Suffice it to say, that the subjects of the Pope will be as prosperous and as happy as any people in Europe—as soon as they cease to be governed by a Pope!

CHAPTER XX.

FINANCES.

"The subjects of the Pope are necessarily poor—but then they pay hardly any taxes. The one condition is a compensation for the other!"

This is what both you and I have often heard said. Now and then, too, it is put forth upon the faith of some statistical return or another of the Golden Age, that they are governed at the rate of 7s. 6d. per head.

This calculation is a mere fable, as I can easily prove. But supposing it to be correct, the Romans would not be the less deserving of pity. It is a miserable consolation to people who have nothing, to be told that their taxes are low. For my part, I would much rather have heavy taxes to pay, and a good deal to pay them with, like the English. What would be thought of the Queen's government, if after having ruined trade, manufactures, and agriculture, and exhausted all the sources of public prosperity, it were to say to the people, "Rejoice, good people, for henceforth your taxes will not exceed 7s. 6d. a head all round!" The English people would answer with great reason, that they would much prefer to pay £40 a head, and be able to make £400.

It is not this or that particular sum per head on a population which constitutes moderate or excessive taxation; but the relation which the sum annually taken for the service of the State bears to the revenues of the nation. It is just to take much from him who has much; monstrous to attempt to take anything—be it never so little—from him who has nothing. If you examine the question from this common sense point of view, you will agree with me that taxation at the rate of 7s. 6,d. a head, is pretty heavy for the poor Romans.

But 7s. 6,d. a head is not the rate at which they are taxed; nor even double that amount. The Budget of Rome is £2,800,000, which is to be assessed upon three million taxpayers.

Assessed, moreover, not according to the laws of reason, justice, and humanity, but in such a manner that the heaviest burdens fall upon the most useful, laborious, and interesting class of the nation, the small proprietors.

And I do not allude here to the taxes paid directly to the State, and admitted in the budget. Besides these, there are the provincial and municipal charges, which, under the title of additional per-centage, amount to more than double the direct taxes. The province of Bologna pays £80,900 of property-tax, and £96,812 of provincial and municipal charges, making together £177,712. This sum distributed over the whole population of 370,107, brings the taxation to a fraction under 10s. a head. But observe, that instead of being borne by the whole population, it is borne by no more than 23,022 proprietors.

But mark a further injustice! It does not bear equally upon the proprietors of the towns and those of the country. The former has a great advantage over the latter. A town property in the province of Bologna pays 2s. 3d. per cent., a country property of the same value 5s. 3d. per cent., not upon the income, but the capital.

In the towns, it is not the palaces, but the houses of the middle class that are the most heavily rated. Take the palace of a nobleman in Bologna, and a small house belonging to a citizen, which adjoins it. The palace is valued at the trifling sum of £1,100, on the ground that the apartments inhabited by the owner are not included in the income. The actual rent of which the owner is in the receipt for the part left off is about £280 a year: his taxes are £18 a year. The small house adjoining is valued at £200. The rent derived from it is £10 a year, and the taxes paid on it are £3. 7s. 6d. Thus we find the palace paying something like 5s. 6d. per cent. on its income, and the small house £1 7s.

The Lombards justly excite our compassion. But the proprietors of the province of Bologna are taxed to the annual amount of £1,400 more than those of the province of Milan.

To this crushing taxation are added heavy duties on articles of consumption. All the necessaries of life are liable to these taxes, such as flour, vegetables, rice, bread, etc. They are heavier than in almost any other European city. Meat is charged at the same rate as in Paris. Hay, straw, and wood, at still higher rates.

The town dues of Lille amount to 10s. per head on the population; those of Florence, about the same; and those of Lyons 12s. 6d. At Bologna they are 14s. 2d. Observe, town dues alone. We are already a long way from the 7s. 6d. of the Golden Age!

I am bound in justice to admit that the nation has not always been so hardly dealt with. It was not till the reign of Pius IX. that the taxation became insupportable. The budget of Bologna was more than doubled between 1846 and 1858.

Something might be said, if at least the money taken from the nation were spent for the good of the nation!

But one-third of the amount raised in taxation remains in the hands of the officials who collect it. This is incredible, but true. The cost of collecting the revenue amounts, if I mistake not, in England, to 8 per cent.; in France, to 14 per cent.; in Piedmont, to 16 per cent.; and in the States of the Church, to 31 per cent.

If you marvel at a system of extravagance which obliges the people to pay £4 for every £2. 15s. 10d. required for their mis-government, here is a fact which will enlighten you on the subject.

Last year the place of municipal receiver was put up to auction in the city of Bologna. An offer was made by an honourable and responsible man to collect the dues for a commission of 1-1/2 per cent. The Government gave the preference to Count Cesare Mattei, one of the Pope's Chamberlains, who asked two per cent. So this piece of favouritism costs the city £800 a year.

The following is the mode in which the revenue (after the abstraction of one-third in the course of collecting it) is disposed of.

£1,000,000 goes to pay the interest of a continually accumulating debt, contracted by the priests, and for the priests, annually increasing through the bad administration of the priests, and carried by the priests to the debit of the nation.

£400,000 is devoured by a useless army, the sole duty of which has hitherto been to present arms to the Cardinals, and to escort the procession of the Host.

£120,000 is devoted to those establishments which of all others are the most indispensable to an unpopular government: I mean, the prisons.

£80,000 is the cost of the administration of justice. The tribunals of the capital absorb half the amount, because they enjoy the distinction of being for the most part composed of prelates.

The very modest sum of £100,000 is devoted to public works. This is chiefly spent in embellishing Rome, and repairing churches.

£60,000 goes in the encouragement of idleness in the city of Rome. A Charity Commission, presided over by a Cardinal, distributes this sum among a few thousand incorrigible idlers, without accounting for it to anybody. Mendicity is all the more flourishing, as is apparent to every one. From 1827 to 1858, the subjects of the Holy Father paid £1,600,000 in mischievous alms, among the injurious effects of which, the principal was to deprive labour of the hands it required. The Cardinal who presides over the Commission takes £2,400 a year for his private charities.

£16,000 defrays poorly enough the cost of the public education, which, moreover, is wholly in the hands of the clergy. Add this moderate sum, and the £80,000 devoted to the administration of justice, to a part of the £100,000 spent on public works, and you have all that can fairly be set down as money spent in the service of the nation. The remainder is of no use but to the Government,—in other words, to a parcel of priests.

The Pope and the partners of his power must be indifferent financiers, when, after spending such a pittance on the nation, they contrive to wind up every year with a deficit. The balance of 1858 showed a deficit of nearly half a million sterling, which does not prevent the government from promising a surplus in the estimates of 1859.

In order to fill up the gaps in the budget, the Government has recourse to borrowing, sometimes openly, by a loan from the house of Rothschild, sometimes secretly, by an issue of stock.

In 1857 the Pontifical Government contracted its eleventh loan with Rothschild's house; it was a trifle, something under £700,000. Nevertheless there were quiet issues of stock from 1851 to 1858, to the tune of £1,320,000. The capital of the debt for which its subjects are liable, amounts to £14,376,150. 5s. If you will take the trouble to divide this grand total by the figure which represents the population, you will find that every little subject born to the Pope comes into the world a debtor of something like £4. 10s., whereof he will contribute to pay the interest all his life, although neither he nor his ancestors have ever derived the least benefit from the outlay.

It is true these fourteen millions and a half (in round numbers) have not been lost for all the world. The nephews of the Popes have pocketed a good round sum. About a third has been swallowed up by what is called the general interests of the Roman Catholic faith. It has been proved that the religious wars have cost the Popes at least four millions; and the farmers of Ancona and Forlì are still paying out of the produce of their fields for the faggots used to burn the Huguenots. The churches of which Rome is so proud have not been paid for entirely by the tribute of Catholicism at large. There are certain remnants of accounts, which were at the cost of the Roman people. The Popes have made more than one donation to those poor religious establishments, which possess no more than £20,000,000 worth of property in the world. The expenses lumped together under the head of Allocations for Public Worship add something short of £900,000 sterling to the national debt. Foreign occupation, and more particularly the invasion of the Austrians in the north, has burdened the inhabitants with a million sterling. Add the money squandered, given away, stolen, and lost, together with £1,360,000 paid to bankers for commission on loans, and you have an account of the total of the debt, excepting perhaps a million and a half or so, of which the unexplained and inexplicable disbursement does immortal honour to the discretion of the ministers.

Since the restoration of Pius IX., an approach to respect for public opinion has forced the Pontifical Government to publish some sort of accounts. It does not render them to the nation, but to Europe, knowing that Europe is not curious in the matter, and will be easily satisfied. A few copies of the annual Budget are published; they are certainly not in everybody's reach. The statement of receipts and expenditure is prodigiously laconic. I have now before me the estimates prepared for 1858, in four pages, the least blank of which contains just fourteen lines. The Finance Minister sums up the receipts and the outgoings, both ordinary and extraordinary. Under the head of Receipts, he lumps the whole of "the direct contributions, and the State property, 3,201,426 scudi."

Under the head of Expenditure, we read "Commerce, Fine Arts, Agriculture, Manufactures, and Public Works, 601,764 scudi." A tolerable lump, this.

This powerful simplification of accounts enables the Minister to perform some capital tricks of financial sleight of hand. Supposing, for instance, the Government wants half a million of scudi for some mysterious purpose, nothing is easier than to bring their direct contributions in as having paid half a million less than they really have. What will Europe ever know about the matter?

"Speech is silver, but silence is gold."

Successive Finance Ministers at Rome have all adopted this device, even when they are forced to speak, they have the art of not saying the very thing the country wants to hear.

In almost all civilized countries the nation enjoys two rights which seem perfectly just and natural. The first is that of voting the taxes, either directly or through the medium of its deputies; the second, that of verifying the expenditure of its own money.

In the Papal kingdom, the Pope or his Minister says to the citizens, "Here is what you have to pay!" And he takes the money, spends it, and never more alludes to it except in the vaguest language.

Still, in order to afford some sort of satisfaction to the conscience of Europe, Pius IX. promised to place the finances under the control of a sort of Chamber of Deputies. Here is the text of this promise, which figured, with many others, in the Motu Proprio of the 12th of September, 1849.

"A Consulta di Stato for the Finances is established. It will be heard on the estimates of the forthcoming year. It will examine the balance of accounts for the previous year, and sign the vote of credit. It will give its advice on the establishment of new, or the reduction of old taxes; on the better distribution of the general taxation; on the measures to be taken for the improvement of commerce, and in general on all that concerns the interests of the public Treasury.

"The Councillors shall be selected by Us from lists presented by the Provincial Councils. Their number shall be fixed in proportion to the provinces of the State. This number may be increased within fixed limits by the addition of some of our subjects, whom we reserve to ourselves the right to name."

Now, allow me to dwell briefly upon the meaning of this promise, and the results which have followed it. Who knows whether diplomacy may not ere long be again occupied in demanding promises of the Pope?—whether the Pope may not again think it wise to promise mountains and marvels?—whether these new promises may not be just as hollow and insincere as the old ones? This short paragraph deserves a long commentary, for it is fraught with instruction.

"It is established!" said the Pope. But the Consulta di Stato of Finances, established the 12th of September, 1849, only gave signs of life in December, 1853. Four years afterwards! This is what I call drawing a bill at a pretty long date. It is admitted that the nation needs some guarantees, and that it is entitled to tender some advice, and to exercise some control. And so the nation is requested to call again in four years.

The members of the Consulta of the Finances are a sort of sham
deputies; very sham ones, I assure you, although the Count de
Rayneval, to suit his purpose, is pleased to call them "the
Representatives of the Nation." They represent the nation as Cardinal
Antonelli represents the Apostles.

They are elected by the Pope from a list presented by the Communal Councils. The Communal Councillors are elected by their predecessors of the Communal Council, who were chosen directly by the Pope from a list of eligible citizens, each of whom must have produced a certificate of good conduct, both religious and political. In all this I cannot for the life of me see more than one elector—the Pope.

We'll begin this progressive election again, and start from the very bottom—that is, the nation. The Italians have a peculiar fancy for municipal liberties. The Pope knows this, and, as a good prince, he resolves to accommodate them. The township or commune wishes to choose its own councillors, of which there are ten to be elected. The Pope names sixty electors—six electors for every councillor. And observe, that in order to become an elector, a certificate from the parish and the police is necessary. But they are not infallible; and, moreover, it is just possible that in the exercise of a novel right they may fall into some error; so the Sovereign determines to arrange the election himself. Then, his Communal Councillors—for they are indeed his—come and present him with a list of candidates for the Provincial Council. The list is long, in order that the Holy Father may have scope for his selection. For instance, in the province of Bologna he chooses eleven names out of one hundred and fifty-six; he must be unlucky indeed not to be able to pick out eleven men devoted to him. These eleven Provincial Councillors, in their turn, present four candidates, out of whom the Pope chooses one. And this is how the nation is represented in the Financial Council.

Still, with a certain luxury of suspicion, the Holy Father adds to the list of representatives some men of his own choice, his own caste, and who are in habits of intimacy with him. The councillors elected by the nation are eliminated by one-third every two years. The councillors named directly by the Pope are irremovable.

Verily, if ever constituted body offered guarantees to power, it was this Council of Finances. And yet, the Pope does not trust to it. He has given the presidence to a Cardinal, the vice-presidence to a Prelate; and still he is only half re-assured. A special regulation places all the councillors under the supreme control of the Cardinal President. It is he who names the commissioners, organizes the bureaux, and makes the reports to the Pope. Without his permission no papers or documents are communicated to the councillors. So true is it that the reigning caste sees in every layman an enemy.

And the reigning caste is quite right. These poor lay councillors, selected among the most timid, submissive, and devoted of the Pope's subjects, could not forget that they were men, citizens, and Italians. On the day after their installation they manifested a desire to begin doing their duty, by examining the accounts of the preceding year. They were told that these accounts were lost. They persisted in their demands. A search was instituted. A few documents were produced; but so incomplete that the Council was not able in six years to audit and pass them.

The advice of the Council of Finances was not taken on the new taxes decreed between 1849 and 1853. Since 1853, that is to say, since the Council of Finances has entered upon its functions, the Government has contracted foreign loans, inscribed consolidated stock in the great book of the national debt, alienated the national property, signed postal conventions, changed the system of taxation at Benevento, and taxed the diseased vines, without even taking the trouble to ascertain its opinion.

The Government proposed some other financial measure to the Council, and the answer was in the negative. In spite of this, the Government measures were carried into execution. The Motu Proprio says the Consulta di Stato shall be heard, but not that it shall be listened to.[18]

Every year, at the end of the session, the Consulta addresses to the
Pope a humble petition against the gross abuses of the financial
system. The Pope remits the petition over to some Cardinals. The
Cardinals remit it over to the Greek Kalends.

The Count de Rayneval greatly admired this mechanism. The Emperor
Soulouque did more—he imitated it.

But M. Guizot tells us that "there is a degree of bad government which no people, whether great or little, enlightened or ignorant, will tolerate at the present day."[19]

CONCLUSION.

The Count de Rayneval, after having proved that all is for the best in the dominions of the Pope, winds up his celebrated Note by a desponding conclusion. According to him, the Roman Question is one which cannot possibly be definitively solved; and the utmost that can be effected by diplomacy is the postponement of a catastrophe.

I am not such a pessimist. It appears to me that all political questions may be solved, and all catastrophes averted. I am sanguine enough to believe that war is not absolutely indispensable to the salvation of Italy and the security of Europe, and that it is possible to extinguish a conflagration without firing guns.

You have seen the intolerable misery and the legitimate discontent of the subjects of the Pope. You know enough of them to understand that Europe ought without delay to bring them succour, not only from the love of abstract justice, but in the interest of the public peace. I have proved to you that the misfortunes which afflict these three millions of men must be attributed neither to the weakness of the sovereign, nor even to the perversity of minister, but are the logical and necessary deductions from a principle. All that Europe has to do is to protest against the consequences. The principle must either be admitted or rejected. If you approve the temporal sovereignty of the Pope, you are bound to applaud everything, even the conduct of Cardinal Antonelli. If you are shocked by the offences of the Pontifical Government, it is against the ecclesiastical monarchy that you must seek your remedy.

Diplomacy, without staying to discuss the premises, has from time to time protested against the deductions. In profoundly respectful Memoranda it has implored the Pope to act inconsistently, by administering the affairs of his States upon the principles of lay governments. Should the Pope turn a deaf ear, the diplomatists have no right to complain, because they recognize his character, as an independent sovereign. Should he promise all they ask and afterwards break his word, diplomacy is equally without a ground of complaint. Is it not the admitted right of the Sovereign Pontiff to absolve men even from the most solemn oaths? And finally, should he yield to the solicitation of Europe, and enact liberal laws one day, only to let them fall into desuetude the next, diplomatists are once more disarmed. To violate its own laws is a special privilege of absolute monarchy.

I entertain a very high respect for our diplomatists of 1859; nor were their predecessors of 1831 wanting either in good intentions or capacity. They addressed to Gregory XVI. a MEMORANDUM, which is a master-piece of its kind. They extorted from the Pope a real constitution,—a constitution which left nothing to be desired, and which guaranteed all the moral and material interests of the Roman nation. In a few years this same constitution had entirely disappeared, and abuses again flowed from the ecclesiastical principle, like a river from its source.

We renewed the experiment in 1849. The Pope granted us the Motu
Proprio of Portici, and the Romans gained nothing by it.

Shall our diplomatists repeat in 1859 this same part of dupes? A French engineer has demonstrated that dykes erected along the banks of rivers liable to inundation are costly, in constant need of repair, and ineffectual; and that the only real protection against those devastations is the construction of a dam at the source. To the source, then, gentlemen of the diplomatic guild! Ascend straight to the temporal power of the Papacy.

And yet I dare neither hope for, nor ask of Europe the immediate application of this grand panacea. Gerontocracy is still too powerful, even in the youngest governments Besides, we are now at peace, and radical reforms are only to be effected by war. The sword alone enjoys the privilege of deciding great questions by a single stroke. Diplomatists, a timid army of peace, proceed but by half-measures.

There is one which was proposed in 1814 by Count Aldini, in 1831 by Rossi, in 1855 by Count Cavour. These three statesmen, comprehending the impossibility of limiting the authority of the Pope within the kingdom in which it is exercised, and over the people who are abandoned to it, advised Europe to remedy the evil by diminishing the extent of, and reducing the population subjected to, the States of the Church.

Nothing is more just, natural, or easy than to free the Adriatic provinces, and to confine the despotism of the Papacy between the Mediterranean and the Apennines. I have shown that the cities of Ferrara, Ravenna, Bologna, Rimini, and Ancona are at once the most impatient of the Pontifical yoke and the most worthy of liberty. Deliver them. Here is a miracle which may be wrought by a stroke of the pen: and the eagle's plume which signed the treaty of Paris is as yet but freshly mended.

There would still remain to the Pope a million of subjects, and between three and four millions of acres; neither the one nor the other in a very high state of cultivation, I must admit; but it is possible that the diminution of his revenue might induce him to manage his estates and utilize his resources better than he now does. One of two things would occur: either he would enter upon the course pursued by good governments, and the condition of his subjects would become endurable, or he would persist in the errors of his predecessors, and the Mediterranean provinces would in their turn demand their independence.

At the worst, and as a last alternative, the Pope might retain the city of Rome, his palaces and temples, his cardinals and prelates, his priests and monks, his princes and footmen, and Europe would contribute to feed the little colony.

Rome, surrounded by the respect of the universe, as by a Chinese wall, would be, so to speak, a foreign body in the midst of free and living Italy. The country would suffer neither more nor less than does an old soldier from the bullet which the surgeon has left in his leg.

But will the Pope and the Cardinals easily resign themselves to the condition of mere ministers of religion? Will they willingly renounce their political influence? Will they in a single day forget their habits of interfering in our affairs, of aiming princes against one another, and of discreetly stirring up citizens against their rulers? I much doubt it.

But on the other hand, princes will avail themselves of the lawful right of self-defence. They will read history, and they will there find that the really strong governments are those which have kept religious authority in their own hands; that the Senate of Rome did not grant the priests of Carthage liberty to preach in Italy; that the Queen of England and the Emperor of Russia are the heads of the Anglican and Russian religions; and they will see that by right the sovereign metropolis of the churches of France should be in Paris.

NOTES

1: Preface to the Official Statistical Returns of 1853, page 64.

2: 'La Grèce Contemporaine.'

3: Etudes Statistiques sur Rome, par le Comte de Tournon.

4: A few of them did good service in the cause of liberty, and deserved well of their country, in the glorious but unsuccessful struggle of 1848, soon about to be renewed, and, let us hope, under happier auspices, and with a very different result.

Duke Filippo Lante Montefeltro, Colonel in command of a corps d' armée of the Roman Volunteers, occupied and held Treviso, whereby he at once assured the retreat of the Roman army, after its defeat at Cornuda on the 9th of May, 1848, by General Nugent, and prevented the advance of the Austrians upon Venice. The President Manin acknowledged that by his courage and patriotism he had saved Venice, and immediately sent him the commission of a full General. On the 16th of May, General Nugent arrived before Treviso with 16,000 men, and siege artillery. He at once summoned the place to surrender, giving General Lante till noon on the following day for consideration. At four the same evening, Lante sent for reply, "Come this evening. I shall expect you at six. We are here to fight, not to surrender!" After threatening the town for some days, Nugent retired from before it, and joined Radetzky.

Duke Bonelli, Captain of Dragoons, was Orderly Officer to General Durando at the capitulation of Vicenza. Prince Bartolomeo Ruspoli served as a private soldier in the Roman Legion; he was one of the three Commissioners who were sent to the camp of Radetzky to treat for the capitulation of Vicenza.

    Count Antonio Marescotti commanded the 1st Roman regiment of
    Grenadiers.

    Count Bandini, son of a Princess Giustiniani, was also Orderly
    Officer to Durando.

Count Pianciani commanded the 3d regiment of Roman Volunteers.

Don Ludovico Lante (a younger brother of Filippo) was Captain in the 1st regiment of Roman Volunteers.

Adriano Borgia quitted the Pope's Guardia Nobile for a Colonelcy of Dragoons, in the service of the Roman Republic: he was an excellent officer.

Marquis Steffanoni commanded a company of young students.—Transl.

5: The ordinary British tourist must not look for his portrait in the witty Author's picture. It is clear that here and elsewhere the pilgrims are all assumed to be true sons of the Church.—Transl.

6: An expression in use among collegians in France, to describe those students who are unable to pass their examinations; tantamount to our English plucked.

7: A man who has worn cioccie.

8: 'Tolla.' 1 vol. 12mo.

9: 'The Victories of the Church,' by the Priest Margotti. 1857.

10: 'Proemio della Statistica,' pubblicata nel 1857, dall' Eminentissimo Cardinale Milesi.

11: H.R.H. the Prince of Wales.

12: Leo XII. (out of his excessive regard for the interests of morality) occasionally departed from this rule. The same motive caused him to be very fond of what the profane call "gossip." He had a habit, too, of ascertaining by ocular demonstration, whether any incidents of more than ordinary interest in domestic life were passing in the palaces of his noble, or the houses of his citizen subjects. His medium for the attainment of this end was a powerful telescope, placed at one of his upper windows! The principal minister to his gossiping propensities was one Captain C——, a man of great learning, but doubtful morality, selected, of course, for the office of scandalous chronicler, from his experiences in what, in lay countries, the carnally-minded term "life." When, between his telescopic observations, and the reports of the Captain, the Sovereign Pontiff had accumulated the requisite amount of evidence against any offending party, the mode of procedure was sudden, swift, and sure, fully bearing out the Author's assertion that in Rome the will of an individual is a substitute for the law of the State. There was no nonsense about Habeas Corpus, or jury, or recorded judgment. The supposed delinquent was simply seized (usually in the dead of the night, to avoid scandal), and hurried off to durance vile, to undergo, as it was phrased prigione ed altre pene a nostro arbitrio. One day C—— brought the Pope particulars of what was at once pronounced by his Holiness a most flagrant case. The wife of the highly respected and able Avocato B—— (a stout lady of fifty), who was at the same time legal adviser to the French Embassy, was in the habit of driving out daily in the carriage, and by the side of the old bachelor Duke C——, Exempt of the Noble Guard. The Papal decision on the case was instant. The act was of such frequent occurrence, so audaciously, so unblushingly public, that public morality demanded the strongest measures. That very night a descent was made upon the dwelling of the unconscious Avocato. The sanctity of the connubial chamber was invaded. The sleeping beauty of fifty was ordered to rise, and was dragged off to—the Convent of Repentant Females! B—— knew, and none better, what manner of thing law was in Rome, so instead of wasting time in reasoning with the Pope as to the legality of the case—urging the argument that, even supposing his wife to have been of a susceptible age and an attractive exterior, so long as he himself made no objection to her driving out with the old Duke, nobody else had any right to interfere—and other similar appeals to common sense, he at once requested the interference of the French Ambassador. This was promptly and effectively given. The incarceration of the peccant dame was brief; and a shower of ridicule fell upon the Pontifical head. But the Sovereigns of Rome are accustomed to, and regardless of, such irreverent demonstrations.—TRANSL.

13: Louis Veuillot, article of the 10th of September, 1849.

14: The principal market in Rome is held in this Piazza.

15: The Basilica of St. Paul without the walls.

16: The rubbio is a measure both of land and of quantity.

17: Monsignore Nicolai was a good practical agriculturist. He had a sort of model farm, known as the Albereto Nicolai, near the Basilica of St. Paul Without the Walls. He was an able administrator, and a man of superior attainments; and had he only possessed common honesty, he would have been in time a great man—as greatness is understood in Rome. He was a Prelato di Fiochetto, and held the post of Uditore della R.C. Apostolica, one of the four high offices which necessarily lead to Red Hats. Moreover, he was marked by Gregory XVI for the promotion, and had actually ordered his scarlet apparel. But unfortunately Monsignore Nicolai affected the good things of this life over-much. He was a bon vivant, and a viveur. He loved money, and he was utterly unscrupulous as to the means by which he obtained it. His career in the direction of the Sacred College was cut short, when he was very near its attainment, by a scandalous transaction, in which, although he was nearly eighty years of age, he played the principal part. He colluded with a notary, named Bachetti, to falsify the will of one Vitelli, a wealthy contractor, inserting in the place of the testator's two orphan nieces that of his own natural son. The affair having been dragged to light, Gregory XVI. deprived him of his office, and he ended his days in disgrace and retirement. His fondness for worldly pelf clung to him in his very last moments. A short time before he expired, he ordered some gendarmes to be brought into his bedroom, and charged them to watch over his property, lest anything should be stolen after he had ceased to breathe, and before the representatives of the law could take possession.

It is worthy of mention, as illustrating the administration of Justice in Rome, that even with these proofs of the invalidity of the will produced as that of Vitelli, his nieces were never able to recover the whole of his property. They were compelled to make terms with Grossi, the defunct Prelate's natural son, who to this day remains in the enjoyment of one-half of Vitelli's property!

18: All the facts and figures contained in this chapter are taken from the works of the Marchese Pepoli.

19: Memoirs, vol. ii. p. 293.

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History of the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. By
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Meta Gray; or, What Makes Home Happy. By Maria J. McIntosh, Author of "Aunt Kitty's Tales." 1 vol., 12mo. 75 cents.

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New York to Delhi, by the way of Rio de Janeiro, Australia, and China. By Robert B. Minturn, Jr. 1 volume, 12mo. Illustrated with a Map, $1.25. (Second edt.)

History of Civilization in England. By Henry Thomas Buckle. Vol. 1, 8vo. 677 pages. From the 2d London edt., $2.50.

Rational Cosmology; or, The Eternal Principles and the Necessary Laws of the Universe. By Laurens P. Hickock, D.D. 1 volume, 8vo. 397 pages, $1.75.

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Appleton's New American Cyclopædia. A Popular Dictionary of General
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The Foster Brothers: Being the HISTORY of the SCHOOL and COLLEGE LIFE of TWO YOUNG MEN. 1 vol. 12mo. $1.

"As fresh as the morning…. It abounds in fun, and in relish of the activities, competitions, and sports of boyish and adolescent life."—DAILY NEWS.

"Full of life, and fun, and vigor…. These sketches of school and college life are among the happiest of their kind. Particularly well written is the account of life at Cambridge."—EXAMINER.

* * * * *

Passages from the Autobiography of Sidney, Lady Morgan. 1 vol. 12mo. $1.

"This volume brims with sense, cleverness, and humor. A lively and entertaining collection of great men's thought and quick woman's observation; a book to be read now for amusement, and to be sought hereafter for reference."—London Athenæum.

"A charming book. It is long since the reading public has been admitted to so great a treat as this fascinating collection of wit, anecdote and gossip. It is a delightful reminiscence of a brilliant past, told by one of the best wits still extant."—London Daily News.

* * * * *

Onward; or, The Mountain Clamberers. A Tale of Progress. By Jane Anne
Winscom. I vol. 12mo. 75 cents.

CONTENTS.—LOOKING UPWARDS; COLIN AND JEANIE; THE FAMILY AT ALLEYNE; OFF! OFF! AND AWAY; ENDEAVORING; EDWARD ARNOLD; POOR, YET NOBLE; LITTLE HARRY; POOR JAMIE CLARK; FIELDS WHITE UNTO THE HARVEST; THE SAND HUTS; THE DRUNKARD'S COTTAGE; THE INFANT'S MINISTRY; STAND STILL; OLD MOSES AND LITTLE ADAH; THE ROCKY GLEN; SALOME; WIDOW M'LEOD; STAFFA AND IONA; CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE; FAITH'S CONFLICT; FAITH'S VICTORY; REUNION; SUMMER DAYS; THE FADING FLOWER; THE UNEXPECTED ARRIVAL, A. WEDDING DAY; THE MOUNTAIN-TOPS APPEARING; HASTENING ON; THE SIRE'S BIRTHDAY; THE SUMMIT GAINED.

* * * * *

Shakers: Compendium of the Origin, History, Principles, Rules and
Regulations, Government and Doctrines of the United Society of
Believers in Christ's Second Appearing, with Biographies of Ann Lee,
William Lee, Jas. Whittaker, J. Hocknett, J. Mescham, and Lucy Wright.
By F.W. Evans. 1 vol. 12mo. 75 cents.

* * * * *

Cyclopædia of Wit and Humor, Comprising a Unique Collection of
Complete Articles, and specimens of Written Humor from Celebrated
Humorists of America, England, Ireland and Scotland. Illustrated with
upwards of 600 Characteristic Original Designs, and 24 Portraits, from
Steel Plates. Edited by William E. Burton, the Celebrated Comedian.
Two vols., 8vo., cloth, $7. sheep, $8; halfmor., $9; half calf, $10.

     "As this task is a labor of love to Mr. Burton, we are sure
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"The editor has raked many old pieces out of the dust, while he has drawn freely from the great masters of humor in modern times."—N.Y. Tribune.

     "We do not see how any lover of humorous literature can
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     "Mr. Burton is the very man to prepare this Cyclopædia of
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From New York to Delhi. By the way of RIO DE JANEIRO, AUSTRALIA AND
CHINA. By Robert B. Minturn, Jr. 1 vol. 12mo. With a Map. $1.25.

"Mr. Minturn's volume is very different from an ordinary sketch of travel over a well-beaten road. He writes with singular condensation. His power of observation is of that intuitive strength which catches at a glance the salient and distinctive points of every thing he sees. He has shown rare cleverness, too, in mingling throughout the work, agreeably and unobtrusively, so much of the history of India, and yet without ever suffering it to clog the narrative."—Churchman.

"This book shows how much can be accomplished by a wide-awake, thoughtful man in a six months' tour. The literary execution of Mr. Minturn's book is of a high order, and, altogether, we consider it a timely and important contribution to our stock of meritorious works."—Boston Journal.

* * * * *

Le Cabinet des Feés; or, Recreative Readings. Arranged for the Express
Use of Students in French. By George S. Gerard, A.M., Prof, of
French and Literature. 1 vol. 12mo. $1.

"After an experience of many years in teaching, we are convinced that such works as the Adventures of Telemachus and the History of Charles XII., despite their incontestable beauty of style and richness of material, are too difficult for beginners, even of mature age. Such works, too, consisting of a continuous narrative, present to most students the discouraging prospect of a formidable undertaking, which they fear will never be completed."—Extract from Preface.

* * * * *

The Banks of New York; Their Dealers; The Clearing-House; and the
Panic of 1857. With a Financial Chart. By J.S. Gibbons. With Thirty
Illustrations, by Herrick. 1 vol. 12mo. 400 pages. Cloth, $1.50.

A book for every Man of Business, for the Bank Officer and Clerk; for the Bank Stockholder and Depositor; and, especially for the Merchant and his Cash Manager; also for the Lawyer, who will here find the exact Responsibilities that exist between the different officers of Banks and the Clerks, and between them and the Dealers.

The operations of the Clearing-House are described in detail, and illustrated by a financial Chart, which exhibits, in an interesting manner, the fluctuations of the Bank Loans.

The immediate and exact cause of the Panic of 1857 is clearly demonstrated by the records of the Clearing-House, and a scale is presented by which the deviation of the volume of Bank Loans from an average standard of safety can be ascertained at a single glance.

* * * * *

History of the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. By Samuel Greene Arnold. Vol. I. 1636-1700. 1 vol. 8vo. 574 pages. $2.50.

"To trace the rise and progress of a State, the offspring of ideas that were novel and startling, even amid the philosophical speculations of the Seventeenth Century; whose birth was a protest against, whose infancy was a struggle with, and whose maturity was a triumph over, the retrograde tendency of established Puritanism; a State that was the second-born of persecution, whose founders had been doubly tried in the purifying fire; a State which, more than any other, has exerted, by the weight of its example, an influence to shape the political ideas of the present day, whose moral power has been, in the inverse ratio with its material importance; of which an eminent Historian of the United States has said that, had its territory 'corresponded to the importance and singularity of the principles of its early existence, the world would have been filled with wonder at the phenomena of its history,' is a task not to be lightly attempted or hastily performed."—Extract from Preface.

* * * * *

The Ministry of Life. By Maria Louisa Charlesworth, Author of Ministering Children. 1 vol., 12mo., with Two Eng's., $1. Of the Ministering Children, (the author's previous work,) 50,000 copies have been sold.

"The higher walks of life, the blessedness of doing good, and the paths of usefulness and enjoyment, are drawn out with beautiful simplicity, and made attractive and easy in the attractive pages of this author. To do good, to teach others how to do good, to render the home circle and the neighborhood glad with the voice and hand of Christian charity, is the aim of the author, who has great power of description, a genuine love for evangelical religion, and blends instruction with the story, so as to give charm to all her books."—N.Y. Observer.

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The Coopers; or, Getting Under Way. By Alice B. Haven, Author of No Such Word as Fail, All's Not Gold that Glitters, etc., etc. 1 vol. 12mo. 336 pages. 75 cents.

"To grace and freshness of style, Mrs. Haven adds a genial, cheerful philosophy of Life, and Naturalness of Character and Incident, in the History of the Cooper Family."

* * * * *

A Text Book of Vegetable and Animal Physiology. Designed for the use of Schools, Seminaries and Colleges in the United States. By Henry Goadby, M.D., Professor of Vegetable and Animal Physiology and Entomology, in the State Agricultural College of Michigan, &c. A new edition. One handsome vol., 8vo., embellished with upwards of 450 wood engravings (many of them colored,) Price, $2

"The attempt to teach only Human Physiology, like a similar proceeding in regard to Anatomy, can only end in failure; whereas, if the origin (so to speak) of the organic structures in the animal kingdom, be sought for and steadily pursued through all the classes, showing their gradual complication, and the necessity for the addition of accessory organs, till they reach their utmost development and culminate in man, the study may be rendered an agreeable and interesting one, and be fruitful in profitable results.

"Throughout the accompanying pages, this principle has been kept steadily in view, and it has been deemed of more importance to impart solid and thorough instruction on the subjects discussed, rather than embrace the whole field of physiology, and, for want of space, fail to do justice to any part of it."—Extract from Preface.

* * * * *

The Physiology of Common Life. By George Henry Lewis, Author of Seaside Studies, Life of Goethe, etc. No. 1. Just Ready. Price 10 cents.

EXTRACT FROM PROSPECTUS.

No scientific subject can be so important to Man as that of his own Life. No knowledge can be so incessantly appealed to by the incidents of every day, as the knowledge of the processes by which he lives and acts. At every moment he is in danger of disobeying laws which, when disobeyed, may bring years of suffering, decline of powers, premature decay. Sanitary reformers preach in vain, because they preach to a public which does not understand the laws of life—laws as rigorous as those of Gravitation or Motion. Even the sad experience of others yields us no lessons, unless we understand the principles involved. If one Man is seen to suffer from vitiated air, another is seen to endure it without apparent harm; a third concludes that "it is all chance," and trusts to that chance. Had he understood the principle involved, he would not have been left to chance—his first lesson in swimming would not have been a shipwreck.

The work will be illustrated with from 20 to 25 woodcuts, to assist the exposition. It will be published in monthly numbers, uniform with Johnston's Chemistry of Common Life.

* * * * *

The History of Civilization in England. By Henry Thos. Buckle. Vol.
I. 8vo. Cloth. $2.50

Whoever misses reading this book, will miss reading what is, in various respects, to the best of our judgment and experience, the most remarkable book of the day—one, indeed, that no thoughtful, inquiring mind would miss reading for a good deal. Let the reader be as adverse as he may to the writer's philosophy, let him be as devoted to the obstructive as Mr. Buckle is to the progress party, let him be as orthodox in church creed as the other is heterodox, as dogmatic as his author is sceptical,—let him, in short, find his prejudices shocked at every turn of the argument, and all his prepossessions whistled down the wind,—still, there is so much in this extraordinary volume to stimulate reflection, and excite to inquiry, and provoke to earnest investigation, perhaps (to this or that reader) on a track hitherto untrodden, and across the virgin soil of untilled fields, fresh woods and pastures new—that we may fairly defy the most hostile spirit, the most mistrustful and least sympathetic, to read it through without being glad of having done so, or, having begun it, or even glanced at almost any one of its 854 pages, to pass it away unread.—New Monthly (London) Magazine.

* * * * *

Legends and Lyrics. By Anne Adelaide Proctor, (Daughter of the Poet,
Barry Cornwall.) One very neat volume, 12mo. Second edition. 75 cents.

This is the charming volume of fresh and tender poems, by the daughter of one of England's most honored and popular poets, which has lately been received with so hearty a welcome in England and America. Choice portions of it, copied by the press with lively praises, have found their way to the firesides.

* * * * *

The Household Book of Poetry. Collected and Edited by Charles A. Dana. 1 vol. 8vo. 793 pages. Third edition. In half morocco. Gilt top. $3.50.

As the New-York correspondent of The Boston Transcript enthusiastically writes, 'The elegiac composition, the exquisite sonnet, the genuine pastoral, the war-song and rural hymn, whose cadences are as remembered music, and the couplets whose chime rings out from the depths of the heart; whatever the old English dramatists, the ode writers of the reign of Anne and Charles, the purest disciples of heroic verse, the Lakists, the Byronic school—Wordsworth and Dryden, Mrs. Hemans and Scott, Shakespeare and Hartley Coleridge have made precious to soul and sense, are herein brought together; and more than this—the many isolated single notes, whose lingering harmony embalms their author's name, with the numerous fugitive "brilliants," heretofore of unknown parentage, cut from newspapers for the last half century—the deep, soulfull utterances of heroes and mourners, lovers and exiles, devotees of nature and worshippers of art—are here elegantly garnered and chronicled.'

"It is just such a volume as a man may give to a woman, albeit that woman is his mother, his sister, or his wife, and is richly worth the place it claims on a lower shelf within arm's length, in the most select library."—Chicago Journal.

* * * * *

The Handy-Book on Property Law, in a series of Letters. By Lord St.
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"This excellent little work gives the plainest inspections in all matters connected with selling, buying, mortgaging, leasing, settling and devising estates; and informs us of our relations to our properties, our wives, our children, and our liabilities as trustees, executors, &c., &c."—Tribune.

* * * * *

The Manual of Chess; Containing the Elementary Principles of the Game.
Illustrated with numerous Diagrams, recent Games and Original
Problems. By Charles Kenny. 1 vol. 12mo. Price 50 cents.

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* * * * *

The Book of Chess; Containing the Rudiments of the Game, and Elementary Analysis of the most Popular Openings, exemplified in games actually played by the great masters, including Staunton's Analysis of the Kings and Queens, Gambits, numerous Positions and Problems on Diagrams, both original and selected; also, a series of Chess Tales, with illustrations from original designs. The whole extracted and translated from the best sources. New Edition. By H.R. Agnel. $1.25.

* * * * *

Sixty Years' Gleanings from Life's Harvest. A Genuine Autobiography.
By John Brown. 1 vol. 12mo. Cloth, $1.

"A remarkable book in every respect, and curiously interesting from beginning to end. John Brown lived with 'all his might,' and the 'Life' he writes is, in its abundance and variety of tragic and comic ups-and-downs, as good as a play. His experiences partook of all the quick changes and boisterous bustle, and rude humor of an old English fair; and as they are presented in this volume they afford a picture of the times he lived and incessantly moved in, which, in much of its bold handling, is not to be surpassed by less spirited pencils than those of Fielding and De Foe. The moral, even as you trace it through the bustling table of contents, is of unmistakable application for every fine young fellow of sound natural principles who has to shoulder his own way to good citizenship and a share of social influence.

"As a neglected child, a 'juvenile offender,' an ingenious vagabond, a, shoemaker, a soldier, an actor, a sailor, a publican, a billiard-room keeper, a Town Councillor, and an author, Mr. Brown has seen the world for sixty years, and he unhesitatingly describes all that he has seen, with fidelity of memory and straightforward simplicity of style."