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    the year they are allowed to be open . Every thing from the titles of the plays to fhe petticoats of the ballet girls undergoes clerical inspection . The censure is as unsparing of double entendres as of political allusions , and Palais R 6 yai 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 . • ¦ ' -r '• , '• . The same system of repression prevails eveiywhere . 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 . All 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 worksonhis 6 \ vnbook-shelves ; andthis , Ibelieve , is no uncommon case . At street corners you may see exhortations against profane swearings headed '' Bestemmiatore , orrendo nprae ; " but this is the only '' writing on the wall" witnessed in Rome . The number of wine-shops seems tome very small in proportion to the size of the city , arid 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 Council" 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 tiling 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 come to my ears , and which would slipvv Rome , beneath its external propriety , to be the most corrupt , debauched , and demoralized of cities . E&cli separate story can be disputed or denied , but the weight of the general evidence is overpowering . I have talked with many persons * Romans , Italians , ( ind foreign residents , on the subject , and from one and all I liave heard similar accounts . Every traveller I have ' ever ' met with , who has made like inquiries , hasi come to _ a like conviction . I once heard Rome described by an appellation which I cannot repeat , "but which 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 ifc is ,, after all , is the test you can get . Now there is very little dnmkenness in Rome , I freely admit . With the exception of French soldiers on fete' days , you ra rely meet a drunken pei'son , even at night ; but then the Italians , like all other natives of warm climates , are naturally sober . On the other hand , beggars are universal . Everybody begs ; if you 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 Si * ekidan * s dictum , that no man could be lionest without being rich , ifc is hard to believe in a virtuous boggax , 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 mnn , was stabbed by a robber in a largo hotel , not . three doors from where I write . The fact that the victim was a stranger , and a man of fortune , has called attention to the occummce , but the crime itself walcea no noise and excites no surprise , To my oye . s the very look of the city and its inhabitants is a strong 1 ground of suspicion . There is vice on . those worn , wretched faco 8--yice in those decaying" hovel-palaces—vice in those atreets , teeming with life , and dirt , and Inisery . In fact , if you only , fancy to yourself a city whore' there are neither manufactures , nor commorco , nor public life of any kind ; where the rich are condemned to enforced idleness , and the poor to enforced misery ; where there is a popula * tion of some ten thousand clergymen in the prune of life , without occupation for the most part , and all vowed to eclibaoy ; where priests and prjesfc-rule are omnipotent , nnd where every outlet for fcho natural desires and passions of men is carefully cut off—rif you tnko in all those facts , you will not be surprised if to me , as to any one who knows the truth , the oxternal propriety of Rome seems but the saddest of its many mockeries . Rome , 20 fch January . I have juBt received from Florence a copy of the correspondence between the Archbishop of Florence and Baron Rioabom : on the question of the Evangolioul Catholics , <» nd as < ifc throws considerable light on the tact it's nnd ' policy of the Italian Church and tho Italian Liberals I enclose a translation . We really | seom to be on the eve of some great change hero . The Archbishop of Florence and Baron Rlcanoli , Sir , —When tho author of tho pamphlet , " The Catholic Churoh of Rome Is tho only true Church of Christ / ' sovoral editions of which lmvo been published in Florence , came and told me that the 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 np longer refuse my credence ; ; I ain ignorant whether . this prohibition comes . directly from your 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 , lay ing . 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 in 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 and 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 which , 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 ia 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 everyageand 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 ex- , tent as to leave rppm 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 arid that spirit of self-denial and self-sacrifice to the calls of duty which are necessary to make men brave and free—whether thei encouragement of the ' faith which works miracles" can be replaced with advantage bjr sowing in men ' s minds the doubt that paralyses , or the disbelief that brutalizes ; for this fact indeed must be . well borne 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 Italy , agitated and excitqd 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 woundqd consciences and religious passions ? Whether this is advisable or not , is no difficult matter to decide . 1 , 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 Tuscaiiship is a sine qud non , as if the voice and the priesthood of Catholicism , like some petty quibble of the ecclesiastical law , could be confined within the narrow Hunts of a single province . I ask yaii-i 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 say , that a fervent priest and a zealous curate arc not permitted to denounce fro m tho pulpit these fearful blusphemies that are uttered daily , or these ubominnblo insults with which , by word of mouth and by writing , in highways and byways , the sacr

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    Jan 28 , I 860 . ] The leader and Saturday Analyst . 93

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 28, 1860, page 93, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2331/page/17/