot: its original colours
+of blue and red had passed into a dingy gray, chequered with the
+variously-tinted light which flowed in through the stained windows. The
+white walls and unadorned pillars looked cold and naked. Beggars were
+extending their caps towards you for an alms. On<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span> the floor rose a stack
+of rush-bottomed chairs, as high as a two-storey house,&mdash;as if the
+priests, dreading an em&eacute;ute, had made preparations by throwing up a
+barricade. A carpenter, mounted on a tall ladder, was busied, with
+hammer and nails, suspending hangings of tapestry along the nave, in
+honour, I presume, of some saint whose f&ecirc;te-day was approaching. The dim
+light could but feebly illuminate the many-pillared, long-aisled
+building, and gave to the vast edifice something of a cavern look.</p>
+
+<p>But by and by the eye got attempered; and then, like an autumnal haze
+clearing away from the face of the landscape, and revealing the glories
+of green meadow, golden field, and wooded mountain, the obscurity that
+wrapped pillar and aisle gradually brightened up, and the temple around
+me began to develope into the noblest proportions and the most
+impressive grandeur. Some hundred and fifty feet over head was suspended
+the stone roof; and one could not but admire the lightness and elegance
+of its groined vaultings, and the stately stature of the columns that
+supported it. Their feet planted on the marble floor, they stood,
+bearing up with unbowing strength, through the long centuries, the
+massive, stable, steadfast roof, from which the spirit of tranquillity
+and calm seemed to breathe upon you. On either hand three rows of
+colossal pillars ran off, forming a noble perspective of well nigh five
+hundred feet. They stretched away over transept and chancel, towards the
+great eastern window, which, like a sun glowing with rosy light, was
+seen rising behind the high altar, bearing on its ample disc the
+emblazoned symbols of the Book of the Apocalypse. The aisles were deep
+and shadowy; and through their forests of columns there broke on the
+sight glimpses of monumental tombs and altars ranged against the wall. I
+passed slowly along in front of these beautiful monuments,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span> and read
+upon their marble the names of warriors and cardinals, some of whom
+still keep their place on the page of history. It took me some three
+hours to make the circuit of the Cathedral; but I shall not spend as
+many minutes in describing the works of art&mdash;some of them marvels of
+their kind&mdash;which passed under my eye; for my readers, I suspect, would
+not thank me for doing worse what the guide-books have done better.
+Below the great window in the apsis,&mdash;the same that contains what is one
+of the earliest of modern commentaries on the Book of Revelation,&mdash;the
+pavement was perforated by a number of small openings; and on looking
+down, I could see a subterranean chamber, with burning lamps. Its wall
+was adorned with pictures like the great temple above: and I could
+plainly hear the low chant of priests issuing from it. I had lighted, in
+short, upon a subterranean chapel; and here, in a shrine of gold and
+silver, lay embalmed the body of a former Archbishop of Milan&mdash;San Carlo
+Borromeo. Through the glass-lid of the coffin you could see the
+half-rotten corpse,&mdash;for the skill of the embalmer had been no match for
+the stealthy advances of decay,&mdash;tricked out in its gorgeous vestments,
+with the ring glittering on its finger, and the mitre pressing upon its
+fleshless skull. San Carlo Borromeo is the patron saint of Milan; and
+hence these perpetual lamps and ceaseless chantings at his tomb. The
+black withered face and naked skull grin horribly at the flaunting
+finery that surrounds him; and one almost expects to see him stretch out
+his skeleton hands, and tear it angrily in rags. The unusually short
+period of thirty years was all that intervened betwixt the death and the
+canonization of San Carlo; and his mother, who was alive at the time,
+though a very aged woman, had the peculiar satisfaction of seeing her
+son placed on the altars of Rome, and become an object of worship,&mdash;a
+happiness<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span> which, so far as we know, has not been enjoyed by mortal
+mother since the days of Juno and other ladies of her time. We do not
+envy San Carlo his honours; but we submit whether it was judicious to
+confer them just so soon. Before decreeing worship to one, would it not
+be better to let his contemporaries pass from the stage of time?
+Incongruous reminiscences are apt to mix themselves up with his worship.
+San Carlo had been like other children when young, we doubt not, and was
+none the worse of the castigation he received at times from the hand of
+her whose duty it now became to worship him. His mother little dreamt
+that it was an infant god she was chastising. "He was a pleasant
+companion," said a lady, when informed of the canonization of St Francis
+de Sales, "but he cheated horribly at cards." "When I was at Milan,"
+says Addison, "I saw a book newly published, that was dedicated to the
+present head of the Borromean family, and entitled, <i>A Discourse on the
+Humility of Jesus Christ, and of St Charles Borromeo</i>."</p>
+
+<p>I came round, and stood in front of the high altar. It towers to a great
+height, looking like the tall mast of a ship; and, could any supposable
+influence throw the marble floor on which it rests into billows, it
+might ride safely on their tops, beneath the stone roof of the
+Cathedral. A priest was saying mass, and some half-dozen of persons on
+the wooden benches before the chancel were joining in the service. It
+was a cold affair; and the vastness of the building but tended to throw
+an air of insignificance over it. The languid faces of the priest and
+his diminutive congregation brought vividly to my recollection the crowd
+of animated countenances I had seen outside the same building, around
+Punch, the day before. The devotion before me was a dead, not a living
+thing. It had been dead before the foundations of this august temple<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span>
+were laid. But it loved to revisit "the glimpses" of these tapers, and
+to grimace and mutter amid these shadowy aisles. To nothing could I
+compare it but to the skeleton in the chapel beneath, that lay rotting
+in a shroud of gorgeous robes. It was as much a corpse as that skeleton,
+and, like it too, it bore a shroud of purple and scarlet, and fine linen
+and gold, which concealed only in part its ghastliness. Were Ambrose to
+come back, he would once more close his Cathedral gates, but this time
+in the face of the priests.</p>
+
+<p>"Without controversy," says the apostle, "great is the mystery of
+godliness. God was manifest in the flesh." "Without controversy, great
+is the mystery of" iniquity. "God was manifest in the" mass. These are
+the two <span class="smcap">Incarnations</span>&mdash;the two <span class="smcap">Mysteries</span>. They stand confronting one
+another. Romish writers style the mass emphatically "the mystery;" and
+as that dogma is a capital one in their system, it follows that their
+Church has <i>mystery</i> written on her forehead, as plainly as John saw it
+on that of the woman in the Apocalypse. But farther, what is the
+principle of the mass? Is it not that Christ is again offered in
+sacrifice, and that the pain he endures in being so propitiates God in
+your behalf? Is not, then, the area of Europe that is covered with
+masses "<i>the place where our Lord was crucified</i>?"</p>
+
+<p>The stream can never rise higher than its source; and so is it with
+worship. That worship that cometh of man cannot, in the nature of
+things, rise higher than man. The worship of Rome is manifestly
+man-contrived. It may be expected, therefore, to rise to the level of
+his tastes, but not a hairbreadth higher. It may stimulate and delight
+his faculties, such as they are, but it cannot regenerate them. At the
+best, it is only the &aelig;sthetic faculties which the worship of Rome calls
+into exercise. It presents no truth to the mind, and cannot<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span> therefore
+act upon the moral powers. God is unseen: He is hidden in the dark
+shadow of the priest. How, then, can He be regarded with confidence or
+love? The doctrine of the atonement,&mdash;the central glory of the Christian
+system,&mdash;is unknown. It is eclipsed by the mass. If you want to be
+religious,&mdash;to obtain salvation,&mdash;you buy masses. You need not cultivate
+any moral quality. You need not even be grateful. You have paid the
+market-price of the salvation you carry home, and are debtor to no one.</p>
+
+<p>Those who speak of the worship of the Church of Rome as well fitted to
+make men devout, only betray their complete ignorance of all that
+constitutes worship. Men must be devout before they can worship. There
+is no error in the world more common than that of putting worship for
+religion. Worship is not the cause, but the effect. Worship is simply
+the expression of an inward feeling, that feeling being religion; and
+nothing is more obvious, than that till this feeling be implanted, there
+can be no worship. The man may bow, or chant, or mutter; he cannot
+worship. He may be dazzled by fine pictures, but not melted into love or
+raised to hope by glorious truths. Moral feelings can be produced not
+otherwise than by the apprehension of moral truths; but in the Church of
+Rome all the great verities of revelation lie out of sight, being
+covered with the dense shadow of symbol and error. A single verse of
+Scripture would do more to awaken mind and produce devotion than all the
+statues and fine pictures of all the cathedrals in Italy.</p>
+
+<p>I got weary at last of these shadowy aisles and the priests' monotonous
+chant; and so, paying a small fee, I had a low door in the south
+transept opened to me; and, groping my way up a stair of an hundred and
+fifty steps, or rather more, I came out upon the top of the Cathedral. I
+had left a noble temple,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span> but only to be ushered into a far nobler,&mdash;its
+roof the blue vault, its floor the great Lombardy plain, and its walls
+the Alps and Apennines. The glory of the temple beneath was forgotten by
+reason of the greater glory of that into which I had entered. It was not
+yet noon, and the morning mists were not yet wholly dissipated. The Alps
+and the Apennines were imprisoned in a shroud of vapour. Nevertheless
+the scene was a noble one. Lombardy was level as the sea. I have seen as
+level and as circular an expanse from a ship's deck, when out of sight
+of land, but nowhere else. One of the most prominent features of the
+scene were the long straight rows of the Lombardy poplar, which, rooted
+in its native soil, and drinking its native waters, shoots up into the
+most goodly stature and the most graceful form. And then, there were
+glimpses of beautifully green meadows, and long silvery lines of canals;
+and all over the plain there peeped out from amidst rich woods, the
+white walls of hamlets and towns, and the tall, slender Campanile. The
+country towards the north was remarkably populous. From the gates of
+Milan to the skirts of the mists that veiled the Alps the plain was all
+a-gleam with white-walled villages, beautifully embowered. A fairer
+picture, or one more suggestive of peace and happiness, is perhaps
+nowhere to be seen. But, alas! past experience had taught me, that these
+dwellings, so lovely when seen from afar, would sink, on a near
+approach, into ill-furnished and filthy hovels, with inmates groaning
+under the double burden of ignorance and poverty.</p>
+
+<p>When the more distant objects allowed me to attend to those at hand, I
+found that I was not alone on the Cathedral's roof. There were around me
+an assembly of some thousands. The only moving figure, it is true, was
+myself: the rest stood mute and motionless, each in his little house of
+stone; but<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span> so eloquent withal, in both look and gesture, that you half
+expected to find yourself addressed by some one in this life-like crowd
+of figures.</p>
+
+<p>I ascended to the different levels by steps on the flying buttresses. A
+winding staircase in a turret of open tracery next carried me to the
+Octagon, where I found myself surrounded by a new zone of statues. Here
+I again made a long halt, admiring the landscape as seen under this new
+elevation, and doing my best to scrape acquaintance with my new
+companions. I now prepared for my final ascent. Entering the spire, I
+ascended its winding staircase, and came out at the foot of the pyramid
+that crowns the edifice. Higher I could not go. Here I stood at a height
+of about three hundred and fifty feet, looking down upon the city and
+the plain. I had left the grosser forms of monks and bishops far
+beneath, and was surrounded&mdash;as became my aerial position&mdash;with winged
+cherubs, newly alighted, as it seemed, on the spires and turrets which
+shot up like a forest at my feet. Here I waited the coming of the Alps,
+with all the impatience with which an audience at the theatre waits the
+rising of the curtain.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile, till it should please Monte Rosa and her long train of
+white-robed companions to emerge, I had the city spectacles to amuse me.
+There was Milan at my feet. I could count its every house, and trace the
+windings of its every street and lane, as easily as though it had been
+laid down upon a map. I could see innumerable black dots moving about in
+the streets,&mdash;mingling, crossing, gathering in little knots, then
+dissolving, and the constituent atoms falling into the stream, and
+floating away. Then there came a long white line with nodding plumes;
+and I could faintly hear the tramp of horses; and then there followed a
+mustering of men and a flashing of bayonets in the square below. I sat<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span>
+watching the man&#339;uvres of the little army beneath for an hour or so,
+while drum and clarionet did their best to fill the square with music,
+and send up their thousand echoes to break and die amid the spires and
+statues of the Cathedral. At last the mimic war was ended, and I was
+left alone, with the silent and moveless, but ever acting statues around
+and below me. What a picture, thought I, of the pageantry of life, as
+viewed from a higher point than this world! Instead of an hour, take a
+thousand years, and how do the scenes shift! The golden spectacle of
+empire has moved westward from the banks of the Euphrates to those of
+the Tiber and the Thames. You can trace its track by the ruins it has
+left. The field has been illuminated this hour by the gleam of arts and
+empire, and buried in the darkness of barbarism the next. Man has been
+ever busy. He has builded cities, fought battles, set up thrones,
+constructed systems. There has been much toil and confusion, but, alas!
+little progress. Such would be the sigh which some superior being from
+some tranquil station on high would heave over the ceaseless struggle
+and change in the valley of the world. And yet, amid all its changes,
+great principles have been taking root, and a noble edifice has been
+emerging.</p>
+
+<p>But, lo! the mists are rising, and yonder are the Alps. Now that the
+curtain is rent, one flashing peak bursts upon you after another. They
+come not in scores, but in hundreds. And now the whole chain, from the
+snowy dome of the Ortelles in the far-off Tyrol, to the beauteous
+pyramid of Monte Viso in the south-western sky, is before you in its
+noble sweep of many hundreds of miles, with thousands of snowy peaks,
+amid which, pre-eminent in glory, rises Monte Rosa. Turning to the
+south, you have the purple summits of the Apennines rising above the
+plain. Between this blue line in the south and that magnificent rampart
+of glaciers and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span> peaks in the north, what a vast and dazzling picture of
+meadows, woods, rivers, cities, with the sun of Italy shining over all!</p>
+
+<p>Ye glorious piles! well are ye termed everlasting. Kings and kingdoms
+pass away, but on you there passes not the shadow of change. Ye saw the
+foundations of Rome laid;&mdash;now ye look down upon its ruins. In
+comparison with yours, man's life dwindles to a moment. Like the flower
+at your foot, he blooms for an instant, and sinks into the tomb. Nay,
+what is a nation's duration, when weighed against thine? Even the
+forests that wave on your slopes will outlast empires. Proud piles, how
+do ye stamp with insignificance man's greatest labours! This glorious
+edifice on which I stand,&mdash;ages was it in building; myriads of hands
+helped to rear it; and yet, in comparison with your gigantic masses,
+what is it?&mdash;a mere speck. Already it is growing old;&mdash;ye are still
+young. The tempests of six thousand winters have not bowed you down.
+Your glory lightened the cradle of nations,&mdash;your shadows cover their
+tomb.</p>
+
+<p>But to me the great charm of the Alps lay in the sacred character which
+they wore. They seemed to rise before me, a vast temple, crowned, as
+temple never was, with sapphire domes and pinnacles, in which a holy
+nation had worshipped when Europe lay prostrate before the Dagon of the
+Seven Hills. I could go back to a time when that plain, now covered,
+alas! with the putridities of superstition, was the scene of churches in
+which the gospel was preached, of homes in which the Bible was read, of
+happy death-beds, and blessed graves,&mdash;graves in which, in the sublime
+words of our catechism, "the bodies of the saints being still united to
+Christ, do rest in their graves till the Resurrection." Sleep on, ye
+blessed dead! This pile shall crumble into ruin; the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span> Alps dissolve,
+Rome herself sink; but not a particle of your dust shall be lost. The
+reflection recalled vividly an incident of years gone by. I had
+sauntered at the evening hour into a retired country churchyard in
+Scotland. The sun, after a day of heavy rain, was setting in glory, and
+his rays were gilding the long wet grass above the graves, and tinting
+the hoar ruins of a cathedral that rose in the midst of them, when my
+eye accidentally fell upon the following lines, which I quote from
+memory, carved in plain characters upon one of the tombstones:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+The wise, the just, the pious, and the brave,<br />
+Live in their death, and flourish from the grave.<br />
+Grain hid in earth repays the peasant's care,<br />
+And evening suns but set to rise more fair.<br />
+</p>
+
+<p class="noin">There are no such epitaphs in the graveyards of Lombardy; nor could
+there be any such in that of Dunblane, but for the Reformation.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span></p>
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI"></a>CHAPTER XI.</h3>
+
+<h4>MILAN TO BRESCIA.</h4>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang">Biblioteca Ambrosiana&mdash;A Lamp in a Sepulchre&mdash;The
+Palimpsests&mdash;Labours of the Monks in the Cause of
+Knowledge&mdash;Cardinal Mai&mdash;He recovers many valuable Manuscripts of
+the Ancients which the Monks had Mutilated&mdash;Ulfila's Bible&mdash;The War
+against Knowledge&mdash;The Brazent Serpent at Sant' Ambrogio&mdash;Passport
+Office&mdash;Last Visit to the Duomo and the Arco Della Pace&mdash;The Alps
+apostrophized&mdash;Dinner at a Restaurant&mdash;Leave Milan&mdash;Procession of
+the Alps&mdash;Treviglio&mdash;The River Adda&mdash;The Postilion&mdash;Evening, with
+dreamy, decaying Borgos&mdash;Caravaggio&mdash;Supper at
+Chiari&mdash;Brescia&mdash;Arnold of Brescia. </p></div>
+
+
+<p class="noin"><span class="smcap">The</span> morning of my last day in Milan was passed in the Biblioteca
+Ambrosiana. This justly renowned library was founded in 1609 by Cardinal
+Borromeo, the cousin of that Borromeo whose mummy lies so gorgeously
+enshrined in the subterranean chapel of the Duomo. This prelate was at
+vast care and expense to bring together in this library the most
+precious manuscripts extant. For this purpose he sent learned men into
+every part of Europe, with instructions to buy whatever of value they
+might be fortunate enough to discover, and to copy such writings as
+their owners might be unwilling to part with. The Biblioteca Ambrosiana
+is worth a visit, were it only to see the first public library
+established in Europe.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span> There were earlier libraries, and some not
+inconsiderable ones, but only in connection with cathedrals and
+colleges; and access to them was refused to all save to the members of
+these establishments. This, on the contrary, was opened to the public;
+and, with a liberality rare in those days, writing materials were freely
+supplied to all who frequented it. The library buildings form a
+quadrangle of massive masonry, with a grave, venerable look, becoming
+its name. The collection is upwards of 80,000 volumes; but, what is not
+very complimentary to the literary tastes of the prefetto and honorary
+canons of Sant' Ambrogio, the curators of the library, they are
+arranged, not according to their subjects, but according to their sizes.
+This library reminded me of a lamp in an Etrurian tomb. There was light
+enough in that hall to illuminate the whole duchy of the Milanese, could
+it but find an outlet. As it is, I fear a few straggling rays are all
+that are able to escape. There is no catalogue of the books, save some
+very imperfect lists; and I was told that there is a pontifical bull
+against making any such. I saw a few visitors in its halls, attracted,
+like myself, by its curiosities; but I saw no one who had come to
+restore volumes they had read, and receive others in their room. The
+modern inhabitant of Milan gives his days and nights to the caf&eacute; and the
+club,&mdash;not to the library. He lives and dies unpolluted by the printing
+press,&mdash;an execrable invention of the fifteenth century, from which a
+paternal Government and an infallible Church employ their utmost
+energies to shield him. The works of dead authors he dare not read; the
+productions of living ones he dare not print; and the only compositions
+to which he has access are the decrees of the Austrian police, and the
+Catechism of the Jesuit. He fully appreciates, of course, the care taken
+to preserve the purity of his political and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span> religious faith, and will
+one day show the extent of his gratitude.</p>
+
+<p>I saw in this library the famous <i>Palimpsests</i>. My readers know, of
+course, what these are. The <i>Palimpsests</i> are little books of vellum,
+from which an original and ancient writing has been erased, to make room
+for the productions of later ages and of other pens. These pages bore
+originally the thoughts of Virgil and Livy, and, in short, of almost all
+the great writers of pagan, antiquity; but the monks, who did not relish
+their pagan notions, thought the vellum would be much better bestowed if
+filled with their own homilies. The good fathers conceived the project
+of enlightening and evangelizing the world by purging of its paganism
+all the vellum in Europe; and, being much intent on their object, they
+succeeded in it to an amazing extent.</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+"A second deluge learning did o'errun,<br />
+And the monks finished what the Goths begun."<br />
+</p>
+
+<p class="noin">Our readers have often seen with what rapidity a fog swallows up a
+landscape. They have marked, with a feeling of despair, golden peak and
+emerald valley sinking hopelessly in the dank drizzle. So the classics
+went down before the monks. The ancients were set a-trudging through the
+world in a monk's cowl and a friar's frock. On the same page from which
+Cicero had thundered, a monk now discoursed. Where Livy's pictured
+narrative had been, you found only a dull wearisome legend. Where the
+thunder of Homer's lyre or the sweet notes of Virgil's muse had
+resounded, you heard now a dismal croak or a lugubrious chant. Such was
+the strange metamorphosis which the ancients were compelled to endure at
+the hands of the' monks; and such was the way in which they strove to
+earn the gratitude of succeeding ages by the benefits they conferred on
+learning.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span></p><p>It gives us pleasure to say that Cardinal Mai was amongst the most
+distinguished of those who undertook the task of setting free the
+imprisoned ancients,&mdash;of stripping them of the monk's hood and the
+friar's habit, and presenting them to the world in their own form. He
+laboured in the Biblioteca Ambrosiana, and succeeded in exhuming from
+darkness and dust the treasures which neglect and superstition had
+buried there. In the number of the works which the monks had
+palimpsested, and which Mai rescued from destruction, we may cite some
+fragments of Homer, with a great number of paintings equally ancient,
+and of which the subjects are taken from the works of this great poet;
+the unpublished writings of Cornelius Fronto; the unpublished letters of
+Antoninus Pius, of Marcus Aurelius, of Lucius Verus, and of Appian; some
+fragments of discourses of Aurelius Symmachus; the Roman Antiquities of
+Dionysius of Halicarnassus, which were up to that time imperfect;
+unpublished fragments of Plautus, of Is&aelig;us, of Themistius; an
+unpublished work of the philosopher Porphyrius; some writings of the Jew
+Philo; the ancient interpreters of Virgil; two books of the Chronicles
+of Eusebius Pamphilus; the VI. and XIV. Sibylline Books; and the six
+books of the Republic of Cicero. I saw, too, in the Biblioteca
+Ambrosiana, fragments of the version of the Bible made in the middle of
+the fourth century, by Ulfila, bishop of the M&aelig;sogoths. The labours of
+the bishop underwent a strange dispersion. The gospels are at Upsala;
+the epistles were found at Wolfenbuttel; while a portion of the Acts of
+the Apostles and of the Old Testament were extracted from the
+palimpsests. The original writing&mdash;the superincumbent rubbish being
+removed&mdash;looked out in a bold, well defined character, in as fresh a
+black, in some places, as when newly written; in others, in a dim, rusty
+colour, which a practised eye only could decipher.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span> Thus the war against
+knowledge has gone on. The Caliph Omer burnt the Alexandrine library.
+Next came the little busy creatures the monks, who, mothlike, ate up the
+ancient manuscripts. Last of all appeared the Pope, with his Index
+Expurgatorius, to put under lock and key what the Caliph had spared, and
+the monks had not been able to devour. The torch, the sponge, the
+anathema, have been tried each in its turn. Still the light spreads.</p>
+
+<p>I cannot enter on the other curious manuscripts which this library
+contains; nor have I anything to say of the numerous beautiful portraits
+and pictures with which its walls are adorned. The <i>Cenacolo</i>, or "Last
+Supper," by Leonardo da Vinci, in the refectory of the Dominican
+convent, is fast perishing. It has not yet "lost all its original
+brightness," and is mightier in its decay than most other pictures are
+in the bloom and vigour of their youth. I recollect the great Scottish
+painter Harvey saying to me, that he was more affected by "that ruin,"
+than he was by all the other works of art which he saw in Italy. The
+grandeur of the central head has never been approached in any copy. One
+thing I regret,&mdash;I did not visit the Sant' Ambrogio, and so missed
+seeing the famous brazen serpent which is to hiss just before the world
+comes to an end. This serpent is the same that Moses made in the
+wilderness, and which Hezekiah afterwards brake in pieces: at least it
+would be heresy in Milan not to believe this. It must be comfortable to
+a busy age, which has so many things to think of without troubling
+itself about how or when the world is to end, to know that, if it must
+end, due warning will be given of that catastrophe. The vineyards of
+Lombardy are good, and monks, like other men, occasionally get thirsty;
+and it might spoil the good fathers' digestion were the brazen serpent
+of Sant' Ambrogio to hiss after dinner. But doubtless it will be
+discreet<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span> on this head. There is said to be in some one of the
+graveyards of Orkney, a tombstone on which an angel may be seen blowing
+a great trumpet with all his might, while the dead man below is made to
+say, "When I hear this, I will rise." The stone-trumpet will be heard to
+blow, we daresay, about the same time that the serpent of Sant' Ambrogio
+will be heard to hiss.</p>
+
+<p>I was now to bid farewell to Milan, and turn my face towards the blue
+Adriatic. But one unpleasant preliminary must first be gone through. The
+police had opened the gates of Milan to admit me, and the same
+authorities must open them for my departure. I walked to the passport
+office, where the officials received me with great politeness, and bade
+me be seated while my passport was being got ready. This interesting
+process was only a few minutes in doing; and, on payment of the
+customary fee, was handed me "all right" for Venice, bating the
+innumerable intermediate inspections and <i>vis&eacute;s</i> by the way; for a
+passport, like a chronometer, must be continually compared with the
+meridian, and put right. I put my passport into my pocket; but on
+opening it afterwards, I got a surprise. Its pages were getting covered
+all over with little creatures with wings, and, as my fancy suggested,
+with stings,&mdash;the black eagles of Austria. How was I to carry in my
+pocket such a cage of imps? How was I to sleep at night in their
+company? Should they take it into their head to creep out of my book,
+and buzz round my bed, would it not give me unpleasant dreams? And yet
+part with them I could not. These black, impish creatures must be my
+pioneers to Venice.</p>
+
+<p>I now made haste to take my last look of the several objects which had
+endeared themselves to me during my short stay. I felt towards them as
+friends,&mdash;long known and beloved<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span> friends; and never should I turn and
+look on the track of my past existence without seeing their forms of
+beauty, dim and indistinct, it might be, as the haze of lapsed time
+should gather over them; still, always visible,&mdash;never altogether
+blotted out. I walked round the Cathedral for the last time. There it
+stood,&mdash;beauty, like an eternal halo, sitting rainbow-like upon its
+towers and pinnacles. Its thousand statues and cherubs stood silent and
+entranced, tranquil as ever, all unmoved by the city's din, reminding
+one of dwellers in some region of deep and unbroken bliss. "Glorious
+pile!" said I, apostrophizing it, "I am but a pilgrim, a shadow; so are
+all who now look on thee,&mdash;shadows. But you will continue to delight the
+ages to come, as you have done those that are past." I had a run, too,
+to the <i>Piazza di Armi</i>, to see Beauty incarnate, if I may so express
+myself, in the form of the Arco della Pace. It is a gem, the brightest
+of its kind that earth contains. The faultless grace of its form is
+finely set off by the overwhelming Alpine masses in the distance, which
+seemed as if raised on purpose to defend it, and which rise, piled one
+above another, in furrowed, jagged, unchiselled, fearful sublimity.</p>
+
+<p>I came round by the boulevard of the Porte Orientale, on my way back to
+the city. It is a noble promenade. Above are the boughs of the
+over-arching elms; on this hand are the city domes and cathedral spires,
+with their sweet chimes continually falling on the ear; and on that are
+the suburban gardens, with the poplars and campaniles rising in stately
+grace beyond. The glorious perspective is terminated by the Alps. As the
+breezes from their flashing summits stirred the leaves overhead, they
+seemed to speak of liberty. I wonder the Croat don't impose silence on
+them. What right have they, by their glowing peaks, and their free play
+of light and shade, and their storms, and their far-darting lightnings,
+to stir the immortal<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span> aspirations in man's bosom? These white hills are
+great, unconquerable democrats. They will continually be singing hymns
+in praise of liberty. Yet why they should, I know not. Milan is deaf.
+Why preach liberty to men in chains? Surely the Alps,&mdash;the free and
+joyous Alps,&mdash;which scatter corn and wine from their horn of plenty so
+unweariedly, have no delight in tormenting the enslaved nations at their
+feet. Why do ye not, ye glorious mountains, put on sackcloth, and mourn
+with the mourning nations beneath you? How can ye look down on these
+dungeons, on these groaning victims, on the tears of so many widows and
+orphans, and yet wear these robes of beauty, and sing your song of
+gladness at sunrise? Or do ye descry from afar the coming of a better
+era? and is the glory that mantles your summits the kindling of an
+inward joy at the prospect of coming freedom? and are these whisperings
+of liberty the first utterances of that shout with which you will
+welcome the opening of the tomb and the rising of the nations?</p>
+
+<p>The formidable process of loading the <i>diligence</i> was not yet completed.
+There was a perfect Mont Blanc of luggage to transfer from the courtyard
+to the top of the <i>diligence</i>, not in a hurry, but calmly and
+deliberately. The articles were to be selected one by one, and put upon
+the top, and taken down again, and laid in the courtyard, and put up a
+second time, and perhaps a third time; and after repeated attempts and
+failures, and a reasonable amount of vociferation and emphatic
+ejaculations on the part of postilions and commissionaires, the thing
+was to be declared completed, and finally roped down, and the great
+leathern cover drawn over all. Still the process would be got through
+before the hour of table d'hote at the Albergo de Reale. I must needs
+therefore dine at a restaurant. I betook me to one of these
+establishments hard by<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span> the <i>diligence</i> office, and took my place at a
+small table, with its white napery, small bottle of wine, and roll of
+Lombardy bread, in the same room with some thirty or so of the merchants
+and citizens of Milan. I intimated my wish to dine <i>&agrave; la carte</i>; and
+instantly the waiter placed the tariff before me, with its list of
+dishes and prices. I selected what dishes I pleased, marking, at the
+same time, what I should have to pay for each. I dined well, having
+respect to the journey of two days and a night I was about to begin, and
+knowing, too, that an Italian <i>diligence</i> halts only at long intervals.
+The reckoning, I thought, could be no dubious or difficult matter. I
+knew the dishes I had eaten, and I saw the prices affixed, and I
+concluded that a simple arithmetical process would infallibly conduct me
+to the aggregate cost. But when my bill was handed me (a formality
+dispensed with in the case of those beside me), I found that my
+reckoning and that of "mine host" differed materially. The sum total on
+his showing was three times greater than on mine. I was curious to
+discover the source of this rather startling discrepancy in so small a
+sum. I went over again the list of eaten dishes, and once more went
+through the simple arithmetical process which gave the sum total of
+their cost, but with no difference in the result. It was plain that
+there was some mysterious quality in the arithmetic, or some nice
+distinctions in the cookery, which I had not taken into account, which
+disturbed my calculations. I became but the more anxious to have the
+riddle explained. In my perplexity I applied to the waiter, who referred
+me to his master. The day was hot; and boiling, stewing, and roasting,
+is hot work; and this may account for the passion into which my simple
+interrogatory put "mine host." "It was a just bill, and must be paid." I
+hinted that I did not impugn its justice, but simply craved some
+explanation<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span> about its items. Whereupon mine host, becoming cooler,
+condescended to inform me that I had not dined exactly according to the
+<i>carte</i>; that certain additions had been made to certain dishes; and
+that it did not become an Englishman to inquire farther into the matter.
+If not so satisfactory as might be wished, this defence was better than
+I had expected; so, paying my debts to Boniface, I departed, consoling
+myself with the reflection, that if I had three times more to pay than
+my neighbours, having fared neither better nor worse than they, I had,
+unlike these poor men, eaten my dinner without fetters on my hands.</p>
+
+<p>This time the <i>banquette</i> of the <i>diligence</i>, with all its rich views,
+was bespoke, so I had to content myself with the <i>interieur</i>. It was
+roomy, however; there were but four of us, and its window admitted, I
+found, ample views of meadow and mountain. We drove to the station of
+the Venice railway, pleasantly situated amid orchards and extra-mural
+albergos. The horses were taken out, and the immense vehicle was lifted
+up,&mdash;wheels, baggage, passengers and all,&mdash;and put upon a truck. Away
+went the long line of carriages,&mdash;away went the <i>diligence</i>, standing up
+like a huge leathern castle upon its truck; while the engine whistled,
+snorted, screeched, groaned, and uttered all sorts of irreverent and
+every-day sounds, just as if the Alps had not been looking down upon it,
+and classic towns ever and anon starting up beside its path: a glorious
+vision of fresh meadows, bordered with little canals, brimful of water,
+and barred with the long shadows of campanile and sycamore,&mdash;for the sun
+was westering,&mdash;shot past us. The Alps came on with more slow and
+majestic pace. As peak after peak passed by, it seemed as if the whole
+community of hills had commenced a general march on Monte Viso, with all
+their crags, glaciers, and pine-forests. One might have thought that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span>
+Sovran Blanc had summoned the nobles and high princes of his kingdom to
+meet him in his hall of audience, to debate some weighty point of Alpine
+government. An august assembly as ever graced monarch's court, in their
+robes of white and their cornets of eternal ice, would these tall and
+proud forms present.</p>
+
+<p>Treviglio, beyond which the railway has not yet been opened, was reached
+in less than two hours. When near the town, the vast mirror of the blue
+Como, spread out amid the dark overhanging mountains, burst upon us.
+From it flowed forth the Adda, which we crossed. As its mighty stream,
+burning in the sunset, rolled along, it spangled with glory the green
+plain, as the milky-way the firmament. There is nothing in nature like
+these Alpine rivers. They fill their banks with such a wasteful
+prodigality of water, and they go on their way with a conscious might,
+as if they felt that behind them is an eternally exhaustless source. Let
+the sun smite them with his fiercest ray; they dread him not. Others may
+shrink and dry up under his beam: their fountains are the snows of a
+thousand winters.</p>
+
+<p>On reaching the station, our <i>diligence</i>,&mdash;including passengers, and all
+that pertained to them,&mdash;was lifted from its truck and put on wheels,
+and once more stood ready to move, in virtue of its own inherent power,
+that is, so soon as the horses should be attached. This operation was
+performed in the calm eve, amid the glancing casements of the little
+town, on which the purple hills and the tall silent poplars looked
+complacently down.</p>
+
+<p>Away we rumbled, the declining light still resting sweetly on the woods
+and hamlets. There are no postilions in the world, I believe, who can
+handle their whip like those of Italy. In very pride and joy our
+postilion cracked his whip, till the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span> woods rang again. He took a
+peculiar delight in startling the echoes of the old villages, and the
+ears of the old villagers. Each report was like that of a
+twelve-pounder. This continual thunder, kept up above their heads, did
+not in the least affright the horses: they rather seemed proud of a
+master who could handle his whip in so workmanlike a fashion. He could
+so time the strokes as to make not much worse melody than that of some
+music-bells I have heard. He could play a tune on his whip.</p>
+
+<p>We passed, as the evening thickened its shadows, several ancient
+<i>borgos</i>. Gray they were, and drowsy, as if the sleep of a century
+weighed them down. They seemed to love the quiet, dying light of eve;
+and as they drew its soft mantle around them, they appeared most willing
+to forget a world which had forgotten them. They had not always led so
+quiet a life. Their youth had been passed amid the bustle of commerce;
+their manhood amid the alarms and rude shocks of war; and now, in their
+old age, they bore plainly the marks of the many shrewd brushes they had
+had to sustain when young. The houses were tall and roomy, and their
+architecture of a most substantial kind; but they had come to know
+strange tenants, that is, those of them that <i>had</i> tenants, for not a
+few seemed empty. At the doors of others, dark withered faces looked
+out, as if wondering at the unusual din. I felt as if it were cruel to
+rouse these quiet slumber-loving towns, by dragging through their
+streets so noisy a vehicle as a <i>diligence</i>.</p>
+
+<p>We passed Caravaggio, famous as the birthplace of the two great painters
+who have both taken their name from their city,&mdash;the Caravacchi. We
+passed, too, the little Mozonnica, that is, all of it which the
+calamities of the middle ages have left. Darkness then fell upon us,&mdash;if
+a firmament begemmed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span> with large lustrous stars could be called dark.
+The night wore on, varied only by two events of moment. The first was
+supper, for which we halted at about eleven o'clock, in the town of
+Chiari. At eleven at night people should think of sleeping,&mdash;not of
+eating. Not so in Italy, where supper is still the meal of the day. An
+Italian <i>diligence</i> never breakfasts, unless a small cup of coffee,
+hurriedly snatched while the horses are being put to, can be called
+such. Sometimes it does not even dine; but it never omits to sup. The
+supper chamber in Chiari was most sumptuously laid out,&mdash;vermicelli
+soup, flesh, fowls, cheese, pastry, wine,&mdash;every viand, in short, that
+could tempt the appetite. But at midnight I refused to be tempted,
+though most of the other guests partook abundantly. I was much struck,
+on leaving the town, with the massive architecture of the houses, the
+strength of the gates, and other monuments of former greatness. Imagine
+Edinburgh grown old and half-ruined, and you have a picture of the towns
+of Italy, which was a land of elegant stone-built cities at a time when
+the capitals of northern Europe were little better than collections of
+wooden sheds half-buried in mire.</p>
+
+<p>There followed a long ride. Sleep, benignant goddess, looked in upon us,
+and helped to shorten the way. What surprised me not a little was, how
+soundly my companions snoozed, considering how they had supped. The
+stages passed slowly and wearily. At length there came a long, a very
+long halt. I roused myself, and stepped out. I was in a spacious street,
+with the cold biting wind blowing through it. The horses were away; the
+postilions had disappeared; some of the passengers were perambulating
+the pavement, and the rest were fast asleep in the <i>diligence</i>, which
+stood on the causeway, like a stranded vessel on the beach. On
+consulting my watch, I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span> found it was three in the morning, and in answer
+to my inquiries I was told that I was in Brescia,&mdash;a famous city; but I
+should have preferred to visit it at a more seasonable hour. "The best
+feelings," says the poet, "must have victual," and the most classic
+towns must have sleep; so Brescia, forgetful that famous geographers who
+lived well-nigh two thousand years ago had mentioned its name, and that
+famous poets had sung its streams, and that it still contains
+innumerable relics of its high antiquity, slept on much as a Scotch
+village would have done at the same hour.</p>
+
+<p>Time is of no value on the south of the Alps. This long halt at this
+unseasonable hour was simply to set down an honest woman who had come
+with us from Milan. She was as big well-nigh as the <i>diligence</i> itself;
+but what caused all our trouble was, not herself, but her trunk. It lay
+at the bottom of an immense pile of baggage, which rose on the top of
+the vehicle; and before it could be got at, every article had to be
+taken down, and put on the pavement. Of course, the baggage had to be
+put back, and the operation was gone through most deliberately and
+leisurely. A full hour and a half was consumed in the process; and the
+passengers, having no place to retire to, did their best to withstand
+the chill night air by a quick march on the street.</p>
+
+<p>So, these silent midnight streets I was treading were those of
+Brescia,&mdash;Brescia, within whose walls had met the valour of the
+mountains and the arts of the plain. I was now treading where pagan
+temples had once stood, where Christian sanctuaries had next arisen, and
+where there had been disciples not a few when the light of the
+Reformation broke on northern Italy. I remembered, too, that this was
+the city of "Arnold of Brescia," one of the reformers before the
+Reformation. Arnold was a man of great learning, an intrepid champion
+of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span> the Church's purity, and the founder of the "Arnoldists," who
+inherited the zeal and intrepidity of their master.</p>
+
+<p>On the death of Innocent II., in the middle of the twelfth century,
+Arnold, finding Rome much agitated from the contests between the Pope
+and the Emperor, urged the Romans to throw off the yoke of a priest, and
+strike for their independence. The Romans lacked spirit to do so; and
+when, seven centuries afterwards, they came to make the attempt under
+Pius IX., they failed. Arnold was taken and crucified, his body reduced
+to ashes, and it was left to time, with its tragedies, to vindicate the
+wisdom of his advice, and avenge his blood; but to this hour no such
+opportunity of freeing themselves from thraldom as that which the
+Brescians then missed has presented itself.</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+<span style="margin-left: 9em;">"Time flows,&mdash;nor winds,</span><br />
+Nor stagnates, nor precipitates his course;<br />
+But many a benefit borne upon his breast<br />
+For human-kind sinks out of sight, is gone,<br />
+No one knows how; nor seldom is put forth<br />
+An angry arm that snatches good away,<br />
+Never perhaps to re-appear."<br />
+</p>
+
+
+
+<hr /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span></p>
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII"></a>CHAPTER XII.</h3>
+
+<h4>THE PRESENT THE IMAGE OF THE PAST.</h4>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang">Failure of the Reformation in Italy&mdash;Causes of this&mdash;Italian
+Martyrs&mdash;Their great Numbers&mdash;Consequences of rejecting the
+Reformation&mdash;The <i>Present</i> the Avenger of the <i>Past</i>&mdash;Extract from
+the <i>Si&egrave;cle</i> to this Effect&mdash;An "Accepted Time" for
+Nations&mdash;Alternative offered to the several European Nations in the
+Sixteenth Century&mdash;According to their Choice then, so is their
+Position now&mdash;Protestant and Popish Nations contrasted. </p></div>
+
+
+<p class="noin"><span class="smcap">Of</span> the singular interest that attaches to Italy during the first days of
+the Reformation I need not speak. The efforts of the Italians to throw
+off the papal yoke were great, but unsuccessful. Why these efforts came
+to nought would form a difficult but instructive subject of inquiry.
+They failed, perhaps, partly from being made so near the centre of the
+Roman power,&mdash;partly from the want of union and comprehension in the
+plans of the Italian reformers,&mdash;partly by reason of the dependence of
+the petty princes of the country upon the Pope,&mdash;and partly because the
+great sovereigns of Europe, although not unwilling that the Papacy
+should be weakened in their own country, by no means wished its
+extinction in Italy. But though Italy did not reach the goal of
+religious freedom,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span> the roll of her martyrs includes the names of
+statesmen, scholars, nobles, priests, and citizens of all ranks. From
+the Alps to Sicily there was not a province in which there were not
+adherents of the doctrines of the Reformation, nor a city of any note in
+which there was not a little church, nor a man of genius or learning who
+was not friendly to the movement. There was scarce a prison whose walls
+did not immure some disciple of the Lord Jesus; and scarce a public
+square which did not reflect the gloomy light of the martyr's pile. Much
+has been done, by mutilating the public records, to consign these events
+to oblivion, and the names of many of the martyrs have been
+irretrievably lost; still enough remains to show that the doctrines of
+the Reformation were then widely spread, and that the numbers who
+suffered for them in Italy were great. Need I mention the names of
+Milan, of Vicenza, of Verona, of Venice, of Padua, of Ferrara,&mdash;one of
+the brightest in this constellation,&mdash;of Bologna, of Florence, of
+Sienna, of Rome? Most of these cities are renowned in the classic
+annals; all of them shared in the wealth and independence which the
+commerce of the middle ages conferred on the Italian republics; all of
+them figure in the revival of letters in the fifteenth century; but they
+are encompassed by a holier and yet more unfading halo, as the spots
+where the Italian reformers lived,&mdash;where they preached the blessed
+truths of the Bible to their countrymen,&mdash;and where they sealed their
+testimony with their blood. "During the whole of this century," that is,
+the sixteenth, says Dr M'Crie, in his "Progress and Suppression of the
+Reformation in Italy," "the prisons of the Inquisition in Italy, and
+particularly at Rome, were filled with victims, including persons of
+noble birth, male and female, men of letters, and mechanics. Multitudes
+were condemned to penance, to the galleys, or other arbitrary
+punishments; and from time to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span> time individuals were put to death." "The
+following description," says the same historian, "of the state of
+matters in 1568 is from the pen of one who was residing at that time on
+the borders of Italy:&mdash;'At Rome some are every day burnt, hanged, or
+beheaded. All the prisons and places of confinement are filled; and they
+are obliged to build new ones. That large city cannot furnish jails for
+the number of pious persons which are continually apprehended.'"</p>
+
+<p>I had time to ruminate on these things as I paced to and fro in the
+empty midnight streets of Brescia. Methought I could hear, in the silent
+night, the cry of the martyrs whose ashes sleep in the plains around,
+saying, "How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge
+our blood on them that dwell on the earth!" Yes; God has judged, and is
+avenging; and the doom takes the very form that the crime wore. An era
+of dungeons, and chains, and victims, has again come round to Italy; but
+this time it is "the men which dwell on the" papal "earth" that are
+suffering. When the Italians permitted Arnold, and thousands such as he,
+to be put to death, they were just opening the way for the wrath of the
+Papacy to reach themselves, which it has now done. Ah! little do those
+who gnash their teeth in the extremity of their torments, and curse the
+priests as the authors of these, reflect that their own and their
+fathers' wickedness, still unrepented of, has not less to do with their
+present miseries than the priestly tyranny which they so bitterly and
+justly execrate. In those ages these men were the <i>tools</i> of the
+priesthood; in this they are its <i>victims</i>. Thus it is that the Present,
+in papal Europe, and especially in Italy, rises stamped with the
+likeness of the Past. The <i>Si&egrave;cle</i> of Paris, while the <i>Si&egrave;cle</i> was yet
+free, brought out this fact admirably, when it reminded the champions of
+Popery that the horrors of the first French Revolution<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span> were not new
+things, but old, which the Jacobins inherited from the Papists; and went
+on to ask them "if they have forgotten that the Convention found all the
+laws of the Terror written upon the past? The Committee of Public Safety
+was first contrived for the benefit of the monarchy. Were not the
+commissions called revolutionary tribunals first used against the
+Protestants? The drums which Santerre beat round the scaffolds of
+royalists followed a practice first adopted to drown the psalms of the
+reformed pastors. Were not the fusilades first used at the bidding of
+the priests to crush heresy? Did not the law of the suspected compel
+Protestants to nourish soldiers in their houses, as a punishment for
+refusing to go to mass? Were not the houses burned down of those who
+frequented Protestant preaching? Were not the properties of the
+Protestant emigrants confiscated? Did not the Marshal Nouilles order a
+war against bankers? Was not the law of the maximum, which regulated
+prices, practised by the regency? Was not the law of requisition for the
+public roads practised to prepare the roads for Queen Marie Leczinska?
+It is true, many priests perished in the Terror, but they were men of
+terror perishing by terror,&mdash;men of the sword perishing by the sword."</p>
+
+<p>I could not help feeling, too, when reflecting upon the state of
+Brescia, and of all the towns of Italy, and, indeed, of all the
+countries of Europe, that to nations, as well as individuals, there is
+"an accepted time" and a "day of salvation," which if they miss, they
+irremediably perish. If they enter not in when the door is open, it is
+in vain that they knock when it is shut. The same sentiment has been
+expressed by our great poet, in the well-known lines,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+"There is a tide in the affairs of men,<br />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span>Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;<br />
+Omitted, all the voyage of their lives is bound<br />
+In shallows and in miseries."<br />
+</p>
+
+<p>The sixteenth century started the European nations in a new career, and
+put it in the power of each to choose the principle of will or
+authority,&mdash;the compendious principle according to which both Church and
+State were governed under the Papacy, or that of law,&mdash;expressing not
+the will of one man, but the collective reason of the nation,&mdash;the
+distinctive principle of government under Protestantism. The century in
+question placed government by the canon law or government by the Bible
+side by side, and invited the nations of Europe to make their choice.
+The nations made their choice. Some ranged themselves on this side, some
+on that; and the sixteenth century saw them standing abreast, like
+competitors at the ancient Olympic games, ready, on the signal being
+given, to dart forward in the race for victory.</p>
+
+<p>They did not stand abreast, be it observed. The several competitors in
+this high race did not start on equally advantageous terms. The rich and
+powerful nations declared for Popery and arbitrary government; the weak
+and third-rate ones, for Protestantism. On one side stood Spain, then at
+the head of Europe,&mdash;rich in arts, in military glory, in the genius and
+chivalry of its people, in the resources of its soil, and mistress,
+besides, of splendid colonies. By her side stood France,&mdash;the equal of
+Spain in art, in civilization, in military genius, and inferior only to
+her proud neighbour in the single article of colonies. Austria came
+next, and then Italy. Such were the illustrious names ranged on the one
+side. All of them were powerful, opulent, highly civilized; and some of
+them cherished the recollections of imperishable renown, which is a
+mighty power in itself. We have no such names to recount on the other
+side. Those nations which entered the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span> lists against the others were but
+second and third-rate Powers: Britain, which scarce possessed a
+foot-breadth of territory beyond her own island,&mdash;Holland, a country
+torn from the waves,&mdash;the Netherlands and Prussia, neither of which were
+of much consideration. In every particular the Protestant nations were
+inferior to the Papal nations, save in the single article of their
+Protestantism: nevertheless, that one quality has been sufficient to
+counterbalance, and far more than counterbalance, all the advantages
+possessed by the others. Since the day we speak of, what a different
+career has been that of these nations! Three centuries have sufficed to
+reverse their position. Civilization, glory, extent of territory, and
+material wealth, have all passed over from the one side to the other. Of
+the Protestant nations, Britain alone is more powerful than the whole of
+combined Europe in the sixteenth century.</p>
+
+<p>But, what is remarkable also, we find the various nations of Europe at
+this hour on the same side on which they ranged themselves in the
+sixteenth century. Those that neglected the opportunity which that
+century brought them of adopting Protestantism and a free government are
+to this day despotic. France has submitted to three bloody revolutions,
+in the hope of recovering what she criminally missed in the sixteenth
+century; but her tears and her blood have been shed in vain. The course
+of Spain, and that of the Italian States, have been not unsimilar. They
+have plunged into revolutions in quest of liberty, but have found only a
+deeper despotism. They have dethroned kings, proclaimed new
+constitutions, brought statesmen and citizens by thousands to the block;
+they have agonized and bled; but they have been unable to reverse their
+fatal choice at the Reformation.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span></p>
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XIII" id="CHAPTER_XIII"></a>CHAPTER XIII.</h3>
+
+<h4>SCENERY OF LAKE GARDA&mdash;PESCHIERA&mdash;VERONA.</h4>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang">Lake Garda&mdash;Memories of Trent&mdash;The Council of Trent fixed the
+Destiny as well as Creed of Rome&mdash;Questions for Infallibility&mdash;Why
+should Infallibility have to grope its Way?&mdash;Why does it reveal
+Truth piecemeal?&mdash;Why does it need Assessors?&mdash;The Immaculate
+Conception&mdash;Town of Desenzano&mdash;Magnificent Bullocks&mdash;Land of
+Virgil&mdash;Grandeur of Lake Garda&mdash;The Iron Peschiera&mdash;The Cypress
+Tree&mdash;Verona&mdash;Imposing Appearance of its Exterior&mdash;Richness and
+Beauty of surrounding Plains&mdash;Palmerston. </p></div>
+
+
+<p class="noin"><span class="smcap">When</span> the morning broke we were skirting the base of the Tyrolese Alps. I
+could see masses of snow on some of the summits, from which a piercingly
+cold air came rushing down upon the plains. In a little the sun rose;
+and thankful we were for his warmth. Day was again abroad on the waters
+and the hills; and soon we forgot the night, with all its untoward
+occurrences. The face of the country was uneven; and we kept alternately
+winding and climbing among the spurs of the Alps. At length the
+magnificent expanse of Lake Garda, the Benacus of the ancients, opened
+before us. In breadth it was like an arm of the sea. There were one or
+two tall-masted ships on its waters; there were fine mountains on its<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span>
+northern shore; and on the east the conspicuous form of Monte Baldo
+leaned over it, as if looking at its own shadow in the lake. With the
+Lago di Garda came the memories of Trent; for at the distance of twenty
+miles or so from its northern shore is "the little town among the
+mountains," where the famous Council assembled, in which so many things
+were voted to be true which had been open questions till then, but to
+doubt which now were certain and eternal anathema.</p>
+
+<p>The Reformation addressed to Rome the last call to reconsider her
+position, and change her course while yet it was possible. It said to
+her, in effect, Repent now: to-morrow it will be too late. Rome gave her
+reply when she summoned the Council of Trent. That Council crystallized,
+so to speak, the various doubtful opinions and dogmas which had been
+floating about in solution, and fixed the creed of Rome. It did
+more,&mdash;it fixed her doom. Amid these mountains she issued the fiat of
+her fate. When she published the proceedings of Trent to the world, she
+said, "Here I stand; I cannot do otherwise; so help me&mdash;&mdash;." To whom did
+she make her appeal? To the Emperor in the first place, when she prayed
+for the vengeance of the civil sword; and to the Prince of Darkness in
+the second, when she invoked damnation on all her opponents. Then her
+course was irrevocably fixed. She dare not now look behind her: to
+change a single iota were annihilation. She must go forward, amid
+accumulating errors, and absurdities, and blasphemies: amid opposing
+arts and sciences, and knowledge, she must go steadily onward,&mdash;onward
+to the precipice!</p>
+
+<p>It is interesting to mark, as we can in history, first, the feeble
+germinations of a papal dogma; next, its waxing growth; and at last,
+after the lapse of centuries, its full development and maturity. It is
+easy to conceive how a mere human science<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span> should advance only by slow
+and gradual stages,&mdash;astronomy, for instance, or geology, or even the
+more practical science of mechanics. Their authors have no infallible
+gift of discerning truth from error. They must observe nature; they must
+compare facts; they must deduce conclusions; they must correct previous
+errors; and this is both a slow and a laborious process. But
+Infallibility is saved all this labour. It knows at once, and from the
+beginning, all that is true, and all that is erroneous. It does so, or
+it is not Infallibility. Why, then, was it not till the sixteenth
+century that Infallibility gave anything like a fixed and complete creed
+to the Church? Why did it permit so many men, in all preceding ages, to
+live in ignorance of so many things in which it could so easily have
+enlightened them? Why did it permit so many questions to be debated,
+which it could so easily have settled? Why did it not give that creed to
+the Church in the first century which it kept back till the sixteenth?
+Why does it deal out truth piecemeal,&mdash;one dogma in this century,
+another in the next, and so on? Why does it not tell us all at once? And
+why, even to this hour, has it not told us all, but reserved some very
+important questions for future decision, or revelation rather?</p>
+
+<p>If it is replied that the Pope must first collect the suffrages of the
+Catholic bishops, this only lands us in deeper perplexities. Why should
+the Pope need assessors and advisers? Can Infallibility not walk alone,
+that it uses crutches? Can an infallible man not know truth from error
+till first he has collected the votes of fallible bishops? Why should
+Infallibility seek help, which it cannot in the nature of things need?</p>
+
+<p>If it is further replied, that this Infallibility is lodged betwixt the
+Pope and the Council, we are only confronted with greater difficulties.
+Is it when the decree has been voted by the Council that it becomes
+infallible? Then the Infallibility<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span> resides in the Council. Or is it
+when it is confirmed by the Pope that it becomes infallible? In that
+case the Infallibility is in the Pope. Or is it, as others maintain,
+only when the decree has been accepted by the Church that it is
+infallible, and does the Pope not know whether he ought to believe his
+own decree till he has heard the judgment of the Church? We had thought
+that Infallibility was one and indivisible; but it seems it may be
+parted in twain; nay, more, it may be broken down into an indefinite
+number of parts; and though no one of these parts taken separately is
+Infallibility, yet taken together they constitute Infallibility. In
+other words, the union of a number of finite quantities can make an
+infinite. Sound philosophy, truly!</p>
+
+<p>If we go back, then, as the Ultramontanist will, to the dogma that the
+seat of Infallibility is the chair of Peter, the question returns, why
+cannot, or will not, the Pope determine in one age what he is able and
+willing to determine in another? The dogma of the Immaculate Conception
+of the Virgin, for instance, if it is a truth now, was a truth in the
+first age, when it was not even dreamed of; it was a truth in the
+twelfth century, when it <i>was</i> dreamed of; it was a truth in the
+seventeenth century, when it gave rise to so many scandalous divisions
+and conflicts; and yet it was not till December 1854 that Infallibility
+pronounced it to be a truth, and so momentous a truth, that no one can
+be saved who doubts it. Will any Romanist kindly explain this to us? We
+can accept no excuses about the variety of opinion in the Church, or
+about the darkness of the age. No haze, no clouds, can dim an infallible
+eye. Infallibility should see in the dark as well as in the daylight;
+and an infallible teacher is bound to reveal all, as well as to know
+all.</p>
+
+<p>And how happens it, too, that the Pope is infallible in only<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span> one
+science,&mdash;even the theological? In astronomy he has made some terrible
+blunders. In geography he has taken the earth to be a plain. In
+politics, in trade, and in all ordinary matters, he is daily falling
+into mistakes. He cannot tell how the wind may blow to-morrow. He cannot
+tell whether the dish before him may not have poison in it. And yet the
+man who is daily and hourly falling into mistakes on the most common
+subjects has only to pronounce dogmatically, and he pronounces
+infallibly. He has but to grasp the pen, with a hand, it may be, like
+Borgia's, fresh from the poisoned chalice or the stiletto, and
+straightway he indites lines as holy and pure as ever flowed from the
+pen of a Paul or a John!</p>
+
+<p>The road now led down upon the lake, which lay gleaming like a sheet of
+silver beneath the morning sun. We entered the poor, faded, straggling
+town of Desenzano, where the usual motley assemblage of commissionaires,
+albergo-masters, dwarfs, beggars, and idlers of all kinds, waited to
+receive us. The poor old town crept close in to the strand, as if a
+draught of the crystal waters would make it young again. It reminded me
+of the company of halt, blind, and impotent folk which lay at the pool
+of Bethesda. So lay paralytic Desenzano by the shores of the Lake Garda.
+Alas! sunshine and storm pass across the scene, clothing the waters and
+the hills with alternate beauty and grandeur; but all changes come alike
+to the poor, tradeless, bookless, spiritless town. Whether summer comes
+in its beauty or winter in its storms, Desenzano is old, withered, dying
+Desenzano still. I hurried to an albergo, swallowed a cup of coffee, and
+rejoined the <i>diligence</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Our course lay along the southern shore of the lake, over a fine rolling
+country, richly covered with vineyards, and where the rich red soil was
+being ploughed with bullocks. Such bullocks I had never before seen. The
+stateliest of their<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span> kind which graze the meadows of England and
+Scotland are but as grasshoppers in comparison. Truly, I saw before me
+the Anakims of the cattle tribe. To them the yoke was no burden. As they
+marched on with vast outspread horns, they could have dragged a hundred
+ploughs after them. They were not unworthy of Virgil's verse. And it
+gave additional charms to the region to think that Mantua, the poet's
+birthplace, lay not a long way to the south, and that, doubtless, the
+author of the Bucolics often visited in his youth this very spot, and
+walked by the margin of these waters, and marked the light and shade on
+these noble hills; or, turning to the rich agricultural country on the
+right, had seen exactly such bullocks as those I now saw, drawing
+exactly such ploughs, and making exactly such furrows in the red earth;
+and, spreading the beauty of his own mind over the picture, he had gone
+and imprinted it eternally on his page. The true poet is a real
+clairvoyant. He may not give you the shape, or colour, or size of
+objects; he may not tell how tall the mountains, or how long the
+hedge-rows, or how broad the fields; but by some wonderful art he can
+convey to your mind what is present to his own. On this principle it
+was, perhaps, that the landscape, with all its scenery, was familiar to
+me. I had seen it long years before. These were the very fields, the
+very bullocks, the very ploughs, the very swains, my imagination had
+painted in my schoolboy days, when I sat with the page of the great
+pastoral poet of Italy open before me,&mdash;too frequently, alas! only open.
+On these shores, too, had dwelt the poet Catullus; and a doubtful ruin
+which the traveller sees on the point of the long sharp promontory of
+Sermio, which runs up into the lake from the south, still bears the name
+of Catullus' Villa. If these are the ruins of Catullus' house, which is
+very<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span> questionable, he must have lived in a style of magnificence which
+has fallen to the lot of but few poets.</p>
+
+<p>The complexion of a day or of a lifetime may hang upon the commonest
+occurrence. A shoe here dropped from the foot of one of the horses; and
+the postilion, diving into the recesses of the <i>diligence</i>, and drawing
+forth a box with the requisite tools, began forthwith, on the highway,
+the process of shoeing. I stepped out, and walked on before, thankful
+for the incident, which had given me the opportunity of a saunter along
+the road. You can <i>see</i> nature from the windows of your carriage, but
+you can <i>converse</i> with her only by a quiet stroll amidst her scenes. On
+the right were the great plains which the Po waters, finely mottled with
+meadow and corn-field, besprint with chestnut trees, mulberries, and
+laurels, and fringed, close by the highway, with rolling heights, on
+which grew the vine. On the left was the far expanding lake, with its
+bays and creeks, and the shadows of its stately hills mirrored on its
+surface. It looked as if some invisible performer was busy shifting the
+scenes for the traveller's delight, and spreading a different prospect
+before his eye at every few yards. New bays were continually opening,
+and new peaks rising on the horizon. "It was so rough with tempests when
+we passed by it," says Addison, "that it brought into my mind Virgil's
+description of it."</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+"Here, vexed by winter storms, <i>Benacus</i> raves,<br />
+Confused with working sands and rolling waves;<br />
+Rough and tumultuous, like a sea it lies;<br />
+So loud the tempest roars, so high the billows rise."<br />
+</p>
+
+<p class="noin">I saw it in more peaceful mood. Cool and healthful breezes were blowing
+from the Tyrol; and the salubrious character of the region was amply
+attested by the robust forms of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span> inhabitants. I have seldom seen a
+finer race of men and women than the peasants adjoining the Lake Garda.
+They were all of goodly stature, and singularly graceful and noble in
+their gait.</p>
+
+<p>In a few hours we approached the strong fortress of Peschiera. We passed
+through several concentric lines of fortifications, walls, moats,
+drawbridges, and sloping earthen embankments, in which cart-loads of
+balls, impelled with all the force which powder can give, would sink and
+be lost. In the very heart of these grim ramparts, like a Swiss hamlet
+amid its mountain ranges, or a jewel in its iron-bound casket, lay the
+little town of Peschiera, sleeping quietly beside the blue and
+full-flooded Mincio, Virgil's own river:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+"Where the slow Mincius through the valley strays;<br />
+Where cooling streams invite the flocks to drink,<br />
+And reeds defend the winding water's brink."<br />
+</p>
+
+<p class="noin">It issues from the lake, and, flowing underneath the ramparts, freshens
+a spot which otherwise wears sufficiently the grim iron-visaged features
+of war. Nothing can surpass the grandeur of Lake Garda, which here
+almost touches the walls of the fortress. It lies outspread like the
+sea, and runs far up to where the snow-clad summits of the Tyrol prop
+the northern horizon.</p>
+
+<p>Leaving behind us the iron Peschiera and the blue Garda, we held on our
+way over an open, breezy country, where the stony and broken scenery of
+the mountains began to mingle with the rich cultivation of the plains.
+It reminded me of the line where the lowlands of Perthshire join its
+highlands. Here the cypress tree met me for the first time. The familiar
+form of the poplar,&mdash;now too familiar to give pleasure,&mdash;disappeared,
+and in its room came the less stately but more graceful and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span> beautiful
+form of the cypress. The cypress is silence personified. It stands wrapt
+in its own thoughts. One can hardly see it without asking, "What ails
+thee? Is it for the past you mourn?" Yet, pensive as it looks, its
+unconscious grace fills the landscape with beauty.</p>
+
+<p>Verona, gilded by the beams of Shakspeare's mighty genius, and by the
+yet purer glory of the martyrs of the Reformation, was in sight miles
+before we reached it. It reposes on the long gentle slope of a low hill,
+with plenty of air and sunlight. The rich plains at its feet, which
+stretch away to the south, look up to the old town with evident
+affection and pride, and strive to cheer it by pouring wheat, and wine,
+and fruits into its markets. Its appearance at a distance is imposing,
+from its numerous towers, and the long sweep of its forked battlements,
+which seem to encircle the whole acclivity on which the town stands,
+leaving as much empty space within their lines as might contain
+half-a-dozen Veronas. Its environs are enchanting. Behind it, and partly
+encircling it on the east, are an innumerable array of low hills, of the
+true Italian shape and colour. These were all a-gleam with white villas;
+and as they sparkled in the sunlight, relieved against the deep azure of
+the mountains, they showed like white sails on the blue sea, or stars in
+the dark sky. At its gates we were met, of course, by the Austrian
+gendarmerie. To have the affair of the passport finished and over as
+quickly as possible, I unfolded the sheet, and carelessly hung it over
+the window of the carriage. The corner of the paper, which bore, in
+tall, bold characters, the name of her Majesty's Foreign Secretary,
+caught the eye of a passenger. "<span class="smcap">Palmerston!</span>" "<span class="smcap">Palmerston!</span>" he shouted
+aloud. Instantly there was a general rush at the document; and fearing
+that it should be torn in pieces, which would have been an awkward
+affair for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span> me, seeing without it it would be impossible to get forward,
+and nearly as impossible to get back, I surrendered it to the first
+speaker, that it might be passed round, and all might gratify their
+curiosity or idolatry with the sight of a name which abroad is but a
+synonym for "England." After making the tour of the <i>diligence</i>, the
+passport was handed out to the gendarme, who, feeling no such intense
+desire as did the passengers to see the famous characters, had waited
+good-naturedly all the while. The man surveyed with grim complacency a
+name which was then in no pleasant odour with the statesmen and
+functionaries of Austria. In return he gave me a paper containing
+"permission to sojourn for a few hours in Verona," with its co-relative
+"permission to depart." I felt proud of my country, which could as
+effectually protect me at the gates of Verona as on the shores of the
+Forth.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span></p>
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XIV" id="CHAPTER_XIV"></a>CHAPTER XIV.</h3>
+
+<h4>FROM VERONA TO VENICE.</h4>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang">Interior of Verona&mdash;End of World seemingly near in Italy&mdash;The Monks
+and the Classics&mdash;A Cast-Iron Revolutionist&mdash;A Beautiful
+Glimpse&mdash;Railway Carriages&mdash;Railway Company&mdash;Tyrolese Alps&mdash;Dante's
+Patmos&mdash;Vicenza&mdash;Padua&mdash;The Lagunes&mdash;The Omnibus or
+Gondola&mdash;Silence of City&mdash;Sail through the Canals&mdash;Charon and his
+Boat&mdash;Piazza of Saint Mark. </p></div>
+
+
+<p class="noin"><span class="smcap">The</span> gates of Verona opened, and the enchantment was gone. He who would
+carry away the idea of a magnificent city, which the exterior of Verona
+suggests, must go round it, not through it. The first step within its
+walls is like the stroke of an enchanter's wand. The villa-begemmed
+city, with its ramparts and its cypress-trees, takes flight, and there
+rises before the traveller an old ruinous town, with dirty streets and a
+ragged and lazy population. It reminds one of what he meets in tales of
+eastern romance, where young and beautiful princesses are all at once
+transformed by malignant genuises into old and withered hags.</p>
+
+<p>In truth, on entering an Italian town one feels as if the last trumpet
+were about to sound. The world, and all that is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span> in it, seems old&mdash;very
+old. Man is old, his dwellings are old, his works are old, and the very
+earth seems old. All seems to betoken that it is the last age, and that
+the world is winding up its business, preparatory to the final closing
+of the drama. Commerce, the arts, empire,&mdash;all have taken their
+departure, and have left behind only the vestiges of their former
+presence. The Italians, living in a land which is but a sort of
+sepulchre, look as if they had voted that the world cannot outlast the
+present century, and that it is but a waste of labour to rebuild
+anything or repair anything. Accordingly, all is allowed to go to
+decay,&mdash;roads, bridges, castles, palaces; and the only thing which is in
+any degree cared for are their churches. Why make provision for
+posterity, when there is to be none? Why erect new houses, when those
+already built will last their time and the world's? Why repair their
+mouldering dwellings, or renew the falling fences of their fields, or
+replace their dying olives with young trees, or even patch their own
+ragged garments? The crack of doom will soon be upon them, and all will
+perish in the great conflagration. They account it the part of wisdom,
+then, to pass the interval in the least fatiguing and most agreeable
+manner possible. They sip their coffee, and take their stroll, and watch
+the shadows as they fall eastward from their purple hills. Why should
+they incur the toil of labouring or thinking in a world that is soon to
+pass away, and which is as good as ended already?</p>
+
+<p>Of Verona I can say but little. My stay there, which was not much over
+the hour, afforded me no opportunity for observation. Its famous
+Amphitheatre, coeval with the great Coliseum at Rome, and the best
+preserved Roman Amphitheatre in the world, I had not time to visit. Its
+numerous churches, with their frescoes and paintings, I less regret not
+having seen. Its <i>Biblioteca Capitolare</i>, which is said to be an
+unwrought<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span> quarry of historic and patristic lore, I should have liked to
+visit. There, too, the monks of the middle ages were caught tripping.
+"Sophocles or Tacitus," in the words of Gibbon, "had been compelled to
+resign the parchment to missals, homilies, and the golden legend." The
+"Institutes of Caius," which were the foundation of the Institutes of
+Justinian, were discovered in this library palimpsested. A rumour had
+been spread that the author of the Pandects had reduced the "Institutes
+of Caius" to ashes, that posterity might not discover the source of his
+own great work. Gibbon ventured to contradict the scandal, and to point
+to the monks as the probable devastators. His sagacity was justified
+when Niebuhr discovered in the Biblioteca Capitolare of Verona these
+very Institutes beneath the homilies of St. Jerome. Verona yet retains
+one grand feature untouched by decay or time,&mdash;the river Adige,&mdash;which,
+passing underneath the walls, dashes through the city in a magnificent
+torrent, spanned by several noble bridges of ancient architecture, and
+turns in its course several large floating mills, which are anchored
+across the stream. The market-place, a large square, was profusely
+covered with the produce of the neighbouring plains. I purchased a roll
+of bread and a magnificent cluster of grapes, and lunched in fine style.</p>
+
+<p>At Verona the railway resumes, and runs all the way to Venice. What a
+transition from the <i>diligence</i>&mdash;the lumbering, snail-paced
+<i>diligence</i>&mdash;to the rail. It is like passing by a single leap from the
+dark ages to modern times. Then only do you feel what you owe to Watt.
+In my humble opinion, the Pope should have put the steam-engine into the
+Index Expurgatorius. His priests in France have attended at the opening
+of railways, and blessed the engines. What! bless the steam-engine!
+Sprinkle holy water on the heads of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</a></span> Mazzini and Gavazzi. For what are
+these engines, but so many cast-iron Mazzinis and Gavazzis. The Pope
+should have anathematized the steam-engine. He should have cursed it
+after the approved pontifical fashion, in standing and in running, in
+watering and in coaling. He should have cursed it in the whole structure
+of its machinery,&mdash;in its funnel, in its boiler, in its piston, in its
+cranks, and in its stopcocks. I can see a hundred things which are sure
+to be crushed beneath its ponderous wheels. I can see it tearing
+ruthlessly onwards, and dashing through prejudices, opinions, usages,
+and time-honoured and venerated institutions, and sweeping all away like
+so many cobwebs. Was the Argus of the Vatican asleep when this wolf
+broke into the fold? But <i>in</i> he is, and the Pope's bulls will have
+enough to do to drive him out. But more of this anon.</p>
+
+<p>The station of the railway is on the east of the town, in a spot of
+enchanting loveliness. It was the first and almost the only spot that
+realized the Italy of my dreams. It was in a style of beauty such as I
+had not before seen, and was perfect in its kind. The low lovely hills
+were ranged in crescent form, and were as faultless as if Grace herself
+had moulded them on her lathe. Their clothing was a deep rich purple.
+White villas, like pearls, sparkled upon them; and they were dotted with
+the cypress, which stood on their sides in silent, meditative, ethereal
+grace. The scene possessed not the sublime grandeur of Switzerland, nor
+the rugged picturesqueness of Scotland: its characteristic was the
+finished, spiritualized, voluptuous beauty of Italy. But hark! the
+railway-bell rings out its summons.</p>
+
+<p>The carriages on the Verona and Venice Railway are not those
+strong-looking, crib-like machines which we have in England, and which
+seem built, as our jails and bridewells<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span> are, in anticipation that the
+inmates will do their best to get out. They are roomy and elegant
+saloons (though strong in their build), of about forty feet in length,
+and may contain two hundred passengers a-piece. They are fitted up with
+a tier of cushioned seats running round the carriage, and two sofa-seats
+running lengthways in the middle. At each end is a door by which the
+guard enters and departs, and passes along the whole train, as if it
+were a suit of apartments. So far as I could make out, I was the only
+<i>Englese</i> in the carriage, which was completely filled with the citizens
+and peasantry of the towns and rural districts which lay on our
+route,&mdash;the mountaineer of the Tyrol, the native of the plain, the
+inhabitant of the city of Verona, of Vicenza, of Venice. There was a
+greater amount of talk, and of vehement and eloquent gesture, than would
+have been seen in the same circumstances in England. The costume was
+varied and picturesque, and so too, but in a less degree, the
+countenance. There were in the carriage tall athletic forms, reared amid
+the breezes and vines of the Tyrol; and there were noble faces,&mdash;faces
+with rich complexions, and dark fiery eyes, which could gleam in love or
+burn in battle, and which bore the still farther appendage of moustache
+and beard, in which the wearer evidently took no little pride, and on
+which he bestowed no little pains. The company had somewhat the air of a
+masquerade. There was the Umbrian cloak, the cone-shaped beaver, the
+vest with its party-coloured lacings. There were the long loose robe and
+low-crowned hat of the priest, with its enormous brim, as if to shade
+the workings of his face beneath. There was the brown cloak of the
+friar; and there were hats and coats of the ordinary Frank fashion. The
+Leghorn bonnet is there unknown, as almost all over the Continent,
+unless among the young girls of Switzerland; and the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span> head-gear of the
+women mostly was a plain cotton napkin, folded on the brow and pinned
+below the chin,&mdash;a custom positively ugly, which may become a mummy or a
+shaven head, but not for those who have ringlets to show. Some with
+better taste had discarded the napkin, and wore a smart cap. On the
+persons of not a few of the females was displayed a considerable amount
+of value, in the shape of gold chains, rings, and jewellery. This is an
+indication, not of wealth, but of poverty and stagnant trade. It was a
+custom much in use among oriental ladies before banks were established.</p>
+
+<p>The plains eastward of Verona on the right were amazingly rich, and the
+uplands and heights on the left were crowned with fine castles and
+beautiful little temples. Yet the beauty and richness of the region
+could not soothe Dante for his lost Florence. For here was his "Patmos,"
+if we may venture on imagery borrowed from the history of a greater
+seer; and here the visions of the Purgatorio had passed before his eye.
+After a few hours' riding, the fine hills of the Tyrolese Alps came
+quite up to us, disclosing, as they filed past, a continuous succession
+of charming views. When the twilight began to gather, and they stood in
+their rich drapery of purple shadows, their beauty became a thing
+indescribable. We saw Vicenza, where, of all the spots in Italy, the
+Reformation found the largest number of adherents, and where Palladio
+arose in the sixteenth century, to arrest for a while, by his genius,
+the decay of the architectural arts in Italy. We saw, too, the gray
+Padua looking at us through the sombre shadows of its own and the day's
+decline. We continued our course over the flat but rich country beyond;
+and as night fell we reached the edge of the Lagunes.</p>
+
+<p>I looked out into the watery waste with the aid of the faint light, but
+I could see no city, and nothing whereon a city<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</a></span> could stand. All was
+sea; and it seemed idle to seek a city, or any habitation of man, in the
+midst of these waters. But the engine with its great red eye could see
+farther into the dark; and it dashed fearlessly forward, and entered on
+the long bridge which I saw stretching on and away over the flood, till
+its farther end, like that of the bridge which Mirza saw in vision, was
+lost in a cloud. I could see, as we rode on, on the bosom of the flood
+beneath us, twinkling lights, which were probably lighthouses, and black
+dots, which we took for boats. After a five miles' run through scenery
+of this novel character, the train stopped, and we found that we had
+arrived, not in a cloud or in a quicksand, as there seemed some reason
+to fear, but in a spacious and elegant station, brilliantly lighted with
+gas, and reminding one, from its sudden apparition and its strange site,
+of the fabled palace of the Sicilian Fairy Queen, only not built, like
+hers, of sunshine and sea-mist. We were marched in file past, first the
+tribunal of the searchers, and next the tribunal of the passport
+officials; and then an Austrian gendarme opening to each, as he passed
+this ordeal, the door of the station-house, I stepped out, to have my
+first sight, as I hoped, of the Queen of the Adriatic.</p>
+
+<p>I found myself in the midst of the sea, standing on a little platform of
+land, with a cloudy mass floating before me, resembling, in the
+uncertain light, the towers and domes of a spectral city. It was now for
+the first time that I realized the peculiar position of Venice. I had
+often read of the city whose streets were canals and whose chariots were
+gondolas; but I had failed to lay hold of it as a reality, and had
+unconsciously placed Venice in the region of fable. There was no missing
+the fact now. I was hemmed in on all sides by the ocean, and could not
+move a step without the certainty of being drowned. What was I to do? In
+answer to my inquiries, I was told that I must proceed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</a></span> to my hotel in
+an omnibus. This sounded of the earth, and I looked eagerly round to see
+the desired vehicle; but horses, carriage, wheels, I could see none. I
+could no more conceive of an omnibus that could swim on the sea, than
+the Venetians could of a gondola that could move on the dry land. I was
+shown a large gondola, to which the name of omnibus was given, which lay
+at the bottom of the stairs waiting for passengers. I descended into it,
+and was followed by some thirty more. We were men of various nations and
+various tongues, and we took our seats in silence. We pushed off, and
+were soon gliding along on the Grand Canal. Not a word was spoken.
+Although we had been a storming party sent to surprise an enemy's fort
+by night, we could not have conducted our proceedings in profounder
+quiet. There reigned as unbroken a stillness around us, as if, instead
+of the midst of a city, we had been in the solitude of the high seas. No
+foot-fall re-echoed through that strange abode. Sound of chariot-wheel
+there was none. Nothing was audible but the soft dip of the oar, and the
+startled shout of an occasional gondolier, who feared, perhaps, that our
+heavier craft might send his slim skiff to the bottom. In about a
+quarter of an hour we turned out of the Grand Canal, and began threading
+our way amid those innumerable narrow channels which traverse Venice in
+all directions. Then it was that the dismal silence of the city fell
+upon my heart. The canals we were now navigating were not over three
+yards in width. They were long and gloomy; and tall, massive palaces,
+sombre and spectral in the gloom, rose out of the sea on either hand.
+There were columns at their entrances, with occasional pieces of
+statuary, for which time had woven a garland of weeds. Their lower
+windows were heavily grated; their marble steps were laved by the idle
+tide; and their warehouse doors,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a></span> through which had passed, in their
+time, the merchandise of every clime, had long been unopened, and were
+rotting from age. As we pursued our way, we passed under low-browed
+arches, from which uncouth faces, cut in the stone, looked down upon us,
+and grinned our welcome. The voice of man, the light of a candle, the
+sound of a millstone, was not there. It seemed a city of the dead. The
+inhabitants had lived and died ages ago, and had left their palaces to
+be tenanted by the mermaids and spirits of the deep, for other occupants
+I could see none. Spectral fancies began to haunt my imagination. I
+conceived of the canal we were traversing as the Styx, our gondola as
+the boat of Charon, and ourselves as a company of ghosts, who had passed
+from earth, and were now on our silent way to the inexorable bar of
+Rhadamanthus. A more spectral procession we could not have made, with
+our spectral boat gliding noiselessly through the water, with its
+spectral steersman, and its crowd of spectral passengers, though my
+fancy, instead of being a fancy, had been a reality. All things around
+me were sombre, shadowy, silent, as Hades itself.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly our gondola made a rapid sweep round a tall corner. Then it was
+that the Queen of the Adriatic, in all her glory, burst upon us,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+"Looking a sea Cybele, fresh from ocean,<br />
+Rising with her tiara of proud towers."<br />
+</p>
+
+<p class="noin">We were flung right in front of the great square of St. Mark. It was
+like the instantaneous raising of the curtain from some glorious vision,
+or like the sudden parting of the clouds around Mont Blanc; or, if I may
+use such a simile, like the unfolding of the gates of a better world to
+the spirit, after passing through the shadows of the tomb. The spacious
+piazza, bounded on all sides with noble structures in every style of
+architecture,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span> reflected the splendour of a thousand lamps. There was
+the palace of the Doge, which I knew not as yet; and there, on its lofty
+column, was the winged lion of St Mark, which it was impossible not to
+know; and, crowding the piazza, and walking to and fro on its marble
+floor, was a countless multitude of men in all the costumes of the
+world. With the deep hum of voices was softly blended the sound of the
+Italian lute. A few strokes of the oar brought us to the Hotel dell'
+Europa. I made a spring from the gondola, and alighted on the steps of
+the hotel.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</a></span></p>
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XV" id="CHAPTER_XV"></a>CHAPTER XV.</h3>
+
+<h4>CITY OF VENICE.</h4>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang">Sabbath Morning&mdash;Beauty of Sunrise on the Adriatic&mdash;Worship in S.
+Mark's&mdash;Popish Sabbath-schools&mdash;Sale of Indulgences for Living and
+Dead&mdash;An Astrologer&mdash;How the Venetians spend their Sabbath
+Afternoon and Evening&mdash;The Martyrs of Venice&mdash;A Young Englishman in
+Trouble&mdash;The Doge's Palace&mdash;The Stone Lions&mdash;The Prisons of
+Venice&mdash;The Venetians Discard their Old God, and adopt a New&mdash;The
+Gothic Tower&mdash;The Academy of Fine Arts&mdash;The Moral of Venice&mdash;Why do
+Nations Die?&mdash;Common Theory Unsatisfactory&mdash;History hitherto a
+Series of ever-recurring Cycles, ending in
+Barbarism&mdash;Instances&mdash;The "Three-score and Ten" of Nations&mdash;The
+Solution to be sought with reference to the False Religions&mdash;The
+Intellect of the Nation outgrows these&mdash;Conscience is
+Dissolved&mdash;Virtue is Lost&mdash;Slavery and Barbarism
+ensue&mdash;Christianity only can give Immortality to Nations&mdash;Decadence
+of Civilization under Romanism&mdash;A Papist foretelling the Doom of
+Popery. </p></div>
+
+
+<p class="noin"><span class="smcap">The</span> deep boom of the Austrian cannon awoke me next morning at day-break.
+I remembered that it was Sabbath; and never had I seen the Sabbath dawn
+amidst a silence so majestic. More tranquil could not have been its
+first opening in the bowers of Eden. In this city of ocean there was no
+sound of hurrying feet, no rattle of chariot-wheel, nor any of those
+multitudinous noises that distract the cities of earth. There was
+silence on the domes of Venice, silence on her seas, silence in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</a></span> the air
+around her. In a little the sun rose, and shed a flood of glory on the
+Lagunes. It would be difficult to describe the grandeur of the scene,
+which has nothing elsewhere of the kind to equal it,&mdash;the white marble
+city, serenely seated on the bosom of the Adriatic, with the Lagunes
+outspread in the morning sun like a mirror of molten gold. But, alas! it
+was only a glorious vision; for the power and wealth of Venice are
+departed.</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+<span style="margin-left: 12em;">"The long file</span><br />
+Of her dead Doges are declined to dust.<br />
+</p>
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+<p class="poem">
+<span style="margin-left: 17em;">Empty halls,</span><br />
+Thin streets and foreign aspects, such as must<br />
+Too oft remind her who and what enthrals,<br />
+Have flung a desolate cloud o'er Venice' lovely walls."<br />
+</p>
+
+<p class="noin">The gun which had awaked me reminds the Queen of the Adriatic every
+morning that the day of her dominion and glory is over, and that the
+night has come upon her,&mdash;a night, the deep unbroken shadows of which,
+even the bright morning that was now opening on the Adriatic could not
+dispel.</p>
+
+<p>After breakfast I hurried to the church of S. Mark. Mass was proceeding
+as usual; and a large crowd of worshippers,&mdash;spectators I should rather
+say,&mdash;stood densely packed in the chancel. If I except the Madeleine in
+Paris, I have nowhere seen in a Roman Catholic church an attendance at
+all approximating even a tolerable congregation, save here. I remarked,
+too, that these were not the beggars which usually form the larger
+proportion of the attendance, such as it is, in Roman churches. The
+people in S. Mark's were well dressed, though it was not easy to
+conceive where these fine clothes had come from, seeing the sea has now
+failed Venice, and land she never possessed. This was the first symptom
+I saw (I met others in the course of the day) that in Venice the Roman
+religion has<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</a></span> a stronger hold upon the people than in the rest of Italy.
+It is an advantage in this respect to be some little distance from Rome,
+and to have an insular position. Besides, I believe that the priests in
+Venetian Lombardy, and, I presume, in Venice also, are men of more
+reputable lives than their brethren in other parts of the Peninsula.
+Anciently it was not so. Venice was wont to be termed "the paradise of
+monks." There no pleasure allowable to a man of the world was forbidden
+to a priest. The Senate, jealous of everything that might abridge its
+authority, encouraged this relaxation of the Church's discipline, in the
+hope of lowering the influence of its clergy with the people.</p>
+
+<p>S. Mark's is an ancient, quaint-looking pile, with the dim hoar light of
+history around it. On its threshold Pope Alexander III. met the Emperor
+Frederick in 1177, and, with pride unabated by his enforced flight from
+Rome in the disguise of a cook, put his foot upon the monarch's neck,
+repeating the words of the psalm,&mdash;"Thou shalt tread upon the lion and
+adder." This high temple of the Adriatic is vast and curious, but
+wanting in effect, owing to the low roof and the gloomy light. The
+Levant was searched for columns and marbles to decorate it; acres of
+gold-leaf have been expended in gilding it; and every corner is stuck
+full of allegorical devices, some of which are so very ingenious, that
+they have not yet been read. The priests wore a style of dress admirably
+befitting the finery of the Cathedral; for their vestments were
+bespangled with gold and curious devices. What a contrast to the simple
+temple and the plain earnest worshippers with whom I had passed my
+former Sabbath amid the Vaudois hills! But the God of the Vaudois,
+unlike the wafer-god of the priests, "dwelleth not in temples made with
+hands."</p>
+
+<p>Passing along on the narrow paved footpaths which tie back<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</a></span> to back the
+long lofty ranges of the city,&mdash;the fronts being filled with the
+ocean,&mdash;I visited several of its one hundred and twenty churches. I
+found mass ended, and the congregation, if any such there had been,
+dismissed; but I saw what was even more indicative of a reviving
+superstition: in every church I entered I found classes of boys and
+girls under instruction. The Sabbath-school system was in full operation
+in Venice, in Rome's behalf. The boys were in charge of the young
+priests; and the girls, of the nuns and sisters. In some cases, laymen
+had been pressed into the service, and were occupied in unfolding the
+mysteries of transubstantiation to the young mind. Seating myself on a
+bench in presence of a class of boys, I watched the course of
+instruction. Their text-book was the "Catechism of Christian Doctrine,"
+which contains the elements of the Roman faith, as fixed by the Council
+of Trent. The boys were repeating the Catechism to the teacher. No
+explanations were given, for the process was simply that of fixing
+dogmas in the memory,&mdash;of conveying as much of fact, or what professed
+to be so, as it was possible to convey into the mind without awakening
+the understanding. The boys were taught to <i>believe</i>, not <i>reason</i>; and
+those who acquitted themselves best had little medals and pictures of St
+Francis given them as prizes. I remarked that most of the shops were
+shut: indeed, so little business is done in Venice, that this involved
+no sacrifice to the traders. As it was, however, the city contrasted
+favourably with Paris; than the Sabbaths of which, I know of nothing
+more terrible on earth. I remarked, too, that if the trade of the
+Adriatic is at an end, and beggars crowd the quays which princes once
+trod, and gondolas, in funereal black, glide gloomily through those
+waters which rich argosies ploughed of old, the spiritual traffic of
+Venice flourishes more than ever. I read on the doors of all the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</a></span>
+churches, "<span class="smcap">Indulgences sold here for the living and the dead, as in
+Rome.</span>" What matters it that the Adriatic is no longer the highway of the
+world's merchandise, and that India is now closed to Venice? Is not the
+whole of Peter's treasury open to her; and, to facilitate the enriching
+commerce, have not the priests obligingly opened a direct road to the
+celestial mine, to spare the Venetians the necessity of the more
+circuitous path by the Seven Hills? Happy Venice! her children may be
+starved now, but paradise is their's hereafter.</p>
+
+<p>After noon each betook himself to what pastime he pleased. Not a few
+opened their shops. Others gathered round an astrologer,&mdash;a personage no
+longer to be seen in the cities of the west,&mdash;who had taken his stand on
+the <i>Riva degli Schiavoni</i>, and there, begirt with zone inscribed with
+cabalistic characters, and holding in his hand his wizard's staff, was
+setting forth, with stentorian voice, his marvellous power of healing by
+the combined help of the stars and his drugs. By the way, why should the
+profession of astrology and the cognate arts be permitted to only one
+class of men? In the middle ages, two classes of conjurors competed for
+the public patronage, but with most unequal success. The one class
+professed to be master of spells that were all-powerful over the
+elements of the material world,&mdash;the air, the earth, the ocean. The
+other arrogated an equal power over the invisible and spiritual world.
+They were skilled in a mysterious rite, which had power to open the
+gates of purgatory, and dismiss to a happier abode, souls there immured
+in woe. The pretensions of both were equally well founded: both were
+jugglers, and merited to have fared alike; but society, while it
+lavished all its credence and all its patronage upon the one, denounced
+the other as impostors. One colossal system of necromancy filled Europe;
+but the age gave the priest a monopoly; and so jealously<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</a></span> did it guard
+his rights, that the conjuror who did not wear a cassock was banished or
+burned. We can assign no reason for the odium under which the one lay,
+and the repute in which the other was held, save that the art, though
+one, was termed witchcraft in the one case, and religion in the other.
+The one was compelled to shroud his mysteries in the darkness of the
+night, and seek the solitary cave for the performance of his spells. The
+arts of the other were performed in magnificent and costly cathedrals,
+in presence of admiring assemblies. The latter were the licensed dealers
+in magic; and, enjoying the public patronage, they carried their
+pretensions to a pitch which their less favoured brethren dared not
+attempt to rival. They juggled on a gigantic scale, and the more
+enormous the cheat, the better was it received. They rapidly grew in
+numbers and wealth. Their chief, the great Roman necromancer, enjoyed
+the state of a temporal prince, and had a whole kingdom appropriated to
+his use, that he might suitably support his rank and dignity as
+arch-conjuror.</p>
+
+<p>But to return to Venice;&mdash;the great stream of concourse flowed in the
+direction of the <i>Giardini Pubblici</i>, which are a nook of one of the
+more southerly islands on which the city stands, fitted up as a
+miniature landscape, its lilliputian hills and vales being the only ones
+the Venetians ever see. The intercourse betwixt Venice and the Continent
+has no doubt become more frequent since the opening of the railway; but
+formerly it was not uncommon to find persons who had never been on the
+land, and who had no notion of ploughs, waggons, carts, gardens, and a
+hundred other things that seem quite inseparable from the existence of a
+nation. Twilight came, walking with noiseless sandals on the seas. A
+delicious light mantled the horizon; the domes of the city stood up with
+silent sublimity into the sky; and over them floated,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</a></span> in the deep
+azure, a young moon, thin as a single thread, and bright as the polished
+steel.</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+<span style="margin-left: 9em;">"A silver bow,</span><br />
+New bent in heaven."<br />
+</p>
+
+<p>When darkness fell on the Lagunes, the glories of the piazza of San
+Marco again blazed forth. What with caf&eacute;s and countless lamps, a flood
+of light fell upon the marble pavement, on which some ten or twelve
+thousand people, rich and poor, were assembled, and were being regaled
+with occasional airs from a numerous band. The Sabbath closed in the
+Adriatic not altogether so tranquilly as it had opened.</p>
+
+<p>The Venetians have long been famous for their peculiar skill in
+combining devotion with pleasure,&mdash;more devout than home in the morning,
+and gayer than Paris in the evening. Such has long been the character of
+the Queen of the Adriatic. She has been truly, as briefly described by
+the poet,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+"The revel of the earth, the mask of Italy!"<br />
+</p>
+
+<p>Once a better destiny appeared to be about to dawn on Venice. In the
+sixteenth century the Reformation knocked at her gates, and for a moment
+it seemed as if these gates were to be opened, and the stranger
+admitted. Had it been so, the chair of her Doge would not now have been
+empty, nor would Austrian manacles have been pressing upon her limbs.
+"The evangelical doctrine had made such progress," writes Dr M'Crie, "in
+the city of Venice, between the years 1530 and 1542, that its friends,
+who had hitherto met in private for mutual instruction and religious
+exercises, held deliberations on the propriety of organizing themselves
+into regular congregations, and assembling in public." Several members
+of the Senate were favourable to it, and hopes were entertained at one
+time that the authority of that body would be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</a></span> interposed in its behalf.
+This hope was strengthened by the fact, that when Ochino ascended the
+pulpit, "the whole city ran in crowds to hear their favourite preacher."
+But, alas! the hope was delusive. It was the Inquisition, not the
+Reformation, to which Venice opened her gates; and when I surveyed her
+calm and beautiful Lagunes, my emotions partook at once of grief and
+exultation,&mdash;grief at the remembrance of the many midnight tragedies
+enacted on them, and exultation at the thought, that in the seas of
+Venice there sleeps much holy dust awaiting the resurrection of the
+just. "Drowning was the mode of death to which they doomed the
+Protestants," says Dr M'Crie, "either because it was less cruel and
+odious than committing them to the flames, or because it accorded with
+the customs of Venice. But if the <i>autos da fe</i> of the Queen of the
+Adriatic were less barbarous than those of Spain, the solitude and
+silence with which they were accompanied were calculated to excite the
+deepest horror. At the dead hour of midnight the prisoner was taken from
+his cell, and put into a gondola or Venetian boat, attended only,
+besides the sailors, by a single priest, to act as confessor. He was
+rowed out into the sea, beyond the Two Castles, where another boat was
+in waiting. A plank was then laid across the two gondolas, upon which
+the prisoner, having his body chained, and a heavy stone affixed to his
+feet, was placed; and, on a signal given, the gondolas retiring from one
+another, he was precipitated into the deep." "We can do nothing against
+the truth," says the apostle. Venice is rotting in her Lagunes: the
+Reformation, shaking off the chains with which men attempted to bind it,
+is starting on a new career of progress.</p>
+
+<p>Next morning, at breakfast in my hotel, formerly the palace of the
+Giustiniani, I met a young Englishman, who had just<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</a></span> come from Rome. He
+had the misfortune to be of the same name with one on the "suspected
+list," and for this offence he was arrested on entering the Austrian
+territory; and, though allowed to come on to Venice, his passport was
+taken from him, and his journey to England, which he meant to make by
+way of Trieste and Vienna, stopped. The list to which I have referred,
+which is kept at all the continental police offices, and which the eye
+of policeman or sbirro only can see, has created a sort of inquisition
+for Europe. The poor traveller has no means of knowing who has denounced
+him, or why; and wherever he goes, he finds a vague suspicion
+surrounding him, which he can neither penetrate nor clear up, and which
+exposes him to numberless and by no means petty annoyances. I
+accompanied my friend, after breakfast, to the <i>Prefecture</i>, to transact
+my own passport matters, and was glad to find that the authorities were
+now satisfied that he was not the same man who figured on the black
+list. Still they had no apology, no reparation, to offer him: on the
+contrary, he was informed that he must submit to a detention of two or
+three days more, till his passport should be forwarded from the
+provincial office where it was lying. His misfortune was my advantage,
+for it gave me an intelligent and obliging companion for the rest of the
+day; and we immediately set out to visit together all the great objects
+in Venice. It would be preposterous to dwell on these, for an hundred
+pens have already described them better; and my object is to advert to
+one great lesson which this fallen city,&mdash;for the sea, which once was
+the bulwark and throne of Venice, is now her prison,&mdash;teaches.</p>
+
+<p>Betaking ourselves to a gondola, we passed down the Giudecca, Canal. We
+much admired&mdash;as who would not?&mdash;the-noble palaces which on either hand
+rose so proudly from the bosom of the deep, yet invested with an air of
+silent desolation, which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</a></span> made the heart sad, even while their beauty
+delighted the eye. We disembarked at the stairs of the <i>piazzetta</i> of S.
+Mark, and repaired to the Doge's palace,&mdash;the dwelling of a line of
+rulers haughtier than kings, and the throne of a republic more
+oppressive than tyrannies. We walked through its truly majestic halls,
+glowing with great paintings from Venetian history; and visited its
+senatorial chamber, and saw the vacant places of its nobles, and the
+empty chair of its Doge. There was here no lack of materials for
+moralizing, had time permitted. She that sat as a Queen upon the
+waves,&mdash;that said, "I am of perfect beauty,"&mdash;that sent her fleets to
+the ends of the earth, and gathered to her the riches and glory of all
+nations,&mdash;alas! how is she fallen! "The princes of the sea" have "come
+down from their thrones, and" laid "away their robes, and put off their
+broidered garments." "What city is like" Venice,&mdash;"like the destroyed in
+the midst of the sea!"</p>
+
+<p>We passed out between the famous stone lions, which, even so late as the
+end of the last century, no Venetian could look on but with terror.
+There they sat, with open jaws, displaying their fearfully significant
+superscription, "<i>Denunzie secrete</i>,"&mdash;realizing the poet's idea of
+republics guarded by dragons and lions. The use of these guardian lions
+the Venetians knew but too well. Accusations dropped by spies and
+informers into their open mouths, were received in a chamber below. Thus
+the bolt fell upon the unsuspicious citizen, but the hand from which it
+came remained invisible. Crossing by the "bridge of sighs,"&mdash;the canal,
+<i>Rio de Palazzo</i>, which runs behind the ducal palace,&mdash;we entered the
+state prisons of Venice. In the dim light I could discern what seemed a
+labyrinth of long narrow passages; traversing which, we arrived at the
+dungeons. I entered one of them: it was vaulted all round; and its only
+furniture, besides a ring and chain, was a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</a></span> small platform of boards,
+about half a foot from the floor, which served as the prisoner's bed. In
+the wall of the cell was a small aperture, by which the light might be
+made to stream in upon the prisoner, when the jailor did not wish to
+enter, simply by placing the lamp in an opposite niche in the passage.
+Here crime, despair, madness, and sometimes innocence, have dwelt.
+Horrible secrets seemed to hover about its roof, and float in its air,
+and to be ready to break upon me from every stone of the dungeon. I
+longed, yet trembled, to hear them. But silent they are, and silent they
+will remain, till that day when "the sea shall give up its dead." There
+are yet lower dungeons, deep beneath water-mark, but I was told that
+these are now walled up.</p>
+
+<p>We emerged again upon the marble piazzetta; and more welcome than ever
+was the bright light, and the noble grace of the buildings. At its
+southern extremity, where the piazzetta looks out upon the Adriatic, are
+two stately granite columns; the one surmounted by St Theodore, and the
+other by the lion of St Mark. These are the two gods of Venice. They
+were to the Republic what the two calves were to Israel,&mdash;their
+all-powerful protectors; and so devoutly did the Venetians worship them,
+that even the god of the Seven Hills became jealous of them. "The
+Venetians in general care little about God," says an old traveller,
+"less about the Pope, but a great deal about St Mark." St Theodore
+sheltered the Republic in its infancy; but when it grew to greatness, it
+deemed it unbecoming its dignity to have only a subordinate for its
+tutelar deity. Accordingly, Venice sought and obtained a god of the
+first water. The Republic brought over the body of St Mark, enshrined it
+in a magnificent church, and left its former patron no alternative but
+to cross the Lagunes, or occupy a second place.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</a></span></p><p>Before bidding adieu to the piazza of St Mark, around which there
+hovers so many historic memories, and which every style of architecture,
+from the Greek and the Byzantine down to the Gotho-Italian, has met to
+decorate, and which, we may add, in point of noble grace and chaste
+beauty is perhaps not excelled in the world, we must be allowed to
+mention one object, which appeared to us strangely out of keeping with
+the spot and its edifices. It is the tall Gothic tower that rises
+opposite the Byzantine front of S. Mark's Cathedral. It attains a height
+of upwards of three hundred feet, and is used for various purposes,
+which, however, it could serve equally well in some other part of
+Venice. It strikes one the more, that it is the one deformity of the
+place. It reminded me of the entrance of a clown at a royal levee, or
+the appearance of harlequin in a tragedy.</p>
+
+<p>Betaking ourselves again to a gondola, and gliding noiselessly along the
+grand canal,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+"For silent rows the songless gondolier,"<br />
+</p>
+
+<p class="noin">we visited the <i>Academia delle Belle Arte</i>. It resembled a great and
+elaborately compiled work on painting, and I could there read off the
+history of the rise and progress of the art in Venice. The several
+galleries were arranged, like the successive chapters of a book, in
+chronological order, beginning with the infancy of the art, and going on
+to its full noon, under the great masters of the Lombard
+school,&mdash;Titian, Paul Veronese, Tintoretto, and others. The pictures of
+the inner saloons were truly magnificent; but on these I do not dwell.</p>
+
+<p>Let us sit down here, in the midst of the seas, and meditate a little on
+the great <i>moral</i> of Venice. We shall let the poet state the case:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</a></span><span style="margin-left: 11em;">"Her daughters had their dowers</span><br />
+From spoils of nations, and the exhaustless East<br />
+Poured in her lap all gems in sparkling showers.<br />
+In purple was she robed, and of her feast<br />
+Monarchs partook, and deem'd their dignity increased."<br />
+</p>
+
+<p class="noin">But now, after power, wealth, empire, have come corruption, slavery,
+ruin; and Venice,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+"Her thirteen hundred years of freedom done,<br />
+Sinks, like a sea-weed, into whence she rose."<br />
+</p>
+
+<p class="noin">But the course which Venice has run is that of all States which have yet
+appeared in the world. History is but a roll of defunct empires, whose
+career has been alike; and Venice and Rome are but the latest names on
+the list. Egypt, Chaldea, Tyre, Greece, Rome,&mdash;to all, as if by an
+inevitable law, there came, after the day of civilization and empire,
+the night of barbarism and slavery. This has been repeated again and
+again, till the world has come to accept of it as its established
+course. We see States emerging from infancy and weakness slowly and
+laboriously, becoming rich, enlightened, powerful; and the moment they
+seemed to have perfected their civilization, and consolidated their
+power, they begin to fall. The past history of our race is but a history
+of efforts, successful up to a certain point, but only to a certain
+point; for whenever that point has been reached, all the fruits of past
+labour,&mdash;all the accumulations of legislators, philosophers, and
+warriors,&mdash;have been swept away, and the human family have found that
+they had to begin the same laborious process over again,&mdash;to toil
+upwards from the same gulph, to be overtaken by the same disaster.
+History has been simply a series of ever-recurring cycles, ending in
+barbarism. This is a discouraging aspect of human affairs, and throws a
+doubtful shadow upon<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</a></span> the future; but it is the aspect in which history
+exhibits them. The Etrurian tombs speak of an era of civilization and
+power succeeded by barbarism. The mounds of Nineveh speak of a similar
+revolution. The day of Greek glory sank at last in unbroken night. At
+the fall of the Roman empire, barbarism overspread Europe; and now the
+cycle appears to have come round to the nations of modern Europe. Since
+the middle of last century there has been a marked and fearfully rapid
+decline in all the States of continental Europe. The entire region south
+of the Alps, including the once powerful kingdoms of Italy and Spain, is
+sunk in slavery and barbarism. France alone retains its civilization;
+but how long is it likely to retain it, with its strength undermined by
+revolution, and its liberties completely prostrated? Niebuhr has given
+expression in his works to his decided opinion, <i>that the dark ages are
+returning</i>. And are we not at this moment witnessing an attempted
+repetition of the Gothic invasion of the fourth century, in the
+barbarian north, which is pressing with ever-growing weight upon the
+feeble barrier of the East?</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+<span style="margin-left: 12em;">"Nations melt</span><br />
+From power's high pinnacle, when they have felt<br />
+The sunshine for a while, and downward go<br />
+Like lauwine loosen'd from the mountain's belt."<br />
+</p>
+
+<p>But why is this? It would almost seem, when we look at these examples
+and facts, as if there were some malignant influence sporting with the
+world's progress,&mdash;some adverse power fighting against man, baulking all
+his efforts at self-advancement, and compelling him, Sysiphus-like, to
+roll the stone eternally. Has the Creator set limits to the life of
+kingdoms, as to that of man? Certain it is, they have seldom survived
+their twelfth century. The most part have died at or about their<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</a></span> twelve
+hundred and sixtieth year. Is this the "three-score-and-ten" of nations,
+beyond which they cannot pass?</p>
+
+<p>The common explanation of the death of nations is, that power begets
+wealth, wealth luxury, and luxury feebleness and ruin. But we are unable
+to accept this as a satisfactory account of the matter. It appears a
+mere <i>statement</i> of the fact,&mdash;not a <i>solution</i> of it. It is evidently
+the design of Providence that nations should live happily in the
+abundant enjoyment of all good things; and that every human being should
+have all that is good for him, of what the earth produces, and the
+labour of man can create. Then, why should affluence, and the other
+accessories of power, have so uniformly a corrupting and dissolving
+effect upon society? This the common theory leaves unexplained. There is
+no necessary connection betwixt the enjoyment of abundance and the
+corruption of nations. The Creator surely has not ordained laws which
+must necessarily result in the death of society.</p>
+
+<p>The real solution, we think, it is not difficult to find. All religions,
+one excepted, which have hitherto appeared in the world, have been
+unable to hold the balance between the <i>intellect</i> and the <i>conscience</i>
+beyond a certain stage; and therefore, all kingdoms which have arisen
+hitherto have been unable to exist beyond a certain term. So long as a
+nation is in its childhood, a false religion affords room enough for the
+free play of its intellect. Its religion being regarded as true and
+authoritative, the conscience of the nation is controlled by it. So long
+as conscience is upheld, law has authority, individual and social virtue
+is maintained, and the nation goes on acquiring power, amassing wealth,
+and increasing knowledge. But whenever it attains a certain stage of
+enlightenment, and a certain power of independent thinking, it begins to
+canvass the claims of that religion which formerly awed it. It
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</a></span>discovers its falsehood, the national conscience breaks loose, and an
+era of scepticism ensues. With the destruction of conscience and the
+rise of scepticism, law loses its authority, individual honour and
+social virtue decline, and slavery or anarchy complete the ruin of the
+state. This is the course which the nations of the world have hitherto
+run. They have uniformly begun to decline, not when they attained a
+certain amount of power or of wealth, but when they attained such an
+amount of intellectual development as set free the national conscience
+from the restraints of religion, or what professed to be so. No false
+religion can carry a nation beyond a certain point; because no such
+religion can stand before a certain stage of light and inquiry, which is
+sure to be reached; and when that stage is reached,&mdash;in other words,
+whenever the intellect dissolves the bonds of conscience,&mdash;the basis of
+all authority and order is razed, and from that moment national decline
+begins. Hence, in all nations an era of scepticism has been
+contemporaneous with an era of decay.</p>
+
+<p>Let us take the ancient Romans as an example. In the youth of their
+nation their gods were revered; and in the existence of a national
+conscience, a basis was found for law and virtue; and while these lasted
+the empire flourished. But by and by the genius of its great thinkers
+leavened the nation; an era of scepticism ensued; that scepticism
+inaugurated an age of feeble laws and strong passions; and the
+declension which set in issued at length in downright barbarism.</p>
+
+<p>Papal Rome has run the very same course. The feeble intellect of the
+European nations accepted Romanism as a religion, just as the Romans
+before them had accepted of paganism. But the Reformation introduced a
+period of growing enlightenment and independent thinking; and by the end
+of the eighteenth century, Romanism had shared the fate<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</a></span> which paganism
+had done before it. The masses of Europe generally had lost faith in it
+as a religion; then came the atheism of the French school; an era of
+feeble laws and strong passions again returned; the selfish and
+isolating principle came into play; and at this moment the nations of
+continental Europe are rapidly sinking into barbarism. Thus, the history
+of the race under the reign of the false religions exhibits but
+alternating fits of superstition and scepticism, with their
+corresponding eras of civilization and barbarism. And it necessarily
+must be so; because, these religions not being compatible with the
+indefinite extension of man's knowledge, they do not secure the
+continued action and authority of conscience; and without conscience,
+national progress, and even existence, is impossible.</p>
+
+<p>Is there, then, no immortality in reserve for nations? Must they
+continue to die? and must the history of our race in all time coming be
+just what it has been in all time past,&mdash;a series of rapidly alternating
+epochs of partial civilization and destructive barbarism? No. He who is
+the former of society is the author of the Bible; and we may be sure
+that there is a beautiful meetness and harmony between the laws of the
+one and the doctrine of the other. Christianity alone can enable society
+to fulfil its terrestrial destiny, because it alone is true, and, being
+true, it admits of the utmost advancement of the human understanding. In
+its case the centrifugal force of the intellect can never overcome the
+centripetal power of the conscience. It has nothing to fear from the
+advance of science. It keeps pace with the human mind, however rapid its
+progress. Nay, more; the more the human mind is enlarged, the more
+apparent becomes the truth of Christianity, and, by consequence, the
+greater becomes the authority of conscience. Under the reign of
+Christianity, then, there is no point in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</a></span> onward progress of society
+where conscience dissolves, and leaves man and nations devoid of virtue;
+there is no point where conviction compels man to become a sceptic, and
+scepticism pulls him down into barbarism. As the atmosphere which
+surrounds our planet supplies the vital element alike to the full-grown
+man and to the infant, so Christianity supplies the breath of life to
+society in all its stages,&mdash;in its full-grown manhood, as well as in its
+immature infancy. There is more meaning than the world has yet
+understood in the statement that the Gospel has brought "life and
+immortality to light." Its Divine Founder introduced upon the stage that
+system which is the <i>life</i> of nations. The world does not furnish an
+instance of a nation that has continued to be Christian, that has
+perished. We believe the thing to be impossible. While great Rome has
+gone down, and Venice sits in widowed glory on the Adriatic, the poor
+Waldenses are still a people. The world tried but could not extinguish
+them. Christianity is synonymous with life: it gives immortality to
+nations here, and to the individual hereafter. Hence Daniel, when
+unfolding the state of the world in the last age, gives us to understand
+that, when once thoroughly Christianized, society will no longer be
+overwhelmed by those periodic lapses into barbarism which in every
+former age has set limits to the progress of States. "And in the days of
+those kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom which shall never
+be destroyed." Unlike every preceding era, immortality will then be the
+chief characteristic of nations.</p>
+
+<p>But must it not strike every one, in connection with this subject, that
+in proportion as Romanism developes itself, the nations under its sway
+sink the deeper into barbarism? This fact Romanist writers now see and
+bewail. What stronger condemnation of their system could they pronounce?
+For surely<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</a></span> if religion be of God, it must, like all else that comes
+from Him, be beneficent in its influence. He who ordained the sun to
+irradiate the earth with his light, and fructify it with his warmth,
+would not have given a religion that fetters the understanding and
+barbarises the species. And yet, if Romanism be divine, He has done so;
+for the champions of that Church, compelled by the irresistible logic of
+facts, now tacitly acknowledge that a decaying civilization is following
+in the wake of Roman Catholicism in every part of the world. Listen, for
+instance, to the following confession of M. Michel Chevalier, in the
+<i>Journal des Debats</i>:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I cannot shut my eyes to the facts that militate against the influence
+of the Catholic spirit,&mdash;facts which have transpired more especially
+during the last third of a century, and which are still in
+progress,&mdash;facts that are fitted to excite in every mind that
+sympathises with the Catholic cause, the most lively apprehensions. On
+comparing the respective progress made since 1814 by non-Catholic
+Christian nations, with the advancement of power attained by Catholic
+nations, one is struck with astonishment at the disproportion. England
+and the United States, which are Protestant Powers, and Russia, a Greek
+Power, have assumed to an incalculable degree the dominion of immense
+regions, destined to be densely peopled, and already teeming with a
+large population. England has nearly conquered all those vast and
+populous regions known under the generic name of India. In America she
+has diffused civilization to the extreme north, in the deserts of Upper
+Canada. Through the toil of her children, she has taken possession of
+every point and position of an island,&mdash;New Holland (Australia),&mdash;which
+is as large as a continent; and she has been sending forth her fresh
+shoots over all the archipelagos with which the great ocean is studded.
+The United States<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</a></span> have swollen out to a prodigious extent, in wealth
+and possessions, over the surface of their ancient domain. They have,
+moreover, enlarged on all sides the limits of that domain, anciently
+confined to a narrow stripe along the shores of the Atlantic. They now
+sit on the two oceans. San Francisco has become the pendant of New York,
+and promises speedily to rival it in its destinies. They have proved
+their superiority over the Catholic nations of the New World, and have
+subjected them to a dictatorship which admits of no farther dispute. To
+the authority of these two Powers,&mdash;England and the United
+States,&mdash;after an attempt made by the former on China, the two most
+renowned empires of the East,&mdash;empires which represent nearly the
+numerical half of the human race,&mdash;China and Japan,&mdash;seem to be on the
+point of yielding. Russia, again, appears to be assuming every day a
+position of growing importance in Europe. During all this time, what way
+has been made by the Catholic nations? The foremost of them all, the
+most compact, the most glorious,&mdash;France,&mdash;which seemed fifty years ago
+to have mounted the throne of civilization, has seen, through a course
+of strange disasters, her sceptre shivered and her power dissolved. Once
+and again has she risen to her feet, with noble courage and indomitable
+energy; but every time, as all expected to see her take a rapid flight
+upward, fate has sent her, as a curse from God, a revolution to paralyze
+her efforts, and make her miserably fall back. Unquestionably, since
+1789 the balance of power between Catholic civilization and non-Catholic
+civilization has been reversed."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</a></span></p>
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XVI" id="CHAPTER_XVI"></a>CHAPTER XVI.</h3>
+
+<h4>PADUA.</h4>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang">Doves of Venice&mdash;Re-cross the Lagunes&mdash;Padua&mdash;Wretchedness of
+Interior&mdash;Misery of its Inhabitants&mdash;Splendour of its Churches&mdash;The
+Shrine of St Antony&mdash;His Sermon to a Congregation of Fishes&mdash;A
+Restaurant in Padua&mdash;Reach the Po at Day-break&mdash;Enter Peter's
+Patrimony&mdash;Find the Apostles again become Fishermen and
+Tax-Gatherers&mdash;Arrest&mdash;Liberty. </p></div>
+
+
+<p class="noin"><span class="smcap">Contenting</span> myself with a hasty perusal of the great work on painting
+which the academy forms, and which it had taken so many ages and so many
+various masters to produce, I returned again to the square of St Mark.
+Doves in thousands were assembled on the spot, hovering on wing at the
+windows of the houses, or covering the pavement below, at the risk, as
+it seemed, of being trodden upon by the passengers. I inquired at my
+companion what this meant. He told me that a rich old gentleman by last
+will and testament had bequeathed a certain sum to be expended in
+feeding these fowls, and that, duly as the great clock in the Gothic
+tower struck two, a certain quantity of corn was every day thrown from a
+window in the piazza. Every dove in the "Republic" is punctual to a
+minute. There doves have come to acquire a sort of sacred <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</a></span>character,
+and it would be about as hazardous to kill a dove in Venice, as of old a
+cat in Egypt. We wish some one would do as much for the beggars, which
+are yet more numerous, and who know no more, when they get up in the
+morning, where they are to be fed, than do the fowls of heaven. Trade
+there is none; "to dig," they have no land, and, even if they had, they
+are too indolent; they want, too, the dove's wing to fly away to some
+happier country. Their seas have shut them in; their marble city is but
+a splendid prison. The story of Venice is that of Tyre over again,&mdash;her
+wealth, her glory, her luxuriousness, and now her doom. But we must
+leave her. Bidding adieu, on the stairs of St Mark, to the partner of
+the day's explorations, with a regret which those only can understand
+who have had the good fortune to meet an intelligent and estimable
+companion in a foreign land, I leaped into a gondola, and glided away,
+leaving Venice sitting in silent melancholy beauty amid her tideless
+seas.</p>
+
+<p>Traversing again the long bridge over the Lagunes, and the flat country
+beyond, covered with memorials of decay in the shape of dilapidated
+villas, and crossing the full-volumed Brenta, rolling on within its
+lofty embankments, I sighted the fine Tyrolean Alps on the right, and,
+after a run of twenty-four miles, the gray towers of Padua, at about a
+mile's distance from the railway, on the left.</p>
+
+<p>Poor Padua! Who could enter it without weeping almost. Of all the
+wretched and ruinous places I ever saw, this is the most wretched and
+ruinous,&mdash;hopelessly, incurably ruinous. Padua does, indeed, look
+imposing at a little distance. Its fine dome, its numerous towers, the
+large vine-stocks which are rooted in its soil, the air of vast
+fertility which is spread over the landscape, and the halo of former
+glory which, cloud-like, rests above it, consort well with one's
+preconceived ideas<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</a></span> of this once illustrious seat of learning, which
+even the youth of our own land were wont to frequent; but enter
+it,&mdash;alas the dismal sight!&mdash;ruins, filth, ignorance, poverty, on every
+hand. The streets are narrow and gloomy, from being lined with heavy and
+dark arcades; the houses, which are large, and bear marks of former
+opulence, are standing in many instances untenanted. Not a few stately
+mansions have been converted into stables, or carriers' sheds, or are
+simply naked walls, which the dogs of the city, or other creatures, make
+their den. The inhabitants, pale, emaciated, and wrapt in huge cloaks,
+wander through the streets like ghosts. Were Padua a heap of ruins,
+without a single human being on or near its site, its desolation would
+be less affecting. An unbearable melancholy sat down upon me the moment
+I entered it, and the recollection oppresses me at the distance of three
+years.</p>
+
+<p>In the midst of all this ruin and poverty, there rise I know not how
+many duomos and churches, with fine cupolas and towers, as if they meant
+to mock the misery upon which they look. They are the repositories of
+vast wealth, in the shape of silver lamps, votive offerings, paintings,
+and marbles. To appropriate a penny of that treasure in behalf of the
+wretched beings who swarm unfed and untaught in their neighbourhood,
+would bring down upon Padua the terrible ire of their great god St
+Antony. He is there known as "Il Santo" (the saint), and has a gorgeous
+temple erected in his honour, crowned with not less than eight cupolas,
+and illuminated day and night by golden lamps and silver candlesticks,
+which burn continually before his shrine. "There are narrow clefts in
+the monument that stands over him," says Addison, "where good Catholics
+rub their beads, and smell his bones, which they say have in them a
+natural perfume, though very like apoplectic balsam; and, what would
+make one suspect<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[Pg 201]</a></span> that they rub the marble with it, it is observed that
+the scent is stronger in the morning than at night." Were the precious
+metals and the costly marbles which are stored up in this church
+transmuted into current coin, the whole province of Padua might be
+supplied with ploughs and other needful implements of agriculture. But
+it is better that nature alone should cultivate their fields, and that
+the Paduans should eat only what she is pleased to provide for them,
+than that, by robbing the shrine of St Antony, they should forfeit the
+good esteem of so powerful a patron, "the thrice holy Antony of Padua;
+the powerful curer of leprosy, tremendous driver away of devils,
+restorer of limbs, stupendous discoverer of lost things, great and
+wonderful defender from all dangers."</p>
+
+<p>The miracles and great deeds of "the saint" are recorded on the tablets
+and bas-reliefs of the church. His most memorable exploit was his
+"preaching to an assembly of fishes," whom, "when the heretics would not
+regard his preaching," says his biographer, "he called together, in the
+name of God, to hear his holy Word." The congregation and the sermon
+were both extraordinary; and, if any reader is curious to see what a
+saint could have to say to a congregation of fishes, he will find the
+oration quoted <i>ad longam</i> in "Addison's Travels." The mule on which
+this great man rode was nearly as remarkable as his master. With a
+devotion worthy of the mule of St Antony, he left his hay, after a long
+fast, to be present at mass. The modern Paduans, from what I saw of
+them, fast quite as oft and as long as Antony's mule; whether they are
+equally punctual at mass I do not know.</p>
+
+<p>My stay in Padua extended only from four in the afternoon till nine at
+night. The hours wore heavily, and I sought for a restaurant where I
+might dine. I was fortunate enough at length to discover a vast hall, or
+shed I should rather say,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[Pg 202]</a></span> which was used as a restaurant. Some rich and
+noble Paduan had called it his in other days; now it received as guests
+the courier and the wayfarer. Its massive walls were quite naked, and
+enclosed an apartment so spacious, that its extremities were lost in
+darkness. Some dozen of small tables, all ready for dinner being served
+upon them, occupied the floor; and some three or four persons were
+seated at dinner. I took my seat at one of the tables, and was instantly
+served with capillini soup, and the usual <i>et ceteras</i>. I made a good
+repast, despite the haunted look of the chamber. On the conclusion of my
+dinner I repaired to the market-place, and, till the hour of <i>diligence</i>
+should arrive, I began pacing the pavement beneath the shadow of the
+town-hall, which looks as if it had been built as a kind of anticipation
+of the crystal palace, and the roof of which is said to be the largest
+unsupported by pillars in the world. It covers&mdash;so the Paduans
+believe&mdash;the bones of Livy, who is claimed as a native of Padua. It was
+here Petrarch died, which has given occasion to Lazzarini to join
+together the cradle of the historian and the tomb of the poet, in the
+following lines addressed to Padua:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+Here was he born whose lasting page displays<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Rome's brightest triumphs, and who painted best;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Fit style for heroes, nor to shun the test,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Though Grecian art should vie, and Attic lays.</span><br />
+And here thy tuneful swan, Arezzo lies,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Who gave his Laura deathless name; than whom</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">No bard with sweeter grace has poured the song.</span><br />
+O, happy seat! O, favoured by the skies!<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">What store and store is thine, to whom belong</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">So rich a cradle and so rich a tomb!</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p class="noin">I bought a pennyworth of grapes from one of the poor stall-keepers, and,
+in return for my coin, had my two extended palms literally heaped. I can
+safely say that the vine of Padua has<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[Pg 203]</a></span> not declined; the fruit was
+delicious; and, after making my way half through my purchase, I
+collected a few hungry boys, and divided the fragments amongst them.</p>
+
+<p>It was late and dark when, ensconced in the interior of the <i>diligence</i>,
+we trundled out of the poor ruined town. The night was dreary and
+somewhat cold; I courted sleep, but it came not. My companions were
+mostly young Englishmen, but not of the intellectual stamp of the
+companion from whom I had parted that morning on the quay of Venice.
+They appeared to be travelling about mainly to look at pictures and
+smoke cigars. As to learning anything, they ridiculed the idea of such a
+thing in a country where there "was no society." It did not seem to have
+occurred to them that it might be worth while learning how it had come
+to pass that, in a country where one stumbles at every step on the
+stupendous memorials of a past civilization and knowledge, there is now
+no society. At length, after many hours' riding, we drew up before a
+tall white house, which the gray coat and bayonet of the Croat, and the
+demand for passports, told me was a police office. It was the last
+dogana on the Austrian territory. We were next requested to leave the
+<i>diligence</i> for a little. The day had not yet broke, but I could see
+that we were on the brink of a deep and broad river, which we were
+preparing to cross, but how, I could not discover, for I could see no
+bridge, but only something like a raft moored by the margin of the
+stream. On this frail craft we embarked, horses, <i>diligence</i>,
+passengers, and all; and, launching out upon the impetuous current, we
+reached, after a short navigation, the opposite shore. The river we had
+crossed was the Po, and the craft which had carried us over was a <i>pont
+colant</i>, or flying bridge. This was the frontier of the Papal States;
+and now, for the first time, I found myself treading the sacred soil of
+Peter's patrimony.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[Pg 204]</a></span></p><p>Peter, in the days of his flesh, was a fisherman; but some of his
+brother apostles were tax-gatherers; and here was the receipt of custom
+again set up. Both "toll" and "fishing-net," I had understood, were
+forsaken when their Master called them; but on my arrival I found the
+apostles all busy at their old trades: some fishing for men at Rome; and
+others, at the frontiers, levying tribute, both of "the children" and of
+"strangers;" for on looking up, I could see by the dim light a low
+building, like an American log-house, standing at a little distance from
+the river's brink, with a huge sign-board stuck up over the door,
+emblazoned with the keys and the tiara. This told me that I was in the
+presence of the Apostolic Police-Office,&mdash;an ecclesiastical institution
+which, I doubt not, has its authority somewhere in the New Testament,
+though I cannot say that I have ever met with the passage in my readings
+in that book; but that, doubtless, is because I want the Church's
+spectacles.</p>
+
+<p>When one gets his name inserted in an Italian way-bill, he delivers up
+his passport to the <i>conducteur</i>, who makes it his business to have it
+vis&eacute;ed at the several stations which are planted thick along all the
+Italian routes,&mdash;the owner, of course, reckoning for the charges at the
+end of the journey. In accordance with this custom, our <i>conducteur</i>
+entered the shed-like building I have mentioned, to lay his way-bill and
+his passports before the officials within. In the interim, we took our
+places in the vehicle. The <i>conducteur</i> was in no hurry to return, but I
+dreaded no evil. I had had a wakeful night; and now, throwing myself
+into my nook in the <i>diligence</i>, the stillness favoured sleep, and I was
+half unconscious, when I found some one pulling at my shoulder, and
+calling on me to leave the carriage. "What is the matter?" I inquired.
+"Your passport is not <i>en r&egrave;gle</i>," was the reply. "My passport not
+right!" I answered in astonishment; "it has been<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[Pg 205]</a></span> vis&eacute;ed at every
+police-office betwixt and London; and especially at those of Austria,
+under whose suzerainty the territory of Ferrara is, and no one may
+prevent me entering the Papal States." The man coolly replied, "You
+cannot go an inch farther with us;" and proceeded to take down my
+luggage, and deposit it on the bank. I stept out, and bade the man
+conduct me to the people inside. Passing under the papal arms, we
+threaded a long narrow passage,&mdash;turned to the left,&mdash;traversed another
+long passage,&mdash;turned to the left again, and stood in a little chamber
+dimly lighted by a solitary lamp. The apartment was divided by a bench,
+behind which sat two persons,&mdash;the one a little withered old man, with
+small piercing eyes, and the other very considerably younger and taller,
+and with a face on which anxiety or mistrust had written fewer sinister
+lines. They quickly told me that my passport was not right, and that I
+could not enter the Papal States. I asked them to hand me the little
+volume; and, turning over its pages, I traced with them my progress from
+London to the Po, and showed that, on the testimony of every
+passport-office and legation, I was a good man and true up to the
+further banks of their river; and that if I was other now, I must have
+become so in crossing, or since touching their soil. They gave me to
+understand, in reply, that all these testimonies went for nothing,
+seeing I wanted the <i>imprimatur</i> of the papal consul in Venice. I
+assured them that omission was owing to misinformation I had received in
+Venice; that the Valet de Place (an authority in all such matters) at
+the Albergo dell' Europa had assured me that the two vis&eacute;es I had got in
+Venice were quite enough; and that the pontifical vis&eacute;e could be
+obtained in Ferrara or Bologna; and entreated them to permit me to go on
+to Ferrara, where I would lay my passport before the authorities, and
+have the error rectified. I shall never forget<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[Pg 206]</a></span> the emphasis with which
+the younger of the two officials replied, "Non possum." I had often
+declined "possum" to my old schoolmaster in former days, little dreaming
+that I was to hear the vocable pronounced with such terrible meaning in
+a little cell, at day-break, on the banks of the Po. The postilion
+cracked his whip,&mdash;I saw the <i>diligence</i> move off,&mdash;and the sound of its
+retreating wheels seemed like a farewell to friends and home. A sad,
+desolate feeling weighed upon me as I turned to the faces of the
+police-officers and gendarmes in whose power I was left. We all went
+back together into the little apartment of the passport office, where I
+opened a conversation with them, in order to discover what was to be
+done with me,&mdash;whether I was to be sent back to Venice, or home to
+England, or simply thrown into the Po. I made rapid progress in my
+Italian studies that day; and had it been my hap to be arrested a dozen
+days on end by the papal authorities, I should by that time have been a
+fluent Italian speaker. The result of much questioning and explanation
+was, that if I liked to forward a petition to the authorities in
+Ferrara, accompanied by my passport, I should be permitted to wait where
+I was till an answer could be returned. It was my only alternative; and,
+hiring a special messenger, I sent him off with my passport, and a
+petition craving permission to enter "the States," addressed to the
+Pontifical Legation at Ferrara. Meanwhile, I had a gendarme to take care
+of me.</p>
+
+<p>To while away the time, I sallied out, and sauntered along the banks of
+the river. It was now full day: and the cheerful light, and the noble
+face of the Po,&mdash;here a superb stream, equal almost to the Rhine at
+Cologne,&mdash;rolling on to the Adriatic, chased away my pensiveness. The
+river here flows between lofty embankments,&mdash;the adjoining lands being
+below its level, and reminding one of Holland; and were any
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[Pg 207]</a></span>extraordinary inundation to happen among the Alps, and force the
+embankments of the Po, the territory around Ferrara, if not also that
+city itself, would infallibly be drowned. A few lighters and small
+craft, lifting their sails to the morning sun, were floating down the
+current; and here and there on the banks was a white villa,&mdash;the remains
+of that noble setting of palaces which adorned the Po when the House of
+D'Este vied in wealth and splendour with the larger courts of Europe.
+Prisoners must have breakfast; and I found a poor caf&eacute; in the little
+village, where I got a cup of coffee and an egg,&mdash;the latter unboiled,
+by the way; and discussed my meal in presence of the gendarme, who sat
+opposite me.</p>
+
+<p>Toward noon the messenger returned, and to my joy brought back the papal
+permission to enter "the States." Light and short as my constraint had
+been, it was sufficient to make me feel what a magic influence is in
+liberty. I could again go whither I would; and the poor village of Ponte
+Lagoscuro, and even the faces of the two officials, assumed a kindlier
+aspect. Bidding these last, whose Italian urbanity had won upon me,
+adieu, I started on foot for Ferrara, which lay on the plain some five
+miles in advance. The road thither was a magnificent one; but I learned
+afterwards that I had Napoleon to thank for it; but alas, what a picture
+the country presented! The water was allowed to stagnate along the path,
+and a thick, green scurf had gathered upon it. The rich black soil was
+covered with weeds, and the few houses I saw were mere hovels. The sun
+shone brilliantly, however, and strove to gild this scene of neglect and
+wretchedness. The day was the 28th of October, and the heat was that of
+a choice summer day in Scotland, with a much balmier air. I hurried on
+along the deserted road, and soon, on emerging from a wood, sighted the
+town of Ferrara, which stretched along the plain in a low<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[Pg 208]</a></span> line of
+roofs, with a few towers breaking the uniformity. Presenting my "pass"
+to the sentinel at the barrier, I entered the city in which Calvin had
+found an asylum and Tasso a prison.</p>
+
+<p>Poor fallen Ferrara! Commerce, learning, the arts, religion, had by
+turns shed a glory upon it. Now all is over; and where the "Queen of the
+Po" had been, there sits on the darkened plain a poor city, mouldering
+into dust, with the silence of a sepulchre around it. I entered the
+suburbs, but sound of human voice there was none; not a single human
+being could I see. It might be ages since these streets were trodden,
+for aught that appeared. The doors were closed, and the windows were
+stanchioned with iron. In many cases there was neither door nor window;
+but the house stood open to receive the wind or rain, the fowls of
+heaven, or the dogs of the city, if any such there were. I passed on,
+and drew nigh the centre of the town; and now there began to be visible
+some signs of vitality. Struck at the extremities, life had retreated to
+the heart. A square castellated building of red brick, surrounded on all
+sides by a deep moat, filled with the water of the Po, and guarded by
+Austrian soldiers, upreared its towers before me. This was the Papal
+Legation. I entered it, and found my passport waiting me; and the tiara
+and the keys, emblazoned on its pages, told me that I was free of the
+Papal States.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[Pg 209]</a></span></p>
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XVII" id="CHAPTER_XVII"></a>CHAPTER XVII.</h3>
+
+<h4>FERRARA.</h4>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang">Lovely in its Ruins&mdash;Number and Wealth of its Churches&mdash;Tasso's
+Prison&mdash;Ren&eacute;e's Palace&mdash;Calvin's Chamber&mdash;Influence of Woman on the
+Reformation&mdash;Ren&eacute;e and her Band&mdash;Re-union above&mdash;Utter Decay of its
+Trade, its Manufactures, its Knowledge. </p></div>
+
+
+<p class="noin"><span class="smcap">Even</span> in its ruins Ferrara is lovely. It wears in the tomb the sunset
+hues of beauty. Its streets run out in straight lines, and are of noble
+breadth and length. Unencumbered with the heavy arcades that darken
+Padua, the marble fronts of its palaces rise to a goodly height, covered
+with rich but exceedingly sweet and chaste designs. On the stone of
+their pilasters and door-posts the ilex puts forth its leaf, and the
+vine its grapes; and the carving is as fresh and sharp, in many
+instances, as if the chisel were but newly laid aside. But it is
+melancholy to see the long grass waving on its causeways, and the ivy
+clinging to the deserted doorways and balconies of palatial residences,
+and to hear the echoes of one's foot sounding drearily in the empty
+street.</p>
+
+<p>I passed the afternoon in visiting the churches. There is no end of
+these, and night fell before I had got half over them. It amazes one to
+find in the midst of ruins<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[Pg 210]</a></span> such noble buildings, overflowing with
+wealth. Pictures, statuary, marbles, and precious metals, dazzle, and at
+last weary, the traveller, and form a strange contrast to the desolate
+fields, the undrained swamps, the mouldering tenements, and the beggarly
+population, that are collected around them. Of the churches of Ferrara,
+we may say as Addison of the shrine of Loretto, "It is indeed an amazing
+thing to see such a prodigious quantity of riches lie dead and
+untouched, in the midst of so much poverty and misery as reign on all
+sides of them. If these riches were all turned into current coin, and
+employed in commerce, they would make Italy the most flourishing country
+in the world."</p>
+
+<p>Two objects specially invited my attention in Ferrara: the one was the
+prison of Tasso,&mdash;the other the palace of Ren&eacute;e, the Duchess of Ferrara.
+Tasso's prison is a mere vault in the courtyard of the hospital of St
+Anna, built up at one end with a brick wall, and closed at the other by
+a low and strong door. The floor is so damp that it yields to the foot;
+and the arched roof is so low that there is barely room to stand
+upright. I strongly doubt whether Tasso, or any other man, could have
+passed seven years in this cell and come out alive. It is written all
+over within and without with names, some of them illustrious ones.
+"Byron" is conspicuous in the crowd, cut in strong square characters in
+the stone; and near him is "Lamartine," in more graceful but smaller
+letters.</p>
+
+<p>Tasso seems to have regarded his country as a prisoner not less than
+himself, and to have strung his harp at times to bewail its captivity.
+The dungeon "in which Alphonso bade his poet dwell" was dreary enough,
+but that of Italy was drearier still; for it is Italy, fully more than
+the poet, that may be regarded as speaking in the following lines, which
+furnish evidence that, along with Dante, and all the great<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[Pg 211]</a></span> minds of the
+period, Torquato Tasso had seen the hollowness of the Papal Church, and
+felt the galling bondage which that Church inflicts on both the
+intellect and the soul.</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+"O God, from this Egyptian land of woe,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Teeming with idols and their monstrous train,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">O'er which the galling yoke that I sustain</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Like Nilus makes my tears to overflow,</span><br />
+To thee, her land of rest, my soul would go:<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">But who, ah! who will break my servile chain?</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Who through the deep, and o'er the desert plain</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Will aid and cheer me, and the path will show?</span><br />
+Shall God, indeed, the fowls and manna strew,&mdash;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">My daily bread? and dare I to implore</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Thy pillar and thy cloud to guide me, Lord?</span><br />
+Yes, he may hope for all who trusts thy word.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">O then thy miracles in me renew;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Thine be the glory, and my boasting o'er."</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>From the reputed prison of Tasso I went to see the roof which had
+sheltered the presiding intellect of the Reformation,&mdash;John Calvin.
+Tasso's glory is like a star, burning with a lovely light in the deep
+azure; Calvin's is like the sun, whose waxing splendour is irradiating
+two hemispheres. The palace of the illustrious Ren&eacute;e,&mdash;now the Austrian
+and Papal Legations, and literally a barrack for soldiers,&mdash;has no
+pretensions to beauty. Amid the graceful but decaying fabrics of the
+city, it erects its square unadorned mass of dull red, edged with a
+strip of lawn, a few cypresses, and a moat brim-full of water, which not
+only surrounds it on all sides, but intersects it by means of arches,
+and makes the castle almost a miniature of Venice. Good part of the
+interior is occupied as passport offices and guard-rooms. The staircase
+is of noble dimensions. Some of the rooms are princely, their panellings
+being mostly covered with paintings, but not of the first excellence.
+The small room in the southern quadrangle which Calvin is said to have<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[Pg 212]</a></span>
+occupied is now fitted up as an oratory; and a very pretty little
+show-room it is, with its marble altar-piece, its silver candlesticks,
+its crucifixes, and, in short, all the paraphernalia of such places. If
+there be any efficacy in holy water, the little chamber must by this
+time be effectually cleansed from the sad defilement of the
+arch-heretic.</p>
+
+<p>Ferrara is indissolubly connected with the Reformation in Italy. In
+fact, it was the centre of the movement in the south of the Alps. This
+distinction it owed to its being the residence of Ren&eacute;e, the daughter of
+Louis XII. of France, and wife of Hercules II., Duke of Ferrara. This
+lady, to a knowledge of the ancient classics and contemporary
+literature, and the most amiable and generous dispositions, added a deep
+love of evangelical truth, and gladly extended shelter to the friends of
+the Reformation, whom persecution now forced to leave their native
+country. Thus there came to be assembled round her a galaxy of talent,
+learning, and piety. If we except John Calvin, who was known during his
+brief sojourn of three months as Charles Heppeville, the two noblest
+minds in this illustrious band were women,&mdash;Ren&eacute;e and Olympia Morata.
+The cause of the Reformation lies under great obligations to woman;
+though the part she acted in that great drama has never been
+sufficiently acknowledged.<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> In the heart of woman, when sanctified by
+Divine grace, there lies concealed under a veil of gentleness and
+apparent timidity, a fund of fortitude and lofty resolution, which
+requires a fitting occasion to draw it forth; but when that occasion
+arrives, there is seen the strength and grandeur of the female
+character. For woman,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[Pg 213]</a></span> whatever is noble, beautiful, and sublime, has
+peculiar attractions. A just cause, overborne by power or numbers,
+appeals peculiarly to her unselfish nature; and thus it has happened
+that the Reformation sometimes found in woman its most devoted disciple
+and its most undaunted champion. Who can tell how much the firmness and
+perseverance of the more prominent actors in these struggles were owing
+to her wise and affectionate counsels? And not only has she been the
+counsellor of man,&mdash;she has willingly shared his sufferings; and the
+same deep sensibility which renders her so shrinking on ordinary
+occasions, has at these times given her unconquerable strength, and
+raised her above the desolation of a prison,&mdash;above the shame and horror
+of a scaffold. Of such mould were the two illustrious women I have
+mentioned,&mdash;the accomplished Ren&eacute;e, the daughter of a king of France,
+and the yet more accomplished Olympia Morata, the daughter of a
+schoolmaster and citizen of Mantua.</p>
+
+<p>To me these halls were sacred, for the feet which had trodden them three
+centuries ago. They were thronged with Austrian soldiers and passport
+officials; but I could people them with the mighty dead. How often had
+Ren&eacute;e assembled her noble band in this very chamber! How often here had
+that illustrious circle consulted on the steps proper to be taken for
+advancing their great cause! How often had they indulged alternate fears
+and hopes, as they thought now of the power arrayed against them, and
+now of the progress of the truth, and the confessors it was calling to
+its aid in every city of Italy! And when the deliberations and prayers
+of the day were ended, they would assemble on this lawn, to enjoy, under
+these cypresses, the delicious softness of the Italian twilight. Ah! who
+can tell the exquisite sweetness of such re-unions! and how
+inexpressibly soothing and welcome to men whom<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[Pg 214]</a></span> persecution had forced
+to flee from their native land, must it have been to find so secure a
+haven as this so unexpectedly opened to receive them! But ah! too soon
+were they forced out upon an ocean of storms. They were driven to
+different countries and to various fates,&mdash;some to a life of exhausting
+labour and conflict, some to exile, and some to the stake. But all this
+is over now: they dread the dungeon and the stake no more; they are
+wanderers no longer, having come to a land of rest. Ren&eacute;e has once again
+gathered her bright band around her, under skies whose light no cloud
+shall ever darken, and whose calm no storm shall ever ruffle. But do
+they not still remember and still speak of the consultations and sweet
+communings which they had together under the shady cypress trees, and
+the still, rich twilights of Ferrara?</p>
+
+<p>Ferrara was the first town subject to the Pope I had entered; and I had
+here an opportunity of marking the peculiar benefits which attend
+infallible government. This city is only less wretched than Padua; and
+the difference seems to lie rather in the more cheerful look of its
+buildings, than in any superior wealth or comfort enjoyed by its people.
+Its trade is equally ruined; it is even more empty of inhabitants; its
+walls, of seven miles' circuit, enclose but a handful of men, and these
+have a wasted and sickly look, owing to the unhealthy character of the
+country around. The view from its ramparts reminded me of the prospect
+from the walls of York. The plain is equally level; the soil is
+naturally more rich; but the drainage and cultivation of the English
+landscape are wanting. The town once enjoyed a flourishing trade in
+hemp,&mdash;an article which found its way to our dockyards; but this branch
+of traffic now scarcely exists. The native manufactures of Ferrara have
+been ruined; and a feeble trade in corn is almost all that is left it.
+How is this? Is its soil less fertile? Has its<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[Pg 215]</a></span> natural canal, the Po,
+dried up? No; but the Government, afraid perhaps that its fields would
+yield too plenteously, its artizans become too ingenious, and its
+citizens too wealthy in foreign markets, has laid a heavy duty on its
+exports, and on every article of home manufacture. Hence the desolate
+Polesina without, and the extinct forges and empty workshops within, its
+walls. A city whose manufactures were met with in all the markets of
+Europe is now dependent for its own supply on the Swiss. The ruin of its
+trade dates from its annexation to the Papal States. The decay of
+intelligence has kept pace with that of trade. At the beginning of the
+sixteenth century Ferrara was one of the lights of Europe: now I know
+not that there is a single scholar in its university; and its library of
+eighty thousand volumes and nine hundred manuscripts, among which are
+the Greek palimpsests of Gregory Nazianzen and Chrysostom, and the
+manuscripts of Ariosto and Tasso, is becoming, equally with Ariosto's
+dust, which reposes in its halls, the prey of the worm.</p>
+
+<p>I have to thank the papal police at Ponte Lagoscuro for the opportunity
+of seeing Ferrara; for, with the bad taste which most travellers in
+Italy display on this head, I had overlooked this town, and booked
+myself right through to Bologna. I lodged at a fine old hotel, whose
+spacious apartments left me in no doubt that it had once belonged to
+some of the princely families of Ferrara. I saw there, however, men who
+had "a lean and hungry look," and not such as C&aelig;sar wished to have about
+him,&mdash;"fat, sleek-headed men, and such as sleep o' nights;" and my
+suspicions which were awakened at the time have since unfortunately been
+confirmed, for I read in the newspapers, rather more than a year ago,
+that the landlord had been shot.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[Pg 216]</a></span></p>
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XVIII" id="CHAPTER_XVIII"></a>CHAPTER XVIII.</h3>
+
+<h4>BOLOGNA AND THE APENNINES.</h4>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang">Road from Ferrara to Bologna&mdash;Wayside Oratories&mdash;Miserable
+Cultivation&mdash;Barbarism of People&mdash;Aspect of Bologna&mdash;Streets,
+Galleries, and Churches of its Interior&mdash;Decay of Art&mdash;San
+Petronio&mdash;View of Plain from Hill behind Bologna&mdash;Tyranny of
+Government&mdash;Night Arrests&mdash;Ruinous Taxation&mdash;Departure from
+Bologna&mdash;Brigands&mdash;The Apennines&mdash;Storm among these Mountains&mdash;Two
+Russian Travellers&mdash;Dinner at the Tuscan Frontier&mdash;Summit of the
+Pass&mdash;Halt for the Night at a Country Inn&mdash;The Hostess and her
+Company&mdash;Supper&mdash;Resume Journey next Morning&mdash;First Sight of
+Florence. </p></div>
+
+
+<p class="noin"><span class="smcap">On</span> the morrow at ten I took my departure for Bologna. It was sweet to
+exchange the sickly faces and unnatural silence of the city for the
+bright sun and the living trees. The road was good,&mdash;so very good, that
+it took me by surprise. It was not in keeping with the surrounding
+barbarism. Instead of a hard-bottomed, macadamized highway, which
+traversed the plain in a straight line, bordered by noble trees, I
+should have expected to find in this region of mouldering towns and
+neglected fields, a narrow, winding, rutted path, ploughed by torrents
+and obstructed by boulders; and so, I am sure, I should have done, had
+any of the native governments of Italy<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[Pg 217]</a></span> had the making of this road. But
+it had been designed and executed by Napoleon; and hence its excellence.
+His roads alone would have immortalized him. They remain, after all his
+victories have perished, to attest his genius. Would that that genius
+had been turned to the arts of peace! Conquerors would do well to ponder
+the eulogium pronounced on a humble tailor who built a bridge out of his
+savings,&mdash;that the world owed more to the scissors of that man than to
+the sword of some conquerors.</p>
+
+<p>Along the road, at short intervals, were little temples, where good
+Catholics who had a mind might perform their devotions. This reminded me
+that I was now in Peter's patrimony,&mdash;the holy land of Romanism; and
+where, it was presumed, the wayfarer would catch the spirit of devotion
+from the soil and air. The hour of prayer might be past,&mdash;I know not;
+but I saw no one in these oratories. Little shrines were perched upon
+the trees, formed sometimes of boards, at others simply of the cavity of
+the trunk; while the boughs were bent so as to form a canopy over them.
+Little images and pictures had been stuck into these shrines; but the
+rooks,&mdash;these black republicans,&mdash;like the "reds" at Rome, had waged a
+war for possession, and, pitching overboard the little gods that
+occupied them, were inhabiting in their room. The "great powers" were
+too busy, or had been so, in the restoration of greater personages, to
+take up the quarrel of these minor divinities. A strange silence and
+dreariness brooded over the region. The land seemed keeping its
+Sabbaths. The fields rested,&mdash;the villages were asleep,&mdash;the road was
+untrodden. Had one been dropt from the clouds, he would have concluded
+that it was but a century or so since the Flood, and that these were the
+rude primitive great-grandchildren of Noah, who had just found their way
+into these parts, and were slowly emerging from<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[Pg 218]</a></span> barbarism. The fields
+around afforded little indication of such an instrument as the plough;
+and one would have concluded from the garments of the people, that the
+loom was among the yet uninvented arts. The harnessings of the horses
+formed a curiously tangled web of thong, and rope, and thread, twisted,
+tied, and knotted. It would have puzzled &#338;dipus himself to discover
+how a horse could ever be got into such gear, or, being in, how it ever
+could be got out. There seemed a most extraordinary number of beggars
+and vagabonds in Peter's patrimony. A little congregation of these
+worthies waited our arrival at every village, and whined round us for
+alms so long as we remained. Others, not quite so ragged, stood aloof,
+regarding us fixedly, as if devising some pretext on which to claim a
+paul of us. There were worse characters in the neighbourhood, though
+happily we saw none of them. But at certain intervals we met the
+Austrian patrol, whose duty it was to clear the road of brigands. Peter,
+it appeared to us, kept strange company about him,&mdash;idlers, beggars,
+vagabonds, and brigands. It must vex the good man much to find his dear
+children disgracing him so in the eyes of strangers.</p>
+
+<p>These dismal scenes accompanied us half the way. We then entered the
+Bolognese, and things began to look a little better. Bologna, though
+under the Papal Government, has long been famous for nourishing a hardy,
+liberty-loving people, though, if report does them justice, extremely
+licentious and infidel. Its motto is "<i>libertas</i>;" and the air of
+liberty is favourable, it would seem, to vegetation; for the fields
+looked greener the moment we had crossed the barrier. Soon we were
+charmed with the sight of Bologna. Its appearance is indeed imposing,
+and gives promise of something like life and industry within its walls.
+A noble cluster of summits,&mdash;an<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[Pg 219]</a></span> offshoot of the Apennines,&mdash;rises
+behind the city, crowned with temples and towers. Within their bosky
+declivities, from which tall cypress-trees shoot up, lie embowered
+villas and little watch-towers, with their glittering vanes. At the foot
+of the hill is spread out the noble city, with its leaning towers and
+its tall minaret-looking steeples. The approach to the walls reminded me
+that below these ramparts sleeps Ugo Bassi. I afterwards searched for
+his resting-place, but could find no one who either would or could show
+me his tomb. A more eloquent declaimer than even Gavazzi, I have been
+assured by those who knew him, was silenced when Ugo Bassi fell beneath
+the murderous fire of the Croat's musket.</p>
+
+<p>After the death-like desertion and silence of Ferrara, the feeble bustle
+of Bologna seemed like a return to the world and its ways. Its streets
+are lined with covered porticoes, less heavy than those of Padua, but
+harbouring after nightfall, says the old traveller <span class="smcap">Archenholtz</span>, robbers
+and murderers, of whom the latter are the more numerous. He accounts for
+this by saying, that whereas the robber has to make restitution before
+receiving absolution, the murderer, whether condemned to die or set at
+liberty, receives full pardon, without the "double labour," as Sir John
+Falstaff called it, of "paying back." Its hundred churches are vast
+museums of sculpture and painting. Its university, which the Bolognese
+boast is the oldest in Europe, rivalled Padua in its glory, and now
+rivals it in its decay. Its two famous leaning towers,&mdash;the rent in the
+bottom of one is quite visible,&mdash;are bending from age, and will one day
+topple over, and pour a deluge of old bricks upon the adjoining
+tenements. Its "Academy of the Fine Arts" is, after Rome and Florence,
+the finest in Italy. It is filled with the works of the Caracci,
+Domenichino, Guido Albani, and others of almost equal celebrity. I am no
+judge of such<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[Pg 220]</a></span> matters; and therefore my reader need lay no stress upon
+my criticisms; but it appeared to me, that some paintings placed in the
+first rank had not attained that excellence. The highly-praised "Victory
+of Sampson over the Philistines," I felt, wanted the grandeur of the
+Hebrew Judge on this the greatest occasion of his life; although it gave
+you a very excellent representation of a thirsty man drinking, with rows
+of prostrate people in the background. Other pieces were disfigured by
+glaring anachronisms in time and dress. The artist evidently had drawn
+his inspiration, not from the <i>Bible</i>, but from the <i>Cathedral</i>. The
+Apostles in some cases had the faces of monks, and looked as if they had
+divided their time betwixt Liguori and the wine-flagon. Several
+Scriptural personages were attired in an ecclesiastical dress, which
+must have been made by some tailor of the sixteenth century. But there
+is one picture in that gallery that impressed me more than any other
+picture I ever saw. It is a painting of the Crucifixion by Guido. The
+background is a dark thundery mass of cloud, resting angrily above the
+dimly-seen roofs and towers of Jerusalem. There is "darkness over all
+the land;" and in the foreground, and relieved by the darkness, stands
+the cross, with the sufferer. On the left is John, looking up with
+undying affection. On the right is Mary,&mdash;calm, but with eyes full of
+unutterable sorrow. Mary Magdalene embraces the foot of the cross: her
+face and upper parts are finely shaded; but her attitude and form are
+strongly expressive of reverence, affection, and profound grief. There
+are no details: the piece is simple and great. There are no attempts to
+produce effect by violent manifestations of grief. Hope is gone, but
+love remains; and there before you are the parties standing calm and
+silent, with their great sorrow.</p>
+
+<p>It so happened that the exhibition of the works of living<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[Pg 221]</a></span> artists was
+open at the time, and I had a good opportunity of comparing the present
+with the past race of Italian painters. I soon found that the race of
+Guidos was extinct, and that the pencil of the masters had fallen into
+the hands of but poor copyists. The present artists of Italy have given
+over painting saints and Scripture-pieces, and work mostly in portraits
+and landscapes. They paint, of course, what will sell; and the public
+taste appears decidedly to have changed. There was a great dearth of
+good historical, imaginative, and allegorical subjects; too often an
+attempt was visible to give interest to a piece by an appeal to the
+baser passions. But the living artists of that country fall below not
+only their great predecessors, but even the artists of Scotland. This
+exhibition in Bologna did not by any means equal in excellence or
+interest the similar exhibition opened every spring in Edinburgh. The
+statuary displayed only beauty and voluptuousness of form: it wanted the
+simple energy and the chastened grandeur of expression which
+characterize the statuary of the ancients, and which have made it the
+admiration of all ages.</p>
+
+<p>The only god whom the Bolognese worship is San Petronio. His temple, in
+which Charles V. was crowned by Clement VII., stands in the Piazza
+Maggiore, the forum of Bologna in the middle ages, and rivals the
+"Academy" itself in its paintings and sculptures. Though the fa&ccedil;ade is
+not finished, nor likely soon to be, it is one of the largest churches
+in Italy, and is a fine specimen of the Italian Gothic. In a little side
+chapel is the head of San Petronius himself, certified by Benedict XIV.
+On the forms on the cathedral floor lie little framed pictures of the
+saint, with a prayer addressed to him. I saw a country girl enter the
+church, drop on her knees, kiss the picture, and recite the prayer. I
+afterwards read this prayer, though not on bended knee; and can certify
+that a grosser piece of idolatry<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[Pg 222]</a></span> never polluted human lips. Petronio
+was addressed by the same titles in which the Almighty is usually
+approached; as, "the most glorious," "the most merciful."</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+<span style="margin-left: 5em;">"Towards him they bend</span><br />
+With awful reverence prone; and as a god<br />
+Extol him equal to the Highest in heaven."<br />
+</p>
+
+<p class="noin">Higher blessings, whether for time or for eternity, than those for which
+the devotee was directed to supplicate San Petronio, man needs not, and
+God has not to bestow. Daily bread, protection from danger, grace to
+love San Petronio, grace to serve San Petronio, pardon, a happy death,
+deliverance from hell, and eternal felicity in Paradise,&mdash;all who
+offered this prayer,&mdash;and other prayer was unheard beneath that
+roof,&mdash;supplicated of San Petronio. The Church of Rome affirms that she
+does not pray <i>to the</i> saints, but <i>through</i> them,&mdash;namely, as
+intercessors with Christ and God. This is no justification of the
+practice, though it were the fact; but it is not the fact. In protestant
+countries she may insert the name of God at the end of her prayers; but
+in popish countries she does not deem it needful to observe this
+formality. The name of Christ and of God rarely occurs in her popular
+formulas. In the Duomo of Bologna, the only god supplicated,&mdash;the only
+god known,&mdash;is San Petronio. The tendency of the worship of the Church
+of Rome is to efface God from the knowledge and the love of her members.
+And so completely has this result been realized, that, as one said, "You
+might steal God from them without their knowing it." Indeed, that "Great
+and Dreadful Name" might be blotted out from the few prayers of that
+Church in which it is still retained, and its worship would go on as
+before. What possible change would take place in the Duomo of San
+Petronio at Bologna, and in thousands<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[Pg 223]</a></span> of other churches in Italy,
+though Rome was to decree in <i>words</i>, as she does in <i>deeds</i>, that
+"<i>there is no God</i>?"</p>
+
+<p>On the second day of my stay at Bologna I ascended the fine hill on the
+north of the city. A noble pillared arcade of marble, three miles in
+length, leads up to the summit. At every twelve yards or so is an
+alcove, with a florid painting of some saint; and at each station sits a
+poor old woman, who begs an alms of you, in the name of the saint
+beneath whose picture she spins her thread,&mdash;her own thread being nearly
+ended. There met me here a regiment of little priests, of about an
+hundred in number, none of whom seemed more than ten years of age, and
+all of whom wore shoes with buckles, silk stockings, breeches, a loose
+flowing robe, a white-edged stock, and shovel hat,&mdash;in short, miniature
+priests in dress, in figure, and in everything save their greater
+sportiveness. On the summit is a magnificent church, containing one of
+those black madonnas ascribed to Luke, and said to have been brought
+hither by a hermit from Constantinople in the twelfth century. Be this
+as it may, the black image serves the Bolognese for an occasion of an
+annual festival, kept with fully as much hilarity as devotion.</p>
+
+<p>From the summit one looks far and wide over Italy. Below is spread out
+the plain of Lombardy, level as the sea, and as thickly studded with
+white villas as the heavens with stars. On the north, the cities of
+Mantua and Verona, and numerous other towns and villages, are visible.
+On the east, the towers and cathedral roofs of Ferrara are seen rising
+above the woods that cover the plain; and the view is bounded by the
+Adriatic, which, like a thin line of blue, runs along the horizon. On
+the south and west is the hill country of the Apennines, among whose
+serrated peaks and cleft sides is many a lovely dell, rich in waters,
+and vines, and olive trees. The distant<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[Pg 224]</a></span> country towards the
+Mediterranean lay engulphed in a white mist. A violent electrical action
+was going on in it, which, like a strong wind moving upon its surface,
+raised it into billows, which appeared to sweep onward, tossing and
+tumbling like the waves of ocean.</p>
+
+<p>I had taken up my abode at the Il Pellegrino, one of the best
+recommended hotels in Bologna,&mdash;not knowing that the Austrian officers
+had made it their head-quarters, and that not a Bolognese would enter
+it. At dinner-time I saw only the Austrian uniform around the table.
+This was a matter of no great moment. Not so what followed. When I went
+to bed, there commenced overhead a heavy shuffling of feet, and an
+incessant going and coming, with slamming of doors, and jolting of
+tables, which lasted all night long. A sad tragedy was enacting above
+me. The political apprehensions are made over-night in the Italian
+towns; and I little doubt that the soldiers were all night busily
+engaged in bringing in prisoners, and sending them off to jail. The
+persons so arrested are subjected to moral and physical tortures, which
+speedily prostrate both mind and body, and sometimes terminate in death.
+Loaded with chains, they are shut up in stinking holes, where they can
+neither stand upright nor lie down at their length. The heat of the
+weather and the foul air breed diseases of the skin, and cover them with
+pustules. The food, too, is scanty, often consisting of only bread and
+water. The Government strive to keep their cruel condition a secret from
+their relatives, who, notwithstanding, are able at times to penetrate
+the mystery that surrounds them, but only to have their feelings
+lacerated by the thought of the dreadful sufferings undergone by those
+who are the objects of their tenderest affection. And what agony can be
+more dreadful than to know that a father, a husband, a son, is rotting
+in a putrid cell, or being beaten to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[Pg 225]</a></span> death by blows, while neither
+relief nor sympathy from you can reach the sufferer? The case of a young
+man of the name of Neri, formerly healthy and handsome, found its way to
+the public prints. Broken down by blows, he was carried to the military
+hospital in an almost dying condition, where an English physician, in
+company with an Austrian surgeon, found him with lacerated skin, and the
+vertebral bones uncovered. He was enduring at the same time so acute
+pain from inflammation of the bowels, that he was unable, but by hints,
+to express his misery. It was here that the atrocities of the Papal
+Nuncio <span class="smcap">Bedini</span> were perpetrated,&mdash;the same man who was afterwards chased
+from the soil of America by a storm of execration evoked against him by
+the friends and countrymen of the victims who had been tortured and shot
+during his sway in Bologna. In short, the acts of the Holy Office are
+imitated and renewed; so that numbers, distracted and maddened by the
+torments which they endure, avow offences which they never committed,
+and name accomplices whom they never had; and the retractations of these
+unhappy beings are of no avail to prevent new arrests. The Bolognese are
+permitted to weep their complicated evils only in secret; to do so
+openly would be charged as a crime.</p>
+
+<p>The fiscal oppression is nearly as unbearable as the political and
+social. The taxation, both as regards its amount and the mode of
+enforcing it, is ruinous to the individual, and operates as a fatal
+check to the progress of industry. The country is eaten up with foreign
+soldiers. The great hotels in all the principal towns resemble casernes.
+The reader may judge of my surprise on opening my bed-room door one
+morning, to find that a couple of Croats had slept on the mat outside of
+it all night. It might be a special mark of honour to myself; but I
+rather think that they are accustomed to bivouac in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[Pg 226]</a></span> passages and
+lobbies. The eternal drumming in the streets is enough to deafen one for
+life. To the traveller it is sufficiently annoying; how much more so to
+the Bolognese, who knows that that is music for which he must pay dear!
+Since 1848, the aggregate of taxation between Leghorn and Ancona has
+been increased about 40 per cent.; and the taxes are levied upon a
+principle of arbitrary assessment which compels the rich to simulate
+poverty, as in Turkey, lest they should be stripped of their last
+farthing. In Bologna, the payments of the house and land tax, which used
+to be made every two months, are now collected for the same sums every
+seven weeks; and a per centage is added at the pleasure of the
+Government, of which no one knows the amount till the collector calls
+with his demand. In other towns an income-tax is levied upon trades and
+professions, framed upon no rule but the supposed capabilities of the
+individual assessed to pay. Bologna, I may note, although in the Papal
+States, is now quite an Austrian town. The Austrians have there
+six-and-twenty pieces of artillery, and are building extensive barracks
+for cavalry and infantry. Bologna belongs to that part of the Papal
+States called the Four Legations, where, whether it pleases the Pope to
+be so protected or not, it is now quite understood that the Austrians
+have come to stay. The officer in command at Bologna styles himself its
+civil as well as military governor.</p>
+
+<p>On the third day after my arrival, I started at four of the morning for
+Florence. It was dark as we rode through the streets of Bologna; and our
+<i>diligence</i>, piled a-top with luggage, smashed several of the oil-lamps,
+which dangled on cords at a dangerous proximity to the causeway. I don't
+know that the Bolognese would miss them, for we left the street very
+little, if at all, darker than we found it. I looked forward with no
+little interest to the day's ride, which was to lie among the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[Pg 227]</a></span> dells of
+the Apennines, and to terminate at eve with the fair sight of the Queen
+of the Arno. How unlike the reality, will appear in the sequel. In half
+an hour we came in the dim light to a little valley, where the village
+bell was sweetly chiming the matins. I note the spot because I narrowly
+missed being an actor in a tragedy which took place here the very next
+morning. I may tell the story now, though I anticipate somewhat. I was
+sitting at the table d'hote in Florence three days after, when the
+gentleman on my right began to tell the company how he had travelled
+from Bologna on the Saturday previous, and how he and all his
+fellow-passengers had been robbed on the way. They had got to the spot I
+have indicated, when suddenly a little band of brigands, which lay in
+ambush by the wayside, rushed on the <i>diligence</i>. Some mounted on the
+front, and attended to the outside passengers; others took charge of
+those in the <i>interieur</i>. Now it was, when the passengers saw into what
+hands they had fallen, that nothing was heard but groaning in all parts
+of the <i>diligence</i>. Our informant, who sat next the window in the
+<i>interieur</i>, was seized by the collar, a long knife was held to his
+breast, and he was admonished to use all diligence in making over to his
+new acquaintance any worldly goods he had about him. He had to part with
+his gold watch and chain, his breast-pin, and sundry other articles of
+jewellery; but his purse and sovereigns he contrived to drop among the
+straw at the bottom of the vehicle. All the rest fared as he did, and
+some of them worse, for they lost their money as well as jewels. These
+grave proceedings were diversified by a somewhat humorous incident. The
+coachman had providently put his dinner in the form of a sausage, rolled
+in brown paper, under his seat. This is the form in which Austrian
+zwanzigers are commonly made up; and the brigands, fancying the
+coachman's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[Pg 228]</a></span> sausage to be a roll of silver zwanzigers, seized on it with
+avidity, and bore it off in triumph. They were proceeding to rifle the
+baggage, when, hearing the horse-patrol approaching, they plunged into
+the thicket as suddenly as they had appeared. The morning chimes were
+sounding, as on the previous day, while this operation was going on. But
+what is not a little extraordinary is, that all this took place within
+two miles of the city gates of Bologna, where there could not be fewer
+than twelve thousand Austrian soldiers. But these, I presume, were too
+much engaged on this, as on previous nights, in apprehending and
+imprisoning the citizens in the Pope's behalf, to think of looking after
+brigands. In Peter's privileged patrimony one may rob, murder, and break
+every command of the decalogue, and defy the police, provided he obey
+the Church. Were I to travel that road again, I would provide myself
+with a tinsel watch and appendages, and a sausage carefully rolled up in
+paper, to avoid the unpleasantness of meeting such wellwishers
+empty-handed.</p>
+
+<p>In another half hour we came to the spurs of the Apennines. The day was
+breaking, and its light, I hoped, would lay open many a sweet dell and
+many a romantic peak, before evening. These hopes, as, alas! too often
+happens in the longer journey of life, were to be suddenly dashed. I
+felt a warm, suffocating current of air breathing over the valley, and
+looked up to see the furnace whence, as I supposed, it proceeded. This
+was the sirocco, the herald of the tempest that soon thereafter burst
+upon us. Masses of whitish cloud came rolling over the summits of the
+hills; furious gusts came down upon us from the heights; and in a few
+minutes we found ourselves contending with a hurricane such as I have
+never seen equalled save on one other occasion. The cloud became
+fearfully black, and made the lightning the more awful<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[Pg 229]</a></span> as it touched
+with fire the peaks around us, and bathed in an ocean of flame the vines
+and hamlets on the hill-side. Terrible peals of thunder broke over us;
+and these were followed by torrents of rain, which the furious winds
+dashed against our vehicle with the force and noise of a cataract. We
+had to make our way up the mountain's side in the face of this tempest.
+At times more than a dozen animals were yoked to our
+<i>diligence</i>,&mdash;horses, oxen, and beasts of every kind which we could
+press into the service; while half-a-dozen postilions, shouting and
+cracking their whips, strove to urge the motley cavalcade onward. Still
+we crept up only by inches. The road in most cases wound over the very
+peak of the mountain; and there the tempest, rushing upon us from all
+sides at once, threatened to lay our vehicle, which shook and quivered
+in the blast, flat on its side, or toss it into the valley below. The
+storm continued to rage with unabated violence from day-break till
+mid-day; and, by favour of horses, bullocks, and postilions, we kept
+moving on at the rate of two miles an hour, now climbing, now
+descending, well knowing that at every summit a fresh buffeting awaited
+us.</p>
+
+<p>I had as my companions on this journey, two Russian gentlemen, with whom
+afterwards, at several points of my tour, I came into contact. They were
+urbane and intelligent men, full of their own country and of the Czar,
+yet professing great respect for England, which they had just visited,
+and looking down with a contempt they were at little pains to conceal,
+upon the Frenchmen and Italians among whom they were moving. They
+possessed the sobriety of mind, the turn for quiet, shrewd observation,
+in short, much of the physical and intellectual stamina, of Englishmen,
+with just a shade less of the exquisite polish which marks the latter
+wherever they are met with. These, no doubt, were favourable specimens
+of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[Pg 230]</a></span> Russian nation; but it is such men who give the tone to a State,
+while the masses below execute their designs. I have ever since felt
+that, should we ever meet that people on the field of battle, the
+contest would be no ordinary one. I recollect one of these gentlemen
+meeting me on the streets of Rome some weeks afterwards, and informing
+me that he had been the day before to visit the ball on the top of St
+Peter's, and that he had been delighted at seeing his Emperor's name, in
+his Emperor's own handwriting, inside the ball, with a few lines beneath
+the signature, stating that he had stood in that ball, and had there
+prayed for Mother Holy Russia,&mdash;a fact full of significance.</p>
+
+<p>About mid-day we came, wet, and weary, and cold, to the Duana on the
+Tuscan frontier, where was a poor inn, at which, after our passports had
+been vis&eacute;ed, and our trunks and carpet-bags plumbed, we dined. There
+were some twenty of us at table; a priest taking the top, and the
+<i>conducteur</i> the bottom. I remember that two persons of the party kept
+their hats on at table, and that these were the priest and a poor
+country lad,&mdash;the priest because he presided perhaps, and the countryman
+because, not knowing the etiquette of the point, he wisely determined to
+follow in that, as in greater matters, the priest. Our dinner consisted
+of coarse broth, black bread, buffalo beef, and wine of not the sweetest
+flavour; but what helped us was an excellent appetite, for we had not
+breakfasted beyond a few chestnuts and grapes picked up at the poor
+villages through which we passed. We obtained, however, an hour's
+shelter from the elements.</p>
+
+<p>We resumed our journey, and in about an hour's ride we gained the
+central chain of the Apennines. Happily the tempest had moderated
+somewhat; for this, lying midway between the two seas, is ordinarily the
+stormiest point of the pass. We<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[Pg 231]</a></span> crossed it, however, with less
+inconvenience than we had looked for. The summits, which had hitherto
+been conical, with vines straggling up their sides, now became rounded,
+or ran off in serrated lines, with sides scarred with tempests and
+strewn with stones. The scenery was bleak and desolate, as that of the
+Grampian pass leading by Spittal of Glenshee to Dee-side. But as we
+continued our descent, the richly wooded glens returned; the clouds
+rose; and at one time I ventured to hope that I should yet have my first
+sight of Florence under a golden sky, and that Milton's description
+might, after all, be applicable to this day of storms:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+"As when from mountain-tops the dusky clouds<br />
+Ascending, while the north wind sleeps, o'erspread<br />
+Heaven's cheerful face, the low'ring element<br />
+Scowls o'er the darken'd landskip snow or shower;<br />
+If chance the radiant sun, with farewell sweet,<br />
+Extend his evening beam, the fields revive,<br />
+The birds their notes renew, and bleating herds<br />
+Attest their joy, that hill and valley rings."<br />
+</p>
+
+<p class="noin">But the hope was short-lived: no Florence was I to see that night; nor
+was note of bird to gladden the dells. The mists again fell, and hid in
+premature night those fine valleys, so famous in Florentine history,
+which we were now approaching. We wound round hills, traversed deep
+ravines, heard on every side the thunder of the swollen torrents, and,
+when the parting vapour permitted, had glimpses of the luxuriant woods
+of myrtle and laurel that clothe these valleys,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+"Where round some mouldering tower pale ivy creeps,<br />
+And low-brow'd rocks hang nodding o'er the deeps."<br />
+</p>
+
+<p class="noin">At last we found ourselves on the banks of a broad and swollen
+river,&mdash;the Save,&mdash;with no means of transit save<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[Pg 232]</a></span> a dismantled bridge,
+so sorely shattered by the flood, that it was an even question whether
+our vehicle might not, like the last straw on the dromedary's back, sink
+the structure outright.</p>
+
+<p>We dismounted, and, by the help of lights, measured first the bridge,
+and next the <i>diligence</i>, and found that the breadth of the former
+exceeded that of the latter by just two inches. The passengers passed on
+foot; the <i>diligence</i>, with the baggage, came after; and so all arrived
+safely on the other side. Our first care was to assemble a council of
+war in the poor inn which stood on the spot, and deliberate what next to
+do.</p>
+
+<p>The <i>conducteur</i> opened the debate. "We had," he said, "twenty miles of
+road still before us; the way lay through deep ravines, and over
+torrents which the rains must have rendered impassable: it would be long
+past midnight till we should reach Florence,&mdash;if we should ever reach
+it: his opinion was, therefore, that we ought to stay where we were;
+nevertheless, if we insisted, he would go on at all risks." So
+counselled our leader; and if we wanted an argument on the other side,
+we had only to look around. The walls of the inn were naked and black;
+the floor was covered inch-deep with slime, the deposit of the flood
+which had that day broke into the dwelling; and the place was evidently
+unequal to the "entertainment" of such a number of "men and horses" as
+had thus unexpectedly been thrown upon it. It is not wonderful, in these
+circumstances, that a small opposition party sprung up, headed by an
+English lady, whose delicate slippers were never made for such a floor
+as that on which she now stood. She could see no danger in going on, and
+urged us to set forward. Better counsels prevailed, however; and we
+resolved to endure the evils we knew, rather than adventure on those we
+knew not.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[Pg 233]</a></span></p><p>The next matter to be negotiated was supper, of which the aspect of the
+place gave no great promise. The landlady was a thin, wiry, black,
+voluble Tuscan. "Have you beef?&mdash;Have you cheese?&mdash;Have you
+macaroni?"&mdash;inquired several voices in succession. "Oh, she had all
+these, and a great many dainties besides, in the morning; but the
+flood,&mdash;the flood!" The same flood, however, which had swept off our
+hostess's larder, had swept in a great deal of good company, and she was
+evidently resolved on setting the one evil over against the other. She
+now showered upon us a long, rapid, and vehement address; and he who has
+not heard the Tuscan discourse does not know what volubility is. "What
+does she say?" I inquired at one of my two Russian friends. "She says
+very many words," he replied, "but the meaning is moneys, moneys." "Have
+you any coffee?" I asked. "Oh, coffee! delightful coffee; but it had
+gone sailing down the flood." "And it carried off the eggs too, I
+suppose?" "No; I have eggs." We resolved to sup on eggs. A fire of logs
+was kindled up stairs, and a table was extemporized out of some deals.
+In a quarter of an hour in came our supper,&mdash;black bread, fried eggs,
+and a skein of wine. We fell to; but, alack! what from the smut of the
+chimney and the dust of the pan, the eggs were done in the <i>chiaro
+scuro</i> style; the wine had so villanous a twang, that a few sips of it
+contented me; and the bread, black as it was, was the only thing
+palatable. I got the landlady persuaded to boil me an egg; and though
+the Italian peasants only dip their eggs in hot water, and serve them up
+raw, it was preferable to the conglomerate of the pan. We made merry,
+however, over our poor meal and the grateful warmth of the fire; and
+somewhere towards midnight we entertained the question of going to bed.
+We had avoided the topic as long as possible, from a foreboding that our
+hostess<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[Pg 234]</a></span> would present us with some rueful tale of blankets lost in the
+flood. Besides, we were not without misgivings that, should the clouds
+return and the river rise as before, house and all might follow the
+other things down the stream, and no one could tell where we might find
+ourselves on awakening. On broaching the subject, however, we found to
+our delight, that cribs, couches, shakedowns, and all sorts of
+contrivances, with store of cloaks, garments, and blankets, had been got
+ready for our use.</p>
+
+<p>We were told off into parties; and the first to be sorted were the two
+Russians, an Italian, and myself. We four were shown into a room, which,
+to our great surprise, contained two excellent four-posted beds, one of
+which was allotted to the two Russian gentlemen, and the other to the
+Italian and myself. Our mode of turning in was somewhat novel. The
+Russians put away simply their greatcoats, and lay down beneath the
+coverlet. My bed-fellow the Italian took up a position for the night by
+throwing himself, as he was, on the top of the bed-clothes. Not
+approving of either mode, I slipped off both greatcoat and coat, and,
+covering myself with the blankets, soon forgot in sleep all the mishaps
+of the day.</p>
+
+<p>The voice of the <i>conducteur</i> shouting at the door of our apartment
+awakened us before day-break. Our company mustered with what haste they
+could, and we again betook us to the road,</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+"While the still morn went out with sandals gray."<br />
+</p>
+
+<p class="noin">The path lay along the banks of the torrent Carza, and the valley we
+found frightfully scarred by the flood of the former day. Fierce
+torrents rushing from the hills had torn the fences, ploughed up the
+road, piled up hillocks of mud among the vineyards, and covered with
+barren sand, or strewn with stones,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[Pg 235]</a></span> many an acre of fine meadow. Had we
+attempted the path in the darkness, our course must have found a speedy
+termination. At length, ascending a steep hill, we found ourselves
+overlooking the valley of the Arno.</p>
+
+<p>Every traveller taxes his descriptive powers to the utmost to paint the
+view from this hill-top; and I verily believe that, seen under a
+cloudless sky, it is one of the most enchanting landscapes in the world.
+The numberless conical hills,&mdash;the white villas and villages, which lie
+as thick as if the soil had produced them,&mdash;the silvery stream of the
+Arno,&mdash;the rich chestnut and olive woods,&mdash;the domes of the Italian
+Athens,&mdash;the songs,&mdash;the fragrance,&mdash;and the great wall of the Apennines
+bounding all,&mdash;must present a picture of rare magnificence. But I saw it
+under different conditions, and must needs describe it as it appeared.</p>
+
+<p>Sub-Apennine Italy was before me, and it seemed the Italy I had dreamed
+of, could I only see it; but, alas! it was blotted with mists, and
+overshadowed by a black canopy of cloud. Outspread, far as the eye could
+extend southward, was a landscape of ridges and conical tops, separated
+by winding wreaths of white mist, giving to the country the aspect of an
+ocean broken up into creeks, and bays, and channels, with no end of
+islands. The hills were covered to their very summits with the richest
+vegetation; and the multitude of villages sprinkled over them lent them
+an air of great animation. The great chain of the Apennines, with
+rolling masses of cloud on its summits, ran along on the east, and
+formed the bounding wall of the prospect. Below us there floated on the
+surface of the mist an immense dome, looking like a balloon of huge size
+about to ascend into the air. It did not ascend, however; but,
+surrounded by several tall shafts and towers which rose<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[Pg 236]</a></span> silently out of
+the mist, it remained suspended over the same spot. Like a buoy at sea
+affixed to the place where some noble vessel lies entombed, this dome
+told us that engulphed in this ocean of vapour lay <span class="smcap">Florence</span>, with her
+rich treasures of art, and her many stirring recollections and
+traditions.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[Pg 237]</a></span></p>
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XIX" id="CHAPTER_XIX"></a>CHAPTER XIX.</h3>
+
+<h4>FLORENCE AND ITS YOUNG EVANGELISM.</h4>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang">Beauty of Position&mdash;Focus of Italian Art&mdash;Education on the &AElig;sthetic
+Principle&mdash;Effects as shown in the Character and Manners of the
+Florentines&mdash;The result not Civilization, but Barbarism&mdash;The
+Artizans of Britain surpass the Florentines in Civilization&mdash;Early
+English Scholars at Florence&mdash;Man's Power for
+Good&mdash;Savonarolo&mdash;History of present Religious Movement in
+Tuscany&mdash;Condition of Tuscan Government and Priesthood prior to
+1848&mdash;Attempts to introduce Religious Books&mdash;The Priests compel the
+Government to interfere&mdash;The Revolution of 1848&mdash;The Bible
+translated and seized&mdash;Visit of Vaudois Pastors&mdash;Secret Religious
+Press&mdash;Work now carried on by the Converts&mdash;Denunciation of <span class="smcap">Death</span>
+for Bible Reading&mdash;Great Increase of Converts
+notwithstanding&mdash;Present State and Prospects of Movement&mdash;Leave
+Florence&mdash;Beauty of the Vale of the Arno&mdash;Pisa&mdash;Arrive at Leghorn. </p></div>
+
+
+<p class="noin"><span class="smcap">Of</span> Florence "the Beautiful," I must say that its beauty appeared scarce
+equal to its fame. In an age when the capitals of northern Europe were
+of wood, the Queen of the Arno may have been without a rival on the
+north of the Alps; but now finer streets, handsomer squares, and nobler
+fa&ccedil;ades, may be seen in any of our second-rate towns. But its dome, by
+Brunelleschi, the largest in the world,&mdash;its tall campanile,&mdash;its
+baptistry, with its beautiful gates,&mdash;and its public statuary,&mdash;are
+worthy of all admiration. Its environs are superb.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[Pg 238]</a></span></p><p>Florence is sweetly embosomed in an amphitheatre of mountains, of the
+most lovely forms and the richest and brightest colouring. Castles and
+convents crown their summits; while their slopes display the pillar-like
+cypress, the gray olive, the festooned vine, with a multitude of
+embowered villas. On the north-east, right in the fork of the Apennines,
+lie the bosky and wooded dells of Valombrosa. On the north, seated on a
+pyramidal hill, is the ancient Fiesole, which the genius of Milton has
+touched and immortalized. On the west are the spacious lawns and parks
+of the Grand Duke; while the noble valley runs off to the south-west,
+carpeted with vines, or covered with chestnut woods, with the Arno
+stealing silently through it in long reaches to the sea. During my stay,
+the girdling Apennines were tipped with the snows of winter; and when
+the sun shone out, they formed a gleaming circlet around the green
+valley, like a ring of silver enclosing an enormous emerald. I saw the
+sun but seldom, however. The bad weather which had overtaken me amid the
+Apennines descended with me into the valley of the Arno; and murky
+clouds, with torrents of rain, but too often obscured the sky. But I
+could fancy the delicious beauty of a summer eve in Florence, with the
+still balmy air enwrapping the purple hills, the tall cypresses, the
+domes, and the gently stealing waters. In spring the region must be a
+very paradise. Indeed, spring is seldom absent from the banks of the
+Arno; for though at times savage Winter is heard growling amid the
+Apennines, he dare seldom venture farther than midway down their slopes.</p>
+
+<p>I cannot recall the past glories of Florence, or even touch on Cosmo's
+"immortal century;" I cannot speak of its galleries, so rich in
+painting, so unrivalled in statuary; nor can I enter its Pitti palace,
+with its hanging gardens; or the city churches, with their store of
+frescoes and paintings; or<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[Pg 239]</a></span> its Santa Croc&eacute;, with its six mighty
+tombs,&mdash;those even of Dante, Galileo, Machiavelli, Michael Angelo,
+Alfieri, Leonardo Aretino. The size of Florence brings all these objects
+within a manageable distance; and, during my stay of well-nigh a week, I
+visited them, as any one may do, almost every day. But every traveller
+has entered largely into their description, and I pass them over, to
+touch on other things more rarely brought into view.</p>
+
+<p>Florence is the focus of Italian art; and here, if anywhere, one can see
+the effect of educating a population solely on the &aelig;sthetic principle.
+The Florentines have no books, no reading-rooms, no public lectures, no
+preaching in their churches even, bating the occasional harangue of a
+monk. They are left to be trained solely by fine pictures and lovely
+statues. From these they are expected to learn their duties as men and
+as citizens. The sole employment of the people is to produce these
+things; their sole study, to be able to admire them. The result is not
+civilization, but barbarism. Nor can it well be otherwise. We find the
+"beautiful" abundantly in nature, but never dissociated from the
+"useful;" teaching us that it cannot be safely sought but in union with
+what is true and good; and that we cannot make it "an end" without
+reversing the whole constitution of our nature. When a people make the
+love of "the beautiful" their predominant passion, they rapidly decline
+in the better and nobler qualities. The beautiful yields only enjoyment;
+and those who live only to enjoy soon become intensely selfish. That
+enjoyment, moreover, is immediate, and so affords no room for the
+exercise of patience and foresight. A race of triflers arise, who think
+only of the present hour. They are wholly undisciplined in the higher
+qualities of mind,&mdash;in perseverance and self-control; and, being
+withdrawn from the contemplation of facts and principles, they<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[Pg 240]</a></span> become
+incapable of attending to the useful duties of life, and are wholly
+unable to rise to the higher efforts of virtue and patriotism. The
+Italian Governments, for their own ends, have restricted their subjects
+to the fine arts, but at the expense of the trade, the agriculture, and
+the civilization, of their dominions. The fabric of British power was
+not raised on the &aelig;sthetic principle. Take away our books, and give us
+pictures; shut up our schools and churches, and give us museums and
+galleries; instead of our looms and forges, substitute chisels and
+pencils; and farewell to our greatness. The artizan of Birmingham or
+Glasgow is a more civilised man than the same class in the Italian
+cities. His dwelling, too, displays an amount of comfort and elegance
+which few in Italy below the rank of princes, and not always they, can
+command. The condition of the Italian people shows conclusively that the
+predominating study of "the beautiful" has a most corrupting and
+enfeebling effect. In fact, their pictures have paved the way for their
+tyrants; and when one marks their demoralizing effects, he feels how
+salutary is the restriction of the Decalogue against their use in Divine
+worship. If pictures and images lead to idolatry in the Church, their
+exclusive study as infallibly produces serfdom in the State.</p>
+
+<p>In the early dawn of the Reformation, several of our own countrymen
+visited the city of the Medici, that they might have access to the works
+of antiquity which Cosmo had collected, and enjoy the converse of the
+learned men that thronged his palace. "William Selling," says D'Aubign&eacute;,
+"a young English ecclesiastic, afterwards distinguished at Canterbury by
+his zeal in collecting valuable manuscripts,&mdash;his fellow-countrymen,
+Grocyn, Lilly, and Latimer, 'more bashful than a maiden,'&mdash;and, above
+all, Linacre, whom Erasmus ranked above all the scholars of Italy,&mdash;used
+to meet in the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[Pg 241]</a></span>delicious villa of the Medici, with Politian,
+Chalcondyles, and other men of learning; and there, in the calm evenings
+of summer, under that glorious Tuscan sky, they dreamt romantic visions
+of the Platonic philosophy. When they returned to England, these learned
+men laid before the youth of Oxford the marvellous treasures of the
+Greek language." We are repaying the debt, by sending to that land a
+better philosophy than any these learned men ever brought from it. This
+leads us to speak of the religious movement in progress in Tuscany.</p>
+
+<p>After all, man's power for evil is extremely limited. The very opposite
+is the ordinary estimate. When we mark the career of a conqueror like
+Napoleon, or the withering effects of an organization like that of Rome,
+and compare these with the feeble results of a preacher like Savonarola,
+whose body the fire reduced to ashes, and whose disciples persecution
+speedily scattered, we say that man's power to destroy his species is
+almost omnipotent,&mdash;his power to benefit them scarce appreciable. But
+spread out the long cycles of history and the long ages of the world,
+and you learn that the triumphs of evil, though sudden, are temporary,
+and those of truth slow but eternal. A true word spoken by a single man
+has in it more power than armies, and will, in the long run, do more to
+bless than all that tyrannies can do to blight mankind. Savonarola,
+feeble as he seemed, and unprotected as he was, wielded a power greater
+than that of Rome. The truths sown by the preacher on the banks of the
+Arno so many centuries ago are not yet dead. They are springing up; and,
+long after Rome shall have passed away, they will be a source of
+liberty, of civilization, of arts, and of eternal life, to his
+countrymen.</p>
+
+<p>A political storm heralded the quiet spring-time of evangelical truth
+which has of late blessed that land. Prior to 1848, although there had
+been no change for the better in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[Pg 242]</a></span> law, a very considerable degree of
+practical liberty was enjoyed by the subjects of Tuscany. The Tuscans
+are naturally a quiet, well-behaved people; the Grand Duke was an easy,
+kind-hearted man; his Government was exceedingly mild; and, as he
+conducted himself towards his people like a father, he was greatly
+beloved by them. Tuscany at that period was universally acknowledged to
+be the happiest province of Italy.</p>
+
+<p>The priesthood of those days were a good-natured, easy set of men also.
+They had never known opposition. They could not imagine the possibility
+of anything occurring to endanger their power, and therefore were
+exceedingly tolerant in the exercise of it. They were an illiterate and
+ill-informed race. An Abbatte of their own number assured Dr Stewart, so
+far back as 1845, that there was not one amongst them, from the
+Archbishop downwards, who could read Hebrew, nor half-a-dozen who could
+be found among the upper orders who could read Greek. They were masters
+of as much Latin as enabled them to get through the mass; but they were
+wholly unskilled in the modern tongues of Europe, and entire strangers
+to modern European literature. Though poorly paid, they durst not eke
+out their means of subsistence by entering into any trade. Many of them
+were fain to become major domos in rich families, and might be seen
+chaffering in the markets in the public piazza, and weighing out flour,
+coffee, and oil to the servants at home. No priest can say more than one
+mass a-day; and for that he is paid one lira, or eightpence sterling.</p>
+
+<p>Such being the state of matters, little notice was taken of what foreign
+Protestants might be doing. The priests were secure in their ignorance,
+and deemed it impossible that any attempt would be made to introduce the
+diabolical heresies of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[Pg 243]</a></span> Luther among their orthodox flocks. Indeed,
+these flocks were removed almost beyond the reach of contamination, not
+so much by the vigilance of the priests, as by their own ignorance and
+bigotry. The degree of popular enlightenment may be judged of from the
+following circumstance which happened to Dr Stewart, and of which the
+Doctor himself assured me Soon after his first coming into Tuscany in
+1845, he came into contact with a countryman, who, on being told that he
+was a Protestant minister, began instantly to scrutinize his lower
+extremities, to ascertain whether he had cloven hoofs. The priests had
+told the people that Protestants were just devils in disguise.</p>
+
+<p>The Government, I have said, was a mild one. It was more: it was
+affected with the usual Italian sluggishness and indolence,&mdash;the <i>dolce
+far niente</i>; and accordingly it winked at innumerable ongoings, so long
+as these did not attract public attention. Bibles and religious
+Protestant works were introduced secretly, the Government knowing it,
+but winking at it, as the Church did not complain. The arrest of the
+deputation from the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland to the
+Holy Land in 1839 was an exception to what I have now stated, but such
+an exception as confirms the general statement. The deputation, with the
+ignorance of us Britishers abroad for the first time, imagined that
+because Leghorn was a free port, they were free to give away Bibles,
+tracts, and all kinds of religious books; and accordingly they made
+vigorous use of their time. Scarcely had they stepped on shore when they
+commenced a liberal distribution of Bibles, books on the "Evidences,"
+and other valuable works, among the boatmen, facchini, and beggars. It
+did not occur to them, that of those to whom they gave these books, few
+could read, and none were able to appreciate them. Many persons who
+received these<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[Pg 244]</a></span> books carried them to the priests, who, confounded at
+the suddenness as well as the boldness of the assault, carried them to
+the police, and the police to the Government; and before the deputation
+had been an hour and a half in Thomson's hotel, they were under arrest.
+It was the Church which compelled the Government to interfere; and it is
+the Church which is now driving forward the civil power in its mad
+career of persecution. As a proof that we bring no heavier charge
+against the priests than they deserve, we may mention, that in 1849 Dr
+Stewart was summoned to appear before the delegate of Government, to
+answer for having allowed one or two Italian Protestant ministers to
+preach in his pulpit. The delegate informed him that the Government was
+not taking this step of its own accord, but that the Archbishop of
+Florence was compelling the Government to put the law in force, and that
+the Archbishop was the prosecutor in the case.</p>
+
+<p>The old statute of Ferdinand I., which allows to foreigners the full
+exercise of their religion within the city of Leghorn, was taken
+advantage of to open the Scotch church there. This was in 1845. It was
+two years after this,&mdash;in the winter of 1847&ndash;48,&mdash;that the religious
+movement first developed itself,&mdash;full six months before the revolutions
+and changes of 1848. The work was at first confined almost entirely to a
+handful of foreigners&mdash;Captain Pakenham; M. Paul, a Frenchman, and the
+Swiss pastor in Florence;&mdash;&mdash; at&mdash;&mdash;; and Mr Thomson, Vice-Consul at
+Leghorn. Count Guicciardini was the only Florentine connected with the
+movement. It was resolved to print and circulate such books as were
+likely to pass the censorship, and might be openly sold by all
+booksellers. The censor of that day was a remarkably liberal man, and he
+gave his consent very willingly. Five or six little volumes were printed
+in that country; but the people were not yet prepared for such a step;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[Pg 245]</a></span>
+the books lay unsold, and were got into circulation only by being given
+away as presents. But the very fact that the friends of the movement had
+been able to print and publish such works openly at Florence, with the
+approbation of the censor, greatly encouraged them. It was next proposed
+to attempt to get the censor's approbation to an edition of the New
+Testament; and the work was before him waiting his imprimatur, when the
+revolutions of 1848 broke over Italy with the suddenness of one of its
+own thunder-storms.</p>
+
+<p>I cannot go particularly into the changes that followed, and which are
+known to my readers through other sources,&mdash;the flight of the Grand
+Duke,&mdash;the new Tuscan Constitution,&mdash;the free press. The political for a
+time buried the religious. Captain Pakenham, taking advantage of the
+liberty enjoyed under the republic, commenced printing an edition of
+Martini's Bible (the Romanist version), believing that it would be more
+acceptable than Diodati's (the Protestant version). Before he had got
+the book put into circulation, the re-action commenced, the Grand Duke
+returned, and the work was seized. When engaged in making the seizure,
+the gendarmes pressed a young apprentice printer to tell them whether
+there were any more copies concealed. The lad replied that he had only
+one suggestion to offer, which was, that, now they had seized the book,
+they should seize the author too. And who is he? eagerly inquired the
+gendarmes, preparing to start on the chase. Jesus Christ, was the lad's
+reply.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile the revolution had greatly enlarged the privileges of the
+Waldensian Church in Piedmont, and three of her pastors, MM. Malan,
+Meille, and Geymonat, arrived in Florence in the winter of 1848&ndash;49, for
+the purpose of making themselves more familiar with the tongue and
+accent of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[Pg 246]</a></span> Tuscans, in order to be able to avail themselves of the
+greater openings of usefulness now presented to them, both in their own
+country and in central Italy.</p>
+
+<p>They preached occasionally, and attended the prayer-meeting, which now
+greatly increased, and which was the only one at this time among the
+Florentines. Having by their visit helped forward the good work, these
+evangelists, after a six months' stay in Florence, returned to their own
+country.</p>
+
+<p>A full year elapsed between the departure of the Waldensian brethren and
+the movement among the Florentines to obtain an Italian pastor. After
+much deliberation they resolved on this step, and in May 1850 a
+deputation set out for the Valleys, which, arriving at La Tour,
+prevailed on Professor Malan to accept of the charge at Florence. M.
+Malan returned to that city, and, on the 1st of July 1850, began his
+ministry, among a little flock of thirty persons, in the Swiss chapel
+Via del Seraglio, in which the Grisons had a right to Italian service.
+The work now went rapidly forward. Formerly there had been but one
+re-union; now there were ten in Florence alone, besides others in the
+towns and villages adjoining. M. Malan had service once a fortnight in
+Italian; and so large was the attendance, that the chapel, which holds
+four hundred, was crowded to the door with Florentine converts or
+inquirers. The priests took the alarm. They wrought upon the mind of the
+deformed Archduchess,&mdash;a great bigot, and sister to the Grand Duke. A
+likely tool she was; for she had made a pilgrimage to Rimini, and
+offered on the shrine of the winking Madonna a diamond tiara and
+bracelet. The result I need not state. The immediate result was, that
+the Italian service was put a stop to in January 1851; and the final
+result was the banishment of Malan and Geymonat from Tuscany in the May
+of that year,&mdash;the expulsion of the pastors<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[Pg 247]</a></span> being accompanied with
+circumstances of needless severity and ignominy. Geymonat, after lying
+two days in the Bargello of Florence, was brought forth and conducted on
+foot by gendarmes, chained like an assassin, to the Piedmontese
+frontier. On this miserable journey he was thrust every night into the
+common prison, along with characters of the worst description, whose
+blasphemies he was compelled to hear. The foul air and the disgusting
+food of these places made him sometimes despair of coming out alive; but
+he had his recompense in the opportunities which he thus enjoyed of
+preaching the gospel to the gendarmes by the way, and to the keepers of
+the prisons, some of whom heard him gladly.</p>
+
+<p>The departure of the Vaudois pastors threw the work into the hands of
+the native converts, by whom it has been carried on ever since. It is to
+be feared that, in the absence of pastors, not a little that is
+political is mixed with the religious. It is difficult forming an
+estimate of the numbers of the converts and inquirers. They have
+meetings in all the towns of Tuscany and Lucca, between whom a constant
+intercourse is maintained. Each member subscribes two crazzia a-week for
+the purchase of Protestant religious books. To supply these books, two
+presses are at work,&mdash;one in Turin, the other in Florence. The latter is
+a secret press, which the police, with all their efforts, have not been
+able to this day to discover. The Bible can be got into Tuscany with
+great difficulty; yet the demand for it is greater than ever. The
+converts have been tried by every mode of persecution short of death;
+yet their numbers grow. The prisons are full with political and
+religious offenders; yet fresh arrests continually take place in
+Florence.</p>
+
+<p>The first and more notable instance of persecution on which the
+Government of Tuscany ventured, after the banishment of Count
+Guicciardini and his companions, was the imprisonment<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[Pg 248]</a></span> of Francesco and
+Rosa Madiai, for reading the Word of God in the Italian language. The
+sufferings of these confessors turned out for the furtherance of the
+Gospel. The attention of many of their own countrymen was drawn to the
+cause of their sufferings; and the bigotry of the Grand Duke, or rather
+of the Court of Rome, with which the Tuscan Government had entered into
+a concordat for the suppression of heresy, was proclaimed before all
+Europe. A Protestant deputation visited Florence to intercede in behalf
+of these confessors; but their plea found so little favour with the
+Grand Duke, that he immediately issued a decree, reviving an old law
+which makes all offences against the religion of the State punishable
+<i>by death</i>. To provide for carrying the decree into effect, a guillotine
+was imported from Lucca, and an executioner was hired at a salary of ten
+pounds a month. As if this were not sufficiently explicit, the Grand
+Duke told his subjects that he was "<i>determined to root out
+Protestantism from his State, though he should be handed down to
+posterity as a monster of cruelty</i>." Neither the spectacle of the
+guillotine nor the terrible threat of the Grand Duke could arrest the
+progress of the good work. The Bible was sought after, and read in
+secret; and the numbers who left the communion of the Romish Church grew
+and multiplied daily. In the beginning of 1853, the Protestants, or
+Evangelicals as they prefer to call themselves in Tuscany, were
+estimated at many thousands. I doubt not that this estimate was correct,
+if viewed as including all who had separated their interests from the
+Church of Rome; but I just as little doubt that a majority of these, if
+brought to the test, rather than suffer would have denied the Gospel.
+Many of them knew it only as a political badge, not as a <i>new life</i>.
+But, on the judgment of those who had the best means of knowing, there
+were at least <i>a thousand</i> in Tuscany who had undergone a change<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[Pg 249]</a></span> of
+heart, and were prepared to confess Christ on the scaffold. To hunt out
+these peaceful ones, and bring them to punishment, is the grand object
+of the priesthood; and in the confessional they have an instrumentality
+ready-made for the purpose. Taking advantage of the greater timidity of
+the female mind, it has become a leading question with the confessor,
+"Does your husband read the Bible? Has he political papers?" Alas!
+according to the ancient prophecy, the brother delivers up the brother
+to death. I heard of some affecting cases of this sort when I was in
+Florence. Of the fifty persons, or thereabouts, who were then in prison
+on religious grounds, not a few had been accused by their own relatives,
+the accusation being extorted by the threat of withholding absolution.
+At the beginning of the English Reformation, with an infernal refinement
+of cruelty, children were often compelled to light the faggots which
+were to consume their parents; and in Tuscany at this hour, the
+trembling wife is compelled, by the threat of eternal damnation, to
+disclose the secret which is to consign the husband to a dungeon. The
+police are never far from the confessor's box, and wait only the signal
+from it, what house to visit, and whom to drag to prison. As with us in
+former days, the Bible is secreted in the most unlikely places; it is
+read at the dead hour of night; and the prayers and praises that follow
+are offered in whispering accents,&mdash;for fear of the priests and the
+guillotine.</p>
+
+<p>Every subsidiary agency that might further the progress of the truth has
+been suppressed by the Government. All the liberal papers have been put
+down. They appeared again and again under new names, but only to
+encounter, under every form, the veto of the authorities. At last their
+whole printing establishments were confiscated. The public press having
+been silenced, the secret one continued to speak to the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[Pg 250]</a></span>Tuscans from
+its hiding-place; and its voice was the more heard that the other was
+dumb. Besides Bibles, a variety of religious books have issued from it,
+and have been widely circulated. Among the translated works spread among
+the Tuscans are D'Aubign&eacute;'s "History of the Reformation," M'Crie's
+"Suppression of the Reformation in Italy," "The Mother's Catechism,"
+Watts' "Catechism," "The Pilgrim's Progress," and a variety of religious
+tracts. The prohibition of a book by the Government is sure to be
+followed by a universal demand for it; and the Government decree is thus
+the signal for going to press with a new edition of the forbidden work.
+Mr Gladstone's letters on Naples were prohibited by Government; and the
+very means adopted to keep the Tuscans ignorant of what Englishmen
+thought of the state of Naples, and of the Continent generally, only led
+to its being better known. Though not a single copy of these letters was
+to be seen in the shops or on the stalls, they found their way into
+every one's hands. The same thing happened to Count Guicciardini. The
+Government prohibited his statement, and all Florence read it. The
+well-known hatred of the priests to the Bible has been its best
+recommendation in the eyes of the Tuscans. Thus the Government finds
+that it cannot move a step without inflicting deadly damage on its own
+interests. Its interposition is fatal only to the cause it seeks to
+help. To prohibit a book is to publish it; to bring a man to trial is to
+give liberty an opportunity of speaking through his advocate; to cast a
+confessor of the Lord Jesus into prison is but to erect a light-house
+amidst the Tuscan darkness. The Government and the priesthood find that
+their efforts are foiled and their might paralyzed by a mysterious
+power, which they know not how to grapple with. The guillotine has stood
+unused: not that any scruples of conscience or any feelings of humanity
+restrain the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[Pg 251]</a></span> priests; fain would they bring every convert to the
+scaffold if they dared; but the odium which they well know would attend
+such a deed deters them; and they anxiously wait the coming of a time
+when it may be safe to do what could not be done at present but at the
+risk of damaging, and perhaps ruining, their cause. It does not follow
+that the Tuscan priesthood have not the guilt of blood to answer for. If
+the confessors of the Gospel in that land are not perishing by the
+guillotine, they are pining in prisons, and sinking into the grave, by
+reason of the choking stench, the disgusting vermin, and the
+insufficient food, to which they are exposed.</p>
+
+<p>But the condition of these victims, perishing unknown and unpitied in
+the fangs of an ecclesiastical tyranny, is not the most distressing
+spectacle which Tuscany at this hour presents. Theirs is an enviable
+state, compared with that of the great body of the people. These occupy
+but a larger prison, and groan in yet stronger fetters; while their
+captivity is uncheered by any such hope as that which sustains the
+Tuscan confessors of the truth. Mistrust of their Church is widely
+spread in the country. There is no religion in Tuscany. There is as
+little morality. The marriage vow is but little regarded, and the
+seducer boasts of his triumphs over married chastity, as if they were
+praiseworthy deeds. Thousands have plunged into atheism. Of those who
+have not gone this length, the great body are dissatisfied, ill at ease,
+without confidence in the doctrines of Rome, but ignorant of a more
+excellent way. Straitly shut up, they grope blindfolded round the walls
+of their prison-house, wistfully turning their eyes to any ray of light
+that strikes in through its crevices. How this state of things may end
+is known only to God;&mdash;whether in the gradual spread of Gospel light,
+and the peaceful fall of that system which has so long enthralled the
+intellect and soul of the Tuscans; or whether, as a result<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[Pg 252]</a></span> of the
+growing exasperation and deepening horrors of these bondsmen, they may
+give a violent wrench to the pillars of the ecclesiastical and social
+fabric, and pull it down upon the heads of themselves and their
+oppressors.</p>
+
+<p>I may avail myself of this opportunity of introducing a few recent facts
+relative to the analogous work in Genoa; and this I do because these
+facts are of a character which may enable the reader more clearly to
+conceive of the present religious condition of Italy, and the state of
+the movement in that country.</p>
+
+<p>The north of Italy and kingdom of Sardinia, as I have already said,
+since the Constitution granted in 1848, is open to the promulgation of
+evangelical truth; that is, it may be taught in almost every conceivable
+way, provided it is not done offensively or obtrusively. While the
+religion of the State is Roman Catholic, there is toleration and liberty
+of conscience to all; indeed, there is <i>no religion</i> at all. The king
+cares for none of these things, and most of his Ministers are at one
+with him. The present Ministry is Liberal; and Count Cavour is, to all
+intents and purposes, Radical. It is said that he declares he will never
+rest until Sardinia is another England. The Constitution is something
+very similar to that of England, and only requires to be developed. The
+present Government, however, is more liberal than the Constitution; and
+the Constitution gives more liberty than the majority of the people are
+yet able to receive: hence collision frequently takes place. Old
+statutes are still unrepealed; and the priest party compels the
+Government to do things which they are very unwilling to do. For
+example, one of the Cereghini was recently tried, and condemned to pay a
+fine of two hundred pauls, and go to prison for four months, for having
+some little thing to do in publishing a small controversial catechism
+against the Romish Church, and vending it rather too openly. An appeal
+was made against<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[Pg 253]</a></span> the sentence, and it stands unexecuted, and will do.
+As a matter of law, the executive Government is obliged to take up such
+cases and deal with them; and the nobility or priesthood&mdash;for they are
+one and the same&mdash;are ever on the look-out for such cases. The case of
+Captain Pakenham, who was expelled from Sardinia, comes under this head.
+The Constitution is the same now as it was then; only it is further
+developed in the minds of the people, and the same offence would not now
+likely meet the same unjust punishment, or create the same stir among
+the people, as it did then. But Captain Pakenham need not have been
+expelled from the State if our British Ministers in Sardinia had done
+their duty; but they are sometimes only too glad to get quit of such men
+as Captain Pakenham. If they had protested against the sentence, it
+would never have been executed. Such a thing would never have occurred
+to an American subject. "British residents or travellers in Italy,"
+writes one to us, "will never have any comfort or satisfaction under the
+union-jack, until the present race of consuls and plenipotentiaries,
+sitting in high places, truckling with petty kings and grand dukes, is
+hanged, every one of them. There is an obliging old consul at Rome who
+might be exempted."</p>
+
+<p>The following extract from a letter written in March last, and addressed
+to ourselves, from the Rev. David Kay, the able pastor of the Scotch
+congregation in Genoa, will be read with deep interest. We know none who
+knows better than Mr Kay the condition of Sardinia, or is more familiar
+with all that has been done and is doing there. What he says of the
+moral condition of Genoa may be taken as a fair sample of the other
+towns and States of Italy. None of them are superior to Genoa in this
+respect, and most of them, we believe, are below it. Alas! the picture
+is a sad one.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[Pg 254]</a></span></p><p>"Nothing could be more foolish or detrimental to the evangelical work
+in Sardinia than for every man and woman who enters the country, to pass
+through it or spend a few months even, to commence 'doing something,' as
+they generally express it. They scatter Bibles and tracts broad-cast,
+without knowing anything of the people they give them to; and
+nine-tenths of these books are carried forthwith to the priest or the
+pawnshop, generally the former, and are burned. This does not affect
+them much, perhaps, because they will soon be off; but it renders the
+position of those stationed in the country very precarious. The priest
+likes very much to collect all the Bibles, Testaments, tracts, &amp;c., into
+a heap, and, before setting the match to them, bring some of his English
+friends to see them. This is no exaggeration. At least two such cases
+have come under my notice. Knowledge and prudence are very essential
+qualities,&mdash;some knowledge of the country and its people, and some
+little common sense to use that knowledge well. If our British
+travellers and residents would give the Italians a better example of how
+the Sabbath ought to be kept, and is kept, by the serious in Britain,
+and let precept for the most part alone,&mdash;the real missionary work to be
+done by people competent,&mdash;generally speaking, they would advance the
+work far more than by the way they often adopt. We talk of liberal
+Sardinia; but <i>liberal</i> is a relative term, and all who know Sardinia
+will only apply it relatively. When an injudicious thing is done, or
+even when a lawful thing is done injudiciously, we soon see where the
+liberty of Sardinia is. It is as lawful for a man to have a thousand
+Italian Bibles in his house as to have a thousand copies of 'Rob Roy.'
+Both packages come regularly through the custom-house, and duty is paid
+for them; and yet the other day in Nice several houses were searched by
+the gendarmes, and all Bibles and tracts carried<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[Pg 255]</a></span> away. This is contrary
+to the Constitution of the country, and yet it was done. Englishmen will
+make a cry about it, and demand justice (a thing generally sold to the
+highest bidder); but it is no use,&mdash;only harm will be done by it. Every
+day things in <i>kind</i> differing in <i>degree</i> are done throughout the
+State. The long and short of the matter is this; the minds of the people
+must open, and be allowed time to open gradually, ere the liberal
+Constitution of Sardinia can be applied to its full extent. And it is
+the forgetting this, or not knowing it, that usually brings these things
+about. Something, perhaps a very common thing, and quite lawful, and
+done every day, is done in a foolish way, and a foolish thing is done by
+the executive Government to meet it. It is not the present
+generation,&mdash;it has been too long under the yoke,&mdash;but the rising
+generation, that will exhibit the new Constitution. The grand secret is
+to do as much as possible,&mdash;and almost anything may be done,&mdash;and say
+nothing about it. It is truly interesting to watch the gradual opening
+up of the long shut kingdom, and very exciting to give every day a
+stronger blow to the wedge that opens it. I remember well, when I came
+here, nearly two years ago, Italian Bibles could not be got into Genoa,
+as other goods, by paying the duty on them, although it was perfectly
+lawful then, as now, to bring them in that way. For a year past we have
+got all the Bibles the Bible-senders of Britain will send us. Hundreds
+or thousands of them can be brought through the custom-house without any
+difficulty. We are anxiously waiting the arrival of six thousand at this
+moment. And yet a month has not passed since four thousand religious
+books,&mdash;less mischievous by far than the Bible,&mdash;were sent from our port
+to Marseilles. They could not be landed in any part of his Majesty's
+dominions. From these facts you will see that we live in a kingdom of
+practical contradictions.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[Pg 256]</a></span></p><p>"The priests, meanwhile, are by no means idle. They are instructing
+their people in the dogmas of their Church; and for this they have
+classes in the evening,&mdash;the zealous at least, among them have. Apart
+from their petty persecution in preventing us getting a place of worship
+(the affair of the 'Madre di Dio' you know all about, as also their
+general story of every convert being paid), they send missionaries to
+England once or twice a-year, (there is a priest whom I know just now
+returned), who bring, generally prostitutes, but women of a better order
+if they can find them, put them into a convent, to train, and, when
+trained, send them out to strengthen the Catholics here in their faith,
+and, if possible, bring back to the fold those who have gone to
+Geymonat; and highly accomplished trustworthy dames they send home to
+England to bring out others, or remain there and proselytise; or they
+send them here and there among the English on the Continent, sometimes
+to profess one thing and sometimes another. A few weeks ago one tried
+her skill upon us residing in Genoa, and partially succeeded. Her tale
+was, that she was the daughter of an English clergyman, who came abroad
+with her aunt, travelling in great style of course, and was put into a
+convent, and kept there against her will; and now she had contrived to
+make her escape, and perfectly trembled when she saw a priest, or even
+heard one named; and, although of high family, was ready to teach or do
+anything in an English family, to be out of reach of the priests. The
+things she told were most harrowing, and some of them very true-like.
+One English gentleman here thought of taking her into his family as
+governess, until he should get her father to come for her. I was asked
+to visit her at his house, and hear her woeful history. I went; but the
+line 'Timeo Danaos,' &amp;c., was ever forcing itself upon me as I walked
+musingly along to the house, which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[Pg 257]</a></span> was a little distance out of town.
+While hearing her long unconnected string of falsehoods, the thing that
+astonished me was, why the Roman Catholic priests should have chosen
+such an ugly woman to do such a piece of work; and not only had she the
+most forbidding appearance of any woman I ever saw, but she was the most
+illiterate; not a single sentence came correctly from her lips, and, in
+pronunciation, the letter 'h' ever was prefixed to the 'aunt' and the
+'Oxford,'&mdash;the very quintescence of Cockneyism. It was clear to my mind
+that she had 'done' the priests, and the sequel proves my suspicions to
+be correct. That day before she left, she discovered that she was
+suspected, and very prudently threw off her mask very soon after. Her
+correct history we are only getting bit by bit; but all we have learned
+convinces us that she has deceived the Italian priest, who knows very
+little of English, by persuading him that she is the daughter of an
+English clergyman, and very highly connected in England. You have enough
+of the story to see the kind of plot regularly carried on. What they
+expected to gain by passing her off upon us, we cannot tell, unless that
+they wished to know earlier and more fully our movements. There is an
+English pervert here just now,&mdash;a weak fool, but an educated one,&mdash;on a
+mission to Geymonat's people, to assure them that they have committed a
+great sin. Having proved both systems of religion, he can judge, and
+there is no comfort whatever in the Protestant. He has taken up his
+abode here, and is prosecuting his mission vigorously.</p>
+
+<p>"A traveller passing through Genoa, and visiting the churches,
+particularly on a feast-day, would fancy that the Genoese, or, indeed,
+the Catholics in Sardinia generally, are the most devoted Catholics in
+Italy. Many have gone away with that impression. The reason is this. All
+who attend the churches in Genoa do so from choice,&mdash;from religious
+motives; and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[Pg 258]</a></span> even feel, in these days of heresy, that they are wearing
+the martyr's crown,&mdash;standing firmly for the true Church, while all
+without are scoffers; whereas in the Tuscan, Roman, and Neapolitan
+States, people attend church from compulsion. If they are not in church
+on certain days, and at mass, they are immediately suspected. I believe
+the male population of Italy is one moving mass of infidelity. Sardinia
+is professedly so. In Genoa not one young man in a hundred attends
+church. If you see him there, it is to select a pretty woman for his own
+purposes. Morality is at a very low ebb,&mdash;lower far than you can have
+any idea of. Every man is sighing after his neighbour's wife; and he
+confesses it, and talks as gallantly of his conquest as if he had fought
+on the heights of Alma. A stranger walking the streets in the evening
+would not suppose this, for he would not be attacked, as in a town in
+Britain; but they have their dens, and licensed ones too. Shocking as it
+may appear, these houses are regularly licensed by the Government; and
+medical men visit them once every week for sanitary purposes. The
+defilement of the marriage-bed is little or nothing thought of. Marriage
+here is generally a money speculation, and is very frequently brought
+about through means of regular brokers or agents, who receive a per
+centage on the bride's dowry. A woman without a pretty good dowry has
+very little chance of a husband, unless she is young and very pretty,
+and willing to accept an old man. There are very few women in Geymonat's
+congregation. The converts are nearly all men."</p>
+
+<p>While we rejoice in the spread of the light, we cannot but marvel at the
+mysterious connection which may be traced between the first and the
+second reformations in Italy, as regards the spots where this divine
+illumination is now breaking out. We have already adverted to the
+progress<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[Pg 259]</a></span> of the Gospel in the sixteenth century in so many of the
+cities of Italy, and the long roll of confessors and martyrs which every
+class of her citizens contributed to furnish. Not only did these men, in
+their prisons and at their stakes, sow the seeds of a future harvest,
+but they appear to have earned for the towns in which they lived, and
+the families from which they were sprung, a hereditary right, as it
+were, to be foremost in confessing that cause at every subsequent era of
+its revival. We cannot mark but with a feeling of heartfelt gratitude to
+God, in whose sight the death of his saints is precious, and who, by the
+eternal laws of his providence, has ordained that the example of the
+martyr shall prove more powerful and more lasting than that of the
+persecutor, that on the <i>self-same spots</i> where these men died of old,
+the same mighty movement has again broken out. And not only are the same
+cities of Turin, and Milan, and Venice, and Genoa, and Florence,
+figuring in this second reformation of Italy, but the same families and
+the same names from which God chose his martyrs in Italy three centuries
+ago are again coming forward, and offering themselves to the dungeon,
+and the galleys, and the scaffold, in the cause of the Gospel. Does not
+this finely illustrate the indestructible nature of truth, which enables
+it to survive a long period of dormancy and of apparent death, and to
+flourish anew from what seemingly was its tomb? And does it not also
+shed a beautiful light upon the order of the providence of God, whereby
+he remembers and revisits the seed of the righteous man, and keeps his
+mercy to a thousand generations of them that fear Him?</p>
+
+<p>On Wednesday the 6th of November, after a stay of well-nigh a week in
+Florence, I took my departure by rail for Pisa. The weather was still
+wild and wintry, and the Apennines were white with snow to almost their
+bottom. The railway<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[Pg 260]</a></span> runs along the valley, close to the Arno, which,
+swollen with the rains, had flooded the vineyards and meadows in many
+places. A truly Italian vale is that of the Arno, whose silvery stream
+in ordinary times is seen winding and glistening amid the olives and the
+chestnut groves which border its course. When evening came, a deep
+spiritual beauty pervaded the region. As we swept along, many a romantic
+hill rose beside our path, with its clustering village, its mantling
+vines, and its robe of purple shadows; and many a long withdrawing
+ravine opened on the right and left, with its stream, and its crags, and
+its olives, and its castles. What would we have given for but a minute's
+pause, to admire the finer points! But the engine held its onward way,
+as if its course had been amidst the most indifferent scenery in the
+world. It made amends, however, for the enchanting views which it swept
+into oblivion behind, by perpetually opening in front others as lovely
+and fascinating. The twilight had set, and the moon was shining
+brightly, when we reached the station at Pisa.</p>
+
+<p>The Austrian soldier who kept the gate challenged me as I passed, but I
+paid no attention, and hurried on. Had he secured my passport, I would
+infallibly have been detained a whole day. I traversed the long winding
+streets of the decaying town, crossed the Arno, on which the city
+stands, and, coming out on the other side of Pisa, found myself in
+presence of its fine ecclesiastical buildings. A moon nearly full, which
+seemed to veil while it in reality heightened their beauty, enabled me
+to see these venerable edifices to advantage. The hanging tower is a
+beautiful pile of white marble; the Cathedral is one of the most
+chastely elegant specimens of architecture in all Italy; the baptistry,
+too peculiar to be classic, is, nevertheless, a tasteful and elegant
+design. Having <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[Pg 261]</a></span>surveyed these lovely creations of the wealth and genius
+of a past age, I returned in time to take my seat in the last train for
+Leghorn.</p>
+
+<p>The country betwixt Pisa and the coast is perfectly flat, and the
+flooded Arno had converted it into a sea. I could see nothing around me
+but a watery waste, above which the railway rose but a few inches. I
+felt as if again amid the Lagunes of Venice. After an hour and a half's
+riding, we reached Leghorn, where I took up my abode at Thomson's hotel,
+so well and so favourably known to English travellers. After my long
+sojourn in Italian <i>albergi</i>, whose uncarpeted floors, and chinky
+windows and doors, are but ill fitted to resist the winds and cold of
+winter, I sat down in "Thomson's,"&mdash;furnished as it is with all the
+comforts of an English inn,&mdash;with a feeling of home-comfort such as I
+have rarely experienced.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[Pg 262]</a></span></p>
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XX" id="CHAPTER_XX"></a>CHAPTER XX.</h3>
+
+<h4>FROM LEGHORN TO ROME.</h4>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang">First Sight of the Mediterranean&mdash;Embark at Leghorn&mdash;Elba&mdash;Italian
+Coast&mdash;Civita Vecchia&mdash;Passport Offices&mdash;Aspect and Population of
+Civita Vecchia&mdash;Papal Dungeons&mdash;Start for Rome&mdash;First View of the
+Campagna&mdash;Its Desolation&mdash;Changed Times&mdash;The Postilion&mdash;The
+Road&mdash;The Milestones&mdash;First Sight of the Eternal City&mdash;The
+Gate&mdash;Desolate Look of the City by Night&mdash;The Pope's Custom-House
+and Custom-House Officer. </p></div>
+
+
+<p class="noin"><span class="smcap">I rose</span> early next morning, and walked down to the harbour, to have my
+first sight of the Mediterranean,&mdash;that renowned sea, on whose shores
+the classic nations of antiquity dwelt, and art and letters arose,&mdash;on
+whose waters the commerce of the ancient world was carried on, and the
+battles of ancient times fought,&mdash;whose scenery had often inspired the
+Greek and Latin poets,&mdash;and the grandeur of whose storms Inspiration
+itself had celebrated. A stiff breeze was blowing, and a white curl
+crested the wave, and freckled the deep blue of the waters. The
+Mediterranean looked young and joyous in the morning sun, as when it
+bore the fleets of Tyre, or heard the victorious shouts of Rome, albeit
+it is now edged with mouldering cities, and listens only to the clank of
+chains and the sigh of enslaved nations.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[Pg 263]</a></span></p><p>Early in the forenoon I waited on the Rev. Dr Stewart, the accomplished
+minister of the Free Church in Leghorn. He opened freely to me his ample
+stores of information on the subject of Tuscany, and the work in
+progress in that country. We called afterwards on Mr Thomas Henderson, a
+native of Scotland, but long settled in Leghorn as a merchant. This kind
+and Christian man has since, alas! gone to his grave; but the future
+historian of the Reformation in Italy will rank him with those pious
+merchants in our own land who in former days consecrated their energy
+and wealth to the work of furthering the Gospel, and of sheltering its
+poor persecuted disciples. After sojourning so long among strange faces
+and strange tongues, it was truly pleasant to meet two such
+friends,&mdash;for friends I felt them to be, though never till that day had
+I seen their faces.</p>
+
+<p>At four of the afternoon I embarked in the steamer for Civita Vecchia,
+the port of Rome. The vessel I did not like at first: it was dirty,
+crowded, and, from some fault in the loading, lurched over while a stiff
+breeze was rising. By and by we got properly under weigh, and swept
+gallantly over the waves, along the coast, whose precipices and
+headlands were getting indistinct in the fading twilight. I walked the
+deck till past midnight, watching the moon as she rode high amid the
+scud overhead, and the beacon-lights of the island of Elba, as they
+gleamed full and bright astern. "What of the night?" I asked the
+helmsman. "Buono notte, Signore," was the reply. I descended to my
+berth.</p>
+
+<p>I awoke at four of the morning, and found the steamer labouring in a
+rolling sea. The sirocco was blowing, and a huge black wave rolled up
+before it from the south. The distant coast stretched along on the left,
+naked and iron-bound, with the high lands of Etruria rising behind it. I
+wondered<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[Pg 264]</a></span> whether that coast had looked as unkindly to &AElig;neas, when first
+he cast anchor on it after long ploughing the deep? We drew towards that
+silent shore, where signs of man and his labours we could discover none;
+and in an hour or so a small bay opened under the vessel's bows. The
+swell was rising every moment, and the steamer made some magnificent
+bounds in taking the entrance to the harbour. We entered the port of
+Civita Vecchia at six, passing between the two round towers, with their
+tiers of guns looking down upon us; and cast anchor in the ample basin,
+protected by the lofty walls of the forts, over which the green-topped
+waves occasionally looked as if enraged at missing their prey. Here we
+were, but not a man of us could land till first our passports had been
+submitted to the authorities on shore. The passengers, who were of all
+classes, from the English nobleman with his equipage and horses, down to
+the lazzaroni of Naples, crowded the deck promiscuously; and amongst
+them I was happy to meet again my two Russian friends, with whom I had
+shared the same bed-room among the Apennines. In about an hour and a
+half we were boarded by a police-officer. Forming us into a row on deck,
+and calling our names one by one, this functionary handed to each a
+billet, permitting the holder to go ashore, on condition of an instant
+compearance at the pontifical police-office. An examination of the
+baggage followed. This done, I leaped into one of the small boats which
+lay alongside the steamer, and was rowed to the quay at a few strokes,
+but for which service I had to recompense the boatman with about as many
+pauls. No sooner had I set foot on shore, than the everlasting passport
+bother began. The "apostolic consul" at Florence had certified me as
+"good for Rome;" the governor of Leghorn had but the day before done the
+same; but here were I know not how many officials, all assuring me that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[Pg 265]</a></span>
+without their signatures in addition, Rome I should never see. First
+came the English consul, who graciously gave me&mdash;what Lord Palmerston
+had already given&mdash;permission to travel in the Papal States, charging me
+at the same time five pauls. I could not help saying, that it was all
+very well for nations that made no pretensions to liberty to sell to
+their subjects the right of moving over the earth, but that it appeared
+to me to be somewhat inconsistent in Britain to do so. The consul looked
+as if he could not bring himself to believe that he had heard aright.
+The number of my visa told me that I was the 4318th Englishman who had
+entered the port of Civita Vecchia that season. I next took my way to
+the French consulate in the town-hall. I found the ante-chamber filled
+with Etrurian antiquities, in which the district adjoining Civita
+Vecchia on the north is particularly rich; and the sight of these was
+more than worth the moderate charge of one paul, which was made for my
+vis&eacute;e. At length I got this business off my hand; and, having secured my
+seat in the <i>diligence</i> for Rome, I had leisure to take a stroll through
+the town.</p>
+
+<p>Civita Vecchia, though the port of Rome, and raised thus above its
+original insignificance, is but a poor place. A black hill leans over it
+on the north, and a naked beach, dreary and silent, runs off from it on
+the south. A small square, overlooked by stately mansions, emblazoned
+with the arms of the consuls of the various nations, forms its nucleus,
+from which numerous narrow and wriggling streets run out, much like the
+claws of a crab, from its round bulby body. It smells rankly of garlic
+and other garbage, and would be much the better would the Mediterranean
+give it a thorough cleansing once a-week. Its population is a motley and
+worshipful assemblage of priests, monks, French soldiers, facini, and
+beggars; and it would be hard to say which is the idlest, or which is
+the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[Pg 266]</a></span> dirtiest. They seemed to be gathered promiscuously into the
+caff&eacute;s,&mdash;priests, facini, and all,&mdash;rattling the dice and sipping
+coffee. Every one you come in contact with has some pretext or other for
+demanding a paulo of you. The Arabs of the desert are not more greedy of
+<i>backsheish</i>. A gentleman, as well dressed as I was at least, made up to
+me when I had taken my seat in the <i>diligence</i>, and, after talking five
+minutes on indifferent subjects, ended by demanding a paulo. "For what?"
+I asked, with some little surprise. "For entertaining Signore," he
+replied. Yet why blame these poor people? What can they do but beg?
+Trade, husbandry, books,&mdash;all have fled from that doomed shore.</p>
+
+<p>There are three conspicuous buildings in Civita Vecchia. Two of these
+are hotels; the third and largest is a prison. This is one of the State
+prisons of the Pope. Rising story above story, and meeting the traveller
+on the very threshold of the country, it thrusts somewhat too
+prominently upon his notice the Pope's peculiar method of propagating
+Christianity,&mdash;namely, by building dungeons and hiring French bayonets.
+But to do the Pope justice, he is most unwearied in Christianizing his
+subjects after his own fashion. His prisons are well-nigh as numerous as
+his churches; and if the latter are but thinly attended, the former are
+crowded. He is a man "instant in season and out of season," as a good
+shepherd ought to be: he watches while others sleep; for it is at night
+that his sbirri are most active, running about in the darkness, and
+carrying tenderly to a safe fold those lambs which are in danger of
+being devoured by the Mazzinian wolves, or ensnared by Bible heretics.
+But to be serious,&mdash;when one finds as many prisons as churches in a
+territory ruled over by a minister of the Gospel, he begins to feel that
+there is something frightfully wrong somewhere.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[Pg 267]</a></span></p><p>When I passed the fortress of Civita Vecchia, many a noble heart lay
+pining within its walls. No fewer, I was assured, than two thousand
+Romans were there shut up as galley-slaves, their only crime being, that
+they had sought to substitute a lay for a sacerdotal Government,&mdash;the
+regime of constitutionalism for that of infallibility. In this prison
+the renowned brigand Gasperoni, the uncle of the prime minister of the
+Pope, Antonelli, had been confined; but, being too much in the way of
+English travellers, he was removed farther inland. This man was wont to
+complain loudly to those who visited him, of the cruel injustice which
+the world had done his fair fame. "I have been held up," he was used to
+say, "as a person who has murdered hundreds. It is a foul calumny. I
+never cut more than thirty throats in my life." He had had, moreover, to
+carry on his profession at a large outlay, having to pay the Pope's
+police an hundred scudi a-month for information.</p>
+
+<p>At last mid-day came, and off we started for Rome. We trundled down the
+street at a tolerable pace; and one could not help feeling that every
+revolution of the wheel brought him nearer the Eternal City. Suddenly
+our course was brought to an unexpected stop. Another examination of
+passports and baggage at the gate! not, I verily believe, in the hope of
+finding contraband wares, but of having a pretext to exact a few more
+pauls. The half-hour wore through, though wearily. The gate was flung
+open; and there lay before us a blackened expanse, stretching far and
+wide, dreary and death-like, terminated here by the sea, and there by
+the horizon,&mdash;the Campagna di Roma. I turned for relief to the ocean,
+all angry with tempest as it was; and felt that its struggling billows
+were a more agreeable sight than the tomb-like stillness of the plain.
+The sirocco was still blowing; and the largest breakers I ever saw were
+tumbling on the beach. The only<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[Pg 268]</a></span> bright and pleasant thing in the
+picture was the shining, sandy coast, with its margin of white foam. It
+ran off in a noble crescent of fifty miles, and was seen in the far
+distance terminating in the low sandy promontory of Fumacina, where the
+Tiber falls into the sea. Alas! what vicissitudes had that coast been
+witness to! There, where the idle wave was now rolling, rode in other
+days the galleys of Rome; and there, where the stifling sirocco was
+sweeping the herbless plain, rose the villas of her senators, amid the
+bloom and fragrance of the orange and the olive. To that coast C&aelig;sar had
+loved to come, to inhale its breezes, and to pass, in the society of his
+select friends, those hours which ambition left unoccupied. But what a
+change now! There was no sail on that sea; there was no dwelling on that
+shore: the scene was lonely and desolate, as if keel had never ploughed
+the one, nor human foot trodden the other.</p>
+
+<p>I had seated myself in front of the vehicle, in the hope of catching the
+first glimpse of St Peter's, as its dome should emerge above the plain;
+but so wretched were our cattle, that though we started at mid-day, and
+had only fifty miles of road, night fell long before we reached the
+gates of the Eternal City. I saw the country well, however, so long as
+daylight lasted. We kept in sight of the shore for twenty-five miles;
+and glad I was of it; for the waves, with their crest of snow and voice
+of thunder, seemed old friends, and I shuddered to think of plunging
+into that black silent wilderness on the left. At the gate of Civita
+Vecchia the desolation begins; and such desolation! I had often read
+that the Campagna was desolate; I had come there expecting to find it
+desolate; but when I saw that desolation I was confounded. I cannot
+describe it; it must be seen to be conceived of. It is not that it is
+silent;&mdash;the Highlands of Scotland are so. It is not that it is
+barren;&mdash;the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[Pg 269]</a></span> sands of Arabia are so. They are as they were and should
+be. But not so the Campagna. There is something frightfully unnatural
+about its desolation. A statue is as still, as silent, and as cold, as
+the corpse; but then it never had life; and while you love to gaze on
+the one, the other chills you to the heart. So is it with the Campagna.
+While the sands of the desert exhilarate you, and the silence of the
+Swiss or Scottish Highlands is felt to be sublime, the desolation of the
+Campagna is felt to be unnatural: it overawes and terrifies you. Such a
+void in the heart of Europe, and that, too, in a land which was the home
+of art,&mdash;where war accumulated her spoils, and wealth her
+treasures,&mdash;and which gave letters and laws to the surrounding
+world,&mdash;is unspeakably confounding. One's faith is staggered in the past
+history of the country. The first glance of the blackened bosom of the
+Campagna makes one feel as if he had retrograded to the barbarous ages,
+or had been carried thousands and thousands of miles from home, and set
+down in a savage country, where the arts had not yet been invented, or
+civilization dawned. Its surface is rough and uneven, as if it had been
+tumbled about at some former period; it is dotted with wild bushes; and
+here and there lonely mounds rise to diversify it. There are no houses
+on it, save the post-houses, which are square, tower-like buildings,
+having the stables below and the dwellings above. It has its patches of
+grass, on which herds depasture, followed by men clothed in sheepskins
+and goatskins, and looking as savage almost as the animals they tend. It
+is, in short, a wilderness, and more frightful than the other
+wildernesses of the earth, because the traveller feels that here there
+is the hand of doom. The land lies scathed and blackened under the curse
+of the Almighty. To Rome the words of the prophet are as applicable as
+to Babylon, whom she resembled in sin, and with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[Pg 270]</a></span> whom she is now joined
+in punishment: "Because of the wrath of the Lord, it shall not be
+inhabited, but it shall be wholly desolate. Every one that goeth by
+Babylon shall be astonished, and hiss at all her plagues. Cut off the
+sower from Babylon, and him that handleth the sickle in the time of
+harvest. I will also make it a possession for the bittern, and pools of
+water. And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, shall be as when God
+overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah: it shall never be inhabited, neither dwelt
+in from generation to generation; but wild beasts of the deserts shall
+lie there, and their houses shall be full of doleful creatures, and owls
+shall dwell there, and satyrs shall dance there."</p>
+
+<p>About half-way to Rome the road parted company with the shore, and we
+turned inland over the plain. The night came on with drifting showers,
+which descended in torrents, lashing the naked plain, and battering our
+vehicle with the force and noise of a waterspout. And though at length
+the moon rose, and looked out at times from the cloud, she had nothing
+to show us but houseless, treeless desolation; and, as if scared at what
+she saw, she instantly hid her face in another mass of vapour. The
+stages were short, and the halts long; for which the postilion had but
+too good excuse, in the tangled web of thong and cord which formed the
+harnessings of his horses. The harnessing of an Italian <i>diligence</i> is a
+mystery to all but an Italian postilion. The postilion, on arriving at a
+stage, has to get down, shake himself, stride into the post to announce
+his arrival, unharness his horses, lead them deliberately into the
+stable, bring out the fresh ones, transfer the same harness to their
+backs, put them to, gulp down his glass of brandy, address a few more
+last observations to the loiterers, and, finally, light his cigar. He
+then mounts with a flourish of his whip; but his wretched nags are not
+able to proceed at<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[Pg 271]</a></span> a quicker trot than from three to four miles an
+hour. He meets very probably a brother of the trade, who has been at
+Rome, and is returning with his horses. He dismounts on the road,
+inquires the news, and mounts again at his pleasure. In short, you are
+completely in the postilion's power; and he is quite as much an autocrat
+in his way as the Czar himself. He sings, it may be, but his song is the
+very soul of melancholy,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+"Roma, Roma, Roma, non e piu,<br />
+Come prima era."<br />
+</p>
+
+<p class="noin">It needed but a glance at that pale moon, and drifting cloud, and naked
+plain, to tell me that "Rome was not now as in her first age."</p>
+
+<p>As the night grew late, the inquiries became more frequent, "Are we not
+yet at Rome?" We were not yet at Rome; but we did all that men could
+with four, and sometimes six, half-starved animals, bestrode by drowsy
+postilions, to reach it. Now we were labouring in deep roads,&mdash;now
+fording impetuous torrents,&mdash;and now jolting along on the hard pavement
+of the Via Aurelia. By the glimpses of the moon we could see the
+milestones by the roadside, with "<span class="smcap">Rome</span>" upon them. Seldom has writing
+thrilled me so. To find a name which fills history, and which for thirty
+centuries has extorted the homage of the world, and still awes it,
+written thus upon a common milestone, and standing there amid the
+tempest on the roadside, had in it something of the sublime. Was it then
+a reality, and not a dream? and should I in a very short time be in Rome
+itself,&mdash;that city which had been the theatre of so many events of
+world-wide influence, and which for so many ages had borne sway over all
+the kings and kingdoms of the earth? Meanwhile the night became darker,
+and the torrents of rain more frequent and more heavy.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[Pg 272]</a></span></p><p>Towards midnight we began to climb a low hill. We could see that there
+was cultivation upon it, and, unless we were mistaken, a few villas. We
+had passed its summit, and were already engaged in the descent, when a
+terrific flash of lightning broke through the darkness, and tipped with
+a fiery radiance every object around us. On the left was the old hoary
+wall, with a whitish bulby mass hanging inside of it. On the right was a
+steep bank, with a few straggling vines dripping wet. The road between,
+on which we were winding downwards, was deep and worn. I had had my
+first view of Rome; but in how strange a way! In a few minutes we were
+standing at the gate.</p>
+
+<p>Some little delay took place in opening it. The moments which one passes
+on the threshold of Rome are moments he never can forget. While waiting
+there till it should please the guard to open that old gate, the whole
+history of the wonderful city on whose threshold I now stood seemed to
+pass before my mind,&mdash;her kings, her consuls, her emperors,&mdash;her
+legislators, her orators, her poets,&mdash;her popes,&mdash;all seemed to stalk
+solemnly past, one after one. There was the great Romulus; there was the
+proud Tarquin; there was Scylla with his laurel, and Livy with his page,
+and Virgil with his lay, and C&aelig;sar with his diadem, and Brutus with his
+dagger; there was the lordly Augustus, the cruel Nero, the beastly
+Caligula, the warlike Trajan, the philosophic Antoninus, the stern
+Hildebrand, the infamous Borgia, the terrible Innocent; and last of all,
+and closing this long procession of shades, came one, with shuffling
+gait and cringing figure, who is not yet a shade,&mdash;Pio Nono. The creak
+of the old gate, as the sentinel undid its bolt and threw back its
+ponderous doors, awoke me from my reverie.</p>
+
+<p>We were stopped the moment we had entered the gate, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[Pg 273]</a></span> desired to
+mount to the guard-room. In a small chamber on the city-wall, seated at
+a table, on which a lamp was burning, we found a little tight-made
+brusque French officer, busied in overhauling the passports. Declaring
+himself satisfied after a slight survey, he hinted pretty plainly that a
+few pauls would be acceptable. "Did you ever," whispered my Russian
+friend, "see such a people?" We were remounting our vehicle, when a
+soldier climbed up, with musket and fixed bayonet, and forced himself in
+between my companion and myself, to see us all right to the
+custom-house, and to take care that we dropped no counterband goods by
+the way. Away we trundled; but the Campagna itself was not more solitary
+than that rain-battered and half-flooded street. No ray streamed out
+from window; no sound or voice of man broke the stillness; no one was
+abroad; the wind moaned; and the big drops fell heavily upon the plashy
+lava-paved causeway; but, with these exceptions, the silence was
+unbroken; and, to add to the dreariness, the city was in well-nigh total
+darkness.</p>
+
+<p>I intently scrutinized the various objects, as the glare of our lamps
+brought them successively into view. First there came a range of massive
+columns, which stalked past us, wearing in the sombre night an air of
+Egyptian grandeur. They came on and on, and I thought they should never
+have passed. Little did I dream that this was the piazza of St Peter's,
+and that the bulb I had seen by favour of the lightning was the dome of
+that renowned edifice. Next we found ourselves in a street of low, mean,
+mouldering houses; and in a few moments thereafter we were riding under
+the walls of an immense fortress, which rose above us, till its
+battlements were lost in the darkness. Then turning at right angles, we
+crossed a long bridge, with shade-like statues looking down upon us from
+either parapet, and a dark silent river flowing underneath. I could<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[Pg 274]</a></span>
+guess what river that was. We then plunged into a labyrinth of streets
+of a rather better description than the one already traversed, but
+equally dreary and deserted. We kept winding and turning, till, as I
+supposed, we had got to the heart of the city. In all that way we had
+not met a human being, or seen aught from which we could infer that
+there was a living creature in Rome. At last we found ourselves in a
+small square,&mdash;the site of the Forum of Antoninus, though I knew it not
+then,&mdash;in one of the sides of which was an iron gate, which opened to
+receive us, <i>diligence</i> and all, and which was instantly closed and
+locked behind us; while two soldiers, with fixed bayonets, took their
+stand as sentinels outside. It was a vast barn-looking, cavern-like
+place, with mouldering Corinthian columns built into its massive wall,
+and its roof hung so high as to be scarce visible in the darkness. It
+had been a temple of Antoninus Pius, and was now converted into the
+Pope's dogana or custom-house.</p>
+
+<p>In a few minutes there entered a dapper, mild-faced, gentle-mannered,
+stealthy-paced man, with a thick long cloak thrown over his shoulders,
+to protect him from the night air. The Pope's dogana-master stood before
+us. He paced to and fro in the most unconcerned way possible; and though
+it was past midnight, and trunks and carpet-bags were all open and
+ready, he seemed reluctant to begin the search. Nevertheless the baggage
+was disappearing, and its owners departing at the iron gate,&mdash;a mystery
+I could not solve. At length this most affable of dogana-masters drew up
+to me, and in a quiet way, as if wishing to conceal the interest he felt
+in me, he shook me warmly by the hand. I felt greatly obliged to him for
+this welcome to Rome, but would have felt more so if, instead of this
+salute, he had opened the gate and let me go. In about five minutes he
+again came round to where I stood, and,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[Pg 275]</a></span> grasping my hand a second time,
+gave it a yet heartier squeeze. I was at a loss to explain this sudden
+friendship; for I was pretty sure this exceedingly agreeable gentleman
+had never seen me till that moment. How long this might have lasted I
+know not, had not a person in the dogana, compassionating my dullness,
+stepped up to me, and whispered into my ear to give the searcher a few
+paulos. I was a little scandalized at this proposal to bribe his
+Holiness's servant; but I could see no chance otherwise of having the
+iron gate opened. Accordingly, I got ready the requisite douceur; and,
+waiting his return, which soon happened, took care to drop the few pauls
+into his palm at the next squeeze. On the instant the gate opened.</p>
+
+<p>But alas! I was in a worse plight than ever. There was no commissario to
+be had at that hour. I was in total darkness; not a door was open; nor
+was there an individual in the street; and, recollecting the reputation
+Rome had of late acquired for midnight assassinations, I began to grow a
+little apprehensive. After wandering about for some time, I lighted on a
+French sentry, who obligingly led me to a caff&eacute; hard by, which is kept
+open all night. There I found a young German, an artist evidently, who,
+having finished his coffee, politely volunteered to conduct me to the
+Hotel d'Angleterre.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[Pg 276]</a></span></p>
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XXI" id="CHAPTER_XXI"></a>CHAPTER XXI.</h3>
+
+<h4>MODERN ROME.</h4>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang">Tower of Capitol best Site for studying Topography of
+Rome&mdash;Resemblance in the Sites of great Cities&mdash;Site of
+Rome&mdash;Campagna di Roma&mdash;Its Extent and Boundaries&mdash;Ancient
+Fertility and Magnificence&mdash;Modern Desolation of Campagna&mdash;Approach
+to Rome from the North&mdash;Etruria&mdash;Solitariness of this once famous
+Highway&mdash;First Sight of Rome&mdash;The Flaminian Way&mdash;The Porta del
+Popolo&mdash;The Piazza del Popolo&mdash;Its Antiquities&mdash;Pincian
+Hill&mdash;General Plan of Rome&mdash;The Corso&mdash;The Via Ripetta&mdash;The Via
+Babuina&mdash;Population&mdash;Disproportionate Numbers of Priests&mdash;Variety
+of Ecclesiastical Costumes&mdash;Dresses of the various Orders&mdash;Their
+indescribably Filthy Appearance&mdash;The ordinary Priest&mdash;The Priest's
+Face&mdash;The Beggars&mdash;Want of Arrangement in its Edifices&mdash;Rome an
+unrivalled Combination of Grandeur and Dirt. </p></div>
+
+
+<p class="noin"><span class="smcap">One</span> of my first days in Rome was passed on the top of the tower of the
+Capitol. It is incomparably the best spot on which to study the
+topography of the Eternal City, with that of the surrounding region.
+Here one stands between the living and the dead,&mdash;between the city of
+the C&aelig;sars, which lies entombed on the Seven Hills, with the vine, the
+ivy, and the jessamine mantling its grave, and the city of the Popes,
+spread out with its cupolas, and towers, and everlasting chimes, on the
+low flat plain of the Campus Martius. The world has not such another<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[Pg 277]</a></span>
+ruin,&mdash;so vast, colossal, and magnificent,&mdash;as Rome. Let us sketch the
+features of the scene as they here present themselves.</p>
+
+<p>There would appear to be a law determining the <i>site</i>, as well as the
+<i>character</i>, of great events. It has often been remarked, that there is
+a resemblance between all the great battle-fields of the world. One
+attribute in especial they all possess, namely, that of vastness;
+inspiring the mind of the spectator with an idea of grandeur, to which
+the recollection of the carnage of which they were the scene adds a
+feeling of melancholy. The Troy and the Marathon of the ancient world
+have found their representative in the modern one, in that gloomy
+expanse in Flanders where Napoleon witnessed the total defeat of his
+arms and the final overthrow of his fortunes. We would make the same
+remark regarding great capitals. There is a family likeness in their
+sites. The chief cities of the ancient world arose, for the most part,
+on extensive plains, nigh some great river; for rivers were the
+railroads of early times. I might instance queenly Thebes, which arose
+in the great valley of the Nile, with a boundary of fine mountains
+encircling the plain on which it stood. Babylon found a seat on the
+great plain of Chaldea, on the banks of the Euphrates. Niniveh arose on
+the same great plain, on the banks of the Tigris, with the glittering
+line of the snowy Kurdistan chain bounding its horizon. To come down to
+comparatively modern times, <span class="smcap">Rome</span> has been equally fortunate with her
+predecessors in a site worthy of her greatness and renown. No one needs
+to be told that the seat of that city, which for so many ages held the
+sceptre of the world, is the <span class="smcap">Campagna di Roma</span>.</p>
+
+<p>I need not dwell on the magnificence of that truly imperial plain, to
+which nature has given, in a country of hills, dimensions so goodly.
+From the foot of the Apennines it runs on<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">[Pg 278]</a></span> and on for upwards of an
+hundred miles, till it meets the Neapolitan frontier at Terracina. Its
+breadth from the Volscian hills to the sea cannot be less than forty
+miles. Towards the head of this great plain lies Rome, than which a
+finer site for the capital of a great empire could nowhere have been
+found. By nature it is most fertile; its climate is delicious. It is
+watered by the Tiber, which is seen winding through it like a thread of
+gold. A boundary of glorious hills encloses it on all sides save the
+south-west. On the south-east are the gentle Volscians, clothed with
+flourishing woods and sparkling with villas. Running up along the plain,
+and lying due east of Rome, are the Sabine hills, of a deep azure
+colour, with a fine mottling of light and shade upon their sides.
+Shutting in the plain on the north, and sweeping round it in a
+magnificent bend towards the west, are the craggy and romantic
+Apennines. Such was the stage on which sat invincible, eternal Rome.
+This plain was traversed, moreover, by thirty-three highways, which
+connected the city with every quarter of the habitable globe. Its
+surface exhibited the richest cultivation. From side to side it was
+covered with gardens and vineyards, in the verdure and blossoms of an
+almost perpetual spring; amid which rose the temples of the gods of
+Rome, the trophies of her warriors, the tombs and monuments of her
+legislators and orators, and the villas and rural retreats of her
+senators and merchants. Indeed, this plain would seem, in imperial
+times, to have been one vast city, stretching out from the white strand
+of the Mediterranean to the summit of the Volscian hills.</p>
+
+<p>But in proportion to its <span class="smcap">GRANDEUR</span> then is its <span class="smcap">DESOLATION</span> now. From the
+sea to the mountains it lies silent, waste, unploughed, unsown,&mdash;a
+houseless, treeless, blackened wilderness. "Where," you exclaim, "are
+its highways?" They are blotted out. "Where are its temples, its
+palaces, its vineyards?" All<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[Pg 279]</a></span> swept away. Scarce a heap remains, to tell
+of its numerous and magnificent structures. Their very ruins are ruined.
+The land looks as if the foot of man had never trodden it, and the hand
+of man never cultivated it. Here it rises into melancholy mounds; there
+it sinks into hollows and pits: like that plain which God overthrew, it
+neither is sown nor beareth. It is inhabited by the fox, haunted by the
+brigand, and frequented in spring and autumn by a few herdsmen, clad in
+goats'-skins, and living in caves and wigwams, and reminding one, by
+their savage appearance, of the satyrs of ancient mythology. It is
+silent as a sepulchre. John Bunyan might have painted it for his "Valley
+of the Shadow of Death."</p>
+
+<p>I shall suppose that you are approaching Rome from the north. You have
+disengaged yourself from the Apennines,&mdash;the picturesque Apennines,&mdash;in
+whose sunny vales the vine still ripens, and on whose sides the olive
+still lingers. You are advancing along a high plateau which rises here
+and there into conical mounts, on which sits some ancient and renowned
+city, dwindled now into a poor village, whose inhabitants are
+husbandmen, and who move about oppressed by the languor that weighs upon
+this whole land. Beneath your feet are subterranean chambers, in which
+mailed warriors sleep,&mdash;for it is the ancient land of Etruria over which
+your track lies. Before the wolf suckled Romulus, this soil had
+nourished a race of heroes. The road, so filled in former times by a
+never-failing concourse of legions going forth to battle or returning in
+triumph,&mdash;of consuls and legates bearing the high behests of the senate
+to the subject provinces,&mdash;and of ambassadors and princes coming to sue
+for peace, or to lay their tributary gifts at the feet of Rome,&mdash;is now
+solitary and untrodden, save by the traveller from a far country, or the
+cowled and corded pilgrim whose vow brings him to the shrine of the
+apostles.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">[Pg 280]</a></span> Stacks of mouldering brickwork attract the eye by the
+wayside,&mdash;the remains of temples and monuments when the land was in its
+prime. You scarce take note of the scattered and stunted olives which
+are dying through age. The fields are wretchedly tilled, where tilled at
+all. The country appears to grow only the more desolate, and the silence
+the more dreary and unsupportable, as you advance. "Roma! Roma!" is
+chanted forth in melancholy tones by the postilion. "Roma" is graven on
+the milestones; but you cannot persuade yourself that Rome you shall
+find in the heart of a desert like this. You have gained the brow of a
+low hill; you have passed the summit, and got half-way down the
+declivity; when suddenly a vision bursts on your sight that rivets you
+to the spot. There is the Tiber rolling its yellow floods at your feet;
+and there, spread out in funereal gloom between the mountains and the
+sea, is the <span class="smcap">Campagna di Roma</span>. The spectacle is sublime, despite its
+desolation. There is but one object in the vast expanse, but that is
+truly a majestic one. Alone, on the silent plain, judgment-stricken and
+sackcloth-clad, occupying the same spot where she "glorified herself and
+lived deliciously," and said in her heart, "I sit a queen, and am no
+widow, and shall see no sorrow," is <span class="smcap">Rome</span>.</p>
+
+<p>You are to cross the Tiber. Already your steps are on the Pons Milvius,
+where Christianity triumphed over Paganism in the person of Constantine,
+and over the parapet of which Maxentius, in his flight, flung the
+seven-branched golden candlestick, which Titus brought from the temple
+of Jerusalem. The Flaminian way, which you are now to traverse, runs
+straight to the gate of Rome. In front is the long line of the city
+walls, within which you can descry the proud dome of St Peter's, the
+huge rotundity of St Angelo, or "Hadrian's Mole," and a host of inferior
+cupolas and towers, which in any<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">[Pg 281]</a></span> other city would suffice to give a
+character to the place, but are here thrown into the shade by the two
+unrivalled structures I have named. You are not less than two miles from
+the gate; yet such are the purity and transparency of an Italian sky,
+that every stone almost in the old wall,&mdash;every scar which the hand of
+time or the ravages of war have made in it,&mdash;is visible. As you advance,
+Monte Mario rises on the right, with a temple on its crest, and rows of
+pine-trees and cypresses on its sides. On the left, at a goodly
+distance, are seen the purple hills of Frascati and Albano, with their
+delicate chequering of light and shadow, and the Tiber, appearing to
+burst like a river of gold from their azure bosom. The beauty of these
+objects is much heightened by the blackness of the plain around.</p>
+
+<p>We now enter Rome. The square in which we find ourselves,&mdash;the Porta del
+Popolo,&mdash;is worthy of Rome. It is a clean, neatly-paved quadrangular
+area, of an hundred and fifty by an hundred yards in extent, edged on
+all sides by noble mansions. Fronting you as you enter the gate are the
+domes of two fine churches, in one of which Luther preached when he was
+in Rome. Between them the Corso is seen shooting out in a long narrow
+line of lofty fa&ccedil;ades, traversing the entire length of the city from
+north to south. On the right is the house of Mr Cass, the United States'
+consul, behind which rises a series of hanging gardens. There was dug
+the grave of Nero; but the ashes of the man before whom the world
+trembled cannot now be found. On the left rises the terraced slope of
+the Pincian hill, with its galleries, its statues, its stately
+cypresses, and its noble carriage-drive. On the opposite declivity are
+the gardens of Sallust, looking down on the <i>campus sceleratus</i>, where
+the unfaithful vestal-virgins were burned.</p>
+
+<p>In the middle of the spacious area is a fine fountain, whose waters are
+received into a spacious basin, guarded by marble<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">[Pg 282]</a></span> lions. And there,
+too, stands the obelisk of Rhamses I., severe and solemn, a stranger,
+like ourselves, from a far land. This is the same which that monarch
+erected before the Temple of the Sun in Heliopolis, the ON of Scripture,
+and which Augustus transported to Rome. It is a single block of red
+granite, graven from top to bottom with hieroglyphics, which it is quite
+possible the eyes of Moses may have scanned. When that column was hewn,
+not a stone had been laid on the Capitol, and the site of Rome was a
+mere marsh; yet here it stands, with its mysterious scroll still unread.
+Speak, stranger, and tell us, with thy deep Coptic voice, the secrets of
+four thousand years ago. Say, wouldst thou not like to revisit thy
+native Nile, and spend thine age beside the tombs of the Pharaohs, the
+companions of thy youth, and amidst the congenial silence of the sands
+of Egypt?</p>
+
+<p>The traveller who would enjoy the finest view of the modern city must
+ascend the Pincian hill. In the basin beneath him he beholds spread out
+a flat expanse of red-tiled roofs, traversed by the long line of the
+Corso, and bristling with the tops of innumerable domes, columns, and
+obelisks. Some thirty or forty cupolas give an air of grandeur to the
+otherwise uninteresting mass of red; and conspicuous amongst these, over
+against the spectator, is the princely dome of St Peter's, and the huge
+bulk of the Castle of St Angelo. The Tiber is seen creeping sluggishly
+at the base of the Janiculum, the sides of which are thinly dotted with
+villas and gardens, while its summit is surmounted by a long stretch of
+the old wall.</p>
+
+<p>Standing in the Piazza del Popolo, the person is in a good position for
+comprehending the arrangement of modern Rome. Here three streets have
+their rise, which, running off in diverging lines, like spokes from the
+nave of a wheel, traverse the city, and form, with the cross streets
+which connect them, the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">[Pg 283]</a></span> osteology of the Eternal City. This at least is
+the arrangement which obtains till you reach the region lying around the
+Capitol, which is an inextricable network of lanes, courts, and streets.
+The centre one of the three streets we have indicated is the Corso. It
+is a good mile in length, and runs straight south, extending from the
+Flaminian gate to almost the foot of the Capitol. To an English eye it
+is wanting in breadth, though the most spacious street in Rome. It is
+but indifferently kept in point of cleanliness, though the most
+fashionable promenade of the Romans. Here only you find anything
+resembling a flag-pavement: all the other streets are causewayed from
+side to side with small sharp pieces of lava, which pain the foot at
+every step. The shops are small and dark, resembling those of our third
+and fourth-rate towns, and exhibiting in their wares a superabundance of
+cameos, mosaics, Etruscan vases, and statuary,&mdash;these being almost the
+sole native manufacture of Rome. It is adorned with several truly noble
+palaces, and with the colonnades and porticos of a great number of
+churches. It was the boast of the Romans that the Pope could say mass in
+a different church every day of the year. This, we believe, is true,
+there being more than three hundred and sixty churches in that city, but
+not one copy of the Bible that is accessible by the people.</p>
+
+<p>The second street,&mdash;that on the right,&mdash;is the Via Ripetta, which leads
+off in the direction of St Peter's and the Vatican. It takes one nigh
+the tomb of Augustus, now converted into a hippodrome; the Pantheon,
+whose pristine beauty remains undefaced after twenty centuries; the
+Collegio Romano; and, towards the foot of the Capitol, the Ghetto,&mdash;a
+series of mean streets, occupied by the Jews. The third street,&mdash;that on
+the left,&mdash;is the Via Babuino. It traverses the more aristocratic<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">[Pg 284]</a></span>
+quarter of Rome,&mdash;if we can use such a phrase in reference to a city
+whose nobles are lodging-house keepers, and live&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+<span style="margin-left: 12em;">"Garreted</span><br />
+In their ancestral palace,"&mdash;<br />
+</p>
+
+<p class="noin">running on by the Piazza di Spagna, which the English so much frequent,
+to the Quirinal, the Pope's summer palace, and the form of Trajan, whose
+column, after the many copies which have been made of it, still stands
+unrivalled and unapproached in beauty.</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+"And though the passions of man's fretful race<br />
+Have never ceased to eddy round its base,<br />
+Not injured more by touch of meddling hands<br />
+Than a lone obelisk 'mid Nubian sands."<br />
+</p>
+
+<p>On the Corso there is considerable bustle. The little buying and selling
+that is done in Rome is transacted here. Half the population that one
+sees in the Corso are priests and French soldiers. The population of
+Rome is not much above an hundred thousand; its ecclesiastical persons,
+however, are close on six thousand. Let us imagine, if we can, the state
+of things were the ecclesiastics of all denominations in Scotland to be
+doubled, and the whole body to be collected into one city of the size of
+Edinburgh! Such is the state of Rome. The great majority of these men
+have no duty to do, beyond the dreary and monotonous task of the daily
+lesson in the breviary. They have no sermons to write and preach; they
+do not visit the sick; they have no books or newspapers; they have no
+family duties to perform. With the exception of the Jesuits, who are
+much employed in the confessional, the whole fraternity of regulars and
+seculars, white, black, brown, and gray, live on the best, and literally
+do nothing. But, of course,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">[Pg 285]</a></span> six thousand heads cannot be idle. The
+amount of mischief that must be continually brewing in Rome,&mdash;the wars
+that shake convents,&mdash;the gossip and scandal that pollute society,&mdash;the
+intrigues that destroy families,&mdash;may be more easily imagined than told.
+Were the secret history of that city for but one short week to be
+written, what an astounding document it would be! and what a curious
+commentary on that mark of a "true Church," <i>unity</i>! Well were it for
+the world were the plots hatched in Rome felt only within its walls.</p>
+
+<p>On the streets of the Eternal City you meet, of course, every variety of
+ecclesiastical costume. The eye is at first bewildered with the motley
+show of gowns, cloaks, cowls, scapulars, and veils; of cords, crosses,
+shaven heads, and naked feet,&mdash;provoking the reflection what a vast deal
+of curious gear it takes to teach Christianity! There you have the long
+black robe and shovel hat of the secular priest; the tight-fitting frock
+and little three-cornered bonnet of the Jesuit; the shorn head and black
+woollen garment of the Benedictine;&mdash;there is the Dominican, with his
+black cloak thrown over his white gown, and his shaven head stuck into a
+slouching cowl;&mdash;there is the Franciscan, with his half-shod feet, his
+three-knotted cord, and his coarse brown cloak, with its numerous
+pouches bulging with the victuals he has been begging for;&mdash;there is the
+Capuchin, with his bushy beard, his sandaled feet, his patched cloak,
+and his funnel-shaped cowl, reminding one of Harlequin's cap;&mdash;there is
+the Carmelite, with shaven head begirt with hairy continuous crown,
+loose flowing robe, and broad scapular;&mdash;there is the red gown of the
+German student, and the wallet of the begging friar. This last has been
+out all morning begging for the poor, and is now returning with
+replenished wallet to his convent on the Capitol, where dwell monks now,
+as geese aforetime. After dining on the contents<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">[Pg 286]</a></span> of his well-filled
+sack, with a slight addition from the vineyards of the Capitol, he will
+scatter the crumbs among the crowd of beggars which may be seen at this
+hour climbing the convent stairs.</p>
+
+<p>But however these various orders may differ in the colour of their
+cloaks or the shape of their tonsure, there is one point in which they
+all agree,&mdash;that is, dirt. They are indescribably filthy. Clean water
+and soap would seem to be banished the convents, as indulgences of the
+flesh which cannot be cherished without deadly peril to the soul, and
+which are to be shunned like heresy itself. They smell like goats; and
+one trembles to come within the droppings of their cloak, lest he should
+carry away a few little <i>souvenirs</i>, which the "holy man" might be glad
+to part with. A fat, stalwart, bacchant, boorish race they are, giving
+signs of anything but fasting and flagellation; and I know of nothing
+that would so dissipate the romance which invests monks and nuns in the
+eyes of some, like bringing a ship-load of them over to this country,
+and letting their admirers see and smell them.</p>
+
+<p>Even the ordinary priest appears but little superior to the monk in the
+qualities we have named. Dirty in person, slovenly in dress, and wearing
+all over a careless, fearless, bullying air, he looks very little the
+gentleman, and, if possible, less the clergyman. But in Rome he can
+afford to despise appearances. Is he not a priest, and is not Rome his
+own? Accordingly, he plants his foot firmly, as if he felt, like Ant&aelig;us,
+that he touches his native earth; he sweeps the crowd around with a
+full, scornful, defiant eye; and should Roman dare to measure glances
+with him, that brow of brass would frown him into the dust. In Rome the
+"priest's face" attains its completest development. That face has not
+its like among all the faces of the world. It is the same in all
+countries, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">[Pg 287]</a></span> can be known under every disguise,&mdash;a soldier's uniform
+or a porter's blouse. At Maynooth you may see it in all stages of
+growth; but at Rome it is perfected; and when perfected, there is an
+entire blotting out of all the kindly emotions and human sympathies, and
+there meets the eye something that is at once below and above the face
+of man. If we could imagine the scorn, pride, and bold bad daring of one
+of Milton's fallen angels, grafted on a groundwork of animal appetites,
+we should have a picture something like the priest's face.</p>
+
+<p>The priests will not be offended should the beggars come next in our
+notice of the Eternal City. The beggars of Rome are almost an
+institution of themselves; and, though not chartered, like the friars,
+their numbers and their ancient standing have established their rights.
+What is it that strikes you on first entering the "Holy City?" Is it its
+noble monuments,&mdash;its fine palaces,&mdash;its august temples? No; it is its
+flocks of beggars. You cannot halt a moment, but a little colony gathers
+round you. Every church has its beggar, and sometimes a whole dozen. If
+you wish to ascertain the hours of any ceremony in a church, you are
+directed to ask its beggar, as here you would the beadle. Every square,
+every column, every obelisk, every fountain, has its little colony of
+beggars, who have a prescriptive right to levy alms of all who come to
+see these objects. We shall afterwards advert to the proof thence
+arising as to the influence of the system of which this city is the
+seat.</p>
+
+<p>Rome, though it surpasses all the cities of the earth in the number,
+beauty, and splendour of its public monuments, is imposing only in
+parts. It presents no effective <i>tout ensemble</i>. Some of its noblest
+edifices are huddled into corners, and lost amid a crowd of mean
+buildings. The Pantheon rises in the fish-market. The Navonna Mercato,
+which has the finest<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">[Pg 288]</a></span> fountain in Italy, is a rag-fair. The church of
+the Lateran is approached through narrow rural lanes. The splendid
+edifice of St Paul's stands outside the walls, in the midst of swamps
+and marshes so unwholesome, that there is not a house near it. The
+meanest streets of Rome are those that lie around St Peter's and the
+Vatican. The Corso is in good part a line of noble palaces; but in other
+parts of the city you pass through whole streets, consisting of large
+massive structures, once comfortable mansions, but now squalid, filthy,
+and unfurnished hovels, resembling the worst dens of our great cities.
+It cannot fail to strike one, too, as somewhat anomalous, that there
+should be such a vast deal of ruins and rubbish in the <i>Eternal</i> City.
+And as regards its sanitary condition, there may be a great deal of
+holiness in Rome, but there is very little cleanliness in it. When a
+shower falls, and the odour of the garbage with which the streets are
+littered is exhaled, the smell is insufferable. One had better not
+describe the spectacles that one sees every day on the marble stairs of
+the churches. The words of Archenholtz in the end of last century are
+still applicable:&mdash;"Filth," says he, "infects all the great places of
+Rome except that of St. Peter's; nor would this be excepted from the
+general rule, but that it lies at greater distance from the dwellings.
+It is incredible to what a pitch filthiness is carried in Rome. As
+palaces and houses are mostly open, their entrance is usually rendered
+unsufferable, being made the receptacle of the most disgustful wants."
+In fine, Rome is the most extraordinary combination of grandeur and
+ruin, magnificence and dirt, glory and decay, which the world ever saw.
+We must distinguish, however: the grandeur has come down to the Popes
+from their predecessors,&mdash;the filth and ruin are their own.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">[Pg 289]</a></span></p>
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XXII" id="CHAPTER_XXII"></a>CHAPTER XXII.</h3>
+
+<h4>ANCIENT ROME&mdash;THE SEVEN HILLS.</h4>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang">Site of Ancient Rome&mdash;Calm after the Storm&mdash;The Seven Hills&mdash;Their
+General Topography&mdash;The Aventine&mdash;The Palatine&mdash;The Ruins of the
+Palace of C&aelig;sar&mdash;View of Ruins of Rome from the Palatine&mdash;The
+C&aelig;lian&mdash;The Viminale&mdash;The Quirinal&mdash;Other two Hills, the Janiculum
+and the Vatican&mdash;The Forum&mdash;The Arch of Titus&mdash;The Coliseum&mdash;The
+Mamertine Prison&mdash;External Evidence of Christianity&mdash;Rome furnishes
+overwhelming Proofs of the Historic Truth of the New
+Testament&mdash;These stated&mdash;The Three Witnesses in the Forum&mdash;The
+Antichrist come&mdash;<i>Coup d'&#338;il</i> of Rome. </p></div>
+
+
+<p class="noin"><span class="smcap">But</span> where is the Rome of the C&aelig;sars, that great, imperial, and
+invincible city, that during thirteen centuries ruled the world? If you
+would see her, you must seek for her in the grave. You are standing, I
+have supposed, on the tower of the Capitol, with your face towards the
+north, gazing down on the flat expanse of red roofs, bristling with
+towers, columns, and domes, that covers the plain at your feet. Turn now
+to the south. There is the seat of her that once was mistress of the
+world. There are the Seven Hills. They are furrowed, tossed, cleft; and
+no wonder. The wars, revolutions, and turmoils of two thousand years
+have rolled their angry surges over them; but now the strife is at an
+end; and the calm that has succeeded<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">[Pg 290]</a></span> is deep as that of the grave.
+These hills, all unconscious of the past, form a scene of silent and
+mournful beauty, with fragments of temples protruding through their
+soil, and humble plants and lowly weeds covering their surface.</p>
+
+<p>The topography of these famous hills it is not difficult to understand.
+If you make the Capitoline in which you stand the centre one, the
+remaining six are ranged round it in a semi-circle. They are low broad
+swellings or mounts, of from one to two miles in circumference. We shall
+take them as they come, beginning at the west, and coming round to the
+north.</p>
+
+<p>First comes the <span class="smcap">Aventine</span>. It rises steep and rocky, with the Tiber
+washing its north-western base. It is covered with the vines and herbs
+of neglected gardens, amid which rises a solitary convent and a few
+shapeless ruins. At its southern base are the baths of Caracalla, which,
+next to the Coliseum, are the greatest ruin in Rome.</p>
+
+<p>Descend its eastern slope,&mdash;cross the valley of the Circus Maximus,&mdash;and
+you begin to climb the <span class="smcap">Palatine</span> hill, the most famous of the seven. The
+Palatine stands forward from the circular line, and is divided from
+where you stand only by the little plain of the Forum. It was the seat
+of the first Roman colony; and when Rome grew into an empire, the palace
+of the C&aelig;sars rose upon it, and the Palatine was henceforward the abode
+of the world's master. The site is nearly in the middle of ancient Rome,
+and commands a fine view of the other hills, the Capitol only
+overtopping it. The imperial palace which rose on its summit must have
+been a conspicuous as well as imposing object from every part of the
+city. Three thousand columns are said to have adorned an edifice, the
+saloons, libraries, baths, and porticos of which, the wealth and art of
+ancient Rome had done their utmost to make worthy of their imperial
+occupant. A dark night has overwhelmed the glory<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">[Pg 291]</a></span> that once irradiated
+this mount. It is now a huge mountain of crumbling brickwork, bearing on
+its broad level top a luxuriant display of cabbages and vines, amid
+which rise the humble walls of a convent, and a small but tasteful
+villa, which is owned, strange to say, by an Englishman. The proprietor
+of the villa and the little colony of monks are now the only inhabitants
+of the Palatine. In walking over it, you stumble upon blocks of marble,
+remains of terraces, vaults still retaining their frescoes, arches,
+porticos, and vast substructions of brickwork, all crushed and blended
+into one common ruin. In these halls power dwelt and crime revelled: now
+the owl nestles in their twilight vaults, and the ivy mantles their
+crumbling ruins. The western side of this mound rises steep and lofty,
+crested with a row of noble cypress trees. They are tall and upright,
+and wear in the mind's eye a shadowy shroud of gloom, looking like
+mourners standing awed and grief-stricken beside the grave of the
+C&aelig;sars. When the twilight falls and the stars come out, their dark
+moveless figures, relieved against the sky, present a sight peculiarly
+impressive and solemn.</p>
+
+<p>The general aspect and condition of the Palatine have been sketched by
+Byron with his usual power:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+"Cypress and ivy, weed and wallflower, grown,<br />
+Matted and massed together, hillocks heaped<br />
+On what were chambers, arch crushed, column strown<br />
+In fragments, choked up vaults, and frescoes steeped<br />
+In subterranean damps, where the owl peeped,<br />
+Deeming it midnight;&mdash;temples, baths, or halls,<br />
+Pronounce who can; for all that learning reaped<br />
+From her research hath been, that these are walls.<br />
+Behold the imperial mount! 'tis thus the mighty falls."<br />
+</p>
+
+<p class="noin">But Cowper rises to a yet higher pitch, and reads the true<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">[Pg 292]</a></span> moral which
+is taught by this fallen mount. For to Rome may we apply his lines on
+the fall of the once proud monarchy of Spain.</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+"Art thou, too, fallen, Iberia? Do we see<br />
+The robber and the murderer weak as we?<br />
+Thou that hast wasted earth, and dared despise<br />
+Alike the wrath and mercy of the skies,<br />
+Thy pomp is in the grave, thy glory laid<br />
+Low in the pits thine avarice has made.<br />
+We come with joy from our eternal rest,<br />
+To see the oppressor in his turn oppressed.<br />
+Art thou the god, the thunder of whose hand<br />
+Rolled over all our desolated land,<br />
+Shook principalities and kingdoms down,<br />
+And made the mountains tremble at his frown?<br />
+The sword shall light upon thy boasted powers,<br />
+And waste them, as thy sword has wasted ours.<br />
+'Tie thus Omnipotence his law fulfils,<br />
+And Vengeance executes what Justice wills."<br />
+</p>
+
+<p>One day I ascended the Palatine, picking my steps with care, owing to
+the abominations of all kinds that cover the path, to spend an hour on
+the mount, and survey from thence the mighty wrecks of empire strewn
+around it. The steps of the stair by which I ascended were formed of
+blocks of marble, the half-effaced carvings on which showed that they
+had formed parts of former edifices. Protruding from the soil, and
+strewn over its surface, were fragments of columns and capitols of
+pillars. I emerged on the summit at the spot where the vestibule of
+Nero's palace is supposed to have stood. I thought of the guards, the
+senators, the ambassadors, that had crowded this spot,&mdash;the spoils,
+trophies, and monuments, that had adorned it; and my heart sank at the
+sight of its naked desolation and dreary loneliness. The flat top of the
+hill ran off to the south, covered with a various and somewhat
+incongruous<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">[Pg 293]</a></span> vegetation. Here was a thicket of laurels, and there a
+clump of young oaks; here a garden of vines, and there rows of cabbages.
+A monk, habited in brown, was looking out at the door of his convent;
+and one or two women were busy among the vegetables, making up a load
+for market. On the farther edge of the hill rose the tall, moveless,
+silent cypresses of which I have spoken. On the right rose the square
+tower of the Capitol, with the perperine substructions of its
+Tabularium, coeval with the age of the kings; and skirting its base were
+the cupolas of modern churches, and the nodding columns of fallen
+temples, beautiful even in their ruin, and more eloquent than Cicero,
+whose living voice had often been heard on the spot where they now
+moulder in silent decay. A little nearer was the naked, jagged front of
+the Tarpeian rock, crested a-top with gardens, and its base buried in
+rubbish, which is slowly gaining on its height. In front was a noble
+bend of the Tiber, rolling on in mournful majesty, amid the majestic
+silence of these mighty desolations. Beyond were the red roofs and mean
+streets of the Trastevere, with the empty upland slope of the Janiculum,
+crowned by the line of the gray wall. Behind, and immediately beneath
+me, was the Forum, where erst the Romans assembled to enact their laws
+and choose their magistrates. A ragged line of ghastly ruins,&mdash;porticos
+without temples, and temples without porticos, their noble vaultings
+yawning like caverns in the open day,&mdash;was seen bounding its farther
+edge. Its floor was a rectangular expanse of shapeless swellings and
+yawning pits. Here reposed a herd of buffaloes; there a little drove of
+swine; yonder stood a row of carts; and in the midst of these noways
+picturesque objects rose the gray arch of Titus. At its base sat a
+beggar; while an artist, at a little distance, was sketching it with the
+calotype. A peasant was traversing the Via Sacra, bearing to his home a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">[Pg 294]</a></span>
+supply of city-baked bread. A dozen or two of old men with spades and
+barrows were clearing away the earth from the ruins of the Temple of
+Venus and Rome. In the south-eastern angle of the plain rose the titanic
+bulk of the Coliseum, fearfully gashed and torn, yet sublime in its
+decay. Over the furrowed and ragged summits of the C&aelig;lian and Esquiline
+mounts were seen the early snows, glittering on the peaks of the
+Volscian and Sabine range. Such was the scene which presented itself to
+me from the top of the Palatine. How different, I need not say, from
+that which must have often met the eye of C&aelig;sar from the same point,
+prompting the proud boast,&mdash;"Is not this great" Rome, "that I have built
+for the house of the kingdom, by the might of my power, and for the
+honour of my majesty?" "How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son
+of the morning! How art thou cut down to the ground, that didst weaken
+the nations!... Is this the man that did make the earth to
+tremble,&mdash;that did shake kingdoms,&mdash;that made the world as a wilderness,
+and destroyed the cities thereof?"</p>
+
+<p>A little eastward of the Palatine, and seen over its shoulder, as
+surveyed from the tower of the Capitol, is the <span class="smcap">C&aelig;lian</span> Mount. Its summit
+is marked by the ruins of an ancient edifice,&mdash;the Curia Hostilia,&mdash;and
+the statued front of a modern temple,&mdash;the church of S. John Lateran,
+which is even more renowned in the pontifical annals than the other is
+in classic story. Moving your eye across the valley of the Forum, it
+falls upon the flat surface of the <span class="smcap">Esquiline</span>. It is marked, like the
+former, by an ancient ruin and a modern edifice. Amid its vineyards and
+rural lanes rise the massive remains of the baths of Titus, and the
+gorgeous structure of Maria Maggiore. The <span class="smcap">Viminale</span> comes next; but
+forming, as it did, a plain betwixt the Esquiline and the Quirinal, it
+is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">[Pg 295]</a></span> difficult to trace its limits. It is distinguishable mainly by the
+baths of Dioclesian, now a French barrack, and the church of San
+Lorenzo, which occupies its highest point. The <span class="smcap">Quirinal</span> is the last of
+the Seven Hills. It is covered with streets, and crowned with the summer
+palace and gardens of the Pope.</p>
+
+<p>Thus have we made the tour of the Seven Hills, commencing at the
+Aventine on the extreme right, and proceeding in a semicircular line
+over the low swellings which lie in their peaceful covering of flower
+and weed, onward to the Quirinal, which rises, with its glittering
+casements, on the extreme left. They hold in their arms, as it were,
+modern Rome, with the Tiber, like a golden belt, tying in the city, and
+bounding the Campus Martius, on which it is seated. On the west of the
+Tiber are other two hills, which, though not of the seven, are worth
+mentioning. The first is the <span class="smcap">Janiculum</span>, with the <i>Trastevere</i> at its
+base. The inhabitants of this district pride themselves on their pure
+Roman blood, and look down upon the rest of the inhabitants as a mixed
+race; and certainly, if ferocious looks and continual frays can make
+good their claim, they must be held as a colony of the olden time,
+which, nestling in this nook of Rome, have escaped the intermixtures and
+revolutions of eighteen centuries. It has been remarked that there is a
+striking resemblance between their faces and those of the ancient
+Romans, as graven on the arch of Titus. They are the nearest neighbours
+of the Pope, whose own hill, the <span class="smcap">Vatican</span>, rises a little to the north of
+them. On the Vatican mount stood anciently the circus of Nero; and here
+many of the early Christians, amid unutterable torments, yielded up
+their lives. On the spot where they died have arisen the church of St
+Peter and the palace of the Vatican,&mdash;now but<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">[Pg 296]</a></span> another name for whatever
+is formidable to the liberties of the world.</p>
+
+<p>But beyond question, the spot of all others the most interesting in Rome
+is the Forum. You look right down into it from where you stand. Whether
+it be the eloquence, or the laws, or the victories, or the magnificent
+monuments of ancient Rome, the light reflected from them all is
+concentrated on this plain. How often has Tully spoken here! How often
+has C&aelig;sar trodden it! Over that very pavement which the excavations have
+laid bare, the chariots of Scylla, and of Titus, and of a hundred other
+warriors, have rolled. But the triumphs which this plain witnessed, once
+deemed eternal, are ended now; and the clods which that Italian slave
+turns up, or which that priest treads on so proudly, are perchance part
+of the dust of that heroic race which conquered the world. The tombs of
+the C&aelig;sars are empty now, and their ashes have been scattered long since
+over the soil of Rome. Of the many beautiful edifices that stood around
+this plain, not one remains entire: a few mouldering columns, half
+buried in rubbish, or dug out of the soil, only remain to show where
+temples stood. But there is one little arch which has survived that dire
+tempest of ruin in which temple and tower went down,&mdash;the Arch of Titus,
+which has sculptured upon its marble the sad story of the fall of
+Jerusalem and the captivity of the Jews. That little arch, wonderful to
+tell, stands between two mighty ruins,&mdash;the fallen palace of the C&aelig;sars
+on the one hand, and the kingly but ruined mass of the Coliseum on the
+other.</p>
+
+<p>As regards the Coliseum, architects, I believe, do not much admire it;
+but to myself, who did not look at it with a professional eye, it seemed
+as if I had never seen a ruin half so sublime. I never grew weary of
+gazing upon it. It rises<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">[Pg 297]</a></span> amid the hoar ruins of Rome, scarred and rent,
+yet wearing an eternal youth; for with the most colossal size it
+combines in the very highest degree simplicity of design and beauty of
+form. To stand on its area, and survey the sweep of its broken benches,
+is to feel as if you were standing in the midst of an amphitheatre of
+hills, and were gazing on concentric mountain-ranges. How powerfully do
+its associations stir the soul! How many spirits now in glory have died
+on that arena! The Romans, we shall suppose, have been occupied all day
+in witnessing mimic fights, which display the skill, but do not
+necessarily imperil the life, of the combatants. But now the sun is
+westering; the shadow of the Palatine begins to creep across the Forum,
+and the villas on the Alban hills burn in the setting rays, and the
+Romans, before retiring to their homes, demand their last grand
+spectacle,&mdash;the death of some poor unhappy captive or gladiator. The
+victim steps upon the arena amid the deep stillness of the overwhelming
+multitude. It is no mimic combat his: he is "appointed to death." This
+lets us into the peculiar force of Paul's words, "I think that God hath
+set forth us the apostles last, as it were, appointed to death; for we
+are made a spectacle unto the world, and to angels, and to men."</p>
+
+<p>But the most touching recollection connected with this city is
+this,&mdash;even that part of the Word of God was written in it, and that a
+greater than C&aelig;sar has trodden its soil. A few paces below where we
+stand is the Mamertine prison, in whose dungeons, it is probable, Paul
+was confined; for this was the state-prison, and offences against
+religion were accounted state-offences. It is hewn in the rock of the
+Capitoline hill, dungeon below dungeon; and when surveying it, I could
+not but feel, that among all the exploits of Roman valour, there was not
+one half so heroic as that of the man who,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298">[Pg 298]</a></span> with a cruel death staring
+him in the face, could sit down in this dungeon, where day never dawned,
+and write these heroic words,&mdash;"I am now ready to be offered, and the
+time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight; I have
+finished my course; I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up
+for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge,
+shall give me at that day; and not to me only, but unto all them also
+that love his appearing."</p>
+
+<p>Here I may be allowed to allude to a branch of the external evidence of
+Christianity which has not received all the notice to which it is
+entitled. When surveying from the tower of the Capitol the ruins of
+ancient Rome, I felt strongly the absurdity&mdash;the almost idiotcy&mdash;of
+denying the historic truth of Christianity. On such a spot one might as
+well deny that ancient Rome existed, as deny that Christianity was
+preached here eighteen centuries ago, and rose upon the ruins of
+paganism. At the distance of Rome, and amid the darkness of Italian
+ignorance, we can conceive of a Roman holding that the life of Knox is a
+fable,&mdash;that no such man ever existed, or ever preached in Scotland, or
+ever effected the Reformation from Popery. But bring him to the Castle
+Hill of Edinburgh,&mdash;bid him look round upon city and country, studded
+with the churches and schools of the reformed faith, planted by
+Knox,&mdash;show him the mouldering remains of the old cathedrals from which
+the priesthood and faith of Rome were driven out,&mdash;and, unless his mind
+is constituted in some extraordinary way, he would no longer doubt that
+such a man as Knox existed, and that Scotland has been reformed from
+Romanism to Presbyterianism. So is it at Rome. Around you are the
+temples of the ancient paganism. Here are ruins still bearing the
+inscriptions and effigies of the pagan deities and the pagan rites. Can
+any sane man doubt that paganism<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">[Pg 299]</a></span> once reigned here? You can trace the
+history of its reign still graven on the ruins of Rome; but you can
+trace it down till only seventeen centuries ago: then it suddenly stops;
+a new writing appears upon the stones; a new religion has acquired the
+ascendancy in Rome, and left its memorials graven upon pillar, and
+column, and temple. Can any man doubt that Paul visited this city,&mdash;that
+he preached here, as the "Acts of the Apostles" records,&mdash;and that,
+after two centuries of struggles and martyrdoms, the faith which he
+preached triumphed over the paganism of Rome? Look along the Via
+Sacra,&mdash;that narrow paved road which leads southward from the Capitol:
+the very stones over which the chariot of Scylla rolled are still there.
+The road runs straight between the Palatine Mount, where the ivy and the
+cypress strive to mantle the ruins of the palace of the C&aelig;sars, and the
+wonderful and ever beautiful structure of the Coliseum. In the valley
+between is a beautiful arch of marble,&mdash;the Arch of Titus. The palace of
+the world's master lies in ruins on the one side of it; the Coliseum,
+the largest single structure which human hands ever created, stands
+rent, and scarred, and bowed, on the other; and between these two mighty
+ruins this little arch rises entire. What a wonderful providence has
+spared it! On that arch is graven the record of the fall of Jerusalem
+and the captivity of the Jews; and the great fact of the existence of
+the Old Testament economy is also attested upon it; for there plainly
+appears on the stone, the furniture of the temple, the golden
+candlestick, the table of shew-bread, and the silver trumpets. But
+further, about two miles to the south of Rome are the Catacombs. In
+these catacombs, which, not unlike the coal-mines of our own country,
+traverse under ground the Campagna for a circuit of many miles, the
+early Christians, lived during the primitive persecutions. There they
+worshipped, there they died, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">[Pg 300]</a></span> there they were buried; and their
+simple tombstones, recording that they died in peace, and in the hope of
+eternal life through Christ, are still to be seen to the number of many
+thousands. How came these tombstones there, if early Christianity and
+the early martyrs be a fable? If Christianity be a forgery, the arch of
+Titus, with its sacred symbols, is also a forgery; the catacombs, with
+all their tombstones, are also a forgery; and the hundred monuments in
+Rome, with the traces of early Christianity graven upon them, are also a
+forgery; and the person or persons who forged Christianity, in order to
+give currency to their forgery, must have been at the incredible pains
+of building the arch of Titus, and chiselling out its sculpture work;
+they must have dug out the catacombs, and filled them, with infinite
+labour, with forged tombstones; and they must have covered the monuments
+of Rome with forged inscriptions. Would any one have been at the pains
+to have done all this, or could he have done it without being detected?
+When the Romans rose in the morning, and saw these forged inscriptions,
+they must have known that they were not there the day before, and would
+have exposed the trick. But the idea is absurd, and no man can seriously
+entertain it whom an inveterate scepticism has not smitten with the
+extreme of senility or idiotcy. There is far more evidence at Rome for
+the historic truth of Christianity than for the existence of Julius
+C&aelig;sar or of Scipio, or of any of the great men whose existence no one
+ever takes it into his head to doubt.</p>
+
+<p>Here, in the Forum, are <span class="smcap">Three Witnesses</span>, which testify respectively to
+three leading facts of Christianity. These witnesses are,&mdash;the Arch of
+Titus, the fallen Palace on the Palatine, and the Column of Phocas. The
+Arch of Titus proclaims the end of the Old Testament economy; for there,
+graven on its marble, is the record of the fall of the temple, and the
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301">[Pg 301]</a></span>dispersion of the Jewish nation. The ruin on the Palatine tells that
+the "let" which hindered the revelation of the Man of Sin has now been
+"taken out of the way," as Paul foretold; for there lies the prostrate
+throne of the C&aelig;sars, which, while it stood, effectually forbade the
+rise of the popes. But this solitary pillar, which stands erect where so
+many temples have fallen, with what message is it freighted? It
+witnesses to the rise of Antichrist. That column rose with the popes;
+for Phocas set it up to commemorate the assumption of the title of
+Universal Bishop by the pastor of Rome; and here has it been standing
+all the while, to proclaim that "that wicked" is now revealed, "whom the
+Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with
+the brightness of his coming." Such is the united testimony borne by
+these three Witnesses,&mdash;even that the Antichrist is come.</p>
+
+<p>To complete this <i>coup d'&#339;il</i> of Rome, it is necessary only that we
+transfer our gaze for an instant to the more distant objects. Though
+swept, as the site of Rome now is, with the besom of destruction, the
+outlines, which no ruin can obliterate, are yet grand as ever.
+Immediately beneath you are the red roofs and glittering domes of the
+city; around is a gay fringe of vineyards and gardens; and beyond is the
+dark bosom of the Campagna, stretching far and wide, meeting the horizon
+on the west and south, and confined on the east and north by a wall of
+glorious hills,&mdash;the sweet Volscians, the blue Sabines, the craggy
+Apennines, with their summits&mdash;at least when I saw them&mdash;hoary with the
+snows of winter. Spectacle terrible and sublime! Ruin colossal and
+unparalleled! The Campagna is a vast hall, amid the funereal shadows and
+unbroken stillness of which repose in mournful state the <span class="smcap">ashes of Rome</span>.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302">[Pg 302]</a></span></p>
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XXIII" id="CHAPTER_XXIII"></a>CHAPTER XXIII.</h3>
+
+<h4>STRIKING OBJECTS IN ROME.</h4>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang">The Baths of Caracalla&mdash;The Catacombs&mdash;Evidence thence arising
+against Romanism&mdash;The Scala Santa, or Pilate's Stairs&mdash;Peasants
+from Rimini climbing them&mdash;Irreverence of Devotees&mdash;Unequal Terms
+on which the Pope offers Heaven&mdash;Church of Ara C&aelig;li&mdash;The Santissimo
+Bambino&mdash;Conversation with the Monks who exhibit it&mdash;The Ghetto, or
+Jew's Quarter&mdash;Efforts to Convert them to Romanism&mdash;Tyrannical
+Restrictions still imposed upon them&mdash;Their Ineradicable
+Characteristics of Race&mdash;The Vatican&mdash;The Apollo Belvedere&mdash;Pio
+Nono&mdash;His Dress and Person&mdash;St Peter's&mdash;Its Grandeur and
+Uselessness&mdash;Motto on Egyptian Obelisk&mdash;Gate of San
+Pancrazio&mdash;Graves of the French&mdash;The Convents&mdash;Exhibition of
+Nuns&mdash;Collegio Romano and Father Perrone&mdash;An American Student&mdash;The
+English Protestant Chapel&mdash;Preaching there&mdash;American
+Chaplain&mdash;Collection in Rome for Building a Cathedral in
+London&mdash;Sermon on Immaculate Conception in Church of Gesu&mdash;Ave
+Maria&mdash;Family Worship in Hotel&mdash;Early Christians of Rome&mdash;Paul. </p></div>
+
+
+<p class="noin"><span class="smcap">I have</span> already mentioned my arrival at midnight, and how thankful I was
+to find an open door and an empty bed at the Hotel d'Angleterre. The
+reader may guess my surprise and joy at discovering next morning that I
+had slept in a chamber adjoining that of my friend Mr Bonar, from whom I
+had parted, several weeks before, at Turin. After breakfast, we sallied
+out to see the Catacombs. I had found Rome in cloud and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303">[Pg 303]</a></span> darkness on the
+previous night; and now, after a deceitful morning gleam, the storm
+returned with greater violence than ever. Torrents swept the streets;
+the lightning was flashing on the old monuments; fearful peals of
+thunder were rolling above the city; and we were compelled oftener than
+once during our ride to seek the shelter of an arched way from the
+deluge of rain that poured down upon us. Skirting the base of the
+Palatine, and emerging on the Via Appia, we arrived at the Baths of
+Caracalla, which we had resolved to visit on our way to the Catacombs.
+No words can describe the ghastly grandeur of this stupendous ruin,
+which, next to the Coliseum, is the greatest in Rome. Besides its
+saloons, theatre, and libraries, it contained, it is said, sixteen
+hundred chairs for bathers. As was its pristine splendour, so now is its
+overthrow. Its cyclopean walls, and its vast chambers, the floors of
+which are covered to the depth of some twelve or twenty feet with fallen
+masses of the mosaic ceiling, like immense boulders which have rolled
+down from some mountain's top, are spread over an area of about a mile
+in circuit. The ruins, here capped with sward and young trees, there
+rising in naked jagged turrets like Alpine peaks, had a romantic effect,
+which was not a little heightened by the alternate darkness of the
+thunder-cloud that hung above them, and the incessant play of the
+lightning among their worn pinnacles.</p>
+
+<p>Resuming our course along the Appian Way, we passed the tomb of the
+Scipios; and, making our exit by the Sebastian gate, we came, after a
+ride of two miles in the open country, to the basilica of San
+Sebastiano, erected over the entrance to the Catacombs. Pulling a bell
+which hung in the vestibule, a monk appeared as our cicerone, and we
+might have been pardoned a little misgiving in committing ourselves to
+such a guide through the bowels of the earth. His cloak was old and
+tattered, his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_304" id="Page_304">[Pg 304]</a></span> face was scourged with scorbutic disease, misery or
+flagellation had worn him to the bone, and his restless eye cast uneasy
+glances on all around. He carried in his hand a little bundle of tallow
+candles, as thin and worn as himself almost; and, having lighted them,
+he gave one to each of us, and bade us follow. We descended with him
+into the doubtful night. The place was a long shaft or corridor, dug out
+of the brown tuffo rock, with the roof about two feet overhead, and the
+breadth two thirds or so of the height. The descent was easy, the
+turnings frequent, and light there was none, save the glimmerings of our
+slender tapers. The origin of the Catacombs is still a disputed
+question; but the most probable opinion is, that they were formed by
+digging out the pozzolana or volcanic earth, which was used as a cement
+in the great buildings of Rome. They extend in a zone round the city,
+and form a labyrinth of subterranean galleries, which traverse the
+Campagna, reaching, according to some, to the shore of the
+Mediterranean. He who adventures into them without a guide is infallibly
+lost. They speak at Rome of a professor and his students, to the number
+of sixty, who entered the Catacombs fifty years ago, and have not yet
+returned. Certain it is, that many melancholy accidents have occurred in
+them, which have induced the Government to wall them up to a certain
+extent. I had not gone many yards till I felt that I was entirely at the
+mercy of the monk, and that, should he play me false, I must remain
+where I was till doomsday.</p>
+
+<p>But what invests the Catacombs with an interest of so touching a kind is
+the fact, that here the Christian Church, in days of persecution, made
+her abode. What! in darkness, and in the bowels of the earth? Yes: such
+were the Christians which that age produced. At every few paces along
+the galleries you see the quadrangular excavations in which the dead<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_305" id="Page_305">[Pg 305]</a></span>
+were laid. There, too, are the niches in which lamps were placed, so
+needful in the subterranean gloom; and occasionally there opens to your
+taper a large square chamber, with its walls of dark-brownish tuffo and
+its stuccoed roof, which has evidently been used for family purposes, or
+as a chapel. How often has the voice of prayer and praise resounded
+here! The Catacombs are a stupendous monument of the faith and constancy
+of the primitive Church. You have the satisfaction here of knowing that
+you have the very scenes before you that met the eyes of the first
+Christians. Time has not altered them; superstition has not disfigured
+them. Such as they were when the primitive believers fled to them from a
+Nero's cruelty or a Domitian's tyranny, so are they now.</p>
+
+<p>These remarkable excavations were well known down till the sixth
+century. Amid the barbarism of the ages that succeeded, all knowledge of
+them was lost; but in the beginning of the sixteenth century, when the
+art of printing had been invented, and the world could profit by the
+discovery, the Catacombs were re-opened. Most of the gravestones were
+removed to the Vatican, and built into the <i>Lapidaria Galleria</i>, where I
+spent a day copying them; but so accurately have they been described by
+Maitland, in his "Church in the Catacombs," that I beg to refer the
+reader who wishes farther information respecting these deeply
+interesting memorials, to his valuable work. They are plain, unchiselled
+slabs of marble, with simple characters, scratched with some sharp
+instrument by the aid of the lamp, recording the name and age of the
+person whose remains they enclosed, to which is briefly added, "in
+peace," or "in Christ." Piety here is to be tested, not by the
+profession on the tombstone, but by the sacrifice of the life. A palm
+branch carved on the stone is the usual sign of martyrdom. I saw a few
+slabs still remaining as they had been<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_306" id="Page_306">[Pg 306]</a></span> placed seventeen centuries ago,
+fastened into the tuffo rock with a cement of earth. When the Catacombs
+were opened, a witness rose from the dead to confront Rome. No trace has
+been discovered which could establish the slightest identity in
+doctrine, in worship, or in government, between the present Church of
+Rome and the Church of the Catacombs.</p>
+
+<p>Will the reader accompany me to another and very different scene? We
+leave these midnight vaults, and tread again the narrow lava-paved
+Appian road; and through rural lanes we seek the summit of the C&aelig;lian
+mount, where stands in statued pomp the church of St John Lateran. Here
+are shown the <i>Scala Santa</i> which were brought from Jerusalem, and which
+the Church of Rome certifies as the very stairs which Christ ascended
+when he went to be judged of Pilate. On the north side of the quadrangle
+is an open building, with three separate flights of steps leading up
+from the pavement to the first floor. The middle staircase, which is
+covered with wood to preserve the marble, is the <i>Scala Santa</i>, which it
+is lawful to ascend only on your knees. Having reached the top, you may
+again use your feet, and descend by either of the other two stairs.
+Placed against the wall at the foot of the Scala Santa, is a large
+board, with the conditions to be observed in the ascent. Amongst other
+provisions, no one is allowed to carry a cane up the Scala Santa, nor is
+dog allowed to set foot on these stairs. On the pavement stood a
+sentry-box; and in the box sat a little dark-visaged man, so very
+withered, so very old, and so very crabbed, that I almost was tempted to
+ask him whether he had been imported along with the stairs. He rattled
+his little tin-box violently, which seemed half full of small coins, and
+invited me to ascend. "What shall I have for doing so?" I asked.
+"Fifteen years' indulgence," was the instant reply. There might be about
+fifteen steps in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_307" id="Page_307">[Pg 307]</a></span> the stair, which was at the rate of a year's
+indulgence for every step. The terms were fair; for with an ordinary
+day's work I might lay up some thousands of years' indulgence. There was
+but one drawback in the matter. "I don't believe in purgatory," I
+rejoined. "What is that to me?" said the old man, tartly, accompanying
+the remark with a quick shrug of the shoulders and a curl of his thin
+lip.</p>
+
+<p>I turned to the staircase. Three peasant lads from Rimini&mdash;where the
+Madonna still winks, and good Catholic hearts still believe&mdash;were
+piously engaged in laying up a stock of merit against a future day, on
+the Scala Santa. Swinging the upper part of their bodies, and holding
+their feet aloft lest their wooden-soled shoes should touch the precious
+marble, or rather its wooden casing, they were slowly making way on the
+steps. In a little they were joined by a Frenchman, with his wife and
+little daughter; and the whole began a general march up the staircase.
+Whether it was the greater vigour of their piety, or the greater vigour
+of their limbs, I know not; but the peasants had flung themselves up
+before the lady had mastered five steps of the course. It occurred to me
+that this way of earning heaven was not one that placed all on a level,
+as they should be. These strong sinewy lads were getting fifteen years'
+indulgence with no greater effort than it cost the lady to earn five.
+The party, on reaching the top, entered a room on the right, and dropt
+on their knees before a little box of bones which stood in one corner,
+then before a painting of the Saviour which hung in the other; muttered
+a few words of prayer; and, descending the lateral stairs, commenced
+over again the same process. In no time they had laid up at least a
+hundred years' indulgence a-piece. The Frenchman and his lady went
+through the operation with a grave face; but the peasants quite lost the
+mastery over theirs,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_308" id="Page_308">[Pg 308]</a></span> and the building rung with peals of laughter at
+the ridiculous attitudes into which they were compelled to throw
+themselves. Even in the little chapel above, bursts of smothered
+merriment interrupted their prayers. I looked at the little man in the
+box, to see how he was taking it; but he was true to his own remark,
+"What is that to me?" Indeed, this behaviour by no means detracted from
+the merit of the deed, or shortened by a single day the term of
+indulgence, in the estimation of the Italians. <i>Their</i> understanding of
+devotion and <i>ours</i> are totally different. With us devotion is a mental
+act; with them it is a mechanical act, strictly so. The mind may be
+absent, asleep, dead; it is devotion nevertheless. These peasants had
+undertaken to climb Pilate's staircase on their knees; not to give
+devout or reverent feelings into the bargain: they had done all they
+engaged to do, and were entitled to claim their hire. The staircase, as
+my readers may remember, has a strange connection with the Reformation.
+One day, as Luther was dragging his body up these steps, he thought he
+heard a voice from heaven crying to him, <i>The just shall live by faith.</i>
+Amazed, he sprang to his feet. New light entered into him. Luther and
+the Reformation were advanced a stage.</p>
+
+<p>From the Scala Santa in the Lateran I went to see the Santissimo Bambino
+in the church of Ara C&aelig;li, on the Capitol. This church is squatted on
+the spot where stood the temple of Jupiter Ferretrius of old. It is one
+of the largest churches in Rome, and is unquestionably the ugliest. A
+magnificent staircase of an hundred and twenty-four steps of Parian
+marble leads up to it; but the church itself is as untasteful as can
+well be imagined. It presents its gable to the spectator, which is
+simply a vast unadorned expanse of brick, the breadth greatly exceeding
+the height, and terminating a-top in a sort of coping, that looks like a
+low, broad chimney,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_309" id="Page_309">[Pg 309]</a></span> or rather a dozen chimneys in one. The edifice
+always reminded me of a short, stout Quaker, with a brim of even more
+than the usual breadth, standing astride on the Capitol. Entering by the
+main doorway in the west, I passed along the side aisle, on my way to
+the little chapel near the altar where the Bambino is kept. The wall
+here was covered with little pictures in thousands, all in the homeliest
+style of the art, and representing persons falling into the sea, or
+tumbling over precipices, or ridden over by carts. These were votive
+offerings from persons who had been in the situations represented, and
+who had been saved by the special interposition of Mary. Arms, legs, and
+heads of brass, and in some instances of silver, bore testimony to the
+greater wealth or the greater devotion of others of the devotees.
+Passing through a door on the left, at the eastern extremity of the
+church, I entered the little chapel or side closet, in which the Bambino
+is kept. Here two barefooted monks, with not more than the average dirt
+on their persons, were in attendance, to show me the "god." They began
+by lighting a few candles, though the sunlight was streaming in at the
+casement. I was near asking the monks the same question which the
+Protestant inhabitants of a Hungarian village one day put to their
+Catholic neighbours, as they were marching in procession through their
+streets,&mdash;"Is your god blind, that you burn candles to him at mid-day?"
+The tapers lighted, one of the friars dropped on his knees, and fell to
+praying with great vigour. I fear my deportment was not so edifying as
+the place and circumstances required; for I could see that ever and anon
+the monk cast side-long glances at me, as at a man who was scarce worthy
+of so great a sight as was about to be shown him. The other monk,
+drawing a key from under his cloak, threw open the doors of a sort of
+cupboard that stood against the wall. The interior was fitted<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_310" id="Page_310">[Pg 310]</a></span> up not
+unlike the stage of a theatre. A tall figure, covered with a brown
+cloak, stood leaning on a staff in the foreground. By his side stood a
+female, considerably younger, and attired in an elegant robe of green.
+These two regarded with fixed looks a little cradle or casket at their
+feet. The background stretched away into a hilly country, amid whose
+knolls and dells were shepherds with their flocks. The figures were
+Joseph and Mary, and the vista beyond was meant to represent the
+vicinity of Bethlehem. Taking up the casket, the monk, with infinite
+bowings and crossings, undid its swathings, and solemnly drew forth the
+Bambino. Poor little thing! it was all one to it whether one or a
+hundred candles were burning beside it: it had eyes, but saw not. It was
+bandaged, as all Italian children are, from head to foot, the swathings
+enveloping both arms and legs, displaying only its little feet at one
+extremity, and its round chubby face at the other. But what a blaze! On
+its little head was a golden crown, burning with brilliants; and from
+top to toe it was stuck so full of jewels, that it sparkled and
+glittered as if it had been but one lustrous gem throughout.</p>
+
+<p>Two women, who had taken the opportunity of an Inglise visiting the
+idol, now entered, leading betwixt them a little child, and all three
+dropped on their knees before the Bambino. I begged the monk to inform
+me why these women were here on their knees, and praying. "They are
+worshipping the Bambino," he replied. "Oh! worshipping, are they?" I
+exclaimed, in affected surprise; "how stupid I am; I took it for a piece
+of wood." "And so it is," rejoined the monk; "but it is miraculous; it
+is full of divine virtue, and works cures." "Has it wrought any of
+late?" I inquired. "It has," replied the religioso; "it cured a woman of
+dropsy two weeks ago." "In what quarter of Rome did she live?" I asked.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_311" id="Page_311">[Pg 311]</a></span>
+"She lived in the Vatican," replied the Franciscan. "We have some great
+doctors in the city I come from," I said; "we have some who can take off
+an arm, or a leg, or a nose, without your feeling the slightest pain;
+but we have no doctor like this little doctor. But, pray tell me, why do
+you permit the cardinals or the Pope ever to die, when the Bambino can
+cure them?" The monk turned sharply round, and gave me a searching
+stare, which I stood with imperturbable gravity; and then, taking me for
+either a very dull or a very earnest questioner, he proceeded to explain
+that the cure did not depend altogether on the power of the Bambino, but
+also somewhat on the faith of the patient. "Oh, I see how it is," I
+replied. "But pardon me yet farther; you say the Bambino is of wood, and
+that these honest women are praying to it. Now I have been taught to
+believe that we ought not to worship wood." To make sure both of my
+interrogatories and of the monk's answers, I had been speaking to him
+through my friend Mr Stewart, whose long residence in Rome had made him
+perfectly master of the Italian tongue. "Oh," replied the Franciscan,
+"<i>all Christians here worship it</i>." But now the signs had become very
+manifest that my inquiries had reached a point beyond which it would not
+be prudent to push them. The monk was getting very red in the face; his
+motions were growing quick and violent; and, with more haste than
+reverence, he put back his god into its crib, and prepared to lock it up
+in its press. His fellow monk had started to his feet, and was rapidly
+extinguishing the candles, as if he smelt the unwholesome air of heresy.
+The women were told to be off; and the exhibition closed with somewhat
+less show of devotion than it had opened.</p>
+
+<p>Here, by the banks of the Tiber, as of old by the Euphrates, sits the
+captive daughter of Judah; and I went one afternoon<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_312" id="Page_312">[Pg 312]</a></span> towards twilight to
+visit the Ghetto. It is a narrow, dark, damp, tunnel-like lane. Old
+Father Tiber had been there but a day or two previously, and had left,
+as usual, very distinct traces of his visit, in the slime and wet that
+covered the place. Formerly it was shut in with gates, which were locked
+every night at Ave Maria: now the gates are gone, and the broken and
+ragged door-posts show where they had hung. Opposite the entrance of the
+Ghetto stands a fine church, with a large sculpture-piece over its
+portal, representing a crucifix, surrounded with the motto, which meets
+the eye of the Jew every time he passes out or comes in, "All day long I
+have stretched forth my hands unto a gainsaying and disobedient people."
+The allusion here, no doubt, is to their unwillingness to pay their
+taxes, for that is the only sense in which the Pope's hands are all day
+long stretched out towards this people. Recently Pio Nono contracted a
+loan for twenty-one millions of francs, with the house of Rothschild;
+and thus, after persecuting the race for ages, the Vicar of God has come
+to lean for the support of his tottering throne upon a Jew. To do the
+Pope justice, however, the Jews in Rome are gathered once a-year into a
+church, where a sermon is preached for their conversion. The spectacle
+is said to be a very edifying one. The preacher fires off from the
+pulpit the hardest hits he can; and the Jews sit spitting, coughing, and
+making faces in return; while a person armed with a long pole stalks
+through the congregation, and admonishes the noisiest with a firm sharp
+rap on the head. The scene closes with a baptism, in which, it is
+affirmed, the same Jew sometimes plays the same part twice, or oftener
+if need be.</p>
+
+<p>The tyrannical spirit of Popery is seen in the treatment to which these
+descendants of Abraham are subjected in Rome, down to the present hour.
+Inquisitors are appointed to search<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_313" id="Page_313">[Pg 313]</a></span> into and examine all their books;
+all Rabbinic works are forbidden them, the Old Testament in Hebrew only
+being allowed to them; and any Jew having any forbidden book in his
+possession is liable to the confiscation of his property. Nor is he
+permitted to converse on the subject of religion with a Christian. They
+are not permitted to bury their dead with religious pomp, or to write
+inscriptions on their tombstones; they are forbidden to employ Christian
+servants; and if they do anything to disturb the faith of a Jewish
+convert to Romanism, they are subject to the confiscation of all their
+goods, and to imprisonment with hard labour for life; they are not
+allowed to sell meat butchered by themselves to Christians, nor
+unleavened bread, under heavy penalties; nor are they permitted to sleep
+a night beyond the limits of their quarters, nor to have carriage or
+horses of their own, nor to drive about the city in carriages, nor to
+use public conveyances for journeying, if any one object to it.</p>
+
+<p>Enter the Ghetto, and you feel instantly that you are among another
+race. An indescribable languor reigns over the rest of Rome. The Romans
+walk the streets with their hands in their pockets, and their eyes on
+the ground, for a heavy heart makes the limbs to drag. But in the Ghetto
+all is activity and thrift. You feel as if you had been suddenly
+transported into one of the busiest lanes of Glasgow or Manchester.
+Eager faces, with keen eyes and sharp features, look out upon you from
+amid the bundles of clothes and piles of all kinds of articles which
+darken the doors and windows of their shops. Scarce have you crossed the
+threshold of the Ghetto when you are seized by the button, dragged
+helplessly into a small hole stuffed with every imaginable sort of
+merchandise, and invited to buy a dozen things at once. No sooner have
+you been let go than you are seized by another and another. The women<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_314" id="Page_314">[Pg 314]</a></span>
+were seated in the doors of their shops and dwellings, plying busily
+their needle. One fine Jewish matron I marked, with seven buxom
+daughters round her, all working away with amazing nimbleness, and
+casting only a momentary glance at the stranger as he passed. How
+inextinguishable the qualities of this extraordinary people! Here, in
+this desolate land, and surrounded by the overwhelming torpor and
+laziness of Rome, the Jews are as industrious and as intent on making
+gain as their brethren in the commercial cities of Britain. I drew up
+with a young lad of about twenty, by way of feeling the pulse of the
+Ghetto; but though I tried him on both the past and the present, I
+succeeded in striking no chord to which he would respond. He seemed one
+of the prophet's dried bones,&mdash;very dry. Seventy years did their fathers
+dwell by the Euphrates; but here, alas! has the harp of Judah hung upon
+the willow for eighteen centuries. Beneath the dark shadow of the
+Vatican do they ever think of the sunny and vine-clad hills of their
+Palestine?</p>
+
+<p>I spent days not a few in the saloons of the Vatican. Into these noble
+chambers,&mdash;six thousand in number, it is said,&mdash;have been gathered all
+the masterpieces of ancient art which have been dug up from the ruins of
+villas, and temples, and basilicas, where they had lain buried for ages.
+Of course, I enter on no description of these. Let me only remark, that
+though I had seen hundreds of copies of some of these sculptures,&mdash;the
+Apollo Belvedere and the Laocoon, for instance,&mdash;no copy I had ever seen
+had given me any but the faintest idea of the transcendent beauty and
+power of the originals. The artist, I found, had flung into them,
+without the slightest exaggeration of feature, a tremendous energy, an
+intense life, which perhaps no coming age will ever equal, and certainly
+none surpass. What a sublime, thrilling, ever-acting tragedy, for
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_315" id="Page_315">[Pg 315]</a></span>instance, is the Laocoon group! But from these efforts of a genius long
+since passed from the earth, I pass to one who represents in his living
+person a more tragical drama than any depicted in marble in the halls of
+the Vatican. One day as I was wandering through these apartments, the
+rumour ran through them that the Pope was going out to take an airing. I
+immediately ran down to the piazza, where I found a rather shabby coach
+with red wheels, to which were yoked four coal-black horses, with a very
+fat coachman on the box, in antique livery, and two postilions astride
+the horses, waiting for Pius. Some half-dozen of the <i>guardia nobile</i>,
+mounted on black horses, were in attendance; and, loitering at the
+bottom of the stairs, were the stately forms of the Swiss guards, with
+their shining halberds, and their quaint striped dress of yellow and
+purple. I had often heard of the Pope in the symbols of the Apocalypse,
+and in the pages of history as the antichrist; and now I was to see him
+with the eye in the person of Pio Nono. After waiting ten minutes or so,
+the folding doors in an upper gallery of the piazza were thrown open,
+and I could see a head covered with a white skull-cap,&mdash;the Popes never
+wear a wig,&mdash;passing along the corridor, just visible above the stone
+ballustrade. In a minute the Pope had descended the stairs, and was
+advancing along the open pavement to his carriage. The Swiss guard stood
+to their halberds. A Frenchman and his lady,&mdash;the same, if I mistake
+not, whom I had seen on the Scala Santa,&mdash;spreading his white
+handkerchief on the causeway, uncovered and dropped on his knees; a row
+of German students in red gowns went down in like manner; a score or so
+of wretched-looking old men, who were digging up the grass in the
+piazza, formed a prostrate group in the middle; and a little knot of
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_316" id="Page_316">[Pg 316]</a></span>Englishmen,&mdash;some four of us only,&mdash;stood erect at about six yards from
+the line of the procession.</p>
+
+<p>Pio Nono, though king of the kings of the earth, was attired with severe
+simplicity. His sole dress, save the skull-cap I have mentioned, and red
+slippers, was a gown of white stuff, which enveloped his whole person
+from the neck downwards, and looked not unlike a camlet morning
+dressing-gown. A small cross which dangled on his breast was his only
+ornament. The fisherman's ring I was too far off to see. In person he is
+a portly, good-looking gentleman; and, could one imagine him entering
+the pulpit of a Scotch Secession congregation, or an English Methodist
+one, his appearance would be hailed with looks of satisfaction. His
+colour was fresher than the average of Italy; and his face had less of
+the priest in it than many I have seen. There was an air of easy good
+nature upon it, which might be mistaken for benevolence, blended with a
+smile, which appeared ever on the point of breaking into a laugh, and
+which utterly shook the spectator's confidence in the firmness and good
+faith of its owner. Pius stooped slightly; his gait was a sort of amble;
+there was an air of irresolution over the whole man; and one was tempted
+to pronounce,&mdash;though the judgment may be too severe,&mdash;that he was half
+a rogue, half a fool. He waived his hand in an easy, careless way to the
+students and Frenchman, and made a profound bow to the English party.</p>
+
+<p>St Peter's is close by: let us enter it. As among the Alps, so here at
+first, one is altogether unaware of the magnitudes before him. What
+strikes you on entering is the vast sweep of the marble floor. It runs
+out before you like a vast plain or strath, and gives you a colossal
+standard of measurement, which you apply unconsciously to every
+object,&mdash;the pillars,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_317" id="Page_317">[Pg 317]</a></span> the statues, the roof; and though these are all
+colossal too, yet so nicely are they proportioned to all around them,
+that you take no note of their bulk. You pass on, and the grandeur of
+the edifice opens upon you. Beneath you are rows of dead popes; on
+either side rise gigantic statues and monuments which genius has raised
+to their memory; and in front is the high altar of the Roman world,
+towering to the height of a three-story house, yet looking, beneath that
+sublime roof, of only ordinary size. You are near the reputed tombs of
+Peter and Paul, before which an hundred golden lamps burn day and night.
+And now the mighty dome opens upon you, like the vault of heaven itself.
+You begin to feel the wondrous magnificence of the edifice in which you
+stand, and you give way to the admiration and awe with which it inspires
+you. But next moment comes the saddening thought, that this pile,
+unrivalled as it is among temples made with hands, is literally useless.
+There is no worship in it. Here the sinner hears no tidings of a free
+salvation. This temple but enshrines a wafer, and serves once or twice
+a-year as the scene of an idle pageant on the part of a few old men.</p>
+
+<p>Nay, not only is it useless,&mdash;it is one of the strongholds which
+superstition has thrown up for perpetuating its sway over the world. You
+see these few poor people kneeling before these burning lamps. Their
+prayer is directed, not upwards through that dome to the heavens above
+it, but downwards into that vault where sleep, as they believe, the
+ashes of Peter and Paul. Rome has ever discouraged family worship, and
+taught men to pray in churches. Why? To increase the power of the Church
+and the priesthood. A country covered with households in which family
+worship is kept is like a country covered with fortresses;&mdash;it is
+impregnable. Every house is a citadel, and every family is a little
+army. Or<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_318" id="Page_318">[Pg 318]</a></span> mark yonder female who kneels before the perforated brazen
+lattice of yonder confessional-box. She is whispering her sins into the
+ear of a shaven priest, who receives them into his own black heart. It
+is but a reeking cess-pool, not a fountain of cleansing, to which she
+has come. Such are the uses of St Peter's,&mdash;a temple where the <i>Church</i>
+is glorified at the expense of <i>religion</i>. Its high altar stops the way
+to the throne of grace, and its priest bars your access to a Redeemer's
+blood.</p>
+
+<p>And how was this temple built? Romanists speak of it as a monument of
+the piety of the faithful. But what is the fact? Did it not come out of
+the foul box of Tetzel the indulgence-monger? Every stone in it is
+representative of so much sin. With all its grandeur, it is but a
+stupendous monument of the follies and vices, the crimes and the
+superstition, of Christendom in the ages which preceded the Reformation.
+It has cost Rome dear. We do not allude to the twelve millions its
+erection is said to have cost, but to the mighty rent to which it gave
+rise in the Roman world. In the centre of the magnificent piazza of St
+Peter's stands an Egyptian obelisk, brought from Heliopolis, with the
+words graven upon it, "Christ reigns." Verily that is a great truth; and
+there are few spots where one feels its force so strongly as here. The
+successive paganisms of the world have been overruled as steps in the
+world's progress. Their corruptions have been based upon certain great
+truths, which they have written, as it were, upon the general mind of
+the world. The paganism which flourished where that column was hewn was
+an admission of <i>God's existence</i>, though it strove to divert attention
+from the truth on which it was founded, by the multitude of false gods
+which it invented. In like manner, the paganism that flourishes, or
+rather that is fading, where this column now stands, is an admission of
+the <i>necessity of a Mediator</i>; though it strives, as its<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_319" id="Page_319">[Pg 319]</a></span> predecessor
+did, to hide this glorious truth under a cloud of spurious mediators.
+But we see in this how every successive move on the part of idolatry has
+in reality been a retreat. Truth is gradually advancing its parallels
+against the citadel of error, and the world is toiling slowly upward to
+its great rest. Thus Christ shows that He reigns.</p>
+
+<p>From this silent prophet at the Pope's door, let us skirt along the
+Janiculum, to the gate of San Pancrazio. The site is a commanding one;
+and you look down into the basin in which Rome reposes, where many a
+cupola, and tower, and pillared fa&ccedil;ade, rises proudly out of the red
+roofs that cover the Campus Martius. If it is toward sunset, you can see
+the sheen of the villas which are sprinkled over the Sabine and Volscian
+hills, and are much struck with the fine amphitheatre which the
+mountains around the city form. What must have been the magnificence of
+ancient Rome, with her seven hills, and her glorious Campagna, with such
+a mountain-wall! But let us mark the old gate. It was here that the
+struggle betwixt the French and the Romans took place in 1849. The wall
+is here of brick,&mdash;very old, and of great breadth; and if struck with a
+cannon ball, it would crumble into dust by inches, but not fall in
+masses: hence the difficulty which the French found of breaching it. The
+towers of the gate are dismantled, and the top of the wall for some
+thirty yards is of new brick; but, with these exceptions, no other
+traces remain of the bloody conflict which restored the Pope to his
+throne. Of old, when Dagon fell, and the human head rolled in one
+direction and the fishy tail lay in another, "they took Dagon," we are
+told, and, fastening together the dissevered parts, "they set him in his
+place again." Idol worshippers are the same in all ages. Oftener than
+once has the Dagon of the Seven Hills fallen; the crown has rolled in
+one direction; the "palms of his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_320" id="Page_320">[Pg 320]</a></span> hands" have been seen in another; and
+only the sacerdotal stump has remained; but the kings of Europe have
+taken Dagon, and, by the help of bayonets, have "set him in his place
+again;" and, having set up <i>him</i> who could not set up himself, have
+worshipped him as the prop of their own power. What I had come hither to
+see especially was the graves of those who had fallen. On the left of
+the road, outside the gate, I found a grassy plateau, of some half-dozen
+acres, slightly furrowed, but bearing no such indications as I expected
+to find of such carnage as had here taken place. A Roman youth was
+sauntering on the spot; and, making up to him, I asked him to be so good
+as show me where they had buried the Frenchmen. "Come along," said he,
+"and I will show you the French." We crossed the plateau in the
+direction of a vineyard, which was enclosed with a stone-wall. The gate
+was open, and we entered. Stooping down, the youth laid hold on a
+whitish-looking nodule, of about the size of one's fist, and, holding it
+out to me, said, "that, Signor, is part of a Frenchman." I thought at
+first the lad was befooling me; but on examining the substance, I found
+that it was animal matter calcined, and had indeed formed part of a
+human being. The vineyard for acres and acres was strewn with similar
+masses. I now saw where the French were buried. The siege took place in
+the heat of summer; and every evening, when the battle was over, the
+dead were gathered in heaps, and burned, to prevent infection; and there
+are their remains to this day, manuring the vineyards around the walls.
+I wonder if the evening breezes, as they blow over the Janiculum, don't
+waft across the odour to the Vatican.</p>
+
+<p>Let us descend the hill, and re-enter the city. There is a class of
+buildings which you cannot fail to note, and which at first you take to
+be prisons. They are large, gloomy-looking<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_321" id="Page_321">[Pg 321]</a></span> houses, of from three to
+four stories, with massive doors, and windows closed with strong upright
+iron stanchions, crossed with horizontal bars, forming a network of iron
+of so close a texture, that scarce a pigeon could squeeze itself
+through. Ah, there, you say, the brigand or the Mazzinist groans! No;
+the place is a convent. It is the dwelling, not of crime, but of
+"heavenly meditation." The beings that live there are so perfectly
+happy, so glad to have escaped from the evil world outside, and so
+delighted with their paradise, that not one of them would leave it,
+though you should open these doors, and tear away these iron bars. So
+the priests say. Is it not strange, then, to confine with bolt and bar
+beings who intend anything but escape? and is it not, to say the least,
+a needless waste of iron, in a country where iron is so very scarce and
+so very dear? It would be worth while making the trial, if only for a
+summer's day, of opening these doors, and astonishing Rome with the
+great amount of happiness within it, of which, meanwhile, it has not the
+least idea. I have seen the dignitaries entering, but no glimpse could I
+obtain of the interior; for immediately behind the strong outer door is
+an inner one, and how many more I know not. Mr Seymour has told us of a
+nun, while he was in Rome, who found her way out through all these doors
+and bars; but, instead of fleeing back into her paradise, she rushed
+straight to the Tiber, and sought death beneath its floods.</p>
+
+<p>But although I never was privileged to see the interior of a Roman
+convent, I saw on one occasion the inmates of these paradises. During my
+sojourn in that city, it was announced that the nuns of a certain
+convent were to sing at Ave Maria, in a church adjoining the Piazza di
+Spagna; and I went thither to hear them. The choristers I did not see;
+they sat in a remote gallery, behind a screen. Their voices, which in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_322" id="Page_322">[Pg 322]</a></span>
+clearness and brilliancy of tone surpassed the finest instruments, now
+rose into an overpowering melodious burst, and now died away into the
+sweetest, softest whispers. Within the low rail, their faces fronting
+the altar, and their backs turned on the audience, sat a row of
+spectres. Start not, reader; spectres they were,&mdash;fleshless, bloodless
+spectres. I saw them enter: they came like the sheeted dead; they wore
+long white dresses; their faces were pale and livid, like those that
+look out upon you from coffins; their forms were thin and wasted, and
+cast scarce a shadow as they passed between you and the beams of the
+sinking sun. Their eyes they lifted not, but kept them steadfastly fixed
+on the ground, over which they crept noiselessly as shadows creep. They
+sat mute and moveless, as if they had been statues of cold marble, all
+the while these brilliant notes were rolling above them. But I observed
+they were closely watched by the priests. There were several beside the
+altar; and whichever it was who happened for the moment to be
+disengaged, he turned round, and stood regarding the nuns with that
+stern anxious look with which one seeks to control a mastiff or a
+maniac. Were the priests afraid that, if withdrawn for a moment from the
+influence of their eye, a wail of woe would burst forth from these poor
+creatures? The last hallelujah had been pealed forth,&mdash;the shades of eve
+were thickening among the aisles,&mdash;when the priests gave the signal to
+the nuns. They rose, they moved; and, with eyes which were not lifted
+for a moment from the floor on which they trod, they disappeared by the
+same private door by which they had entered. I have seen gangs of galley
+slaves,&mdash;I have seen the husbands and sons of Rome led away manacled
+into banishment,&mdash;I have seen men standing beneath the gallows; but
+never did I see so woe-struck a group as this. Than have gone back with
+these nuns to their "paradise,"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_323" id="Page_323">[Pg 323]</a></span> as it is cruelly termed, I felt that I
+would rather have lain, where the lost nun is, in the Tiber.</p>
+
+<p>Before visiting Italy, I had read and studied the lectures of Father
+Perrone, Professor of Dogmatic Theology in the Collegio Romano, and had
+had frequent occasion to mention his name in my own humble pages; for I
+had nowhere found so clear a statement of the views held by the Church
+of Rome on the important doctrine of Original Sin, as that given in the
+Father's writings, and few had spoken so plainly as he had done on the
+wickedness of toleration. Being in Rome, I was naturally desirous of
+seeing the Father, and hearing him prelect. Accompanied by a young Roman
+student, whose acquaintance I had the happiness to make, but whose name
+I do not here mention, I repaired one day to the Collegio Romano,&mdash;a
+fine quadrangular building; and, after visiting its library, in whose
+"dark unfathomed caves" lies full many a monkish gem, I passed to the
+class-room of Professor Perrone. It was a lofty hall, benched after the
+manner of our own class-rooms, and hung round with portraits of the
+Professor's predecessors in office,&mdash;at least I took them for such. A
+tall pulpit rose on the end wall, with a crucifix beside it. The
+students were assembling, and mustered to the number of about an
+hundred. They were raw-boned, seedy-looking lads, of from seventeen to
+twenty-two. They all wore gowns, the majority being black, but some few
+red. Had I been a rich man, and disposed to signalize my visit to the
+Collegio Romano by some appropriate gift, I would have presented each of
+its students with a bar of soap, with directions for its use. In a few
+minutes the Professor entered, wearing the little round cap of the
+Jesuits. With that quiet stealthy step (an unconscious struggle to pass
+from matter into spirit, and assume invisibility) which is inseparable
+from the order, Father Perrone walked up to the pulpit stairs,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_324" id="Page_324">[Pg 324]</a></span> which,
+after doffing his cap, and muttering a short prayer before the crucifix,
+he ascended, and took his place. It may interest those who are familiar
+with his writings, to know that Father Perrone is a man of middle size,
+rather inclined to obesity, with a calm, pleasant, thoughtful face,
+which becomes lighted up, as he proceeds, with true Italian vivacity.
+His lecture for the day was on the Evidences; and of course it was not
+the heretics, but the infidels, whom he combated throughout. In the
+number of his students was a young Protestant American, whom I first met
+in the house of the Rev. Mr Hastings, the American chaplain, where I
+usually passed my Sabbath evenings. This young man had chalked out for
+himself the most extraordinary theological course I ever heard of. He
+had first of all gone through a full curriculum in one of the old
+orthodox halls of the United States; he had then passed into Germany,
+where he had taken a course of neology and philosophy; and now he had
+come to Rome, where he intended to finish off with a course of Romanism.
+I ventured to engage him in a conversation on what he had learned in
+Germany; but we had not gone far till both found that we had lost
+ourselves in a dark mist; and we were glad to lay hold on an ordinary
+topic, as a clue back to the daylight. The young divine purposed
+returning to his native land, and spending his days as a Presbyterian
+pastor.</p>
+
+<p>Will the reader go back with me to the point where we began our
+excursion through Rome,&mdash;the Flaminian Gate? I invite the reader's
+special attention to a building on the right. It stands a few paces
+outside the gate. The building possesses no architectural attractions,
+but it is illustrative of a great principle. The first floor is occupied
+as a granary; the second floor is occupied as a granary; the third
+floor,&mdash;how is it occupied,&mdash;the attic story? Why,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_325" id="Page_325">[Pg 325]</a></span> it is the English
+Protestant Church! Here is the toleration which the Pope grants us in
+Rome. There are from six hundred to a thousand English subjects resident
+in Rome every winter; but they dare not meet within the walls to open
+the Bible, or to worship God as his Word enjoins. They must go out
+without the gate, as if they were evil-doers; they must climb the stairs
+of this granary, as if they meditated some deed of darkness; and only
+when they have got into this garret are they at liberty to worship God.
+The Pope comes, not in person, but in his cardinals and priests, to
+Britain; and he claims the right of building his mass-houses, and of
+celebrating his worship, in every town and village of our empire. We
+permit him to do so; for we will fight this great battle with the
+weapons of toleration. We disdain to stain our hands or tarnish our
+cause by any other: these we leave to our opponents. But when we go to
+Rome, and offer to buy with our money a spot of ground on which to erect
+a house for the worship of God, we are told that we can have&mdash;no, not a
+foot's-breadth. Why, I say, the gospel had more toleration in Pagan
+Rome, aye, even when Nero was emperor, than it has in Papal Rome under
+Pio Nono. When Christianity entered Rome in the person of the Apostle
+Paul, did the tyrant of the Palatine strike her dumb? By no means. For
+the space of two years, her still small voice ceased not to be heard at
+the foot of the Capitol. "And Paul dwelt two whole years in his own
+hired house [in Rome], and received all that came in unto him; preaching
+the kingdom of God, and teaching those things which concern the Lord
+Jesus Christ, with all confidence, no man forbidding him." Let any
+minister or missionary attempt to do so now, and what would be his fate?
+and what the fate of any Roman who might dare to visit him? Instant
+banishment to the one,&mdash;instant imprisonment to the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_326" id="Page_326">[Pg 326]</a></span> other. The Pope has
+set up the symbol of intolerance and persecution at his gate. He has
+written over the portals of Rome, as Dante over the gates of hell, "All
+ye who enter here, abandon"&mdash;God.</p>
+
+<p>I do not say that the place is incommodious internally. The stigma lies
+in the proscription put upon Protestant worship. It is held to be an
+abomination so foul, that it cannot be tolerated within the walls of
+Rome. And the same spirit which banishes the worship to a garret, would
+banish the worshipper to a prison, or condemn him to a stake, if it
+dared. The same principle that makes Rome lock her earthly gates against
+the Protestant now, makes her lock her heavenly gates against him
+eternally.</p>
+
+<p>There are, however, annoyances of a palpable and somewhat ludicrous kind
+attending this expulsion of the Protestant worship beyond the walls. The
+granary to which I have referred adjoins the cattle and pig market. In
+Rome, although it is a mortal sin to eat the smallest piece of flesh on
+a Friday, it is no sin at all to buy and sell swine's flesh on a
+Sabbath. Accordingly, the pig-market is held on Sabbath; and it is
+customary to drive the animals into the back courts of the English
+meeting-house before carrying them to market. So I was informed, when at
+Rome, by a member of the English congregation. The uproar created by the
+animals is at times so great as to disturb the worshippers in the attic
+above, who have been under the necessity of putting their hands into
+their pockets, and buying food for the swine, in order to keep them
+quiet during the hours of divine service. Thus the English at Rome are
+able to conduct their worship with some degree of decorum only when both
+cardinals and swine are propitious. Should either be out of humour,&mdash;a
+thing conceivable to happen to the most obese cardinal and the
+sweetest-tempered pig,&mdash;the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_327" id="Page_327">[Pg 327]</a></span> English have but little chance of quiet.
+Nor is that the worst of it. I read not long since in the public
+journals, a letter from a Romish dignitary,&mdash;Dr Cahill, if I mistake
+not,&mdash;who, with an immense amount of bravery, stated that there was no
+Roman Catholic country in the world where full toleration was not
+enjoyed; and that, as regarded Rome, any Roman might change his religion
+to-morrow with perfect impunity. He might adopt Protestantism or
+Quakerism, or any other ism he pleased, provided he could show that he
+was not acting under the compulsion of a bribe. But how stands the fact?
+I passed three Sabbaths in Rome; I worshipped each Sabbath in the
+English Protestant chapel; and what did I see at the door of that
+chapel? I saw two gendarmes, with a priest beside them to give them
+instructions. And why were they there? They were there to observe all
+who went in and out at that chapel; and provided a Roman had dared to
+climb these stairs, and worship with the English congregation, the
+gendarmes would have seized him by the collar, and dragged him to the
+Inquisition. So much for the liberty the poor Romans enjoy to change
+their religion. The writer of that letter with the same truth might have
+told the people of England that there is no such city as Rome in all the
+world.</p>
+
+<p>I was much taken with the ministrations of the Rev. Francis B. Woodward,
+the resident chaplain, on hearing him for the first time. He looked like
+one whose heart was in his work, and I thought him evangelical, so far
+as the absence of all reference to what Luther has termed "the article
+of a standing or a falling Church" allowed me to form an opinion. But
+next Sabbath my confidence was sorely shaken. Mr Woodward was proceeding
+in a rich and sweetly pious discourse on the necessity of seeking and
+cultivating the gifts of the Spirit, and of cherishing the hope of
+glory, when, towards the middle of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_328" id="Page_328">[Pg 328]</a></span> his sermon, the evangelical thread
+suddenly snapped. "How are we," abruptly asked the preacher, "to become
+the sons of God?" I answer, by baptism. By baptism we are made children
+of God and heirs of heaven. But should we fall from that happy state,
+how are we to recover it? I answer, by penance. And then he instantly
+fell back again into his former pious strain. I started as if struck,
+and looked round to see how the audience were taking it. But I could
+discover no sign that they felt the real significancy of the words they
+had just heard. It seemed to me that the English chaplain was outside
+the gate for the purpose of showing men in at it; and were I the Pope,
+instead of incurring the scandal of banishing him beyond the walls, I
+would assign him one of the best of the many hundred empty churches in
+Rome. The Rev. Mr Hastings, the American chaplain, conducted worship in
+the dining-room of Mr Cass, the American Consul, to a little
+congregation of some thirty persons. He was a good man, and a sound
+Protestant, but lacked the peculiar qualities for such a sphere. He has
+since passed from Rome and the earth, and joined, I doubt not, albeit
+disowned as a heretic in the city in which he laboured, "the General
+Assembly and Church of the first-born" on high.</p>
+
+<p>I have already mentioned that the priests boast that the Pope could say
+mass in a different church every day of the year. Nevertheless there is
+next to no preaching in Rome. In Italy they convert men, not by
+preaching sermons, but by giving them wafers to swallow,&mdash;not by
+conveying truth into the mind, but by lodging a little dough in the
+stomach. Hence many of their churches stand on hill-tops, or in the
+midst of swamps, where not a house is in sight. During my sojourn of
+three weeks, I heard but two sermons by Roman preachers. I was
+sauntering in the Forum one day, when,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_329" id="Page_329">[Pg 329]</a></span> observing a little stream of
+paupers&mdash;(how could such go to the convents to beg if they did not go to
+sermon?)&mdash;flowing into the church of San Lorenzo, I joined in the
+procession, and entered along with them. At the door was a tin-box for
+receiving contributions for erecting a temple in London, where "their
+poor destitute fellow-countrymen might hear the true gospel." Were these
+"destitute fellow-countrymen" in Rome, the Pope would find accommodation
+for them in some one of his dungeons; but with the English Channel
+between him and them, he builds with paternal care a church for their
+use. We doubt not the exiles will duly appreciate his kindness. Every
+twentieth person or so dropped a little coin into the box as he passed
+in. A knot of some one or two hundreds was gathered round a wooden
+stage, on which a priest was declaiming with an exuberance of vehement
+gesture. On the right and left of him stood two hideous figures, holding
+candles and crucifixes, and enveloped from head to foot in sackcloth.
+They watched the audience through two holes in their masks; and I
+thought I could see a cowering in that portion of the crowd towards
+which the muffled figures chanced for the time to be turned. I felt a
+chilly terror creeping over me as the masks turned their great goggle
+eyes upon me; and accordingly withdrew.</p>
+
+<p>The regular weekly sermon in Rome is that preached every Sabbath
+afternoon in the church of the Jesuits. This church is resplendent
+beyond all others in the Eternal City, in marbles and precious stones,
+frescoes and paintings. Here, too, in magnificent tombs, sleep St
+Ignatius, the founder of the order, and Cardinal Bellarmin, one of the
+"Church's" mightiest champions. Its ample roof might cover an assembly
+of I know not how many thousands. About half-way down the vast floor, on
+the side wall, stood the pulpit; and before it were set some scores of
+forms for the accommodation of the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_330" id="Page_330">[Pg 330]</a></span>audience, which might amount to from
+four hundred to six hundred, chiefly elderly persons. At three o'clock
+the preacher entered the pulpit, and, having offered a short prayer in
+silence, he replaced on his head his little round cap, and flung himself
+into his theme. That theme was one then and still very popular (I mean
+with the preachers,&mdash;for the people take not the slightest interest in
+these matters) at Rome,&mdash;the Immaculate Conception. I can give only the
+briefest outline of the discourse; and I daresay that is all my readers
+will care for. In proof of the immunity of Mary from original sin, the
+preacher quoted all that St Jerome, and St Augustine, and a dozen
+fathers besides, had said on the point, with the air of a man who deemed
+these quotations quite conclusive. Had they related to the theory of
+eclipses, or been snatches from some old pagan poet in praise of Juno,
+the audience would have been equally well pleased with them. I looked
+when the father would favour his audience with a few proofs from St
+Matthew and St Luke; but his time did not permit him to go so far back.
+He next appealed to the miracles which the Virgin Mary had wrought. I
+expected much new information here, as my memory did not furnish me with
+any well-accredited ones; but I was somewhat disappointed when the
+preacher dismissed this branch of his subject with the remark, that
+these miracles were so well known, that he need not specify them. Having
+established his proposition first from tradition, and next from
+miracles, the preacher wound up by declaring that the Immaculate
+Conception was a doctrine which all good Catholics believed, and which
+no one doubted save the children of the devil and the slaves of hell.
+The sermon seemed as if it had been made to answer exactly the poet's
+description:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+"And when they list, their lean and flashy songs<br />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_331" id="Page_331">[Pg 331]</a></span>Grate on their scrannel pipes of wretched straw;<br />
+The hungry sheep look up, and are not fed,<br />
+But, swollen with wind, and the rank mist they draw,<br />
+Rot inwardly, and foul contagion spread;<br />
+Besides what the grim wolf, with privy paw,<br />
+Daily devours apace, and nothing sed;<br />
+But that two-handed engine at the door<br />
+Stands ready to smite once, and smite no more."<br />
+</p>
+
+<p class="noin">When this edifying sermon was ended, "Ave Maria" began. A train of
+white-robed priests entered, and gathered in a cloud round the high
+altar. The organ sent forth its thunder; the flashing censers shot
+upwards to the roof, and, as they rose and fell, emitted fragrant
+wreaths of incense. The crowd poured in, and swelled the assembly to
+some thousands; and when the priests began to chant, the multitude which
+now covered the vast floor dropped on their knees, and joined in the
+hymn to the Virgin. This service, of all I witnessed in Rome, was the
+only one that partook in the slightest degree of the sublime.</p>
+
+<p>I must except one other, celebrated in an upper chamber, and <i>truly</i>
+sublime. It was my privilege to pass my first Sabbath in Rome in the
+society of the Rev. John Bonar and that of his family, and at night we
+met in Mr Bonar's room in the hotel, and had family worship. I well
+remember that Mr Bonar read on this occasion the last chapter of that
+epistle which Paul "sent by Phebe, servant of the Church at Cenchrea,"
+to the saints at Rome. The disciples to whom the Apostle in that letter
+sends greetings had lived in this very city; their dust still slept in
+its soil; and were they to come back, I felt that, if I were a real
+Christian, we would recognise each other as dear brethren, and would
+join together in the same prayer; and as their names were read out, I
+was thrilled and melted, as if they had been the names of beloved and
+venerated friends but newly dead:&mdash;"Greet Priscilla and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_332" id="Page_332">[Pg 332]</a></span> Aquila, my
+helpers in Christ Jesus; who have for my life laid down their own necks;
+unto whom not only I give thanks, but also all the churches of the
+Gentiles. Likewise <i>greet</i> the church that is in their house. Salute my
+well-beloved Epenetus, who is the first fruits of Achaia unto Christ.
+Greet Mary, who bestowed much labour on us. Salute Andronicus and Junia,
+my kinsmen and my fellow-prisoners, who are of note among the apostles,
+who also were in Christ before me. Greet Amplias, my beloved in the
+Lord. Salute Urbane, our helper in Christ, and Stachys my beloved.
+Salute Apelles, approved in Christ. Salute them which are of
+Aristobulus' <i>household</i>. Salute Herodion my kinsman. Greet them that be
+of the <i>household</i> of Narcissus, which are in the Lord. Salute Tryphena
+and Tryphosa, who labour in the Lord. Salute the beloved Persis, which
+laboured much in the Lord. Salute Rufus, chosen in the Lord, and his
+mother and mine. Salute Asyncritus, Phlegon, Hermas, Patrobas, Hermes,
+and the brethren which are with them. Salute Philologus and Julia,
+Nereus and his sister, and Olympas, and all the saints which are with
+them."</p>
+
+<p>Uppermost in my mind, in all my wanderings in and about Rome, was the
+glowing fact that here Paul had been, and here he had left his
+ineffaceable traces. I touched, as it were, scriptural times and
+apostolic men. Had he not often climbed this Capitol? Had not his feet
+pressed, times without number, this lava-paved road through the Forum?
+These Volscian and Sabine mountains, so lovely in the Italian sunlight,
+had often had his eye rested upon them! I began to love the soil for his
+sake, and felt that the presence of this one holy man had done more to
+hallow it than all that the long race of emperors and popes had done to
+desecrate it.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_333" id="Page_333">[Pg 333]</a></span></p>
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XXIV" id="CHAPTER_XXIV"></a>CHAPTER XXIV.</h3>
+
+<h4>INFLUENCE OF ROMANISM ON TRADE.</h4>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang">The Church the Destroyer of the Country&mdash;The Pontifical Government
+just the Papacy in Action&mdash;That Government makes Men <i>Beggars</i>,
+<i>Slaves</i>, <i>Barbarians</i>&mdash;Influence of Pontifical Government on
+Trade&mdash;Iron&mdash;Great Agent of Civilization&mdash;Almost no Iron in Papal
+States&mdash;The Church has forbidden it&mdash;Prohibitive Duties on
+Iron&mdash;Machinery likewise prohibited&mdash;Antonelli's Extraordinary
+Note&mdash;Paucity of Iron-Workmen and Mechanics in the Papal
+States&mdash;Barbarous Aspect of the Country&mdash;Roman Ploughs&mdash;Roman
+Carts&mdash;How Grain is there Winnowed&mdash;Husbandry of Italy&mdash;Its
+Cabins&mdash;Its Ragged Population&mdash;Its Farms&mdash;Ruin of its
+Commerce&mdash;Isolation of Rome&mdash;Reasons why&mdash;Proposed Railway from
+Civita Vecchia to Ancona&mdash;Frustrated by the Government&mdash;Wretched
+Conveyance of Merchandise&mdash;Pope's Steam Navy&mdash;Papal
+Custom-houses&mdash;Bribery&mdash;Instances. </p></div>
+
+
+<p class="noin"><span class="smcap">It</span> is time to concentrate my observations, and to make their light
+converge around that evil system that sits enthroned in this old city.
+Of all the great ruins in Italy, the greatest by far is the Italians
+themselves. The ruin of the Italians I unhesitatingly lay at the door of
+the Church;&mdash;she is the nation's destroyer. When I first saw the Laocoon
+in the Vatican, I felt that I saw the symbol of the country;&mdash;there was
+Italy writhing in the folds of the great Cobra di Capella, the Papacy.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_334" id="Page_334">[Pg 334]</a></span></p><p>I cannot here go into the ceremonies practised at Rome, and which
+present so faithful a copy, both in their forms and in their spirit, of
+the pagan idolatry. Nor can I speak of the innumerable idols of gold and
+silver, wood and stone, with which their churches are crowded, and
+before which you may see votaries praying, and priests burning incense,
+all day long. Nor can I speak of the endless round of f&ecirc;tes and
+festivals which fill up the entire year, and by which the priests seek
+to dazzle, and, by dazzling, to delude and enthral, the Romans. Nor can
+I detain my readers with tales and wonders of Madonnas which have
+winked, and of the blind and halt which have been cured, which knaves
+invent and simpletons believe. Nor can I detail the innumerable frauds
+for fleecing the Romans;&mdash;money for indulgences,&mdash;money for the souls in
+purgatory,&mdash;money for eating flesh on Friday,&mdash;money for votive
+offerings to the saints. The church of the Jesuits is supposed to be
+worth a million sterling, in the shape of marbles, paintings, and
+statuary; and in this way the capital of the country is locked up, while
+not a penny can be had for making roads or repairing bridges, or
+promoting trade and agriculture. I cannot enter into these matters: I
+must confine my attention to one subject,&mdash;<span class="smcap">the Pontifical Government</span>.</p>
+
+<p>When I speak of the Pontifical Government, I just mean the Papacy. The
+working of the Papal Government is simply the working of the Papacy; for
+what is that Government, but just the principles of the Papacy put into
+judicial gear, and employed to govern mankind? It is the Church that
+governs the Papal States; and as she governs these States, so would she
+govern all the earth, would we let her. The Pontifical Government is
+therefore the fairest illustration that can be adduced of the practical
+tendency and influence of the system. I now arraign the system in the
+Government. I am<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_335" id="Page_335">[Pg 335]</a></span> prepared to maintain, both on general principles, and
+on facts that came under my own observation while in Rome, that the
+Pontifical Government is the most flagitiously unjust, the most
+inexorably cruel, the most essentially tyrannical Government, that ever
+existed under the sun. It is the necessary, the unchangeable, the
+eternal enemy of liberty. I say, looking at the essential principles of
+the Papacy, that it is a system claiming infallibility, and so laying
+reason and conscience under interdict,&mdash;that it is a system claiming to
+govern the world, not <i>by</i> God, but <i>as</i> God,&mdash;that it is a system
+claiming supreme authority in all things spiritual, and claiming the
+same supreme authority, though indirectly, in all things temporal,&mdash;that
+it sets no limits to its jurisdiction, but, on the contrary, makes that
+jurisdiction to range indiscriminately over heaven, earth, and hell.
+Looking at these principles, which no Papist can deny to be the
+fundamental and vital elements of his system, I maintain that, if there
+be any one thing more than another ascertained and indisputable within
+the compass of man's knowledge, it is this, that the domination of a
+system like the Papacy is utterly incompatible with the enjoyment of a
+single particle of liberty on the part of any human being. And I now
+proceed to show, that the conclusion to which one would come, reasoning
+from the essential principles of this system, is just the conclusion at
+which he would arrive by observing the workings of this system, as
+exhibited at this day in Italy.</p>
+
+<p>I shall arrange the facts I have to state under three heads:&mdash;<i>First</i>,
+Those that relate to the <span class="smcap">Trade</span> of the Roman States: <i>second</i>, Those that
+relate to the administration of <span class="smcap">Justice</span>: and <i>third</i>, Those that relate
+to <span class="smcap">Education</span> and <span class="smcap">Knowledge</span>. I shall show that the Pontifical Government
+is so conducted as regards Trade, that it can have no other effect than
+to make the Romans <i>beggars</i>. I shall show, in the second place, that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_336" id="Page_336">[Pg 336]</a></span>
+the Pontifical Government is so conducted as regards Justice, that it
+can have no other effect than to make the Romans <i>slaves</i>. And I shall
+show, in the third place, that the Pontifical Government is so conducted
+as regards Education, that it can have no other effect than to make the
+Romans <i>barbarians</i>. This is the threefold result that Government is
+fitted to work out: this is the threefold result it has wrought out. It
+has made the Romans beggars,&mdash;it has made the Romans slaves,&mdash;it has
+made the Romans barbarians. Observe, I do not touch the religious part
+of the question. I do not enter on any discussion respecting Purgatory,
+or Transubstantiation, or the worship of the Virgin. I look simply at
+the bearings of that system upon man's temporal interests; and I
+maintain that, though man had no hereafter to provide for, and no soul
+to be saved, he is bound by every consideration to resist a system so
+destructive to the whole of his interests and happiness in time.</p>
+
+<p>I come now to trace the workings of the Papacy on the Trade of the Papal
+States. But here I am met, on the threshold of my subject, by this
+difficulty, that I am to speak of what scarce exists; for so effectually
+has the Pontifical Government developed its influence in this direction,
+that it has all but annihilated trade in the Papal States. If you except
+the manufacture of cameos, Roman mosaics, a little painting and
+statuary, there is really no more trade in the country than is
+absolutely necessary to keep the people from starvation. The trade and
+industry of the Roman States are crushed to death under a load of
+monopolies and restrictive tariffs, invented by infallible wisdom for
+protecting, but, as it seems to our merely fallible wisdom, for
+sacrificing, the industry of the country.</p>
+
+<p>Let us take as our first instance the Iron Trade. We all know the
+importance of iron as regards civilization. Civilization may be said to
+have commenced with iron,&mdash;to have<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_337" id="Page_337">[Pg 337]</a></span> extended over the earth with iron;
+and so closely connected are the two, that where iron is not, there you
+can scarce imagine civilization to be. It is by iron in the form of the
+plough that man subjugates the soil; and it is by iron in the form of
+the sword that he subjugates kingdoms. What would our country be without
+its iron,&mdash;without its railroads, its steam-ships, its steam-looms, its
+cutlery, its domestic utensils? Almost all the comforts and conveniences
+of civilized life are obtained by iron. You may imagine, then, the
+condition of the Papal States, when I state that iron is all but unknown
+in them. It is about as rare and as dear as the gold of Uphaz. And why
+is it so? There is abundance of iron in our country; water-carriage is
+anything but expensive; and the iron manufacturers of Britain would be
+delighted to find so good a market as Italy for their produce. Why,
+then, is iron not imported into that country? For this simple reason,
+that the Church has forbidden its introduction. Strange, that it should
+forbid so useful a metal where it is so much needed. Yet the fact is,
+that the Pope has placed its importation under an as stringent
+prohibition almost as the importation of heresy: perhaps he smells
+heresy and civilization coming in the wake of iron. The duty on the
+introduction of bar-iron is two baiocchi la libbra, equivalent to fifty
+dollars, or &pound;12 10s., per ton; which is about twice the price of
+bar-iron in this country. This duty is prohibitive of course.</p>
+
+<p>The little iron which the Romans possess they import mostly from
+Britain, in the form of pig-iron; and the absurdity of importing it in
+this form appears from the fact that there is no coal in the States to
+smelt it,&mdash;at least none has as yet been discovered: wood-char is used
+in this process. When the pig-iron is wrought up into bar-iron, it is
+sold at the incredible price of thirty-eight Roman scudi the thousand
+pounds,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_338" id="Page_338">[Pg 338]</a></span> which is equivalent, in English money, to &pound;23 15s. per ton, or
+four times its price in Britain. The want of the steam-engine vastly
+augments the cost of its manufacture. There is a small iron-work at
+Terni, eighty miles from Rome, which is set down there for the advantage
+of water-power, which is employed to drive the works. The whole raw
+material has to be carted from Rome, and, when wrought up, carted back
+again, adding enormously to the expense. There is another at Tivoli,
+also moved by water-power. The whole raw material has, too, to be carted
+from Rome, and the manufactured article carted back, causing an outlay
+which would soon more than cover the expense of steam-engine and fuel.
+At Terni some sixty persons are employed, including boys and men. The
+manager is a Frenchman, and most of the workmen are Frenchmen, with
+wages averaging from forty to fifty baiocchi; labourers at the works
+have from twenty-five to thirty baiocchi per day,&mdash;from a shilling to
+fifteenpence.</p>
+
+<p>During the reign of Gregory XVI. machinery was admitted into the Papal
+States at a nominal duty, or one baiocchi the hundred Roman pounds. It
+is not in a day that a country like Italy can be taught the advantage of
+mechanical power. The Romans, like every primitive people, are apt to
+cleave to the rude, unhandy modes which they and their fathers have
+practised, and to view with suspicion and dislike inventions which are
+new and strange. But they were beginning to see the superiority of
+machinery, and to avail themselves of its use. A large number of
+hydraulic presses, printing presses, one or two steam-engines, a few
+threshing-mills, and other agricultural implements, were introduced
+under this nominal duty; and, had a little longer time been allowed, the
+country would have begun to assume somewhat of a civilized look. But
+Gregory died; and, as if to show the utter hopelessness of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_339" id="Page_339">[Pg 339]</a></span> anything
+like progress on the part of the Pontifical Government, it was the
+present Pope who took the retrograde step of restoring the law shutting
+out machines. Cardinal Tosti, the Treasurer to Gregory's Government, was
+succeeded by his Excellenza Monsignor (now Cardinal) Antonelli, one of
+the earliest official acts of whom was the appending a note to the
+tariff on machinery, which subjected machines, all and sundry, to the
+duty imposed in the tariff on their component parts. For example, a
+machine composed of iron, brass, steel, and wood, according to
+Antonelli's note, would have to pay separate duty on each of the
+materials composing it. The way in which the thing was done is a fine
+sample of the spirit and style of papal legislation, and shows how the
+same subtle but perverted ingenuity, the same specious but hypocritical
+pretexts, with which the theological part of the system abounds, are
+extended also to its political and civil managements. Antonelli did not
+rescind the tariff; he but appended a note, the quiet but sure effect of
+which was to render it null. He did not tax machines as a whole; they
+were still free, viewed in their corporate capacity: he but taxed their
+individual parts. This ingenious legislator, by a saving clause,
+exempted from the operation of his note <i>machines of new invention</i>,
+which, after being proved to be such, were to be admitted at the nominal
+duty! What machines would not be of new invention in the Roman States,
+where there is absolutely no machinery, saving&mdash;with all reverence for
+the apostolic chamber&mdash;the guillotine?</p>
+
+<p>But farther, Antonelli, to show at once his ingenuity and philanthropy,
+enacted that machines which had never before been introduced into the
+States should be admitted at the nominal duty. Mark the extent of the
+boon herein conferred on Italy. We shall suppose that one of each of the
+industrial<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_340" id="Page_340">[Pg 340]</a></span> and agricultural machines in use in Britain is admitted into
+the Roman States under this law. It is admitted duty-free. Well, but the
+second plough, or the second loom, or the second steam-engine, arrives.
+It must pay a prohibitive duty. It is not a new machine. You can make as
+many as you please from the one already introduced, says Antonelli. But
+who is to make them? There are no mechanics deserving the name in Rome;
+who, by the way, are the very people Antonelli said he meant to benefit.
+But, apart from the want of mechanical skill, there is the dearth of the
+raw material; for maleable iron was selling in Rome at upwards of &pound;21
+per ton, at a time when the cost of bar-iron in this country was only
+from &pound;6 to &pound;7 per ton. Such insane legislation on the part of the
+sacerdotal Government could not be committed through ignorance or
+stupidity. There must be some strong reason that does not appear at
+first sight for this wholesale sacrifice of the interests of the
+country. We shall speak of this anon: meanwhile we pursue our statement.</p>
+
+<p>Antonelli supported his note,&mdash;that note which ratified the banishment
+of the arts from Italy, and gave barbarism an eternal infeftment in the
+soil,&mdash;by affirming that it was passed in order to encourage l'industria
+dello Stato; which is as if one should say that he had cut his
+neighbour's throat to protect his life; for certainly Antonelli's note
+cut the throat of industry. Well, one would think, seeing this
+legislation was meant to protect the industry of the State and the
+interests of the iron-workmen, that these iron-workmen must be a large
+body. How many iron-workmen are there in the Papal States? An hundred
+thousand? One thousand? There are not more in all than one hundred and
+fifty! And for these one hundred and fifty iron-workmen (to which we may
+add the seventy cardinals, the most of whom are speculators in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_341" id="Page_341">[Pg 341]</a></span> iron),
+the rest of the community is put beyond the pale of civilization, the
+ordinary arts and utensils are proscribed, improvement is at a
+stand-still, and the country is doomed to remain from age to age in
+barbarism.</p>
+
+<p>And what is the aspect of the country? It is decidedly that of a
+barbarous land. Everything has an old-world look, as if it belonged to
+the era of the Flood. Iron being so enormously dear, its use is
+dispensed with wherever it is possible. Almost all implements of
+agriculture, of carriage, almost all domestic utensils, and many tools
+of trade, are made of wood. In consequence, they do very little work;
+and that little but indifferently well. Nothing could be more primitive
+than the <i>plough</i> of the Romans. It consists of a single stick or lever,
+fixed to a block having the form of a sock or coulter, with a projection
+behind, on which the ploughman puts his foot, and assists the bullocks
+over a difficulty. The work done by this implement we would not call
+ploughing: it simply scratches the surface to the depth of some three or
+four inches, with which the poor husbandman is content. The soil is in
+general light, but it might be otherwise tilled; and, were it so, would
+yield far other harvests than those now known in Italy. Their <i>carts</i>,
+too, are of the rudest construction, and may be regarded as ingenious
+models of the form which should combine the largest bulk with the least
+possible use. They have high wheels, and as wide-set as those in our
+country, with nothing to fill the dreary space between but an
+uncouth-looking nut-shell of a box. The infallible Government of the
+Pope has not judged it beneath it to legislate in reference to them.
+They must be made of a certain prescribed capacity, and stamped for the
+purchase and sale of lime and pozzolano. In this happy country, all
+things, from the Immaculate Conception down to the pozzolano cart, are
+cared for by the sacerdotal<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_342" id="Page_342">[Pg 342]</a></span> Government. The open-bodied carts have bars
+(the length and distance apart of which are also regulated by the
+pontiff) placed on the trams, and are licensed for the sale of green
+wood, which must be sold at from three and a half to four dollars a
+load. The barozza is another open-bodied cart, with bars placed around
+the trams, and contains about twelve sacks of wood-char, which is sold
+at from eight to ten dollars. This is the fuel of the country, and, when
+kindled, does well enough for cooking. It gives considerable heat and
+but little smoke, but lacks the cheerfulness and comfort of an English
+fire-side, which is unknown in Rome.</p>
+
+<p>Every agricultural process is conducted in the same rude and slovenly
+way. And how can it be otherwise, when the Church, for reasons best
+known to itself, denies the people the use of the indispensable
+instruments? It solemnly legislates that one British plough may be
+imported; and graciously permits its subjects, in a land where there are
+no mechanics, to make as many additional ploughs as they need. Is it not
+peculiarly modest in these men, who show so little wisdom in temporal
+matters, to ask the entire world to surrender its belief to them in
+things spiritual and divine?</p>
+
+<p>Every one knows how we winnow corn in Britain. How do they conduct that
+process at Rome? A cart-load of grain is poured out on the barn-floor;
+some dozen or score of women squat down around it, and with the hand
+separate the chaff from the wheat, pickle by pickle. In this way a score
+of women may do in a week what a farmer in our country could do easily
+in a couple of hours. An effort was made to persuade the predecessor of
+the present Pontiff, Gregory XVI., to sanction the admission into Rome
+of a winnowing-machine. Its mode of working and uses were explained to
+the Pontiff. Gregory shook his head; for Infallibility indicates its
+doubts<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_343" id="Page_343">[Pg 343]</a></span> at times, just as mortals do, by a shake of the head. It was a
+dangerous thing to introduce into Rome, said the infallible Gregory.
+Perhaps it was; for if the Romans had begun to winnow grain, they might
+have learned to winnow other things besides grain.</p>
+
+<p>The husbandry of Italy, as a system, is in a most backward state. Its
+cultivation is the cultivation of Ireland. And yet Italy is excelled by
+few countries on earth, perhaps by none, in point of its external
+defences, and its inexhaustible internal resources; which, however,
+under its present Government, are utterly wasted. On the north it is
+defended by the wall of the Alps, and on all its other sides by the
+ocean, whose bays offer boundless facilities for commerce. The plains of
+Lombardy are eternally covered with flowers and fruit. The valleys of
+Tuscany still boast the olive, the orange, and the vine. The wide waste
+of the Campagna di Roma is of the richest soil, and, spread out beneath
+the warm sun, might mingle on its surface the fruits of the torrid with
+those of the temperate zones. Instead of this, Italy presents to the
+traveller's eye a deplorable spectacle of wretched cabins, untilled
+fields, and a population oppressed by sloth and covered with rags. The
+towns are filled mostly with idlers and beggars. With all my inquiries,
+I could never get a clear idea of how they live. The alms-houses are
+numerous; for when a Government puts down trade, it must build hospitals
+and poor's-houses, or see its subjects die of starvation. In Rome, for
+example, besides the convents, where a number of poor people get a meal
+a day,&mdash;a sufficiently meagre one,&mdash;there is the government
+<i>Beneficenza</i>, which the more intelligent part account a great curse.
+Some fifteen hundred or two thousand persons, many of them able-bodied
+men, receive fifteen baiocchi,&mdash;sevenpence half-penny,&mdash;per day, in
+return for which they pouter about with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_344" id="Page_344">[Pg 344]</a></span> barrows, removing earth from
+the old ruins, or cleaning the streets, which are none the cleaner, or
+picking grass in the square of the Vatican. Many deplorable tales are
+told in Rome of these people, and of the dire sacrifice made of the
+female portion of their families. But the grand resource is beggary,
+especially from foreigners; and if a beggar earn a penny a day, he will
+make a shift to live. He will purchase half a pound of excellent
+macaroni with the one baiocchi, and a few apples or grapes with the
+other; and thus he is provided for for the day. The inhabitants of these
+countries do not eat so substantially as we do. Should he earn nothing,
+he has it in his choice to steal or starve. This is the prolific source
+of brigandage and vagabondism.</p>
+
+<p>In the country, the peasants (and there almost all are peasants) live by
+cultivating a small patch of land. The farms, like those in Ireland, are
+mere crofts. The proprietor, who lives in the city, provides not only
+the land, but the implements and cattle also, and in return receives a
+stipulated portion of the fruits. His share is often as high as a half,
+never lower than a fourth. The farmer is a tenant-at-will most commonly,
+but removals are rare; and sometimes, as in Ireland, the same lands
+remain in the occupation of the same families for generations. Their
+conical little hills, with their peasant villages a-top, are curiously
+ribbed with a particoloured vegetation, each family cultivating their
+couple of acres after their own fashion; while the plain is not
+unfrequently abandoned to marshes, or ruins, or wild herbage. To dig
+drains, to clear out the substructions, to re-open the ancient
+water-courses, or to follow any improved system of cropping, is far
+beyond the enterprise of the poor farmer. He has neither skill, nor
+capital, nor savings. If nature takes the matter into her own hand,
+well; if not, one bad harvest irretrievably lands him in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_345" id="Page_345">[Pg 345]</a></span> famine. Thus,
+with a soil and climate not excelled perhaps in the world, the
+husbandman drags out his life in poverty, and is often on the very brink
+of starvation. Whatever beauty and fertility that land still retains, it
+owes to nature, not to man. Indeed, it is now only the skeleton of Italy
+that exists, with here and there patches of its former covering,&mdash;nooks
+of exquisite beauty, which strike one the more from the desolation that
+surrounds them. But its cultivated portions are every year diminishing.
+Its woods and olives are fast disappearing; and by and by the very
+beasts of the field will be compelled to leave it, and the King of the
+Seven Hills, could we conceive of his remaining behind, will be left to
+reign in undisputed and unenvied supremacy over the storks and frogs,
+and other animals, that breed and swarm in its marshes.</p>
+
+<p>The commerce of Italy, too, is extinct. How can it be otherwise? Under
+their terrible stagnation and death of mind, the Italians produce
+nothing for export. In that country there are no factories, no mining
+operations, no ship-building, no public works, no printing presses, no
+tools of trade. In short, they create nothing but a few articles of
+vertu; and even in those arts in which alone their genius is allowed to
+exert itself, foreigners excel them. The best sculptors and painters at
+Rome are Englishmen. And as regards their soil, which might send its
+wheat, and wine, and olives, all delicious naturally, to every part of
+the world, its harvests are now able but to feed the few men who live in
+the country. As to imports, both raw and manufactured, which the Romans
+need so much, we have seen how the sacerdotal Government takes effectual
+means to prevent these reaching the population. The Pontiff has enclosed
+his territory with a triple wall of protective duties and monopolies, to
+keep out the foreign merchant; and thus not only are the Romans
+forbidden to labour for <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_346" id="Page_346">[Pg 346]</a></span>themselves, but they are prevented profiting by
+the labour of others. There is a monopoly of sugar-refining, a monopoly
+of salt-making, and, in short, of every thing which the Romans most
+need. These monopolies are held by the favourites of the Government; and
+though generally the houses that hold them are either unwilling or
+unable to make more than a tithe of what the Romans would require, no
+other establishment can produce these articles, and they cannot be
+imported but at a ruinous duty.</p>
+
+<p>We are reminded of another grievance under which the Romans groan. The
+few articles that are landed on their coast have to encounter tedious
+and almost insuperable delays before they can find their way to the
+capital. This is owing to the wretched state of the communication, which
+is kept purposely wretched in order to isolate Rome and the Romans from
+the rest of the world. That Church likes to sit apart and keep intact
+her venerable prestige, which would be apt to be contemned were it
+looked at close at hand. She dreads, too, to let her people come in
+contact with the population of other States. A few thousands of English
+aristocracy she can afford to admit annually within her territory. Their
+money she needs, and their indifference gives her no uneasiness. But to
+have the mass of a free people circulating through her capital would be
+a death-blow to her influence. She deems it, then, a wise policy, indeed
+a necessary safeguard, to make the access such as only money and time
+can overcome, though at the sacrifice of the trade and comforts of the
+people. Repeated attempts have been made to connect Rome with the rest
+of Europe; but hitherto, through the singularly adroit management of the
+Government, all such attempts have been fruitless.</p>
+
+<p>In 1851 the long talked of concession for railways in the Roman States
+was obtained by Count Montalembert. The railways<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_347" id="Page_347">[Pg 347]</a></span> were to be constructed
+by foreign money and foreign agency, of course. A line from Rome to
+Ancona, and another from Rome to Civita Vecchia, were talked of, which
+would have put the Eternal City in immediate communication with the
+Adriatic and the Mediterranean. <i>Che belle cose!</i> the Italians might be
+heard uttering wherever grouped. It looked too well; an extravagant
+guarantee was offered to the Intraprendenti (contractors) by the Roman
+Government. The Parisian Count was to procure capitalists for the
+undertaking. The general opinion at the time was, that the Government
+was insincere in their extravagant guarantee; and they stipulated with
+the Count a condition as to time, calculated, as was supposed, to
+frustrate the undertaking. In this, however, the Government was
+outwitted; for capitalists were found within the prescribed time,
+engineers appointed, and contracts entered into. The iron-works of Terni
+and Tivoli amalgamated, in the hope of doing an extensive business by
+manufacturing the rails, &amp;c.; and announced in their prospectus the
+intention of working the La Tolfa ironstone near Civita Vecchia. Many
+were induced to sink money in this amalgamated concern, and there it
+fruitlessly remains. The affray at Ferrara put the scutch upon the
+mighty railway scheme.</p>
+
+<p>Were the Government in earnest on the subject of railways, sufficient
+capital might easily be raised to construct a line between Rome and
+Civita Vecchia, which would be of incalculable benefit to Rome. Vessels
+of heavy burden can discharge at the port of Civita Vecchia. Merchandise
+could thence be transmitted by rail to Rome, where its arrival could be
+calculated on to half an hour; and of what immense advantage would this
+be, contrasted with the present maritime conveyance, which keeps
+merchants in expectation of goods for days<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_348" id="Page_348">[Pg 348]</a></span> and weeks, and not
+unfrequently for a whole month, with bills of lading in hand from
+Marseilles, Genoa, Leghorn, Naples, and Sicily, by vessels carrying from
+fifty to a hundred and fifty tons! The entrance to the mouth of the
+Tiber at Fuma-Cina is both difficult and dangerous; so much so, that
+sailing masters will not hazard the attempt if the weather is in the
+least degree stormy. They are obliged frequently to return to Civita
+Vecchia or Leghorn, until the weather will permit their entering the
+river at Fuma-Cina. There their vessels require to be lightened, or
+partly discharged into barges, there not being sufficient water in the
+Tiber to allow them to ascend to Rome; the average depth of water
+throughout the year being from four to five feet, which is only
+sufficient for the Pope's navy force, employed in tugging barges from
+Fuma-Cina to Rome. It is not the least important part of the Roman
+merchants' business to know that their long-expected goods have entered
+the river. This is ascertained at the custom-house at Ripa Grande, where
+the intelligence is chronicled every evening, on return of the navy
+force.</p>
+
+<p>That navy consists of three small steamers, thirty horse power, and a
+dredging boat. Two of the steamers are kept for the traffic between
+Fuma-Cina and the custom-house at Rome. The other is employed on the
+upper part of the river, starting from the Ripetta in Rome for the
+Sabina country, going up about forty miles, and returning with wine,
+oil, Indian corn, and wood for fuel, green and charred. The dredging
+boat is scarcely ever used. The constantly filthy state of the river
+causes so much deposit, that the machine is unable to overcome it.</p>
+
+<p>There are custom-houses, of course, on all the frontiers. A very
+respectable amount of bribery is done in these places: indeed,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_349" id="Page_349">[Pg 349]</a></span> I never
+could see that much business of any other sort was transacted in them. I
+have already stated, that the first thing I was compelled to do on
+entering Rome was to give a bribe, in order to escape from the old
+temple of Antoninus, in which I unexpectedly found myself locked up. I
+met an intelligent Scotchman in Rome, who had newly returned from
+Naples, and who had to endure a half-day's detention at Terra Cina
+because he refused to pay the ransom of six scudi put upon his trunks,
+and insisted on their being searched. Corruption pervades all classes of
+functionaries. In Rome itself there are two custom-houses; one for
+merchandise imported by sea, and the other for overland goods. The hours
+for business are from nine o'clock till twelve o'clock. Declarations for
+relieving goods must be made betwixt nine and eleven, the other hour
+being appropriated to winding up the business of the preceding two
+hours. Almost everything which the country produces, whether for man or
+for beast, on entering the city has to pay duty at the gate. This is
+termed <i>Dazio di Consumo</i>. This department of the revenue is farmed out
+to an officer, whose servants are stationed at the gates for the purpose
+of uplifting the duty; and there, as in all the other Government
+custom-houses, much systematic cheating goes on. As an example, I may
+relate what happened to my friend Mr Stewart, whose acquaintance I had
+the good fortune to make in Rome, and whose information on all matters
+of trade in the Roman States, well known to him from long practical
+experience, was not only of the highest value, but was the means of
+affording me an insight into the workings of Romanism on the temporal
+condition of its subjects, such as few travellers have an opportunity of
+attaining. Mr Stewart was engaged to take charge of the one little
+iron-work in the city; and the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_350" id="Page_350">[Pg 350]</a></span> transaction I am about to relate in his
+own words took place when he was entering the gates. "Along with my
+furniture," says he, "I had a trunk containing wearing-apparel and two
+<i>pocket-pistols</i>. The latter, I knew, were prohibited, and made the
+agent employed to pass the articles acquainted with the dilemma, which
+he heartily laughed at,&mdash;by way, I suppose, of having a bone to pick.
+'Leave the matter to me,' said he, adding, 'the officials must be
+recompensed, you know.' That of course; and, to be reasonable, he
+inquired if I would give three dollars, for which sum he would guarantee
+their safety. I consented to this in preference to losing them, or being
+obliged to send them out of the country. Notwithstanding the agent's
+assurance, I felt naturally anxious at the barefaced transaction, which
+was coolly gone about. When the trunk should have been examined, the
+attention of the officials was voluntarily directed to some other
+article, while the agent's porters turned the trunk upside down, chalked
+it, and replied to the query, that it had been examined, and was not
+even opened, which the officials well knew, and for the consideration of
+three dollars they betrayed trust. The trunk might have contained
+jewellery, or even <i>screw-nails</i>,&mdash;both pay a high duty. The latter
+especially, being made at Tivoli, are prohibited, or admitted at the
+prohibitive duty of twenty-five baiocchi the Roman pound,&mdash;sufficient to
+illustrate what might have been the result of this transaction in a
+mercantile point of view, not to speak of the opportunity afforded for
+introducing the <i>Bible</i>. The officials are all indifferently
+remunerated, and thus do business for themselves at the cost of the
+Government. They are also very incapable for the discharge of their
+duty. For example, the <i>Governor</i> of the custom-house seriously asked
+me, preparatory to making a declaration for a <i>steam-boiler</i>,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_351" id="Page_351">[Pg 351]</a></span> whether
+it was made of <i>wood</i> or of <i>iron</i>. The boiler was not before him; but
+the idea of a steam-boiler of wood from the lips of the Governor of a
+custom-house was astounding."</p>
+
+<p>"Books of all kinds are taken to the land custom-house, where the
+<i>Revisore</i> is stationed for books alone. The <i>Revisore</i> speaks English
+tolerably well."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_352" id="Page_352">[Pg 352]</a></span></p>
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XXV" id="CHAPTER_XXV"></a>CHAPTER XXV.</h3>
+
+<h4>INFLUENCE OF ROMANISM ON TRADE&mdash;(CONTINUED).</h4>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang">Why does the Church systematically discourage
+Trade?&mdash;Railways&mdash;Much needed&mdash;Church opposes them&mdash;Could not a man
+take a journey of twenty or two hundred miles and be a good
+Catholic?&mdash;Motion is Liberty&mdash;Motion contributed to overthrow the
+Serfdom of the Middle Ages&mdash;Popes understand the connection between
+Motion and Liberty&mdash;Romans chained to the Soil&mdash;Gregory XVI. and
+the Iron-bridge&mdash;Gas in Rome&mdash;Spread of the Malaria&mdash;The Pontine
+Marshes&mdash;Neglect of Soil&mdash;Number of Paupers&mdash;How the Church
+prevents the Cultivation of the Campagna&mdash;Church Lands in England
+and Scotland&mdash;The price which Italy pays for the Papacy&mdash;Whether
+would the old Roman Woman or an old Scotch Woman make the better
+Ruler? </p></div>
+
+
+<p class="noin"><span class="smcap">Let</span> us pause here, and inquire into the cause of this most deplorable
+state of matters. Is not the Papal Government manifestly sacrificing its
+own interests? Would it not be better for itself were Italy covered with
+a prosperous agriculture and a flourishing trade? Were its cities filled
+with looms and forges, would not its people have more money to spend on
+masses and absolutions? and, instead of the Government subsisting on
+foreign loans, and being always on the eve of bankruptcy, it might fill
+its exchequer from the vast resources of the country, and have,
+moreover, the pleasure of seeing around it a prosperous and happy
+people.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_353" id="Page_353">[Pg 353]</a></span></p><p>This is all very true. None knows better the value of money than Rome;
+but she knows, too, the infinite hazard of acquiring it in the way of
+allowing trade and industry to enter the Papal States. Indeed, to do so
+would be to record sentence of banishment against herself. Every one
+must have remarked the difference betwixt the artizan of Birmingham and
+the peasant of Ireland. They seem to belong to two different races of
+men almost. The former is employed in making a certain piece of
+mechanism, or in superintending its working. He is compelled to
+calculate, to trace effects to their causes, and to study the relations
+of the various parts before him to the whole. In short, he is taught to
+think; and that thinking power he applies to all other subjects. His
+habits of life teach him to ask for reasons, and to accept of opinions
+only on evidence. The mind of the latter lies dead. Were Italy filled
+with a race of men like the first, the papacy could not live a day. Were
+trade, and machinery, and wealth to come in, the torpor of Italy would
+be broken up; and&mdash;terrible event to the papacy!&mdash;mind would awaken.
+What though the Pope reigns over a wasted land and a nation of beggars?
+he <i>does</i> reign; he counts for a European sovereign; and his system
+continues to exist as a power. As men in shipwreck throw overboard food,
+jewels, all, to save life, so Romanism has thrown all overboard to save
+itself. Nothing could be a stronger proof of this than the fact that, as
+the effects and benefits of trade become the more developed, the
+pontifical Government tightens its restrictions. The note of Antonelli,
+the present ruling spirit of the papacy, was the most prohibitive ever
+framed against the introduction of iron, in other words, of
+civilization. This is the price which Italy must pay for the Pope and
+his religion. She cannot participate in the advantages of foreign trade;
+she cannot enjoy the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_354" id="Page_354">[Pg 354]</a></span> facilities and improvements of modern times;
+because, were she to enjoy these, she would lose the papacy. She must be
+content to remain in the barbarism of the middle ages, covered with that
+moral malaria which has smitten all things in that doomed land, and
+under the influence of which, the cities, the earth itself, and man, for
+whom it was made, are all sinking into one common ruin.<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a></p>
+
+<p>We have yet other illustrations of the pestiferous influence of Romanism
+on the temporal happiness of its subjects. We have already alluded to
+the determined manner in which the Pontifical Government has hitherto
+withstood the introduction of railways. And yet, if there be a country
+in Europe where railways are indispensable, it is the Papal States. The
+roads in the territory blessed by the Government of Christ's vicar, are
+more like canals than roads, with this difference, that there is too
+little water in them for floating a boat, and far too much for
+comfortable travelling. Besides, they are infested by brigands, whose
+pursuit a railway might enable you to distance. But a railway the
+subjects of the Pontifical Government cannot have. And why?</p>
+
+<p>One would think that the mere mode of conveyance is a very harmless
+affair. What is it to the Pontifical Government whether the peasant of
+the Alban hills, or the citizen of Bologna, or the merchant of Ancona,
+visit Rome on foot, or in his waggon, or by rail? Is he not the same
+man? Will his ride convert him into a heretic, or shake his faith in
+Peter's successor? or will the laying down of a few miles of railroad<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_355" id="Page_355">[Pg 355]</a></span>
+weaken the foundations of that Church which boasts that she is founded
+on a rock, and that the gates of hell themselves shall not prevail
+against her? Or if it be said that it is not the mode of the journey,
+but the length of the journey, what difference can it make whether the
+man travel twenty miles or two hundred miles? The stability of the
+Church cannot be seriously endangered by a few miles less or more. Is
+the Pope's system of so peculiar a kind, that though it is possible for
+the man who walks twenty miles on foot to believe in it, it is wholly
+impossible for the man who rides two hundred miles by rail to do so? We
+know of no Roman doctor who has attempted to fix the precise number of
+miles which a good Catholic may travel from home without endangering his
+salvation. One would think that all this is plain enough; that there is
+no element of danger here; and yet the sharper instincts of the papacy
+have discovered that herein lies danger, and great danger, to its power.
+If the influence of Rome is to be preserved, it is not enough that the
+Bible be put out of existence, that the missionary be banished, and that
+the art of printing, and all means of diffusing ideas, be proscribed and
+exterminated: the very right of moving over the earth must be taken from
+man. Even <i>motion</i> must be placed under anathema.</p>
+
+<p>We have a saying that <i>knowledge is power</i>. I would say that <i>motion is
+liberty</i>. The serfdom of the middle ages was in good degree maintained
+by binding man to the soil. Astriction to the soil was at once the
+foundation and the symbol of that serfdom. The baron became the master
+of the body of the man; he became also the master of his mental ideas.
+But when the serf acquired the power of locomotion, he laid the
+foundation of his emancipation; and from that hour feudalism began to
+crumble. As the serfs' power of motion enlarged, their<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_356" id="Page_356">[Pg 356]</a></span> liberty
+enlarged. As formerly they had known slavery by its symbol
+<i>immovability</i>, so now they tasted freedom by its symbol <i>motion</i>. The
+serf travelled beyond the valley in which he was born; he saw new
+objects; he met his fellow-men; and learned to think. At last motion was
+perfected; the steam-engine hissed past him, and he felt that now he was
+completely unchained. I do not give this as a theory of the rise and
+progress of modern liberty; but unquestionably there is a close and
+intimate connection between motion and liberty.</p>
+
+<p>The Popes are shrewd enough to see this connection; and herein lies
+their opposition to railroads. They have attempted, and still do
+attempt, to perpetuate papal serfdom, by tying their subjects to their
+paternal acres and their native town. Were my reader living in London or
+in Edinburgh, and wished to visit Chelsea or Portobello, how would he
+proceed? Go to the railway station and buy a ticket, and his journey is
+made. But were the country under the Pontifical Government, he would
+find it impossible to manage the matter quite so expeditiously. He must
+first present himself at the office of the prefect of police. He must
+state where he wishes to go to; what business he has there; how long he
+intends remaining. He must give his name, his age, his residence, and a
+certificate, if required, from his parish priest; and then, should the
+object of his journey be approved of, a description of his person will
+be taken down, a passport will be made out, for which he must pay some
+six or eight pauls; and after this process has been gone through, but
+not sooner, he may set out on his little journey. Very few of those who
+live in Rome were ever more than outside its walls. Even the nobles have
+the utmost difficulty in getting so far as Civita Vecchia; very few of
+them ever saw the sea. The Popes know that ideas as well as merchandise
+travel by rail; and that if the Romans are allowed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_357" id="Page_357">[Pg 357]</a></span> to go from home, and
+to see new objects, new faces, and to hear new ideas, a process will be
+commenced which will ultimately, and at no distant day, undermine the
+papacy. But among men of ordinary intelligence there will be but one
+opinion regarding a system that sees an enemy not only in the Bible, but
+in the most necessary and useful arts,&mdash;in the steam-ship, in the
+railroad, in the electric telegraph; in short, in all the improvements
+and usages of civilized life. Such a system assuredly has perdition
+written upon its forehead.</p>
+
+<p>The late Pope Gregory XVI. would not allow even an iron bridge to be
+thrown across the Tiber. The Romans solicited this, to get rid of a
+ferry-boat by which the Tiber is crossed at the point in question; but
+no; an iron bridge there could not be. And why? Ah, said Gregory, if we
+have an iron bridge in Rome, we shall next have an iron road; and if we
+have an iron road, "<i>adio</i>," the papacy will take its departure, and
+that by steam.</p>
+
+<p>But the Pope had another reason for withholding his sanction from the
+iron bridge; and as that reason shows how some wretched crotchet,
+springing from their miserable system, is sure to start up on all
+occasions, and defeat the most needed improvement, I shall here state
+what it was. At the point where it was wished to have the bridge
+erected, the Tiber flows between two populous regions of the city. There
+is in consequence a considerable concourse, and the passengers are
+carried over, as I have said, in a ferry-boat, for which a couple of
+baiocchi is paid by each person to the ferryman. The money thus
+collected forms part of the revenues of a certain church in Rome, where
+the priests who receive it sing masses for the souls in purgatory. If
+you abolish the ferry-boat, it was argued, you will abolish the penny;
+and if you abolish the penny, what is to become of the poor souls in
+purgatory? and for the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_358" id="Page_358">[Pg 358]</a></span> sake of the <i>souls</i>, the <i>living</i> were forced to
+do without the bridge.</p>
+
+<p>I need scarcely say that there is no gas in Rome. And sure I am, if
+there be a dark spot in all the universe,&mdash;a place above all others
+needing light of all kinds, moral, mental, and physical,&mdash;it is this
+dark dungeon termed Rome. It has a few oil-lamps, swung on cords, at
+most respectable distances from one another; and you see their hazy,
+sickly, dying gleam far above you, making themselves visible, but
+nothing besides; and after sunset, Rome is plunged in darkness,
+affording ample opportunity for assassinations, robberies, and evil
+deeds of all kinds. I know not how many companies have been formed to
+light Rome with gas. An attempt was made to light in this way the
+Eternal City during the pontificate of Gregory XVI. A deputation went to
+the Vatican, and told the Pope that they would light his capital with
+gas. "Gas!" exclaimed Gregory, who had an owl-like dread of light of all
+kinds; "there shan't be gas in Rome while I am in Rome." Gregory is not
+in Rome now; Pio Nono is in the Vatican: but the same oil-lamps which
+lighted the Rome of Gregory XVI. still flourish in the Rome of Pio
+Nono.<a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a></p>
+
+<p>All have heard of the Pontine Marshes,&mdash;a chain of swamps which run
+along the foot of the Volscian Mountains, and are the birthplace of the
+malaria,&mdash;a white vapour, which creeps snake-like over the country, and
+smites with deadly fever whoever is so foolhardy as to sleep on the
+Campagna during its continuance. These marshes, I understand, are
+increasing;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_359" id="Page_359">[Pg 359]</a></span> and the malaria is increasing in consequence. That fatal
+vapour now comes every summer to the gates of Rome: it covers a certain
+quarter of the city, which, I was told, is uninhabitable during its
+continuance; and if nothing be done to lessen the malaria at its source,
+it will, some century or half century after this, envelope in its
+pestilential folds the whole of the Eternal City, and the traveller will
+gaze with awe on the blackened ruins of Rome, as he does on those of
+Babylon on the plain of Chaldea: so, I say, will he see the heaps of
+Rome on the wasted bosom of the Campagna deserted by man, and become the
+dwelling-place of the dragons and satyrs of the wilderness. But matters
+are not come to this yet. An English company (for every attempted
+improvement in Rome has originated with English skill and capital) was
+formed some years ago, to drain the Pontine Marshes. They went to the
+Vatican; and Sir Humphrey Davy being then in Rome, they induced him to
+accompany them, in the hope that his high scientific authority would
+have some weight with the Pontiff. They stated their object, which was
+to drain the Pontine Marshes. They assured the Pontiff it was
+practicable to a very large extent; and they pointed out its manifold
+advantages, as regarded the health of the country, and other things.
+"Drain the Pontine Marshes!" exclaimed Pope Gregory, in a tone of
+surprise and horror at this new project of these everlastingly scheming
+English heretics,&mdash;"Drain the Pontine Marshes! God made the Pontine
+Marshes; and if He had intended them to be drained, He would have
+drained them himself."</p>
+
+<p>The barrenness that afflicts all countries which are the seat of a false
+religion is a public testimony of the Divine indignation against
+idolatry. For the sin of man the earth was originally cursed: and
+wherever wicked systems exist, there a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_360" id="Page_360">[Pg 360]</a></span> manifest curse rests upon the
+earth. The Mohammedan apostacy and the Roman apostacy are now seated in
+the midst of wildernesses. And, to make the fact more striking, these
+lands, which are deserts now, were anciently the best cultivated on the
+globe. There stood the proudest of earth's cities,&mdash;there the arts
+flourished,&mdash;and there men were free after the measure of ancient
+freedom. All this is at an end long since. Ruins, silence, and a sickly
+and sinking population, are the mournful spectacles which greet the eye
+of the traveller in Papal and Mohammedan countries. Thus God bears
+outward testimony against the Papal and Mohammedan systems. He has
+cursed the ground for their sakes; not in the way of miracle,&mdash;not by
+sending an angel to smite it, or by raining brimstone upon it, as he did
+on Sodom: the angel that has smitten the dominions of the Pope and of
+the False Prophet,&mdash;the brimstone and fire which have been rained upon
+them,&mdash;are the wicked systems which have there grown up, and by which
+Government has been rendered blind, infatuated, and tyrannical, and man
+stupid, indolent, and vicious. But the laws the Almighty has
+established, according to which idolatry necessarily and uniformly
+blights the earth and the men who live upon it, only show that his
+indignation against these evil systems is unchangeable and eternal, and
+will pursue them till they perish. Of this the state of the plain around
+Rome, the <i>Agro Romano</i>, forms a terrible example.</p>
+
+<p>I have endeavoured in former chapters to exhibit a picture of the
+frightful desolation of this once magnificent plain. He that set his
+mark on the brow of the first murderer has set his mark on this plain,
+where so much blood has been shed. "Now art thou cursed from the earth,
+which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother's blood from thy
+hand. When thou tillest the ground it shall not henceforth yield unto
+thee her<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_361" id="Page_361">[Pg 361]</a></span> strength." But God has cursed this plain through the
+instrumentality of this evil system the Papacy, and I shall show you
+how.</p>
+
+<p>I have already shown that there is not, and cannot be, anything like
+trade in Rome, beyond what is necessary to repair the consumpt of
+articles in daily use. In the absence of trade there is a proportionate
+amount of idleness; and that idleness, in its turn, breeds beggary,
+vagabondism, and crime. The French Prefect, Mr Whiteside tells us,
+published a statistical account of Rome; and how many paupers does he
+say there are in it? Why, not fewer than thirty thousand. Thirty
+thousand paupers in one city, and that city, in its usual state, of but
+about a hundred and twenty thousand inhabitants! Subtract the priests,
+the English residents, and the French soldiers, and every third man is a
+beggar. I was fortunate enough one evening to meet, in a certain shop in
+Rome, an intelligent Roman, willing to talk with me on the state of the
+country. The shopkeeper, as soon as he found the turn the conversation
+had taken, discreetly stepped out, and left it all to ourselves. "I
+never in all my life," I remarked, "saw a city in which I found so many
+beggars. The people seem to have nothing to do, and nothing to eat.
+There are here some hundred thousand of you cooped up within these old
+walls, and one half the population do nothing all day long but whine at
+the heels of English travellers, or hang on at the doors of the
+convents, waiting their one meal a-day. Why is this? Outside the walls
+is a magnificent plain, which, were it cultivated, would feed ten Romes,
+instead of one. Why don't you take picks, or spades, or
+ploughs,&mdash;anything you can lay hands on,&mdash;and go out to that plain, and
+dig it, and plant it, and sow it, and reap it, and eat and drink, and be
+merry?" "Ah! so we would," said he. "Then, why don't you?" "We dare
+not," he replied. "Dare not! Dare not till the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_362" id="Page_362">[Pg 362]</a></span> earth God has given
+you?" "It is the Church's," he said. "But come now," said he, "and I
+will explain how it comes to be so." He went on to say, that one portion
+of the Campagna was gifted to the convents in Rome, another portion was
+gifted to the nunneries, another to the hospitals, and another to the
+pontifical families,&mdash;that is, to the sons and daughters, or, as they
+more politely speak in Rome, the nephews and nieces, of the Popes. These
+were the owners of the great Roman plain; and in their hands almost
+every acre of it was locked up, inaccessible to the plough, and
+inaccessible to the people. Even in our country it is found that
+corporations make the worst possible landlords, and that lands in the
+possession of such bodies are always less productive than estates
+managed in the ordinary way. But what sort of farming are we to expect
+from such corporations as we find in the city of Rome? What skill or
+capital have a brotherhood of lazy monks, to enable them to cultivate
+their lands? What enterprise or interest have a sisterhood of nuns to
+farm their property? They know they shall have their lifetime of it, and
+that is all they care for. Accordingly, they let their lands for
+grazing, on payment of a mere trifle of annual rent; and so the Campagna
+lies unploughed and unsown. A tract of land extending from Civita
+Vecchia to well nigh the gates of Rome,&mdash;which would make a Scotch
+dukedom or a German principality,&mdash;belonging to the <i>San Spirito</i>, does
+little more, I was told, than pay its working. The land labours under an
+eternal entail, which binds it over to perpetual sterility. It is God's,
+<i>i.e.</i> it is the Church's; and no one,&mdash;no, not even the Pope,&mdash;dare
+alienate a single acre of it. No Pope would set his face to such a piece
+of reformation, well knowing that every brotherhood and sisterhood in
+Rome would rise in arms against him. And even though he should screw his
+courage to such an encounter, he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_363" id="Page_363">[Pg 363]</a></span> is met by the canon law. The Pope who
+shall dare to secularize a foot-breadth of land which has been gifted to
+the Church is by that law accursed. Here, then, is the price which the
+Romans pay for the Papacy. Outside the walls of the city lie the estates
+of the Church, depastured at certain seasons by a few herds, tended by
+men clad in skins, and looking as savage as the animals they tend; while
+inside the walls are some hundred thousand Romans, enduring from one
+year's end to another all the miseries of a partial famine. Nor is there
+the least hope that matters will mend so long as the Papacy lasts. For
+while the Papacy is in Italy, the Campagna, once so populous and rich,
+will be what it now is,&mdash;a desert.</p>
+
+<p>And the Papal States, lapsed into more than primeval sterility, overrun
+by brigandage and beggary, are the picture of what Britain would be
+under the Papacy. Let the Roman Church get the upper hand in this
+country, and, be assured, the first thing it will do will be to demand
+back every acre of land that once belonged to it. Before the
+Reformation, half the lands of England, and a third of the lands of
+Scotland, were in the possession of the Church. She keeps a chart of
+them to this hour: she knows every foot-breadth of British soil that at
+any time belonged to her: she holds its present possessors to be robbers
+and sacrilegious men; and the first moment she has the power, she will
+compel them to disgorge what she holds to be ill-gotten wealth, and
+endow her with the broad acres she once possessed. Nor will she stop
+here. By haunting death-beds,&mdash;by putting in motion the machinery of the
+confessional,&mdash;by the threat of purgatory in this case, and the lure of
+paradise in that,&mdash;she will speedily add to her former ample domain. And
+what will our country then become? We shall have Mother Church for
+landlord; and while she feasts daily at her sumptuous board, we shall
+have<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_364" id="Page_364">[Pg 364]</a></span> what the Romans now have,&mdash;the crumbs. We shall have monks and
+nuns for our farmers; and under their management, farewell to the
+smiling fields, the golden harvests, and the opulent cities, of Scotland
+and England. Our country will again become what it was before the
+Reformation,&mdash;a land of moors, and swamps, and forests, with a few
+patches of indifferent cultivation around our convents and abbacies.
+Vagabondism, lay and sacerdotal, will flourish once more in Britain;
+trade and commerce will be put down, as savouring of independence and
+intelligence; indolence and beggary will be sanctified; and troops of
+friars, with wallets on their backs, impudence on their brows, and
+profanity and filthiness on their tongues, will scour the country,
+demanding that every threshold and every purse shall be open to them.
+This result will come as surely as to-morrow will come, provided we
+permit the Papacy to raise its head once more among us.</p>
+
+<p>Let no one imagine that this terrible wreck of man, and of all his
+interests,&mdash;of civilization, of industry, of trade and commerce,&mdash;has
+happened of chance, and that there is no connection between this
+deplorable state of matters and the system which has prevailed in Italy.
+On the contrary, it is the direct, the necessary, and the uniform result
+of that system. The barbarian hates art because he does not understand
+its uses, and dreads its power. But the hatred the Pope bears to the
+useful arts is not that of the barbarian. It is the intelligent, the
+consistent hatred of a man who knows what he is about. It is the hatred
+of a man who comprehends both the character of his own system, and the
+tendency of modern improvements, and who sees right well, that if these
+improvements are introduced, the Papacy must fall. Self-preservation is
+the first law of systems, as of individuals; and the Papacy, feeling the
+antagonism between itself and these things, ever has and ever<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_365" id="Page_365">[Pg 365]</a></span> will
+resist them. It cannot tolerate them though it would. Speculatists and
+sentimentalists may talk as they please; but the destruction of that
+system is the first requisite to the regeneration of Italy.</p>
+
+<p>Such, then, is the condition of Italy at this day. Were we to find a
+state of things like this in the centre of Africa, or in some barbarous
+region thousands and thousands of miles away from European literature,
+arts, and influences, where the plough and the loom had yet to be
+invented, it would by no means surprise us. But to find a state of
+matters like this in the centre of Europe,&mdash;in Italy, once the head of
+civilization and influence, the birthplace of modern art and
+letters,&mdash;is certainly wonderful. But the wonder is completed when we
+reflect that this state of things obtains under a Government claiming to
+be guided by a higher than mortal sagacity,&mdash;a Government which says
+that it never did, and never can, err,&mdash;a Government that is
+supernatural and infallible. Supernatural and infallible! Why, I say, go
+out into the street,&mdash;stop the first old woman you meet,&mdash;carry her to
+Rome,&mdash;put a three-storied cap on her head,&mdash;enthrone her on the high
+altar in St Peter's,&mdash;burn incense before her, and call her
+infallible,&mdash;I say that old woman will be a more enlightened ruler that
+Pio Nono. The old Scotch woman or English woman would beat the old Roman
+woman hollow.</p>
+
+<p>The facts I have stated are sad enough; but the more harrowing picture
+of the working of the papal system has yet to be shown.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_366" id="Page_366">[Pg 366]</a></span></p>
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XXVI" id="CHAPTER_XXVI"></a>CHAPTER XXVI.</h3>
+
+<h4>JUSTICE AND LIBERTY IN THE PAPAL STATES.</h4>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang">Justice the Pillar of the State&mdash;Claim implied in being God's
+Vicar, namely, that the Pope governs the World as God would govern
+it, were He personally present in it&mdash;No Civil Code in the Papal
+States&mdash;Citizens have no Rights save as Church Members&mdash;No Lay
+Judges&mdash;The Pontifical Government simply the Embodiment of the
+Papacy&mdash;Courts of Justice visited&mdash;Papal Tribunals&mdash;The
+Rota&mdash;Signatura&mdash;Cassation&mdash;Exceptional Tribunals&mdash;Apostolical
+Chamber&mdash;House of Peter&mdash;Justice bought and sold at Rome&mdash;<span class="smcap">Political
+Justice</span>&mdash;Gregorian Code&mdash;Case of Pietro Leoni&mdash;Accession of Pius
+IX.&mdash;His Popularity at first&mdash;Re-action&mdash;Case of Colonel
+Calendrelli&mdash;The Three Citizens of Macarata&mdash;The Hundred Young Men
+of Faenza&mdash;Butchery at Sinigaglia&mdash;Horrible Executions at
+Ancona&mdash;Estimated Number of Political Prisoners 30,000&mdash;Pope's
+Prisons described&mdash;Horrible Treatment of Prisoners&mdash;The Sbirri&mdash;The
+Spies&mdash;Domiciliary Restraint&mdash;Expulsions from Rome&mdash;Imprisonment
+without reason assigned&mdash;Manner in which Apprehensions are
+made&mdash;Condemnations without Evidence or Trial&mdash;Misery of Rome&mdash;The
+Pope's Jubilee. </p></div>
+
+
+<p class="noin"><span class="smcap">We</span> turn now to the <span class="smcap">Justice</span> of the Papal States. Alas! if in the
+preceding chapters on <i>Trade</i> we were discoursing on what does not
+exist, we are now emphatically to speak of what is but a shadow, a
+mockery. To say that in the Papal States Justice is not,&mdash;that it is a
+negation,&mdash;is only to state half the truth. Were that all, thankful
+indeed would the Romans be. But, alas! in the seat of Justice there sits
+a stern, irresponsible,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_367" id="Page_367">[Pg 367]</a></span> lawless power, before which virtue is
+confounded and dumb, and wickedness only can stand erect.</p>
+
+<p>On the importance of justice to the welfare of society I need not
+enlarge. It is the main pillar of the State. But where are you to look
+for justice,&mdash;justice in its unmixed, eternal purity,&mdash;if not at Rome?
+Rome is the seat of the Vicar of God. Ponder, I pray you, all that this
+title imports. The Vicar of God is just God on earth; and the government
+of God's Vicar is just the government of God. It is the possession and
+exercise of the same authority, the same attributes, the same moral
+infallibility, and the same moral omnipotence, in the government of
+mankind, which God possesses and exercises in the government of the
+universe. The government of the Pope is a model set up on the earth,
+before kings and nations, of God's righteous and holy government in the
+heavens. As I, the Vicar of Christ, govern men, so would Christ himself,
+were he here in the Vatican, govern them. If the claim advanced by the
+Pope, when he takes to himself the title of God's Vicar, amounts to
+anything, it amounts to this,&mdash;to all this, and nothing less than this.</p>
+
+<p>The case being so, where, I ask, are you entitled to look for justice,
+if not at Rome? This is her throne: here she sits, or should, according
+to the theory of the popedom, high above the disturbing and blinding
+passions of earth, serenely calm and inexorably true, weighing all
+actions in her awful scales, and giving forth those solemn awards which
+find their response in the universal reason and conscience of mankind.
+If so, what mean these dungeons? Why these trials shrouded in secrecy?
+Why this clanking of chains, and that cry which has gone up to heaven,
+and which pleads for justice there? Come near, I pray you, and look at
+the Pope's justice; enter his tribunals, and see the working of his
+courts; listen to the evidence<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_368" id="Page_368">[Pg 368]</a></span> which is there received, and the
+sentences which are there pronounced; visit his dungeons and galleys;
+and then tell me what you think of the administration of this man who
+styles himself God's Vicar.</p>
+
+<p>Let me first of all give prominence to the fact that in the Papal States
+there is no <i>civil</i> code. It is a purely <i>spiritually</i> governed region.
+The Church sustains herself as judge in <i>all</i> causes, and holds her law
+as sufficiently comprehensive in its principles, and sufficiently
+flexible and practical in its special provisions, to determine all
+questions that can arise, of whatever nature,&mdash;whether relating to the
+body or the soul of man, to his property or his conscience. By what is
+strictly and purely church law are all things here adjudicated, for
+other law there is none. That law is the decretals and bulls of the
+popes. Only think of such a code! The Roman jurisprudence amounts to
+many hundreds of volumes, and its precedents range over many centuries,
+so that the most plodding lawyer and the most industrious judge may well
+despair of ever being able to tell exactly what the law says on any
+particular case, or of being able to find a clue to the true
+interpretation, granting that he sincerely wishes to do so, through the
+inextricable labyrinth of decisions by which he is to be guided. This
+law was made by the Church and for the Church, and gives to the citizen,
+as such, no right or privilege of any kind. Whatever rights the Roman
+possesses, he possesses solely in his character of Church member; he has
+a right to absolution when he confesses; a right to the undisturbed
+possession of his goods when he takes the sacrament; but he has no
+rights in his character of citizen; and when he falls out of communion
+with the Church, he falls at the same time from all rights whatever. He
+is beyond the pale of the Church, and beyond the pale of the law. Our
+freethinkers, who are so ready to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_369" id="Page_369">[Pg 369]</a></span> fraternise with the Romanists, would
+do well to consider how they would like this sort of regimen.</p>
+
+<p>Let me, in the second place, give prominence to the fact, that in the
+Papal States there are no lay judges. There all are "anointed prelates."
+This applies to all the tribunals, from the highest to the lowest. In
+short, the whole machinery of the Government is priestly. Its head is a
+priest,&mdash;the Pope; its Prime Minister is a priest; its Chancellor of the
+Exchequer is a priest; its Secretary at War is a priest; all are
+priests. These functionaries cannot be impeached. However gross their
+blunders, or glaring their malversations, they are secure from censure;
+because to punish them would be to say that they had erred, and to say
+that they had erred would be to impeach the infallibility of the
+Pontifical Government. A treasurer who enriches himself and robs the
+exchequer may be promoted to the cardinalate, but cannot be censured.
+The highest mark of displeasure on which the popes have ventured in such
+cases has been, to appoint to a dignity with a very inadequate salary.
+The Government of the Papal States, both in its <i>law</i> and in its
+<i>administration</i>, being strictly sacerdotal, the great fairness of the
+test we are now applying to the Papacy is undeniable. It would be very
+unfair to try the religion of Britain by the government of Britain, or
+to charge on Christianity the errors, the injustice, and the oppression
+which our rulers may commit, because our religion is one thing, and our
+Government is another. But it is not so in the Papal States. There the
+Church is the Government. The papal Government is simply the embodiment
+of the papal religion. And I cannot conceive a fairer, a more accurate,
+or a more comprehensive test of the genius and tendency of a religion,
+than simply the condition of that country where the making of the law,
+the administration of the law, the control of all persons, the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_370" id="Page_370">[Pg 370]</a></span>
+regulation of all affairs, and the adjudication of all questions, are
+done by that religion; and where, with no one impediment to obstruct it,
+and with every conceivable advantage to aid it, it can exhibit all its
+principles and accomplish all its objects. If that religion be true, the
+condition of such country ought to be the most blessed on the face of
+the earth.</p>
+
+<p>One day I visited the courts of justice, which are on Mount Citorio. We
+ascended a spacious staircase (I say we, for Mr Stewart, the intelligent
+and obliging companion of my wanderings in Rome, was with me), and
+entered a hall crowded with a number of shabby-looking people. We turned
+off into a side-room, not larger than one's library, where the court was
+sitting. Behind a table slightly raised, and covered with green cloth,
+sat two priests as judges. A counsel sat with them, to assist
+occasionally. On the wall at their back hung a painting of Pont. Max.
+Pius IX.; and on the table stood a crucifix. The judges wore the round
+cap of the Jesuits. I saw men in coarse bombazeen gowns, which I took
+for macers: these, I soon discovered, were the advocates. They were
+clownish-looking men, with great lumpish hands, and an unmistakeably
+cowed look. They addressed the court in short occasional speeches in
+Latin; for it is one of the privileges of the Roman people to have their
+suits argued in a tongue they don't understand. There were some
+half-dozen people lounging in the place. There was an air of unconcern
+and meanness on the court, and all its practitioners and attendants;
+but, being infallible, it can dispense with the appearance of dignity. I
+asked Mr Stewart to conduct me to the criminal court, which was sitting
+in another apartment under the same roof. He showed me the door within
+which the assize is held, but told me at the same time, that neither
+myself nor any one in Rome could cross that threshold,&mdash;the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_371" id="Page_371">[Pg 371]</a></span> judge, the
+prisoner, his advocate, the public prosecutor, and the guard, being the
+only exceptions. Let me now describe the machinery by which justice, as
+it is called, is administered.</p>
+
+<p>The judges, I have said, are prelates; and as in Rome the administration
+of justice is a low occupation compared with the Church, priests which
+are incapable, or which have sinned against their order, are placed on
+the tribunals. A prelate who has a knowledge of jurisprudence is a
+phenomenon; hence the judges do not themselves examine the merits of
+causes, but cause them to be investigated by a private auditor, whom
+they select from the practising counsel. According to the report of this
+individual, the members of the tribunal pronounce their judgment, no
+matter what objections may be pled, or arguments offered, to the
+contrary. This system gives rise, as may well be conceived, to
+innumerable acts of partiality and injustice.</p>
+
+<p>There is a tribunal of appeal for the Romagnias, another for the
+Marshes, and a third for the Capitol. Besides these, there are tribunals
+of the third class throughout the States. The tribunal of appeal for the
+Capitol is the <span class="smcap">Roman Rota</span>. Before this court our own Henry, and the
+other kings of Europe, carried their causes, in those days when the Pope
+was really a grand authority, and ruled Christendom. Having now little
+business as regards monarchs and the international quarrels of kingdoms,
+it has been converted into a tribunal for private suits. It still
+shrouds itself in its medi&aelig;val secresy, which, if it robs its decisions
+of public confidence, at least screens the ignorance of its judges from
+public contempt. There are, besides, the tribunals of the <i>Signatura</i>
+and of <i>Cassation</i>, in which partiality examines, incompetence
+pronounces judgment, delays exhaust the patience and the money of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_372" id="Page_372">[Pg 372]</a></span>
+suitors, and the decent veil of a dead language wraps up the illegality.</p>
+
+<p>Besides these, there are the <i>exceptional</i> tribunals, which are very
+numerous. Among them the chief is the <i>ecclesiastical</i> jurisdiction, so
+extensive, that it is sufficient that some very trifling interest of a
+priest, or of some charity fund, or even of a Jew or a recent convert,
+is concerned, to transfer the cause to the bar of the privileged
+tribunal. The jurisdiction of the exceptional tribunal is exercised in
+the provinces by the vicar-general of the bishop; and in Rome the suits
+are laid before the private auditors of the cardinal-vicar, and of the
+bishop <i>in partibus</i>, his assistant. The auditors pronounce judgment in
+the name of the cardinal or the bishop, who signs it without any
+examination on his part. The suits which concern the public finances are
+decided by the exceptional tribunal, and a tribunal called the "<i>Plena
+Camera</i>" (full chamber); and any private person who might chance to gain
+his cause is condemned, as an invariable maxim, to pay the costs.
+Exceptional tribunals are to be found in very many parochial places,
+especially in those parishes near Rome where the judges are named by,
+and are removable at the will of, the baron. It can easily be imagined
+what sort of a chance any one may have who should have a suit with the
+baron. Besides all these, we must not omit the <i>Reverend Apostolical
+Chamber</i>, always on the brink of bankruptcy, which has been in the habit
+of exacting contributions, that they may sell to speculators the
+revenues of succeeding years. Thus private families, invested with
+iniquitous privileges, extort money from the unfortunate labourers, by
+royal authority and the help of the bailiff.</p>
+
+<p>There is another tribunal which should be styled <i>monstrous</i>,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_373" id="Page_373">[Pg 373]</a></span> rather
+than by the milder term of exceptional; this is the "<i>Fabbrica di S.
+Petro</i>" (house of St Peter.) To this was granted, by the caprice of the
+Pope, the right to claim from the immediate or distant heirs of any
+testator, <i>even at remote epochs</i>, the sum of unpaid legacies for pious
+purposes. The Cardinal Arch-Priest and the Commons, who represent the
+pretended creditor, are judges between themselves and the presumed
+debtor. They search the archives; they open and they close testamentary
+documents not ever published; they arbitrarily burden the estates of the
+citizens with mortgages or charges; and they commence their proceedings
+where other tribunals leave off,&mdash;that is, by an execution and seizure,
+under the pretence of securing the credits not yet determined upon. To
+the commissaries of this strange tribunal in the provinces is awarded
+the fifth of the sum claimed. Whosoever desires to settle the question
+by a compromise is not permitted to attempt it, unless he shall first
+have satisfied this fifth, and paid the expenses, besides the fees of
+the fiscal advocate. If any one should have the rare luck to gain his
+suit, as, for instance, by producing the receipt in full, he must
+nevertheless pay a sum for the judgment absolving him.</p>
+
+<p>The presidents of the tribunals&mdash;the minor judges, comprising the
+private auditors of the Vicar of Rome&mdash;have the power of legitimatizing
+all contracts for persons affected by legal incapacity. This is
+generally done without examination, and merely in consideration of the
+fee which they receive. It would take a long chapter to narrate the sums
+which have been, by a single stroke of the pen, wrongfully taken from
+poor widows and orphans. Incapacity for the management of one's affairs
+is sometimes pronounced by the tribunal, but very frequently is decreed
+by the prelate-auditor of the Pope, without any judicial formality. Thus
+any citizen may at any<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_374" id="Page_374">[Pg 374]</a></span> moment find himself deprived of the direction of
+his private affairs and business.</p>
+
+<p>Such is the machinery employed for dispensing justice by a man who
+professes to be the infallible fountain of equity, and the world's
+teacher as regards the eternal maxims of justice. Justice! The word is a
+delusion,&mdash;a lie. It is a term which designates a tyranny worse than any
+under which the populations of Asia groan.<a name="FNanchor_5_5" id="FNanchor_5_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a></p>
+
+<p>It would be wearisome to adduce individual cases, even were I able to do
+so. But, indeed, the vast corruption of the <i>civil justice</i> of the Papal
+States must be evident from what I have said. A law so
+inextricable!&mdash;judges so incompetent, who decide without
+examining!&mdash;tribunals which sit in darkness! Why, justice is not
+dispensed in Rome; it is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_375" id="Page_375">[Pg 375]</a></span> bought and sold; it is simply a piece of
+merchandise; and if you wish to obtain it, you cannot, but by going to
+the market, where it is openly put up for sale, and buying it with your
+money. Mr Whiteside, a most competent witness in this case, who spent
+two winters in Rome, and made it his special business to investigate the
+Roman jurisprudence, both in its theory and in its practice, tells us in
+effect, in his able work on Italy, that if you are so unfortunate as to
+have a suit in the Roman courts, the decision will have little or no
+reference to the merits of the cause, but will depend on whether you or
+your opponent is willing to approach the judgment-seat with the largest
+bribe. Such, in substance, is Mr Whiteside's testimony; and precisely
+similar was the evidence of every one whom I met in Rome who had had any
+dealings with the papal tribunals.</p>
+
+<p>But I turn to the political justice of the Papal States,&mdash;a department
+even more important in the present state of Italy, and where the
+specific acts are better known. Let us look first at the tribunal set up
+in Rome for the trial of all crimes against the State. And let the
+reader bear in mind, that offences against the Church are crimes against
+the State, for there the Church is the State. A secret, summary, and
+atrocious tribunal it is, differing in no essential particular from that
+sanguinary tribunal in Paris where Robespierre passed sentence, and the
+guillotine executed it. The Gregorian Code<a name="FNanchor_6_6" id="FNanchor_6_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a> enacts, that in cases of
+sedition or treason, the trial may take place by a commission nominated
+by the Pope's Secretary; that the trial shall be secret; that the
+prisoner shall not be confronted with the witnesses, or know their
+names; that he may be examined in prison and by torture. The accused,
+according to this barbarous code, has no means of proving his
+innocence,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_376" id="Page_376">[Pg 376]</a></span> or defending his life, beyond the hasty observations on the
+evidence which his advocate, who is appointed in all cases by the
+tribunal, may be able to make on the spur of the moment. This tribunal
+is simply the Inquisition; and yet it is by this tribunal that the Pope,
+who professes to be the first minister of justice on earth, governs his
+kingdom. No man is safe at Rome. However innocent, his liberty and life
+hang by a single thread, which the Government, by the help of such a
+tribunal as this, may snap at any moment.</p>
+
+<p>This is the established, the legal course of papal justice. Let the
+reader lift his eyes, and survey, if he have courage, the wide weltering
+mass of misery and despair which the Papal States present. We cannot
+bring all into view; we must permit a few only to speak for the rest.
+Here they come from a region of doom, to tell to the free people of
+Britain, if they will hear them, the dread secrets of their
+prison-house; and, we may add, to warn them, "lest they also come into
+this place of torment." I shall first of all take a case that occurred
+before the Revolution, lest any one should affirm of the cases that are
+to follow, that the Pontifical Government had been exascerbated by the
+insurrection, and hurried into measures of more than usual severity.
+This case I give on the authority of Mr Whiteside, who, being curious to
+see a <i>political process</i> in the Roman law, after some trouble procured
+the following, which, having been compiled under the orders of Pius IX.,
+may be relied on as strictly accurate. Pietro Leoni had acted as
+official attorney to the poor. Well, in 1831, under the pontificate of
+Gregory XVI., he was arrested on a charge of being a member of a
+political club. He was brought to trial, acquitted, set free, but
+deprived of his office, though why I cannot say, unless it was for the
+crime of being innocent. To sustain an aged father, a wife and children,
+Pietro had to work<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_377" id="Page_377">[Pg 377]</a></span> harder than ever. In 1836 he was again
+arrested,&mdash;suddenly, without being told for what,&mdash;hurried to the Castle
+of St Angelo, in the dungeons of which he had to undergo a rigorous
+examination, from which nothing could be elicited. He was not released,
+however, but kept there, till witnesses could be found or hired. At
+length a certain vine-dresser came forward to accuse Leoni. One day,
+said the vine-dresser, Pietro Leoni, whom he had never seen till then,
+came to his door, and, after a short conversation with him, in the
+presence of his sons, handed him a manuscript relating to a <i>reform
+society</i>, of which, he said, he had been a member for years. The
+vine-dresser buried this document at the bottom of a tree in his garden.
+The spot was searched, but nothing was found; his strange story was
+contradicted by his wife and sons; and the Pontifical Government could
+not for very shame condemn him on such evidence; but neither did they
+let him go. A full year passed over him in the dungeons of St Angelo. At
+last three additional witnesses&mdash;(their names never were known)&mdash;were
+produced against him. And what did they depose? Why, that they had heard
+some one say that he had heard Pietro Leoni say, that he (Leoni) was a
+member of a secret society; and on this hearsay evidence did the
+Pontifical Government condemn the poor attorney to a life-long slavery
+in the galleys. We find him ten long years thereafter still in the
+dungeons of the Castle of St Angelo, and writing the Pope in a strain
+which one would think might have moved a heart of stone. The petition is
+printed in the process. It begins,&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"Most holy father, divest yourself of the splendours of royalty,
+and, dressed in the garb of a private citizen, cause yourself to be
+conducted into these subterranean prisons, where there is buried,
+not an enemy of his country, not a violator of the laws, but an
+innocent citizen, whom a secret<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_378" id="Page_378">[Pg 378]</a></span> enemy has calumniated, and who has
+had the courage to sustain his innocence in presence of a judge
+prejudiced or corrupted.... Command this living tomb to be opened,
+and ask an unhappy man the cause of his misfortunes." </p></div>
+
+<p class="noin">And concludes thus,&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"But, holy father, neither the prolonged imprisonment of ten years,
+nor separation from my family, nor the total ruin of my earthly
+prospects, should ever reduce me to the baseness of admitting a
+crime which I did not commit. And I call God to witness that I am
+innocent of the accusation brought against me; and that the true
+cause of my unjust condemnation was, and is, a private pique and
+personal enmity.... Listen, therefore, to justice,&mdash;to the humble
+entreaties of an aged father,&mdash;a desolate wife,&mdash;unhappy
+children,&mdash;who exist in misery, and who with tears of anguish
+implore your mercy." </p></div>
+
+<p>Did the heart of Gregory relent? Did he hasten to the prison, and beg
+his prisoner to come forth? Ah, no: the petition was received, flung
+aside, and forgotten; and Pietro Leoni continued to lie in the dungeons
+of St Angelo till death came to the Vatican, and Gregory went to his
+account, and the prison-doors of St Angelo were opened, as a matter of
+course, not of right, on the accession of a new Pope. No wonder that
+Lambruschini and Marini, the chief actors in the atrocities committed
+under Gregory, resisted that amnesty by which Pietro Leoni, and hundreds
+more, were raised from the grave, as it were, to proclaim their
+villanies. I give this case because it occurred before the Revolution,
+and is a fair sample, as a Roman advocate assured Mr Whiteside, of the
+calm, every-day working of the Pontifical Government under Gregory XVI.
+I come now to relate other cases, if possible more affecting, which came
+under my own cognizance, more or less, while in Rome.</p>
+
+<p>But let me first glance at the rejoicings that filled Rome on the
+accession of Pius IX. A bright but perfidious gleam<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_379" id="Page_379">[Pg 379]</a></span> heralded the night,
+which has since settled down so darkly on the Papal States. The scene I
+describe in the words of Mr Stewart, who was an eye-witness of it:&mdash;"I
+was at Rome when Pope Pius IX. made his formal triumphal entrance into
+the city by the Porta del Popolo, where was a magnificent arch entering
+to the Corso. The arch was erected specially for the occasion, and
+executed with much artistic skill. Banners were waving in profusion
+along the Corso, bearing, some of them, very far-fetched epithets; while
+every balcony and window was studded with gay and admiring citizens, all
+alike eager in demonstrating their attachment to the Holy Father.
+Nothing, in fact, could exceed the gaiety of the scene: all and sundry
+seemed bent on the one idea of displaying their loyalty. What with
+garlands of flowers, white handkerchiefs, and vivas, the feelings were
+worked up to such a pitch, that the <i>young nobles</i>, when the state
+carriage arrived at the Piazza Colonna, actually unyoked the horses, and
+scampered off with carriage and Pope, to the Quirinal Palace, nearly a
+mile. This ebullition of feeling was undoubtedly the result of the
+general amnesty, and the bright expectations then cherished of a new era
+for Italy." Such an ebullition may appear absurd, and even childish, to
+us, who have been so long accustomed to liberty; but we must bear in
+mind that the Romans had groaned in fetters for centuries, and these, as
+they believed, had now been struck off for ever. "Was there," asked Mr
+Whiteside of a sculptor in Rome, "really affecting yourself, any
+practical oppression under old Gregory?" The artist started. "No man,"
+said he, "could count on one hour's security or happiness: I knew not
+but there might be a spy behind that block of marble: the pleasure of
+life was spoiled. I had three friends, who, supping in a garden near
+this spot, were suddenly arrested, flung into prison, and lay there,
+though innocent, till released by Pio<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_380" id="Page_380">[Pg 380]</a></span> Nono." As regards the amnesty of
+Pio Nono, which so intoxicated the Romans, it is common for popes to
+make political capital of the errors and crimes of their predecessors;
+and as regards his reforming policy, which deluded others besides the
+Italians, it was a very transparent dodge to restore the papacy to its
+old supremacy. The Cobra di Capella relaxed its folds on Italy for a
+moment, to coil itself more firmly round the rest of the world. Of this
+none are now better aware than the Romans.</p>
+
+<p>The re-action,&mdash;the flight,&mdash;the Republic,&mdash;the bombardment,&mdash;the return
+to the Vatican on a path deluged with his subjects' blood,&mdash;all I pass
+over. But how shall I describe or group the horrors that have darkened
+and desolated the Papal States from that hour to this? What has their
+history been since, but one terrible tale of apprehensions,
+proscriptions, banishments, imprisonments, and executions, the full
+recital of which would make the ear of him that hears it to tingle? Nero
+and Caligula were monsters of crime; but their capricious tyranny, while
+it fell heavily on individuals, left the great body of the empire
+comparatively untouched. But the tyranny of the Pope penetrates every
+home, and crushes every person and thing. There was not under Nero a
+tenth part of the misery in Rome which there is now. Were the acts of
+Nero and of Pio to be fully written, I have not a doubt,&mdash;I am
+certain,&mdash;that the government of the imperial despot would be seen to be
+liberty itself, compared with the measureless, remorseless,
+inappeasable, wide-wasting tyranny of the sacerdotal one. The diadem was
+light indeed, compared with the tiara. The little finger of the Popes is
+thicker than the loins of the C&aelig;sars. The sights I saw, and the facts I
+heard, actually poisoned my enjoyment of Rome. What pleasure could I
+take in statues and monuments, when I saw the wretched beings that
+lived<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_381" id="Page_381">[Pg 381]</a></span> beside them, and marked the faces on which despair was painted,
+the forms that grief had bowed to the very dust, the dead men who
+wandered in the streets and about the old ruins, as if they sought, but
+could not find, their graves? Ah! there <i>is</i> not, there never <i>was</i>, on
+earth a tyranny like the Papacy. But let me come to particulars.</p>
+
+<p>I shall first narrate the story of Colonel Calendrelli. It was told me
+by our own consul in Rome, Mr Freeborn, who knew intimately the colonel,
+and deeply interested himself in his case. Colonel Calendrelli was
+treasurer at war during the Republic. The Republic came to an end; the
+Pontifical Government returned; and Colonel Calendrelli, being unable to
+get away along with the other agents and friends of the Republic, was,
+of course, apprehended by the restored Government. It was necessary to
+find some pretext on which to condemn the colonel; and what, does the
+reader think, was the charge preferred against Colonel Calendrelli? Why,
+it was this, that the colonel had embezzled the public funds to the
+amount of twenty scudi. Twenty scudi! How much is that? Only five pounds
+sterling! That Colonel Calendrelli, a gentleman, a scholar, a man on
+whose honesty a breath had never been blown, should risk character and
+liberty for five pounds sterling! Why, the Pontifical Government should
+have made it five hundred or five thousand pounds, if they wished to
+have the accusation believed. Well, then, on the charge of defrauding
+the public treasury to the extent of twenty Roman scudi was Colonel
+Calendrelli brought to trial, and condemned! Condemned to what? To the
+galleys. Nor does that bring fully out the iniquity of the sentence. Our
+consul in Rome assured me that he had investigated the case, from his
+friendship for the colonel, and that the matter stood thus:&mdash;The colonel
+had engaged a man to do a piece of work, for which he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_382" id="Page_382">[Pg 382]</a></span> was to receive
+five pounds as wages. The work was done, the wages were paid, the man's
+receipt was tendered, and the witnesses in whose presence the money had
+been paid bore their testimony to the fact. All these proofs were before
+Mr Freeborn. Nay, more; the papal tribunal that tried the case was told
+that all these witnesses and documents were ready to be produced. And
+yet, in the teeth of this evidence, completely establishing the
+innocence of Colonel Calendrelli, which, indeed, no one doubted, was the
+colonel condemned to the galleys; and when I was in Rome, he was working
+as a galley-slave on the high-road near Civita Vecchia, chained to
+another galley-slave. This is a sample of the pontifical justice. Take
+another case.</p>
+
+<p>The tragedy I am now to relate was consummated during my stay in the
+Eternal City. In the town of Macerata, to the east of Rome, it happened
+one day that a priest was fired at as he was passing along the street at
+dusk. He was not shot, happily;&mdash;the ball, missing the priest, sank deep
+in a door on the other side of the way. This happened under the
+Republic; and the police either could not or would not discover the
+perpetrator of the deed. The thing was the talk of the town for a day or
+so, and was then forgotten for ever, as every one thought. But no. The
+Republic came to an end; back came the pontifical police to Macerata;
+and then the affair of the priest was brought up. The prefect had not
+been installed in his office many days till a person presented himself
+before him, and said, "I am the man who shot at the priest." "You!"
+exclaimed the prefect. "Yes; and I was hired to shoot him by&mdash;&mdash;,"
+naming three young men of the town, who had been the most active
+supporters of the Republic. These were precisely the three young men, of
+all others in Macerata, whom it was most for the interest of the Papacy
+to get rid of. That<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_383" id="Page_383">[Pg 383]</a></span> very day these three young men were apprehended.
+They were at last brought to trial; and will it be believed, that on the
+solitary and uncorroborated testimony of a man who, according to his own
+confession, was a hired assassin,&mdash;and surely I do the man no injustice
+if I suppose that, if he was willing for money to commit murder, he
+might be willing for money, or some priestly consideration, to commit
+perjury,&mdash;on the single and unsupported evidence, I say, of this man, a
+hired assassin according to his own confession, were these three young
+men condemned? And to what? To death!&mdash;and while I was in Rome they were
+actually guillotined! I saw their sentence placarded on the Piazza
+Colonna on the morning after my arrival in Rome. This writing of doom
+was the first thing I read in that city. It bore the names of the
+accused, the alleged crime, and an abstract of the evidence, or, I
+should say, volunteered statement, of the would-be assassin. It had the
+terrible guillotine at the top, and the fisherman's ring at the bottom;
+and though I had known nothing more of the case than the Government
+account of it, as contained in that paper, I would have said that it was
+enough to cover any Government with eternal infamy. Indeed, I don't
+believe that there is a Government under the sun, save the Pope's, that
+would have done an atrocity like it. I had some talk with our consul, Mr
+Freeborn, about that case too, and he assured me that, bad as these
+cases were, they were not worse than scores, aye, hundreds, that to his
+knowledge had been perpetrated in Rome, and all over the Papal States,
+since the return of the Pontifical Government. He added, that if Mr
+Gladstone would come to Rome, and visit the prisons, and examine the
+state of the country generally, he would have a more harrowing tale to
+unfold than that with which he had recently thrilled the British public
+on the subject of Naples:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_384" id="Page_384">[Pg 384]</a></span> that in Naples there was still something like
+trade, but in Rome there was nothing but downright grinding misery.</p>
+
+<p>There are few tales in any history more harrowing than the following.
+The events were posterior to my visit to Rome, and were published at the
+time in the American <i>Crusader</i>. It happened that several papal
+proconsuls were slain in the city of Faenza: all of them had served
+under Gregory XVI., in the galleys, as felons and forgers. Being
+favoured by the papal power, they tried to deserve it by becoming the
+tyrants of the unhappy population. When the gloomy news of their
+tragical end reached the Holy Father, the answer returned to the
+governor of that city, as to what he should do in such a case, as the
+true perpetrators could not be found, was, "<i>Arrest all the young men of
+Faenza!</i>" and more than a hundred youths were immediately snatched away
+from the bosom of their families, handcuffed and chained, thrown into
+the city prisons, and distributed afterwards among the gangs of
+malefactors, whose lives had been a continual series of robberies and
+murders! Thirty of these unfortunate victims were marched off to Rome,
+where they were locked up in a dungeon. Innocent as well as unconscious
+of the crime of which they were accused, they supplicated the President
+of the Sacred Consulta,&mdash;who is an anointed prelate,&mdash;asking only for
+justice; not for mercy and forgiveness, but for a regular trial. All was
+useless; the archbishop had neither ear nor heart, and the petition was
+forgotten. Thinking that, after all, even at Rome, and even among the
+high dignitaries of the Church of Sodom and Gomorrah, there might be
+found a man of human feeling, they wrote a second petition, which was
+this time addressed to a different personage of the Church, his
+Excellency Mgr. Mertel, Minister of Grace and Justice!</p>
+
+<p>The prisoners asserted to the high papal functionary the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_385" id="Page_385">[Pg 385]</a></span> illegality of
+their arrest,&mdash;their sufferings without any imputation of guilt,&mdash;the
+painful condition of their families, increased still more by the famine
+which now desolates the Roman States, and the want of their support. The
+supplicants were brought before Mgr. Mertel, who, feigning pity and
+interest for the sufferers (attention, reader!) offered them the choice
+of <i>ten years in the chain-gang, or to be transported to the United
+States</i>, the <i>refugium peccatorum</i>! They protested; but of what benefit
+is a legal and natural protest to thirty poor defenceless and guiltless
+young men, loaded with chains by a papal bureaucrat, surrounded by fifty
+ruffians armed to the teeth?</p>
+
+<p>On the night of the 5th of May 1853, the sepulchral silence of the
+subterranean prisons of St Angelo was interrupted by the rattling of
+keys and muskets. The thirty young citizens of Faenza were called out of
+their dens, and one by one, bending under his fetters, was escorted to a
+steamer waiting on the muddy Tiber to carry them to a distant land! The
+beautiful moon of Italy, as some call it, was shining benevolently over
+Rome and her iniquities; the streets, deserted by the people, were
+trodden by French patrols; all was silent as the grave itself; and not a
+friend was there to bid them adieu; not a relative to speak a consoling
+word to the departing; and none to acquaint the unfortunates who
+remained behind with their terrible calamity! This was their parting
+from Rome, at three o'clock, after midnight! But let us follow the
+victims of papal fury over the wide waters. Cast into the steerage,
+always handcuffed, the vessel rolling in a heavy and tempestuous sea,
+these wretched young men remained eighty hours in a painful position,
+till they reached Leghorn, where they were conducted to the quarantine,
+as though affected with leprosy and plague,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_386" id="Page_386">[Pg 386]</a></span> and thence embarked for New
+York, where they arrived totally destitute of clothes and means of
+subsistence.</p>
+
+<p>The autumn of 1852 will be long remembered in the Papal States, from the
+occurrence of numerous tragedies of a like deplorable character.
+Sixty-five citizens of Sinigaglia had been apprehended on the charge of
+being concerned in the political disturbances of 1848,&mdash;an accusation on
+which the Pope himself might have been apprehended. These citizens,
+however, had not been so prudent as to turn when the Pope did. In the
+August of 1852 they were all brought to trial before the Sacra Consulta
+of Rome, with the exception of thirteen who had made their escape.
+Twenty-eight of these persons were condemned to the galleys for life,
+and twenty-four were sentenced to be shot. These unhappy men displayed
+great unconcern at their execution,&mdash;some singing the <i>Marseillaise</i>,
+others crying <i>Viva Mazzini</i>. The Swiss troops, not the Austrian
+soldiers, were made the executioners in this case.</p>
+
+<p>The Sinigaglia trials were followed by similar prosecutions at Ancona,
+Jesi, Pesaro, and Funa, where unhappy groupes of citizens, indicted for
+political offences, waited the tender mercies which the "Holy Father"
+dispenses to his <i>figli</i> by the hands of Swiss and Austrian carabiniers.
+Let us state the result at Ancona.</p>
+
+<p>The executions took place on the 25th of October 1852, and they may be
+reckoned amongst the most appalling ever witnessed. The sentence was
+officially published at Rome after the execution, and contained, as
+usual, simply the names of the judges and the prisoners, a summary of
+the evidence unsupported by the names of any witnesses, and the penalty
+awarded&mdash;<i>death</i>. The victims were nine in number. The sacerdotal
+Government gave them a priest as well as a scaffold, but only<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_387" id="Page_387">[Pg 387]</a></span> one would
+accept the insulting mockery. The others, being hopelessly recusant,
+were allowed to intoxicate themselves with rum. "The shooting of them
+was entrusted to a detachment of Roman artillerymen, armed with short
+carbines, old-fashioned weapons, many of which missed fire, so that at
+the first discharge some of the prisoners did not fall, but ran off,
+with the soldiers pursuing and firing at them repeatedly; others crawled
+about; and one wretch, after being considered dead, made a violent
+exertion to get up, rendering a final <i>coup de grace</i> necessary." The
+writer who recorded these accounts added, that other executions were to
+follow, and that, if these wholesale slaughters were necessary, they
+ought, in the dominions of a pontifical sovereign, to be conducted with
+more delicacy, that is, in a more summary fashion. In truth, such
+executions are a departure from the approved pontifical method of
+killing,&mdash;which is not by fusillades and in open day, but in silence and
+night, by the help of the rack and the dungeon.</p>
+
+<p>I cannot go into any minute detail of the imprisonments, banishments,
+and massacres by which the Pope has signalized his return to his palace
+and the chair of Peter. But I may state a few facts, from which some
+idea of their number may be gathered. When Pio Nono fled from Rome to
+Gaeta, what was the amount of its population? Not less than a hundred
+and sixty thousand. I conversed with a distinguished literary Englishman
+who chanced to visit Rome at the time I speak of, and who assured me
+that there could not be fewer than two hundred thousand in Rome then,
+for Italians had flocked thither from every country under heaven,
+expecting a new era for their city and nation. But I shall give the Pope
+the benefit of the smaller number. When he fled, there were, I shall
+suppose, only a hundred and sixty thousand human beings in his city of
+Rome. Take the same Rome six months<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_388" id="Page_388">[Pg 388]</a></span> after his return, and how many do
+you find in it? According to the most credible accounts, the population
+of the Eternal City had dwindled down to little above a hundred
+thousand. Here are sixty thousand human beings lacking in this one city.
+What has become of them? Where have they gone to? I shall suppose that
+some were fortunate enough to escape to Malta, some to Belgium, some to
+England, and others to America. I shall suppose that twenty thousand
+contrived to get away. And let me here do justice to Mr Freeborn, the
+British consul, who saved much blood by issuing British passports to
+these unhappy men when the French entered Rome. Twenty thousand, I shall
+suppose, made good their flight. But thirty thousand and upwards are
+still lacking. Where are your subjects, Pio Nono? Were we to put this
+interrogatory to the Pope, he would reply, I doubt not, as did another
+celebrated personage in history, "Am I my brother's keeper?" But ah!
+might not the same response as of old be made to this disclaimer, "The
+voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground?" Again we
+say, Where are your subjects, Pio Nono? Ask any Roman, and he will tell
+you where these men are. Ask our own consul, Mr Freeborn, and he will
+tell you where they are. They are, those of them that have not been
+shot, rotting at this hour at the bottom of the Pope's dungeons. That is
+where they are.</p>
+
+<p>There is a singular unanimity in Rome amongst all parties, as to the
+number of political prisoners now under confinement. This I had many
+opportunities of testing. I met a Roman one evening in a book-shop, and,
+after a rather lengthened conversation, I said to him, "Can you tell me
+how many prisoners there are at present in the Roman States?" "No," he
+replied, "I cannot." "But," I rejoined, "have you no idea of their
+number?" He solemnly said, "God only knows." I pressed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_389" id="Page_389">[Pg 389]</a></span> him yet farther,
+when he stated, that the common estimate, which he believed to be not
+above the truth, rather under, was, that there were not fewer than
+thirty thousand political prisoners in the various fortresses and
+dungeons of the Papal States. Thirty thousand was the estimate of Mr
+Freeborn. Thirty thousand was the estimate of Mr Stewart, who, mingling
+with the Romans, knew well the prevailing opinion. Of course, precise
+accuracy is unattainable in such a case. No one ever counted these
+prisoners. No list of them is kept,&mdash;none that is open to the public eye
+at least; but it is well known, that there is scarce a family in Rome
+which does not mourn some of its members lost to it, and scarce an
+individual who has not an acquaintance in prison; and I have little
+doubt that the Roman estimate is not far from the truth, and that it is
+just as likely to be below as above it. When I was in Rome, all the
+jails in the city were crowded. The cells in the Castle of St
+Angelo,&mdash;those subterranean dungeons where day never dawned, and where
+the captive's groan can never reach a human ear,&mdash;were filled. All the
+great fortresses throughout the country,&mdash;the vast ranges of
+galley-prisons at Civita Vecchia, the fortress of Ancona, the castle of
+Bologna, the fortress of Ferrara, and hundreds of minor prisons over the
+country,&mdash;all were filled,&mdash;filled, do I say! they were
+crowded,&mdash;crowded to suffocation with choking, despairing victims. In
+the midst of this congeries of dungeons, surrounded by clanking chains
+and weeping captives, stands the chair of the "Holy Father."</p>
+
+<p>Let us take a look into these prisons, as described to me by reputable
+and well-informed parties in Rome. These prisons are of three classes.
+The first class consists of cells of from seven to eight feet square.
+The space is little more than a man's height when he stands erect, and a
+man's length when he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_390" id="Page_390">[Pg 390]</a></span> stretches himself on the floor, and can contain
+only that amount of atmospheric air necessary for the consumption of one
+person. These cells are now made to receive two prisoners, who are
+compelled to divide betwixt them the air adequate for only one. The
+second class consists of cells constructed to hold ten persons each. In
+the present great demand for prison-room these are held to afford ample
+accommodation for a little crowd of twenty persons. Their one window is
+so high in the wall, that the wretched men who are shut in here are
+obliged to mount by turns on each other's shoulders, to obtain a breath
+of air. Last of all comes the common prison. It is a spacious place,
+containing from forty to fifty persons, who lie day and night on straw
+too foul for a stable. It matters not what the means of the prisoner may
+be; he must wear the prison dress, and live on the prison diet. The
+jailor is empowered, should the slightest provocation be offered, to
+flog the prisoner, or to load his limbs so heavily with irons, that he
+scarce can move. And who are they who tenant these places? Violators of
+the law,&mdash;brigands, murderers? No! Those who have been dragged thither
+are the very <i>elite</i> of the Roman population. There many of them lie for
+years, without being brought to trial; and if they thus escape the
+scaffold, they perish more slowly, but not less surely, and much more
+miserably, by the pestilential air, the unwholesome food, and the
+horrible treatment of the jail. Nor is this the worst of it. I was told
+by those in Rome who had the best opportunities of knowing, but whose
+names I do not here choose to mention, that the sufferings of the
+prisoners had been much aggravated,&mdash;indeed, made unendurable,&mdash;by the
+expedient of the Government which confines malefactors and desperadoes
+along with them. These characters are permitted to have their own way in
+the prisons; they lord it over the rest, compel them to do the most
+disgusting<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_391" id="Page_391">[Pg 391]</a></span> offices, and attempt even outrages on their person, which
+propriety leaves without a name. Their sufferings are indescribable. The
+consequence of this accumulation of horrors,&mdash;foul air, insufficient
+food, and the fearful society with which the walls and chains of their
+prison compel them to mingle,&mdash;is, that a great many of the prisoners
+have died, some have sought to terminate their woe by suicide, while
+others have been carried raving to a madhouse. Mr Freeborn assured me
+that several of his Roman acquaintances had been carried to these places
+sane men, as well as innocent men, and, after a short confinement, they
+had been brought out maniacs and madmen. He would have preferred to have
+seen them shot at once. It is a prelate who has charge of these prisons.</p>
+
+<p>I have described the higher machinery which the Pope employs,&mdash;the
+tribunals,&mdash;judges,&mdash;the secret process,&mdash;the tyrannous Gregorian Code;
+let me next bring into view the inferior machinery of the Pontifical
+Government. The Roman <i>sbirri</i> have an European reputation. One must be
+no ordinary villain,&mdash;he must be, in short, a perfected and finished
+scoundrel,&mdash;to merit a place in this honourable corps. The <i>sbirri</i> are
+chiefly from the kingdom of Naples. They dress in plain clothes, go in
+twos and threes, are easily distinguished, and are permitted to carry
+larger walking-sticks than the Romans, whom the French commandant has
+forbidden to come abroad with any but the merest twig. Some of these
+spies wear spurs, the better to deceive and to succeed in their fiendish
+work. No disguise, however, can conceal the <i>sbirro</i>. His look, so
+unmistakeably villanous, proclaims the spy. These fellows will not be
+defeated in their purposes. They carry, it is said, <i>articles of
+conviction</i>, that is, political papers, on their person, which they use,
+in lack of other material, to compass the ruin of their victim. They can
+stop any one they please on the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_392" id="Page_392">[Pg 392]</a></span> street, compel him to produce his
+papers, and, when they choose not to be satisfied with them, march him
+off to prison. When they visit a house where they have resolved to make
+a seizure, they search it; and if they do not find what may criminate
+the man, they drop the papers they have brought with them, and swear
+that they found them in the house. What can solemn protestations do
+against armed ruffians, backed by hireling judges, who, like Impaccianti
+and Belli, have been taken from the bagnio and the galleys, thrust into
+orders, and elevated to the bench, to do the work of their patrons?<a name="FNanchor_7_7" id="FNanchor_7_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a>
+Such must show that they deserve promotion. The people loathe and dread
+the <i>sbirri</i>, knowing that whatever they do in their official capacity
+is done well, and speedily followed up by those in authority.</p>
+
+<p>But there is a class in the service of the Pontifical Government yet
+more wicked and dangerous. What! exclaims the reader, more wicked and
+dangerous than the <i>sbirri</i>! Yes, the <i>sbirri</i> profess to be only what
+they are,&mdash;the base tools of a tyrannical Government, which seems to
+thirst insatiably for vengeance; but there exists an invisible power,
+which the citizen feels to be ever at his side, listening to his every
+word, penetrating his inmost thought, and ready at any moment to effect
+his destruction. At noonday, at midnight, in society, in private, he
+feels that its eye is upon him. He can neither see it nor avoid it.
+Would he flee from it, he but throws himself into its jaws. I refer to a
+class of vile and abandoned men, entirely at the service of the
+Government, whose position in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_393" id="Page_393">[Pg 393]</a></span> society, agreeable manners, flexibility
+of disposition, and thorough knowledge of affairs, which they study for
+base ends, and handle most adroitly in conversation, enable them to
+penetrate the secret feelings of all classes. They now condemn and now
+applaud the conduct of Government, as the subject and circumstances
+require, and all to extract an unfriendly sentiment against those in
+authority, if such there be in the mind of the man with whom they are
+conversing. If they succeed, the person is immediately denounced; an
+arrest follows, or domiciliary restraint. The numbers that have found
+their way to prison and to the galleys through this secret and
+mysterious agency are incredible. Nor can any man imagine to himself the
+dreadful state of Rome under this terrible espionage. The Roman feels
+that the air around him is full of eyes and ears; he dare not speak; he
+dreads even to think; he knows that a thought or a look may convey him
+to prison.</p>
+
+<p>The oppression is not of equal intensity in all cases. Some are
+subjected only to domiciliary restraint. In this predicament are many
+respectably connected young men. They are told to consider themselves as
+prisoners in their own houses, and not to appear beyond the threshold,
+but at the penalty of exchanging their homes for the common jail.
+Others, again, whose apparent delinquency has been less, are allowed the
+freedom of the open air during certain specified hours. At the expiry of
+this time they must withdraw to their houses: Ave Maria is in many cases
+the retiring hour.</p>
+
+<p>Another tyrannical proceeding on the part of the Government, which was
+productive of wide-spread misery, was the compelling hundreds of people,
+from the labourer to the man in business, to leave Rome for their place
+of birth. These measures, which would have been oppressive under any
+circumstances, were rendered still more oppressive by the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_394" id="Page_394">[Pg 394]</a></span> shortness of
+the notice given to those on whom this sentence of expulsion fell. Some
+had twenty-four hours, and others thirty-six, to prepare for their
+departure. The labourer might plead that he had no money, and must beg
+his way with wife and children. The man in business might justly
+represent that to eject him in this summary fashion was just to ruin
+him; for his business could not be properly wound up; it must be
+sacrificed. But no appeal was sustained; no remonstrance was listened
+to. The stern mandate must be obeyed, though the poor man should die on
+the road. Go he must, or be conveyed in irons. And, as regards those who
+were fortunate enough to reach their native villages, alas! their
+sufferings did then but begin. These villages, in most cases, did not
+need them, and could afford no opening in the line of business or of
+labour in which they had been trained. They were houseless and workless
+in their native place; and, if they did not die of a broken heart, which
+many of them did, they went "into the country," as they say in
+Italy,&mdash;that is, they became brigands, or are at this hour dragging out
+the remainder of their lives in poverty and wretchedness.</p>
+
+<p>How atrociously, too, have many of the Romans been carried from their
+business to prison. Against these men neither proof nor witness existed;
+but a spy had denounced them, or they had fallen under the suspicions of
+the Government, and there they are in the dungeon. Their families might
+starve, their business might go to the dogs, but the vengeance of the
+Government must be satiated. Such persons are confined for a longer or
+shorter period, according to the view taken of their character or
+associates; and if nothing be elicited by the secret ordeal of
+examination, the prison-door is opened, and the prisoner is requested to
+go home. No apology is offered; no redress is obtained.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_395" id="Page_395">[Pg 395]</a></span></p><p>Such cases, I was told, were numerous. One such came to my knowledge
+through Mr Stewart. An acquaintance of his, a druggist, was one day
+dragged summarily from his business, and lodged in jail, where he was
+detained a whole month, although to this hour he has not been told what
+he had done, or said, or thought amiss. During the Constitution this man
+had been called in, in his scientific capacity simply, to superintend an
+electric telegraph which ran, if I mistake not, betwixt the Capitol and
+St Peter's. But beyond this he had taken no political action and
+expressed no political sentiment whatever. He knew well that this would
+avail him nothing; and glad he was to escape from incarceration with the
+remark, <i>meno male, alias</i>, it might have been worse.</p>
+
+<p>They say that the Inquisition was an affair of the sixteenth century;
+that its fires are cold; its racks and screws are rusted; and that it
+would be just as impossible to bring back the Inquisition as to bring
+back the centuries in which it flourished. That is fine talking; and
+there are simpletons who believe it. But look at Rome. What is the
+Government of the Papal States, but just the Government of the
+Inquisition? There there are midnight apprehensions, secret trials,
+familiars, torture by flogging, by loading with irons, and other yet
+more refined modes of cruelty,&mdash;in short, all the machinery of the Holy
+Office. The canon law, whose full blessing Italy now enjoys, is the
+Inquisition; for wherever the one comes, there the other will follow it.
+Let me describe the secresy and terror with which apprehensions are made
+at Rome. The forms of the Inquisition are closely followed herein. The
+deed is one of darkness, and the darkest hours of the twenty-four,
+namely, from twelve till two of the morning, are taken for its
+perpetration. At midnight half a dozen <i>sbirri</i> proceed to the house of
+the unhappy man marked out for arrest. Two take their<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_396" id="Page_396">[Pg 396]</a></span> place at the
+door, two at the windows, and two at the back-door, to make all sure.
+They knock gently at the door. If it is opened, well; if not, they knock
+a second time. If still it is not opened, it is driven in by force. The
+<i>sbirri</i> rush in; they seize the man; they drag him from his bed; there
+is no time for parting adieus with his family; they hurry him through
+the streets to prison. That very night, or the next, his trial is
+proceeded with,&mdash;that is, when it is intended that there shall be
+further proceedings; for many, as we have said, are imprisoned for long
+months, without either accusation or trial. But what a mockery is the
+trial! The prisoner is never confronted with his accuser, or with the
+impeaching witnesses. He is allowed no opportunity of disproving the
+charge; sometimes he is not even informed what that charge is. He has no
+means of defending his life. He has no doubt an advocate to defend him;
+but the advocate is always nominated by the court, and is usually taken
+from the partizans of the Government; and nothing would astonish him
+more than that he should succeed in bringing off his prisoner. And even
+when he honestly wishes to serve him, what can he do? He has no
+exculpatory witnesses; he has had no time to expiscate facts; the
+evidence for the prosecution is handed to him in court; and he can make
+only such observations as occur at the moment, knowing all the while
+that the prisoner's fate is already determined on. Sometimes the
+prisoner, I was told, is not even produced in court, but remains in his
+cell while his liberty and life are hanging in the balance. At day-break
+his prison-door opens, and the jailor enters, holding in his hand a
+little slip of paper. Ah! well does the prisoner know what that is. He
+snatches it hastily from the jailor's hands, hurries with it to his
+grated window, through which the day is breaking, holds it up with
+trembling hands, and reads his doom. He is banished, it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_397" id="Page_397">[Pg 397]</a></span> may be, or he
+is sentenced to the galleys; or, more wretched still, he is doomed to
+the scaffold. Unhappy man! 'twas but last eve that he laid him down in
+the midst of his little ones, not dreaming of the black cloud that hung
+above his dwelling; and now by next dawn he is in the Pope's dungeons,
+parted from all he loves, most probably for ever, and within a few hours
+of the galleys or the scaffold.</p>
+
+<p>I saw these men taken out of Rome morning by morning,&mdash;that is, such of
+them as were banished. They passed under the windows of my own apartment
+in the Via Babuino. I have seen as many as twenty-four led away of a
+morning. They were put by half-dozens into carts, to which they were
+tied by twos, and chained together, as if they had been brigands. Thus
+they moved on to the Flaminian gate, each cart escorted by a couple of
+mounted gendarmes. The spectacle, alas! was too common to find
+spectators; not a Roman followed it, or showed that he was conscious of
+it, save by a mournful look at the melancholy cavalcade from his window,
+knowing that what was their lot to-day might be his to-morrow. And what
+the appearance and apparent profession of these men? Those I saw had
+much the air of intelligent and respectable artizans; for I believe it
+is this class that are now bearing the brunt of the papal tyranny. The
+higher classes were swept off before, and the rage of the Government is
+now venting itself in a lower and wider sphere. An intelligent
+Scotchman, who had charge of the one iron-shop in the Corso, informed me
+that now all the tolerably skilled workmen had been so weeded out of the
+city by the Pope, that it was scarce possible to find hands to do the
+little work that requires to be done in Rome. If there be among my
+readers a mechanic who has been indifferent to the question between this
+country and the Papacy, as one the settlement of which could not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_398" id="Page_398">[Pg 398]</a></span> affect
+his interests either way, I tell him he never made a greater mistake all
+his life. If the Papacy succeed, his interests will be the very first to
+suffer, in the ruin of trade. Nor will that suffice; if a skilled man,
+he will be held to be a dangerous man; and, having taken from him his
+bread, the Papacy will next take from him his liberty, as she is now
+doing to his brethren in Rome.</p>
+
+<p>And what becomes of the families of these unhappy men? This is the most
+painful part of the business. Their livelihood is gone; and nothing
+remains but to go out into the street and beg,&mdash;to beg, alas! from
+beggars. It is not unfrequent in Rome to find families in competence
+this week, and literally soliciting alms the next. You may see matrons
+deeply veiled, that they may not be known by their acquaintances,
+hanging on at the doors of hotels, in the hope of receiving the charity
+of English travellers. Shame on the tyranny that has reduced the Roman
+matrons to this! Nor is even this the worst. Deprived of their
+protectors, moral ruin sometimes comes in the wake of the physical
+privations and sufferings by which these families are overtaken. Thus
+the misery of Rome is widening every day. Ah! could I bring before my
+readers the picture of that doomed city;&mdash;could I show them Rome as it
+sits cowering beneath the shadow of this terrible tyranny;&mdash;could I make
+them see the cloud that day and night hangs above it;&mdash;could I paint the
+sorrow that darkens every face; the suspicion and fear that sadden the
+Roman's every word and look;&mdash;could I tell the number of the broken
+hearts and the desolate hearths which these old walls enclose;&mdash;ah,
+there is not one among my readers who would not give me his tears as
+plenteously as ever the clouds of heaven gave their rain. And he who
+styles himself God's Vicar sees all this misery! Sees it, do I say! he
+is the author<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_399" id="Page_399">[Pg 399]</a></span> of it. It is to uphold his miserable throne that these
+prisons are filled, and that these widows and orphans cry in the
+streets. And yet he tells us that his reign is a model of Christ's
+reign. 'Tis a fearful blasphemy. When did Christ build dungeons, or
+gather <i>sbirri</i> about him, or send men to the galleys and the scaffold?
+Is that the account which we have of his ministry? No; it is very
+different. "The Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the
+meek; he hath sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty
+to the captive, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound." A
+few months ago, when the Pope proclaimed his newest invented dogma,&mdash;the
+Immaculate Conception,&mdash;he gave, in honour of the occasion, a grand
+jubilee to the Roman Catholic world. We all know what a jubilee is.
+There is a vast treasury above, filled with the merits of Pio Nono and
+of such as he, out of which those who have not enough for their own
+salvation may supplement their deficiencies. At the Pope's girdle hangs
+the key of this treasury; and when he chooses to open it, straightway
+down there comes a shower of celestial blessings. Well, the Pope told
+his children throughout the world that he meant to unlock this treasury;
+and bade his children be ready to receive with open arms and open
+hearts, this vast beneficence of his. Ah! Pio Nono, this is not the
+jubilee we wish. Draw your bolts; break the fetters of your thirty
+thousand captives; open your dungeons, and give back the fathers, the
+husbands, the sons, the brothers, which you have torn from their
+families. Put off your robe, quit your palace, take the Bible in your
+hand, and go round the world preaching the gospel, as your Master did.
+Do this, and we shall have had a jubilee such as the world has not seen
+for many a long year. But ah! you but mock us,&mdash;bitterly, cruelly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_400" id="Page_400">[Pg 400]</a></span> mock
+us,&mdash;when you deny us blessings which it is in your power to give, and
+offer us those which are not yours to bestow. But it is a mockery which
+will return, and at no distant day, in sevenfold vengeance upon, we say
+not Pio Nono, but the papal system. Untie the fetters of these men; make
+them free for but a few hours; and with what terrible emphasis will they
+demand back the friends whom the Papacy has buried in dungeons or
+murdered on the open scaffold! They will seek their lost sons and
+brothers with an eye that will not pity, and a hand that will not spare.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_401" id="Page_401">[Pg 401]</a></span></p>
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XXVII" id="CHAPTER_XXVII"></a>CHAPTER XXVII.</h3>
+
+<h4>EDUCATION AND KNOWLEDGE IN THE PAPAL STATES.</h4>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang">Education of a Roman Boy&mdash;Seldom taught his Letters&mdash;Majority of
+Romans unable to Read&mdash;Popular Literature of Italy&mdash;- Newspaper of
+the Roman States&mdash;Censorship of the Press&mdash;Studies in the Collegio
+Romano&mdash;Rome unknown at Rome&mdash;Schools spring up under the
+Republic&mdash;Extinguished on the Return of the Pope&mdash;Conversation with
+three Roman Boys&mdash;Their Ideas respecting the Creator of the World,
+Christ, the Virgin&mdash;Questions asked at them in the
+Confessional&mdash;Religion in the Roman States&mdash;Has no
+Existence&mdash;Ceremony mistaken for Devotion&mdash;Irreverence&mdash;The Six
+Commands of the Church&mdash;Contrast betwixt the Cost and the Fruits of
+the Papal Religion&mdash;Popular Hatred of the Papacy. </p></div>
+
+
+<p class="noin"><span class="smcap">The</span> influence of Romanism on trade, and industry, and justice, has been
+less frequently a theme of discussion than its influence on knowledge.
+While, therefore, I have dwelt at considerable length on the former, I
+shall be very brief under the present head. I shall here adduce only a
+few facts which I had occasion to see or hear during my stay in the
+Papal States. The few schoolmasters which are found in Italy are not a
+distinct class, as with us; they are priests, and mostly Jesuits. There
+are three classes of catechisms used in the schools; the pupil beginning
+with the lowest, and of course finishing off with the highest. But of
+what subjects do these<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_402" id="Page_402">[Pg 402]</a></span> catechisms treat? A little history, one would
+say, that the pupil may have some notion of what has been before him;
+and a little geography, that he may know there are such things as land
+and sea, and cities beyond, which he cannot see, shut up in Rome. With
+us, the lowest amount of education that ever receives the name comprises
+at least the three R's, as they are termed,&mdash;Reading, Writing, and
+'Rithmetic. But these are far too mundane matters for a Jesuit to occupy
+his time in expounding. The education of the Italian youth is a
+thoroughly religious one, taking the term in its Roman sense. The little
+catechisms I have spoken of are filled with the weightier matters of
+their law,&mdash;the miracles wrought by the staff of this saint, the cloak
+of that other, and the relics of a third; the exalted rank of the
+Virgin, and the homage thereto appertaining; Transubstantiation, with
+all the uncouth and barbarous jargon of "substances" and "accidents" in
+which that mystery is wrapped up. An initiation into these matters forms
+the education of the Roman boy; and after he has been locked up in
+school for a certain length of time, he is turned adrift, to begin the
+usual aimless life of the Italian. It does not follow, because he has
+been at school, that he can read. He is seldom taught his letters;
+better not, lest in after life he should come in contact with books.
+And, despite the vigilance of the censorship and the Index, bad books,
+such as the Bible, are finding their way into the Roman States; and it
+is better, therefore, not to entrust the people with the key of
+knowledge; for nothing is so useless as knowledge under an infallible
+Church. The matters which the Italian youth are taught they are taught
+by rote. "Ignorance is the mother of devotion,"&mdash;a maxim sometimes
+quoted with a sneer, but one which embodies a profound truth as regards
+that kind of devotion which is prevalent at Rome.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_403" id="Page_403">[Pg 403]</a></span></p><p>I have seen estimates by Gavazzi and other Italians, of the proportion
+who can read in the Roman States. It is somewhere about one in a
+hundred. The reader will take the statement at what it is worth. I had
+no means of testing its accuracy; but all my inquiries on the subject
+led me to believe that the overwhelming majority cannot read. And where
+is the use of learning one's letters in a land where there are no books;
+and there are none that deserve the name in Rome. The book-stalls in
+Italy are heaped with the veriest rubbish: the "Book of Dreams," "Rules
+for Winning at the Lottery," "The Five Dolours of the Virgin," "Tracts
+on the Miracles of the Saints," "Relations," professedly given by Christ
+about his sufferings, and said to have been found in his sepulchre, and
+in other places equally likely. At Rome, on the streets at least, where
+all other kinds of rubbish are tolerated, even this rubbish is not
+suffered to exist; for there, book-stalls I saw none. There are,
+however, one or two miserable book-shops where these things may be had.</p>
+
+<p>There was but one newspaper (so called, I presume, because it contained
+no news) published in Rome at the time of my visit,&mdash;the <i>Giornale di
+Roma</i>, which, I presume, still occupies the field alone. It contains a
+daily list of the arrivals and departures (foreigners, of course, for
+the gates of Rome never open to the Romans), the proclamations of the
+Government, the days of the lottery, and such matters. Under the foreign
+head were chronicled the consecration of Catholic temples, the visits of
+royal personages, a profound silence being observed on all political
+facts and speculations. And this is all the Romans can know, through
+legitimate channels, of what is going on beyond the walls of Rome. A
+daily paper was started during the Republic, and admirably managed; but,
+of course, it was suppressed on the return of the Papal<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_404" id="Page_404">[Pg 404]</a></span> Government. A
+few copies of the <i>Times</i> reach Rome every morning. They are not given
+out till towards mid-day, for they must first be read; and if the
+"editorials" are not to the taste of the Sacred College, they are not
+given out at all. The paper, during my short stay, was stopped for
+nearly a week on end; and the disappointment was the greater, that
+rumours were then current in Rome that something was on the tapis in
+Paris, and that the change in the constitution of France, whatever it
+might be, would not be postponed till the May of 1852, as was then
+believed in the north of Europe, but would be attempted in the beginning
+of December 1851. The tidings of the <i>coup d'etat</i>, which met me on the
+morning of the 3d December in the south of France, brought the full
+realization of these rumours. In the <i>Giornale di Roma</i> not a strayed
+dog can be advertised without permission of the censor. In Brescia there
+is a censorship for gravestones; and in Rome a strict watch is kept over
+the English burying-ground, lest any one should write a verse of
+Scripture above a heretic's grave. The expression of thought is more
+dreaded than brigandage.</p>
+
+<p>Those who aspire to the learned professions go to the Collegio Romano.
+But let the reader mark how the Roman Church here, as everywhere else,
+contrives to keep up the show of educating, and takes care all the while
+to impart the smallest possible amount of knowledge,&mdash;constructs a
+machinery which, through some mischievous perversion, is without
+results. The Collegio Romano has a numerous staff of professors, who
+prelect on theology, logic, history, mathematics, natural philosophy,
+and other branches. This looks well; but observe its working. All the
+lectures are delivered in Latin, which differs considerably from the
+modern Italian; and as the Roman youth spend only one year in the study
+of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_405" id="Page_405">[Pg 405]</a></span> Latin tongue before entering the Collegio Romano, the lectures
+might nearly as well, so far as the run of the students is concerned, be
+in Arabic. Nine-tenths of the young men leave the Collegio Romano as
+learned as they entered it. The higher priesthood are educated at the
+<i>Sapienza</i>, where, I believe, a thorough training in theological
+dialectics is given.</p>
+
+<p>It is impossible not to see that the Italians are a people of quick
+perceptions, lively sensibilities, and warm and kindly dispositions; but
+it is just as impossible not to see that they are deplorably untaught.
+The stranger is mortified to find that he knows far more of their ruins
+and of their past history than they themselves do. The peasant wanders
+over the huge mounds that diversify the Seven Hills, or traverses the
+Appian, or passes under the arch of Titus, without knowing or caring who
+erected these structures, or having even a glimmering of the heroic
+story in which they were, so to speak, the actors. When he looks back
+into the past, all is night. Nowhere is Rome so little known as in Rome
+itself. How different was it when the Pope received Italy! Then Italy
+occupied the van of civilization. And when the Byzantine empire fell,
+and the scholars of the East fled westward, carrying with them the rich
+treasures of the Greek language and literature, learning had a second
+morning in Italy. Famous colleges arose, to which the youth of Europe
+repaired. Philosophers and poets of imperishable name shed a lustre upon
+the country; but the Roman Church soon discovered that Italy was
+acquiring knowledge at the expense of its Romanism, and she applied the
+band to the national mind. And now that same Italy that once held aloft
+the lamp of knowledge to the world is herself in darkness, and, sad
+sight! is seen, with quenched orbs, groping about in the midnight.</p>
+
+<p>And yet proofs are not wanting to show that, were the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_406" id="Page_406">[Pg 406]</a></span>interdict of the
+Church taken off, Italy would at once throw herself into the race, and
+might soon rival the most successful of her contemporaries. Most of my
+readers, I doubt not, are familiar with the name of M. Leone Levi, now
+engaged on the great work of the codification of the commercial laws of
+the three kingdoms, and their assimilation to the continental codes. The
+fact I am now to state, and which speaks volumes as regards the efforts
+of "the Church" to educate Italy, I had from this gentleman; and to
+those who know him, any testimony of mine to his intelligence and
+uprightness is superfluous. M. Leone Levi, an Italian Jew, was born at
+Ancona, but eventually settled in England. During the Roman Republic, he
+paid a visit to Italy. But such a change! He scarce knew his native
+Italy,&mdash;it was so unlike the Italy he had left. In every town, and
+village, and rural district, schools had sprung up since the fall of the
+Pontifical Government. There were day-schools and night-schools,
+week-day-schools and Sabbath-schools. The young men and young women had
+forgotten their "light loves," and were busied in educating themselves,
+and in educating the little boys and girls below them. The country
+appeared to have resolved itself into a great educational institute. He
+was inexpressibly delighted. Such a change he had never dared to hope
+for in his native land. But ah! back came the Pope; and in a week,&mdash;in
+one short week,&mdash;every one of these schools was closed. The Roman youth
+are again handed over to the Jesuit. Italy is again sunk in its old
+torpor and stagnation; and one black cloud of barbaric ignorance extends
+from the Mediterranean to the Adriatic.</p>
+
+<p>I sat down one day on the steps of the temple of Vesta, which, though
+gray and crumbling with age, is one of the most beautiful of the ruins
+of Rome. Three boys came about me to beg a few baiocchi. The youngest
+boy, I found, was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_407" id="Page_407">[Pg 407]</a></span> ten years, and the oldest fifteen. I took the
+opportunity of putting a few questions to them, judging them a fair
+sample of the Roman youth. My queries were pitched low enough. "Can you
+tell me," I asked, "who made the world?" The question started a subject
+on which they seemed never to have thought before. They stood in a muse
+for some seconds; and then all three looked round them, as if they
+expected to see the world's Maker, or to read His name somewhere. At
+last the youngest and smartest of the three spoke briskly up,&mdash;"The
+masons, Signor." It was now my turn to feel the excitement of a new
+idea. Yet I thought I could see the train of thought that led to the
+answer. The masons had made the baths of Caracalla; the masons had made
+the Coliseum, and those other stupendous structures which in bulk rival
+the hills, and seem as eternal as the earth on which they rest; and why
+might not the masons have made the whole affair? I might have puzzled
+the boy by asking, "But who made the masons?" My object, however, was
+simply to ascertain the amount of his knowledge. I demurred to the
+proposition that the masons had made the world, and desired them to try
+again. They did try again, and at last the eldest of the three found his
+way to the right answer,&mdash;"God." "Have you ever heard of Christ?" I
+asked. "Yes." "Who is he? Can you tell me anything about him?" I could
+elicit nothing under these heads. "Whose Son is he?" I then asked. "He
+is Mary's Son," was the reply. "Where is Christ?" I inquired. "He is on
+the Cross," replied the boy, folding his arms, and making the
+representation of a crucifix. "Was Christ ever on earth?" I asked. He
+did not know. "Are you aware of anything he ever did?" He had never
+heard of anything that Christ had done. I saw that he was thinking of
+those hideous representations which are to be seen in all the churches
+of Rome, of a man<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_408" id="Page_408">[Pg 408]</a></span> hanging on a cross. That was the Christ of the boys.
+Of Christ the Son of the living God,&mdash;of Christ the Saviour of
+sinners,&mdash;and of his death as an atonement for human guilt,&mdash;they had
+never heard. In a city swarming with professed ministers of the gospel,
+these boys knew no more of Christianity than if they had been
+Hottentots. I next inquired respecting Mary, and here the boys seemed
+more at home. "Who is she?" "She is God's mother." "Where is she?" "She
+is in that church," pointing to the church on one side of the
+piazza,&mdash;the Bocca di Verita, if I mistake not,&mdash;before which criminals
+are sometimes executed; "and in that," pointing to the church on the
+other side of the piazza. "She is here, there, everywhere." "Was Mary
+ever on earth?" "Yes," was the answer. "What did she do when here?"
+"Oh," replied the little boy, "that is an antique affair: I was not here
+then." "Do you go to church?" I asked the eldest boy. "Yes." "Do you
+take the sacrament?" "I have taken it four times." I learned afterwards
+that the priests are attempting to seize upon the rising generation in
+Italy, by compelling all the children from twelve years and upwards to
+go to mass. "Do you go to confession?" I next asked. "Yes, I confess."
+"Do other boys and girls, your acquaintances, go to confession?" "Yes,
+all go," he replied. "We meet the priest in church on Sabbath, and he
+tells us when to come and confess." "Well, when you go to confess, what
+does the priest ask you?" "He asks me if I steal, and do other bad
+actions." "When you confess that you have done a bad action, what then?"
+"The first time I do it, the priest pardons me." "If you confess it a
+second time, what happens?" "The second time he beats me with a rod."
+"Does the priest ask you about anything else?" I inquired. "Yes," he
+rejoined; "he asks me about my father and my mother." "What does he ask
+you<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_409" id="Page_409">[Pg 409]</a></span> about them?" "He asks me if they do dirty actions," said the boy.
+Now, here the enormity and vileness of the confessional peeped out. Here
+one can see how the confessor can look into every hearth, and into every
+heart, in Rome. The priests had dragged this young boy into their den,
+and taught him to play the spy on his father and mother. The hand that
+fed him, the bosom that cherished him, he must learn to betray. I appeal
+to the fathers and mothers of Britain, whether, than see their children
+degraded to such infamous purposes, they would not an hundred times
+rather see them laid in the silent grave. Yet some are labouring to
+introduce the confessional among us. Should they succeed, it will be the
+garrotte on the throat of English liberty.</p>
+
+<p>As regards <span class="smcap">Religion</span> in Italy, this is an inquiry that lies rather beyond
+the limits I have marked out for myself. I may be permitted, however, a
+few remarks. It appeared to me that the very idea of religion had
+perished among the Italians. Not only had they lost the thing itself,
+but they had lost the power of conceiving of it. Religion unquestionably
+is a state of mind towards God; and devotion is a mental act resulting
+from that state of mind. We cannot conceive of an automaton performing
+an act of devotion, or of being religious; and yet, if religion be what
+it is taken to be at Rome, there is nothing to hinder an automaton being
+religious, nay, far more religious than flesh and blood, inasmuch as
+timber and iron will not so soon wear out under incessant crossings and
+genuflections. Religion at Rome is to kiss a crucifix; religion at Rome
+is to climb Pilate's stairs; religion at Rome is to repeat by rote a
+certain number of prayers before some beautiful painting or statue; or
+to remain a certain number of hours on one's bare knees on the paved
+floor; or to wear a hair-shirt. Of religion as a mental act,&mdash;as an act
+of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_410" id="Page_410">[Pg 410]</a></span> faith, and love, and reverence,&mdash;the Italian is not able to form
+even the idea. Hence the want of decorum that shocks a stranger on
+visiting the Italian churches. He finds bishops at the altar unable to
+restrain their sallies of wit and their bursts of laughter. And after
+this, what can he look for among the ordinary worshippers? The young man
+can go through his devotions perfectly well, and make love all the while
+to the young woman at his side. Young ladies can count their beads to
+the Virgin, and continue their gossip on matters of dress or scandal. It
+never occurs to them that this in the least deteriorates their worship.
+The beads have been counted, and an Ave Maria said with each; and what
+more does the Church require? Religion as a feeling of the mind, and
+devotion as an act of the soul, are unknown to them. I recollect meeting
+in the rural lanes leading from St John Lateran to the church of Maria
+Maggiore, a small party of Roman girls, who were strangely mixing mirth
+and worship,&mdash;chatting, laughing, and singing hymns to the Virgin,&mdash;just
+as Scotch maidens on a harvest field might diversify their labours with
+"Home, Sweet Home," or any other air. This irreverent familiarity shows
+itself in other ways, after the manner of the ancient pagans, who took
+strange liberties with their gods. When the drawing of the lottery is
+about to take place, the Romans most devoutly supplicate the Virgin for
+success; but should their number come out a blank, they may be heard
+reviling her in the open street, and applying to her every conceivable
+epithet of abuse.</p>
+
+<p>So far as the moral code of Romanism is concerned, sinless perfection is
+no difficult attainment. The commands of the Church are six; and these
+six have quite thrown into the shade the ten of the decalogue. They are
+the payment of tithes,&mdash;the not marrying in the prohibited seasons,&mdash;the
+hearing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_411" id="Page_411">[Pg 411]</a></span> of mass on Sundays and festivals,&mdash;the keeping of the
+prescribed fasts,&mdash;confession once a-year at least,&mdash;and the taking of
+the communion in Easter week. The last two are strictly enforced. On the
+approach of Easter, the priest goes round and gives a ticket to every
+parishioner; and if these are not returned through the confessional, a
+policeman waits on the person, and tells him that he has been remiss in
+his religious duties, and must submit himself to the Church's
+discipline, which he, the Church's officer, has come to administer to
+him in the Church's penitentiary or dungeons. Innumerable are the
+methods taken by the Romans to evade confession, among which the more
+common is to hire some one to confess for them. Others, though they go,
+confess nothing of moment. "You all here believe in the Pope and
+purgatory," I remarked to a commissario one day. "A few old women do,"
+he replied. "Do <i>you</i> not believe in them?" I asked. "I believe in one
+God; but I do not believe in one priest," said he. "I hope you will say
+so next time you go to confession," I observed. "I don't confess," he
+replied. "How can you avoid confessing?" I enquired. "I pay an old
+woman," he answered, "who can confess for me every day if she pleases."
+There is not a greater contrast in the world than that which exists
+betwixt the cost of the papal religion and its fruits,&mdash;betwixt the
+numbers and wealth of the clergy, and the knowledge and morality of the
+people. Under these heads we append below some very instructive
+notices.<a name="FNanchor_8_8" id="FNanchor_8_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_8_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a></p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_412" id="Page_412">[Pg 412]</a></span></p><p>In fine, one word will suffice to describe the religion of Rome; and
+that word is <span class="smcap">Atheism</span>. There may be exceptions,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_413" id="Page_413">[Pg 413]</a></span> but as a general rule
+the Romans believe in nothing. And how can it be otherwise? Of the
+gospel they know absolutely<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_414" id="Page_414">[Pg 414]</a></span> nothing beyond what the priest tells them;
+even that he, the priest, can change a wafer into God, and, by giving it
+to people to eat, can save them from hell. This the Romans cannot
+believe; and therefore their creed is a negation. In the room of
+indifference, which could not be said to believe or disbelieve, because
+it never thought on the subject, has now come intense hatred of the
+Papacy, from the destruction of the nation's hopes under Pio Nono. He
+who seven years ago heard the streets of Rome echoing to the cry that
+she alone was <i>La Regina delle Genti</i>,&mdash;"sat a queen, and should see no
+sorrow,"&mdash;can best form an estimate of the terrible re-action that has
+followed the tumult of that hour, and can best understand how it has
+happened, that now the hatred wherewith the Italians hate the Papacy is
+greater than the love wherewith they loved it. Tradition, by its
+fooleries,&mdash;the mass, by its monstrosity,&mdash;the priest, by his
+immoralities,&mdash;and, above all, the Pope, by his perfidy and
+tyranny,&mdash;have made the papal religion to stink in the nostrils of the
+great mass of the Roman people. You might as well look for religion in
+pandemonium itself, as in a country groaning under such a complication
+of vices and miseries. Nay, there is more faith in pandemonium than in
+Rome; for we are told that the devils believe and tremble; but in Rome,
+generally speaking, there is faith in nothing. And for this fearful
+state of matters the Papacy, beyond all question, is responsible.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_415" id="Page_415">[Pg 415]</a></span></p>
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XXVIII" id="CHAPTER_XXVIII"></a>CHAPTER XXVIII.</h3>
+
+<h4>MENTAL STATE OF THE PRIESTHOOD IN ITALY.</h4>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang">First Impressions in Rome erroneous&mdash;The unseen Rome&mdash;Her
+devotement to one thing&mdash;In what light do the Priests in Italy
+regard their own System?&mdash;Can they possibly believe their Cheats to
+be Miracles?&mdash;A goodly number of the Priests Infidels&mdash;Others never
+thought on the subject&mdash;Some have strong Misgivings&mdash;Others
+convinced of the Falsehood of that Church, but lack Courage or
+Opportunity to leave it&mdash;Making Allowance for all these Classes,
+the Majority of Priests do believe in their System&mdash;The Explanation
+of this&mdash;The real Ruler in the Church of Rome, not the Pope, nor
+the Cardinals, nor the Jesuits, but the System&mdash;Human
+Machinery&mdash;The Pontiff&mdash;The College of Cardinals&mdash;Antonelli&mdash;The
+Bishops and Priests&mdash;The Jesuits&mdash;Their Activity and Importance at
+Rome&mdash;Their Appearance described. </p></div>
+
+
+<p class="noin"><span class="smcap">When</span> an Englishman visits the Eternal City, he is very apt, during the
+first days of his sojourn, to underrate the power and influence of the
+Papal system. At home he has been used to see power associated with
+splendour, and surrounded with the fruits and monuments of intelligence.
+At Rome everything on which he sets his eye bears marks of a growing
+barbarism and decay. Outside the walls of the city is a vast desert,
+attesting the utter extinction of industry. Within is an air of
+stagnation and idleness, which bespeaks the utter absence of all mental
+activity. A very considerable portion of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_416" id="Page_416">[Pg 416]</a></span> the population have no
+occupation but begging. The naked heads, necks, and feet of the monks
+and friars are offensive from want of cleanliness. The higher
+ecclesiastics even are coarse and vulgar men. The fine monuments reared
+by the taste and wealth of former ages want keeping. Their churches,
+despite the paintings and statuary with which they are filled, are
+rendered disagreeable by the beggars that haunt them, and the incense
+that is continually burned in them. Their very processions do not rise
+above a tawdry half-barbaric grandeur; and one must be far gone in the
+Puseyite malady before such exhibitions can inspire him with anything
+like reverence. The visitor looks around on this strange scene, so
+unlike what his imagination had pictured, and exclaims, "Where and in
+what lies the secret of this city's power?" Here there is neither art,
+nor industry, nor wealth, nor knowledge! Here all the bodily and all the
+mental faculties of man appear to be folded up in a worse than medi&aelig;val
+stupor. Where are the elements of that power for which this city is
+renowned, and by which she is able to thwart and control the civilized
+and powerful Governments of the north of Europe? Would, says he to
+himself, that those who venerate Rome when divided from her by the Alps
+and the ocean, would come here and see with their own eyes her
+contemptible vileness and inconceivable degradation; and that those
+statesmen who are moved by a secret fear to bow the knee to her, would
+come hither and mark the baseness of her before whom they are content to
+lower the honour and independence of their country! Such, we say, are
+the first impressions of the visitor to Rome.</p>
+
+<p>But a few days suffice to correct this erroneous estimate. The person
+looks around him; he looks below him. There he discovers the real Rome.
+It is not the Rome that is seen,&mdash;it is the Rome that is unseen,&mdash;before
+which the nations tremble.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_417" id="Page_417">[Pg 417]</a></span> Beneath his feet are tremendous agencies at
+work. There are the pent-up fires that shake the globe. Rome, cut off
+from all the world, and surrounded by leagues of silent and blackened
+deserts, is the centre of energies that rest not day nor night, and the
+action of which is felt at the very extremities of the earth. It seems,
+indeed, as if Rome had been set free from all the anxieties and labours
+which occupy the minds and hands of the rest of the world, of very
+purpose that she might attend to only one thing. The labours of the
+husbandman and the artificer she has forborne. Like the lilies of the
+field, she toils not, neither does she spin. She sits in the midst of
+her deserts, like the sorceress on the heath, or the conspirator in his
+den, hatching plots against the world. Rome is the pandemonium of the
+earth, and the Pope is the Lucifer of the world's drama. Fallen he is
+from the heaven of power and grandeur which he occupied in the twelfth
+century; and he and his compeers lie sunk in a very gulph of anarchy and
+barbarism. Lifting up his eyes, he beholds afar off the happy nations of
+Protestantism, reaping the reward of a free Bible and a free Government,
+in the riches of their commerce and the stability of their power. The
+sight is tormenting and intolerable, and the pontiff is stung thereby
+into ceaseless attempts to retrieve his fall. If he cannot mount to his
+old seat, and sit there once more in superhuman pride and unapproachable
+power above the bodies and the souls of men, he may at least hope to
+draw down those he so much envies into the same gulph with himself.
+Hence the villanies and plots of all kinds of which Rome is full, and
+which form a source of danger to the nations of Christendom, from which
+they may hope to be delivered only when the Papacy shall have been
+finally destroyed.</p>
+
+<p>What I propose here is to sketch the <i>mental state</i> of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_418" id="Page_418">[Pg 418]</a></span> priests of
+Italy, so far as my opportunities enabled me to judge. The subject is
+more recondite than the foregoing; the facts are less accessible; and my
+statements must partake more of the inferential than did those embraced
+in the former branches of the subject.</p>
+
+<p>The first question that arises is, in what light do the priests in Italy
+regard their own system? Do they look upon it as an unrivalled compound
+of imposture and tyranny,&mdash;a cunning invention for procuring mitres,
+tiaras, purple robes, and other good things for themselves? or do they
+regard it as indeed founded in truth, and clothed with the sanction of
+heaven? They are behind the scenes, and have access to see and hear many
+things which are not meant for the eye and ear of the public. The man
+who pulls the strings of a winking Madonna can scarce persuade himself,
+one should think, that the movement that follows is the effect of
+supernatural power. The priest who liquefies the blood of St Januarius
+by the warmth of his hand or the warmth of the fire, must know that what
+he has performed is neither more nor less than a very ordinary juggle.
+The monk who falls a rummaging in the Catacombs, or in any of the old
+graveyards about Rome, and finds there a parcel of decayed bones, which
+he passes off as those of Saint Theodosia or Saint Anathanasius, but
+which are as likely to be the bones of an old pagan, or a Goth, or a
+brigand, can hardly believe, one should suppose, his own tale. If the
+Pope believes in his own relics, what conceptions must he have of Peter?
+What a strange configuration of body must he believe the apostle to have
+had! Peter must have been a man with some dozen of heads; with a score
+of arms, and a hundred fingers or so on each arm; in short, a perfect
+realization of the old pagan fable of the giant Briareus. The Pope must
+believe this, or he must believe that he gives his attestation to what
+is not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_419" id="Page_419">[Pg 419]</a></span> true. Above all, one can hardly imagine it possible that any man
+in whom reason had not been utterly quenched could believe in the
+monstrous dogma of transubstantiation. What! can a priest at any hour he
+pleases give existence to Him who exists from eternity? Can he enclose
+within a little silver box that Almighty One whom the heaven, even the
+heaven of heavens, cannot contain? Let a man confess at the bar of the
+High Court of Edinburgh that he believes himself to be God, and the
+Court will pronounce that that man is insane, and will hold him
+incompetent to manage his affairs. And yet every Roman Catholic priest
+professes to believe a more startling dogma,&mdash;even that he is the
+creator of God. And yet, instead of calling that insanity, we must, I
+suppose, call it religion. Seeing, then, the priests are called every
+day to do things which their senses must tell them are juggles, and to
+profess their belief in dogmas which their reason must tell them are
+monstrous and blasphemous absurdities, is it possible, you ask, that the
+priests in Italy can believe in their own system? I must here say, that
+I do think the majority of them do believe in it.</p>
+
+<p>A goodly number of the priests of Italy are infidels. They no more
+believe in the Pope than they believe in the pagan Jupiter. But then,
+were they to speak out their disbelief, and to say that purgatory is a
+mere bugbear for frightening men and getting their money, they know that
+a dungeon would instantly be their lot; and infidelity has little of the
+martyr spirit in it. These men, like Leo the Tenth, as thorough an
+infidel as ever lived, hold that it would be the height of folly to
+quarrel with a fable that brings them so much gain. Others are mere
+worldly men. They were never at the pains to inquire whether their
+system is true or false. They sing their mass in the morning; they pass
+their forenoons at the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_420" id="Page_420">[Pg 420]</a></span> caf&eacute;, sipping coffee, and taking a hand at
+cards; a stoup of wine washes down a substantial dinner; and, after a
+saunter along the Corso, or an airing on the Pincian, they doff their
+clerical vestments, and go to sup with the nuns, who have the reputation
+of being excellent cooks.</p>
+
+<p>Others there are whose minds are occasionally visited by strong
+misgivings. The cloud, so to speak, will open for a moment, and reveal
+to their astonished sight, not the majestic form of Truth, but a
+gigantic and monstrous imposture. A mysterious hand at times lifts the
+veil, and lo! they find themselves in the presence, not of a divinity,
+but of a demon. They disclose their doubts when they next go to
+confession. My son, says the father confessor, these are the suggestions
+of the Evil One. You must arm yourself against the Tempter by fasting
+and penance. A hair shirt or an iron girdle is called in to silence the
+voice of reason and the remonstrances of conscience; and here the matter
+ends. And there are a few&mdash;in every age there have been a few such&mdash;in
+the Church of Rome, and at present they are very considerably on the
+increase, who, in the midst of darkness, by some wondrous means have
+seen the light. A tract, a Bible, or some Protestant friend whom
+Providence had thrown in their way, or some one of the few passages of
+Scripture inserted in their Breviary, may have taught them a better way
+than that of Rome. Instead of stopping short at the altar of Mary, or at
+any of the thousand shrines which Rome has erected as so many barriers
+between the sinner and God, they go at once to the Divine mercy-seat,
+and pour their supplications direct into the ear of the Great Mediator.
+You ask, why do these men remain in a Church which they see to be
+apostate? Fain would they fly, but they know not how or where. They lift
+their eyes to the Alps on the one side,&mdash;to the ocean on the other.
+Alas!<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_421" id="Page_421">[Pg 421]</a></span> they may surmount these barriers; but more difficult still than
+to scale the mountains or to traverse the ocean is it to escape beyond
+the power of Rome. Woe to the unhappy man who begins to feel his
+fetters! He awakes to find that he is in a wide prison, with a sentinel
+posted at every outlet: escape seems hopeless; and the man buries his
+secret in his breast.</p>
+
+<p>Some few there are who, more daring by nature, or specially strengthened
+from above, adventure on the immense hazards of flight. Of these, some
+are caught, thrown into a dungeon, and are heard of no more. Others find
+their way to England, or some other Protestant State. But here new
+trials await them. They are ignorant of our language perhaps. They find
+themselves among strangers, whose manners seem to them cold and distant.
+They are without means of living; and, carrying with them too, it may
+be, some of the stains of their former profession, they encounter
+difficulties which are the more stumbling that they are unexpected. On
+these various grounds, the number of priests who leave the Church of
+Rome has been, and always will be, small, till some great revolution or
+upbreak takes place in that Church.</p>
+
+<p>But, making the most ample allowance for all these classes,&mdash;for the men
+who are atheists and infidels,&mdash;for the mere worldings, whose only tie
+to their Church is the gain it brings them,&mdash;and for those who are
+either doubters, or whose doubts have passed into full conviction that
+the Church of the Pope is not the Church of Jesus Christ,&mdash;making, I
+say, full allowance for all these, I have little doubt that the majority
+of the priests in Italy,&mdash;it may be not much more than a majority, but
+still a majority,&mdash;are sincere believers in their system.</p>
+
+<p>They are not ignorant of the frauds, the knaveries, the fables, and
+hypocrisies, by which that system is supported. They cannot shut their
+eyes to these, which they regard, in fact, as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_422" id="Page_422">[Pg 422]</a></span> sanctified by the end to
+which they are devoted; but they separate between these and the system
+itself; and though they cannot tell the line where truth ends and
+falsehood begins, still they look upon their system, on the whole, as
+founded in truth, and carrying with it the sanction of Heaven. Indeed,
+belief is a weak term to express the power the system has over them. It
+is rather a paralyzing awe, a freezing terror, like that with which his
+grim deity inspires the barbarian, which holds captive the strongest
+mind, and lays reason and conscience prostrate in the dust. Such I
+believe to be the state of mind of the greater number of the Italian
+priesthood.</p>
+
+<p>But how comes this? What is it which has produced this universal
+slavery? Is it the Pope? Is it the cardinals? Is it the Jesuits? No; for
+these men, though the tyrants of others, are themselves slaves. All are
+bound by the same chain of adamant, to the car of the same demon. A
+mournful procession of dead men truly, with the triple crown in front,
+and the sandals of the barefooted Capuchin bringing up the rear. What is
+it, I repeat, that holds the whole body in subjection, from the Pope
+down to the friar? It is the system, the abstract system, with its
+overwhelming prestige,&mdash;that system which lives on though popes die; the
+genius of the Papacy, if you will. This is the real monarch of that
+spiritual kingdom.</p>
+
+<p>A little power of mental abstraction,&mdash;and the subtile genius of the
+Italian gives him that power in a high degree,&mdash;will enable any one to
+separate betwixt the system and its agents. Some one has remarked, that
+he could form an abstraction of a lord mayor, not only without his
+horse, and gown, and gold chain, but even without the stature, features,
+hands, and feet of any particular lord mayor. The same can be done of
+the Papacy. We can form an abstraction of the Papacy not only<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_423" id="Page_423">[Pg 423]</a></span> without
+the tiara and the keys, but even without the stature and lineaments, the
+hands and feet, of any particular Pope. When we have formed such an
+abstraction, we have got the real ruler of the Papacy. That it is the
+system that is the dominant power in the Church of Rome, is evident from
+this one fact, namely, that councils have sometimes deposed the Pope to
+save the Papacy. There is in the Pope's kirk, then, a power greater than
+the Pope. The system has taken body and shape, as it were, and sits upon
+the Seven Hills, a mysterious, awe-inspiring divinity or demon; and the
+Pope, equally with the friar, bows his head and does obeisance. Wherever
+the pontiff looks,&mdash;whether backward into history, or around him in the
+world,&mdash;there are the monuments of this ever living, ever present, and
+all pervading power. It requires more force than the mind of fallen man
+is capable of, to believe that a system which has filled history with
+its deeds and the world with its trophies, which has compelled the
+homage of myriads and myriads of minds, and before which the haughtiest
+conquerors and the most puissant intellects have bowed with the docility
+of children, is, after all, an unreality,&mdash;a mere spectre of the middle
+ages,&mdash;a ghost conjured up by credulity and knavery from the tombs of
+defunct idolatries. This, I say, is the true state of things in Italy.
+Its priesthood are subdued by their own system,&mdash;by its high claims to
+antiquity,&mdash;its world-wide dominion,&mdash;its imposing though faded
+magnificence,&mdash;its perverted logic,&mdash;its pseudo sanctity. These not only
+carry it over the reason, but in some degree over the senses also; and
+the more fully persuaded the priests are of the truth and divinity of
+their system, they feel only the more fully warranted to employ fraud
+and force in its support,&mdash;the winking Madonna to convince one class,
+and the dungeon and the iron chain to silence the other.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_424" id="Page_424">[Pg 424]</a></span></p><p>Having spoken of the abstract and spiritual power that reigns over
+Italy, and, I may say, over the whole Catholic world, let me now speak
+of the corporeal and human machinery by which the Papacy is carried on.</p>
+
+<p>First comes the Pope. Pio Nono is a man of sixty-three. His years and
+the various misfortunes of his reign sit lightly upon him. Were the Pope
+much given to reflection, there are not wanting unpleasant topics enough
+to darken the clear Italian sunlight, as it streams in through the
+windows of the Vatican palace. Once was he chased from Rome; and now
+that he is returned, can he call Rome his own? Not he. The real master
+of Rome is the commandant of the French garrison. And while outside the
+walls are the dead whom he slew with the sword of France, inside are the
+living, whose sullen scowl or fierce glare he may see through the French
+files, as he rides out of an afternoon.<a name="FNanchor_9_9" id="FNanchor_9_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_9_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a> But Pio Nono takes all in
+good part. There is not a wrinkle on his brow; no unpleasant thought
+appears to shade the jovial light of his broad face. He sits down to
+dinner with evidently a good appetite; he sleeps soundly at night, and
+troubles not his poor head by brooding over misfortunes which he cannot
+mend, or charging himself with the direction of plots which he is not
+competent to manage. But, if not fitted to take the lead in cabinets,
+nature has formed him to shine in a procession. He has a portly figure,
+a face radiant with blandness, dissimulation, and vanity; and he looks
+every inch the Pope, as he is carried shoulder-high in St Peter's, and
+sits blazing in his jewelled tiara and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_425" id="Page_425">[Pg 425]</a></span> purple robes, between two huge
+fans of peacocks' feathers. To these accomplishments he adds that of a
+fine voice; and when he gives his blessing from the balcony of St
+Peter's, or assembles the Romans in the Forum, as he did on a late
+occasion, when he lifted up hands dripping with his subjects' blood, to
+call his hearers to repentance, his tones ring out, in the deep calm air
+of Rome, clear and loud as those of a bell. Such is the man who is the
+nominal head of the Papacy. We say the <i>nominal</i> head; for such a system
+as the Papacy, involving the consideration of so many interests, and
+requiring such skilful steering to clear the rocks and quicksands amid
+which the bark of Peter is now moving, demands the presence at the helm
+of a steadier hand and a clearer eye than those of Pio Nono.</p>
+
+<p>I come next to the College of Cardinals. In so large a body we find, as
+might be expected, various grades of both intellectual and moral
+character; and of course there are the corresponding indications on
+their faces. An overbearing arrogance, which always communicates to the
+countenance an air of vulgarity, more or less, is a very prevailing
+trait. The average intellect in the sacred college is not so high as one
+would expect in men who have risen to the top of their profession; and
+for this reason, perhaps, that birth has fully more to do with their
+elevation than talent or services. One scrutinises their faces curiously
+when one remembers that these men are the living representatives of the
+apostles. They profess to hold the rank, to be clothed with the
+functions, and to inherit the supernatural endowments, of the first
+inspired preachers. There you may look for the burning eloquence of a
+Paul, the boldness of a Peter, the love of a John, the humility,
+patience, zeal, of all. You go round the circle, and examine one by one
+the faces of these living Pauls and Peters. Verily, if their<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_426" id="Page_426">[Pg 426]</a></span> prototypes
+were like their modern representatives, the spread of the gospel at
+first was by far the mightiest miracle the world ever saw. On one you
+find the unmistakeable marks of sordid appetite and self-indulgence: on
+another, low intrigue has imprinted the most sinister lines: a third is
+a mere man of the world;&mdash;his prayers and vigils have been kept at the
+shrine of pleasure. But along with much that is sordid and worldly,
+there are astute and far-seeing minds in the sacred college; and
+foremost in this class stands Antonelli. His pale face, and clear, cold,
+penetrating eye, reveal the presiding genius of the Papacy. He is the
+Prime Minister of the Pope; and though his is not the brow on which the
+tiara sits, he is the real head of the system. From his station on the
+Seven Hills his keen eye watches and directs every movement in the papal
+world. Those mighty projects which the Papacy is endeavouring to realize
+in every part of the earth have their first birth in his fertile and
+daring brain.</p>
+
+<p>His family are well known at Rome, and some of his ancestors were men of
+renown in their own way. His uncle was the most famous Italian brigand
+of modern times, and his exploits are still celebrated in the popular
+songs of the country. The occupation of the yet more celebrated nephew
+is not so dissimilar after all; for what is Antonelli, but the leader of
+a crew of bandits, whose hordes scour Europe, arrayed in sacerdotal
+garb, and in the name of heaven rob men of their wealth, their liberty,
+and their souls, and carry back their booty to their den on the Seven
+Hills.</p>
+
+<p>Next come the Bishops and Priests. These men are the agents and spies of
+the cardinals, as the cardinals of the Pope. The time which they are
+required to devote to spiritual, or rather, I should say, to official
+duties, is small indeed. To study the Scriptures, visit the sick,
+instruct the people, which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_427" id="Page_427">[Pg 427]</a></span> form the proper work of ministers of the
+gospel, are duties altogether unknown in Rome. There, as I have said,
+they convert and save men, not by preaching, but by giving them wafers
+to swallow. This is a short and simple process; and when a priest has
+gone through this pantomime once, he can repeat it all his days after
+without the slightest preparation. Their time and energies, therefore,
+can be almost wholly devoted to other work. And what is that work? It
+is, in short, to propagate their superstition, and rivet the fetters of
+the priesthood upon the population. The bishops and priests manage the
+upper classes; and for the lower grades of Romans there are friars and
+monks of every order and of every colour. The city swarms with these
+men. The frogs and lice of Egypt were not more numerous, and certainly
+not more filthy. Unwashed and uncombed, they enter, with their sandalled
+feet and shaven crowns, every dwelling, and penetrate into every bosom.
+You see them in the wine-shops; you see them mixing with the populace on
+the street; while others, with wallets on their backs, may be seen
+climbing the stairs of the houses, for the double purpose of begging for
+the poor, but in reality for their own paunch, and of retailing the
+latest miracle, or some thousand times told legend. Thus the darkness is
+carried down to the very bottom of society; and while the Pope and his
+cardinals sit at the summit in gilded glory, the monk, in robe of serge
+and girdle of rope, is busied at the bottom; and, to support their
+individual and united action, the priests have two powerful institutions
+at Rome, like foot soldiers advancing under cover of artillery,&mdash;the
+Confessional and the Inquisition.</p>
+
+<p>But emphatically <i>the</i> order at Rome is the Jesuits. They are the prime
+movers in all that is done there, as well as the keenest supporters of
+the Papacy in all parts of the world.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_428" id="Page_428">[Pg 428]</a></span> They are the most indefatigable
+confessors, as well as the most eloquent preachers. Their regularity is
+like that of nature itself. Every hour of the day has its duty; and
+their motions are as punctual as that of the heavenly bodies. Duly every
+morning as the clock strikes five, they are at the altar or in the
+confessional. Their head-quarters are at the Gesu. I shall suppose that
+the reader is passing through the long corridor of that magnificent
+church. Every three or four paces is a door, leading to a small
+apartment, which is occupied by a father. Outside each door hangs a
+sheet of paper, on which the father puts a list of the employments for
+the day. When he goes out, he sticks a pin opposite the piece of
+business which has called him away, so that, should any one call and
+find him not within, he can know at once, by consulting the card, how
+the father is occupied, and whether he is accessible at that particular
+time. Among the items of business which usually appear on the card,
+"conference" is now one of very frequent occurrence, which indicates no
+inconsiderable amount of business, having reference to foreign parts, at
+present on the hands of the order.</p>
+
+<p>I shall suppose that the reader is passing along the Corso. Has he
+marked that tall thin man who has just passed him,</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+"Walking in beauty like the night?"<br />
+</p>
+
+<p class="noin">There is an air of tidiness in his dress, and of comparative cleanliness
+on his person. He wears a small round cap, with three corners; or, if a
+hat, one of large brim. Neither cowl nor scapular fetters his motions; a
+plain black gown, not unlike a frock-coat, envelopes his person. How
+softly his footsteps fall! You scarce hear their sound as he glides past
+you. His face, how unruffled! As the lake, when the winds are asleep,
+hides under a moveless surface, resplendent as a sheet of gold, the dark
+caverns at its bottom, so does this calm, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_429" id="Page_429">[Pg 429]</a></span>impassable face the workings
+of the heart beneath. This man holds in his hands the threads of a
+conspiracy which is exploding at that moment, mayhap in China, or in the
+Pacific, or in Peru, or in London.</p>
+
+<p>He is at Rome at present, and appears in his proper form and dress as a
+Jesuit. But that man can change his country, he can change his tongue,
+and, Proteus-like, multiply his shapes among mankind. Next year that man
+whom you now meet on the streets of Rome may be in Scotland in the
+humble guise of a pedlar, vending at once his earthly and his spiritual
+wares. Or he may be in England, acting as tutor in some noble family, or
+in the humbler capacity of body-servant to a gentleman, or, it may be,
+filling a pulpit in the Church of England. He may be a Protestant
+schoolmaster in America, a dictator in Paraguay, a travelling companion
+in France and Switzerland, a Liberal or a Conservative&mdash;as best suits
+his purpose&mdash;in Germany, a Brahmin in India, a Mandarin in China. He can
+be anything and everything,&mdash;a believer in every creed, and a worshipper
+of every god,&mdash;to serve his Church. Rome has hundreds of thousands of
+such men spread over all the countries of the world. With the ring of
+Gyges, they walk to and fro over the earth, seeing all, yet themselves
+unseen. They can unlock the cabinets of statesmen, and enter unobserved
+the closets of princes. They can take their seat in synods and
+assemblies, and dive into the secrets of families. Their grand work is
+to sow the seeds of heresies in Churches and of dissensions in States,
+that, when the harvest of strife and division is fully matured, Rome may
+come in and reap the fruits.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_430" id="Page_430">[Pg 430]</a></span></p>
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XXIX" id="CHAPTER_XXIX"></a>CHAPTER XXIX.</h3>
+
+<h4>SOCIAL AND DOMESTIC CUSTOMS OF THE ROMANS.<a name="FNanchor_10_10" id="FNanchor_10_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_10_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a></h4>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang">A Roman House&mdash;Wretched Dwellings of Working-Classes&mdash;How Working
+Men spend their Leisure Hours&mdash;Roman mode of reckoning
+Time&mdash;Handicrafts and Trades in Rome&mdash;Meals&mdash;Breakfast, Dinner,
+&amp;c.&mdash;Games&mdash;Amusements&mdash;Marriages&mdash;Deaths and Funerals&mdash;Wills
+tampered with&mdash;Popular regard to Omens&mdash;Superstitions connected
+with the Pope's Name&mdash;Terrors of the Priesthood&mdash;Weather, and
+Journey Homeward. </p></div>
+
+
+<p class="noin"><span class="smcap">I shall</span> now endeavour to bring before my readers, in a short chapter,
+the daily inner life of Rome. First of all, let us take a peep into a
+Roman dwelling. The mansions of the nobility and the houses of the
+wealthier classes are built on the plan of the ancient Romans. There is
+a portal in front, a paved court in the middle, a quadrangle enclosing
+it, with suites of apartments running all round, tier on tier, to
+perhaps four or five stories. The palaces want nothing but cleanliness
+to make them sumptuous. They are of marble, lofty in style, and chaste
+though ornate in design. The pictures of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_431" id="Page_431">[Pg 431]</a></span> great masters that once
+adorned them are now scattered over northern Europe, and the frames are
+filled with copies. For this the poverty or extravagance of their owners
+is to blame. The best pictures in Rome are those in the churches, and
+these are sadly dimmed and obscured by the smoke of the incense. A
+fire-place in a Roman house is a sort of phenomenon; and yet the climate
+of Rome, unless at certain times, is not that balmy, intoxicating
+element which we imagine it to be. During my stay there, I had to
+encounter alternate deluges of rain, with lightning, and cutting blasts
+of the Tramontana. The comfort of an Italian house, especially in
+winter, depends more on its exposure to the sun than on any arrangement
+for heating it. Some few, however, have fire-places in the rooms. The
+kitchen is placed on the top of the house,&mdash;the very reverse of its
+position with us. The ends sought hereby are safety, and the convenience
+of discharging the culinary effluvia into the atmosphere. The fire-place
+is unique, and not unlike that of a smithy. There is a cap for sparks;
+and about three feet above the floor stands a stone sole, in which holes
+are cut for the <i>fornelli</i>, which are square cast-iron grated boxes for
+holding the wood char, upon which the culinary utensils are placed.
+These are but ill adapted for preparing a roast. John Bull would look
+with sovereign contempt, or downright despair, according to the state of
+his stomach, on the thing called a roast in Rome. There it is seldom
+seen beyond the size of a beef-steak. Much small fry is roasted with a
+ratchet-wheel and spit. This is wound up with a weight, and revolves
+over the fire, which is strewed upon the hearth.</p>
+
+<p>The working classes generally purchase their meals cooked in the
+<i>Osteria Cucinante</i>, where food and wine are to be had. These are
+numerous in Rome. They may be fairly called the homes of the working
+classes, for there they lounge so long as their<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_432" id="Page_432">[Pg 432]</a></span> baiocchi last. The
+houses of the working classes are comfortless in the extreme. They are
+of stone, and roomy, but unfurnished. A couple of straw-bottomed chairs
+and a bed make up generally the entire furnishings of a Roman house.
+Indeed, the latter article appears to be the only reason for having a
+house at all. So soon as the day's labour is over, the working men
+resort to the wine and eating shops and coffeehouses, where they remain
+till the time of shutting, which is two and three hours of the night.
+The Roman reckoning of the day begins at Ave Maria, which is a quarter
+of an hour after sunset. The first hour of the night is consequently an
+hour after Ave Maria, from which the Romans reckon consecutively till
+the twenty-fourth hour. As the sun sets earlier or later, according to
+the season of the year, the hours vary of course, and the same period of
+the day that is indicated by the twelfth hour at the time of equinox, is
+indicated by the eleventh hour in midsummer, and the thirteenth hour in
+midwinter. This is very annoying to travellers from the north of Europe.
+"What o'clock is it?" you ask; and are told in reply, "It is the
+eighteenth hour and three quarters." To find the time of day from this
+answer, you must calculate from Ave Maria, with reference to the time of
+sunset at that particular season of the year. Mid-day is announced in
+Rome by the firing of a cannon from the castle of St Angelo. The French
+reckon time as we do, and may possibly, before they leave Rome, teach
+the Romans to adopt the same mode of reckoning.</p>
+
+<p>When I stated in a former chapter that trade there is not in Rome, my
+readers, of course, understood me to mean that it was comparatively
+annihilated, not totally extinguished. The Romans must have houses,
+however poor; clothes, however homely; and food, however plain; and the
+supply of these wants necessitates the existence, to a certain extent,
+of the various<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_433" id="Page_433">[Pg 433]</a></span> trades and handicrafts. But in Rome these exist in an
+embryotic state, and are carried on after the most antiquated
+modes,&mdash;much as in Britain five hundred years ago. The principal public
+works,&mdash;for by this name must we dignify the little quiet concerns in
+the Eternal City,&mdash;are situated in the neighbourhood of Trastevere, the
+decidedly plebeian quarter of Rome, although it would not do to say so
+to a Trasteverian. There are woollen manufactories and candle
+manufactories. The chief customer of the latter is the Church. The
+armoury and mint are contiguously situated to St Peter's. The tanning of
+hides is extensively carried on along the banks of the Tiber, whose
+classic "gold" is not unfrequently streaked with oozy streams of a dirty
+white. Flour-mills are numerous. Amid the brawls which disturb the
+Trastevere, the ear can catch the ring of the shuttle, for there a few
+hand-loom weavers pursue their calling. There is a tobacco manufactory
+in the same quarter; and I must state, for truth compels me, that most
+of the Roman women take snuff. From the windows of the Vatican Museum
+one can see the tile and brick maker busy at his trade behind the
+palace. Extensive potteries exist near to Ripa Grande, where the most of
+the kitchen and chamber utensils for city and country are made. I may
+here note, that most of the cooking utensils of the working man are of
+earthenware, and stand the fire remarkably well.</p>
+
+<p>There are about a score of soap-works in Rome, but the soap manufactured
+in these establishments is abominable. My friend Mr Stewart informed me
+that he brought a soap-boiler from Glasgow, who understood his business
+thoroughly, and had soap made in Rome as we have it in this country, but
+without the palm-oil. This ingredient was not used, because, not being
+in the tariff, it was thought that, should it be imported, it would in
+all probability be classed under "perfumeries,"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_434" id="Page_434">[Pg 434]</a></span> and charged an
+exorbitant duty. The soap being a new thing in Rome, and unlike the
+nauseous stuff there in use, a clamour was raised against it, to the
+effect that it produced sickness, and caused headache and vomiting. The
+Roman ladies, in certain circumstances, are most fastidious about
+smells, though why they should in Rome, of all places in Europe, is most
+unaccountable. The Government, compassionating their sufferings, seized
+a parcel of the soap, and caused it to be analyzed by a chemist. The
+chemist's report was not unfavourable; nevertheless, owing to the strong
+prejudice against the article, the sale was so limited, that its
+manufacture had to be discontinued as unremunerative. Besides the trades
+already enumerated, there are in the Eternal City marble-cutters,
+mosaics and cameo workers, sculptors and painters, vine-dressers,
+olive-dressers, vegetable cultivators, silk-worm rearers, and a few
+manufacturers of silk scarfs. There are, too, in a feeble state, the
+trades connected with the making and mending of clothes, the building
+and repairing of houses. And to feel how feeble these trades are, it is
+only necessary to see the garments of the Romans, how coarse in material
+and how uncourtly in cut. The peasant throws a sheep's skin over him,
+and is clad; the lower classes of the towns look as if they fabricated
+their own garments, from the spinning upwards. To the best of my
+knowledge, there was only one house being built in all Rome when I was
+there; and that was rising on an old foundation near the Capitol. The
+makers of votive offerings and wax-candles for the saints are a more
+numerous class than the masons in Rome. Washer-women form a numerous
+body, as do lodging-house keepers,&mdash;a class that includes many of the
+nobles. The clerks are numberless, and very ill paid, having in many
+cases to attend two or three employers to eke out a living. Men are
+invariably<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_435" id="Page_435">[Pg 435]</a></span> employed as house-servants in Rome. They cook, clean the
+chambers, make up the beds, in short, do everything that is necessary to
+be done in a house.</p>
+
+<p>The workman begins his day's labour at six or seven, as the season of
+the year may be. He breakfasts on coffee, or on coffee and milk in equal
+proportions, or on warm milk alone. Bread is used, which he soaks in his
+tumbler of coffee. Few take butter; fewer still eggs or ham, for
+pecuniary reasons. Many of the working classes take soup of bread paste;
+others take salad and olive-oil with bread. The peasantry cut up their
+coarse bread, saturate it with olive-oil, dust it over with pepper, and
+eat it along with <i>finocchio</i> (fennel), the vegetable being unboiled.
+Roasted or boiled chestnuts are extensively used at all times of the
+day. They are to be had on the streets; many making a living by roasting
+and selling these fruits.</p>
+
+<p>Mid-day is the common dining hour. The meal generally consists of soup
+of bread, herbs, paste, or macaroni, butcher-meat, fowls, snails (white,
+fed on grass), frogs, entrails of fowls and young birds, omelettes,
+sausages, salad with olive-oil, dried olives, fruit, and wine, according
+to the circumstances of the person. The country people during harvest
+make their dinner of coarse bread, to which they add a few cloves of
+garlic, a little goat's-milk cheese, and sour wine diluted with water.
+Many live on bread alone, with wine. Supper is generally a substantial
+meal, consisting more or less of the same materials as are used for
+dinner, salad and wine never failing. Tomatoes are extensively used, ate
+alone, or serving for all kinds of dinner and supper stews. Green figs
+are much used. Polenda is a universal article of food amongst the
+peasantry. It is Indian corn ground and boiled, and made<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_436" id="Page_436">[Pg 436]</a></span> to take the
+place that <i>porridge</i> does in Scotland, with this difference, that it is
+boiled in pork fat.</p>
+
+<p>The amusements of the working classes are not numerous. Moro and the
+bowls are their two principal games. The first is generally played at in
+twos, and is not unlike our schoolboy game of <i>odds</i> or <i>evens</i>. The
+Romans, at this game, however, put themselves into the attitude of
+gladiators,&mdash;each naming a number, and extending at the same time so
+many fingers; and the party that names the number corresponding with the
+number of fingers extended by both is the victor. So many <i>guesses</i>
+constitute the game. The attitude and airs of the combatants in this
+simple game,&mdash;which seems fitter for children than for men,&mdash;are very
+ridiculous. The other chief amusement of the Romans is bowls. These are
+made of wood. So many hands are ranged on this side, and an equal number
+on that; and the game proceeds more or less after the fashion of
+curling. The feast days,&mdash;which are numerous in Rome,&mdash;on which labour
+is interdicted under a heavy penalty, are mostly passed at bowls; as the
+Sabbaths, on which labour is also forbidden, though under a much smaller
+penalty, are generally with the drawing of the lottery. All places of
+rendezvous beyond the walls have the sign of the balls, along with the
+accompanying intimation, <i>Vino, Bianco e Rosso</i>. Encircling the
+courtyard adjoining the house is a broad straw-shed or canopy, beneath
+which the crowd assembles, young and old, male and female, gathering
+round small tables, and discussing the <i>fiasci</i> of Orvieto and toast.
+The game is proceeding all the while in their neighbourhood, the stakes
+being so many more flasks of the choice wine of Orvieto. This continues
+till Ave Maria, when the crowd break up, withdraw to the city, and,
+after a visit to the wine-shops within the walls,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_437" id="Page_437">[Pg 437]</a></span> go home, and (as I
+was na&iuml;vely told by a Scotch lady resident in Rome) beat their wives as
+much as they do in England.</p>
+
+<p>In the coffeehouses the grand sources of amusement are dice and drafts,
+along with backgammon and billiards. The latter two games are confined
+to the upper and middle classes. Most of the upper classes, I believe,
+have billiard-rooms at home, for family use and conversazione-party
+amusement. In the absence of newspapers, journals, and books, it would
+be impossible, without these expedients, to get through the evening. All
+who can afford to attend the theatre (more properly opera), do so as
+regularly as the night comes; and the scenes and acts which they there
+witness form the basis of Italian conversation. It is at least a safe
+subject. No Roman who has the fear of a prison before him would discuss
+politics in a mixed company. In Rome there is an utter dearth of
+employment for young men. They dare not travel; they cannot visit a
+neighbouring town without the permission of Government, which is only
+sometimes to be had; they have nothing to read; and one can imagine, in
+these circumstances, the utter waste of mental and moral energies which
+must ensue among this class in Rome. These young men have a sore battle
+to keep up appearances. They do their utmost absolutely for a cigar and
+cane; but their success is not always such as so great ingenuity and
+patience deserve. You may see them in half-dozens, lounging for hours
+about the coffeehouses, without, in many cases, spending more than a
+single baiocchi on coffee, and sometimes not even that.</p>
+
+<p>Marriage is negotiated, not by the young persons, but by the parents.
+The mother charges herself with everything appertaining to the making of
+the match, conducting even the correspondence. Of course, to address a
+billet doux to the young lady would be to infringe upon the prerogatives
+of mamma,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_438" id="Page_438">[Pg 438]</a></span> which must ever be held inviolate if success is seriously
+aimed at. The mother receives all such epistles, and answers them in the
+daughter's behalf. The young lady is closely watched, and is never left
+a moment in the society of her intended partner previous to marriage,
+unless in the presence of a third party. The Romans thus marry by sight,
+and have no means, so far at least as regards personal intercourse, of
+ascertaining the dispositions, tastes, intelligence, and habits of each
+other. After marriage the lady is free. She may visit and receive
+visitors; and has now an opportunity for like and dislike; and may be
+tempted possibly to use it all the more that she had no such opportunity
+before.</p>
+
+<p>From marriages I pass to deaths and funerals. The usages customary on
+the last illness of a Roman I cannot better describe than by referring
+to a case which my friend Mr Stewart had occasion to witness. It was
+that of a clerk in the Roman savings bank, an acquaintance of his, and a
+young man of some means. In 1846 he caught fever, and, after lingering
+for three weeks, died. Relatives he had none; and my friend never met
+any one with the patient save the priest, whose duty it was to
+administer the last sacrament, and to do so in time. The sick man's
+chamber was curiously arranged. On the bed-cover were laid three
+crucifixes: one was four feet in length; the other two were of smaller
+size. This safeguard against the demons was further reinforced by the
+addition of a palm-branch, and a few trifling pictures of the Virgin and
+saints. On the wall, above the bed, hung a frame, containing a picture
+of the Virgin Mary, executed in the ordinary style, with lighted candles
+beside it. Two were placed on each side, and to these was added <i>una
+mazza di fiori</i>. Notwithstanding all this he died. The body was then
+carried to church for the last services, preparatory to consignment to
+the burying-ground of Saint Lorenzo.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_439" id="Page_439">[Pg 439]</a></span> A single word pointing to that
+blood that cleanseth from all sin would have been of more avail than all
+this idle array; but that word was not spoken.</p>
+
+<p>Towards the close of life, especially if the person be wealthy, the
+priests and monks grow very assiduous in their attentions, and the
+relatives become in proportion uneasy. I was introduced at Rome to a
+Signor Bondini, who had a wealthy relative in the <i>Regno di Napoli</i>, on
+the verge of eighty, and very infirm. There was a monastery in his
+immediate neighbourhood, and the monks of that establishment were in
+daily attendance upon him. His friends in Rome felt much anxiety
+regarding the disposal of his property. How the matter ended I know not;
+but I trust, for the sake of my acquaintance, that all went well. Nor do
+friends feel quite safe even after the "will" has been ratified by the
+testator's death. There is a tribunal, as I have formerly stated, for
+revising wills,&mdash;the S. Visita,&mdash;which assumes large powers. Of this a
+curious instance occurred recently. A Signor Galli, cousin of the
+minister of that name already mentioned, died in the July of 1854, and
+left his whole property, amounting to about fifty thousand pounds, to
+neither relatives nor priests, but to works of benevolence for the
+relief of the poor. The trustee under the deed was proceeding to plan a
+workhouse or an asylum for infirm old men, when the Chapter of St
+Peter's claimed the money, on the ground that, as the works of
+benevolence were not specified in the will, the funds were the property
+of St Peter's. Some hundreds of old men are employed in the repairs
+continually going on about that church, and the Chapter meant to spend
+the money in that way. Meanwhile the S. Visita put in its claim in
+opposition to the Chapter, and awarded the property for masses for the
+soul of the departed; deeming, doubtless, that the whole would be little
+enough to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_440" id="Page_440">[Pg 440]</a></span> expiate the well-known liberal opinions of the deceased. So
+stands the matter at present. It is impossible to say whether the money
+will be spent in paving the Piazza San Pietro, or in masses; as to the
+relief of the poor, that is now out of the question.</p>
+
+<p>It is customary for Roman families to desert the dead, that is, to leave
+the body in the hands of the priests and monks, who perform the
+necessary offices to the corpse, conduct the funeral, and sing masses
+for the soul of the departed. The pomp and display of the one, and the
+length and number of the other, are regulated entirely by the
+circumstances of the deceased's family. A more ghastly procession than
+the funeral one cannot imagine. Instead of a company of grave men,
+carrying with decorous sorrow to its final resting-place the body of
+their departed brother, you meet what you take to be a procession of
+ghouls. The coffin, borne shoulder-high, comes along the street,
+followed by a long line of figures, enveloped from head to foot in black
+serge gowns, with holes for the eyes. They march along, carrying large
+black crosses and tallow candles, and using their voices in something
+which is betwixt a chant and a howl. The sight suggests only the most
+dismal associations. But it has its uses, and that is, to move the
+living to be liberal in masses to rescue the soul from the power of the
+demons, of which no feeble representation is exhibited in this ghostly
+and unearthly procession.</p>
+
+<p>The modern Italians pay great regard to omens; and, in the important
+affairs of life, are guided rather by considerations of lucky and
+unlucky than the maxims of wisdom. The name of the present Pope the
+Romans hold to be decidedly of evil omen; so much so, that to affix it
+anywhere is to make the person or thing a mark for calamity. And I was
+told a curious list of instances corroborative of this opinion. The
+first year<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_441" id="Page_441">[Pg 441]</a></span> of the reign of Pius was marked by an unprecedented and
+disastrous flood. The Tiber rose so high in Rome, that it drowned the
+stone lions in the Piazza del Popolo, flooded the city, and filled the
+Corso to a depth that compelled the citizens to have recourse to boats.
+The Government had a great cannon named after the Pope, which was used
+in the war of independence sanctioned by Pius in 1848. The cannon Pio
+was taken by the Austrians, although it was afterwards restored. There
+was a famous steamer, the property of the Papal Government, named "Pia,"
+which plied on the Adriatic. That steamer shared the fate of all that
+bears the Pope's name. It was taken, too, by the Austrians, but not
+returned; though, for a reason I shall afterwards state, better it had
+been sent back. I was wandering one afternoon amid the desolate mounds
+outside the walls on the east, when I saw a cloud of frightful blackness
+gather over Rome, and several intensely vivid bolts shoot downward. When
+I entered the city, I found that the "Porta Pia" had been laid in ruins,
+and that the occurrence had revived all the former impressions of the
+Romans regarding the evil significancy of the Pope's name. All who came
+to his aid in his reforming times, they say, were smitten with disaster
+or sudden death. He never raises his hands to bless but down there comes
+a curse. I was not a little struck, in the winter following my return
+from Rome, to read in the newspapers, that this same steamer Pia, of
+which I had heard mention made in Rome as having about it a magnet of
+evil in the Pope's name, had gone down in the Adriatic, with all on
+board. It was one of the two vessels which carried the suite of the
+Russian Grand Dukes when they visited Venice in the winter of 1852, and,
+encountering a tempest on its return, perished, with some two hundred
+persons, consisting of crew and soldiers.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_442" id="Page_442">[Pg 442]</a></span></p><p>As regards the affection which the Romans bear to Pope and Papacy, I
+was assured by Mr Freeborn, our consul in Rome, that there is not a
+priest in that city who had two hours to live when the last French
+soldier shall have marched out at the gate. All who had resided for some
+time in Rome, and knew the state of feeling in the population, shuddered
+to think of what would certainly happen should the French be withdrawn.
+I have been told by those who visited Rome more recently, that the
+Romans now do not ask for so much as two hours. "Give us but half an
+hour," say they, "and we undertake that the Papacy shall never again
+trouble the world." No true Protestant can wish, or even hope, to put
+down the system in this way; nevertheless it is a fact, that the Romans
+have been goaded to this pitch of exasperation, and the slightest change
+in the political relations of Europe might precipitate on Rome and the
+Papal States an avalanche of vengeance. The November of 1851 was a time
+of almost unendurable apprehension to the priests. With reference to
+France, then on the eve of the <i>coup d'etat</i>, though not known to be so
+save in Rome,&mdash;where I am satisfied it was well known,&mdash;the priests, I
+was told by those who had access to know, said, "We tremble, we tremble,
+for we know not how we shall finish!" They were said to have their
+pantaloons, et cetera, all ready, to escape in a laic dress. Assuredly
+the curse has taken effect upon the occupants of the Vatican not less
+than on the inhabitants of the Ghetto. "Thy life shall hang in doubt
+before thee, and thou shalt fear day and night, and shalt have none
+assurance of thy life."</p>
+
+<p>Among other things that did not realize my expectations in Italy was the
+weather. During my stay in Rome there were dull and dispiriting days,
+with the Alban hills white to their bottom. Others were clear, with the
+piercingly cold Tramontana<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_443" id="Page_443">[Pg 443]</a></span> sweeping the streets; but more frequently
+the sirocco was blowing, accompanied with deluges of rain, and flashes
+of lightning that made the night luminous as the day, and peals that
+rocked the city on its foundations. One Sabbath evening we had a slight
+shock of earthquake; and I began to think that I had come to see the
+volcanic covering of the Campagna crack, and the old hulk which has been
+stranded on it so long sink into the abyss. My homeward journey was
+accomplished so far in the most dismal weather I have ever seen. I
+started from Rome on a Monday afternoon, in a Veturino carriage, with
+two Roman gentlemen as my companions. It was the Civita Vecchia road,
+for my purpose was to go by sea to France. We reached the half-way house
+some hours after dark; and, having supped, we were required to conform
+to the rule of the house, which was to retire, not to bed, but to our
+vehicle, which stood drawn up on the highway, and pass the night as best
+we could. I awoke at day-break, and found the postilion yoking the
+horses in a perfect hurricane of wind and rain. We reached Civita
+Vecchia at breakfast-time, and found the Mediterranean one roughened
+expanse of breakers, with the white waves leaping over the mole, and
+violently rocking the vessels in the harbour. The steamers from Naples
+to Marseilles were a week over due, and the agents could not say when
+one might arrive. Time pressed; and after wandering all day about the
+town,&mdash;one of the most wretched on earth,&mdash;and seeing the fiery sun find
+his bed in the weltering ocean, I took my seat in the <i>diligence</i> for
+Rome.</p>
+
+<p>This was the third time I had passed through that land of death the
+Campagna; and that night in especial I shall never forget. My companions
+in the <i>interieur</i> were two Dutch gentlemen, and a lady, the wife of one
+of them. The rain fell in deluges; the frequent gleams showed us each
+other's faces; and the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_444" id="Page_444">[Pg 444]</a></span> bellowing thunder completely drowned the rattle
+of our vehicle. The long weary night wore through, and about four of the
+morning we came to the old gate. My passport had been vis&eacute;d with
+reference to a sea-voyage; and to explain my change of route to the
+officials in Civita Vecchia and at the gate of Rome, and persuade them
+to make the corresponding alterations, cost me some little trouble, and
+a good many paulos into the bargain. I succeeded, fortunately, for
+otherwise I should have had to submit to a detention of several days.
+How to make the homeward journey had now become a serious question. The
+weather had made the sea unnavigable; and the Alps, now covered to a
+great depth with ice and snow, could be crossed only on sledges. I
+resolved on going by land to Leghorn,&mdash;a wearisome and expensive route,
+but one that would show me the old Etruria, with several cities of note
+in Italian history. The <i>diligence</i> for Florence was to start in an
+hour. I hurried to the office, and engaged the only seat that remained
+unbespoke, in the coup&eacute; happily, with a Russian and Italian gentleman as
+companions. I made my final exit by the Flaminian gate; and as I crossed
+the swollen Tiber, and began to climb the height beyond, the first rays
+of the morning sun were slanting across the Campagna, and tinging with
+angry light the troubled masses of cloud that hung above the many-domed
+city.</p>
+
+<p>For a few hours the ride was pleasant. All around lay the neglected
+land, thinly besprinkled with forlorn olives, but without signs of man,
+save where a crumbling village might be seen crowning the summit of the
+little conical hills that form so striking a feature in the Etrurian
+landscape. When we had reached the spurs of the Apennines the storm
+fell. The air was thickened with alternate showers of sleet and snow. We
+had to encounter torrents in the valleys, and drifted wreaths on the
+heights; in short, the journey was to the full<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_445" id="Page_445">[Pg 445]</a></span> as dreary as one through
+the Grampians would have been at the same season. There was little to
+tempt us to leave our vehicle at the few villages and towns where we
+halted, for they seemed half-drowned in rain and mud. Late in the
+afternoon we reached Viterbo, and stopped to eat a wretched dinner. We
+found in the hotel but little of that abundance of which the magnificent
+vine-stocks in the adjoining fields gave so goodly promise. Starting
+again at dusk, the ladies of the party inquired where the patrol was
+that used to accompany travellers through the brigand-haunted country of
+Radicofani, on which we were about to enter; but could get no
+satisfactory answer. We skirted the lake of Bolsena, with its rich but
+deserted shores, and its fine mountains of oak. Soon thereafter darkness
+hid from us the country; but the frequent gleams of lightning showed
+that it was wild and desolate as ever traveller passed through. It was
+naked, and torn, and scathed, as if fire had acted upon it, which,
+indeed, it had, for our way now lay amidst extinct volcanoes. Towards
+midnight the <i>diligence</i> suddenly stopped. "Here are the brigands at
+last," said I to myself. I jumped out; and, stretched on the road,
+pallid and motionless, lay the foremost postilion. Had he been shot, or
+what had happened? He was a raw-boned lad of some eighteen, wretchedly
+clad, and worse fed; and he had swooned through fatigue and cold. We
+brought him round with a little brandy; and, setting him again on his
+nags, we continued our journey.</p>
+
+<p>I recollect of awaking at times from troubled sleep, to find that we
+were zig-zagging up the sides of mountains tall and precipitous as a
+sugar-loaf, and entering beneath the portals of towns old and crumbling,
+perched upon their very summit. A more desolate sight than that which
+met the eye when day broke I never saw. Every particle of soil seemed
+torn from<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_446" id="Page_446">[Pg 446]</a></span> the face of the country; and, as far as the eye could reach,
+plain and hill-side lay under a covering of marl, which was grooved and
+furrowed by torrents. "Is this Italy?" I asked myself in astonishment.
+As the day rose, both weather and scenery improved. Towards mid-day, the
+green beauteous mount on which Sienna, with its white buildings and its
+cathedral towers, is situated, rose in the far distance; and, after many
+hours winding and climbing, we entered its walls.</p>
+
+<p>At Sienna we exchanged the <i>diligence</i> for the railway, the course of
+which lay through a series of ravines and valleys of the most
+magnificent description, and thoroughly Tuscan in their character. We
+had torrents below, crags crowned with castles above, vines, chestnuts,
+and noble oaks clothing the steep, and purple shadows, such as Italy
+only can show, enrobing all. I reached Pisa late in the evening; and
+there a substantial supper, followed by yet more grateful sleep, made
+amends for the four previous days' fasting, sleeplessness, and
+endurance. I passed the Sabbath at Leghorn; and, starting again on
+Monday <i>via</i> Marseilles, and prosecuting my journey day and night
+without intermission, save for an hour at a time, came on Saturday
+evening to the capital of happy England, where I rested on the morrow,
+"according to the commandment."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_447" id="Page_447">[Pg 447]</a></span></p>
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XXX" id="CHAPTER_XXX"></a>CHAPTER XXX.</h3>
+
+<h4>THE ARGUMENT FROM THE WHOLE, OR, ROME HER OWN WITNESS.</h4>
+
+
+<p class="noin"><span class="smcap">When</span> one goes to Rome, it is not unreasonable that he should there look
+for some proofs of the vaunted excellence of the Roman faith. Rome is
+the seat of Christ's Vicar, and the centre of Christianity, as Romanists
+maintain; and there surely, if anywhere, may he expect to find those
+personal and social virtues which have ever flourished in the wake of
+Christianity. To what region has she gone where barbarism and vice have
+not disappeared? and in what age has she flourished in which she has not
+moulded the hearts of men and the institutions of society into
+conformity with the purity of her own precepts, and the benevolence of
+her own spirit? She has been no teacher of villany and cruelty,&mdash;no
+patron of lust,&mdash;no champion of oppression. She has known only
+"whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever
+things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of
+good report." Her great Founder demanded that she should be tried by her
+fruits; and why should Rome be unwilling to submit to this test? If the
+Pope be Christ's Vicar, his deeds cannot be evil. If Romanism be
+Christianity, or rather, if it alone be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_448" id="Page_448">[Pg 448]</a></span> Christianity, as its champions
+maintain, Rome must be the most Christian city on the earth, and the
+Romans examples to the whole human race, of industry, of sobriety, of
+the love of truth, and, in short, of whatever tends to dignify and exalt
+human character. On the assumption that the Christianity of the Seven
+Hills is the Christianity of the New Testament, Rome ought to be the
+seat of just laws, of inflexibly upright and impartial tribunals, and of
+wise, paternal, and incorruptible rulers. Is it so? Is Christ's Vicar a
+model to all governors? and is the region over which he bears sway
+renowned throughout the earth as the most virtuous, the most happy, and
+the most prosperous region in it? Alas! the very opposite of all this is
+the fact. There is not on the face of the earth a region more barren of
+everything Christian, and of everything that ought to spring from
+Christianity, than is the region of the Seven Hills. And not only do we
+there find the absence of all that reminds us of Christianity, or that
+could indicate her presence; but we find there the presence, on a most
+gigantic scale, and in most intense activity, of all the elements and
+forms of evil. When the infidel would select the very strongest proofs
+that Christianity cannot possibly be Divine, and that its influence on
+individual and national character is most disastrous, he goes to the
+banks of the Tiber. The weapons which Voltaire and his compeers wielded
+with such terrible effect in the end of last century were borrowed from
+Rome. Now, why is this? Either Christianity is to a most extraordinary
+degree destructive of all the temporal interests of man, or Romanism is
+not Christianity.</p>
+
+<p>The first part of the alternative cannot in reason be maintained.
+Christianity, like man, was made in the image of Him who created her;
+and, like her great Maker, is essentially and supremely benevolent. She
+is as much the fountain of good as the sun is the fountain of light; and
+the good that is in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_449" id="Page_449">[Pg 449]</a></span> minor institutions which exist around her comes
+from her, just as the mild effulgence of the planets radiates from the
+great orb of day. She cherishes man in all the extent of his diversified
+faculties, and throughout the vast range of his interests, temporal and
+eternal. But Romanism is as universal in her evil as Christianity is in
+her good. She is as omnipotent to overthrow as Christianity is to build
+up. Man, in his intellectual powers and his moral affections,&mdash;in his
+social relations and his national interests,&mdash;she converts into a wreck;
+and where Christianity creates an angel, Romanism produces a fiend.
+Accordingly, the region where Romanism has fixed its seat is a mighty
+and appalling ruin. Like some Indian divinity seated amidst the blood,
+and skulls, and mangled limbs of its victims, Romanism is grimly seated
+amidst the mangled remains of liberty, and civilization, and humanity.
+Her throne is a graveyard,&mdash;a graveyard that covers, not the mortal
+bodies of men, but the fruits and acquisitions, alas! of man's immortal
+genius. Thither have gone down the labours, the achievements, the hopes,
+of innumerable ages; and in this gulph they have all perished. Italy,
+glorious once with the light of intelligence and of liberty on her brow,
+and crowned with the laurel of conquest, is now naked and manacled. Who
+converted Italy into a barbarian and a slave? The Papacy. The growth of
+that foul superstition and the decay of the country have gone on by
+equal stages. In the territory blessed with the pontifical government
+there is&mdash;as the previous chapters show&mdash;no trade, no industry, no
+justice, no patriotism; there is neither personal worth nor public
+virtue; there is nothing but corruption and ruin. In fine, the Papal
+States are a physical, social, political, and moral wreck; and from
+whatever quarter that <i>religion</i> has come which has created this wreck,
+it is undeniable that it has not come from the New Testament. If it be
+true<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_450" id="Page_450">[Pg 450]</a></span> that "a tree is known by its fruits," the tree of Romanism was
+never planted by the Saviour.</p>
+
+<p>With such evidence before him as Italy furnishes, can any man doubt what
+the consequence would be of admitting this system into Britain? If there
+be any truth in the maxim, that like causes produce like effects, the
+consequences are as manifest as they are inevitable. There is a force of
+genius, a versatility and buoyancy, about the Italians, which fit them
+better than most to resist longer and surmount sooner the influence of a
+system like the Papacy; and yet, if that system has wrought such
+terrible havoc among them,&mdash;if it has put them down and keeps them
+down,&mdash;where is the nation or people who may think to embrace Romanism,
+and yet escape being destroyed by it? Assuredly, should it ever gain the
+ascendancy in this country, it will inflict, and in far shorter time,
+the same dire ruin upon us which it has inflicted on Italy.</p>
+
+<p>Let no man delude himself with the idea that it is simply a <i>religion</i>
+which he is admitting, and that the only change that would ensue would
+be merely the substitution of a Romanist for a Protestant creed. It is a
+<i>scheme of Government</i>; and its introduction would be followed by a
+complete and universal change in the political constitution and
+government of the country. The Romanists themselves have put this matter
+beyond dispute. Why did the Papists divide <i>territorially</i> the country?
+Why did they assume <i>territorial</i> titles? and why do they so
+pertinaciously cling to these titles? Why, because their chief aim is to
+erect a territorial and political system, and they wish to secure, by
+fair means or foul, a pretest or basis on which they may afterwards
+enforce that system by political and physical means. Have we forgotten
+the famous declaration of Wiseman, that his grand end in the papal
+aggression was to introduce canon law? And what is canon law? The<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_451" id="Page_451">[Pg 451]</a></span>
+previous chapters show what canon law is. It is a code which, though
+founded on a religious dogma, namely, that the Pope is God's Vicar, is
+nevertheless mainly temporal in its character. It claims a temporal
+jurisdiction; it employs temporal power in its support,&mdash;the <i>sbirri</i>,
+Swiss guards, and French troops at Rome, for instance; and it visits
+offences with temporal punishment,&mdash;banishment, the galleys, the
+carabine, and guillotine. In its most modified form, and as viewed under
+the glosses of the most dexterous of its modern commentators and
+apologists, it vests the Pope in a <span class="smcap">DIRECTING POWER</span>, according to which
+he can declare <i>null</i> all constitutions, laws, tribunals, decisions,
+oaths, and causes contrary to good morals, in other words, contrary to
+the interests of the Church, of which he is the sole and infallible
+judge; and all resistance is punishable by deprivation of civil rights,
+by confiscation of goods, by imprisonment, and, in the last resort, by
+death. In short, it vests in the Pope's hands all power on earth,
+whether spiritual or temporal, and puts all persons, ecclesiastical and
+secular, under his foot. A more overwhelming tyranny it is impossible to
+imagine; for it is a tyranny that unites the voice with the arm of
+Deity. We challenge the Romanist to show how he can inaugurate his
+system in Britain,&mdash;set up canon law, as he proposes,&mdash;without changing
+the constitution of the country. We affirm, on the grounds we have
+stated, that he cannot. This, then, is no battle merely of churches and
+creeds; it is a battle between two kingdoms and two kings,&mdash;the Pope on
+one side, and Queen Victoria on the other; and no one can become an
+abettor of the pontiff without being thereby a traitor to the sovereign.</p>
+
+<p>And with the fall of our religion and liberty will come all the
+demoralizing and pauperizing effects which have followed the Papacy in
+Italy. Mind will be systematically cramped<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_452" id="Page_452">[Pg 452]</a></span> and crushed; and everything
+that could stimulate thought, or inspire a love for independence, or
+recall the memory of a former liberty, will be proscribed. We cannot
+have the Papacy and open tribunals. We cannot have the Papacy and free
+trade: our factories will be closed, as well as our schools and
+churches; our forges silenced, as well as our printing presses. Motion
+even will be forbidden; or, should our railways be spared, they will
+convey, in lack of merchandise, bulls, palls, dead men's bones, and
+other such precious stuff. Our electric telegraph will be used for the
+pious purpose of transmitting absolutions and pardons, and our express
+trains for carrying the host to some dying penitent. The passport system
+will very speedily cure our people of their propensity to travel; and,
+instead of gadding about, and learning things which they ought not, they
+will be told to stay at home and count their beads. The <i>Index</i> will
+effectually purge our libraries, and give us but tens where we have now
+thousands. Alas for the great masters of British literature and song!
+The censorship will make fine work with our periodic literature, pruning
+the exuberance and taming the boldness of many a now free pen. Our
+clubs, from Parliament downwards, will have their labours diminished, by
+having their sphere contracted to matters only on which the Church has
+not spoken; and our thinkers will be taught to think aright, by being
+taught not to think at all. We must contract a liking for consecrated
+wafers and holy water; and provide a confessor for ourselves, our wives,
+and daughters. We must eat only fish on Friday, and keep the Church's
+holidays, however we may spend the Sabbath. We must vote at the bidding
+of the priest; and, above all, take ghostly direction as regards our
+last will and testament. The Papacy will overhaul all our political
+rights, all our social privileges, all our domestic and private affairs;
+and will alter or<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_453" id="Page_453">[Pg 453]</a></span> abrogate as it may find it for our and the Church's
+good. In short, it will dig a grave, in which to bury all our privileges
+and rights together, rolling to that grave's mouth the great stone of
+Infallibility.</p>
+
+<p>Nor let us commit the error of under-estimating the foe, or of thinking,
+in an age when intelligence and liberty are so diffused, that it is
+impossible that we can be overcome by such a system as the Papacy. We
+have not, like the early Christians, to oppose a rude, unwieldy, and
+gross paganism; we are called to confront an idolatry, subtle, refined,
+perfected. We encounter error wielding the artillery of truth. We
+wrestle with the powers of darkness clothed in the armour of light. We
+are called to combat the instincts of the wolf and tiger in the form of
+the messenger of peace,&mdash;the Satanic principle in the angelic costume.
+Have we considered the infinite degradation of defeat? Have we thought
+of the prison-house where we will be compelled to grind for our
+conqueror's sport,&mdash;the chains and stakes which await ourselves and our
+posterity? And, even should our lives be spared, they will be spared to
+what?&mdash;to see freedom banished, knowledge extinguished, science put
+under anathema, the world rolled backwards, and the universe become a
+vast whispering gallery, to re-echo only the accents of papal blasphemy.</p>
+
+<p>This atrocious and perfidious system is at this hour triumphant on the
+Continent of Europe. Britain only stands erect. How long she may do so
+is known only to God; but of this I am assured, that if we shall be able
+to keep our own, it will be, not by entering into any compromise, but by
+assuming an attitude of determined defiance to the papal system. There
+must be no truckling to foreign despots and foreign priests: the bold
+Protestant policy of the country must be maintained. In this way alone
+can we escape the immense hazards which at<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_454" id="Page_454">[Pg 454]</a></span> present threaten us. And
+what a warning do the nations of the Continent hold out to us! They
+teach how easily liberty may be lost, but how infinite the sacrifices it
+takes to recover it. A moment's weakness may cost an age of suffering.
+If we let go the liberty we at present enjoy, none of us will live to
+see it regained. Look at the past history of the Papacy, and mark how it
+has retained its vulpine instincts in every age, and transmitted from
+father to son, and from generation to generation, its inextinguishable
+hatred of man and of man's liberties. Look at it in the Low Countries,
+and see it overwhelming them under an inundation of armies and
+scaffolds. Look at it in Spain, and see it extinguishing, amid the fires
+of innumerable <i>autos da fe</i>, the genius, the chivalry, and the power of
+that great nation. Look at it in France, whose history it has converted
+into an ever-recurring cycle of revolutions, massacres, and tyrannies.
+Look at it in the blood-written annals of the Waldensian valleys,
+against which it launched crusade after crusade, ravaging their soil
+with fire and sword, and ceasing its rage only when nothing remained but
+the crimson stains of its fearful cruelty. And now, after creating this
+wide wreck,&mdash;after glutting the axe,&mdash;after flooding the scaffold, and
+deluging the earth itself with human blood,&mdash;it turns to you, ye men of
+England and Scotland! It menaces you across the narrow channel that
+divides your country from the Continent, and dares to set its foul print
+on your free shore! Will you permit it? Will you tamely sit still till
+it has put its foot on your neck, and its fetter on your arm? Oh! if you
+do, the Bruce who conquered at Bannockburn will disown you! The Knox who
+achieved a yet more glorious victory will disown you! Cranmer, and all
+the martyrs whose blood cries to heaven against it, while their happy
+spirits look down from their thrones of light to watch the part<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_455" id="Page_455">[Pg 455]</a></span> you are
+prepared to play in this great struggle, will disown you! Your children
+yet unborn, whose faith you will thus surrender, and whose liberty you
+will thus betray, will curse your very names. But I know you will not.
+You are men, and will die as men, if die you must, nobly fighting for
+your faith and your liberties. You will not wait till you are drawn out
+and slaughtered as sheep, as you assuredly will be if you permit this
+system to become dominant. But if you are prepared to die, rather than
+to live the slaves of a detestable and ferocious tyranny like this, I
+know that you shall not die; for I firmly believe, from the aspects of
+Providence, and the revelations of the Divine Word, that, menacing as
+the Papacy at present looks, its grave is dug, and that even now it
+totters on the brink of that burning abyss into which it is destined to
+be cast; and if we do but unite, and strike a blow worthy of our cause,
+we shall achieve our liberties, and not only these, but the liberties of
+nations that stretch their arms in chains to us, under God their last
+hope, and the liberties of generations unborn, who shall arise and call
+us blessed.</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+<small>THE END.</small>
+</p>
+
+<p class="center"><br /><br /><br /><br />
+<small>EDINBURGH: PRINTED BY MILLER AND FAIRLY.</small><br /><br /><br />
+</p>
+
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> See the Antiquity of the Waldenses treated of at length in
+Leger's "Histoire de l'Eglise Vaudoise;" and Dr Gilly's "Waldensian
+Researches."</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> The author would soften his strictures on this head by a
+reference to the truly interesting volume on the "Ladies of the
+Reformation," by his talented friend the Rev. James Anderson.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> I have before me a list of prices current (Prezzo Corrente
+Legale de generi venduti nella piazza di Roma dal di 28 Febbraro al di 5
+Marzo 1852), from which it appears, that sculpture, paintings, tallow,
+bones, skins, rags, and pozzolano, comprise all the exports from the
+Papal States. What a beggarly list, compared with the natural riches of
+the country! In fact, vessels return oftener <i>without</i> than <i>with</i>
+lading from that shore.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> It was so when the author was in Rome. The enterprising
+company of Fox &amp; Henderson have since succeeded in overcoming the
+pontifical scruples, and bringing gas into the Eternal City; Cardinal
+Antonelli remarking, that he would accept of <i>their</i> light in return for
+the light <i>he</i> had sent to England.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_5_5" id="Footnote_5_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> As illustrative of our subject, we may here quote what Mr
+Whiteside, M.P., in his interesting volumes, "Italy in the Nineteenth
+Century," says of the estimation in which all concerned with the
+administration of justice are held at Rome:&mdash;
+</p><p>
+"The profession of the law is considered by the higher classes to be a
+base pursuit: no man of family would degrade himself by engaging in it.
+A younger son of the poorest noble would famish rather than earn his
+livelihood in an employment considered vile. The advocate is seldom if
+ever admitted into high society in Rome; nor can the princes (so called)
+or nobles comprehend the position of a barrister in England. They would
+as soon permit a <i>facchino</i> as an advocate to enter their palaces; and
+they have been known to ask with disdain (when accidentally apprised
+that a younger son of an English nobleman had embraced the profession of
+the law), what could induce his family to suffer the degradation?
+Priests, bishops, and cardinals, the poor nobles or their impoverished
+descendants, will become,&mdash;advocates or judges, never. The solution of
+this apparent inconsistency is to be found in the fact, that in most
+despotic countries the profession of the law is contemptible. In Rome it
+is particularly so, because no person places confidence in the
+administration of the law, the salaries of the judges are small, the
+remuneration of the advocate miserable, and all the great offices
+grasped by the ecclesiastics. Pure justice not existing, everybody
+concerned in the administration of what is substituted for it is
+despised, often most unjustly, as being a participator in the
+imposture."</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_6_6" id="Footnote_6_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> See book vii., chap. x.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_7_7" id="Footnote_7_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7_7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> Monsignor Marini, who was head of the police under Gregory
+XVI., and the infamous tool in all the arrests and cruelties of
+Lambruschini, was made a cardinal by the present Pope. All Rome said,
+let the next cardinal be the public executioner. Talent, certainly, has
+fair play at Rome, when a policeman, and even the hangman, may aspire to
+the chair of Peter.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="center"><a name="Footnote_8_8" id="Footnote_8_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8_8"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> WHAT THE ROMAN RELIGION COSTS.
+</p><p>
+The following statistics of the wealth of the clergy in the Roman States
+are taken from the American <i>Crusader</i>:&mdash;
+</p><p>
+"The clergy in the Roman States realize from the funds a clear income of
+two millions two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. From the cattle
+they have another income of one hundred thousand dollars; from the
+canons, three hundred thousand dollars; from the public debt another
+income of one million two hundred and fifty thousand dollars; from the
+priests' individual estates, two hundred and fifty thousand dollars;
+from the portions assigned by law to nuns, five hundred thousand
+dollars; from the celebration of masses, two millions one hundred and
+fifty thousand dollars; from taxes on baptisms, forty-five thousand
+dollars; from the tax on the Sacrament of Confirmation, eighteen
+thousand dollars; from the celebration of marriages, twenty-five
+thousand dollars; from the attestations of births, nine thousand
+dollars; from other attestations, such as births, marriages, deaths, &amp;c.
+&amp;c., nine thousand seven hundred and fifty dollars; from funerals, six
+hundred thousand dollars; from the gifts to begging-orders, one million
+eight hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars; from the gifts for
+motives of benevolence or festivities, or maintenance of altars and
+lights, or for celebrating mass for the souls in purgatory, two hundred
+thousand dollars; from the tithes exacted in several parts of the Roman
+States according to the ancient rigour, one hundred and fifty thousand
+dollars; from preaching and panegyrics, according to the regular taxes,
+one hundred and fifty thousand dollars; from seminaries for entrance
+taxes and other rights belonging to the students, besides the boarding,
+fifteen thousand dollars; from the chancery for ecclesiastical
+provisions, for matrimonial licenses, for sanatives, &amp;c. &amp;c., fifty
+thousand dollars; from benedictions during Easter, thirty thousand
+dollars; from offerings to the miraculous images of Virgin Marys and
+Saints, seventy-five thousand dollars; from <i>triduums</i> for the sick, or
+for prayers, five hundred thousand dollars; from benedictions to fields,
+cattle, nuptial-beds, &amp;c. &amp;c., nine thousand dollars.
+</p><p>
+"All these incomes, which amount to <i>ten million five hundred and ten
+thousand seven hundred and fifty dollars</i>, are realized and enjoyed by
+the secular and regular clergy, composed in all of sixty thousand
+individuals, including nuns, without mentioning the incomes allowed them
+from foreign countries, for the chancery and other cosmopolite
+congregations.
+</p><p>
+"It is further to be observed, that in this calculation are not
+comprised the portions which the Romans call <i>passatore</i>, which the
+laity pay to the clergy; such as purchase, permutation, resignation, and
+ordination taxes; patents for confessions, preaching, holy oils,
+privileged altars, professors' chairs, and the like, which will make up
+another amount of a million of dollars; nor those other taxes called
+<i>pretatico</i>, which are paid by the Jews to the parish priest for
+permission to dwell without the Jews' quarter; nor those for the ringing
+of bells for dying persons, or those who are in agony; nor those which
+cripples pay for receiving in Rome the visit of the wooden child of the
+<i>celestial altar</i>, who must always go out in a carriage, accompanied by
+friars called <i>minori observanti</i>, Franciscan friars, whose incomes they
+collect and govern. The value of charitable edifices (which are not
+registered, being exempt from all dative) is not comprised either; and
+the same exemption is extended to churches; although all these buildings
+cost the inhabitants of the State several millions of expense for
+provisional possession, and displays of ceremonies and feasts which are
+celebrated in them."
+</p><p class="center">
+WHAT THE ROMAN RELIGION YIELDS.
+</p><p>
+A distinguished English gentleman, who has spent many years as a
+resident or in travelling in various papal countries in Europe, in a
+recent speech in London has presented some deeply interesting facts
+concerning vice and crime in Papal and Protestant countries. He
+possessed himself of the Government returns of every Romanist Government
+on the Continent. We have condensed and will state its results.
+</p><p>
+In England, four persons for a million, on the average, are committed
+for murder per year. In Ireland there are nineteen to the million. In
+Belgium, a Catholic country, there are eighteen murders to the million.
+In France there are thirty-one. Passing into Austria, we find
+thirty-six. In Bavaria, also Catholic, sixty-eight to the million; or,
+if homicides are struck out, there will be thirty. Going into Italy,
+where Catholic influence is the strongest of any country on earth, and
+taking first the kingdom of Sardinia, we find twenty murders to the
+million. In the Venetian and Milanese provinces there is the enormous
+result of forty-five to the million. In Tuscany, forty-two, though that
+land is claimed as a kind of earthly paradise; and in the Papal States
+not less than one hundred murders for the million of people. There are
+ninety in Sicily; and in Naples the result is more appalling still,
+where public documents show there are <i>two hundred</i> murders per year to
+the million of people!
+</p><p>
+The above facts are all drawn from the civil and criminal records of the
+respective countries named. Now, taking the whole of these countries
+together, we have seventy-five cases of murder for every million of
+people. In Protestant countries,&mdash;England, for example,&mdash;we have but
+four for every million. Aside from various other demoralizing influences
+of Popery, the fact now to be named beyond doubt operates with great
+power in cheapening human life in Catholic countries. The Protestant
+criminal believes he is sending his victim, if not a Christian, at once
+to a miserable eternity; and this awful consideration gives a terrible
+aspect to the crime of murder. But the Papist only sends his victim to
+purgatory, whence he can be rescued by the masses the priest can be
+hired to say for his soul; or his own bloody hand and heart will not
+hinder him from doing that office himself. We think the above facts in
+regard to vice and crime in the two great departments of Christendom
+worthy the most serious pondering of every friend of morality and
+virtue.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_9_9" id="Footnote_9_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_9_9"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> Martinus Scriblerus says, that "the Pope's band, though the
+finest in the world, would not divert the English from burning his
+Holiness in effigy on the streets of London on a Guy Fawkes' day;" nor,
+I may add, the Romans from burning him in person on the streets of Rome
+any day, were the French away.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_10_10" id="Footnote_10_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_10_10"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> For much of the information contained in this chapter I am
+indebted to my intelligent friend Mr Stewart.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
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+The Project Gutenberg eBook of Pilgrimage from the Alps to the Tiber, by
+James Aitken Wylie
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: Pilgrimage from the Alps to the Tiber
+       Or The Influence of Romanism on Trade, Justice, and Knowledge
+
+
+Author: James Aitken Wylie
+
+
+
+Release Date: March 9, 2009  [eBook #28294]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PILGRIMAGE FROM THE ALPS TO THE
+TIBER***
+
+
+E-text prepared by Frank van Drogen, Greg Bergquist, and the Project
+Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net)
+
+
+
+Transcriber's note:
+
+   The punctuation and spelling from the original text have been
+   preserved faithfully. Only obvious typographical errors have
+   been corrected.
+
+
+
+
+
+PILGRIMAGE FROM THE ALPS TO THE TIBER.
+
+Or
+
+The Influence of Romanism on Trade, Justice, and Knowledge.
+
+by
+
+REV. J.A. WYLIE, LL.D.
+
+Author of "The Papacy," &c. &.c.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Edinburgh
+Shepherd & Elliot, 15, Princes Street.
+London: Hamilton, Adams, & Co.
+MDCCCLV.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+
+ CHAPTER I.
+                                                           PAGE
+ THE INTRODUCTION,                                            1
+
+ CHAPTER II.
+ THE PASSAGE OF THE ALPS,                                     8
+
+ CHAPTER III.
+ RISE AND PROGRESS OF CONSTITUTIONALISM IN PIEDMONT,         23
+
+ CHAPTER IV.
+ STRUCTURE AND CHARACTERISTICS OF THE VAUDOIS VALLEYS,       43
+
+ CHAPTER V.
+ STATE AND PROSPECTS OF THE VAUDOIS CHURCH,                  62
+
+ CHAPTER VI.
+ FROM TURIN TO NOVARA--PLAIN OF LOMBARDY,                    83
+
+ CHAPTER VII.
+ FROM NOVARA TO MILAN--DOGANA--CHAIN OF THE ALPS,            94
+
+ CHAPTER VIII.
+ CITY AND PEOPLE OF MILAN,                                  105
+
+ CHAPTER IX.
+ ARCO DELLA PACE--ST AMBROSE,                               119
+
+ CHAPTER X.
+ THE DUOMO OF MILAN,                                        126
+
+ CHAPTER XI.
+ MILAN TO BRESCIA--THE REFORMERS,                           137
+
+ CHAPTER XII.
+ THE PRESENT THE IMAGE OF THE PAST,                         152
+
+ CHAPTER XIII.
+ SCENERY OF LAKE GARDA--PESCHIERA--VERONA,                  158
+
+ CHAPTER XIV.
+ FROM VERONA TO VENICE--THE TYROLESE ALPS,                  168
+
+ CHAPTER XV.
+ VENICE--DEATH OF NATIONS,                                  178
+
+ CHAPTER XVI.
+ PADUA--ST ANTONY--THE PO--ARREST,                          198
+
+ CHAPTER XVII.
+ FERRARA--RENEE AND OLYMPIA MORATA,                         209
+
+ CHAPTER XVIII.
+ BOLOGNA AND THE APENNINES,                                 216
+
+ CHAPTER XIX.
+ FLORENCE AND ITS YOUNG EVANGELISM,                         237
+
+ CHAPTER XX.
+ FROM LEGHORN TO ROME--CIVITA VECCHIA,                      262
+
+ CHAPTER XXI.
+ MODERN ROME,                                               276
+
+ CHAPTER XXII.
+ ANCIENT ROME--THE SEVEN HILLS,                             289
+
+ CHAPTER XXIII.
+ SIGHTS IN ROME--CATACOMBS--PILATE'S STAIRS--PIO NONO, &C., 302
+
+ CHAPTER XXIV.
+ INFLUENCE OF ROMANISM ON TRADE,                            333
+
+ CHAPTER XXV.
+ INFLUENCE OF ROMANISM ON TRADE--(CONTINUED),               352
+
+ CHAPTER XXVI.
+ JUSTICE AND LIBERTY IN THE PAPAL STATES,                   366
+
+ CHAPTER XXVII.
+ EDUCATION AND KNOWLEDGE IN THE PAPAL STATES,               401
+
+ CHAPTER XXVIII.
+ MENTAL STATE OF THE PRIESTHOOD IN ITALY,                   415
+
+ CHAPTER XXIX.
+ SOCIAL AND DOMESTIC CUSTOMS OF THE ROMANS,                 430
+
+ CHAPTER XXX.
+ THE ARGUMENT FROM THE WHOLE, OR, ROME HER OWN WITNESS,     447
+
+
+
+
+ROME,
+
+AND
+
+THE WORKINGS OF ROMANISM
+
+IN ITALY.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+THE INTRODUCTION.
+
+
+I did not go to Rome to seek for condemnatory matter against the Pope's
+government. Had this been my only object, I should not have deemed it
+necessary to undertake so long a journey. I could have found materials
+on which to construct a charge in but too great abundance nearer home.
+The cry of the Papal States had waxed great, and there was no need to go
+down into those unhappy regions to satisfy one's self that the
+oppression was "altogether according to the cry of it." I had other
+objects to serve by my journey.
+
+There is one other country which has still more deeply influenced the
+condition of the race, and towards which one is even more powerfully
+drawn, namely, Judea. But Italy is entitled to the next place, as
+respects the desire which one must naturally feel to visit it, and the
+instruction one may expect to reap from so doing. Some of the greatest
+minds which the pagan world has produced have appeared in Italy. In that
+land those events were accomplished which have given to modern history
+its form and colour; and those ideas elaborated, the impress of which
+may still be traced upon the opinions, the institutions, and the creeds
+of Europe. In Italy, too, empire has left her ineffaceable traces, and
+art her glorious footsteps. There is, all will admit, a peculiar and
+exquisite pleasure in visiting such spots: nor is there pleasure only,
+but profit also. One's taste may be corrected, and his judgment
+strengthened, by seeing the masterpieces of ancient genius. New trains
+of thought may be suggested, and new sources of information opened, by
+the sight of men and of manners wholly new. But more than this,--I
+believed that there were lessons to be learned there, which it was
+emphatically worth one's while going there to learn, touching the
+working of that politico-religious system of which Italy has so long
+been the seat and centre. I had previously been at some little pains to
+make myself acquainted with this system in its principles, and wished to
+have an opportunity of studying it in its effects upon the government of
+the country, and the condition of the people, as respects their trade,
+industry, knowledge, liberty, religion, and general happiness. All I
+shall say in the following pages will have a bearing, more or less
+direct, upon this main point.
+
+It is impossible to disjoin the present of these countries from the
+past; nor can the solemn and painful enigma which they exhibit be
+unriddled but by a reference to the past, and that not the immediate,
+but the remote past. There is truth, no doubt, in the saying of the old
+moralist, that nations lose in moments what they had acquired in years;
+but the remark is applicable rather to the accelerated speed with which
+the last stages of a nation's ruin are accomplished, than to the slow
+and imperceptible progress which usually marks its commencement. Unless
+when cut off by the sudden stroke of war, it requires five centuries at
+least to consummate the fall of a great people. One must pass,
+therefore, over those hideous abuses which are the immediate harbingers
+of national disaster, and which exclusively engross the attention of
+ordinary inquirers, and go back to those remote ages, and those minute
+and apparently insignificant causes, amid which national declension,
+unsuspected often by the nation itself, takes its rise. The destiny of
+modern Europe was sealed so long ago as A.D. 606, when the Bishop of
+Rome was made head of the universal Church by the edict of a man stained
+with the double guilt of usurpation and murder. Religion is the parent
+of liberty. The rise of tyrants can be prevented in no other way but by
+maintaining the supremacy of God and conscience; and in the early
+corruptions of the gospel, the seeds were sown of those frightful
+despotisms which have since arisen, and of those tremendous convulsions
+which are now rending society. The evil principle implanted in the
+European commonwealth in the seventh century appeared to lie dormant for
+ages; but all the while it was busily at work beneath those imposing
+imperial structures which arose in the middle ages. It had not been cast
+out of the body politic; it was still there, operating with noiseless
+but resistless energy and terrible strength; and while monarchs were
+busily engaged founding empires and consolidating their rule, it was
+preparing to signalize, at a future day, the superiority of its own
+power by the sudden and irretrievable overthrow of theirs. Thus society
+had come to resemble the lofty mountain, whose crown of white snows and
+robe of fresh verdure but conceal those hidden fires which are
+smouldering within its bowels. Under the appearance of robust health, a
+moral cancer was all the while preying upon the vitals of society,
+eating out by slow degrees the faith, the virtue, the obedience of the
+world. The ground at last gave way, and thrones and hierarchies came
+tumbling down. Look at the Europe of our day. What is the Papacy, but an
+enormous cancer, of most deadly virulency, which has now run its course,
+and done its work upon the nations of the Continent. The European
+community, from head to foot, is one festering sore. Soundness in it
+there is none. The Papal world is a wriggling mass of corruption and
+suffering. It is a compound of tyrannies and perjuries,--of lies and
+blood-red murders,--of crimes abominable and unnatural,--of priestly
+maledictions, socialist ravings, and atheistic blasphemies. The whine of
+mendicants, the curses, groans, and shrieks of victims, and the demoniac
+laughter of tyrants, commingle in one hoarse roar. Faugh! the spectacle
+is too horrible to be looked at; its effluvia is too fetid to be
+endured. What is to be done with the carcase? We cannot dwell in its
+neighbourhood. It would be impossible long to inhabit the same globe
+with it: its stench were enough to pollute and poison the atmosphere of
+our planet. It must be buried or burned. It cannot be allowed to remain
+on the surface of the earth: it would breed a plague, which would
+infect, not a world only, but a universe. It is in this direction that
+we are to seek for instruction; and here, if we are able to receive it,
+thirty generations are willing to impart to us their dear-bought
+experience. Lessons which have cost the world so much are surely worth
+learning.
+
+But I do not mean to treat my readers to lectures on history, instead of
+chapters on travel. It is not an abstract disquisition on the influence
+of religion and government, such as one might compose without stirring
+from his own fire-side, which I intend to write. It is a real journey we
+are about to undertake. You shall have facts as well as
+reflections,--incidents as well as disquisitions. I shall be grave,--as
+who would not at the sight of fallen nations?--but "when time shall
+serve there shall be smiles." You shall climb the Alps; and when their
+tops begin to burn at sunrise, you shall join heart and song with the
+music of the shepherd's horn, and the thunder of a thousand torrents, as
+they rush headlong down amid crags and pine-forests from the icy
+summits. You shall enter, with pilgrim feet, the gates of proud
+capitals, where puissant kings once reigned, but have passed away, and
+have left no memorial on earth, save a handful of dust in a
+stone-coffin, or a half-legible name on some mouldering arch. The solemn
+and stirring voice of Monte Viso, speaking from the midst of the Cottian
+Alps, will call you from afar to the martyr-land of Europe. You shall
+worship with the Waldenses beneath their own Castelluzzo, which covers
+with its mighty shadow the ashes of their martyred forefathers, and the
+humble sanctuary of their living descendants. You shall count the towns
+and campaniles on the broad Lombardy. You shall pass glorious days on
+the top of renowned cathedrals, and sit and muse in the face of the
+eternal Alps, as the clouds now veil, now reveal, their never-trodden
+snows. You shall cross the Lagunes, and see the winged lion of St Mark
+soaring serenely amid the bright domes and the ever calm seas of Venice,
+where you may list
+
+ "The song and oar of Adria's gondolier,
+ Mellowed by distance, o'er the waters sweep."
+
+You shall travel long sleepless nights in the _diligence_, and be
+ferried at day-break over "ancient rivers." You shall tread the
+grass-grown streets of Ferrara, and the deserted halls of Bologna, where
+the wisdom-loving youth of Europe erst assembled, but whose solitude now
+is undisturbed, save by the clank of the Croat's sabre, or the
+wine-flagon of the friar. You shall visit cells dim and dank, around
+which genius has thrown a halo which draws thither the pilgrim, who
+would rather muse in the twilight of the naked vault, than wander amid
+the marble glories of the palace that rises proudly in its
+neighbourhood. You shall go with me, at the hour of vespers, to aisled
+cathedrals, which were ages a-building, and the erection of which
+swallowed up the revenues of provinces,--beneath whose roof, ample
+enough to cover thousands and tens of thousands, you may see a solitary
+priest, singing a solemn dirge over a "Religion" fallen as a dominant
+belief, and existing only as a military organization; while statues,
+mute and solemn, of mailed warriors, grim saints, angels and winged
+cherubs, ranged along the walls, are the only companions of the
+surpliced man, if we except a few beggars pressing with naked knees the
+stony floor. You shall see Florence,--
+
+ "The brightest star of star-bright Italy."
+
+You shall be stirred by the craggy grandeur of the Apennines, and
+soothed by the living green of the Tuscan vales, with their hoar
+castles, their olives, their dark cypresses, and their forests,--
+
+             "Where beside his leafy hold
+ The sullen boar hath heard the distant horn,
+ And whets his tusks against the gnarled thorn."
+
+You shall taste the vine of Italy, and drink the waters of the Arno. You
+shall wander over ancient battle-fields, encounter the fierce Apennine
+blast, and be rocked on the Mediterranean wave, which the sirocco heaps
+up, huge and dark, and pours in a foaming cataract upon the strand of
+Italy. Finally, we shall tread together the sackcloth plain on which
+Rome sits, with the leaves of her torn laurel and the fragments of her
+shivered sceptre strewn around her, waiting with discrowned and
+downcast head the bolt of doom. Entering the gates of the "seven-hilled
+city," we shall climb the Capitol, and survey a scene which has its
+equal nowhere on the earth. Mouldering arches, fallen columns, buried
+palaces, empty tombs, and slaves treading on the dust of the conquerors
+of the world, are all that now remain of Imperial Rome. What a scene of
+ruin and woe! When the twilight falls, and the moon begins to climb the
+eastern arch, mark how the Coliseum projects, as if in pity, its mighty
+shadow across the Forum, and covers with its kindly folds the mouldering
+trophies of the past, and draws its mantle around the nakedness of the
+Caesars' palace, as if to screen it from the too curious eye of the
+visitor. Rome, what a history is thine! One other tragedy, terrible as
+befits the drama it closes, and the curtain will drop in solemn, and, it
+may be, eternal silence.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+THE PASSAGE OF THE ALPS.
+
+     The Rhone--Plains of Dauphiny--Mont Blanc and the "Reds"--Landscape
+     by Night--Democratic Club in the _Diligence_--Approach the
+     Alps--Festooned Vines--Begin the Ascent--Chamberry--Uses of War--An
+     Alpine Valley--Sudden Alternations of Beauty and
+     Grandeur--Travellers--Evening--Grandeur of Sunset--Supper at
+     Lanslebourg--Cross the Summit at Midnight--Morning--Sunrise among
+     the Alps--Descent--Italy.
+
+
+It was wearing late on an evening of early October 1851 when I crossed
+the Rhone on my way to the Alps. It had rained heavily during the day,
+and sombre clouds still rested on the towers of Lyons behind me. The
+river was in flood, and the lamps on the bridge threw a troubled gleam
+upon the impetuous current as it rolled underneath. It was impossible
+not to recollect that this was the stream on the banks of which Irenaeus,
+the disciple of Polycarp, himself the disciple of John, had, at almost
+the identical spot where I crossed it, laboured and prayed, and into the
+floods of which had been flung the ashes of the first martyrs of Gaul.
+These murky skies formed no very auspicious commencement of my journey;
+but I cherished the hope that to-morrow would bring fair weather, and
+with fair weather would come the green valleys and gleaming tops of the
+Alps, and, the day after, the sunny plains of Italy. This fair vision
+beckoned me on through the deep road and the scudding shower.
+
+We struck away into the plains of Dauphiny,--those great plains that
+stretch from the Rhone to the Alps, and which offer to the eye, as seen
+from the heights that overhang Lyons, a vast and varied expanse of wood
+and meadow, corn-field and vineyard, city and hamlet, with the snowy
+pile of Mont Blanc rising afar in the horizon. On the previous evening I
+had climbed these heights, so stately and beautiful, with convents
+hanging on their sides, and a chapel to Mary crowning their summit, to
+renew my acquaintance, after an interval of some years' absence, with
+the monarch of the Alps. I was greatly pleased to find, especially in
+these times, that my old friend had not grown "red." Since I saw him
+last, changes not a few had passed upon Europe, and more than one
+monarch had fallen; but Mont Blanc sat firmly in his seat, and wore his
+icy crown as proudly as ever.
+
+Since my former visit to Lyons the "Reds" had made great progress in all
+the countries at the foot of the Alps. Their party had been especially
+progressive in Lyons; so much so as to affect the nomenclature of the
+hills that overlook that city on the north. That hill, which is nearly
+wholly covered with the houses and workshops of the silk-weavers, is now
+known as the "red mountain," its inhabitants being mostly of that
+faction; while the hill on the west of it, that, namely, which I had
+ascended on the evening before, and which is chiefly devoted to
+ecclesiastical persons and uses, is called the "white mountain." But
+while men had been changing their faith, and hills their names, Mont
+Blanc stood firmly by his old creed and his old colours. There he was,
+dazzlingly, transcendently white, defying the fuller's art to whiten
+him, and shading into dimness the snowy robe of the priest; looking
+with royal majesty over his wide realm; standing unchanged in the midst
+of a theatre of changes; abiding for ever, though kingdoms at his feet
+were passing away; pre-eminent in grace and glory amidst his princely
+peers; and looking the earthly type of that eternal and all-glorious
+One, who stands supreme and unapproachable amid the powers, dominions,
+and royalties of the universe.
+
+The night wore on without any noticeable event, or any special
+interruption, save what was occasioned necessarily by our arrival at the
+several stages, and the changes consequent thereon of horses and
+postilions. There was a rag of a moon overhead,--at least so one might
+judge from the hazy light that struggled through the fog,--by the help
+of which I kept watching the landscape till past midnight. Then a spirit
+of drowsiness invaded me. It was not sleep, but sleep's image, or
+sleep's counterfeit,--an uneasy trance, in which a confused vision of
+tall trees, with their head in the clouds, and very long and very narrow
+fields, marked off by straight rows of very upright poplars, and large
+heavy-looking houses, with tall antique roofs, kept marching past,
+without variety and without end. I would wake up at times and look out.
+There was the same picture before me. I would fall back into my trance
+again, and, an hour or so after, I would again wake up; still the
+identical picture was there. I could not persuade myself that the
+_diligence_ had moved from the spot, despite the rumbling of its wheels
+and the jingling of the horses' bells. All night long the same
+changeless picture kept moving on and on, ever passing, yet never past.
+
+I may be said to have crossed the Alps amid a torrent of curses. My
+place was in the _banquette_, the roomiest and loftiest part of the
+lofty _diligence_, and which, perched in front, and looking down upon
+the inferior compartments of the _diligence_, much as the attics of a
+three-storey house look down upon the lower suits of apartments,
+commands a fine view of the country, when it is daylight and clear
+weather. There sat next me in the _banquette_ a young Savoyard, who
+travelled with us as far as Chamberry, in the heart of the Alps; and on
+the other side of the Savoyard sat the _conducteur_. This last was a
+Piedmontese, a young, clever, obliging fellow, with a voluble tongue,
+and a keen dark eye in his head. Scarce had we extricated ourselves from
+the environs of Lyons, or had got beyond the reach of the guns that look
+so angrily down upon it from the heights, till these two broke into a
+conversation on politics. The conversation soon warmed into an energetic
+and vehement discussion, or philippic I should rather say. Their
+discourse was far too rapid, and I was too unfamiliar with the language
+in which it was uttered to do more than gather its scope and drift. But
+I could hear the names of France and Austria repeated every other
+sentence; and these names were sure to be followed by a volley of
+curses, fierce, scornful, and defiant. Austria was cursed,--France was
+cursed: they were cursed individually,--they were cursed
+conjunctly,--once, again, and a hundred times. What were the politics of
+the passengers in the other compartments of the diligence I know not;
+but little did they wot that they had a democratic club overhead, and
+that more treason was spouted that night in their company than might
+have got us all into trouble, had there been any evesdropper in any
+corner of the vehicle. When I chanced to awake, they were still at it.
+The harsh grating sound of the anathemas haunted me during my sleep
+even. It was like a rattling hail-shower, or like the continuous
+corruscations of lightning,--the lightning of the Alps. Had it been
+possible for the authorities to know but a tithe of what was spoken
+that night by my two neighbours, their journey would have been short:
+they would have been shot at the next station, to a certainty.
+
+With the night, the dream-like landscape, and the maledictory harangues
+which had haunted me during the darkness, passed away, and the morning
+found us nearing the mountains. The Alps open upon you by little. One
+who has never climbed these hills imagines himself standing at their
+feet, and looking up the long unbroken vista of fields, vineyards,
+forests, and naked rocks, to the eternal snows of their summit. Not so.
+They do not come marching thus upon you in all their grandeur to
+overwhelm you. To see them thus, you must stand afar off,--at least
+fifty miles away. There you can take in the whole at a glance, from the
+beauteous fringe of stream, and hamlet, and woodland, that skirts their
+base, to the white serrated line that cuts so sharply the blue of the
+firmament. Nearer them,--unless, indeed, in the great central valleys,
+where you can see the icy fields hanging in the firmament at an awful
+distance above you,--their snow-clad summits are invisible, being hidden
+by an intervening sea of ridges, that are strewn over with rocks, or
+wave darkly with pines.
+
+As we approached the mountains, they offered to the eye a beauteous
+chain of verdant hills, with the morning mists hanging on their sides.
+The torrents were in flood from the recent rains; the woods had the rich
+tints of autumn upon them; but the charm of the scene lay in the
+beautiful festoonings of the vine. The uplands before me were barred by
+what I at first took to be long horizontal layers of fleecy cloud. On a
+nearer approach, these turned out to be the long branchy arms of the
+vine. The vine-stock is made to lean against the cut trunk of a chestnut
+or poplar tree, and its branches are bent horizontally, and extended
+till they meet those of the neighbouring vine-stock, which have been
+similarly dealt with. In this way, continuous lines of luxuriant
+foliage, with pendulous blood-red clusters in their season, may be made
+to run for miles together along the hill-side. There might be from
+thirty to forty parallel lines in those I now saw. Tinted with the
+morning sun, and relieved against the deep verdure of the mountain, they
+appeared like stripes of amber, or floating lines of cloud fringed with
+gold.
+
+It was the Mont Cenis route I was traversing,--the least rugged of all
+the passes of the Alps, and the same by which Hannibal, as some suppose,
+passed into Italy. The day cleared up into one of unusual brilliancy. We
+began to ascend by a path cut in the rock of the mountain, having on our
+left an escarpment of limestone several hundred feet high, and on our
+right a deep gorge, with a white foaming torrent at its bottom. The
+frontier chain passed, we descended into a rich valley, with a fine
+stream flowing through it, and the poor town of Les Echelles hiding from
+view in one of its angles. These noble valleys are sadly blotted by
+filth and disease. The contrast offered betwixt the noble features of
+nature and the degraded form of man is painful and humiliating. Bowed
+down by toil, stolid with ignorance, disfigured with the goitre, struck
+with cretinism, the miserable beings around you do more to sadden you
+than all that the bright air and glorious hills can do to exhilarate
+you.
+
+The valley where we now were was a complete _cul de sac_. It was walled
+in all round by limestone hills of great height, and the eye sought in
+vain for visible outlet. At length one could see a white line running
+half-way up the mountain's face, and ending in an opening no bigger than
+a pigeon-hole. We slowly climbed this road,--for road it was; and when
+we came to the diminutive opening we had seen from the valley below, it
+expanded into a tunnel,--one of the great works of Napoleon,--which ran
+right through the mountain, and brought us out on the other side. We now
+traversed a narrow and rocky ravine, which at length expanded into a
+magnificent valley, rich in vines and fruit-trees of all kinds, and
+overhung by lofty mountains. On this plain, surrounded by the living
+grandeur of nature, and the faded renown of its monastic and
+archiepiscopal glory, and half-buried amid foliage and ruins, sits
+Chamberry, the capital of Savoy.
+
+At Chamberry our route underwent a change. Beauty now gave place to
+grandeur; but still a grandeur blended with scenes of exquisite
+loveliness. These I cannot stay to describe at length. The whole day was
+passed in winding and climbing among the hills. We toiled slowly to rise
+above the plains we had left, and to approach the region where winter
+spreads out her boundless sea of ice and snow. We followed the
+magnificent road which we owe to the genius of Napoleon. The fruits of
+Marengo are gone. Austerlitz is but a name. But the passes of the Alps
+remain. "When will it be ready for the transport of the cannon?"
+enquired Napoleon respecting the Simplon road. War is a rough pioneer;
+but without such a pioneer to clear the way the world would stand still.
+Look back. What do you see throughout the successive ages? War, with his
+red eye, his iron feet, and his gleaming brand, marching in the van; and
+commerce, and arts, and Christianity, following in the wake of this
+blood-besmeared Anakim. Such has ever been the order of procession.
+Mankind in the mass are a sluggish race, and will march only when the
+word of command is sounded from iron-throated, hoarse-voiced war. Look
+at the Alps. What do you see? A gigantic form, busy amid the blinding
+tempests and the eternal ice of their summits. With herculean might he
+rends the rocks and levels the mountains. Who is he, and what does he
+there? That is war, in the person of Napoleon, hewing a path through
+rocks and glaciers, for the passage of the Bible and the missionary.
+Under the reign of the Mediator the promise to Christianity is, All is
+yours. War is yours, and Peace is yours.
+
+As we passed on, innumerable nooks of beauty opened to the eye, and
+romantic peaks ever and anon shot up before us. Now the path led along a
+meadow, with its large bright flowers; and now along the brink of an
+Alpine river, with its worn bed and tumultuous floods. Now it rounded
+the shoulder of a hill; and now it lost itself in some frightful gorge,
+where the overhanging mountain, with its drapery of pine forests, made
+it dark as midnight almost. You emerge into daylight again, and begin
+the same succession of green meadow, pine-clad hill, foaming torrent,
+and black gorge. Thus you go onward and upward. At length white Alps
+begin to look down upon you, and give you warning that you are nearing
+those central regions where eternal winter holds his seat amid pinnacles
+of ice and wastes of snow.
+
+Let us take an individual picture. The road has made a sudden turn; and
+a valley, hitherto concealed by the mountains, opens unexpectedly. It is
+some three or four miles long; and the road traverses it straight as the
+arrow's flight, till it loses itself amid the rocks and foliage at the
+bottom of the mountain which you see lying across the valley. On this
+hand is a stream of water, clear as crystal; on that is the ridgy, wavy,
+lofty mass of a purple Alp. The bright air and light incorporate, as it
+were, with the substance of the mountain, and spiritualize it, so that
+it looks of mould intermediate betwixt the earth and the firmament. The
+path is bordered with the most delicious verdure, fresh and soft as a
+carpet, and freckled with the dancing shadows of the trees. On this
+hand is a chalet, with a vine climbing its wall and mantling its
+doorway; on that is a verdant knoll, planted a-top with chestnut trees;
+and from amidst their rich, massy foliage, the little spire of the
+church, with its glittering vane, looks forth. Near it is the cure's
+house, buried amidst flower-blossoms, the foliage of vines, and the
+shadows of the sycamore and chestnut. There is not a spot in the little
+valley which beauty has not clothed and decked with the most painstaking
+care; while grandeur has built up a wall all round, as if to keep out
+the storms that sometimes rage here. It looks so quiet and tranquil, and
+is so shut in from the great world outside, that one thinks of it as a
+spot which happy beings from another sphere might come to visit, and
+where he might list the melody of their voices, as they walk at
+even-tide amid the bowers of this earthly Eden.
+
+The road makes another turn, and the scene is changed in a moment,--in
+the twinkling of an eye. The happy valley is gone,--it has vanished like
+a dream; and a scene of stern, savage, overpowering sublimity rises
+before you. Alp is piled upon Alp, chasms yawn, torrents growl, jutting
+rocks threaten; and far over head is the dark pine forest, amid which
+you can descry, perhaps, the frozen billows of the glacier, or have
+glimpses of those still higher and drearier regions where winter sits on
+her eternal throne, and holds undivided sway. Your farther progress is
+completely barred. So it looks. A cyclopean wall rises from earth to
+heaven. The gate of rock by which you entered seems to have closed its
+ponderous jaws behind you, and shut you in,--there to remain till some
+supernatural power rend the mountains and give you egress. The mood of
+mind changes with the scene. The beauty soothed and softened you; now
+you grow impulsive and stern. The awful forms around you blend with the
+soul, as it were, and impart something of their own vastness to it. You
+feel yourself carried into the very presence of that Power which sank
+the foundations of the mountains in the depths of the earth, and built
+up their giant masses above the clouds; which hung the avalanche on
+their brow, clove their unfathomable abysses, poured the river at their
+feet, and taught the forked lightning to play around their awful icy
+steeps. You seem to hear the sound of the Almighty's footsteps still
+echoing amid these hills. There passes before you the shadow of
+Omnipotence; and a great voice seems to proclaim the Godhead of Him "who
+hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and meted out heaven
+with the span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure, and
+weighed the mountains in scales and the hills in a balance."
+
+The road was comparatively solitary. We passed at times a waggoner, who
+was conveying the produce of the plains to some village among the
+mountains; and then a couple of pedestrians, with the air of tradesmen,
+on their way perhaps to a Swiss town to seek employment; and next a
+cowherd, driving home his herds from the glades of the forest; and now
+an occasional gendarme would present himself, and force you to remember,
+what you would willingly have forgotten amid such scenes, that there
+were such things as armies in the world; and sometimes the long, dark
+figure of the cure, reading his breviary to economize time, might be
+seen gliding along before you, representative of the murky superstition
+that still fills these valleys, and which, indeed, you can read in the
+stolid face of the Savoyard, as he sits listlessly under the broad
+easings of his cottage roof.
+
+Anon the evening came, walking noiselessly upon the mountains, and
+shedding on the spirit a not unpleasant melancholy. The Alps seemed to
+grow taller. Deep masses of shade were projected from summit to summit.
+Pine forest, and green vale, and dashing torrent, and quiet hamlet, all
+retired from view, as if they wished to go to sleep beneath the friendly
+shadows. A deep and reverent silence stole over the Alps, as if the
+stillness of the firmament had descended upon them. Over all nature was
+shed this spirit of quiet and profound tranquillity. Every tree was
+motionless. The murmur of the brook, the wing of the bird, the creak of
+our diligence, the voices of the postilion and _conducteur_, all felt
+the softening influence of the hour.
+
+But mark! what glory is this which begins to burn upon the crest of the
+snowy Alps? First there comes a flood of rosy light, and then a deep
+bright crimson, like the ruby's flash or the sapphire's blaze, and then
+a circlet of flaming peaks studs the horizon. It looks as if a great
+conflagration were about to begin. But suddenly the light fades, and
+piles of cold, pale white rise above you. You can scarce believe them to
+be the same mountains. But, quick as the lightning, the flash comes
+again. A flood of glory rolls once more along their summits. It is a
+last and mighty blaze. You feel as if it were a struggle for life,--as
+if it were a war waged by the spirits of darkness against these
+celestial forms. The struggle is over: the darkness has prevailed. These
+mighty mountain torches are extinguished one after one; and cold,
+ghastly piles, of sepulchral hue, which you shiver to look up at, and
+which remind you of the dead, rise still and calm in the firmament above
+you. You feel relieved when darkness interposes its veil betwixt you and
+them. The night sets in deep, and calm, and beautiful, with troops of
+stars overhead. The voice of streams, all night long, fills the silent
+hills with melodious echoes.
+
+We now threaded the black gorge of the Arc, passing, unperceived in the
+darkness, Fort Lesseillon, which, erecting its tiers of batteries above
+this tremendous natural fosse, looks like a mailed warrior guarding the
+entrance to Italy. It was eleven o'clock, and we were toiling up the
+mountain. We had left all human habitations far below, as we thought,
+when suddenly we were startled by a peal of village bells. Never had
+bells sounded sweeter in my fancy than those I now heard in these dreary
+regions. These were the convent bells of the little village of
+Lanslebourg, which lies at the foot of the summit of the Mont Cenis.
+Here we were to sup. It was a sort of Arbour in the midst of the hill
+Difficulty, where we Pilgrims might refresh ourselves before beginning
+our last and steepest ascent. It was a most substantial repast, as all
+suppers in that part of the world are; and we had the pleasure of
+thinking that we were perhaps the highest supper party in Europe. It was
+our last meal before crossing the mountain, and passing from the modern
+to the ancient world; for the ridge of the Alps is the limit that
+divides the two. On this side are modern times; on that are the dark
+ages. You retrograde five full centuries when you step across the line.
+We ate our supper, as did the Israelites their last meal in Egypt, with
+our loins girded,--scarce even our greatcoats put off, and our staff in
+our hand.
+
+Now for the summit. We started at midnight. Above us was an ebon vault,
+studded thick with large bright stars. Around us was the awful silence
+of the mountains. The night was luminous; for in that elevated region
+darkness is unknown, save when the storm-cloud shrouds it. Of our party,
+some betook them to the diligence, and were carried over asleep; others
+of us, leaving the vehicle to follow the road, which zig-zags up to the
+summit, addressed ourselves to the old route, which winds steeply
+upward, now through forests of stunted firs, now over a matting of
+thick, short grass, and now over the bare debris-strewn scalp of the
+mountain. The convent bells followed us with their sweet chimes up the
+hill, and formed a link between us and the living world below. The
+echoes of our voices were strangely loud. They rung out in the thin
+elastic air, as if all we said had been caught up and repeated by some
+invisible being,--some genius of the mountains. The hours wore away; and
+so delighted were we with the novelty of our position,--climbing the
+summits of the Alps at midnight,--that they seemed but so many minutes.
+
+Ere we were aware, the night was past, and the dawn came upon us; and
+with the dawn, new and stupendous glories burst forth. How fresh and
+holy the young day, as it drew aside the curtains of the east, and
+smiled upon the mountains! The valleys were buried under a fathomless
+ocean of haze; but the pearly light, sown by the rosy hand of morn,
+fringed the mountain ridges, and a multitudinous sea of silvery waves
+spread out around us. The dawn stole on, waxing momentarily; and the
+great white Alps, which had been standing all night around us so silent,
+and cold, and sepulchral-like, in their snowy shrouds, now began to grow
+palpable and less dream-like. The stars put out their fires as the pure
+crystal light mounted into the sky. Each successive scene was
+lovely,--inexpressibly lovely,--but momentary. We wished we could have
+stereotyped it till we had had time to admire it; but while we were
+gazing it had passed and was gone, like the other glories of the world.
+But, lo! the sun is near. Mighty torch-bearers run before his chariot,
+and cry to the rocks, the pine-forests, the torrents, the glaciers, the
+vine-clad vales, the flower-enamelled glades, the rivers, the cities,
+that their king is coming. Awake and worship! A mighty Alp, whose
+loftier stature or more favourable position gives it the start of all
+the others, has caught the first ray; and suddenly, as if an invisible
+hand had kindled it, it rises into the firmament, a pyramid of flame,
+soft, mild, yet gloriously bright, like a dome of living sapphire. While
+you gaze, another flashes upon you, and another, and another, and at
+length the whole horizon is filled with gigantic pyres. The stupendous
+vision has risen so suddenly, that you almost look if you may see the
+seraph which has flown round and kindled these mighty torches. The glory
+is inexpressible, and on a scale so vast, that you have no words to
+describe it. You can scarce believe it to be reflected light which gives
+such glory to these mountains. They are so rosy, so vividly, intensely
+radiant, that you feel as if that boundless effulgence emanated from
+themselves,--were flowing forth from some hidden fountain of light
+within. It is like no other scene of earthly glory you ever saw. You can
+compare it only to some celestial city which has been let down from the
+firmament upon the tops of the mountains, with its glittering turrets,
+its domes of sapphire, and its wall of alabaster, needing no sun or
+other source of earthly light to enlighten and glorify it. But while you
+gaze, it is gone. The sun is up, and the mighty mountain-torches which
+had carried the tidings of his coming to the countries beneath are
+extinguished.
+
+It was now full day, and we had reached the summit of the pass. Above us
+were still the snow-clad peaks; but the road does not ascend higher. We
+now crossed the frontier, and were in Italy. A little rocky plain
+surrounded by weather-beaten peaks, a deep blue lake, and a sea of bare
+ridges in front, were all that we saw of Italy. The road now began
+sensibly to decline, and the diligence quickened its pace. We soon
+reached the ridges before us, and began to descend over the brow of the
+Alps, which are steep and perpendicular as a wall almost, on their
+southern side. You first traverse a region covered with immense
+lichen-clothed boulders; next come stretches of heath; then stunted
+firs: by and by fruit and forest trees begin to make their appearance;
+next comes the lovely acacia; and last of all the vine, tall and
+luxuriant, veiling the peasant's cot with its shadow. The road is
+literally a series of hanging stairs, which zig-zag down the face of the
+mountain. At certain points the rock is perforated; at others it is hewn
+into terraces; and at others the path rests on vast substructions of
+masonry. Now an immense rock leans over the road, and now you find
+yourself on the edge of some frightful precipice, with the gulph running
+right down many thousands of feet, and a white torrent at the bottom,
+boiling and struggling, but unable to make itself heard at that height
+on the mountain. The turns are frequent and sharp; and the heavy,
+overladen vehicle, in its furious downward career, gives a swing at
+each, as if it would cut short the passage into Italy, and land the
+passenger, sooner than he wishes, at the bottom. At length, after four
+hours' riding, the descent is accomplished. The scene has changed in the
+twinkling of an eye. The plain is as level as a floor. The warm
+sun,--the brilliant sky,--the luxuriant vines,--the handsome
+architecture,--the picturesque costumes,--the dark oval faces, and black
+fiery eyes of the natives,--all tell you that it is a new world into
+which you have entered,--that this is ITALY.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+RISK AND PROGRESS OF CONSTITUTIONALISM IN PIEDMONT.
+
+     First Entrance into Italy--Never can be Repeated--The Cathedral of
+     Turin--The Royal Palace--The Museum--Egyptian
+     Mummies--Reflections--Landmark of the Vaudois Valleys--Piedmontese
+     House of Commons--Piedmontese Constitution--Perils that surrounded
+     it--Providentially shielded from these--Numbers and Wealth of the
+     Priesthood--Want of Public Opinion--Rise of a Free Press--Its
+     Power--The _Gazetta del Popolo_--The Bible quoted by the
+     Journalists--The flourishing State of the Country--The Waldensian
+     Temple and Congregation--Workmen's Clubs--The Capuchin Monastery--A
+     Capuchin Friar--Sunset.
+
+
+One can enter Italy for the first time only once. For, however often we
+may climb the Alps, and tread the land that lies stretched out at their
+base, it is with a cold pulse, compared with the fever of excitement
+into which we are thrown by the first touch of that soil. The charm is
+flown; the tree of knowledge has been plucked; and never more can we
+taste the dreamy yet intense delight which attended the first unfolding
+of the gates of the Alps, and the first rising of the fair vision of
+Italy.
+
+In truth, the Italy which one comes to see on his second visit is not
+the Italy that first drew him across the Alps. That was the Italy of
+history, or rather of his own imagination. The fair form his fancy was
+wont to conjure up, draped in the glowing recollections of empire and of
+arms, and encompassed with the halo of heroic deeds, he can see no more.
+There meets him, on the other side of the Alps, a vision very unlike
+this. The Italy of the Caesars is gone; and where she sat is now a poor,
+naked, cowering thing, with a chain upon her arm,--the Italy of the
+Popes. But the fascination attends the traveller some short way into
+that land. Indeed, he is loath to lose it, and would rather see Italy
+through the warm colourings of history, and the bright hues of his own
+fancy, than look upon her as she is.
+
+I shall never forget the intense excitement that thrilled me when I
+found myself rolling along on the magnificent avenue of pollard-elms,
+that runs all the way from Rivoli to Turin. The voluptuous air, which
+seemed to fill the landscape with a dreamy gaiety; the intense sunlight,
+which tinted every object with extraordinary brilliancy, from the bright
+leaves overhead, to the burning domes of Turin in front; the dark eyes
+of the natives, which flashed with a fervour like that of their own sun;
+the Alps towering above me, and running off in a vast unbroken line of
+glittering masses,--all contributed to form a picture of so novel and
+brilliant a kind, that it absolutely produced an intoxication of
+delight.
+
+I passed a few days at Turin; and the pleasure of my stay was much
+enhanced by the society of my friend the Rev. John Bonar, whom I had met
+at Chamberry, _en route_, with his family, for Malta. We visited
+together the chief objects of interest in the capital of Piedmont. The
+churches we saw of course. And though we had been carried blindfolded
+across the Alps, and set down in the cathedral of Turin, the statuary
+alone would have told us that we were in Italy. The most unpractised eye
+could see at once the difference betwixt these statues and those of the
+Transalpine churches. The Italian sculptors seemed to possess some
+secret by which they could make the marble live. Some half-dozen of
+priests, with red copes (I presume it was a martyr's day, for on such
+days the Church's dress is red), ranged in a pew near the altar, were
+singing psalms. Whether the good men were thinking of their dinner, I
+knew not; but they yawned portentously, wrung their hands with an air of
+helplessness, and looked at us as if they half expected that we would
+volunteer to do duty for an hour or so in their stead. A bishop chanting
+his psalter under the groined roof of cathedral, and a covenanter
+praying in his hill-side cave, would form an admirable picture of two
+very different styles of devotion. There were some dozen of old women on
+the floor, whom the mixed motive of saying their prayers and picking up
+a chance alms seemed to have drawn thither. From the Duomo we went to
+the King's palace. We walked through a suit of splendid apartments,
+though not quite accordant in their style of ornament and comfort with
+our English ideas. The floor and roof were of rich and beautiful
+mosaics; the walls were adorned with the more memorable battles of the
+Sardinian nation; and the furniture was minutely and elaborately inlaid
+with mother-of-pearl. Three rooms more particularly attracted my
+attention. The first contained the throne of the kings of Savoy,--a
+gilded chair, under a crimson canopy, and surrounded by a gilt railing.
+I thought, as I gazed upon it, how often the power of that throne had
+lain heavily upon the poor Waldenses. The other room contained the bed
+on which King Charles Albert died. It is yet in my readers'
+recollection, that Charles Albert died at Oporto; but the whole
+furniture of the room in which he breathed his last was transported,
+together with his ashes, to Turin. It was an affecting sight. There it
+stood, huddled into a corner,--a poor bed of boards, with a plain
+coverlet, such as a Spanish peasant might sleep beneath; a chest of deal
+drawers; and a few of the necessary utensils of a sick chamber. The
+third room contained the Queen's bed of state. Its windows opened
+sweetly upon the fine gardens of the palace, where the first ray, as it
+slants downwards from the crest of the Alps into the valley of the Po,
+falls on the massy foliage of the mulberry and the orange. On the table
+were some six or eight books, among which was a copy of the Psalms of
+David. "It is very fine," said my friend Mr Bonar, glancing up at the
+gilded canopy and silken hangings of the bed, and poking his hand at the
+same time into its soft woolly furnishings, "but nothing but blankets
+can make it comfortable."
+
+From the palace we passed to the Museum. There you see pictures,
+statues, coins stamped with the effigies of kings that lived thousands
+of years ago, and papyrus parchments inscribed with the hieroglyphics of
+old Egypt, and other curiosities, which it has required ages to collect,
+as it would volumes to describe. Not the least interesting sight there
+is the gods of Egypt,--cats, ibises, fish, monkeys, heads of calves and
+bulls, all lying in their original swathings. I looked narrowly at these
+divinities, but could detect no difference betwixt the god-cat of Egypt
+and the cats of our day. Were it possible to re-animate one of them, and
+make it free of our streets, I fear the god would be mistaken for an
+ordinary quadruped of its own kind, pelted and worried by mischievous
+boys and dogs, as other cats are. I do not know that a modern priest of
+Turin has any very good ground for taunting an old Egyptian priest with
+his cat-worship. If it is impossible to tell the difference betwixt a
+cat which is simply a cat, and a cat which is a god, it is just as
+impossible to tell the difference betwixt a bread-wafer which is simply
+bread, and a bread-wafer which is the flesh and blood, the soul and
+divinity, of Christ.
+
+Seeing in Egypt the gods died, it will not surprise the reader that in
+Egypt men should die. And there they lay, the brown sons and daughters
+of Mizraim, side by side with their gods, wrapt with them in the same
+stoney, dreamless slumber. One mummy struck me much. It lay in a stone
+sarcophagus, the same in which the hands of wife or child mayhap had
+placed it; and there it had slept on undisturbed through all the changes
+and hubbub of four thousand years. Over the face was drawn a thin cloth,
+through which the features could be seen not indistinctly. Now, thought
+I, I shall hear all about old Egypt. Perhaps this man has seen Joseph,
+or talked with Jacob, or witnessed the wonders of the exodus. Come, tell
+me your name or profession, or some of the strange events of your
+history. Did you don the mail-coat of the warrior, or the white robe of
+the priest? Did you till the ground, and live on garlic; or were you
+owner of a princely estate, and wont to sit on your house-top of
+evenings, enjoying the delicious twilight, and the soft flow of the
+Nile? Come now, tell me all. The door of a departed world seemed about
+to open. I felt as if standing on its threshold, and looking in upon the
+shadowy forms that peopled it. But ah! these lips spoke not. With the
+Rosetta stone as the key, I could compel the granite slabs and the brown
+worn parchments around me to give up their secrets. But where was the
+key that could open that breast, and read the secrets locked up in it?
+
+And this form had still a living owner! This awoke a train of thought
+yet more solemn. Who, what, and where is he? Anxious as I had been to
+have the door of that mysterious past in which he had lived opened to
+me, I was yet more anxious to look into that more mysterious and awful
+future into which he had gone. What had he seen and felt these four
+thousand years? Did the ages seem long to him, or was it but as a few
+days since he left the earth? I went close up to the dark curtain, but
+there was no opening,--no chink by which I could see into the world
+beyond. Will no kind hand draw the veil aside but for a moment? There it
+has hung unlifted age after age, concealing, with its impenetrable
+folds, all that mortals would most like to know. Myriads and myriads
+have passed within, but not one has ever given back voice, or look, or
+sign, to those they left behind, and from whom never before did they
+conceal thought or wish. Why is this? Do they not still think of us? Do
+they not still love us? Would they softly speak to us if they could?
+What gulf divides them? Ah! how silent are the dead!
+
+Close by the great highway into Italy lie the "Valleys of the Vaudois."
+One might pass them without being aware of their near presence, or that
+he was treading upon holy ground;--so near to the world are they, and
+yet so completely hidden from it. Ascend the little hill on the south of
+Turin, and follow with your eye the great wall of the Alps which bounds
+the plain on the north. There, in the west, about thirty miles from
+where you stand, is a tall pyramidal-shaped mountain, towering high
+above the other summits. That is Monte Viso, which rises like a
+heaven-erected beacon, to signify from afar to the traveller the land of
+the Waldenses, and to call him, with its solemn voice, to turn aside and
+see the spot where "the bush burned and was not consumed." We shall make
+a short, a very short visit to these valleys, than which Europe has no
+more sacred soil. But first let us speak of some of the bulwarks which
+an all-wise Providence has erected in our day around a Church and people
+whose existence is one of the great living miracles of the world.
+
+The revolutions which swept over Italy in 1848 were the knell of the
+other Italian States, but to Piedmont they were the trumpet of liberty.
+No man living can satisfactorily explain why the same event should have
+operated so disasterously for the one, and so beneficially for the
+other. No reason can be found in the condition of the country itself:
+the thing is inexplicable on ordinary principles; and the more
+intelligent Piedmontese at this day speak of it as a miracle. But so is
+the fact. Piedmont is a constitutional kingdom; and I went with M.
+Malan, himself a Waldensian, and a member of the Chamber of Deputies, to
+see the hall where their Parliament sits. A spacious flight of steps
+conducts to a noble hall, in form an ellipse, and surmounted by a dome.
+At one end of the ellipse hangs a portrait of the President, and
+underneath is his richly gilt chair, with a crimson-covered table before
+it. Right in front of the Speaker's chair, on a lower level, is placed
+the tribune, which much resembles the precentor's desk in a Scottish
+church. The tribune is occupied only when a Minister makes a Ministerial
+declaration, or a Convener of a Committee gives in his Report. An open
+space divides the tribune from the seats of the members. These last run
+all round the hall, in concentric rows of benches, also covered with
+crimson. "There, on the right," said M. Malan, "sit the priest party. In
+the front are the Ministerial members; on the left is my seat. There is
+an extreme left to which I do not belong: I have not passed the
+constitutional line. This lower tier of galleries is for the conductors
+of the press and the diplomatic corps; this higher gallery is for ladies
+and military men. We are 204 members in all. We have a member for every
+twenty-five thousand inhabitants. Our population is four millions and a
+half. Our House of Peers contains only ninety members. The King has the
+privilege of nominating to it, but peers so created are only for life."
+
+It was, in truth, a marvellous sight;--a free and independent Parliament
+meeting in the ancient capital of the bigoted Piedmont, with a free
+press and a public looking on, and one of the long proscribed Vaudois
+race occupying a seat in it. The more I thought of it, the more I
+wondered. The causes which had led to so extraordinary a result seemed
+clearly providential. When King Charles Albert in 1848 gave his subjects
+a Constitution, no one had asked it, and few there were who could value
+it, or even knew what a Constitution meant. One or two public writers
+there were who said that public opinion demanded it; but, in sooth,
+there was then no public opinion in the country. Soon after this the
+campaign in Lombardy was commenced, and the result of that campaign
+threatened the Piedmontese Constitution with extinction. The Piedmontese
+army was beaten by the Austrians, and had to make a hasty and inglorious
+retreat into their own country. Every one then expected that Radetzky
+would march upon Turin, put down the Constitution, and seize upon
+Sardinia. Contrary to his usual habits, the old warrior halted on the
+frontier, as if kept back by an invisible power, and the Constitution
+was saved. Then came the death of Charles Albert, of a broken heart, in
+Oporto, whither he had fled; and every one believed that the Piedmontese
+charter would accompany its author to the tomb. The dispositions and
+policy of the new king were unknown; but the probability was that he
+would follow the example of his brother sovereigns of Italy, all of whom
+had begun to revoke the Constitutions which they had so recently
+inaugurated with solemn oaths. Happily these fears were not realized.
+The new perils passed over, and left the Constitution unscathed. King
+Victor Immanuel,--a constitutional monarch simply by accident,--turned
+out a good-natured, easy-minded man, who loved the chase and his country
+seat, and found it more agreeable to live on good terms with his
+subjects, and enjoy a handsome civil list,--which his Parliament has
+taken care to vote him,--than to be indebted for his safety and a
+bankrupt exchequer to the bayonets of his guards. Thus marvellously,
+hitherto, in the midst of dangers at home and re-action abroad, has the
+Piedmontese charter been preserved. I dwell with the greater minuteness
+on this point, because on the integrity of that charter are suspended
+the civil liberties of the Church of the Vaudois. When I was in Turin
+the Constitution was three years old; but even then its existence was
+exceedingly precarious. The King could have revoked it at any moment;
+and there was not then, I was assured by General Beckwith,--who knows
+the state of the Piedmontese nation well,--moral power in the country to
+offer any effectual resistance, had the royal will decreed the
+suppression of constitutional government. "But," added he, "should the
+Constitution live three years longer, the people by that time will have
+become so habituated to the working of a free Constitution, and public
+opinion will have acquired such strength, that it will be impossible for
+the monarch to retrace his steps, even should he be so inclined." It is
+exactly three years since that time, and the state of the Piedmontese
+nation at this moment is such as to justify the words of the sagacious
+old man.
+
+The first grand difficulty in the way of the Constitution was, the
+numbers and power of the priesthood. In no country in Europe,--not even
+in France and Austria, when their size is compared,--were the benefices
+so numerous, or their holders so luxuriously fed. Piedmont was the
+paradise of priests. The ecclesiastical statistics of that kingdom,
+furnished to the French journal _La Presse_, on occasion of the
+introduction of the bill for suppressing the convents, on the 8th of
+January 1855, reveals a state of things truly astonishing.
+Notwithstanding that the population is only four and a half millions,
+there are in Sardinia 7 archbishops; 34 bishops; 41 chapters, with 860
+canons attached to the bishoprics; 73 simple chapters, with 470 canons;
+1100 livings for the canons; and, lastly, 4267 parishes, with some
+thousands of parish priests. The domain of the Church represents a
+capital of 400 millions of francs, with a yearly revenue of 17 millions
+and upwards. This enormous wealth is divided amongst the clergy in
+proportions grossly unequal. The 41 prelates of Sardinia enjoy a revenue
+of nearly a million and a half of francs, which is double what used to
+maintain all the bishops of the French empire. The Archbishop of Turin
+has an income of 120,000 francs, which is more than the whole bench of
+Belgian bishops. The other prelates are paid in proportion. As a set-off
+to this wealth, there are in Sardinia upwards of 2000 curates, not one
+of whom has so much as 800 francs, or about L.35 sterling. These are
+thus tempted to prey upon the people. Such is the terrible organization
+which the King and Parliament have to encounter in carrying out their
+reforms, and such is the fearful incubus which has pressed for ages upon
+the social rights and industrial energies of the Piedmontese people.
+
+But this is but a part of the great sacerdotal army encamped in
+Piedmont. There are 71 religious orders besides, divided into 604
+houses, containing in all 8563 monks and nuns. The expense of feeding
+these six hundred houses, with their army of eight thousand strong,
+forms an item of two millions and a-half of francs, and represents a
+capital of forty-five millions. The greatest admirer of these
+fraternities will scarce deny that this is a handsome remuneration for
+their services; indeed, we never could make out what these services
+really are. They do not teach the youth, or pray with the aged. For
+reading they have no taste; and to write what will be read, or preach
+what will be listened to, is far beyond their ability. Their pious hands
+disdain all contact with the plough, and the loom, and the spade. They
+share with their countrymen neither the labours of peace, nor the
+dangers of war. They lounge all day in the streets, or about the wine
+shops; and, when the dinner-hour arrives, they troop home-wards, to
+retail the gossip of the town over a groaning board and a well-filled
+flagon. Thus they fatten like pigs, being about as cleanly, but scarce
+as useful. It is not surprising that a bill should at last have reached
+the Chambers, proposing, _first_, the better distribution of the
+revenues of the Church, equal to a fourth of the kingdom; and, _second_,
+the suppression of those "houses," the rules of which bind over their
+members to sheer, downright idleness, leaving only those who have some
+show of public duty to perform. The priests denounce the bill as
+"spoliation and robbery" of course, and prophesy all manner of things
+against so wicked a kingdom. Doubtless it is daring impiety in the eyes
+of Rome to forbid a man with a shaven crown and a brown cloak to play
+the idler and vagabond. We are only surprised that the people of
+Piedmont have so long suffered their labours to be eaten up by an order
+of men useless, and worse than useless.
+
+Another grand difficulty in Piedmont was the absence of a middle
+class,--wealthy, intelligent, and independent. No one felt that he had
+rights, and you never heard people saying there, as you may do in
+Britain, "this is my right, and I will have it." A feeling of individual
+right, and of responsibility,--for the two go together,--was then
+just beginning to dawn upon the popular mind. This was accompanied
+by a certain amount of disorganizing influence; not that of
+Socialism,--which, happily, scarce existed in Piedmont,--but that of
+self-action. Every one was feeling his own way. The priests, of course,
+were exceedingly wroth, and loudly accused Protestantism as the cause of
+all this commotion in men's minds. Alas! there was no Protestantism in
+Piedmont, for it had been one of the most bigoted kingdoms in Italy. It
+was their own handiwork; for a tyranny always produces a democracy. As
+if by a miracle, a powerful and popular press started up in Turin. The
+writers in the _Opinione_ and the _Gazetta del Popolo_, acting, I
+suspect, on a hint given by some Vaudois that there was an old book, now
+little known, that would help them in the war they were now waging, went
+to the Bible, and, finding that it made against the priests, were
+liberal in their quotations from it. Their most telling hits were the
+extracts from Scripture; and finding it so, they quoted yet more
+largely. The priests were much concerned to see Holy Scripture so far
+profaned as to be quoted in newspapers, and exposed freely to the gaze
+of the vulgar. But what could they do? Their own literary qualifications
+did not warrant them to enter the lists with these writers: they had
+forgot the way to preach, unless at Lent; they could work the
+confessional, but even it began to be silenced by the powerful artillery
+of the press. At an earlier stage they might have roused the peasantry,
+and marched upon the Constitution, whose life they knew was the death of
+their power; but it was too late in 1851. An attempt of this sort made a
+year or two after, among the peasantry of the Val d'Aosta, turned out a
+miserable failure. Thus, a movement which in other countries came
+forward under the sanction of the priesthood, from the very outset in
+Piedmont took a contrary direction, and set in full against the Church.
+Since that day liberty has been working itself, bit by bit, into the
+action of the Constitution, and the feelings of the people; and now, I
+believe, neither King nor Parliament, were they so inclined, could put
+it down.
+
+The sum of the matter then is, that of all the kingdoms which the era of
+1848 started in the path of free government, the brave little State of
+Piedmont alone has persevered to this day. Amid the wide weltering sea
+of Italian anarchy and despotism, here, and here alone, liberty finds a
+spot on which to plant her foot. Again we ask, why is this? There is
+nothing in the past history of the country,--nothing in the present
+state of the nation,--which can account for it. We must look elsewhere
+for a solution; and we do not hesitate to avow our firm conviction, that
+a special Providence has shielded the Constitution of Piedmont, because
+with that Constitution is bound up the liberties of the ancient martyr
+Church of the Vaudois. It was the only one of the Italian Constitutions
+that carried in it so sacred a guarantee of permanency. On the 17th of
+February 1848 (the day is worth remembering), Charles Albert, by a royal
+edict, admitted the Waldenses to the enjoyment of all civil and
+political rights, in common with the rest of their fellow-subjects. Now,
+for the first time in a thousand years, the trumpet of liberty sounded
+amid the Vaudois valleys; and the shout of joy which the Alps sent back
+seemed like the first response to the prayer which had so often ascended
+from these hills, "How long, O Lord." Would not Sodom have been spared
+had ten righteous men been found in it? and why not Piedmont, seeing the
+Waldensian Church was there? Yes, Piedmont is the little Zoar of the
+Italian plains! Little may its people reck to whom it is they owe their
+escape. It is nevertheless a truth that, but for the poor Vaudois, whom,
+instigated by the Pope, they long and ruthlessly laboured to
+exterminate, their country would have been at this day in the same
+gulph of social demoralization and political re-action with Tuscany, and
+Naples, and Rome. These last were taken, and Piedmont escaped.
+
+And the country is truly flourishing. It has thriven every day since
+Charles Albert emancipated the Vaudois. No one can cross its frontier
+without being struck with the contrast it presents to the other Italian
+States. While they are decaying like a corpse, it is flourishing like
+the chestnut-tree of its own mountains. The very faces of the people may
+tell you that the country is free and prosperous. Its citizens walk
+about with the cheerful, active air of men who have something to do and
+to enjoy, and not with the listless, desponding, heart-sick look which
+marks the inhabitants of the other States of Italy. Here, too, you miss
+that universal beggary and vagabondism that disfigure and pollute all
+the other countries of the Peninsula. What rich loam the ploughman turns
+up! What magnificent vines shade its plains! Public works are in
+progress, railways have been formed, and new houses are building. Not
+fewer than a hundred houses were built in Turin last year, which is
+more, I verily believe, than in all the other Italian towns out of
+Piedmont taken together. Thus, while the other States of Italy are
+foundering in the tempest, Piedmont lives because it carries the Vaudois
+and their fortunes.
+
+From the hall of the Chamber of Deputies I went with M. Malan to the
+office of the _Gazetta del Popolo_, to be introduced to its editors. The
+_Gazetta del Popolo_ is a daily paper, with a circulation of 15,000;
+and, being sold at a penny, is universally read by the middle and lower
+classes. It is the _Times_ of Piedmont. Its editors are men of great
+talent, and write with the practical good sense and racy style of
+Cobbett. They are not religious men, neither are they Romanists, though
+nominally connected with the Church of the State; but they are warm
+advocates of constitutional government, hearty haters of the Papacy, and
+have done much to enlighten the public mind, and loosen it from
+Romanism. They first of all made inquiries respecting the external
+resemblance of Puseyistic and Popish worship, as I had seen the latter
+in Italy. They made yet more eager inquiries respecting the progress and
+prospects of Puseyism in England, and about a then recent declaration of
+the Archbishop of Canterbury, to the effect that there were only two
+Bishops in the Church of England that had gone over to Puseyism. They
+seemed to feel that the fortunes of the Papacy would turn mainly upon
+the fortunes of Puseyism in England. As regarded the Archbishop, I
+replied, that I believed in the substantial accuracy of his statement,
+that there were not more than two members of the episcopate who could be
+held to be decided Puseyites; and as regarded the progress of Puseyism,
+I said, that it had been making great and rapid progress, but that the
+papal aggression, in my humble opinion, had dealt a somewhat heavy blow
+to both Popery and Puseyism,--that so long as Romanism came begging for
+toleration, it had found great favour in the eyes of the liberals; but
+when it came claiming to govern, it had scared away many of its former
+supporters, who had come to know it better,--and that the Protestant
+feeling which the aggression had evoked on the part of the Court, the
+Parliament, and the people, had tended to discourage Romanism, and all
+kindred or identical creeds. They were delighted to hear this, and said
+that they would baptize the fact in the _Gazetta del Popolo_, "the
+assassination of the Papacy by Cardinal Wiseman." Their paper, M. Malan
+afterwards told me, is published on Sabbaths as well (there are worse
+things done on that day in Italy, even by bishops), on which day they
+print their weekly sermon. "You won't preach," say they to the priests;
+"therefore we will;" and it is in their Sabbath sheet that they make
+their bitterest assaults upon the priesthood. They quote largely from
+Scripture: not that they wish to establish evangelical truth, of which
+they know little, but because they find such quotations to be the most
+powerful weapons which they can employ against the Papacy. In truth,
+they advertised in this way the Bible to their countrymen, many of whom
+had never heard of such a book till then.
+
+I was inexpressibly delighted to find such men in Turin wielding such
+influence, and took the liberty of saying at parting, that we in England
+had beheld with admiration the noble stand Piedmont had made in behalf
+of constitutional government,--that we were watching with intense
+interest the future career of their nation,--that we were cherishing the
+hope that they would manfully maintain the ground they had taken
+up,--and that in England, and especially in Scotland, we felt that the
+root of all the despotism of the Continent was the Papacy,--that the way
+to strike for liberty was to strike at Rome,--and that till the Papacy
+was overthrown, never would the nations of the world be either free or
+happy. They assured me that in these sentiments they heartily concurred,
+and that they were the very ideas they were endeavouring to propagate.
+They gave me, on taking leave, a copy of that morning's paper as a
+_souvenir_; and on examining it afterwards, I found that the topic of
+its leading article was quite in the vein of our conversation. The great
+bulk of the liberal party in Piedmont shared even then the ideas of the
+editors of the _Gazetta del Popolo_, and felt that to lay the
+foundations of constitutional liberty, they needs must raze those of
+Rome. This is a truth; and not only so,--it is the primal truth in the
+science of European liberty. This truth only now begins to be
+understood on the Continent. It is the main lesson which the re-action
+of 1849 has been overruled to teach. All former insurrections have been
+against kings and aristocrats: even in 1848 the Italians were willing to
+accept the leadership of the Pope. The perfidies and atrocities of which
+they have since been the victims have burned the essential tyranny of
+the papal system into their minds; and the next insurrection that takes
+place will be against the Papacy.
+
+A constitution, a free press, and a public opinion, are but the outward
+defences of a divine and immortal principle, which, rooted in the soil
+of Piedmont, has outlived a long winter, and is now beginning to bud
+afresh, and to send forth goodlier shoots than ever. To this I next
+turned. Conducted by M. Malan, I went to the western quarter of Turin,
+where, amid the gardens and elegant mansions of the suburbs, workmen
+were digging the foundations of what was to be a spacious building. On
+this spot the Dominicans in former ages had burned the bodies of the
+martyrs; and now the Waldensian temple stands here,--a striking proof,
+surely, of the immortality of truth,--to rise, and live, and speak
+boldly, on the very spot where she had been bound to a stake, burned,
+and extinguished, as the persecutor believed. This church, not the least
+elegant in a city abounding with elegant structures, has since been
+opened, and is filled every Sabbath with well-nigh a thousand
+auditors,--the largest congregation, I will venture to say, in Turin.
+
+In 1851 I could visit the cradle of this movement. It had its first rise
+in the labours of Felix Neff, twenty-five years before; but it was not
+till the revolution of 1848 that it appeared above ground. Even in 1851,
+colportage among the Piedmontese was prohibited, though it was allowable
+to print or import the Bible for the use of the Waldenses, and the
+Government winked at its sale to their Roman Catholic fellow-subjects. I
+was shown in M. Malan's banking office the Bible depot, and was
+gratified to find that the sales which were made to applicants only had
+during the past year amounted to a thousand copies. Evening meetings
+were held every day of the week, in various parts of Turin, at which the
+Bible was read, and points of controversy betwixt Christianity and
+Romanism eagerly discussed. The Rev. M. Meille, the able editor of the
+_Buona Novella_,--a paper then just starting,--informed me that not
+fewer than ninety persons had been present at the meeting superintended
+by him the night before. These week-day assemblages, as well as the
+Sabbath audiences, were of a very miscellaneous character,--Vaudois, who
+had come to Turin to be servants, for, prior to the revolution, they
+could be nothing else; Piedmontese tradesmen; Swiss, Germans, and
+Italian refugees, to whom three pastors ministered,--one in French, one
+in German, and a third in the Italian tongue. There were then not fewer
+than ten re-unions every week in Turin. The idea, too, had been started
+of taking advantage of the workmen's clubs for the propagation of the
+gospel. A network of such societies covered northern and central Italy.
+The clubs in Turin corresponded with those in Genoa, Alessandria, and
+all the principal towns of Piedmont; and these again with similar clubs
+in central Italy; and any new theory or doctrine introduced into one
+soon made the round of all. The plan adopted was to send evangelical
+workmen into these clubs, who were listened to as they propounded the
+new plan of justification by faith. The clubs in Turin were first
+leavened with the gospel; thence it was extended to Genoa, and gradually
+also to central Italy. While the _proletaires_ in France were discussing
+the claims of labour, the workmen in Piedmont were canvassing the
+doctrines of the New Testament; and hence the difference betwixt the
+two countries.
+
+It was now drawing towards sunset, and I purposed enjoying the
+twilight,--delicious in all climates, but especially in Italy,--on the
+terrace of the College or Monastery of the Capuchins. This monastery
+stands on the Collina, a romantic height on the south of Turin, washed
+by the Po, with villas and temples on its crest and summits. I took my
+way through the noble street that leads southwards, halting at the
+book-stalls, and picking out of their heaps of rubbish an Italian copy
+of the Catechism of Bossuet, Bishop of Meaux. The Collina was all in a
+blaze; the windows of the Palazzo Regina glittered in the setting beams;
+and the dome of the Superga shone like gold. Crossing the Po, I ascended
+by the winding avenue of shady acacias, which are planted there to
+protect the cowled heads of the fathers from the noonday sun. One of the
+monks was winding his way up hill, at a pace which gave me full
+opportunity of observing him. A little black cap covered his scalp; his
+round bullet-head, which bristled with short, thick-set hairs, joined
+on, by a neck of considerably more than the average girth, to shoulders
+of Atlantean dimensions. His body was enveloped in a coarse brown
+mantle, which descended to his calves, and was gathered round his middle
+with a slender white cord. His naked feet were thrust into sandals. The
+features of the "religious" were coarse and swollen; and he strode up
+hill before me with a gait which would have made a peaceful man, had he
+met him on a roadside in Scotland, give him a wide offing. Parties of
+soldiers wounded in the late campaign were sauntering in the square of
+the monastery, or looking over the low wall at the city beneath. Their
+pale and sickly looks formed a striking contrast to the athletic forms
+of the full-fed monks. It was inexplicable to me, that the youth of
+Sardinia, immature and raw, should be drafted into the army, while such
+an amount of thews and sinews as this monastery, and hundreds more,
+contained, should be allowed to run to waste, or worse. If but for their
+health, the monks should be compelled to fight the next campaign.
+
+The sun went down. Long horizontal shafts of golden light shot through
+amidst the Alps; their snows glittered with a dazzling whiteness:
+whiteness is a weak term;--it was a brilliant and lustrous glory, like
+that of light itself. Anon a crimson blush ran along the chain. It
+faded; it came again. A wall of burning peaks, from two to three hundred
+miles in length, rose along the horizon. Eve, with her purple shadows,
+drew on; and I left the mountains under a sky of vermilion, with Monte
+Viso covering with its shadow the honoured dust that sleeps around it,
+and pointing with its stony finger to that sky whither the spirits of
+the martyred Vaudois have now ascended. It seemed to say, "Come and
+see."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+STRUCTURE AND CHARACTERISTICS OF THE VAUDOIS VALLEYS.
+
+     Journey to "Valleys"--Dinner at Pignerolo--Grandeur of
+     Scenery--Associations--Bicherasio--Procession of
+     _Santissimo_--Connection betwixt the History and the Country of the
+     Vaudois--The Three Valleys of Martino, Angrona, and Lucerna--Their
+     Arrangement--Strength--Fertility--La Tour--The Castelluzzo--Scenery
+     of the Val Lucerna--The Manna of the Waldenses--Populousness of the
+     Valleys--Variety of Productions--The Roman Flood and the Vaudois
+     Ark.
+
+
+The Valleys of the Vaudois lie about thirty miles to the south-west of
+Turin. The road thither it is scarce possible to miss. Keeping the lofty
+and pyramidal summit of Monte Viso in your eye, you go straight on, in a
+line parallel with the Alps, along the valley of the Po, which is but a
+prolongation of the great plain of Lombardy. On my way down to these
+valleys, I observed on the roadside numerous little temples, which the
+natives, in true Pagan fashion, had erected to their deities. The niches
+of these temples were filled with Madonnas, crucifixes, and saints,
+gaunt and grizzly, with unlighted candles stuck before them, or rude
+paintings and tinsel baubles hung up as votive offerings. The
+signboards--especially those of the wine venders--were exceedingly
+religious. They displayed, for the most part, a bizarre painting of the
+Virgin, and occasionally of the Pope; and not unfrequently underneath
+these personages were a company of heretics, such as those I was going
+to visit, sweltering in flames. Were a Protestant vintner to sell his
+ale beneath a picture of Catholics burning in hell, I fear we should
+never hear the last of it. But I must say, that these pictures seemed
+the production of past times. They were one and all sorely faded, as if
+their owners were beginning to be somewhat ashamed of them, or lacked
+zeal to repair them. The _conducteur_ of the stage had an Italian
+translation of Mr Gladstone's well-known pamphlet on Naples in his hand,
+which then covered all the book-stalls in Turin, and was read by every
+one. This led to a lively discussion on the subject of the Church,
+between him and two fellow-travellers, to whom I had been introduced at
+starting, as Waldenses. I observed that, although he appeared to come
+off but second best in the controversy, he bore all with unruffled
+humour, as if not unwilling to be beaten. At length, after a ride of
+twenty miles over the plain, in which the husbandman, with plough as old
+in its form as the Georgics, was turning up a soil rich, black, and
+glossy as the raven's wing, we arrived at Pignerolo, a town on the
+borders of the Vaudois land.
+
+The two Vaudois and myself adjourned to the hotel to dine. Even in this
+we had an instance of changed times. In this very town of Pignerolo a
+law had been in existence, and was not long repealed, forbidding, under
+severe penalties, any one to give meat or drink to a Vaudois. The
+"Valleys" were only ten miles distant, and we agreed to walk thither on
+foot. Indeed, all such spots must be so visited, if one would feel their
+full influence. Leaving Pignerolo, the road began to draw into the bosom
+of the mountains, and the scenery became grander at every step. On the
+right rose the hills of the Vaudois, with knolls glittering with woods
+and cottages scattered at their feet. On the left, long reaches of the
+Po, meandering through pasturages and vineyards, gleamed out golden in
+the western sun. The scenery reminded me much of the Highlands at
+Comrie, only it was on a scale of richness and magnificence unknown to
+Scotland.
+
+After advancing a few miles, I chanced to turn and look back. The change
+the mountains had undergone struck me much. A division of Alps, tall and
+cloud-capped, appeared to have broken off from the main army, and to
+have come marching into the plain; and while the mountains were closing
+in upon us behind, they appeared to be falling back in front, and
+arranging themselves into the segment of a vast circle. A magnificent
+amphitheatre had risen noiselessly around us. On all sides save the
+south, where a reach of the valley was still visible, the eye met only a
+lofty wall of mountains, hung in a rich and gorgeous tapestry of bright
+green pasturages and shady pine-forests, with the frequent sunlight
+gleam of white chalets. The snows of their summits were veiled in masses
+of cloud, which the southerly winds were bringing up upon them from the
+Mediterranean. I seemed to have entered some stately temple,--a temple
+not of mortal workmanship,--which needed no tall shaft, no groined roof,
+no silver lamps, no chisel or pencil of artist to beautify it, and no
+white-robed priest to make it holy. It had been built by Him whose power
+laid the foundations of the earth, and hung the stars in heaven; and it
+had been consecrated by sacrifices such as Rome's mitred priests never
+offered in aisled cathedral. Nor had it been the scene only of lofty
+endurance: it had been the scene also of sweet and holy joys. There the
+Vaudois patriarchs, like Enoch, had "walked with God;" there they had
+read his Word, and kept his Sabbaths. They had sung his praise by these
+silvery brooks, and kneeled in prayer beneath these chestnut trees.
+There, too, arose the shout of triumphant battle; and from those valleys
+the Vaudois martyrs had gone up, higher than these white peaks, to take
+their place in the white-robed and palm-bearing company. Can the spirit,
+I asked myself, ever forget its earthly struggles, or the scene on which
+they were endured? and may not the very same picture of beauty and
+grandeur now before my eye be imprinted eternally on the memory of many
+of the blessed in Heaven?
+
+There was silence on plain and mountain,--a hush like that of a
+sanctuary, reverent and deep, and broken only by the flow of the torrent
+and the sound of voices among the vineyards. I could not fail to observe
+that sounds here were more musical than on the plain. This is a
+peculiarity belonging to mountainous regions; but I have nowhere seen it
+so perceptible as here. Every accent had a fullness and melody of tone,
+as if spoken in a whispering gallery. Right in the centre of the circle
+formed by the mountains was the entrance of the Vaudois valleys. The
+place was due north from where we now were, but we had to make a
+considerable detour in order to reach it. A long low hill, rough with
+boulders and feathery with woods, lay across the mouth of these valleys;
+and we had to go round it on the west, and return along the fertile vale
+which divides it from the high Alps, whose straths and gorges form the
+dwellings of the Waldenses.
+
+A dream it seemed to be, walking thus within the shadow of the Vaudois
+hills. And then, too, what a strange chance was it which had thrown me
+into the society of my two Waldensian fellow-travellers! They had met me
+on the threshold of their country, as if sent to bid me welcome, and
+conduct my steps into a land which the prayers and sufferings of their
+forefathers had for ever hallowed. They could not speak a word of my
+tongue; and to them my transalpine Italian was not more than
+intelligible. Yet, such is the power of a common sympathy, the
+conversation did not once flag all the way; and it had reference, of
+course, to one subject. I told them that I was not unacquainted with
+their glorious history;--that from a child I had known the noble deeds
+of their fathers, who had received an equal place in my veneration with
+the men of old, "who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought
+righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouth of lions. And others
+had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover, of bonds and
+imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted,
+were slain with the sword; they wandered about in sheepskins and
+goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented; of whom the world was
+not worthy;"--and that, next to the hills of my own land, hallowed, too,
+with martyr-blood, I loved the mountains within whose shadow my
+wandering steps had now brought me. The eyes of my Vaudois friends
+kindled; they were not unconscious, I could see, of their noble lineage;
+and they were visibly touched by the circumstance that a stranger from a
+distant land--drawn thither by sympathy with the great struggles of
+their nation--should come to visit their mountains. Every object in any
+way connected with their history, and especially with their
+persecutions, was carefully pointed out to me. "There," said they, "is
+our frontier church, the first of the Vaudois candles," pointing to a
+white edifice that gleamed out upon us amid woods and rocks, on the
+summit of a hill, soon after leaving Pignerolo. They mentioned, too,
+with peculiar emphasis, the year of the last great massacre of their
+brethren. The memory of that transaction, I feel assured, will perish
+only with the Vaudois race. Nor can I forget the evident pride with
+which, on nearing the valley of Lucerne, they pointed to the giant form
+of their Castelluzzo, now looming through the shades of night, and told
+me that in the caves of that mighty rock their fathers found shelter,
+when the valley beneath was covered with armed men.
+
+Nowhere had I seen more luxuriant vines. They were festooned, too, after
+the manner of those I had seen among the Alps; but here the effect was
+more beautiful. They were literally stretched out over entire fields in
+an unbroken web of boughs. Clothed with luxuriant foliage, they looked
+like another azure canopy extended over the soil. There was ample room
+beneath for the ploughman and his bullocks. The golden beams, struggling
+through the massy foliage, fell in a mellow and finely tinted shower on
+the newly ploughed soil. Wheat is said to ripen better beneath the
+vine-shade than in the open sun. The season of grapes was shortly past;
+but here and there large clusters were still pendent on the bough.
+
+Hitherto, although we had been skirting the Vaudois territory, we had
+not set foot upon it. The line which separates it from the rest of
+Piedmont touches the small town of Bicherasio, on the western flank of
+the low hill I have mentioned; and the roofs of the little town were
+already in sight. Passing, on the left, a white-walled mass-house on a
+small height, with the priest looking at us from amid the autumn-tinted
+vine leaves that shaded the wall, we entered the town of Bicherasio. The
+first sight we saw was a procession advancing up the street at
+double-quick time. I was at first sorely puzzled what to make of it.
+There was an air of mingled fun and gravity on the faces of the crowd;
+but the former so greatly predominated, that I took the affair for a
+frolic of the youths of Bicherasio. First came a squad of dirty boys,
+some of whom carried prayer-books: these were followed by some dozen or
+so of young women in their working attire, ranged in line, and carrying
+flambeaux. In the centre of the procession was a tall raw-boned priest,
+of about twenty-five years of age, with a little box in his hand. His
+head was bare, and he wore a long brown dress, bound with a cord round
+his middle. A canopy of crimson cloth, sorely soiled and tarnished, was
+borne over him by four of the taller lads. He had a flurried and wild
+look, as if he had slept out in the woods all night, and had had time
+only to shake himself, and put his fingers through his hair, before
+being called on to run with his little box. The procession closed, as it
+had opened, with a cloud of noisy and dirty urchins hanging on the rear
+of the priest and his flambeaux-bearing company. The whole swept past us
+at such a rapid pace, that I could only, by way of divining its object,
+open large wondering eyes upon it, which the large-boned lad in the
+brown cloak noticed, and repaid with a scowl, which broke no bones,
+however. "He is carrying the _santissimo_," said my fellow-travellers,
+when the procession had passed, "to a dying man." We passed the line,
+and set foot on the Vaudois territory. Being now on privileged soil, and
+safe from any ebullition which the scant reverence we had paid the
+procession of the _santissimo_ might have drawn upon us, we entered a
+small albergo, and partook together of a bottle of wine. Our long walk,
+and the warmth of the evening, made the refreshment exceedingly
+agreeable. By way of commending the qualities of their soil, my
+companions remarked, that "this was the vine of the land." I felt
+disposed to deal with it as David did with the water of the well of
+Bethlehem, for here--
+
+ "The nurture of the peasant's vines
+ Hath been the martyr's blood!"
+
+It was dark before I reached La Tour; but one of my
+fellow-travellers--the other having left us at San Giovanni--accompanied
+me every footstep of the way, having passed his own dwelling two full
+miles, to do me this kindness.
+
+I must remind the reader, that this is simply a look in upon the
+Vaudois, on my way to Rome. I purpose here no description in full of the
+territory of the Vaudois, or of the people of the Vaudois. Their hills
+were shrouded in cloud and rain all the while I lived amongst them; and
+although my intention was to visit on foot every inch of their country,
+and more especially the scenes of their great struggles, I was
+compelled, after waiting well nigh a week, to take my departure without
+having accomplished this part of my object. Leaving, then, the seeing
+and describing these famous valleys to some possibly future day, all I
+shall attempt here is to convey some idea of the structural
+arrangement--the osteology, if I may call it so--of the Waldensian
+territory, and the general condition of the Waldensian people. First, of
+their country.
+
+A country and its people can never well be separated. The former, with
+silent but ceaseless influence, moulds the genius and habits of the
+latter, and determines the character of their history. It marks them out
+as fated for slavery or freedom,--degradation or glory. The country of
+the Vaudois is the material basis of their history; and the sublime
+points of their scenery join in, as it were, with the sublime passages
+of their nation. Without such a country, we cannot conceive how the
+Vaudois could have escaped extermination. The fertility and grandeur of
+their valleys were no chance gifts, but special endowments, having
+reference to the mighty moral struggle of which they were the destined
+theatre. It is this sentiment that forms the living spirit in the
+beautiful lines of Mrs Hemans, entitled, "The Hymn of the Vaudois
+Mountaineers:"--
+
+ For the strength of the hills we bless thee.
+   Our God, our fathers' God.
+ Thou hast made thy children mighty,
+   By the touch of the mountain sod.
+ Thou hast fixed our ark of refuge
+   Where the spoiler's foot ne'er trod;
+ For the strength of the hills we bless thee,
+   Our God, our fathers' God!
+
+ We are watchers of a beacon
+   Whose light must never die;
+ We are guardians of an altar
+   'Midst the silence of the sky.
+ The rocks yield founts of courage,
+   Struck forth as by thy rod;
+ For the strength of the hills we bless thee,
+   Our God, our fathers' God!
+
+ For the dark resounding caverns,
+   Where thy still small voice is heard;
+ For the strong pines of the forests
+   That by thy breath are stirred;
+ For the storms on whose free pinions
+   Thy spirit walks abroad;
+ For the strength of the hills we bless thee,
+   Our God, our fathers' God!
+
+ The banner of the chieftain
+   Far, far below us waves;
+ The war horse of the spearman
+   Cannot reach our lofty caves.
+ Thy dark clouds wrap the threshold
+   Of freedom's last abode;
+ For the strength of the hills we bless thee,
+   Our God, our fathers' God!
+
+ For the shadow of thy presence
+   Round our camp of rock outspread;
+ For the stern defiles of battle,
+   Bearing record of our dead;
+ For the snows and for the torrents,
+   For the free heart's burial sod;
+ For the strength of the hills we bless thee,
+   Our God, our fathers' God!
+
+We read in the Apocalypse, that "the woman fled into the wilderness,
+where she had a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a
+thousand two hundred and threescore days." "A place prepared"
+undoubtedly implies a special arrangement and a special adaptation, in
+the future dwelling of the Church, to the mission to be assigned her.
+The "wilderness" of the Apocalypse, we are inclined to think, is the
+great chain of the Alps; and the "place prepared" in that wilderness, we
+are also inclined to think, are the Cottian Alps, and more especially
+those valleys in the Cottian Alps which the confessors, known as the
+Vaudois, inhabited. Long after Rome had subjugated the plains, she
+possessed scarce a foot-breadth among the mountains. These, throughout
+well-nigh their entire extent, from where the Simplon road now cuts the
+chain, to the sea, were peopled by the professors of the gospel. They
+were a Goshen of light in the midst of an Egypt of darkness; and in
+these peaceful and sublime solitudes holy men fed their flocks amid the
+green pastures and beside the clear waters of evangelical truth. But
+persecution came: it waxed hot; and every succeeding century beheld
+these confessors fewer in number, and their territory more restricted.
+At last all that remained to the Vaudois were only three valleys at the
+foot of Monte Viso; and if we examine their structure, we will find them
+arranged with special reference to the war the Church was here called to
+wage.
+
+The three valleys are the Val Martino, the Val Angrona, and the Val
+Lucerna. Nothing could be simpler than their arrangement; at the same
+time, nothing could be stronger. The three valleys spread out like a
+fan,--radiating, as it were, from the same point, and stretching away in
+a winding vista of vineyards, meadows, chestnut groves, dark gorges, and
+foaming torrents, to the very summits and glaciers of the Alps. Nearly
+at the point of junction of the Val Angrona and the Val Lucerna stands
+La Tour, the capital of the valleys. It consists of a single street (for
+the few off-shoots are not worth mentioning) of two-storey houses,
+whitewashed, and topped with broad eves, which project till they leave
+only a narrow strip of sky visible overhead. The town winds up the hill
+for a quarter of a mile or so, under the shadow of the famous
+Castelluzzo,--a stupendous mountain of rock, which shoots up, erect as a
+column on its pedestal, to a height of many thousands of feet, and, in
+other days, sheltered, as I have said, in its stony arms, the persecuted
+children of the valleys, when the armies of France and Savoy gathered
+round its base. How often I watched it, during my stay there, as its
+mighty form now became lost, and now flashed forth from the mountain
+mists! Over what sad scenes has that rock looked! It has seen the
+peaceful La Tour a heap of smoking ruins, and the clear waters of the
+Pelice, which meander at its feet, red with the blood of the children of
+the valleys. It has heard the wrathful execrations of armed men
+ascending where the prayers and praises of the Vaudois were wont to
+come, borne on the evening breeze,--scenes unspeakably affecting, but
+which, nevertheless, from the principle which they embodied, and the
+Christian heroism which they evoked, add dignity to humanity itself.
+When we would rebut those universal libels which infidels have written
+upon our race, we point to the Vaudois. However corrupt whole nations
+and continents may have been, that nature which could produce the
+Vaudois must have originally possessed, and be still capable of having
+imparted to it, God-like qualities.
+
+The strength of the Vaudois position, as I take it, lies in this, that
+the three valleys have their entrance within a comparatively narrow
+space. The country of the Vaudois was, in fact, an immense citadel, with
+its foundation on the rock, and its top above the clouds, and with but
+one gate of entrance. That gate could be easily defended; nay, it _was_
+defended. He who built this mighty fortress had thrown up a rampart
+before its gate, as if with a special eye to the protection of its
+inmates. The long hill of which I have already spoken, which rises to a
+height of from four to five hundred feet, lies across the opening of
+these valleys, at about a mile's breadth, and serves as a wall of
+defence. But even granting that this entrance should be forced, as it
+sometimes was, there were ample means within the mountains themselves,
+which were but a congeries of fortresses, for prolonging the contest.
+The valleys abound with gorges and narrow passages, where one man might
+maintain the way against fifty. There were, too, escarpments of rock,
+with galleries and caves known only to the Vaudois. Even the mists of
+their hills befriended them; veiling them, on some memorable instances,
+from the keen pursuit of their foes. Thus, every foot-breadth of their
+territory was capable of being contested, and _was_ contested against
+the flower of the French and Sardinian armies, led against them in
+overwhelming numbers, with a courage which Rome never excelled, and a
+patriotism which Greece never equalled.
+
+I found, too, that it was "a good land" which the Lord their God had
+given to the Vaudois,--"a land of brooks of water, of fountains and
+depths that spring out of valleys and hills; a land of wheat, and
+barley, and vines, and fig-trees, and pomegranates; a land of oil, olive
+and honey." The same architect who built the fortress had provisioned
+it, so to speak, and that in no stinted measure. He who placed
+magazines of bread in the clouds, and rained it upon the Israelites
+when they journeyed through the desert, had laid up store of corn, and
+oil, and wine, in the soil of these valleys; so that the Vaudois, when
+their enemies pressed them on the plain, and cut off their supplies from
+without, might still enjoy within their own mountain rampart abundance
+of all things.
+
+On the first morning after my arrival, I walked out along the Val
+Lucerna southward. Flowers and fruit in rich profusion covered every
+spot of ground under the eye, from the banks of the stream to the skirts
+of the mist that veiled the mountains. The fields, which were covered
+with the various cultivation of wheat, maize, orchards, and vineyards,
+were fenced with neatly dressed hedge-rows. The vine-stocks were
+magnificently large, and their leaves had already acquired the fine
+golden yellow which autumn imparts. At a little distance, on a low hill,
+deeply embosomed in foliage, was the church of San Giovanni, looking as
+brilliantly white as if it had been a piece of marble fresh from the
+chisel. Hard by, peeping out amidst fruit-bearing trees, was the village
+of Lucerna. On the right rose the mighty wall of the Alps; on the left
+the valley opened out into the plain of the Po, bounded by a range of
+blue-tinted hills, which stretched away to the south-west, mingling in
+the distant horizon with the mightier masses of the Alps. The sun now
+broke through the haze; and his rays, falling on the luxuriant beauty of
+the valley, and on the more varied but not less rich covering of the
+hill-side,--the pasturages, the winding belts of planting, the white
+chalets,--lighted up a picture which a painter might have exhibited as a
+relic of an unfallen world, or a reminiscence of that garden from which
+transgression drove man forth.
+
+After breakfast, I sallied out to explore the valley of Lucerne, at the
+entrance of which is placed, as I have said, La Tour, the capital of the
+Waldenses. My intention was to trace its windings all the way, past the
+village and church of Bobbio, and up the mountains, till it loses itself
+amid the snows of their summits,--an expedition which was brought to an
+abrupt termination by the black clouds which came rolling up the valley
+at noon like the smoke of a furnace, followed by torrents of rain.
+Threading my way through the narrow winding street of La Tour, and
+skirting the base of the giant Castelluzzo, I emerged upon the open
+valley. I was enchanted by its mingled loveliness and grandeur. Its
+bottom, which might be from one to two miles in breadth, though looking
+narrower, from the titanic character of its mountain-boundary, was, up
+to a certain point, one continuous vineyard. The vine there attains a
+noble stature, and stretches its arms from side to side of the valley in
+rich and lovely festoons, veiling from the great heat of the sun the
+golden grain which grows underneath. On either hand the mountains rise
+to the sky, not bare and rocky, but glowing with the vine, or shady with
+the chestnut, and pouring into the lap of the Vaudois, corn, and wine,
+and fruit. Their sides were covered throughout with vineyards,
+corn-fields, glades of green pasturages, clumps of forests and
+fruit-trees, mansions and chalets, and silvery streamlets, which
+meandered amid their terraces, or leaped in flashing light down the
+mountain, to join the Pelice at its bottom. Not a foot-breadth was
+barren. This teeming luxuriance attested at once the qualities of the
+soil and sun, and the industry of the Vaudois.
+
+As I proceeded up the Val Lucerna, the same scene of mingled richness
+and magnificence continued. The golden vine still kept its place in the
+bottom of the valley, and stretched out its arms in very wantonness, as
+if the limits of the Val Lucerna were too small for its exuberant and
+generous fruitfulness. The hills gained in height, without losing in
+fertility and beauty. They offered to the eye the same picture of
+vine-rows, pasturages, chestnut-groves, and chalets, from the torrent at
+their bottom, up to the edge of the floating mist that covered their
+tops. At times the sun would break in, and add to the variety of lights
+which diversified the landscape. For already the hand of autumn had
+scattered over the foliage her beautiful tints of all shades, from the
+bright green of the pastures, down through the golden yellow of the
+vine, to the deep crimson of those trees which are the first to fade.
+
+A farther advance, and the aspect of the Val Lucerna changed slightly.
+The vineyards ceased on the level grounds at the bottom of the valley,
+and in their place came rich meadow lands, on which herds were grazing.
+The hills on the left were still ribbed with the vine. On the right,
+along which, at a high level on the hill-side, ran the road, the
+chestnut groves became more frequent, and large boulders began
+occasionally to be seen. It was here that the rolling mass of cloud, so
+fearfully black, that it seemed of denser materials than vapour, which
+had followed me up hill, overtook me, and by the deluge of rain which it
+let fall, effectually forbade my farther progress.
+
+The same shower which forbade my farther exploration of the Val Lucerna,
+arresting me, with cruel interdict, as it seemed, on the very threshold
+of a region teeming with grandeur, and encompassed with the halo of
+imperishable deeds, threw me, by a sort of compensatory chance, upon the
+discovery of another most interesting peculiarity of the Waldensian
+territory. The heavy rain compelled me to seek shelter beneath the
+boughs of a wide-spread chestnut-tree; and there, for the space of an
+hour, I remained perfectly dry, though the big drops were falling all
+around. Soon a continuous beating, as if of the fall of substances from
+a considerable height on the ground, attracted my attention,--tap, tap,
+tap. The sound told me that something was falling bigger and heavier
+than the rain-drops; but the long grass prevented me at first seeing
+what it was. A slight search, however, showed me that the tree beneath
+which I stood was actually letting fall a shower of nuts. These nuts
+were large and fully ripened. The breeze became slightly stronger, and
+the fruit shower from the trees increased so much, that a soft muffled
+sound rang through the whole wood. It was literally raining food. Some
+millions of nuts must have fallen that day in the Val Lucerna. I saw the
+young peasant girls coming from the chalets and farm-houses, to glean
+beneath the boughs; and a short time sufficed to fill their sacks, and
+send them back laden with the produce of the chestnut-tree. These nuts
+are roasted and eaten as food; and very nutritious food they are. In all
+the towns of northern Italy you see persons in the streets roasting them
+in braziers over charcoal fires, and selling them to the people, to whom
+they form no very inconsiderable part of their food. I have oftener than
+once, on a long ride, breakfasted on them, with the help of a cluster of
+grapes, or a few apples. This was the manna of the Waldenses. And how
+often have the persecuted Vaudois, when driven from their homes, and
+compelled to seek refuge in those high altitudes where the vine does not
+grow, subsisted for days and weeks upon the produce of the
+chestnut-tree! I could not but admire in this the wise arrangement of
+Him who had prepared these valleys as the future abode of his Church.
+Not only had He taught the earth to yield her corn, and the hills wine,
+but even the skies bread. Bread was rained around their caves and
+hiding-places, plenteous as the manna of old; and the Vaudois, like the
+Israelites, had but to gather and eat.
+
+I came also to the conclusion, that the land which the Lord had given to
+the Waldenses was a "large" as well as a "good" land. It is only of late
+that the Vaudois have been restricted to the three valleys I have named;
+but even taking their country as at present defined, its superficial
+area is by no means so inconsiderable as it is apt to be accounted by
+one who hears of it as confined to but three valleys. Spread out these
+valleys into level plains, and you find that they form a large country.
+It is not only the broad bottom of the valley that is cultivated;--the
+sides of the hills are clothed up to the very clouds with vineyards and
+corn-lands, and are planted with all manner of trees, yielding fruit
+after their kind. Where the husbandman is compelled to stop, nature
+takes up the task of the cultivator; and then come the chestnut-groves,
+with their loads of fruit, and the short sweet grass on which cattle
+depasture in summer, and the wild flowers from which the bees elaborate
+their honey. Overtopping all are the fields of snow, the great
+reservoirs of the springs and rivers which fertilize the country. This
+arrangement admitted, moreover, of far greater variety, both of climate
+and of produce, than could possibly obtain on the plain. There is an
+eternal winter at the summit of these mountains, and an almost perpetual
+summer at their feet.
+
+In accordance with this great productiveness, I found the hills of the
+Vaudois exceedingly populous. They are alive with men, at least as
+compared with the solitude which our Scottish Highlands present. I had
+brought thither my notions of a valley taken from the narrow winding and
+infertile straths of Scotland, capable of feeding only a few scores of
+inhabitants. Here I found that a valley might be a country, and contain
+almost a nation in its bosom.
+
+But, not to dwell on other peculiarities, I would remark, that such a
+dwelling as this--continually presenting the grandest objects--must have
+exerted a marked influence upon the character of the inhabitants. It was
+fitted to engender intrepidity of mind, a love of freedom, and an
+elevation of thought. It has been remarked that the inhabitants of
+mountainous regions are less prone than others to the worship of images.
+On the plain all is monotony. Summer and winter, the same landmarks, the
+same sky, the same sounds, surround the man. But around the dweller in
+the mountains,--and especially such mountains as these,--all is variety
+and grandeur. Now the Alps are seen with their sunlight summits and
+their shadowless sides; anon they veil their mighty forms in clouds and
+tempests. The living machinery of the mist, too, is continually varying
+the landscape, now engulphing valleys, now blotting out crags and
+mountain peaks, and suspending before the eye a cold and cheerless
+curtain of vapour; anon the curtain rises, the mist rolls away, and
+green valley and tall mountain flash back again upon you, thrilling and
+delighting you anew. What variety and melody of sounds, too, exist among
+the hills! The music of the streams, the voices of the peasants, the
+herdsman's song, the lowing of the cattle, the hum of the villages. The
+winds, with mighty organ-swell, now sweep through their mountain gorges;
+and now the thunder utters his awful voice, making the Alps to tremble
+and their pines to bow.
+
+Such was the land of the Vaudois; the predestined abode of God's Church
+during the long and gloomy period of Anti-christ's reign. It was the ark
+in which the one elect family of Christendom was to be preserved during
+the flood of error that was to come upon the earth. And I have been the
+more minute in the description of its general structure and
+arrangements, because all had reference to the high moral end it was
+appointed to serve in the economy of Providence.
+
+When of old a flood of waters was to be sent on the world, Noah was
+commanded to build an ark of gopher wood for the saving of his house.
+God gave him special instructions regarding its length, its breadth, its
+height: he was told where to place its door and window, how to arrange
+its storeys and rooms, and specially to gather "of all food that is
+eaten," that it might be for food for him and those with him. When all
+had been done according to the Divine instructions, God shut in Noah,
+and the flood came.
+
+So was it once more. A flood was to come upon the earth; but now God
+himself prepared the ark in which the chosen family were to be saved. He
+laid its foundations in the depths, and built up its wall of rock to the
+sky. A door also made He for the ark, with lower, second, and third
+storeys. It was beautiful as strong. Corn, wine, and oil were laid up in
+store within it. All being ready, God said to his persecuted ones in the
+early Church, "Come, thou and all thy house, into the ark." He gave them
+the Bible to be a light to them during the darkness, and shut them in.
+The flood came. Century after century the waters of Papal superstition
+continued to prevail upon the earth. At length all the high hills that
+were under the whole heaven were covered, and all flesh died, save the
+little company in the Vaudois ark.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+STATE AND PROSPECTS OF THE VAUDOIS CHURCH.
+
+     Dawn of the Reformation--Waldensian Territory a Portion of
+     Italy--Two-fold Mission of Italy--Origin of the Vaudois--Evidence
+     of Romanist Historians--Evidence of their own Historians--Evidence
+     arising from the Noble Leycon from their Geographical
+     Position--Grandeur of the Vaudois Annals--Their Martyr Age--Their
+     Missionary Efforts--Present
+     Condition--Population--Churches--Schools--Stipends--Students--Social
+     and Moral Superiority--Political and Social Disabilities--The Year
+     1848 their Exodus--Their Mission--A Sabbath in the Vaudois
+     Sanctuary--Anecdote--Lesson Taught by their History.
+
+
+How often during the long night must the Vaudois have looked from their
+mountain asylum upon a world engulphed in error, with the mingled wonder
+and dismay with which we may imagine the antediluvian fathers gazing
+from the window of their ark upon the bosom of the shoreless flood! What
+an appalling and mysterious dispensation! The fountains of the great
+deep had a second time been broken up, and each successive century saw
+the waters rising. Would Christianity ever re-appear? Or had the Church
+completed her triumphs, and finished her course? And was time to close
+upon a world shrouded in darkness, with nought but this feeble beacon
+burning amid the Alps? Such were the questions which must often have
+pressed upon the minds of the Vaudois.
+
+Like Noah, too, they sent forth, from time to time, messengers from
+their ark, to go hither and thither, and see if yet there remained
+anywhere, in any part of the earth, any worshippers of the true God.
+They returned to their mountain hold, with the sorrowful tidings that
+nowhere had they found any remnant of the true Church, and that the
+whole world wondered after the beast. The Vaudois, however, had power
+given them to maintain their testimony. In the midst of universal
+apostacy, and in the face of the most terrible persecutions, they bore
+witness against Rome. And ever as that Church added another error to her
+creed, the Vaudois added another article to their testimony; and in this
+way Romish idolatry and gospel truth were developed by equal stages, and
+an adequate testimony was maintained all through that gloomy period. The
+stars of the ecclesiastical firmament fell unto the earth, like the
+untimely figs of the fig-tree; but the lamp of the Alps went not out.
+The Vaudois, not unconscious of their sacred office, watched their
+heaven-kindled beacon with the vigilance of men inspired by the hope
+that it would yet attract the eyes of the world. At length--thrice
+welcome sight!--the watch-fires of the German reformers, kindled at
+their own, began to streak the horizon. They knew that the hour of
+darkness had passed, and that the time was near when the Church would
+leave her asylum, and go forth to sow the fields of the world with the
+immortal seed of truth.
+
+We must be permitted to remark here, that the fact that the Waldensian
+territory is really a part of Italy, and that the Vaudois, or Valdesi,
+or People of the Valleys (for all three signify the same thing), are
+strictly an Italian people, invests ITALY with a new and interesting
+light. In all ages, Pagan as well as Christian, Italy has been the seat
+of a twofold influence,--the one destructive, the other regenerative. In
+classic times, Italy sent forth armies to subjugate the world, and
+letters to enlighten it. Since the Christian era, her mission has been
+of the same mixed character. She has been at once the seat of idolatry
+and the asylum of Christianity. Her idolatry is of a grosser and more
+perfected type than was the worship of Baal of old; and her Christianity
+possesses a more spiritual character, and a more powerfully operative
+genius, than did the institute of Moses. We ought, then, to think of
+Italy as the land of the martyr as well as of the persecutor,--as not
+only the land whence our Popery has come, which has cost us so many
+martyrs of whom we are proud, and has caused the loss of so many souls
+which we mourn,--but also as the fountain of that blessed light which
+broke mildly on the world in the preaching of John Huss, and more
+powerfully, a century afterwards, in the reformation of the sixteenth
+century. Though there was no audible voice, and no visible miracle, the
+Waldenses were as really chosen to be the witnesses of God during the
+long night of papal idolatry, as were the Jews to be his witnesses
+during the night of pagan idolatry. They are sprung, according to the
+more credible historical accounts, from the unfallen Church of Rome;
+they are the direct lineal descendants of the primitive Christians of
+Italy; they never bowed the knee to the modern Baal; their mountain
+sanctuary has remained unpolluted by idolatrous rites; and if they were
+called to affix to their testimony the seal of a cruel martyrdom, they
+did not fall till they had scattered over the various countries of
+Europe the seed of a future harvest. Their death was a martyrdom endured
+in behalf of Christendom; and scarcely was it accomplished till they
+were raised to life again, in the appearance of numerous churches both
+north and south of the Alps. Why is it that all persons and systems in
+this world of ours must die in order to enter into life? We enter into
+spiritual life by the death of our old nature; we enter into eternal
+life by the death of the body; and Christianity, too, that she might
+enter into the immortality promised her on earth, had to die. The words
+of our Lord, spoken in reference to his own death, are true also in
+reference to the martyrdom of the Waldensian Church:--"Verily verily, I
+say unto you, except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it
+abideth alone; but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit."
+
+The first question touching this extraordinary people respects their
+origin. When did they come into being, and of what stock are they
+sprung? This question forces itself with singular power upon the mind of
+the traveller, who, after traversing cities and countries covered with
+darkness palpable as that of Egypt of old, and seeing nought around him
+but image-worship, lights unexpectedly, in the midst of these mountains,
+upon a little community, enjoying the knowledge of the true God, and
+worshipping Him after the scriptural and spiritual manner of prophets
+and apostles of old. He naturally seeks for an explanation of a fact so
+extraordinary. Who kindled that solitary lamp? Their enemies have
+striven to represent them as dissenters from Rome of the twelfth and
+thirteenth centuries; and it is a common error even among ourselves to
+speak of them as the followers of Peter Waldo, the pious merchant of
+Lyons, and to date their rise from the year 1160. We cannot here go into
+the controversy; suffice it to say, that historical documents exist
+which show that both the Albigenses and the Waldenses were known long
+before Peter Waldo was heard of. Their own traditions and ancient
+manuscripts speak of them as having maintained the same doctrine "from
+time immemorial, in continued descent from father to son, even from the
+times of the apostles." The Nobla Leycon,--the Confession of Faith of
+the Vaudois Church, of the date of 1100,--claims on their behalf the
+same ancient origin; Ecbert, a writer who flourished in 1160--the year
+of Peter Waldo--speaks of them as "perverters," who had existed during
+many ages; and Reinerus, the inquisitor, who lived a century afterwards,
+calls them the most dangerous of all sects, because the most ancient;
+"for some say," adds he, "that it has continued to flourish since the
+time of Sylvester; others, from the time of the apostles." This last is
+a singular corroboration of the authenticity of the Nobla Leycon, which
+refers to the corruptions which began under Sylvester as the cause of
+their separation from the communion of the Church of Rome. Rorenco, the
+grand prior of St Roch, who was commissioned to make enquiries
+concerning them, after hinting that possibly they were detached from the
+Church by Claude, the good Bishop of Turin, in the eighth century, says
+"that they were not a new sect in the ninth and tenth centuries."
+Campian the Jesuit says of them, that they were reputed to be "more
+ancient than the Roman Church." Nor is it without great weight, as the
+historian Leger observes, that not one of the Dukes of Savoy or their
+ministers ever offered the slightest contradiction to the oft-reiterated
+assertions of the Vaudois, when petitioning for liberty of conscience,
+"We are descendants," said they, "of those who, from father to son, have
+preserved entire the apostolical faith in the valleys which we now
+occupy."[1] We have no doubt that, were the ecclesiastical archives of
+Lombardy, especially those of Turin and Milan, carefully searched,
+documents would be found which would place beyond all doubt what the
+scattered proofs we have referred to render all but a certainty.
+
+The historical evidence for the antiquity of the Vaudois Church is
+greatly strengthened by a consideration of the geographical position of
+"the Valleys." They lie on what anciently was the great high-road
+between Italy and France. There existed a frequent intercourse betwixt
+the Churches of the two countries; pastors and private members were
+continually going and returning; and what so likely to follow this
+intercourse as the evangelization of these valleys? There is a tradition
+extant, that the Apostle Paul visited them, in his journey from Rome to
+Spain. Be this as it may, one can scarce doubt that the feet of Irenaeus,
+and of other early fathers, trod the territory of the Vaudois, and
+preached the gospel by the waters of the Pelice, and under the rocks and
+chestnut trees of Bobbio. Indeed, we can scarce err in fixing the first
+rise of the Vaudois Churches at even an earlier period,--that of
+apostolic times. So soon as the Church began to be wasted by
+persecution, the remote corners of Italy were sought as an asylum; and
+from the days of Nero the primitive Christians may have begun to gather
+round those mountains to which the ark of God was ultimately removed,
+and amid which it so long dwelt.
+
+   "I go up to the ancient hills,
+     Where chains may never be;
+   Where leap in joy the torrent rills;
+ Where man may worship God alone, and free.
+
+   There shall an altar and a camp
+     Impregnably arise;
+   There shall be lit a quenchless lamp,
+ To shine unwavering through the open skies.
+
+   And song shall 'midst the rocks be heard,
+     And fearless prayer ascend;
+   While, thrilling to God's holy Word,
+ The mountain-pines in adoration bend.
+
+   And there the burning heart no more
+     Its deep thought shall suppress;
+   But the long-buried truth shall pour
+ Free currents thence, amidst the wilderness."
+
+How could a small body of peasants among the mountains have discovered
+the errors of Rome, and have thrown off her yoke, at a time when the
+whole of Europe received the one and bowed to the other? This could not
+have happened in the natural order of things. Above all, if they did not
+arise till the twelfth or thirteenth century, how came they to frame so
+elaborate and full a testimony as the _Noble Lesson_ against Rome? A
+Church that has a creed must have a history. Nor was it in a year, or
+even in a single age, that they could have compiled such a creed. It
+could acquire form and substance only in the course of centuries,--the
+Vaudois adding article to article, as Rome added error to error. We can
+have no reasonable doubt, then, that in the Vaudois community we have a
+relic of the primitive Church. Compared with them, the house of Savoy,
+which ruled so long and rigorously over them, is but of yesterday. They
+are more ancient than the Roman Church itself. They have come down to us
+from the world before the papal flood, bearing in their heaven-built and
+heaven-guarded ark the sacred oracles; and now they stand before us as a
+witness to the historic truth of Christianity, and a living copy, in
+doctrine, in government, and in manners, of the Church of the Apostles.
+
+Fain would we tell at length the heroic story of the Vaudois. We use no
+exaggerated speech,--no rhetorical flourish,--but speak advisedly, when
+we say, that their history, take it all in all, is the brightest, the
+purest, the most heroic, in the annals of the world. Their martyr-age
+lasted five centuries; and we know of nothing, whether we regard the
+sacredness of the cause, or the undaunted valour, the pure patriotism,
+and the lofty faith, in which the Vaudois maintained it, that can be
+compared with their glorious struggle. This is an age of hero-worship.
+Let us go to the mountains of the Waldenses: there we will find heroes
+"unsung by poet, by senators unpraised," yet of such gigantic stature,
+that the proudest champions of ancient Rome are dwarfed in their
+presence. It was no transient flash of patriotism and valour that broke
+forth on the soil of the Vaudois: that country saw sixteen generations
+of heroes, and five centuries of heroic deeds. Men came from pruning
+their vines or tending their flocks, to do feats of arms which Greece
+never equalled, and which throw into the shade the proudest exploits of
+Rome. The Jews maintained the worship of the true God in their country
+for many ages, and often gained glorious victories; but the Jews were a
+nation; they possessed an ample territory, rich in resources; they were
+trained to war, moreover, and marshalled and led on by skilful and
+courageous chiefs. But the Waldenses were a primitive and simple people;
+they had neither king nor leader; their only sovereign was Jehovah;
+their only guides were their _Barbes_. The struggle under the Maccabees
+was a noble one; but it attained not the grandeur of that of the
+Vaudois. It was short in comparison; nor do its single exploits, brave
+as they were, rise to the same surpassing pitch of heroism. When read
+after the story of the Vaudois, the annals of Greece and Rome even,
+fruitful though they be in deeds of heroism, appear cold and tame. In
+short, we know of no other instance in the world in which a great and
+sacred object has been prosecuted from father to son for such a length
+of time, with a patriotism so pure, a courage so unshrinking, a
+devotion so entire, and amidst such a multitude of sacrifices,
+sufferings, and woes, as in the case of the Vaudois. The incentives to
+courage which have stimulated others to brave death were wanting in
+their case. If they triumphed, they had no admiring circus to welcome
+them with shouts, and crown them with laurel; and if they fell, they
+knew that there awaited their ashes no marble tomb, and that no lay of
+poet would ever embalm their memory. They looked to a greater Judge for
+their reward. This was the source of that patriotism, the purest the
+world has ever seen, and of that valour, the noblest of which the annals
+of mankind make mention.
+
+Innocent III., who hid under a sanctimonious guise the boundless
+ambition and quenchless malignity of Lucifer, was the first to blow the
+trumpet of extermination against the poor Vaudois. And from the middle
+of the thirteenth to the end of the seventeenth century they suffered
+not fewer than thirty persecutions. During that long period they could
+not calculate upon a single year's immunity from invasion and slaughter.
+From the days of Innocent their history becomes one long harrowing tale
+of papal plots, interdicts, excommunications, of royal proscriptions and
+perfidies, of attack, of plunder, of rapine, of massacre, and of death
+in every conceivable and horrible way,--by the sword, by fire, and by
+unutterable tortures and torments. The Waldenses had no alternative but
+to submit to these, or deny their Saviour. Yet, driven to arms,--ever
+their last resource,--they waxed valiant in fight, and put to flight the
+armies of the aliens. They taught their enemies that the battle was not
+to the strong. When the cloud gathered round their hills, they removed
+their wives and little ones to some rock-girt valley, to the caverns of
+which they had taken the precaution of removing their corn and oil, and
+even their baking ovens; and there, though perhaps they did not muster
+more than a thousand fighting men in all, they waited, with calm
+confidence in God, the onset of their foes. In these encounters,
+sustained by Heaven, they performed prodigies of valour. The combined
+armies of France and Piedmont recoiled from their shock. Their invaders
+were almost invariably overthrown, sometimes even annihilated; and their
+sovereigns, the Dukes of Savoy, on whose memory there rests the
+indelible blot of having pursued this loyal, industrious, and virtuous
+people with ceaseless and incredible injustice, cruelty, treachery, and
+perfidy, finding that they could not subdue them, were glad to offer
+them terms of peace, and grant them new guarantees of the quiet
+possession of their ancient territory. Thus an invisible omnipotent arm
+was ever extended over the Vaudois and their land, delivering them
+miraculously in times of danger, and preserving them as a peculiar
+people, that by their instrumentality Jehovah might accomplish his
+designs of mercy towards the world.
+
+Nor were the Waldenses content simply to maintain their faith. Even when
+fighting for existence, they recognised their obligations as a
+missionary Church, and strove to diffuse over the surrounding countries
+the light that burned amid their own mountains. Who has not heard of the
+Pra de la Torre, in the valley of Angrona? This is a beautiful little
+meadow, encircled with a barrier of tremendous mountains, and watered by
+a torrent, which, flowing from an Alpine summit, _La Sella Vecchia_,
+descends with echoing noise through the dark gorges and shining dells of
+the deep and romantic valley. This was the inner sanctuary of the
+Vaudois. Here their _Barbes_ sat; here was their school of the prophets;
+and from this spot were sent forth their pastors and missionaries into
+France, Germany, and Britain, as well as into their own valleys. It was
+a native and missionary of these valleys, Gualtero Lollard, which gave
+his name, in the fourteenth century, to the Lollards of England, whose
+doctrines were the day-spring of the Reformation in our own country. The
+zeal of the Vaudois was seen in the devices they fell upon to distribute
+the Bible, and along with that a knowledge of the gospel. Colporteurs
+travelled as pedlars; and, after displaying their laces and jewels, they
+drew forth, and offered for sale, or as a gift, a gem of yet greater
+value. In this way the Word of God found entrance alike into cottage and
+baronial castle. It is a supposed scene of this kind which the following
+lines depict:--
+
+ Oh! lady fair, these silks of mine
+   Are beautiful and rare,--
+ The richest web of the Indian loom
+   Which beauty's self might wear;
+ And these pearls are pure and mild to behold,
+   And with radiant light they vie:
+ I have brought them with me a weary way;--
+   Will my gentle lady buy?
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+ Oh! lady fair, I have got a gem,
+   Which a purer lustre flings
+ Than the diamond flash of the jewell'd crown
+   On the lofty brow of kings:
+ A wonderful pearl of exceeding price,
+   Whose virtue shall not decay,--
+ Whose light shall be as a spell to thee,
+   And a blessing on the way!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+ The cloud went off from the pilgrim's brow,
+   As a small and meagre book,
+ Unchased by gold or diamond gem,
+   From his folding robe he took.
+ Here, lady fair, is the pearl of price;--
+   May it prove as such to thee!
+ Nay, keep thy gold--I ask it not;
+   _For the Word of God is free!_
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+ And she hath left the old gray halls,
+   Where an evil faith hath power,
+ And the courtly knights of her father's train,
+   And the maidens of her bower;
+ And she hath gone to the Vaudois vale,
+   By lordly feet untrod,
+ Where the poor and needy of earth are rich
+   In the perfect love of God!
+
+But, turning from this inviting theme, to which volumes only could do
+justice, let us lift the curtain, and look at this simple, heroic
+people, as they appear now, after the "great tribulation" of five
+centuries. The Protestant population of "the Valleys" is 22,000 and
+upwards. They have fifteen churches and parishes, and twenty-five
+persons in all engaged in the work of the ministry. This was their state
+in 1851. Since then, two other parishes, Pignerolo and Turin, have been
+added. To each church a school is attached, with numerous sub-schools.
+It is to the honour of the Vaudois that they led the way in that system
+of general education which is extending itself, more or less, in every
+State in Europe. Repeated edicts of the Waldensian Table rendered it
+imperative upon the community to provide means of religious and
+elementary education for all the children capable of receiving it. They
+have a college at La Tour, fifteen primary schools, and upwards of one
+hundred secondary schools. The whole Waldensian youth is at school
+during winter. In their congregations, the sacrament of the Supper is
+dispensed four times in the year; and it is rare that a young person
+fails to become a communicant after arriving at the proper age. There
+are two preaching days at every dispensation of the ordinance; and the
+collections made on these occasions are devoted to the poor. There was
+at that time no plate at the church-door on ordinary Sabbaths; and no
+contributions were made by the people for the support of the gospel. I
+presume this error is rectified now, however; for it was then in
+contemplation to adopt the plan in use in Scotland, and elsewhere, of a
+penny-a-week subscription. The stipends of the Waldensian pastors are
+paid from funds contributed by England and Holland. Each receives
+fifteen hundred francs yearly,--about sixty-two pounds sterling. Their
+incomes are supplemented by a small glebe, which is attached to each
+_living_. The contribution for the schools and the hospitals is
+compulsory. In their college, in 1851, there were seventy-five students.
+Some were studying for the medical profession, some for commercial
+pursuits; others were qualifying as teachers, and some few as pastors.
+
+The Waldenses inhabit their hills, much as the Jews did their Palestine.
+Each man lives on his ancestral acres; and his farm or vineyard is not
+too large to be cultivated by himself and his family. There are amongst
+them no titles of honour, and scarce any distinctions of rank and
+circumstances. They are a nation of vine-dressers, husbandmen, and
+shepherds. In their habits they are frugal and simple. Their peaceful
+deportment and industrial virtues have won the admiration, and extorted
+the acknowledgments, even of their enemies. In the cultivation of their
+fields, in the breed and management of their cattle and their flocks, in
+the arrangements of their dairies, and in the cleanliness of their
+cabins, they far excel the rest of the Piedmontese. To enlarge their
+territory, they have had recourse to the same device with the Jews of
+old; and the Vaudois mountains, like the Judaean hills, exhibit in many
+places terraces, rising in a continuous series up the hill-side, sown
+with grain or planted with the vine. Every span of earth is cultivated.
+
+The Vaudois excel the rest of the Piedmontese in point of morals, just
+as much as they excel them in point of intelligence and industry. All
+who have visited their abodes, and studied their character, admit, that
+they are incomparably the most moral community on the Continent of
+Europe. When a Vaudois commits a crime,--a rare occurrence,--the whole
+valleys mourn, and every family feels as if a cloud rested on its own
+reputation. No one can pass a day among them without remarking the
+greater decorum of their deportment, and the greater kindliness and
+civility of their address. I do not mean to say that, either in respect
+of intelligence or piety, they are equal to the natives of our own
+highly favoured Scotland. They are surrounded on all sides by
+degradation and darkness; they have just escaped from ages of
+proscription; books are few among their mountains; and they have
+suffered, too, from the inroads of French infidelity; an age of
+Moderatism has passed over them, as over ourselves; and from these evils
+they have not yet completely recovered. Still, with all these drawbacks,
+they are immensely superior to any other community abroad; and, in
+simplicity of heart, and purity of life, present us with no feeble
+transcript of the primitive Church, of which they are the
+representatives.
+
+The lotus-flower is said to lift its head above the muddy current of the
+Nile at the precise moment of sunrise. It was indicative, perhaps, of
+the dawning of a new day upon the Vaudois and Italy, that that Church
+experienced lately a revival. That revival was almost immediately
+followed by the boon of political and social emancipation, and by a new
+and enlarged sphere of spiritual action. The year 1848 opened the doors
+of their ancient prison, and called them to go forth and evangelize.
+Formerly, all attempts to extend themselves beyond their mountain abode,
+and to mingle with the nations around them, were uniformly followed by
+disaster. The time was not come; and the integrity of their faith, and
+the accomplishment of their high mission, would have been perilled by
+their leaving their asylum. But when the revolutions of 1848 threw the
+north of Italy open to their action, then came forth the decree of
+Charles Albert, declaring the Vaudois free subjects of Piedmont, and the
+Church of "the Valleys" a free Church. The disabilities under which the
+Waldenses groaned up till this very recent period may well astonish us,
+now that we look back to them. Up till 1848 the Waldensian was
+proscribed, in both his civil and religious rights, beyond the limits of
+his own valleys. Out of his special territory he dared not possess a
+foot-breadth of land; and, if obliged to sell his paternal fields to a
+stranger, he could not buy them back again. He was shut out from the
+colleges of his country; he could not practise as a member of any of the
+learned professions; every avenue to distinction and wealth was closed
+against him,--his only crime being his religion. He could not marry but
+with one of his own people; he could not build a sanctuary,--he could
+not even bury his dead,--beyond the limits of "the Valleys." The
+children were often taken away and trained in the idolatrous rites of
+Romanism, and the unhappy parents had no remedy. They were slandered,
+too, to their sovereigns, as men marked by hideous deformities; and
+great was the surprise of Charles Albert to find, on a visit he paid to
+the Valleys but a little before granting their emancipation, that the
+Vaudois were not the monsters he had been taught to believe. I have been
+told, that to this very day they carry their dead to the grave in open
+coffins, to give ocular demonstration of the falsehood of the calumnies
+propagated by their enemies, that the corpses of these heretics are
+sometimes consumed by invisible flames, or carried off by evil spirits
+before burial. But now all these disabilities are at an end. The year
+1848 swept them all away; and a bulwark of constitutional feeling and
+action has since grown up around the Vaudois, cutting off the prospect
+of these disabilities ever being re-imposed, unless, indeed, Austria and
+France should combine to put down the Piedmontese constitution. But
+hitherto that nation which gave religious liberty to the people of God
+has had its own political liberties wonderfully protected.
+
+The year 1848, then, was the "exodus" of the Vaudois. And why were they
+brought out of their house of bondage? Surely they have yet a work to
+do. Their great mission, which was to bear witness for the truth during
+the domination of Antichrist, they nobly fulfilled; but are they to have
+no part in diffusing over the plains of Italy that light which they so
+long and so carefully preserved? This undoubtedly is their mission. All
+the leadings of Providence declare it to be so. They were visited with
+revival, brought from their Alpine asylum, had full liberty of action
+given them, all at the moment that Italy had begun to be open to the
+gospel. They are the native evangelists of their own country: let them
+remember their own and their fathers' sufferings, and avenge themselves
+on Rome, not with the sword, but the Bible. And let British Christians
+aid them in this great work, assured that the door to Rome and Italy
+lies through the valleys of the Vaudois.
+
+The last day of my sojourn in the Waldensian territory was Sabbath the
+19th of October, and I worshipped with that people,--rare enjoyment!--in
+their sanctuary. The day broke amid high winds and torrents of rain. The
+clouds now veiled, now revealed, the hill-side, with its variously
+tinted foliage, and its white torrents dashing headlong to the vale. The
+mighty form of the Castelluzzo was seen struggling through mists; and
+high above the winds rose the roar of the swollen waters. At a quarter
+before ten, the church-bell, heard through the pauses of the storm, came
+pealing from the heights. The old church of La Tour,--the new and more
+elegant fabric which stands in the village was not then opened,--is
+sweetly placed at the base of the Castelluzzo, embowered amid vines and
+fragrant foliage, and commanding a noble view of the plains of Piedmont.
+Even amidst the driving mists and showers its beauty could not fail to
+be felt. The scenery was--
+
+ "A blending of all beauties, streams and dells,
+ Fruits, foliage, crag, wood, corn-field, mountain, vine."
+
+General Beckwith did me the honour to call at my hotel, and I walked
+with him to the church. Outside the building--for worship had not
+commenced--were numerous little conversational parties; and around it
+lay the Vaudois dead, sleeping beneath the shadow of their giant rock,
+and free, at last and for ever, from the oppressor. They had found
+another "exodus" from their house of bondage than that which King
+Charles Albert had granted their living descendants. We entered, and
+found the schoolmaster reading the liturgy. This service consists of two
+chapters of the Bible, with at times the reflections of Ostervald
+annexed; during it the congregation came dropping in,--the husbandmen
+and herdsmen of the Val Lucerna,--and took their seats. In a little the
+elders entered in a body, and seated themselves round a table in front
+of the pulpit. Next came the pastor, habited, like our Scotch ministers,
+in gown and bands, when the regent instantly ceased. The pastor began
+the public worship by giving out a psalm. He next offered a prayer,
+read the ten commandments, and then preached. The sermon was an
+half-hour's length precisely, and was recited, not read; for I was told
+the Waldenses have a strong dislike to read discourses. The minister of
+La Tour is an old man, and was trained under an order of things
+unfavourable to that higher standard of pulpit qualification, and that
+fuller manifestation of evangelical and spiritual feeling, which, I am
+glad to say, characterize all the younger Waldensian pastors. The people
+listened with great attention to his scriptural discourse; but I was
+sorry to observe that there were few Bibles among them,--a circumstance
+that may be explained perhaps with reference to the state of the
+weather, and the long distance which many of them have to travel. The
+storm had the effect at least of thinning the audience, and bringing it
+down from about 800, its usual number, to 500 or so. The church was an
+oblong building, with the pulpit on one of the side walls, and a deep
+gallery, resting on thick, heavy pillars, on the other. The men and
+women occupied separate places. With this exception, I saw nothing to
+remind me that I was out of Scotland. One may find exactly such another
+congregation in almost any part of our Scottish Highlands, with this
+difference, that the complexions of the Vaudois are darker than that of
+our Highlanders. They have the same hardy, weather-beaten features, and
+the same robust frames. I saw many venerable and some noble heads among
+them,--men who would face the storms of the Alps for the lost wanderer
+of the flock, and the edicts and soldiers of Rome for their home-steads
+and altars. There they sat, worshipping their fathers' God, amid their
+fathers' mountains,--victorious over twelve centuries of proscription
+and persecution, and holding their sanctuaries and their hills in
+defiance of Europe. In the evening Professor Malan preached in the
+schoolhouse of Margarita, a small village on the ascent from La Tour to
+Castelluzzo. He discoursed with great unction, and the crowded audience
+hung upon his lips.
+
+On my way back to my hotel, Professor Malan narrated to me a touching
+anecdote, which I must here put down. Monsignor Mazzarella was a judge
+in one of the High Courts of Sicily; but when the atrocities of the
+re-action began, he refused to be a tool of the Government, and resigned
+his office. He came to Turin, like numerous other political refugees;
+and in one of the re-unions of the workmen, he learned the doctrine of
+"justification by faith." Soon thereafter, that is, in the summer of
+1851, he and a few companions paid a visit to the Vaudois Church. A
+public meeting, over which Professor Malan presided, was held at La
+Tour, to welcome M. Mazzarella and his friends. Professor Malan
+expressed his delight at seeing them in "the Valleys;" welcomed them as
+the first fruits of Italy; and, in the name of the Vaudois Church, gave
+them the right hand of fellowship. The reply of the converted exiles was
+truly affecting, and moved the assembly to tears. Rising up, Mazzarella
+said, "We are the children of your persecutors; but the sons have other
+hearts than the fathers. We have renounced the religion of the
+oppressor, and embraced that of the Vaudois, whom our ancestors so long
+persecuted. You have been the people of God, the confessors of the
+truth; and here before you this night I confess the sin of my fathers in
+putting your fathers to death." Mazzarella at this day is an evangelist
+in Genoa. In his speech we hear the first utterance of repentant
+Christendom. "The sons also of them that afflicted thee shall come
+bending unto thee; and all they that despised thee shall bow themselves
+down at the soles of thy feet; and they shall call thee the city of the
+Lord, the Zion of the Holy One of Israel."
+
+I had now been well nigh a week in "the Valleys." A dream long and
+fondly cherished had become a reality; and next morning I started for
+Turin.
+
+The eventful history of the Vaudois teaches one lesson at least, which
+we Protestants would do well to ponder at this hour. The measures of the
+Church of Rome are quick, summary, and on a scale commensurate with the
+danger. Her motto is instant, unpitying, unsparing, utter extermination
+of all that oppose her. Twice over has the human mind revolted against
+her authority, and twice over has she met that revolt, not with
+argument, but with the sword. In the eleventh and twelfth centuries the
+Waldensian movement had grown to such a head, that the dominion of Rome
+was in imminent jeopardy. Had she delayed, the Reformation would have
+been anticipated by some centuries. She did not delay. She cried for
+help to the warriors of France and Savoy; and, by the help of some
+hundred thousand soldiers, she put down the Waldensian movement as an
+aggressive power. The next revolt against her authority was the
+Reformation. Here again she boldly confronted the danger. She grasped
+her old weapon; and, by the help of the sword and the Jesuits, she put
+down that movement in one half the countries of Europe, and greatly
+weakened it in the other half.
+
+We are now witnessing a third revolt against her authority; and it
+remains to be seen how the Church of Rome will deal with it. Will she
+now adopt half measures? Will she now falter and draw back,--she that
+never before feared enemy or spared foe? Will that Church that quenched
+in blood the Protestantism of the Waldenses,--that put down the
+Reformation in France by one terrible blow,--that by the help of
+dungeons and racks banished the light from Italy and Spain,--will that
+Church, we ask, spare the Protestantism of Britain? What folly and
+infatuation to think that she will! What matters it that, in rooting out
+British Protestantism, she should shed oceans of blood, and sound the
+death-knell of a whole nation? These are but dust in the balance to her:
+her dominion must be maintained at all costs. Her motto still is,--let
+Rome triumph though the heavens should fall. But she tells us that she
+repents. Repents, does she? She has grown pitiful, and tender hearted,
+has she? She fears blood now, and starts at the cry of murdered nations!
+Ah! she repents; but it is her clemency, not her crimes, of which she
+repents. She repents that she did not make one wide St Bartholomew of
+Europe; that when she planted the stake for Huss, and Cranmer, and
+Wishart, she did not plant a million of stakes. Then the Reformation
+would not have been. Yes, she repents, deeply, bitterly repents, her
+fatal blunder. But it will not be her fault, the _Univers_ assures us,
+if she have to repent such a blunder a second time. Let us hear the
+priests speaking through one of the country papers in France:--"The wars
+of religion were not deplorable catastrophes; these great butcheries
+renewed the life of France. The incense cast away the smell of the
+corpses, and psalms covered the noise of angry shouts. Holy water washed
+away all the bloody stains. With the Inquisition, the most beautiful
+weather succeeded to storms, and the fires that burned the heretics
+shone like supernatural torches." The hand that wrote these lines would
+more gladly light the faggot. Let only the present regime in France last
+a few years, and the priests will again rejoice in seeing the colour of
+heretic blood. There cannot and will not be peace in the world, they
+say, till for every Protestant a gibbet or stake has been erected, and
+not one man left to carry tidings to posterity that ever there was such
+a thing as Protestantism on the earth.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+FROM TURIN TO NOVARA.
+
+     At Turin begins Pilgrimage to Rome--Description of
+     _Diligence_--Dora Susina--Plain of Lombardy--Its Boundaries--Nursed
+     by the Alps--Lessons taught thereby--The Colina--Inauspicious
+     Sunset--The Road to Milan--The Po--Its Source--Tributaries and
+     Function--Evening--Home remembered in a Foreign Land--Inference
+     thence regarding Futurity--Thunderstorm among the
+     Alps--Thunderstorm on the Plain of Lombardy--Grandeur of the
+     Lightning--Enter Novara at Day-break.
+
+
+I had two objects in view in crossing the Alps. The first was to visit
+the land of the Vaudois; the second was to see Rome. The first of these
+objects I had accomplished in part; the second remained to be
+undertaken.
+
+This plain of Piedmont was the richest my foot had ever trodden; but
+often did I turn my eyes wistfully towards the Apennines, which, like a
+veil, shut out the Italy of the Romans and the City of the Seven Hills.
+At Turin, which the Po so sweetly waters, and over which the snow-clad
+hills of the Swiss fling their noble shadows, properly begins my journey
+to Rome.
+
+I started in the _diligence_ for Milan about four of the afternoon of
+the 21st October. Did you ever, reader, set foot in a _diligence_? It is
+a castle mounted on wheels, rising storey upon storey to a fearful
+height. It is roomy withal, and has apartments enough within its
+leathern walls for well-nigh the population of a village. There is the
+glass _coupe_ in front, the drawing-room of the house. There is the
+_interieur_, which you may compare, if you please, to the dining-room,
+only there you do not dine; and there is the _rotundo_, a sort of cabin
+attached, the limbo of the establishment, in which you may find
+half-a-dozen unhappy wights for days and nights doing penance. Then, in
+the very fore-front of this moving castle--hung in mid air, as it
+were--there is the _banquette_. It is the roomiest of all, and has,
+moreover, spacious untenanted spaces behind, where you may stow away
+your luggage; and, being the loftiest compartment, it commands the
+country you may happen to traverse. On this account the _banquette_ was
+the place I almost always selected, unless when so unfortunate as to
+find it already bespoke. Half-hours are of no value in the south of the
+Alps, and a very liberal allowance of this commodity was made us before
+starting. At last, however, the formidable process of loading was
+completed, and away we went, rumbling heavily over the streets of Turin
+to the crack of the postilion's whip and the music of the horses' bells.
+
+On emerging from the buildings of the city, we crossed the fine bridge
+over the Dora Susina, an Alpine stream, which attains almost the dignity
+of a river, and which, swollen by recent rains, was hurrying on to join
+the Po. Our course now lay almost due east, over the great plain of
+Lombardy; and there are few rides in any part of the world which can
+bring the traveller such a succession of varied, rich, and sublime
+sights. The plain itself, level as the floor of one's library, and
+wearing a rich carpeting, green at all seasons, of fruits and verdure,
+ran out till it touched the horizon. On the north rose the Alps, a
+magnificent wall, of stature so stupendous, that they seemed to prop
+the heavens. On the south were the gentler Apennines. Between these two
+magnificent barriers, this goodly plain--of which I know not if the
+earth contains its equal--stretches away till it terminates in the blue
+line of the Adriatic. On its ample bosom is many a celebrated spot, many
+an interesting object. It has several princely cities, in which art is
+cultivated, and trade flourishes to all the extent which Austrian
+fetters permit. Its old historic towns are numerous. The hoar of eld is
+upon them. It has rags of castles and fortresses which literally have
+braved for a thousand years the battle and the breeze. It has spots
+where empires have been lost and won, and where the dead of the tented
+field sleep their dreamless sleep. It has fine old cathedrals, with
+their antique carvings, their recumbent statues of old-world bishops,
+and their Scripture pieces by various masters, sorely faded; and here
+and there, above the rich foliage of its various woods, like the tall
+mast of a ship at sea, is seen the handsome and lofty campanile, so
+peculiar to the architecture of Lombardy.
+
+The great Alps look down with most benignant aspect upon this plain.
+They seem quite proud of it, and nurse it with the care and tenderness
+of a parent. Noble rivers not a few--the Ticino, the Adige, and streams
+and torrents without number--do they send down, to keep its beauty ever
+fresh. These streams cross and re-cross its green bosom in all
+directions, forming by their interlacings a curious network of silvery
+lines, like the bright threads in the mine, or the white veins in the
+porphyritic slab. Observe this little flower, with its bright petals,
+growing by the wayside. That humble flower owes its beauty to yonder
+chain. From the frozen summits of the Alps come the waters at which it
+daily drinks. And when the dog-days come, and a fiery sun looks down
+upon the plain from a sky that is cloudless for months together, and
+when every leaf droops, and even the tall poplar seems to bow itself
+beneath the intolerable heat, the mountains, pitying the panting plain,
+send down their cool breezes to revive it. Would that from the lofty
+pinnacles of rank and talent there descended upon the lower levels of
+society an influence equally wholesome and beneficent! Were there more
+streams from the mountain, there would be more fruits upon the plain.
+The world would not be the scorched desert which it is, in which the
+vipers of envy and discontent hiss and sting; but a fragrant garden,
+full of the fruits of social order and of moral principle. Truly, man
+might learn many a useful lesson from the earth on which he treads: the
+great, to dispense freely out of their abundance,--for by dispensing
+they but multiply their blessings, as Mont Blanc, by sending down its
+streams to enrich the plain, feeds those snows which are its glory and
+crown,--and the humble, the lesson of a thankful reciprocation. This
+plain does not drink in the waters of the Alps, and sullenly refuse to
+own its obligations. Like a duteous child, it brings its yearly offering
+to the foot of Mont Blanc,--fields of golden wheat, countless vines with
+their blood-red clusters, fruits of every name, and flowers of every
+hue;--such is the noble tribute which this plain, year by year, lays at
+the feet of its august parent. There is but one drawback to its
+prosperity. Two sombre shadows fall gloomily athwart its surface. These
+are Austria and Rome.
+
+The plain of Lombardy is so broad, and the road to Milan by Novara is so
+much on a level with its general surface, that the eye catches the
+distant Apennines only at the more elevated points. The screen which
+here, and for miles after leaving Turin, shuts out the view of the
+Apennines, is the Colina. The Colina is a range of lovely hills, which
+rise to a height of rather more than 1200 feet, and run eastward along
+the plain a few miles south of the Milan road. Soft and rich in their
+covering, picturesque in their forms, and indented with numerous dells,
+they look like miniature Alps set down on the plain, nearly equidistant
+from the great white hills on the north and the purple peaks on the
+south. The sun was near his setting; and his level rays, passing through
+fields of vapour,--presages of storm,--and shorn of the fiery brilliancy
+which is wont at eve to set these hills on a blaze, fell softly upon the
+dome of the Superga, and lighted up the white villas which stud the
+mountain by hundreds and hundreds throughout its whole extent. Vividly
+relieved by the deep azure of the vineyards, and looking, from their
+distance, no bigger than single blocks, these villas reminded one of a
+shower of marble, freshly fallen, and glittering in pearly whiteness in
+the setting rays.
+
+The road, which to me had an almost sacred character, being the
+beginning of my journey to Rome, was a straight line,--straight as the
+arrow's flight,--between fields of rich meadow land, and rows of elms
+and poplars, which ran on and on, till, in the far distance, they
+appeared to converge to a point. It was a broad, macadamized,
+substantial highway, of about thirty feet in width, having a white line
+of curb-stones placed eight or ten paces apart; outside of which was an
+excellent pathway for foot passengers. On the left rose the Alps, calm
+and majestic, clothed in the purple shadows of evening.
+
+I have mentioned the Po as flowing past Turin. This stream is doubtless
+the relic of that mighty flood which covered, at some former period, the
+vast space between the Alps and the Apennines, from the Graian and
+Cottian chains on the west, to the shores of the Adriatic on the east.
+As the waters drained off, this central channel alone was left, to
+receive and convey to the sea the innumerable torrents which are formed
+by the springs and snows of the mountains. The noble river thus formed
+is called the Po,--the pride of Italy, and the king of its streams. The
+Greeks, who clothed it with fable, and drowned Phaeton in its stream,
+called it Eridanus. Its Roman appellation was Padus, which in course of
+time resolved itself into its present name, the Po. Unlike the Nile,
+which rolls in solemn and solitary majesty through Egypt without
+permitting one solitary rill to mingle with its flood, the Po welcomes
+every tributary, and accepts its help in discharging its great function
+of giving drink to every flower, and tree, and field, and city, in broad
+Lombardy. It receives, in its course through Piedmont alone, not fewer
+than fifty-three torrents and rivers; and in depth and grandeur of
+stream it is not unworthy of the praises which the Greek and Roman poets
+lavished upon it. The cradle of this noble stream is placed in the
+centre of the ancient territory of the Vaudois, whose most beautiful
+mountain, Monte Viso, is its nursing parent. A fountain of crystal
+clearness, placed half-way up this hill, is its source. Thence it goes
+forth to water Piedmont and Venetian-Lombardy, and to mingle at last
+with the clear wave of the Adriatic,--emblem of those living waters
+which were to go forth from this same land into all quarters of Europe.
+
+The sun had now set; and I marked that this evening no golden beams
+among the mountains, no burning peaks, attended his departure. He went
+in silent sadness, like a friend quitting a circle which he fears may
+before his return be visited with calamity. With him departed the glory
+of the scene. The vine-clad Colina, erst sparkling with villas, put out
+its lights, and resolved itself into a dark bank, which leaned,
+cloud-like, against the sky. The stupendous white piles on the left drew
+a thin night vapour around them, and retired from the scene, like some
+mighty spirit gathering his robe about him, and leaving the earth,
+which his presence had enlightened, dark and solitary. The plain lay
+before us a sombre expanse, in which all objects--towns, spires, and
+forests--were fast blending into one darkly-shaded and undefined
+picture. Dwellers in _diligences_, as well as dwellers in hotels, must
+sleep if they can; but the hour for "turning in" had scarce arrived, and
+meanwhile, I remember, my thoughts took strongly a homeward direction.
+
+With these, of course, I shall not trouble the reader; only I must be
+permitted to mention a misconception into which I had fallen, in
+connection with my journey, and into which it is possible others may
+fall in similar circumstances. One is apt to imagine, before starting,
+that should he reach such a country as Italy, he will there feel as if
+home was very distant, and the events of his former life far removed in
+point of time. He thinks that a journey across the Alps has somehow a
+talismanic power to change him. He crosses the Alps, but finds that he
+is the same man still. Home has come with him: the friendships, the
+joys, the sorrows, of his past existence are as near as ever; nay, far
+nearer, for now he is alone with them; and though he goes southward, and
+kingdoms and mountain-chains are between him and his native country, he
+cannot feel that he is a foot-breadth more distant than ever. He moves
+about through strange lands in a shroud of home feelings and
+recollections.
+
+How wretched, thought I, the man whom guilt chases from his country! He
+flies to distant lands in the hope of shaking off the remembrance of his
+crime. He finds that, go where he will, the spectre dogs his steps. In
+Paris, in Milan, in Rome, the grizzly form starts up before him. He must
+change, not his country, but his heart--himself--before he can shake off
+his companion.
+
+May not the same principle be applicable, in some extent, to our
+passage from earth into the world beyond? When at home in Scotland, I
+had thought of Italy as a distant country; but now that I was in Italy,
+Scotland seemed very near--much nearer than Italy had done when in
+Scotland. We who are dwellers on earth think of the state beyond as very
+remote; but once there, may we not feel as if earth was in close
+proximity to us,--as if, in fact, the two states were divided by but a
+narrow gulph? Certain it is that the passage across it will work in us
+no change; and, like the stranger in a foreign country, we shall enter
+with an eternal shroud of joys and sorrows, springing out of the deeds
+and events of our present existence.
+
+I found that if in this region the day had its beauty, the night had its
+sublimity and terrors. I had years before become familiar with the
+phenomena of thunder-storms among the Alps; and one who has seen
+lightning only in the sombre sky of Britain can scarce imagine its
+intense brilliancy in these more southern latitudes. With us it breaks
+with a red fiery flicker; there it bursts upon you like the sun, and
+pours a flood of noonday light over earth and sky. One evening, in
+particular, I shall never forget, on which I saw this phenomenon in
+circumstances highly favourable to its finest effect. I had walked out
+from Geneva to pass a few hours with the Tronchin family, whose mansion
+stands on the southern shores of the lake. It was evening; and the deep
+rolling of the thunder gave us warning that a storm had come on. We
+stepped out upon the lawn to enjoy the spectacle; for in the vicinity of
+the Alps, whose summits attract the fluid, the lightning is seldom
+dangerous to life. All was dark as midnight; not even the front of the
+mansion could we see. In a moment the flash came; and then it was
+day,--boundless, glorious day. All nature was set before us as if under
+the light of a cloudless sun. The lawn, the blue lake, the distant
+Alpine summits, the landscape around, with its pines, villas, and
+vineyards, all leaped out of the womb of night, stood in vivid intense
+splendour before the eye, and in a twinkling was again gone. This
+amazing transition from midnight to noonday, and from noonday to
+midnight, was repeated again and again. I was now to witness the
+sublimities of a thunder-storm on the plain of Lombardy.
+
+Right before us, on the far-off horizon, gleams of light began to shoot
+along the sky. The play of the electric fluid was so rapid and
+incessant, as to resemble rather the continuous flow of light from its
+fountain, than the fitful flashes of lightning. At times these gleams
+would mantle the sky with all the soft beauty of moonlight, and at
+others they would dart angrily and luridly athwart the horizon. Soon the
+storm assumed a grander form. A ball of fire would suddenly blaze forth,
+in livid, fiery brilliancy; and, remaining motionless, as it were, for
+an instant, would then shoot out lateral streams or rays, coloured
+sometimes like the rainbow, and quivering and fluttering like the
+outspread wings of eagles. One's imagination could almost conceive of it
+as being a real bird, the ball answering to the body, while the flashes
+flung out from it resembled the wings, which were of so vast a spread,
+that they touched the Apennines on the one hand, and the Alps on the
+other.
+
+The storm took yet another form, and one that increased the sublimity of
+the scene, by adding a slight feeling of uneasiness to the admiration
+with which we had contemplated it so far. A cloud of pitchy darkness
+rose in the south, and crossed the plain, shedding deepest night in its
+track, and shooting its fires downward on the earth as it came onwards.
+It passed right over our heads, enveloping us for the while (like some
+mighty archer, with quiver full of arrows) in a shower of flaming
+missiles. The interval between the flashes was brief,--so very brief,
+that we were scarcely sensible of any interval at all. There was not
+more than four seconds between them. The light was full and strong, as
+if myriads and myriads of bude lights had been kindled on the summits of
+the Apennines. In short, it was day while it lasted, and every object
+was visible, as if made so by the light of the sun. The horses which
+dragged our vehicle along the road,--the postilion with the red facings
+on his dress,--the meadows and mulberry woods which bordered our
+path,--the road itself, stretching away and away for miles, with its
+rows of tall poplars, and its white curb-stones, dotted with waggons and
+couriers, and a few foot-passengers,--and the red autumnal leaves, as
+they fell in swirling showers in the gust,--all were visible. Indeed, we
+may be said to have performed several miles of our journey under broad
+daylight, excepting that these sudden revelations of the face of nature
+alternated with moments of profoundest night. At length the big
+rain-drops came rattling to the earth; and, to protect ourselves, we
+drew the thick leathern curtain of the _banquette_, buttoning it tight
+down all around. It kept out the rain, but not the lightning. The seams
+and openings of the covering seemed glowing lines of fire, as if the
+_diligence_ had been literally engulphed in an ocean of living flame.
+The whole heavens were in a roar. The Apennines called to the Alps; the
+Alps shouted to the Apennines; and the plain between quaked and trembled
+at the awful voice. At length the storm passed away to the north, and
+found its final goal amid the mountains, where for hours afterwards the
+thunder continued to growl, and the lightnings to sport.
+
+Order being now restored among the elements, we endeavoured to snatch
+an hour's sleep. It was but a dreamy sort of slumber, which failed to
+bestow entire unconsciousness to external objects. Faded towns and tall
+campaniles seemed to pass by in a ghost-like procession, which was
+interrupted only by the arrival of the _diligence_ at the various
+stages, where we had to endure long, weary halts. So passed the night.
+At the first dawn we entered Novara. It lay, spread out on the dusky
+plain, an irregular patch of black, with the clear, silvery crescent of
+a moon hanging above it.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+THE INTRODUCTION.
+
+     Novara--Examination of Passports--Dawn--Monks prefer Dim Light to
+     Clear--Battle of Novara, and its Results--The
+     Ticino--Croats--Austrian Frontier and Dogana--Examination of Books
+     and Baggage--Grandeur of the Alps from this Point--Contrast betwixt
+     the Rivers and the Governments of Italy--Proof from thence of the
+     Fall--Providence "from seeming Evil educing Good"--Rich but
+     Monotonous Scenery of the Plain--Youth of the Alps, and Decay of
+     the Lombard nations--The only Remedy--An Expelled Democrat--First
+     View of Milan.
+
+
+Novara, of course, like all decent towns in Lombardy and elsewhere, at
+four in the morning was a-bed, and our heavy vehicle, as its harsh
+echoes broke roughly on the silent streets, sounded strangely loud. We
+were driven right into a courtyard, to have our passports examined. We
+had left Turin the evening before, with a clean bill of political
+health, duly certified by three legations,--the Sardinian, the English,
+and the Austrian; and in so short a journey--not to speak of the flood
+and fire we had passed through--it was scarce possible that we could
+have contracted fresh pollution. We were examined anew, however, lest
+the plague-spot should have broken out upon us. All was found right, and
+we were let go to a neighbouring restaurant, where we swallowed a cup of
+coffee,--our only meal betwixt Turin and Milan. After a full hour's
+halt, we re-mounted the _diligence_, and set forth.
+
+On emerging from the streets of the city, I found the east in the glow
+of dawn. Still, and pure, and calm broke the light; and under its ray
+the rich plain awoke into beauty, forgetful of the fiery bolts which had
+smitten it, and the darkness and destruction which had so lately passed
+across it. "Hail, holy light!" exclaims the bard of "Paradise." Yes,
+light is holy. It is undefiled and pure, as when "God saw the light that
+it was good." Man has ravaged the earth and reddened the seas; but light
+has escaped his contaminating touch, and is still as God made it,
+unless, indeed, when man imprisons it within the stained glass of the
+cathedral, and then obligingly helps its dimness by lighting a score or
+so of tapers. Did no monk ever think of putting a stained window in the
+east, and compelling the sun to ogle the world through spectacles? "The
+light is good," said He who created it, as He saw it darting its first
+pure beam across creation. Not so, says the Puseyite; it is not good
+unless it is coloured.
+
+I looked with interest on the plains around Novara; for there, albeit no
+trace of the bloody fray remains, the army of Charles Albert in 1848 met
+the host of Radetzky; and there the fate of the campaign for Italian
+independence was decided. The battle which was fought on these plains
+led to the destruction of King Charles Albert, but not to the
+destruction of his kingdom of Sardinia,--though why Radetzky did not
+follow up his victory by a march on Turin, is to this hour a mystery.
+Nay, though it sounds a little paradoxical, it is probable that this
+battle, by destroying the king, saved the kingdom. Had Charles Albert
+survived till the re-action set in 1849 and 1850, there is too much
+reason to fear, from his antecedents, that he would have thrown himself
+into the current with the rest of the Italian rulers; and so Sardinia
+would have missed the path of constitutional liberty and material
+development which it has since, under King Victor Emanuel, so happily
+pursued. Had that happened, the horizon of Italy, dark as it is at this
+hour, would have been still darker, and the peninsula, from the Alps to
+Sicily, would not have contained a single spot where the hunted friends
+of liberty could have found asylum.
+
+We soon approached the Ticino, the boundary between Sardinia and
+Austrian Lombardy. The Ticino is a majestic river, here spanned by one
+of the finest bridges in Italy. It contains eleven arches; is of the
+granite of Mount Torfano; and, like almost all the great modern works in
+Italy, was commenced by Napoleon, though finished only after his fall.
+Here, then, was the gate of Austria; and seated at that gate I saw three
+Croats,--fit keepers of Austrian order.
+
+I was not ignorant of the hand these men had had in the suppression of
+the revolution of 1848, and of the ruthless tragedies they were said to
+have enacted in Milan and other cities of Lombardy; and I rode up to
+them in the eager desire of scrutinizing their features, and reading
+there the signs of that ferocity which had given them such wide-spread
+but evil renown. They sat basking themselves on a bench in front of the
+Dogana, with their muskets and bayonets glittering in the sun. They were
+lads of about eighteen, of decidedly low stature, of square build, and
+strongly muscular. They looked in capital condition, and gave every sign
+that the air of Lombardy agreed with them, and that they had had their
+own share at least of its corn and wine. They wore blue caps, gray
+duffle greatcoats like those used by our Highlanders, light blue
+pantaloons fitting closely their thick short leg, and boots which rose
+above the ankle, and laced in front. The prevailing expression on their
+broad swarthy faces was not ferocity, but stolidity. Their eyes were
+dull, and contrasted strikingly with the dark fiery glances of the
+children of the land. They seemed men of appetites rather than passions;
+and, if guilty of cruel deeds, were likely to be so from the dull, cold,
+unreflecting ferocity of the bull-dog, rather than from the warm
+impulsive instincts of the nobler animals. In stature and feature they
+were very much the barbarian, and were admirably fitted for being what
+they were,--the tools of the despot. No wonder that the _ideal_ Italian
+abominates the _Croat_.
+
+The Dogana! So soon! 'Twas but a few miles on the other side of the
+Ticino that we passed through this ordeal. But perhaps the river,
+glorious as it looks, flowing from the democratic hills of the Swiss,
+may have infected us with political pravity; so here again we must
+undergo the search, and that not a mere _pro forma_ one. The _diligence_
+vomits forth, at all its mouths, trunks, carpet-bags, and packages,
+encased, some in velvet, some in fir-deals, and some in brown paper. The
+multifarious heap was carried into the Dogana, and its various articles
+unroped, unlocked, and their contents scattered about. One might have
+thought that a great fair was about to begin, or that a great Industrial
+Exhibition was to be opened on the banks of the Ticino. The hunt was
+especially for books,--bad books, which England will perversely print,
+and Englishmen perversely read. My little stock was collected, bound
+together with a cord, and sent in to the chief douanier, who sat,
+Radamanthus-like, in an inner apartment, to judge books, papers, and
+persons. There is nothing there, thought I, to which even an Austrian
+official can take exception. Soon I was summoned to follow my little
+library. The man examined the collection volume by volume. At last he
+lighted on a number of the _Gazetta del Popolo_,--the same which I have
+already mentioned as given me by the editors in Turin. This, thought I,
+will prove the dead fly in my box of ointment. The sheet was opened and
+examined. "Have you," said the official, "any more?" I could reply with
+a clear conscience that I had not. To my surprise, the paper was
+returned to me. He next took up my note-book. Now, said I to myself,
+this is a worse scrape than the other. What a blockhead I am not to have
+put the book into my pocket; for, except in extreme cases, the
+traveller's person is never searched. The man opened the thin volume,
+and found it inscribed with mysterious and strange characters. It was
+written in short-hand. He turned over the leaves; on every page the same
+unreadable signs met the eye. He held it by the top, and next by the
+bottom: it was equally inscrutable either way. He shut it, and examined
+its exterior, but there was nothing on the outside to afford a key to
+the mystic characters within. He then turned to me for an explanation of
+the suspicious little book. Affecting all the unconcern I could, I told
+him that it contained only a few commonplace jottings of my journey. He
+opened the book; took one other leisurely survey of it; then looked at
+me, and back again at the book; and, after a considerable pause, big
+with the fate of my book, he made me a bland bow, and handed me the
+volume. I was equally polite on my part, inly resolving, that
+henceforward Austrian douanier should not lay finger on my note-book.
+
+The halt here was one of from two to three hours, which were spent in
+unlading the _diligence_, opening and locking trunks,--for in Austria
+nothing is done in a hurry, save the trial and execution of Mazzinists.
+But the long halt was nothing to me: I could not possibly lose time, and
+I could scarce be stopped at the wrong place; and certainly the bridge
+of the Ticino is the very spot one would select for such a halt, were
+the matter left in one's own choice. It commands the finest assemblage
+of grand objects, in a ride abounding in magnificent objects throughout.
+Having been pronounced, in passport phrase, "good to enter
+Austria,"--for my carpet-bag was clean, though doubtless my mind was
+foul with all sorts of notions which, in the latitude of Austria, are
+rankly heretical,--(and, by the way, of what use is it to search trunks,
+and leave breasts unexplored? Here is an imperfection in the system,
+which I wonder the Jesuits don't correct)--having, I say, had the
+Croat-guarded gates of Austria opened to me till I should find it
+convenient to enter, I retraced the few paces which divided the Dogana
+from the bridge, and stood above the rolling floods of the Ticino.
+
+Refreshing it verily was to turn from the petty tyrannies of an Austrian
+custom-house, to the free, joyous, and glorious face of nature. Before
+me were the Alps, just shaking the cold night mists from their shaggy
+pine-clad sides, as might a lion the dew-drops from his mane. Here rose
+Monte Rosa in a robe of never-fading glory and beauty; and there stood
+Mont Blanc, with his diadem of dazzling snows. The giant had planted his
+feet deep amid rolling hills, covered with villages, and pine-forests,
+and rich pastures. Anywhere else these would have been mountains; but,
+dwarfed by the majestic form in whose presence they stood, they looked
+like small eminences, scattered gracefully at his base, as pebbles at
+the foot of some lofty pile. On his breast floated the fleecy clouds of
+morn, while his summit rose high above these clouds, and stood, in the
+calm of the firmament, a stupendous pile of ice and snow. Never had I
+seen the Alps to such advantage. The level plain ran quite up to them,
+and allowed the eye to take their full height from their flower-girt
+base to their icy summit. Hundreds and hundreds of peaks ran along the
+sky, conical, serrated, needle-shaped, jagged, some flaming like the
+ruby in the morning ray, others dazzlingly white as the alabaster.
+
+As I bent over the parapet, gazing on the flood that rolled beneath, I
+could not help contrasting the bounty of nature with the oppression of
+man. Here had this river been flowing through the long centuries,
+dispensing its blessings without stop or grudge. Day and night, summer
+and winter, it had rolled gladsomely onwards, bringing verdure to the
+field, fruitage to the bough, and plenty to the peasant's cot. Now it
+laved the flower on its brink,--now it fed the umbrageous sycamore and
+the tall poplar on the plain,--and now it sent off a crystal streamlet
+to meander through corn-field and meadow-land. It exacted nothing of man
+for the blessings it so unweariedly dispensed. It gave all freely.
+Whether, said I to myself, does Italy owe most to its rivers or to its
+Governments? Its rivers give it corn and wine: its Governments give it
+chains and prisons. They load the patient Lombard with burdens that
+press him down into toil and poverty; or they lead him away to shed his
+blood and lay his bones in a foreign soil. Why is it that all the
+functions of nature are beneficent? Even the storms that rage around
+Mont Blanc, the ice of its eternal winter, yield only good. Here they
+come, a river of crystal water, decking with living green this
+far-spreading plain. But the institutions of man are not so. From their
+frozen summits have too oft, alas! descended, not the peaceful river,
+but the thundering avalanche, burying in irretrievable ruin, man, with
+his labours and hopes. I suspect, however, that this is a narrow as well
+as a sombre philosophy. Doubtless the great fact of the Fall is written
+on the face of life. Nevertheless, we have a strong belief that the
+mighty schemes of Providence, like the arrangements of external nature,
+will all in the end become dispensers of good; that those evil systems
+which have burdened the earth, like those mountains of ice and snow
+which rise on its surface, have their uses, though as yet we stand too
+near them, and too much within the sphere of their tempests and their
+avalanches, fully to comprehend these uses. We must descend into the
+low-lying plains of the future, and contemplate them afar off; and then
+the glaciers and tempests of these moral Mont Blancs may dissolve into
+tender showers and crystal rivers, which will fructify and gladden the
+world.
+
+In a few minutes I must leave the bridge of the Ticino. Could I, when
+far away,--in the seclusion of my own library, for instance,--bid the
+Alps rise before me, in stupendous magnificence, as now? I turned round,
+and fixed my gaze on the tamer objects of the plain; then back again to
+the mountains; but every time I did so, I felt the scene as new. Its
+glory burst on me as if seen for the first time. Alas! thought I, if
+this majestic image has so faded in the interval of a few moments, what
+will it be years after? A scene like this, it is true, can never be
+forgotten; but it is but a dwarfed picture that lives in the memory; and
+it is well, perhaps, it should be so; for were one to see always the
+Alps, with what eyes would one look upon the tamer though still romantic
+hills of his own country! And we may extend the principle. There are
+times when great truths--eternal verities--flash upon the soul in Alpine
+magnitude. It is a new world that discloses itself, and we are thrilled
+by its glory; but for the effective discharge of ordinary duties, it is
+better, perhaps, that these stupendous objects should be seen "as
+through a glass darkly," though still seen.
+
+All too soon was the _diligence_ ready to start. From the bridge of the
+Ticino the scenery was decidedly tamer. The Alps fell more into the
+background, and with their white peaks disappeared the chief glory of
+the scene. The plain was so level, and its woods of mulberry and walnut
+so luxuriant, that little could be seen save the broad road, with its
+white lines of curb-stones running on and on, and losing itself in the
+deep foliage of the plain. Its windings and turnings, though coming only
+at an interval of many miles, were a pleasant relief from the sameness
+of the journey. Occasionally side views of great fertility opened upon
+us. There were the small farms of the Lombard; and there was the tall
+Lombard himself, striding across his fields. If the farms were small,
+amends was made by the largeness of the farm-house. There was no great
+air of comfort about it, however. It wanted its little garden, and its
+over-arching vine-bough, which one sees in the happier cantons of
+Switzerland; and the furrowed and care-shaded face of the owner bespoke
+greater acquaintance with hard labour than with the dainties which the
+bounteous earth so freely yields. The Lombard plants, but another eats.
+We could see, too, how extensively and thoroughly irrigated was the
+plain. Numerous canals, brim-full of water, the gift of the Alps,
+traversed it in all directions; and by means of a system of sluices and
+aqueducts the surrounding fields could be flooded at pleasure. The plain
+enjoys thus the elements of a boundless fertility, and is the seat of an
+almost eternal summer.
+
+ Hic Ver perpetuum, atque alienis mensibus Aestas.
+
+But the little towns we passed looked so very old and tottering, and the
+inhabitants, too, appeared as much oppressed with years or cares as the
+heavy dilapidated architecture amid which they dwelt, and out of which
+they crept as we passed by, that one's heart grew sad. How evident was
+it that the immortal spirit was withered, and that the land, despite its
+images of grandeur and sublimity, nourished a stricken race! The Alps
+were still young, but the men that lived within their shadow had grown
+very old. Their ears had too long been familiar with the clank of
+chains, and their hearts were too sad to catch up the utterances of
+freedom which came from their mountains. The human soul was dying, and
+will die, unless new fire from a celestial source descend to rekindle
+it. Architecture, music, new constitutions, the ever glorious face of
+nature itself, will not prevent the approaching death of the continental
+nations. There is but one book in the world that can do it,--the Book of
+Life. Unfold its pages, and a more blessed and glorious effulgence than
+that which lights up the Alps at sunrise will break upon the nations;
+but, alas! this cannot be so long as the Jesuit and the Croat are there.
+We saw, too, on our journey, other things that did not tend to put us
+into better spirits. As we approached Milan, we met a couple of
+gensdarmes leading away a poor foot-sore revolutionist to the frontier.
+Ah! said I inly, could the Jesuits look into my breast, they would find
+there ideas more dangerous to their power, in all probability, than
+those that this man entertains; and yet, while he is expelled, I am
+admitted. No thanks to them, however. I rode onwards. League followed
+league of the richest but the most unvaried scenery. Campanile and
+hamlet came and went: still Milan came not. I strained my eyes in the
+direction in which I expected its roofs and towers to appear, but all to
+no purpose. At length there rose over the green woods that covered the
+plain, as if evoked by enchantment, a vision of surpassing beauty. I
+gazed entranced. The lovely creation before me was white as the Alpine
+snows, and shot up in a glorious cluster of towers, spires, and
+pinnacles, which flashed back the splendours of the mid-day sun. It
+looked as if it had sprung from under the chisel but yesterday. Indeed,
+one could hardly believe that human hands had fashioned so fair a
+structure. It was so delicate, and graceful, and aerial, and unsullied,
+that I thought of the city which burst upon the pilgrims when they had
+got over the river, or that which a prophet saw descending out of
+heaven. Milan, hid in rich woods, was before me, and this was its
+renowned Cathedral.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+CITY AND PEOPLE OF MILAN.
+
+     The Barrier--Beautiful Aspect of the City--Hotel Royale--History of
+     Milan--Dreariness of its Streets--Decay of Art--Decay of Trade--The
+     Cathedral--Beauty, not Sublimity, its Characteristic--Its Exterior
+     described--The Piazza of the Cathedral--Austrian Cannon--Pamphlets
+     on Purgatory--Punch--Punch _versus_ the Priest--Church and State in
+     Italy--Austrian Oppression--Confiscation of Estates in
+     Lombardy--Forced Loans--Niebuhr's Idea that the Dark Ages are
+     returning.
+
+
+It was an hour past noon when the _diligence_, with its polyglot
+freight, drove up to the harrier. There gathered round the vehicle a
+white cloud of Austrian uniforms, and straightway every compartment of
+the carriage bristled with a forest of hands holding passports. These
+the men-at-arms received; and, making them hastily up into a bundle, and
+tying them with a piece of cord, they despatched them by a special
+messenger to the Prefect; so that hardly had we entered the Porta
+Vercellina, till our arrival was known at head-quarters. There was
+handed at the same time to each passenger a printed paper, in which the
+same notification was four times repeated,--first in Italian, next in
+French, then in German, and lastly in English,--enjoining the holder,
+under certain penalties, to present himself within a given number of
+hours at the Police Office.
+
+It was under these conditions,--a pilgrim from a far land,--that I
+appeared at the gates of Milan. The passport detention seemed less an
+annoyance here than I had ever felt it before. The beauteous city,
+sitting so tranquilly amidst the sublimest scenery, seemed to have
+something of a celestial character about it. It looked so resplendent,
+partly by reason of the materials of which it is built, and partly by
+reason of the sun that shone upon it as an Italian sun only can shine,
+that none but pure men, I felt, might dwell here, and none but pure men
+might enter at its gates. There were white sentinels at its portals;
+rows of white houses formed its exterior; and in the middle of the city,
+floating above it,--for it seemed to float rather than to rest on
+foundations,--was its snow-white temple,--a place too holy almost, as it
+seemed, for human worship and human worshippers; and then the city had
+for battlements a glorious wall, white as alabaster, which rose to the
+clouds. Everything conspired to cheat the visitor into the belief that
+he had come at last to an abode where every hurtful passion was hushed,
+and where Peace had fixed her chosen seat.
+
+"All right," shouted the passport official: the gensdarmes, who guarded
+the path with naked bayonet, stepped aside; and the quick, sharp crack
+of the postilion's whip set the horses a-moving. We skirted the spacious
+esplanade, and saw in the distance the beauteous form of the Arco della
+Pace. We had not gone far till the drum's roll struck upon the ear, and
+a long glittering line of Austrian bayonets was seen moving across the
+esplanade. It was evident that the time had not yet come to Milan, all
+glorious as she seemed, when men "shall learn war no more." We plunged
+into a series of narrow streets, which open on the Mercato Vecchio. We
+crossed the Corso, and came out upon the broad promenade that traverses
+Milan from the square of the Duomo to the Porta Orientale. We soon found
+ourselves at the _diligence_ office; and there, our little colony of
+various nations breaking up, I bade adieu to the good vehicle which had
+carried me from Turin, and took my way to the Hotel Royale, in the
+Contrada dei tre Re.
+
+At the first summons of the porter's bell the gate opened. On entering,
+I found myself in what had been one of the palaces of Milan when the
+city was in its best days. But the Austrian eagle had scared the native
+princes and nobles of the Queen of Lombardy, who were gone, and had left
+their streets to be trodden by the Croat, and their palaces to be
+tenanted by the wayfarer. The buildings of the hotel formed a spacious
+quadrangle, three storeys high, with a finely paved court in the centre.
+I was conducted up stairs to my bed-room, which, though by no means
+large, and plainly furnished, presented the luxury of extreme
+cleanliness, with its beautifully polished wooden floor, and its
+delicately white napery and curtains. The saloon on the ground-floor
+opened sweetly into a little garden, with its fountain, its bit of
+rock-work, and its gods and nymphs of stone. The apartment had a
+peculiarly comfortable air at breakfast-time. The hissing urn, flanked
+by the tea-caddy; the rich brown coffee, the delicious butter, and the
+not less delicious bread, the produce of the plains around, not
+unnaturally white, as with us, but golden, like the wheat when it waves
+in the autumnal sun; and the guests, mostly English, which assembled
+morning after morning,--made the return of this hour very pleasant.
+Establishing myself at the Albergo Reale for this and the two following
+days, I sallied out, to wander everywhere and see everything.
+
+Milan is of ancient days; and few cities have seen greater changes of
+fortune. In the reign of Diocletian and Maximilian it became the capital
+of the western empire, and was filled with the temples, baths, theatres,
+and other monuments which usually adorn royal cities. The tempest which
+Attila, in the middle of the fifth century, conducted across the Alps,
+fell upon it, and swept it away. Scarce a vestige of the Roman Milan has
+come down to our day. A second Milan was founded, but only to fall, in
+its turn, before the arms of Frederick Barbarossa. There was a strong
+vitality in its site, however; and a third Milan,--the Milan of the
+present day,--arose. This city is a huge collection of churches and
+barracks, cafes and convents, theatres and palaces, traversed by narrow
+streets, ranged mostly in concentric circles round its grand central
+building, the Duomo. The streets, however, that lead to its various
+ports, are spacious thoroughfares, adorned with noble and elegant
+mansions. Such is the arrangement of the town in which I now found
+myself.
+
+I sought everywhere for the gay Milan,--the white-robed city I had seen
+an hour ago,--but it was gone; and in its room sat a silent and sullen
+town, with an air of most depressing loneliness about it. There were few
+persons on the streets; and these walked as if they dragged a chain at
+their heels. I passed through whole streets of a secondary character,
+without meeting a single individual, or hearing the sound of man or of
+living thing. It seemed as if Milan had proclaimed a fast and gone to
+church; but when I looked into the churches, I saw no one there save a
+solitary figure in white, in the distance, bowing and gesticulating with
+extraordinary fervour, in the presence of dumb pictures and dim tapers.
+How can a worship in which no one ever joins edify any one? I could
+discover no signs of a flourishing art. There were not a few pretty and
+some beautiful things in the shop-windows; but the latter were all
+copies generally of the more striking natural objects in the
+neighbourhood, or of the works of art in the city, the productions of
+other times,--things which a dying genius might produce, but not such as
+a living genius, free to give scope to her invention, would delight to
+create. Such was the art of Milan,--the feeble and reflected gleam of a
+glory now set. As regards the trade of Milan,--a yet more important
+matter,--I could see almost no signs of it either. There were walking
+sticks, and such things, in considerable variety in the shops; but
+little of more importance. The fabrics of the loom, and the productions
+of the plane, the forge, and the printing press, which crowd our cities
+and dwellings, and give honest bread to our artizans, were all wanting
+in Milan. How its people contrived to get through the twenty-four hours,
+and where they got their bread, unless it fell from the clouds, I could
+not discover.
+
+What an air of languor and weariness on the faces of the people! Amid
+these heavy-hearted and dull-eyed loiterers, what a relief it would have
+been to have met the soiled jacket, the brawny arm, and the manly brow,
+of one of our own artizans! I felt there were worse things in the world
+than hard work. Better it were to roll the stone of Sisyphus all
+life-long, than spend it in such idleness as weighs upon the cities of
+Italy. Better the clang of the forge than the rattle of the sabre. The
+Milanese seemed looking into the future; and a dismal future it is, if
+one may judge from their looks,--a future full of revolutions, to
+conduct, mayhap, to freedom; more probably to the scaffold.
+
+I turned sharply round the corner of a street, and there, as if it had
+risen from the earth, was the Cathedral. As the sun breaking through a
+fog, or an Alpine peak flashing through mists, so burst this
+magnificent pile upon me; and its sudden revelation dispelled on the
+instant all my gloomy musings. I could only stand and gaze. Beauty, not
+sublimity, is the attribute of this pile. Beauty it rains around it in a
+never-ending, overflowing shower, as the sun does light, or Mont Blanc
+glory. I sought for some one presiding idea, simple and grand, which
+might take its place in the mind, and dwell there as an image of glory,
+never more to fade; but I could find no such idea. The pile is the slow
+creation of centuries, and the united conception of innumerable minds,
+which have clubbed their ideas, so to speak, to produce this Cathedral.
+Quarries of marble and millions of money have been expended upon it; and
+there is scarce an architect or sculptor of eminence who has flourished
+since the fourteenth century, who has not contributed to it some
+separate grace or glory; and now the Cathedral of Milan is perhaps the
+most numerous assemblage of beauties in stone which the world contains.
+Impossible it were to enumerate the elegances that cover it from top to
+bottom,--its carved portals, its flying buttresses, its arabesque
+pilasters, its richly mullioned windows, its basso-reliefs, its
+beautiful tracery, and its forest of snow-white pinnacles soaring in the
+sunlight, so calm and moveless, and yet so airy and light, that you fear
+the nest breeze will scatter them. You can compare it only to some
+Alpine group, whose flashing peaks shoot up by hundreds around some
+snow-white central summit.
+
+The building, too, is populous as a city. There are upwards of three
+thousand statues upon it, and places for a thousand more. Here stands a
+monk, busy with his beads,--there a mailed warrior,--there a mitred
+bishop,--there a pilgrim, staff in hand,--there a nun, gracefully
+veiled,--and yonder hundreds of seraphs perched upon the loftier
+pinnacles, and looking as if a white cloud of winged creatures from the
+sky had just lighted upon it.
+
+I purposed to-morrow to climb to the roof, and thence survey the plains
+of Lombardy and the chain of the Alps; so, turning away from the door, I
+made the tour of the square in which the Cathedral stands. I came first
+upon a row of cannon, so pointed as to sweep the square. Behind the
+guns, piled on the pavement, were stacks of arms, and soldiers loitering
+beside them. Ah! thought I, these are the loving ties that bind the
+people of Lombardy to the House of Hapsburg. The priest's chant is heard
+all day long within that temple; and outside there blend with it the
+sentinel's tramp and the drum's roll. I passed on, and came next upon a
+most unusual display of literature. Four-paged pamphlets in hundreds lay
+piled upon stalls, or were ranged in rows against the wall. The subjects
+discussed in these pamphlets were of a high spiritual cast, and woodcuts
+were freely employed to aid the reader's apprehension. These latter
+belonged to a very different style of art from that conspicuous in the
+Cathedral, but they had the merit of great plainness; and a glance at
+the woodcut enabled one to read at once the story of the pamphlet. The
+wall was all a-blaze with flames; and I saw the advantage of an
+infallible Church to teach one secrets which the Bible does not reveal.
+The sin chiefly insisted on was that of despising the priest; and the
+punishment awaiting it was set before me in a way I could not possibly
+mistake. Here, for instance, was a wealthy sinner, who lay dying in a
+splendid mansion. With horrible impiety, the man had refused the wafer,
+and ordered the priest about his business, despite the imploring tears
+of wife and family, who surrounded his bed. A glance at the other
+compartment of the picture showed the consequence of this. There you
+found the man just launched into the other world. A crowd of black
+fiends, hideous to behold, had seized upon the poor soul, and were
+dragging it down into a weltering gulf of lurid flame. In another
+picture you had an equally graphic illustration of the happiness of
+obeying Mother Church. Here lay one dying amid beads, crucifixes, and
+shaven crowns. The devil was fleeing from the house in terror; and in
+the compartment devoted to the spiritual world, the soul was following a
+benevolent-looking gentleman, who carried a big key, and was walking in
+the direction of a very magnificent mansion on a high hill, where, I
+doubt not, a welcome and hospitable reception waited both. The same
+lesson was repeated along the wall times without number.
+
+Here was the doctrine of purgatory as incontestably proved as painted
+flames, and images of creatures with tails who tormented other creatures
+who had no tails, could prove it. If there was no purgatory, how could
+the painters of an infallible Church ever have given so exact a
+representation of it? And exact it must have been, else the priests
+would never have allowed these pictures to be hung up here, under their
+very eye. This was as much as to write "_cum privilegio_" underneath
+them. The whole scenery of purgatory was here most vividly depicted.
+There were fiends flying off with souls, or tossing them with pitchforks
+into the flames. There were boiling cauldrons, red-hot gridirons,
+cataracts of fire, and innumerable other modes of torment. A walk along
+this infernal gallery was enough, one would have thought, to make the
+boldest purgatory-despiser quail. But no one who has a little spare
+cash, and is willing to part with it, need fear either purgatory or the
+devil. In the large marble house in the centre of the square one might
+buy at a reasonable rate an excision of some thousands of years from
+his appointed sojourn in that gloomy region. And doubtless that was one
+reason for bringing this purgatorial gallery and the indulgence-market
+into such close proximity. It reminded the people of the latter
+inestimable blessing; and without some such salutary impulse the traffic
+in indulgences might flag.
+
+I could not but remark, that the only person for whom these
+extraordinary representations appeared to have any attractions was
+myself. Not so the exhibition on the other side of the square. Having
+perused with no ordinary interest, though, I fear, with not much profit,
+this "Theory of a Future State," I crossed the quadrangle, passing right
+under the eastern towers of the Cathedral, and came suddenly upon a knot
+of persons gathered round a tall rectangular box, in which was enacting
+the melo-drama of Punch. These persons were enjoying the fun with a
+relish which was noways abated by the spectacle over the way. The whole
+thing was acted exactly as I had seen it before; but to me it was a
+novelty to hear Punch, and all the other interlocutors in the piece,
+discourse in the language in which Dante had sung, and in which I had
+heard, just before leaving Scotland, Gavazzi declaim. In all lands Punch
+is an astute scoundrel; but, strange to say, in all lands the popular
+feeling is on his side. His imperturbable coolness and truculent villany
+procured him plaudits among the Milanese, as I had seen them do
+elsewhere. Courage and self-possession are valuable qualities, and for
+their sake we sometimes forgive bad men and bad causes; whereas, from
+nothing do we more instinctively recoil than from hypocrisy. On this
+principle it is, perhaps, that we have a sort of liking for Punch,
+incorrigible scoundrel as he is; and that great criminals, who rob and
+murder at the head of armies, we deify, while little ones we hang.
+
+I had now completed my tour of the Cathedral, and could not help
+reflecting on the miscellaneous, and apparently incongruous, character
+of the spectacles grouped together in the square. In the middle was the
+great temple, in which priests, in stole and mitre, celebrated the high
+mysteries of their Church. In one of the angles were rows of mounted
+cannon, and a forest of bayonets. In another was seen the whole process
+of refining souls in purgatory. Strange, that if men here are shut up in
+prisons and hulks amid desperadoes, they come out more finished villains
+than they entered; whereas hereafter, if men are shut up with even worse
+characters, amid blazing fires, glowing gridirons, and cauldrons of
+boiling lead, they come out perfected in virtue. They pass at once from
+the society of fiends, where they have been whipped, roasted, and I know
+not what, to the society of angels. This is a strange schooling to give
+dignity to the character and conscious purity to the mind. And yet Rome
+subjects all her sons to this discipline for a longer or shorter period.
+Much do we marvel, that the same process which unfits men for
+associating with respectable people here should be the very thing to
+prepare them for good society hereafter. The other side of the square
+Punch had all to himself; and Punch, I saw, was the favourite. The
+inhabitants of Milan kept as respectable a distance from the painted
+fiends as if they had been veritable Satans, ready to clutch the
+incautious passer-by, and carry him off to their den. They kept the same
+respectable distance from the Austrian cannon; and these were no painted
+terrors. And as regards the Cathedral, scarce a solitary foot crossed
+its threshold, though there,--astounding prodigy!--He who made the
+worlds was Himself made many times every day by the priests. But Punch
+had a dense crowd of delighted spectators around him; and yet he
+competed with the priest at immense disadvantage. Punch played his part
+in a humble wooden shed, while the priest played his in a magnificent
+marble Cathedral, with a splendid wardrobe to boot. Still the people
+seemed to feel, that the only play in which there was any earnestness
+was that which was enacted in the wooden box. A stranger from India or
+China, who was not learned in either the religion or the drama of
+Europe, would probably have been unable to see any great difference
+between the two, and would have taken both for religious performances;
+concluding, perhaps, that that in the Cathedral was the established
+form, while that in the wooden box was the disestablished; in short,
+that Punch had been a priest at some former period of his life, and sung
+mass and sold indulgences; but that, imbibing some heterodox notions, or
+having fallen into some peccadillo, such as eating flesh on Friday, he
+had been unfrocked and driven out, and compelled to play the priest in a
+wooden tabernacle.
+
+To return once more to the paintings and woodcuts illustrative of the
+punitive and purgative processes of purgatory, and which were in a style
+of art that demonstratively shows, that if Italy is advancing in the
+knowledge of a future life, she is retrograding in the arts of the
+present,--to recur, I say, to these, there rested some doubt, to say the
+least of it, over their revelations of the world to come; but there
+rested no doubt whatever over their revelations of the present condition
+of Church and State in Italy. On this head the cannon and woodcuts told
+far more than the priests wished, or perhaps thought. They showed that
+both the State and the Church in that country are now reduced to their
+_ultima ratio_, brute force. The State has lost all hope of governing
+its subjects by giving them good laws, and inspiring them with loyalty;
+and the Church has long since abandoned the plan of producing obedience
+and love by presenting great truths to the mind. Both have found out a
+shorter and more compendious policy. The State, speaking through her
+cannon, says, "Obey me or die;" and the Church, speaking through
+purgatory, says, "Believe me or burn." There is one comfort in this,
+however,--the present system is obviously the last. When force gives
+way, all gives way. The Church will stand, doubtless, because they tell
+us she is founded on a rock; but what will become of the State? When men
+can be awed neither by painted fiends nor real cannon, what is to awe
+them? Indeed, we shrewdly suspect, that even now the fiends would count
+for little, were it not for the fiends incarnate, in the shape of
+Croats, by which the others are backed. The Lombards would boldly face
+the gridirons, cauldrons, and stinging creatures gathered in the one
+corner of the square at Milan, if they but knew how to muzzle the cannon
+which are assembled in the other.
+
+In truth, things in this part of the world are not looking up. A
+universal serfdom and barbarism are slowly creeping over all men and all
+systems. The Government of Austria has become more revolutionary than
+the Revolution itself. By violating the rights of property, it has
+indorsed the worst doctrines of Socialism. That Government has, in a
+great number of instances, seized upon estates, without making out a
+title to them by any regular process of law. After the attempted
+outbreak at Milan in 1852, the landed property of well-nigh all the
+royalist emigrants was swept away by a decree of sequestration. The
+_Milan Gazette_ published a list of seventy-two political refugees whose
+property has been laid under sequestration in the provinces of Milan,
+Como, Mantua, Lodi, Pavia, Brescia, Cremona, Bergamo, and Sondrio. In
+this list we find the names of many distinguished persons, such as
+Count Arese, the two Counts Borromeo, General Lechi, Duke Litta, Count
+Litta, Marquis Pallavicini, Marquis Rosales, Princess Belgioso. The
+pretext for seizing their estates was, that their owners had contributed
+to the revolutionary treasury; which was incredible to those who know
+the difference in feeling and views which separate the royalist emigrant
+nobles of Lombardy from the democratic republicans that follow Mazzini.
+In truth, the Government of Vienna needs their estates; and, imitating
+the example of the French Convention, and furnishing another precedent
+for Socialism when it shall come into power, it seized them without any
+colour of right or form of law. Another branch of the scourging tyranny
+of Austria is the system of forced loans. Some of the wealthiest
+families of Lombardy have been impoverished by these, and, of course,
+thrown into the ranks of the disaffected. The Austrian method of making
+slavery maintain itself is also peculiarly revolting. The hundred
+millions raised annually in Venetian Lombardy, instead of being spent in
+the service of these provinces, are devoted to the payment of the troops
+that keep down Hungary. The soldiers levied in Italy are sent into the
+German provinces; and those raised in Croatia are employed in keeping
+down Italy. Thus Italy holds the chain of Hungary, and Hungary, in her
+turn, that of Italy; and so insult is added to oppression.
+
+The very roots of liberty are being dug out of the soil. The free towns
+have lost their rights; the provinces their independence; and the
+tendency of things is towards the formation of great centralized
+despotisms. Thus an Asiatic equality and barbarism is sinking down upon
+continental Europe. So much is this the case, that some of the thinking
+minds in Germany are in the belief that the dark ages are returning. The
+following passage in the "Life and Letters of Niebuhr," written less
+than two months before his death in 1831, is almost prophecy:--
+
+"It is my firm conviction that we, particularly in Germany, are rapidly
+hastening towards barbarism; and it is not much better in France.
+
+"That we are threatened with devastation such as that two hundred years
+ago, is, I am sorry to say, just as clear to me; and the end of the tale
+will be, _despotism enthroned amidst universal ruin. In fifty years, and
+probably much less, there will be no trace left of free institutions, or
+the freedom of the press, throughout all Europe, at least on the
+Continent_. Very few of the things which have happened since the
+revolution in Paris have surprised me."
+
+The half of that period has scarce elapsed, and the prognostication of
+Niebuhr has been all but realized. At this hour, Piedmont excepted,
+there is _no trace left of free institutions, or the freedom of the
+press_, in Southern and Eastern Europe. Nor will these nations ever be
+able to lift themselves out of the gulph into which they have fallen.
+Revolution, Socialism, war, will only hasten the advent of a centralized
+despotism. We know of only one agency,--even Christianity,--which, by
+reviving the virtue and self-government of the individual, and the moral
+strength of nations, can recover their liberties. If Christianity can be
+diffused, well; if not, I do firmly believe with Niebuhr that, on the
+Continent at least, we shall have a return of "the dark ages," and
+"despotism enthroned amidst universal ruin."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+ARCO DELLA PACE.
+
+     Depressing Effect produced by Sight of Slavery--The Castle of
+     Milan--Non-intercourse of Italians and Austrians--Arco della
+     Pace--Contrasted with the Duomo--Evening--Ambrose--Milanese
+     Inquisition--The Two Symbols.
+
+
+It was now drawing towards evening; and I must needs see the sun go down
+behind the Alps. There are no sights like those which nature has
+provided for us. What are embattled cities and aisled cathedrals to the
+eternal hills, with their thunder-clouds, and their rising and setting
+suns? Making my exit by the northern gate of the city, I soon forgot, in
+the presence of the majestic mountains, the narrow streets and clouded
+faces amid which I had been wandering. Their peaks seemed to look
+serenely down upon the despots and armies at their feet; and at sight of
+them, the burden I had carried all day fell off, and my mind mounted at
+once to its natural pitch. How crushing must be the endurance of
+slavery, if even the sight of it produces such prostration! Day by day
+it eats into the soul, weakening its spring, and lowering its tone, till
+at last the man becomes incapable of noble thoughts or worthy deeds;
+and then we condemn him because he lies down contentedly in his chains,
+or breaks them on the heads of his oppressors.
+
+Emerging from the lanes of the city, I found myself on a spacious
+esplanade, enclosed on three of its sides by double rows of noble elms,
+and bounded on the remaining side by the cafes and wine-shops of the
+city, filled with a crowd of loquacious, if not gay, loiterers. In the
+middle of the esplanade rose the Castle of Milan,--a gloomy and majestic
+pile, of irregular form, but of great strength. It was on the top of
+this donjon that the beacon was to be kindled which was to call Lombardy
+to arms, in the projected insurrection of 1852. The soft green of the
+esplanade was pleasantly dotted by white groupes in the Austrian
+uniform, who loitered at the gates, or played games on the sward. But
+neither here nor in the cafes, nor anywhere else, did I ever see the
+slightest intercourse betwixt the soldiers and the populace. On the
+contrary, the two seemed on every occasion to avoid each other, as men,
+not only of different nations, but of different eras.
+
+There are two monuments, and only two, in Italy, which redeem its modern
+architecture from the reproach of universal degeneracy. One of these is
+the Triumphal Arch of Milan, known also as the Arco della Pace. It was
+full in view from where I stood, rising on the northern edge of the
+esplanade, with the line of road stretching out from it, and running on
+and on towards the Alps, over which it climbs, forming the famous
+Simplon Pass. I crossed the plain in the direction of the Arco della
+Pace, to have a nearer inspection of it. It was more to my taste than
+the Duomo. The Cathedral, much as I admired it, had a bewildering and
+dissipating effect. It presented a perfect universe of towers,
+pinnacles, and statues, flashing in the Italian sun, and in the yet more
+dazzling splendour of its own beauty. But, stript of the tracery with
+which it is so profusely covered, and the countless statues that nestle
+in its niches, it would be a withered, naked, and unsightly thing, like
+a tree in winter. Not so the arch to which I was advancing. It rose
+before me in simple grandeur. It might be defaced,--it might grow old;
+but its beauty could not perish while its form remained. It presents but
+one simple and grand idea; and, seen once, it never can be forgotten. It
+takes its place as an image of beauty, to dwell in the mind for ever. To
+look upon it was to draw in concentration and strength.
+
+I found this arch guarded by a Croat,--beauty in the keeping of
+barbarism. Much I wondered what sensations it could produce in such a
+mind: of course, I had no means of knowing. I touched the arch with my
+palm, to ascertain the quality of its polish and workmanship. The Croat
+made a threatening gesture, which I took as a hint not to repeat the
+action. I walked under it,--walked round it,--viewed it on all sides;
+but why should I describe what the engraver's art has made so familiar
+all over Europe? And such is the power of a simple and sublime
+idea,--whether the pen or the chisel has given it body,--to transmit
+itself, and retain its hold on the mind, that, though I had only now
+seen the Arco della Pace for the first time, I felt as if I had been
+familiar with it all my life; and so, doubtless, does my reader. The
+little squat figure, with the swarthy face, and dull, cold eye, that
+kept pacing beside it, watched me all the while my survey was going on.
+Sorely must it have puzzled him to discover the cause of the interest I
+took in it. Most probably he took me for a necromancer, whose simple
+word might transport the arch across the Alps.
+
+The very spirit of peace pervaded the scene around the Arco della Pace.
+Peace descended from the summits of the Alps, and peace breathed upon
+me from the tops of the elms. It was sweet to see the gathering of the
+shadows upon the great plain; it was sweet to see the waggoner come
+slowly along the great Simplon road; it was sweet to see the husbandman
+unyoke his bullocks, and come wending his way homeward over the rich
+ploughed land, beneath the beautiful festoonings of the vine; sweet even
+were the city-stirs, as, mellowed by distance, they broke upon the ear;
+but sweeter than all was it to mark the sun's departure among the Alps.
+One might have fancied the mountains a wall of sapphire inclosing some
+terrestrial paradise,--some blessed clime, where hunger, and thirst, and
+pain, and sorrow, were unknown. Alas! if such were Lombardy, what meant
+the Croat beside me, and the black eagle blazoned on the flag, that I
+saw floating on the Castle of Milan? The sight of these symbols of
+foreign oppression recalled the haggard faces and toil-bent frames I had
+seen on my journey to Milan. I thought of the rich harvests which the
+sun of Lombardy ripens only that the Austrian may reap them, and the
+fertile vines which the Lombard plants only that the Croat may gather
+them. I thought of the sixty thousand expatriated citizens whose lands
+the Government had confiscated, and of the victims that pined in the
+fortresses and dungeons of Lombardy; and I felt that truly this was no
+paradise. To me, who could demand my passport and re-cross the Alps
+whenever I pleased, these mountains were a superb sight; but what could
+the poor Lombard, whom Radetzky might order to prison or to execution on
+the instant, see in them, but the walls of a vast prison?
+
+The light was fast fading, and I re-crossed the esplanade, on my way
+back to the city. High above its roofs, rose the spires and turrets of
+the Duomo, looking palely in the twilight, and reminding one of a
+cluster of Norwegian pines, covered with the snows of winter. As I
+slowly and musingly pursued my way, my mind went back to the better days
+of Milan. Here Ambrose had lived; and how oft, at even-tide, had his
+feet traversed this very plain, musing, the while, on the future
+prospects of the Church. Ah! little did he think, that what he believed
+to be the opening day was but a brief twilight, dividing the pagan
+darkness now past from the papal night then fast descending. But to the
+Churches of Lombardy it was longer light than to those of southern
+Italy. Ambrose went to the grave; but the spirit of the man who had
+closed the Cathedral gates in the face of the Goths of Justina, and
+exacted a public repentance of the Emperor Theodosius, lived after him.
+From him, doubtless, the Milanese caught that love of independence in
+spiritual matters which long afterwards so honourably distinguished
+them. They fought a hard battle with Rome for their religious freedom,
+but the battle proved a losing one. It was not, however, till towards
+the twelfth century, when every other Church in Christendom almost had
+acknowledged the claims of Rome, and an Innocent was about to mount the
+throne of the Vatican, that the complete subjugation of the Churches of
+Lombardy was effected. When the sixteenth century, like the breath of
+heaven, opened on the world, the Reformation began to take root in
+Lombardy. But, alas! the ancient spirit of the Milanese revived for but
+a moment, only to be crushed by the Inquisition. The arts by which this
+terrible tribunal was introduced into the duchy finely illustrate the
+policy of Rome, which knows so well how to temporize without
+relinquishing her claims. Philip II. proposed to establish this tribunal
+in Milan after the Spanish fashion; and Pope Pius IV. at first favoured
+his design. But finding that the Milanese were determined to resist, the
+pontiff espoused their cause, and told them, in effect, that it was not
+without reason that they dreaded the Spanish Inquisition. It was, he
+said, a harsh, cruel, inexorable Court--(he forgot that he had
+sanctioned it by a bull)--which condemned men without trial; but he had
+an Inquisition of his own, which never did any one any harm, and which
+his subjects in Rome were exceedingly fond of. This he would send to
+them. The Milanese were caught in the trap. In the hope of getting rid
+of the Spanish Inquisition, they accepted the Roman one, which proved
+equally fatal in the end. The degradation of Lombardy dates from that
+day. The Inquisition paved the way for Austrian domination. The
+familiars of the Holy Office were the avant couriers of the black eagles
+and Croats of the house of Hapsburg.
+
+In the arch behind me, so simple withal, and yet so noble in its design,
+and whose beauty, dependent on no adventitious helps or meretricious
+ornaments, but inherent in itself, was seen and felt by all, I saw, I
+thought, a type of the Gospel; while the many-pinnacled and
+richly-fretted Cathedral before me seemed the representative of the
+Papacy. As stands this arch, in simple but eternal beauty, beside the
+inflated glories of the Duomo, so stands the gospel amid the spurious
+systems of the world. They, like the Cathedral, are elaborate and
+artificial piles. The stones of which they are built are absurd
+doctrines, burdensome rites, and meaningless ceremonies. In beautiful
+contrast to their complexity and inconsistency, the Gospel presents to
+the world one simple and grand idea. They perplex and weary their
+votaries, who lose themselves amid the tangled paths and intricate
+labyrinths with which they abound. The Gospel, on the other hand, offers
+a plain and straight path to the enquirer, which, once found, can never
+be lost. These systems grow old, and, having lived their day, return to
+the earth, out of which they arose. The Gospel never dies,--never grows
+old. Fixed on an immoveable basis, it stands sublimely forth amid the
+lapse of ages and the decay of systems, charming all minds by its
+simplicity, and subduing all minds by its power. It says nothing of
+penances, nothing of pilgrimages, nothing of tradition, nor of works of
+supererogation, nor of efficacious sacraments dispensed by the hands of
+an apostolically descended clergy: its one simple and sublime
+announcement is, that _Eternal Life is the Free Gift of God through the
+Death of his Son_.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+THE DUOMO OF MILAN.
+
+     Interior Disappoints at First Sight--Expands into
+     Magnificence--Description of Interior--Mummy of San Carlo
+     Borromeo--His too early Canonization--A Priest at Mass--The Two
+     Mysteries--Distinction between Religion and Worship--Roof of
+     Cathedral--Aspect of Lombardy from thence--Ascend to the Top of
+     Tower--Objects in the Square--Miniature of the World--The Alps from
+     the Cathedral Roof--Martyr Associations--A Future Morning.
+
+
+My next day was devoted to the Cathedral. Entering by the great western
+doorway,--a low-browed arch, rich in carving and statuary,--I pushed
+aside the thick, heavy quilt that closes the entrance of all the Italian
+churches, and stood beneath the roof. My first feeling was one of
+disappointment; so great was the contrast betwixt the airy and sunlight
+beauty of the exterior, and the massive and sombre grandeur within. The
+marble of the floor was sorely fretted by the foot: its original colours
+of blue and red had passed into a dingy gray, chequered with the
+variously-tinted light which flowed in through the stained windows. The
+white walls and unadorned pillars looked cold and naked. Beggars were
+extending their caps towards you for an alms. On the floor rose a stack
+of rush-bottomed chairs, as high as a two-storey house,--as if the
+priests, dreading an emeute, had made preparations by throwing up a
+barricade. A carpenter, mounted on a tall ladder, was busied, with
+hammer and nails, suspending hangings of tapestry along the nave, in
+honour, I presume, of some saint whose fete-day was approaching. The dim
+light could but feebly illuminate the many-pillared, long-aisled
+building, and gave to the vast edifice something of a cavern look.
+
+But by and by the eye got attempered; and then, like an autumnal haze
+clearing away from the face of the landscape, and revealing the glories
+of green meadow, golden field, and wooded mountain, the obscurity that
+wrapped pillar and aisle gradually brightened up, and the temple around
+me began to develope into the noblest proportions and the most
+impressive grandeur. Some hundred and fifty feet over head was suspended
+the stone roof; and one could not but admire the lightness and elegance
+of its groined vaultings, and the stately stature of the columns that
+supported it. Their feet planted on the marble floor, they stood,
+bearing up with unbowing strength, through the long centuries, the
+massive, stable, steadfast roof, from which the spirit of tranquillity
+and calm seemed to breathe upon you. On either hand three rows of
+colossal pillars ran off, forming a noble perspective of well nigh five
+hundred feet. They stretched away over transept and chancel, towards the
+great eastern window, which, like a sun glowing with rosy light, was
+seen rising behind the high altar, bearing on its ample disc the
+emblazoned symbols of the Book of the Apocalypse. The aisles were deep
+and shadowy; and through their forests of columns there broke on the
+sight glimpses of monumental tombs and altars ranged against the wall. I
+passed slowly along in front of these beautiful monuments, and read
+upon their marble the names of warriors and cardinals, some of whom
+still keep their place on the page of history. It took me some three
+hours to make the circuit of the Cathedral; but I shall not spend as
+many minutes in describing the works of art--some of them marvels of
+their kind--which passed under my eye; for my readers, I suspect, would
+not thank me for doing worse what the guide-books have done better.
+Below the great window in the apsis,--the same that contains what is one
+of the earliest of modern commentaries on the Book of Revelation,--the
+pavement was perforated by a number of small openings; and on looking
+down, I could see a subterranean chamber, with burning lamps. Its wall
+was adorned with pictures like the great temple above: and I could
+plainly hear the low chant of priests issuing from it. I had lighted, in
+short, upon a subterranean chapel; and here, in a shrine of gold and
+silver, lay embalmed the body of a former Archbishop of Milan--San Carlo
+Borromeo. Through the glass-lid of the coffin you could see the
+half-rotten corpse,--for the skill of the embalmer had been no match for
+the stealthy advances of decay,--tricked out in its gorgeous vestments,
+with the ring glittering on its finger, and the mitre pressing upon its
+fleshless skull. San Carlo Borromeo is the patron saint of Milan; and
+hence these perpetual lamps and ceaseless chantings at his tomb. The
+black withered face and naked skull grin horribly at the flaunting
+finery that surrounds him; and one almost expects to see him stretch out
+his skeleton hands, and tear it angrily in rags. The unusually short
+period of thirty years was all that intervened betwixt the death and the
+canonization of San Carlo; and his mother, who was alive at the time,
+though a very aged woman, had the peculiar satisfaction of seeing her
+son placed on the altars of Rome, and become an object of worship,--a
+happiness which, so far as we know, has not been enjoyed by mortal
+mother since the days of Juno and other ladies of her time. We do not
+envy San Carlo his honours; but we submit whether it was judicious to
+confer them just so soon. Before decreeing worship to one, would it not
+be better to let his contemporaries pass from the stage of time?
+Incongruous reminiscences are apt to mix themselves up with his worship.
+San Carlo had been like other children when young, we doubt not, and was
+none the worse of the castigation he received at times from the hand of
+her whose duty it now became to worship him. His mother little dreamt
+that it was an infant god she was chastising. "He was a pleasant
+companion," said a lady, when informed of the canonization of St Francis
+de Sales, "but he cheated horribly at cards." "When I was at Milan,"
+says Addison, "I saw a book newly published, that was dedicated to the
+present head of the Borromean family, and entitled, _A Discourse on the
+Humility of Jesus Christ, and of St Charles Borromeo_."
+
+I came round, and stood in front of the high altar. It towers to a great
+height, looking like the tall mast of a ship; and, could any supposable
+influence throw the marble floor on which it rests into billows, it
+might ride safely on their tops, beneath the stone roof of the
+Cathedral. A priest was saying mass, and some half-dozen of persons on
+the wooden benches before the chancel were joining in the service. It
+was a cold affair; and the vastness of the building but tended to throw
+an air of insignificance over it. The languid faces of the priest and
+his diminutive congregation brought vividly to my recollection the crowd
+of animated countenances I had seen outside the same building, around
+Punch, the day before. The devotion before me was a dead, not a living
+thing. It had been dead before the foundations of this august temple
+were laid. But it loved to revisit "the glimpses" of these tapers, and
+to grimace and mutter amid these shadowy aisles. To nothing could I
+compare it but to the skeleton in the chapel beneath, that lay rotting
+in a shroud of gorgeous robes. It was as much a corpse as that skeleton,
+and, like it too, it bore a shroud of purple and scarlet, and fine linen
+and gold, which concealed only in part its ghastliness. Were Ambrose to
+come back, he would once more close his Cathedral gates, but this time
+in the face of the priests.
+
+"Without controversy," says the apostle, "great is the mystery of
+godliness. God was manifest in the flesh." "Without controversy, great
+is the mystery of" iniquity. "God was manifest in the" mass. These are
+the two INCARNATIONS--the two MYSTERIES. They stand confronting one
+another. Romish writers style the mass emphatically "the mystery;" and
+as that dogma is a capital one in their system, it follows that their
+Church has _mystery_ written on her forehead, as plainly as John saw it
+on that of the woman in the Apocalypse. But farther, what is the
+principle of the mass? Is it not that Christ is again offered in
+sacrifice, and that the pain he endures in being so propitiates God in
+your behalf? Is not, then, the area of Europe that is covered with
+masses "_the place where our Lord was crucified_?"
+
+The stream can never rise higher than its source; and so is it with
+worship. That worship that cometh of man cannot, in the nature of
+things, rise higher than man. The worship of Rome is manifestly
+man-contrived. It may be expected, therefore, to rise to the level of
+his tastes, but not a hairbreadth higher. It may stimulate and delight
+his faculties, such as they are, but it cannot regenerate them. At the
+best, it is only the aesthetic faculties which the worship of Rome calls
+into exercise. It presents no truth to the mind, and cannot therefore
+act upon the moral powers. God is unseen: He is hidden in the dark
+shadow of the priest. How, then, can He be regarded with confidence or
+love? The doctrine of the atonement,--the central glory of the Christian
+system,--is unknown. It is eclipsed by the mass. If you want to be
+religious,--to obtain salvation,--you buy masses. You need not cultivate
+any moral quality. You need not even be grateful. You have paid the
+market-price of the salvation you carry home, and are debtor to no one.
+
+Those who speak of the worship of the Church of Rome as well fitted to
+make men devout, only betray their complete ignorance of all that
+constitutes worship. Men must be devout before they can worship. There
+is no error in the world more common than that of putting worship for
+religion. Worship is not the cause, but the effect. Worship is simply
+the expression of an inward feeling, that feeling being religion; and
+nothing is more obvious, than that till this feeling be implanted, there
+can be no worship. The man may bow, or chant, or mutter; he cannot
+worship. He may be dazzled by fine pictures, but not melted into love or
+raised to hope by glorious truths. Moral feelings can be produced not
+otherwise than by the apprehension of moral truths; but in the Church of
+Rome all the great verities of revelation lie out of sight, being
+covered with the dense shadow of symbol and error. A single verse of
+Scripture would do more to awaken mind and produce devotion than all the
+statues and fine pictures of all the cathedrals in Italy.
+
+I got weary at last of these shadowy aisles and the priests' monotonous
+chant; and so, paying a small fee, I had a low door in the south
+transept opened to me; and, groping my way up a stair of an hundred and
+fifty steps, or rather more, I came out upon the top of the Cathedral. I
+had left a noble temple, but only to be ushered into a far nobler,--its
+roof the blue vault, its floor the great Lombardy plain, and its walls
+the Alps and Apennines. The glory of the temple beneath was forgotten by
+reason of the greater glory of that into which I had entered. It was not
+yet noon, and the morning mists were not yet wholly dissipated. The Alps
+and the Apennines were imprisoned in a shroud of vapour. Nevertheless
+the scene was a noble one. Lombardy was level as the sea. I have seen as
+level and as circular an expanse from a ship's deck, when out of sight
+of land, but nowhere else. One of the most prominent features of the
+scene were the long straight rows of the Lombardy poplar, which, rooted
+in its native soil, and drinking its native waters, shoots up into the
+most goodly stature and the most graceful form. And then, there were
+glimpses of beautifully green meadows, and long silvery lines of canals;
+and all over the plain there peeped out from amidst rich woods, the
+white walls of hamlets and towns, and the tall, slender Campanile. The
+country towards the north was remarkably populous. From the gates of
+Milan to the skirts of the mists that veiled the Alps the plain was all
+a-gleam with white-walled villages, beautifully embowered. A fairer
+picture, or one more suggestive of peace and happiness, is perhaps
+nowhere to be seen. But, alas! past experience had taught me, that these
+dwellings, so lovely when seen from afar, would sink, on a near
+approach, into ill-furnished and filthy hovels, with inmates groaning
+under the double burden of ignorance and poverty.
+
+When the more distant objects allowed me to attend to those at hand, I
+found that I was not alone on the Cathedral's roof. There were around me
+an assembly of some thousands. The only moving figure, it is true, was
+myself: the rest stood mute and motionless, each in his little house of
+stone; but so eloquent withal, in both look and gesture, that you half
+expected to find yourself addressed by some one in this life-like crowd
+of figures.
+
+I ascended to the different levels by steps on the flying buttresses. A
+winding staircase in a turret of open tracery next carried me to the
+Octagon, where I found myself surrounded by a new zone of statues. Here
+I again made a long halt, admiring the landscape as seen under this new
+elevation, and doing my best to scrape acquaintance with my new
+companions. I now prepared for my final ascent. Entering the spire, I
+ascended its winding staircase, and came out at the foot of the pyramid
+that crowns the edifice. Higher I could not go. Here I stood at a height
+of about three hundred and fifty feet, looking down upon the city and
+the plain. I had left the grosser forms of monks and bishops far
+beneath, and was surrounded--as became my aerial position--with winged
+cherubs, newly alighted, as it seemed, on the spires and turrets which
+shot up like a forest at my feet. Here I waited the coming of the Alps,
+with all the impatience with which an audience at the theatre waits the
+rising of the curtain.
+
+Meanwhile, till it should please Monte Rosa and her long train of
+white-robed companions to emerge, I had the city spectacles to amuse me.
+There was Milan at my feet. I could count its every house, and trace the
+windings of its every street and lane, as easily as though it had been
+laid down upon a map. I could see innumerable black dots moving about in
+the streets,--mingling, crossing, gathering in little knots, then
+dissolving, and the constituent atoms falling into the stream, and
+floating away. Then there came a long white line with nodding plumes;
+and I could faintly hear the tramp of horses; and then there followed a
+mustering of men and a flashing of bayonets in the square below. I sat
+watching the manoeuvres of the little army beneath for an hour or so,
+while drum and clarionet did their best to fill the square with music,
+and send up their thousand echoes to break and die amid the spires and
+statues of the Cathedral. At last the mimic war was ended, and I was
+left alone, with the silent and moveless, but ever acting statues around
+and below me. What a picture, thought I, of the pageantry of life, as
+viewed from a higher point than this world! Instead of an hour, take a
+thousand years, and how do the scenes shift! The golden spectacle of
+empire has moved westward from the banks of the Euphrates to those of
+the Tiber and the Thames. You can trace its track by the ruins it has
+left. The field has been illuminated this hour by the gleam of arts and
+empire, and buried in the darkness of barbarism the next. Man has been
+ever busy. He has builded cities, fought battles, set up thrones,
+constructed systems. There has been much toil and confusion, but, alas!
+little progress. Such would be the sigh which some superior being from
+some tranquil station on high would heave over the ceaseless struggle
+and change in the valley of the world. And yet, amid all its changes,
+great principles have been taking root, and a noble edifice has been
+emerging.
+
+But, lo! the mists are rising, and yonder are the Alps. Now that the
+curtain is rent, one flashing peak bursts upon you after another. They
+come not in scores, but in hundreds. And now the whole chain, from the
+snowy dome of the Ortelles in the far-off Tyrol, to the beauteous
+pyramid of Monte Viso in the south-western sky, is before you in its
+noble sweep of many hundreds of miles, with thousands of snowy peaks,
+amid which, pre-eminent in glory, rises Monte Rosa. Turning to the
+south, you have the purple summits of the Apennines rising above the
+plain. Between this blue line in the south and that magnificent rampart
+of glaciers and peaks in the north, what a vast and dazzling picture of
+meadows, woods, rivers, cities, with the sun of Italy shining over all!
+
+Ye glorious piles! well are ye termed everlasting. Kings and kingdoms
+pass away, but on you there passes not the shadow of change. Ye saw the
+foundations of Rome laid;--now ye look down upon its ruins. In
+comparison with yours, man's life dwindles to a moment. Like the flower
+at your foot, he blooms for an instant, and sinks into the tomb. Nay,
+what is a nation's duration, when weighed against thine? Even the
+forests that wave on your slopes will outlast empires. Proud piles, how
+do ye stamp with insignificance man's greatest labours! This glorious
+edifice on which I stand,--ages was it in building; myriads of hands
+helped to rear it; and yet, in comparison with your gigantic masses,
+what is it?--a mere speck. Already it is growing old;--ye are still
+young. The tempests of six thousand winters have not bowed you down.
+Your glory lightened the cradle of nations,--your shadows cover their
+tomb.
+
+But to me the great charm of the Alps lay in the sacred character which
+they wore. They seemed to rise before me, a vast temple, crowned, as
+temple never was, with sapphire domes and pinnacles, in which a holy
+nation had worshipped when Europe lay prostrate before the Dagon of the
+Seven Hills. I could go back to a time when that plain, now covered,
+alas! with the putridities of superstition, was the scene of churches in
+which the gospel was preached, of homes in which the Bible was read, of
+happy death-beds, and blessed graves,--graves in which, in the sublime
+words of our catechism, "the bodies of the saints being still united to
+Christ, do rest in their graves till the Resurrection." Sleep on, ye
+blessed dead! This pile shall crumble into ruin; the Alps dissolve,
+Rome herself sink; but not a particle of your dust shall be lost. The
+reflection recalled vividly an incident of years gone by. I had
+sauntered at the evening hour into a retired country churchyard in
+Scotland. The sun, after a day of heavy rain, was setting in glory, and
+his rays were gilding the long wet grass above the graves, and tinting
+the hoar ruins of a cathedral that rose in the midst of them, when my
+eye accidentally fell upon the following lines, which I quote from
+memory, carved in plain characters upon one of the tombstones:--
+
+ The wise, the just, the pious, and the brave,
+ Live in their death, and flourish from the grave.
+ Grain hid in earth repays the peasant's care,
+ And evening suns but set to rise more fair.
+
+There are no such epitaphs in the graveyards of Lombardy; nor could
+there be any such in that of Dunblane, but for the Reformation.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+MILAN TO BRESCIA.
+
+     Biblioteca Ambrosiana--A Lamp in a Sepulchre--The
+     Palimpsests--Labours of the Monks in the Cause of
+     Knowledge--Cardinal Mai--He recovers many valuable Manuscripts of
+     the Ancients which the Monks had Mutilated--Ulfila's Bible--The War
+     against Knowledge--The Brazent Serpent at Sant' Ambrogio--Passport
+     Office--Last Visit to the Duomo and the Arco Della Pace--The Alps
+     apostrophized--Dinner at a Restaurant--Leave Milan--Procession of
+     the Alps--Treviglio--The River Adda--The Postilion--Evening, with
+     dreamy, decaying Borgos--Caravaggio--Supper at
+     Chiari--Brescia--Arnold of Brescia.
+
+
+The morning of my last day in Milan was passed in the Biblioteca
+Ambrosiana. This justly renowned library was founded in 1609 by Cardinal
+Borromeo, the cousin of that Borromeo whose mummy lies so gorgeously
+enshrined in the subterranean chapel of the Duomo. This prelate was at
+vast care and expense to bring together in this library the most
+precious manuscripts extant. For this purpose he sent learned men into
+every part of Europe, with instructions to buy whatever of value they
+might be fortunate enough to discover, and to copy such writings as
+their owners might be unwilling to part with. The Biblioteca Ambrosiana
+is worth a visit, were it only to see the first public library
+established in Europe. There were earlier libraries, and some not
+inconsiderable ones, but only in connection with cathedrals and
+colleges; and access to them was refused to all save to the members of
+these establishments. This, on the contrary, was opened to the public;
+and, with a liberality rare in those days, writing materials were freely
+supplied to all who frequented it. The library buildings form a
+quadrangle of massive masonry, with a grave, venerable look, becoming
+its name. The collection is upwards of 80,000 volumes; but, what is not
+very complimentary to the literary tastes of the prefetto and honorary
+canons of Sant' Ambrogio, the curators of the library, they are
+arranged, not according to their subjects, but according to their sizes.
+This library reminded me of a lamp in an Etrurian tomb. There was light
+enough in that hall to illuminate the whole duchy of the Milanese, could
+it but find an outlet. As it is, I fear a few straggling rays are all
+that are able to escape. There is no catalogue of the books, save some
+very imperfect lists; and I was told that there is a pontifical bull
+against making any such. I saw a few visitors in its halls, attracted,
+like myself, by its curiosities; but I saw no one who had come to
+restore volumes they had read, and receive others in their room. The
+modern inhabitant of Milan gives his days and nights to the cafe and the
+club,--not to the library. He lives and dies unpolluted by the printing
+press,--an execrable invention of the fifteenth century, from which a
+paternal Government and an infallible Church employ their utmost
+energies to shield him. The works of dead authors he dare not read; the
+productions of living ones he dare not print; and the only compositions
+to which he has access are the decrees of the Austrian police, and the
+Catechism of the Jesuit. He fully appreciates, of course, the care taken
+to preserve the purity of his political and religious faith, and will
+one day show the extent of his gratitude.
+
+I saw in this library the famous _Palimpsests_. My readers know, of
+course, what these are. The _Palimpsests_ are little books of vellum,
+from which an original and ancient writing has been erased, to make room
+for the productions of later ages and of other pens. These pages bore
+originally the thoughts of Virgil and Livy, and, in short, of almost all
+the great writers of pagan, antiquity; but the monks, who did not relish
+their pagan notions, thought the vellum would be much better bestowed if
+filled with their own homilies. The good fathers conceived the project
+of enlightening and evangelizing the world by purging of its paganism
+all the vellum in Europe; and, being much intent on their object, they
+succeeded in it to an amazing extent.
+
+ "A second deluge learning did o'errun,
+ And the monks finished what the Goths begun."
+
+Our readers have often seen with what rapidity a fog swallows up a
+landscape. They have marked, with a feeling of despair, golden peak and
+emerald valley sinking hopelessly in the dank drizzle. So the classics
+went down before the monks. The ancients were set a-trudging through the
+world in a monk's cowl and a friar's frock. On the same page from which
+Cicero had thundered, a monk now discoursed. Where Livy's pictured
+narrative had been, you found only a dull wearisome legend. Where the
+thunder of Homer's lyre or the sweet notes of Virgil's muse had
+resounded, you heard now a dismal croak or a lugubrious chant. Such was
+the strange metamorphosis which the ancients were compelled to endure at
+the hands of the' monks; and such was the way in which they strove to
+earn the gratitude of succeeding ages by the benefits they conferred on
+learning.
+
+It gives us pleasure to say that Cardinal Mai was amongst the most
+distinguished of those who undertook the task of setting free the
+imprisoned ancients,--of stripping them of the monk's hood and the
+friar's habit, and presenting them to the world in their own form. He
+laboured in the Biblioteca Ambrosiana, and succeeded in exhuming from
+darkness and dust the treasures which neglect and superstition had
+buried there. In the number of the works which the monks had
+palimpsested, and which Mai rescued from destruction, we may cite some
+fragments of Homer, with a great number of paintings equally ancient,
+and of which the subjects are taken from the works of this great poet;
+the unpublished writings of Cornelius Fronto; the unpublished letters of
+Antoninus Pius, of Marcus Aurelius, of Lucius Verus, and of Appian; some
+fragments of discourses of Aurelius Symmachus; the Roman Antiquities of
+Dionysius of Halicarnassus, which were up to that time imperfect;
+unpublished fragments of Plautus, of Isaeus, of Themistius; an
+unpublished work of the philosopher Porphyrius; some writings of the Jew
+Philo; the ancient interpreters of Virgil; two books of the Chronicles
+of Eusebius Pamphilus; the VI. and XIV. Sibylline Books; and the six
+books of the Republic of Cicero. I saw, too, in the Biblioteca
+Ambrosiana, fragments of the version of the Bible made in the middle of
+the fourth century, by Ulfila, bishop of the Maesogoths. The labours of
+the bishop underwent a strange dispersion. The gospels are at Upsala;
+the epistles were found at Wolfenbuttel; while a portion of the Acts of
+the Apostles and of the Old Testament were extracted from the
+palimpsests. The original writing--the superincumbent rubbish being
+removed--looked out in a bold, well defined character, in as fresh a
+black, in some places, as when newly written; in others, in a dim, rusty
+colour, which a practised eye only could decipher. Thus the war against
+knowledge has gone on. The Caliph Omer burnt the Alexandrine library.
+Next came the little busy creatures the monks, who, mothlike, ate up the
+ancient manuscripts. Last of all appeared the Pope, with his Index
+Expurgatorius, to put under lock and key what the Caliph had spared, and
+the monks had not been able to devour. The torch, the sponge, the
+anathema, have been tried each in its turn. Still the light spreads.
+
+I cannot enter on the other curious manuscripts which this library
+contains; nor have I anything to say of the numerous beautiful portraits
+and pictures with which its walls are adorned. The _Cenacolo_, or "Last
+Supper," by Leonardo da Vinci, in the refectory of the Dominican
+convent, is fast perishing. It has not yet "lost all its original
+brightness," and is mightier in its decay than most other pictures are
+in the bloom and vigour of their youth. I recollect the great Scottish
+painter Harvey saying to me, that he was more affected by "that ruin,"
+than he was by all the other works of art which he saw in Italy. The
+grandeur of the central head has never been approached in any copy. One
+thing I regret,--I did not visit the Sant' Ambrogio, and so missed
+seeing the famous brazen serpent which is to hiss just before the world
+comes to an end. This serpent is the same that Moses made in the
+wilderness, and which Hezekiah afterwards brake in pieces: at least it
+would be heresy in Milan not to believe this. It must be comfortable to
+a busy age, which has so many things to think of without troubling
+itself about how or when the world is to end, to know that, if it must
+end, due warning will be given of that catastrophe. The vineyards of
+Lombardy are good, and monks, like other men, occasionally get thirsty;
+and it might spoil the good fathers' digestion were the brazen serpent
+of Sant' Ambrogio to hiss after dinner. But doubtless it will be
+discreet on this head. There is said to be in some one of the
+graveyards of Orkney, a tombstone on which an angel may be seen blowing
+a great trumpet with all his might, while the dead man below is made to
+say, "When I hear this, I will rise." The stone-trumpet will be heard to
+blow, we daresay, about the same time that the serpent of Sant' Ambrogio
+will be heard to hiss.
+
+I was now to bid farewell to Milan, and turn my face towards the blue
+Adriatic. But one unpleasant preliminary must first be gone through. The
+police had opened the gates of Milan to admit me, and the same
+authorities must open them for my departure. I walked to the passport
+office, where the officials received me with great politeness, and bade
+me be seated while my passport was being got ready. This interesting
+process was only a few minutes in doing; and, on payment of the
+customary fee, was handed me "all right" for Venice, bating the
+innumerable intermediate inspections and _vises_ by the way; for a
+passport, like a chronometer, must be continually compared with the
+meridian, and put right. I put my passport into my pocket; but on
+opening it afterwards, I got a surprise. Its pages were getting covered
+all over with little creatures with wings, and, as my fancy suggested,
+with stings,--the black eagles of Austria. How was I to carry in my
+pocket such a cage of imps? How was I to sleep at night in their
+company? Should they take it into their head to creep out of my book,
+and buzz round my bed, would it not give me unpleasant dreams? And yet
+part with them I could not. These black, impish creatures must be my
+pioneers to Venice.
+
+I now made haste to take my last look of the several objects which had
+endeared themselves to me during my short stay. I felt towards them as
+friends,--long known and beloved friends; and never should I turn and
+look on the track of my past existence without seeing their forms of
+beauty, dim and indistinct, it might be, as the haze of lapsed time
+should gather over them; still, always visible,--never altogether
+blotted out. I walked round the Cathedral for the last time. There it
+stood,--beauty, like an eternal halo, sitting rainbow-like upon its
+towers and pinnacles. Its thousand statues and cherubs stood silent and
+entranced, tranquil as ever, all unmoved by the city's din, reminding
+one of dwellers in some region of deep and unbroken bliss. "Glorious
+pile!" said I, apostrophizing it, "I am but a pilgrim, a shadow; so are
+all who now look on thee,--shadows. But you will continue to delight the
+ages to come, as you have done those that are past." I had a run, too,
+to the _Piazza di Armi_, to see Beauty incarnate, if I may so express
+myself, in the form of the Arco della Pace. It is a gem, the brightest
+of its kind that earth contains. The faultless grace of its form is
+finely set off by the overwhelming Alpine masses in the distance, which
+seemed as if raised on purpose to defend it, and which rise, piled one
+above another, in furrowed, jagged, unchiselled, fearful sublimity.
+
+I came round by the boulevard of the Porte Orientale, on my way back to
+the city. It is a noble promenade. Above are the boughs of the
+over-arching elms; on this hand are the city domes and cathedral spires,
+with their sweet chimes continually falling on the ear; and on that are
+the suburban gardens, with the poplars and campaniles rising in stately
+grace beyond. The glorious perspective is terminated by the Alps. As the
+breezes from their flashing summits stirred the leaves overhead, they
+seemed to speak of liberty. I wonder the Croat don't impose silence on
+them. What right have they, by their glowing peaks, and their free play
+of light and shade, and their storms, and their far-darting lightnings,
+to stir the immortal aspirations in man's bosom? These white hills are
+great, unconquerable democrats. They will continually be singing hymns
+in praise of liberty. Yet why they should, I know not. Milan is deaf.
+Why preach liberty to men in chains? Surely the Alps,--the free and
+joyous Alps,--which scatter corn and wine from their horn of plenty so
+unweariedly, have no delight in tormenting the enslaved nations at their
+feet. Why do ye not, ye glorious mountains, put on sackcloth, and mourn
+with the mourning nations beneath you? How can ye look down on these
+dungeons, on these groaning victims, on the tears of so many widows and
+orphans, and yet wear these robes of beauty, and sing your song of
+gladness at sunrise? Or do ye descry from afar the coming of a better
+era? and is the glory that mantles your summits the kindling of an
+inward joy at the prospect of coming freedom? and are these whisperings
+of liberty the first utterances of that shout with which you will
+welcome the opening of the tomb and the rising of the nations?
+
+The formidable process of loading the _diligence_ was not yet completed.
+There was a perfect Mont Blanc of luggage to transfer from the courtyard
+to the top of the _diligence_, not in a hurry, but calmly and
+deliberately. The articles were to be selected one by one, and put upon
+the top, and taken down again, and laid in the courtyard, and put up a
+second time, and perhaps a third time; and after repeated attempts and
+failures, and a reasonable amount of vociferation and emphatic
+ejaculations on the part of postilions and commissionaires, the thing
+was to be declared completed, and finally roped down, and the great
+leathern cover drawn over all. Still the process would be got through
+before the hour of table d'hote at the Albergo de Reale. I must needs
+therefore dine at a restaurant. I betook me to one of these
+establishments hard by the _diligence_ office, and took my place at a
+small table, with its white napery, small bottle of wine, and roll of
+Lombardy bread, in the same room with some thirty or so of the merchants
+and citizens of Milan. I intimated my wish to dine _a la carte_; and
+instantly the waiter placed the tariff before me, with its list of
+dishes and prices. I selected what dishes I pleased, marking, at the
+same time, what I should have to pay for each. I dined well, having
+respect to the journey of two days and a night I was about to begin, and
+knowing, too, that an Italian _diligence_ halts only at long intervals.
+The reckoning, I thought, could be no dubious or difficult matter. I
+knew the dishes I had eaten, and I saw the prices affixed, and I
+concluded that a simple arithmetical process would infallibly conduct me
+to the aggregate cost. But when my bill was handed me (a formality
+dispensed with in the case of those beside me), I found that my
+reckoning and that of "mine host" differed materially. The sum total on
+his showing was three times greater than on mine. I was curious to
+discover the source of this rather startling discrepancy in so small a
+sum. I went over again the list of eaten dishes, and once more went
+through the simple arithmetical process which gave the sum total of
+their cost, but with no difference in the result. It was plain that
+there was some mysterious quality in the arithmetic, or some nice
+distinctions in the cookery, which I had not taken into account, which
+disturbed my calculations. I became but the more anxious to have the
+riddle explained. In my perplexity I applied to the waiter, who referred
+me to his master. The day was hot; and boiling, stewing, and roasting,
+is hot work; and this may account for the passion into which my simple
+interrogatory put "mine host." "It was a just bill, and must be paid." I
+hinted that I did not impugn its justice, but simply craved some
+explanation about its items. Whereupon mine host, becoming cooler,
+condescended to inform me that I had not dined exactly according to the
+_carte_; that certain additions had been made to certain dishes; and
+that it did not become an Englishman to inquire farther into the matter.
+If not so satisfactory as might be wished, this defence was better than
+I had expected; so, paying my debts to Boniface, I departed, consoling
+myself with the reflection, that if I had three times more to pay than
+my neighbours, having fared neither better nor worse than they, I had,
+unlike these poor men, eaten my dinner without fetters on my hands.
+
+This time the _banquette_ of the _diligence_, with all its rich views,
+was bespoke, so I had to content myself with the _interieur_. It was
+roomy, however; there were but four of us, and its window admitted, I
+found, ample views of meadow and mountain. We drove to the station of
+the Venice railway, pleasantly situated amid orchards and extra-mural
+albergos. The horses were taken out, and the immense vehicle was lifted
+up,--wheels, baggage, passengers and all,--and put upon a truck. Away
+went the long line of carriages,--away went the _diligence_, standing up
+like a huge leathern castle upon its truck; while the engine whistled,
+snorted, screeched, groaned, and uttered all sorts of irreverent and
+every-day sounds, just as if the Alps had not been looking down upon it,
+and classic towns ever and anon starting up beside its path: a glorious
+vision of fresh meadows, bordered with little canals, brimful of water,
+and barred with the long shadows of campanile and sycamore,--for the sun
+was westering,--shot past us. The Alps came on with more slow and
+majestic pace. As peak after peak passed by, it seemed as if the whole
+community of hills had commenced a general march on Monte Viso, with all
+their crags, glaciers, and pine-forests. One might have thought that
+Sovran Blanc had summoned the nobles and high princes of his kingdom to
+meet him in his hall of audience, to debate some weighty point of Alpine
+government. An august assembly as ever graced monarch's court, in their
+robes of white and their cornets of eternal ice, would these tall and
+proud forms present.
+
+Treviglio, beyond which the railway has not yet been opened, was reached
+in less than two hours. When near the town, the vast mirror of the blue
+Como, spread out amid the dark overhanging mountains, burst upon us.
+From it flowed forth the Adda, which we crossed. As its mighty stream,
+burning in the sunset, rolled along, it spangled with glory the green
+plain, as the milky-way the firmament. There is nothing in nature like
+these Alpine rivers. They fill their banks with such a wasteful
+prodigality of water, and they go on their way with a conscious might,
+as if they felt that behind them is an eternally exhaustless source. Let
+the sun smite them with his fiercest ray; they dread him not. Others may
+shrink and dry up under his beam: their fountains are the snows of a
+thousand winters.
+
+On reaching the station, our _diligence_,--including passengers, and all
+that pertained to them,--was lifted from its truck and put on wheels,
+and once more stood ready to move, in virtue of its own inherent power,
+that is, so soon as the horses should be attached. This operation was
+performed in the calm eve, amid the glancing casements of the little
+town, on which the purple hills and the tall silent poplars looked
+complacently down.
+
+Away we rumbled, the declining light still resting sweetly on the woods
+and hamlets. There are no postilions in the world, I believe, who can
+handle their whip like those of Italy. In very pride and joy our
+postilion cracked his whip, till the woods rang again. He took a
+peculiar delight in startling the echoes of the old villages, and the
+ears of the old villagers. Each report was like that of a
+twelve-pounder. This continual thunder, kept up above their heads, did
+not in the least affright the horses: they rather seemed proud of a
+master who could handle his whip in so workmanlike a fashion. He could
+so time the strokes as to make not much worse melody than that of some
+music-bells I have heard. He could play a tune on his whip.
+
+We passed, as the evening thickened its shadows, several ancient
+_borgos_. Gray they were, and drowsy, as if the sleep of a century
+weighed them down. They seemed to love the quiet, dying light of eve;
+and as they drew its soft mantle around them, they appeared most willing
+to forget a world which had forgotten them. They had not always led so
+quiet a life. Their youth had been passed amid the bustle of commerce;
+their manhood amid the alarms and rude shocks of war; and now, in their
+old age, they bore plainly the marks of the many shrewd brushes they had
+had to sustain when young. The houses were tall and roomy, and their
+architecture of a most substantial kind; but they had come to know
+strange tenants, that is, those of them that _had_ tenants, for not a
+few seemed empty. At the doors of others, dark withered faces looked
+out, as if wondering at the unusual din. I felt as if it were cruel to
+rouse these quiet slumber-loving towns, by dragging through their
+streets so noisy a vehicle as a _diligence_.
+
+We passed Caravaggio, famous as the birthplace of the two great painters
+who have both taken their name from their city,--the Caravacchi. We
+passed, too, the little Mozonnica, that is, all of it which the
+calamities of the middle ages have left. Darkness then fell upon us,--if
+a firmament begemmed with large lustrous stars could be called dark.
+The night wore on, varied only by two events of moment. The first was
+supper, for which we halted at about eleven o'clock, in the town of
+Chiari. At eleven at night people should think of sleeping,--not of
+eating. Not so in Italy, where supper is still the meal of the day. An
+Italian _diligence_ never breakfasts, unless a small cup of coffee,
+hurriedly snatched while the horses are being put to, can be called
+such. Sometimes it does not even dine; but it never omits to sup. The
+supper chamber in Chiari was most sumptuously laid out,--vermicelli
+soup, flesh, fowls, cheese, pastry, wine,--every viand, in short, that
+could tempt the appetite. But at midnight I refused to be tempted,
+though most of the other guests partook abundantly. I was much struck,
+on leaving the town, with the massive architecture of the houses, the
+strength of the gates, and other monuments of former greatness. Imagine
+Edinburgh grown old and half-ruined, and you have a picture of the towns
+of Italy, which was a land of elegant stone-built cities at a time when
+the capitals of northern Europe were little better than collections of
+wooden sheds half-buried in mire.
+
+There followed a long ride. Sleep, benignant goddess, looked in upon us,
+and helped to shorten the way. What surprised me not a little was, how
+soundly my companions snoozed, considering how they had supped. The
+stages passed slowly and wearily. At length there came a long, a very
+long halt. I roused myself, and stepped out. I was in a spacious street,
+with the cold biting wind blowing through it. The horses were away; the
+postilions had disappeared; some of the passengers were perambulating
+the pavement, and the rest were fast asleep in the _diligence_, which
+stood on the causeway, like a stranded vessel on the beach. On
+consulting my watch, I found it was three in the morning, and in answer
+to my inquiries I was told that I was in Brescia,--a famous city; but I
+should have preferred to visit it at a more seasonable hour. "The best
+feelings," says the poet, "must have victual," and the most classic
+towns must have sleep; so Brescia, forgetful that famous geographers who
+lived well-nigh two thousand years ago had mentioned its name, and that
+famous poets had sung its streams, and that it still contains
+innumerable relics of its high antiquity, slept on much as a Scotch
+village would have done at the same hour.
+
+Time is of no value on the south of the Alps. This long halt at this
+unseasonable hour was simply to set down an honest woman who had come
+with us from Milan. She was as big well-nigh as the _diligence_ itself;
+but what caused all our trouble was, not herself, but her trunk. It lay
+at the bottom of an immense pile of baggage, which rose on the top of
+the vehicle; and before it could be got at, every article had to be
+taken down, and put on the pavement. Of course, the baggage had to be
+put back, and the operation was gone through most deliberately and
+leisurely. A full hour and a half was consumed in the process; and the
+passengers, having no place to retire to, did their best to withstand
+the chill night air by a quick march on the street.
+
+So, these silent midnight streets I was treading were those of
+Brescia,--Brescia, within whose walls had met the valour of the
+mountains and the arts of the plain. I was now treading where pagan
+temples had once stood, where Christian sanctuaries had next arisen, and
+where there had been disciples not a few when the light of the
+Reformation broke on northern Italy. I remembered, too, that this was
+the city of "Arnold of Brescia," one of the reformers before the
+Reformation. Arnold was a man of great learning, an intrepid champion
+of the Church's purity, and the founder of the "Arnoldists," who
+inherited the zeal and intrepidity of their master.
+
+On the death of Innocent II., in the middle of the twelfth century,
+Arnold, finding Rome much agitated from the contests between the Pope
+and the Emperor, urged the Romans to throw off the yoke of a priest, and
+strike for their independence. The Romans lacked spirit to do so; and
+when, seven centuries afterwards, they came to make the attempt under
+Pius IX., they failed. Arnold was taken and crucified, his body reduced
+to ashes, and it was left to time, with its tragedies, to vindicate the
+wisdom of his advice, and avenge his blood; but to this hour no such
+opportunity of freeing themselves from thraldom as that which the
+Brescians then missed has presented itself.
+
+                   "Time flows,--nor winds,
+ Nor stagnates, nor precipitates his course;
+ But many a benefit borne upon his breast
+ For human-kind sinks out of sight, is gone,
+ No one knows how; nor seldom is put forth
+ An angry arm that snatches good away,
+ Never perhaps to re-appear."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+THE PRESENT THE IMAGE OF THE PAST.
+
+     Failure of the Reformation in Italy--Causes of this--Italian
+     Martyrs--Their great Numbers--Consequences of rejecting the
+     Reformation--The _Present_ the Avenger of the _Past_--Extract from
+     the _Siecle_ to this Effect--An "Accepted Time" for
+     Nations--Alternative offered to the several European Nations in the
+     Sixteenth Century--According to their Choice then, so is their
+     Position now--Protestant and Popish Nations contrasted.
+
+
+Of the singular interest that attaches to Italy during the first days of
+the Reformation I need not speak. The efforts of the Italians to throw
+off the papal yoke were great, but unsuccessful. Why these efforts came
+to nought would form a difficult but instructive subject of inquiry.
+They failed, perhaps, partly from being made so near the centre of the
+Roman power,--partly from the want of union and comprehension in the
+plans of the Italian reformers,--partly by reason of the dependence of
+the petty princes of the country upon the Pope,--and partly because the
+great sovereigns of Europe, although not unwilling that the Papacy
+should be weakened in their own country, by no means wished its
+extinction in Italy. But though Italy did not reach the goal of
+religious freedom, the roll of her martyrs includes the names of
+statesmen, scholars, nobles, priests, and citizens of all ranks. From
+the Alps to Sicily there was not a province in which there were not
+adherents of the doctrines of the Reformation, nor a city of any note in
+which there was not a little church, nor a man of genius or learning who
+was not friendly to the movement. There was scarce a prison whose walls
+did not immure some disciple of the Lord Jesus; and scarce a public
+square which did not reflect the gloomy light of the martyr's pile. Much
+has been done, by mutilating the public records, to consign these events
+to oblivion, and the names of many of the martyrs have been
+irretrievably lost; still enough remains to show that the doctrines of
+the Reformation were then widely spread, and that the numbers who
+suffered for them in Italy were great. Need I mention the names of
+Milan, of Vicenza, of Verona, of Venice, of Padua, of Ferrara,--one of
+the brightest in this constellation,--of Bologna, of Florence, of
+Sienna, of Rome? Most of these cities are renowned in the classic
+annals; all of them shared in the wealth and independence which the
+commerce of the middle ages conferred on the Italian republics; all of
+them figure in the revival of letters in the fifteenth century; but they
+are encompassed by a holier and yet more unfading halo, as the spots
+where the Italian reformers lived,--where they preached the blessed
+truths of the Bible to their countrymen,--and where they sealed their
+testimony with their blood. "During the whole of this century," that is,
+the sixteenth, says Dr M'Crie, in his "Progress and Suppression of the
+Reformation in Italy," "the prisons of the Inquisition in Italy, and
+particularly at Rome, were filled with victims, including persons of
+noble birth, male and female, men of letters, and mechanics. Multitudes
+were condemned to penance, to the galleys, or other arbitrary
+punishments; and from time to time individuals were put to death." "The
+following description," says the same historian, "of the state of
+matters in 1568 is from the pen of one who was residing at that time on
+the borders of Italy:--'At Rome some are every day burnt, hanged, or
+beheaded. All the prisons and places of confinement are filled; and they
+are obliged to build new ones. That large city cannot furnish jails for
+the number of pious persons which are continually apprehended.'"
+
+I had time to ruminate on these things as I paced to and fro in the
+empty midnight streets of Brescia. Methought I could hear, in the silent
+night, the cry of the martyrs whose ashes sleep in the plains around,
+saying, "How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge
+our blood on them that dwell on the earth!" Yes; God has judged, and is
+avenging; and the doom takes the very form that the crime wore. An era
+of dungeons, and chains, and victims, has again come round to Italy; but
+this time it is "the men which dwell on the" papal "earth" that are
+suffering. When the Italians permitted Arnold, and thousands such as he,
+to be put to death, they were just opening the way for the wrath of the
+Papacy to reach themselves, which it has now done. Ah! little do those
+who gnash their teeth in the extremity of their torments, and curse the
+priests as the authors of these, reflect that their own and their
+fathers' wickedness, still unrepented of, has not less to do with their
+present miseries than the priestly tyranny which they so bitterly and
+justly execrate. In those ages these men were the _tools_ of the
+priesthood; in this they are its _victims_. Thus it is that the Present,
+in papal Europe, and especially in Italy, rises stamped with the
+likeness of the Past. The _Siecle_ of Paris, while the _Siecle_ was yet
+free, brought out this fact admirably, when it reminded the champions of
+Popery that the horrors of the first French Revolution were not new
+things, but old, which the Jacobins inherited from the Papists; and went
+on to ask them "if they have forgotten that the Convention found all the
+laws of the Terror written upon the past? The Committee of Public Safety
+was first contrived for the benefit of the monarchy. Were not the
+commissions called revolutionary tribunals first used against the
+Protestants? The drums which Santerre beat round the scaffolds of
+royalists followed a practice first adopted to drown the psalms of the
+reformed pastors. Were not the fusilades first used at the bidding of
+the priests to crush heresy? Did not the law of the suspected compel
+Protestants to nourish soldiers in their houses, as a punishment for
+refusing to go to mass? Were not the houses burned down of those who
+frequented Protestant preaching? Were not the properties of the
+Protestant emigrants confiscated? Did not the Marshal Nouilles order a
+war against bankers? Was not the law of the maximum, which regulated
+prices, practised by the regency? Was not the law of requisition for the
+public roads practised to prepare the roads for Queen Marie Leczinska?
+It is true, many priests perished in the Terror, but they were men of
+terror perishing by terror,--men of the sword perishing by the sword."
+
+I could not help feeling, too, when reflecting upon the state of
+Brescia, and of all the towns of Italy, and, indeed, of all the
+countries of Europe, that to nations, as well as individuals, there is
+"an accepted time" and a "day of salvation," which if they miss, they
+irremediably perish. If they enter not in when the door is open, it is
+in vain that they knock when it is shut. The same sentiment has been
+expressed by our great poet, in the well-known lines,--
+
+ "There is a tide in the affairs of men,
+ Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;
+ Omitted, all the voyage of their lives is bound
+ In shallows and in miseries."
+
+The sixteenth century started the European nations in a new career, and
+put it in the power of each to choose the principle of will or
+authority,--the compendious principle according to which both Church and
+State were governed under the Papacy, or that of law,--expressing not
+the will of one man, but the collective reason of the nation,--the
+distinctive principle of government under Protestantism. The century in
+question placed government by the canon law or government by the Bible
+side by side, and invited the nations of Europe to make their choice.
+The nations made their choice. Some ranged themselves on this side, some
+on that; and the sixteenth century saw them standing abreast, like
+competitors at the ancient Olympic games, ready, on the signal being
+given, to dart forward in the race for victory.
+
+They did not stand abreast, be it observed. The several competitors in
+this high race did not start on equally advantageous terms. The rich and
+powerful nations declared for Popery and arbitrary government; the weak
+and third-rate ones, for Protestantism. On one side stood Spain, then at
+the head of Europe,--rich in arts, in military glory, in the genius and
+chivalry of its people, in the resources of its soil, and mistress,
+besides, of splendid colonies. By her side stood France,--the equal of
+Spain in art, in civilization, in military genius, and inferior only to
+her proud neighbour in the single article of colonies. Austria came
+next, and then Italy. Such were the illustrious names ranged on the one
+side. All of them were powerful, opulent, highly civilized; and some of
+them cherished the recollections of imperishable renown, which is a
+mighty power in itself. We have no such names to recount on the other
+side. Those nations which entered the lists against the others were but
+second and third-rate Powers: Britain, which scarce possessed a
+foot-breadth of territory beyond her own island,--Holland, a country
+torn from the waves,--the Netherlands and Prussia, neither of which were
+of much consideration. In every particular the Protestant nations were
+inferior to the Papal nations, save in the single article of their
+Protestantism: nevertheless, that one quality has been sufficient to
+counterbalance, and far more than counterbalance, all the advantages
+possessed by the others. Since the day we speak of, what a different
+career has been that of these nations! Three centuries have sufficed to
+reverse their position. Civilization, glory, extent of territory, and
+material wealth, have all passed over from the one side to the other. Of
+the Protestant nations, Britain alone is more powerful than the whole of
+combined Europe in the sixteenth century.
+
+But, what is remarkable also, we find the various nations of Europe at
+this hour on the same side on which they ranged themselves in the
+sixteenth century. Those that neglected the opportunity which that
+century brought them of adopting Protestantism and a free government are
+to this day despotic. France has submitted to three bloody revolutions,
+in the hope of recovering what she criminally missed in the sixteenth
+century; but her tears and her blood have been shed in vain. The course
+of Spain, and that of the Italian States, have been not unsimilar. They
+have plunged into revolutions in quest of liberty, but have found only a
+deeper despotism. They have dethroned kings, proclaimed new
+constitutions, brought statesmen and citizens by thousands to the block;
+they have agonized and bled; but they have been unable to reverse their
+fatal choice at the Reformation.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+SCENERY OF LAKE GARDA--PESCHIERA--VERONA.
+
+     Lake Garda--Memories of Trent--The Council of Trent fixed the
+     Destiny as well as Creed of Rome--Questions for Infallibility--Why
+     should Infallibility have to grope its Way?--Why does it reveal
+     Truth piecemeal?--Why does it need Assessors?--The Immaculate
+     Conception--Town of Desenzano--Magnificent Bullocks--Land of
+     Virgil--Grandeur of Lake Garda--The Iron Peschiera--The Cypress
+     Tree--Verona--Imposing Appearance of its Exterior--Richness and
+     Beauty of surrounding Plains--Palmerston.
+
+
+When the morning broke we were skirting the base of the Tyrolese Alps. I
+could see masses of snow on some of the summits, from which a piercingly
+cold air came rushing down upon the plains. In a little the sun rose;
+and thankful we were for his warmth. Day was again abroad on the waters
+and the hills; and soon we forgot the night, with all its untoward
+occurrences. The face of the country was uneven; and we kept alternately
+winding and climbing among the spurs of the Alps. At length the
+magnificent expanse of Lake Garda, the Benacus of the ancients, opened
+before us. In breadth it was like an arm of the sea. There were one or
+two tall-masted ships on its waters; there were fine mountains on its
+northern shore; and on the east the conspicuous form of Monte Baldo
+leaned over it, as if looking at its own shadow in the lake. With the
+Lago di Garda came the memories of Trent; for at the distance of twenty
+miles or so from its northern shore is "the little town among the
+mountains," where the famous Council assembled, in which so many things
+were voted to be true which had been open questions till then, but to
+doubt which now were certain and eternal anathema.
+
+The Reformation addressed to Rome the last call to reconsider her
+position, and change her course while yet it was possible. It said to
+her, in effect, Repent now: to-morrow it will be too late. Rome gave her
+reply when she summoned the Council of Trent. That Council crystallized,
+so to speak, the various doubtful opinions and dogmas which had been
+floating about in solution, and fixed the creed of Rome. It did
+more,--it fixed her doom. Amid these mountains she issued the fiat of
+her fate. When she published the proceedings of Trent to the world, she
+said, "Here I stand; I cannot do otherwise; so help me----." To whom did
+she make her appeal? To the Emperor in the first place, when she prayed
+for the vengeance of the civil sword; and to the Prince of Darkness in
+the second, when she invoked damnation on all her opponents. Then her
+course was irrevocably fixed. She dare not now look behind her: to
+change a single iota were annihilation. She must go forward, amid
+accumulating errors, and absurdities, and blasphemies: amid opposing
+arts and sciences, and knowledge, she must go steadily onward,--onward
+to the precipice!
+
+It is interesting to mark, as we can in history, first, the feeble
+germinations of a papal dogma; next, its waxing growth; and at last,
+after the lapse of centuries, its full development and maturity. It is
+easy to conceive how a mere human science should advance only by slow
+and gradual stages,--astronomy, for instance, or geology, or even the
+more practical science of mechanics. Their authors have no infallible
+gift of discerning truth from error. They must observe nature; they must
+compare facts; they must deduce conclusions; they must correct previous
+errors; and this is both a slow and a laborious process. But
+Infallibility is saved all this labour. It knows at once, and from the
+beginning, all that is true, and all that is erroneous. It does so, or
+it is not Infallibility. Why, then, was it not till the sixteenth
+century that Infallibility gave anything like a fixed and complete creed
+to the Church? Why did it permit so many men, in all preceding ages, to
+live in ignorance of so many things in which it could so easily have
+enlightened them? Why did it permit so many questions to be debated,
+which it could so easily have settled? Why did it not give that creed to
+the Church in the first century which it kept back till the sixteenth?
+Why does it deal out truth piecemeal,--one dogma in this century,
+another in the next, and so on? Why does it not tell us all at once? And
+why, even to this hour, has it not told us all, but reserved some very
+important questions for future decision, or revelation rather?
+
+If it is replied that the Pope must first collect the suffrages of the
+Catholic bishops, this only lands us in deeper perplexities. Why should
+the Pope need assessors and advisers? Can Infallibility not walk alone,
+that it uses crutches? Can an infallible man not know truth from error
+till first he has collected the votes of fallible bishops? Why should
+Infallibility seek help, which it cannot in the nature of things need?
+
+If it is further replied, that this Infallibility is lodged betwixt the
+Pope and the Council, we are only confronted with greater difficulties.
+Is it when the decree has been voted by the Council that it becomes
+infallible? Then the Infallibility resides in the Council. Or is it
+when it is confirmed by the Pope that it becomes infallible? In that
+case the Infallibility is in the Pope. Or is it, as others maintain,
+only when the decree has been accepted by the Church that it is
+infallible, and does the Pope not know whether he ought to believe his
+own decree till he has heard the judgment of the Church? We had thought
+that Infallibility was one and indivisible; but it seems it may be
+parted in twain; nay, more, it may be broken down into an indefinite
+number of parts; and though no one of these parts taken separately is
+Infallibility, yet taken together they constitute Infallibility. In
+other words, the union of a number of finite quantities can make an
+infinite. Sound philosophy, truly!
+
+If we go back, then, as the Ultramontanist will, to the dogma that the
+seat of Infallibility is the chair of Peter, the question returns, why
+cannot, or will not, the Pope determine in one age what he is able and
+willing to determine in another? The dogma of the Immaculate Conception
+of the Virgin, for instance, if it is a truth now, was a truth in the
+first age, when it was not even dreamed of; it was a truth in the
+twelfth century, when it _was_ dreamed of; it was a truth in the
+seventeenth century, when it gave rise to so many scandalous divisions
+and conflicts; and yet it was not till December 1854 that Infallibility
+pronounced it to be a truth, and so momentous a truth, that no one can
+be saved who doubts it. Will any Romanist kindly explain this to us? We
+can accept no excuses about the variety of opinion in the Church, or
+about the darkness of the age. No haze, no clouds, can dim an infallible
+eye. Infallibility should see in the dark as well as in the daylight;
+and an infallible teacher is bound to reveal all, as well as to know
+all.
+
+And how happens it, too, that the Pope is infallible in only one
+science,--even the theological? In astronomy he has made some terrible
+blunders. In geography he has taken the earth to be a plain. In
+politics, in trade, and in all ordinary matters, he is daily falling
+into mistakes. He cannot tell how the wind may blow to-morrow. He cannot
+tell whether the dish before him may not have poison in it. And yet the
+man who is daily and hourly falling into mistakes on the most common
+subjects has only to pronounce dogmatically, and he pronounces
+infallibly. He has but to grasp the pen, with a hand, it may be, like
+Borgia's, fresh from the poisoned chalice or the stiletto, and
+straightway he indites lines as holy and pure as ever flowed from the
+pen of a Paul or a John!
+
+The road now led down upon the lake, which lay gleaming like a sheet of
+silver beneath the morning sun. We entered the poor, faded, straggling
+town of Desenzano, where the usual motley assemblage of commissionaires,
+albergo-masters, dwarfs, beggars, and idlers of all kinds, waited to
+receive us. The poor old town crept close in to the strand, as if a
+draught of the crystal waters would make it young again. It reminded me
+of the company of halt, blind, and impotent folk which lay at the pool
+of Bethesda. So lay paralytic Desenzano by the shores of the Lake Garda.
+Alas! sunshine and storm pass across the scene, clothing the waters and
+the hills with alternate beauty and grandeur; but all changes come alike
+to the poor, tradeless, bookless, spiritless town. Whether summer comes
+in its beauty or winter in its storms, Desenzano is old, withered, dying
+Desenzano still. I hurried to an albergo, swallowed a cup of coffee, and
+rejoined the _diligence_.
+
+Our course lay along the southern shore of the lake, over a fine rolling
+country, richly covered with vineyards, and where the rich red soil was
+being ploughed with bullocks. Such bullocks I had never before seen. The
+stateliest of their kind which graze the meadows of England and
+Scotland are but as grasshoppers in comparison. Truly, I saw before me
+the Anakims of the cattle tribe. To them the yoke was no burden. As they
+marched on with vast outspread horns, they could have dragged a hundred
+ploughs after them. They were not unworthy of Virgil's verse. And it
+gave additional charms to the region to think that Mantua, the poet's
+birthplace, lay not a long way to the south, and that, doubtless, the
+author of the Bucolics often visited in his youth this very spot, and
+walked by the margin of these waters, and marked the light and shade on
+these noble hills; or, turning to the rich agricultural country on the
+right, had seen exactly such bullocks as those I now saw, drawing
+exactly such ploughs, and making exactly such furrows in the red earth;
+and, spreading the beauty of his own mind over the picture, he had gone
+and imprinted it eternally on his page. The true poet is a real
+clairvoyant. He may not give you the shape, or colour, or size of
+objects; he may not tell how tall the mountains, or how long the
+hedge-rows, or how broad the fields; but by some wonderful art he can
+convey to your mind what is present to his own. On this principle it
+was, perhaps, that the landscape, with all its scenery, was familiar to
+me. I had seen it long years before. These were the very fields, the
+very bullocks, the very ploughs, the very swains, my imagination had
+painted in my schoolboy days, when I sat with the page of the great
+pastoral poet of Italy open before me,--too frequently, alas! only open.
+On these shores, too, had dwelt the poet Catullus; and a doubtful ruin
+which the traveller sees on the point of the long sharp promontory of
+Sermio, which runs up into the lake from the south, still bears the name
+of Catullus' Villa. If these are the ruins of Catullus' house, which is
+very questionable, he must have lived in a style of magnificence which
+has fallen to the lot of but few poets.
+
+The complexion of a day or of a lifetime may hang upon the commonest
+occurrence. A shoe here dropped from the foot of one of the horses; and
+the postilion, diving into the recesses of the _diligence_, and drawing
+forth a box with the requisite tools, began forthwith, on the highway,
+the process of shoeing. I stepped out, and walked on before, thankful
+for the incident, which had given me the opportunity of a saunter along
+the road. You can _see_ nature from the windows of your carriage, but
+you can _converse_ with her only by a quiet stroll amidst her scenes. On
+the right were the great plains which the Po waters, finely mottled with
+meadow and corn-field, besprint with chestnut trees, mulberries, and
+laurels, and fringed, close by the highway, with rolling heights, on
+which grew the vine. On the left was the far expanding lake, with its
+bays and creeks, and the shadows of its stately hills mirrored on its
+surface. It looked as if some invisible performer was busy shifting the
+scenes for the traveller's delight, and spreading a different prospect
+before his eye at every few yards. New bays were continually opening,
+and new peaks rising on the horizon. "It was so rough with tempests when
+we passed by it," says Addison, "that it brought into my mind Virgil's
+description of it."
+
+ "Here, vexed by winter storms, _Benacus_ raves,
+ Confused with working sands and rolling waves;
+ Rough and tumultuous, like a sea it lies;
+ So loud the tempest roars, so high the billows rise."
+
+I saw it in more peaceful mood. Cool and healthful breezes were blowing
+from the Tyrol; and the salubrious character of the region was amply
+attested by the robust forms of the inhabitants. I have seldom seen a
+finer race of men and women than the peasants adjoining the Lake Garda.
+They were all of goodly stature, and singularly graceful and noble in
+their gait.
+
+In a few hours we approached the strong fortress of Peschiera. We passed
+through several concentric lines of fortifications, walls, moats,
+drawbridges, and sloping earthen embankments, in which cart-loads of
+balls, impelled with all the force which powder can give, would sink and
+be lost. In the very heart of these grim ramparts, like a Swiss hamlet
+amid its mountain ranges, or a jewel in its iron-bound casket, lay the
+little town of Peschiera, sleeping quietly beside the blue and
+full-flooded Mincio, Virgil's own river:--
+
+ "Where the slow Mincius through the valley strays;
+ Where cooling streams invite the flocks to drink,
+ And reeds defend the winding water's brink."
+
+It issues from the lake, and, flowing underneath the ramparts, freshens
+a spot which otherwise wears sufficiently the grim iron-visaged features
+of war. Nothing can surpass the grandeur of Lake Garda, which here
+almost touches the walls of the fortress. It lies outspread like the
+sea, and runs far up to where the snow-clad summits of the Tyrol prop
+the northern horizon.
+
+Leaving behind us the iron Peschiera and the blue Garda, we held on our
+way over an open, breezy country, where the stony and broken scenery of
+the mountains began to mingle with the rich cultivation of the plains.
+It reminded me of the line where the lowlands of Perthshire join its
+highlands. Here the cypress tree met me for the first time. The familiar
+form of the poplar,--now too familiar to give pleasure,--disappeared,
+and in its room came the less stately but more graceful and beautiful
+form of the cypress. The cypress is silence personified. It stands wrapt
+in its own thoughts. One can hardly see it without asking, "What ails
+thee? Is it for the past you mourn?" Yet, pensive as it looks, its
+unconscious grace fills the landscape with beauty.
+
+Verona, gilded by the beams of Shakspeare's mighty genius, and by the
+yet purer glory of the martyrs of the Reformation, was in sight miles
+before we reached it. It reposes on the long gentle slope of a low hill,
+with plenty of air and sunlight. The rich plains at its feet, which
+stretch away to the south, look up to the old town with evident
+affection and pride, and strive to cheer it by pouring wheat, and wine,
+and fruits into its markets. Its appearance at a distance is imposing,
+from its numerous towers, and the long sweep of its forked battlements,
+which seem to encircle the whole acclivity on which the town stands,
+leaving as much empty space within their lines as might contain
+half-a-dozen Veronas. Its environs are enchanting. Behind it, and partly
+encircling it on the east, are an innumerable array of low hills, of the
+true Italian shape and colour. These were all a-gleam with white villas;
+and as they sparkled in the sunlight, relieved against the deep azure of
+the mountains, they showed like white sails on the blue sea, or stars in
+the dark sky. At its gates we were met, of course, by the Austrian
+gendarmerie. To have the affair of the passport finished and over as
+quickly as possible, I unfolded the sheet, and carelessly hung it over
+the window of the carriage. The corner of the paper, which bore, in
+tall, bold characters, the name of her Majesty's Foreign Secretary,
+caught the eye of a passenger. "PALMERSTON!" "PALMERSTON!" he shouted
+aloud. Instantly there was a general rush at the document; and fearing
+that it should be torn in pieces, which would have been an awkward
+affair for me, seeing without it it would be impossible to get forward,
+and nearly as impossible to get back, I surrendered it to the first
+speaker, that it might be passed round, and all might gratify their
+curiosity or idolatry with the sight of a name which abroad is but a
+synonym for "England." After making the tour of the _diligence_, the
+passport was handed out to the gendarme, who, feeling no such intense
+desire as did the passengers to see the famous characters, had waited
+good-naturedly all the while. The man surveyed with grim complacency a
+name which was then in no pleasant odour with the statesmen and
+functionaries of Austria. In return he gave me a paper containing
+"permission to sojourn for a few hours in Verona," with its co-relative
+"permission to depart." I felt proud of my country, which could as
+effectually protect me at the gates of Verona as on the shores of the
+Forth.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+FROM VERONA TO VENICE.
+
+     Interior of Verona--End of World seemingly near in Italy--The Monks
+     and the Classics--A Cast-Iron Revolutionist--A Beautiful
+     Glimpse--Railway Carriages--Railway Company--Tyrolese Alps--Dante's
+     Patmos--Vicenza--Padua--The Lagunes--The Omnibus or
+     Gondola--Silence of City--Sail through the Canals--Charon and his
+     Boat--Piazza of Saint Mark.
+
+
+The gates of Verona opened, and the enchantment was gone. He who would
+carry away the idea of a magnificent city, which the exterior of Verona
+suggests, must go round it, not through it. The first step within its
+walls is like the stroke of an enchanter's wand. The villa-begemmed
+city, with its ramparts and its cypress-trees, takes flight, and there
+rises before the traveller an old ruinous town, with dirty streets and a
+ragged and lazy population. It reminds one of what he meets in tales of
+eastern romance, where young and beautiful princesses are all at once
+transformed by malignant genuises into old and withered hags.
+
+In truth, on entering an Italian town one feels as if the last trumpet
+were about to sound. The world, and all that is in it, seems old--very
+old. Man is old, his dwellings are old, his works are old, and the very
+earth seems old. All seems to betoken that it is the last age, and that
+the world is winding up its business, preparatory to the final closing
+of the drama. Commerce, the arts, empire,--all have taken their
+departure, and have left behind only the vestiges of their former
+presence. The Italians, living in a land which is but a sort of
+sepulchre, look as if they had voted that the world cannot outlast the
+present century, and that it is but a waste of labour to rebuild
+anything or repair anything. Accordingly, all is allowed to go to
+decay,--roads, bridges, castles, palaces; and the only thing which is in
+any degree cared for are their churches. Why make provision for
+posterity, when there is to be none? Why erect new houses, when those
+already built will last their time and the world's? Why repair their
+mouldering dwellings, or renew the falling fences of their fields, or
+replace their dying olives with young trees, or even patch their own
+ragged garments? The crack of doom will soon be upon them, and all will
+perish in the great conflagration. They account it the part of wisdom,
+then, to pass the interval in the least fatiguing and most agreeable
+manner possible. They sip their coffee, and take their stroll, and watch
+the shadows as they fall eastward from their purple hills. Why should
+they incur the toil of labouring or thinking in a world that is soon to
+pass away, and which is as good as ended already?
+
+Of Verona I can say but little. My stay there, which was not much over
+the hour, afforded me no opportunity for observation. Its famous
+Amphitheatre, coeval with the great Coliseum at Rome, and the best
+preserved Roman Amphitheatre in the world, I had not time to visit. Its
+numerous churches, with their frescoes and paintings, I less regret not
+having seen. Its _Biblioteca Capitolare_, which is said to be an
+unwrought quarry of historic and patristic lore, I should have liked to
+visit. There, too, the monks of the middle ages were caught tripping.
+"Sophocles or Tacitus," in the words of Gibbon, "had been compelled to
+resign the parchment to missals, homilies, and the golden legend." The
+"Institutes of Caius," which were the foundation of the Institutes of
+Justinian, were discovered in this library palimpsested. A rumour had
+been spread that the author of the Pandects had reduced the "Institutes
+of Caius" to ashes, that posterity might not discover the source of his
+own great work. Gibbon ventured to contradict the scandal, and to point
+to the monks as the probable devastators. His sagacity was justified
+when Niebuhr discovered in the Biblioteca Capitolare of Verona these
+very Institutes beneath the homilies of St. Jerome. Verona yet retains
+one grand feature untouched by decay or time,--the river Adige,--which,
+passing underneath the walls, dashes through the city in a magnificent
+torrent, spanned by several noble bridges of ancient architecture, and
+turns in its course several large floating mills, which are anchored
+across the stream. The market-place, a large square, was profusely
+covered with the produce of the neighbouring plains. I purchased a roll
+of bread and a magnificent cluster of grapes, and lunched in fine style.
+
+At Verona the railway resumes, and runs all the way to Venice. What a
+transition from the _diligence_--the lumbering, snail-paced
+_diligence_--to the rail. It is like passing by a single leap from the
+dark ages to modern times. Then only do you feel what you owe to Watt.
+In my humble opinion, the Pope should have put the steam-engine into the
+Index Expurgatorius. His priests in France have attended at the opening
+of railways, and blessed the engines. What! bless the steam-engine!
+Sprinkle holy water on the heads of Mazzini and Gavazzi. For what are
+these engines, but so many cast-iron Mazzinis and Gavazzis. The Pope
+should have anathematized the steam-engine. He should have cursed it
+after the approved pontifical fashion, in standing and in running, in
+watering and in coaling. He should have cursed it in the whole structure
+of its machinery,--in its funnel, in its boiler, in its piston, in its
+cranks, and in its stopcocks. I can see a hundred things which are sure
+to be crushed beneath its ponderous wheels. I can see it tearing
+ruthlessly onwards, and dashing through prejudices, opinions, usages,
+and time-honoured and venerated institutions, and sweeping all away like
+so many cobwebs. Was the Argus of the Vatican asleep when this wolf
+broke into the fold? But _in_ he is, and the Pope's bulls will have
+enough to do to drive him out. But more of this anon.
+
+The station of the railway is on the east of the town, in a spot of
+enchanting loveliness. It was the first and almost the only spot that
+realized the Italy of my dreams. It was in a style of beauty such as I
+had not before seen, and was perfect in its kind. The low lovely hills
+were ranged in crescent form, and were as faultless as if Grace herself
+had moulded them on her lathe. Their clothing was a deep rich purple.
+White villas, like pearls, sparkled upon them; and they were dotted with
+the cypress, which stood on their sides in silent, meditative, ethereal
+grace. The scene possessed not the sublime grandeur of Switzerland, nor
+the rugged picturesqueness of Scotland: its characteristic was the
+finished, spiritualized, voluptuous beauty of Italy. But hark! the
+railway-bell rings out its summons.
+
+The carriages on the Verona and Venice Railway are not those
+strong-looking, crib-like machines which we have in England, and which
+seem built, as our jails and bridewells are, in anticipation that the
+inmates will do their best to get out. They are roomy and elegant
+saloons (though strong in their build), of about forty feet in length,
+and may contain two hundred passengers a-piece. They are fitted up with
+a tier of cushioned seats running round the carriage, and two sofa-seats
+running lengthways in the middle. At each end is a door by which the
+guard enters and departs, and passes along the whole train, as if it
+were a suit of apartments. So far as I could make out, I was the only
+_Englese_ in the carriage, which was completely filled with the citizens
+and peasantry of the towns and rural districts which lay on our
+route,--the mountaineer of the Tyrol, the native of the plain, the
+inhabitant of the city of Verona, of Vicenza, of Venice. There was a
+greater amount of talk, and of vehement and eloquent gesture, than would
+have been seen in the same circumstances in England. The costume was
+varied and picturesque, and so too, but in a less degree, the
+countenance. There were in the carriage tall athletic forms, reared amid
+the breezes and vines of the Tyrol; and there were noble faces,--faces
+with rich complexions, and dark fiery eyes, which could gleam in love or
+burn in battle, and which bore the still farther appendage of moustache
+and beard, in which the wearer evidently took no little pride, and on
+which he bestowed no little pains. The company had somewhat the air of a
+masquerade. There was the Umbrian cloak, the cone-shaped beaver, the
+vest with its party-coloured lacings. There were the long loose robe and
+low-crowned hat of the priest, with its enormous brim, as if to shade
+the workings of his face beneath. There was the brown cloak of the
+friar; and there were hats and coats of the ordinary Frank fashion. The
+Leghorn bonnet is there unknown, as almost all over the Continent,
+unless among the young girls of Switzerland; and the head-gear of the
+women mostly was a plain cotton napkin, folded on the brow and pinned
+below the chin,--a custom positively ugly, which may become a mummy or a
+shaven head, but not for those who have ringlets to show. Some with
+better taste had discarded the napkin, and wore a smart cap. On the
+persons of not a few of the females was displayed a considerable amount
+of value, in the shape of gold chains, rings, and jewellery. This is an
+indication, not of wealth, but of poverty and stagnant trade. It was a
+custom much in use among oriental ladies before banks were established.
+
+The plains eastward of Verona on the right were amazingly rich, and the
+uplands and heights on the left were crowned with fine castles and
+beautiful little temples. Yet the beauty and richness of the region
+could not soothe Dante for his lost Florence. For here was his "Patmos,"
+if we may venture on imagery borrowed from the history of a greater
+seer; and here the visions of the Purgatorio had passed before his eye.
+After a few hours' riding, the fine hills of the Tyrolese Alps came
+quite up to us, disclosing, as they filed past, a continuous succession
+of charming views. When the twilight began to gather, and they stood in
+their rich drapery of purple shadows, their beauty became a thing
+indescribable. We saw Vicenza, where, of all the spots in Italy, the
+Reformation found the largest number of adherents, and where Palladio
+arose in the sixteenth century, to arrest for a while, by his genius,
+the decay of the architectural arts in Italy. We saw, too, the gray
+Padua looking at us through the sombre shadows of its own and the day's
+decline. We continued our course over the flat but rich country beyond;
+and as night fell we reached the edge of the Lagunes.
+
+I looked out into the watery waste with the aid of the faint light, but
+I could see no city, and nothing whereon a city could stand. All was
+sea; and it seemed idle to seek a city, or any habitation of man, in the
+midst of these waters. But the engine with its great red eye could see
+farther into the dark; and it dashed fearlessly forward, and entered on
+the long bridge which I saw stretching on and away over the flood, till
+its farther end, like that of the bridge which Mirza saw in vision, was
+lost in a cloud. I could see, as we rode on, on the bosom of the flood
+beneath us, twinkling lights, which were probably lighthouses, and black
+dots, which we took for boats. After a five miles' run through scenery
+of this novel character, the train stopped, and we found that we had
+arrived, not in a cloud or in a quicksand, as there seemed some reason
+to fear, but in a spacious and elegant station, brilliantly lighted with
+gas, and reminding one, from its sudden apparition and its strange site,
+of the fabled palace of the Sicilian Fairy Queen, only not built, like
+hers, of sunshine and sea-mist. We were marched in file past, first the
+tribunal of the searchers, and next the tribunal of the passport
+officials; and then an Austrian gendarme opening to each, as he passed
+this ordeal, the door of the station-house, I stepped out, to have my
+first sight, as I hoped, of the Queen of the Adriatic.
+
+I found myself in the midst of the sea, standing on a little platform of
+land, with a cloudy mass floating before me, resembling, in the
+uncertain light, the towers and domes of a spectral city. It was now for
+the first time that I realized the peculiar position of Venice. I had
+often read of the city whose streets were canals and whose chariots were
+gondolas; but I had failed to lay hold of it as a reality, and had
+unconsciously placed Venice in the region of fable. There was no missing
+the fact now. I was hemmed in on all sides by the ocean, and could not
+move a step without the certainty of being drowned. What was I to do? In
+answer to my inquiries, I was told that I must proceed to my hotel in
+an omnibus. This sounded of the earth, and I looked eagerly round to see
+the desired vehicle; but horses, carriage, wheels, I could see none. I
+could no more conceive of an omnibus that could swim on the sea, than
+the Venetians could of a gondola that could move on the dry land. I was
+shown a large gondola, to which the name of omnibus was given, which lay
+at the bottom of the stairs waiting for passengers. I descended into it,
+and was followed by some thirty more. We were men of various nations and
+various tongues, and we took our seats in silence. We pushed off, and
+were soon gliding along on the Grand Canal. Not a word was spoken.
+Although we had been a storming party sent to surprise an enemy's fort
+by night, we could not have conducted our proceedings in profounder
+quiet. There reigned as unbroken a stillness around us, as if, instead
+of the midst of a city, we had been in the solitude of the high seas. No
+foot-fall re-echoed through that strange abode. Sound of chariot-wheel
+there was none. Nothing was audible but the soft dip of the oar, and the
+startled shout of an occasional gondolier, who feared, perhaps, that our
+heavier craft might send his slim skiff to the bottom. In about a
+quarter of an hour we turned out of the Grand Canal, and began threading
+our way amid those innumerable narrow channels which traverse Venice in
+all directions. Then it was that the dismal silence of the city fell
+upon my heart. The canals we were now navigating were not over three
+yards in width. They were long and gloomy; and tall, massive palaces,
+sombre and spectral in the gloom, rose out of the sea on either hand.
+There were columns at their entrances, with occasional pieces of
+statuary, for which time had woven a garland of weeds. Their lower
+windows were heavily grated; their marble steps were laved by the idle
+tide; and their warehouse doors, through which had passed, in their
+time, the merchandise of every clime, had long been unopened, and were
+rotting from age. As we pursued our way, we passed under low-browed
+arches, from which uncouth faces, cut in the stone, looked down upon us,
+and grinned our welcome. The voice of man, the light of a candle, the
+sound of a millstone, was not there. It seemed a city of the dead. The
+inhabitants had lived and died ages ago, and had left their palaces to
+be tenanted by the mermaids and spirits of the deep, for other occupants
+I could see none. Spectral fancies began to haunt my imagination. I
+conceived of the canal we were traversing as the Styx, our gondola as
+the boat of Charon, and ourselves as a company of ghosts, who had passed
+from earth, and were now on our silent way to the inexorable bar of
+Rhadamanthus. A more spectral procession we could not have made, with
+our spectral boat gliding noiselessly through the water, with its
+spectral steersman, and its crowd of spectral passengers, though my
+fancy, instead of being a fancy, had been a reality. All things around
+me were sombre, shadowy, silent, as Hades itself.
+
+Suddenly our gondola made a rapid sweep round a tall corner. Then it was
+that the Queen of the Adriatic, in all her glory, burst upon us,--
+
+ "Looking a sea Cybele, fresh from ocean,
+ Rising with her tiara of proud towers."
+
+We were flung right in front of the great square of St. Mark. It was
+like the instantaneous raising of the curtain from some glorious vision,
+or like the sudden parting of the clouds around Mont Blanc; or, if I may
+use such a simile, like the unfolding of the gates of a better world to
+the spirit, after passing through the shadows of the tomb. The spacious
+piazza, bounded on all sides with noble structures in every style of
+architecture, reflected the splendour of a thousand lamps. There was
+the palace of the Doge, which I knew not as yet; and there, on its lofty
+column, was the winged lion of St Mark, which it was impossible not to
+know; and, crowding the piazza, and walking to and fro on its marble
+floor, was a countless multitude of men in all the costumes of the
+world. With the deep hum of voices was softly blended the sound of the
+Italian lute. A few strokes of the oar brought us to the Hotel dell'
+Europa. I made a spring from the gondola, and alighted on the steps of
+the hotel.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+CITY OF VENICE.
+
+     Sabbath Morning--Beauty of Sunrise on the Adriatic--Worship in S.
+     Mark's--Popish Sabbath-schools--Sale of Indulgences for Living and
+     Dead--An Astrologer--How the Venetians spend their Sabbath
+     Afternoon and Evening--The Martyrs of Venice--A Young Englishman in
+     Trouble--The Doge's Palace--The Stone Lions--The Prisons of
+     Venice--The Venetians Discard their Old God, and adopt a New--The
+     Gothic Tower--The Academy of Fine Arts--The Moral of Venice--Why do
+     Nations Die?--Common Theory Unsatisfactory--History hitherto a
+     Series of ever-recurring Cycles, ending in
+     Barbarism--Instances--The "Three-score and Ten" of Nations--The
+     Solution to be sought with reference to the False Religions--The
+     Intellect of the Nation outgrows these--Conscience is
+     Dissolved--Virtue is Lost--Slavery and Barbarism
+     ensue--Christianity only can give Immortality to Nations--Decadence
+     of Civilization under Romanism--A Papist foretelling the Doom of
+     Popery.
+
+
+The deep boom of the Austrian cannon awoke me next morning at day-break.
+I remembered that it was Sabbath; and never had I seen the Sabbath dawn
+amidst a silence so majestic. More tranquil could not have been its
+first opening in the bowers of Eden. In this city of ocean there was no
+sound of hurrying feet, no rattle of chariot-wheel, nor any of those
+multitudinous noises that distract the cities of earth. There was
+silence on the domes of Venice, silence on her seas, silence in the air
+around her. In a little the sun rose, and shed a flood of glory on the
+Lagunes. It would be difficult to describe the grandeur of the scene,
+which has nothing elsewhere of the kind to equal it,--the white marble
+city, serenely seated on the bosom of the Adriatic, with the Lagunes
+outspread in the morning sun like a mirror of molten gold. But, alas! it
+was only a glorious vision; for the power and wealth of Venice are
+departed.
+
+                         "The long file
+ Of her dead Doges are declined to dust.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+                                   Empty halls,
+ Thin streets and foreign aspects, such as must
+ Too oft remind her who and what enthrals,
+ Have flung a desolate cloud o'er Venice' lovely walls."
+
+The gun which had awaked me reminds the Queen of the Adriatic every
+morning that the day of her dominion and glory is over, and that the
+night has come upon her,--a night, the deep unbroken shadows of which,
+even the bright morning that was now opening on the Adriatic could not
+dispel.
+
+After breakfast I hurried to the church of S. Mark. Mass was proceeding
+as usual; and a large crowd of worshippers,--spectators I should rather
+say,--stood densely packed in the chancel. If I except the Madeleine in
+Paris, I have nowhere seen in a Roman Catholic church an attendance at
+all approximating even a tolerable congregation, save here. I remarked,
+too, that these were not the beggars which usually form the larger
+proportion of the attendance, such as it is, in Roman churches. The
+people in S. Mark's were well dressed, though it was not easy to
+conceive where these fine clothes had come from, seeing the sea has now
+failed Venice, and land she never possessed. This was the first symptom
+I saw (I met others in the course of the day) that in Venice the Roman
+religion has a stronger hold upon the people than in the rest of Italy.
+It is an advantage in this respect to be some little distance from Rome,
+and to have an insular position. Besides, I believe that the priests in
+Venetian Lombardy, and, I presume, in Venice also, are men of more
+reputable lives than their brethren in other parts of the Peninsula.
+Anciently it was not so. Venice was wont to be termed "the paradise of
+monks." There no pleasure allowable to a man of the world was forbidden
+to a priest. The Senate, jealous of everything that might abridge its
+authority, encouraged this relaxation of the Church's discipline, in the
+hope of lowering the influence of its clergy with the people.
+
+S. Mark's is an ancient, quaint-looking pile, with the dim hoar light of
+history around it. On its threshold Pope Alexander III. met the Emperor
+Frederick in 1177, and, with pride unabated by his enforced flight from
+Rome in the disguise of a cook, put his foot upon the monarch's neck,
+repeating the words of the psalm,--"Thou shalt tread upon the lion and
+adder." This high temple of the Adriatic is vast and curious, but
+wanting in effect, owing to the low roof and the gloomy light. The
+Levant was searched for columns and marbles to decorate it; acres of
+gold-leaf have been expended in gilding it; and every corner is stuck
+full of allegorical devices, some of which are so very ingenious, that
+they have not yet been read. The priests wore a style of dress admirably
+befitting the finery of the Cathedral; for their vestments were
+bespangled with gold and curious devices. What a contrast to the simple
+temple and the plain earnest worshippers with whom I had passed my
+former Sabbath amid the Vaudois hills! But the God of the Vaudois,
+unlike the wafer-god of the priests, "dwelleth not in temples made with
+hands."
+
+Passing along on the narrow paved footpaths which tie back to back the
+long lofty ranges of the city,--the fronts being filled with the
+ocean,--I visited several of its one hundred and twenty churches. I
+found mass ended, and the congregation, if any such there had been,
+dismissed; but I saw what was even more indicative of a reviving
+superstition: in every church I entered I found classes of boys and
+girls under instruction. The Sabbath-school system was in full operation
+in Venice, in Rome's behalf. The boys were in charge of the young
+priests; and the girls, of the nuns and sisters. In some cases, laymen
+had been pressed into the service, and were occupied in unfolding the
+mysteries of transubstantiation to the young mind. Seating myself on a
+bench in presence of a class of boys, I watched the course of
+instruction. Their text-book was the "Catechism of Christian Doctrine,"
+which contains the elements of the Roman faith, as fixed by the Council
+of Trent. The boys were repeating the Catechism to the teacher. No
+explanations were given, for the process was simply that of fixing
+dogmas in the memory,--of conveying as much of fact, or what professed
+to be so, as it was possible to convey into the mind without awakening
+the understanding. The boys were taught to _believe_, not _reason_; and
+those who acquitted themselves best had little medals and pictures of St
+Francis given them as prizes. I remarked that most of the shops were
+shut: indeed, so little business is done in Venice, that this involved
+no sacrifice to the traders. As it was, however, the city contrasted
+favourably with Paris; than the Sabbaths of which, I know of nothing
+more terrible on earth. I remarked, too, that if the trade of the
+Adriatic is at an end, and beggars crowd the quays which princes once
+trod, and gondolas, in funereal black, glide gloomily through those
+waters which rich argosies ploughed of old, the spiritual traffic of
+Venice flourishes more than ever. I read on the doors of all the
+churches, "INDULGENCES SOLD HERE FOR THE LIVING AND THE DEAD, AS IN
+ROME." What matters it that the Adriatic is no longer the highway of the
+world's merchandise, and that India is now closed to Venice? Is not the
+whole of Peter's treasury open to her; and, to facilitate the enriching
+commerce, have not the priests obligingly opened a direct road to the
+celestial mine, to spare the Venetians the necessity of the more
+circuitous path by the Seven Hills? Happy Venice! her children may be
+starved now, but paradise is their's hereafter.
+
+After noon each betook himself to what pastime he pleased. Not a few
+opened their shops. Others gathered round an astrologer,--a personage no
+longer to be seen in the cities of the west,--who had taken his stand on
+the _Riva degli Schiavoni_, and there, begirt with zone inscribed with
+cabalistic characters, and holding in his hand his wizard's staff, was
+setting forth, with stentorian voice, his marvellous power of healing by
+the combined help of the stars and his drugs. By the way, why should the
+profession of astrology and the cognate arts be permitted to only one
+class of men? In the middle ages, two classes of conjurors competed for
+the public patronage, but with most unequal success. The one class
+professed to be master of spells that were all-powerful over the
+elements of the material world,--the air, the earth, the ocean. The
+other arrogated an equal power over the invisible and spiritual world.
+They were skilled in a mysterious rite, which had power to open the
+gates of purgatory, and dismiss to a happier abode, souls there immured
+in woe. The pretensions of both were equally well founded: both were
+jugglers, and merited to have fared alike; but society, while it
+lavished all its credence and all its patronage upon the one, denounced
+the other as impostors. One colossal system of necromancy filled Europe;
+but the age gave the priest a monopoly; and so jealously did it guard
+his rights, that the conjuror who did not wear a cassock was banished or
+burned. We can assign no reason for the odium under which the one lay,
+and the repute in which the other was held, save that the art, though
+one, was termed witchcraft in the one case, and religion in the other.
+The one was compelled to shroud his mysteries in the darkness of the
+night, and seek the solitary cave for the performance of his spells. The
+arts of the other were performed in magnificent and costly cathedrals,
+in presence of admiring assemblies. The latter were the licensed dealers
+in magic; and, enjoying the public patronage, they carried their
+pretensions to a pitch which their less favoured brethren dared not
+attempt to rival. They juggled on a gigantic scale, and the more
+enormous the cheat, the better was it received. They rapidly grew in
+numbers and wealth. Their chief, the great Roman necromancer, enjoyed
+the state of a temporal prince, and had a whole kingdom appropriated to
+his use, that he might suitably support his rank and dignity as
+arch-conjuror.
+
+But to return to Venice;--the great stream of concourse flowed in the
+direction of the _Giardini Pubblici_, which are a nook of one of the
+more southerly islands on which the city stands, fitted up as a
+miniature landscape, its lilliputian hills and vales being the only ones
+the Venetians ever see. The intercourse betwixt Venice and the Continent
+has no doubt become more frequent since the opening of the railway; but
+formerly it was not uncommon to find persons who had never been on the
+land, and who had no notion of ploughs, waggons, carts, gardens, and a
+hundred other things that seem quite inseparable from the existence of a
+nation. Twilight came, walking with noiseless sandals on the seas. A
+delicious light mantled the horizon; the domes of the city stood up with
+silent sublimity into the sky; and over them floated, in the deep
+azure, a young moon, thin as a single thread, and bright as the polished
+steel.
+
+                   "A silver bow,
+ New bent in heaven."
+
+When darkness fell on the Lagunes, the glories of the piazza of San
+Marco again blazed forth. What with cafes and countless lamps, a flood
+of light fell upon the marble pavement, on which some ten or twelve
+thousand people, rich and poor, were assembled, and were being regaled
+with occasional airs from a numerous band. The Sabbath closed in the
+Adriatic not altogether so tranquilly as it had opened.
+
+The Venetians have long been famous for their peculiar skill in
+combining devotion with pleasure,--more devout than home in the morning,
+and gayer than Paris in the evening. Such has long been the character of
+the Queen of the Adriatic. She has been truly, as briefly described by
+the poet,--
+
+ "The revel of the earth, the mask of Italy!"
+
+Once a better destiny appeared to be about to dawn on Venice. In the
+sixteenth century the Reformation knocked at her gates, and for a moment
+it seemed as if these gates were to be opened, and the stranger
+admitted. Had it been so, the chair of her Doge would not now have been
+empty, nor would Austrian manacles have been pressing upon her limbs.
+"The evangelical doctrine had made such progress," writes Dr M'Crie, "in
+the city of Venice, between the years 1530 and 1542, that its friends,
+who had hitherto met in private for mutual instruction and religious
+exercises, held deliberations on the propriety of organizing themselves
+into regular congregations, and assembling in public." Several members
+of the Senate were favourable to it, and hopes were entertained at one
+time that the authority of that body would be interposed in its behalf.
+This hope was strengthened by the fact, that when Ochino ascended the
+pulpit, "the whole city ran in crowds to hear their favourite preacher."
+But, alas! the hope was delusive. It was the Inquisition, not the
+Reformation, to which Venice opened her gates; and when I surveyed her
+calm and beautiful Lagunes, my emotions partook at once of grief and
+exultation,--grief at the remembrance of the many midnight tragedies
+enacted on them, and exultation at the thought, that in the seas of
+Venice there sleeps much holy dust awaiting the resurrection of the
+just. "Drowning was the mode of death to which they doomed the
+Protestants," says Dr M'Crie, "either because it was less cruel and
+odious than committing them to the flames, or because it accorded with
+the customs of Venice. But if the _autos da fe_ of the Queen of the
+Adriatic were less barbarous than those of Spain, the solitude and
+silence with which they were accompanied were calculated to excite the
+deepest horror. At the dead hour of midnight the prisoner was taken from
+his cell, and put into a gondola or Venetian boat, attended only,
+besides the sailors, by a single priest, to act as confessor. He was
+rowed out into the sea, beyond the Two Castles, where another boat was
+in waiting. A plank was then laid across the two gondolas, upon which
+the prisoner, having his body chained, and a heavy stone affixed to his
+feet, was placed; and, on a signal given, the gondolas retiring from one
+another, he was precipitated into the deep." "We can do nothing against
+the truth," says the apostle. Venice is rotting in her Lagunes: the
+Reformation, shaking off the chains with which men attempted to bind it,
+is starting on a new career of progress.
+
+Next morning, at breakfast in my hotel, formerly the palace of the
+Giustiniani, I met a young Englishman, who had just come from Rome. He
+had the misfortune to be of the same name with one on the "suspected
+list," and for this offence he was arrested on entering the Austrian
+territory; and, though allowed to come on to Venice, his passport was
+taken from him, and his journey to England, which he meant to make by
+way of Trieste and Vienna, stopped. The list to which I have referred,
+which is kept at all the continental police offices, and which the eye
+of policeman or sbirro only can see, has created a sort of inquisition
+for Europe. The poor traveller has no means of knowing who has denounced
+him, or why; and wherever he goes, he finds a vague suspicion
+surrounding him, which he can neither penetrate nor clear up, and which
+exposes him to numberless and by no means petty annoyances. I
+accompanied my friend, after breakfast, to the _Prefecture_, to transact
+my own passport matters, and was glad to find that the authorities were
+now satisfied that he was not the same man who figured on the black
+list. Still they had no apology, no reparation, to offer him: on the
+contrary, he was informed that he must submit to a detention of two or
+three days more, till his passport should be forwarded from the
+provincial office where it was lying. His misfortune was my advantage,
+for it gave me an intelligent and obliging companion for the rest of the
+day; and we immediately set out to visit together all the great objects
+in Venice. It would be preposterous to dwell on these, for an hundred
+pens have already described them better; and my object is to advert to
+one great lesson which this fallen city,--for the sea, which once was
+the bulwark and throne of Venice, is now her prison,--teaches.
+
+Betaking ourselves to a gondola, we passed down the Giudecca, Canal. We
+much admired--as who would not?--the-noble palaces which on either hand
+rose so proudly from the bosom of the deep, yet invested with an air of
+silent desolation, which made the heart sad, even while their beauty
+delighted the eye. We disembarked at the stairs of the _piazzetta_ of S.
+Mark, and repaired to the Doge's palace,--the dwelling of a line of
+rulers haughtier than kings, and the throne of a republic more
+oppressive than tyrannies. We walked through its truly majestic halls,
+glowing with great paintings from Venetian history; and visited its
+senatorial chamber, and saw the vacant places of its nobles, and the
+empty chair of its Doge. There was here no lack of materials for
+moralizing, had time permitted. She that sat as a Queen upon the
+waves,--that said, "I am of perfect beauty,"--that sent her fleets to
+the ends of the earth, and gathered to her the riches and glory of all
+nations,--alas! how is she fallen! "The princes of the sea" have "come
+down from their thrones, and" laid "away their robes, and put off their
+broidered garments." "What city is like" Venice,--"like the destroyed in
+the midst of the sea!"
+
+We passed out between the famous stone lions, which, even so late as the
+end of the last century, no Venetian could look on but with terror.
+There they sat, with open jaws, displaying their fearfully significant
+superscription, "_Denunzie secrete_,"--realizing the poet's idea of
+republics guarded by dragons and lions. The use of these guardian lions
+the Venetians knew but too well. Accusations dropped by spies and
+informers into their open mouths, were received in a chamber below. Thus
+the bolt fell upon the unsuspicious citizen, but the hand from which it
+came remained invisible. Crossing by the "bridge of sighs,"--the canal,
+_Rio de Palazzo_, which runs behind the ducal palace,--we entered the
+state prisons of Venice. In the dim light I could discern what seemed a
+labyrinth of long narrow passages; traversing which, we arrived at the
+dungeons. I entered one of them: it was vaulted all round; and its only
+furniture, besides a ring and chain, was a small platform of boards,
+about half a foot from the floor, which served as the prisoner's bed. In
+the wall of the cell was a small aperture, by which the light might be
+made to stream in upon the prisoner, when the jailor did not wish to
+enter, simply by placing the lamp in an opposite niche in the passage.
+Here crime, despair, madness, and sometimes innocence, have dwelt.
+Horrible secrets seemed to hover about its roof, and float in its air,
+and to be ready to break upon me from every stone of the dungeon. I
+longed, yet trembled, to hear them. But silent they are, and silent they
+will remain, till that day when "the sea shall give up its dead." There
+are yet lower dungeons, deep beneath water-mark, but I was told that
+these are now walled up.
+
+We emerged again upon the marble piazzetta; and more welcome than ever
+was the bright light, and the noble grace of the buildings. At its
+southern extremity, where the piazzetta looks out upon the Adriatic, are
+two stately granite columns; the one surmounted by St Theodore, and the
+other by the lion of St Mark. These are the two gods of Venice. They
+were to the Republic what the two calves were to Israel,--their
+all-powerful protectors; and so devoutly did the Venetians worship them,
+that even the god of the Seven Hills became jealous of them. "The
+Venetians in general care little about God," says an old traveller,
+"less about the Pope, but a great deal about St Mark." St Theodore
+sheltered the Republic in its infancy; but when it grew to greatness, it
+deemed it unbecoming its dignity to have only a subordinate for its
+tutelar deity. Accordingly, Venice sought and obtained a god of the
+first water. The Republic brought over the body of St Mark, enshrined it
+in a magnificent church, and left its former patron no alternative but
+to cross the Lagunes, or occupy a second place.
+
+Before bidding adieu to the piazza of St Mark, around which there
+hovers so many historic memories, and which every style of architecture,
+from the Greek and the Byzantine down to the Gotho-Italian, has met to
+decorate, and which, we may add, in point of noble grace and chaste
+beauty is perhaps not excelled in the world, we must be allowed to
+mention one object, which appeared to us strangely out of keeping with
+the spot and its edifices. It is the tall Gothic tower that rises
+opposite the Byzantine front of S. Mark's Cathedral. It attains a height
+of upwards of three hundred feet, and is used for various purposes,
+which, however, it could serve equally well in some other part of
+Venice. It strikes one the more, that it is the one deformity of the
+place. It reminded me of the entrance of a clown at a royal levee, or
+the appearance of harlequin in a tragedy.
+
+Betaking ourselves again to a gondola, and gliding noiselessly along the
+grand canal,--
+
+ "For silent rows the songless gondolier,"
+
+we visited the _Academia delle Belle Arte_. It resembled a great and
+elaborately compiled work on painting, and I could there read off the
+history of the rise and progress of the art in Venice. The several
+galleries were arranged, like the successive chapters of a book, in
+chronological order, beginning with the infancy of the art, and going on
+to its full noon, under the great masters of the Lombard
+school,--Titian, Paul Veronese, Tintoretto, and others. The pictures of
+the inner saloons were truly magnificent; but on these I do not dwell.
+
+Let us sit down here, in the midst of the seas, and meditate a little on
+the great _moral_ of Venice. We shall let the poet state the case:--
+
+                       "Her daughters had their dowers
+ From spoils of nations, and the exhaustless East
+ Poured in her lap all gems in sparkling showers.
+ In purple was she robed, and of her feast
+ Monarchs partook, and deem'd their dignity increased."
+
+But now, after power, wealth, empire, have come corruption, slavery,
+ruin; and Venice,--
+
+ "Her thirteen hundred years of freedom done,
+ Sinks, like a sea-weed, into whence she rose."
+
+But the course which Venice has run is that of all States which have yet
+appeared in the world. History is but a roll of defunct empires, whose
+career has been alike; and Venice and Rome are but the latest names on
+the list. Egypt, Chaldea, Tyre, Greece, Rome,--to all, as if by an
+inevitable law, there came, after the day of civilization and empire,
+the night of barbarism and slavery. This has been repeated again and
+again, till the world has come to accept of it as its established
+course. We see States emerging from infancy and weakness slowly and
+laboriously, becoming rich, enlightened, powerful; and the moment they
+seemed to have perfected their civilization, and consolidated their
+power, they begin to fall. The past history of our race is but a history
+of efforts, successful up to a certain point, but only to a certain
+point; for whenever that point has been reached, all the fruits of past
+labour,--all the accumulations of legislators, philosophers, and
+warriors,--have been swept away, and the human family have found that
+they had to begin the same laborious process over again,--to toil
+upwards from the same gulph, to be overtaken by the same disaster.
+History has been simply a series of ever-recurring cycles, ending in
+barbarism. This is a discouraging aspect of human affairs, and throws a
+doubtful shadow upon the future; but it is the aspect in which history
+exhibits them. The Etrurian tombs speak of an era of civilization and
+power succeeded by barbarism. The mounds of Nineveh speak of a similar
+revolution. The day of Greek glory sank at last in unbroken night. At
+the fall of the Roman empire, barbarism overspread Europe; and now the
+cycle appears to have come round to the nations of modern Europe. Since
+the middle of last century there has been a marked and fearfully rapid
+decline in all the States of continental Europe. The entire region south
+of the Alps, including the once powerful kingdoms of Italy and Spain, is
+sunk in slavery and barbarism. France alone retains its civilization;
+but how long is it likely to retain it, with its strength undermined by
+revolution, and its liberties completely prostrated? Niebuhr has given
+expression in his works to his decided opinion, _that the dark ages are
+returning_. And are we not at this moment witnessing an attempted
+repetition of the Gothic invasion of the fourth century, in the
+barbarian north, which is pressing with ever-growing weight upon the
+feeble barrier of the East?
+
+                         "Nations melt
+ From power's high pinnacle, when they have felt
+ The sunshine for a while, and downward go
+ Like lauwine loosen'd from the mountain's belt."
+
+But why is this? It would almost seem, when we look at these examples
+and facts, as if there were some malignant influence sporting with the
+world's progress,--some adverse power fighting against man, baulking all
+his efforts at self-advancement, and compelling him, Sysiphus-like, to
+roll the stone eternally. Has the Creator set limits to the life of
+kingdoms, as to that of man? Certain it is, they have seldom survived
+their twelfth century. The most part have died at or about their twelve
+hundred and sixtieth year. Is this the "three-score-and-ten" of nations,
+beyond which they cannot pass?
+
+The common explanation of the death of nations is, that power begets
+wealth, wealth luxury, and luxury feebleness and ruin. But we are unable
+to accept this as a satisfactory account of the matter. It appears a
+mere _statement_ of the fact,--not a _solution_ of it. It is evidently
+the design of Providence that nations should live happily in the
+abundant enjoyment of all good things; and that every human being should
+have all that is good for him, of what the earth produces, and the
+labour of man can create. Then, why should affluence, and the other
+accessories of power, have so uniformly a corrupting and dissolving
+effect upon society? This the common theory leaves unexplained. There is
+no necessary connection betwixt the enjoyment of abundance and the
+corruption of nations. The Creator surely has not ordained laws which
+must necessarily result in the death of society.
+
+The real solution, we think, it is not difficult to find. All religions,
+one excepted, which have hitherto appeared in the world, have been
+unable to hold the balance between the _intellect_ and the _conscience_
+beyond a certain stage; and therefore, all kingdoms which have arisen
+hitherto have been unable to exist beyond a certain term. So long as a
+nation is in its childhood, a false religion affords room enough for the
+free play of its intellect. Its religion being regarded as true and
+authoritative, the conscience of the nation is controlled by it. So long
+as conscience is upheld, law has authority, individual and social virtue
+is maintained, and the nation goes on acquiring power, amassing wealth,
+and increasing knowledge. But whenever it attains a certain stage of
+enlightenment, and a certain power of independent thinking, it begins to
+canvass the claims of that religion which formerly awed it. It
+discovers its falsehood, the national conscience breaks loose, and an
+era of scepticism ensues. With the destruction of conscience and the
+rise of scepticism, law loses its authority, individual honour and
+social virtue decline, and slavery or anarchy complete the ruin of the
+state. This is the course which the nations of the world have hitherto
+run. They have uniformly begun to decline, not when they attained a
+certain amount of power or of wealth, but when they attained such an
+amount of intellectual development as set free the national conscience
+from the restraints of religion, or what professed to be so. No false
+religion can carry a nation beyond a certain point; because no such
+religion can stand before a certain stage of light and inquiry, which is
+sure to be reached; and when that stage is reached,--in other words,
+whenever the intellect dissolves the bonds of conscience,--the basis of
+all authority and order is razed, and from that moment national decline
+begins. Hence, in all nations an era of scepticism has been
+contemporaneous with an era of decay.
+
+Let us take the ancient Romans as an example. In the youth of their
+nation their gods were revered; and in the existence of a national
+conscience, a basis was found for law and virtue; and while these lasted
+the empire flourished. But by and by the genius of its great thinkers
+leavened the nation; an era of scepticism ensued; that scepticism
+inaugurated an age of feeble laws and strong passions; and the
+declension which set in issued at length in downright barbarism.
+
+Papal Rome has run the very same course. The feeble intellect of the
+European nations accepted Romanism as a religion, just as the Romans
+before them had accepted of paganism. But the Reformation introduced a
+period of growing enlightenment and independent thinking; and by the end
+of the eighteenth century, Romanism had shared the fate which paganism
+had done before it. The masses of Europe generally had lost faith in it
+as a religion; then came the atheism of the French school; an era of
+feeble laws and strong passions again returned; the selfish and
+isolating principle came into play; and at this moment the nations of
+continental Europe are rapidly sinking into barbarism. Thus, the history
+of the race under the reign of the false religions exhibits but
+alternating fits of superstition and scepticism, with their
+corresponding eras of civilization and barbarism. And it necessarily
+must be so; because, these religions not being compatible with the
+indefinite extension of man's knowledge, they do not secure the
+continued action and authority of conscience; and without conscience,
+national progress, and even existence, is impossible.
+
+Is there, then, no immortality in reserve for nations? Must they
+continue to die? and must the history of our race in all time coming be
+just what it has been in all time past,--a series of rapidly alternating
+epochs of partial civilization and destructive barbarism? No. He who is
+the former of society is the author of the Bible; and we may be sure
+that there is a beautiful meetness and harmony between the laws of the
+one and the doctrine of the other. Christianity alone can enable society
+to fulfil its terrestrial destiny, because it alone is true, and, being
+true, it admits of the utmost advancement of the human understanding. In
+its case the centrifugal force of the intellect can never overcome the
+centripetal power of the conscience. It has nothing to fear from the
+advance of science. It keeps pace with the human mind, however rapid its
+progress. Nay, more; the more the human mind is enlarged, the more
+apparent becomes the truth of Christianity, and, by consequence, the
+greater becomes the authority of conscience. Under the reign of
+Christianity, then, there is no point in the onward progress of society
+where conscience dissolves, and leaves man and nations devoid of virtue;
+there is no point where conviction compels man to become a sceptic, and
+scepticism pulls him down into barbarism. As the atmosphere which
+surrounds our planet supplies the vital element alike to the full-grown
+man and to the infant, so Christianity supplies the breath of life to
+society in all its stages,--in its full-grown manhood, as well as in its
+immature infancy. There is more meaning than the world has yet
+understood in the statement that the Gospel has brought "life and
+immortality to light." Its Divine Founder introduced upon the stage that
+system which is the _life_ of nations. The world does not furnish an
+instance of a nation that has continued to be Christian, that has
+perished. We believe the thing to be impossible. While great Rome has
+gone down, and Venice sits in widowed glory on the Adriatic, the poor
+Waldenses are still a people. The world tried but could not extinguish
+them. Christianity is synonymous with life: it gives immortality to
+nations here, and to the individual hereafter. Hence Daniel, when
+unfolding the state of the world in the last age, gives us to understand
+that, when once thoroughly Christianized, society will no longer be
+overwhelmed by those periodic lapses into barbarism which in every
+former age has set limits to the progress of States. "And in the days of
+those kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom which shall never
+be destroyed." Unlike every preceding era, immortality will then be the
+chief characteristic of nations.
+
+But must it not strike every one, in connection with this subject, that
+in proportion as Romanism developes itself, the nations under its sway
+sink the deeper into barbarism? This fact Romanist writers now see and
+bewail. What stronger condemnation of their system could they pronounce?
+For surely if religion be of God, it must, like all else that comes
+from Him, be beneficent in its influence. He who ordained the sun to
+irradiate the earth with his light, and fructify it with his warmth,
+would not have given a religion that fetters the understanding and
+barbarises the species. And yet, if Romanism be divine, He has done so;
+for the champions of that Church, compelled by the irresistible logic of
+facts, now tacitly acknowledge that a decaying civilization is following
+in the wake of Roman Catholicism in every part of the world. Listen, for
+instance, to the following confession of M. Michel Chevalier, in the
+_Journal des Debats_:--
+
+"I cannot shut my eyes to the facts that militate against the influence
+of the Catholic spirit,--facts which have transpired more especially
+during the last third of a century, and which are still in
+progress,--facts that are fitted to excite in every mind that
+sympathises with the Catholic cause, the most lively apprehensions. On
+comparing the respective progress made since 1814 by non-Catholic
+Christian nations, with the advancement of power attained by Catholic
+nations, one is struck with astonishment at the disproportion. England
+and the United States, which are Protestant Powers, and Russia, a Greek
+Power, have assumed to an incalculable degree the dominion of immense
+regions, destined to be densely peopled, and already teeming with a
+large population. England has nearly conquered all those vast and
+populous regions known under the generic name of India. In America she
+has diffused civilization to the extreme north, in the deserts of Upper
+Canada. Through the toil of her children, she has taken possession of
+every point and position of an island,--New Holland (Australia),--which
+is as large as a continent; and she has been sending forth her fresh
+shoots over all the archipelagos with which the great ocean is studded.
+The United States have swollen out to a prodigious extent, in wealth
+and possessions, over the surface of their ancient domain. They have,
+moreover, enlarged on all sides the limits of that domain, anciently
+confined to a narrow stripe along the shores of the Atlantic. They now
+sit on the two oceans. San Francisco has become the pendant of New York,
+and promises speedily to rival it in its destinies. They have proved
+their superiority over the Catholic nations of the New World, and have
+subjected them to a dictatorship which admits of no farther dispute. To
+the authority of these two Powers,--England and the United
+States,--after an attempt made by the former on China, the two most
+renowned empires of the East,--empires which represent nearly the
+numerical half of the human race,--China and Japan,--seem to be on the
+point of yielding. Russia, again, appears to be assuming every day a
+position of growing importance in Europe. During all this time, what way
+has been made by the Catholic nations? The foremost of them all, the
+most compact, the most glorious,--France,--which seemed fifty years ago
+to have mounted the throne of civilization, has seen, through a course
+of strange disasters, her sceptre shivered and her power dissolved. Once
+and again has she risen to her feet, with noble courage and indomitable
+energy; but every time, as all expected to see her take a rapid flight
+upward, fate has sent her, as a curse from God, a revolution to paralyze
+her efforts, and make her miserably fall back. Unquestionably, since
+1789 the balance of power between Catholic civilization and non-Catholic
+civilization has been reversed."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+PADUA.
+
+     Doves of Venice--Re-cross the Lagunes--Padua--Wretchedness of
+     Interior--Misery of its Inhabitants--Splendour of its Churches--The
+     Shrine of St Antony--His Sermon to a Congregation of Fishes--A
+     Restaurant in Padua--Reach the Po at Day-break--Enter Peter's
+     Patrimony--Find the Apostles again become Fishermen and
+     Tax-Gatherers--Arrest--Liberty.
+
+
+Contenting myself with a hasty perusal of the great work on painting
+which the academy forms, and which it had taken so many ages and so many
+various masters to produce, I returned again to the square of St Mark.
+Doves in thousands were assembled on the spot, hovering on wing at the
+windows of the houses, or covering the pavement below, at the risk, as
+it seemed, of being trodden upon by the passengers. I inquired at my
+companion what this meant. He told me that a rich old gentleman by last
+will and testament had bequeathed a certain sum to be expended in
+feeding these fowls, and that, duly as the great clock in the Gothic
+tower struck two, a certain quantity of corn was every day thrown from a
+window in the piazza. Every dove in the "Republic" is punctual to a
+minute. There doves have come to acquire a sort of sacred character,
+and it would be about as hazardous to kill a dove in Venice, as of old a
+cat in Egypt. We wish some one would do as much for the beggars, which
+are yet more numerous, and who know no more, when they get up in the
+morning, where they are to be fed, than do the fowls of heaven. Trade
+there is none; "to dig," they have no land, and, even if they had, they
+are too indolent; they want, too, the dove's wing to fly away to some
+happier country. Their seas have shut them in; their marble city is but
+a splendid prison. The story of Venice is that of Tyre over again,--her
+wealth, her glory, her luxuriousness, and now her doom. But we must
+leave her. Bidding adieu, on the stairs of St Mark, to the partner of
+the day's explorations, with a regret which those only can understand
+who have had the good fortune to meet an intelligent and estimable
+companion in a foreign land, I leaped into a gondola, and glided away,
+leaving Venice sitting in silent melancholy beauty amid her tideless
+seas.
+
+Traversing again the long bridge over the Lagunes, and the flat country
+beyond, covered with memorials of decay in the shape of dilapidated
+villas, and crossing the full-volumed Brenta, rolling on within its
+lofty embankments, I sighted the fine Tyrolean Alps on the right, and,
+after a run of twenty-four miles, the gray towers of Padua, at about a
+mile's distance from the railway, on the left.
+
+Poor Padua! Who could enter it without weeping almost. Of all the
+wretched and ruinous places I ever saw, this is the most wretched and
+ruinous,--hopelessly, incurably ruinous. Padua does, indeed, look
+imposing at a little distance. Its fine dome, its numerous towers, the
+large vine-stocks which are rooted in its soil, the air of vast
+fertility which is spread over the landscape, and the halo of former
+glory which, cloud-like, rests above it, consort well with one's
+preconceived ideas of this once illustrious seat of learning, which
+even the youth of our own land were wont to frequent; but enter
+it,--alas the dismal sight!--ruins, filth, ignorance, poverty, on every
+hand. The streets are narrow and gloomy, from being lined with heavy and
+dark arcades; the houses, which are large, and bear marks of former
+opulence, are standing in many instances untenanted. Not a few stately
+mansions have been converted into stables, or carriers' sheds, or are
+simply naked walls, which the dogs of the city, or other creatures, make
+their den. The inhabitants, pale, emaciated, and wrapt in huge cloaks,
+wander through the streets like ghosts. Were Padua a heap of ruins,
+without a single human being on or near its site, its desolation would
+be less affecting. An unbearable melancholy sat down upon me the moment
+I entered it, and the recollection oppresses me at the distance of three
+years.
+
+In the midst of all this ruin and poverty, there rise I know not how
+many duomos and churches, with fine cupolas and towers, as if they meant
+to mock the misery upon which they look. They are the repositories of
+vast wealth, in the shape of silver lamps, votive offerings, paintings,
+and marbles. To appropriate a penny of that treasure in behalf of the
+wretched beings who swarm unfed and untaught in their neighbourhood,
+would bring down upon Padua the terrible ire of their great god St
+Antony. He is there known as "Il Santo" (the saint), and has a gorgeous
+temple erected in his honour, crowned with not less than eight cupolas,
+and illuminated day and night by golden lamps and silver candlesticks,
+which burn continually before his shrine. "There are narrow clefts in
+the monument that stands over him," says Addison, "where good Catholics
+rub their beads, and smell his bones, which they say have in them a
+natural perfume, though very like apoplectic balsam; and, what would
+make one suspect that they rub the marble with it, it is observed that
+the scent is stronger in the morning than at night." Were the precious
+metals and the costly marbles which are stored up in this church
+transmuted into current coin, the whole province of Padua might be
+supplied with ploughs and other needful implements of agriculture. But
+it is better that nature alone should cultivate their fields, and that
+the Paduans should eat only what she is pleased to provide for them,
+than that, by robbing the shrine of St Antony, they should forfeit the
+good esteem of so powerful a patron, "the thrice holy Antony of Padua;
+the powerful curer of leprosy, tremendous driver away of devils,
+restorer of limbs, stupendous discoverer of lost things, great and
+wonderful defender from all dangers."
+
+The miracles and great deeds of "the saint" are recorded on the tablets
+and bas-reliefs of the church. His most memorable exploit was his
+"preaching to an assembly of fishes," whom, "when the heretics would not
+regard his preaching," says his biographer, "he called together, in the
+name of God, to hear his holy Word." The congregation and the sermon
+were both extraordinary; and, if any reader is curious to see what a
+saint could have to say to a congregation of fishes, he will find the
+oration quoted _ad longam_ in "Addison's Travels." The mule on which
+this great man rode was nearly as remarkable as his master. With a
+devotion worthy of the mule of St Antony, he left his hay, after a long
+fast, to be present at mass. The modern Paduans, from what I saw of
+them, fast quite as oft and as long as Antony's mule; whether they are
+equally punctual at mass I do not know.
+
+My stay in Padua extended only from four in the afternoon till nine at
+night. The hours wore heavily, and I sought for a restaurant where I
+might dine. I was fortunate enough at length to discover a vast hall, or
+shed I should rather say, which was used as a restaurant. Some rich and
+noble Paduan had called it his in other days; now it received as guests
+the courier and the wayfarer. Its massive walls were quite naked, and
+enclosed an apartment so spacious, that its extremities were lost in
+darkness. Some dozen of small tables, all ready for dinner being served
+upon them, occupied the floor; and some three or four persons were
+seated at dinner. I took my seat at one of the tables, and was instantly
+served with capillini soup, and the usual _et ceteras_. I made a good
+repast, despite the haunted look of the chamber. On the conclusion of my
+dinner I repaired to the market-place, and, till the hour of _diligence_
+should arrive, I began pacing the pavement beneath the shadow of the
+town-hall, which looks as if it had been built as a kind of anticipation
+of the crystal palace, and the roof of which is said to be the largest
+unsupported by pillars in the world. It covers--so the Paduans
+believe--the bones of Livy, who is claimed as a native of Padua. It was
+here Petrarch died, which has given occasion to Lazzarini to join
+together the cradle of the historian and the tomb of the poet, in the
+following lines addressed to Padua:--
+
+ Here was he born whose lasting page displays
+   Rome's brightest triumphs, and who painted best;
+   Fit style for heroes, nor to shun the test,
+   Though Grecian art should vie, and Attic lays.
+ And here thy tuneful swan, Arezzo lies,
+   Who gave his Laura deathless name; than whom
+   No bard with sweeter grace has poured the song.
+ O, happy seat! O, favoured by the skies!
+   What store and store is thine, to whom belong
+   So rich a cradle and so rich a tomb!
+
+I bought a pennyworth of grapes from one of the poor stall-keepers, and,
+in return for my coin, had my two extended palms literally heaped. I can
+safely say that the vine of Padua has not declined; the fruit was
+delicious; and, after making my way half through my purchase, I
+collected a few hungry boys, and divided the fragments amongst them.
+
+It was late and dark when, ensconced in the interior of the _diligence_,
+we trundled out of the poor ruined town. The night was dreary and
+somewhat cold; I courted sleep, but it came not. My companions were
+mostly young Englishmen, but not of the intellectual stamp of the
+companion from whom I had parted that morning on the quay of Venice.
+They appeared to be travelling about mainly to look at pictures and
+smoke cigars. As to learning anything, they ridiculed the idea of such a
+thing in a country where there "was no society." It did not seem to have
+occurred to them that it might be worth while learning how it had come
+to pass that, in a country where one stumbles at every step on the
+stupendous memorials of a past civilization and knowledge, there is now
+no society. At length, after many hours' riding, we drew up before a
+tall white house, which the gray coat and bayonet of the Croat, and the
+demand for passports, told me was a police office. It was the last
+dogana on the Austrian territory. We were next requested to leave the
+_diligence_ for a little. The day had not yet broke, but I could see
+that we were on the brink of a deep and broad river, which we were
+preparing to cross, but how, I could not discover, for I could see no
+bridge, but only something like a raft moored by the margin of the
+stream. On this frail craft we embarked, horses, _diligence_,
+passengers, and all; and, launching out upon the impetuous current, we
+reached, after a short navigation, the opposite shore. The river we had
+crossed was the Po, and the craft which had carried us over was a _pont
+colant_, or flying bridge. This was the frontier of the Papal States;
+and now, for the first time, I found myself treading the sacred soil of
+Peter's patrimony.
+
+Peter, in the days of his flesh, was a fisherman; but some of his
+brother apostles were tax-gatherers; and here was the receipt of custom
+again set up. Both "toll" and "fishing-net," I had understood, were
+forsaken when their Master called them; but on my arrival I found the
+apostles all busy at their old trades: some fishing for men at Rome; and
+others, at the frontiers, levying tribute, both of "the children" and of
+"strangers;" for on looking up, I could see by the dim light a low
+building, like an American log-house, standing at a little distance from
+the river's brink, with a huge sign-board stuck up over the door,
+emblazoned with the keys and the tiara. This told me that I was in the
+presence of the Apostolic Police-Office,--an ecclesiastical institution
+which, I doubt not, has its authority somewhere in the New Testament,
+though I cannot say that I have ever met with the passage in my readings
+in that book; but that, doubtless, is because I want the Church's
+spectacles.
+
+When one gets his name inserted in an Italian way-bill, he delivers up
+his passport to the _conducteur_, who makes it his business to have it
+viseed at the several stations which are planted thick along all the
+Italian routes,--the owner, of course, reckoning for the charges at the
+end of the journey. In accordance with this custom, our _conducteur_
+entered the shed-like building I have mentioned, to lay his way-bill and
+his passports before the officials within. In the interim, we took our
+places in the vehicle. The _conducteur_ was in no hurry to return, but I
+dreaded no evil. I had had a wakeful night; and now, throwing myself
+into my nook in the _diligence_, the stillness favoured sleep, and I was
+half unconscious, when I found some one pulling at my shoulder, and
+calling on me to leave the carriage. "What is the matter?" I inquired.
+"Your passport is not _en regle_," was the reply. "My passport not
+right!" I answered in astonishment; "it has been viseed at every
+police-office betwixt and London; and especially at those of Austria,
+under whose suzerainty the territory of Ferrara is, and no one may
+prevent me entering the Papal States." The man coolly replied, "You
+cannot go an inch farther with us;" and proceeded to take down my
+luggage, and deposit it on the bank. I stept out, and bade the man
+conduct me to the people inside. Passing under the papal arms, we
+threaded a long narrow passage,--turned to the left,--traversed another
+long passage,--turned to the left again, and stood in a little chamber
+dimly lighted by a solitary lamp. The apartment was divided by a bench,
+behind which sat two persons,--the one a little withered old man, with
+small piercing eyes, and the other very considerably younger and taller,
+and with a face on which anxiety or mistrust had written fewer sinister
+lines. They quickly told me that my passport was not right, and that I
+could not enter the Papal States. I asked them to hand me the little
+volume; and, turning over its pages, I traced with them my progress from
+London to the Po, and showed that, on the testimony of every
+passport-office and legation, I was a good man and true up to the
+further banks of their river; and that if I was other now, I must have
+become so in crossing, or since touching their soil. They gave me to
+understand, in reply, that all these testimonies went for nothing,
+seeing I wanted the _imprimatur_ of the papal consul in Venice. I
+assured them that omission was owing to misinformation I had received in
+Venice; that the Valet de Place (an authority in all such matters) at
+the Albergo dell' Europa had assured me that the two visees I had got in
+Venice were quite enough; and that the pontifical visee could be
+obtained in Ferrara or Bologna; and entreated them to permit me to go on
+to Ferrara, where I would lay my passport before the authorities, and
+have the error rectified. I shall never forget the emphasis with which
+the younger of the two officials replied, "Non possum." I had often
+declined "possum" to my old schoolmaster in former days, little dreaming
+that I was to hear the vocable pronounced with such terrible meaning in
+a little cell, at day-break, on the banks of the Po. The postilion
+cracked his whip,--I saw the _diligence_ move off,--and the sound of its
+retreating wheels seemed like a farewell to friends and home. A sad,
+desolate feeling weighed upon me as I turned to the faces of the
+police-officers and gendarmes in whose power I was left. We all went
+back together into the little apartment of the passport office, where I
+opened a conversation with them, in order to discover what was to be
+done with me,--whether I was to be sent back to Venice, or home to
+England, or simply thrown into the Po. I made rapid progress in my
+Italian studies that day; and had it been my hap to be arrested a dozen
+days on end by the papal authorities, I should by that time have been a
+fluent Italian speaker. The result of much questioning and explanation
+was, that if I liked to forward a petition to the authorities in
+Ferrara, accompanied by my passport, I should be permitted to wait where
+I was till an answer could be returned. It was my only alternative; and,
+hiring a special messenger, I sent him off with my passport, and a
+petition craving permission to enter "the States," addressed to the
+Pontifical Legation at Ferrara. Meanwhile, I had a gendarme to take care
+of me.
+
+To while away the time, I sallied out, and sauntered along the banks of
+the river. It was now full day: and the cheerful light, and the noble
+face of the Po,--here a superb stream, equal almost to the Rhine at
+Cologne,--rolling on to the Adriatic, chased away my pensiveness. The
+river here flows between lofty embankments,--the adjoining lands being
+below its level, and reminding one of Holland; and were any
+extraordinary inundation to happen among the Alps, and force the
+embankments of the Po, the territory around Ferrara, if not also that
+city itself, would infallibly be drowned. A few lighters and small
+craft, lifting their sails to the morning sun, were floating down the
+current; and here and there on the banks was a white villa,--the remains
+of that noble setting of palaces which adorned the Po when the House of
+D'Este vied in wealth and splendour with the larger courts of Europe.
+Prisoners must have breakfast; and I found a poor cafe in the little
+village, where I got a cup of coffee and an egg,--the latter unboiled,
+by the way; and discussed my meal in presence of the gendarme, who sat
+opposite me.
+
+Toward noon the messenger returned, and to my joy brought back the papal
+permission to enter "the States." Light and short as my constraint had
+been, it was sufficient to make me feel what a magic influence is in
+liberty. I could again go whither I would; and the poor village of Ponte
+Lagoscuro, and even the faces of the two officials, assumed a kindlier
+aspect. Bidding these last, whose Italian urbanity had won upon me,
+adieu, I started on foot for Ferrara, which lay on the plain some five
+miles in advance. The road thither was a magnificent one; but I learned
+afterwards that I had Napoleon to thank for it; but alas, what a picture
+the country presented! The water was allowed to stagnate along the path,
+and a thick, green scurf had gathered upon it. The rich black soil was
+covered with weeds, and the few houses I saw were mere hovels. The sun
+shone brilliantly, however, and strove to gild this scene of neglect and
+wretchedness. The day was the 28th of October, and the heat was that of
+a choice summer day in Scotland, with a much balmier air. I hurried on
+along the deserted road, and soon, on emerging from a wood, sighted the
+town of Ferrara, which stretched along the plain in a low line of
+roofs, with a few towers breaking the uniformity. Presenting my "pass"
+to the sentinel at the barrier, I entered the city in which Calvin had
+found an asylum and Tasso a prison.
+
+Poor fallen Ferrara! Commerce, learning, the arts, religion, had by
+turns shed a glory upon it. Now all is over; and where the "Queen of the
+Po" had been, there sits on the darkened plain a poor city, mouldering
+into dust, with the silence of a sepulchre around it. I entered the
+suburbs, but sound of human voice there was none; not a single human
+being could I see. It might be ages since these streets were trodden,
+for aught that appeared. The doors were closed, and the windows were
+stanchioned with iron. In many cases there was neither door nor window;
+but the house stood open to receive the wind or rain, the fowls of
+heaven, or the dogs of the city, if any such there were. I passed on,
+and drew nigh the centre of the town; and now there began to be visible
+some signs of vitality. Struck at the extremities, life had retreated to
+the heart. A square castellated building of red brick, surrounded on all
+sides by a deep moat, filled with the water of the Po, and guarded by
+Austrian soldiers, upreared its towers before me. This was the Papal
+Legation. I entered it, and found my passport waiting me; and the tiara
+and the keys, emblazoned on its pages, told me that I was free of the
+Papal States.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+FERRARA.
+
+     Lovely in its Ruins--Number and Wealth of its Churches--Tasso's
+     Prison--Renee's Palace--Calvin's Chamber--Influence of Woman on the
+     Reformation--Renee and her Band--Re-union above--Utter Decay of its
+     Trade, its Manufactures, its Knowledge.
+
+
+Even in its ruins Ferrara is lovely. It wears in the tomb the sunset
+hues of beauty. Its streets run out in straight lines, and are of noble
+breadth and length. Unencumbered with the heavy arcades that darken
+Padua, the marble fronts of its palaces rise to a goodly height, covered
+with rich but exceedingly sweet and chaste designs. On the stone of
+their pilasters and door-posts the ilex puts forth its leaf, and the
+vine its grapes; and the carving is as fresh and sharp, in many
+instances, as if the chisel were but newly laid aside. But it is
+melancholy to see the long grass waving on its causeways, and the ivy
+clinging to the deserted doorways and balconies of palatial residences,
+and to hear the echoes of one's foot sounding drearily in the empty
+street.
+
+I passed the afternoon in visiting the churches. There is no end of
+these, and night fell before I had got half over them. It amazes one to
+find in the midst of ruins such noble buildings, overflowing with
+wealth. Pictures, statuary, marbles, and precious metals, dazzle, and at
+last weary, the traveller, and form a strange contrast to the desolate
+fields, the undrained swamps, the mouldering tenements, and the beggarly
+population, that are collected around them. Of the churches of Ferrara,
+we may say as Addison of the shrine of Loretto, "It is indeed an amazing
+thing to see such a prodigious quantity of riches lie dead and
+untouched, in the midst of so much poverty and misery as reign on all
+sides of them. If these riches were all turned into current coin, and
+employed in commerce, they would make Italy the most flourishing country
+in the world."
+
+Two objects specially invited my attention in Ferrara: the one was the
+prison of Tasso,--the other the palace of Renee, the Duchess of Ferrara.
+Tasso's prison is a mere vault in the courtyard of the hospital of St
+Anna, built up at one end with a brick wall, and closed at the other by
+a low and strong door. The floor is so damp that it yields to the foot;
+and the arched roof is so low that there is barely room to stand
+upright. I strongly doubt whether Tasso, or any other man, could have
+passed seven years in this cell and come out alive. It is written all
+over within and without with names, some of them illustrious ones.
+"Byron" is conspicuous in the crowd, cut in strong square characters in
+the stone; and near him is "Lamartine," in more graceful but smaller
+letters.
+
+Tasso seems to have regarded his country as a prisoner not less than
+himself, and to have strung his harp at times to bewail its captivity.
+The dungeon "in which Alphonso bade his poet dwell" was dreary enough,
+but that of Italy was drearier still; for it is Italy, fully more than
+the poet, that may be regarded as speaking in the following lines, which
+furnish evidence that, along with Dante, and all the great minds of the
+period, Torquato Tasso had seen the hollowness of the Papal Church, and
+felt the galling bondage which that Church inflicts on both the
+intellect and the soul.
+
+ "O God, from this Egyptian land of woe,
+   Teeming with idols and their monstrous train,
+   O'er which the galling yoke that I sustain
+   Like Nilus makes my tears to overflow,
+ To thee, her land of rest, my soul would go:
+   But who, ah! who will break my servile chain?
+   Who through the deep, and o'er the desert plain
+   Will aid and cheer me, and the path will show?
+ Shall God, indeed, the fowls and manna strew,--
+   My daily bread? and dare I to implore
+   Thy pillar and thy cloud to guide me, Lord?
+ Yes, he may hope for all who trusts thy word.
+   O then thy miracles in me renew;
+   Thine be the glory, and my boasting o'er."
+
+From the reputed prison of Tasso I went to see the roof which had
+sheltered the presiding intellect of the Reformation,--John Calvin.
+Tasso's glory is like a star, burning with a lovely light in the deep
+azure; Calvin's is like the sun, whose waxing splendour is irradiating
+two hemispheres. The palace of the illustrious Renee,--now the Austrian
+and Papal Legations, and literally a barrack for soldiers,--has no
+pretensions to beauty. Amid the graceful but decaying fabrics of the
+city, it erects its square unadorned mass of dull red, edged with a
+strip of lawn, a few cypresses, and a moat brim-full of water, which not
+only surrounds it on all sides, but intersects it by means of arches,
+and makes the castle almost a miniature of Venice. Good part of the
+interior is occupied as passport offices and guard-rooms. The staircase
+is of noble dimensions. Some of the rooms are princely, their panellings
+being mostly covered with paintings, but not of the first excellence.
+The small room in the southern quadrangle which Calvin is said to have
+occupied is now fitted up as an oratory; and a very pretty little
+show-room it is, with its marble altar-piece, its silver candlesticks,
+its crucifixes, and, in short, all the paraphernalia of such places. If
+there be any efficacy in holy water, the little chamber must by this
+time be effectually cleansed from the sad defilement of the
+arch-heretic.
+
+Ferrara is indissolubly connected with the Reformation in Italy. In
+fact, it was the centre of the movement in the south of the Alps. This
+distinction it owed to its being the residence of Renee, the daughter of
+Louis XII. of France, and wife of Hercules II., Duke of Ferrara. This
+lady, to a knowledge of the ancient classics and contemporary
+literature, and the most amiable and generous dispositions, added a deep
+love of evangelical truth, and gladly extended shelter to the friends of
+the Reformation, whom persecution now forced to leave their native
+country. Thus there came to be assembled round her a galaxy of talent,
+learning, and piety. If we except John Calvin, who was known during his
+brief sojourn of three months as Charles Heppeville, the two noblest
+minds in this illustrious band were women,--Renee and Olympia Morata.
+The cause of the Reformation lies under great obligations to woman;
+though the part she acted in that great drama has never been
+sufficiently acknowledged.[2] In the heart of woman, when sanctified by
+Divine grace, there lies concealed under a veil of gentleness and
+apparent timidity, a fund of fortitude and lofty resolution, which
+requires a fitting occasion to draw it forth; but when that occasion
+arrives, there is seen the strength and grandeur of the female
+character. For woman, whatever is noble, beautiful, and sublime, has
+peculiar attractions. A just cause, overborne by power or numbers,
+appeals peculiarly to her unselfish nature; and thus it has happened
+that the Reformation sometimes found in woman its most devoted disciple
+and its most undaunted champion. Who can tell how much the firmness and
+perseverance of the more prominent actors in these struggles were owing
+to her wise and affectionate counsels? And not only has she been the
+counsellor of man,--she has willingly shared his sufferings; and the
+same deep sensibility which renders her so shrinking on ordinary
+occasions, has at these times given her unconquerable strength, and
+raised her above the desolation of a prison,--above the shame and horror
+of a scaffold. Of such mould were the two illustrious women I have
+mentioned,--the accomplished Renee, the daughter of a king of France,
+and the yet more accomplished Olympia Morata, the daughter of a
+schoolmaster and citizen of Mantua.
+
+To me these halls were sacred, for the feet which had trodden them three
+centuries ago. They were thronged with Austrian soldiers and passport
+officials; but I could people them with the mighty dead. How often had
+Renee assembled her noble band in this very chamber! How often here had
+that illustrious circle consulted on the steps proper to be taken for
+advancing their great cause! How often had they indulged alternate fears
+and hopes, as they thought now of the power arrayed against them, and
+now of the progress of the truth, and the confessors it was calling to
+its aid in every city of Italy! And when the deliberations and prayers
+of the day were ended, they would assemble on this lawn, to enjoy, under
+these cypresses, the delicious softness of the Italian twilight. Ah! who
+can tell the exquisite sweetness of such re-unions! and how
+inexpressibly soothing and welcome to men whom persecution had forced
+to flee from their native land, must it have been to find so secure a
+haven as this so unexpectedly opened to receive them! But ah! too soon
+were they forced out upon an ocean of storms. They were driven to
+different countries and to various fates,--some to a life of exhausting
+labour and conflict, some to exile, and some to the stake. But all this
+is over now: they dread the dungeon and the stake no more; they are
+wanderers no longer, having come to a land of rest. Renee has once again
+gathered her bright band around her, under skies whose light no cloud
+shall ever darken, and whose calm no storm shall ever ruffle. But do
+they not still remember and still speak of the consultations and sweet
+communings which they had together under the shady cypress trees, and
+the still, rich twilights of Ferrara?
+
+Ferrara was the first town subject to the Pope I had entered; and I had
+here an opportunity of marking the peculiar benefits which attend
+infallible government. This city is only less wretched than Padua; and
+the difference seems to lie rather in the more cheerful look of its
+buildings, than in any superior wealth or comfort enjoyed by its people.
+Its trade is equally ruined; it is even more empty of inhabitants; its
+walls, of seven miles' circuit, enclose but a handful of men, and these
+have a wasted and sickly look, owing to the unhealthy character of the
+country around. The view from its ramparts reminded me of the prospect
+from the walls of York. The plain is equally level; the soil is
+naturally more rich; but the drainage and cultivation of the English
+landscape are wanting. The town once enjoyed a flourishing trade in
+hemp,--an article which found its way to our dockyards; but this branch
+of traffic now scarcely exists. The native manufactures of Ferrara have
+been ruined; and a feeble trade in corn is almost all that is left it.
+How is this? Is its soil less fertile? Has its natural canal, the Po,
+dried up? No; but the Government, afraid perhaps that its fields would
+yield too plenteously, its artizans become too ingenious, and its
+citizens too wealthy in foreign markets, has laid a heavy duty on its
+exports, and on every article of home manufacture. Hence the desolate
+Polesina without, and the extinct forges and empty workshops within, its
+walls. A city whose manufactures were met with in all the markets of
+Europe is now dependent for its own supply on the Swiss. The ruin of its
+trade dates from its annexation to the Papal States. The decay of
+intelligence has kept pace with that of trade. At the beginning of the
+sixteenth century Ferrara was one of the lights of Europe: now I know
+not that there is a single scholar in its university; and its library of
+eighty thousand volumes and nine hundred manuscripts, among which are
+the Greek palimpsests of Gregory Nazianzen and Chrysostom, and the
+manuscripts of Ariosto and Tasso, is becoming, equally with Ariosto's
+dust, which reposes in its halls, the prey of the worm.
+
+I have to thank the papal police at Ponte Lagoscuro for the opportunity
+of seeing Ferrara; for, with the bad taste which most travellers in
+Italy display on this head, I had overlooked this town, and booked
+myself right through to Bologna. I lodged at a fine old hotel, whose
+spacious apartments left me in no doubt that it had once belonged to
+some of the princely families of Ferrara. I saw there, however, men who
+had "a lean and hungry look," and not such as Caesar wished to have about
+him,--"fat, sleek-headed men, and such as sleep o' nights;" and my
+suspicions which were awakened at the time have since unfortunately been
+confirmed, for I read in the newspapers, rather more than a year ago,
+that the landlord had been shot.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+BOLOGNA AND THE APENNINES.
+
+     Road from Ferrara to Bologna--Wayside Oratories--Miserable
+     Cultivation--Barbarism of People--Aspect of Bologna--Streets,
+     Galleries, and Churches of its Interior--Decay of Art--San
+     Petronio--View of Plain from Hill behind Bologna--Tyranny of
+     Government--Night Arrests--Ruinous Taxation--Departure from
+     Bologna--Brigands--The Apennines--Storm among these Mountains--Two
+     Russian Travellers--Dinner at the Tuscan Frontier--Summit of the
+     Pass--Halt for the Night at a Country Inn--The Hostess and her
+     Company--Supper--Resume Journey next Morning--First Sight of
+     Florence.
+
+
+On the morrow at ten I took my departure for Bologna. It was sweet to
+exchange the sickly faces and unnatural silence of the city for the
+bright sun and the living trees. The road was good,--so very good, that
+it took me by surprise. It was not in keeping with the surrounding
+barbarism. Instead of a hard-bottomed, macadamized highway, which
+traversed the plain in a straight line, bordered by noble trees, I
+should have expected to find in this region of mouldering towns and
+neglected fields, a narrow, winding, rutted path, ploughed by torrents
+and obstructed by boulders; and so, I am sure, I should have done, had
+any of the native governments of Italy had the making of this road. But
+it had been designed and executed by Napoleon; and hence its excellence.
+His roads alone would have immortalized him. They remain, after all his
+victories have perished, to attest his genius. Would that that genius
+had been turned to the arts of peace! Conquerors would do well to ponder
+the eulogium pronounced on a humble tailor who built a bridge out of his
+savings,--that the world owed more to the scissors of that man than to
+the sword of some conquerors.
+
+Along the road, at short intervals, were little temples, where good
+Catholics who had a mind might perform their devotions. This reminded me
+that I was now in Peter's patrimony,--the holy land of Romanism; and
+where, it was presumed, the wayfarer would catch the spirit of devotion
+from the soil and air. The hour of prayer might be past,--I know not;
+but I saw no one in these oratories. Little shrines were perched upon
+the trees, formed sometimes of boards, at others simply of the cavity of
+the trunk; while the boughs were bent so as to form a canopy over them.
+Little images and pictures had been stuck into these shrines; but the
+rooks,--these black republicans,--like the "reds" at Rome, had waged a
+war for possession, and, pitching overboard the little gods that
+occupied them, were inhabiting in their room. The "great powers" were
+too busy, or had been so, in the restoration of greater personages, to
+take up the quarrel of these minor divinities. A strange silence and
+dreariness brooded over the region. The land seemed keeping its
+Sabbaths. The fields rested,--the villages were asleep,--the road was
+untrodden. Had one been dropt from the clouds, he would have concluded
+that it was but a century or so since the Flood, and that these were the
+rude primitive great-grandchildren of Noah, who had just found their way
+into these parts, and were slowly emerging from barbarism. The fields
+around afforded little indication of such an instrument as the plough;
+and one would have concluded from the garments of the people, that the
+loom was among the yet uninvented arts. The harnessings of the horses
+formed a curiously tangled web of thong, and rope, and thread, twisted,
+tied, and knotted. It would have puzzled OEdipus himself to discover
+how a horse could ever be got into such gear, or, being in, how it ever
+could be got out. There seemed a most extraordinary number of beggars
+and vagabonds in Peter's patrimony. A little congregation of these
+worthies waited our arrival at every village, and whined round us for
+alms so long as we remained. Others, not quite so ragged, stood aloof,
+regarding us fixedly, as if devising some pretext on which to claim a
+paul of us. There were worse characters in the neighbourhood, though
+happily we saw none of them. But at certain intervals we met the
+Austrian patrol, whose duty it was to clear the road of brigands. Peter,
+it appeared to us, kept strange company about him,--idlers, beggars,
+vagabonds, and brigands. It must vex the good man much to find his dear
+children disgracing him so in the eyes of strangers.
+
+These dismal scenes accompanied us half the way. We then entered the
+Bolognese, and things began to look a little better. Bologna, though
+under the Papal Government, has long been famous for nourishing a hardy,
+liberty-loving people, though, if report does them justice, extremely
+licentious and infidel. Its motto is "_libertas_;" and the air of
+liberty is favourable, it would seem, to vegetation; for the fields
+looked greener the moment we had crossed the barrier. Soon we were
+charmed with the sight of Bologna. Its appearance is indeed imposing,
+and gives promise of something like life and industry within its walls.
+A noble cluster of summits,--an offshoot of the Apennines,--rises
+behind the city, crowned with temples and towers. Within their bosky
+declivities, from which tall cypress-trees shoot up, lie embowered
+villas and little watch-towers, with their glittering vanes. At the foot
+of the hill is spread out the noble city, with its leaning towers and
+its tall minaret-looking steeples. The approach to the walls reminded me
+that below these ramparts sleeps Ugo Bassi. I afterwards searched for
+his resting-place, but could find no one who either would or could show
+me his tomb. A more eloquent declaimer than even Gavazzi, I have been
+assured by those who knew him, was silenced when Ugo Bassi fell beneath
+the murderous fire of the Croat's musket.
+
+After the death-like desertion and silence of Ferrara, the feeble bustle
+of Bologna seemed like a return to the world and its ways. Its streets
+are lined with covered porticoes, less heavy than those of Padua, but
+harbouring after nightfall, says the old traveller ARCHENHOLTZ, robbers
+and murderers, of whom the latter are the more numerous. He accounts for
+this by saying, that whereas the robber has to make restitution before
+receiving absolution, the murderer, whether condemned to die or set at
+liberty, receives full pardon, without the "double labour," as Sir John
+Falstaff called it, of "paying back." Its hundred churches are vast
+museums of sculpture and painting. Its university, which the Bolognese
+boast is the oldest in Europe, rivalled Padua in its glory, and now
+rivals it in its decay. Its two famous leaning towers,--the rent in the
+bottom of one is quite visible,--are bending from age, and will one day
+topple over, and pour a deluge of old bricks upon the adjoining
+tenements. Its "Academy of the Fine Arts" is, after Rome and Florence,
+the finest in Italy. It is filled with the works of the Caracci,
+Domenichino, Guido Albani, and others of almost equal celebrity. I am no
+judge of such matters; and therefore my reader need lay no stress upon
+my criticisms; but it appeared to me, that some paintings placed in the
+first rank had not attained that excellence. The highly-praised "Victory
+of Sampson over the Philistines," I felt, wanted the grandeur of the
+Hebrew Judge on this the greatest occasion of his life; although it gave
+you a very excellent representation of a thirsty man drinking, with rows
+of prostrate people in the background. Other pieces were disfigured by
+glaring anachronisms in time and dress. The artist evidently had drawn
+his inspiration, not from the _Bible_, but from the _Cathedral_. The
+Apostles in some cases had the faces of monks, and looked as if they had
+divided their time betwixt Liguori and the wine-flagon. Several
+Scriptural personages were attired in an ecclesiastical dress, which
+must have been made by some tailor of the sixteenth century. But there
+is one picture in that gallery that impressed me more than any other
+picture I ever saw. It is a painting of the Crucifixion by Guido. The
+background is a dark thundery mass of cloud, resting angrily above the
+dimly-seen roofs and towers of Jerusalem. There is "darkness over all
+the land;" and in the foreground, and relieved by the darkness, stands
+the cross, with the sufferer. On the left is John, looking up with
+undying affection. On the right is Mary,--calm, but with eyes full of
+unutterable sorrow. Mary Magdalene embraces the foot of the cross: her
+face and upper parts are finely shaded; but her attitude and form are
+strongly expressive of reverence, affection, and profound grief. There
+are no details: the piece is simple and great. There are no attempts to
+produce effect by violent manifestations of grief. Hope is gone, but
+love remains; and there before you are the parties standing calm and
+silent, with their great sorrow.
+
+It so happened that the exhibition of the works of living artists was
+open at the time, and I had a good opportunity of comparing the present
+with the past race of Italian painters. I soon found that the race of
+Guidos was extinct, and that the pencil of the masters had fallen into
+the hands of but poor copyists. The present artists of Italy have given
+over painting saints and Scripture-pieces, and work mostly in portraits
+and landscapes. They paint, of course, what will sell; and the public
+taste appears decidedly to have changed. There was a great dearth of
+good historical, imaginative, and allegorical subjects; too often an
+attempt was visible to give interest to a piece by an appeal to the
+baser passions. But the living artists of that country fall below not
+only their great predecessors, but even the artists of Scotland. This
+exhibition in Bologna did not by any means equal in excellence or
+interest the similar exhibition opened every spring in Edinburgh. The
+statuary displayed only beauty and voluptuousness of form: it wanted the
+simple energy and the chastened grandeur of expression which
+characterize the statuary of the ancients, and which have made it the
+admiration of all ages.
+
+The only god whom the Bolognese worship is San Petronio. His temple, in
+which Charles V. was crowned by Clement VII., stands in the Piazza
+Maggiore, the forum of Bologna in the middle ages, and rivals the
+"Academy" itself in its paintings and sculptures. Though the facade is
+not finished, nor likely soon to be, it is one of the largest churches
+in Italy, and is a fine specimen of the Italian Gothic. In a little side
+chapel is the head of San Petronius himself, certified by Benedict XIV.
+On the forms on the cathedral floor lie little framed pictures of the
+saint, with a prayer addressed to him. I saw a country girl enter the
+church, drop on her knees, kiss the picture, and recite the prayer. I
+afterwards read this prayer, though not on bended knee; and can certify
+that a grosser piece of idolatry never polluted human lips. Petronio
+was addressed by the same titles in which the Almighty is usually
+approached; as, "the most glorious," "the most merciful."
+
+           "Towards him they bend
+ With awful reverence prone; and as a god
+ Extol him equal to the Highest in heaven."
+
+Higher blessings, whether for time or for eternity, than those for which
+the devotee was directed to supplicate San Petronio, man needs not, and
+God has not to bestow. Daily bread, protection from danger, grace to
+love San Petronio, grace to serve San Petronio, pardon, a happy death,
+deliverance from hell, and eternal felicity in Paradise,--all who
+offered this prayer,--and other prayer was unheard beneath that
+roof,--supplicated of San Petronio. The Church of Rome affirms that she
+does not pray _to the_ saints, but _through_ them,--namely, as
+intercessors with Christ and God. This is no justification of the
+practice, though it were the fact; but it is not the fact. In protestant
+countries she may insert the name of God at the end of her prayers; but
+in popish countries she does not deem it needful to observe this
+formality. The name of Christ and of God rarely occurs in her popular
+formulas. In the Duomo of Bologna, the only god supplicated,--the only
+god known,--is San Petronio. The tendency of the worship of the Church
+of Rome is to efface God from the knowledge and the love of her members.
+And so completely has this result been realized, that, as one said, "You
+might steal God from them without their knowing it." Indeed, that "Great
+and Dreadful Name" might be blotted out from the few prayers of that
+Church in which it is still retained, and its worship would go on as
+before. What possible change would take place in the Duomo of San
+Petronio at Bologna, and in thousands of other churches in Italy,
+though Rome was to decree in _words_, as she does in _deeds_, that
+"_there is no God_?"
+
+On the second day of my stay at Bologna I ascended the fine hill on the
+north of the city. A noble pillared arcade of marble, three miles in
+length, leads up to the summit. At every twelve yards or so is an
+alcove, with a florid painting of some saint; and at each station sits a
+poor old woman, who begs an alms of you, in the name of the saint
+beneath whose picture she spins her thread,--her own thread being nearly
+ended. There met me here a regiment of little priests, of about an
+hundred in number, none of whom seemed more than ten years of age, and
+all of whom wore shoes with buckles, silk stockings, breeches, a loose
+flowing robe, a white-edged stock, and shovel hat,--in short, miniature
+priests in dress, in figure, and in everything save their greater
+sportiveness. On the summit is a magnificent church, containing one of
+those black madonnas ascribed to Luke, and said to have been brought
+hither by a hermit from Constantinople in the twelfth century. Be this
+as it may, the black image serves the Bolognese for an occasion of an
+annual festival, kept with fully as much hilarity as devotion.
+
+From the summit one looks far and wide over Italy. Below is spread out
+the plain of Lombardy, level as the sea, and as thickly studded with
+white villas as the heavens with stars. On the north, the cities of
+Mantua and Verona, and numerous other towns and villages, are visible.
+On the east, the towers and cathedral roofs of Ferrara are seen rising
+above the woods that cover the plain; and the view is bounded by the
+Adriatic, which, like a thin line of blue, runs along the horizon. On
+the south and west is the hill country of the Apennines, among whose
+serrated peaks and cleft sides is many a lovely dell, rich in waters,
+and vines, and olive trees. The distant country towards the
+Mediterranean lay engulphed in a white mist. A violent electrical action
+was going on in it, which, like a strong wind moving upon its surface,
+raised it into billows, which appeared to sweep onward, tossing and
+tumbling like the waves of ocean.
+
+I had taken up my abode at the Il Pellegrino, one of the best
+recommended hotels in Bologna,--not knowing that the Austrian officers
+had made it their head-quarters, and that not a Bolognese would enter
+it. At dinner-time I saw only the Austrian uniform around the table.
+This was a matter of no great moment. Not so what followed. When I went
+to bed, there commenced overhead a heavy shuffling of feet, and an
+incessant going and coming, with slamming of doors, and jolting of
+tables, which lasted all night long. A sad tragedy was enacting above
+me. The political apprehensions are made over-night in the Italian
+towns; and I little doubt that the soldiers were all night busily
+engaged in bringing in prisoners, and sending them off to jail. The
+persons so arrested are subjected to moral and physical tortures, which
+speedily prostrate both mind and body, and sometimes terminate in death.
+Loaded with chains, they are shut up in stinking holes, where they can
+neither stand upright nor lie down at their length. The heat of the
+weather and the foul air breed diseases of the skin, and cover them with
+pustules. The food, too, is scanty, often consisting of only bread and
+water. The Government strive to keep their cruel condition a secret from
+their relatives, who, notwithstanding, are able at times to penetrate
+the mystery that surrounds them, but only to have their feelings
+lacerated by the thought of the dreadful sufferings undergone by those
+who are the objects of their tenderest affection. And what agony can be
+more dreadful than to know that a father, a husband, a son, is rotting
+in a putrid cell, or being beaten to death by blows, while neither
+relief nor sympathy from you can reach the sufferer? The case of a young
+man of the name of Neri, formerly healthy and handsome, found its way to
+the public prints. Broken down by blows, he was carried to the military
+hospital in an almost dying condition, where an English physician, in
+company with an Austrian surgeon, found him with lacerated skin, and the
+vertebral bones uncovered. He was enduring at the same time so acute
+pain from inflammation of the bowels, that he was unable, but by hints,
+to express his misery. It was here that the atrocities of the Papal
+Nuncio BEDINI were perpetrated,--the same man who was afterwards chased
+from the soil of America by a storm of execration evoked against him by
+the friends and countrymen of the victims who had been tortured and shot
+during his sway in Bologna. In short, the acts of the Holy Office are
+imitated and renewed; so that numbers, distracted and maddened by the
+torments which they endure, avow offences which they never committed,
+and name accomplices whom they never had; and the retractations of these
+unhappy beings are of no avail to prevent new arrests. The Bolognese are
+permitted to weep their complicated evils only in secret; to do so
+openly would be charged as a crime.
+
+The fiscal oppression is nearly as unbearable as the political and
+social. The taxation, both as regards its amount and the mode of
+enforcing it, is ruinous to the individual, and operates as a fatal
+check to the progress of industry. The country is eaten up with foreign
+soldiers. The great hotels in all the principal towns resemble casernes.
+The reader may judge of my surprise on opening my bed-room door one
+morning, to find that a couple of Croats had slept on the mat outside of
+it all night. It might be a special mark of honour to myself; but I
+rather think that they are accustomed to bivouac in the passages and
+lobbies. The eternal drumming in the streets is enough to deafen one for
+life. To the traveller it is sufficiently annoying; how much more so to
+the Bolognese, who knows that that is music for which he must pay dear!
+Since 1848, the aggregate of taxation between Leghorn and Ancona has
+been increased about 40 per cent.; and the taxes are levied upon a
+principle of arbitrary assessment which compels the rich to simulate
+poverty, as in Turkey, lest they should be stripped of their last
+farthing. In Bologna, the payments of the house and land tax, which used
+to be made every two months, are now collected for the same sums every
+seven weeks; and a per centage is added at the pleasure of the
+Government, of which no one knows the amount till the collector calls
+with his demand. In other towns an income-tax is levied upon trades and
+professions, framed upon no rule but the supposed capabilities of the
+individual assessed to pay. Bologna, I may note, although in the Papal
+States, is now quite an Austrian town. The Austrians have there
+six-and-twenty pieces of artillery, and are building extensive barracks
+for cavalry and infantry. Bologna belongs to that part of the Papal
+States called the Four Legations, where, whether it pleases the Pope to
+be so protected or not, it is now quite understood that the Austrians
+have come to stay. The officer in command at Bologna styles himself its
+civil as well as military governor.
+
+On the third day after my arrival, I started at four of the morning for
+Florence. It was dark as we rode through the streets of Bologna; and our
+_diligence_, piled a-top with luggage, smashed several of the oil-lamps,
+which dangled on cords at a dangerous proximity to the causeway. I don't
+know that the Bolognese would miss them, for we left the street very
+little, if at all, darker than we found it. I looked forward with no
+little interest to the day's ride, which was to lie among the dells of
+the Apennines, and to terminate at eve with the fair sight of the Queen
+of the Arno. How unlike the reality, will appear in the sequel. In half
+an hour we came in the dim light to a little valley, where the village
+bell was sweetly chiming the matins. I note the spot because I narrowly
+missed being an actor in a tragedy which took place here the very next
+morning. I may tell the story now, though I anticipate somewhat. I was
+sitting at the table d'hote in Florence three days after, when the
+gentleman on my right began to tell the company how he had travelled
+from Bologna on the Saturday previous, and how he and all his
+fellow-passengers had been robbed on the way. They had got to the spot I
+have indicated, when suddenly a little band of brigands, which lay in
+ambush by the wayside, rushed on the _diligence_. Some mounted on the
+front, and attended to the outside passengers; others took charge of
+those in the _interieur_. Now it was, when the passengers saw into what
+hands they had fallen, that nothing was heard but groaning in all parts
+of the _diligence_. Our informant, who sat next the window in the
+_interieur_, was seized by the collar, a long knife was held to his
+breast, and he was admonished to use all diligence in making over to his
+new acquaintance any worldly goods he had about him. He had to part with
+his gold watch and chain, his breast-pin, and sundry other articles of
+jewellery; but his purse and sovereigns he contrived to drop among the
+straw at the bottom of the vehicle. All the rest fared as he did, and
+some of them worse, for they lost their money as well as jewels. These
+grave proceedings were diversified by a somewhat humorous incident. The
+coachman had providently put his dinner in the form of a sausage, rolled
+in brown paper, under his seat. This is the form in which Austrian
+zwanzigers are commonly made up; and the brigands, fancying the
+coachman's sausage to be a roll of silver zwanzigers, seized on it with
+avidity, and bore it off in triumph. They were proceeding to rifle the
+baggage, when, hearing the horse-patrol approaching, they plunged into
+the thicket as suddenly as they had appeared. The morning chimes were
+sounding, as on the previous day, while this operation was going on. But
+what is not a little extraordinary is, that all this took place within
+two miles of the city gates of Bologna, where there could not be fewer
+than twelve thousand Austrian soldiers. But these, I presume, were too
+much engaged on this, as on previous nights, in apprehending and
+imprisoning the citizens in the Pope's behalf, to think of looking after
+brigands. In Peter's privileged patrimony one may rob, murder, and break
+every command of the decalogue, and defy the police, provided he obey
+the Church. Were I to travel that road again, I would provide myself
+with a tinsel watch and appendages, and a sausage carefully rolled up in
+paper, to avoid the unpleasantness of meeting such wellwishers
+empty-handed.
+
+In another half hour we came to the spurs of the Apennines. The day was
+breaking, and its light, I hoped, would lay open many a sweet dell and
+many a romantic peak, before evening. These hopes, as, alas! too often
+happens in the longer journey of life, were to be suddenly dashed. I
+felt a warm, suffocating current of air breathing over the valley, and
+looked up to see the furnace whence, as I supposed, it proceeded. This
+was the sirocco, the herald of the tempest that soon thereafter burst
+upon us. Masses of whitish cloud came rolling over the summits of the
+hills; furious gusts came down upon us from the heights; and in a few
+minutes we found ourselves contending with a hurricane such as I have
+never seen equalled save on one other occasion. The cloud became
+fearfully black, and made the lightning the more awful as it touched
+with fire the peaks around us, and bathed in an ocean of flame the vines
+and hamlets on the hill-side. Terrible peals of thunder broke over us;
+and these were followed by torrents of rain, which the furious winds
+dashed against our vehicle with the force and noise of a cataract.
+We had to make our way up the mountain's side in the face of this
+tempest. At times more than a dozen animals were yoked to our
+_diligence_,--horses, oxen, and beasts of every kind which we could
+press into the service; while half-a-dozen postilions, shouting and
+cracking their whips, strove to urge the motley cavalcade onward. Still
+we crept up only by inches. The road in most cases wound over the very
+peak of the mountain; and there the tempest, rushing upon us from all
+sides at once, threatened to lay our vehicle, which shook and quivered
+in the blast, flat on its side, or toss it into the valley below. The
+storm continued to rage with unabated violence from day-break till
+mid-day; and, by favour of horses, bullocks, and postilions, we kept
+moving on at the rate of two miles an hour, now climbing, now
+descending, well knowing that at every summit a fresh buffeting awaited
+us.
+
+I had as my companions on this journey, two Russian gentlemen, with whom
+afterwards, at several points of my tour, I came into contact. They were
+urbane and intelligent men, full of their own country and of the Czar,
+yet professing great respect for England, which they had just visited,
+and looking down with a contempt they were at little pains to conceal,
+upon the Frenchmen and Italians among whom they were moving. They
+possessed the sobriety of mind, the turn for quiet, shrewd observation,
+in short, much of the physical and intellectual stamina, of Englishmen,
+with just a shade less of the exquisite polish which marks the latter
+wherever they are met with. These, no doubt, were favourable specimens
+of the Russian nation; but it is such men who give the tone to a State,
+while the masses below execute their designs. I have ever since felt
+that, should we ever meet that people on the field of battle, the
+contest would be no ordinary one. I recollect one of these gentlemen
+meeting me on the streets of Rome some weeks afterwards, and informing
+me that he had been the day before to visit the ball on the top of St
+Peter's, and that he had been delighted at seeing his Emperor's name, in
+his Emperor's own handwriting, inside the ball, with a few lines beneath
+the signature, stating that he had stood in that ball, and had there
+prayed for Mother Holy Russia,--a fact full of significance.
+
+About mid-day we came, wet, and weary, and cold, to the Duana on the
+Tuscan frontier, where was a poor inn, at which, after our passports had
+been viseed, and our trunks and carpet-bags plumbed, we dined. There
+were some twenty of us at table; a priest taking the top, and the
+_conducteur_ the bottom. I remember that two persons of the party kept
+their hats on at table, and that these were the priest and a poor
+country lad,--the priest because he presided perhaps, and the countryman
+because, not knowing the etiquette of the point, he wisely determined to
+follow in that, as in greater matters, the priest. Our dinner consisted
+of coarse broth, black bread, buffalo beef, and wine of not the sweetest
+flavour; but what helped us was an excellent appetite, for we had not
+breakfasted beyond a few chestnuts and grapes picked up at the poor
+villages through which we passed. We obtained, however, an hour's
+shelter from the elements.
+
+We resumed our journey, and in about an hour's ride we gained the
+central chain of the Apennines. Happily the tempest had moderated
+somewhat; for this, lying midway between the two seas, is ordinarily the
+stormiest point of the pass. We crossed it, however, with less
+inconvenience than we had looked for. The summits, which had hitherto
+been conical, with vines straggling up their sides, now became rounded,
+or ran off in serrated lines, with sides scarred with tempests and
+strewn with stones. The scenery was bleak and desolate, as that of the
+Grampian pass leading by Spittal of Glenshee to Dee-side. But as we
+continued our descent, the richly wooded glens returned; the clouds
+rose; and at one time I ventured to hope that I should yet have my first
+sight of Florence under a golden sky, and that Milton's description
+might, after all, be applicable to this day of storms:--
+
+ "As when from mountain-tops the dusky clouds
+ Ascending, while the north wind sleeps, o'erspread
+ Heaven's cheerful face, the low'ring element
+ Scowls o'er the darken'd landskip snow or shower;
+ If chance the radiant sun, with farewell sweet,
+ Extend his evening beam, the fields revive,
+ The birds their notes renew, and bleating herds
+ Attest their joy, that hill and valley rings."
+
+But the hope was short-lived: no Florence was I to see that night; nor
+was note of bird to gladden the dells. The mists again fell, and hid in
+premature night those fine valleys, so famous in Florentine history,
+which we were now approaching. We wound round hills, traversed deep
+ravines, heard on every side the thunder of the swollen torrents, and,
+when the parting vapour permitted, had glimpses of the luxuriant woods
+of myrtle and laurel that clothe these valleys,--
+
+ "Where round some mouldering tower pale ivy creeps,
+ And low-brow'd rocks hang nodding o'er the deeps."
+
+At last we found ourselves on the banks of a broad and swollen
+river,--the Save,--with no means of transit save a dismantled bridge,
+so sorely shattered by the flood, that it was an even question whether
+our vehicle might not, like the last straw on the dromedary's back, sink
+the structure outright.
+
+We dismounted, and, by the help of lights, measured first the bridge,
+and next the _diligence_, and found that the breadth of the former
+exceeded that of the latter by just two inches. The passengers passed on
+foot; the _diligence_, with the baggage, came after; and so all arrived
+safely on the other side. Our first care was to assemble a council of
+war in the poor inn which stood on the spot, and deliberate what next to
+do.
+
+The _conducteur_ opened the debate. "We had," he said, "twenty miles of
+road still before us; the way lay through deep ravines, and over
+torrents which the rains must have rendered impassable: it would be long
+past midnight till we should reach Florence,--if we should ever reach
+it: his opinion was, therefore, that we ought to stay where we were;
+nevertheless, if we insisted, he would go on at all risks." So
+counselled our leader; and if we wanted an argument on the other side,
+we had only to look around. The walls of the inn were naked and black;
+the floor was covered inch-deep with slime, the deposit of the flood
+which had that day broke into the dwelling; and the place was evidently
+unequal to the "entertainment" of such a number of "men and horses" as
+had thus unexpectedly been thrown upon it. It is not wonderful, in these
+circumstances, that a small opposition party sprung up, headed by an
+English lady, whose delicate slippers were never made for such a floor
+as that on which she now stood. She could see no danger in going on, and
+urged us to set forward. Better counsels prevailed, however; and we
+resolved to endure the evils we knew, rather than adventure on those we
+knew not.
+
+The next matter to be negotiated was supper, of which the aspect of the
+place gave no great promise. The landlady was a thin, wiry, black,
+voluble Tuscan. "Have you beef?--Have you cheese?--Have you
+macaroni?"--inquired several voices in succession. "Oh, she had all
+these, and a great many dainties besides, in the morning; but the
+flood,--the flood!" The same flood, however, which had swept off our
+hostess's larder, had swept in a great deal of good company, and she was
+evidently resolved on setting the one evil over against the other. She
+now showered upon us a long, rapid, and vehement address; and he who has
+not heard the Tuscan discourse does not know what volubility is. "What
+does she say?" I inquired at one of my two Russian friends. "She says
+very many words," he replied, "but the meaning is moneys, moneys." "Have
+you any coffee?" I asked. "Oh, coffee! delightful coffee; but it had
+gone sailing down the flood." "And it carried off the eggs too, I
+suppose?" "No; I have eggs." We resolved to sup on eggs. A fire of logs
+was kindled up stairs, and a table was extemporized out of some deals.
+In a quarter of an hour in came our supper,--black bread, fried eggs,
+and a skein of wine. We fell to; but, alack! what from the smut of the
+chimney and the dust of the pan, the eggs were done in the _chiaro
+scuro_ style; the wine had so villanous a twang, that a few sips of it
+contented me; and the bread, black as it was, was the only thing
+palatable. I got the landlady persuaded to boil me an egg; and though
+the Italian peasants only dip their eggs in hot water, and serve them up
+raw, it was preferable to the conglomerate of the pan. We made merry,
+however, over our poor meal and the grateful warmth of the fire; and
+somewhere towards midnight we entertained the question of going to bed.
+We had avoided the topic as long as possible, from a foreboding that our
+hostess would present us with some rueful tale of blankets lost in the
+flood. Besides, we were not without misgivings that, should the clouds
+return and the river rise as before, house and all might follow the
+other things down the stream, and no one could tell where we might find
+ourselves on awakening. On broaching the subject, however, we found to
+our delight, that cribs, couches, shakedowns, and all sorts of
+contrivances, with store of cloaks, garments, and blankets, had been got
+ready for our use.
+
+We were told off into parties; and the first to be sorted were the two
+Russians, an Italian, and myself. We four were shown into a room, which,
+to our great surprise, contained two excellent four-posted beds, one of
+which was allotted to the two Russian gentlemen, and the other to the
+Italian and myself. Our mode of turning in was somewhat novel. The
+Russians put away simply their greatcoats, and lay down beneath the
+coverlet. My bed-fellow the Italian took up a position for the night by
+throwing himself, as he was, on the top of the bed-clothes. Not
+approving of either mode, I slipped off both greatcoat and coat, and,
+covering myself with the blankets, soon forgot in sleep all the mishaps
+of the day.
+
+The voice of the _conducteur_ shouting at the door of our apartment
+awakened us before day-break. Our company mustered with what haste they
+could, and we again betook us to the road,
+
+ "While the still morn went out with sandals gray."
+
+The path lay along the banks of the torrent Carza, and the valley we
+found frightfully scarred by the flood of the former day. Fierce
+torrents rushing from the hills had torn the fences, ploughed up the
+road, piled up hillocks of mud among the vineyards, and covered with
+barren sand, or strewn with stones, many an acre of fine meadow. Had we
+attempted the path in the darkness, our course must have found a speedy
+termination. At length, ascending a steep hill, we found ourselves
+overlooking the valley of the Arno.
+
+Every traveller taxes his descriptive powers to the utmost to paint the
+view from this hill-top; and I verily believe that, seen under a
+cloudless sky, it is one of the most enchanting landscapes in the world.
+The numberless conical hills,--the white villas and villages, which lie
+as thick as if the soil had produced them,--the silvery stream of the
+Arno,--the rich chestnut and olive woods,--the domes of the Italian
+Athens,--the songs,--the fragrance,--and the great wall of the Apennines
+bounding all,--must present a picture of rare magnificence. But I saw it
+under different conditions, and must needs describe it as it appeared.
+
+Sub-Apennine Italy was before me, and it seemed the Italy I had dreamed
+of, could I only see it; but, alas! it was blotted with mists, and
+overshadowed by a black canopy of cloud. Outspread, far as the eye could
+extend southward, was a landscape of ridges and conical tops, separated
+by winding wreaths of white mist, giving to the country the aspect of an
+ocean broken up into creeks, and bays, and channels, with no end of
+islands. The hills were covered to their very summits with the richest
+vegetation; and the multitude of villages sprinkled over them lent them
+an air of great animation. The great chain of the Apennines, with
+rolling masses of cloud on its summits, ran along on the east, and
+formed the bounding wall of the prospect. Below us there floated on the
+surface of the mist an immense dome, looking like a balloon of huge size
+about to ascend into the air. It did not ascend, however; but,
+surrounded by several tall shafts and towers which rose silently out of
+the mist, it remained suspended over the same spot. Like a buoy at sea
+affixed to the place where some noble vessel lies entombed, this dome
+told us that engulphed in this ocean of vapour lay FLORENCE, with her
+rich treasures of art, and her many stirring recollections and
+traditions.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+FLORENCE AND ITS YOUNG EVANGELISM.
+
+     Beauty of Position--Focus of Italian Art--Education on the Aesthetic
+     Principle--Effects as shown in the Character and Manners of the
+     Florentines--The result not Civilization, but Barbarism--The
+     Artizans of Britain surpass the Florentines in Civilization--Early
+     English Scholars at Florence--Man's Power for
+     Good--Savonarolo--History of present Religious Movement in
+     Tuscany--Condition of Tuscan Government and Priesthood prior to
+     1848--Attempts to introduce Religious Books--The Priests compel the
+     Government to interfere--The Revolution of 1848--The Bible
+     translated and seized--Visit of Vaudois Pastors--Secret Religious
+     Press--Work now carried on by the Converts--Denunciation of DEATH
+     for Bible Reading--Great Increase of Converts
+     notwithstanding--Present State and Prospects of Movement--Leave
+     Florence--Beauty of the Vale of the Arno--Pisa--Arrive at Leghorn.
+
+
+Of Florence "the Beautiful," I must say that its beauty appeared scarce
+equal to its fame. In an age when the capitals of northern Europe were
+of wood, the Queen of the Arno may have been without a rival on the
+north of the Alps; but now finer streets, handsomer squares, and nobler
+facades, may be seen in any of our second-rate towns. But its dome, by
+Brunelleschi, the largest in the world,--its tall campanile,--its
+baptistry, with its beautiful gates,--and its public statuary,--are
+worthy of all admiration. Its environs are superb.
+
+Florence is sweetly embosomed in an amphitheatre of mountains, of the
+most lovely forms and the richest and brightest colouring. Castles and
+convents crown their summits; while their slopes display the pillar-like
+cypress, the gray olive, the festooned vine, with a multitude of
+embowered villas. On the north-east, right in the fork of the Apennines,
+lie the bosky and wooded dells of Valombrosa. On the north, seated on a
+pyramidal hill, is the ancient Fiesole, which the genius of Milton has
+touched and immortalized. On the west are the spacious lawns and parks
+of the Grand Duke; while the noble valley runs off to the south-west,
+carpeted with vines, or covered with chestnut woods, with the Arno
+stealing silently through it in long reaches to the sea. During my stay,
+the girdling Apennines were tipped with the snows of winter; and when
+the sun shone out, they formed a gleaming circlet around the green
+valley, like a ring of silver enclosing an enormous emerald. I saw the
+sun but seldom, however. The bad weather which had overtaken me amid the
+Apennines descended with me into the valley of the Arno; and murky
+clouds, with torrents of rain, but too often obscured the sky. But I
+could fancy the delicious beauty of a summer eve in Florence, with the
+still balmy air enwrapping the purple hills, the tall cypresses, the
+domes, and the gently stealing waters. In spring the region must be a
+very paradise. Indeed, spring is seldom absent from the banks of the
+Arno; for though at times savage Winter is heard growling amid the
+Apennines, he dare seldom venture farther than midway down their slopes.
+
+I cannot recall the past glories of Florence, or even touch on Cosmo's
+"immortal century;" I cannot speak of its galleries, so rich in
+painting, so unrivalled in statuary; nor can I enter its Pitti palace,
+with its hanging gardens; or the city churches, with their store of
+frescoes and paintings; or its Santa Croce, with its six mighty
+tombs,--those even of Dante, Galileo, Machiavelli, Michael Angelo,
+Alfieri, Leonardo Aretino. The size of Florence brings all these objects
+within a manageable distance; and, during my stay of well-nigh a week, I
+visited them, as any one may do, almost every day. But every traveller
+has entered largely into their description, and I pass them over, to
+touch on other things more rarely brought into view.
+
+Florence is the focus of Italian art; and here, if anywhere, one can see
+the effect of educating a population solely on the aesthetic principle.
+The Florentines have no books, no reading-rooms, no public lectures, no
+preaching in their churches even, bating the occasional harangue of a
+monk. They are left to be trained solely by fine pictures and lovely
+statues. From these they are expected to learn their duties as men and
+as citizens. The sole employment of the people is to produce these
+things; their sole study, to be able to admire them. The result is not
+civilization, but barbarism. Nor can it well be otherwise. We find the
+"beautiful" abundantly in nature, but never dissociated from the
+"useful;" teaching us that it cannot be safely sought but in union with
+what is true and good; and that we cannot make it "an end" without
+reversing the whole constitution of our nature. When a people make the
+love of "the beautiful" their predominant passion, they rapidly decline
+in the better and nobler qualities. The beautiful yields only enjoyment;
+and those who live only to enjoy soon become intensely selfish. That
+enjoyment, moreover, is immediate, and so affords no room for the
+exercise of patience and foresight. A race of triflers arise, who think
+only of the present hour. They are wholly undisciplined in the higher
+qualities of mind,--in perseverance and self-control; and, being
+withdrawn from the contemplation of facts and principles, they become
+incapable of attending to the useful duties of life, and are wholly
+unable to rise to the higher efforts of virtue and patriotism. The
+Italian Governments, for their own ends, have restricted their subjects
+to the fine arts, but at the expense of the trade, the agriculture, and
+the civilization, of their dominions. The fabric of British power was
+not raised on the aesthetic principle. Take away our books, and give us
+pictures; shut up our schools and churches, and give us museums and
+galleries; instead of our looms and forges, substitute chisels and
+pencils; and farewell to our greatness. The artizan of Birmingham or
+Glasgow is a more civilised man than the same class in the Italian
+cities. His dwelling, too, displays an amount of comfort and elegance
+which few in Italy below the rank of princes, and not always they, can
+command. The condition of the Italian people shows conclusively that the
+predominating study of "the beautiful" has a most corrupting and
+enfeebling effect. In fact, their pictures have paved the way for their
+tyrants; and when one marks their demoralizing effects, he feels how
+salutary is the restriction of the Decalogue against their use in Divine
+worship. If pictures and images lead to idolatry in the Church, their
+exclusive study as infallibly produces serfdom in the State.
+
+In the early dawn of the Reformation, several of our own countrymen
+visited the city of the Medici, that they might have access to the works
+of antiquity which Cosmo had collected, and enjoy the converse of the
+learned men that thronged his palace. "William Selling," says D'Aubigne,
+"a young English ecclesiastic, afterwards distinguished at Canterbury by
+his zeal in collecting valuable manuscripts,--his fellow-countrymen,
+Grocyn, Lilly, and Latimer, 'more bashful than a maiden,'--and, above
+all, Linacre, whom Erasmus ranked above all the scholars of Italy,--used
+to meet in the delicious villa of the Medici, with Politian,
+Chalcondyles, and other men of learning; and there, in the calm evenings
+of summer, under that glorious Tuscan sky, they dreamt romantic visions
+of the Platonic philosophy. When they returned to England, these learned
+men laid before the youth of Oxford the marvellous treasures of the
+Greek language." We are repaying the debt, by sending to that land a
+better philosophy than any these learned men ever brought from it. This
+leads us to speak of the religious movement in progress in Tuscany.
+
+After all, man's power for evil is extremely limited. The very opposite
+is the ordinary estimate. When we mark the career of a conqueror like
+Napoleon, or the withering effects of an organization like that of Rome,
+and compare these with the feeble results of a preacher like Savonarola,
+whose body the fire reduced to ashes, and whose disciples persecution
+speedily scattered, we say that man's power to destroy his species is
+almost omnipotent,--his power to benefit them scarce appreciable. But
+spread out the long cycles of history and the long ages of the world,
+and you learn that the triumphs of evil, though sudden, are temporary,
+and those of truth slow but eternal. A true word spoken by a single man
+has in it more power than armies, and will, in the long run, do more to
+bless than all that tyrannies can do to blight mankind. Savonarola,
+feeble as he seemed, and unprotected as he was, wielded a power greater
+than that of Rome. The truths sown by the preacher on the banks of the
+Arno so many centuries ago are not yet dead. They are springing up; and,
+long after Rome shall have passed away, they will be a source of
+liberty, of civilization, of arts, and of eternal life, to his
+countrymen.
+
+A political storm heralded the quiet spring-time of evangelical truth
+which has of late blessed that land. Prior to 1848, although there had
+been no change for the better in the law, a very considerable degree of
+practical liberty was enjoyed by the subjects of Tuscany. The Tuscans
+are naturally a quiet, well-behaved people; the Grand Duke was an easy,
+kind-hearted man; his Government was exceedingly mild; and, as he
+conducted himself towards his people like a father, he was greatly
+beloved by them. Tuscany at that period was universally acknowledged to
+be the happiest province of Italy.
+
+The priesthood of those days were a good-natured, easy set of men also.
+They had never known opposition. They could not imagine the possibility
+of anything occurring to endanger their power, and therefore were
+exceedingly tolerant in the exercise of it. They were an illiterate and
+ill-informed race. An Abbatte of their own number assured Dr Stewart, so
+far back as 1845, that there was not one amongst them, from the
+Archbishop downwards, who could read Hebrew, nor half-a-dozen who could
+be found among the upper orders who could read Greek. They were masters
+of as much Latin as enabled them to get through the mass; but they were
+wholly unskilled in the modern tongues of Europe, and entire strangers
+to modern European literature. Though poorly paid, they durst not eke
+out their means of subsistence by entering into any trade. Many of them
+were fain to become major domos in rich families, and might be seen
+chaffering in the markets in the public piazza, and weighing out flour,
+coffee, and oil to the servants at home. No priest can say more than one
+mass a-day; and for that he is paid one lira, or eightpence sterling.
+
+Such being the state of matters, little notice was taken of what foreign
+Protestants might be doing. The priests were secure in their ignorance,
+and deemed it impossible that any attempt would be made to introduce the
+diabolical heresies of Luther among their orthodox flocks. Indeed,
+these flocks were removed almost beyond the reach of contamination, not
+so much by the vigilance of the priests, as by their own ignorance and
+bigotry. The degree of popular enlightenment may be judged of from the
+following circumstance which happened to Dr Stewart, and of which the
+Doctor himself assured me Soon after his first coming into Tuscany in
+1845, he came into contact with a countryman, who, on being told that he
+was a Protestant minister, began instantly to scrutinize his lower
+extremities, to ascertain whether he had cloven hoofs. The priests had
+told the people that Protestants were just devils in disguise.
+
+The Government, I have said, was a mild one. It was more: it was
+affected with the usual Italian sluggishness and indolence,--the _dolce
+far niente_; and accordingly it winked at innumerable ongoings, so long
+as these did not attract public attention. Bibles and religious
+Protestant works were introduced secretly, the Government knowing it,
+but winking at it, as the Church did not complain. The arrest of the
+deputation from the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland to the
+Holy Land in 1839 was an exception to what I have now stated, but such
+an exception as confirms the general statement. The deputation, with the
+ignorance of us Britishers abroad for the first time, imagined that
+because Leghorn was a free port, they were free to give away Bibles,
+tracts, and all kinds of religious books; and accordingly they made
+vigorous use of their time. Scarcely had they stepped on shore when they
+commenced a liberal distribution of Bibles, books on the "Evidences,"
+and other valuable works, among the boatmen, facchini, and beggars. It
+did not occur to them, that of those to whom they gave these books, few
+could read, and none were able to appreciate them. Many persons who
+received these books carried them to the priests, who, confounded at
+the suddenness as well as the boldness of the assault, carried them to
+the police, and the police to the Government; and before the deputation
+had been an hour and a half in Thomson's hotel, they were under arrest.
+It was the Church which compelled the Government to interfere; and it is
+the Church which is now driving forward the civil power in its mad
+career of persecution. As a proof that we bring no heavier charge
+against the priests than they deserve, we may mention, that in 1849 Dr
+Stewart was summoned to appear before the delegate of Government, to
+answer for having allowed one or two Italian Protestant ministers to
+preach in his pulpit. The delegate informed him that the Government was
+not taking this step of its own accord, but that the Archbishop of
+Florence was compelling the Government to put the law in force, and that
+the Archbishop was the prosecutor in the case.
+
+The old statute of Ferdinand I., which allows to foreigners the full
+exercise of their religion within the city of Leghorn, was taken
+advantage of to open the Scotch church there. This was in 1845. It was
+two years after this,--in the winter of 1847-48,--that the religious
+movement first developed itself,--full six months before the revolutions
+and changes of 1848. The work was at first confined almost entirely to a
+handful of foreigners--Captain Pakenham; M. Paul, a Frenchman, and the
+Swiss pastor in Florence;---- at----; and Mr Thomson, Vice-Consul at
+Leghorn. Count Guicciardini was the only Florentine connected with the
+movement. It was resolved to print and circulate such books as were
+likely to pass the censorship, and might be openly sold by all
+booksellers. The censor of that day was a remarkably liberal man, and he
+gave his consent very willingly. Five or six little volumes were printed
+in that country; but the people were not yet prepared for such a step;
+the books lay unsold, and were got into circulation only by being given
+away as presents. But the very fact that the friends of the movement had
+been able to print and publish such works openly at Florence, with the
+approbation of the censor, greatly encouraged them. It was next proposed
+to attempt to get the censor's approbation to an edition of the New
+Testament; and the work was before him waiting his imprimatur, when the
+revolutions of 1848 broke over Italy with the suddenness of one of its
+own thunder-storms.
+
+I cannot go particularly into the changes that followed, and which are
+known to my readers through other sources,--the flight of the Grand
+Duke,--the new Tuscan Constitution,--the free press. The political for a
+time buried the religious. Captain Pakenham, taking advantage of the
+liberty enjoyed under the republic, commenced printing an edition of
+Martini's Bible (the Romanist version), believing that it would be more
+acceptable than Diodati's (the Protestant version). Before he had got
+the book put into circulation, the re-action commenced, the Grand Duke
+returned, and the work was seized. When engaged in making the seizure,
+the gendarmes pressed a young apprentice printer to tell them whether
+there were any more copies concealed. The lad replied that he had only
+one suggestion to offer, which was, that, now they had seized the book,
+they should seize the author too. And who is he? eagerly inquired the
+gendarmes, preparing to start on the chase. Jesus Christ, was the lad's
+reply.
+
+Meanwhile the revolution had greatly enlarged the privileges of the
+Waldensian Church in Piedmont, and three of her pastors, MM. Malan,
+Meille, and Geymonat, arrived in Florence in the winter of 1848-49, for
+the purpose of making themselves more familiar with the tongue and
+accent of the Tuscans, in order to be able to avail themselves of the
+greater openings of usefulness now presented to them, both in their own
+country and in central Italy.
+
+They preached occasionally, and attended the prayer-meeting, which now
+greatly increased, and which was the only one at this time among the
+Florentines. Having by their visit helped forward the good work, these
+evangelists, after a six months' stay in Florence, returned to their own
+country.
+
+A full year elapsed between the departure of the Waldensian brethren and
+the movement among the Florentines to obtain an Italian pastor. After
+much deliberation they resolved on this step, and in May 1850 a
+deputation set out for the Valleys, which, arriving at La Tour,
+prevailed on Professor Malan to accept of the charge at Florence. M.
+Malan returned to that city, and, on the 1st of July 1850, began his
+ministry, among a little flock of thirty persons, in the Swiss chapel
+Via del Seraglio, in which the Grisons had a right to Italian service.
+The work now went rapidly forward. Formerly there had been but one
+re-union; now there were ten in Florence alone, besides others in the
+towns and villages adjoining. M. Malan had service once a fortnight in
+Italian; and so large was the attendance, that the chapel, which holds
+four hundred, was crowded to the door with Florentine converts or
+inquirers. The priests took the alarm. They wrought upon the mind of the
+deformed Archduchess,--a great bigot, and sister to the Grand Duke. A
+likely tool she was; for she had made a pilgrimage to Rimini, and
+offered on the shrine of the winking Madonna a diamond tiara and
+bracelet. The result I need not state. The immediate result was, that
+the Italian service was put a stop to in January 1851; and the final
+result was the banishment of Malan and Geymonat from Tuscany in the May
+of that year,--the expulsion of the pastors being accompanied with
+circumstances of needless severity and ignominy. Geymonat, after lying
+two days in the Bargello of Florence, was brought forth and conducted on
+foot by gendarmes, chained like an assassin, to the Piedmontese
+frontier. On this miserable journey he was thrust every night into the
+common prison, along with characters of the worst description, whose
+blasphemies he was compelled to hear. The foul air and the disgusting
+food of these places made him sometimes despair of coming out alive; but
+he had his recompense in the opportunities which he thus enjoyed of
+preaching the gospel to the gendarmes by the way, and to the keepers of
+the prisons, some of whom heard him gladly.
+
+The departure of the Vaudois pastors threw the work into the hands of
+the native converts, by whom it has been carried on ever since. It is to
+be feared that, in the absence of pastors, not a little that is
+political is mixed with the religious. It is difficult forming an
+estimate of the numbers of the converts and inquirers. They have
+meetings in all the towns of Tuscany and Lucca, between whom a constant
+intercourse is maintained. Each member subscribes two crazzia a-week for
+the purchase of Protestant religious books. To supply these books, two
+presses are at work,--one in Turin, the other in Florence. The latter is
+a secret press, which the police, with all their efforts, have not been
+able to this day to discover. The Bible can be got into Tuscany with
+great difficulty; yet the demand for it is greater than ever. The
+converts have been tried by every mode of persecution short of death;
+yet their numbers grow. The prisons are full with political and
+religious offenders; yet fresh arrests continually take place in
+Florence.
+
+The first and more notable instance of persecution on which the
+Government of Tuscany ventured, after the banishment of Count
+Guicciardini and his companions, was the imprisonment of Francesco and
+Rosa Madiai, for reading the Word of God in the Italian language. The
+sufferings of these confessors turned out for the furtherance of the
+Gospel. The attention of many of their own countrymen was drawn to the
+cause of their sufferings; and the bigotry of the Grand Duke, or rather
+of the Court of Rome, with which the Tuscan Government had entered into
+a concordat for the suppression of heresy, was proclaimed before all
+Europe. A Protestant deputation visited Florence to intercede in behalf
+of these confessors; but their plea found so little favour with the
+Grand Duke, that he immediately issued a decree, reviving an old law
+which makes all offences against the religion of the State punishable
+_by death_. To provide for carrying the decree into effect, a guillotine
+was imported from Lucca, and an executioner was hired at a salary of ten
+pounds a month. As if this were not sufficiently explicit, the Grand
+Duke told his subjects that he was "_determined to root out
+Protestantism from his State, though he should be handed down to
+posterity as a monster of cruelty_." Neither the spectacle of the
+guillotine nor the terrible threat of the Grand Duke could arrest the
+progress of the good work. The Bible was sought after, and read in
+secret; and the numbers who left the communion of the Romish Church grew
+and multiplied daily. In the beginning of 1853, the Protestants, or
+Evangelicals as they prefer to call themselves in Tuscany, were
+estimated at many thousands. I doubt not that this estimate was correct,
+if viewed as including all who had separated their interests from the
+Church of Rome; but I just as little doubt that a majority of these, if
+brought to the test, rather than suffer would have denied the Gospel.
+Many of them knew it only as a political badge, not as a _new life_.
+But, on the judgment of those who had the best means of knowing, there
+were at least _a thousand_ in Tuscany who had undergone a change of
+heart, and were prepared to confess Christ on the scaffold. To hunt out
+these peaceful ones, and bring them to punishment, is the grand object
+of the priesthood; and in the confessional they have an instrumentality
+ready-made for the purpose. Taking advantage of the greater timidity of
+the female mind, it has become a leading question with the confessor,
+"Does your husband read the Bible? Has he political papers?" Alas!
+according to the ancient prophecy, the brother delivers up the brother
+to death. I heard of some affecting cases of this sort when I was in
+Florence. Of the fifty persons, or thereabouts, who were then in prison
+on religious grounds, not a few had been accused by their own relatives,
+the accusation being extorted by the threat of withholding absolution.
+At the beginning of the English Reformation, with an infernal refinement
+of cruelty, children were often compelled to light the faggots which
+were to consume their parents; and in Tuscany at this hour, the
+trembling wife is compelled, by the threat of eternal damnation, to
+disclose the secret which is to consign the husband to a dungeon. The
+police are never far from the confessor's box, and wait only the signal
+from it, what house to visit, and whom to drag to prison. As with us in
+former days, the Bible is secreted in the most unlikely places; it is
+read at the dead hour of night; and the prayers and praises that follow
+are offered in whispering accents,--for fear of the priests and the
+guillotine.
+
+Every subsidiary agency that might further the progress of the truth has
+been suppressed by the Government. All the liberal papers have been put
+down. They appeared again and again under new names, but only to
+encounter, under every form, the veto of the authorities. At last their
+whole printing establishments were confiscated. The public press having
+been silenced, the secret one continued to speak to the Tuscans from
+its hiding-place; and its voice was the more heard that the other was
+dumb. Besides Bibles, a variety of religious books have issued from it,
+and have been widely circulated. Among the translated works spread among
+the Tuscans are D'Aubigne's "History of the Reformation," M'Crie's
+"Suppression of the Reformation in Italy," "The Mother's Catechism,"
+Watts' "Catechism," "The Pilgrim's Progress," and a variety of religious
+tracts. The prohibition of a book by the Government is sure to be
+followed by a universal demand for it; and the Government decree is thus
+the signal for going to press with a new edition of the forbidden work.
+Mr Gladstone's letters on Naples were prohibited by Government; and the
+very means adopted to keep the Tuscans ignorant of what Englishmen
+thought of the state of Naples, and of the Continent generally, only led
+to its being better known. Though not a single copy of these letters was
+to be seen in the shops or on the stalls, they found their way into
+every one's hands. The same thing happened to Count Guicciardini. The
+Government prohibited his statement, and all Florence read it. The
+well-known hatred of the priests to the Bible has been its best
+recommendation in the eyes of the Tuscans. Thus the Government finds
+that it cannot move a step without inflicting deadly damage on its own
+interests. Its interposition is fatal only to the cause it seeks to
+help. To prohibit a book is to publish it; to bring a man to trial is to
+give liberty an opportunity of speaking through his advocate; to cast a
+confessor of the Lord Jesus into prison is but to erect a light-house
+amidst the Tuscan darkness. The Government and the priesthood find that
+their efforts are foiled and their might paralyzed by a mysterious
+power, which they know not how to grapple with. The guillotine has stood
+unused: not that any scruples of conscience or any feelings of humanity
+restrain the priests; fain would they bring every convert to the
+scaffold if they dared; but the odium which they well know would attend
+such a deed deters them; and they anxiously wait the coming of a time
+when it may be safe to do what could not be done at present but at the
+risk of damaging, and perhaps ruining, their cause. It does not follow
+that the Tuscan priesthood have not the guilt of blood to answer for. If
+the confessors of the Gospel in that land are not perishing by the
+guillotine, they are pining in prisons, and sinking into the grave, by
+reason of the choking stench, the disgusting vermin, and the
+insufficient food, to which they are exposed.
+
+But the condition of these victims, perishing unknown and unpitied in
+the fangs of an ecclesiastical tyranny, is not the most distressing
+spectacle which Tuscany at this hour presents. Theirs is an enviable
+state, compared with that of the great body of the people. These occupy
+but a larger prison, and groan in yet stronger fetters; while their
+captivity is uncheered by any such hope as that which sustains the
+Tuscan confessors of the truth. Mistrust of their Church is widely
+spread in the country. There is no religion in Tuscany. There is as
+little morality. The marriage vow is but little regarded, and the
+seducer boasts of his triumphs over married chastity, as if they were
+praiseworthy deeds. Thousands have plunged into atheism. Of those who
+have not gone this length, the great body are dissatisfied, ill at ease,
+without confidence in the doctrines of Rome, but ignorant of a more
+excellent way. Straitly shut up, they grope blindfolded round the walls
+of their prison-house, wistfully turning their eyes to any ray of light
+that strikes in through its crevices. How this state of things may end
+is known only to God;--whether in the gradual spread of Gospel light,
+and the peaceful fall of that system which has so long enthralled the
+intellect and soul of the Tuscans; or whether, as a result of the
+growing exasperation and deepening horrors of these bondsmen, they may
+give a violent wrench to the pillars of the ecclesiastical and social
+fabric, and pull it down upon the heads of themselves and their
+oppressors.
+
+I may avail myself of this opportunity of introducing a few recent facts
+relative to the analogous work in Genoa; and this I do because these
+facts are of a character which may enable the reader more clearly to
+conceive of the present religious condition of Italy, and the state of
+the movement in that country.
+
+The north of Italy and kingdom of Sardinia, as I have already said,
+since the Constitution granted in 1848, is open to the promulgation of
+evangelical truth; that is, it may be taught in almost every conceivable
+way, provided it is not done offensively or obtrusively. While the
+religion of the State is Roman Catholic, there is toleration and liberty
+of conscience to all; indeed, there is _no religion_ at all. The king
+cares for none of these things, and most of his Ministers are at one
+with him. The present Ministry is Liberal; and Count Cavour is, to all
+intents and purposes, Radical. It is said that he declares he will never
+rest until Sardinia is another England. The Constitution is something
+very similar to that of England, and only requires to be developed. The
+present Government, however, is more liberal than the Constitution; and
+the Constitution gives more liberty than the majority of the people are
+yet able to receive: hence collision frequently takes place. Old
+statutes are still unrepealed; and the priest party compels the
+Government to do things which they are very unwilling to do. For
+example, one of the Cereghini was recently tried, and condemned to pay a
+fine of two hundred pauls, and go to prison for four months, for having
+some little thing to do in publishing a small controversial catechism
+against the Romish Church, and vending it rather too openly. An appeal
+was made against the sentence, and it stands unexecuted, and will do.
+As a matter of law, the executive Government is obliged to take up such
+cases and deal with them; and the nobility or priesthood--for they are
+one and the same--are ever on the look-out for such cases. The case of
+Captain Pakenham, who was expelled from Sardinia, comes under this head.
+The Constitution is the same now as it was then; only it is further
+developed in the minds of the people, and the same offence would not now
+likely meet the same unjust punishment, or create the same stir among
+the people, as it did then. But Captain Pakenham need not have been
+expelled from the State if our British Ministers in Sardinia had done
+their duty; but they are sometimes only too glad to get quit of such men
+as Captain Pakenham. If they had protested against the sentence, it
+would never have been executed. Such a thing would never have occurred
+to an American subject. "British residents or travellers in Italy,"
+writes one to us, "will never have any comfort or satisfaction under the
+union-jack, until the present race of consuls and plenipotentiaries,
+sitting in high places, truckling with petty kings and grand dukes, is
+hanged, every one of them. There is an obliging old consul at Rome who
+might be exempted."
+
+The following extract from a letter written in March last, and addressed
+to ourselves, from the Rev. David Kay, the able pastor of the Scotch
+congregation in Genoa, will be read with deep interest. We know none who
+knows better than Mr Kay the condition of Sardinia, or is more familiar
+with all that has been done and is doing there. What he says of the
+moral condition of Genoa may be taken as a fair sample of the other
+towns and States of Italy. None of them are superior to Genoa in this
+respect, and most of them, we believe, are below it. Alas! the picture
+is a sad one.
+
+"Nothing could be more foolish or detrimental to the evangelical work
+in Sardinia than for every man and woman who enters the country, to pass
+through it or spend a few months even, to commence 'doing something,' as
+they generally express it. They scatter Bibles and tracts broad-cast,
+without knowing anything of the people they give them to; and
+nine-tenths of these books are carried forthwith to the priest or the
+pawnshop, generally the former, and are burned. This does not affect
+them much, perhaps, because they will soon be off; but it renders the
+position of those stationed in the country very precarious. The priest
+likes very much to collect all the Bibles, Testaments, tracts, &c., into
+a heap, and, before setting the match to them, bring some of his English
+friends to see them. This is no exaggeration. At least two such cases
+have come under my notice. Knowledge and prudence are very essential
+qualities,--some knowledge of the country and its people, and some
+little common sense to use that knowledge well. If our British
+travellers and residents would give the Italians a better example of how
+the Sabbath ought to be kept, and is kept, by the serious in Britain,
+and let precept for the most part alone,--the real missionary work to be
+done by people competent,--generally speaking, they would advance the
+work far more than by the way they often adopt. We talk of liberal
+Sardinia; but _liberal_ is a relative term, and all who know Sardinia
+will only apply it relatively. When an injudicious thing is done, or
+even when a lawful thing is done injudiciously, we soon see where the
+liberty of Sardinia is. It is as lawful for a man to have a thousand
+Italian Bibles in his house as to have a thousand copies of 'Rob Roy.'
+Both packages come regularly through the custom-house, and duty is paid
+for them; and yet the other day in Nice several houses were searched by
+the gendarmes, and all Bibles and tracts carried away. This is contrary
+to the Constitution of the country, and yet it was done. Englishmen will
+make a cry about it, and demand justice (a thing generally sold to the
+highest bidder); but it is no use,--only harm will be done by it. Every
+day things in _kind_ differing in _degree_ are done throughout the
+State. The long and short of the matter is this; the minds of the people
+must open, and be allowed time to open gradually, ere the liberal
+Constitution of Sardinia can be applied to its full extent. And it is
+the forgetting this, or not knowing it, that usually brings these things
+about. Something, perhaps a very common thing, and quite lawful, and
+done every day, is done in a foolish way, and a foolish thing is done by
+the executive Government to meet it. It is not the present
+generation,--it has been too long under the yoke,--but the rising
+generation, that will exhibit the new Constitution. The grand secret is
+to do as much as possible,--and almost anything may be done,--and say
+nothing about it. It is truly interesting to watch the gradual opening
+up of the long shut kingdom, and very exciting to give every day a
+stronger blow to the wedge that opens it. I remember well, when I came
+here, nearly two years ago, Italian Bibles could not be got into Genoa,
+as other goods, by paying the duty on them, although it was perfectly
+lawful then, as now, to bring them in that way. For a year past we have
+got all the Bibles the Bible-senders of Britain will send us. Hundreds
+or thousands of them can be brought through the custom-house without any
+difficulty. We are anxiously waiting the arrival of six thousand at this
+moment. And yet a month has not passed since four thousand religious
+books,--less mischievous by far than the Bible,--were sent from our port
+to Marseilles. They could not be landed in any part of his Majesty's
+dominions. From these facts you will see that we live in a kingdom of
+practical contradictions.
+
+"The priests, meanwhile, are by no means idle. They are instructing
+their people in the dogmas of their Church; and for this they have
+classes in the evening,--the zealous at least, among them have. Apart
+from their petty persecution in preventing us getting a place of worship
+(the affair of the 'Madre di Dio' you know all about, as also their
+general story of every convert being paid), they send missionaries to
+England once or twice a-year, (there is a priest whom I know just now
+returned), who bring, generally prostitutes, but women of a better order
+if they can find them, put them into a convent, to train, and, when
+trained, send them out to strengthen the Catholics here in their faith,
+and, if possible, bring back to the fold those who have gone to
+Geymonat; and highly accomplished trustworthy dames they send home to
+England to bring out others, or remain there and proselytise; or they
+send them here and there among the English on the Continent, sometimes
+to profess one thing and sometimes another. A few weeks ago one tried
+her skill upon us residing in Genoa, and partially succeeded. Her tale
+was, that she was the daughter of an English clergyman, who came abroad
+with her aunt, travelling in great style of course, and was put into a
+convent, and kept there against her will; and now she had contrived to
+make her escape, and perfectly trembled when she saw a priest, or even
+heard one named; and, although of high family, was ready to teach or do
+anything in an English family, to be out of reach of the priests. The
+things she told were most harrowing, and some of them very true-like.
+One English gentleman here thought of taking her into his family as
+governess, until he should get her father to come for her. I was asked
+to visit her at his house, and hear her woeful history. I went; but the
+line 'Timeo Danaos,' &c., was ever forcing itself upon me as I walked
+musingly along to the house, which was a little distance out of town.
+While hearing her long unconnected string of falsehoods, the thing that
+astonished me was, why the Roman Catholic priests should have chosen
+such an ugly woman to do such a piece of work; and not only had she the
+most forbidding appearance of any woman I ever saw, but she was the most
+illiterate; not a single sentence came correctly from her lips, and, in
+pronunciation, the letter 'h' ever was prefixed to the 'aunt' and the
+'Oxford,'--the very quintescence of Cockneyism. It was clear to my mind
+that she had 'done' the priests, and the sequel proves my suspicions to
+be correct. That day before she left, she discovered that she was
+suspected, and very prudently threw off her mask very soon after. Her
+correct history we are only getting bit by bit; but all we have learned
+convinces us that she has deceived the Italian priest, who knows very
+little of English, by persuading him that she is the daughter of an
+English clergyman, and very highly connected in England. You have enough
+of the story to see the kind of plot regularly carried on. What they
+expected to gain by passing her off upon us, we cannot tell, unless that
+they wished to know earlier and more fully our movements. There is an
+English pervert here just now,--a weak fool, but an educated one,--on a
+mission to Geymonat's people, to assure them that they have committed a
+great sin. Having proved both systems of religion, he can judge, and
+there is no comfort whatever in the Protestant. He has taken up his
+abode here, and is prosecuting his mission vigorously.
+
+"A traveller passing through Genoa, and visiting the churches,
+particularly on a feast-day, would fancy that the Genoese, or, indeed,
+the Catholics in Sardinia generally, are the most devoted Catholics in
+Italy. Many have gone away with that impression. The reason is this. All
+who attend the churches in Genoa do so from choice,--from religious
+motives; and even feel, in these days of heresy, that they are wearing
+the martyr's crown,--standing firmly for the true Church, while all
+without are scoffers; whereas in the Tuscan, Roman, and Neapolitan
+States, people attend church from compulsion. If they are not in church
+on certain days, and at mass, they are immediately suspected. I believe
+the male population of Italy is one moving mass of infidelity. Sardinia
+is professedly so. In Genoa not one young man in a hundred attends
+church. If you see him there, it is to select a pretty woman for his own
+purposes. Morality is at a very low ebb,--lower far than you can have
+any idea of. Every man is sighing after his neighbour's wife; and he
+confesses it, and talks as gallantly of his conquest as if he had fought
+on the heights of Alma. A stranger walking the streets in the evening
+would not suppose this, for he would not be attacked, as in a town in
+Britain; but they have their dens, and licensed ones too. Shocking as it
+may appear, these houses are regularly licensed by the Government; and
+medical men visit them once every week for sanitary purposes. The
+defilement of the marriage-bed is little or nothing thought of. Marriage
+here is generally a money speculation, and is very frequently brought
+about through means of regular brokers or agents, who receive a per
+centage on the bride's dowry. A woman without a pretty good dowry has
+very little chance of a husband, unless she is young and very pretty,
+and willing to accept an old man. There are very few women in Geymonat's
+congregation. The converts are nearly all men."
+
+While we rejoice in the spread of the light, we cannot but marvel at the
+mysterious connection which may be traced between the first and the
+second reformations in Italy, as regards the spots where this divine
+illumination is now breaking out. We have already adverted to the
+progress of the Gospel in the sixteenth century in so many of the
+cities of Italy, and the long roll of confessors and martyrs which every
+class of her citizens contributed to furnish. Not only did these men, in
+their prisons and at their stakes, sow the seeds of a future harvest,
+but they appear to have earned for the towns in which they lived, and
+the families from which they were sprung, a hereditary right, as it
+were, to be foremost in confessing that cause at every subsequent era of
+its revival. We cannot mark but with a feeling of heartfelt gratitude to
+God, in whose sight the death of his saints is precious, and who, by the
+eternal laws of his providence, has ordained that the example of the
+martyr shall prove more powerful and more lasting than that of the
+persecutor, that on the _self-same spots_ where these men died of old,
+the same mighty movement has again broken out. And not only are the same
+cities of Turin, and Milan, and Venice, and Genoa, and Florence,
+figuring in this second reformation of Italy, but the same families and
+the same names from which God chose his martyrs in Italy three centuries
+ago are again coming forward, and offering themselves to the dungeon,
+and the galleys, and the scaffold, in the cause of the Gospel. Does not
+this finely illustrate the indestructible nature of truth, which enables
+it to survive a long period of dormancy and of apparent death, and to
+flourish anew from what seemingly was its tomb? And does it not also
+shed a beautiful light upon the order of the providence of God, whereby
+he remembers and revisits the seed of the righteous man, and keeps his
+mercy to a thousand generations of them that fear Him?
+
+On Wednesday the 6th of November, after a stay of well-nigh a week in
+Florence, I took my departure by rail for Pisa. The weather was still
+wild and wintry, and the Apennines were white with snow to almost their
+bottom. The railway runs along the valley, close to the Arno, which,
+swollen with the rains, had flooded the vineyards and meadows in many
+places. A truly Italian vale is that of the Arno, whose silvery stream
+in ordinary times is seen winding and glistening amid the olives and the
+chestnut groves which border its course. When evening came, a deep
+spiritual beauty pervaded the region. As we swept along, many a romantic
+hill rose beside our path, with its clustering village, its mantling
+vines, and its robe of purple shadows; and many a long withdrawing
+ravine opened on the right and left, with its stream, and its crags, and
+its olives, and its castles. What would we have given for but a minute's
+pause, to admire the finer points! But the engine held its onward way,
+as if its course had been amidst the most indifferent scenery in the
+world. It made amends, however, for the enchanting views which it swept
+into oblivion behind, by perpetually opening in front others as lovely
+and fascinating. The twilight had set, and the moon was shining
+brightly, when we reached the station at Pisa.
+
+The Austrian soldier who kept the gate challenged me as I passed, but I
+paid no attention, and hurried on. Had he secured my passport, I would
+infallibly have been detained a whole day. I traversed the long winding
+streets of the decaying town, crossed the Arno, on which the city
+stands, and, coming out on the other side of Pisa, found myself in
+presence of its fine ecclesiastical buildings. A moon nearly full, which
+seemed to veil while it in reality heightened their beauty, enabled me
+to see these venerable edifices to advantage. The hanging tower is a
+beautiful pile of white marble; the Cathedral is one of the most
+chastely elegant specimens of architecture in all Italy; the baptistry,
+too peculiar to be classic, is, nevertheless, a tasteful and elegant
+design. Having surveyed these lovely creations of the wealth and genius
+of a past age, I returned in time to take my seat in the last train for
+Leghorn.
+
+The country betwixt Pisa and the coast is perfectly flat, and the
+flooded Arno had converted it into a sea. I could see nothing around me
+but a watery waste, above which the railway rose but a few inches. I
+felt as if again amid the Lagunes of Venice. After an hour and a half's
+riding, we reached Leghorn, where I took up my abode at Thomson's hotel,
+so well and so favourably known to English travellers. After my long
+sojourn in Italian _albergi_, whose uncarpeted floors, and chinky
+windows and doors, are but ill fitted to resist the winds and cold of
+winter, I sat down in "Thomson's,"--furnished as it is with all the
+comforts of an English inn,--with a feeling of home-comfort such as I
+have rarely experienced.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+FROM LEGHORN TO ROME.
+
+     First Sight of the Mediterranean--Embark at Leghorn--Elba--Italian
+     Coast--Civita Vecchia--Passport Offices--Aspect and Population of
+     Civita Vecchia--Papal Dungeons--Start for Rome--First View of the
+     Campagna--Its Desolation--Changed Times--The Postilion--The
+     Road--The Milestones--First Sight of the Eternal City--The
+     Gate--Desolate Look of the City by Night--The Pope's Custom-House
+     and Custom-House Officer.
+
+
+I rose early next morning, and walked down to the harbour, to have my
+first sight of the Mediterranean,--that renowned sea, on whose shores
+the classic nations of antiquity dwelt, and art and letters arose,--on
+whose waters the commerce of the ancient world was carried on, and the
+battles of ancient times fought,--whose scenery had often inspired the
+Greek and Latin poets,--and the grandeur of whose storms Inspiration
+itself had celebrated. A stiff breeze was blowing, and a white curl
+crested the wave, and freckled the deep blue of the waters. The
+Mediterranean looked young and joyous in the morning sun, as when it
+bore the fleets of Tyre, or heard the victorious shouts of Rome, albeit
+it is now edged with mouldering cities, and listens only to the clank of
+chains and the sigh of enslaved nations.
+
+Early in the forenoon I waited on the Rev. Dr Stewart, the accomplished
+minister of the Free Church in Leghorn. He opened freely to me his ample
+stores of information on the subject of Tuscany, and the work in
+progress in that country. We called afterwards on Mr Thomas Henderson, a
+native of Scotland, but long settled in Leghorn as a merchant. This kind
+and Christian man has since, alas! gone to his grave; but the future
+historian of the Reformation in Italy will rank him with those pious
+merchants in our own land who in former days consecrated their energy
+and wealth to the work of furthering the Gospel, and of sheltering its
+poor persecuted disciples. After sojourning so long among strange faces
+and strange tongues, it was truly pleasant to meet two such
+friends,--for friends I felt them to be, though never till that day had
+I seen their faces.
+
+At four of the afternoon I embarked in the steamer for Civita Vecchia,
+the port of Rome. The vessel I did not like at first: it was dirty,
+crowded, and, from some fault in the loading, lurched over while a stiff
+breeze was rising. By and by we got properly under weigh, and swept
+gallantly over the waves, along the coast, whose precipices and
+headlands were getting indistinct in the fading twilight. I walked the
+deck till past midnight, watching the moon as she rode high amid the
+scud overhead, and the beacon-lights of the island of Elba, as they
+gleamed full and bright astern. "What of the night?" I asked the
+helmsman. "Buono notte, Signore," was the reply. I descended to my
+berth.
+
+I awoke at four of the morning, and found the steamer labouring in a
+rolling sea. The sirocco was blowing, and a huge black wave rolled up
+before it from the south. The distant coast stretched along on the left,
+naked and iron-bound, with the high lands of Etruria rising behind it. I
+wondered whether that coast had looked as unkindly to Aeneas, when first
+he cast anchor on it after long ploughing the deep? We drew towards that
+silent shore, where signs of man and his labours we could discover none;
+and in an hour or so a small bay opened under the vessel's bows. The
+swell was rising every moment, and the steamer made some magnificent
+bounds in taking the entrance to the harbour. We entered the port of
+Civita Vecchia at six, passing between the two round towers, with their
+tiers of guns looking down upon us; and cast anchor in the ample basin,
+protected by the lofty walls of the forts, over which the green-topped
+waves occasionally looked as if enraged at missing their prey. Here we
+were, but not a man of us could land till first our passports had been
+submitted to the authorities on shore. The passengers, who were of all
+classes, from the English nobleman with his equipage and horses, down to
+the lazzaroni of Naples, crowded the deck promiscuously; and amongst
+them I was happy to meet again my two Russian friends, with whom I had
+shared the same bed-room among the Apennines. In about an hour and a
+half we were boarded by a police-officer. Forming us into a row on deck,
+and calling our names one by one, this functionary handed to each a
+billet, permitting the holder to go ashore, on condition of an instant
+compearance at the pontifical police-office. An examination of the
+baggage followed. This done, I leaped into one of the small boats which
+lay alongside the steamer, and was rowed to the quay at a few strokes,
+but for which service I had to recompense the boatman with about as many
+pauls. No sooner had I set foot on shore, than the everlasting passport
+bother began. The "apostolic consul" at Florence had certified me as
+"good for Rome;" the governor of Leghorn had but the day before done the
+same; but here were I know not how many officials, all assuring me that
+without their signatures in addition, Rome I should never see. First
+came the English consul, who graciously gave me--what Lord Palmerston
+had already given--permission to travel in the Papal States, charging me
+at the same time five pauls. I could not help saying, that it was all
+very well for nations that made no pretensions to liberty to sell to
+their subjects the right of moving over the earth, but that it appeared
+to me to be somewhat inconsistent in Britain to do so. The consul looked
+as if he could not bring himself to believe that he had heard aright.
+The number of my visa told me that I was the 4318th Englishman who had
+entered the port of Civita Vecchia that season. I next took my way to
+the French consulate in the town-hall. I found the ante-chamber filled
+with Etrurian antiquities, in which the district adjoining Civita
+Vecchia on the north is particularly rich; and the sight of these was
+more than worth the moderate charge of one paul, which was made for my
+visee. At length I got this business off my hand; and, having secured my
+seat in the _diligence_ for Rome, I had leisure to take a stroll through
+the town.
+
+Civita Vecchia, though the port of Rome, and raised thus above its
+original insignificance, is but a poor place. A black hill leans over it
+on the north, and a naked beach, dreary and silent, runs off from it on
+the south. A small square, overlooked by stately mansions, emblazoned
+with the arms of the consuls of the various nations, forms its nucleus,
+from which numerous narrow and wriggling streets run out, much like the
+claws of a crab, from its round bulby body. It smells rankly of garlic
+and other garbage, and would be much the better would the Mediterranean
+give it a thorough cleansing once a-week. Its population is a motley and
+worshipful assemblage of priests, monks, French soldiers, facini, and
+beggars; and it would be hard to say which is the idlest, or which is
+the dirtiest. They seemed to be gathered promiscuously into the
+caffes,--priests, facini, and all,--rattling the dice and sipping
+coffee. Every one you come in contact with has some pretext or other for
+demanding a paulo of you. The Arabs of the desert are not more greedy of
+_backsheish_. A gentleman, as well dressed as I was at least, made up to
+me when I had taken my seat in the _diligence_, and, after talking five
+minutes on indifferent subjects, ended by demanding a paulo. "For what?"
+I asked, with some little surprise. "For entertaining Signore," he
+replied. Yet why blame these poor people? What can they do but beg?
+Trade, husbandry, books,--all have fled from that doomed shore.
+
+There are three conspicuous buildings in Civita Vecchia. Two of these
+are hotels; the third and largest is a prison. This is one of the State
+prisons of the Pope. Rising story above story, and meeting the traveller
+on the very threshold of the country, it thrusts somewhat too
+prominently upon his notice the Pope's peculiar method of propagating
+Christianity,--namely, by building dungeons and hiring French bayonets.
+But to do the Pope justice, he is most unwearied in Christianizing his
+subjects after his own fashion. His prisons are well-nigh as numerous as
+his churches; and if the latter are but thinly attended, the former are
+crowded. He is a man "instant in season and out of season," as a good
+shepherd ought to be: he watches while others sleep; for it is at night
+that his sbirri are most active, running about in the darkness, and
+carrying tenderly to a safe fold those lambs which are in danger of
+being devoured by the Mazzinian wolves, or ensnared by Bible heretics.
+But to be serious,--when one finds as many prisons as churches in a
+territory ruled over by a minister of the Gospel, he begins to feel that
+there is something frightfully wrong somewhere.
+
+When I passed the fortress of Civita Vecchia, many a noble heart lay
+pining within its walls. No fewer, I was assured, than two thousand
+Romans were there shut up as galley-slaves, their only crime being, that
+they had sought to substitute a lay for a sacerdotal Government,--the
+regime of constitutionalism for that of infallibility. In this prison
+the renowned brigand Gasperoni, the uncle of the prime minister of the
+Pope, Antonelli, had been confined; but, being too much in the way of
+English travellers, he was removed farther inland. This man was wont to
+complain loudly to those who visited him, of the cruel injustice which
+the world had done his fair fame. "I have been held up," he was used to
+say, "as a person who has murdered hundreds. It is a foul calumny. I
+never cut more than thirty throats in my life." He had had, moreover, to
+carry on his profession at a large outlay, having to pay the Pope's
+police an hundred scudi a-month for information.
+
+At last mid-day came, and off we started for Rome. We trundled down the
+street at a tolerable pace; and one could not help feeling that every
+revolution of the wheel brought him nearer the Eternal City. Suddenly
+our course was brought to an unexpected stop. Another examination of
+passports and baggage at the gate! not, I verily believe, in the hope of
+finding contraband wares, but of having a pretext to exact a few more
+pauls. The half-hour wore through, though wearily. The gate was flung
+open; and there lay before us a blackened expanse, stretching far and
+wide, dreary and death-like, terminated here by the sea, and there by
+the horizon,--the Campagna di Roma. I turned for relief to the ocean,
+all angry with tempest as it was; and felt that its struggling billows
+were a more agreeable sight than the tomb-like stillness of the plain.
+The sirocco was still blowing; and the largest breakers I ever saw were
+tumbling on the beach. The only bright and pleasant thing in the
+picture was the shining, sandy coast, with its margin of white foam. It
+ran off in a noble crescent of fifty miles, and was seen in the far
+distance terminating in the low sandy promontory of Fumacina, where the
+Tiber falls into the sea. Alas! what vicissitudes had that coast been
+witness to! There, where the idle wave was now rolling, rode in other
+days the galleys of Rome; and there, where the stifling sirocco was
+sweeping the herbless plain, rose the villas of her senators, amid the
+bloom and fragrance of the orange and the olive. To that coast Caesar had
+loved to come, to inhale its breezes, and to pass, in the society of his
+select friends, those hours which ambition left unoccupied. But what a
+change now! There was no sail on that sea; there was no dwelling on that
+shore: the scene was lonely and desolate, as if keel had never ploughed
+the one, nor human foot trodden the other.
+
+I had seated myself in front of the vehicle, in the hope of catching the
+first glimpse of St Peter's, as its dome should emerge above the plain;
+but so wretched were our cattle, that though we started at mid-day, and
+had only fifty miles of road, night fell long before we reached the
+gates of the Eternal City. I saw the country well, however, so long as
+daylight lasted. We kept in sight of the shore for twenty-five miles;
+and glad I was of it; for the waves, with their crest of snow and voice
+of thunder, seemed old friends, and I shuddered to think of plunging
+into that black silent wilderness on the left. At the gate of Civita
+Vecchia the desolation begins; and such desolation! I had often read
+that the Campagna was desolate; I had come there expecting to find it
+desolate; but when I saw that desolation I was confounded. I cannot
+describe it; it must be seen to be conceived of. It is not that it is
+silent;--the Highlands of Scotland are so. It is not that it is
+barren;--the sands of Arabia are so. They are as they were and should
+be. But not so the Campagna. There is something frightfully unnatural
+about its desolation. A statue is as still, as silent, and as cold, as
+the corpse; but then it never had life; and while you love to gaze on
+the one, the other chills you to the heart. So is it with the Campagna.
+While the sands of the desert exhilarate you, and the silence of the
+Swiss or Scottish Highlands is felt to be sublime, the desolation of the
+Campagna is felt to be unnatural: it overawes and terrifies you. Such a
+void in the heart of Europe, and that, too, in a land which was the home
+of art,--where war accumulated her spoils, and wealth her
+treasures,--and which gave letters and laws to the surrounding
+world,--is unspeakably confounding. One's faith is staggered in the past
+history of the country. The first glance of the blackened bosom of the
+Campagna makes one feel as if he had retrograded to the barbarous ages,
+or had been carried thousands and thousands of miles from home, and set
+down in a savage country, where the arts had not yet been invented, or
+civilization dawned. Its surface is rough and uneven, as if it had been
+tumbled about at some former period; it is dotted with wild bushes; and
+here and there lonely mounds rise to diversify it. There are no houses
+on it, save the post-houses, which are square, tower-like buildings,
+having the stables below and the dwellings above. It has its patches of
+grass, on which herds depasture, followed by men clothed in sheepskins
+and goatskins, and looking as savage almost as the animals they tend. It
+is, in short, a wilderness, and more frightful than the other
+wildernesses of the earth, because the traveller feels that here there
+is the hand of doom. The land lies scathed and blackened under the curse
+of the Almighty. To Rome the words of the prophet are as applicable as
+to Babylon, whom she resembled in sin, and with whom she is now joined
+in punishment: "Because of the wrath of the Lord, it shall not be
+inhabited, but it shall be wholly desolate. Every one that goeth by
+Babylon shall be astonished, and hiss at all her plagues. Cut off the
+sower from Babylon, and him that handleth the sickle in the time of
+harvest. I will also make it a possession for the bittern, and pools of
+water. And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, shall be as when God
+overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah: it shall never be inhabited, neither dwelt
+in from generation to generation; but wild beasts of the deserts shall
+lie there, and their houses shall be full of doleful creatures, and owls
+shall dwell there, and satyrs shall dance there."
+
+About half-way to Rome the road parted company with the shore, and we
+turned inland over the plain. The night came on with drifting showers,
+which descended in torrents, lashing the naked plain, and battering our
+vehicle with the force and noise of a waterspout. And though at length
+the moon rose, and looked out at times from the cloud, she had nothing
+to show us but houseless, treeless desolation; and, as if scared at what
+she saw, she instantly hid her face in another mass of vapour. The
+stages were short, and the halts long; for which the postilion had but
+too good excuse, in the tangled web of thong and cord which formed the
+harnessings of his horses. The harnessing of an Italian _diligence_ is a
+mystery to all but an Italian postilion. The postilion, on arriving at a
+stage, has to get down, shake himself, stride into the post to announce
+his arrival, unharness his horses, lead them deliberately into the
+stable, bring out the fresh ones, transfer the same harness to their
+backs, put them to, gulp down his glass of brandy, address a few more
+last observations to the loiterers, and, finally, light his cigar. He
+then mounts with a flourish of his whip; but his wretched nags are not
+able to proceed at a quicker trot than from three to four miles an
+hour. He meets very probably a brother of the trade, who has been at
+Rome, and is returning with his horses. He dismounts on the road,
+inquires the news, and mounts again at his pleasure. In short, you are
+completely in the postilion's power; and he is quite as much an autocrat
+in his way as the Czar himself. He sings, it may be, but his song is the
+very soul of melancholy,--
+
+ "Roma, Roma, Roma, non e piu,
+ Come prima era."
+
+It needed but a glance at that pale moon, and drifting cloud, and naked
+plain, to tell me that "Rome was not now as in her first age."
+
+As the night grew late, the inquiries became more frequent, "Are we not
+yet at Rome?" We were not yet at Rome; but we did all that men could
+with four, and sometimes six, half-starved animals, bestrode by drowsy
+postilions, to reach it. Now we were labouring in deep roads,--now
+fording impetuous torrents,--and now jolting along on the hard pavement
+of the Via Aurelia. By the glimpses of the moon we could see the
+milestones by the roadside, with "ROME" upon them. Seldom has writing
+thrilled me so. To find a name which fills history, and which for thirty
+centuries has extorted the homage of the world, and still awes it,
+written thus upon a common milestone, and standing there amid the
+tempest on the roadside, had in it something of the sublime. Was it then
+a reality, and not a dream? and should I in a very short time be in Rome
+itself,--that city which had been the theatre of so many events of
+world-wide influence, and which for so many ages had borne sway over all
+the kings and kingdoms of the earth? Meanwhile the night became darker,
+and the torrents of rain more frequent and more heavy.
+
+Towards midnight we began to climb a low hill. We could see that there
+was cultivation upon it, and, unless we were mistaken, a few villas. We
+had passed its summit, and were already engaged in the descent, when a
+terrific flash of lightning broke through the darkness, and tipped with
+a fiery radiance every object around us. On the left was the old hoary
+wall, with a whitish bulby mass hanging inside of it. On the right was a
+steep bank, with a few straggling vines dripping wet. The road between,
+on which we were winding downwards, was deep and worn. I had had my
+first view of Rome; but in how strange a way! In a few minutes we were
+standing at the gate.
+
+Some little delay took place in opening it. The moments which one passes
+on the threshold of Rome are moments he never can forget. While waiting
+there till it should please the guard to open that old gate, the whole
+history of the wonderful city on whose threshold I now stood seemed to
+pass before my mind,--her kings, her consuls, her emperors,--her
+legislators, her orators, her poets,--her popes,--all seemed to stalk
+solemnly past, one after one. There was the great Romulus; there was the
+proud Tarquin; there was Scylla with his laurel, and Livy with his page,
+and Virgil with his lay, and Caesar with his diadem, and Brutus with his
+dagger; there was the lordly Augustus, the cruel Nero, the beastly
+Caligula, the warlike Trajan, the philosophic Antoninus, the stern
+Hildebrand, the infamous Borgia, the terrible Innocent; and last of all,
+and closing this long procession of shades, came one, with shuffling
+gait and cringing figure, who is not yet a shade,--Pio Nono. The creak
+of the old gate, as the sentinel undid its bolt and threw back its
+ponderous doors, awoke me from my reverie.
+
+We were stopped the moment we had entered the gate, and desired to
+mount to the guard-room. In a small chamber on the city-wall, seated at
+a table, on which a lamp was burning, we found a little tight-made
+brusque French officer, busied in overhauling the passports. Declaring
+himself satisfied after a slight survey, he hinted pretty plainly that a
+few pauls would be acceptable. "Did you ever," whispered my Russian
+friend, "see such a people?" We were remounting our vehicle, when a
+soldier climbed up, with musket and fixed bayonet, and forced himself in
+between my companion and myself, to see us all right to the
+custom-house, and to take care that we dropped no counterband goods by
+the way. Away we trundled; but the Campagna itself was not more solitary
+than that rain-battered and half-flooded street. No ray streamed out
+from window; no sound or voice of man broke the stillness; no one was
+abroad; the wind moaned; and the big drops fell heavily upon the plashy
+lava-paved causeway; but, with these exceptions, the silence was
+unbroken; and, to add to the dreariness, the city was in well-nigh total
+darkness.
+
+I intently scrutinized the various objects, as the glare of our lamps
+brought them successively into view. First there came a range of massive
+columns, which stalked past us, wearing in the sombre night an air of
+Egyptian grandeur. They came on and on, and I thought they should never
+have passed. Little did I dream that this was the piazza of St Peter's,
+and that the bulb I had seen by favour of the lightning was the dome of
+that renowned edifice. Next we found ourselves in a street of low, mean,
+mouldering houses; and in a few moments thereafter we were riding under
+the walls of an immense fortress, which rose above us, till its
+battlements were lost in the darkness. Then turning at right angles, we
+crossed a long bridge, with shade-like statues looking down upon us from
+either parapet, and a dark silent river flowing underneath. I could
+guess what river that was. We then plunged into a labyrinth of streets
+of a rather better description than the one already traversed, but
+equally dreary and deserted. We kept winding and turning, till, as I
+supposed, we had got to the heart of the city. In all that way we had
+not met a human being, or seen aught from which we could infer that
+there was a living creature in Rome. At last we found ourselves in a
+small square,--the site of the Forum of Antoninus, though I knew it not
+then,--in one of the sides of which was an iron gate, which opened to
+receive us, _diligence_ and all, and which was instantly closed and
+locked behind us; while two soldiers, with fixed bayonets, took their
+stand as sentinels outside. It was a vast barn-looking, cavern-like
+place, with mouldering Corinthian columns built into its massive wall,
+and its roof hung so high as to be scarce visible in the darkness. It
+had been a temple of Antoninus Pius, and was now converted into the
+Pope's dogana or custom-house.
+
+In a few minutes there entered a dapper, mild-faced, gentle-mannered,
+stealthy-paced man, with a thick long cloak thrown over his shoulders,
+to protect him from the night air. The Pope's dogana-master stood before
+us. He paced to and fro in the most unconcerned way possible; and though
+it was past midnight, and trunks and carpet-bags were all open and
+ready, he seemed reluctant to begin the search. Nevertheless the baggage
+was disappearing, and its owners departing at the iron gate,--a mystery
+I could not solve. At length this most affable of dogana-masters drew up
+to me, and in a quiet way, as if wishing to conceal the interest he felt
+in me, he shook me warmly by the hand. I felt greatly obliged to him for
+this welcome to Rome, but would have felt more so if, instead of this
+salute, he had opened the gate and let me go. In about five minutes he
+again came round to where I stood, and, grasping my hand a second time,
+gave it a yet heartier squeeze. I was at a loss to explain this sudden
+friendship; for I was pretty sure this exceedingly agreeable gentleman
+had never seen me till that moment. How long this might have lasted I
+know not, had not a person in the dogana, compassionating my dullness,
+stepped up to me, and whispered into my ear to give the searcher a few
+paulos. I was a little scandalized at this proposal to bribe his
+Holiness's servant; but I could see no chance otherwise of having the
+iron gate opened. Accordingly, I got ready the requisite douceur; and,
+waiting his return, which soon happened, took care to drop the few pauls
+into his palm at the next squeeze. On the instant the gate opened.
+
+But alas! I was in a worse plight than ever. There was no commissario to
+be had at that hour. I was in total darkness; not a door was open; nor
+was there an individual in the street; and, recollecting the reputation
+Rome had of late acquired for midnight assassinations, I began to grow a
+little apprehensive. After wandering about for some time, I lighted on a
+French sentry, who obligingly led me to a caffe hard by, which is kept
+open all night. There I found a young German, an artist evidently, who,
+having finished his coffee, politely volunteered to conduct me to the
+Hotel d'Angleterre.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+MODERN ROME.
+
+     Tower of Capitol best Site for studying Topography of
+     Rome--Resemblance in the Sites of great Cities--Site of
+     Rome--Campagna di Roma--Its Extent and Boundaries--Ancient
+     Fertility and Magnificence--Modern Desolation of Campagna--Approach
+     to Rome from the North--Etruria--Solitariness of this once famous
+     Highway--First Sight of Rome--The Flaminian Way--The Porta del
+     Popolo--The Piazza del Popolo--Its Antiquities--Pincian
+     Hill--General Plan of Rome--The Corso--The Via Ripetta--The Via
+     Babuina--Population--Disproportionate Numbers of Priests--Variety
+     of Ecclesiastical Costumes--Dresses of the various Orders--Their
+     indescribably Filthy Appearance--The ordinary Priest--The Priest's
+     Face--The Beggars--Want of Arrangement in its Edifices--Rome an
+     unrivalled Combination of Grandeur and Dirt.
+
+
+One of my first days in Rome was passed on the top of the tower of the
+Capitol. It is incomparably the best spot on which to study the
+topography of the Eternal City, with that of the surrounding region.
+Here one stands between the living and the dead,--between the city of
+the Caesars, which lies entombed on the Seven Hills, with the vine, the
+ivy, and the jessamine mantling its grave, and the city of the Popes,
+spread out with its cupolas, and towers, and everlasting chimes, on the
+low flat plain of the Campus Martius. The world has not such another
+ruin,--so vast, colossal, and magnificent,--as Rome. Let us sketch the
+features of the scene as they here present themselves.
+
+There would appear to be a law determining the _site_, as well as the
+_character_, of great events. It has often been remarked, that there is
+a resemblance between all the great battle-fields of the world. One
+attribute in especial they all possess, namely, that of vastness;
+inspiring the mind of the spectator with an idea of grandeur, to which
+the recollection of the carnage of which they were the scene adds a
+feeling of melancholy. The Troy and the Marathon of the ancient world
+have found their representative in the modern one, in that gloomy
+expanse in Flanders where Napoleon witnessed the total defeat of his
+arms and the final overthrow of his fortunes. We would make the same
+remark regarding great capitals. There is a family likeness in their
+sites. The chief cities of the ancient world arose, for the most part,
+on extensive plains, nigh some great river; for rivers were the
+railroads of early times. I might instance queenly Thebes, which arose
+in the great valley of the Nile, with a boundary of fine mountains
+encircling the plain on which it stood. Babylon found a seat on the
+great plain of Chaldea, on the banks of the Euphrates. Niniveh arose on
+the same great plain, on the banks of the Tigris, with the glittering
+line of the snowy Kurdistan chain bounding its horizon. To come down to
+comparatively modern times, ROME has been equally fortunate with her
+predecessors in a site worthy of her greatness and renown. No one needs
+to be told that the seat of that city, which for so many ages held the
+sceptre of the world, is the CAMPAGNA DI ROMA.
+
+I need not dwell on the magnificence of that truly imperial plain, to
+which nature has given, in a country of hills, dimensions so goodly.
+From the foot of the Apennines it runs on and on for upwards of an
+hundred miles, till it meets the Neapolitan frontier at Terracina. Its
+breadth from the Volscian hills to the sea cannot be less than forty
+miles. Towards the head of this great plain lies Rome, than which a
+finer site for the capital of a great empire could nowhere have been
+found. By nature it is most fertile; its climate is delicious. It is
+watered by the Tiber, which is seen winding through it like a thread of
+gold. A boundary of glorious hills encloses it on all sides save the
+south-west. On the south-east are the gentle Volscians, clothed with
+flourishing woods and sparkling with villas. Running up along the plain,
+and lying due east of Rome, are the Sabine hills, of a deep azure
+colour, with a fine mottling of light and shade upon their sides.
+Shutting in the plain on the north, and sweeping round it in a
+magnificent bend towards the west, are the craggy and romantic
+Apennines. Such was the stage on which sat invincible, eternal Rome.
+This plain was traversed, moreover, by thirty-three highways, which
+connected the city with every quarter of the habitable globe. Its
+surface exhibited the richest cultivation. From side to side it was
+covered with gardens and vineyards, in the verdure and blossoms of an
+almost perpetual spring; amid which rose the temples of the gods of
+Rome, the trophies of her warriors, the tombs and monuments of her
+legislators and orators, and the villas and rural retreats of her
+senators and merchants. Indeed, this plain would seem, in imperial
+times, to have been one vast city, stretching out from the white strand
+of the Mediterranean to the summit of the Volscian hills.
+
+But in proportion to its GRANDEUR then is its DESOLATION now. From the
+sea to the mountains it lies silent, waste, unploughed, unsown,--a
+houseless, treeless, blackened wilderness. "Where," you exclaim, "are
+its highways?" They are blotted out. "Where are its temples, its
+palaces, its vineyards?" All swept away. Scarce a heap remains, to tell
+of its numerous and magnificent structures. Their very ruins are ruined.
+The land looks as if the foot of man had never trodden it, and the hand
+of man never cultivated it. Here it rises into melancholy mounds; there
+it sinks into hollows and pits: like that plain which God overthrew, it
+neither is sown nor beareth. It is inhabited by the fox, haunted by the
+brigand, and frequented in spring and autumn by a few herdsmen, clad in
+goats'-skins, and living in caves and wigwams, and reminding one, by
+their savage appearance, of the satyrs of ancient mythology. It is
+silent as a sepulchre. John Bunyan might have painted it for his "Valley
+of the Shadow of Death."
+
+I shall suppose that you are approaching Rome from the north. You have
+disengaged yourself from the Apennines,--the picturesque Apennines,--in
+whose sunny vales the vine still ripens, and on whose sides the olive
+still lingers. You are advancing along a high plateau which rises here
+and there into conical mounts, on which sits some ancient and renowned
+city, dwindled now into a poor village, whose inhabitants are
+husbandmen, and who move about oppressed by the languor that weighs upon
+this whole land. Beneath your feet are subterranean chambers, in which
+mailed warriors sleep,--for it is the ancient land of Etruria over which
+your track lies. Before the wolf suckled Romulus, this soil had
+nourished a race of heroes. The road, so filled in former times by a
+never-failing concourse of legions going forth to battle or returning in
+triumph,--of consuls and legates bearing the high behests of the senate
+to the subject provinces,--and of ambassadors and princes coming to sue
+for peace, or to lay their tributary gifts at the feet of Rome,--is now
+solitary and untrodden, save by the traveller from a far country, or the
+cowled and corded pilgrim whose vow brings him to the shrine of the
+apostles. Stacks of mouldering brickwork attract the eye by the
+wayside,--the remains of temples and monuments when the land was in its
+prime. You scarce take note of the scattered and stunted olives which
+are dying through age. The fields are wretchedly tilled, where tilled at
+all. The country appears to grow only the more desolate, and the silence
+the more dreary and unsupportable, as you advance. "Roma! Roma!" is
+chanted forth in melancholy tones by the postilion. "Roma" is graven on
+the milestones; but you cannot persuade yourself that Rome you shall
+find in the heart of a desert like this. You have gained the brow of a
+low hill; you have passed the summit, and got half-way down the
+declivity; when suddenly a vision bursts on your sight that rivets you
+to the spot. There is the Tiber rolling its yellow floods at your feet;
+and there, spread out in funereal gloom between the mountains and the
+sea, is the CAMPAGNA DI ROMA. The spectacle is sublime, despite its
+desolation. There is but one object in the vast expanse, but that is
+truly a majestic one. Alone, on the silent plain, judgment-stricken and
+sackcloth-clad, occupying the same spot where she "glorified herself and
+lived deliciously," and said in her heart, "I sit a queen, and am no
+widow, and shall see no sorrow," is ROME.
+
+You are to cross the Tiber. Already your steps are on the Pons Milvius,
+where Christianity triumphed over Paganism in the person of Constantine,
+and over the parapet of which Maxentius, in his flight, flung the
+seven-branched golden candlestick, which Titus brought from the temple
+of Jerusalem. The Flaminian way, which you are now to traverse, runs
+straight to the gate of Rome. In front is the long line of the city
+walls, within which you can descry the proud dome of St Peter's, the
+huge rotundity of St Angelo, or "Hadrian's Mole," and a host of inferior
+cupolas and towers, which in any other city would suffice to give a
+character to the place, but are here thrown into the shade by the two
+unrivalled structures I have named. You are not less than two miles from
+the gate; yet such are the purity and transparency of an Italian sky,
+that every stone almost in the old wall,--every scar which the hand of
+time or the ravages of war have made in it,--is visible. As you advance,
+Monte Mario rises on the right, with a temple on its crest, and rows of
+pine-trees and cypresses on its sides. On the left, at a goodly
+distance, are seen the purple hills of Frascati and Albano, with their
+delicate chequering of light and shadow, and the Tiber, appearing to
+burst like a river of gold from their azure bosom. The beauty of these
+objects is much heightened by the blackness of the plain around.
+
+We now enter Rome. The square in which we find ourselves,--the Porta del
+Popolo,--is worthy of Rome. It is a clean, neatly-paved quadrangular
+area, of an hundred and fifty by an hundred yards in extent, edged on
+all sides by noble mansions. Fronting you as you enter the gate are the
+domes of two fine churches, in one of which Luther preached when he was
+in Rome. Between them the Corso is seen shooting out in a long narrow
+line of lofty facades, traversing the entire length of the city from
+north to south. On the right is the house of Mr Cass, the United States'
+consul, behind which rises a series of hanging gardens. There was dug
+the grave of Nero; but the ashes of the man before whom the world
+trembled cannot now be found. On the left rises the terraced slope of
+the Pincian hill, with its galleries, its statues, its stately
+cypresses, and its noble carriage-drive. On the opposite declivity are
+the gardens of Sallust, looking down on the _campus sceleratus_, where
+the unfaithful vestal-virgins were burned.
+
+In the middle of the spacious area is a fine fountain, whose waters are
+received into a spacious basin, guarded by marble lions. And there,
+too, stands the obelisk of Rhamses I., severe and solemn, a stranger,
+like ourselves, from a far land. This is the same which that monarch
+erected before the Temple of the Sun in Heliopolis, the ON of Scripture,
+and which Augustus transported to Rome. It is a single block of red
+granite, graven from top to bottom with hieroglyphics, which it is quite
+possible the eyes of Moses may have scanned. When that column was hewn,
+not a stone had been laid on the Capitol, and the site of Rome was a
+mere marsh; yet here it stands, with its mysterious scroll still unread.
+Speak, stranger, and tell us, with thy deep Coptic voice, the secrets of
+four thousand years ago. Say, wouldst thou not like to revisit thy
+native Nile, and spend thine age beside the tombs of the Pharaohs, the
+companions of thy youth, and amidst the congenial silence of the sands
+of Egypt?
+
+The traveller who would enjoy the finest view of the modern city must
+ascend the Pincian hill. In the basin beneath him he beholds spread out
+a flat expanse of red-tiled roofs, traversed by the long line of the
+Corso, and bristling with the tops of innumerable domes, columns, and
+obelisks. Some thirty or forty cupolas give an air of grandeur to the
+otherwise uninteresting mass of red; and conspicuous amongst these, over
+against the spectator, is the princely dome of St Peter's, and the huge
+bulk of the Castle of St Angelo. The Tiber is seen creeping sluggishly
+at the base of the Janiculum, the sides of which are thinly dotted with
+villas and gardens, while its summit is surmounted by a long stretch of
+the old wall.
+
+Standing in the Piazza del Popolo, the person is in a good position for
+comprehending the arrangement of modern Rome. Here three streets have
+their rise, which, running off in diverging lines, like spokes from the
+nave of a wheel, traverse the city, and form, with the cross streets
+which connect them, the osteology of the Eternal City. This at least is
+the arrangement which obtains till you reach the region lying around the
+Capitol, which is an inextricable network of lanes, courts, and streets.
+The centre one of the three streets we have indicated is the Corso. It
+is a good mile in length, and runs straight south, extending from the
+Flaminian gate to almost the foot of the Capitol. To an English eye it
+is wanting in breadth, though the most spacious street in Rome. It is
+but indifferently kept in point of cleanliness, though the most
+fashionable promenade of the Romans. Here only you find anything
+resembling a flag-pavement: all the other streets are causewayed from
+side to side with small sharp pieces of lava, which pain the foot at
+every step. The shops are small and dark, resembling those of our third
+and fourth-rate towns, and exhibiting in their wares a superabundance of
+cameos, mosaics, Etruscan vases, and statuary,--these being almost the
+sole native manufacture of Rome. It is adorned with several truly noble
+palaces, and with the colonnades and porticos of a great number of
+churches. It was the boast of the Romans that the Pope could say mass in
+a different church every day of the year. This, we believe, is true,
+there being more than three hundred and sixty churches in that city, but
+not one copy of the Bible that is accessible by the people.
+
+The second street,--that on the right,--is the Via Ripetta, which leads
+off in the direction of St Peter's and the Vatican. It takes one nigh
+the tomb of Augustus, now converted into a hippodrome; the Pantheon,
+whose pristine beauty remains undefaced after twenty centuries; the
+Collegio Romano; and, towards the foot of the Capitol, the Ghetto,--a
+series of mean streets, occupied by the Jews. The third street,--that on
+the left,--is the Via Babuino. It traverses the more aristocratic
+quarter of Rome,--if we can use such a phrase in reference to a city
+whose nobles are lodging-house keepers, and live--
+
+                         "Garreted
+ In their ancestral palace,"--
+
+running on by the Piazza di Spagna, which the English so much frequent,
+to the Quirinal, the Pope's summer palace, and the form of Trajan, whose
+column, after the many copies which have been made of it, still stands
+unrivalled and unapproached in beauty.
+
+ "And though the passions of man's fretful race
+ Have never ceased to eddy round its base,
+ Not injured more by touch of meddling hands
+ Than a lone obelisk 'mid Nubian sands."
+
+On the Corso there is considerable bustle. The little buying and selling
+that is done in Rome is transacted here. Half the population that one
+sees in the Corso are priests and French soldiers. The population of
+Rome is not much above an hundred thousand; its ecclesiastical persons,
+however, are close on six thousand. Let us imagine, if we can, the state
+of things were the ecclesiastics of all denominations in Scotland to be
+doubled, and the whole body to be collected into one city of the size of
+Edinburgh! Such is the state of Rome. The great majority of these men
+have no duty to do, beyond the dreary and monotonous task of the daily
+lesson in the breviary. They have no sermons to write and preach; they
+do not visit the sick; they have no books or newspapers; they have no
+family duties to perform. With the exception of the Jesuits, who are
+much employed in the confessional, the whole fraternity of regulars and
+seculars, white, black, brown, and gray, live on the best, and literally
+do nothing. But, of course, six thousand heads cannot be idle. The
+amount of mischief that must be continually brewing in Rome,--the wars
+that shake convents,--the gossip and scandal that pollute society,--the
+intrigues that destroy families,--may be more easily imagined than told.
+Were the secret history of that city for but one short week to be
+written, what an astounding document it would be! and what a curious
+commentary on that mark of a "true Church," _unity_! Well were it for
+the world were the plots hatched in Rome felt only within its walls.
+
+On the streets of the Eternal City you meet, of course, every variety of
+ecclesiastical costume. The eye is at first bewildered with the motley
+show of gowns, cloaks, cowls, scapulars, and veils; of cords, crosses,
+shaven heads, and naked feet,--provoking the reflection what a vast deal
+of curious gear it takes to teach Christianity! There you have the long
+black robe and shovel hat of the secular priest; the tight-fitting frock
+and little three-cornered bonnet of the Jesuit; the shorn head and black
+woollen garment of the Benedictine;--there is the Dominican, with his
+black cloak thrown over his white gown, and his shaven head stuck into a
+slouching cowl;--there is the Franciscan, with his half-shod feet, his
+three-knotted cord, and his coarse brown cloak, with its numerous
+pouches bulging with the victuals he has been begging for;--there is the
+Capuchin, with his bushy beard, his sandaled feet, his patched cloak,
+and his funnel-shaped cowl, reminding one of Harlequin's cap;--there is
+the Carmelite, with shaven head begirt with hairy continuous crown,
+loose flowing robe, and broad scapular;--there is the red gown of the
+German student, and the wallet of the begging friar. This last has been
+out all morning begging for the poor, and is now returning with
+replenished wallet to his convent on the Capitol, where dwell monks now,
+as geese aforetime. After dining on the contents of his well-filled
+sack, with a slight addition from the vineyards of the Capitol, he will
+scatter the crumbs among the crowd of beggars which may be seen at this
+hour climbing the convent stairs.
+
+But however these various orders may differ in the colour of their
+cloaks or the shape of their tonsure, there is one point in which they
+all agree,--that is, dirt. They are indescribably filthy. Clean water
+and soap would seem to be banished the convents, as indulgences of the
+flesh which cannot be cherished without deadly peril to the soul, and
+which are to be shunned like heresy itself. They smell like goats; and
+one trembles to come within the droppings of their cloak, lest he should
+carry away a few little _souvenirs_, which the "holy man" might be glad
+to part with. A fat, stalwart, bacchant, boorish race they are, giving
+signs of anything but fasting and flagellation; and I know of nothing
+that would so dissipate the romance which invests monks and nuns in the
+eyes of some, like bringing a ship-load of them over to this country,
+and letting their admirers see and smell them.
+
+Even the ordinary priest appears but little superior to the monk in the
+qualities we have named. Dirty in person, slovenly in dress, and wearing
+all over a careless, fearless, bullying air, he looks very little the
+gentleman, and, if possible, less the clergyman. But in Rome he can
+afford to despise appearances. Is he not a priest, and is not Rome his
+own? Accordingly, he plants his foot firmly, as if he felt, like Antaeus,
+that he touches his native earth; he sweeps the crowd around with a
+full, scornful, defiant eye; and should Roman dare to measure glances
+with him, that brow of brass would frown him into the dust. In Rome the
+"priest's face" attains its completest development. That face has not
+its like among all the faces of the world. It is the same in all
+countries, and can be known under every disguise,--a soldier's uniform
+or a porter's blouse. At Maynooth you may see it in all stages of
+growth; but at Rome it is perfected; and when perfected, there is an
+entire blotting out of all the kindly emotions and human sympathies, and
+there meets the eye something that is at once below and above the face
+of man. If we could imagine the scorn, pride, and bold bad daring of one
+of Milton's fallen angels, grafted on a groundwork of animal appetites,
+we should have a picture something like the priest's face.
+
+The priests will not be offended should the beggars come next in our
+notice of the Eternal City. The beggars of Rome are almost an
+institution of themselves; and, though not chartered, like the friars,
+their numbers and their ancient standing have established their rights.
+What is it that strikes you on first entering the "Holy City?" Is it its
+noble monuments,--its fine palaces,--its august temples? No; it is its
+flocks of beggars. You cannot halt a moment, but a little colony gathers
+round you. Every church has its beggar, and sometimes a whole dozen. If
+you wish to ascertain the hours of any ceremony in a church, you are
+directed to ask its beggar, as here you would the beadle. Every square,
+every column, every obelisk, every fountain, has its little colony of
+beggars, who have a prescriptive right to levy alms of all who come to
+see these objects. We shall afterwards advert to the proof thence
+arising as to the influence of the system of which this city is the
+seat.
+
+Rome, though it surpasses all the cities of the earth in the number,
+beauty, and splendour of its public monuments, is imposing only in
+parts. It presents no effective _tout ensemble_. Some of its noblest
+edifices are huddled into corners, and lost amid a crowd of mean
+buildings. The Pantheon rises in the fish-market. The Navonna Mercato,
+which has the finest fountain in Italy, is a rag-fair. The church of
+the Lateran is approached through narrow rural lanes. The splendid
+edifice of St Paul's stands outside the walls, in the midst of swamps
+and marshes so unwholesome, that there is not a house near it. The
+meanest streets of Rome are those that lie around St Peter's and the
+Vatican. The Corso is in good part a line of noble palaces; but in other
+parts of the city you pass through whole streets, consisting of large
+massive structures, once comfortable mansions, but now squalid, filthy,
+and unfurnished hovels, resembling the worst dens of our great cities.
+It cannot fail to strike one, too, as somewhat anomalous, that there
+should be such a vast deal of ruins and rubbish in the _Eternal_ City.
+And as regards its sanitary condition, there may be a great deal of
+holiness in Rome, but there is very little cleanliness in it. When a
+shower falls, and the odour of the garbage with which the streets are
+littered is exhaled, the smell is insufferable. One had better not
+describe the spectacles that one sees every day on the marble stairs of
+the churches. The words of Archenholtz in the end of last century are
+still applicable:--"Filth," says he, "infects all the great places of
+Rome except that of St. Peter's; nor would this be excepted from the
+general rule, but that it lies at greater distance from the dwellings.
+It is incredible to what a pitch filthiness is carried in Rome. As
+palaces and houses are mostly open, their entrance is usually rendered
+unsufferable, being made the receptacle of the most disgustful wants."
+In fine, Rome is the most extraordinary combination of grandeur and
+ruin, magnificence and dirt, glory and decay, which the world ever saw.
+We must distinguish, however: the grandeur has come down to the Popes
+from their predecessors,--the filth and ruin are their own.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+ANCIENT ROME--THE SEVEN HILLS.
+
+     Site of Ancient Rome--Calm after the Storm--The Seven Hills--Their
+     General Topography--The Aventine--The Palatine--The Ruins of the
+     Palace of Caesar--View of Ruins of Rome from the Palatine--The
+     Caelian--The Viminale--The Quirinal--Other two Hills, the Janiculum
+     and the Vatican--The Forum--The Arch of Titus--The Coliseum--The
+     Mamertine Prison--External Evidence of Christianity--Rome furnishes
+     overwhelming Proofs of the Historic Truth of the New
+     Testament--These stated--The Three Witnesses in the Forum--The
+     Antichrist come--_Coup d'OEil_ of Rome.
+
+
+But where is the Rome of the Caesars, that great, imperial, and
+invincible city, that during thirteen centuries ruled the world? If you
+would see her, you must seek for her in the grave. You are standing, I
+have supposed, on the tower of the Capitol, with your face towards the
+north, gazing down on the flat expanse of red roofs, bristling with
+towers, columns, and domes, that covers the plain at your feet. Turn now
+to the south. There is the seat of her that once was mistress of the
+world. There are the Seven Hills. They are furrowed, tossed, cleft; and
+no wonder. The wars, revolutions, and turmoils of two thousand years
+have rolled their angry surges over them; but now the strife is at an
+end; and the calm that has succeeded is deep as that of the grave.
+These hills, all unconscious of the past, form a scene of silent and
+mournful beauty, with fragments of temples protruding through their
+soil, and humble plants and lowly weeds covering their surface.
+
+The topography of these famous hills it is not difficult to understand.
+If you make the Capitoline in which you stand the centre one, the
+remaining six are ranged round it in a semi-circle. They are low broad
+swellings or mounts, of from one to two miles in circumference. We shall
+take them as they come, beginning at the west, and coming round to the
+north.
+
+First comes the AVENTINE. It rises steep and rocky, with the Tiber
+washing its north-western base. It is covered with the vines and herbs
+of neglected gardens, amid which rises a solitary convent and a few
+shapeless ruins. At its southern base are the baths of Caracalla, which,
+next to the Coliseum, are the greatest ruin in Rome.
+
+Descend its eastern slope,--cross the valley of the Circus Maximus,--and
+you begin to climb the PALATINE hill, the most famous of the seven. The
+Palatine stands forward from the circular line, and is divided from
+where you stand only by the little plain of the Forum. It was the seat
+of the first Roman colony; and when Rome grew into an empire, the palace
+of the Caesars rose upon it, and the Palatine was henceforward the abode
+of the world's master. The site is nearly in the middle of ancient Rome,
+and commands a fine view of the other hills, the Capitol only
+overtopping it. The imperial palace which rose on its summit must have
+been a conspicuous as well as imposing object from every part of the
+city. Three thousand columns are said to have adorned an edifice, the
+saloons, libraries, baths, and porticos of which, the wealth and art of
+ancient Rome had done their utmost to make worthy of their imperial
+occupant. A dark night has overwhelmed the glory that once irradiated
+this mount. It is now a huge mountain of crumbling brickwork, bearing on
+its broad level top a luxuriant display of cabbages and vines, amid
+which rise the humble walls of a convent, and a small but tasteful
+villa, which is owned, strange to say, by an Englishman. The proprietor
+of the villa and the little colony of monks are now the only inhabitants
+of the Palatine. In walking over it, you stumble upon blocks of marble,
+remains of terraces, vaults still retaining their frescoes, arches,
+porticos, and vast substructions of brickwork, all crushed and blended
+into one common ruin. In these halls power dwelt and crime revelled: now
+the owl nestles in their twilight vaults, and the ivy mantles their
+crumbling ruins. The western side of this mound rises steep and lofty,
+crested with a row of noble cypress trees. They are tall and upright,
+and wear in the mind's eye a shadowy shroud of gloom, looking like
+mourners standing awed and grief-stricken beside the grave of the
+Caesars. When the twilight falls and the stars come out, their dark
+moveless figures, relieved against the sky, present a sight peculiarly
+impressive and solemn.
+
+The general aspect and condition of the Palatine have been sketched by
+Byron with his usual power:--
+
+ "Cypress and ivy, weed and wallflower, grown,
+ Matted and massed together, hillocks heaped
+ On what were chambers, arch crushed, column strown
+ In fragments, choked up vaults, and frescoes steeped
+ In subterranean damps, where the owl peeped,
+ Deeming it midnight;--temples, baths, or halls,
+ Pronounce who can; for all that learning reaped
+ From her research hath been, that these are walls.
+ Behold the imperial mount! 'tis thus the mighty falls."
+
+But Cowper rises to a yet higher pitch, and reads the true moral which
+is taught by this fallen mount. For to Rome may we apply his lines on
+the fall of the once proud monarchy of Spain.
+
+ "Art thou, too, fallen, Iberia? Do we see
+ The robber and the murderer weak as we?
+ Thou that hast wasted earth, and dared despise
+ Alike the wrath and mercy of the skies,
+ Thy pomp is in the grave, thy glory laid
+ Low in the pits thine avarice has made.
+ We come with joy from our eternal rest,
+ To see the oppressor in his turn oppressed.
+ Art thou the god, the thunder of whose hand
+ Rolled over all our desolated land,
+ Shook principalities and kingdoms down,
+ And made the mountains tremble at his frown?
+ The sword shall light upon thy boasted powers,
+ And waste them, as thy sword has wasted ours.
+ 'Tie thus Omnipotence his law fulfils,
+ And Vengeance executes what Justice wills."
+
+One day I ascended the Palatine, picking my steps with care, owing to
+the abominations of all kinds that cover the path, to spend an hour on
+the mount, and survey from thence the mighty wrecks of empire strewn
+around it. The steps of the stair by which I ascended were formed of
+blocks of marble, the half-effaced carvings on which showed that they
+had formed parts of former edifices. Protruding from the soil, and
+strewn over its surface, were fragments of columns and capitols of
+pillars. I emerged on the summit at the spot where the vestibule of
+Nero's palace is supposed to have stood. I thought of the guards, the
+senators, the ambassadors, that had crowded this spot,--the spoils,
+trophies, and monuments, that had adorned it; and my heart sank at the
+sight of its naked desolation and dreary loneliness. The flat top of the
+hill ran off to the south, covered with a various and somewhat
+incongruous vegetation. Here was a thicket of laurels, and there a
+clump of young oaks; here a garden of vines, and there rows of cabbages.
+A monk, habited in brown, was looking out at the door of his convent;
+and one or two women were busy among the vegetables, making up a load
+for market. On the farther edge of the hill rose the tall, moveless,
+silent cypresses of which I have spoken. On the right rose the square
+tower of the Capitol, with the perperine substructions of its
+Tabularium, coeval with the age of the kings; and skirting its base were
+the cupolas of modern churches, and the nodding columns of fallen
+temples, beautiful even in their ruin, and more eloquent than Cicero,
+whose living voice had often been heard on the spot where they now
+moulder in silent decay. A little nearer was the naked, jagged front of
+the Tarpeian rock, crested a-top with gardens, and its base buried in
+rubbish, which is slowly gaining on its height. In front was a noble
+bend of the Tiber, rolling on in mournful majesty, amid the majestic
+silence of these mighty desolations. Beyond were the red roofs and mean
+streets of the Trastevere, with the empty upland slope of the Janiculum,
+crowned by the line of the gray wall. Behind, and immediately beneath
+me, was the Forum, where erst the Romans assembled to enact their laws
+and choose their magistrates. A ragged line of ghastly ruins,--porticos
+without temples, and temples without porticos, their noble vaultings
+yawning like caverns in the open day,--was seen bounding its farther
+edge. Its floor was a rectangular expanse of shapeless swellings and
+yawning pits. Here reposed a herd of buffaloes; there a little drove of
+swine; yonder stood a row of carts; and in the midst of these noways
+picturesque objects rose the gray arch of Titus. At its base sat a
+beggar; while an artist, at a little distance, was sketching it with the
+calotype. A peasant was traversing the Via Sacra, bearing to his home a
+supply of city-baked bread. A dozen or two of old men with spades and
+barrows were clearing away the earth from the ruins of the Temple of
+Venus and Rome. In the south-eastern angle of the plain rose the titanic
+bulk of the Coliseum, fearfully gashed and torn, yet sublime in its
+decay. Over the furrowed and ragged summits of the Caelian and Esquiline
+mounts were seen the early snows, glittering on the peaks of the
+Volscian and Sabine range. Such was the scene which presented itself to
+me from the top of the Palatine. How different, I need not say, from
+that which must have often met the eye of Caesar from the same point,
+prompting the proud boast,--"Is not this great" Rome, "that I have built
+for the house of the kingdom, by the might of my power, and for the
+honour of my majesty?" "How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son
+of the morning! How art thou cut down to the ground, that didst weaken
+the nations!... Is this the man that did make the earth to
+tremble,--that did shake kingdoms,--that made the world as a wilderness,
+and destroyed the cities thereof?"
+
+A little eastward of the Palatine, and seen over its shoulder, as
+surveyed from the tower of the Capitol, is the CAELIAN Mount. Its summit
+is marked by the ruins of an ancient edifice,--the Curia Hostilia,--and
+the statued front of a modern temple,--the church of S. John Lateran,
+which is even more renowned in the pontifical annals than the other is
+in classic story. Moving your eye across the valley of the Forum, it
+falls upon the flat surface of the ESQUILINE. It is marked, like the
+former, by an ancient ruin and a modern edifice. Amid its vineyards and
+rural lanes rise the massive remains of the baths of Titus, and the
+gorgeous structure of Maria Maggiore. The VIMINALE comes next; but
+forming, as it did, a plain betwixt the Esquiline and the Quirinal, it
+is difficult to trace its limits. It is distinguishable mainly by the
+baths of Dioclesian, now a French barrack, and the church of San
+Lorenzo, which occupies its highest point. The QUIRINAL is the last of
+the Seven Hills. It is covered with streets, and crowned with the summer
+palace and gardens of the Pope.
+
+Thus have we made the tour of the Seven Hills, commencing at the
+Aventine on the extreme right, and proceeding in a semicircular line
+over the low swellings which lie in their peaceful covering of flower
+and weed, onward to the Quirinal, which rises, with its glittering
+casements, on the extreme left. They hold in their arms, as it were,
+modern Rome, with the Tiber, like a golden belt, tying in the city, and
+bounding the Campus Martius, on which it is seated. On the west of the
+Tiber are other two hills, which, though not of the seven, are worth
+mentioning. The first is the JANICULUM, with the _Trastevere_ at its
+base. The inhabitants of this district pride themselves on their pure
+Roman blood, and look down upon the rest of the inhabitants as a mixed
+race; and certainly, if ferocious looks and continual frays can make
+good their claim, they must be held as a colony of the olden time,
+which, nestling in this nook of Rome, have escaped the intermixtures and
+revolutions of eighteen centuries. It has been remarked that there is a
+striking resemblance between their faces and those of the ancient
+Romans, as graven on the arch of Titus. They are the nearest neighbours
+of the Pope, whose own hill, the VATICAN, rises a little to the north of
+them. On the Vatican mount stood anciently the circus of Nero; and here
+many of the early Christians, amid unutterable torments, yielded up
+their lives. On the spot where they died have arisen the church of St
+Peter and the palace of the Vatican,--now but another name for whatever
+is formidable to the liberties of the world.
+
+But beyond question, the spot of all others the most interesting in Rome
+is the Forum. You look right down into it from where you stand. Whether
+it be the eloquence, or the laws, or the victories, or the magnificent
+monuments of ancient Rome, the light reflected from them all is
+concentrated on this plain. How often has Tully spoken here! How often
+has Caesar trodden it! Over that very pavement which the excavations have
+laid bare, the chariots of Scylla, and of Titus, and of a hundred other
+warriors, have rolled. But the triumphs which this plain witnessed, once
+deemed eternal, are ended now; and the clods which that Italian slave
+turns up, or which that priest treads on so proudly, are perchance part
+of the dust of that heroic race which conquered the world. The tombs of
+the Caesars are empty now, and their ashes have been scattered long since
+over the soil of Rome. Of the many beautiful edifices that stood around
+this plain, not one remains entire: a few mouldering columns, half
+buried in rubbish, or dug out of the soil, only remain to show where
+temples stood. But there is one little arch which has survived that dire
+tempest of ruin in which temple and tower went down,--the Arch of Titus,
+which has sculptured upon its marble the sad story of the fall of
+Jerusalem and the captivity of the Jews. That little arch, wonderful to
+tell, stands between two mighty ruins,--the fallen palace of the Caesars
+on the one hand, and the kingly but ruined mass of the Coliseum on the
+other.
+
+As regards the Coliseum, architects, I believe, do not much admire it;
+but to myself, who did not look at it with a professional eye, it seemed
+as if I had never seen a ruin half so sublime. I never grew weary of
+gazing upon it. It rises amid the hoar ruins of Rome, scarred and rent,
+yet wearing an eternal youth; for with the most colossal size it
+combines in the very highest degree simplicity of design and beauty of
+form. To stand on its area, and survey the sweep of its broken benches,
+is to feel as if you were standing in the midst of an amphitheatre of
+hills, and were gazing on concentric mountain-ranges. How powerfully do
+its associations stir the soul! How many spirits now in glory have died
+on that arena! The Romans, we shall suppose, have been occupied all day
+in witnessing mimic fights, which display the skill, but do not
+necessarily imperil the life, of the combatants. But now the sun is
+westering; the shadow of the Palatine begins to creep across the Forum,
+and the villas on the Alban hills burn in the setting rays, and the
+Romans, before retiring to their homes, demand their last grand
+spectacle,--the death of some poor unhappy captive or gladiator. The
+victim steps upon the arena amid the deep stillness of the overwhelming
+multitude. It is no mimic combat his: he is "appointed to death." This
+lets us into the peculiar force of Paul's words, "I think that God hath
+set forth us the apostles last, as it were, appointed to death; for we
+are made a spectacle unto the world, and to angels, and to men."
+
+But the most touching recollection connected with this city is
+this,--even that part of the Word of God was written in it, and that a
+greater than Caesar has trodden its soil. A few paces below where we
+stand is the Mamertine prison, in whose dungeons, it is probable, Paul
+was confined; for this was the state-prison, and offences against
+religion were accounted state-offences. It is hewn in the rock of the
+Capitoline hill, dungeon below dungeon; and when surveying it, I could
+not but feel, that among all the exploits of Roman valour, there was not
+one half so heroic as that of the man who, with a cruel death staring
+him in the face, could sit down in this dungeon, where day never dawned,
+and write these heroic words,--"I am now ready to be offered, and the
+time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight; I have
+finished my course; I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up
+for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge,
+shall give me at that day; and not to me only, but unto all them also
+that love his appearing."
+
+Here I may be allowed to allude to a branch of the external evidence of
+Christianity which has not received all the notice to which it is
+entitled. When surveying from the tower of the Capitol the ruins of
+ancient Rome, I felt strongly the absurdity--the almost idiotcy--of
+denying the historic truth of Christianity. On such a spot one might as
+well deny that ancient Rome existed, as deny that Christianity was
+preached here eighteen centuries ago, and rose upon the ruins of
+paganism. At the distance of Rome, and amid the darkness of Italian
+ignorance, we can conceive of a Roman holding that the life of Knox is a
+fable,--that no such man ever existed, or ever preached in Scotland, or
+ever effected the Reformation from Popery. But bring him to the Castle
+Hill of Edinburgh,--bid him look round upon city and country, studded
+with the churches and schools of the reformed faith, planted by
+Knox,--show him the mouldering remains of the old cathedrals from which
+the priesthood and faith of Rome were driven out,--and, unless his mind
+is constituted in some extraordinary way, he would no longer doubt that
+such a man as Knox existed, and that Scotland has been reformed from
+Romanism to Presbyterianism. So is it at Rome. Around you are the
+temples of the ancient paganism. Here are ruins still bearing the
+inscriptions and effigies of the pagan deities and the pagan rites. Can
+any sane man doubt that paganism once reigned here? You can trace the
+history of its reign still graven on the ruins of Rome; but you can
+trace it down till only seventeen centuries ago: then it suddenly stops;
+a new writing appears upon the stones; a new religion has acquired the
+ascendancy in Rome, and left its memorials graven upon pillar, and
+column, and temple. Can any man doubt that Paul visited this city,--that
+he preached here, as the "Acts of the Apostles" records,--and that,
+after two centuries of struggles and martyrdoms, the faith which he
+preached triumphed over the paganism of Rome? Look along the Via
+Sacra,--that narrow paved road which leads southward from the Capitol:
+the very stones over which the chariot of Scylla rolled are still there.
+The road runs straight between the Palatine Mount, where the ivy and the
+cypress strive to mantle the ruins of the palace of the Caesars, and the
+wonderful and ever beautiful structure of the Coliseum. In the valley
+between is a beautiful arch of marble,--the Arch of Titus. The palace of
+the world's master lies in ruins on the one side of it; the Coliseum,
+the largest single structure which human hands ever created, stands
+rent, and scarred, and bowed, on the other; and between these two mighty
+ruins this little arch rises entire. What a wonderful providence has
+spared it! On that arch is graven the record of the fall of Jerusalem
+and the captivity of the Jews; and the great fact of the existence of
+the Old Testament economy is also attested upon it; for there plainly
+appears on the stone, the furniture of the temple, the golden
+candlestick, the table of shew-bread, and the silver trumpets. But
+further, about two miles to the south of Rome are the Catacombs. In
+these catacombs, which, not unlike the coal-mines of our own country,
+traverse under ground the Campagna for a circuit of many miles, the
+early Christians, lived during the primitive persecutions. There they
+worshipped, there they died, and there they were buried; and their
+simple tombstones, recording that they died in peace, and in the hope of
+eternal life through Christ, are still to be seen to the number of many
+thousands. How came these tombstones there, if early Christianity and
+the early martyrs be a fable? If Christianity be a forgery, the arch of
+Titus, with its sacred symbols, is also a forgery; the catacombs, with
+all their tombstones, are also a forgery; and the hundred monuments in
+Rome, with the traces of early Christianity graven upon them, are also a
+forgery; and the person or persons who forged Christianity, in order to
+give currency to their forgery, must have been at the incredible pains
+of building the arch of Titus, and chiselling out its sculpture work;
+they must have dug out the catacombs, and filled them, with infinite
+labour, with forged tombstones; and they must have covered the monuments
+of Rome with forged inscriptions. Would any one have been at the pains
+to have done all this, or could he have done it without being detected?
+When the Romans rose in the morning, and saw these forged inscriptions,
+they must have known that they were not there the day before, and would
+have exposed the trick. But the idea is absurd, and no man can seriously
+entertain it whom an inveterate scepticism has not smitten with the
+extreme of senility or idiotcy. There is far more evidence at Rome for
+the historic truth of Christianity than for the existence of Julius
+Caesar or of Scipio, or of any of the great men whose existence no one
+ever takes it into his head to doubt.
+
+Here, in the Forum, are THREE WITNESSES, which testify respectively to
+three leading facts of Christianity. These witnesses are,--the Arch of
+Titus, the fallen Palace on the Palatine, and the Column of Phocas. The
+Arch of Titus proclaims the end of the Old Testament economy; for there,
+graven on its marble, is the record of the fall of the temple, and the
+dispersion of the Jewish nation. The ruin on the Palatine tells that
+the "let" which hindered the revelation of the Man of Sin has now been
+"taken out of the way," as Paul foretold; for there lies the prostrate
+throne of the Caesars, which, while it stood, effectually forbade the
+rise of the popes. But this solitary pillar, which stands erect where so
+many temples have fallen, with what message is it freighted? It
+witnesses to the rise of Antichrist. That column rose with the popes;
+for Phocas set it up to commemorate the assumption of the title of
+Universal Bishop by the pastor of Rome; and here has it been standing
+all the while, to proclaim that "that wicked" is now revealed, "whom the
+Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with
+the brightness of his coming." Such is the united testimony borne by
+these three Witnesses,--even that the Antichrist is come.
+
+To complete this _coup d'oeil_ of Rome, it is necessary only that we
+transfer our gaze for an instant to the more distant objects. Though
+swept, as the site of Rome now is, with the besom of destruction, the
+outlines, which no ruin can obliterate, are yet grand as ever.
+Immediately beneath you are the red roofs and glittering domes of the
+city; around is a gay fringe of vineyards and gardens; and beyond is the
+dark bosom of the Campagna, stretching far and wide, meeting the horizon
+on the west and south, and confined on the east and north by a wall of
+glorious hills,--the sweet Volscians, the blue Sabines, the craggy
+Apennines, with their summits--at least when I saw them--hoary with the
+snows of winter. Spectacle terrible and sublime! Ruin colossal and
+unparalleled! The Campagna is a vast hall, amid the funereal shadows and
+unbroken stillness of which repose in mournful state the ASHES OF ROME.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+STRIKING OBJECTS IN ROME.
+
+     The Baths of Caracalla--The Catacombs--Evidence thence arising
+     against Romanism--The Scala Santa, or Pilate's Stairs--Peasants
+     from Rimini climbing them--Irreverence of Devotees--Unequal Terms
+     on which the Pope offers Heaven--Church of Ara Caeli--The Santissimo
+     Bambino--Conversation with the Monks who exhibit it--The Ghetto, or
+     Jew's Quarter--Efforts to Convert them to Romanism--Tyrannical
+     Restrictions still imposed upon them--Their Ineradicable
+     Characteristics of Race--The Vatican--The Apollo Belvedere--Pio
+     Nono--His Dress and Person--St Peter's--Its Grandeur and
+     Uselessness--Motto on Egyptian Obelisk--Gate of San
+     Pancrazio--Graves of the French--The Convents--Exhibition of
+     Nuns--Collegio Romano and Father Perrone--An American Student--The
+     English Protestant Chapel--Preaching there--American
+     Chaplain--Collection in Rome for Building a Cathedral in
+     London--Sermon on Immaculate Conception in Church of Gesu--Ave
+     Maria--Family Worship in Hotel--Early Christians of Rome--Paul.
+
+
+I have already mentioned my arrival at midnight, and how thankful I was
+to find an open door and an empty bed at the Hotel d'Angleterre. The
+reader may guess my surprise and joy at discovering next morning that I
+had slept in a chamber adjoining that of my friend Mr Bonar, from whom I
+had parted, several weeks before, at Turin. After breakfast, we sallied
+out to see the Catacombs. I had found Rome in cloud and darkness on the
+previous night; and now, after a deceitful morning gleam, the storm
+returned with greater violence than ever. Torrents swept the streets;
+the lightning was flashing on the old monuments; fearful peals of
+thunder were rolling above the city; and we were compelled oftener than
+once during our ride to seek the shelter of an arched way from the
+deluge of rain that poured down upon us. Skirting the base of the
+Palatine, and emerging on the Via Appia, we arrived at the Baths of
+Caracalla, which we had resolved to visit on our way to the Catacombs.
+No words can describe the ghastly grandeur of this stupendous ruin,
+which, next to the Coliseum, is the greatest in Rome. Besides its
+saloons, theatre, and libraries, it contained, it is said, sixteen
+hundred chairs for bathers. As was its pristine splendour, so now is its
+overthrow. Its cyclopean walls, and its vast chambers, the floors of
+which are covered to the depth of some twelve or twenty feet with fallen
+masses of the mosaic ceiling, like immense boulders which have rolled
+down from some mountain's top, are spread over an area of about a mile
+in circuit. The ruins, here capped with sward and young trees, there
+rising in naked jagged turrets like Alpine peaks, had a romantic effect,
+which was not a little heightened by the alternate darkness of the
+thunder-cloud that hung above them, and the incessant play of the
+lightning among their worn pinnacles.
+
+Resuming our course along the Appian Way, we passed the tomb of the
+Scipios; and, making our exit by the Sebastian gate, we came, after a
+ride of two miles in the open country, to the basilica of San
+Sebastiano, erected over the entrance to the Catacombs. Pulling a bell
+which hung in the vestibule, a monk appeared as our cicerone, and we
+might have been pardoned a little misgiving in committing ourselves to
+such a guide through the bowels of the earth. His cloak was old and
+tattered, his face was scourged with scorbutic disease, misery or
+flagellation had worn him to the bone, and his restless eye cast uneasy
+glances on all around. He carried in his hand a little bundle of tallow
+candles, as thin and worn as himself almost; and, having lighted them,
+he gave one to each of us, and bade us follow. We descended with him
+into the doubtful night. The place was a long shaft or corridor, dug out
+of the brown tuffo rock, with the roof about two feet overhead, and the
+breadth two thirds or so of the height. The descent was easy, the
+turnings frequent, and light there was none, save the glimmerings of our
+slender tapers. The origin of the Catacombs is still a disputed
+question; but the most probable opinion is, that they were formed by
+digging out the pozzolana or volcanic earth, which was used as a cement
+in the great buildings of Rome. They extend in a zone round the city,
+and form a labyrinth of subterranean galleries, which traverse the
+Campagna, reaching, according to some, to the shore of the
+Mediterranean. He who adventures into them without a guide is infallibly
+lost. They speak at Rome of a professor and his students, to the number
+of sixty, who entered the Catacombs fifty years ago, and have not yet
+returned. Certain it is, that many melancholy accidents have occurred in
+them, which have induced the Government to wall them up to a certain
+extent. I had not gone many yards till I felt that I was entirely at the
+mercy of the monk, and that, should he play me false, I must remain
+where I was till doomsday.
+
+But what invests the Catacombs with an interest of so touching a kind is
+the fact, that here the Christian Church, in days of persecution, made
+her abode. What! in darkness, and in the bowels of the earth? Yes: such
+were the Christians which that age produced. At every few paces along
+the galleries you see the quadrangular excavations in which the dead
+were laid. There, too, are the niches in which lamps were placed, so
+needful in the subterranean gloom; and occasionally there opens to your
+taper a large square chamber, with its walls of dark-brownish tuffo and
+its stuccoed roof, which has evidently been used for family purposes, or
+as a chapel. How often has the voice of prayer and praise resounded
+here! The Catacombs are a stupendous monument of the faith and constancy
+of the primitive Church. You have the satisfaction here of knowing that
+you have the very scenes before you that met the eyes of the first
+Christians. Time has not altered them; superstition has not disfigured
+them. Such as they were when the primitive believers fled to them from a
+Nero's cruelty or a Domitian's tyranny, so are they now.
+
+These remarkable excavations were well known down till the sixth
+century. Amid the barbarism of the ages that succeeded, all knowledge of
+them was lost; but in the beginning of the sixteenth century, when the
+art of printing had been invented, and the world could profit by the
+discovery, the Catacombs were re-opened. Most of the gravestones were
+removed to the Vatican, and built into the _Lapidaria Galleria_, where I
+spent a day copying them; but so accurately have they been described by
+Maitland, in his "Church in the Catacombs," that I beg to refer the
+reader who wishes farther information respecting these deeply
+interesting memorials, to his valuable work. They are plain, unchiselled
+slabs of marble, with simple characters, scratched with some sharp
+instrument by the aid of the lamp, recording the name and age of the
+person whose remains they enclosed, to which is briefly added, "in
+peace," or "in Christ." Piety here is to be tested, not by the
+profession on the tombstone, but by the sacrifice of the life. A palm
+branch carved on the stone is the usual sign of martyrdom. I saw a few
+slabs still remaining as they had been placed seventeen centuries ago,
+fastened into the tuffo rock with a cement of earth. When the Catacombs
+were opened, a witness rose from the dead to confront Rome. No trace has
+been discovered which could establish the slightest identity in
+doctrine, in worship, or in government, between the present Church of
+Rome and the Church of the Catacombs.
+
+Will the reader accompany me to another and very different scene? We
+leave these midnight vaults, and tread again the narrow lava-paved
+Appian road; and through rural lanes we seek the summit of the Caelian
+mount, where stands in statued pomp the church of St John Lateran. Here
+are shown the _Scala Santa_ which were brought from Jerusalem, and which
+the Church of Rome certifies as the very stairs which Christ ascended
+when he went to be judged of Pilate. On the north side of the quadrangle
+is an open building, with three separate flights of steps leading up
+from the pavement to the first floor. The middle staircase, which is
+covered with wood to preserve the marble, is the _Scala Santa_, which it
+is lawful to ascend only on your knees. Having reached the top, you may
+again use your feet, and descend by either of the other two stairs.
+Placed against the wall at the foot of the Scala Santa, is a large
+board, with the conditions to be observed in the ascent. Amongst other
+provisions, no one is allowed to carry a cane up the Scala Santa, nor is
+dog allowed to set foot on these stairs. On the pavement stood a
+sentry-box; and in the box sat a little dark-visaged man, so very
+withered, so very old, and so very crabbed, that I almost was tempted to
+ask him whether he had been imported along with the stairs. He rattled
+his little tin-box violently, which seemed half full of small coins, and
+invited me to ascend. "What shall I have for doing so?" I asked.
+"Fifteen years' indulgence," was the instant reply. There might be about
+fifteen steps in the stair, which was at the rate of a year's
+indulgence for every step. The terms were fair; for with an ordinary
+day's work I might lay up some thousands of years' indulgence. There was
+but one drawback in the matter. "I don't believe in purgatory," I
+rejoined. "What is that to me?" said the old man, tartly, accompanying
+the remark with a quick shrug of the shoulders and a curl of his thin
+lip.
+
+I turned to the staircase. Three peasant lads from Rimini--where the
+Madonna still winks, and good Catholic hearts still believe--were
+piously engaged in laying up a stock of merit against a future day, on
+the Scala Santa. Swinging the upper part of their bodies, and holding
+their feet aloft lest their wooden-soled shoes should touch the precious
+marble, or rather its wooden casing, they were slowly making way on the
+steps. In a little they were joined by a Frenchman, with his wife and
+little daughter; and the whole began a general march up the staircase.
+Whether it was the greater vigour of their piety, or the greater vigour
+of their limbs, I know not; but the peasants had flung themselves up
+before the lady had mastered five steps of the course. It occurred to me
+that this way of earning heaven was not one that placed all on a level,
+as they should be. These strong sinewy lads were getting fifteen years'
+indulgence with no greater effort than it cost the lady to earn five.
+The party, on reaching the top, entered a room on the right, and dropt
+on their knees before a little box of bones which stood in one corner,
+then before a painting of the Saviour which hung in the other; muttered
+a few words of prayer; and, descending the lateral stairs, commenced
+over again the same process. In no time they had laid up at least a
+hundred years' indulgence a-piece. The Frenchman and his lady went
+through the operation with a grave face; but the peasants quite lost the
+mastery over theirs, and the building rung with peals of laughter at
+the ridiculous attitudes into which they were compelled to throw
+themselves. Even in the little chapel above, bursts of smothered
+merriment interrupted their prayers. I looked at the little man in the
+box, to see how he was taking it; but he was true to his own remark,
+"What is that to me?" Indeed, this behaviour by no means detracted from
+the merit of the deed, or shortened by a single day the term of
+indulgence, in the estimation of the Italians. _Their_ understanding of
+devotion and _ours_ are totally different. With us devotion is a mental
+act; with them it is a mechanical act, strictly so. The mind may be
+absent, asleep, dead; it is devotion nevertheless. These peasants had
+undertaken to climb Pilate's staircase on their knees; not to give
+devout or reverent feelings into the bargain: they had done all they
+engaged to do, and were entitled to claim their hire. The staircase, as
+my readers may remember, has a strange connection with the Reformation.
+One day, as Luther was dragging his body up these steps, he thought he
+heard a voice from heaven crying to him, _The just shall live by faith._
+Amazed, he sprang to his feet. New light entered into him. Luther and
+the Reformation were advanced a stage.
+
+From the Scala Santa in the Lateran I went to see the Santissimo Bambino
+in the church of Ara Caeli, on the Capitol. This church is squatted on
+the spot where stood the temple of Jupiter Ferretrius of old. It is one
+of the largest churches in Rome, and is unquestionably the ugliest. A
+magnificent staircase of an hundred and twenty-four steps of Parian
+marble leads up to it; but the church itself is as untasteful as can
+well be imagined. It presents its gable to the spectator, which is
+simply a vast unadorned expanse of brick, the breadth greatly exceeding
+the height, and terminating a-top in a sort of coping, that looks like a
+low, broad chimney, or rather a dozen chimneys in one. The edifice
+always reminded me of a short, stout Quaker, with a brim of even more
+than the usual breadth, standing astride on the Capitol. Entering by the
+main doorway in the west, I passed along the side aisle, on my way to
+the little chapel near the altar where the Bambino is kept. The wall
+here was covered with little pictures in thousands, all in the homeliest
+style of the art, and representing persons falling into the sea, or
+tumbling over precipices, or ridden over by carts. These were votive
+offerings from persons who had been in the situations represented, and
+who had been saved by the special interposition of Mary. Arms, legs, and
+heads of brass, and in some instances of silver, bore testimony to the
+greater wealth or the greater devotion of others of the devotees.
+Passing through a door on the left, at the eastern extremity of the
+church, I entered the little chapel or side closet, in which the Bambino
+is kept. Here two barefooted monks, with not more than the average dirt
+on their persons, were in attendance, to show me the "god." They began
+by lighting a few candles, though the sunlight was streaming in at the
+casement. I was near asking the monks the same question which the
+Protestant inhabitants of a Hungarian village one day put to their
+Catholic neighbours, as they were marching in procession through their
+streets,--"Is your god blind, that you burn candles to him at mid-day?"
+The tapers lighted, one of the friars dropped on his knees, and fell to
+praying with great vigour. I fear my deportment was not so edifying as
+the place and circumstances required; for I could see that ever and anon
+the monk cast side-long glances at me, as at a man who was scarce worthy
+of so great a sight as was about to be shown him. The other monk,
+drawing a key from under his cloak, threw open the doors of a sort of
+cupboard that stood against the wall. The interior was fitted up not
+unlike the stage of a theatre. A tall figure, covered with a brown
+cloak, stood leaning on a staff in the foreground. By his side stood a
+female, considerably younger, and attired in an elegant robe of green.
+These two regarded with fixed looks a little cradle or casket at their
+feet. The background stretched away into a hilly country, amid whose
+knolls and dells were shepherds with their flocks. The figures were
+Joseph and Mary, and the vista beyond was meant to represent the
+vicinity of Bethlehem. Taking up the casket, the monk, with infinite
+bowings and crossings, undid its swathings, and solemnly drew forth the
+Bambino. Poor little thing! it was all one to it whether one or a
+hundred candles were burning beside it: it had eyes, but saw not. It was
+bandaged, as all Italian children are, from head to foot, the swathings
+enveloping both arms and legs, displaying only its little feet at one
+extremity, and its round chubby face at the other. But what a blaze! On
+its little head was a golden crown, burning with brilliants; and from
+top to toe it was stuck so full of jewels, that it sparkled and
+glittered as if it had been but one lustrous gem throughout.
+
+Two women, who had taken the opportunity of an Inglise visiting the
+idol, now entered, leading betwixt them a little child, and all three
+dropped on their knees before the Bambino. I begged the monk to inform
+me why these women were here on their knees, and praying. "They are
+worshipping the Bambino," he replied. "Oh! worshipping, are they?" I
+exclaimed, in affected surprise; "how stupid I am; I took it for a piece
+of wood." "And so it is," rejoined the monk; "but it is miraculous; it
+is full of divine virtue, and works cures." "Has it wrought any of
+late?" I inquired. "It has," replied the religioso; "it cured a woman of
+dropsy two weeks ago." "In what quarter of Rome did she live?" I asked.
+"She lived in the Vatican," replied the Franciscan. "We have some great
+doctors in the city I come from," I said; "we have some who can take off
+an arm, or a leg, or a nose, without your feeling the slightest pain;
+but we have no doctor like this little doctor. But, pray tell me, why do
+you permit the cardinals or the Pope ever to die, when the Bambino can
+cure them?" The monk turned sharply round, and gave me a searching
+stare, which I stood with imperturbable gravity; and then, taking me for
+either a very dull or a very earnest questioner, he proceeded to explain
+that the cure did not depend altogether on the power of the Bambino, but
+also somewhat on the faith of the patient. "Oh, I see how it is," I
+replied. "But pardon me yet farther; you say the Bambino is of wood, and
+that these honest women are praying to it. Now I have been taught to
+believe that we ought not to worship wood." To make sure both of my
+interrogatories and of the monk's answers, I had been speaking to him
+through my friend Mr Stewart, whose long residence in Rome had made him
+perfectly master of the Italian tongue. "Oh," replied the Franciscan,
+"_all Christians here worship it_." But now the signs had become very
+manifest that my inquiries had reached a point beyond which it would not
+be prudent to push them. The monk was getting very red in the face; his
+motions were growing quick and violent; and, with more haste than
+reverence, he put back his god into its crib, and prepared to lock it up
+in its press. His fellow monk had started to his feet, and was rapidly
+extinguishing the candles, as if he smelt the unwholesome air of heresy.
+The women were told to be off; and the exhibition closed with somewhat
+less show of devotion than it had opened.
+
+Here, by the banks of the Tiber, as of old by the Euphrates, sits the
+captive daughter of Judah; and I went one afternoon towards twilight to
+visit the Ghetto. It is a narrow, dark, damp, tunnel-like lane. Old
+Father Tiber had been there but a day or two previously, and had left,
+as usual, very distinct traces of his visit, in the slime and wet that
+covered the place. Formerly it was shut in with gates, which were locked
+every night at Ave Maria: now the gates are gone, and the broken and
+ragged door-posts show where they had hung. Opposite the entrance of the
+Ghetto stands a fine church, with a large sculpture-piece over its
+portal, representing a crucifix, surrounded with the motto, which meets
+the eye of the Jew every time he passes out or comes in, "All day long I
+have stretched forth my hands unto a gainsaying and disobedient people."
+The allusion here, no doubt, is to their unwillingness to pay their
+taxes, for that is the only sense in which the Pope's hands are all day
+long stretched out towards this people. Recently Pio Nono contracted a
+loan for twenty-one millions of francs, with the house of Rothschild;
+and thus, after persecuting the race for ages, the Vicar of God has come
+to lean for the support of his tottering throne upon a Jew. To do the
+Pope justice, however, the Jews in Rome are gathered once a-year into a
+church, where a sermon is preached for their conversion. The spectacle
+is said to be a very edifying one. The preacher fires off from the
+pulpit the hardest hits he can; and the Jews sit spitting, coughing, and
+making faces in return; while a person armed with a long pole stalks
+through the congregation, and admonishes the noisiest with a firm sharp
+rap on the head. The scene closes with a baptism, in which, it is
+affirmed, the same Jew sometimes plays the same part twice, or oftener
+if need be.
+
+The tyrannical spirit of Popery is seen in the treatment to which these
+descendants of Abraham are subjected in Rome, down to the present hour.
+Inquisitors are appointed to search into and examine all their books;
+all Rabbinic works are forbidden them, the Old Testament in Hebrew only
+being allowed to them; and any Jew having any forbidden book in his
+possession is liable to the confiscation of his property. Nor is he
+permitted to converse on the subject of religion with a Christian. They
+are not permitted to bury their dead with religious pomp, or to write
+inscriptions on their tombstones; they are forbidden to employ Christian
+servants; and if they do anything to disturb the faith of a Jewish
+convert to Romanism, they are subject to the confiscation of all their
+goods, and to imprisonment with hard labour for life; they are not
+allowed to sell meat butchered by themselves to Christians, nor
+unleavened bread, under heavy penalties; nor are they permitted to sleep
+a night beyond the limits of their quarters, nor to have carriage or
+horses of their own, nor to drive about the city in carriages, nor to
+use public conveyances for journeying, if any one object to it.
+
+Enter the Ghetto, and you feel instantly that you are among another
+race. An indescribable languor reigns over the rest of Rome. The Romans
+walk the streets with their hands in their pockets, and their eyes on
+the ground, for a heavy heart makes the limbs to drag. But in the Ghetto
+all is activity and thrift. You feel as if you had been suddenly
+transported into one of the busiest lanes of Glasgow or Manchester.
+Eager faces, with keen eyes and sharp features, look out upon you from
+amid the bundles of clothes and piles of all kinds of articles which
+darken the doors and windows of their shops. Scarce have you crossed the
+threshold of the Ghetto when you are seized by the button, dragged
+helplessly into a small hole stuffed with every imaginable sort of
+merchandise, and invited to buy a dozen things at once. No sooner have
+you been let go than you are seized by another and another. The women
+were seated in the doors of their shops and dwellings, plying busily
+their needle. One fine Jewish matron I marked, with seven buxom
+daughters round her, all working away with amazing nimbleness, and
+casting only a momentary glance at the stranger as he passed. How
+inextinguishable the qualities of this extraordinary people! Here, in
+this desolate land, and surrounded by the overwhelming torpor and
+laziness of Rome, the Jews are as industrious and as intent on making
+gain as their brethren in the commercial cities of Britain. I drew up
+with a young lad of about twenty, by way of feeling the pulse of the
+Ghetto; but though I tried him on both the past and the present, I
+succeeded in striking no chord to which he would respond. He seemed one
+of the prophet's dried bones,--very dry. Seventy years did their fathers
+dwell by the Euphrates; but here, alas! has the harp of Judah hung upon
+the willow for eighteen centuries. Beneath the dark shadow of the
+Vatican do they ever think of the sunny and vine-clad hills of their
+Palestine?
+
+I spent days not a few in the saloons of the Vatican. Into these noble
+chambers,--six thousand in number, it is said,--have been gathered all
+the masterpieces of ancient art which have been dug up from the ruins of
+villas, and temples, and basilicas, where they had lain buried for ages.
+Of course, I enter on no description of these. Let me only remark, that
+though I had seen hundreds of copies of some of these sculptures,--the
+Apollo Belvedere and the Laocoon, for instance,--no copy I had ever seen
+had given me any but the faintest idea of the transcendent beauty and
+power of the originals. The artist, I found, had flung into them,
+without the slightest exaggeration of feature, a tremendous energy, an
+intense life, which perhaps no coming age will ever equal, and certainly
+none surpass. What a sublime, thrilling, ever-acting tragedy, for
+instance, is the Laocoon group! But from these efforts of a genius long
+since passed from the earth, I pass to one who represents in his living
+person a more tragical drama than any depicted in marble in the halls of
+the Vatican. One day as I was wandering through these apartments, the
+rumour ran through them that the Pope was going out to take an airing. I
+immediately ran down to the piazza, where I found a rather shabby coach
+with red wheels, to which were yoked four coal-black horses, with a very
+fat coachman on the box, in antique livery, and two postilions astride
+the horses, waiting for Pius. Some half-dozen of the _guardia nobile_,
+mounted on black horses, were in attendance; and, loitering at the
+bottom of the stairs, were the stately forms of the Swiss guards, with
+their shining halberds, and their quaint striped dress of yellow and
+purple. I had often heard of the Pope in the symbols of the Apocalypse,
+and in the pages of history as the antichrist; and now I was to see him
+with the eye in the person of Pio Nono. After waiting ten minutes or so,
+the folding doors in an upper gallery of the piazza were thrown open,
+and I could see a head covered with a white skull-cap,--the Popes never
+wear a wig,--passing along the corridor, just visible above the stone
+ballustrade. In a minute the Pope had descended the stairs, and was
+advancing along the open pavement to his carriage. The Swiss guard stood
+to their halberds. A Frenchman and his lady,--the same, if I mistake
+not, whom I had seen on the Scala Santa,--spreading his white
+handkerchief on the causeway, uncovered and dropped on his knees; a row
+of German students in red gowns went down in like manner; a score or so
+of wretched-looking old men, who were digging up the grass in the
+piazza, formed a prostrate group in the middle; and a little knot of
+Englishmen,--some four of us only,--stood erect at about six yards from
+the line of the procession.
+
+Pio Nono, though king of the kings of the earth, was attired with severe
+simplicity. His sole dress, save the skull-cap I have mentioned, and red
+slippers, was a gown of white stuff, which enveloped his whole person
+from the neck downwards, and looked not unlike a camlet morning
+dressing-gown. A small cross which dangled on his breast was his only
+ornament. The fisherman's ring I was too far off to see. In person he is
+a portly, good-looking gentleman; and, could one imagine him entering
+the pulpit of a Scotch Secession congregation, or an English Methodist
+one, his appearance would be hailed with looks of satisfaction. His
+colour was fresher than the average of Italy; and his face had less of
+the priest in it than many I have seen. There was an air of easy good
+nature upon it, which might be mistaken for benevolence, blended with a
+smile, which appeared ever on the point of breaking into a laugh, and
+which utterly shook the spectator's confidence in the firmness and good
+faith of its owner. Pius stooped slightly; his gait was a sort of amble;
+there was an air of irresolution over the whole man; and one was tempted
+to pronounce,--though the judgment may be too severe,--that he was half
+a rogue, half a fool. He waived his hand in an easy, careless way to the
+students and Frenchman, and made a profound bow to the English party.
+
+St Peter's is close by: let us enter it. As among the Alps, so here at
+first, one is altogether unaware of the magnitudes before him. What
+strikes you on entering is the vast sweep of the marble floor. It runs
+out before you like a vast plain or strath, and gives you a colossal
+standard of measurement, which you apply unconsciously to every
+object,--the pillars, the statues, the roof; and though these are all
+colossal too, yet so nicely are they proportioned to all around them,
+that you take no note of their bulk. You pass on, and the grandeur of
+the edifice opens upon you. Beneath you are rows of dead popes; on
+either side rise gigantic statues and monuments which genius has raised
+to their memory; and in front is the high altar of the Roman world,
+towering to the height of a three-story house, yet looking, beneath that
+sublime roof, of only ordinary size. You are near the reputed tombs of
+Peter and Paul, before which an hundred golden lamps burn day and night.
+And now the mighty dome opens upon you, like the vault of heaven itself.
+You begin to feel the wondrous magnificence of the edifice in which you
+stand, and you give way to the admiration and awe with which it inspires
+you. But next moment comes the saddening thought, that this pile,
+unrivalled as it is among temples made with hands, is literally useless.
+There is no worship in it. Here the sinner hears no tidings of a free
+salvation. This temple but enshrines a wafer, and serves once or twice
+a-year as the scene of an idle pageant on the part of a few old men.
+
+Nay, not only is it useless,--it is one of the strongholds which
+superstition has thrown up for perpetuating its sway over the world. You
+see these few poor people kneeling before these burning lamps. Their
+prayer is directed, not upwards through that dome to the heavens above
+it, but downwards into that vault where sleep, as they believe, the
+ashes of Peter and Paul. Rome has ever discouraged family worship, and
+taught men to pray in churches. Why? To increase the power of the Church
+and the priesthood. A country covered with households in which family
+worship is kept is like a country covered with fortresses;--it is
+impregnable. Every house is a citadel, and every family is a little
+army. Or mark yonder female who kneels before the perforated brazen
+lattice of yonder confessional-box. She is whispering her sins into the
+ear of a shaven priest, who receives them into his own black heart. It
+is but a reeking cess-pool, not a fountain of cleansing, to which she
+has come. Such are the uses of St Peter's,--a temple where the _Church_
+is glorified at the expense of _religion_. Its high altar stops the way
+to the throne of grace, and its priest bars your access to a Redeemer's
+blood.
+
+And how was this temple built? Romanists speak of it as a monument of
+the piety of the faithful. But what is the fact? Did it not come out of
+the foul box of Tetzel the indulgence-monger? Every stone in it is
+representative of so much sin. With all its grandeur, it is but a
+stupendous monument of the follies and vices, the crimes and the
+superstition, of Christendom in the ages which preceded the Reformation.
+It has cost Rome dear. We do not allude to the twelve millions its
+erection is said to have cost, but to the mighty rent to which it gave
+rise in the Roman world. In the centre of the magnificent piazza of St
+Peter's stands an Egyptian obelisk, brought from Heliopolis, with the
+words graven upon it, "Christ reigns." Verily that is a great truth; and
+there are few spots where one feels its force so strongly as here. The
+successive paganisms of the world have been overruled as steps in the
+world's progress. Their corruptions have been based upon certain great
+truths, which they have written, as it were, upon the general mind of
+the world. The paganism which flourished where that column was hewn was
+an admission of _God's existence_, though it strove to divert attention
+from the truth on which it was founded, by the multitude of false gods
+which it invented. In like manner, the paganism that flourishes, or
+rather that is fading, where this column now stands, is an admission of
+the _necessity of a Mediator_; though it strives, as its predecessor
+did, to hide this glorious truth under a cloud of spurious mediators.
+But we see in this how every successive move on the part of idolatry has
+in reality been a retreat. Truth is gradually advancing its parallels
+against the citadel of error, and the world is toiling slowly upward to
+its great rest. Thus Christ shows that He reigns.
+
+From this silent prophet at the Pope's door, let us skirt along the
+Janiculum, to the gate of San Pancrazio. The site is a commanding one;
+and you look down into the basin in which Rome reposes, where many a
+cupola, and tower, and pillared facade, rises proudly out of the red
+roofs that cover the Campus Martius. If it is toward sunset, you can see
+the sheen of the villas which are sprinkled over the Sabine and Volscian
+hills, and are much struck with the fine amphitheatre which the
+mountains around the city form. What must have been the magnificence of
+ancient Rome, with her seven hills, and her glorious Campagna, with such
+a mountain-wall! But let us mark the old gate. It was here that the
+struggle betwixt the French and the Romans took place in 1849. The wall
+is here of brick,--very old, and of great breadth; and if struck with a
+cannon ball, it would crumble into dust by inches, but not fall in
+masses: hence the difficulty which the French found of breaching it. The
+towers of the gate are dismantled, and the top of the wall for some
+thirty yards is of new brick; but, with these exceptions, no other
+traces remain of the bloody conflict which restored the Pope to his
+throne. Of old, when Dagon fell, and the human head rolled in one
+direction and the fishy tail lay in another, "they took Dagon," we are
+told, and, fastening together the dissevered parts, "they set him in his
+place again." Idol worshippers are the same in all ages. Oftener than
+once has the Dagon of the Seven Hills fallen; the crown has rolled in
+one direction; the "palms of his hands" have been seen in another; and
+only the sacerdotal stump has remained; but the kings of Europe have
+taken Dagon, and, by the help of bayonets, have "set him in his place
+again;" and, having set up _him_ who could not set up himself, have
+worshipped him as the prop of their own power. What I had come hither to
+see especially was the graves of those who had fallen. On the left of
+the road, outside the gate, I found a grassy plateau, of some half-dozen
+acres, slightly furrowed, but bearing no such indications as I expected
+to find of such carnage as had here taken place. A Roman youth was
+sauntering on the spot; and, making up to him, I asked him to be so good
+as show me where they had buried the Frenchmen. "Come along," said he,
+"and I will show you the French." We crossed the plateau in the
+direction of a vineyard, which was enclosed with a stone-wall. The gate
+was open, and we entered. Stooping down, the youth laid hold on a
+whitish-looking nodule, of about the size of one's fist, and, holding it
+out to me, said, "that, Signor, is part of a Frenchman." I thought at
+first the lad was befooling me; but on examining the substance, I found
+that it was animal matter calcined, and had indeed formed part of a
+human being. The vineyard for acres and acres was strewn with similar
+masses. I now saw where the French were buried. The siege took place in
+the heat of summer; and every evening, when the battle was over, the
+dead were gathered in heaps, and burned, to prevent infection; and there
+are their remains to this day, manuring the vineyards around the walls.
+I wonder if the evening breezes, as they blow over the Janiculum, don't
+waft across the odour to the Vatican.
+
+Let us descend the hill, and re-enter the city. There is a class of
+buildings which you cannot fail to note, and which at first you take to
+be prisons. They are large, gloomy-looking houses, of from three to
+four stories, with massive doors, and windows closed with strong upright
+iron stanchions, crossed with horizontal bars, forming a network of iron
+of so close a texture, that scarce a pigeon could squeeze itself
+through. Ah, there, you say, the brigand or the Mazzinist groans! No;
+the place is a convent. It is the dwelling, not of crime, but of
+"heavenly meditation." The beings that live there are so perfectly
+happy, so glad to have escaped from the evil world outside, and so
+delighted with their paradise, that not one of them would leave it,
+though you should open these doors, and tear away these iron bars. So
+the priests say. Is it not strange, then, to confine with bolt and bar
+beings who intend anything but escape? and is it not, to say the least,
+a needless waste of iron, in a country where iron is so very scarce and
+so very dear? It would be worth while making the trial, if only for a
+summer's day, of opening these doors, and astonishing Rome with the
+great amount of happiness within it, of which, meanwhile, it has not the
+least idea. I have seen the dignitaries entering, but no glimpse could I
+obtain of the interior; for immediately behind the strong outer door is
+an inner one, and how many more I know not. Mr Seymour has told us of a
+nun, while he was in Rome, who found her way out through all these doors
+and bars; but, instead of fleeing back into her paradise, she rushed
+straight to the Tiber, and sought death beneath its floods.
+
+But although I never was privileged to see the interior of a Roman
+convent, I saw on one occasion the inmates of these paradises. During my
+sojourn in that city, it was announced that the nuns of a certain
+convent were to sing at Ave Maria, in a church adjoining the Piazza di
+Spagna; and I went thither to hear them. The choristers I did not see;
+they sat in a remote gallery, behind a screen. Their voices, which in
+clearness and brilliancy of tone surpassed the finest instruments, now
+rose into an overpowering melodious burst, and now died away into the
+sweetest, softest whispers. Within the low rail, their faces fronting
+the altar, and their backs turned on the audience, sat a row of
+spectres. Start not, reader; spectres they were,--fleshless, bloodless
+spectres. I saw them enter: they came like the sheeted dead; they wore
+long white dresses; their faces were pale and livid, like those that
+look out upon you from coffins; their forms were thin and wasted, and
+cast scarce a shadow as they passed between you and the beams of the
+sinking sun. Their eyes they lifted not, but kept them steadfastly fixed
+on the ground, over which they crept noiselessly as shadows creep. They
+sat mute and moveless, as if they had been statues of cold marble, all
+the while these brilliant notes were rolling above them. But I observed
+they were closely watched by the priests. There were several beside the
+altar; and whichever it was who happened for the moment to be
+disengaged, he turned round, and stood regarding the nuns with that
+stern anxious look with which one seeks to control a mastiff or a
+maniac. Were the priests afraid that, if withdrawn for a moment from the
+influence of their eye, a wail of woe would burst forth from these poor
+creatures? The last hallelujah had been pealed forth,--the shades of eve
+were thickening among the aisles,--when the priests gave the signal to
+the nuns. They rose, they moved; and, with eyes which were not lifted
+for a moment from the floor on which they trod, they disappeared by the
+same private door by which they had entered. I have seen gangs of galley
+slaves,--I have seen the husbands and sons of Rome led away manacled
+into banishment,--I have seen men standing beneath the gallows; but
+never did I see so woe-struck a group as this. Than have gone back with
+these nuns to their "paradise," as it is cruelly termed, I felt that I
+would rather have lain, where the lost nun is, in the Tiber.
+
+Before visiting Italy, I had read and studied the lectures of Father
+Perrone, Professor of Dogmatic Theology in the Collegio Romano, and had
+had frequent occasion to mention his name in my own humble pages; for I
+had nowhere found so clear a statement of the views held by the Church
+of Rome on the important doctrine of Original Sin, as that given in the
+Father's writings, and few had spoken so plainly as he had done on the
+wickedness of toleration. Being in Rome, I was naturally desirous of
+seeing the Father, and hearing him prelect. Accompanied by a young Roman
+student, whose acquaintance I had the happiness to make, but whose name
+I do not here mention, I repaired one day to the Collegio Romano,--a
+fine quadrangular building; and, after visiting its library, in whose
+"dark unfathomed caves" lies full many a monkish gem, I passed to the
+class-room of Professor Perrone. It was a lofty hall, benched after the
+manner of our own class-rooms, and hung round with portraits of the
+Professor's predecessors in office,--at least I took them for such. A
+tall pulpit rose on the end wall, with a crucifix beside it. The
+students were assembling, and mustered to the number of about an
+hundred. They were raw-boned, seedy-looking lads, of from seventeen to
+twenty-two. They all wore gowns, the majority being black, but some few
+red. Had I been a rich man, and disposed to signalize my visit to the
+Collegio Romano by some appropriate gift, I would have presented each of
+its students with a bar of soap, with directions for its use. In a few
+minutes the Professor entered, wearing the little round cap of the
+Jesuits. With that quiet stealthy step (an unconscious struggle to pass
+from matter into spirit, and assume invisibility) which is inseparable
+from the order, Father Perrone walked up to the pulpit stairs, which,
+after doffing his cap, and muttering a short prayer before the crucifix,
+he ascended, and took his place. It may interest those who are familiar
+with his writings, to know that Father Perrone is a man of middle size,
+rather inclined to obesity, with a calm, pleasant, thoughtful face,
+which becomes lighted up, as he proceeds, with true Italian vivacity.
+His lecture for the day was on the Evidences; and of course it was not
+the heretics, but the infidels, whom he combated throughout. In the
+number of his students was a young Protestant American, whom I first met
+in the house of the Rev. Mr Hastings, the American chaplain, where I
+usually passed my Sabbath evenings. This young man had chalked out for
+himself the most extraordinary theological course I ever heard of. He
+had first of all gone through a full curriculum in one of the old
+orthodox halls of the United States; he had then passed into Germany,
+where he had taken a course of neology and philosophy; and now he had
+come to Rome, where he intended to finish off with a course of Romanism.
+I ventured to engage him in a conversation on what he had learned in
+Germany; but we had not gone far till both found that we had lost
+ourselves in a dark mist; and we were glad to lay hold on an ordinary
+topic, as a clue back to the daylight. The young divine purposed
+returning to his native land, and spending his days as a Presbyterian
+pastor.
+
+Will the reader go back with me to the point where we began our
+excursion through Rome,--the Flaminian Gate? I invite the reader's
+special attention to a building on the right. It stands a few paces
+outside the gate. The building possesses no architectural attractions,
+but it is illustrative of a great principle. The first floor is occupied
+as a granary; the second floor is occupied as a granary; the third
+floor,--how is it occupied,--the attic story? Why, it is the English
+Protestant Church! Here is the toleration which the Pope grants us in
+Rome. There are from six hundred to a thousand English subjects resident
+in Rome every winter; but they dare not meet within the walls to open
+the Bible, or to worship God as his Word enjoins. They must go out
+without the gate, as if they were evil-doers; they must climb the stairs
+of this granary, as if they meditated some deed of darkness; and only
+when they have got into this garret are they at liberty to worship God.
+The Pope comes, not in person, but in his cardinals and priests, to
+Britain; and he claims the right of building his mass-houses, and of
+celebrating his worship, in every town and village of our empire. We
+permit him to do so; for we will fight this great battle with the
+weapons of toleration. We disdain to stain our hands or tarnish our
+cause by any other: these we leave to our opponents. But when we go to
+Rome, and offer to buy with our money a spot of ground on which to erect
+a house for the worship of God, we are told that we can have--no, not a
+foot's-breadth. Why, I say, the gospel had more toleration in Pagan
+Rome, aye, even when Nero was emperor, than it has in Papal Rome under
+Pio Nono. When Christianity entered Rome in the person of the Apostle
+Paul, did the tyrant of the Palatine strike her dumb? By no means. For
+the space of two years, her still small voice ceased not to be heard at
+the foot of the Capitol. "And Paul dwelt two whole years in his own
+hired house [in Rome], and received all that came in unto him; preaching
+the kingdom of God, and teaching those things which concern the Lord
+Jesus Christ, with all confidence, no man forbidding him." Let any
+minister or missionary attempt to do so now, and what would be his fate?
+and what the fate of any Roman who might dare to visit him? Instant
+banishment to the one,--instant imprisonment to the other. The Pope has
+set up the symbol of intolerance and persecution at his gate. He has
+written over the portals of Rome, as Dante over the gates of hell, "All
+ye who enter here, abandon"--God.
+
+I do not say that the place is incommodious internally. The stigma lies
+in the proscription put upon Protestant worship. It is held to be an
+abomination so foul, that it cannot be tolerated within the walls of
+Rome. And the same spirit which banishes the worship to a garret, would
+banish the worshipper to a prison, or condemn him to a stake, if it
+dared. The same principle that makes Rome lock her earthly gates against
+the Protestant now, makes her lock her heavenly gates against him
+eternally.
+
+There are, however, annoyances of a palpable and somewhat ludicrous kind
+attending this expulsion of the Protestant worship beyond the walls. The
+granary to which I have referred adjoins the cattle and pig market. In
+Rome, although it is a mortal sin to eat the smallest piece of flesh on
+a Friday, it is no sin at all to buy and sell swine's flesh on a
+Sabbath. Accordingly, the pig-market is held on Sabbath; and it is
+customary to drive the animals into the back courts of the English
+meeting-house before carrying them to market. So I was informed, when at
+Rome, by a member of the English congregation. The uproar created by the
+animals is at times so great as to disturb the worshippers in the attic
+above, who have been under the necessity of putting their hands into
+their pockets, and buying food for the swine, in order to keep them
+quiet during the hours of divine service. Thus the English at Rome are
+able to conduct their worship with some degree of decorum only when both
+cardinals and swine are propitious. Should either be out of humour,--a
+thing conceivable to happen to the most obese cardinal and the
+sweetest-tempered pig,--the English have but little chance of quiet.
+Nor is that the worst of it. I read not long since in the public
+journals, a letter from a Romish dignitary,--Dr Cahill, if I mistake
+not,--who, with an immense amount of bravery, stated that there was no
+Roman Catholic country in the world where full toleration was not
+enjoyed; and that, as regarded Rome, any Roman might change his religion
+to-morrow with perfect impunity. He might adopt Protestantism or
+Quakerism, or any other ism he pleased, provided he could show that he
+was not acting under the compulsion of a bribe. But how stands the fact?
+I passed three Sabbaths in Rome; I worshipped each Sabbath in the
+English Protestant chapel; and what did I see at the door of that
+chapel? I saw two gendarmes, with a priest beside them to give them
+instructions. And why were they there? They were there to observe all
+who went in and out at that chapel; and provided a Roman had dared to
+climb these stairs, and worship with the English congregation, the
+gendarmes would have seized him by the collar, and dragged him to the
+Inquisition. So much for the liberty the poor Romans enjoy to change
+their religion. The writer of that letter with the same truth might have
+told the people of England that there is no such city as Rome in all the
+world.
+
+I was much taken with the ministrations of the Rev. Francis B. Woodward,
+the resident chaplain, on hearing him for the first time. He looked like
+one whose heart was in his work, and I thought him evangelical, so far
+as the absence of all reference to what Luther has termed "the article
+of a standing or a falling Church" allowed me to form an opinion. But
+next Sabbath my confidence was sorely shaken. Mr Woodward was proceeding
+in a rich and sweetly pious discourse on the necessity of seeking and
+cultivating the gifts of the Spirit, and of cherishing the hope of
+glory, when, towards the middle of his sermon, the evangelical thread
+suddenly snapped. "How are we," abruptly asked the preacher, "to become
+the sons of God?" I answer, by baptism. By baptism we are made children
+of God and heirs of heaven. But should we fall from that happy state,
+how are we to recover it? I answer, by penance. And then he instantly
+fell back again into his former pious strain. I started as if struck,
+and looked round to see how the audience were taking it. But I could
+discover no sign that they felt the real significancy of the words they
+had just heard. It seemed to me that the English chaplain was outside
+the gate for the purpose of showing men in at it; and were I the Pope,
+instead of incurring the scandal of banishing him beyond the walls, I
+would assign him one of the best of the many hundred empty churches in
+Rome. The Rev. Mr Hastings, the American chaplain, conducted worship in
+the dining-room of Mr Cass, the American Consul, to a little
+congregation of some thirty persons. He was a good man, and a sound
+Protestant, but lacked the peculiar qualities for such a sphere. He has
+since passed from Rome and the earth, and joined, I doubt not, albeit
+disowned as a heretic in the city in which he laboured, "the General
+Assembly and Church of the first-born" on high.
+
+I have already mentioned that the priests boast that the Pope could say
+mass in a different church every day of the year. Nevertheless there is
+next to no preaching in Rome. In Italy they convert men, not by
+preaching sermons, but by giving them wafers to swallow,--not by
+conveying truth into the mind, but by lodging a little dough in the
+stomach. Hence many of their churches stand on hill-tops, or in the
+midst of swamps, where not a house is in sight. During my sojourn of
+three weeks, I heard but two sermons by Roman preachers. I was
+sauntering in the Forum one day, when, observing a little stream of
+paupers--(how could such go to the convents to beg if they did not go to
+sermon?)--flowing into the church of San Lorenzo, I joined in the
+procession, and entered along with them. At the door was a tin-box for
+receiving contributions for erecting a temple in London, where "their
+poor destitute fellow-countrymen might hear the true gospel." Were these
+"destitute fellow-countrymen" in Rome, the Pope would find accommodation
+for them in some one of his dungeons; but with the English Channel
+between him and them, he builds with paternal care a church for their
+use. We doubt not the exiles will duly appreciate his kindness. Every
+twentieth person or so dropped a little coin into the box as he passed
+in. A knot of some one or two hundreds was gathered round a wooden
+stage, on which a priest was declaiming with an exuberance of vehement
+gesture. On the right and left of him stood two hideous figures, holding
+candles and crucifixes, and enveloped from head to foot in sackcloth.
+They watched the audience through two holes in their masks; and I
+thought I could see a cowering in that portion of the crowd towards
+which the muffled figures chanced for the time to be turned. I felt a
+chilly terror creeping over me as the masks turned their great goggle
+eyes upon me; and accordingly withdrew.
+
+The regular weekly sermon in Rome is that preached every Sabbath
+afternoon in the church of the Jesuits. This church is resplendent
+beyond all others in the Eternal City, in marbles and precious stones,
+frescoes and paintings. Here, too, in magnificent tombs, sleep St
+Ignatius, the founder of the order, and Cardinal Bellarmin, one of the
+"Church's" mightiest champions. Its ample roof might cover an assembly
+of I know not how many thousands. About half-way down the vast floor, on
+the side wall, stood the pulpit; and before it were set some scores of
+forms for the accommodation of the audience, which might amount to from
+four hundred to six hundred, chiefly elderly persons. At three o'clock
+the preacher entered the pulpit, and, having offered a short prayer in
+silence, he replaced on his head his little round cap, and flung himself
+into his theme. That theme was one then and still very popular (I mean
+with the preachers,--for the people take not the slightest interest in
+these matters) at Rome,--the Immaculate Conception. I can give only the
+briefest outline of the discourse; and I daresay that is all my readers
+will care for. In proof of the immunity of Mary from original sin, the
+preacher quoted all that St Jerome, and St Augustine, and a dozen
+fathers besides, had said on the point, with the air of a man who deemed
+these quotations quite conclusive. Had they related to the theory of
+eclipses, or been snatches from some old pagan poet in praise of Juno,
+the audience would have been equally well pleased with them. I looked
+when the father would favour his audience with a few proofs from St
+Matthew and St Luke; but his time did not permit him to go so far back.
+He next appealed to the miracles which the Virgin Mary had wrought. I
+expected much new information here, as my memory did not furnish me with
+any well-accredited ones; but I was somewhat disappointed when the
+preacher dismissed this branch of his subject with the remark, that
+these miracles were so well known, that he need not specify them. Having
+established his proposition first from tradition, and next from
+miracles, the preacher wound up by declaring that the Immaculate
+Conception was a doctrine which all good Catholics believed, and which
+no one doubted save the children of the devil and the slaves of hell.
+The sermon seemed as if it had been made to answer exactly the poet's
+description:--
+
+ "And when they list, their lean and flashy songs
+ Grate on their scrannel pipes of wretched straw;
+ The hungry sheep look up, and are not fed,
+ But, swollen with wind, and the rank mist they draw,
+ Rot inwardly, and foul contagion spread;
+ Besides what the grim wolf, with privy paw,
+ Daily devours apace, and nothing sed;
+ But that two-handed engine at the door
+ Stands ready to smite once, and smite no more."
+
+When this edifying sermon was ended, "Ave Maria" began. A train of
+white-robed priests entered, and gathered in a cloud round the high
+altar. The organ sent forth its thunder; the flashing censers shot
+upwards to the roof, and, as they rose and fell, emitted fragrant
+wreaths of incense. The crowd poured in, and swelled the assembly to
+some thousands; and when the priests began to chant, the multitude which
+now covered the vast floor dropped on their knees, and joined in the
+hymn to the Virgin. This service, of all I witnessed in Rome, was the
+only one that partook in the slightest degree of the sublime.
+
+I must except one other, celebrated in an upper chamber, and _truly_
+sublime. It was my privilege to pass my first Sabbath in Rome in the
+society of the Rev. John Bonar and that of his family, and at night we
+met in Mr Bonar's room in the hotel, and had family worship. I well
+remember that Mr Bonar read on this occasion the last chapter of that
+epistle which Paul "sent by Phebe, servant of the Church at Cenchrea,"
+to the saints at Rome. The disciples to whom the Apostle in that letter
+sends greetings had lived in this very city; their dust still slept in
+its soil; and were they to come back, I felt that, if I were a real
+Christian, we would recognise each other as dear brethren, and would
+join together in the same prayer; and as their names were read out, I
+was thrilled and melted, as if they had been the names of beloved and
+venerated friends but newly dead:--"Greet Priscilla and Aquila, my
+helpers in Christ Jesus; who have for my life laid down their own necks;
+unto whom not only I give thanks, but also all the churches of the
+Gentiles. Likewise _greet_ the church that is in their house. Salute my
+well-beloved Epenetus, who is the first fruits of Achaia unto Christ.
+Greet Mary, who bestowed much labour on us. Salute Andronicus and Junia,
+my kinsmen and my fellow-prisoners, who are of note among the apostles,
+who also were in Christ before me. Greet Amplias, my beloved in the
+Lord. Salute Urbane, our helper in Christ, and Stachys my beloved.
+Salute Apelles, approved in Christ. Salute them which are of
+Aristobulus' _household_. Salute Herodion my kinsman. Greet them that be
+of the _household_ of Narcissus, which are in the Lord. Salute Tryphena
+and Tryphosa, who labour in the Lord. Salute the beloved Persis, which
+laboured much in the Lord. Salute Rufus, chosen in the Lord, and his
+mother and mine. Salute Asyncritus, Phlegon, Hermas, Patrobas, Hermes,
+and the brethren which are with them. Salute Philologus and Julia,
+Nereus and his sister, and Olympas, and all the saints which are with
+them."
+
+Uppermost in my mind, in all my wanderings in and about Rome, was the
+glowing fact that here Paul had been, and here he had left his
+ineffaceable traces. I touched, as it were, scriptural times and
+apostolic men. Had he not often climbed this Capitol? Had not his feet
+pressed, times without number, this lava-paved road through the Forum?
+These Volscian and Sabine mountains, so lovely in the Italian sunlight,
+had often had his eye rested upon them! I began to love the soil for his
+sake, and felt that the presence of this one holy man had done more to
+hallow it than all that the long race of emperors and popes had done to
+desecrate it.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+INFLUENCE OF ROMANISM ON TRADE.
+
+     The Church the Destroyer of the Country--The Pontifical Government
+     just the Papacy in Action--That Government makes Men _Beggars_,
+     _Slaves_, _Barbarians_--Influence of Pontifical Government on
+     Trade--Iron--Great Agent of Civilization--Almost no Iron in Papal
+     States--The Church has forbidden it--Prohibitive Duties on
+     Iron--Machinery likewise prohibited--Antonelli's Extraordinary
+     Note--Paucity of Iron-Workmen and Mechanics in the Papal
+     States--Barbarous Aspect of the Country--Roman Ploughs--Roman
+     Carts--How Grain is there Winnowed--Husbandry of Italy--Its
+     Cabins--Its Ragged Population--Its Farms--Ruin of its
+     Commerce--Isolation of Rome--Reasons why--Proposed Railway from
+     Civita Vecchia to Ancona--Frustrated by the Government--Wretched
+     Conveyance of Merchandise--Pope's Steam Navy--Papal
+     Custom-houses--Bribery--Instances.
+
+
+It is time to concentrate my observations, and to make their light
+converge around that evil system that sits enthroned in this old city.
+Of all the great ruins in Italy, the greatest by far is the Italians
+themselves. The ruin of the Italians I unhesitatingly lay at the door of
+the Church;--she is the nation's destroyer. When I first saw the Laocoon
+in the Vatican, I felt that I saw the symbol of the country;--there was
+Italy writhing in the folds of the great Cobra di Capella, the Papacy.
+
+I cannot here go into the ceremonies practised at Rome, and which
+present so faithful a copy, both in their forms and in their spirit, of
+the pagan idolatry. Nor can I speak of the innumerable idols of gold and
+silver, wood and stone, with which their churches are crowded, and
+before which you may see votaries praying, and priests burning incense,
+all day long. Nor can I speak of the endless round of fetes and
+festivals which fill up the entire year, and by which the priests seek
+to dazzle, and, by dazzling, to delude and enthral, the Romans. Nor can
+I detain my readers with tales and wonders of Madonnas which have
+winked, and of the blind and halt which have been cured, which knaves
+invent and simpletons believe. Nor can I detail the innumerable frauds
+for fleecing the Romans;--money for indulgences,--money for the souls in
+purgatory,--money for eating flesh on Friday,--money for votive
+offerings to the saints. The church of the Jesuits is supposed to be
+worth a million sterling, in the shape of marbles, paintings, and
+statuary; and in this way the capital of the country is locked up, while
+not a penny can be had for making roads or repairing bridges, or
+promoting trade and agriculture. I cannot enter into these matters: I
+must confine my attention to one subject,--THE PONTIFICAL GOVERNMENT.
+
+When I speak of the Pontifical Government, I just mean the Papacy. The
+working of the Papal Government is simply the working of the Papacy; for
+what is that Government, but just the principles of the Papacy put into
+judicial gear, and employed to govern mankind? It is the Church that
+governs the Papal States; and as she governs these States, so would she
+govern all the earth, would we let her. The Pontifical Government is
+therefore the fairest illustration that can be adduced of the practical
+tendency and influence of the system. I now arraign the system in the
+Government. I am prepared to maintain, both on general principles, and
+on facts that came under my own observation while in Rome, that the
+Pontifical Government is the most flagitiously unjust, the most
+inexorably cruel, the most essentially tyrannical Government, that ever
+existed under the sun. It is the necessary, the unchangeable, the
+eternal enemy of liberty. I say, looking at the essential principles of
+the Papacy, that it is a system claiming infallibility, and so laying
+reason and conscience under interdict,--that it is a system claiming to
+govern the world, not _by_ God, but _as_ God,--that it is a system
+claiming supreme authority in all things spiritual, and claiming the
+same supreme authority, though indirectly, in all things temporal,--that
+it sets no limits to its jurisdiction, but, on the contrary, makes that
+jurisdiction to range indiscriminately over heaven, earth, and hell.
+Looking at these principles, which no Papist can deny to be the
+fundamental and vital elements of his system, I maintain that, if there
+be any one thing more than another ascertained and indisputable within
+the compass of man's knowledge, it is this, that the domination of a
+system like the Papacy is utterly incompatible with the enjoyment of a
+single particle of liberty on the part of any human being. And I now
+proceed to show, that the conclusion to which one would come, reasoning
+from the essential principles of this system, is just the conclusion at
+which he would arrive by observing the workings of this system, as
+exhibited at this day in Italy.
+
+I shall arrange the facts I have to state under three heads:--_First_,
+Those that relate to the TRADE of the Roman States: _second_, Those that
+relate to the administration of JUSTICE: and _third_, Those that relate
+to EDUCATION and KNOWLEDGE. I shall show that the Pontifical Government
+is so conducted as regards Trade, that it can have no other effect than
+to make the Romans _beggars_. I shall show, in the second place, that
+the Pontifical Government is so conducted as regards Justice, that it
+can have no other effect than to make the Romans _slaves_. And I shall
+show, in the third place, that the Pontifical Government is so conducted
+as regards Education, that it can have no other effect than to make the
+Romans _barbarians_. This is the threefold result that Government is
+fitted to work out: this is the threefold result it has wrought out. It
+has made the Romans beggars,--it has made the Romans slaves,--it has
+made the Romans barbarians. Observe, I do not touch the religious part
+of the question. I do not enter on any discussion respecting Purgatory,
+or Transubstantiation, or the worship of the Virgin. I look simply at
+the bearings of that system upon man's temporal interests; and I
+maintain that, though man had no hereafter to provide for, and no soul
+to be saved, he is bound by every consideration to resist a system so
+destructive to the whole of his interests and happiness in time.
+
+I come now to trace the workings of the Papacy on the Trade of the Papal
+States. But here I am met, on the threshold of my subject, by this
+difficulty, that I am to speak of what scarce exists; for so effectually
+has the Pontifical Government developed its influence in this direction,
+that it has all but annihilated trade in the Papal States. If you except
+the manufacture of cameos, Roman mosaics, a little painting and
+statuary, there is really no more trade in the country than is
+absolutely necessary to keep the people from starvation. The trade and
+industry of the Roman States are crushed to death under a load of
+monopolies and restrictive tariffs, invented by infallible wisdom for
+protecting, but, as it seems to our merely fallible wisdom, for
+sacrificing, the industry of the country.
+
+Let us take as our first instance the Iron Trade. We all know the
+importance of iron as regards civilization. Civilization may be said to
+have commenced with iron,--to have extended over the earth with iron;
+and so closely connected are the two, that where iron is not, there you
+can scarce imagine civilization to be. It is by iron in the form of the
+plough that man subjugates the soil; and it is by iron in the form of
+the sword that he subjugates kingdoms. What would our country be without
+its iron,--without its railroads, its steam-ships, its steam-looms, its
+cutlery, its domestic utensils? Almost all the comforts and conveniences
+of civilized life are obtained by iron. You may imagine, then, the
+condition of the Papal States, when I state that iron is all but unknown
+in them. It is about as rare and as dear as the gold of Uphaz. And why
+is it so? There is abundance of iron in our country; water-carriage is
+anything but expensive; and the iron manufacturers of Britain would be
+delighted to find so good a market as Italy for their produce. Why,
+then, is iron not imported into that country? For this simple reason,
+that the Church has forbidden its introduction. Strange, that it should
+forbid so useful a metal where it is so much needed. Yet the fact is,
+that the Pope has placed its importation under an as stringent
+prohibition almost as the importation of heresy: perhaps he smells
+heresy and civilization coming in the wake of iron. The duty on the
+introduction of bar-iron is two baiocchi la libbra, equivalent to fifty
+dollars, or L12 10s., per ton; which is about twice the price of
+bar-iron in this country. This duty is prohibitive of course.
+
+The little iron which the Romans possess they import mostly from
+Britain, in the form of pig-iron; and the absurdity of importing it in
+this form appears from the fact that there is no coal in the States to
+smelt it,--at least none has as yet been discovered: wood-char is used
+in this process. When the pig-iron is wrought up into bar-iron, it is
+sold at the incredible price of thirty-eight Roman scudi the thousand
+pounds, which is equivalent, in English money, to L23 15s. per ton, or
+four times its price in Britain. The want of the steam-engine vastly
+augments the cost of its manufacture. There is a small iron-work at
+Terni, eighty miles from Rome, which is set down there for the advantage
+of water-power, which is employed to drive the works. The whole raw
+material has to be carted from Rome, and, when wrought up, carted back
+again, adding enormously to the expense. There is another at Tivoli,
+also moved by water-power. The whole raw material has, too, to be carted
+from Rome, and the manufactured article carted back, causing an outlay
+which would soon more than cover the expense of steam-engine and fuel.
+At Terni some sixty persons are employed, including boys and men. The
+manager is a Frenchman, and most of the workmen are Frenchmen, with
+wages averaging from forty to fifty baiocchi; labourers at the works
+have from twenty-five to thirty baiocchi per day,--from a shilling to
+fifteenpence.
+
+During the reign of Gregory XVI. machinery was admitted into the Papal
+States at a nominal duty, or one baiocchi the hundred Roman pounds. It
+is not in a day that a country like Italy can be taught the advantage of
+mechanical power. The Romans, like every primitive people, are apt to
+cleave to the rude, unhandy modes which they and their fathers have
+practised, and to view with suspicion and dislike inventions which are
+new and strange. But they were beginning to see the superiority of
+machinery, and to avail themselves of its use. A large number of
+hydraulic presses, printing presses, one or two steam-engines, a few
+threshing-mills, and other agricultural implements, were introduced
+under this nominal duty; and, had a little longer time been allowed, the
+country would have begun to assume somewhat of a civilized look. But
+Gregory died; and, as if to show the utter hopelessness of anything
+like progress on the part of the Pontifical Government, it was the
+present Pope who took the retrograde step of restoring the law shutting
+out machines. Cardinal Tosti, the Treasurer to Gregory's Government, was
+succeeded by his Excellenza Monsignor (now Cardinal) Antonelli, one of
+the earliest official acts of whom was the appending a note to the
+tariff on machinery, which subjected machines, all and sundry, to the
+duty imposed in the tariff on their component parts. For example, a
+machine composed of iron, brass, steel, and wood, according to
+Antonelli's note, would have to pay separate duty on each of the
+materials composing it. The way in which the thing was done is a fine
+sample of the spirit and style of papal legislation, and shows how the
+same subtle but perverted ingenuity, the same specious but hypocritical
+pretexts, with which the theological part of the system abounds, are
+extended also to its political and civil managements. Antonelli did not
+rescind the tariff; he but appended a note, the quiet but sure effect of
+which was to render it null. He did not tax machines as a whole; they
+were still free, viewed in their corporate capacity: he but taxed their
+individual parts. This ingenious legislator, by a saving clause,
+exempted from the operation of his note _machines of new invention_,
+which, after being proved to be such, were to be admitted at the nominal
+duty! What machines would not be of new invention in the Roman States,
+where there is absolutely no machinery, saving--with all reverence for
+the apostolic chamber--the guillotine?
+
+But farther, Antonelli, to show at once his ingenuity and philanthropy,
+enacted that machines which had never before been introduced into the
+States should be admitted at the nominal duty. Mark the extent of the
+boon herein conferred on Italy. We shall suppose that one of each of the
+industrial and agricultural machines in use in Britain is admitted into
+the Roman States under this law. It is admitted duty-free. Well, but the
+second plough, or the second loom, or the second steam-engine, arrives.
+It must pay a prohibitive duty. It is not a new machine. You can make as
+many as you please from the one already introduced, says Antonelli. But
+who is to make them? There are no mechanics deserving the name in Rome;
+who, by the way, are the very people Antonelli said he meant to benefit.
+But, apart from the want of mechanical skill, there is the dearth of the
+raw material; for maleable iron was selling in Rome at upwards of L21
+per ton, at a time when the cost of bar-iron in this country was only
+from L6 to L7 per ton. Such insane legislation on the part of the
+sacerdotal Government could not be committed through ignorance or
+stupidity. There must be some strong reason that does not appear at
+first sight for this wholesale sacrifice of the interests of the
+country. We shall speak of this anon: meanwhile we pursue our statement.
+
+Antonelli supported his note,--that note which ratified the banishment
+of the arts from Italy, and gave barbarism an eternal infeftment in the
+soil,--by affirming that it was passed in order to encourage l'industria
+dello Stato; which is as if one should say that he had cut his
+neighbour's throat to protect his life; for certainly Antonelli's note
+cut the throat of industry. Well, one would think, seeing this
+legislation was meant to protect the industry of the State and the
+interests of the iron-workmen, that these iron-workmen must be a large
+body. How many iron-workmen are there in the Papal States? An hundred
+thousand? One thousand? There are not more in all than one hundred and
+fifty! And for these one hundred and fifty iron-workmen (to which we may
+add the seventy cardinals, the most of whom are speculators in iron),
+the rest of the community is put beyond the pale of civilization, the
+ordinary arts and utensils are proscribed, improvement is at a
+stand-still, and the country is doomed to remain from age to age in
+barbarism.
+
+And what is the aspect of the country? It is decidedly that of a
+barbarous land. Everything has an old-world look, as if it belonged to
+the era of the Flood. Iron being so enormously dear, its use is
+dispensed with wherever it is possible. Almost all implements of
+agriculture, of carriage, almost all domestic utensils, and many tools
+of trade, are made of wood. In consequence, they do very little work;
+and that little but indifferently well. Nothing could be more primitive
+than the _plough_ of the Romans. It consists of a single stick or lever,
+fixed to a block having the form of a sock or coulter, with a projection
+behind, on which the ploughman puts his foot, and assists the bullocks
+over a difficulty. The work done by this implement we would not call
+ploughing: it simply scratches the surface to the depth of some three or
+four inches, with which the poor husbandman is content. The soil is in
+general light, but it might be otherwise tilled; and, were it so, would
+yield far other harvests than those now known in Italy. Their _carts_,
+too, are of the rudest construction, and may be regarded as ingenious
+models of the form which should combine the largest bulk with the least
+possible use. They have high wheels, and as wide-set as those in our
+country, with nothing to fill the dreary space between but an
+uncouth-looking nut-shell of a box. The infallible Government of the
+Pope has not judged it beneath it to legislate in reference to them.
+They must be made of a certain prescribed capacity, and stamped for the
+purchase and sale of lime and pozzolano. In this happy country, all
+things, from the Immaculate Conception down to the pozzolano cart, are
+cared for by the sacerdotal Government. The open-bodied carts have bars
+(the length and distance apart of which are also regulated by the
+pontiff) placed on the trams, and are licensed for the sale of green
+wood, which must be sold at from three and a half to four dollars a
+load. The barozza is another open-bodied cart, with bars placed around
+the trams, and contains about twelve sacks of wood-char, which is sold
+at from eight to ten dollars. This is the fuel of the country, and, when
+kindled, does well enough for cooking. It gives considerable heat and
+but little smoke, but lacks the cheerfulness and comfort of an English
+fire-side, which is unknown in Rome.
+
+Every agricultural process is conducted in the same rude and slovenly
+way. And how can it be otherwise, when the Church, for reasons best
+known to itself, denies the people the use of the indispensable
+instruments? It solemnly legislates that one British plough may be
+imported; and graciously permits its subjects, in a land where there are
+no mechanics, to make as many additional ploughs as they need. Is it not
+peculiarly modest in these men, who show so little wisdom in temporal
+matters, to ask the entire world to surrender its belief to them in
+things spiritual and divine?
+
+Every one knows how we winnow corn in Britain. How do they conduct that
+process at Rome? A cart-load of grain is poured out on the barn-floor;
+some dozen or score of women squat down around it, and with the hand
+separate the chaff from the wheat, pickle by pickle. In this way a score
+of women may do in a week what a farmer in our country could do easily
+in a couple of hours. An effort was made to persuade the predecessor of
+the present Pontiff, Gregory XVI., to sanction the admission into Rome
+of a winnowing-machine. Its mode of working and uses were explained to
+the Pontiff. Gregory shook his head; for Infallibility indicates its
+doubts at times, just as mortals do, by a shake of the head. It was a
+dangerous thing to introduce into Rome, said the infallible Gregory.
+Perhaps it was; for if the Romans had begun to winnow grain, they might
+have learned to winnow other things besides grain.
+
+The husbandry of Italy, as a system, is in a most backward state. Its
+cultivation is the cultivation of Ireland. And yet Italy is excelled by
+few countries on earth, perhaps by none, in point of its external
+defences, and its inexhaustible internal resources; which, however,
+under its present Government, are utterly wasted. On the north it is
+defended by the wall of the Alps, and on all its other sides by the
+ocean, whose bays offer boundless facilities for commerce. The plains of
+Lombardy are eternally covered with flowers and fruit. The valleys of
+Tuscany still boast the olive, the orange, and the vine. The wide waste
+of the Campagna di Roma is of the richest soil, and, spread out beneath
+the warm sun, might mingle on its surface the fruits of the torrid with
+those of the temperate zones. Instead of this, Italy presents to the
+traveller's eye a deplorable spectacle of wretched cabins, untilled
+fields, and a population oppressed by sloth and covered with rags. The
+towns are filled mostly with idlers and beggars. With all my inquiries,
+I could never get a clear idea of how they live. The alms-houses are
+numerous; for when a Government puts down trade, it must build hospitals
+and poor's-houses, or see its subjects die of starvation. In Rome, for
+example, besides the convents, where a number of poor people get a meal
+a day,--a sufficiently meagre one,--there is the government
+_Beneficenza_, which the more intelligent part account a great curse.
+Some fifteen hundred or two thousand persons, many of them able-bodied
+men, receive fifteen baiocchi,--sevenpence half-penny,--per day, in
+return for which they pouter about with barrows, removing earth from
+the old ruins, or cleaning the streets, which are none the cleaner, or
+picking grass in the square of the Vatican. Many deplorable tales are
+told in Rome of these people, and of the dire sacrifice made of the
+female portion of their families. But the grand resource is beggary,
+especially from foreigners; and if a beggar earn a penny a day, he will
+make a shift to live. He will purchase half a pound of excellent
+macaroni with the one baiocchi, and a few apples or grapes with the
+other; and thus he is provided for for the day. The inhabitants of these
+countries do not eat so substantially as we do. Should he earn nothing,
+he has it in his choice to steal or starve. This is the prolific source
+of brigandage and vagabondism.
+
+In the country, the peasants (and there almost all are peasants) live by
+cultivating a small patch of land. The farms, like those in Ireland, are
+mere crofts. The proprietor, who lives in the city, provides not only
+the land, but the implements and cattle also, and in return receives a
+stipulated portion of the fruits. His share is often as high as a half,
+never lower than a fourth. The farmer is a tenant-at-will most commonly,
+but removals are rare; and sometimes, as in Ireland, the same lands
+remain in the occupation of the same families for generations. Their
+conical little hills, with their peasant villages a-top, are curiously
+ribbed with a particoloured vegetation, each family cultivating their
+couple of acres after their own fashion; while the plain is not
+unfrequently abandoned to marshes, or ruins, or wild herbage. To dig
+drains, to clear out the substructions, to re-open the ancient
+water-courses, or to follow any improved system of cropping, is far
+beyond the enterprise of the poor farmer. He has neither skill, nor
+capital, nor savings. If nature takes the matter into her own hand,
+well; if not, one bad harvest irretrievably lands him in famine. Thus,
+with a soil and climate not excelled perhaps in the world, the
+husbandman drags out his life in poverty, and is often on the very brink
+of starvation. Whatever beauty and fertility that land still retains, it
+owes to nature, not to man. Indeed, it is now only the skeleton of Italy
+that exists, with here and there patches of its former covering,--nooks
+of exquisite beauty, which strike one the more from the desolation that
+surrounds them. But its cultivated portions are every year diminishing.
+Its woods and olives are fast disappearing; and by and by the very
+beasts of the field will be compelled to leave it, and the King of the
+Seven Hills, could we conceive of his remaining behind, will be left to
+reign in undisputed and unenvied supremacy over the storks and frogs,
+and other animals, that breed and swarm in its marshes.
+
+The commerce of Italy, too, is extinct. How can it be otherwise? Under
+their terrible stagnation and death of mind, the Italians produce
+nothing for export. In that country there are no factories, no mining
+operations, no ship-building, no public works, no printing presses, no
+tools of trade. In short, they create nothing but a few articles of
+vertu; and even in those arts in which alone their genius is allowed to
+exert itself, foreigners excel them. The best sculptors and painters at
+Rome are Englishmen. And as regards their soil, which might send its
+wheat, and wine, and olives, all delicious naturally, to every part of
+the world, its harvests are now able but to feed the few men who live in
+the country. As to imports, both raw and manufactured, which the Romans
+need so much, we have seen how the sacerdotal Government takes effectual
+means to prevent these reaching the population. The Pontiff has enclosed
+his territory with a triple wall of protective duties and monopolies, to
+keep out the foreign merchant; and thus not only are the Romans
+forbidden to labour for themselves, but they are prevented profiting by
+the labour of others. There is a monopoly of sugar-refining, a monopoly
+of salt-making, and, in short, of every thing which the Romans most
+need. These monopolies are held by the favourites of the Government; and
+though generally the houses that hold them are either unwilling or
+unable to make more than a tithe of what the Romans would require, no
+other establishment can produce these articles, and they cannot be
+imported but at a ruinous duty.
+
+We are reminded of another grievance under which the Romans groan. The
+few articles that are landed on their coast have to encounter tedious
+and almost insuperable delays before they can find their way to the
+capital. This is owing to the wretched state of the communication, which
+is kept purposely wretched in order to isolate Rome and the Romans from
+the rest of the world. That Church likes to sit apart and keep intact
+her venerable prestige, which would be apt to be contemned were it
+looked at close at hand. She dreads, too, to let her people come in
+contact with the population of other States. A few thousands of English
+aristocracy she can afford to admit annually within her territory. Their
+money she needs, and their indifference gives her no uneasiness. But to
+have the mass of a free people circulating through her capital would be
+a death-blow to her influence. She deems it, then, a wise policy, indeed
+a necessary safeguard, to make the access such as only money and time
+can overcome, though at the sacrifice of the trade and comforts of the
+people. Repeated attempts have been made to connect Rome with the rest
+of Europe; but hitherto, through the singularly adroit management of the
+Government, all such attempts have been fruitless.
+
+In 1851 the long talked of concession for railways in the Roman States
+was obtained by Count Montalembert. The railways were to be constructed
+by foreign money and foreign agency, of course. A line from Rome to
+Ancona, and another from Rome to Civita Vecchia, were talked of, which
+would have put the Eternal City in immediate communication with the
+Adriatic and the Mediterranean. _Che belle cose!_ the Italians might be
+heard uttering wherever grouped. It looked too well; an extravagant
+guarantee was offered to the Intraprendenti (contractors) by the Roman
+Government. The Parisian Count was to procure capitalists for the
+undertaking. The general opinion at the time was, that the Government
+was insincere in their extravagant guarantee; and they stipulated with
+the Count a condition as to time, calculated, as was supposed, to
+frustrate the undertaking. In this, however, the Government was
+outwitted; for capitalists were found within the prescribed time,
+engineers appointed, and contracts entered into. The iron-works of Terni
+and Tivoli amalgamated, in the hope of doing an extensive business by
+manufacturing the rails, &c.; and announced in their prospectus the
+intention of working the La Tolfa ironstone near Civita Vecchia. Many
+were induced to sink money in this amalgamated concern, and there it
+fruitlessly remains. The affray at Ferrara put the scutch upon the
+mighty railway scheme.
+
+Were the Government in earnest on the subject of railways, sufficient
+capital might easily be raised to construct a line between Rome and
+Civita Vecchia, which would be of incalculable benefit to Rome. Vessels
+of heavy burden can discharge at the port of Civita Vecchia. Merchandise
+could thence be transmitted by rail to Rome, where its arrival could be
+calculated on to half an hour; and of what immense advantage would this
+be, contrasted with the present maritime conveyance, which keeps
+merchants in expectation of goods for days and weeks, and not
+unfrequently for a whole month, with bills of lading in hand from
+Marseilles, Genoa, Leghorn, Naples, and Sicily, by vessels carrying from
+fifty to a hundred and fifty tons! The entrance to the mouth of the
+Tiber at Fuma-Cina is both difficult and dangerous; so much so, that
+sailing masters will not hazard the attempt if the weather is in the
+least degree stormy. They are obliged frequently to return to Civita
+Vecchia or Leghorn, until the weather will permit their entering the
+river at Fuma-Cina. There their vessels require to be lightened, or
+partly discharged into barges, there not being sufficient water in the
+Tiber to allow them to ascend to Rome; the average depth of water
+throughout the year being from four to five feet, which is only
+sufficient for the Pope's navy force, employed in tugging barges from
+Fuma-Cina to Rome. It is not the least important part of the Roman
+merchants' business to know that their long-expected goods have entered
+the river. This is ascertained at the custom-house at Ripa Grande, where
+the intelligence is chronicled every evening, on return of the navy
+force.
+
+That navy consists of three small steamers, thirty horse power, and a
+dredging boat. Two of the steamers are kept for the traffic between
+Fuma-Cina and the custom-house at Rome. The other is employed on the
+upper part of the river, starting from the Ripetta in Rome for the
+Sabina country, going up about forty miles, and returning with wine,
+oil, Indian corn, and wood for fuel, green and charred. The dredging
+boat is scarcely ever used. The constantly filthy state of the river
+causes so much deposit, that the machine is unable to overcome it.
+
+There are custom-houses, of course, on all the frontiers. A very
+respectable amount of bribery is done in these places: indeed, I never
+could see that much business of any other sort was transacted in them. I
+have already stated, that the first thing I was compelled to do on
+entering Rome was to give a bribe, in order to escape from the old
+temple of Antoninus, in which I unexpectedly found myself locked up. I
+met an intelligent Scotchman in Rome, who had newly returned from
+Naples, and who had to endure a half-day's detention at Terra Cina
+because he refused to pay the ransom of six scudi put upon his trunks,
+and insisted on their being searched. Corruption pervades all classes of
+functionaries. In Rome itself there are two custom-houses; one for
+merchandise imported by sea, and the other for overland goods. The hours
+for business are from nine o'clock till twelve o'clock. Declarations for
+relieving goods must be made betwixt nine and eleven, the other hour
+being appropriated to winding up the business of the preceding two
+hours. Almost everything which the country produces, whether for man or
+for beast, on entering the city has to pay duty at the gate. This is
+termed _Dazio di Consumo_. This department of the revenue is farmed out
+to an officer, whose servants are stationed at the gates for the purpose
+of uplifting the duty; and there, as in all the other Government
+custom-houses, much systematic cheating goes on. As an example, I may
+relate what happened to my friend Mr Stewart, whose acquaintance I had
+the good fortune to make in Rome, and whose information on all matters
+of trade in the Roman States, well known to him from long practical
+experience, was not only of the highest value, but was the means of
+affording me an insight into the workings of Romanism on the temporal
+condition of its subjects, such as few travellers have an opportunity of
+attaining. Mr Stewart was engaged to take charge of the one little
+iron-work in the city; and the transaction I am about to relate in his
+own words took place when he was entering the gates. "Along with my
+furniture," says he, "I had a trunk containing wearing-apparel and two
+_pocket-pistols_. The latter, I knew, were prohibited, and made the
+agent employed to pass the articles acquainted with the dilemma, which
+he heartily laughed at,--by way, I suppose, of having a bone to pick.
+'Leave the matter to me,' said he, adding, 'the officials must be
+recompensed, you know.' That of course; and, to be reasonable, he
+inquired if I would give three dollars, for which sum he would guarantee
+their safety. I consented to this in preference to losing them, or being
+obliged to send them out of the country. Notwithstanding the agent's
+assurance, I felt naturally anxious at the barefaced transaction, which
+was coolly gone about. When the trunk should have been examined, the
+attention of the officials was voluntarily directed to some other
+article, while the agent's porters turned the trunk upside down, chalked
+it, and replied to the query, that it had been examined, and was not
+even opened, which the officials well knew, and for the consideration of
+three dollars they betrayed trust. The trunk might have contained
+jewellery, or even _screw-nails_,--both pay a high duty. The latter
+especially, being made at Tivoli, are prohibited, or admitted at the
+prohibitive duty of twenty-five baiocchi the Roman pound,--sufficient to
+illustrate what might have been the result of this transaction in a
+mercantile point of view, not to speak of the opportunity afforded for
+introducing the _Bible_. The officials are all indifferently
+remunerated, and thus do business for themselves at the cost of the
+Government. They are also very incapable for the discharge of their
+duty. For example, the _Governor_ of the custom-house seriously asked
+me, preparatory to making a declaration for a _steam-boiler_, whether
+it was made of _wood_ or of _iron_. The boiler was not before him; but
+the idea of a steam-boiler of wood from the lips of the Governor of a
+custom-house was astounding."
+
+"Books of all kinds are taken to the land custom-house, where the
+_Revisore_ is stationed for books alone. The _Revisore_ speaks English
+tolerably well."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV.
+
+INFLUENCE OF ROMANISM ON TRADE--(CONTINUED).
+
+     Why does the Church systematically discourage
+     Trade?--Railways--Much needed--Church opposes them--Could not a man
+     take a journey of twenty or two hundred miles and be a good
+     Catholic?--Motion is Liberty--Motion contributed to overthrow the
+     Serfdom of the Middle Ages--Popes understand the connection between
+     Motion and Liberty--Romans chained to the Soil--Gregory XVI. and
+     the Iron-bridge--Gas in Rome--Spread of the Malaria--The Pontine
+     Marshes--Neglect of Soil--Number of Paupers--How the Church
+     prevents the Cultivation of the Campagna--Church Lands in England
+     and Scotland--The price which Italy pays for the Papacy--Whether
+     would the old Roman Woman or an old Scotch Woman make the better
+     Ruler?
+
+
+Let us pause here, and inquire into the cause of this most deplorable
+state of matters. Is not the Papal Government manifestly sacrificing its
+own interests? Would it not be better for itself were Italy covered with
+a prosperous agriculture and a flourishing trade? Were its cities filled
+with looms and forges, would not its people have more money to spend on
+masses and absolutions? and, instead of the Government subsisting on
+foreign loans, and being always on the eve of bankruptcy, it might fill
+its exchequer from the vast resources of the country, and have,
+moreover, the pleasure of seeing around it a prosperous and happy
+people.
+
+This is all very true. None knows better the value of money than Rome;
+but she knows, too, the infinite hazard of acquiring it in the way of
+allowing trade and industry to enter the Papal States. Indeed, to do so
+would be to record sentence of banishment against herself. Every one
+must have remarked the difference betwixt the artizan of Birmingham and
+the peasant of Ireland. They seem to belong to two different races of
+men almost. The former is employed in making a certain piece of
+mechanism, or in superintending its working. He is compelled to
+calculate, to trace effects to their causes, and to study the relations
+of the various parts before him to the whole. In short, he is taught to
+think; and that thinking power he applies to all other subjects. His
+habits of life teach him to ask for reasons, and to accept of opinions
+only on evidence. The mind of the latter lies dead. Were Italy filled
+with a race of men like the first, the papacy could not live a day. Were
+trade, and machinery, and wealth to come in, the torpor of Italy would
+be broken up; and--terrible event to the papacy!--mind would awaken.
+What though the Pope reigns over a wasted land and a nation of beggars?
+he _does_ reign; he counts for a European sovereign; and his system
+continues to exist as a power. As men in shipwreck throw overboard food,
+jewels, all, to save life, so Romanism has thrown all overboard to save
+itself. Nothing could be a stronger proof of this than the fact that, as
+the effects and benefits of trade become the more developed, the
+pontifical Government tightens its restrictions. The note of Antonelli,
+the present ruling spirit of the papacy, was the most prohibitive ever
+framed against the introduction of iron, in other words, of
+civilization. This is the price which Italy must pay for the Pope and
+his religion. She cannot participate in the advantages of foreign trade;
+she cannot enjoy the facilities and improvements of modern times;
+because, were she to enjoy these, she would lose the papacy. She must be
+content to remain in the barbarism of the middle ages, covered with that
+moral malaria which has smitten all things in that doomed land, and
+under the influence of which, the cities, the earth itself, and man, for
+whom it was made, are all sinking into one common ruin.[3]
+
+We have yet other illustrations of the pestiferous influence of Romanism
+on the temporal happiness of its subjects. We have already alluded to
+the determined manner in which the Pontifical Government has hitherto
+withstood the introduction of railways. And yet, if there be a country
+in Europe where railways are indispensable, it is the Papal States. The
+roads in the territory blessed by the Government of Christ's vicar, are
+more like canals than roads, with this difference, that there is too
+little water in them for floating a boat, and far too much for
+comfortable travelling. Besides, they are infested by brigands, whose
+pursuit a railway might enable you to distance. But a railway the
+subjects of the Pontifical Government cannot have. And why?
+
+One would think that the mere mode of conveyance is a very harmless
+affair. What is it to the Pontifical Government whether the peasant of
+the Alban hills, or the citizen of Bologna, or the merchant of Ancona,
+visit Rome on foot, or in his waggon, or by rail? Is he not the same
+man? Will his ride convert him into a heretic, or shake his faith in
+Peter's successor? or will the laying down of a few miles of railroad
+weaken the foundations of that Church which boasts that she is founded
+on a rock, and that the gates of hell themselves shall not prevail
+against her? Or if it be said that it is not the mode of the journey,
+but the length of the journey, what difference can it make whether the
+man travel twenty miles or two hundred miles? The stability of the
+Church cannot be seriously endangered by a few miles less or more. Is
+the Pope's system of so peculiar a kind, that though it is possible for
+the man who walks twenty miles on foot to believe in it, it is wholly
+impossible for the man who rides two hundred miles by rail to do so? We
+know of no Roman doctor who has attempted to fix the precise number of
+miles which a good Catholic may travel from home without endangering his
+salvation. One would think that all this is plain enough; that there is
+no element of danger here; and yet the sharper instincts of the papacy
+have discovered that herein lies danger, and great danger, to its power.
+If the influence of Rome is to be preserved, it is not enough that the
+Bible be put out of existence, that the missionary be banished, and that
+the art of printing, and all means of diffusing ideas, be proscribed and
+exterminated: the very right of moving over the earth must be taken from
+man. Even _motion_ must be placed under anathema.
+
+We have a saying that _knowledge is power_. I would say that _motion is
+liberty_. The serfdom of the middle ages was in good degree maintained
+by binding man to the soil. Astriction to the soil was at once the
+foundation and the symbol of that serfdom. The baron became the master
+of the body of the man; he became also the master of his mental ideas.
+But when the serf acquired the power of locomotion, he laid the
+foundation of his emancipation; and from that hour feudalism began to
+crumble. As the serfs' power of motion enlarged, their liberty
+enlarged. As formerly they had known slavery by its symbol
+_immovability_, so now they tasted freedom by its symbol _motion_. The
+serf travelled beyond the valley in which he was born; he saw new
+objects; he met his fellow-men; and learned to think. At last motion was
+perfected; the steam-engine hissed past him, and he felt that now he was
+completely unchained. I do not give this as a theory of the rise and
+progress of modern liberty; but unquestionably there is a close and
+intimate connection between motion and liberty.
+
+The Popes are shrewd enough to see this connection; and herein lies
+their opposition to railroads. They have attempted, and still do
+attempt, to perpetuate papal serfdom, by tying their subjects to their
+paternal acres and their native town. Were my reader living in London or
+in Edinburgh, and wished to visit Chelsea or Portobello, how would he
+proceed? Go to the railway station and buy a ticket, and his journey is
+made. But were the country under the Pontifical Government, he would
+find it impossible to manage the matter quite so expeditiously. He must
+first present himself at the office of the prefect of police. He must
+state where he wishes to go to; what business he has there; how long he
+intends remaining. He must give his name, his age, his residence, and a
+certificate, if required, from his parish priest; and then, should the
+object of his journey be approved of, a description of his person will
+be taken down, a passport will be made out, for which he must pay some
+six or eight pauls; and after this process has been gone through, but
+not sooner, he may set out on his little journey. Very few of those who
+live in Rome were ever more than outside its walls. Even the nobles have
+the utmost difficulty in getting so far as Civita Vecchia; very few of
+them ever saw the sea. The Popes know that ideas as well as merchandise
+travel by rail; and that if the Romans are allowed to go from home, and
+to see new objects, new faces, and to hear new ideas, a process will be
+commenced which will ultimately, and at no distant day, undermine the
+papacy. But among men of ordinary intelligence there will be but one
+opinion regarding a system that sees an enemy not only in the Bible, but
+in the most necessary and useful arts,--in the steam-ship, in the
+railroad, in the electric telegraph; in short, in all the improvements
+and usages of civilized life. Such a system assuredly has perdition
+written upon its forehead.
+
+The late Pope Gregory XVI. would not allow even an iron bridge to be
+thrown across the Tiber. The Romans solicited this, to get rid of a
+ferry-boat by which the Tiber is crossed at the point in question; but
+no; an iron bridge there could not be. And why? Ah, said Gregory, if we
+have an iron bridge in Rome, we shall next have an iron road; and if we
+have an iron road, "_adio_," the papacy will take its departure, and
+that by steam.
+
+But the Pope had another reason for withholding his sanction from the
+iron bridge; and as that reason shows how some wretched crotchet,
+springing from their miserable system, is sure to start up on all
+occasions, and defeat the most needed improvement, I shall here state
+what it was. At the point where it was wished to have the bridge
+erected, the Tiber flows between two populous regions of the city. There
+is in consequence a considerable concourse, and the passengers are
+carried over, as I have said, in a ferry-boat, for which a couple of
+baiocchi is paid by each person to the ferryman. The money thus
+collected forms part of the revenues of a certain church in Rome, where
+the priests who receive it sing masses for the souls in purgatory. If
+you abolish the ferry-boat, it was argued, you will abolish the penny;
+and if you abolish the penny, what is to become of the poor souls in
+purgatory? and for the sake of the _souls_, the _living_ were forced to
+do without the bridge.
+
+I need scarcely say that there is no gas in Rome. And sure I am, if
+there be a dark spot in all the universe,--a place above all others
+needing light of all kinds, moral, mental, and physical,--it is this
+dark dungeon termed Rome. It has a few oil-lamps, swung on cords, at
+most respectable distances from one another; and you see their hazy,
+sickly, dying gleam far above you, making themselves visible, but
+nothing besides; and after sunset, Rome is plunged in darkness,
+affording ample opportunity for assassinations, robberies, and evil
+deeds of all kinds. I know not how many companies have been formed to
+light Rome with gas. An attempt was made to light in this way the
+Eternal City during the pontificate of Gregory XVI. A deputation went to
+the Vatican, and told the Pope that they would light his capital with
+gas. "Gas!" exclaimed Gregory, who had an owl-like dread of light of all
+kinds; "there shan't be gas in Rome while I am in Rome." Gregory is not
+in Rome now; Pio Nono is in the Vatican: but the same oil-lamps which
+lighted the Rome of Gregory XVI. still flourish in the Rome of Pio
+Nono.[4]
+
+All have heard of the Pontine Marshes,--a chain of swamps which run
+along the foot of the Volscian Mountains, and are the birthplace of the
+malaria,--a white vapour, which creeps snake-like over the country, and
+smites with deadly fever whoever is so foolhardy as to sleep on the
+Campagna during its continuance. These marshes, I understand, are
+increasing; and the malaria is increasing in consequence. That fatal
+vapour now comes every summer to the gates of Rome: it covers a certain
+quarter of the city, which, I was told, is uninhabitable during its
+continuance; and if nothing be done to lessen the malaria at its source,
+it will, some century or half century after this, envelope in its
+pestilential folds the whole of the Eternal City, and the traveller will
+gaze with awe on the blackened ruins of Rome, as he does on those of
+Babylon on the plain of Chaldea: so, I say, will he see the heaps of
+Rome on the wasted bosom of the Campagna deserted by man, and become the
+dwelling-place of the dragons and satyrs of the wilderness. But matters
+are not come to this yet. An English company (for every attempted
+improvement in Rome has originated with English skill and capital) was
+formed some years ago, to drain the Pontine Marshes. They went to the
+Vatican; and Sir Humphrey Davy being then in Rome, they induced him to
+accompany them, in the hope that his high scientific authority would
+have some weight with the Pontiff. They stated their object, which was
+to drain the Pontine Marshes. They assured the Pontiff it was
+practicable to a very large extent; and they pointed out its manifold
+advantages, as regarded the health of the country, and other things.
+"Drain the Pontine Marshes!" exclaimed Pope Gregory, in a tone of
+surprise and horror at this new project of these everlastingly scheming
+English heretics,--"Drain the Pontine Marshes! God made the Pontine
+Marshes; and if He had intended them to be drained, He would have
+drained them himself."
+
+The barrenness that afflicts all countries which are the seat of a false
+religion is a public testimony of the Divine indignation against
+idolatry. For the sin of man the earth was originally cursed: and
+wherever wicked systems exist, there a manifest curse rests upon the
+earth. The Mohammedan apostacy and the Roman apostacy are now seated in
+the midst of wildernesses. And, to make the fact more striking, these
+lands, which are deserts now, were anciently the best cultivated on the
+globe. There stood the proudest of earth's cities,--there the arts
+flourished,--and there men were free after the measure of ancient
+freedom. All this is at an end long since. Ruins, silence, and a sickly
+and sinking population, are the mournful spectacles which greet the eye
+of the traveller in Papal and Mohammedan countries. Thus God bears
+outward testimony against the Papal and Mohammedan systems. He has
+cursed the ground for their sakes; not in the way of miracle,--not by
+sending an angel to smite it, or by raining brimstone upon it, as he did
+on Sodom: the angel that has smitten the dominions of the Pope and of
+the False Prophet,--the brimstone and fire which have been rained upon
+them,--are the wicked systems which have there grown up, and by which
+Government has been rendered blind, infatuated, and tyrannical, and man
+stupid, indolent, and vicious. But the laws the Almighty has
+established, according to which idolatry necessarily and uniformly
+blights the earth and the men who live upon it, only show that his
+indignation against these evil systems is unchangeable and eternal, and
+will pursue them till they perish. Of this the state of the plain around
+Rome, the _Agro Romano_, forms a terrible example.
+
+I have endeavoured in former chapters to exhibit a picture of the
+frightful desolation of this once magnificent plain. He that set his
+mark on the brow of the first murderer has set his mark on this plain,
+where so much blood has been shed. "Now art thou cursed from the earth,
+which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother's blood from thy
+hand. When thou tillest the ground it shall not henceforth yield unto
+thee her strength." But God has cursed this plain through the
+instrumentality of this evil system the Papacy, and I shall show you
+how.
+
+I have already shown that there is not, and cannot be, anything like
+trade in Rome, beyond what is necessary to repair the consumpt of
+articles in daily use. In the absence of trade there is a proportionate
+amount of idleness; and that idleness, in its turn, breeds beggary,
+vagabondism, and crime. The French Prefect, Mr Whiteside tells us,
+published a statistical account of Rome; and how many paupers does he
+say there are in it? Why, not fewer than thirty thousand. Thirty
+thousand paupers in one city, and that city, in its usual state, of but
+about a hundred and twenty thousand inhabitants! Subtract the priests,
+the English residents, and the French soldiers, and every third man is a
+beggar. I was fortunate enough one evening to meet, in a certain shop in
+Rome, an intelligent Roman, willing to talk with me on the state of the
+country. The shopkeeper, as soon as he found the turn the conversation
+had taken, discreetly stepped out, and left it all to ourselves. "I
+never in all my life," I remarked, "saw a city in which I found so many
+beggars. The people seem to have nothing to do, and nothing to eat.
+There are here some hundred thousand of you cooped up within these old
+walls, and one half the population do nothing all day long but whine at
+the heels of English travellers, or hang on at the doors of the
+convents, waiting their one meal a-day. Why is this? Outside the walls
+is a magnificent plain, which, were it cultivated, would feed ten Romes,
+instead of one. Why don't you take picks, or spades, or
+ploughs,--anything you can lay hands on,--and go out to that plain, and
+dig it, and plant it, and sow it, and reap it, and eat and drink, and be
+merry?" "Ah! so we would," said he. "Then, why don't you?" "We dare
+not," he replied. "Dare not! Dare not till the earth God has given
+you?" "It is the Church's," he said. "But come now," said he, "and I
+will explain how it comes to be so." He went on to say, that one portion
+of the Campagna was gifted to the convents in Rome, another portion was
+gifted to the nunneries, another to the hospitals, and another to the
+pontifical families,--that is, to the sons and daughters, or, as they
+more politely speak in Rome, the nephews and nieces, of the Popes. These
+were the owners of the great Roman plain; and in their hands almost
+every acre of it was locked up, inaccessible to the plough, and
+inaccessible to the people. Even in our country it is found that
+corporations make the worst possible landlords, and that lands in the
+possession of such bodies are always less productive than estates
+managed in the ordinary way. But what sort of farming are we to expect
+from such corporations as we find in the city of Rome? What skill or
+capital have a brotherhood of lazy monks, to enable them to cultivate
+their lands? What enterprise or interest have a sisterhood of nuns to
+farm their property? They know they shall have their lifetime of it, and
+that is all they care for. Accordingly, they let their lands for
+grazing, on payment of a mere trifle of annual rent; and so the Campagna
+lies unploughed and unsown. A tract of land extending from Civita
+Vecchia to well nigh the gates of Rome,--which would make a Scotch
+dukedom or a German principality,--belonging to the _San Spirito_, does
+little more, I was told, than pay its working. The land labours under an
+eternal entail, which binds it over to perpetual sterility. It is God's,
+_i.e._ it is the Church's; and no one,--no, not even the Pope,--dare
+alienate a single acre of it. No Pope would set his face to such a piece
+of reformation, well knowing that every brotherhood and sisterhood in
+Rome would rise in arms against him. And even though he should screw his
+courage to such an encounter, he is met by the canon law. The Pope who
+shall dare to secularize a foot-breadth of land which has been gifted to
+the Church is by that law accursed. Here, then, is the price which the
+Romans pay for the Papacy. Outside the walls of the city lie the estates
+of the Church, depastured at certain seasons by a few herds, tended by
+men clad in skins, and looking as savage as the animals they tend; while
+inside the walls are some hundred thousand Romans, enduring from one
+year's end to another all the miseries of a partial famine. Nor is there
+the least hope that matters will mend so long as the Papacy lasts. For
+while the Papacy is in Italy, the Campagna, once so populous and rich,
+will be what it now is,--a desert.
+
+And the Papal States, lapsed into more than primeval sterility, overrun
+by brigandage and beggary, are the picture of what Britain would be
+under the Papacy. Let the Roman Church get the upper hand in this
+country, and, be assured, the first thing it will do will be to demand
+back every acre of land that once belonged to it. Before the
+Reformation, half the lands of England, and a third of the lands of
+Scotland, were in the possession of the Church. She keeps a chart of
+them to this hour: she knows every foot-breadth of British soil that at
+any time belonged to her: she holds its present possessors to be robbers
+and sacrilegious men; and the first moment she has the power, she will
+compel them to disgorge what she holds to be ill-gotten wealth, and
+endow her with the broad acres she once possessed. Nor will she stop
+here. By haunting death-beds,--by putting in motion the machinery of the
+confessional,--by the threat of purgatory in this case, and the lure of
+paradise in that,--she will speedily add to her former ample domain. And
+what will our country then become? We shall have Mother Church for
+landlord; and while she feasts daily at her sumptuous board, we shall
+have what the Romans now have,--the crumbs. We shall have monks and
+nuns for our farmers; and under their management, farewell to the
+smiling fields, the golden harvests, and the opulent cities, of Scotland
+and England. Our country will again become what it was before the
+Reformation,--a land of moors, and swamps, and forests, with a few
+patches of indifferent cultivation around our convents and abbacies.
+Vagabondism, lay and sacerdotal, will flourish once more in Britain;
+trade and commerce will be put down, as savouring of independence and
+intelligence; indolence and beggary will be sanctified; and troops of
+friars, with wallets on their backs, impudence on their brows, and
+profanity and filthiness on their tongues, will scour the country,
+demanding that every threshold and every purse shall be open to them.
+This result will come as surely as to-morrow will come, provided we
+permit the Papacy to raise its head once more among us.
+
+Let no one imagine that this terrible wreck of man, and of all his
+interests,--of civilization, of industry, of trade and commerce,--has
+happened of chance, and that there is no connection between this
+deplorable state of matters and the system which has prevailed in Italy.
+On the contrary, it is the direct, the necessary, and the uniform result
+of that system. The barbarian hates art because he does not understand
+its uses, and dreads its power. But the hatred the Pope bears to the
+useful arts is not that of the barbarian. It is the intelligent, the
+consistent hatred of a man who knows what he is about. It is the hatred
+of a man who comprehends both the character of his own system, and the
+tendency of modern improvements, and who sees right well, that if these
+improvements are introduced, the Papacy must fall. Self-preservation is
+the first law of systems, as of individuals; and the Papacy, feeling the
+antagonism between itself and these things, ever has and ever will
+resist them. It cannot tolerate them though it would. Speculatists and
+sentimentalists may talk as they please; but the destruction of that
+system is the first requisite to the regeneration of Italy.
+
+Such, then, is the condition of Italy at this day. Were we to find a
+state of things like this in the centre of Africa, or in some barbarous
+region thousands and thousands of miles away from European literature,
+arts, and influences, where the plough and the loom had yet to be
+invented, it would by no means surprise us. But to find a state of
+matters like this in the centre of Europe,--in Italy, once the head of
+civilization and influence, the birthplace of modern art and
+letters,--is certainly wonderful. But the wonder is completed when we
+reflect that this state of things obtains under a Government claiming to
+be guided by a higher than mortal sagacity,--a Government which says
+that it never did, and never can, err,--a Government that is
+supernatural and infallible. Supernatural and infallible! Why, I say, go
+out into the street,--stop the first old woman you meet,--carry her to
+Rome,--put a three-storied cap on her head,--enthrone her on the high
+altar in St Peter's,--burn incense before her, and call her
+infallible,--I say that old woman will be a more enlightened ruler that
+Pio Nono. The old Scotch woman or English woman would beat the old Roman
+woman hollow.
+
+The facts I have stated are sad enough; but the more harrowing picture
+of the working of the papal system has yet to be shown.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI.
+
+JUSTICE AND LIBERTY IN THE PAPAL STATES.
+
+     Justice the Pillar of the State--Claim implied in being God's
+     Vicar, namely, that the Pope governs the World as God would govern
+     it, were He personally present in it--No Civil Code in the Papal
+     States--Citizens have no Rights save as Church Members--No Lay
+     Judges--The Pontifical Government simply the Embodiment of the
+     Papacy--Courts of Justice visited--Papal Tribunals--The
+     Rota--Signatura--Cassation--Exceptional Tribunals--Apostolical
+     Chamber--House of Peter--Justice bought and sold at Rome--POLITICAL
+     JUSTICE--Gregorian Code--Case of Pietro Leoni--Accession of Pius
+     IX.--His Popularity at first--Re-action--Case of Colonel
+     Calendrelli--The Three Citizens of Macarata--The Hundred Young Men
+     of Faenza--Butchery at Sinigaglia--Horrible Executions at
+     Ancona--Estimated Number of Political Prisoners 30,000--Pope's
+     Prisons described--Horrible Treatment of Prisoners--The Sbirri--The
+     Spies--Domiciliary Restraint--Expulsions from Rome--Imprisonment
+     without reason assigned--Manner in which Apprehensions are
+     made--Condemnations without Evidence or Trial--Misery of Rome--The
+     Pope's Jubilee.
+
+
+We turn now to the JUSTICE of the Papal States. Alas! if in the
+preceding chapters on _Trade_ we were discoursing on what does not
+exist, we are now emphatically to speak of what is but a shadow, a
+mockery. To say that in the Papal States Justice is not,--that it is a
+negation,--is only to state half the truth. Were that all, thankful
+indeed would the Romans be. But, alas! in the seat of Justice there sits
+a stern, irresponsible, lawless power, before which virtue is
+confounded and dumb, and wickedness only can stand erect.
+
+On the importance of justice to the welfare of society I need not
+enlarge. It is the main pillar of the State. But where are you to look
+for justice,--justice in its unmixed, eternal purity,--if not at Rome?
+Rome is the seat of the Vicar of God. Ponder, I pray you, all that this
+title imports. The Vicar of God is just God on earth; and the government
+of God's Vicar is just the government of God. It is the possession and
+exercise of the same authority, the same attributes, the same moral
+infallibility, and the same moral omnipotence, in the government of
+mankind, which God possesses and exercises in the government of the
+universe. The government of the Pope is a model set up on the earth,
+before kings and nations, of God's righteous and holy government in the
+heavens. As I, the Vicar of Christ, govern men, so would Christ himself,
+were he here in the Vatican, govern them. If the claim advanced by the
+Pope, when he takes to himself the title of God's Vicar, amounts to
+anything, it amounts to this,--to all this, and nothing less than this.
+
+The case being so, where, I ask, are you entitled to look for justice,
+if not at Rome? This is her throne: here she sits, or should, according
+to the theory of the popedom, high above the disturbing and blinding
+passions of earth, serenely calm and inexorably true, weighing all
+actions in her awful scales, and giving forth those solemn awards which
+find their response in the universal reason and conscience of mankind.
+If so, what mean these dungeons? Why these trials shrouded in secrecy?
+Why this clanking of chains, and that cry which has gone up to heaven,
+and which pleads for justice there? Come near, I pray you, and look at
+the Pope's justice; enter his tribunals, and see the working of his
+courts; listen to the evidence which is there received, and the
+sentences which are there pronounced; visit his dungeons and galleys;
+and then tell me what you think of the administration of this man who
+styles himself God's Vicar.
+
+Let me first of all give prominence to the fact that in the Papal States
+there is no _civil_ code. It is a purely _spiritually_ governed region.
+The Church sustains herself as judge in _all_ causes, and holds her law
+as sufficiently comprehensive in its principles, and sufficiently
+flexible and practical in its special provisions, to determine all
+questions that can arise, of whatever nature,--whether relating to the
+body or the soul of man, to his property or his conscience. By what is
+strictly and purely church law are all things here adjudicated, for
+other law there is none. That law is the decretals and bulls of the
+popes. Only think of such a code! The Roman jurisprudence amounts to
+many hundreds of volumes, and its precedents range over many centuries,
+so that the most plodding lawyer and the most industrious judge may well
+despair of ever being able to tell exactly what the law says on any
+particular case, or of being able to find a clue to the true
+interpretation, granting that he sincerely wishes to do so, through the
+inextricable labyrinth of decisions by which he is to be guided. This
+law was made by the Church and for the Church, and gives to the citizen,
+as such, no right or privilege of any kind. Whatever rights the Roman
+possesses, he possesses solely in his character of Church member; he has
+a right to absolution when he confesses; a right to the undisturbed
+possession of his goods when he takes the sacrament; but he has no
+rights in his character of citizen; and when he falls out of communion
+with the Church, he falls at the same time from all rights whatever. He
+is beyond the pale of the Church, and beyond the pale of the law. Our
+freethinkers, who are so ready to fraternise with the Romanists, would
+do well to consider how they would like this sort of regimen.
+
+Let me, in the second place, give prominence to the fact, that in the
+Papal States there are no lay judges. There all are "anointed prelates."
+This applies to all the tribunals, from the highest to the lowest. In
+short, the whole machinery of the Government is priestly. Its head is a
+priest,--the Pope; its Prime Minister is a priest; its Chancellor of the
+Exchequer is a priest; its Secretary at War is a priest; all are
+priests. These functionaries cannot be impeached. However gross their
+blunders, or glaring their malversations, they are secure from censure;
+because to punish them would be to say that they had erred, and to say
+that they had erred would be to impeach the infallibility of the
+Pontifical Government. A treasurer who enriches himself and robs the
+exchequer may be promoted to the cardinalate, but cannot be censured.
+The highest mark of displeasure on which the popes have ventured in such
+cases has been, to appoint to a dignity with a very inadequate salary.
+The Government of the Papal States, both in its _law_ and in its
+_administration_, being strictly sacerdotal, the great fairness of the
+test we are now applying to the Papacy is undeniable. It would be very
+unfair to try the religion of Britain by the government of Britain, or
+to charge on Christianity the errors, the injustice, and the oppression
+which our rulers may commit, because our religion is one thing, and our
+Government is another. But it is not so in the Papal States. There the
+Church is the Government. The papal Government is simply the embodiment
+of the papal religion. And I cannot conceive a fairer, a more accurate,
+or a more comprehensive test of the genius and tendency of a religion,
+than simply the condition of that country where the making of the law,
+the administration of the law, the control of all persons, the
+regulation of all affairs, and the adjudication of all questions, are
+done by that religion; and where, with no one impediment to obstruct it,
+and with every conceivable advantage to aid it, it can exhibit all its
+principles and accomplish all its objects. If that religion be true, the
+condition of such country ought to be the most blessed on the face of
+the earth.
+
+One day I visited the courts of justice, which are on Mount Citorio. We
+ascended a spacious staircase (I say we, for Mr Stewart, the intelligent
+and obliging companion of my wanderings in Rome, was with me), and
+entered a hall crowded with a number of shabby-looking people. We turned
+off into a side-room, not larger than one's library, where the court was
+sitting. Behind a table slightly raised, and covered with green cloth,
+sat two priests as judges. A counsel sat with them, to assist
+occasionally. On the wall at their back hung a painting of Pont. Max.
+Pius IX.; and on the table stood a crucifix. The judges wore the round
+cap of the Jesuits. I saw men in coarse bombazeen gowns, which I took
+for macers: these, I soon discovered, were the advocates. They were
+clownish-looking men, with great lumpish hands, and an unmistakeably
+cowed look. They addressed the court in short occasional speeches in
+Latin; for it is one of the privileges of the Roman people to have their
+suits argued in a tongue they don't understand. There were some
+half-dozen people lounging in the place. There was an air of unconcern
+and meanness on the court, and all its practitioners and attendants;
+but, being infallible, it can dispense with the appearance of dignity. I
+asked Mr Stewart to conduct me to the criminal court, which was sitting
+in another apartment under the same roof. He showed me the door within
+which the assize is held, but told me at the same time, that neither
+myself nor any one in Rome could cross that threshold,--the judge, the
+prisoner, his advocate, the public prosecutor, and the guard, being the
+only exceptions. Let me now describe the machinery by which justice, as
+it is called, is administered.
+
+The judges, I have said, are prelates; and as in Rome the administration
+of justice is a low occupation compared with the Church, priests which
+are incapable, or which have sinned against their order, are placed on
+the tribunals. A prelate who has a knowledge of jurisprudence is a
+phenomenon; hence the judges do not themselves examine the merits of
+causes, but cause them to be investigated by a private auditor, whom
+they select from the practising counsel. According to the report of this
+individual, the members of the tribunal pronounce their judgment, no
+matter what objections may be pled, or arguments offered, to the
+contrary. This system gives rise, as may well be conceived, to
+innumerable acts of partiality and injustice.
+
+There is a tribunal of appeal for the Romagnias, another for the
+Marshes, and a third for the Capitol. Besides these, there are tribunals
+of the third class throughout the States. The tribunal of appeal for the
+Capitol is the ROMAN ROTA. Before this court our own Henry, and the
+other kings of Europe, carried their causes, in those days when the Pope
+was really a grand authority, and ruled Christendom. Having now little
+business as regards monarchs and the international quarrels of kingdoms,
+it has been converted into a tribunal for private suits. It still
+shrouds itself in its mediaeval secresy, which, if it robs its decisions
+of public confidence, at least screens the ignorance of its judges from
+public contempt. There are, besides, the tribunals of the _Signatura_
+and of _Cassation_, in which partiality examines, incompetence
+pronounces judgment, delays exhaust the patience and the money of the
+suitors, and the decent veil of a dead language wraps up the illegality.
+
+Besides these, there are the _exceptional_ tribunals, which are very
+numerous. Among them the chief is the _ecclesiastical_ jurisdiction, so
+extensive, that it is sufficient that some very trifling interest of a
+priest, or of some charity fund, or even of a Jew or a recent convert,
+is concerned, to transfer the cause to the bar of the privileged
+tribunal. The jurisdiction of the exceptional tribunal is exercised in
+the provinces by the vicar-general of the bishop; and in Rome the suits
+are laid before the private auditors of the cardinal-vicar, and of the
+bishop _in partibus_, his assistant. The auditors pronounce judgment in
+the name of the cardinal or the bishop, who signs it without any
+examination on his part. The suits which concern the public finances are
+decided by the exceptional tribunal, and a tribunal called the "_Plena
+Camera_" (full chamber); and any private person who might chance to gain
+his cause is condemned, as an invariable maxim, to pay the costs.
+Exceptional tribunals are to be found in very many parochial places,
+especially in those parishes near Rome where the judges are named by,
+and are removable at the will of, the baron. It can easily be imagined
+what sort of a chance any one may have who should have a suit with the
+baron. Besides all these, we must not omit the _Reverend Apostolical
+Chamber_, always on the brink of bankruptcy, which has been in the habit
+of exacting contributions, that they may sell to speculators the
+revenues of succeeding years. Thus private families, invested with
+iniquitous privileges, extort money from the unfortunate labourers, by
+royal authority and the help of the bailiff.
+
+There is another tribunal which should be styled _monstrous_, rather
+than by the milder term of exceptional; this is the "_Fabbrica di S.
+Petro_" (house of St Peter.) To this was granted, by the caprice of the
+Pope, the right to claim from the immediate or distant heirs of any
+testator, _even at remote epochs_, the sum of unpaid legacies for pious
+purposes. The Cardinal Arch-Priest and the Commons, who represent the
+pretended creditor, are judges between themselves and the presumed
+debtor. They search the archives; they open and they close testamentary
+documents not ever published; they arbitrarily burden the estates of the
+citizens with mortgages or charges; and they commence their proceedings
+where other tribunals leave off,--that is, by an execution and seizure,
+under the pretence of securing the credits not yet determined upon. To
+the commissaries of this strange tribunal in the provinces is awarded
+the fifth of the sum claimed. Whosoever desires to settle the question
+by a compromise is not permitted to attempt it, unless he shall first
+have satisfied this fifth, and paid the expenses, besides the fees of
+the fiscal advocate. If any one should have the rare luck to gain his
+suit, as, for instance, by producing the receipt in full, he must
+nevertheless pay a sum for the judgment absolving him.
+
+The presidents of the tribunals--the minor judges, comprising the
+private auditors of the Vicar of Rome--have the power of legitimatizing
+all contracts for persons affected by legal incapacity. This is
+generally done without examination, and merely in consideration of the
+fee which they receive. It would take a long chapter to narrate the sums
+which have been, by a single stroke of the pen, wrongfully taken from
+poor widows and orphans. Incapacity for the management of one's affairs
+is sometimes pronounced by the tribunal, but very frequently is decreed
+by the prelate-auditor of the Pope, without any judicial formality. Thus
+any citizen may at any moment find himself deprived of the direction of
+his private affairs and business.
+
+Such is the machinery employed for dispensing justice by a man who
+professes to be the infallible fountain of equity, and the world's
+teacher as regards the eternal maxims of justice. Justice! The word is a
+delusion,--a lie. It is a term which designates a tyranny worse than any
+under which the populations of Asia groan.[5]
+
+It would be wearisome to adduce individual cases, even were I able
+to do so. But, indeed, the vast corruption of the _civil justice_
+of the Papal States must be evident from what I have said. A
+law so inextricable!--judges so incompetent, who decide without
+examining!--tribunals which sit in darkness! Why, justice is not
+dispensed in Rome; it is bought and sold; it is simply a piece of
+merchandise; and if you wish to obtain it, you cannot, but by going to
+the market, where it is openly put up for sale, and buying it with your
+money. Mr Whiteside, a most competent witness in this case, who spent
+two winters in Rome, and made it his special business to investigate the
+Roman jurisprudence, both in its theory and in its practice, tells us in
+effect, in his able work on Italy, that if you are so unfortunate as to
+have a suit in the Roman courts, the decision will have little or no
+reference to the merits of the cause, but will depend on whether you or
+your opponent is willing to approach the judgment-seat with the largest
+bribe. Such, in substance, is Mr Whiteside's testimony; and precisely
+similar was the evidence of every one whom I met in Rome who had had any
+dealings with the papal tribunals.
+
+But I turn to the political justice of the Papal States,--a department
+even more important in the present state of Italy, and where the
+specific acts are better known. Let us look first at the tribunal set up
+in Rome for the trial of all crimes against the State. And let the
+reader bear in mind, that offences against the Church are crimes against
+the State, for there the Church is the State. A secret, summary, and
+atrocious tribunal it is, differing in no essential particular from that
+sanguinary tribunal in Paris where Robespierre passed sentence, and the
+guillotine executed it. The Gregorian Code[6] enacts, that in cases of
+sedition or treason, the trial may take place by a commission nominated
+by the Pope's Secretary; that the trial shall be secret; that the
+prisoner shall not be confronted with the witnesses, or know their
+names; that he may be examined in prison and by torture. The accused,
+according to this barbarous code, has no means of proving his
+innocence, or defending his life, beyond the hasty observations on the
+evidence which his advocate, who is appointed in all cases by the
+tribunal, may be able to make on the spur of the moment. This tribunal
+is simply the Inquisition; and yet it is by this tribunal that the Pope,
+who professes to be the first minister of justice on earth, governs his
+kingdom. No man is safe at Rome. However innocent, his liberty and life
+hang by a single thread, which the Government, by the help of such a
+tribunal as this, may snap at any moment.
+
+This is the established, the legal course of papal justice. Let the
+reader lift his eyes, and survey, if he have courage, the wide weltering
+mass of misery and despair which the Papal States present. We cannot
+bring all into view; we must permit a few only to speak for the rest.
+Here they come from a region of doom, to tell to the free people of
+Britain, if they will hear them, the dread secrets of their
+prison-house; and, we may add, to warn them, "lest they also come into
+this place of torment." I shall first of all take a case that occurred
+before the Revolution, lest any one should affirm of the cases that are
+to follow, that the Pontifical Government had been exascerbated by the
+insurrection, and hurried into measures of more than usual severity.
+This case I give on the authority of Mr Whiteside, who, being curious to
+see a _political process_ in the Roman law, after some trouble procured
+the following, which, having been compiled under the orders of Pius IX.,
+may be relied on as strictly accurate. Pietro Leoni had acted as
+official attorney to the poor. Well, in 1831, under the pontificate of
+Gregory XVI., he was arrested on a charge of being a member of a
+political club. He was brought to trial, acquitted, set free, but
+deprived of his office, though why I cannot say, unless it was for the
+crime of being innocent. To sustain an aged father, a wife and children,
+Pietro had to work harder than ever. In 1836 he was again
+arrested,--suddenly, without being told for what,--hurried to the Castle
+of St Angelo, in the dungeons of which he had to undergo a rigorous
+examination, from which nothing could be elicited. He was not released,
+however, but kept there, till witnesses could be found or hired. At
+length a certain vine-dresser came forward to accuse Leoni. One day,
+said the vine-dresser, Pietro Leoni, whom he had never seen till then,
+came to his door, and, after a short conversation with him, in the
+presence of his sons, handed him a manuscript relating to a _reform
+society_, of which, he said, he had been a member for years. The
+vine-dresser buried this document at the bottom of a tree in his garden.
+The spot was searched, but nothing was found; his strange story was
+contradicted by his wife and sons; and the Pontifical Government could
+not for very shame condemn him on such evidence; but neither did they
+let him go. A full year passed over him in the dungeons of St Angelo. At
+last three additional witnesses--(their names never were known)--were
+produced against him. And what did they depose? Why, that they had heard
+some one say that he had heard Pietro Leoni say, that he (Leoni) was a
+member of a secret society; and on this hearsay evidence did the
+Pontifical Government condemn the poor attorney to a life-long slavery
+in the galleys. We find him ten long years thereafter still in the
+dungeons of the Castle of St Angelo, and writing the Pope in a strain
+which one would think might have moved a heart of stone. The petition is
+printed in the process. It begins,--
+
+     "Most holy father, divest yourself of the splendours of royalty,
+     and, dressed in the garb of a private citizen, cause yourself to be
+     conducted into these subterranean prisons, where there is buried,
+     not an enemy of his country, not a violator of the laws, but an
+     innocent citizen, whom a secret enemy has calumniated, and who has
+     had the courage to sustain his innocence in presence of a judge
+     prejudiced or corrupted.... Command this living tomb to be opened,
+     and ask an unhappy man the cause of his misfortunes."
+
+And concludes thus,--
+
+     "But, holy father, neither the prolonged imprisonment of ten years,
+     nor separation from my family, nor the total ruin of my earthly
+     prospects, should ever reduce me to the baseness of admitting a
+     crime which I did not commit. And I call God to witness that I am
+     innocent of the accusation brought against me; and that the true
+     cause of my unjust condemnation was, and is, a private pique and
+     personal enmity.... Listen, therefore, to justice,--to the humble
+     entreaties of an aged father,--a desolate wife,--unhappy
+     children,--who exist in misery, and who with tears of anguish
+     implore your mercy."
+
+Did the heart of Gregory relent? Did he hasten to the prison, and beg
+his prisoner to come forth? Ah, no: the petition was received, flung
+aside, and forgotten; and Pietro Leoni continued to lie in the dungeons
+of St Angelo till death came to the Vatican, and Gregory went to his
+account, and the prison-doors of St Angelo were opened, as a matter of
+course, not of right, on the accession of a new Pope. No wonder that
+Lambruschini and Marini, the chief actors in the atrocities committed
+under Gregory, resisted that amnesty by which Pietro Leoni, and hundreds
+more, were raised from the grave, as it were, to proclaim their
+villanies. I give this case because it occurred before the Revolution,
+and is a fair sample, as a Roman advocate assured Mr Whiteside, of the
+calm, every-day working of the Pontifical Government under Gregory XVI.
+I come now to relate other cases, if possible more affecting, which came
+under my own cognizance, more or less, while in Rome.
+
+But let me first glance at the rejoicings that filled Rome on the
+accession of Pius IX. A bright but perfidious gleam heralded the night,
+which has since settled down so darkly on the Papal States. The scene I
+describe in the words of Mr Stewart, who was an eye-witness of it:--"I
+was at Rome when Pope Pius IX. made his formal triumphal entrance into
+the city by the Porta del Popolo, where was a magnificent arch entering
+to the Corso. The arch was erected specially for the occasion, and
+executed with much artistic skill. Banners were waving in profusion
+along the Corso, bearing, some of them, very far-fetched epithets; while
+every balcony and window was studded with gay and admiring citizens, all
+alike eager in demonstrating their attachment to the Holy Father.
+Nothing, in fact, could exceed the gaiety of the scene: all and sundry
+seemed bent on the one idea of displaying their loyalty. What with
+garlands of flowers, white handkerchiefs, and vivas, the feelings were
+worked up to such a pitch, that the _young nobles_, when the state
+carriage arrived at the Piazza Colonna, actually unyoked the horses, and
+scampered off with carriage and Pope, to the Quirinal Palace, nearly a
+mile. This ebullition of feeling was undoubtedly the result of the
+general amnesty, and the bright expectations then cherished of a new era
+for Italy." Such an ebullition may appear absurd, and even childish, to
+us, who have been so long accustomed to liberty; but we must bear in
+mind that the Romans had groaned in fetters for centuries, and these, as
+they believed, had now been struck off for ever. "Was there," asked Mr
+Whiteside of a sculptor in Rome, "really affecting yourself, any
+practical oppression under old Gregory?" The artist started. "No man,"
+said he, "could count on one hour's security or happiness: I knew not
+but there might be a spy behind that block of marble: the pleasure of
+life was spoiled. I had three friends, who, supping in a garden near
+this spot, were suddenly arrested, flung into prison, and lay there,
+though innocent, till released by Pio Nono." As regards the amnesty of
+Pio Nono, which so intoxicated the Romans, it is common for popes to
+make political capital of the errors and crimes of their predecessors;
+and as regards his reforming policy, which deluded others besides the
+Italians, it was a very transparent dodge to restore the papacy to its
+old supremacy. The Cobra di Capella relaxed its folds on Italy for a
+moment, to coil itself more firmly round the rest of the world. Of this
+none are now better aware than the Romans.
+
+The re-action,--the flight,--the Republic,--the bombardment,--the return
+to the Vatican on a path deluged with his subjects' blood,--all I pass
+over. But how shall I describe or group the horrors that have darkened
+and desolated the Papal States from that hour to this? What has their
+history been since, but one terrible tale of apprehensions,
+proscriptions, banishments, imprisonments, and executions, the full
+recital of which would make the ear of him that hears it to tingle? Nero
+and Caligula were monsters of crime; but their capricious tyranny, while
+it fell heavily on individuals, left the great body of the empire
+comparatively untouched. But the tyranny of the Pope penetrates every
+home, and crushes every person and thing. There was not under Nero a
+tenth part of the misery in Rome which there is now. Were the acts of
+Nero and of Pio to be fully written, I have not a doubt,--I am
+certain,--that the government of the imperial despot would be seen to be
+liberty itself, compared with the measureless, remorseless,
+inappeasable, wide-wasting tyranny of the sacerdotal one. The diadem was
+light indeed, compared with the tiara. The little finger of the Popes is
+thicker than the loins of the Caesars. The sights I saw, and the facts I
+heard, actually poisoned my enjoyment of Rome. What pleasure could I
+take in statues and monuments, when I saw the wretched beings that
+lived beside them, and marked the faces on which despair was painted,
+the forms that grief had bowed to the very dust, the dead men who
+wandered in the streets and about the old ruins, as if they sought, but
+could not find, their graves? Ah! there _is_ not, there never _was_, on
+earth a tyranny like the Papacy. But let me come to particulars.
+
+I shall first narrate the story of Colonel Calendrelli. It was told me
+by our own consul in Rome, Mr Freeborn, who knew intimately the colonel,
+and deeply interested himself in his case. Colonel Calendrelli was
+treasurer at war during the Republic. The Republic came to an end; the
+Pontifical Government returned; and Colonel Calendrelli, being unable to
+get away along with the other agents and friends of the Republic, was,
+of course, apprehended by the restored Government. It was necessary to
+find some pretext on which to condemn the colonel; and what, does the
+reader think, was the charge preferred against Colonel Calendrelli? Why,
+it was this, that the colonel had embezzled the public funds to the
+amount of twenty scudi. Twenty scudi! How much is that? Only five pounds
+sterling! That Colonel Calendrelli, a gentleman, a scholar, a man on
+whose honesty a breath had never been blown, should risk character and
+liberty for five pounds sterling! Why, the Pontifical Government should
+have made it five hundred or five thousand pounds, if they wished to
+have the accusation believed. Well, then, on the charge of defrauding
+the public treasury to the extent of twenty Roman scudi was Colonel
+Calendrelli brought to trial, and condemned! Condemned to what? To the
+galleys. Nor does that bring fully out the iniquity of the sentence. Our
+consul in Rome assured me that he had investigated the case, from his
+friendship for the colonel, and that the matter stood thus:--The colonel
+had engaged a man to do a piece of work, for which he was to receive
+five pounds as wages. The work was done, the wages were paid, the man's
+receipt was tendered, and the witnesses in whose presence the money had
+been paid bore their testimony to the fact. All these proofs were before
+Mr Freeborn. Nay, more; the papal tribunal that tried the case was told
+that all these witnesses and documents were ready to be produced. And
+yet, in the teeth of this evidence, completely establishing the
+innocence of Colonel Calendrelli, which, indeed, no one doubted, was the
+colonel condemned to the galleys; and when I was in Rome, he was working
+as a galley-slave on the high-road near Civita Vecchia, chained to
+another galley-slave. This is a sample of the pontifical justice. Take
+another case.
+
+The tragedy I am now to relate was consummated during my stay in the
+Eternal City. In the town of Macerata, to the east of Rome, it happened
+one day that a priest was fired at as he was passing along the street at
+dusk. He was not shot, happily;--the ball, missing the priest, sank deep
+in a door on the other side of the way. This happened under the
+Republic; and the police either could not or would not discover the
+perpetrator of the deed. The thing was the talk of the town for a day or
+so, and was then forgotten for ever, as every one thought. But no. The
+Republic came to an end; back came the pontifical police to Macerata;
+and then the affair of the priest was brought up. The prefect had not
+been installed in his office many days till a person presented himself
+before him, and said, "I am the man who shot at the priest." "You!"
+exclaimed the prefect. "Yes; and I was hired to shoot him by----,"
+naming three young men of the town, who had been the most active
+supporters of the Republic. These were precisely the three young men, of
+all others in Macerata, whom it was most for the interest of the Papacy
+to get rid of. That very day these three young men were apprehended.
+They were at last brought to trial; and will it be believed, that on the
+solitary and uncorroborated testimony of a man who, according to his own
+confession, was a hired assassin,--and surely I do the man no injustice
+if I suppose that, if he was willing for money to commit murder, he
+might be willing for money, or some priestly consideration, to commit
+perjury,--on the single and unsupported evidence, I say, of this man, a
+hired assassin according to his own confession, were these three young
+men condemned? And to what? To death!--and while I was in Rome they were
+actually guillotined! I saw their sentence placarded on the Piazza
+Colonna on the morning after my arrival in Rome. This writing of doom
+was the first thing I read in that city. It bore the names of the
+accused, the alleged crime, and an abstract of the evidence, or, I
+should say, volunteered statement, of the would-be assassin. It had the
+terrible guillotine at the top, and the fisherman's ring at the bottom;
+and though I had known nothing more of the case than the Government
+account of it, as contained in that paper, I would have said that it was
+enough to cover any Government with eternal infamy. Indeed, I don't
+believe that there is a Government under the sun, save the Pope's, that
+would have done an atrocity like it. I had some talk with our consul, Mr
+Freeborn, about that case too, and he assured me that, bad as these
+cases were, they were not worse than scores, aye, hundreds, that to his
+knowledge had been perpetrated in Rome, and all over the Papal States,
+since the return of the Pontifical Government. He added, that if Mr
+Gladstone would come to Rome, and visit the prisons, and examine the
+state of the country generally, he would have a more harrowing tale to
+unfold than that with which he had recently thrilled the British public
+on the subject of Naples: that in Naples there was still something like
+trade, but in Rome there was nothing but downright grinding misery.
+
+There are few tales in any history more harrowing than the following.
+The events were posterior to my visit to Rome, and were published at the
+time in the American _Crusader_. It happened that several papal
+proconsuls were slain in the city of Faenza: all of them had served
+under Gregory XVI., in the galleys, as felons and forgers. Being
+favoured by the papal power, they tried to deserve it by becoming the
+tyrants of the unhappy population. When the gloomy news of their
+tragical end reached the Holy Father, the answer returned to the
+governor of that city, as to what he should do in such a case, as the
+true perpetrators could not be found, was, "_Arrest all the young men of
+Faenza!_" and more than a hundred youths were immediately snatched away
+from the bosom of their families, handcuffed and chained, thrown into
+the city prisons, and distributed afterwards among the gangs of
+malefactors, whose lives had been a continual series of robberies and
+murders! Thirty of these unfortunate victims were marched off to Rome,
+where they were locked up in a dungeon. Innocent as well as unconscious
+of the crime of which they were accused, they supplicated the President
+of the Sacred Consulta,--who is an anointed prelate,--asking only for
+justice; not for mercy and forgiveness, but for a regular trial. All was
+useless; the archbishop had neither ear nor heart, and the petition was
+forgotten. Thinking that, after all, even at Rome, and even among the
+high dignitaries of the Church of Sodom and Gomorrah, there might be
+found a man of human feeling, they wrote a second petition, which was
+this time addressed to a different personage of the Church, his
+Excellency Mgr. Mertel, Minister of Grace and Justice!
+
+The prisoners asserted to the high papal functionary the illegality of
+their arrest,--their sufferings without any imputation of guilt,--the
+painful condition of their families, increased still more by the famine
+which now desolates the Roman States, and the want of their support. The
+supplicants were brought before Mgr. Mertel, who, feigning pity and
+interest for the sufferers (attention, reader!) offered them the choice
+of _ten years in the chain-gang, or to be transported to the United
+States_, the _refugium peccatorum_! They protested; but of what benefit
+is a legal and natural protest to thirty poor defenceless and guiltless
+young men, loaded with chains by a papal bureaucrat, surrounded by fifty
+ruffians armed to the teeth?
+
+On the night of the 5th of May 1853, the sepulchral silence of the
+subterranean prisons of St Angelo was interrupted by the rattling of
+keys and muskets. The thirty young citizens of Faenza were called out of
+their dens, and one by one, bending under his fetters, was escorted to a
+steamer waiting on the muddy Tiber to carry them to a distant land! The
+beautiful moon of Italy, as some call it, was shining benevolently over
+Rome and her iniquities; the streets, deserted by the people, were
+trodden by French patrols; all was silent as the grave itself; and not a
+friend was there to bid them adieu; not a relative to speak a consoling
+word to the departing; and none to acquaint the unfortunates who
+remained behind with their terrible calamity! This was their parting
+from Rome, at three o'clock, after midnight! But let us follow the
+victims of papal fury over the wide waters. Cast into the steerage,
+always handcuffed, the vessel rolling in a heavy and tempestuous sea,
+these wretched young men remained eighty hours in a painful position,
+till they reached Leghorn, where they were conducted to the quarantine,
+as though affected with leprosy and plague, and thence embarked for New
+York, where they arrived totally destitute of clothes and means of
+subsistence.
+
+The autumn of 1852 will be long remembered in the Papal States, from the
+occurrence of numerous tragedies of a like deplorable character.
+Sixty-five citizens of Sinigaglia had been apprehended on the charge of
+being concerned in the political disturbances of 1848,--an accusation on
+which the Pope himself might have been apprehended. These citizens,
+however, had not been so prudent as to turn when the Pope did. In the
+August of 1852 they were all brought to trial before the Sacra Consulta
+of Rome, with the exception of thirteen who had made their escape.
+Twenty-eight of these persons were condemned to the galleys for life,
+and twenty-four were sentenced to be shot. These unhappy men displayed
+great unconcern at their execution,--some singing the _Marseillaise_,
+others crying _Viva Mazzini_. The Swiss troops, not the Austrian
+soldiers, were made the executioners in this case.
+
+The Sinigaglia trials were followed by similar prosecutions at Ancona,
+Jesi, Pesaro, and Funa, where unhappy groupes of citizens, indicted for
+political offences, waited the tender mercies which the "Holy Father"
+dispenses to his _figli_ by the hands of Swiss and Austrian carabiniers.
+Let us state the result at Ancona.
+
+The executions took place on the 25th of October 1852, and they may be
+reckoned amongst the most appalling ever witnessed. The sentence was
+officially published at Rome after the execution, and contained, as
+usual, simply the names of the judges and the prisoners, a summary of
+the evidence unsupported by the names of any witnesses, and the penalty
+awarded--_death_. The victims were nine in number. The sacerdotal
+Government gave them a priest as well as a scaffold, but only one would
+accept the insulting mockery. The others, being hopelessly recusant,
+were allowed to intoxicate themselves with rum. "The shooting of them
+was entrusted to a detachment of Roman artillerymen, armed with short
+carbines, old-fashioned weapons, many of which missed fire, so that at
+the first discharge some of the prisoners did not fall, but ran off,
+with the soldiers pursuing and firing at them repeatedly; others crawled
+about; and one wretch, after being considered dead, made a violent
+exertion to get up, rendering a final _coup de grace_ necessary." The
+writer who recorded these accounts added, that other executions were to
+follow, and that, if these wholesale slaughters were necessary, they
+ought, in the dominions of a pontifical sovereign, to be conducted with
+more delicacy, that is, in a more summary fashion. In truth, such
+executions are a departure from the approved pontifical method of
+killing,--which is not by fusillades and in open day, but in silence and
+night, by the help of the rack and the dungeon.
+
+I cannot go into any minute detail of the imprisonments, banishments,
+and massacres by which the Pope has signalized his return to his palace
+and the chair of Peter. But I may state a few facts, from which some
+idea of their number may be gathered. When Pio Nono fled from Rome to
+Gaeta, what was the amount of its population? Not less than a hundred
+and sixty thousand. I conversed with a distinguished literary Englishman
+who chanced to visit Rome at the time I speak of, and who assured me
+that there could not be fewer than two hundred thousand in Rome then,
+for Italians had flocked thither from every country under heaven,
+expecting a new era for their city and nation. But I shall give the Pope
+the benefit of the smaller number. When he fled, there were, I shall
+suppose, only a hundred and sixty thousand human beings in his city of
+Rome. Take the same Rome six months after his return, and how many do
+you find in it? According to the most credible accounts, the population
+of the Eternal City had dwindled down to little above a hundred
+thousand. Here are sixty thousand human beings lacking in this one city.
+What has become of them? Where have they gone to? I shall suppose that
+some were fortunate enough to escape to Malta, some to Belgium, some to
+England, and others to America. I shall suppose that twenty thousand
+contrived to get away. And let me here do justice to Mr Freeborn, the
+British consul, who saved much blood by issuing British passports to
+these unhappy men when the French entered Rome. Twenty thousand, I shall
+suppose, made good their flight. But thirty thousand and upwards are
+still lacking. Where are your subjects, Pio Nono? Were we to put this
+interrogatory to the Pope, he would reply, I doubt not, as did another
+celebrated personage in history, "Am I my brother's keeper?" But ah!
+might not the same response as of old be made to this disclaimer, "The
+voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground?" Again we
+say, Where are your subjects, Pio Nono? Ask any Roman, and he will tell
+you where these men are. Ask our own consul, Mr Freeborn, and he will
+tell you where they are. They are, those of them that have not been
+shot, rotting at this hour at the bottom of the Pope's dungeons. That is
+where they are.
+
+There is a singular unanimity in Rome amongst all parties, as to the
+number of political prisoners now under confinement. This I had many
+opportunities of testing. I met a Roman one evening in a book-shop, and,
+after a rather lengthened conversation, I said to him, "Can you tell me
+how many prisoners there are at present in the Roman States?" "No," he
+replied, "I cannot." "But," I rejoined, "have you no idea of their
+number?" He solemnly said, "God only knows." I pressed him yet farther,
+when he stated, that the common estimate, which he believed to be not
+above the truth, rather under, was, that there were not fewer than
+thirty thousand political prisoners in the various fortresses and
+dungeons of the Papal States. Thirty thousand was the estimate of Mr
+Freeborn. Thirty thousand was the estimate of Mr Stewart, who, mingling
+with the Romans, knew well the prevailing opinion. Of course, precise
+accuracy is unattainable in such a case. No one ever counted these
+prisoners. No list of them is kept,--none that is open to the public eye
+at least; but it is well known, that there is scarce a family in Rome
+which does not mourn some of its members lost to it, and scarce an
+individual who has not an acquaintance in prison; and I have little
+doubt that the Roman estimate is not far from the truth, and that it is
+just as likely to be below as above it. When I was in Rome, all the
+jails in the city were crowded. The cells in the Castle of St
+Angelo,--those subterranean dungeons where day never dawned, and where
+the captive's groan can never reach a human ear,--were filled. All the
+great fortresses throughout the country,--the vast ranges of
+galley-prisons at Civita Vecchia, the fortress of Ancona, the castle of
+Bologna, the fortress of Ferrara, and hundreds of minor prisons over the
+country,--all were filled,--filled, do I say! they were
+crowded,--crowded to suffocation with choking, despairing victims. In
+the midst of this congeries of dungeons, surrounded by clanking chains
+and weeping captives, stands the chair of the "Holy Father."
+
+Let us take a look into these prisons, as described to me by reputable
+and well-informed parties in Rome. These prisons are of three classes.
+The first class consists of cells of from seven to eight feet square.
+The space is little more than a man's height when he stands erect, and a
+man's length when he stretches himself on the floor, and can contain
+only that amount of atmospheric air necessary for the consumption of one
+person. These cells are now made to receive two prisoners, who are
+compelled to divide betwixt them the air adequate for only one. The
+second class consists of cells constructed to hold ten persons each. In
+the present great demand for prison-room these are held to afford ample
+accommodation for a little crowd of twenty persons. Their one window is
+so high in the wall, that the wretched men who are shut in here are
+obliged to mount by turns on each other's shoulders, to obtain a breath
+of air. Last of all comes the common prison. It is a spacious place,
+containing from forty to fifty persons, who lie day and night on straw
+too foul for a stable. It matters not what the means of the prisoner may
+be; he must wear the prison dress, and live on the prison diet. The
+jailor is empowered, should the slightest provocation be offered, to
+flog the prisoner, or to load his limbs so heavily with irons, that he
+scarce can move. And who are they who tenant these places? Violators of
+the law,--brigands, murderers? No! Those who have been dragged thither
+are the very _elite_ of the Roman population. There many of them lie for
+years, without being brought to trial; and if they thus escape the
+scaffold, they perish more slowly, but not less surely, and much more
+miserably, by the pestilential air, the unwholesome food, and the
+horrible treatment of the jail. Nor is this the worst of it. I was told
+by those in Rome who had the best opportunities of knowing, but whose
+names I do not here choose to mention, that the sufferings of the
+prisoners had been much aggravated,--indeed, made unendurable,--by the
+expedient of the Government which confines malefactors and desperadoes
+along with them. These characters are permitted to have their own way in
+the prisons; they lord it over the rest, compel them to do the most
+disgusting offices, and attempt even outrages on their person, which
+propriety leaves without a name. Their sufferings are indescribable. The
+consequence of this accumulation of horrors,--foul air, insufficient
+food, and the fearful society with which the walls and chains of their
+prison compel them to mingle,--is, that a great many of the prisoners
+have died, some have sought to terminate their woe by suicide, while
+others have been carried raving to a madhouse. Mr Freeborn assured me
+that several of his Roman acquaintances had been carried to these places
+sane men, as well as innocent men, and, after a short confinement, they
+had been brought out maniacs and madmen. He would have preferred to have
+seen them shot at once. It is a prelate who has charge of these prisons.
+
+I have described the higher machinery which the Pope employs,--the
+tribunals,--judges,--the secret process,--the tyrannous Gregorian Code;
+let me next bring into view the inferior machinery of the Pontifical
+Government. The Roman _sbirri_ have an European reputation. One must be
+no ordinary villain,--he must be, in short, a perfected and finished
+scoundrel,--to merit a place in this honourable corps. The _sbirri_ are
+chiefly from the kingdom of Naples. They dress in plain clothes, go in
+twos and threes, are easily distinguished, and are permitted to carry
+larger walking-sticks than the Romans, whom the French commandant has
+forbidden to come abroad with any but the merest twig. Some of these
+spies wear spurs, the better to deceive and to succeed in their fiendish
+work. No disguise, however, can conceal the _sbirro_. His look, so
+unmistakeably villanous, proclaims the spy. These fellows will not be
+defeated in their purposes. They carry, it is said, _articles of
+conviction_, that is, political papers, on their person, which they use,
+in lack of other material, to compass the ruin of their victim. They can
+stop any one they please on the street, compel him to produce his
+papers, and, when they choose not to be satisfied with them, march him
+off to prison. When they visit a house where they have resolved to make
+a seizure, they search it; and if they do not find what may criminate
+the man, they drop the papers they have brought with them, and swear
+that they found them in the house. What can solemn protestations do
+against armed ruffians, backed by hireling judges, who, like Impaccianti
+and Belli, have been taken from the bagnio and the galleys, thrust into
+orders, and elevated to the bench, to do the work of their patrons?[7]
+Such must show that they deserve promotion. The people loathe and dread
+the _sbirri_, knowing that whatever they do in their official capacity
+is done well, and speedily followed up by those in authority.
+
+But there is a class in the service of the Pontifical Government yet
+more wicked and dangerous. What! exclaims the reader, more wicked and
+dangerous than the _sbirri_! Yes, the _sbirri_ profess to be only what
+they are,--the base tools of a tyrannical Government, which seems to
+thirst insatiably for vengeance; but there exists an invisible power,
+which the citizen feels to be ever at his side, listening to his every
+word, penetrating his inmost thought, and ready at any moment to effect
+his destruction. At noonday, at midnight, in society, in private, he
+feels that its eye is upon him. He can neither see it nor avoid it.
+Would he flee from it, he but throws himself into its jaws. I refer to a
+class of vile and abandoned men, entirely at the service of the
+Government, whose position in society, agreeable manners, flexibility
+of disposition, and thorough knowledge of affairs, which they study for
+base ends, and handle most adroitly in conversation, enable them to
+penetrate the secret feelings of all classes. They now condemn and now
+applaud the conduct of Government, as the subject and circumstances
+require, and all to extract an unfriendly sentiment against those in
+authority, if such there be in the mind of the man with whom they are
+conversing. If they succeed, the person is immediately denounced; an
+arrest follows, or domiciliary restraint. The numbers that have found
+their way to prison and to the galleys through this secret and
+mysterious agency are incredible. Nor can any man imagine to himself the
+dreadful state of Rome under this terrible espionage. The Roman feels
+that the air around him is full of eyes and ears; he dare not speak; he
+dreads even to think; he knows that a thought or a look may convey him
+to prison.
+
+The oppression is not of equal intensity in all cases. Some are
+subjected only to domiciliary restraint. In this predicament are many
+respectably connected young men. They are told to consider themselves as
+prisoners in their own houses, and not to appear beyond the threshold,
+but at the penalty of exchanging their homes for the common jail.
+Others, again, whose apparent delinquency has been less, are allowed the
+freedom of the open air during certain specified hours. At the expiry of
+this time they must withdraw to their houses: Ave Maria is in many cases
+the retiring hour.
+
+Another tyrannical proceeding on the part of the Government, which was
+productive of wide-spread misery, was the compelling hundreds of people,
+from the labourer to the man in business, to leave Rome for their place
+of birth. These measures, which would have been oppressive under any
+circumstances, were rendered still more oppressive by the shortness of
+the notice given to those on whom this sentence of expulsion fell. Some
+had twenty-four hours, and others thirty-six, to prepare for their
+departure. The labourer might plead that he had no money, and must beg
+his way with wife and children. The man in business might justly
+represent that to eject him in this summary fashion was just to ruin
+him; for his business could not be properly wound up; it must be
+sacrificed. But no appeal was sustained; no remonstrance was listened
+to. The stern mandate must be obeyed, though the poor man should die on
+the road. Go he must, or be conveyed in irons. And, as regards those who
+were fortunate enough to reach their native villages, alas! their
+sufferings did then but begin. These villages, in most cases, did not
+need them, and could afford no opening in the line of business or of
+labour in which they had been trained. They were houseless and workless
+in their native place; and, if they did not die of a broken heart, which
+many of them did, they went "into the country," as they say in
+Italy,--that is, they became brigands, or are at this hour dragging out
+the remainder of their lives in poverty and wretchedness.
+
+How atrociously, too, have many of the Romans been carried from their
+business to prison. Against these men neither proof nor witness existed;
+but a spy had denounced them, or they had fallen under the suspicions of
+the Government, and there they are in the dungeon. Their families might
+starve, their business might go to the dogs, but the vengeance of the
+Government must be satiated. Such persons are confined for a longer or
+shorter period, according to the view taken of their character or
+associates; and if nothing be elicited by the secret ordeal of
+examination, the prison-door is opened, and the prisoner is requested to
+go home. No apology is offered; no redress is obtained.
+
+Such cases, I was told, were numerous. One such came to my knowledge
+through Mr Stewart. An acquaintance of his, a druggist, was one day
+dragged summarily from his business, and lodged in jail, where he was
+detained a whole month, although to this hour he has not been told what
+he had done, or said, or thought amiss. During the Constitution this man
+had been called in, in his scientific capacity simply, to superintend an
+electric telegraph which ran, if I mistake not, betwixt the Capitol and
+St Peter's. But beyond this he had taken no political action and
+expressed no political sentiment whatever. He knew well that this would
+avail him nothing; and glad he was to escape from incarceration with the
+remark, _meno male, alias_, it might have been worse.
+
+They say that the Inquisition was an affair of the sixteenth century;
+that its fires are cold; its racks and screws are rusted; and that it
+would be just as impossible to bring back the Inquisition as to bring
+back the centuries in which it flourished. That is fine talking; and
+there are simpletons who believe it. But look at Rome. What is the
+Government of the Papal States, but just the Government of the
+Inquisition? There there are midnight apprehensions, secret trials,
+familiars, torture by flogging, by loading with irons, and other yet
+more refined modes of cruelty,--in short, all the machinery of the Holy
+Office. The canon law, whose full blessing Italy now enjoys, is the
+Inquisition; for wherever the one comes, there the other will follow it.
+Let me describe the secresy and terror with which apprehensions are made
+at Rome. The forms of the Inquisition are closely followed herein. The
+deed is one of darkness, and the darkest hours of the twenty-four,
+namely, from twelve till two of the morning, are taken for its
+perpetration. At midnight half a dozen _sbirri_ proceed to the house of
+the unhappy man marked out for arrest. Two take their place at the
+door, two at the windows, and two at the back-door, to make all sure.
+They knock gently at the door. If it is opened, well; if not, they knock
+a second time. If still it is not opened, it is driven in by force. The
+_sbirri_ rush in; they seize the man; they drag him from his bed; there
+is no time for parting adieus with his family; they hurry him through
+the streets to prison. That very night, or the next, his trial is
+proceeded with,--that is, when it is intended that there shall be
+further proceedings; for many, as we have said, are imprisoned for long
+months, without either accusation or trial. But what a mockery is the
+trial! The prisoner is never confronted with his accuser, or with the
+impeaching witnesses. He is allowed no opportunity of disproving the
+charge; sometimes he is not even informed what that charge is. He has no
+means of defending his life. He has no doubt an advocate to defend him;
+but the advocate is always nominated by the court, and is usually taken
+from the partizans of the Government; and nothing would astonish him
+more than that he should succeed in bringing off his prisoner. And even
+when he honestly wishes to serve him, what can he do? He has no
+exculpatory witnesses; he has had no time to expiscate facts; the
+evidence for the prosecution is handed to him in court; and he can make
+only such observations as occur at the moment, knowing all the while
+that the prisoner's fate is already determined on. Sometimes the
+prisoner, I was told, is not even produced in court, but remains in his
+cell while his liberty and life are hanging in the balance. At day-break
+his prison-door opens, and the jailor enters, holding in his hand a
+little slip of paper. Ah! well does the prisoner know what that is. He
+snatches it hastily from the jailor's hands, hurries with it to his
+grated window, through which the day is breaking, holds it up with
+trembling hands, and reads his doom. He is banished, it may be, or he
+is sentenced to the galleys; or, more wretched still, he is doomed to
+the scaffold. Unhappy man! 'twas but last eve that he laid him down in
+the midst of his little ones, not dreaming of the black cloud that hung
+above his dwelling; and now by next dawn he is in the Pope's dungeons,
+parted from all he loves, most probably for ever, and within a few hours
+of the galleys or the scaffold.
+
+I saw these men taken out of Rome morning by morning,--that is, such of
+them as were banished. They passed under the windows of my own apartment
+in the Via Babuino. I have seen as many as twenty-four led away of a
+morning. They were put by half-dozens into carts, to which they were
+tied by twos, and chained together, as if they had been brigands. Thus
+they moved on to the Flaminian gate, each cart escorted by a couple of
+mounted gendarmes. The spectacle, alas! was too common to find
+spectators; not a Roman followed it, or showed that he was conscious of
+it, save by a mournful look at the melancholy cavalcade from his window,
+knowing that what was their lot to-day might be his to-morrow. And what
+the appearance and apparent profession of these men? Those I saw had
+much the air of intelligent and respectable artizans; for I believe it
+is this class that are now bearing the brunt of the papal tyranny. The
+higher classes were swept off before, and the rage of the Government is
+now venting itself in a lower and wider sphere. An intelligent
+Scotchman, who had charge of the one iron-shop in the Corso, informed me
+that now all the tolerably skilled workmen had been so weeded out of the
+city by the Pope, that it was scarce possible to find hands to do the
+little work that requires to be done in Rome. If there be among my
+readers a mechanic who has been indifferent to the question between this
+country and the Papacy, as one the settlement of which could not affect
+his interests either way, I tell him he never made a greater mistake all
+his life. If the Papacy succeed, his interests will be the very first to
+suffer, in the ruin of trade. Nor will that suffice; if a skilled man,
+he will be held to be a dangerous man; and, having taken from him his
+bread, the Papacy will next take from him his liberty, as she is now
+doing to his brethren in Rome.
+
+And what becomes of the families of these unhappy men? This is the most
+painful part of the business. Their livelihood is gone; and nothing
+remains but to go out into the street and beg,--to beg, alas! from
+beggars. It is not unfrequent in Rome to find families in competence
+this week, and literally soliciting alms the next. You may see matrons
+deeply veiled, that they may not be known by their acquaintances,
+hanging on at the doors of hotels, in the hope of receiving the charity
+of English travellers. Shame on the tyranny that has reduced the Roman
+matrons to this! Nor is even this the worst. Deprived of their
+protectors, moral ruin sometimes comes in the wake of the physical
+privations and sufferings by which these families are overtaken. Thus
+the misery of Rome is widening every day. Ah! could I bring before my
+readers the picture of that doomed city;--could I show them Rome as it
+sits cowering beneath the shadow of this terrible tyranny;--could I make
+them see the cloud that day and night hangs above it;--could I paint the
+sorrow that darkens every face; the suspicion and fear that sadden the
+Roman's every word and look;--could I tell the number of the broken
+hearts and the desolate hearths which these old walls enclose;--ah,
+there is not one among my readers who would not give me his tears as
+plenteously as ever the clouds of heaven gave their rain. And he who
+styles himself God's Vicar sees all this misery! Sees it, do I say! he
+is the author of it. It is to uphold his miserable throne that these
+prisons are filled, and that these widows and orphans cry in the
+streets. And yet he tells us that his reign is a model of Christ's
+reign. 'Tis a fearful blasphemy. When did Christ build dungeons, or
+gather _sbirri_ about him, or send men to the galleys and the scaffold?
+Is that the account which we have of his ministry? No; it is very
+different. "The Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the
+meek; he hath sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty
+to the captive, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound." A
+few months ago, when the Pope proclaimed his newest invented dogma,--the
+Immaculate Conception,--he gave, in honour of the occasion, a grand
+jubilee to the Roman Catholic world. We all know what a jubilee is.
+There is a vast treasury above, filled with the merits of Pio Nono and
+of such as he, out of which those who have not enough for their own
+salvation may supplement their deficiencies. At the Pope's girdle hangs
+the key of this treasury; and when he chooses to open it, straightway
+down there comes a shower of celestial blessings. Well, the Pope told
+his children throughout the world that he meant to unlock this treasury;
+and bade his children be ready to receive with open arms and open
+hearts, this vast beneficence of his. Ah! Pio Nono, this is not the
+jubilee we wish. Draw your bolts; break the fetters of your thirty
+thousand captives; open your dungeons, and give back the fathers, the
+husbands, the sons, the brothers, which you have torn from their
+families. Put off your robe, quit your palace, take the Bible in your
+hand, and go round the world preaching the gospel, as your Master did.
+Do this, and we shall have had a jubilee such as the world has not seen
+for many a long year. But ah! you but mock us,--bitterly, cruelly mock
+us,--when you deny us blessings which it is in your power to give, and
+offer us those which are not yours to bestow. But it is a mockery which
+will return, and at no distant day, in sevenfold vengeance upon, we say
+not Pio Nono, but the papal system. Untie the fetters of these men; make
+them free for but a few hours; and with what terrible emphasis will they
+demand back the friends whom the Papacy has buried in dungeons or
+murdered on the open scaffold! They will seek their lost sons and
+brothers with an eye that will not pity, and a hand that will not spare.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII.
+
+EDUCATION AND KNOWLEDGE IN THE PAPAL STATES.
+
+     Education of a Roman Boy--Seldom taught his Letters--Majority of
+     Romans unable to Read--Popular Literature of Italy--- Newspaper of
+     the Roman States--Censorship of the Press--Studies in the Collegio
+     Romano--Rome unknown at Rome--Schools spring up under the
+     Republic--Extinguished on the Return of the Pope--Conversation with
+     three Roman Boys--Their Ideas respecting the Creator of the World,
+     Christ, the Virgin--Questions asked at them in the
+     Confessional--Religion in the Roman States--Has no
+     Existence--Ceremony mistaken for Devotion--Irreverence--The Six
+     Commands of the Church--Contrast betwixt the Cost and the Fruits of
+     the Papal Religion--Popular Hatred of the Papacy.
+
+
+The influence of Romanism on trade, and industry, and justice, has been
+less frequently a theme of discussion than its influence on knowledge.
+While, therefore, I have dwelt at considerable length on the former, I
+shall be very brief under the present head. I shall here adduce only a
+few facts which I had occasion to see or hear during my stay in the
+Papal States. The few schoolmasters which are found in Italy are not a
+distinct class, as with us; they are priests, and mostly Jesuits. There
+are three classes of catechisms used in the schools; the pupil beginning
+with the lowest, and of course finishing off with the highest. But of
+what subjects do these catechisms treat? A little history, one would
+say, that the pupil may have some notion of what has been before him;
+and a little geography, that he may know there are such things as land
+and sea, and cities beyond, which he cannot see, shut up in Rome. With
+us, the lowest amount of education that ever receives the name comprises
+at least the three R's, as they are termed,--Reading, Writing, and
+'Rithmetic. But these are far too mundane matters for a Jesuit to occupy
+his time in expounding. The education of the Italian youth is a
+thoroughly religious one, taking the term in its Roman sense. The little
+catechisms I have spoken of are filled with the weightier matters of
+their law,--the miracles wrought by the staff of this saint, the cloak
+of that other, and the relics of a third; the exalted rank of the
+Virgin, and the homage thereto appertaining; Transubstantiation, with
+all the uncouth and barbarous jargon of "substances" and "accidents" in
+which that mystery is wrapped up. An initiation into these matters forms
+the education of the Roman boy; and after he has been locked up in
+school for a certain length of time, he is turned adrift, to begin the
+usual aimless life of the Italian. It does not follow, because he has
+been at school, that he can read. He is seldom taught his letters;
+better not, lest in after life he should come in contact with books.
+And, despite the vigilance of the censorship and the Index, bad books,
+such as the Bible, are finding their way into the Roman States; and it
+is better, therefore, not to entrust the people with the key of
+knowledge; for nothing is so useless as knowledge under an infallible
+Church. The matters which the Italian youth are taught they are taught
+by rote. "Ignorance is the mother of devotion,"--a maxim sometimes
+quoted with a sneer, but one which embodies a profound truth as regards
+that kind of devotion which is prevalent at Rome.
+
+I have seen estimates by Gavazzi and other Italians, of the proportion
+who can read in the Roman States. It is somewhere about one in a
+hundred. The reader will take the statement at what it is worth. I had
+no means of testing its accuracy; but all my inquiries on the subject
+led me to believe that the overwhelming majority cannot read. And where
+is the use of learning one's letters in a land where there are no books;
+and there are none that deserve the name in Rome. The book-stalls in
+Italy are heaped with the veriest rubbish: the "Book of Dreams," "Rules
+for Winning at the Lottery," "The Five Dolours of the Virgin," "Tracts
+on the Miracles of the Saints," "Relations," professedly given by Christ
+about his sufferings, and said to have been found in his sepulchre, and
+in other places equally likely. At Rome, on the streets at least, where
+all other kinds of rubbish are tolerated, even this rubbish is not
+suffered to exist; for there, book-stalls I saw none. There are,
+however, one or two miserable book-shops where these things may be had.
+
+There was but one newspaper (so called, I presume, because it contained
+no news) published in Rome at the time of my visit,--the _Giornale di
+Roma_, which, I presume, still occupies the field alone. It contains a
+daily list of the arrivals and departures (foreigners, of course, for
+the gates of Rome never open to the Romans), the proclamations of the
+Government, the days of the lottery, and such matters. Under the foreign
+head were chronicled the consecration of Catholic temples, the visits of
+royal personages, a profound silence being observed on all political
+facts and speculations. And this is all the Romans can know, through
+legitimate channels, of what is going on beyond the walls of Rome. A
+daily paper was started during the Republic, and admirably managed; but,
+of course, it was suppressed on the return of the Papal Government. A
+few copies of the _Times_ reach Rome every morning. They are not given
+out till towards mid-day, for they must first be read; and if the
+"editorials" are not to the taste of the Sacred College, they are not
+given out at all. The paper, during my short stay, was stopped for
+nearly a week on end; and the disappointment was the greater, that
+rumours were then current in Rome that something was on the tapis in
+Paris, and that the change in the constitution of France, whatever it
+might be, would not be postponed till the May of 1852, as was then
+believed in the north of Europe, but would be attempted in the beginning
+of December 1851. The tidings of the _coup d'etat_, which met me on the
+morning of the 3d December in the south of France, brought the full
+realization of these rumours. In the _Giornale di Roma_ not a strayed
+dog can be advertised without permission of the censor. In Brescia there
+is a censorship for gravestones; and in Rome a strict watch is kept over
+the English burying-ground, lest any one should write a verse of
+Scripture above a heretic's grave. The expression of thought is more
+dreaded than brigandage.
+
+Those who aspire to the learned professions go to the Collegio Romano.
+But let the reader mark how the Roman Church here, as everywhere else,
+contrives to keep up the show of educating, and takes care all the while
+to impart the smallest possible amount of knowledge,--constructs a
+machinery which, through some mischievous perversion, is without
+results. The Collegio Romano has a numerous staff of professors, who
+prelect on theology, logic, history, mathematics, natural philosophy,
+and other branches. This looks well; but observe its working. All the
+lectures are delivered in Latin, which differs considerably from the
+modern Italian; and as the Roman youth spend only one year in the study
+of the Latin tongue before entering the Collegio Romano, the lectures
+might nearly as well, so far as the run of the students is concerned, be
+in Arabic. Nine-tenths of the young men leave the Collegio Romano as
+learned as they entered it. The higher priesthood are educated at the
+_Sapienza_, where, I believe, a thorough training in theological
+dialectics is given.
+
+It is impossible not to see that the Italians are a people of quick
+perceptions, lively sensibilities, and warm and kindly dispositions; but
+it is just as impossible not to see that they are deplorably untaught.
+The stranger is mortified to find that he knows far more of their ruins
+and of their past history than they themselves do. The peasant wanders
+over the huge mounds that diversify the Seven Hills, or traverses the
+Appian, or passes under the arch of Titus, without knowing or caring who
+erected these structures, or having even a glimmering of the heroic
+story in which they were, so to speak, the actors. When he looks back
+into the past, all is night. Nowhere is Rome so little known as in Rome
+itself. How different was it when the Pope received Italy! Then Italy
+occupied the van of civilization. And when the Byzantine empire fell,
+and the scholars of the East fled westward, carrying with them the rich
+treasures of the Greek language and literature, learning had a second
+morning in Italy. Famous colleges arose, to which the youth of Europe
+repaired. Philosophers and poets of imperishable name shed a lustre upon
+the country; but the Roman Church soon discovered that Italy was
+acquiring knowledge at the expense of its Romanism, and she applied the
+band to the national mind. And now that same Italy that once held aloft
+the lamp of knowledge to the world is herself in darkness, and, sad
+sight! is seen, with quenched orbs, groping about in the midnight.
+
+And yet proofs are not wanting to show that, were the interdict of the
+Church taken off, Italy would at once throw herself into the race, and
+might soon rival the most successful of her contemporaries. Most of my
+readers, I doubt not, are familiar with the name of M. Leone Levi, now
+engaged on the great work of the codification of the commercial laws of
+the three kingdoms, and their assimilation to the continental codes. The
+fact I am now to state, and which speaks volumes as regards the efforts
+of "the Church" to educate Italy, I had from this gentleman; and to
+those who know him, any testimony of mine to his intelligence and
+uprightness is superfluous. M. Leone Levi, an Italian Jew, was born at
+Ancona, but eventually settled in England. During the Roman Republic, he
+paid a visit to Italy. But such a change! He scarce knew his native
+Italy,--it was so unlike the Italy he had left. In every town, and
+village, and rural district, schools had sprung up since the fall of the
+Pontifical Government. There were day-schools and night-schools,
+week-day-schools and Sabbath-schools. The young men and young women had
+forgotten their "light loves," and were busied in educating themselves,
+and in educating the little boys and girls below them. The country
+appeared to have resolved itself into a great educational institute. He
+was inexpressibly delighted. Such a change he had never dared to hope
+for in his native land. But ah! back came the Pope; and in a week,--in
+one short week,--every one of these schools was closed. The Roman youth
+are again handed over to the Jesuit. Italy is again sunk in its old
+torpor and stagnation; and one black cloud of barbaric ignorance extends
+from the Mediterranean to the Adriatic.
+
+I sat down one day on the steps of the temple of Vesta, which, though
+gray and crumbling with age, is one of the most beautiful of the ruins
+of Rome. Three boys came about me to beg a few baiocchi. The youngest
+boy, I found, was ten years, and the oldest fifteen. I took the
+opportunity of putting a few questions to them, judging them a fair
+sample of the Roman youth. My queries were pitched low enough. "Can you
+tell me," I asked, "who made the world?" The question started a subject
+on which they seemed never to have thought before. They stood in a muse
+for some seconds; and then all three looked round them, as if they
+expected to see the world's Maker, or to read His name somewhere. At
+last the youngest and smartest of the three spoke briskly up,--"The
+masons, Signor." It was now my turn to feel the excitement of a new
+idea. Yet I thought I could see the train of thought that led to the
+answer. The masons had made the baths of Caracalla; the masons had made
+the Coliseum, and those other stupendous structures which in bulk rival
+the hills, and seem as eternal as the earth on which they rest; and why
+might not the masons have made the whole affair? I might have puzzled
+the boy by asking, "But who made the masons?" My object, however, was
+simply to ascertain the amount of his knowledge. I demurred to the
+proposition that the masons had made the world, and desired them to try
+again. They did try again, and at last the eldest of the three found his
+way to the right answer,--"God." "Have you ever heard of Christ?" I
+asked. "Yes." "Who is he? Can you tell me anything about him?" I could
+elicit nothing under these heads. "Whose Son is he?" I then asked. "He
+is Mary's Son," was the reply. "Where is Christ?" I inquired. "He is on
+the Cross," replied the boy, folding his arms, and making the
+representation of a crucifix. "Was Christ ever on earth?" I asked. He
+did not know. "Are you aware of anything he ever did?" He had never
+heard of anything that Christ had done. I saw that he was thinking of
+those hideous representations which are to be seen in all the churches
+of Rome, of a man hanging on a cross. That was the Christ of the boys.
+Of Christ the Son of the living God,--of Christ the Saviour of
+sinners,--and of his death as an atonement for human guilt,--they had
+never heard. In a city swarming with professed ministers of the gospel,
+these boys knew no more of Christianity than if they had been
+Hottentots. I next inquired respecting Mary, and here the boys seemed
+more at home. "Who is she?" "She is God's mother." "Where is she?" "She
+is in that church," pointing to the church on one side of the
+piazza,--the Bocca di Verita, if I mistake not,--before which criminals
+are sometimes executed; "and in that," pointing to the church on the
+other side of the piazza. "She is here, there, everywhere." "Was Mary
+ever on earth?" "Yes," was the answer. "What did she do when here?"
+"Oh," replied the little boy, "that is an antique affair: I was not here
+then." "Do you go to church?" I asked the eldest boy. "Yes." "Do you
+take the sacrament?" "I have taken it four times." I learned afterwards
+that the priests are attempting to seize upon the rising generation in
+Italy, by compelling all the children from twelve years and upwards to
+go to mass. "Do you go to confession?" I next asked. "Yes, I confess."
+"Do other boys and girls, your acquaintances, go to confession?" "Yes,
+all go," he replied. "We meet the priest in church on Sabbath, and he
+tells us when to come and confess." "Well, when you go to confess, what
+does the priest ask you?" "He asks me if I steal, and do other bad
+actions." "When you confess that you have done a bad action, what then?"
+"The first time I do it, the priest pardons me." "If you confess it a
+second time, what happens?" "The second time he beats me with a rod."
+"Does the priest ask you about anything else?" I inquired. "Yes," he
+rejoined; "he asks me about my father and my mother." "What does he ask
+you about them?" "He asks me if they do dirty actions," said the boy.
+Now, here the enormity and vileness of the confessional peeped out. Here
+one can see how the confessor can look into every hearth, and into every
+heart, in Rome. The priests had dragged this young boy into their den,
+and taught him to play the spy on his father and mother. The hand that
+fed him, the bosom that cherished him, he must learn to betray. I appeal
+to the fathers and mothers of Britain, whether, than see their children
+degraded to such infamous purposes, they would not an hundred times
+rather see them laid in the silent grave. Yet some are labouring to
+introduce the confessional among us. Should they succeed, it will be the
+garrotte on the throat of English liberty.
+
+As regards RELIGION in Italy, this is an inquiry that lies rather beyond
+the limits I have marked out for myself. I may be permitted, however, a
+few remarks. It appeared to me that the very idea of religion had
+perished among the Italians. Not only had they lost the thing itself,
+but they had lost the power of conceiving of it. Religion unquestionably
+is a state of mind towards God; and devotion is a mental act resulting
+from that state of mind. We cannot conceive of an automaton performing
+an act of devotion, or of being religious; and yet, if religion be what
+it is taken to be at Rome, there is nothing to hinder an automaton being
+religious, nay, far more religious than flesh and blood, inasmuch as
+timber and iron will not so soon wear out under incessant crossings and
+genuflections. Religion at Rome is to kiss a crucifix; religion at Rome
+is to climb Pilate's stairs; religion at Rome is to repeat by rote a
+certain number of prayers before some beautiful painting or statue; or
+to remain a certain number of hours on one's bare knees on the paved
+floor; or to wear a hair-shirt. Of religion as a mental act,--as an act
+of faith, and love, and reverence,--the Italian is not able to form
+even the idea. Hence the want of decorum that shocks a stranger on
+visiting the Italian churches. He finds bishops at the altar unable to
+restrain their sallies of wit and their bursts of laughter. And after
+this, what can he look for among the ordinary worshippers? The young man
+can go through his devotions perfectly well, and make love all the while
+to the young woman at his side. Young ladies can count their beads to
+the Virgin, and continue their gossip on matters of dress or scandal. It
+never occurs to them that this in the least deteriorates their worship.
+The beads have been counted, and an Ave Maria said with each; and what
+more does the Church require? Religion as a feeling of the mind, and
+devotion as an act of the soul, are unknown to them. I recollect meeting
+in the rural lanes leading from St John Lateran to the church of Maria
+Maggiore, a small party of Roman girls, who were strangely mixing mirth
+and worship,--chatting, laughing, and singing hymns to the Virgin,--just
+as Scotch maidens on a harvest field might diversify their labours with
+"Home, Sweet Home," or any other air. This irreverent familiarity shows
+itself in other ways, after the manner of the ancient pagans, who took
+strange liberties with their gods. When the drawing of the lottery is
+about to take place, the Romans most devoutly supplicate the Virgin for
+success; but should their number come out a blank, they may be heard
+reviling her in the open street, and applying to her every conceivable
+epithet of abuse.
+
+So far as the moral code of Romanism is concerned, sinless perfection is
+no difficult attainment. The commands of the Church are six; and these
+six have quite thrown into the shade the ten of the decalogue. They are
+the payment of tithes,--the not marrying in the prohibited seasons,--the
+hearing of mass on Sundays and festivals,--the keeping of the
+prescribed fasts,--confession once a-year at least,--and the taking of
+the communion in Easter week. The last two are strictly enforced. On the
+approach of Easter, the priest goes round and gives a ticket to every
+parishioner; and if these are not returned through the confessional, a
+policeman waits on the person, and tells him that he has been remiss in
+his religious duties, and must submit himself to the Church's
+discipline, which he, the Church's officer, has come to administer to
+him in the Church's penitentiary or dungeons. Innumerable are the
+methods taken by the Romans to evade confession, among which the more
+common is to hire some one to confess for them. Others, though they go,
+confess nothing of moment. "You all here believe in the Pope and
+purgatory," I remarked to a commissario one day. "A few old women do,"
+he replied. "Do _you_ not believe in them?" I asked. "I believe in one
+God; but I do not believe in one priest," said he. "I hope you will say
+so next time you go to confession," I observed. "I don't confess," he
+replied. "How can you avoid confessing?" I enquired. "I pay an old
+woman," he answered, "who can confess for me every day if she pleases."
+There is not a greater contrast in the world than that which exists
+betwixt the cost of the papal religion and its fruits,--betwixt the
+numbers and wealth of the clergy, and the knowledge and morality of the
+people. Under these heads we append below some very instructive
+notices.[8]
+
+In fine, one word will suffice to describe the religion of Rome; and
+that word is ATHEISM. There may be exceptions, but as a general rule
+the Romans believe in nothing. And how can it be otherwise? Of the
+gospel they know absolutely nothing beyond what the priest tells them;
+even that he, the priest, can change a wafer into God, and, by giving it
+to people to eat, can save them from hell. This the Romans cannot
+believe; and therefore their creed is a negation. In the room of
+indifference, which could not be said to believe or disbelieve, because
+it never thought on the subject, has now come intense hatred of the
+Papacy, from the destruction of the nation's hopes under Pio Nono. He
+who seven years ago heard the streets of Rome echoing to the cry that
+she alone was _La Regina delle Genti_,--"sat a queen, and should see no
+sorrow,"--can best form an estimate of the terrible re-action that has
+followed the tumult of that hour, and can best understand how it has
+happened, that now the hatred wherewith the Italians hate the Papacy is
+greater than the love wherewith they loved it. Tradition, by its
+fooleries,--the mass, by its monstrosity,--the priest, by his
+immoralities,--and, above all, the Pope, by his perfidy and
+tyranny,--have made the papal religion to stink in the nostrils of the
+great mass of the Roman people. You might as well look for religion in
+pandemonium itself, as in a country groaning under such a complication
+of vices and miseries. Nay, there is more faith in pandemonium than in
+Rome; for we are told that the devils believe and tremble; but in Rome,
+generally speaking, there is faith in nothing. And for this fearful
+state of matters the Papacy, beyond all question, is responsible.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII.
+
+MENTAL STATE OF THE PRIESTHOOD IN ITALY.
+
+     First Impressions in Rome erroneous--The unseen Rome--Her
+     devotement to one thing--In what light do the Priests in Italy
+     regard their own System?--Can they possibly believe their Cheats to
+     be Miracles?--A goodly number of the Priests Infidels--Others never
+     thought on the subject--Some have strong Misgivings--Others
+     convinced of the Falsehood of that Church, but lack Courage or
+     Opportunity to leave it--Making Allowance for all these Classes,
+     the Majority of Priests do believe in their System--The Explanation
+     of this--The real Ruler in the Church of Rome, not the Pope, nor
+     the Cardinals, nor the Jesuits, but the System--Human
+     Machinery--The Pontiff--The College of Cardinals--Antonelli--The
+     Bishops and Priests--The Jesuits--Their Activity and Importance at
+     Rome--Their Appearance described.
+
+
+When an Englishman visits the Eternal City, he is very apt, during the
+first days of his sojourn, to underrate the power and influence of the
+Papal system. At home he has been used to see power associated with
+splendour, and surrounded with the fruits and monuments of intelligence.
+At Rome everything on which he sets his eye bears marks of a growing
+barbarism and decay. Outside the walls of the city is a vast desert,
+attesting the utter extinction of industry. Within is an air of
+stagnation and idleness, which bespeaks the utter absence of all mental
+activity. A very considerable portion of the population have no
+occupation but begging. The naked heads, necks, and feet of the monks
+and friars are offensive from want of cleanliness. The higher
+ecclesiastics even are coarse and vulgar men. The fine monuments reared
+by the taste and wealth of former ages want keeping. Their churches,
+despite the paintings and statuary with which they are filled, are
+rendered disagreeable by the beggars that haunt them, and the incense
+that is continually burned in them. Their very processions do not rise
+above a tawdry half-barbaric grandeur; and one must be far gone in the
+Puseyite malady before such exhibitions can inspire him with anything
+like reverence. The visitor looks around on this strange scene, so
+unlike what his imagination had pictured, and exclaims, "Where and in
+what lies the secret of this city's power?" Here there is neither art,
+nor industry, nor wealth, nor knowledge! Here all the bodily and all the
+mental faculties of man appear to be folded up in a worse than mediaeval
+stupor. Where are the elements of that power for which this city is
+renowned, and by which she is able to thwart and control the civilized
+and powerful Governments of the north of Europe? Would, says he to
+himself, that those who venerate Rome when divided from her by the Alps
+and the ocean, would come here and see with their own eyes her
+contemptible vileness and inconceivable degradation; and that those
+statesmen who are moved by a secret fear to bow the knee to her, would
+come hither and mark the baseness of her before whom they are content to
+lower the honour and independence of their country! Such, we say, are
+the first impressions of the visitor to Rome.
+
+But a few days suffice to correct this erroneous estimate. The person
+looks around him; he looks below him. There he discovers the real Rome.
+It is not the Rome that is seen,--it is the Rome that is unseen,--before
+which the nations tremble. Beneath his feet are tremendous agencies at
+work. There are the pent-up fires that shake the globe. Rome, cut off
+from all the world, and surrounded by leagues of silent and blackened
+deserts, is the centre of energies that rest not day nor night, and the
+action of which is felt at the very extremities of the earth. It seems,
+indeed, as if Rome had been set free from all the anxieties and labours
+which occupy the minds and hands of the rest of the world, of very
+purpose that she might attend to only one thing. The labours of the
+husbandman and the artificer she has forborne. Like the lilies of the
+field, she toils not, neither does she spin. She sits in the midst of
+her deserts, like the sorceress on the heath, or the conspirator in his
+den, hatching plots against the world. Rome is the pandemonium of the
+earth, and the Pope is the Lucifer of the world's drama. Fallen he is
+from the heaven of power and grandeur which he occupied in the twelfth
+century; and he and his compeers lie sunk in a very gulph of anarchy and
+barbarism. Lifting up his eyes, he beholds afar off the happy nations of
+Protestantism, reaping the reward of a free Bible and a free Government,
+in the riches of their commerce and the stability of their power. The
+sight is tormenting and intolerable, and the pontiff is stung thereby
+into ceaseless attempts to retrieve his fall. If he cannot mount to his
+old seat, and sit there once more in superhuman pride and unapproachable
+power above the bodies and the souls of men, he may at least hope to
+draw down those he so much envies into the same gulph with himself.
+Hence the villanies and plots of all kinds of which Rome is full, and
+which form a source of danger to the nations of Christendom, from which
+they may hope to be delivered only when the Papacy shall have been
+finally destroyed.
+
+What I propose here is to sketch the _mental state_ of the priests of
+Italy, so far as my opportunities enabled me to judge. The subject is
+more recondite than the foregoing; the facts are less accessible; and my
+statements must partake more of the inferential than did those embraced
+in the former branches of the subject.
+
+The first question that arises is, in what light do the priests in Italy
+regard their own system? Do they look upon it as an unrivalled compound
+of imposture and tyranny,--a cunning invention for procuring mitres,
+tiaras, purple robes, and other good things for themselves? or do they
+regard it as indeed founded in truth, and clothed with the sanction of
+heaven? They are behind the scenes, and have access to see and hear many
+things which are not meant for the eye and ear of the public. The man
+who pulls the strings of a winking Madonna can scarce persuade himself,
+one should think, that the movement that follows is the effect of
+supernatural power. The priest who liquefies the blood of St Januarius
+by the warmth of his hand or the warmth of the fire, must know that what
+he has performed is neither more nor less than a very ordinary juggle.
+The monk who falls a rummaging in the Catacombs, or in any of the old
+graveyards about Rome, and finds there a parcel of decayed bones, which
+he passes off as those of Saint Theodosia or Saint Anathanasius, but
+which are as likely to be the bones of an old pagan, or a Goth, or a
+brigand, can hardly believe, one should suppose, his own tale. If the
+Pope believes in his own relics, what conceptions must he have of Peter?
+What a strange configuration of body must he believe the apostle to have
+had! Peter must have been a man with some dozen of heads; with a score
+of arms, and a hundred fingers or so on each arm; in short, a perfect
+realization of the old pagan fable of the giant Briareus. The Pope must
+believe this, or he must believe that he gives his attestation to what
+is not true. Above all, one can hardly imagine it possible that any man
+in whom reason had not been utterly quenched could believe in the
+monstrous dogma of transubstantiation. What! can a priest at any hour he
+pleases give existence to Him who exists from eternity? Can he enclose
+within a little silver box that Almighty One whom the heaven, even the
+heaven of heavens, cannot contain? Let a man confess at the bar of the
+High Court of Edinburgh that he believes himself to be God, and the
+Court will pronounce that that man is insane, and will hold him
+incompetent to manage his affairs. And yet every Roman Catholic priest
+professes to believe a more startling dogma,--even that he is the
+creator of God. And yet, instead of calling that insanity, we must, I
+suppose, call it religion. Seeing, then, the priests are called every
+day to do things which their senses must tell them are juggles, and to
+profess their belief in dogmas which their reason must tell them are
+monstrous and blasphemous absurdities, is it possible, you ask, that the
+priests in Italy can believe in their own system? I must here say, that
+I do think the majority of them do believe in it.
+
+A goodly number of the priests of Italy are infidels. They no more
+believe in the Pope than they believe in the pagan Jupiter. But then,
+were they to speak out their disbelief, and to say that purgatory is a
+mere bugbear for frightening men and getting their money, they know that
+a dungeon would instantly be their lot; and infidelity has little of the
+martyr spirit in it. These men, like Leo the Tenth, as thorough an
+infidel as ever lived, hold that it would be the height of folly to
+quarrel with a fable that brings them so much gain. Others are mere
+worldly men. They were never at the pains to inquire whether their
+system is true or false. They sing their mass in the morning; they pass
+their forenoons at the cafe, sipping coffee, and taking a hand at
+cards; a stoup of wine washes down a substantial dinner; and, after a
+saunter along the Corso, or an airing on the Pincian, they doff their
+clerical vestments, and go to sup with the nuns, who have the reputation
+of being excellent cooks.
+
+Others there are whose minds are occasionally visited by strong
+misgivings. The cloud, so to speak, will open for a moment, and reveal
+to their astonished sight, not the majestic form of Truth, but a
+gigantic and monstrous imposture. A mysterious hand at times lifts the
+veil, and lo! they find themselves in the presence, not of a divinity,
+but of a demon. They disclose their doubts when they next go to
+confession. My son, says the father confessor, these are the suggestions
+of the Evil One. You must arm yourself against the Tempter by fasting
+and penance. A hair shirt or an iron girdle is called in to silence the
+voice of reason and the remonstrances of conscience; and here the matter
+ends. And there are a few--in every age there have been a few such--in
+the Church of Rome, and at present they are very considerably on the
+increase, who, in the midst of darkness, by some wondrous means have
+seen the light. A tract, a Bible, or some Protestant friend whom
+Providence had thrown in their way, or some one of the few passages of
+Scripture inserted in their Breviary, may have taught them a better way
+than that of Rome. Instead of stopping short at the altar of Mary, or at
+any of the thousand shrines which Rome has erected as so many barriers
+between the sinner and God, they go at once to the Divine mercy-seat,
+and pour their supplications direct into the ear of the Great Mediator.
+You ask, why do these men remain in a Church which they see to be
+apostate? Fain would they fly, but they know not how or where. They lift
+their eyes to the Alps on the one side,--to the ocean on the other.
+Alas! they may surmount these barriers; but more difficult still than
+to scale the mountains or to traverse the ocean is it to escape beyond
+the power of Rome. Woe to the unhappy man who begins to feel his
+fetters! He awakes to find that he is in a wide prison, with a sentinel
+posted at every outlet: escape seems hopeless; and the man buries his
+secret in his breast.
+
+Some few there are who, more daring by nature, or specially strengthened
+from above, adventure on the immense hazards of flight. Of these, some
+are caught, thrown into a dungeon, and are heard of no more. Others find
+their way to England, or some other Protestant State. But here new
+trials await them. They are ignorant of our language perhaps. They find
+themselves among strangers, whose manners seem to them cold and distant.
+They are without means of living; and, carrying with them too, it may
+be, some of the stains of their former profession, they encounter
+difficulties which are the more stumbling that they are unexpected. On
+these various grounds, the number of priests who leave the Church of
+Rome has been, and always will be, small, till some great revolution or
+upbreak takes place in that Church.
+
+But, making the most ample allowance for all these classes,--for the men
+who are atheists and infidels,--for the mere worldings, whose only tie
+to their Church is the gain it brings them,--and for those who are
+either doubters, or whose doubts have passed into full conviction that
+the Church of the Pope is not the Church of Jesus Christ,--making, I
+say, full allowance for all these, I have little doubt that the majority
+of the priests in Italy,--it may be not much more than a majority, but
+still a majority,--are sincere believers in their system.
+
+They are not ignorant of the frauds, the knaveries, the fables, and
+hypocrisies, by which that system is supported. They cannot shut their
+eyes to these, which they regard, in fact, as sanctified by the end to
+which they are devoted; but they separate between these and the system
+itself; and though they cannot tell the line where truth ends and
+falsehood begins, still they look upon their system, on the whole, as
+founded in truth, and carrying with it the sanction of Heaven. Indeed,
+belief is a weak term to express the power the system has over them. It
+is rather a paralyzing awe, a freezing terror, like that with which his
+grim deity inspires the barbarian, which holds captive the strongest
+mind, and lays reason and conscience prostrate in the dust. Such I
+believe to be the state of mind of the greater number of the Italian
+priesthood.
+
+But how comes this? What is it which has produced this universal
+slavery? Is it the Pope? Is it the cardinals? Is it the Jesuits? No; for
+these men, though the tyrants of others, are themselves slaves. All are
+bound by the same chain of adamant, to the car of the same demon. A
+mournful procession of dead men truly, with the triple crown in front,
+and the sandals of the barefooted Capuchin bringing up the rear. What is
+it, I repeat, that holds the whole body in subjection, from the Pope
+down to the friar? It is the system, the abstract system, with its
+overwhelming prestige,--that system which lives on though popes die; the
+genius of the Papacy, if you will. This is the real monarch of that
+spiritual kingdom.
+
+A little power of mental abstraction,--and the subtile genius of the
+Italian gives him that power in a high degree,--will enable any one to
+separate betwixt the system and its agents. Some one has remarked, that
+he could form an abstraction of a lord mayor, not only without his
+horse, and gown, and gold chain, but even without the stature, features,
+hands, and feet of any particular lord mayor. The same can be done of
+the Papacy. We can form an abstraction of the Papacy not only without
+the tiara and the keys, but even without the stature and lineaments, the
+hands and feet, of any particular Pope. When we have formed such an
+abstraction, we have got the real ruler of the Papacy. That it is the
+system that is the dominant power in the Church of Rome, is evident from
+this one fact, namely, that councils have sometimes deposed the Pope to
+save the Papacy. There is in the Pope's kirk, then, a power greater than
+the Pope. The system has taken body and shape, as it were, and sits upon
+the Seven Hills, a mysterious, awe-inspiring divinity or demon; and the
+Pope, equally with the friar, bows his head and does obeisance. Wherever
+the pontiff looks,--whether backward into history, or around him in the
+world,--there are the monuments of this ever living, ever present, and
+all pervading power. It requires more force than the mind of fallen man
+is capable of, to believe that a system which has filled history with
+its deeds and the world with its trophies, which has compelled the
+homage of myriads and myriads of minds, and before which the haughtiest
+conquerors and the most puissant intellects have bowed with the docility
+of children, is, after all, an unreality,--a mere spectre of the middle
+ages,--a ghost conjured up by credulity and knavery from the tombs of
+defunct idolatries. This, I say, is the true state of things in Italy.
+Its priesthood are subdued by their own system,--by its high claims to
+antiquity,--its world-wide dominion,--its imposing though faded
+magnificence,--its perverted logic,--its pseudo sanctity. These not only
+carry it over the reason, but in some degree over the senses also; and
+the more fully persuaded the priests are of the truth and divinity of
+their system, they feel only the more fully warranted to employ fraud
+and force in its support,--the winking Madonna to convince one class,
+and the dungeon and the iron chain to silence the other.
+
+Having spoken of the abstract and spiritual power that reigns over
+Italy, and, I may say, over the whole Catholic world, let me now speak
+of the corporeal and human machinery by which the Papacy is carried on.
+
+First comes the Pope. Pio Nono is a man of sixty-three. His years and
+the various misfortunes of his reign sit lightly upon him. Were the Pope
+much given to reflection, there are not wanting unpleasant topics enough
+to darken the clear Italian sunlight, as it streams in through the
+windows of the Vatican palace. Once was he chased from Rome; and now
+that he is returned, can he call Rome his own? Not he. The real master
+of Rome is the commandant of the French garrison. And while outside the
+walls are the dead whom he slew with the sword of France, inside are the
+living, whose sullen scowl or fierce glare he may see through the French
+files, as he rides out of an afternoon.[9] But Pio Nono takes all in
+good part. There is not a wrinkle on his brow; no unpleasant thought
+appears to shade the jovial light of his broad face. He sits down to
+dinner with evidently a good appetite; he sleeps soundly at night, and
+troubles not his poor head by brooding over misfortunes which he cannot
+mend, or charging himself with the direction of plots which he is not
+competent to manage. But, if not fitted to take the lead in cabinets,
+nature has formed him to shine in a procession. He has a portly figure,
+a face radiant with blandness, dissimulation, and vanity; and he looks
+every inch the Pope, as he is carried shoulder-high in St Peter's, and
+sits blazing in his jewelled tiara and purple robes, between two huge
+fans of peacocks' feathers. To these accomplishments he adds that of a
+fine voice; and when he gives his blessing from the balcony of St
+Peter's, or assembles the Romans in the Forum, as he did on a late
+occasion, when he lifted up hands dripping with his subjects' blood, to
+call his hearers to repentance, his tones ring out, in the deep calm air
+of Rome, clear and loud as those of a bell. Such is the man who is the
+nominal head of the Papacy. We say the _nominal_ head; for such a system
+as the Papacy, involving the consideration of so many interests, and
+requiring such skilful steering to clear the rocks and quicksands amid
+which the bark of Peter is now moving, demands the presence at the helm
+of a steadier hand and a clearer eye than those of Pio Nono.
+
+I come next to the College of Cardinals. In so large a body we find, as
+might be expected, various grades of both intellectual and moral
+character; and of course there are the corresponding indications on
+their faces. An overbearing arrogance, which always communicates to the
+countenance an air of vulgarity, more or less, is a very prevailing
+trait. The average intellect in the sacred college is not so high as one
+would expect in men who have risen to the top of their profession; and
+for this reason, perhaps, that birth has fully more to do with their
+elevation than talent or services. One scrutinises their faces curiously
+when one remembers that these men are the living representatives of the
+apostles. They profess to hold the rank, to be clothed with the
+functions, and to inherit the supernatural endowments, of the first
+inspired preachers. There you may look for the burning eloquence of a
+Paul, the boldness of a Peter, the love of a John, the humility,
+patience, zeal, of all. You go round the circle, and examine one by one
+the faces of these living Pauls and Peters. Verily, if their prototypes
+were like their modern representatives, the spread of the gospel at
+first was by far the mightiest miracle the world ever saw. On one you
+find the unmistakeable marks of sordid appetite and self-indulgence: on
+another, low intrigue has imprinted the most sinister lines: a third is
+a mere man of the world;--his prayers and vigils have been kept at the
+shrine of pleasure. But along with much that is sordid and worldly,
+there are astute and far-seeing minds in the sacred college; and
+foremost in this class stands Antonelli. His pale face, and clear, cold,
+penetrating eye, reveal the presiding genius of the Papacy. He is the
+Prime Minister of the Pope; and though his is not the brow on which the
+tiara sits, he is the real head of the system. From his station on the
+Seven Hills his keen eye watches and directs every movement in the papal
+world. Those mighty projects which the Papacy is endeavouring to realize
+in every part of the earth have their first birth in his fertile and
+daring brain.
+
+His family are well known at Rome, and some of his ancestors were men of
+renown in their own way. His uncle was the most famous Italian brigand
+of modern times, and his exploits are still celebrated in the popular
+songs of the country. The occupation of the yet more celebrated nephew
+is not so dissimilar after all; for what is Antonelli, but the leader of
+a crew of bandits, whose hordes scour Europe, arrayed in sacerdotal
+garb, and in the name of heaven rob men of their wealth, their liberty,
+and their souls, and carry back their booty to their den on the Seven
+Hills.
+
+Next come the Bishops and Priests. These men are the agents and spies of
+the cardinals, as the cardinals of the Pope. The time which they are
+required to devote to spiritual, or rather, I should say, to official
+duties, is small indeed. To study the Scriptures, visit the sick,
+instruct the people, which form the proper work of ministers of the
+gospel, are duties altogether unknown in Rome. There, as I have said,
+they convert and save men, not by preaching, but by giving them wafers
+to swallow. This is a short and simple process; and when a priest has
+gone through this pantomime once, he can repeat it all his days after
+without the slightest preparation. Their time and energies, therefore,
+can be almost wholly devoted to other work. And what is that work? It
+is, in short, to propagate their superstition, and rivet the fetters of
+the priesthood upon the population. The bishops and priests manage the
+upper classes; and for the lower grades of Romans there are friars and
+monks of every order and of every colour. The city swarms with these
+men. The frogs and lice of Egypt were not more numerous, and certainly
+not more filthy. Unwashed and uncombed, they enter, with their sandalled
+feet and shaven crowns, every dwelling, and penetrate into every bosom.
+You see them in the wine-shops; you see them mixing with the populace on
+the street; while others, with wallets on their backs, may be seen
+climbing the stairs of the houses, for the double purpose of begging for
+the poor, but in reality for their own paunch, and of retailing the
+latest miracle, or some thousand times told legend. Thus the darkness is
+carried down to the very bottom of society; and while the Pope and his
+cardinals sit at the summit in gilded glory, the monk, in robe of serge
+and girdle of rope, is busied at the bottom; and, to support their
+individual and united action, the priests have two powerful institutions
+at Rome, like foot soldiers advancing under cover of artillery,--the
+Confessional and the Inquisition.
+
+But emphatically _the_ order at Rome is the Jesuits. They are the prime
+movers in all that is done there, as well as the keenest supporters of
+the Papacy in all parts of the world. They are the most indefatigable
+confessors, as well as the most eloquent preachers. Their regularity is
+like that of nature itself. Every hour of the day has its duty; and
+their motions are as punctual as that of the heavenly bodies. Duly every
+morning as the clock strikes five, they are at the altar or in the
+confessional. Their head-quarters are at the Gesu. I shall suppose that
+the reader is passing through the long corridor of that magnificent
+church. Every three or four paces is a door, leading to a small
+apartment, which is occupied by a father. Outside each door hangs a
+sheet of paper, on which the father puts a list of the employments for
+the day. When he goes out, he sticks a pin opposite the piece of
+business which has called him away, so that, should any one call and
+find him not within, he can know at once, by consulting the card, how
+the father is occupied, and whether he is accessible at that particular
+time. Among the items of business which usually appear on the card,
+"conference" is now one of very frequent occurrence, which indicates no
+inconsiderable amount of business, having reference to foreign parts, at
+present on the hands of the order.
+
+I shall suppose that the reader is passing along the Corso. Has he
+marked that tall thin man who has just passed him,
+
+ "Walking in beauty like the night?"
+
+There is an air of tidiness in his dress, and of comparative cleanliness
+on his person. He wears a small round cap, with three corners; or, if a
+hat, one of large brim. Neither cowl nor scapular fetters his motions; a
+plain black gown, not unlike a frock-coat, envelopes his person. How
+softly his footsteps fall! You scarce hear their sound as he glides past
+you. His face, how unruffled! As the lake, when the winds are asleep,
+hides under a moveless surface, resplendent as a sheet of gold, the dark
+caverns at its bottom, so does this calm, impassable face the workings
+of the heart beneath. This man holds in his hands the threads of a
+conspiracy which is exploding at that moment, mayhap in China, or in the
+Pacific, or in Peru, or in London.
+
+He is at Rome at present, and appears in his proper form and dress as a
+Jesuit. But that man can change his country, he can change his tongue,
+and, Proteus-like, multiply his shapes among mankind. Next year that man
+whom you now meet on the streets of Rome may be in Scotland in the
+humble guise of a pedlar, vending at once his earthly and his spiritual
+wares. Or he may be in England, acting as tutor in some noble family, or
+in the humbler capacity of body-servant to a gentleman, or, it may be,
+filling a pulpit in the Church of England. He may be a Protestant
+schoolmaster in America, a dictator in Paraguay, a travelling companion
+in France and Switzerland, a Liberal or a Conservative--as best suits
+his purpose--in Germany, a Brahmin in India, a Mandarin in China. He can
+be anything and everything,--a believer in every creed, and a worshipper
+of every god,--to serve his Church. Rome has hundreds of thousands of
+such men spread over all the countries of the world. With the ring of
+Gyges, they walk to and fro over the earth, seeing all, yet themselves
+unseen. They can unlock the cabinets of statesmen, and enter unobserved
+the closets of princes. They can take their seat in synods and
+assemblies, and dive into the secrets of families. Their grand work is
+to sow the seeds of heresies in Churches and of dissensions in States,
+that, when the harvest of strife and division is fully matured, Rome may
+come in and reap the fruits.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX.
+
+SOCIAL AND DOMESTIC CUSTOMS OF THE ROMANS.[10]
+
+     A Roman House--Wretched Dwellings of Working-Classes--How Working
+     Men spend their Leisure Hours--Roman mode of reckoning
+     Time--Handicrafts and Trades in Rome--Meals--Breakfast, Dinner,
+     &c.--Games--Amusements--Marriages--Deaths and Funerals--Wills
+     tampered with--Popular regard to Omens--Superstitions connected
+     with the Pope's Name--Terrors of the Priesthood--Weather, and
+     Journey Homeward.
+
+
+I shall now endeavour to bring before my readers, in a short chapter,
+the daily inner life of Rome. First of all, let us take a peep into a
+Roman dwelling. The mansions of the nobility and the houses of the
+wealthier classes are built on the plan of the ancient Romans. There is
+a portal in front, a paved court in the middle, a quadrangle enclosing
+it, with suites of apartments running all round, tier on tier, to
+perhaps four or five stories. The palaces want nothing but cleanliness
+to make them sumptuous. They are of marble, lofty in style, and chaste
+though ornate in design. The pictures of the great masters that once
+adorned them are now scattered over northern Europe, and the frames are
+filled with copies. For this the poverty or extravagance of their owners
+is to blame. The best pictures in Rome are those in the churches, and
+these are sadly dimmed and obscured by the smoke of the incense. A
+fire-place in a Roman house is a sort of phenomenon; and yet the climate
+of Rome, unless at certain times, is not that balmy, intoxicating
+element which we imagine it to be. During my stay there, I had to
+encounter alternate deluges of rain, with lightning, and cutting blasts
+of the Tramontana. The comfort of an Italian house, especially in
+winter, depends more on its exposure to the sun than on any arrangement
+for heating it. Some few, however, have fire-places in the rooms. The
+kitchen is placed on the top of the house,--the very reverse of its
+position with us. The ends sought hereby are safety, and the convenience
+of discharging the culinary effluvia into the atmosphere. The fire-place
+is unique, and not unlike that of a smithy. There is a cap for sparks;
+and about three feet above the floor stands a stone sole, in which holes
+are cut for the _fornelli_, which are square cast-iron grated boxes for
+holding the wood char, upon which the culinary utensils are placed.
+These are but ill adapted for preparing a roast. John Bull would look
+with sovereign contempt, or downright despair, according to the state of
+his stomach, on the thing called a roast in Rome. There it is seldom
+seen beyond the size of a beef-steak. Much small fry is roasted with a
+ratchet-wheel and spit. This is wound up with a weight, and revolves
+over the fire, which is strewed upon the hearth.
+
+The working classes generally purchase their meals cooked in the
+_Osteria Cucinante_, where food and wine are to be had. These are
+numerous in Rome. They may be fairly called the homes of the working
+classes, for there they lounge so long as their baiocchi last. The
+houses of the working classes are comfortless in the extreme. They are
+of stone, and roomy, but unfurnished. A couple of straw-bottomed chairs
+and a bed make up generally the entire furnishings of a Roman house.
+Indeed, the latter article appears to be the only reason for having a
+house at all. So soon as the day's labour is over, the working men
+resort to the wine and eating shops and coffeehouses, where they remain
+till the time of shutting, which is two and three hours of the night.
+The Roman reckoning of the day begins at Ave Maria, which is a quarter
+of an hour after sunset. The first hour of the night is consequently an
+hour after Ave Maria, from which the Romans reckon consecutively till
+the twenty-fourth hour. As the sun sets earlier or later, according to
+the season of the year, the hours vary of course, and the same period of
+the day that is indicated by the twelfth hour at the time of equinox, is
+indicated by the eleventh hour in midsummer, and the thirteenth hour in
+midwinter. This is very annoying to travellers from the north of Europe.
+"What o'clock is it?" you ask; and are told in reply, "It is the
+eighteenth hour and three quarters." To find the time of day from this
+answer, you must calculate from Ave Maria, with reference to the time of
+sunset at that particular season of the year. Mid-day is announced in
+Rome by the firing of a cannon from the castle of St Angelo. The French
+reckon time as we do, and may possibly, before they leave Rome, teach
+the Romans to adopt the same mode of reckoning.
+
+When I stated in a former chapter that trade there is not in Rome, my
+readers, of course, understood me to mean that it was comparatively
+annihilated, not totally extinguished. The Romans must have houses,
+however poor; clothes, however homely; and food, however plain; and the
+supply of these wants necessitates the existence, to a certain extent,
+of the various trades and handicrafts. But in Rome these exist in an
+embryotic state, and are carried on after the most antiquated
+modes,--much as in Britain five hundred years ago. The principal public
+works,--for by this name must we dignify the little quiet concerns in
+the Eternal City,--are situated in the neighbourhood of Trastevere, the
+decidedly plebeian quarter of Rome, although it would not do to say so
+to a Trasteverian. There are woollen manufactories and candle
+manufactories. The chief customer of the latter is the Church. The
+armoury and mint are contiguously situated to St Peter's. The tanning of
+hides is extensively carried on along the banks of the Tiber, whose
+classic "gold" is not unfrequently streaked with oozy streams of a dirty
+white. Flour-mills are numerous. Amid the brawls which disturb the
+Trastevere, the ear can catch the ring of the shuttle, for there a few
+hand-loom weavers pursue their calling. There is a tobacco manufactory
+in the same quarter; and I must state, for truth compels me, that most
+of the Roman women take snuff. From the windows of the Vatican Museum
+one can see the tile and brick maker busy at his trade behind the
+palace. Extensive potteries exist near to Ripa Grande, where the most of
+the kitchen and chamber utensils for city and country are made. I may
+here note, that most of the cooking utensils of the working man are of
+earthenware, and stand the fire remarkably well.
+
+There are about a score of soap-works in Rome, but the soap manufactured
+in these establishments is abominable. My friend Mr Stewart informed me
+that he brought a soap-boiler from Glasgow, who understood his business
+thoroughly, and had soap made in Rome as we have it in this country, but
+without the palm-oil. This ingredient was not used, because, not being
+in the tariff, it was thought that, should it be imported, it would in
+all probability be classed under "perfumeries," and charged an
+exorbitant duty. The soap being a new thing in Rome, and unlike the
+nauseous stuff there in use, a clamour was raised against it, to the
+effect that it produced sickness, and caused headache and vomiting. The
+Roman ladies, in certain circumstances, are most fastidious about
+smells, though why they should in Rome, of all places in Europe, is most
+unaccountable. The Government, compassionating their sufferings, seized
+a parcel of the soap, and caused it to be analyzed by a chemist. The
+chemist's report was not unfavourable; nevertheless, owing to the strong
+prejudice against the article, the sale was so limited, that its
+manufacture had to be discontinued as unremunerative. Besides the trades
+already enumerated, there are in the Eternal City marble-cutters,
+mosaics and cameo workers, sculptors and painters, vine-dressers,
+olive-dressers, vegetable cultivators, silk-worm rearers, and a few
+manufacturers of silk scarfs. There are, too, in a feeble state, the
+trades connected with the making and mending of clothes, the building
+and repairing of houses. And to feel how feeble these trades are, it is
+only necessary to see the garments of the Romans, how coarse in material
+and how uncourtly in cut. The peasant throws a sheep's skin over him,
+and is clad; the lower classes of the towns look as if they fabricated
+their own garments, from the spinning upwards. To the best of my
+knowledge, there was only one house being built in all Rome when I was
+there; and that was rising on an old foundation near the Capitol. The
+makers of votive offerings and wax-candles for the saints are a more
+numerous class than the masons in Rome. Washer-women form a numerous
+body, as do lodging-house keepers,--a class that includes many of the
+nobles. The clerks are numberless, and very ill paid, having in many
+cases to attend two or three employers to eke out a living. Men are
+invariably employed as house-servants in Rome. They cook, clean the
+chambers, make up the beds, in short, do everything that is necessary to
+be done in a house.
+
+The workman begins his day's labour at six or seven, as the season of
+the year may be. He breakfasts on coffee, or on coffee and milk in equal
+proportions, or on warm milk alone. Bread is used, which he soaks in his
+tumbler of coffee. Few take butter; fewer still eggs or ham, for
+pecuniary reasons. Many of the working classes take soup of bread paste;
+others take salad and olive-oil with bread. The peasantry cut up their
+coarse bread, saturate it with olive-oil, dust it over with pepper, and
+eat it along with _finocchio_ (fennel), the vegetable being unboiled.
+Roasted or boiled chestnuts are extensively used at all times of the
+day. They are to be had on the streets; many making a living by roasting
+and selling these fruits.
+
+Mid-day is the common dining hour. The meal generally consists of soup
+of bread, herbs, paste, or macaroni, butcher-meat, fowls, snails (white,
+fed on grass), frogs, entrails of fowls and young birds, omelettes,
+sausages, salad with olive-oil, dried olives, fruit, and wine, according
+to the circumstances of the person. The country people during harvest
+make their dinner of coarse bread, to which they add a few cloves of
+garlic, a little goat's-milk cheese, and sour wine diluted with water.
+Many live on bread alone, with wine. Supper is generally a substantial
+meal, consisting more or less of the same materials as are used for
+dinner, salad and wine never failing. Tomatoes are extensively used, ate
+alone, or serving for all kinds of dinner and supper stews. Green figs
+are much used. Polenda is a universal article of food amongst the
+peasantry. It is Indian corn ground and boiled, and made to take the
+place that _porridge_ does in Scotland, with this difference, that it is
+boiled in pork fat.
+
+The amusements of the working classes are not numerous. Moro and the
+bowls are their two principal games. The first is generally played at in
+twos, and is not unlike our schoolboy game of _odds_ or _evens_. The
+Romans, at this game, however, put themselves into the attitude of
+gladiators,--each naming a number, and extending at the same time so
+many fingers; and the party that names the number corresponding with the
+number of fingers extended by both is the victor. So many _guesses_
+constitute the game. The attitude and airs of the combatants in this
+simple game,--which seems fitter for children than for men,--are very
+ridiculous. The other chief amusement of the Romans is bowls. These are
+made of wood. So many hands are ranged on this side, and an equal number
+on that; and the game proceeds more or less after the fashion of
+curling. The feast days,--which are numerous in Rome,--on which labour
+is interdicted under a heavy penalty, are mostly passed at bowls; as the
+Sabbaths, on which labour is also forbidden, though under a much smaller
+penalty, are generally with the drawing of the lottery. All places of
+rendezvous beyond the walls have the sign of the balls, along with the
+accompanying intimation, _Vino, Bianco e Rosso_. Encircling the
+courtyard adjoining the house is a broad straw-shed or canopy, beneath
+which the crowd assembles, young and old, male and female, gathering
+round small tables, and discussing the _fiasci_ of Orvieto and toast.
+The game is proceeding all the while in their neighbourhood, the stakes
+being so many more flasks of the choice wine of Orvieto. This continues
+till Ave Maria, when the crowd break up, withdraw to the city, and,
+after a visit to the wine-shops within the walls, go home, and (as I
+was naively told by a Scotch lady resident in Rome) beat their wives as
+much as they do in England.
+
+In the coffeehouses the grand sources of amusement are dice and drafts,
+along with backgammon and billiards. The latter two games are confined
+to the upper and middle classes. Most of the upper classes, I believe,
+have billiard-rooms at home, for family use and conversazione-party
+amusement. In the absence of newspapers, journals, and books, it would
+be impossible, without these expedients, to get through the evening. All
+who can afford to attend the theatre (more properly opera), do so as
+regularly as the night comes; and the scenes and acts which they there
+witness form the basis of Italian conversation. It is at least a safe
+subject. No Roman who has the fear of a prison before him would discuss
+politics in a mixed company. In Rome there is an utter dearth of
+employment for young men. They dare not travel; they cannot visit a
+neighbouring town without the permission of Government, which is only
+sometimes to be had; they have nothing to read; and one can imagine, in
+these circumstances, the utter waste of mental and moral energies which
+must ensue among this class in Rome. These young men have a sore battle
+to keep up appearances. They do their utmost absolutely for a cigar and
+cane; but their success is not always such as so great ingenuity and
+patience deserve. You may see them in half-dozens, lounging for hours
+about the coffeehouses, without, in many cases, spending more than a
+single baiocchi on coffee, and sometimes not even that.
+
+Marriage is negotiated, not by the young persons, but by the parents.
+The mother charges herself with everything appertaining to the making of
+the match, conducting even the correspondence. Of course, to address a
+billet doux to the young lady would be to infringe upon the prerogatives
+of mamma, which must ever be held inviolate if success is seriously
+aimed at. The mother receives all such epistles, and answers them in the
+daughter's behalf. The young lady is closely watched, and is never left
+a moment in the society of her intended partner previous to marriage,
+unless in the presence of a third party. The Romans thus marry by sight,
+and have no means, so far at least as regards personal intercourse, of
+ascertaining the dispositions, tastes, intelligence, and habits of each
+other. After marriage the lady is free. She may visit and receive
+visitors; and has now an opportunity for like and dislike; and may be
+tempted possibly to use it all the more that she had no such opportunity
+before.
+
+From marriages I pass to deaths and funerals. The usages customary on
+the last illness of a Roman I cannot better describe than by referring
+to a case which my friend Mr Stewart had occasion to witness. It was
+that of a clerk in the Roman savings bank, an acquaintance of his, and a
+young man of some means. In 1846 he caught fever, and, after lingering
+for three weeks, died. Relatives he had none; and my friend never met
+any one with the patient save the priest, whose duty it was to
+administer the last sacrament, and to do so in time. The sick man's
+chamber was curiously arranged. On the bed-cover were laid three
+crucifixes: one was four feet in length; the other two were of smaller
+size. This safeguard against the demons was further reinforced by the
+addition of a palm-branch, and a few trifling pictures of the Virgin and
+saints. On the wall, above the bed, hung a frame, containing a picture
+of the Virgin Mary, executed in the ordinary style, with lighted candles
+beside it. Two were placed on each side, and to these was added _una
+mazza di fiori_. Notwithstanding all this he died. The body was then
+carried to church for the last services, preparatory to consignment to
+the burying-ground of Saint Lorenzo. A single word pointing to that
+blood that cleanseth from all sin would have been of more avail than all
+this idle array; but that word was not spoken.
+
+Towards the close of life, especially if the person be wealthy, the
+priests and monks grow very assiduous in their attentions, and the
+relatives become in proportion uneasy. I was introduced at Rome to a
+Signor Bondini, who had a wealthy relative in the _Regno di Napoli_, on
+the verge of eighty, and very infirm. There was a monastery in his
+immediate neighbourhood, and the monks of that establishment were in
+daily attendance upon him. His friends in Rome felt much anxiety
+regarding the disposal of his property. How the matter ended I know not;
+but I trust, for the sake of my acquaintance, that all went well. Nor do
+friends feel quite safe even after the "will" has been ratified by the
+testator's death. There is a tribunal, as I have formerly stated, for
+revising wills,--the S. Visita,--which assumes large powers. Of this a
+curious instance occurred recently. A Signor Galli, cousin of the
+minister of that name already mentioned, died in the July of 1854, and
+left his whole property, amounting to about fifty thousand pounds, to
+neither relatives nor priests, but to works of benevolence for the
+relief of the poor. The trustee under the deed was proceeding to plan a
+workhouse or an asylum for infirm old men, when the Chapter of St
+Peter's claimed the money, on the ground that, as the works of
+benevolence were not specified in the will, the funds were the property
+of St Peter's. Some hundreds of old men are employed in the repairs
+continually going on about that church, and the Chapter meant to spend
+the money in that way. Meanwhile the S. Visita put in its claim in
+opposition to the Chapter, and awarded the property for masses for the
+soul of the departed; deeming, doubtless, that the whole would be little
+enough to expiate the well-known liberal opinions of the deceased. So
+stands the matter at present. It is impossible to say whether the money
+will be spent in paving the Piazza San Pietro, or in masses; as to the
+relief of the poor, that is now out of the question.
+
+It is customary for Roman families to desert the dead, that is, to leave
+the body in the hands of the priests and monks, who perform the
+necessary offices to the corpse, conduct the funeral, and sing masses
+for the soul of the departed. The pomp and display of the one, and the
+length and number of the other, are regulated entirely by the
+circumstances of the deceased's family. A more ghastly procession than
+the funeral one cannot imagine. Instead of a company of grave men,
+carrying with decorous sorrow to its final resting-place the body of
+their departed brother, you meet what you take to be a procession of
+ghouls. The coffin, borne shoulder-high, comes along the street,
+followed by a long line of figures, enveloped from head to foot in black
+serge gowns, with holes for the eyes. They march along, carrying large
+black crosses and tallow candles, and using their voices in something
+which is betwixt a chant and a howl. The sight suggests only the most
+dismal associations. But it has its uses, and that is, to move the
+living to be liberal in masses to rescue the soul from the power of the
+demons, of which no feeble representation is exhibited in this ghostly
+and unearthly procession.
+
+The modern Italians pay great regard to omens; and, in the important
+affairs of life, are guided rather by considerations of lucky and
+unlucky than the maxims of wisdom. The name of the present Pope the
+Romans hold to be decidedly of evil omen; so much so, that to affix it
+anywhere is to make the person or thing a mark for calamity. And I was
+told a curious list of instances corroborative of this opinion. The
+first year of the reign of Pius was marked by an unprecedented and
+disastrous flood. The Tiber rose so high in Rome, that it drowned the
+stone lions in the Piazza del Popolo, flooded the city, and filled the
+Corso to a depth that compelled the citizens to have recourse to boats.
+The Government had a great cannon named after the Pope, which was used
+in the war of independence sanctioned by Pius in 1848. The cannon Pio
+was taken by the Austrians, although it was afterwards restored. There
+was a famous steamer, the property of the Papal Government, named "Pia,"
+which plied on the Adriatic. That steamer shared the fate of all that
+bears the Pope's name. It was taken, too, by the Austrians, but not
+returned; though, for a reason I shall afterwards state, better it had
+been sent back. I was wandering one afternoon amid the desolate mounds
+outside the walls on the east, when I saw a cloud of frightful blackness
+gather over Rome, and several intensely vivid bolts shoot downward. When
+I entered the city, I found that the "Porta Pia" had been laid in ruins,
+and that the occurrence had revived all the former impressions of the
+Romans regarding the evil significancy of the Pope's name. All who came
+to his aid in his reforming times, they say, were smitten with disaster
+or sudden death. He never raises his hands to bless but down there comes
+a curse. I was not a little struck, in the winter following my return
+from Rome, to read in the newspapers, that this same steamer Pia, of
+which I had heard mention made in Rome as having about it a magnet of
+evil in the Pope's name, had gone down in the Adriatic, with all on
+board. It was one of the two vessels which carried the suite of the
+Russian Grand Dukes when they visited Venice in the winter of 1852, and,
+encountering a tempest on its return, perished, with some two hundred
+persons, consisting of crew and soldiers.
+
+As regards the affection which the Romans bear to Pope and Papacy, I
+was assured by Mr Freeborn, our consul in Rome, that there is not a
+priest in that city who had two hours to live when the last French
+soldier shall have marched out at the gate. All who had resided for some
+time in Rome, and knew the state of feeling in the population, shuddered
+to think of what would certainly happen should the French be withdrawn.
+I have been told by those who visited Rome more recently, that the
+Romans now do not ask for so much as two hours. "Give us but half an
+hour," say they, "and we undertake that the Papacy shall never again
+trouble the world." No true Protestant can wish, or even hope, to put
+down the system in this way; nevertheless it is a fact, that the Romans
+have been goaded to this pitch of exasperation, and the slightest change
+in the political relations of Europe might precipitate on Rome and the
+Papal States an avalanche of vengeance. The November of 1851 was a time
+of almost unendurable apprehension to the priests. With reference to
+France, then on the eve of the _coup d'etat_, though not known to be so
+save in Rome,--where I am satisfied it was well known,--the priests, I
+was told by those who had access to know, said, "We tremble, we tremble,
+for we know not how we shall finish!" They were said to have their
+pantaloons, et cetera, all ready, to escape in a laic dress. Assuredly
+the curse has taken effect upon the occupants of the Vatican not less
+than on the inhabitants of the Ghetto. "Thy life shall hang in doubt
+before thee, and thou shalt fear day and night, and shalt have none
+assurance of thy life."
+
+Among other things that did not realize my expectations in Italy was the
+weather. During my stay in Rome there were dull and dispiriting days,
+with the Alban hills white to their bottom. Others were clear, with the
+piercingly cold Tramontana sweeping the streets; but more frequently
+the sirocco was blowing, accompanied with deluges of rain, and flashes
+of lightning that made the night luminous as the day, and peals that
+rocked the city on its foundations. One Sabbath evening we had a slight
+shock of earthquake; and I began to think that I had come to see the
+volcanic covering of the Campagna crack, and the old hulk which has been
+stranded on it so long sink into the abyss. My homeward journey was
+accomplished so far in the most dismal weather I have ever seen. I
+started from Rome on a Monday afternoon, in a Veturino carriage, with
+two Roman gentlemen as my companions. It was the Civita Vecchia road,
+for my purpose was to go by sea to France. We reached the half-way house
+some hours after dark; and, having supped, we were required to conform
+to the rule of the house, which was to retire, not to bed, but to our
+vehicle, which stood drawn up on the highway, and pass the night as best
+we could. I awoke at day-break, and found the postilion yoking the
+horses in a perfect hurricane of wind and rain. We reached Civita
+Vecchia at breakfast-time, and found the Mediterranean one roughened
+expanse of breakers, with the white waves leaping over the mole, and
+violently rocking the vessels in the harbour. The steamers from Naples
+to Marseilles were a week over due, and the agents could not say when
+one might arrive. Time pressed; and after wandering all day about the
+town,--one of the most wretched on earth,--and seeing the fiery sun find
+his bed in the weltering ocean, I took my seat in the _diligence_ for
+Rome.
+
+This was the third time I had passed through that land of death the
+Campagna; and that night in especial I shall never forget. My companions
+in the _interieur_ were two Dutch gentlemen, and a lady, the wife of one
+of them. The rain fell in deluges; the frequent gleams showed us each
+other's faces; and the bellowing thunder completely drowned the rattle
+of our vehicle. The long weary night wore through, and about four of the
+morning we came to the old gate. My passport had been vised with
+reference to a sea-voyage; and to explain my change of route to the
+officials in Civita Vecchia and at the gate of Rome, and persuade them
+to make the corresponding alterations, cost me some little trouble, and
+a good many paulos into the bargain. I succeeded, fortunately, for
+otherwise I should have had to submit to a detention of several days.
+How to make the homeward journey had now become a serious question. The
+weather had made the sea unnavigable; and the Alps, now covered to a
+great depth with ice and snow, could be crossed only on sledges. I
+resolved on going by land to Leghorn,--a wearisome and expensive route,
+but one that would show me the old Etruria, with several cities of note
+in Italian history. The _diligence_ for Florence was to start in an
+hour. I hurried to the office, and engaged the only seat that remained
+unbespoke, in the coupe happily, with a Russian and Italian gentleman as
+companions. I made my final exit by the Flaminian gate; and as I crossed
+the swollen Tiber, and began to climb the height beyond, the first rays
+of the morning sun were slanting across the Campagna, and tinging with
+angry light the troubled masses of cloud that hung above the many-domed
+city.
+
+For a few hours the ride was pleasant. All around lay the neglected
+land, thinly besprinkled with forlorn olives, but without signs of man,
+save where a crumbling village might be seen crowning the summit of the
+little conical hills that form so striking a feature in the Etrurian
+landscape. When we had reached the spurs of the Apennines the storm
+fell. The air was thickened with alternate showers of sleet and snow. We
+had to encounter torrents in the valleys, and drifted wreaths on the
+heights; in short, the journey was to the full as dreary as one through
+the Grampians would have been at the same season. There was little to
+tempt us to leave our vehicle at the few villages and towns where we
+halted, for they seemed half-drowned in rain and mud. Late in the
+afternoon we reached Viterbo, and stopped to eat a wretched dinner. We
+found in the hotel but little of that abundance of which the magnificent
+vine-stocks in the adjoining fields gave so goodly promise. Starting
+again at dusk, the ladies of the party inquired where the patrol was
+that used to accompany travellers through the brigand-haunted country of
+Radicofani, on which we were about to enter; but could get no
+satisfactory answer. We skirted the lake of Bolsena, with its rich but
+deserted shores, and its fine mountains of oak. Soon thereafter darkness
+hid from us the country; but the frequent gleams of lightning showed
+that it was wild and desolate as ever traveller passed through. It was
+naked, and torn, and scathed, as if fire had acted upon it, which,
+indeed, it had, for our way now lay amidst extinct volcanoes. Towards
+midnight the _diligence_ suddenly stopped. "Here are the brigands at
+last," said I to myself. I jumped out; and, stretched on the road,
+pallid and motionless, lay the foremost postilion. Had he been shot, or
+what had happened? He was a raw-boned lad of some eighteen, wretchedly
+clad, and worse fed; and he had swooned through fatigue and cold. We
+brought him round with a little brandy; and, setting him again on his
+nags, we continued our journey.
+
+I recollect of awaking at times from troubled sleep, to find that we
+were zig-zagging up the sides of mountains tall and precipitous as a
+sugar-loaf, and entering beneath the portals of towns old and crumbling,
+perched upon their very summit. A more desolate sight than that which
+met the eye when day broke I never saw. Every particle of soil seemed
+torn from the face of the country; and, as far as the eye could reach,
+plain and hill-side lay under a covering of marl, which was grooved and
+furrowed by torrents. "Is this Italy?" I asked myself in astonishment.
+As the day rose, both weather and scenery improved. Towards mid-day, the
+green beauteous mount on which Sienna, with its white buildings and its
+cathedral towers, is situated, rose in the far distance; and, after many
+hours winding and climbing, we entered its walls.
+
+At Sienna we exchanged the _diligence_ for the railway, the course of
+which lay through a series of ravines and valleys of the most
+magnificent description, and thoroughly Tuscan in their character. We
+had torrents below, crags crowned with castles above, vines, chestnuts,
+and noble oaks clothing the steep, and purple shadows, such as Italy
+only can show, enrobing all. I reached Pisa late in the evening; and
+there a substantial supper, followed by yet more grateful sleep, made
+amends for the four previous days' fasting, sleeplessness, and
+endurance. I passed the Sabbath at Leghorn; and, starting again on
+Monday _via_ Marseilles, and prosecuting my journey day and night
+without intermission, save for an hour at a time, came on Saturday
+evening to the capital of happy England, where I rested on the morrow,
+"according to the commandment."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX.
+
+THE ARGUMENT FROM THE WHOLE, OR, ROME HER OWN WITNESS.
+
+
+When one goes to Rome, it is not unreasonable that he should there look
+for some proofs of the vaunted excellence of the Roman faith. Rome is
+the seat of Christ's Vicar, and the centre of Christianity, as Romanists
+maintain; and there surely, if anywhere, may he expect to find those
+personal and social virtues which have ever flourished in the wake of
+Christianity. To what region has she gone where barbarism and vice have
+not disappeared? and in what age has she flourished in which she has not
+moulded the hearts of men and the institutions of society into
+conformity with the purity of her own precepts, and the benevolence of
+her own spirit? She has been no teacher of villany and cruelty,--no
+patron of lust,--no champion of oppression. She has known only
+"whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever
+things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of
+good report." Her great Founder demanded that she should be tried by her
+fruits; and why should Rome be unwilling to submit to this test? If the
+Pope be Christ's Vicar, his deeds cannot be evil. If Romanism be
+Christianity, or rather, if it alone be Christianity, as its champions
+maintain, Rome must be the most Christian city on the earth, and the
+Romans examples to the whole human race, of industry, of sobriety, of
+the love of truth, and, in short, of whatever tends to dignify and exalt
+human character. On the assumption that the Christianity of the Seven
+Hills is the Christianity of the New Testament, Rome ought to be the
+seat of just laws, of inflexibly upright and impartial tribunals, and of
+wise, paternal, and incorruptible rulers. Is it so? Is Christ's Vicar a
+model to all governors? and is the region over which he bears sway
+renowned throughout the earth as the most virtuous, the most happy, and
+the most prosperous region in it? Alas! the very opposite of all this is
+the fact. There is not on the face of the earth a region more barren of
+everything Christian, and of everything that ought to spring from
+Christianity, than is the region of the Seven Hills. And not only do we
+there find the absence of all that reminds us of Christianity, or that
+could indicate her presence; but we find there the presence, on a most
+gigantic scale, and in most intense activity, of all the elements and
+forms of evil. When the infidel would select the very strongest proofs
+that Christianity cannot possibly be Divine, and that its influence on
+individual and national character is most disastrous, he goes to the
+banks of the Tiber. The weapons which Voltaire and his compeers wielded
+with such terrible effect in the end of last century were borrowed from
+Rome. Now, why is this? Either Christianity is to a most extraordinary
+degree destructive of all the temporal interests of man, or Romanism is
+not Christianity.
+
+The first part of the alternative cannot in reason be maintained.
+Christianity, like man, was made in the image of Him who created her;
+and, like her great Maker, is essentially and supremely benevolent. She
+is as much the fountain of good as the sun is the fountain of light; and
+the good that is in the minor institutions which exist around her comes
+from her, just as the mild effulgence of the planets radiates from the
+great orb of day. She cherishes man in all the extent of his diversified
+faculties, and throughout the vast range of his interests, temporal and
+eternal. But Romanism is as universal in her evil as Christianity is in
+her good. She is as omnipotent to overthrow as Christianity is to build
+up. Man, in his intellectual powers and his moral affections,--in his
+social relations and his national interests,--she converts into a wreck;
+and where Christianity creates an angel, Romanism produces a fiend.
+Accordingly, the region where Romanism has fixed its seat is a mighty
+and appalling ruin. Like some Indian divinity seated amidst the blood,
+and skulls, and mangled limbs of its victims, Romanism is grimly seated
+amidst the mangled remains of liberty, and civilization, and humanity.
+Her throne is a graveyard,--a graveyard that covers, not the mortal
+bodies of men, but the fruits and acquisitions, alas! of man's immortal
+genius. Thither have gone down the labours, the achievements, the hopes,
+of innumerable ages; and in this gulph they have all perished. Italy,
+glorious once with the light of intelligence and of liberty on her brow,
+and crowned with the laurel of conquest, is now naked and manacled. Who
+converted Italy into a barbarian and a slave? The Papacy. The growth of
+that foul superstition and the decay of the country have gone on by
+equal stages. In the territory blessed with the pontifical government
+there is--as the previous chapters show--no trade, no industry, no
+justice, no patriotism; there is neither personal worth nor public
+virtue; there is nothing but corruption and ruin. In fine, the Papal
+States are a physical, social, political, and moral wreck; and from
+whatever quarter that _religion_ has come which has created this wreck,
+it is undeniable that it has not come from the New Testament. If it be
+true that "a tree is known by its fruits," the tree of Romanism was
+never planted by the Saviour.
+
+With such evidence before him as Italy furnishes, can any man doubt what
+the consequence would be of admitting this system into Britain? If there
+be any truth in the maxim, that like causes produce like effects, the
+consequences are as manifest as they are inevitable. There is a force of
+genius, a versatility and buoyancy, about the Italians, which fit them
+better than most to resist longer and surmount sooner the influence of a
+system like the Papacy; and yet, if that system has wrought such
+terrible havoc among them,--if it has put them down and keeps them
+down,--where is the nation or people who may think to embrace Romanism,
+and yet escape being destroyed by it? Assuredly, should it ever gain the
+ascendancy in this country, it will inflict, and in far shorter time,
+the same dire ruin upon us which it has inflicted on Italy.
+
+Let no man delude himself with the idea that it is simply a _religion_
+which he is admitting, and that the only change that would ensue would
+be merely the substitution of a Romanist for a Protestant creed. It is a
+_scheme of Government_; and its introduction would be followed by a
+complete and universal change in the political constitution and
+government of the country. The Romanists themselves have put this matter
+beyond dispute. Why did the Papists divide _territorially_ the country?
+Why did they assume _territorial_ titles? and why do they so
+pertinaciously cling to these titles? Why, because their chief aim is to
+erect a territorial and political system, and they wish to secure, by
+fair means or foul, a pretest or basis on which they may afterwards
+enforce that system by political and physical means. Have we forgotten
+the famous declaration of Wiseman, that his grand end in the papal
+aggression was to introduce canon law? And what is canon law? The
+previous chapters show what canon law is. It is a code which, though
+founded on a religious dogma, namely, that the Pope is God's Vicar, is
+nevertheless mainly temporal in its character. It claims a temporal
+jurisdiction; it employs temporal power in its support,--the _sbirri_,
+Swiss guards, and French troops at Rome, for instance; and it visits
+offences with temporal punishment,--banishment, the galleys, the
+carabine, and guillotine. In its most modified form, and as viewed under
+the glosses of the most dexterous of its modern commentators and
+apologists, it vests the Pope in a DIRECTING POWER, according to which
+he can declare _null_ all constitutions, laws, tribunals, decisions,
+oaths, and causes contrary to good morals, in other words, contrary to
+the interests of the Church, of which he is the sole and infallible
+judge; and all resistance is punishable by deprivation of civil rights,
+by confiscation of goods, by imprisonment, and, in the last resort, by
+death. In short, it vests in the Pope's hands all power on earth,
+whether spiritual or temporal, and puts all persons, ecclesiastical and
+secular, under his foot. A more overwhelming tyranny it is impossible to
+imagine; for it is a tyranny that unites the voice with the arm of
+Deity. We challenge the Romanist to show how he can inaugurate his
+system in Britain,--set up canon law, as he proposes,--without changing
+the constitution of the country. We affirm, on the grounds we have
+stated, that he cannot. This, then, is no battle merely of churches and
+creeds; it is a battle between two kingdoms and two kings,--the Pope on
+one side, and Queen Victoria on the other; and no one can become an
+abettor of the pontiff without being thereby a traitor to the sovereign.
+
+And with the fall of our religion and liberty will come all the
+demoralizing and pauperizing effects which have followed the Papacy in
+Italy. Mind will be systematically cramped and crushed; and everything
+that could stimulate thought, or inspire a love for independence, or
+recall the memory of a former liberty, will be proscribed. We cannot
+have the Papacy and open tribunals. We cannot have the Papacy and free
+trade: our factories will be closed, as well as our schools and
+churches; our forges silenced, as well as our printing presses. Motion
+even will be forbidden; or, should our railways be spared, they will
+convey, in lack of merchandise, bulls, palls, dead men's bones, and
+other such precious stuff. Our electric telegraph will be used for the
+pious purpose of transmitting absolutions and pardons, and our express
+trains for carrying the host to some dying penitent. The passport system
+will very speedily cure our people of their propensity to travel; and,
+instead of gadding about, and learning things which they ought not, they
+will be told to stay at home and count their beads. The _Index_ will
+effectually purge our libraries, and give us but tens where we have now
+thousands. Alas for the great masters of British literature and song!
+The censorship will make fine work with our periodic literature, pruning
+the exuberance and taming the boldness of many a now free pen. Our
+clubs, from Parliament downwards, will have their labours diminished, by
+having their sphere contracted to matters only on which the Church has
+not spoken; and our thinkers will be taught to think aright, by being
+taught not to think at all. We must contract a liking for consecrated
+wafers and holy water; and provide a confessor for ourselves, our wives,
+and daughters. We must eat only fish on Friday, and keep the Church's
+holidays, however we may spend the Sabbath. We must vote at the bidding
+of the priest; and, above all, take ghostly direction as regards our
+last will and testament. The Papacy will overhaul all our political
+rights, all our social privileges, all our domestic and private affairs;
+and will alter or abrogate as it may find it for our and the Church's
+good. In short, it will dig a grave, in which to bury all our privileges
+and rights together, rolling to that grave's mouth the great stone of
+Infallibility.
+
+Nor let us commit the error of under-estimating the foe, or of thinking,
+in an age when intelligence and liberty are so diffused, that it is
+impossible that we can be overcome by such a system as the Papacy. We
+have not, like the early Christians, to oppose a rude, unwieldy, and
+gross paganism; we are called to confront an idolatry, subtle, refined,
+perfected. We encounter error wielding the artillery of truth. We
+wrestle with the powers of darkness clothed in the armour of light. We
+are called to combat the instincts of the wolf and tiger in the form of
+the messenger of peace,--the Satanic principle in the angelic costume.
+Have we considered the infinite degradation of defeat? Have we thought
+of the prison-house where we will be compelled to grind for our
+conqueror's sport,--the chains and stakes which await ourselves and our
+posterity? And, even should our lives be spared, they will be spared to
+what?--to see freedom banished, knowledge extinguished, science put
+under anathema, the world rolled backwards, and the universe become a
+vast whispering gallery, to re-echo only the accents of papal blasphemy.
+
+This atrocious and perfidious system is at this hour triumphant on the
+Continent of Europe. Britain only stands erect. How long she may do so
+is known only to God; but of this I am assured, that if we shall be able
+to keep our own, it will be, not by entering into any compromise, but by
+assuming an attitude of determined defiance to the papal system. There
+must be no truckling to foreign despots and foreign priests: the bold
+Protestant policy of the country must be maintained. In this way alone
+can we escape the immense hazards which at present threaten us. And
+what a warning do the nations of the Continent hold out to us! They
+teach how easily liberty may be lost, but how infinite the sacrifices it
+takes to recover it. A moment's weakness may cost an age of suffering.
+If we let go the liberty we at present enjoy, none of us will live to
+see it regained. Look at the past history of the Papacy, and mark how it
+has retained its vulpine instincts in every age, and transmitted from
+father to son, and from generation to generation, its inextinguishable
+hatred of man and of man's liberties. Look at it in the Low Countries,
+and see it overwhelming them under an inundation of armies and
+scaffolds. Look at it in Spain, and see it extinguishing, amid the fires
+of innumerable _autos da fe_, the genius, the chivalry, and the power of
+that great nation. Look at it in France, whose history it has converted
+into an ever-recurring cycle of revolutions, massacres, and tyrannies.
+Look at it in the blood-written annals of the Waldensian valleys,
+against which it launched crusade after crusade, ravaging their soil
+with fire and sword, and ceasing its rage only when nothing remained but
+the crimson stains of its fearful cruelty. And now, after creating this
+wide wreck,--after glutting the axe,--after flooding the scaffold, and
+deluging the earth itself with human blood,--it turns to you, ye men of
+England and Scotland! It menaces you across the narrow channel that
+divides your country from the Continent, and dares to set its foul print
+on your free shore! Will you permit it? Will you tamely sit still till
+it has put its foot on your neck, and its fetter on your arm? Oh! if you
+do, the Bruce who conquered at Bannockburn will disown you! The Knox who
+achieved a yet more glorious victory will disown you! Cranmer, and all
+the martyrs whose blood cries to heaven against it, while their happy
+spirits look down from their thrones of light to watch the part you are
+prepared to play in this great struggle, will disown you! Your children
+yet unborn, whose faith you will thus surrender, and whose liberty you
+will thus betray, will curse your very names. But I know you will not.
+You are men, and will die as men, if die you must, nobly fighting for
+your faith and your liberties. You will not wait till you are drawn out
+and slaughtered as sheep, as you assuredly will be if you permit this
+system to become dominant. But if you are prepared to die, rather than
+to live the slaves of a detestable and ferocious tyranny like this, I
+know that you shall not die; for I firmly believe, from the aspects of
+Providence, and the revelations of the Divine Word, that, menacing as
+the Papacy at present looks, its grave is dug, and that even now it
+totters on the brink of that burning abyss into which it is destined to
+be cast; and if we do but unite, and strike a blow worthy of our cause,
+we shall achieve our liberties, and not only these, but the liberties of
+nations that stretch their arms in chains to us, under God their last
+hope, and the liberties of generations unborn, who shall arise and call
+us blessed.
+
+ THE END.
+
+ EDINBURGH: PRINTED BY MILLER AND FAIRLY.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] See the Antiquity of the Waldenses treated of at length in Leger's
+"Histoire de l'Eglise Vaudoise;" and Dr Gilly's "Waldensian Researches."
+
+[2] The author would soften his strictures on this head by a reference
+to the truly interesting volume on the "Ladies of the Reformation," by
+his talented friend the Rev. James Anderson.
+
+[3] I have before me a list of prices current (Prezzo Corrente Legale de
+generi venduti nella piazza di Roma dal di 28 Febbraro al di 5 Marzo
+1852), from which it appears, that sculpture, paintings, tallow, bones,
+skins, rags, and pozzolano, comprise all the exports from the Papal
+States. What a beggarly list, compared with the natural riches of the
+country! In fact, vessels return oftener _without_ than _with_ lading
+from that shore.
+
+[4] It was so when the author was in Rome. The enterprising company of
+Fox & Henderson have since succeeded in overcoming the pontifical
+scruples, and bringing gas into the Eternal City; Cardinal Antonelli
+remarking, that he would accept of _their_ light in return for the light
+_he_ had sent to England.
+
+[5] As illustrative of our subject, we may here quote what Mr Whiteside,
+M.P., in his interesting volumes, "Italy in the Nineteenth Century,"
+says of the estimation in which all concerned with the administration of
+justice are held at Rome:--
+
+"The profession of the law is considered by the higher classes to be a
+base pursuit: no man of family would degrade himself by engaging in it.
+A younger son of the poorest noble would famish rather than earn his
+livelihood in an employment considered vile. The advocate is seldom if
+ever admitted into high society in Rome; nor can the princes (so called)
+or nobles comprehend the position of a barrister in England. They would
+as soon permit a _facchino_ as an advocate to enter their palaces; and
+they have been known to ask with disdain (when accidentally apprised
+that a younger son of an English nobleman had embraced the profession of
+the law), what could induce his family to suffer the degradation?
+Priests, bishops, and cardinals, the poor nobles or their impoverished
+descendants, will become,--advocates or judges, never. The solution of
+this apparent inconsistency is to be found in the fact, that in most
+despotic countries the profession of the law is contemptible. In Rome it
+is particularly so, because no person places confidence in the
+administration of the law, the salaries of the judges are small, the
+remuneration of the advocate miserable, and all the great offices
+grasped by the ecclesiastics. Pure justice not existing, everybody
+concerned in the administration of what is substituted for it is
+despised, often most unjustly, as being a participator in the
+imposture."
+
+[6] See book vii., chap. x.
+
+[7] Monsignor Marini, who was head of the police under Gregory XVI., and
+the infamous tool in all the arrests and cruelties of Lambruschini, was
+made a cardinal by the present Pope. All Rome said, let the next
+cardinal be the public executioner. Talent, certainly, has fair play at
+Rome, when a policeman, and even the hangman, may aspire to the chair of
+Peter.
+
+[8] WHAT THE ROMAN RELIGION COSTS.
+
+The following statistics of the wealth of the clergy in the Roman States
+are taken from the American _Crusader_:--
+
+"The clergy in the Roman States realize from the funds a clear income of
+two millions two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. From the cattle
+they have another income of one hundred thousand dollars; from the
+canons, three hundred thousand dollars; from the public debt another
+income of one million two hundred and fifty thousand dollars; from the
+priests' individual estates, two hundred and fifty thousand dollars;
+from the portions assigned by law to nuns, five hundred thousand
+dollars; from the celebration of masses, two millions one hundred and
+fifty thousand dollars; from taxes on baptisms, forty-five thousand
+dollars; from the tax on the Sacrament of Confirmation, eighteen
+thousand dollars; from the celebration of marriages, twenty-five
+thousand dollars; from the attestations of births, nine thousand
+dollars; from other attestations, such as births, marriages, deaths, &c.
+&c., nine thousand seven hundred and fifty dollars; from funerals, six
+hundred thousand dollars; from the gifts to begging-orders, one million
+eight hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars; from the gifts for
+motives of benevolence or festivities, or maintenance of altars and
+lights, or for celebrating mass for the souls in purgatory, two hundred
+thousand dollars; from the tithes exacted in several parts of the Roman
+States according to the ancient rigour, one hundred and fifty thousand
+dollars; from preaching and panegyrics, according to the regular taxes,
+one hundred and fifty thousand dollars; from seminaries for entrance
+taxes and other rights belonging to the students, besides the boarding,
+fifteen thousand dollars; from the chancery for ecclesiastical
+provisions, for matrimonial licenses, for sanatives, &c. &c., fifty
+thousand dollars; from benedictions during Easter, thirty thousand
+dollars; from offerings to the miraculous images of Virgin Marys and
+Saints, seventy-five thousand dollars; from _triduums_ for the sick, or
+for prayers, five hundred thousand dollars; from benedictions to fields,
+cattle, nuptial-beds, &c. &c., nine thousand dollars.
+
+"All these incomes, which amount to _ten million five hundred and ten
+thousand seven hundred and fifty dollars_, are realized and enjoyed by
+the secular and regular clergy, composed in all of sixty thousand
+individuals, including nuns, without mentioning the incomes allowed them
+from foreign countries, for the chancery and other cosmopolite
+congregations.
+
+"It is further to be observed, that in this calculation are not
+comprised the portions which the Romans call _passatore_, which the
+laity pay to the clergy; such as purchase, permutation, resignation, and
+ordination taxes; patents for confessions, preaching, holy oils,
+privileged altars, professors' chairs, and the like, which will make up
+another amount of a million of dollars; nor those other taxes called
+_pretatico_, which are paid by the Jews to the parish priest for
+permission to dwell without the Jews' quarter; nor those for the ringing
+of bells for dying persons, or those who are in agony; nor those which
+cripples pay for receiving in Rome the visit of the wooden child of the
+_celestial altar_, who must always go out in a carriage, accompanied by
+friars called _minori observanti_, Franciscan friars, whose incomes they
+collect and govern. The value of charitable edifices (which are not
+registered, being exempt from all dative) is not comprised either; and
+the same exemption is extended to churches; although all these buildings
+cost the inhabitants of the State several millions of expense for
+provisional possession, and displays of ceremonies and feasts which are
+celebrated in them."
+
+WHAT THE ROMAN RELIGION YIELDS.
+
+A distinguished English gentleman, who has spent many years as a
+resident or in travelling in various papal countries in Europe, in a
+recent speech in London has presented some deeply interesting facts
+concerning vice and crime in Papal and Protestant countries. He
+possessed himself of the Government returns of every Romanist Government
+on the Continent. We have condensed and will state its results.
+
+In England, four persons for a million, on the average, are committed
+for murder per year. In Ireland there are nineteen to the million. In
+Belgium, a Catholic country, there are eighteen murders to the million.
+In France there are thirty-one. Passing into Austria, we find
+thirty-six. In Bavaria, also Catholic, sixty-eight to the million; or,
+if homicides are struck out, there will be thirty. Going into Italy,
+where Catholic influence is the strongest of any country on earth, and
+taking first the kingdom of Sardinia, we find twenty murders to the
+million. In the Venetian and Milanese provinces there is the enormous
+result of forty-five to the million. In Tuscany, forty-two, though that
+land is claimed as a kind of earthly paradise; and in the Papal States
+not less than one hundred murders for the million of people. There are
+ninety in Sicily; and in Naples the result is more appalling still,
+where public documents show there are _two hundred_ murders per year to
+the million of people!
+
+The above facts are all drawn from the civil and criminal records of the
+respective countries named. Now, taking the whole of these countries
+together, we have seventy-five cases of murder for every million of
+people. In Protestant countries,--England, for example,--we have but
+four for every million. Aside from various other demoralizing influences
+of Popery, the fact now to be named beyond doubt operates with great
+power in cheapening human life in Catholic countries. The Protestant
+criminal believes he is sending his victim, if not a Christian, at once
+to a miserable eternity; and this awful consideration gives a terrible
+aspect to the crime of murder. But the Papist only sends his victim to
+purgatory, whence he can be rescued by the masses the priest can be
+hired to say for his soul; or his own bloody hand and heart will not
+hinder him from doing that office himself. We think the above facts in
+regard to vice and crime in the two great departments of Christendom
+worthy the most serious pondering of every friend of morality and
+virtue.
+
+[9] Martinus Scriblerus says, that "the Pope's band, though the finest
+in the world, would not divert the English from burning his Holiness in
+effigy on the streets of London on a Guy Fawkes' day;" nor, I may add,
+the Romans from burning him in person on the streets of Rome any day,
+were the French away.
+
+[10] For much of the information contained in this chapter I am indebted
+to my intelligent friend Mr Stewart.
+
+
+
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