On this page

• Text (1)

  Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

  • 

    Jan. 28, I860] The Leader and Saturday A...

• Transcript

  • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

    Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.

    Letter From Italy. (Special.) Rome, 1.8t...

    the year they are allowed to be open . Every thing from the titles of the plays to the petticoats of the ballet ' . girls- undergoes clerical inspection . The censure is as unsparing of double eniendres as of political allusions , and Palais Royal farces are Bowdlerized down till they come . forth from the censorship dull and innocuous . A ballet at the Princess ' s compared with one at the . " Apollo" was a wild and voluptuous orgy . The same system of repression prevails everywhere . In the print shops one never sees a picture which even verges on impropriety . The few female portraits exhibited in their windows are robed with an amount of drapery which would satisfy the most puritanical of our Crystal Palace reformers . AH books which have the slightest amorous tendency are scrupulously forbidden , without reference to their political views . Indeed , the censorship is extended to private libraries . An Italian gentleman , a resident here , had to my

    knowledge to obtain a special permission to retain a copy of Rousseau ' s worlcson his own book-shelves ; andthis , I believe , is nouncomtnon case . At street corners you may see exhortations against profane swearing , headed '' Bestemmiatore . orrend © nome ; " but this is the only " writing on the wall" witnessed in Rome . The number of wine-shops seems to me very small in proportion to the size of the city , and in none of them , as far as I can learn , are spirits permitted to be sold . There is another subject which will suggest itself at once to any one acquainted with the life of towns , but on which it is obviously impossible to enter here . It is enough to . say that what the author of " Friends in Courcil" styles , with more sentiment . than truth , the sin of great cities , " is " not found in Rome . Not only is public vice kept out of sight , as in some other continental cities , but its private " haunts are absolutely and literally suppressed . In fact , if priest-rule were deposed , and our own Sabbatarians and total abstinence . men , and " societies for the suppression of vice" reigned in their stead , I doubt if Rome could be made more outwardly decorous

    and virtuous than it is at present . This then is the fair side of the picture . What is the aspect of the reverse ? To . judge fully , it is necessary to get behind the scenes—a thing not easy for a stranger anywhere , least of all here . It is my object , in these ' letters , rather to note those facts which any traveller might observe for himself , than to put forward my own impressions . Even if there were no other objection , it would be useless to quote individual stories which have conie to my ears , and which would show Rome , beneath its external propriety , to be the most corrupt , debauched , and demoralized of cities . Each separate story can be disputed or denied , but the weight of the general evidence is overpowering . I have talked with many persons ,

    Romans , Italians , and foreign residen ts * qn the subject , and fro m one and all I have heard similar accounts . " Every traveller I have ever met with ,, who lias iiYade like inquiries , has come to a like ^ conviction . I once heard Rome described by an appellation which I cannot repeat , but wliich I believe to be too fearfully deserved . In a country where there is practically no press , no public courts , no responsible government , and where even no classified census is allowed to be taken , statistics are hard to obtain and of little value when arrived at . . Personal evidence , imperfect as it is , after all , is the best you can get . Now there is very little drunkenness in Rome , I freely " admit ,.- With the exception of French soldiers on fete days , you rarely meet a drunken person , even at night ; but then the ' Italians , like all other natives of warm climates , universal

    are naturally sober . On the other hand , beggars ore . Evei'ybody begs ; if yoxi ask a common man your way along the streets , the chances are that he asks you for a " buono mano . " Now , even if you doubt the truth of Sheridan ' s dictum , that no man could be honest without being rich , it is hard to believe in a virtuous beggar , The abundance too of lotteries shakes one ' s faith in Roman morality .. A population amongst whom beggary and gambling are encouraged by their spiritual and temporal rulers , is not likely , in other respects , to be a virtuous or a moral one . The frequency , too , of violent crimes is a startling fact . A few hours ago , a man wAs stabbed by a robber in a largo hotel , not threo doors from where I write . The fact that the victim was a stranger , and a man of fortune , lins called attention to tlje occurrence , but the crime itself makes no noise and excites no surprise , To my eyes

    the very look of the city and its inhabitants is a strong ground of suspicion . There is vice on those worn , wretched fncos-r-vicq i » those decaying hovel-palaces—vice in thoso streets , teeming with life , and dirt , and misery . Jn fact , if you only funey to yourself-a city where there are neither manufactures , nor commerce , nor public life of any kind ; where the rich aro condemned to enforced idleness , and the poor to enforced misery 5 whore there is a population of some ten thousand clergymen in the primo of life , without occupation for the most part , and all vowod to colibaoy ; whoro priests and priest-rule are omnipotent , and where every outlet for tho natural desires and passions of men is carefully cut off—if you tako in . nil these facts , you will wot be surprised if to me , as to any ono who knows the truth , the external propriety of Rome seems but th <) saddest of its many mockeries . Rome , 20 th January .

    I hnvo just rocoivod from Floronce a copy of the corrospondonco botwoen the Arohbishop of Florence and Baron Rio a sou on tho question of the Evangelical Catholics , and as it throws considerable light on , 'tho tactics and policy of thp Italian Church and tho Italiun Liberals I enolpse a translation . Wo really ^ scom to bo on the ovo of somo great change hore . of

    The Arokhis ^ op Florence Baron Ricasoli . Siu , —When the author of tho pamphlet , " Th ' e Catholic Church oi R 01110 iu tho only true OUurch of Christ , " several editions of which have boon published in Florence , camo nml told mo that tho Minister of tho

    Interior had forbidden its further publication , I refused to believe him , so extraordinary did the fact appear . When , however , I was shown the written notification of the prohibition from the delegate of Saint Giovanni , I could no longer refuse my credence . I am ignorant whether this prohibition comes directly , from youE . Excellency , or whether , as I deem more probable , it is due to-the indiscreet zeal of some subaltern official ; but whatever may 'be . the case , I feel it an urgent duty tolift up my episcopal voice , and , laying aside that system of patient forbearance which some have styled weakness , to speak to you with that Christian freedom which befits me as bishop , and which is none the less fitting towards you , whom public fame reports to be one of those rare spirits who * by reason of the loftiness and manliness of their minds , take great delight iu frank words and brave deeds .

    You , sir , are a Catholic , and rule a Catholic . people ; you are therefore under an obligation to cherish and foster prudently the preservation arid growth of that faith which you profess . I use the word " prudently " because I would not have you suppose that I am a suppliant to you on behalf of religion and the Church for that insidious guardianship which only fetters and debases its object , or still less for that species of protection wliich , consisting solely in persecution and oppression of dissentients serves but to confer odium on the cause so protected . What I ask for is that wise and prudent care , which at once fostering the beneficent

    institutions of . the Church , respecting her sacred ordinances , honouring her ministers , and facilitating her freedom of action , tends to increase her estimation and her influence , to the no small gain and profit of civil society itself . This care I as a bishop have every right to demand from you a Catholic ruler . But must I speak the truth ? Be it the fault of men or of the times , it seems as though that just and reasonable preference of which I have spoken has given place to the very opposite sentiment , and that , subject to certain feints and pretences kept up for decency , every attempt is made to frustrate , weaken , and . embarrass the action of Catholicism . ' ' . '

    You cannot but be aware that for some time past there have been opened in this city to the grievous scandal of the righteous , public schools of error ( I say public schools because a place where everybody is able and invited to enter is a public place , no matter whether it belongs to an individual or a private society ) . You must also be aware that persons are enticed into these places by every manner of inducement , not excepting that of money , persons too of every age arid every class , and especially the poor and ignorant people , as well as inexperienced youths , who are more easily wheedled over by the seductions and imposed upon by the sophistry of the preachers . I leave it to politicians to decide whether civil toleration of religious creeds need be carried to such an extent as to . leave room , for such brazen-faced and corrupting proselytism—whether accustoming the people ; to hold all things , even their very conscience cheap , tends to create those manly virtues and that spirit of self-denial and self-sacrifice to the ; calls of duty which are the of

    necessary to make men brave and free;—whether encouragement the ¦** faith which works miracles" can be replaced with advantage by sowing in men ' s minds the doubt that paralyses , or the disbelief tha , t brutalizes ; for this fact indeed must be well -rborne in mind , that doubt and disbelief are the ordinary results produced amongst the people by religious disputes and controversies ^ chiefly carried on in the name of a doctrine whose essence is negation- ^ -whether finally , in the present state of Ttaly , agitated and excited as she is by so many and so various passions , it is prudent to add to the flames so terrible and so dangerous a fuel as that of wounded consciences and religious passions ? Whether this is advisable or not , is no difficult matter to . decide . I , sir , however , must ask you how it is , that where strangers from Naples and other countries are allowed to rant and rave against the ancient and blessed faith of our forefathers with the knowledge and toleration of the Government , there priests and catholics are forbidden to ascend the pulpit in order to explain and defend our faith , if they happen not to be Tuscan subjects ?

    The citizenship of any part of the great Constitutional Italian Kingdom , even of the old and new provinces themselves , governed by our King elect , is not sufficient ; a certificate of unmixed Tuscanship is a sine qxtd non , as if the voice and the priesthood of Catholicism , like some petty qnibble of the ecclesiastical law , could be confined within the narrow limits of a single province . I ask you , sir , how is it , that while the new preachers vituperate with impunity the Catholic clergy in their public declamations , and by stimulating the base and furious passions of their auditors , hold up the priesthood to suspicion and hatred , —pretending , forsooth , that the priests , in order to prey upon popular ignorance and stupidity , give the people puerilities for doctrines , abominable and ridiculous superstitions for sacraments , and worship an impure harlot ( I shudder to think of it ) for the ideal of the dearest , purest , sweetest , and holiest beauty—how is it , I saythat a fervent priest and a zealous curate are not permitted

    , to denounce from the pulpit these fearful blasphemies that are uttered daily , or these abominable insults with which , by word , of mouth and by writing ; in highways and byways , the sacred person and the authority of the Holy Pontiff are daily outraged , ( without there being present appointed spies , often ignorant and always malevolent , who treasuring up . some casual wefrd or phrase not sufficiently weighed , or wilfully distorted , run off with all speed to lay informations before tho tribunals , to be followed by trials and warnings , nnd all kinds of persecution )—how is it that , while cheap newspapers , penny pamphlets and almanacks aro printed freely and sold openly , in which impiety revels in its misrule , corrupts with filthy and wicked words and with still more filthy and wicked prints not only the heart and mind of our people but oven that clear common sense

    and innate delicacy which distinguishes them above all other nations and accustoms them to throw aside all reverence and ta trample all authority underfoot—yot , at the very same time , a little book of some few pages is jforbiddonHliko poison ? A book , which in an easy and simple manner , after tho fashion of a catechism , holds up a grnafc and important truth r and warns tho good to avoid the dangers with which they arc threatened by orror ! What justice , I pray , do you call this ? Was it , ' forsooth , as it has boon asserted , because the publication of this little pamphlet would have givon offence to tho adversaries of our common faith ? Yes ' , ' truth is always hateful tg error ; hut what of thin ? Ouglit truth to bo banished from iho earth , or ought its mouth to bo closed with a double seal ? I mvsolf have no lovo for that Infatuated and ludlnarlrnlnato zeal which considers it has made a great point when it has armed lury m

    Jan. 28, I860] The Leader And Saturday A...

    Jan . , I 860 ] The Leader and Saturday Analyst . 93

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 28, 1860, page 17, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_28011860/page/17/