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This book was digitized by Microsoft Corporation in
cooperation with Yale University Library, 2008. You
may not reproduce this digitized copy of the book for
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A TOUR OF INQUIRY

THROUGH

FRANCE AND ITALY.

VOL. I.

A TOUR OF INQUIRY

FRANCE AND ITALY,

ILLUSTRATING

THEIR PRESENT SOCIAL, POLITICAL, AND
RELIGIOUS CONDITION.

BY EDMUND SPENCER, ESQ.,
AUTHOR OP
'TRAVELS IN EUROPEAN TURKEY," "TRAVELS IN CIRCASSIA," &C.

IN TWO VOLUMES.
VOL. I.

LONDON:
HURST AND BLACKETT, PUBLISHERS,
SUCCESSORS TO HENRY COLBURN,
13, GREAT MARLBOROUGH STREET.
1853.

LONDON:
Printed by Schulze and Co., 13, Poland Street.

PREFACE.

" Boast not thyself of to-morrow, for thou
knowest not what a day may bring forth."
How peculiarly applicable are these inspired
words to the political events of our day. A
new era has dawned on the world, a spirit
of innovation — or rather let us say of social
and religious improvement — has arisen, and it
were as vain to attempt to arrest its progress,
as to reverse the order of the seasons.
Unhappily, however, for mankind, systems

VI PREFACE.
yet survive that belong to another age, and
another state of society, and which having long
since outlived their time, and fulfilled their
mission, still cling to the prejudices and tra
ditions of the past, and paralyze the energies
of the present.
It is to this clashing of interests, this war
of principles — advancement on one side, and
an obstinately maintained stationary policy on
the other — that may be attributed the political
convulsions, that have so long threatened, and
still continue to threaten, the peace of the
world ; and it is this that has laid France,
our former ally in the glorious work of civili
zation, prostrate beneath the iron will of the
despot, the priest, and the soldier.
Unbiassed by any party considerations, or
religious prejudices, the author of these volumes
has endeavoured to make himself acquainted
with the actual condition of the people he
attempts to describe ; his sole object, the

PREFACE. Vll
cause of truth ; his only fear, the imputation
of falsehood, or of being considered other than
what he is, and ever has been — the friend of
monarchical government, of rational liberty,
and religious freedom ; the enemy of despot
ism, bigotry, and intolerance, in any part of
the world.
The present state of Italy has especially
engaged his attention ; and it is chiefly to plead
her cause at the bar of public opinion that
the following pages have been written, trusting
that, notwithstanding the feebleness of the
advocate, they may advance the interests of so
noble a people. In this hope, he confidently
leaves his work to the enlightened and impartial
reader, certain that every indulgence will be
accorded to a writer whose only aim is to
enlist the sympathies of the generous sons of
free England in favour of a country — once
the cradle of the arts, the home of science,
literature, and learning — which has so long

VU1 PREFACE.

been overrun by foreign armies, torn by
domestic dissensions, and oppressed by the
intolerant rule of priestcraft and despotism.

E. S.

DECEMBER 21, 1852.

CONTENTS

THE FIRST VOLUME.

CHAPTER I.

Journey to Italy — Landing at Boulogne — First impres
sions — Passports and Custom-house officers — Pil
grimage to the shrine of Notre Dame de Boulogne —
Her legend — Boulogne as a residence — French and
English railroads — Route to Paris — The Octroi and
universal suffrage — Paris and London contrasted —
Modern improvements in Paris — The Gauls and
Anglo-Saxons — How necessary to each other . 1
CHAPTER II.
The Biffins of Paris — Their social, religious, and moral
character — Destitution — Misery and mode of living
— Concluding remarks . . . . .29

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER III.

Departure for Chalons- sur- Saone — Central France —
Aspect of the country — Travelling companions —
Religion and politics — Opinion of a French Bishop
on England — Arrival at Chalons — Steam -boats on the
Saone and the Rhone —Voyage down the Sa6ne to
Lyons — Characteristics of Lyons — Scenery on the
banks of the Saone and the.. Rhone — Steamer
aground — Novel mode of fleecing travellers —
Arrival at Avignon — Historical reminiscences . 46
CHAPTER IV.
Provence — Excursion in the Vaucluse Mountains —
Visit to Saint Saturnin — Rose Tamisier : the modern
saint of Provence — Her miracle of the bleeding picture
— Sketch of her history — Piety and European fame —
Visit of the Archbishop of Avignon, and the public
authorities of Provence to Rose Tamisier — Their
recognition of the miracle — Singular discovery of the
imposture — State of public feeling — Trial and con
demnation of Rose Tamisier . . . .72
CHAPTER V.
State of religion in the south of France— Infidelity and
superstition — Appearance of the Virgin Mary on

CONTENTS. XI
Mount Salette — Romantic details of the miracle —
Connivance of the Government and the superior
clergy in the imposture — Indignant expression of
public opinion — Schism in the Gallic Church — New
religious sect of the Saint Esprit Brotherhood — Some
accounts of their tenets — Character of the founder —
New dogma of the divinity of the Virgin Mary —
Its adoption by the Romish Church — Observations
on the character,' influence, opinions, and conduct of
the clergy of the Gallic Church — Louis Napoleon and
the Parti Pre'tre  94
CHAPTER VI.
Tour through Provence — Cannes and Lord Brougham —
English residents — The benefits they confer on the
inhabitants — Route from Cannes to Nice — Description
of Nice — Its advantages as a place of residence — The
good effects of a constitutional government . 140
CHAPTER VII.
Departure from Nice — Journey across the maritime
Alps — Beautiful scenery — Travelling companions —
Adventure at Oneglia — Italian towns — Arrival at
Genoa — Sketch of its ancient and modern history —
Illustrious men of Genoa — Increasing prosperity of
the town ....... 157

XU CONTENTS.
CHAPTER VIII.
The Mediterranean steamers — Arrival at Leghorn —
Some account of that town — Austrian police —
Insolence of Austrian officers — Civita Vecchia —
Annoyances of the passport system — Coasting voyage
— Passengers in the Neapolitan steamer — Swiss
officers and their recruits — Account of the Neapo
litan and Sicilian insurrections — Dangerous tempest
— Arrival at Naples . . . . .179
CHAPTER IX.
Naples — Its origin — Its oppressive government — Sketch
of Naples under the rule of the Spaniards and the
French — Observations on the Government — The late
insurrection — General discontent of the people —
National character — Neapolitan beggars — Popular
superstitions — Manners and customs of the people —
State of religion at Naples — Total neglect of public
instruction — Laxity of morals — Pantomimic commu
nication ....... 201
CHAPTER X.
Neapolitan patois — Story-tellers and street preachers —
The modern San Martino — His celestial vision and
sermon — Singular superstition respecting the Pope's

CONTENTS. Xlll
shirt — Tomasso of the Evil Eye — His history —
Superstitious belief of the Neapolitans in the Evil
Eye — Characteristics of Naples — General observa
tions  238
CHAPTER XL
Preparations for leaving Naples — Railroad to Capua —
Neapolitan officers — A female Jesuit — An embar
rassing position — Sketches of a tour from Capua to
Gaeta — Account of Gaeta — Miraculous efficacy
attributed to the chair of Pio Nono at Gaeta — Visit
to the Monastery of St. Benedict — The birth-place
of Cicero — Interesting ruins at Arpino — Tomb of
Cicero — Itri and its supper of thrushes — Fondi —
Arrival in the Papal States — Passports and Custom
house officers — American firmness opposed to Papal
police — Sketch of Terracina and its environs — Cha
racteristics of the mountaineers — Insalubrity of the
marshes ....... 259
CHAPTER XII.
Journey to Rome — The Pontine Marshes — Causes which
led to the insalubrity of this district — Some account
of its ancient inhabitants, the Volsci — Defeat of the
Neapolitan army at Velletri by the Roman insur
gents — Sketches of the country between Velletri

XIV CONTENTSf
and Albano — Ascent of Monte Cavo — Rocca di Papa
— Doubtful character of the inhabitants — Visit to
Frascati and Palestrina — Desolate character of the
country — Monasteries and nunneries — Their influence
in destroying the industry and morality of the people
— Observations on Papal misgovernment . 285
CHAPTER XIII.
Visit to the ruins of Adrian's Villa — Remains of the
country-house of Horace — The Emperor and the
Poet — Insalubrity of the country — The Villa d'Este
— Tivoli — Inquiry as to the origin of the first in
habitants of Rome — Arrival in the Eternal City —
Table-d'h6te — French Revolution — Dangerous excite
ment at Rome — Tranquillity re-established — Jubilee
of the Papal Church — Grand procession . .316

TOUR OF INQUIRY

FRANCE AND ITALY.

CHAPTER I.

Journey to Italy — Landing at Boulogne — First impres
sions — Passports and Custom-house officers — Pil
grimage to the shrine of Notre Dame de Boulogne —
Her legend — Boulogne as a residence — French and
English railroads — Route to Paris — The Octroi and
universal suffrage — Paris and London contrasted —
Modern improvements in Paris — The Gauls and
Anglo-Saxons — How necessary to each other.
To a man who has once imbibed a predilec
tion for the life of a wanderer, a slight apology
will suffice for indulging his inclination, and
now on my return from the land of the Osmanli,
the Greek, the Albanian, and the Slavonian,
VOL. I. B

2 TOUR OF INQUIRY
having met at the " World's Fair," with several
old friends from Italy, their solicitations easily
induced me to revisit a country in which I had
passed some of the happiest days of early youth.
Recent events also having invested the beautiful
peninsula with more than ordinary interest, I
was especially desirous to note the changes which
time had wrought among a noble people, to
whose genius mankind have been so deeply
indebted for that civilizing process which has
gone on redeeming the world from barbarism.
Other lands, it is true, have their attractions,
but there is no country in Europe that has more
constantly occupied the attention of mankind in
every age, than the classic soil of Italy ; none,
even in the present day, that possess so many
varied and absorbing claims to the consideration
of the traveller, linked as it is with some of the
most remarkable events recorded in the history
of the world ; where every city, town, and vil
lage, nay, its very Alps and mountains, hills
and valleys, seas and rivers, speak of the illus
trious dead.

THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY. 3
We will, therefore, at once cross the Channel,
and commence our narrative in the land of the
Gaul. The first view of Boulogne, with its citadel
and fortifications, its finejete'e, custom-house and
spacious harbour, lined with hotels and coffee
houses, billiard-rooms and restaurants, decorated
in all the attractive gaiety of a French town,
presents to the traveller an agreeable contrast to
the dull little sea-port of Folkestone.
Boulogne, however, does not improve on a
more intimate acquaintance : with the exception
of the port, and one or two of the principal
thoroughfares, the streets are narrow and badly
paved ; and in so large and old a city, it is
remarkable, we do not find a single public or
private building deserving notice ; and equally so,
notwithstanding the number of English families
who have made it their home, and the still
greater number attracted hither during the
bathing season, it is in every respect a thoroughly
French town. A proof that the Celtic Gauls,
like our own Celtic Irish, do not easily amalga-
B 2

4 TOUR OF INQUIRY
mate with any other race — above all, with the
Anglo-Saxon. Perhaps this is more striking to the English
traveller who arrives here for the first time,
when he finds everything animate and inanimate,
on which he rests his eye, so new and foreign,
that he might fancy he had been transported by
the wand of a magician to a hemisphere a
thousand miles distant. Intermingled with a
gay, animated multitude, who appear to have no
other way of passing their time than in the
dolce far niente, he sees priests, monks, friars
and nuns of every order habited in their re
spective costumes, with gensdarmes, troops of
the line, custom-house officers, coast-guards
and police, all in uniform, and armed to the
teeth, as if they momentarily expected an insur
rection, or an invasion of their old enemies, the
sea- wolves of perfide Albion. Even the peasants
in their wooden shoes, the fish-women in then-
short red petticoats, white caps, and long gold
ear-rings, assist in imparting to the picture an
air of continental life, entirely different from

THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY. 5
anything he has left on the other side of the
Channel. Again that the English traveller might not
forget he had quitted the land of freedom and
independence, he is made a prisoner by the
police and custom-house officers, the moment
he touches French soil, in whose custody he
must remain till he has proved to their satis
faction, that he is not a smuggler, a red-repub
lican in disguise, or, in short, a suspicious
character. But this is not the only indignity to which a
proud son of free England is obliged to submit,
for after he has succeeded in satisfying the
inquisitorial interrogatories of the despot of the
passport bureau, he is unceremoniously pushed
forward through a narrow passage, lined with
custom-house officers, whose duty it is to ascer
tain by passing their hands over his person,
that he is not carrying illicit merchandize, or
any prohibited publication, political or religious.
Then his baggage must be examined, and such
an examination ! Throughout the whole of

6 TOUR OF INQUIRY
France the search is extremely rigorous, but
here, when the traveller does not employ a
commissioner, who probably divides his profits
with the custom-house officer, his trunks after
being almost, and in some cases entirely
unpacked, are passed over the table to an out
ward room, filled with fish-women, authorised
by superior authority to monopolise the privilege
of custom-house porters ; and to make matters
worse, before it is possible for him to regain
his trunks and their contents, he is obliged
to make the circuit of the table, and pass through
a side door, affording sufficient time, should
these fair mermaids feel inclined, to purloin any
small article or trinket they may particularly
admire. Every place, however insignificant, has its
lions; the most celebrated in Boulogne, is the
column erected by the first Napoleon, to com
memorate the conquest of England ! and that
this well-authenticated event should be suffi
ciently attested, a medal was struck on the
occasion, one of which the traveller may find

THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY. 7
deposited at the museum in the Lower Town.
We have also the cathedral tower, erected by
the Abbe Haffringue, to which, as it inclines
from the perpendicular, these sarcastic Gauls
have given the soubriquet of "The Leaning
Tower of Boulogne !"
Every town and city in France reposes under
the protection of some celestial being ; and
Boulogne, in having selected the Queen of
Heaven as its patroness, ought to be doubly
prosperous and happy, especially as here her
Majesty is not an ideal personage. There is
the very image herself to be seen, chiselled from
life by the hand of the Evangelist St. Luke,
brought from the Holy Land by a gallant
crusader, and presented to his native town in
the days of the good old King St. Louis.
Without entering into the details of the
interesting legend connected with this celebrated
image, its adventures by sea and land, and the
number of extraordinary miracles it is said to
have performed from time to time, we will
merely relate one of its most surprising and

8 TOUR OF INQUIRY
well-attested exploits. It appears that our
Harry the Eighth had it conveyed to England,
as a trophy of his victory over the French at
Boulogne, and deposited in a monastery at
Canterbury. The lady seems to have submitted
with exemplary resignation to her abduction so
long as the monarch remained steadfast to the
true faith ! But when his heretical perversion
had drawn down upon him the anathema of
his Holiness the Pope, she quitted the accursed
land ; and one fine summer's morning was
found in a boat, irradiated by heavenly glory,
entering the port of Boulogne !
Those among our readers who may doubt
the truth of this narrative, have only to cross
the Channel to Boulogne, where they can exa
mine the document itself, attested by the signa
ture of the bishop and the clergy, together with
that of the governor and the notables of the
town at that period. They may also see the
image herself most gorgeously attired in the
church of Notre Dame in the Upper Town ; and
if we may judge from the costly offerings of the

THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY. 9
faithful, she is still held in high estimation.
Among the splendid ornaments, the sacristan
pointed out to us, with great pride, a petticoat
embroidered by the fair hands of the ex-Queen
of France, a crown of diamonds presented by
Charles X., a necklace of the same description,
the gift of Louis XVIII., besides other jewels
equally magnificent, the pious donations of pri
vate individuals.
The crypt of the old cathedral we, however,
thought far more deserving admiration than the
treasury of Our Lady of Boulogne. This subter
ranean church was discovered a few years since
by the Abbe Haffringue ; and would be far
more interesting as a memorial of the early
Christians, had not modern art been employed
in its decoration, with a view of making it more
attractive as a public exhibition.
Taken altogether, either as a residence or a
sea-bathing place, Boulogne is one of the
pleasantest towns in France ; it is also far more
cleanly than French towns are in general, and
the surroundirfg country is not without pic-

10 TOUR OF INQUIRY
turesque beauty. But the harbour, as a naval
and commercial station, may be deemed a
failure, notwithstanding the large sums of
money that have been expended upon it from
time to time by the French government, and
must remain so until the jete'e is carried out
further into the sea, so as to be able to receive
vessels at low water ; and certainly one of the
chief desagre'mens of this town is the offensive
miasma arising from the mud in the harbour
when the tide is out, and which aggravated the
virulence of the cholera when that pestilence
visited the town in 1849.
We left Boulogne in the train for Amiens ;
and now that the rail has become a necessity to
the traveller, we must pause to remark that the
railroad-carriages in France are better con
structed and far more commodious than those
in England, and the fares much less expensive ;
the servants are also more civil and anxious to
render any assistance in their power to the
passengers. Lamps are provided for every
carriage on passing through a tunnel, or during

THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY. 1 1
the night, not even excepting those of the third
class, which had also the advantage of being
covered, so as to protect the poor man from the
inclemency of the weather.
From whatever causes it may arise, the auto
crats of our railroads have much to learn in
their management. There is everywhere a
visible want of systematic government in their
regulation, apparently at variance with the
practical good sense of an Englishman, occa
sioning those dreadful accidents which are now
of almost daily occurrence in England, but
which are happily becoming very rare not only
in France, but in all other parts of the con
tinent. After leaving the environs of Boulogne, and
the pretty landscape of the Liane, dotted with
the neat country-houses of the citizens, we tra
versed a succession of swamps, with an embank
ment of sandy heights, which entirely excluded
any view of the sea ; and this continued with
little intermission till we came to the Somme,
when we caught a glimpse of the pretty town

12 TOUR OF INQUIRY
of St. Vallery rising up in the midst of its
forests and well-cultivated fields. How many
remembrances does not this town revive in the
mind of the English traveller ! It was here
that our own Saxon king, the fearless and
confiding Harold, was caught in the snares
of the wily Norman ; and in later days the
conquered and the conquerors, having forgot
their ancient feud and become one people,
humbled the proudest chivalry of France on
the hard-fought fields of Cressy and Agin-
court. At Amiens we exchanged the carriages of
the. Boulogne line for those of the Northern;
and King Rothschild of Paris, who rules this
with absolute sway, seems to have taken his
system of government from the despots of the
English railway, for we found his carriages very
inferior to those we had just left, still the poor
man has the advantage of a cover to protect
him from the storm ; but now that the Amiens
line and the Northern have become united,
and subject to the same jurisdiction, no

THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY. 13
doubt we shall see sackcloth adopted as a
substitute for windows. So much for mono
polies !
On leaving behind us the swamps and bogs
that lay extended to the right of the railroad,
on quitting the city of Amiens, the country
improved in beauty and fertility. We also
now for the first time, beheld the vine which
continued to increase in luxuriance as we ad
vanced towards Paris, which our French fellow-
travellers were pleased to designate as the
metropolis of the civilized world ! Truly the
prospect was grand and imposing, as it embraced
the ancient town and time-worn cathedral of
St. Denis, the picturesque heights of Mont-
martre, and a long line of fortifications, over
which might be seen rising a great and populous
city ; but hearing no other sound, as we entered
the city of the Gauls, more civilized than the
roll of the noisy drum, and seeing the streets
filled with soldiers marching and counter
marching with fixed bayonets, we fancied we
were passing through the capital of some

14 TOUR OF INQUIRY
military despot, rather than the seat of com
merce, the arts and sciences, and every species
of industry that can ennoble man in a high
state of civilization and industry.
On arriving at the debarcadere, we were
forcibly reminded of the fact, that our neigh
bours are neither by genius nor education a
commercial people. Our unhappy trunks,
parcels and carpet-bags, which had already
undergone a lengthened and laborious investi
gation at Boulogne, were again examined here
by the officers of the Paris octroi with as much
minuteness as if we had entered the territory of
another state. We cannot but feel surprised
that the commercial classes in France, shrewd
as they are, and with the example of England
before them, should not have combined to
destroy a system which, while it exhausts the
time and patience of a man of business, cannot
materially benefit the revenue, when we remem
ber the expense of maintaining the numerous
body of officials employed to enforce the regula
tions.

THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY. 15
The system no doubt has been found ser
viceable in a political point of view, especially in
the present day, since it secures to the govern
ment the votes of a large body of electors ; and
be it remembered every large town in France
has its octroi. In addition to these there is
the passport-bureaucracies and the douaniers,
the military and the police, together with an
immense body of employes of every description
spread over every part of France, and through
all classes of society, forming altogether a vast
army fully equipped and disciplined to take the
field at a moment's warning. What then
becomes of the liberty of a people, with universal
suffrage the law of the land, when it has to
contend against such a multitude of placemen
as this, whose patriotism is confined to how
they can best keep their places, and get their
salaries? Truly the exercise of an elective
franchise under such circumstances must be
considered a farce, and the aggregate votes of
the electors a machine, at the disposal of what
ever ruler holds the reins of power, provided he

16 TOUR OF INQUIRY
knows how to take advantage of his position.
It must also be observed in a Roman Catholic
country like France, the whole of the clergy,
from the simple cure up to the archbishop, are
paid by the government. May we not, there
fore, anticipate when France has finished experi
menting in the science of legislating, the despotic
governments of Europe, profiting by her lessons
and example, will be able to construct model
constitutions which shall leave nothing to be
desired ?
At length having obtained our luggage from
the gentlemen of the octroi, we were at liberty
to depart ; and here we must again do justice
to the admirable arrangements of the railway
directors in France to protect the traveller from
being preyed upon by the crowds of harpies
who usually attack him when he first arrives.
For instance, if a stranger informs any one of
the servants of the railroad the name of his
hotel or place of residence, stating his wish to
be conveyed thither, and also mentioning
whether he desires omnibus, hackney coach, or

THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY. 17
cabriolet, his luggage is transferred to it with
out delay ; and if a foreigner, he is attended by
a civil intelligent porter who speaks his lan
guage, and whose duty it is to aid and assist
him, and see that no mistake nor dispute should
arise respecting the sum to be paid : the fare,
however, is always trifling, and inscribed in the
interior of the vehicle.
The traveller who wishes to form a correct
estimate of the national character of the
French, must come to Paris. A town that influ
ences all, rules all, and whose decrees in fashion,
manners, customs and politics are as binding
with every son and fair daughter of France, as
the laws of theMedes and Persians. London is
quite the reverse of this, and exercises but a
feeble sway over the provinces, beyond that of
being the capital and seat of government. Still
the two cities may be taken as types of the
national character. In the one the spirit of utility
pervades everything, and in the other everything
is influenced by a regard to general effect.
vol. i. c

18 TOUR OF INQUIRY
The noble Thames, filled with the vessels of
every commercial nation in the world, flows
between a range of gloomy warehouses, whose
contents might purchase an imperial diadem ;
while the Seine, an insignificant shallow stream,
being lined with spacious quays and fine houses
built of stone, owes all its grandeur to the edifices
that adorn its banks. Again, architecture has
done little for the embellishment of London, in
Paris everything ; and no city in the world
presents so imposing a quadrangle as that
viewed from the Egyptian Obelisk, in the centre
of the Place de la Concorde, embracing as it
does the Palace of the Tuileries, with its gar
dens, the long line of the Champs Elysees,
crowned by the Arc de Triomphe, the Chamber
of Deputies, with the bridge over the Seine,
and the vista of the Boulevards, including the
beautiful Church of the Madeleine.
When I stood in the centre of this noble
square, and examined in detail these splendid
monuments of French art, erected in a style of

THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY. 19
elaborate ornament, all harmonizing with the ge
neral effect, even to the tastefully designed lamps;
the two noble fountains rising to a height of more
than fifty feet, from which descended streams
of the purest water ; the lofty obelisk imported
from the distant land of Egypt; and pictured to
my imagination the various monuments of bad
taste in our own capital, erected at the cost of
millions of the public money; the conviction
would force itself upon my mind that, however
much we may excel our neighbours in industry
and works of utility, we have much to learn
both with regard to design and execution in the
embellishment of a capital.
If we extend our promenade from the Place
de la Concorde towards the Boulevards, which
in days of yore enclosed the city as in a belt, we
see before us the noblest and certainly the
gayest street in the world ; the favourite locale
for hotels, restaurants, theatres, and coffee
houses, decorated with all that French ingenuity
can invent to render them attractive. The
c 2

20 TOUR OF INQUIRY
Boulevards, however, to be appreciated as it
deserves, should be seen of a fine summer's
evening, when we shall find it crowded with
every class of society, from the haughty patrician
of the Faubourg St. Germain, down to the
ragged chiffonnier of the Faubourg St. Marceau,
forming an ambulatory panorama for the tra
veller who may be desirous to study the charac
teristics of the French people, and where he will
find, whether by day or night, a never-ceasing
succession of subjects for his pencil.
The Boulevards may also be compared to a
perpetual fair, where itinerant showmen of every
description may be seen, together with mounte
banks, fortune-tellers, orators, jugglers, tumblers,
newspaper-vendors, flower-girls, and an endless
variety of trifling fancy articles exposed for sale.
Then the crowds of pedestrians, the multitude
of equestrians and carriages hurrying to and
fro, the gay, vivacious, talkative people, appear
ing as if they existed solely for amusement,
leave on the memory of a grave serious islander

THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY. 21
from the other side of the Channel, who has seen
them for the first time, an impression not easily
effaced. Paris, however, requires sunshine ; a shower
of rain disperses the multitude, swells the gutters
to torrents, over which it is impossible to step,
obliging the pedestrian either to be carried over
on the broad shoulders of a porter, or pay a few
sous for the accommodation of a plank, thereby
offering another illustration of the character of
two races, who, although divided merely by a
narrow strait, have scarcely a single trait in
common. The prudent foresight of the Anglo-
Saxon, to secure himself from this nuisance,
buries millions of money in constructing gigantic
sewers, while his more showy neighbour is con
tent with his gutters, and never expends his
francs unless to gratify his vanity and taste for
an imposing exterior.
Paris has been frequently compared to a
brilliant theatre, and its inhabitants the per
formers. Truly no person who has lived long

22 TOUR OF INQUIRY
enough among them but must come to the
conclusion that their chief delight is in artificial
life, and that they are more sensible of the
charms of a showy exterior than of the advan
tages to be derived from comfort and clean
liness. We are forcibly reminded of this if we
penetrate into the interior of the city, where we
shall find nearly all the streets narrow, gloomy,
and ill-paved, with the eternal gutter in the
centre, sending forth its disagreeable effluvia.
There are also no magnificent parks nor squares,
as in London, to add to the salubrity and beauty
of the town. Even the lordly mansions of the
wealthy, with their imposing exterior and noble
porte-cocheres, are wanting in many of the con
veniences and domestic comforts that distin
guish the dwellings of our citizens ; and we
doubt much if any of the most wretched districts
in London, can equal the misery of the great
mass of the inhabitants of the Faubourgs St.
Antoine and St. Marceau.
Whether, however, it has been owing to the

THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY. 23
fearful ravages of the cholera, typhus fever, and
other maladies, arising from, and aggravated by
defective sewerage, and narrow, ill-ventilated
streets, or a desire to keep pace with their
neighbours on the other side of the Channel,
the citizens of this gay metropolis appear to
have at length come to the conclusion, that
ornamental architecture, magnificent fountains,
triumphal arches, and a gay exterior, are not
a sufficient protection against the attacks of a
dangerous epidemic, that spares neither rich nor
poor. With this view, a sewerage on a grand scale
is now in course of construction, intended by
means of subterranean canals to carry off the
refuse of the city to an appropriate locality
several miles distant, instead of leaving it to
mingle with and pollute the clear waters of the
Seine. This, with several new streets running
through the centre of the old town, also in
course of construction, will, when completed,
have the effect of rendering Paris one of the

24 TOUR OF INQUIRY
most salubrious, and beautiful cities in the
world. In this instance, we have another illustration
of two races, who, however much opposed to
each other in character, seem placed by a wise
Providence as the nearest neighbours, to work
out the regeneration of the world — their national
antipathies, jealousies, and emulation to excel
each other, all tending to the advancement and
progress of mankind, and which never could
have been done so rapidly, had they been united
under the same sceptre. The Gaul, energetic
and impetuous, if he leads the way in any great
achievement, is certain to be followed, and often
surpassed by his more prudent and practical
neighbour, and vice versa; an example of en
lightened progress, which must continue to go
on redeeming the world from barbarism, unless
in the meantime some demon should arise, to
disturb by savage warfare, the harmless emula
tion which now impels each in the glorious work
of civilization and improvement.

THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY. 25
If we have taught our more volatile neigh
bour many things to which he was a stranger
previous to the late peace, most assuredly we
have been equally indebted to him ; and many
yet remain which might be adopted with ad
vantage. Among these, the most striking is the
regulation forbidding cemeteries or slaughter
houses within the precincts of the city ; a
barbarism in this enlightened age not only
disgraceful to a great and wealthy metropolis
like London, but highly dangerous to the health
of the inhabitants.
London has certainly abundant reason to be
proud of the noble river which has made her
the emporium of the wealth and commerce of
the world ; but is this majestic stream, our own
Father Thames, to be for ever poisoned with
the dirt and filth of more than two millions of
human beings? or for the want of a proper
embankment, is destruction and misery to be
carried year after year into the dwellings of so

26 TOUR OF INQUIRY
many thousand citizens ? If the inhabitants of
Paris, with little or no commerce, and compara
tively limited resources, have accomplished so
much for improving the beauty of their little
shallow stream, the Seine, shall we content our
selves with leaving all our plans of amelioration
to end in unprofitable discussion ?
We have read volume after volume written by
our neighbours, criticising with much wit and
sarcasm, our want of taste in architecture and
the fine arts ; but when they came to describe
the offensive odours with which they were
annoyed while travelling in our river steam
boats, then, indeed, their satire was most
pungent, expressing their wonder that a people
pretending to so much delicacy of nerves and
feeling, could continue to endure, year after
year, century after century, such flagrant and
abominable nuisances. Allowing for a good
deal of exaggeration, and something of malicious
feeling in the accounts of our neighbours, when

THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY. 27
England is the question, we must admit that
there is some foundation for their censures.
When, however, we read their description of the
poverty of certain localities in London, and
their severe comments on the want of humanity
displayed by the wealthier classes of the
wealthiest city in the world for their less for
tunate fellow-men, we are then compelled to
break a lance with our brethren of the French
press. In fact, the injustice of the accusation
is proved by the numerous charitable institu
tions with which our metropolis abounds, in
addition to the obligation imposed on each
parish to provide for its respective poor. That
a great amount of wretchedness is to be found
in every large town, side by side with wealth
and luxury, there can be no doubt, and will
remain so till the end of time, and to lessen
this should be ever the aim of those whom
Heaven has blessed with abundance.
With the hope of drawing the attention of

28 TOUR OF INQUIRY
our philanthropic neighbours, to the situation
of their own miserable brethren, we will pause
on our tour while we describe the Biffins of
Paris.

THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY. 29

CHAPTER II.
The Biffins of Paris — Their social, religious, and moral
character — Destitution — Misery and mode of living
— Concluding remarks.
The Biffins comprehend, in Parisian phrase
ology, the chiffonniers, and that numerous class
of vagrants who either live by their wits, or
gain by some means a precarious subsistence,
which prevents them from being arrested by
the police. M. Gisquet, the well-known ex-
prefet de police informs us that there are
upwards of fifty thousand of these Arabs of the
city, in Paris, who rise in the morning without
knowing where, or by what means they can

30 TOUR OF INQUIRY
procure bread. Happily, in so large and
wealthy a town as Paris, some sort of employ
ment may be procured by those who seek it,
something to be picked up in the streets, or
gained as hangers-on about cabriolets, hackney-
coaches, railways, or similar uncertain occupa
tions. But if we wish to become thoroughly familiar
with this vagrant class, we must wrap ourselves
in an old blouse, ay, and a dirty-looking one
too, cover our head with some shabby casquet^
and thus equipped, fearlessly enter the Faubourg
St. Marceau, and inquire for the Rue Neuve
Saint Medard, the head-quarters of the 'Biffins
of Paris, including the adjoining streets, Saint
Jean de Latran, Sainte Marguerite, Saint
Nicolas, Mont Saint Hilaire, the Rue des
Patriarches, Rue des Carmes, and sundry other
streets, courts, and narrow lanes, dignified with
the names of all the renowned saints in the
Roman calendar. However devout the inha
bitants of this holy district might have been

THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY. 31
during the days of Saint Louis, who here held
his court, we fear in the present day, the greater
number do not concern themselves much about
religious matters.
These old gloomy streets, narrow lanes,
courts, and alleys, into which the sun rarely
penetrates, with their decayed, tottering houses,
the abode of filth and misery, can only be
paralleled by that part of Naples in which the
lazzaroni dwell, between whom and the Biffins
of Paris many points of resemblance may be
observed ; at least they display in their dwellings
and manner of living the same utter disregard
for cleanliness, and like them hurl every con
ceivable abomination into the streets.
On entering one of these dwellings of a Paris
Biffin, a crazy, moth-eaten staircase, with a
greasy cord as a support, conducts to what is
termed the chambre garnie, which usually
contains from five to ten beds, according to the
size of the room, each bed consisting of nothing
better than a species of straw palliasse, destitute

32 TOUR OF INQUIRY
of sheets, blankets, or any covering' whatever.
These miserable beds are usually let by the
month, or if by the night, at the rate of two
sous; but it frequently happens for the sake
of economy, or warmth during the cold season,
that one mattress is occupied by two persons.
What an amount of human wretchedness do
these dormitories present to excite the com
passion of the philanthropist, crowded as they
always are with occupants, swarming with
vermin, and having no other covering than
their own dirty clothing, rarely changed till it
falls from them in rags ! Can we then wonder
that these dens, defiled as they are with the
accumulated filth of centuries, the refuge of
the veriest pariahs of society, often intoxicated,
and not unfrequently suffering from the most
hideous diseases, become the head-quarters of
miasma and spread pestilence in the vicinity?
Happily for humanity, the whole of this dis
trict is under the surveillance of the police,
who endeavour, frequently at the risk of life,

THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY. 33
to enforce a classification of the sexes. In
addition to these dormitories, there are others
of smaller dimensions, destined for the occu
pation of families, having three or four beds.
The Biffin with his wife or mistress, as the
case may be, sleep in one bed, and their
children, young and old, in the other. If the
chamber, however, is sufficiently spacious to-*,
contain a second family, a rope is suspended
across the room, over which is thrown a ragged
cloth. The Celtic-Gaul Biffin of Paris, and our
own Celtic-Irish Biffin of London, although
they unhappily resemble each other in their
wretchedness and dirt, in other respects are
totally different. Paddy in general will work
hard when he can find employment, spends
his money like a prince while it lasts, and
although he may occasionally knock down a
friend for love, when in his cups, yet he exhibits
some sense of social propriety, and being a
good Roman Catholic, implicitly believes in the
VOL. I. D

34 TOUR OF INQUIRY
dogmas propounded by his priest, attends mass
and repeats his Paternoster, and Ave-Maria,
with great fervency of devotion. With respect
to his worldly affairs, if his present wants are
supplied, he is more than contented, and know
ing that the laws of the Saxon will provide him
with a refuge in sickness or old age, he is
reckless of the future ; and should he desire
to revisit his own " first gem of the sea," he
can travel at the expense of the community.
The character and disposition of the Paris
Biffin is the reverse of this. Entertaining an
insuperable objection to hard, continuous
labour, he depends upon his wits and chance
for a precarious subsistence ; and having no
parochial assistance to rely on, he deems it
expedient to practise some degree of economy,
and the scanty fare with which he is contented
would be considered next to starvation by one
of our own paupers. Thirteen sous, about six
pence halfpenny, sufficing for all his daily wants,
even including amusement. He pays two

THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY. 35
sous for his bed and a similar sum for his
bread and soup, to which he adds three sous
for wine, making nine ; the remainder is spent
in brandy and the dance, or guarded for future
exigencies, according to the character of the
man ; and he must be an inexperienced Biffin
who cannot pick up in the streets as many cigar-
ends as will not only supply his pipe, but leave
a surplus to dispose of to his companions.
As to religion, the only one the Biffin of
Paris is acquainted with, is the Roman Catholic.
This he holds in sovereign contempt ; an opinion
shared by many of his more enlightened
countrymen, although for social and political
purposes, they may not exhibit any external
signs of disrespect for the creed of their fathers.
The Biffin, however, having no political motive
to influence him, fears neither God, man, nor
devil; hates all priests with an intense hate,
which has been bequeathed to him from his
father and grandfather, the actors in the first
Revolution, an antipathy which may continue
D 2

36 TOUR OF INQUIRY
for many generations, unless these opinions
become softened by education, or the introduc
tion among them of a purer faith.
For the dislike and prejudice which these
poor people entertain towards the clergy, it
may at least be pleaded as an apology that
they can enjoy none of the consolations of
religion without paying for them, in fees for
baptism, marriage, absolution, extreme unction,
and all the other forms and ceremonies of
the Roman Church. When, however, the
Biffin is consigned to the last resting-place
of mortality, which is usually done at the
expense of the public, Monsieur le Cure, to
avoid the scandal of closing the grave over a
human being unblessed by the services of the
Church, assists at the ceremony; an act of
Christian charity which he is certain to deny
to the rich man's corpse, when he has been
known to display through life, or in his last
hour, an infidel contempt for the ceremonies
of the Roman Church.

THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY. 37
Among this Pagan community, there is yet
another class, more civilised, and in some
degree religious. These consist of old soldiers
crippled by their wounds, bankrupt shop
keepers, poor operatives, and others, who from
a sentiment of natural pride desert that quarter
of the town inhabited by their friends, and
seek a home among the Biffins, where they can
find a lodging at the least possible expense,
and meet with facilities for exercising some
employment that may save them from absolute
want. Besides these, there are galley-slaves,
whose term of forced labour has expired, or
who have eluded the vigilance of their guards ;
those convicted of petty thefts, and many other
unfortunates who have been tempted by poverty
to commit crime. This quarter is also the
stronghold of many a desperado, many an old
campaigner of the various revolutions of which
Paris has been so frequently the theatre; and
who here reposing under the shade of his
laurels, astonishes and edifies the rising gene
ration by the recital of his former exploits.

38 TOUR OF INQUIRY
The government, for many years never either
secure, nor enduring, manifests the greatest
reluctance to look very inquisitorially into a
neighbourhood, and among a people so easily
excited to rebellion, and who pride themselves
not only in evading, but openly violating laws
which their own social compact never sanc
tioned; and assert their right to declare war,
whenever they meet with a good pay-master.
Consequently, they welcome as a friend every
man who has had the courage to throw down
the gauntlet to authority, whether rebel, bandit,
smuggler, convict, or shop-lifter ; and if he has
suffered for having broken the odious laws, he is
in their estimation a hero.
There must, however, be something of a
social disposition even among these outcasts of
society, since we rarely find in their neighbour
hood those drunken riots which disgrace the
lower order of Irish in our large towns, not
withstanding the one has all the advantage of
religious instruction, and the other by abjuring
the Church has no monitor to guide him save

THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY. 39
his own inclination. The Biffin of Paris, even
of the lowest grade, is not deficient in that
self-respect which never permits him to appear
in the streets without some sort of decent
clothing, presenting a striking contrast to so
many of our street mendicants, who, not content
with disfiguring their persons, attire themselves
in the most disgusting rags, for the sole purpose
of exciting pity.
Our readers may be desirous to know by
what means so many thousands of human
beings contrive to glean a precarious existence
in a town where there are no parochial rates,
imposed by law, for the support of the poor.
The chiffonnier, whose brotherhood forms the
most numerous class among the Biffins, may be
seen stalking; along; the streets, having- a basket
strapped to his back, and a long pole with a
hook attached to it in his hand, by the aid of
which at early dawn he minutely investigates
the contents of the little heaps of refuse, which
the nymphs of the broom deposit each day

40 TOUR OF INQUIRY
before their respective doors to be removed at
the appointed time by the scavenger's cart.
Nothing, however trifling, escapes his searching
eye — nothing, however trifling, but has some
value for a well-educated chiffonnier. Rags,
paper, broken glass, porcelain, bones, crusts of
bread, ends of smoked cigars, dead dogs, cats,
rats, and mice, all are consigned to his ample
basket, and carried to the respective depots for
such miscellaneous collections of rubbish in the
Faubourgs St. Marceau and St. Antoine, and
sold according to their weight and value ; and that
man must be indeed unfortunate who cannot
by this means procure a sufficient sum to
supply his daily necessities.
Moreover, it sometimes happens that fate
kindly throws in his way a trinket, a silver
spoon, a purse, a pocket-book, or some other
article of value. In such a case, he enjoys
himself till the proceeds of his fortunate dis
covery is expended. Then a fat pussy or a lady's
lap-dog that may happen to have gone astray

THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY. 41
are prized, and pounced upon by this gentry ;
the skin fetches a high price, and the flesh by
the culinary art of an accomplished chiffonnier
is transformed into a savoury ragoiit. There
are also in every large town a sufficient number
of careless, half-dreaming loungers to be seen
about the streets : meditating philosophers,
musing poets, love-sick maidens, and disap
pointed spinsters, whose thoughts are anywhere
but about their own affairs, and who, lost in
their contemplations, drop a parcel, a veil, a
shawl, a gold-headed cane, or some such article,
which is also seized as a lawful prize by these
ever-watchful birds of prey.
Many of our fair readers no doubt have
admired, as well as ourselves, various beautiful
fancy articles exhibited in the Crystal Palace by
our ingenious neighbours across the Channel,
some of them in imitation of tortoiseshell,
&c, &c. ; but perhaps they are not aware that
these toys have been fabricated out of the
filthiest rubbish in the basket of a chiffonnier,

42 TOUR OF INQUIRY
thus proving a source of employment to hun
dreds of industrious operatives.
The water-carriers, a very numerous class,
may also be numbered among the Biffins;
and when they succeed in securing a clientelle,
they have no reason to complain. Besides
these there is a complete army of strolling
vagrants, whose games of chance, and stalls
may be seen in the Champs Elysees on the
Boulevards, and other public places ; and who
subsist for the most part from day to day on
the folly of their fellow-mortals. To these
may be added tribes of itinerant pedlars,
mountebanks, conjurors, puppet-showmen,
street-actors, shoe-blacks, combers of dogs
and cats, rat-catchers, vermin destroyers, and
sundry other nameless professionals, who all
find a home in some miserable district of the
Faubourgs St. Antoine and St. Marceau ; alto
gether forming a community, whose physical and
mental energies have no other aim nor object
than to procure subsistence from day to day.

THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY. 43
Such is the destiny, such the employment,
of a large portion of the inhabitants of Paris.
It is true a similar class may be found in every
large town, but here they are more numerous,
and their various vagrant employments are
more systematically carried out than elsewhere ;
and we much doubt if a single one of those
wanderers of the city would exchange his
independence for any other occupation which,
though it might secure to him a more elevated
social position, would involve at the same time
the loss of his liberty, and of that species of
charm which attends a mode of life depending
for success on chance, and the caprice of the
public. It must, therefore, be apparent to every
man acquainted with the habits of this large
army of Parisian Arabs, shrewd, active, and
intelligent, as they undoubtedly are, that they
are admirably adapted by inclination, and a
love of excitement, to take part at a moment's
warning in any revolutionary movement. At

44 TOUR OF INQUIRY
the same time, from their vagrant mode of
life, they are equally eligible in the hands of the
disaffected to assist any insurrectionary scheme
by acting as agents to convey intelligence from
one part of Paris to the other.
When we remember this and the state of
society in this distracted country, whose
political institutions have proved themselves so
liable to change, we can scarcely wonder that
the peaceable, industrious inhabitants of the
capital, and indeed of all France, in their
desire to secure a strong and powerful govern
ment, allowed Louis Napoleon, when he
presented himself armed with the prestige
of a name, not only to rise to supreme power,
but to disregard justice and good faith, and
to deprive them of their most liberal and
cherished institutions. How often have we
found, during our repeated visits to Paris — and
they have extended over a long course of years —
families with whom we had been on terms of
the most friendly intimacy, hurled from opu-

THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY. 45
lence to almost total ruin by some revolutionary
outburst, without a chance of regaining the
slightest portion of the wealth which had
been scattered to the winds ; while many a
worthless adventurer, having attached himself
to the star of the day, acquired rank and
wealth, but who, under different circumstances,
would never have elevated himself above the
dead level of mediocrity. However, in a
country, and among a people where the
impression of to-day is liable to be swept
away by to-morrow's tide, we shall forbear
enlarging on the present aspect of political life
in France till our return from Italy.

46 TOUR OF INQUIRY

CHAPTER III.
Departure for Chalons-sur-Sa6ne — Central France —
Aspect of the country — Travelling companions —
Religion and politics — Opinion of a French Bishop
on England — Arrival at Chalons — Steam-boats on the
Saone and the Rhone— Voyage down the Saone to
Lyons — Characteristics of Lyons — Scenery on the
banks) of the Saone and the Rhone — Steamer
aground — Novel mode of fleecing travellers —
Arrival at Avignon — Historical reminiscences.
On taking our place in the rail for Chalons-
sur-Saone, we passed over the vast plain of
Central France; a district which offers little
to attract the attention of the traveller, if we
except the numerous indications of the slovenly

THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY. 47
manner in which the various agricultural opera
tions were conducted. To which we may add
the absence of those flourishing towns, neat
villages, farm-houses, and magnificent country-
seats, that in England not only embellish the
landscape, but evidence the prosperity, social
order, and rural happiness of a people.
This part of France, however, is justly cele
brated for the produce of its vineyards, the far-
famed wines of Champagne and Burgundy.
Still the bare poles to which the vines are trained
do not present a very picturesque appearance.
It is true the eye occasionally rests on the ruin
of some lordly chateau, but it was generally too
destitute of foliage to add any beauty to the
landscape; and whenever we observed a country-
seat, it was certain to be neglected, indicating
that the gentry of France are more attached to
the pleasure-seeking turmoil of the city than to
the charms of rural life. Or, perhaps, they
consider themselves better protected when shut
up in their town houses, should any sudden

48 TOUR OF INQUIRY
and violent outbreak of the peasantry again
expose them to horrors similar to those of the
first Revolution. The towns and villages also
appeared to wear a gloomy aspect, as if every
thing in the shape of progress or advancement
had been suddenly arrested by some fatal
influence ; and truly if there were no other
causes, this cannot be wondered at, when we
remember the large sums of money annually
abstracted from the industry of the people for
the maintenance of a numerous standing army,
and a multitude of great and petty placemen,
who create nothing, add nothing, to the wealth
or prosperity of the state. Indeed, to judge
from the number of women performing the
works of husbandry in the fields, a stranger
might be led to conclude that to them had been
confided all the agricultural labour of the
country. It is hardly necessary to remark, that the
system pursued for so many years in France,
and on the continent of Europe in .general, of

THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY. 49
maintaining large standing armies, and a still
more numerous bureaucracie with their open and
secret police, has been gradually undermining
the resources of their respective states, a system
which, if persisted in for any length of time,
must lead to revolution, and its certain conse
quence — national bankruptcy.
What a leveller of all classes and conditions
of men ! — what an element of political liberty is
steam ! Priests and despots may dream of
chaining down the mind of man, but now that
science has come forward as the saviour of the
civilization of the world, all their efforts will be
in vain. My attention was soon attracted from
the contemplation of the monotonous fields of
Central France to the animated conversation of
my fellow-travellers ; and our little party might
be said to contain a champion of each of the
various political sects into which the French
people were at this time divided.
The individual whose political rank and sta
tion entitled him to the chief consideration, was,
VOL. I. E

50 TOUR OF INQUIRY
certainly, the Prefet of the Var ; a most zealous
worshipper of the rising star, Louis Napoleon.
His opponents being two gallant sons of Mars,
who, having fought for their country beneath
the burning suns of Africa, regarded their hero,
General Cavaignac, as the only man capable of
guiding the destinies of France. In opposition
to these, we had a nobleman and his son, legiti
mates of the old regime, who maintained with
equal earnestness that France could have no
hope of tranquillity till the nation returned to
its duty, and summoned its rightful monarch to
rule and power. At the same time the interests
of the Church were advocated with great force
and eloquence by a French Roman Catholic
bishop and his chaplain ; and, singular enough,
their opposite neighbour happened to be a very
popular actress of the Opera Comique, accom
panied by her cher ami, the wealthy son of a
rich banker in Paris.
At length the all-absorbing questions of the
day — politics and religion — having given way

THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY. 51
to lighter topics, and the Prefet, the bishop,
and the officers being on their way home from
a visit to the Great Exhibition, it was highly
interesting to hear their separate comments and
opinions on what they had seen and heard in
perjide Albion.
With the account of the adventures of the
worthy bishop and his simple-minded chaplain
in the land of the heretics, we were all highly
amused. Full of the prejudices of his class,
the bishop candidly avowed that he hesitated
for some time to trust his safety, to the keeping
of a people, who he believed to be the bitterest
enemies of his race and creed. Happily these
ideas of the bishop, who had probably passed
the greatest part of his life in a cloister, im
bibing his opinions from the prejudiced repre
sentations of his party, were entirely removed,
and it was not less interesting than gratifying
to hear with what warmth he spoke of England
and her institutions. " Ahi !" he exclaimed,
" if so moral, so pious, and withal so powerful a
E 2

52 TOUR OF INQUIRY
people, could be induced to return to the fold
of the true Shepherd, what an efficient support
would they not prove to the throne of St. Peter;
but, alas !" he concluded, " we can now enter
tain no hope of their conversion, owing to the
ill-timed and ill-advised mission of Cardinal
Wiseman." In what other age than this, or by what other
mode of travelling except a railway carriage,
could a stranger find himself among so many
agreeable companions, expressing their opinions
with the easy familiarity that distinguishes the
French people in their social intercourse, and
who, whether peasant, citizen, or noble, are
generally amiable and communicative in their
manners, both towards friend and stranger.
Thus steam, while it rapidly conveys all classes
of mankind from one country to another, serves
as an instrument of civilization to the ignorant
masses, by bringing them in frequent contact
with men of more enlarged ideas and opinions,
and will in time have the effect of destroying

THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY. 53
national and religious prejudice, and of uniting
the inhabitants of Europe into one great family.
Even our own countrymen, formerly so famous
for their taciturnity, are becoming every day
more unreserved in their manners, since their
increased intercourse with the continent. In
return for this benefit, we hope they may be
able to communicate to the continental nations
their own love of freedom, sense of religion, and
social order.
The attempt of the Church of Rome to
establish its spiritual dominion over the British
minds, in opposition to the government, now
formed the theme of a most animated debate
among my fellow-travellers ; and it would be
unjust to forbear recording the tolerant and
intelligent spirit they displayed while discussing
so delicate a subject in presence of a high dig
nitary of their Church. The act itself met with
universal condemnation, and was declared by all
to be an unwise assumption of authority by the
Pope, over a people who had so long and entirely

54 TOUR OF INQUIRY
renounced all connexion with the Church of
Rome; and that the appointment of clerical
rulers to imaginary sees, in opposition to the
wishes of the government, would not have been
tolerated for a moment, even by the least power
ful among the states of Europe.
But perhaps what was most satisfactory to
the English traveller, was the expression of
regret so frequently manifested by the bishop
when alluding to the ill-timed mission of
Cardinal Wiseman; elucidating, as it did, the
received opinion of the parti pretre, who now
admit that the Church of Rome usually so
sagacious and calculating never committed a
greater mistake than when it resolved on taking
spiritual possession of England. " Why not,"
they say, " have left its missionaries, the disciples
of Loyola, to complete the work. They had
already, unseen and unknown, glided into the
universities, had become members of parlia
ment, held offices of trust and emolument
under the crown, made themselves the favoured

THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY. 55
guests of the noble and the peasant, and would
ere many years had elapsed have converted
the majority of the people to the Church of
Rome !"
With every disposition to admit the tact and
ability of the disciples of Loyola, we are not so
sanguine as to believe that the sturdy reformers
of England under any circumstances could be
induced to surrender the Bible, the magna
charta of their faith, for the traditions, and all
the gorgeous pomp and Pagan ceremonies of the
Romish Church. Still the mind of Protestant
England had undergone a great change at the
time when the Catholic Emancipation Act had
become the law of the land. Religion was no
longer extreme nor exclusive, and there was
so little prejudice against the Church of Rome,
or its clergy, that had Pio Nono himself, instead
of flying to Gaeta, taken refuge in England he
would have been received and feted with all the
warmth and enthusiasm of a generous people.
Nay, we feel certain that the dear old man.

56 TOUR OF INQUIRY
with his pale face, handsome features, and
benign countenance, would have become the
pet of half the old women of England ! Know
ing this, and apart from any prejudice to this
or that creed, we cannot view the question of
papal aggression in any other light than a
wanton insult to the religious feeling of the
people of England, an uncalled-for attack on
the dignity and prerogatives of the most power
ful monarch in the world.
If we take the ultra-montane press of the
continent, particularly that of France and
Austria, as a guide to direct us in our
researches as to what were the real views? of
it
the papacy, in its attempts to impose spiritual
dominion over a people so notoriously jealous
of their civil and religious liberties, we shall find
that there was an ulterior motive, to which the
great despotic powers on the continent were not
a stranger, since it was expected to produce a
religious war — anything to weaken the power of
free England.

THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY. 57
The " Univers," a Paris paper, the organ
of the parti pretre in France, was particularly
unguarded in its expressions about this time,
when it day after day exultingly pointed out to
its readers that the sun of perfide Albion was
about to set for ever ; that she was to be torn
to pieces by the fiery zeal of her religious
fanatics, who were seen in the perspective
waving the torch of civil discord from one end
of the British Islands to the other.
Happily for England, the civilization of her
people, of whatever religious sect, had long
since rejected fanatic violence as unjust and
unchristian, and leaving the redress of their
wrongs to the press and the wisdom of their
legislature, exhibited to the whole of Europe
a glorious example of calm forbearance. The
" Univers " must have felt the full force of this,
when, a change having come over the spirit of
its dream ; it dwelt so long and with so much
undisguised vexation on the singularly unpro-
pitious moment the Pope had selected for

58 TOUR OF INQUIRY
asserting his spiritual dominion over England.
"At a time," it said, "when myriads of
foreigners from every part of Christendom were
assembled in London to visit the Crystal Palace,
who must have heard facts and opinions which
no good Roman Catholic ought to hear, and
received impressions which may prove dangerous
in after days, to the spiritual power of the
Church." At Chalons-sur-Saone we exchanged the rail
for one of those long, narrow, dirty French
steamers that navigate the Saone. We were
altogether unfortunate in our river excursion.
The weather, which had continued remarkably
fine since we left England, now changed to
torrents of rain ; and having no other refuge
than a cabin, we found it of such small dimen
sions, and with a roof so low that it required
all our care in moving about to save our heads
from coming in contact with the beams above.
But this was not the only inconvenience ; every
seat, table, hole and corner was already occupied

THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY. ' 59
by a numerous party of the bourgeoisie ; and as
the French, more especially the women, never
travel without a pet, we had screaming babies,
chattering monkeys, mewing cats, and barking
dogs, together with a band of wandering
minstrels, who kept straining and blowing, in
their endeavours to make their pipes heard
above the unharmonious roar and clatter of the
bipeds and quadrupeds.
After floating onward for about an hour, we
were startled by a shock, and at the same time
heard the captain and his crew roaring most
vociferously on deck. The passengers, no doubt
imagining the ark was going to pieces, rushed
madly to the cabin-stairs, where they became
wedged in a dense mass, each struggling with
the other who should soonest reach the scene
of action. Happily the diaster was nothing
more serious than that the leviathan lay, as
brother Jonathan would say, in a fix across the
river. The captain issued commands, the
passengers gave advice, the crew clamoured ;

60 TOUR OF INQUIRY
still we made no progress till a party of vine
dressers, carrying beams of wood on their
shoulders, to be used as levers, came to
our rescue ; and by the application of physical
force set the unwieldy vessel again in motion,
when we glided down the beautiful river without
any further accident to the fine old town of
Lyons. The scenery of the Saone has been so often
described by poets and travellers that any details
of ours would be superfluous. We must not,
however, omit to mention, for the benefit of the
bon vivant, that the country through which this
river runs produces some of the most recherche
wines in France. Every cdte is distinguished by
its peculiar vintage, and perhaps, take altogether,
there are no better wines in Europe. But they
rarely reach the shores of England in sufficient
quantity to be appreciated by any but the
wealthy, owing to the high duty imposed upon
them, which amount almost to a prohibition.
The blame is said to rest with the French

THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY. 61
Government, which will not abandon its pro
tective principles so as to meet the commercial
views of the English trader. Hence the in
terest of a very poor, and a very industrious
class of the community is sacrificed, and their
neighbours on the other side of the Channel
deprived of an excellent beverage, which, if
once introduced at a reasonable price, would
be certain to command an immense consump
tion. Under any circumstances, a system of
prohibitory commerce is much to be deplored ;
but this becomes an evil of great magnitude
when carried out against the industrial interests
of the inhabitants of countries lying in the
immediate vicinity of each other, where the
productions of each are as distinctive in their
character as if nature had intended they
should be the instruments of good to each
other. Lyons, the Lugdunum of the Romans, seated
at the junction of two noble rivers, the Saone
and the Rhone, has been, and will always con
tinue to be, an object of great interest to the

62 TOUR OF INQUIRY
traveller. And as we now saw it rising in
majestic splendour, with its domes and spires, the
surrounding hills covered with the neat villas of
the citizens, and the forts and chateaux of the
military, all reflecting the brilliant rays of the
setting sun ; we have rarely seen a town pre
senting a more animated and at the same time
picturesque appearance, or one that gave fairer
promise of being wealthy and prosperous.
Lyons, like some of our large manufacturing
towns, where a great number of operatives are
congregated, and live by their industry from day
to day, is occasionally disturbed by discontent
and revolutionary outbursts. To this misfortune
it is even more liable than ours, as the hot blood
of the South is very easily excited. Conse
quently, Lyons has been the theatre of some of
the most sanguinary scenes recorded in French
history. Neither did its present aspect appear very
indicative of tranquillity, if we might judge from
the fact that it was now in a state of siege,
and occupied by an army of sixty thousand men.
While visiting the public institutions of

THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY. 63
Lyons, an Englishman cannot avoid observing
many things he would willingly see introduced
into his own country, and which have such a
beneficial effect in educating 'and directing the
genius of the French operatives, so as to pro
duce in many of their manufactures that beauty
of form and pattern for which they are so justly
celebrated. To further this, elementary schools
have been established, in which the pupils are
instructed at the public expense in the art of
drawing and designing patterns; those among
them who give promise of excellence are incited
to exertion by the hope of obtaining some
lucrative appointment, or of being provided
for in one of the great manufacturing estab
lishments of the town. Hence talent is certain
to find an opening, and not left to pine in
obscurity, as is too often the case with us.
There are one or two fine open places in
Lyons, but the streets in general are too narrow,
and the houses so lofty as to give it — although
animated by a numerous population — a gloomy

64 TOUR OF INQUIRY
aspect. Lyons is also distinguished for the
usual characteristics of French towns, particu
larly those in the South — a want of cleanliness.
Then the magnificent shops, exhibiting a costly
display of the choicest silks, satins and velvets,
contrast singularly with the numerous wretched-
looking mendicants that beset the stranger at
every step ; yet Lyons abounds with charitable
institutions, and the Hotel Dieu, more resem
bling a palace than a hospital, is the finest
building in the town.
On departing from the silk metropolis of
France, we exchanged the Saone for the Rhone,
and took our passage in another of those most
primitive steam-boats so peculiar to these rivers.
It is singular that the French, who in general
display great talent in the art of ship-building,
have not yet communicated their genius to
their brethren of the sweet South ; but we
presume the vessels are adapted to the river
and the wants of the population, as there was
little improvement to be seen in the form and

THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY. 65
arrangement of those that had been recently
constructed. The banks of the Rhone do not present that
high cultivation, and rich scenery, for which
many of our own inland rivers are distinguished.
There are, it is true, the ruins of castles, convents
and nunneries occasionally crowning the summits,
or rising on the steep sides of the hills, but never
sufficiently picturesque and romantic to excite
the admiration of the traveller, while the lofty
range of the snow-crested Alps of Savoy are too
distant to increase the beauty of the landscape.
We were, however, fast approaching the land
of song, and Avignon, so full of historical
recollections ; nor must we forget to mention
the sunny slopes that produce the far-famed
Hermitage and Cote Rotie. At Vienne we had
time to pay a hurried visit to the Roman
Circus ; and at Valence to visit the monument
erected to the memory of Pius VI. These,
with the dangerous rapidity of the current that
runs under the famous bridge of the St.
VOL. I. F

66 TOUR OF INQUIRY
Esprit, were the only objects worthy of observa
tion. About an hour's distance from Avignon our
clumsy steam-boat struck against a sandbank,
and, turning rapidly round, settled itself as fast
as a rock in the middle of the river. This
time the water was too shallow and the vessel
too heavily laden to admit of any remedy for
our mischance, except landing the baggage.
The passengers looked dismayed ; and as the
shades of evening were fast approaching, there
was no prospect but that of passing the night
on board, and converting the chairs and tables
into beds. As for the captain, when appealed
to, merely shrugged his shoulders with all
the nonchalance of an unconcerned spectator,
and returned to his cabin on deck to finish the
game of piquet in which he had been engaged
when his vessel ran aground. The steward
appeared still more complacent — happy, no
doubt, in anticipating the profits to be derived
from so many customers to his larder ; and the

THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY. 67
significant glances exchanged between him and
his captain prompted the suspicion that they
divided the spoil, and frequently had recourse
to the same ruse de guerre for filling their
pockets. Fortunately a couple of hack-carriages, whose
drivers were probably aware of the captain's
character as a navigator, drove up ; when several
of the passengers — among whom I took care
to be one of the first — mounted the broad
shoulders of some peasants, who had been
attracted in the hope of gaining a few sous,
and with their aid we were safely landed, and
then drove rapidly to the good old town of
Avignon. Here ended our excursion on the Rhone ;
and as the steamer at no season of the year can
advance lower down the river than Avignon,
we must think it indicates a great want of
enterprize in the people, and of energy in the
government. This is the more reprehensible
when we remember the millions upon millions
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68 TOUR OF INQUIRY
of the public money that have been expended
in France by its selfish monarchs in erect
ing palaces, triumphal arches and towering
columns, utterly useless to the nation, and
apparently with no other object than to
transmit a memorial of their folly and extrava
gance to posterity. Whereas, if only a portion
of the public money expended on any one of
these vast structures had been appropriated to
clearing the bed of this noble river, thereby
opening the navigation from Chalons-sur-
Saone to the Mediterranean, how manifold
are the benefits which would have resulted to
the inhabitants of this fine country. In conse
quence of this want, they have been unable to
avail themselves of the facilities which nature
had given them for extending their commerce ;
and the eye of the traveller now rests on a
miserable peasantry, decaying towns and villages,
only remarkable for their dirt and solitude, and
the absence of every description of active
industry.

THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY. 69
Can we then wonder at the little veneration
entertained by the French people for the
memory of their ancient princes, who, in
addition to bequeathing them palaces to keep
in repair that nobody lives in, endowed
monasteries and nunneries for lazy monks and
nuns, who would be far better employed in
adding by their industry to the resources of
the community than in repeating " Ave
Marias ?" But the times are changed, the
French are becoming, like ourselves, utilitarians ;
and a well-executed railway, which conducts
the traveller in a few hours from Avignon to
Marseilles, supplies the defect in the navigation
of the Rhone.
Avignon ! how shall we describe this dreary
old town, with its grass-grown streets and
gloomy houses, that seem to have been a
stranger to paint, brushes and brooms for the
last half-century ? Can this be the Avignon so
renowned as the seat of pontifical splendour ;
where the most brilliant wits and brightest

70 TOUR OF INQUIRY
beauties of Christendom assembled to shed a
lustre over the gay but immoral court ; where
Petrarch sung his love-inspired lays in praise of
the fair Laura ? Centuries have rolled over —
revolutions and war have laid the land desolate,
but the dismantled tomb of Laura still exists,
as well as the sumptuous palace of the Popes,
and from what a source erected ! — the spoils of
the murdered Templars ! those glorious soldiers
of the Cross, whose only crime was, that their
gallant spirit would not allow them to become
the slaves of an ambitious priest !
Petrarch, in his maturer years, has drawn a
sad picture of the dissoluteness and venality
that disgraced the pontifical court of Avignon ;
how its Popes revelled there on the spoils of
the murdered Templars, banquetted after the
fashion of their Pagan ancestors, and swore by
the gods of Rome and Greece. How fallen is
the might and power of these autocrats of the
Christian world, and the prestige attached to
their sacred mission, when we now see the

THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY. 71
gilded chambers where they were accustomed to
assemble and launch their missives, before
which the proudest princes trembled, echoing
the merry laugh and thoughtless jest of the
soldiers of young France !

72 TOUR OF INQUIRY

CHAPTER IV.
Provence — Excursion in the Vaucluse Mountains —
Visit to Saint Saturnin — Rose Tamisier : the modern
saint of Provence — Her miracle of the bleeding picture
— Sketch of her history — Piety and European fame —
Visit of the Archbishop of Avignon, and the public
authorities of Provence to Rose Tamisier — Their
recognition of the miracle — Singular discovery of the
imposture — State of public feeling — Trial and con
demnation of Rose Tamisier.
Provence, the land of those wandering
minstrels, the troubadours, is not so captivating
to the traveller as poets and romance-writers
have represented it. The country for the most
part is utterly devoid of rural beauty ; here

THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY. 73
barren rock, there swelling into an arid hill,
or elevated steppe covered with sand, or large
loose round stones, as if the gods had selected
it as one of their fields of battle. In some
favoured districts the olive and the fig, the
mulberry and the vine, those charming pro
ductions of a southern clime attain the highest
perfection ; but the orange, even in the best
seasons, is rarely fit for any other use than in
making orange-flower water.
Provence has also the misfortune of being
occasionally swept over by the mistral, so per
nicious to the growth of vegetation, and which
reduces the temperature of a hot summer's day
in a few minutes to that of winter. But the
fame of the land of the troubadours does not
depend wholly on its climate or productions;
it appears destined to be celebrated by the emi
nence of its own fair daughters. Laura has been
immortalized by the pen of the gentle Petrarch ;
and Rose Tamisier equally claims immortality
as a saint, for at this moment the whole Roman

74 TOUR OF INQUIRY
Catholic world was filled with the renown of
the miracles wrought by the piety of the fair
peasant of St. Saturnin.
It was impossible we could remain in the
vicinity of so shining a light without paying
our devoirs ; and finding two travellers at our
hotel, the Palais National, manifesting a similar
desire, we engaged a light carriage and a pair
of horses, and set off on our pious pilgrimage
to the residence of the saint. A pleasant drive
through the valleys of the Vaucluse mountains
took us to the village of St. Saturnin, remark
able in days of yore as the retreat of a holy
hermit, who had given his name to the
place. Unhappily for our gratification, the holy
maid - had flown. We found, however, her
cousin Therese Jean, a shrewd little Provencale,
who evidently knew how to take advantage of
the attractive piety of her relative ; and like a
prudent housewife had converted her somewhat
spacious hut into a sort of cabaret, which she

THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY. 75
had baptized with the appropriate appellation of
the " Auberge de la Sainte." Of course such
a multitude of pious pilgrims and devout
worshippers, who were accustomed for so many
months to visit the miracle-working saint,
required corporal as well as spiritual sustenance.
This, with the profits arising from the sale of
tin medals stamped with the image of her
cousin, and cambric handkerchiefs stained with
the blood oozing from the picture of the
Saviour, had already placed our little bustling
hostess in possession of a handsome inde
pendence. Therese Jean was not the only person in the
cortege of the saint who knew how to profit by
that e'venement extraordinaire, qui vient de se
manifester dans la commune de St. Sa
turnin ; as announced to the faithful in the
folios of the " Univers." The good cure of the
village, M. l'Abbe Grand, having taken the
saint under his especial protection, she was
not permitted to make manifest her wonderful

76 TOUR OF INQUIRY
powers, nor even to be seen by the rest of
mankind without his permission ; and how
was it possible that a poor priest could afford
to lose his time, and pay for the pens, ink and
paper required for his voluminous permits de
visite, unless he received some slight remunera
tion, nor attend visitors to the chapel containing
the miraculous picture of the bleeding Christ
without charging for his trouble.
Taken altogether, the miraculous manifesta
tion at St. Saturnin benefitted in no ordinary
degree the village and the adjacent country,
and proved to all connected with it a most
profitable speculation, when we take into
account the multitudes of people who found
employment in guiding strangers across the
mountains, the number of carriages and post-
horses required for the conveyance of rich
devotees, the large supply of wine and brandy
necessary for so many thirsty pilgrims, the
increased demand made upon the produce of
the farm-yard, and other sundries. Neither

THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY. 77
was it to be wondered at, now that fortune's
favours had been so abruptly brought to a
termination, that on arriving here we found
ourselves surrounded by a little army of actors
and actresses, testifying in their own persons
the truth of the miracles wrought by the village
saint. The blind had been restored to sight,
the deaf and dumb to speak, the lame enabled
to throw away their crutches ; while our prat
tling guide, the pretty little Josephine, informed
us how the saint, by merely breathing on her,
had endowed her with the ability to read and
write. As to the worthy cure we found him
absolutely inconsolable about the malheur of
his fair protegee, who he declared would be
sacrificed to the impiety of the socialists and
red republicans, the most heretical and unbe
lieving people in the world.
We shall not fatigue our readers by entering
into any lengthened details respecting the life
and adventures of our village saint, still a few
particulars of an impostor who so successfully

78 TOUR OF INQUIRY
mystified the world, and acquired by her
miracles a sort of European celebrity, cannot
be altogether uninteresting. At all events, this
fraud must be considered as an evidence of the
fact, that notwithstanding the vaunted civi
lization of France, her universities, schools of
learning, printing-presses, and all the varied
facilities for acquiring useful information, there
must be something wrong in the training of
the public mind, when such a system of tran
sparent jugglery could have found a single
believer in the nineteenth century. It was
disgraceful even to the most ignorant among
the populace ; but when we reflect on the
numbers of the better classes who aided the
deceit, our surprise is only equalled by our
regret. It appears that Rose Tamisier, the heroine
of our tale, had been educated gratuitously in
a convent of nuns at Salon, Bouches-du-Rhone,
where eventually she became an inmate, and
made herself remarkable by the frequent visits

THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY. 79
she asserted she was in the habit of receiving
from certain saints and angels, above all from
the Virgin Mary. At length, impressed with
the belief that to her was confided the divine
mission of restoring religion to its original
purity in infidel France, she left the convent,
and sought a retreat in her native village,
Saignon, where she made her first debUt on
the stage as a miracle-worker, says her bio
grapher, the Abbe* Andre, by causing the
growth of a miraculous cabbage ! sufficiently
large to feed the hungry villagers for several
successive weeks, and that during a season of
such universal drought that every other species
of vegetation languished or died. In the
meantime, she refused every species of nourish
ment, but consecrated wafers, which angels
were in the habit of purloining from the sacred
Pyx of the Church, wherewith to feed the
favourite of Heaven ! and to compensate the
good old cure of the Commune, the Abbe
Sabon, for their loss, she mended his clothes

80 TOUR OF INQUIRY
with thread and buttons rained from heaven.
But whether the villagers clamoured for more
substantial food than cabbage, or the cure
demanded a new soutane for the loss of his
consecrated wafers, certain it is that one fine
summer's evening she was borne aloft by
angels, and deposited in the romantic village
of St. Saturnin !
Up to this time the believers in the holy
mission of our village saint, chiefly comprised
the simple vine-dresser, the mountain-shepherd,
and it may be their equally simple curd ; but
the odour of her sanctity, and the fame of her
miraculous powers increased so rapidly, and
spread so extensively, that she quickly acquired
a European celebrity. She had already per
formed many surprising miracles, and by the
intensity of her devotion caused the representa
tion of a cross, a heart, a chalice, a spear, and
sometimes the image of the Virgin and Child
to appear on various parts of her body, at
first in faint lines, and afterwards so developed

THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY. 81
as to exude blood ! thereby exciting the amaze
ment and pious admiration of every beholder.
But she now worked in the little church of
Saint Saturnin the crowning miracle, by
causing a picture of Christ descending from
the cross to emit real blood, and that in pre
sence of the parish priest, and a numerous con
gregation, assembled to witness the extraor
dinary event. This took place for the first time
on the 10th of November, 1850.
The scientific men of France after despatching
several members of their body to ascertain the
existence of these singular appearances on the
body of the Saint of St. Saturnin, came to the
conclusion that intense devotion, where the
mind is absorbed in one subject, might from
known causes, without the intervention of any
supernatural agency, produce similar appear
ances ; which they termed stygmates sanglant !
But when the statement reached them of blood
oozing through the wounds painted on a picture,
and at the command of a mere mortal, they
VOL. I. G

82 TOUR OF INQUIRY
confessed science could not afford a satisfactory
explanation of the phenomenon.
The affair of the bleeding Christ now
assumed an aspect of sufficient importance to
attract the attention of the Government ; when
M. Grave, the sous-prefet of the department,
M. Guillibert, juge d'instruction, M. Jacques,
substitut du procureur de la Republique, and
other civil and military officers, were dispatched
to investigate the correctness of their represen
tations. Even Monsignor, the Archbishop of
Avignon, was summoned, with the higher clergy
of his diocese to behold and verify the miracle
in propria persona.
On the day appointed by the saint for the
performance of the miracle, these great civil
and ecclesiastical dignitaries, arrayed in the
costume and insignia of office, attended her
invitation, together with thousands of the
curious and devout from every part of the
romantic Provence ; and, to prove that no
design was entertained of imposing on the

THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY. 83
credulity of mankind, the painting, at the
command of his grace the Archbishop, was
removed from its place over the high altar ;
when, lo ! to the astonishment of the awe
struck multitude, the back, which might have
contained some machinery for carrying on the
imposture, disclosed a numerous colony of
spiders, who seemed to have remained there
for centuries. Still the blood continued to ooze
from the picture of the crucified Christ as fast
as his Grace and the Prefet wiped it away with
their cambric handkerchiefs from the hands,
feet, and side of the figure. And what a value
did these acquire ! They were immediately cut
into shreds, and transmitted to the faithful in
every part of France.
The public authorities and the clergy were
satisfied, the spectators were satisfied, and the
Archbishop preached an eloquent sermon
suitable to so great an occasion ; and, in
order that everything should be done syste
matically and in due form, the Prefet and all
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84 TOUR OF INQUIRY
the other high dignitaries affixed their names
and seals of office to a public document attest
ing the truth of this most mysterious pheno
menon, which was forthwith dispatched to
Paris, and by means of the public press circu
lated throughout every country in Christen
dom. " Ah ! it was an imposing spectacle, ever
memorable in the annals of France," exclaimed
the Abbe, M. Grand, the Cure of Saint Saturnin,
as he pointed out to us, in the little church,
the miraculous painting hanging over the high
altar. " There knelt the blessed saint herself
at the foot of the painting, with the crucifix
in her uplifted hands, imploring Heaven to
continue the miracle, and by this merciful
interposition proclaim to the whole Christian
world the severe sufferings of the Saviour, on
witnessing the growing infidelity of mankind."
The fervency with which he expressed him
self might be received by the most prejudiced
observer, as sufficient evidence to dispel all

THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY. 85
doubt as to the sincerity of his belief, in the
divine mission of his protegee.
" Immediately behind the saint," continued
the Abbe, " knelt his grace, the Archbishop of
Avignon, with several other dignitaries of the
Church, attired in their sacred robes, and
surrounded by a host of civil and military
officers in their brilliant uniforms ; while
thousands who could not gain admittance were
to be seen kneeling on the ground outside the
church and every avenue leading to it, all
absorbed in prayer, and so still, that each word
pronounced in the silvery tones of the saint
electrified the heart of the hearer."
Rose Tamisier was now at the very height
of her fame, her miraculous powers acknow
ledged by the highest authorities of the land,
and her mission adduced by the press, and the
lectures of the clergy, as a convincing proof of
the divine favour of Heaven towards France, in
selecting a poor simple-minded peasant as its
instrument, to call the people to repentance.

86 TOUR OF INQUIRY
As might be supposed the fame of the
miracle-working saint spread rapidly from city
to city, from country to country, till a pilgri
mage to Saint Saturnin became the fashion of
the day. While the sale of tin medals bearing
her effigy increased a thousand fold, she derived
yet more substantial benefit from the jewelled
crosses and images of the virgin set in diamonds
presented to her by her numerous friends. Still
her enemies, the sceptics, would not yield their
faith to the wonder, and many a painting on
canvass might now be seen in the hands of
those, who having some slight knowledge of
chemistry were indefatigable in. their endeavours
to ascertain whether it might not be possible to
perform a similar miracle, and thus have the
honour of unmasking the impostor. But, alas !
the blood of no living thing, either on the
earth, in the air, the water, or under the earth,
could be made to flow through the canvass in
the same manner as the fluid oozed from the
miraculous picture, and which when analyzed at

THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY. 87
the command of the authorities, was pronounced
to be most assuredly the blood of some living
creature, but of a purer nature than any known
on our sublunary planet.
The scientific world was puzzled. Any
expert mechanician could operate the miracle
of a winking or weeping Madonna, any pro
fessor of chemistry could liquify blood equally
to the satisfaction of his audience, as the adroit
priest at Naples dissolves that of St. Gen-
narius ! Here, on the contrary, there was no
juggling trick ; the eye could not detect, even
with the aid of the most powerful microscope,
the smallest puncture in the front or back of
the picture, through which it was possible for
the blood to distil, and it only appeared after
the most devout prayer and agonized sufferings
of the saint — a simple peasant who could not
be supposed to be acquainted with the difficult
science of chemistry.
The intellectual man could not explain the
mystery, and felt confident he had to contend

88 TOUR OF INQUIRY
with the inventive brain of some juggler, alto
gether his superior in cunning ; and that Rose
Tamisier was his instrument; but how to
detect the imposture was the question. On
the other hand, the devout Romanist contended
that such a miracle ought not to be deemed
improbable. Were not the instruments ori
ginally selected by Divine favour for the propa
gation of Christianity, taken from among the
very lowest ranks of society ? And now that
infidelity had diffused itself so widely over the
land, and that the ungodly had even lifted then-
hands against the vice-gerent of Heaven, driving
him forth to be a wanderer among men, might
not this be regarded as a sign from Heaven to
.remind the nations of their ingratitude, and call
them to repentance by making a poor illiterate
woman the instrument, who had no other
recommendation than her piety. Such were
the conflicting opinions entertained of the St.
Saturnin miracle by the press and the public,
during our tour in the South of France in 1851.

THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY. 89
Taken altogether, Rose Tamisier could not
have selected a more appropriate theatre
throughout the whole romantic land of Pro
vence for the exhibition of her miraculous
powers than St. Saturnin. The surrounding
peasantry, ignorant and superstitious like
mountaineers in general, were here brutally so.
Then the little church, dignified with the
appellation of the Chapelle du Calvaire, hal
lowed by an interesting legend of St. Saturnin,
was already an object of pious veneration ; and
being seated on the summit of an isolated rock,
it was admirably adapted either to exalt the
feelings of the devotee to the wildest enthu
siasm, or attract the attention of the mere
traveller. With respect to the painting, " the Descent
from the Cross," so celebrated as being the
agent of the miracle, is nothing better than
one of those miserable daubs we frequently
find in the provincial churches of France.
The prominent group represents the crucified

90 TOUR OF INQUIRY
Christ lying dead on the lap of the Virgin,
with a bishop in full canonicals on one side, and
a priest in his clerical robes on the other, the
remainder filled up with an ox of most gigantic
proportions, and weeping women.
Taking it for granted that our readers have
acquired an interest in the career of our miracle-
working Saint of Provence, we may as well
relate the denouement of a tale, which in
reality surpasses all that the prolific mind of
the most industrious writer of romances could
invent of the folly and superstition of mankind,
rendered still more interesting to the Protestant
English reader, when he remembers he is only
separated from this land of wonders — this
mysterious people — by a narrow strait, and that
this imposture, so disheartening to the friends
of civilization and progress, took place in 1850,
and was frequently repeated in 1851.
A few weeks subsequent to our visit to the
village of the Provencal saint, we received a
letter at Nice from a friend at Avignon, con-

THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY. 91
taining a full account of the means by which
the imposture had been detected ; and to do
the French justice, their ingenuity is rarely
baffled either in performing or discovering the
secret of a miracle. In the present instance,
the credit of unravelling this most mysterious
affair of the bleeding Christ is due to the
intelligence and assiduity of M. Eugene
Colignon, chemist of Apt, who, after wasting
much time and labour in fruitless researches,
at length succeeded in discovering that human
blood, disgorged by a leech, having lost its
fibrine, was capable of serving the purpose of
Rose Tamisier, and might be made to penetrate
a painting, and then issue forth in small
globules, or drops, according to the quantity
employed, and which not only does not coagulate
for many hours, but continues to flow from
the face of the painting, however frequently it
may have been wiped off, while a drop re
mains. In short, the miracle of the bleeding Christ

92 TOUR OF INQUIRY
was imitated so successfully by this gentleman
in presence of the public authorities, and a large
number of the most eminent scientific men of the
country, that not a doubt could remain in the mind
of the most devoted believer in the miraculous
powers of our heroine, that she was an impostor,
particularly when it was proved that she inva
riably insisted On being allowed to pass some
time in solitary prayer in the chapel, previous
to performing the miracle, when no doubt she
took care to saturate those portions of the
painting necessary for her purpose with the
sanguinous fluid.
The cheat having once become generally
known such a storm of public indignation
was raised in the country as compelled the
authorities to have the impostor arrested and
tried as such at Carpentras, the chief town
of the district, but here the jury, we presume
influenced in their decision by a superior power,
declared themselves incompetent to pronounce
a verdict. This made bad worse, and the

THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY. 93
authorities, fearing some outburst of popular
discontent, the affair was transferred to the
assizes at Nismes, where about the middle of
November, 1851, after a long and patient investi
gation, aided by the laborious efforts of counsel
on both sides, the saint was pronounced guilty
of escroquerie et outrage a la morale publique
et religieuse, and condemned to six months
imprisonment, with a fine of five hundred francs
and costs.

94 TOUR OF INQUIRY

CHAPTER V.
State of religion in the south of France — Infidelity and
superstition — Appearance of the Virgin Mary on
Mount Salette — Romantic details of the miracle —
Connivance of the Government and the superior
clergy in the imposture — Indignant expression of
public opinion — Schism in the Gallic Church — New
religious sect of the Saint Esprit Brotherhood — Some
accounts of their tenets — Character of the founder —
New dogma of the divinity of the Virgin Mary —
Its adoption by the Romish Church — Observations
on the character, influence, opinions, and conduct of
the clergy of the Gallic Church — Louis Napoleon and
the Parti Prdtre.
The south of France may indeed be termed
the land of romance and wonder. In our last
chapter we made our readers acquainted with

THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY. 95
the history of the village saint of the Vaucluse
mountains, we will now inquire into the details
of a similar attempt made at Salette, a few years
since, and to which another high dignitary of
the Church, the Bishop of Grenoble, lent his
countenance and assistance. It was no unusual
thing in various parts of France to hear of
medals of the Virgin Mary performing miracles,
nor that paintings of her should be seen
shedding real tears, on witnessing the growing
infidelity of mankind. But these repeated
manifestations not producing the desired effect,
the Queen of Heaven herself was induced
to leave her throne, and come to earth in pro-
prid personal, to warn the French people of
their danger. She was first seen and spoken
with by two children, on the top of a high
mountain, to whom she revealed the most ex
traordinary mysteries. This was succeeded by
strange signs in the heavens, and unaccountable
voices in the air and on the mountain top, as if
the place was inhabited by celestial beings !

96 TOUR OF INQUIRY
The little village near which this marvellous
event took place, is situated in a romantic
mountain district, a spur of the Alps, ten or
twelve leagues distant from Grenoble, notorious
for the ignorance and superstition of the inha
bitants. With a view of rendering the imposi
tion more easily credited by the simple moun
taineers, two children, of different parents, a boy
and a girl, about thirteen or fourteen years of
age, were selected as the instruments ; and
when tending their flocks and herds, by some
means best known to- the actor who took upon
himself the representation ; they were mystified
into the belief that they had seen a vision of the
Queen of Heaven !
According to the official report of the govern
ment, it appears that our tiny shepherds, on a
fine summer's day, in the year 1846, while
watching their charge on Mount Salette, hap
pened to fall asleep, and on awaking beheld a
beautiful being seated before them on a pinnacle
of the rock, dressed in the most gorgeous robes,

THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY. 97
and surrounded by a light more glorious than
the sun. After remaining some time in speech
less astonishment, they fell as if electrified by
some supernatural agency, at the feet of the
heavenly vision ; when lo ! the celestial visitor,
in a sweet and gentle voice, told them not to
fear, that she was the Virgin Mary, the Mother
of Christ, the protector of innocence, and that
she had selected them for their virtues, and
those of their parents, in preference to any other
human being, to reveal the secrets of Heaven.
She then went on to say that the wrath of her
Son, the dread Judge of the World, had been
excited against the French nation above every
other people, for their crimes and infidelity ;
and that if they did not speedily mend their
evil ways, attend mass, go to confession, and
keep holy the Sabbath, their country would be
exposed to the direst vengeance of Heaven.
The potatoes were first to be visited by disease
and blight, then the corn, the grapes, and the
walnuts ; to be succeeded by the death of all
VOL. I. H

98 TOUR OF INQUIRY
their flocks and herds, and every green herb and
plant from which they could hope to procure
subsistence. Finally, the celestial visitor having
imparted to her tiny favourites a secret which
was only to be disclosed to his Holiness the
Pope, vanished from before them in a dense
vapour, which filled the whole of the mountain
and the air for many days with a heavenly
fragrance !
The affrighted appearance of the little
shepherds on returning to the huts of their
parents, and the tale of each agreeing in every
respect, caused a great sensation in the village.
The tidings of the miraculous revelation vouch
safed to them soon flew from hamlet to hamlet,
from village to village, and the children were
paraded about and regarded by all the in
habitants far and near as saints, and the moun
tain itself as sacred ground. About the same
time, a host of missionaries and priests, strange
men that nobody knew, or from whence they
came, were to be seen on the mountain-top,

THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY. 99
and in all the neighbouring villages, preaching
to hundreds of wondering devotees and pilgrims
from the surrounding country, to whom they
were in the habit of selling medals, with the
effigy of the Queen of Heaven in the form
as she appeared on the mountain ! which
medals were declared to be a cure for every
disease — a talisman against every evil. The
speculation so far succeeded admirably; the
village and the mountain was daily visited by
thousands of wandering strangers ; and what
pious pilgrim but must have felt interested in
seeing and making some offering to mortals
who had been so highly favoured as to hold
converse with the Queen of Heaven !
As may be supposed, intelligence of an event
so extraordinary soon reached the Bishop of
Grenoble, in whose diocese the holy mountain
was situated. This eminent divine, impressed
with a sense of the great importance of such a
heavenly manifestation to the whole Christian
world, particularly to France, immediately ap-
H 2

100 TOUR OF INQUIRY
pointed a distinguished canon of the cathedral
and a learned professor of the town to investi
gate the truth of these singular reports ; and
these gentlemen, after a long inquiry, finding
every particular substantiated by undeniable
evidence, a document was drawn up by order of
the bishop, attesting the truth of the miraculous
appearance of the Holy Virgin on Mount
Salette, and the marvels that followed, and
dispatched forthwith to Paris, for the con
sideration of the government. This took place
in 1847 !
We can imagine the contempt with which
the citizen-king Louis Philippe and his intel
lectual minister M. Guizot received this docu
ment ; the influence, however, of the parti
pretre prevailed, since the procureur-gene'ral
of the kingdom, at the head of a commission
composed of the clergy and the laity, was dis
patched by the government to inquire into the
truth of these statements ; when, after a diligent
inquiry, these gentlemen, for some reason best

THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY. 101
known to themselves or the government, chose
to stultify their common sense, and actually bore
public testimony to the truth of a palpable
imposture, for their official report appeared in
the " Moniteur" and the " Univers !"
But whether the strong sense of the monarch
and his minister opposed any further proceed
ings of the parti pretre, or that they dreaded
to face a continuance of the storm of wit, satire,
sarcasm, and ridicule the French press were at
that time pouring down upon the Salette affair,
and which had provoked the indignation of every
enlightened man throughout the length and
breadth of France, the incredible wonder re
mained in abeyance till 1851. And how many
changes have taken place during that short
space of time, appearing more like romance
than reality ! One of the best Kings that
ever ruled France was driven into exile, and
a republic proclaimed — events which led to the
most crushing despotism of the sword and the
crozier, perhaps on record in the history of a
civilized people.

102 TOUR OF INQUIRY
It is merely necessary for our purpose to say,
that the elect of the plebiscite and the Jesuits
having completely succeeded in silencing not
only the press, but the voice of public opinion,
the miraculous appearance of the Queen of
Heaven on Mount Salette was again brought
forward — again ostentatiously proclaimed to
the civilized world as the greatest miracle of
any age ! a proof of the benign care with
which the celestial patroness of France watches
over the safety of her people ! And who dare
now gainsay the truth of an event supported
by half a million of bayonets, and the unerring
verdict of his Holiness the Pope, who, in his
late address to the clergy, expressed his belief in
the miraculous vision, and commanded that a
mountain so signally hallowed by the presence
of the Queen of Heaven, should be from hence
forth consecrated to holy purposes ; and to
further this, that a convent and a church, to
be called Notre Dame de Salette, should be
erected to commemorate the event till the end
of time ! Whoever doubts the truth of these

THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY. 103
statements, incredible as they must appear to
every man of common sense, may journey to
Provence, where he will see copies of the
Pope's bull affixed to the church doors, en
forcing as a duty on the people a belief in
these wonders, in which also they are enjoined
to subscribe liberally towards building a church
and monastery, to commemorate this manifes
tation of Heaven in favour of its elect, the
French nation. Moreover, if he enters any one
of these churches, in all probability he may
still hear sermons preached by the priests
inculcating their undoubted veracity, and the
duty of implicit belief. He may also see
collections made, and hear denunciations
launched against those as red republicans
and socialists who obstinately and impiously
refuse to contribute. We wonder what amount
of these sums, continually falling into the
bottomless pit of the priestly purse, will be
expended in erecting the promised buildings ?
At all events, the speculation is certain to prove
most profitable.

104 TOUR OF INQUIRY
Poor France I amidst the wreck of her insti
tutions, when the might and mind of her
intelligent sons lie prostrate beneath the power
of priestcraft and military despotism, she might
have been spared this degradation-*— the humi
liation of being held up to the contempt 6f the
whole civilized world, as a nation where the
intellect of man has fallen so low as to believe
in all the monkish fictions of the dark ages.
That there is a vast amount of superstition
and ignorance to be found in the remote districts
of France, particularly in the romantic land of
Provence, there can be no doubt. This may
partly be explained by the circumstance, that
out of a population of nearly thirty-six millions
twenty-seven, according to statistical reports,
are engaged in agricultural pursuits; whose
forefathers for the most part, sixty-three years
ago, were subject to the droit haineux,
imposed upon them by the clergy and their
feudal lords ; and although they obtained their
freedom, during the revolutionary burst of 1789,
little or nothing has been done by the successive

THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY. 105
governments that ruled France, whether Repub
lican, Imperial, or Monarchical, to elevate them
in the social scale by education ; consequently,
they have remained up to the present day
ignorant and superstitious, simple and con
fiding, susceptible of being made the instru
ments of a clever charlatan, either in religion
or politics. Hence it may easily be credited
one fourth of the inhabitants of France can
neither read nor write ; and this, according to the
testimony of their own writers, and the debates
in the Chamber of Deputies, whence we have
also gleaned the deplorable fact, however incre
dible it may appear, that penal laws still exist in
certain districts, against the circulation of the
Bible, and that the sacred volume is still publicly
burnt by the priest, whenever it is found in the
hands of the Roman Catholic laity.
With respect to the miraculous appearance
of the Virgin Mary on Mount Salette, con
firmed as it has been by so high an authority
as his Holiness the Pope, and which, therefore,

106 TOUR OF INQUIRY
must now be received as gospel truth by every
pious Roman Catholic in Christendom, we
shall leave it entirely to the good sense of our
readers to pass a sentence ; but when we find a
layman, or even an archbishop, who like our
selves is fallible, wandering from the path of
morality, and deliberately encouraging the
substitution of fables for truth, we shall not
scruple to state our opinion. Perhaps they had
been actuated to do so by a good intention — a
desire to instil religion in some shape or other
into the minds of the French peasantry. But
it is the peculiar curse of the ultramontane
party in France, and indeed throughout the
whole of civilized Europe in the present day,
that every step, however cautiously taken, tends
to make their situation worse; and who,
dreading some sweeping reform in the Church
— an event which must assuredly come, ascribe
the danger to every cause but the true one —
their determination to continue a system not
in unison with the age. Hence they seek to

THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY. 107
control the popular will, not only by chaining
thought, but by uniting religion to superstition
so puerile, that their credence would be a dis
grace to the common sense of the most untaught
peasantry, in the most secluded districts in
Europe. Everything considered, had the actors in
these flagrant attempts at imposture, so dis
graceful to the age in which we now live, and
so repugnant to the feelings of every true
Christian, been confined to an ignorant pea
santry and a few fanatic monks, we might not
have given them a place in this volume, but
when we see, as in the case of Rose Tamisier,
the sous-prefet of a department, and the pro-
cureur of the Republic — the highest judicial
authority in the land — together with an
archbishop, and several distinguished officials,
civil, military, and ecclesiastical, rendering
homage to a contemptible juggler, and affixing
their seals of office and signatures to a document
attesting the truth of a palpable deception — when

108 TOUR OF INQUIRY
we see these things, and hear of the miraculous
appearance of the Virgin Mary, deceits aided
and abetted by the rulers of so civilized a
country as France, then the subject becomes
one of serious and melancholy consideration,
and the traveller is forced into the belief,
however reluctantly, that there must be some
thing wrong — radically wrong, in the moral
and religious feeling of the great mass of the
people. Imagine the Lord-lieutenant of a county in
England, and the Lord Chief Justice of the
kingdom, together with an archbishop and other
officials of the highest rank, dispatched by her
Majesty the Queen of Great Britain and her
ministers to some remote district of the country
to ascertain the truth of the miraculous appear
ance of the Virgin Mary, and some miracle
performed there by a half-crazy fanatic. Imagine,
if such a proceeding were possible in Protestant
England, the excited agitation, the dangerous
revolution, it would provoke throughout the

THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY. 109
entire land. But in poor France, where the
lower classes have rarely any better instructors
than the gloomy inmates of a convent and a
nunnery, and where the education of the higher
classes is too often confided to the care of a
Jesuit, we fear we must expect a repetition of
these disgraceful scenes, till the advent of
another of those frenzied revolutions — those
moral whirlwinds which leave desolation and
ruin behind them — the melancholy landmarks
of that nation's history, whose religion if it has
any, is based on superstition.
That a powerful and influential party in
France have been labouring most diligently,
now covertly, and again openly, ever since the
restoration of the Bourbons, to destroy all that
is intellectual and noble, free and independent,
in the character of a people who most assuredly
have done much towards advancing the civiliza
tion and enlightenment of the world, is most
certain. Yet all their exertions have been
unable to prevent that ill-starred family from

110 TOUR OF INQUIRY
being again and again expelled the country.
Must we not then believe that a more liberal
and enlightened system of religion and education
would have been more likely to preserve these
amiable and well-meaning princes, the love and
allegiance of their subjects, rather than pursuing
a backward course, recommended by an intole
rant, narrow-minded conclave of ultramontane
priests and nobles, to revive the superstition
and absurdities of bygone days. This is not
the age for presenting jewelled crowns and
embroidered petticoats to an image of the
Virgin ; and any sovereign who is weak enough
to be guided by counsellors so contemptible as
to advise such follies will be certain to fall.
Happily for the progress of , civilization, if
this reactionary policy has entailed upon France
revolution and anarchy, and driven into exile
two monarchs within the space of eighteen
years, it has had to contend against a
powerful opponent, the press, supported by
the middle classes ; a numerous party, at once

THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY. Ill
tolerant, enlightened, and jealous of the national
honour, and who will ultimately by their
energy, intellect, and information, triumph over
every obstacle, and give their laws to priest,
noble and the plebiscite.
Of this we had a striking example during
the feverish excitement caused by the Rose
Tamisier affair, who, but for their powerful
interference, might have continued enthroned
in all her glory as the modern miracle-worker
of the day. It must also be remembered that
this occurred at a time when two-thirds of the
inhabitants of France were scared by the
phantoms of socialism, anarchy and civil war ;
when every man who had the courage to raise
his voice in the cause of civilization and
enlightenment, ran the risk of being denounced
as a red republican, a dangerous disturber of
social order, by the party who were then, by
every means in their power, undermining the
free institutions of the country. Still the
agitation increased, and they succeeded not only

1 1 2 TOUR OF INQUIRY
in unmasking superstition, but proved the
means of bringing into prominent notice the
existence of a schism in the Gallic Roman
Church, which we had previously scarcely
known even by name.
It was impossible that the more rational and
sensible portion of the clergy could remain
silent, without making some attempt to defend
their order from the incessant attacks of the
press. This led to a recriminatory war of
pamphlets in the camp of the parti pretre,
when the imposture of the bleeding Christ,
the stigmates sanglant on the person of the
pretended saint of St. Saturnin, and the
miraculous appearance of the Virgin Mary on
Mount Salette were traced to the intrigues of
the ultra-fanatics, the brotherhood of the St.
Esprit party ; a fanatical sect which, according
to the testimony of their opponents, is fast
rising into importance, and already numbers
among its secret and open adherents several
eminent divines of the Roman Catholic Church,

THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY. 113
together with men of the most distinguished
rank in society, not only in France, but in
other countries ; and, as may be supposed, it
has found great favour among the lower classes
of the French people, at all times easily excited,
and never very steadfast in their political and
religious opinions.
In England we have had our Johanna
Southcotes, and our Irvingites; but no man
of sane understanding ever countenanced their
absurdities, at all events no large body of the
community has ever been found to join them.
We have also from time to time our full share
of religious enthusiasts, and though their theories
may be extravagant, they invariably take the
plain Word of God as their rule of faith. It
is true their interpretations of it may differ,
and isolated passages be distorted in support
of some favourite dogma, still they all unite
in founding their creed and hope of salvation
on the simple truths of Scripture. An extreme
degree of simplicity in their form of worship,
VOL. I. I

114 TOUR OF INQUIRY
and a very strict rule of moral conduct are
generally enjoined ; for that greatest boon of
humanity the free circulation of the Bible
among all classes in England, renders it im
possible to win prosolytes to any system that
does not aim at advancing religion and
morality. On the other hand, the religious enthusiasts
of young Gaul, being altogether unacquainted
with the Scriptures — thanks to the assiduous
industry of their priests and rulers, who with
hold the Sacred Volume entirely from the laiety —
have been obliged, in forming the machinery
of their new creed, to resort to tradition and
the resources of a fertile imagination. Aware
also of the predilection of their compatriots for
the marvellous, novelty, and theatrical display,
a host of superior and subordinate heavenly
spirits are made to play their respective parts
in their strange system of Polytheism. Then
if the doctrine is mystical and obscure, so much
the better — there is the more scope for faith ;

THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY. 1 1 5
and should the founder be a poor, uneducated
peasant — a stranger to the arts and wiles of a
priest — success is the more certain.
Our readers may judge for themselves of
the truth of what we have advanced, if they
examine the religious tenets now inculcated in
France by the new sect called the CEuvre de
la Misdricorde, or the St. Esprit brother
hood, which it appears originated in the fertile
brain of a peasant in Normandy, and, we
presume, having been found attractive, was
eagerly seized upon by a society of intriguing
priests. Without entering into the tedious account
of the Norman peasant, respecting the incom
parable glory of the Son of God as he appeared
to him in the midst of myriads of angels
chanting hymns of peace and salvation to all
mankind, we will merely say that, according to
his own account, he was invested with a dignity
similar to that of Melchisedek, King of Salem ;
that is to say, he was anointed by Jesus Christ
I 2

116 TOUR OF INQUIRY
on a fine summer's night, in the year 1840,
as His High Priest and Prophet, with power to
perform miracles and prophesy to the world,
together with the faculty to discover through
his visions the elect who were to bear about
their person the stamp of the Holy Ghost,
which he terms stigmates sanglant. Finally,
he declared that it was given to him, the chosen
instrument of Divine Grace, to raise up a
more spiritualizing system of religion for the
redemption of mankind, than that of the old
religion of Christ, which having performed its
mission was now to pass away from the
earth !
The name of this audacious French fanatic,
while he exercised his profession of baking
bread at Tilly-sur-Seulles, in Normandy, was
Pierre Michel Vintras ; but since he has taken
upon himself the task of regenerating mankind,
he has assumed the more imposing appellation
of the Oracle, and it must be confessed he has
displayed a mind of no ordinary invention and

THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY. 117
genius, in forming his peculiar religious system,
and exhibited in his public orations an elo
quence, and a force of reasoning in his writings,
altogether incompatible with his humble position
in life, but which of course his followers attri
bute to inspiration.
His most popular work, the " Livre d'Or,"
a mystical and seducing book, in the words of
the Abbe Andre — a bitter enemy of the new
creed — une des plus se'duisantes qui aient
paru, is well adapted for enthralling the mind
of a people who, instead of searching for the
truth in the plain words of Scripture, are led
away by the plausible reasonings of the first
clever enthusiast they happen to meet with, has
become the organ of faith to his followers. The
fanatical tendencies of this religious sect may
be inferred from the following summary of their
principal doctrines of faith.
"The nature of man," says our modern
High Priest and Prophet, " consists of the im
mortal soul of a rebellious angel thrust out of

118 TOUR OF INQUIRY
heaven, invested with a corruptible form, and
doomed to suffer from age to age till repentance
and works of grace have washed away the sin."
He then tells us that the Church of Christ,
originally intended by a merciful God to work
out the redemption of mankind, having become
through the errors of its pontifical, episcopal
and clerical rulers a trunk without life, a body
without a soul, over which the whole angelic
host of heaven hath long wept, has been
replaced by the oeuvre de la mise'ricorde fa
work of mercy), emanating from the Holy
Ghost, of a more spiritualizing nature, and
more speedy and effectual than the old system
of redeeming the souls of the rebellious race.
Hence, according to the religious system of
Pierre Michel Vintras, the reign of the Church
of Christ by divine command has passed away,
and that of the third person in the Blessed
Trinity commenced, of which he is the Oracle !
and to whom all power has been given to invest
His ministers and apostles with their sacred

THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY. 1 1 9
mission, and through the miraculous initiation
of the Organe to work miracles, and hold
converse in their spiritual visions with Jesus
Christ, the Holy Virgin, saints and angels.
But— " No wild enthusiast ever yet did rest,
Till half mankind was like himself possessed."
And strange to say, in looking over the pages
of " Vintras et sa Secte," the " Voix de la
Verite," the " Prophete Vintras et les Saints
de Tilly," and other new publications for and
against the doctrines of the new sect, we learn
that they are rapidly multiplying. In addition
to the Sovereign Pontiff, High Priest and
Prophet, Pierre Vintras ! there is a Pontif de
l'Adoration, the Abbe" Baillard ; a Pontif de la
Sagesse, the Abbe Charvos ; a Pontif de
l'Ordre, the Abbe Madrolle, together with
from twenty to thirty Pontiffs of the Regene
ration stationed in various parts of France,
nearly all of whom, with the exception of the
Oracle himself, were formerly divines of the

120 TOUR OF INQUIRY
Roman Catholic Church, who, having renounced
the old creed, have become the most zealous
propagandists of the new one.
Besides these pontiffs of the new creed, there
are saints of either sex to be found in every
part of France bearing on their persons the
stigmates sanglant similar to that we de
scribed on Rose Tamisier, and which enables
them to prophesy, see visions, work miracles,
hold converse with celestial beings, grant
absolution, and command the attendance of a
guardian-angel ! There are also convents of
pious ladies, entitled " Les Dames libres et tres
pieuses de misericordieux amour du Cceur divin
de Jesus," who have also been miraculously
consecrated and endowed with the same divine
power !
Perhaps our readers will obtain a more
correct idea of the rise and progress of the
Vintrassienne heresy by perusing the work of
the Abbe Andre, " Vintras et sa Secte," pub
lished at Carpentras in Provence in 1851.
" Peu a peu," he says, " la secte Vintrassienne

THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY. 121
s'est glisse"e partout comme un cancer ; des
hommes honorables des eccle*siastiques esti-
mees se sont enivres au dangereux calice et
ont entraine avec eux un nombre prodigieux
de proselytes." Again he says, according
to the testimony of the last general council of
the dignitaries of the Church held at Paris
respecting this heresy. " Ces insenses osent
repandre pafmi le peuple des revelations comme
leur ayant ete faites par les anges, les saints,
Jesus-Christ lui-me'me, des visions et des
miracles ; ils osent entreprendre de former
un nouveau college d'apotres compose de
laiques, et annoncent dans l'eglise de Jesus-
Christ un troisieme regne, qu'ils ne craignent
pas d'appeler le regne du Saint-Esprit !"
In vain, he says, the doctrine has been con
demned by the late Pope Gregory in his
mandate to the Episcopi of the Gallic Church
in 1843, a condemnation repeated by his
successor, the present Pope, dated 10th of
February, 1851, the heresy still increases.

122 TOUR OF INQUIRY
The same clear-sighted, intelligent divine,
the Abbe Andre, after accusing this sect of
being the instigators of all the pretended
miracles and visions of the Virgin, saints and
angels, which have of late years drawn down
upon France the contempt of the surrounding
nations, reprobates in no measured terms the
countenance given by certain fanatics of his
own Church to such juggleries. He also
remotely alludes in his work to one singular
fact, that the new creed from the first has
been secretly encouraged by certain high
dignitaries of the Church of Rome, and in
fluential members of the haute noblesse, well
known for their ultramontane opinions. Per
haps it was done with a hope that a system of
discipline, possessing the attractions of novelty
and mystery, might make its way among a
people so indifferent to their sacred duties as
the French !
Be this as it may, the public mind in France
has been chiefly indebted to the trial of Rose

THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY. 123
Tamisier for a clearer insight into the tenets
of this new French mania, whose fanatical
tendencies had been hitherto enveloped in
mystery. It is also singular that several of its
most ardent supporters have been found in the
ranks of the Jesuits, such as the Abbe Leopold
Baillard, the Abbe Charvos d'Orelle, and the
Abbe M. Madrolle, men who, so long as they
continued members of the Roman Church,
were celebrated as some of the most popular
preachers and ecclesiastical writers of the day,
intolerant of every other creed as they were
energetic in advocating their own, and mani
festing in their writings and lectures all the
extravagant bigotry and fanaticism of the
dark ages. As might be expected, these
fanatics have carried with them into their new
creed the same fire-brand spirit of intolerance,
imprecating in the pages of their organ, the
" Voix de la Verite," as they formerly did in
those of the " Univers," the organ of the
Jesuits, all earthly woes and eternal damnation

124 TOUR OF INQUIRY
upon those who dare to combat the truth of
the new light, which has so suddenly burst
upon the world !
Before we conclude our notice of this new
French mania, we must mention one of the
most remarkable dogmas of the sect, a belief
in the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin
Mary, who they maintain to have been born
without sin, and equal to God the Father;
and singular enough the present Pope has
confirmed this extraordinary dogma of the
Vintrassiennes by his late encyclique mandate
to the dignitaries of the Roman Catholic
Church, relative to this article of faith, which
has caused, says the Abbe Andre, great
rejoicings among the followers of the miracu
lous Organe ; and he might have added — to
which we can testify — the deepest regret to
every enlightened member of the Roman
Catholic Church, who now can have no confi
dence or security as to what his Church may
admit or reject in his creed, since he cannot

THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY. 125
regard the writings of the Evangelists as the
oracles of his faith, but the fiat of a mere
mortal like himself. And here again to prove
the truth of this feeling — at least among a
portion of the clergy of the Gallic Church —
we must quote another passage from the work
of the same intelligent divine.
" Aussi, qui n'a ete temoin de la joie des
sectaires vintrassiennes lorsque Pie IX. addressa,
l'annee passee, son encyclique aux evSques re-
lativement a cette croyance — l'immaculee con
ception de la Sainte Vierge ! Les temps s'avan-
cent ! se disaient-ils pleine de joie ! La pro-
phetie va s'accomplir ! L'heure du regne du
Saint-Esprit est proche ! Heureux alors ceux
qui auront ouvert les yeux k la lumiere !"
We cannot explain this passage of our
author, the Abbe Andre, in any other way than
that he accuses the Pope, as openly as any
divine of the Roman Catholic Church dare do,
of having caused a dogma, which originated
in the inventive brain of Pierre Vintras, an

126 TOUR OF INQUIRY
ignorant peasant of Normandy, to be received
as an article of faith. Hence every member of
the Roman Catholic Church must now believe,
not in the Trinity, but in the Quadrinity. If
to this we add the miraculous appearance of the
Virgin on Mount Salette, acknowledged as a
fact by the same high authority, the spiritual
izing system of vision-seeing, miracle-working
saints, and the theory of development so much
dwelt upon in the writings of the St. Esprit
brotherhood, and openly advocated by so many
divines of the Roman Catholic Church, the
suspicion is excited that the religious enthusiasts
of the miraculous Organe have at length found
favour at the Vatican, or at least some of their
tenets. Besides, if there were no other reason,
the bitter animosity they display towards the
Reformed Church, the most dangerous enemy
of the spiritual power of the Pope, would be
certain to entitle them to some consideration.
In a country like France, where the bubble
of to-day is succeeded by the bubble of to-

THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY 127
morrow, we must expect changes now and then
to take place in the religious as well as the
political feelings of the inhabitants; but the
French people, taken in the mass, are far too
shrewd to yield implicit credence to any monkish
fiction or religious theory not based upon com
mon sense. They may, like every other people
accustomed to surrender themselves to a sudden
impulse, be led away by the excitement of the
moment, they may applaud the legerdemain
tricks of a clever charlatan at one time, and
perhaps at another, on the mere turn of a
feather, consign him to the lamp-post.
But when we see these worse than childish
follies, these delusions of a bygone age, revived in
France by those ingenious jugglers and charlatan
priests of the miraculous Organe, attempted to
be introduced into Protestant England — when
we read in the " Rambler," and other ultramon
tane publications, an account of such absurdities,
and find them acknowledged as miracles by an
educated Anglo-Saxon gentleman from the

128 TOUR OF INQUIRY
pulpit of a Roman Catholic church, in the
nineteenth century, we cannot find words suffi
ciently strong to express our sorrow. We
know there are mad priests in every country,
and half-witted individuals to be found in every
class and rank of life, sufficiently credulous to
believe any fiction, however absurd ; but we
could not have believed that any part of the
British Islands could furnish a congregation so
utterly destitute of common sense as to listen,
much less to give credence, to such a tissue of
fabulous inventions.
In making these observations, we have not
been actuated by any other desire than to point
out the mischief committed by these imprudent
zealots, who, bearing the character of ministers
of Christ, teachers of morality, do more to
weaken the faith of man in a creed that requires
neither miracles, visions of Madonnas, saints,
and angels, to substantiate its heavenly origin,
than the writings of Voltaire, or any other
infidel, since the commencement of Christianity.

THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY. 129
Besides which, they expose the religion they
profess to honour to the contempt of every
enlightened mind. Had they journeyed into
those lands, as we have done, where such
fictions have been made to pass current for
truth from time immemorial, they would find
infidelity in a greater or less degree pervading
all classes of society ; and the churches deserted,
except by peasants and a few old men, women,
and children.
If England, high as her position is, both
intellectually and morally, is to be blest with
such teachers as these apostles of signs and
wonders, and listens to them, it does not require
the gift of prophecy to pronounce that she will
rapidly decline in all that now elevates her as a
nation. Having commenced our inquiry into the
state of religion in France, we should leave our
work incomplete, did we not allude to that
mysterious association of clever intelligent men,
the clergy of the Gallic Church ; who may now
VOL. 1. K

130 TOUR OF INQUIRY
be considered, owing to the part they so admi
rably acted in the great drama of French
politics, an element of power almost irresistible
in France.
If we except a few individuals belonging to
the higher classes of society, who are destined
through family influence to fill the high dignities
of the Church, the majority of the clergy are
selected from the peasantry, who receive in
most cases a gratuitous education, and even in
many instances food and clothing, at the ex
pense of the numerous monastic establishments
which we find in every part of France. Thus
indebted for their maintenance and elevation
from the lower ranks of society to the Church,
they feel grateful to a system which has rescued
them from penury and labour, and made them
instructors of men.
It is owing partly to this feeling, and partly
to the system in which they are educated, that,
from the hour of their ordination, they renounce
all the ties of home and kindred, centre their

THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY. 131
affections entirely on the Church, whose ser
vants, nay slaves, they are ; and acknowledge
no law, submit to no jurisdiction, save that of
their own spiritual chief. Hence they form a
society of active, energetic men, more perfectly
organized than any other existing in the world ;
a mighty engine, which can be directed by a
superior mind for the furtherance of any great
political object that may tend to the advance
ment of the interests of the Church.
Although the salary allowed by the French
Government for the support of the clergy is
trifling, the private revenues of the Gallic
Church, when estimated collectively, are enor
mous. Money being regarded as a means of
power, the priests, and many of the orders of
brotherhood, are permitted to engage privately
in commercial speculation, by means of which
they acquire immense influence, not only by
their wealth, but by their intercourse and
dealings with the working and trading classes,
whose creditors, as money-lenders, they fre-
K 2

132 TOUR OF INQUIRY
quently are, particularly the agriculturists.
This, superadded to the power they possess over
the conscience as spiritual directors, gives them
a control over their fellow-men almost absolute.
Misfortunes have taught them caution : re
membering the excesses of the first Revolution,
in which they were the greatest sufferers, they
sustain with great skill their character in the
different political dramas of which France has
been the theatre ; and ever bearing in mind the
wise injunction " render unto Caesar the things
that are Caesar's," preach obedience to the laws,
and submission to the chief of the state for
the time being. At the same time they never
lose sight of the interests of the Church, and
are everywhere the invisible agents that direct,
and give life and vigour to every new move
ment which may tend to consolidate their own
power. Far-seeing, and intimately acquainted above
every other class of mankind, with all the
failings and secret springs of human nature,

THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY. 133
they are prepared for every contingency ; at
one time truckling to despotism, at another
the warmest advocates of democracy, according
as expediency shall dictate ; they neither slumber
nor sleep when the interests of the Church are
to be advanced, and carry out their plans with
such consummate ability and profound secrecy,
that their very enemies — and they are numerous
in France — are unable to obtain any clue to
the web they so unceasingly weave, or any
proof that shall convict them of conspiring
against the liberties of their country.
The expulsion of the Jesuits from France,
has given rise to a greater evil — the perfecting
of the existing system ; so that France, in the
present day, instead of having to combat the
machinations of one sect, the disciples of Loyola,
feels that she is controlled by a power that
directs the movements alike of the government
and the people. Without the powerful assistance
of the Church, Louis Napoleon would never
have been able to ascend the slippery ladder

134 TOUR OF INQUIRY
by which he gained the dignity of President;
and if report speaks true, and I have heard the
fact vouched for by many persons whose
veracity I could not doubt, the Church furnished
him with the money that enabled him in the
first instance to corrupt the military, and trample
on the liberties of the French people ; affording
another evidence that neither France, nor any
other country can acquire freedom, or preserve
it, where the religion of the state is Roman
Catholic : a religion that shuns the investigation
of the enlightened mind, and the power of whose
priests is based on the ignorance and super
stition of the masses, cannot exist with liberty —
one or the other must fall.
The drama that is now acting by the Presi
dent, and his clerical supporters, is amusing to
the spectator who has some knowledge of what
is passing behind the scenes ; each has made
the other a stepping-stone to power ; and Louis
Napoleon must be aware, there cannot be any
real sympathy between him and a class of men

THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY. 135
whose motto is divine right, and who can never
hope for peace until the heir of their ancient
kings is again seated on the throne of France.
Up to the present time, Louis Napoleon has
dealt to himself both trumps and honours, but
everything depends upon how he plays his
game : his opponents are insidious and wary,
and the slightest mistake on his part may send
him to seek his old quarters in London ; but so
long as he holds the Pope a prisoner in Rome
he has nothing to fear. Thus we may perhaps,
for several years to come, see this unhappy
country a prey to civil dissensions, the great
mass of the people at the same time ignorant
of the real origin of the evil. They may change
their rulers, and their civil institutions, without
improving their condition, unless Providence
raises up some bold, enlightened chief, gifted
with sufficient energy and possessing the confi
dence of his fellow-men, to carry out the work
of reform in the Church. Unless this is done,
there can be no peace in France, no moral and
true religious feeling among the people.

136 TOUR OF INQUIRY
All secret societies are dangerous to ' the
tranquillity and well-being of a country; but
one composed of ecclesiastics more than any
other. The social compact of the priests, now
so closely united, must be torn asunder ; they
must be compelled to live like other men,
assume the duties of domestic life, and become
members of the social world. The pastor who
has his wife and children, like the divines of
the Reformed Church, would not, even if he
had the power, conspire against the liberties of
his country, for in so doing he would be
entailing slavery upon those nearest and dearest
to him. Still let priests and their abettors, the despots,
manoeuvre as they will, the French people, with
all their frivolity and love of change, are far too
enlightened, and we may add, too indifferent in
their religious opinions, to remain the willing
slaves of an ultramontane priestly faction. In a
country where genius, and the arts and sciences
are worshipped, ignorance and superstition can
never find a permanent resting-place. The

THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY. 137
great people, who only sixty-three years ago,
rose up from the degrading bondage of serfdom,
and with one mighty and combined effort burst
their chains and proclaimed the rights of man*
civil and religious freedom, to the world, can
never be slaves. Again, were there no other
guarantee to insure the ultimate triumph of
free institutions, there can be no real retrograde
movement in an age that can boast of more
talent and intelligence, to advance the .progress
of mankind, than the world ever before wit
nessed. In short, the reaction that has taken place in
France, and in every continental state in
Europe, is nothing more than what might be
expected, after such a terrible upheaving of
the nations in their attempt to destroy the
power which had crushed them for centuries.
The men of the past, the despots and their
minions, the priests, foresaw the crisis, and
trembled; and in their agony determined to
destroy the movement while it was yet in its

138 TOUR OF INQUIRY
infancy. The enterprise was formidable, nay,
dangerous, and to obtain their object it was
necessary to pursue a tortuous and obscure
path. Parties of whatever shade of political
opinion, were kept alive and placed in hostility
towards each other ; and while they enlisted
in their cause the bold and penniless adven
turer, the timid and wavering were frightened
by cries of socialism, red republicanism, the
guillotine, and all the horrors of a universal
Jacquerie, which was again to reduce the
civilised world to the darkest state of bar
barism. The drama was admirably played, and in
selecting France as the stage — a country that
influences every other on the continent — and
Louis Napoleon as the principal actor, because
hallowed by the prestige of a name, they showed
their tact and wisdom. For the moment they
have triumphed. A well-arranged system of
deception has succeeded ; but let them beware,
the rebound is certain to come, and certain to

THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY. 139
prove fatal to a party which has nothing in
common with the great age in which we now
live ; and unless they provide against the next
revolutionary deluge by timely reforms, their
doom is for ever sealed !

140 TOUR OF INQUIRY

CHAPTER VI.
Tour through Provence — Cannes and Lord Brougham —
English residents — The benefits they confer on the
inhabitants — Route from Cannes to Nice — Description
of Nice — Its advantages as a place of residence — The
good effects of a constitutional government.
After this long digression on the moral
and religious state of France, we will resume
our tour, and transport our readers at one
step from the romantic village of St. Saturnin
to Marseilles, on the sunny shores of the
Mediterranean. The reader, however, will lose
nothing by this very rapid transit, since there
are no interesting objects to describe in a
district which presents nothing more attractive

THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY. 141
to the eye of the traveller than a succession of
barren rocks, dreary wastes, and sandy plains ;
and this continued with little intermission till
we arrived in the country between Marseilles
and Nice, decidedly the most fertile, romantic
and picturesque part of Provence.
With the exception of the line between
Avignon and Marseilles, the rail has made
no progress in the land of the troubabours ;
hence the old clumsy diligence, with its rope
traces and smart conductor, is here found in
all its ancient glory. This, however, was rather
an agreeable variety to the traveller, whose
object was to see the country ; and taking my
place on the summit of the imperial, I was
enabled to enjoy, to my heart's content, a
succession of the most charming landscapes,
presenting, as we rolled along, an alternation of
mountain, hill, glen and valley, with now and
then a distant view of the blue waters of the
Mediterranean. Noble forest trees were to be
seen intermingled with the arbutus and the

142 TOUR OF INQUIRY
holly, the myrtle and other flowering shrubs,
growing luxuriantly on every height, and groves
of cork-trees, the mulberry and the olive on the
shelving sides of the hills ; and to judge from
their immense size and time-worn trunks, they
might have been planted when the lordly
Roman ruled the land.
In some favoured situations even the orange
and the citron reared their head in defiance of
the withering mistral, but they appeared too
sickly to be of any other use than for the
purposes of the laboratory. Indeed the whole of
this district appeared to be peculiarly favourable
to the culture of every species of plant, herb
and shrub employed by French ingenuity in the
fabrication of the numerous perfumes and cos
metics for which that people are so justly
celebrated. The lofty houses and narrow streets, abound
ing with filth, of the little towns and burghs
through which we passed, together with the
sharp, expressive Greek and often Moorish

THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY. 143
features of the inhabitants, all combined to
remind one of Spain. But, alas ! in a country
like this, where there is so little progress, with
the exception of Marseilles, Toulon, and one or
two other towns, favourably situated on the
coast, there was no evidence of commercial
activity, or of increasing prosperity — no elegant
modern buildings to replace the old gloomy
structures that looked as if they had been
erected in the days of the good old King Rene.
It is true the village maiden, with her soft eye
and graceful figure, might still be seen tripping
along the highway, but no appearance of a
descendant of the ancient troubadours, those
wandering minstrels of Provence, whose
poetry and music influenced so favourably the
progress of civilization in the dark ages. If
the rule of the Gaul has driven them from
the land, he has been unable to banish the
beautiful and poetical language still preserved
by the people: even those acquainted with
French rarely employ it, unless when holding
converse with strangers.

144 TOUR OF INQUIRY
In these unromantic days we must admire
the homage rendered to the Muses, at the time
when King Rene preferred courting their
smiles to the state and pomp of a throne !
Surely Provence must then have been a little
Eden, when every great city had its courts of
love, and gallant knights acknowledged no other
sovereign than beauty. Who has not heard of
Geoffry Rudel, who died for love of his fair
mistress, the Countess of Tripoli? Of our
own lion-hearted Richard and his faithful
Blondel? Of Berenger, and the celebrated
Countess of Champagne ? Alas ! how many
broken hearts might be prevented, if these
courts of love still existed, to exercise their
powers ! At least they would be more appro
priate tribunals to abjudicate such matters
than the time-consuming, money-wasting pro
ceedings of Doctors' Commons !
We remained a day at Cannes, a place but
little known even in France before Lord
Brougham adopted it as an occasional residence.
It has now become a little port, and promises

THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY. 145
to be one of the prettiest towns in Provence.
The situation is admirable, and the country in
its immediate vicinity romantic and picturesque ;
and were it not subject now and then to a visit
from the dreaded mistral, it might become a
dangerous rival to its more healthful neighbour,
the beautiful Nice.
English gold and English enterprize have
wrought their usual wonders at Cannes, as
elsewhere in the land of the Gaul, where the
wandering islanders have pitched their tent.
Castles and villas have sprung, and are springing
into existence, moulded according to the fancies
of their owners, who, it must be confessed, in
the erection of some of their dwellings appear
more solicitous to eclipse the neat, unpretending
cottage of his Lordship, who may be considered
the founder of modern Cannes, than to display
architectural taste and skill. " There," said my
Provencal guide, pointing to a vast edifice, with
its velvet lawn, pleasure-grounds and gardens
filled with the rarest exotics, orange-trees and
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146 TOUR OF INQUIRY
myrtles, " is the residence of one milord million
aire, marchand de carosses k Londres. There,"
said he of another, " is the residence of milord
millionaire, fabricateur de quincaillerie ; and
that immense chateau, with its battlements
and towers, is being erected for a milord pretre
Anglais !"
The advantages derived from so many
wealthy residents are everywhere visible; and
the pleasing sight of the neat, comfortable
cottages of the peasants gave us great pleasure,
affording another evidence of the law of pro
gress, which tends to improve the character of
man, however degraded, by inciting him to
industry, and awakening in him elevated
feelings of morality and self-dependence.
Our quick-witted, loquacious Provencal
seemed to have read our thoughts when he
exclaimed : " Ah, Monsieur ! if our millionaires
had but a tithe of the public spirit and active
enterprize of your opulent countrymen, by
employing the people and imparting to them

THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY. 147
a better system of education and religion, we
should hear no more of socialism and all the
other evils which now afflict unhappy France.
Previous to the arrival of Lord Brougham, our
Cannes, that you now see so flourishing and
adorned with stately buildings, was nothing
better than a nest of miserable paupers, as
disgustingly filthy in their persons as they
were steeped in bigotry and superstition. At
present, thanks to the enlightened liberality of
your countrymen who have settled among us,
our poor peasants have been taught to read and
write ; you will, morover, find a Bible in every
house, and we are all gradually becoming a
strictly religious community, as remarkable for
morality and industry as we were before for vice
and destitution."
What an example is this to the opulent
classes in France, if our neighbours are ever
to profit by anything that emanates from
perfide Albion ! Instead of residing on
their estates, employing the people, and spread-
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148 TOUR OF INQUIRY
ing among them enlarged ideas of civilization,
they fritter away their valuable lives like
butterflies in the sunshine of fashion, or hoard
their wealth like misers ; and if they do exert
themselves in one thing more than another, it
is to countenance and enforce belief on their
ignorant countrymen of the miracles and
wretched superstitions of a host of miserable
actors and actresses, who have no other object
than that of reducing the people of France
to the most degraded State of religious super
stition and political slavery.
After leaving Cannes, every step we made
in advance, the landscape continued to improve
in picturesque beauty. We were fast approach
ing the classic ground of Italy, and this con
tinued till we got to Nice, with its lofty
mountains, vine-clad hills, luxuriant gardens,
and beautiful bay, all glowing with the many-
tinted hues of an autumn sun.
How the world has changed ! Only a few
years since, we found it as difficult to gain an

THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY. 149
entrance into Nice as if we were about to invade
the dominions of the autocrat of all the Russias.
Such an inquisitorial examination of our pass
port, such a search through our baggage after
religious and political works, as if the throne
of His Majesty of Sardinia, and the Roman
Catholic religion, was in danger of being over
turned by the ghost of a Bible or a liberal
publication finding admission into his do
minions. And when, having surmounted all
these obstacles, and entered the town, you
beheld the streets filled with long-coated priests
and soldiers, marching and countermarching
with fixed bayonets, as if an army of Lutherans
were besieging it.
Happily all this is now changed, and truly if
we were to search on the continent of Europe
for some spot where in these troublesome times
a man might hope to repose in security and
peace, it is at Nice, whose inhabitants enjoy all
the blessings of rational liberty, under the rule
of a constitutional monarch.

150 TOUR OF INQUIRY
Nice as a residence combines many advan
tages; the extraordinary mildness of the
climate during winter recommends it to the
invalid, its cheapness and luxuries to those
with whom economy is an object : besides
which, thanks to the enlightened adminis
tration now pursued in the States of the
King of Sardinia, a native of free England can
enjoy his newspaper of whatever shade of po
litical opinion, or order any work he pleases
from his publisher, without fearing that it will
be intercepted by a Jesuitical custom-house
officer ; and should he find the climate of Nice
too warm during the summer months, he has
only to transport himself to any of the pretty
villas or sanitary establishments in the moun
tains, which he will find furnished not only
with comfort but luxury.
Although our visit to Nice was very early
in the season, we found every hotel and lodging-
house crowded with visitors located for the
winter, English, Russians, Germans, and, more

THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY. 151
numerous than all, the French. These timid
people, always creating evils where there are
apparently none, and magnifying them when
they exist, had flown to Nice as a refuge,
because they were apprehensive of a dreadful
outbreak of the socialist and red republican
party ; frightened, no doubt, by the ravings of
Dr. Veron, daily put forth in the columns of
the " Constitutionnel" and other Paris papers
in the pay of the Jesuits and Louis Na
poleon. The English, however, made the greatest
show of wealth and luxury ; and, if we might
judge from their appearance in the reading-
rooms and on the promenade, they were at
tracted to the beautiful Nice more in pursuit
of novelty and amusement than health. They
occupy almost exclusively a large and popular
faubourg, La Croix .de Marbre, with its
pretty gardens extending down to the blue
waters of the Mediterranean. Here everything
is English to the sign-board over the shop

152 TOUR OF INQUIRY
door. Here we find the English Protestant
church, the residence of the clergyman, the
physician, and the chemist, which we may
always take as evidence of the existence of
an English community on the continent; and
Nice must be a favourite, since we found the
shops displaying English wares of every descrip
tion, from the woollens of Yorkshire and the
cottons of Manchester to a biscuit and a reel
of cotton.
The residence of the English on the con
tinent, although perhaps they are not actuated
by any such benevolent intention, has un
doubtedly produced a very beneficial effect upon
the manners and habits of thinking of the
people among whom they may live, as they
invariably preserve to a great extent their own
tastes, habits, feelings, and prejudices ; they
therefore in some degree impress their opinions,
and something of their character, upon the
foreigner. We allude more particularly to
their cleanliness, love of order, and respect for

THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY. 153
religion; and as an Englishman never fails to
express whatever he thinks, his hatred of
tyranny, despotism, and bigotry, is very often
communicated to his hearers, and may give rise
to more important results than might be
expected from such a cause. A taste for
English manufactures is also widely diffused ;
for wherever there is a numerous gathering of
our migratory countrymen, they generally obtain,
at whatever cost, those productions of English
industry which contribute to their comforts at
home, and which consequently become known
to and appreciated by the people among whom
they are located.
In concluding our notice on Nice, it is highly
pleasing to an English traveller to record, that
nearly all the improvements he so much admires
in the town, have been effected through the
agency of a society of philanthropic Englishmen,
occasional visitors, and residents here, many years
since and at a time when a most severe famine
prevailed in the country, and which otherwise

154 TOUR OF INQUIRY
must have caused the death of hundreds of the
poor inhabitants of the town and the sur
rounding district, who for want of work could
not procure bread.
Beautiful autumn having terminated her reign,
winter commenced with an almost incessant
deluge of rain, which speedily converted every
tiny river, stream and rivulet in the surrounding
hills and mountains into foaming cascades,
rushing onward to the Varo, which here forms
the boundary between France and Italy, now
become a mighty torrent of deep muddy water,
staining the clear blue waves of the Mediter
ranean to a distance of several miles. We also
had occasionally snow and sleet, which, falling
on the golden fruit of the sweet South, the
orange and the citron, the castus and the palm
of the burning soil of Asia, presented a beau
tiful contrast, and might suggest to a poet the
idea of winter pillowed on the bosom of summer.
Still the weather was as mild as that of autumn
in England.

THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY. 155
A succession of rainy weather having most
maliciously put an end to my rambles through
the lovely valley and mountains of the romantic
country in the vicinity of Nice, I determined
to continue my tour to Genoa, over the bold
range of the maritime Alps, which guard the
coast in this part of Italy, one of the most
interesting and picturesque in the beautiful
peninsula. I took my place in the corriera, a species of
malle-poste, having a very nicely fitted-up
coupe, and a most commodious interior. Being
always desirous of seeing the country when
travelling, I felt much annoyed at finding the
whole of the coupe engaged by a gentleman
who would not allow his meditations to be
disturbed by the intrusion of a stranger, while
his servant occupied the place I coveted above
all others, the cabriolet; I had therefore no
alternative but to take the interior, where I
fortunately met with agreeable companions, a
French lady on her way to the Eternal City,

156 TOUR OF INQUIRY
to join her husband, a major in the French
army of occupation. She was accompanied by
her daughter, a lovely girl in the first bloom of
youth, and her femme de chambre.
Italy, even when politically tranquil, has ever
numbered among her sons a few adventurous
spirits, who prefer daring exploits on the highway,
to a more sober and industrious mode of living.
But in the present day, the numerous political
refugees, hunted by the authorities from town
to town, from mountain to mountain, too often
without the means of procuring a loaf of bread,
frequently turn brigands to supply their neces
sities. Even in the well ordered kingdom of
Sardinia, the corriera and the tourist's carriage,
are not unfrequently exposed to the attacks of
these desperadoes ; and in order to be prepared
against any such disagreeable contingency, our
guard, a gigantic, fierce-looking Italian, with
a ferocious display of moustachios, carried a
pair of formidable pistols and a blunderbuss.

THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY, 157

CHAPTER VII.
Departure from Nice — Journey across the maritime
Alps — Beautiful scenery — Travelling companions —
Adventure at Oneglia — Italian towns — Arrival at
Genoa — Sketch of its ancient and modern history-
Illustrious men of Genoa — Increasing prosperity of
the town.
We left Nice at the dawn of day, and after
winding up the steep sides of a mountain by
a remarkably well-constructed road, paused on
the summit to change horses, which afforded
us an opportunity of enjoying one of the most
beautiful prospects in this part of Italy. The
blue waters of the Mediterranean were animated
with the flowing canvas of the graceful Italian

158 TOUR OF INQUIRY
felucca ; we had also a distant view of Nice, with
its beautiful bay, and the Varo, which might
be traced winding up through the hills, crowned
with the vast range of the mighty Alps, now
nearly covered from base to summit with a
mantle of snow. Immediately beneath us in
every glen, dell, and tiny valley, reposed little
fairy-looking villages, in the midst of orchards
of orange and lemon-trees, whose branches,
loaded with the golden fruit, appeared in some
places to be almost bathed with the waves of
the sea; while above us we had a chaos of
rocks piled upon rocks till their snowy peaks
mingled with the clouds. Such was the scenery
alternately wild, or luxuriant, with the beautiful
Mediterranean ever in view, that accompanied us
during the whole of our route to Genoa.
Our road was also highly interesting : now
ascending a lofty height, and then penetrating,
tunnel-like, through the centre of a vast moun
tain of rock ; here connected by a bridge thrown
from precipice to precipice, and there winding

THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY. 159
along the edge of some projecting crag hanging
over the Mediterranean, may be considered
one of the greatest works of its kind in any
age. We would, however, not recommend this
route to the timid traveller; for although no
actual danger exists with a careful driver, still
the repeated ascending and descending, the
dizzy heights to be crossed with the sea or some
yawning gulf at a fearful depth beneath, might
create uneasy apprehensions in persons unac
customed to travel through such scenery.
Again, there are rivers to be passed, and as
there are no bridges they must be forded ; these,
it is true, are the merest rivulets in the dry
season, but being in the immediate vicinity of a
range of lofty mountains, a few hours of the
violent rain of these countries, will suffice to
swell them into dangerous torrents, which
frequently sweep away imprudent travellers, with
their carriages and horses, to certain destruction.
In consequence of the late heavy rains, we
experienced some difficulty in crossing these

160 TOUR OF INQUIRY
rivers, and in one or two instances, could not
have accomplished it without the aid of the
peasants, and an additional number of horses to
drag us through the raging torrent, in one
place nearly a mile in breadth.
My fair companions of the interior, whose
object in travelling by land was to avoid the
perils of the sea in a voyage from Marseilles to
Civita Vecchia, became terribly frightened on
witnessing the various dangers that threatened
them : here frightful precipices, there raging
floods to be crossed; then the wild aspect of
the mountains, and the possibility of encounter
ing a band of brigands increased their fears
considerably as the night set in, so that by the
time we arrived at the town of Oneglia, no
persuasions could induce them to proceed any
further with the corriera which travels by day
and night; at the same time hinting very
politely and intelligibly, how thankful they
should be if I could come to the same deter
mination. The entreaties of such eloquent

THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY. 161
pleaders, would have been irresistible, even if
1 had not entertained a secret wish to see,
and admire with broad daylight, the magnificent
scenery of the country through which we were
about to travel.
The noise and bustle occasioned by taking
down our baggage from the corriera, and the
frequent repetition of those ominous words,
" Ladri ! Briganti !" in our altercation with the
guard, at length aroused the attention of the
solitaire of the coupe, who for the first time
since we left Nice threw aside his breviary, and
condescended to take some interest in matters
appertaining to this world, and I was not more
surprised than pleased when I heard him address
his servant in the English language. The land
lord of the hotel now made his appearance,
and being anxiously questioned as to the reality
of the danger, prompted no doubt by the hope
of making a long bill in the morning, confirmed
our apprehensions, with respect to the perilous
state of the rivers and the demoralized condition
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162 TOUR OF INQUIRY
of the country; at the same time, the guard,
nothing loath to part with travellers who had
already paid their fare, admitted, with a knowing
wink to the landlord, that our fears were not
altogether groundless.
This was conclusive, and we now saw added
to our little travelling party at the inn, a tall,
gentlemanly young man, about one or two-and-
twenty years of age, habited in a most outre-
looking garment, something between a Romish
priest's soutane and a frock-coat, buttoned up to
the chin. Although strikingly good-looking
and intelligent, his features wore that melancholy
expression we see in certain fanatics, who think
that this beautiful world, with its manifold
enjoyments, were given by a bountiful Providence
to His creatures for no other purpose than to
fret away existence, in prayer, gloom, and sad
ness. A plentiful and well-served supper afforded
us an opportunity of becoming more intimately
acquainted, led to an agreeable tete-a-tete of

THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY. 163
sufficient interest to test the mental capabilities
of our fellow-traveller, who, although a stranger
to the great world, proved himself to be a perfect
gentleman in manners and conversation. He
was, it is true, somewhat timid and reserved at
first, but this gradually wore off ; and if angels,
according to the poets, have succumbed to the
fascination of lovely woman, the religious fana
ticism of our enthusiast could not withstand the
battery of two bright eyes, which seemed to
play upon his handsome countenance with most
murderous effect. As it was, we retired for the
night with mutual congratulations, and a desire
to continue the acquaintance, by engaging a
vetturina, and travelling together during the
remainder of our tour to Rome.
As no incident, however trifling, but has a
moral, our little adventure at Oneglia, although
it may appear insignificant in the journal of a
traveller, proved an important event in the life
of our solitaire of the coupe. We shall, there-
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164 TOUR OF INQUIRY
fore, without any further preface, relate the
denouement of our little episode.
It is hardly necessary to observe, that in the
present day, when men's minds are more than
usually occupied with religious subjects, and
divided into factions about controversial points
never to be decided, that we should meet with
one of these polemical amateurs a prey to the
misery of halting between two opinions, oscillat
ing in his belief as to whether the truth lay
on the side of Protestantism or Romanism ;
but now that a necessity had arisen for throwing
off the restraint to which he had so long sub
mitted, it was evident, from the manners,
conversation, and gallantry of our young country
man, on reassuming his natural character, he
was not born to be a monk. At the same time,
it cannot be denied that the influence of French
vivacity in the form of a fair demoiselle, and
the eloquent dissertations of mamma upon the
miseries of a life of celibacy, long fasts, and
penance, had a marvellous effect in making him

THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY. 165
forget his breviary, nor was it by any means
wonderful that the outre soutane was quickly
exchanged for a more becoming dress. The
case, however, might have been different had he
continued his journey to Rome undisturbed in
the religious enthusiasm that then exclusively
occupied his mind, where in all probability he
would have entered the ministry of the Roman
Catholic Church, and become either a monk
or a missionary.
The affair did not end here, as I subsequently
found when I met him at Rome mingling with
the gayest of the gay, and laughing heartily
at his former folly ; and when I visited my amiable
travelling companions, mamma gently hinted that
the frequent visits of our recluse of the coupe,
would probably terminate in a manner equally
agreeable to all parties.
But to resume our tour. Having now a
carriage entirely at our disposal, and the
weather still continuing wet and stormy, with
an occasional torrent to ford, it occupied us four

166 TOUR OF INQUIRY
days in travelling between Oneglia and Genoa,
passing through Albenga, Finale, Noli, Savona,
Voltri. We could not but admire the stately
majesty and beauty of many of the palaces,
churches, and public buildings of these fine
old towns of republican Italy, evidencing even
in their decay the industry and enterprize of
the Italians before they fell under the leaden
rule of despotism.
Albenga, the first town we came to, with
its towers, ramparts, churches and public
buildings, forms a beautiful picture in the land
scape. The Battistero — a little temple of the
ancient Romans, remarkable for the simple
beauty of the architecture — is said to have
been built by the Emperor Patroclus, who it
appears was a native of Albenga ; and the
ancient bridge over the Longa, to have been
erected by Adrian. Although Albenga was
subject to the control of its more powerful
neighbour Genoa, it remained a flourishing
republic till the advent of the French in 1805,

THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY. 167
those hereditary enemies of the freedom and
independence of Italy. Up to this time it
elected its own consuls and magistrates ;
and the inhabitants must have had strict ideas
of morality, when the duty of one of its public
officers was solely to watch over and maintain
the most perfect purity of manners. Albenga,
with its deserted streets and decaying houses,
stands forth as an example of what a people
may become when deprived of those liberal
institutions that give life and energy to enter
prize, industry, and commerce.
The cathedral, built of white marble, at
Finale, the next town we passed through, is
well worthy of a visit ; and no traveller, however
indifferent to the beauties of nature, but must
admire the surrounding country, lying like a
Httle Eden on the shore of the Mediterranean,
a perfect picture of fertility and abundance,
where he sees the olive and the orange, and
the choicest fruit trees of the most genial clime,
mingling their varied foliage in the midst of

168 TOUR OF INQUIRY
fields cultivated with the greatest care. But
Finale wants a secure harbour to render it
serviceable as a port ; with this advantage, it
would become one of the most charming
residences in this part of Italy.
On leaving Finale we visited a curious
grotto, surrounded by the most picturesque and
romantic rocks. From here to Noli, another
of those little republics of Liguria that fell
with Genoa, the road is carried along the edge
of rocky precipices and yawning gulfs, presenting
a series of difficult passes, in which the engineer,
by the most herculean labour, has triumphed
over the obstacles interposed by nature.
We passed the greatest part of a day at
Savona, still a town of some consideration, and
one of the most ancient in this part of Italy.
It was known to the Romans under the name
of Sabatuum, and had the honour of giving
birth to the Emperor Pertinax, who conferred
upon it many important privileges. In after
days Sabatuum, like the other large and wealthy

THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY. 169
cities of Italy, suffered from the repeated
ravages of the Goths, the Vandals, the Gauls,
and other barbarous nations. It rose again to
great eminence during the wars of the Guelphs
and Ghibelines, when it became the occasional
residence of some of the most powerful Popes
of Rome, who were natives of this town. It
does not appear, however, to have been at any
period a great trading place ; and in the present
day, its harbour wants depth of water to render
it available as a commercial station.
Although description may be said to have
exhausted its powers on whatever relates to
the beautiful peninsula, and the general tourist
finding that nearly every observation he would
have made has been anticipated by his pre
decessors, feels inclined to let his note-book
remain a blank ; still there is so much to
admire, so many interesting objects conti
nually attracting his attention, linked with
historical recollections, that he is now and
then tempted to communicate his impressions

170 TOUR OF INQUIRY
of a country which nature and art have com
bined to render a terrestrial paradise.
On quitting Savona we had fairly entered
the territory of a republic that had long
disputed with all its rivals, even the powerful
Venice, the trade of the world — the empire of
the sea ; and which exercised so great an
influence on the destinies of mankind, by
Spreading intellectual advancement and increased
civilization among the nations. Stimulated by
these interesting recollections, our admiration
was excited by everything we saw, as we
drew near to that once great emporium of
commerce. If the unceasing industry and
enterprize of the inhabitants of Venice suc
ceeded in converting the reedy islands of the
Adriatic into a city of palaces, their worthy
rivals of Genoa may be said to have made
an equally difficult conquest over nature, by
transforming a chain of rocky mountains and
unwholesome swamps into smiling fields,
meadows, and orchards, where the orange and

THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY. 171
the citron, the fig and the olive, with the palm
and the cactus, and every species of flowering
shrub and exotic, may still be seen rising up
in all their rich luxuriance around marble
palaces, which for beauty of design, taste, and
splendour have been rarely or ever surpassed.
There they remain, a lasting monument of the
energy and public spirit of the Italian race, at
that brilliant period in the history of republican
Italy, when political freedom imparted a manli
ness of feeling to the actions of every-day life,
and when every citizen, of whatever rank, was
vitally interested in the advancement of his coun
try's greatness, its prosperity, fame, and power.
The nearer we advance towards the capital
of this once prosperous commonwealth, the
more our sympathy and admiration is excited.
We first pass through San Pier d' Arena, the
most splendid faubourg, even now, of any town
perhaps in the world, and then enter what may
be termed without any exaggeration a city of
palaces, rising one above the other like a vast

172 TOUR OF INQUIRY
amphitheatre, from its capacious bay to the
summit of the surrounding hills. London, now
the emporium of the world's trade, with its
rich citizens, wealthy aristocracy, and merchant
princes, can show nothing in the present day
equal to the magnificence of one of those pri
vate dwellings of an old Genoese trader.
How multiplied and interesting are the recol
lections called up in the mind of the traveller
when contemplating the magnificence of this
enchanting city, and what lover of the popular
cause but must feel proud when he remembers
that all this was the creation of a free people —
the reward of industry and commerce.
The history of Genoa, and nearly all the
towns of republican Italy, may be traced in the
style of their private and public buildings, and
in the laying out of their piazzas and streets.
This is more particularly noticeable here, where
we find the streets with few exceptions only
sufficiently wide to be passable for a pack-horse,
and so arranged in their various turnings as to

THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY. 173
be able to prevent the advance or retreat of an
enemy. Then the massive strength of the houses,
with their narrow entrances and terraced roofs,
have all been erected with a view to serve as a
position of defence or attack. The private
palaces of the nobility, and public buildings,
whether in the town or in the environs, are all
constructed in a similar style ; and we shall find
on examination that the attention of the archi
tect has been as much directed to this object —
the military strength and arrangement of the
edifice — as to convenience and beauty of pro
portion. In fact Genoa, from its very foundation, has
been not only subject to the attack of foreign
enemies, and frequently taken and partly
destroyed, but the theatre of the most san
guinary intestine wars — a continued struggle
going on between the aristocratic and the
democratic party for supreme power. Success
sometimes inclining to one side and sometimes
to the other, but generally so nearly balanced

174 TOUR OF INQUIRY
that neither was able to crush the other. If
the noble families of the Dorias, the Spinolas,
the Grimaldis, and the Fieschis were rendered
powerful by their great wealth, alliances, exten
sive possessions, and numerous serfs, their
opponents the Guardos, the Adornos, the
Montaltos, and the Fregosos, those great
plebeian merchant princes, being supported by
the people, held their adversaries in check, and
frequently rose to supreme power in the state,
and distinguished themselves equally in the
senate, and as warriors by sea and land ; and to
the credit of each party, they never forgot,
however great might be their dissensions, their
duty to their country in the hour of peril,
even to the sacrifice of their own private
fortune. If the plebeian family of the Adornos rose to
the highest rank in the thirteenth and fourteenth
centuries, and held the highest offices in the
republic, and by their abilities as legislators,
and courage as naval and military commanders,

THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY. 175
immortalized that stirring period in the history
of Genoa, the Dorias were equally great, pa
triotic and illustrious in the fifteenth and six
teenth centuries. Again, if Andrea Doria
delivered his country from the slavery of a
French despot, and, like our own Anglo-Saxon
of a new world, descended to the rank of a
private citizen at a time when the gratitude of
his countrymen would have rewarded his
bravery with the tempting bauble of a crown,
another Doria was found in the seventeenth
century to place himself at the head of the
people when they rose up against the Austrians
who had obtained possession of Genoa, and
with scarcely any other weapons than their
knives and stones slaughtered four thousand of
them, and compelled the remainder to save
their lives by a timely capitulation.
Genoa, like the other republican states of
old Italy, dates its origin from the fall of the
Roman empire, when having placed itself at
the head of a confederation of the free cities

176 TOUR OF INQUIRY
and towns of Liguria, it continued to maintain
its independence with more or less eclat as an
important naval and commercial power down
to the invasion of Italy by Napoleon, when
pursuing the same ill-judged policy as Venice,
neutrality, it fell an easy prey to the crafty
Corsican ; and on his fall, in defiance of all
existing treaties, was handed over like a bale
of goods to the King of Sardinia.
It cannot be denied that the rights of Genoa,
as an independent power, were treated with
utter indifference by our own minister, Lord
Castlereagh, who appears not to have enter
tained any great love for republics. Now,
however, that commercial enterprize, a consti
tutional government, an unfettered press, and
popular freedom, have replaced the oppressive
fiscal regulations, censorship of the press, and
all the other arbitrary laws formerly in force in
Sardinia, surely the reiterated complaints of the
citizens of Genoa at seeing their free republic
annexed to the dominions of a despotic priest-

THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY. 177
ridden King will cease. Nay, we think they
ought to be succeeded by congratulations, since
it is evident, from the increased shipping, the
commercial activity everywhere observable in
the town, the renovating and repairing of so
many old palaces, the number of fine hotels
splendid coffee-houses, pleasure-gardens, and
places of public amusement, which have so
recently and so suddenly sprung into existence,
that a new era of prosperity has dawned upon
Genoa. There are few towns in Italy that have pro
duced more illustrious men than Genoa.
Among these we must place in the highest rank
Andrea Doria and the immortal discoverer of a
new world, Christopher Columbus. Even in
the present day, during the late unhappy insur
rection, when the cry of Italian unity and inde
pendence flew from city to city, from state to
state, there was no town in Italy that sent forth
such a numerous host of zealous patriots, ardent
warriors as Genoa, none that so lavishly sacri-
VOL. I, N

178 TOUR OF INQUIRY
ficed life and fortune on the altar of a country's
freedom. Among these, Guiseppe Mazzini has
earned a high position, and although we may
differ from him in thinking the republican form
of government is that best adapted to the
wants and wishes of the Italian people, a predi
lection so natural to a Genoese, yet his very
enemies admit that few men displayed a greater
share of courage and perseverance during the
recent difficult and dangerous crisis. We must
also accord him the praise of disinterestedness,
since he devoted his whole life and patrimonial
inheritance to further the cause of civil and
religious freedom ; and when driven by French
bayonets from his lofty station, as one of the
triumvirs of the Roman Republic, he returned to
the land of the stranger almost penniless.

THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY. 179

CHAPTER VIII.
The Mediterranean steamers — Arrival at Leghorn —
Some account of that town — Austrian police —
Insolence of Austrian officers — Civita Vecchia —
Annoyances of the passport system — Coasting voyage
— Passengers in the Neapolitan steamer — Swiss
officers and their recruits — Account of the Neapo
litan and Sicilian insurrections — Dangerous tempest
— Arrival at Naples.
The rain again commenced to pour heavily,
and having received accounts that the roads
between Genoa and the Tuscan States were
flooded and the rivers swollen, we reluc
tantly resolved to take our passage for
Civita Vecchia in the French steamer. The
N 2

180 TOUR OF INQUIRY
fare was exceedingly high, and the accom
modation by no means commensurate with
the price we paid. A meal was never prepared
but when the vessel was moving onward, and
then the steward and his employers per
fectly well knew that the majority of the
passengers were too ill to partake of it.
In addition to these paltry impositions, if
the steamer remained at anchor in any of
the ports we were charged exorbitantly for
every description of refreshment, and this
we found to be the general practice on board
of all the French and Italian steamers in
the Mediterranean.
On arriving at Leghorn, where we were
detained upwards of four-and-twenty hours,
partly from the violence of the wind, and partly
from loading and unloading merchandise, our
little party resolved to go ashore and see the
town. But, alas ! we found we had rushed
into the hands of the Philistines; after satisfying
the extortionate demands of the boatmen, ere

THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY. 181
we had time to congratulate ourselves that we
had safely landed, we were taken captive by an
Austrian guard of soldiers, and driven like a
band of galley-slaves at the point of the bayonet
into a species of shed. Here we remained till
the police had examined our passports, when,
having come to the conclusion that we enter
tained no design of overturning the govern
ment of his Highness the Duke of Tuscany,
they gave us permission to remain for the night
in the good town of Leghorn, and for this
civility we were forced to pay ten pauls each
person ; a tax instituted, we were told, by
the government, for the purpose of assisting
to defray the expenses of the Austrian army
of occupation !
These vexatious regulations— this arbitrary
demand upon the purse of the traveller^-this
degrading system of espionage — this shameless
violation of the common rights of man, to hold
social intercourse with each other, are only a few
of the evils that now oppress the inhabitants of

182 TOUR OF INQUIRY
this ill-fated land, subject to the rule of princes,
who, feeble and powerless, and absurd even in
their tyranny, as we see here, are obliged to
hire bands of foreign mercenaries to enable
them to carry on the war they are continually
waging against everything in the shape of
civil and religious freedom ; and who, in pro
portion as they become unpopular with their
subjects, appear to adopt new measures, more
vexatious and hostile.
All this appears so strange and new to the
English tourist who first lands in Italy, that
he can hardly bring himself to believe such
uncontrolled despotism could exist in any
civilized country of Europe, in the nineteenth
century, much less in the classic land of
Italy : a country he had been taught to revere
from his earliest infancy, as the birthplace of all
that is great and glorious in literature, the arts,
and sciences, and to whose highly-gifted sons
the whole civilized world has been so deeply
indebted.

THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY. 183
We had just sufficient time to see Leghorn,
which offers nothing attractive to the traveller
who may be in search of novelty or the fine
arts. Like Trieste, which owes its rise to the
decline of Venice, Leghorn is indebted for its
prosperity to the fall of Pisa, it having been
formerly nothing more than a miserable fishing
village, only remarkable for insalubrity and the
poverty of its inhabitants. At present being a
free port, and the only maritime entrance into
the states of the Duke of Tuscany, it exhibits
all the features of a flourishing mercantile town.
The traders and merchants are principally
foreigners, among whom may be found a consi
derable number of our own enterprising country
men, and not a few of that migratory race, the
sons of Israel, whose peculiar features never fail
to distinguish them wherever they may be con
gregated. The great points of attraction to the traveller
at Leghorn, are the shrine of the Madonna di
Montenero, the synagogue of the Hebrews, one

184 TOUR OF INQUIRY
of the most magnificent in Europe, and the
English cemetery, interesting, as being the
burial-place of poor Smollett, who, by a singular
coincidence, wandered from home to lay his
bones among the hardy sailors of old England,
whose chequered fortunes he so graphically and
vividly depicted.
If we might judge from the formidable
army of Austrian soldiers quartered on the
good citizens of Leghorn, their loyalty to his
Highness the Duke may be considered doubtful.
Or, perhaps, as the exchequer at Vienna is said
not to be in a very flourishing condition, it was
deemed expedient to inflict the expense of
maintaining a few thousand troops on these
wealthy traders, lest the plethoric state of their
purses should render them insolent and re
bellious. Be this as it may, if report speaks true,
these guests, instead of showing their gratitude
towards their hospitable hosts, treat them pretty
much in the same manner as a Boyard in Russia

THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY. 185
would one of his own serfs; and to make
matters worse, it is said they are only following
the example of their superiors, sanctioned by
the highest authority. Now, as one fact is worth
a volume of declamation, and what occurred
one evening may be regarded as a specimen of
the general conduct of the Austrian soldiery in
Italy, we shall relate an incident that happened
to two of our fellow-passengers, a Prussian
officer and a French gentleman, who, like
ourselves, had paid their pauls for permission to
pass a night at Leghorn, and for the sake of
amusement engaged a billiard-table at one of
the coffee-houses. They had not been long at
play, when a party of Austrian officers entered
the room, and, presuming they were Italians,
haughtily commanded .them to < resign the^
billiard-table. Our friends disregarded the
insolent demand, when the intruders seized the
balls, and violently striking their swords, with a
coarse German oath, ordered them instantly to
quit the room. This was too much for the

186 TOUR OF INQUIRY
patience of the Prussian officer, who read them
an indignant lecture in his own manly language
on their duties as soldiers and gentlemen, when
they retired from the room thoroughly humili
ated. Still, with all the pride of fatherland, he
did not forget to inform his hearers, as a
palliation for their conduct, that they were not
Germans, but Croats ; they were, however,
Austrian officers, who, it appears, are not
necessarily gentlemen.
It must be confessed, although I prefer
travelling by land, with beautiful nature in all
its varied forms, and a rapid succession of
amusing scenes of men and manners to cheer
me on my way, yet, after witnessing such an
exhibition of arbitrary regulations and degrading
espionage at Leghorn, I was not sorry to find
myself again on board the steamer ; here at
least there are no gendarmes, no police agents,
no demands for passports, to tax a man's purse
and patience.
On coasting along the famous isle of Elba,

THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY. 187
our attention was attracted to the observation
of one of our fellow-passengers, a French
gentleman, who, having served in Algeria, and
become somewhat inoculated with the fatalisms
of Mahometanism, expressed an idea so original,
which he declared the suggestion of the moment,
that we cannon refrain giving it.
" Isles and islanders," said he, " were inter
woven with the destiny of Napoleon ! He was
born in the island of Corsica ! He was sove
reign of Elba ! St. Helena was his prison and
his grave ! and he owed all his misfortunes to
those islanders, the English !"
On losing Elba in the distance, we came in
sight of Civita Vecchia, from whose time-worn
bastions floated the cross keys of pontifical
Rome, in company with the banner of republi
can France, despotism and democracy in friendly
alliance; a conjunction so unnatural, and we
believe never witnessed before, must certainly
bode evil to either one or the other. A vast
range of edifices erected in front of the port,

188 TOUR OF INQUIRY
imparts an appearance of commercial activity
to the little town, and might be taken by a
stranger for warehouses and magazines, but,
alas ! on inquiry we found they had no better
destination than prisons for political offenders
and galley-slaves.
One work, however, has arrested and will
continue to arrest the attention of every
enlightened traveller, on his arrival at this old
town — the double mole, through which we were
now passing, constructed by Trajan, one of the
best of the Roman emperors : a work so well
designed and scientifically executed, as to have
endured the wear and tear of seventeen centu
ries, and still serves and may continue to serve
all the purposes for which it was intended, till
the end of time. The ancient Romans showed,-
great ability in planning and executing this sort
of jetty, a system which has been imitated and
improved by every succeeding maritime nation
down to the present day.
On landing at Civita Vecchia, we found the

THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY. 189
police myrmidons of the Pope far more courteous
than those of his Highness the Duke of Tuscany,
while his allies, the French, exhibited a commend
able independence of spirit in disdaining to levy
a tax on the purse of the travellers to assist
them in supporting their troops, like poor
Austria. Still I was doomed to vexation
and disappointment. This time my unlucky
passport was the cause, for although that indis
pensable document to a traveller in despotic
countries may be signed and countersigned by
the proper authorities, still he is not at liberty
to ramble from the dominions of . one petty
prince to another, except by the route specified ;
and my passport having been signed, through
the carelessness of the commissioner at Genoa,
to go to Naples by sea, there was no other
alternative. It was of no avail that I endeavoured
to tamper with the fidelity of the chief of the
passport-office by the tempting sight of a dollar,
usually so influential in smoothing similar
difficulties. I was not only deprived of the

190 TOUR OF INQUIRY
pleasure of continuing my tour to the Eternal
City in company with my agreeable fellow-
travellers, but obliged to submit resignedly to
a few days' residence in this dull town, till the
arrival of the next steamer bound for Naples.
On leaving Civita Vecchia we continued to
run along a coast the most interesting in Italy,
connected as it is with the most stirring events
in the history of a people, who from a mere
handful of refugees, gradually increased in
prosperity and power, till subduing nation after
nation, they gave laws to the world. When
contemplating these little creeks, bays, and
outlets of rivers, we might almost fancy that
we saw the heroic warriors of Troy, with
iEneas their chief, landing from their galleys
among a rude and barbarous people. We might
imagine the simple inhabitants almost wor
shipping the god-like strangers who had come
among them so far elevated in intellect above
themselves, submitting to their instruction with
the docility of children till they had acquired

THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY. 191
all the arts and knowledge of civilized life.
Thus paving, as it were, the way for another
warlike band — their brethren in race, the fol
lowers of Romulus and Remus, driven from
their homes by a similar adverse fate, and who,
having united together, fulfilled their mission
in the great work of civilization, and then
passed away, to be succeeded by a more youthful
and vigorous race ; actuated by the same desire
of conquest, as if this were ordained by a wise
Providence to be the most effectual method of
carrying on the great scheme of civilizing man
kind. With few exceptions, the whole of the cabin
passengers in the ' Ercolano' were natives of
Great Britain, and included among them several
persons of high rank, but more reserved and
uncommunicative in their manners than that
class usually are ; probably one reason for the
general constraint might be that we were on
board a Neapolitan steamer, and fast approaching
a land of spies. Happily I descried among

192 TOUR OF INQUIRY
them a group of Swiss officers with whom I
had previously travelled in France, in the
steam-boats on the Saone and the Rhone. It
is always a pleasure to meet with a former
fellow-traveller, particularly when he is lively,
intelligent, and communicative; and it must
not be assumed that my gallant friends, although
they had taken service under the petty tyrant
of Naples, were men of illiberal opinions. On
the contrary, they heartily detested despotism
in any shape, but having entered into an engage
ment, and pledged their honour and fealty to
the King of Naples for a certain number of
years, as honest men, brave soldiers, and strangers
to the country, its politics, and its interests,
they could not acknowledge any other rule of
conduct than to serve and obey.
They were now returning to Naples, having
made a most successful foray after recruits
among the mountaineers of Switzerland and
South Germany; their first detachment being
now on board, consisting of about a hundred

THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY. 193
as fine, robust young fellows as you would find
in any country, drinking schnaps, and singing
their national songs, as regardless of wind and
weather as if they were hunting the chamois
on their native mountains.
My friends, who had been actively engaged
in quelling the late insurrection in Naples and
afterwards in Sicily, relieved the tedium of our
voyage by relating many interesting particulars
of that unhappy* contest. It appears that the
losses on both sides were fearfully severe, and
the atrocities melancholy to relate. The Swiss
knowing that defeat would expose them to utter
annihilation, fought like demons; while the
Neapolitan insurgents, excited to madness against
their former butchers, now that they had arms
in their hands, continued the murderous contest
till grape-shot and cannon-balls strewed the
streets of Naples with the dead and dying, and
only retired from the contest when all hope of
victory was at an end.
With the truth and honesty of the Swiss, our
vol. i. o

194 TOUR OF INQUIRY
friends acknowledged that a battle which lasted
from eleven in the morning till the close of
evening, maintained by a people unaccustomed
to the use of arms, and against such an over
whelming force of troops of the line, and
legions of lazzaroni half-mad with drink, had
completely redeemed the national character from
the stigma : " Les Italiens ne se battent pas ;"
and might have been attended with a different
result, had it not been for the bravery and
constancy of the Swiss, who continued to main
tain their ground when the royal troops had
taken to flight, and even then, nothing could
have saved them from complete extermination,
had not the Neapolitan officers succeeded in
leading their men again to the charge. As it
was, the 15th of August, 1848, will be long
remembered as a day of sorrow and mourning by
the citizens of Naples, and by the Swiss troops
as the anniversary of a victory dearly purchased.
I was surprised to learn that nearly all the
Swiss soldiers in the service of the King of

THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY. 195
Naples, and who, it is intended, shall amount
to eight thousand, have been purposely selected
from among the peasants of the Protestant
Swiss cantons and South Germany, the mis
trustful monarch not even daring to confide
his safety to troops professing his own creed.
He probably fears that they might be corrupted
in the confessional by the priests, who, it
appears, had taken an active part in the late
insurrection. As may be supposed, the Swiss, who have
so often by their fidelity proved the salvation
of the despotic kings of Naples, are far better
fed, paid, and clothed than the Neapolitan
soldiery. They have their own chaplains,
churches for celebrating divine service, and
every precaution taken to prevent, as far as
possible, any communication with the Italians.
Since enlisting in foreign service has been
forbidden by law in Switzerland, it has become
difficult to procure recruits. This is, however,
done by Swiss agents, who smuggle them
o 2

196 TOUR OF INQUIRY
across the Swiss frontier into the Austrian
dominions, where they are met by other
agents, whose duty it is to conduct them
through Austrian Italy and those other
Italian states under the influence of Austria,
to Leghorn, where they embark in the Nea
politan steamers for Naples, thus avoiding by
a circuitous and expensive route the constitu
tional states of the King of Sardinia, where
they would run some risk, even if they were
protected by the government, of being mas
sacred by the people. Hence by the time
they arrive at Naples each of these recruits,
my friends assured me, costs in bounty money,
travelling expenses, and other charges, fifty
Neapolitan ducats, an enormous sum for a state
with such slender means of revenue as that of
the Two Sicilies. But what is this to a King
whose throne depends upon the fidelity of his
foreign troops, and without whose aid he would
no doubt ere this have been driven to seek
the shelter of England's hospitality ?

THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY. 197
After leaving Civita Vecchia, the wind,
which had been somewhat fresh, accompanied
with sleet and snow, increased towards evening
to a complete hurricane, which continued with
out intermission till we cast anchor in the Bay
of Naples ; and truly in all my cruises, and
they have been many, I rarely experienced a
storm more violent, or one that exposed us to
greater danger. This will be easily under
stood when it is remembered that the abrupt
rocky coast and little islands of this part of
the Mediterranean offer no refuge for a vessel
in distress that can be depended upon, between
the capacious harbour of Genoa, and the Bay
of Naples. Civita Vecchia, with its narrow
entrance and sunken rocks, is dangerous even
in fine weather, and no vessel in a high gale of
wind could attempt to enter Leghorn without
some peril.
Happily our steam-boat was built in England
of tough English oak, the machinery was in
perfect order and of the best description, and

198 TOUR OF INQUIRY
had for its engineer an intelligent Englishman.
At the same time we cannot be too prodigal
in our praise of the captain, a true seaman of
the Genoese school, ever at his post, and with
telescope in hand, on the look-out for danger.
It was indeed a fearful night, the
darkness impenetrable, except the little light
we derived from the glimmer of a lamp, and
the phosphoric flashes emitted from the boiling
surge that rose mountains high, dashing against
the sides of our vessel with such terrific violence
that it appeared as if her well-knit planks must
eventually give way. Now on one side, then
on the other, here ascending a mountain of
foam, and again plunging into a raging abyss,
the mighty force of the waves rendering the
action of the paddle-wheels almost ineffectual ;
and, as if to increase the terror of our situation,
the lightning occasionally burst forth in a broad
sheet of flame, revealing the rocky coast, tiny
islands, in short, all the varied perils that sur
rounded us, while so fearfully loud was the

THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY. 199
crash of the thunder as to overpower for the
moment the roar of the sea.
It was pitiable to see the miseries of the
passengers, many of them in a delicate state of
health, on their way, perhaps, to make a last
trial of the genial air of the south. Unac
customed to the sea, they fancied at every
lurch that the vessel had struck a rock and
was going to pieces. The fond father or hus
band might be seen holding in one arm his
almost lifeless charge, and in the other grasping
some support to save him from being hurled
like a foot-ball from one side of the cabin to
the other. As it was, not a few, notwithstand
ing all their care, carried with them ashore
marks of most cruel usage.
At length day dawned, and with it came
some mitigation of our sufferings, but un
happily the first object that met our view
was an English vessel from Newfoundland
dashed to pieces on the rocks. We were more
fortunate, for we shot safely through the cluster

200 TOUR OF INQUIRY
of little islands that command the entrance to
the Bay of Naples, and our danger was over.
Still I feel assured that my fellow-travellers, even
the boldest among them, will long remember
the 20th and 21st of November, 1851.

THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY. 201

CHAPTER IX.
Naples — Its origin — Its oppressive government — Sketch
of Naples under the rule of the Spaniards and the
French — Observations on the Government — The late
insurrection — General discontent of the people —
National character — Neapolitan beggars — Popular
superstitions — Manners and customs of the people —
State of religion at Naples — Total neglect of public
instruction — Laxity of morals — Pantomimic commu
nication. If novelty be admitted to constitute the
principal source of pleasure to a tourist, there is
no city in Europe where he will enjoy it more
completely than in Naples and its beautiful
environs. There is the magnificent bay with

202 TOUR OF INQUIRY
its islands and mountains, its vine-clad hills, and
groves of orange-trees, endless ruins of towns
and cities, romantic excursions by sea and land,
and to crown all, Vesuvius. If he should
become weary of these, notwithstanding they
are hallowed by the pen of Virgil, he may derive
instruction and amusement from studying the
character, customs, and manners of a people who
exhibit many characteristics totally different
from the inhabitants of the other parts of
Italy. A city so ancient as Naples, whose origin is
lost in the fables of antiquity, is equally
interesting to the antiquarian and the tourist.
Some writers attribute its foundation to the
Argonauts, under their chieftain Falerius, 1300
B.C. Others, to Parthenope, Hercules, and
Ulysses. There cannot be a doubt but that the
founders were Greeks, since we can even now
trace in the religion and character of the people
the same superstitions, quickness of intellect,
and love of freedom that distinguished, and

THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY. 203
still distinguishes, the Hellenic race in every
part of the world. Even demoralized as they
are in the present day, we see the same intense
longing after distinction, the same restlessness
and strivings, by fits and starts, to follow the
great European movement, but always falling
half-way, or sinking beneath the influence of
religious intolerance, and political persecution —
a despotism of church and state, against which,
all the efforts of the enlightened patriot have as
yet been unable to prevail.
To become more intimately acquainted with
the causes which led to the demoralization and
and loss of public spirit in the Neapolitan
people, formerly the most industrious, free, and
enterprising in Southern Italy, we must take a
slight review of their history down to the
present time.
Without following the vicissitudes of Naples,
before the rise, and during the might and power
of ancient Rome, it is sufficient to say that,
faithful to the traditions of its illustrious

204 TOUR OF INQUIRY
founders, this city, with the surrounding terri
tory, became a republic on the fall of the Roman
empire, and maintained itself with great eclat
against the repeated invasions of the barbarians,
the Goths, the Lombards, and the Saracens, till
the advent of the Normans in the tenth
century. This warlike race having conquered
the whole of Sicily, turned their arms against
the republic of Naples ; the inhabitants, however,
nothing daunted, continued to assert their in
dependence with their usual valour, and might
have worn out the well-known courage and per
severance of the Norman, had it not been for
the treachery of Pope Innocent II.
In those days the Pontiffs of Rome were
indeed independent princes, and knew how to
wield not only the crozier but the sword, when
Italy was in danger, and our warlike Pope, like
a true patriot, hastened at the head of a large
army, to the assistance of the besieged city;
but having had the misfortune during the melee
to fall into the hands of the Normans, the wily

THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY. 205
priest purchased his freedom by investing their
Prince Roger, according to the divine right of
a Pope, with the sovereignty of Naples. In
vain the republicans of Naples proclaimed to
the world the perfidy of the Pontiff, in vain
they sought to enlist a more faithful ally,
to assist them in defending their rights ; it
was of no avail, the dreadful ban of the Church —
excommunication — hung over them, unless they
opened their gates and became the slaves of
the Norman; and now suffering from famine,
and without an army, for who would fight in those
days against a decree of the Vicegerent of Heaven?
they had no other resource than to submit ;
and thus perished, in 1 138, the last and the most
heroic of all the Grecian republics in Southern
Italy. From this time till the death of the last
Norman Prince, Tancred, which took place
about half a century afterwards, Naples and its
territories remained in the possession of the
Norman, when an era of devastating wars

206 TOUR OF INQUIRY
and invasions commenced, perhaps unequalled
in the history of any other state in Europe,
originating in the arbitrary pretensions of the
Pope to dispose of Naples as the patrimony of
St. Peter. The arrogant Pontiff, in open
violation of every principle of faith and justice,
and to the utter desolation of that ill-fated land,
at once set aside the right of succession in
the princes of the House of Swabia, and trans
ferred the sovereignty to Charles of Anjou, thus
calling into the field two great powers, France
and Germany, to decide by force of arms,
not the equity of the cause — lineal succession,
not the divine rights of the Pope — but the
strength of the combatants. It is scarcely
necessary to add, in that age of superstition,
the Church again triumphed: Conradin, the
rightful heir, fell a victim to his temerity;
Naples was again taken and plundered, and
Charles of Anjou became the sovereign, while
his brother Louis, King of France, as a reward
for his support, received the heavenly dignity

THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY. 207
of canonization ! Hence the origin of the
honour of Saint conferred on Louis of France !
The Christians in Turkey have a proverb,
"Wherever the Sultan's horse hath trod, the
earth bears no grass." The Italians, particularly
the Neapolitans, with equal justice may say the
same of the ground over which the stole of a
Pope hath swept, for like the shade of the upas
tree, everything sickens and dies beneath its
influence. On the extinction of the male fine of the
House of Anjou, which soon followed that of
the Norman, Naples was again without a sove
reign, and again became the theatre of war
and bloodshed in the war of succession which
now ensued between the princes of France and
Spain. This terminated in the establishment
of Spanish rule, not only in Naples, but in
Sicily, and in Lombardy ; an event which sealed
the fate of the whole of Italy, and left her as
she now is, at the mercy of foreign rulers,
foreign bayonets, and priestly despotism — a

208 TOUR OF INQUIRY
thing to be preyed upon, divided, and transferred
from one absolute prince to another, although
he may be an utter stranger to the country,
its laws, its language, and its institutions.
But to return to Naples. If we reflect upon
the centuries of misrule, the accumulated cala
mities that befel this beautiful country, the
blood-stained annals and rapacious violence of
Spanish viceroys, the bands of Spanish Jesuits,
or rather maniacs waving the torch of fana
ticism over the unhappy land, we must be
convinced that of all the tyrannic governments,
the wrath of Heaven ever inflicted upon a
people, that of Spain was the most intolerable.
Can we then wonder at the state of moral
degradation into which these people had fallen,
when of all the inhabitants of Naples, the
descendants of those gallant citizens who in a
former age had distinguished themselves so
highly for their valour and love of independence,
one poor ignorant fisherman, Masaniello, alone
had the courage to attempt the deliverance of

THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY. 209
his country from a foreign tyrant, and must
have succeeded, if a single man among his
followers had sufficient mind and intelligence
to guide the popular outbreak, so as to es
tablish some species of administration before
he was betrayed and sacrificed by Spanish
gold. By a singular combination of events, a
comparative brilliant destiny to that of being
a colony of tyrannical Spain now dawned
after so many centuries of misrule upon this
miserable country. The war of succession, to
which we before alluded, if it assisted to ruin
bigoted Spain, served to elevate Naples, which,
in conformity to a decree of the great powers,
was erected into a separate kingdom, and given
to a prince of the junior branch of the
Bourbons of Spain ; and although the Neapoli
tans were still the slaves of despotic rule, they
were more equitably governed, and the zeal
their new monarchs manifested in reforming
the abuses of former governments, gradually
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210 TOUR OF INQUIRY
won the affections of their subjects, and the
prosperity of the country might have gone on
increasing if the French Revolution had not
given birth to new ideas and opinions in a
people who had been so long accustomed to
regard their political condition with stoical
indifference. It is unnecessary to recal to memory the
startling events of which Naples, and indeed
the whole of Italy, now became the theatre,
nor to describe the enthusiasm of a people for
that man who every Italian felt proud to regard
as a compatriot, and who everywhere facilitated
the conquest of their country by popular insur
rection. Again seduced by the tempting cry
of " Viva la Republica d'ltalia," it was but
natural that their sympathies should be drawn
towards a system of government associated as
it was with everything that was great and
glorious in the history of their country.
If the Italians paid dearly for their blind
submission to Gallic rule ; if the whole wealth

THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY. 2 1 1
of the country, even to its works of art, could
not satisfy the rapacity of their new master ; if
they were doomed to suffer insult after insult
from a vain-glorious, ever-boastful and licen
tious soldiery ; if they saw their language
banished from the public courts, and their
country, and its nationality extinguished by im
perial decrees ; still in a political point of view
they were the gainers. The country passed
by a rapid transition from the dull and death
like rule of priests and priest-ridden princes,
to one of activity, enterprize, and warlike
pursuits. The people aroused to a sense of
their degradation, reformed, re-awakeried, and
redeemed society from the superstition of ages.
Hence the mission of the Gauls, with respect
to Italy was accomplished ; that of the Italians
commenced, who now became aware, for the
first time since the fall of- the Roman empire,
that an Italy existed, and only required the
union of all her sons to take her place among
the nations as one of the most powerful states in
p 2

212 TOUR OF INQUIRY
Europe. This is the spell that has again
recalled to Italy her former days of public fife,
and led to all the insurrections that have taken
place in that unfortunate country down to the
last outburst of 1848, and even threatened the
rule of Napoleon in 1 8 1 1 . So great was the
hostility and bitter feeling that then existed
against a man who when it suited his views
abjured his Italian origin, and not only mis
trusted his countrymen, but deceived them by
promises never intended to be realized, that
had he been allowed to retain his ill-gotten
throne, the day was not far distant when the
whole of Italy would have risen against him,
and asserted its independence. As it was, he
found himself, up to the last moment, every
where beset by Corsican and Italian conspi
rators, who only awaited a favourable oppor
tunity to wreak their vengeance on him as a
traitor to the liberties and independence of his
country. Be this as it may, there never was a fairer

THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY. 213
opening to the princes of Italy of becoming
popular rulers, than when they again assumed
power; the people were heartily sick of the
arrogance and military licence of French rule ;
they felt a glow of national pride on seeing
themselves again the subjects of an Italian
sovereign ; even the foreign yoke of the Aus
trian was preferable. But it would appear
that the lessons of adversity are entirely thrown
away on princes. It might have been expected,
on the fall of the usurper, that an entire
change, one more in unison with the spirit of
the times, would have taken place in the policy
of the restored monarchs. No such thing : they
returned to their thrones unchanging and un
changed, as if they had been entranced in a
magnetic sleep during the twenty years the
Corsican and his satraps ruled in their stead.
The old machinery of government was replaced
as if nothing had happened : the same legions
of Jesuits and pampered priests were elevated
to power ; the same cringing cowards, who had

214 TOUR OF INQUIRY
looked on their master's ruin and country's
disgrace with utter indifference, became their
warriors and statesmen ; and to render the
system of arbitrary government still more
galling, whatever expedients the clever Corsican
had invented for rivetting the chains of political
slavery, were retained.
All this was bad enough, but when we are
forced to add the utter absence displayed of all
moral principle, the most solemn engagements
violated — no right, no law, acknowledged but
such as the strong can compel the weak to
submit to — when we remember this, can we
wonder that Italy has become the hot-bed of
insurrection, and its princes the most unpopular
of any in Europe? Perhaps nowhere more so
than in the kingdom of Naples, whose rulers
keep or abjure their oaths, according as danger
or security render it expedient. This want of
moral principle, this contempt for the sacred
obligations of an oath, has been the immediate
cause of all the recent insurrections which have

THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY. 215
desolated this unhappy country and Sicily ; has
engendered that feeling of hatred towards the
rule of princes, that earnest desire in the people
for some other system of government more
worthy of confidence, more national than that
of a perjured monarch.
Ferdinand of Naples may congratulate him
self on his success in the late rebellious out
break, which he entirely owes to the fidelity
of his Swiss soldiers. Still the events of the
15th of May ought to be a warning; and the
example of a people badly armed, without any
military chief to direct their operations, com
batting from morning till night against an
immense military force of native troops, hired
mercenaries, and paid lazzaroni, amply testifies
how desperate was the struggle, how determined
their purpose, to obtain for themselves political
rights. The recollection of this horrible butchery —
the massacre and pillage that succeeded, when
a large and populous city was delivered up by

216 TOUR OF INQUIRY
a vindictive monarch to the violence of a brutal
soldiery, and bands of drunken lazzaroni — can
never be effaced from the mind of a Neapolitan*
And if we require any other proof how universal
the hatred has become, and that the smoulder
ing embers still burn of another furious out
break, we have it in the acts of the government ;
in the clandestine enlistment and smuggling
into the country of foreign mercenaries ; in the
army of secret police agents ; in the conversion
of the King's palace into a fortress ; in those
horrible dungeons, where thousands upon thou
sands of political prisoners are now pining away
a miserable existence; and in the severity of
every measure of the government to increase its
reign of terror.
On taking a calm, unprejudiced view of the
deplorable events that filled this unhappy city
with mourning and bloodshed, we are forced
to come to the conclusion, that it was entirely
owing to the perfidy of the monarch, who, when
he found his position sufficiently strong to

THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY. 217
enable him to decide the question by force of
arms, refused to fulfil his engagements with the
cbnstitutional party. This deplorable fact sug
gests many painful reflections in the mind of
the traveller ; and let us consider it in what
light we may, we fear that this obstinate deter
mination of princes to oppose the advancing
spirit of the age prognosticates many and
serious evils to posterity, and will give a
sharper edge to the weapon of the revolu
tionist when the tocsin of insurrection again
sounds its sanguinary appeal to arms. Nor
can we feel surprised to learn that their exas
perated subjects, so often deceived, having now
lost all confidence in their ancient chiefs as the
leaders of men in the great work of national
regeneration, have turned their attention to the
establishment of republics, as their only chance
of deliverance from the arbitrary rule of a class
with whom no oath is binding, and whom no
adversity can teach.
The first impressions of a traveller from busy

218 TOUR OF INQUIRY
England, on arriving at Naples, are by no
means favourable either to the government, or
the character of the inhabitants. He sees a
fine open sea, a magnificent harbour inviting,
as it were, the commerce of the world, but
little or no appearance of that profitable in
dustry he has been accustomed to behold in
his own country ; and wherever he bends his
steps, a population of lazy beggars importune
him for even the smallest coin. This apathy,
demoralization, and idleness, he ascribes, as
many other travellers have done before him, to
the enervating influence of a southerly clime,
without reflecting that in former times the
same climate nourished a people as remarkable
for their energy and commercial activity, as
for their valour and love of independence.
If, however, we examine the civil and reli
gious institutions of the country, the causes
are sufficiently apparent, without seeking for
any other; the system of chaining down the
mind of the people is here so admirably or-

THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY. 219
ganized by church and state, that we are al
most tempted to believe no other race but this
could so long have withstood its influence, or
have refrained from sinking into absolute
slavery, utterly unconscious of civil enfranchise
ment and public spirit. Yet in spite of all
these difficulties, this people furnished a host
of gallant patriots, ardently desirous of civil
and religious freedom ; and notwithstanding
the apathy of the ignorant multitude, the
habitual sloth of the nobility, and the hostility
of a powerful priesthood, compelled their King
to grant constitutional liberty. Alas ! that we
must add, the sceptered dissimulator,
" Spoke the word of promise to the ear, but broke it to
the hope."
In short, the vitality of a southern race like
the Neapolitans, ennobled by that of the
ancient Greeks, cannot be easily estimated by
a northern mind ; beneath their seeming air
of inert indolence and love of frivolous amuse-

220 TOUR OF INQUIRY
ment lies a deep-thinking, restless spirit, which,
when once aroused, aims at high and often
impracticable undertakings. This desire of
elevation has been especially active since the
rule of the French who, in having broken down
the power of the Church by sweeping away the
monasteries with their lazy priests and all the
illusions of miracles and priestcraft from the
entire land, for the first time unchained the
mind of the ignorant multitude, and awoke
those yearnings after civil and religious freedom
which has gone on increasing in strength with
each succeeding generation.
Having now briefly alluded to the most
striking events in the history of Naples, we
will commence our observations, and leave the
reader to draw his own inferences.
When we visited Naples about twenty years
since, the population might be estimated at
about four hundred thousand; we believe it
reckons nearly the same number in the present
day. With the exception of a better description

THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY. 221
of hotels and lodging-houses erected here and
there by speculative individuals for the reception
of wealthy foreigners, the town, appears to be
but little changed. It is true, traces of the
fatherly chastisement inflicted on his rebellious
children by the bombarding monarch are still
visible in the crumbling walls and shattered
roofs of many of the houses, which, at least,
do not suggest to the eye of a stranger any
idea of improvement.
The nobility, never very wealthy — if we may
judge from the shabby appearances of their
palaces and country villas — have lost no in
considerable portion of their revenue. Neither
is there any great amount of costly luxuries
in the shops to indicate a wealthy population.
At the same time, the number of paupers,
soldiers, priests, and monks of every order, have
increased tenfold. Now, as then, there is the
same rattling of caratellas and ringing of bells,
drivers shouting, donkeys braying, oxen bellow
ing, goats bleating, ballad-singers screaming,

222 TOUR OF INQUIRY
and itinerant friars expounding to the gaping
multitude the last miracle performed by some
wonder-working picture of the Madonna, with
a hundred other cries uttered in every possible
intonation of the human voice, forming altoge
ther a deafening chorus that must be heard to
be conceived.
Before concluding our picture of out-door
life in Naples, we must not forget the Neapoli
tan beggar in his way the best actor in Chris
tendom; a fellow that can laugh, cry, dance,
and fall down in a fit almost at the same
moment when it may suit his purpose ; and
that man must indeed have a hard heart who
could pass one of these artists without drop
ping him half a carlino at least, as a reward for
so clever a performance. In the mendicant
friar we have another of these street performers,
a most peculiar character, who, to his former
trade of begging for the Church, has added an
entirely new commercial speculation, and may
now be seen loitering about the fashionable

THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY. 223
quarters of Naples, inhabited by wealthy
foreigners, on the look-out for some rich
and pious devotee. The object of these
benevolent ciceroni, is to offer to conduct him
to some church or holy place where he will see
a real miracle in full operation ; or for the good
of his soul, they would willingly sell him some
holy relic a great bargain ; perhaps the toe
nail of St. Januarius, or one of the arrows that
shot St. Sebastian !
Poor people ! If only half the energy and
ingenuity displayed by this brilliant imaginative
race, to extract a few pence from the passengers,
were employed in profitable industry, how
different would be the aspect of the town, and
what a change would it not create in their own
social condition. Still, if we penetrate below
the surface, we shall find that the mind of these
people, so long brutalized by superstition and
ignorance, is undergoing a most extraordinary
change — we do not except even the lowest
lazzaroni — a change which is certain to show

224 TOUR OF INQUIRY
itself whether for good or evil in the rising gene
ration. In some there is a tendency towards
French materialism, in the many a longing after
truth, ever the forerunner of some important in
tellectual revolution, especially as they are begin
ning to discover the gross ignorance and degraded
position in which they have so long been kept
by their spiritual teachers and temporal rulers.
Many of their most cherished superstitions
have already begun to disappear ; among
others the belief in the efficacy of the gilded
horns of a bull as a protection against the evil
eye, witchcraft, and the temptations of the
Prince of Darkness ! is on the decrease. Not
many years since these potent talismans might
be seen in every palace and hut throughout the
entire country, a superstition no doubt be
queathed to them by their Greek ancestors, and
fostered, like every other similar Pagan folly, by
their priests. Again, the image of the Madonna
with a lamp continually burning before it, was
formerly found in every dwelling, and although

THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY. 225
we still see it in some corner of the streets, and
occasionally in the houses of the faithful, the
belief in the efficacy of the intercession of the
Queen of Heaven to procure every spiritual
and temporal necessity, is very much weakened.
It is true, some favourite image in the
churches, or on the highway, continues to
attract a few worshippers ; perhaps some moun
tain bandit, who wishes to propitiate the wrath
of Heaven by his devotion; or wandering
minstrel, when he chants his Ave-Maria at
the close of his day's labour. Even the mira
culous liquefaction of the blood of San Gennaro,
the patron saint of Naples, has become the
subject of universal ridicule among the enlight
ened classes of the community ; and the poor
untutored lazzarone, with no other instructor
than his own shrewd sense, is beginning to
regard it as a clever trick of the priests, and
attends the performance with no greater feelings
of reverence than he would an exhibition of
the antics of his own Policinello.
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226 TOUR OF INQUIRY
Naples has been at all times celebrated for
its numerous beggars. The lazzaroni alone
are said to amount to upwards of fifty thousand.
We do not think they deserve all the censure
heaped upon them by unsympathizing travellers,
we ever found them willing and thankful to be
employed as boatmen, porters, or in any other
way by which they might obtain a few grani.
If you stop for a moment in any of the streets,
you are beset by men, women, and children,
importuning to be allowed to carry a parcel,
or attend you as a guide to any part of the
town or the country for the merest trifle.
Again, if we bend our steps to the Chiaia, the
head-quarters of these people, and the home of
all the beggars and pick-pockets in Naples, we
may witness many singular, as well as disgusting
scenes, to be found among the destitute in every
large city ; but even here there are many favour
able exceptions, particularly among the fishermen,
who, when they are not at sea, usually occupy
themselves about some in-door work, and no-

THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY. 227
where do you see so many poor women engaged
in spinning with the distaff.
In the midst of all this wretchedness, and
however engaged, it appears as if the whole
population were in haste to accomplish some
important occupation, showing the active tem
perament of these people, who, if they were
properly educated, and found an opportunity
of devoting their energies to profitable industry,
possess the capacity of rapidly ameliorating
their condition. At present, they principally
depend for subsistence upon those wealthy
foreigners who select Naples as a winter
residence; deprive them of this support, and
they would be certain to sink to the lowest
depths of misery. Full of this hope, they
struggle on during the summer, living upon
any sort of garbage, shell-fish, &c, picked
up on the sea-coast or about the town, and
look forward to the return of winter and their
friends with the same pleasure as an inhabitant
of the cold north to a visit of the migratory
Q 2

228 TOUR OF INQUIRY
swallow, which announces to him the advent of
summer. In fact, the King of Naples, instead of taxing
the patience and pockets of peaceable travellers,
by his passports and payments for permission
to reside in his dominions, ought to welcome
them as his best friends, since thev contribute
largely to his revenue and to the maintenance
of the poor ; but like his other despotic brethren,
dreading the admission of enlightened political
opinions, their presence is discouraged ; and
were it not that they add so much to his
exchequer, and he desires to conciliate the
lazzaroni, he would ere this have closed his
frontiers altogether against them.
To remove any unfavourable opinion the
traveller may entertain to the prejudice of the
Neapolitans, with respect to their idle habits,
he has only to visit the interior of the city,
where he will see numbers of men and women
industriously and usefully employed, in every
variety of ingenious manufacture likely to

THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY. 229
attract the attention of the traveller ; and it is
impossible not to admire the exquisite form
and highly-finished workmanship of many of
their productions, especially those articles chi
selled from the lava and coral. Nor is the
dispatch with which they work the least aston
ishing part of the performance ; indeed, where-
ever the brilliant imagination of these people
can be fixed to one train of thought, and
directed either to commerce, science, or the
fine arts, they are certain to excel.
Many travellers have ascribed the immorality
unhappily still so prevalent at Naples to the in
fluence of climate, the vicinity of Mount Vesuvius,
adducing in confirmation of this opinion the
dissolute manners of the inhabitants in the
time of the Romans. That they were a licen
tious race in those days, we have abundant
proofs in the paintings found at Pompeii, which
illustrate the manners and customs of the
Volcanites at that period ; still we cannot
subscribe to this theory. The causes are apparent

230 TOUR OF INQUIRY
enough without seeking for a solution in the
influence of volcanoes and climate, although we
admit they may have some effect in imparting
that restlessness and vivacity to the tempera
ment so characteristic of the Neapolitans. Our
only wonder is, how they have been able even
to preserve the external forms of civilization,
when we remember how long they have been
subject to that appalling system of priestcraft,
and arbitrary rule, which here, above every
other part of Italy, found a secure resting-place,
and wrapped in gloom the natural genius of
the people. Neither can we feel surprised at
the state of moral debasement into which
they have fallen, schooled as they have been
in crime by the example of their rulers and
clergy. We can only allude to the profligacy which
so generally prevails, to descend to particulars
is impossible ; and even those who from their
position ought to be more circumspect in their
conduct — monks, priests, nuns, bishops, and

THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY. 231
archbishops — are openly condemned by the peo
ple. At all events great strictness of morals is not
required at Naples, you have only to avoid
politics, pay homage publicly to the Virgin,
confess to your priest, and do what he tells
you, to be enabled openly to disregard the law,
run away with one man's wife, seduce the
daughter of another, cheat in trade, rob in the
streets, or turn highwayman, with comparative
impunity. But if you are known to have a
Bible in your possession, speak slightingly of
his Majesty the King or his Holiness the Pope,
neglect to show yourself at church, and avoid
the confessional, you are immediately stigmatized
as a carbonari, and marked in the black book
of the police. Consequently, should you have
to plead any civil process in a court of justice,
you are certain to lose your cause, for who
would believe the oath of a heretic ! Again, if
by any unforeseen misfortune, you should be
denounced by the secret police, or receive a
letter from some political exile in a foreign

232 TOUR OF INQUIRY
land, even though it be a forgery, you are
irretrievably lost, unless, indeed, you have a
pretty wife, sister or cousin, to interest herself
in your behalf with some influential churchman.
The solicitations even of a fair pleader, will
not always, however, succeed, without the aid
of a well-filled purse.
It is unnecessary to expatiate on the spirit of
a government exercised by the sword of the
mercenary and the crozier of the Church, where
despotism and priestcraft go hand in hand, its
tendencies may easily be discovered by its
effects. This description of government is bad
enough in other Roman Catholic countries, free
from the brand of foreign vassalage ; but in this,
every act of the administration to crush the
feeling of the people towards liberal institutions,
is carried out with a severity almost incredible
to those who have not witnessed it. We could
relate numerous instances of the tyranny of its
officials ; we could fill page after page in de
scribing the heroism of their victims, and the

THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY. 233
sacrifices made by their friends and relatives to
procure their release from the fangs of their
persecutors, and publish the names of the suf
ferers, were it not that by so doing we should
expose them to certain ruin ; for here a man
must not only suffer, and that wrongfully and
contrary to truth and justice, but be silent, the
slightest manifestation of his grievances being
punished with the severest rigour of the law.
Would it not, therefore, be advisable in those
among our countrymen, who are now labouring
so diligently to introduce Popery into happy
England, to come here and study its effects as
a system of government ; to behold it exem
plified in the slavery and moral debasement of
an entire people.
Although Naples abounds with religious in
stitutions, monasteries, and nunneries of every
order, with an immense army of high dignitaries
of the Church, priests and Jesuits, the lower
classes receive no moral instruction. As to
religion, they are taught to attend mass, bless

234 TOUR OF INQUIRY
themselves with holy water, worship the Virgin,
the Host, and the saints, go to confession, and
receive absolution. This done, the poor people
consider they have performed all the duties of a
Christian ; their only fear is how to provide
against hunger, and, following the example of
their parents, when their children are old
enough they are taught to beg, go of errands,
steal — in short, to procure food in any way they
can obtain it. Thus, trained for centuries in
the grossest superstition and ignorance, and
driven to despair from excessive poverty, the
depravity of morals has gone on increasing till
at length it has awakened the attention of the
authorities, and missionaries have been dis
patched to preach religion and morality in the
towns and villages, and above all in the crowded
districts of Naples, where whole families live
together in a state little better than savages.
This, so far as it goes, is a praiseworthy
action ; but why not give a higher tone to
the system of popular education? Public in-

THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY. 235
struction, now enforced as a duty in nearly
every other country, even the most despotic,
and which is fast gaining ground under the
Mahometan ruler of Turkey, is discouraged
by the short-sighted policy of the Prince of
Naples and his conclave of bigoted priests ;
ever raising up barriers against the progress
and diffusion of knowledge; and by a refine
ment of policy whenever the schoolmaster,
prompted by a desire to impart a higher degree
of culture, ventures to instruct his pupils be
yond the mere rudiments of elementary educa
tion, he incurs the penalty of imprisonment, or
perhaps is sent to the galleys for life. So great is
their anxiety to prevent any chance of national
regeneration. It is not, however, necessary to travel to
Naples to discover the hostility of the Romish
Church to any system of intellectual educa
tion ; we have had an example of this in Ire
land; when the thunder of the Vatican was
launched against the enlightened plan of instruc-

236 TOUR OF INQUIRY
tion introduced into that country by our own
government. Unhappily, the voice of a foreign
pontiff was found to have more weight over the
minds of that priest-ridden people, than the
mandate of a wise paternal government. An
interference like this in the internal administra
tion of a country would not be tolerated for a
moment in any other state in Europe, and could
only have occurred under free institutions. Yet
to the want of such a system of education, all
the social evils that have so long afflicted
Ireland may be attributed; and as if this were
not enough to perpetuate sectarian prejudice,
those narrow-minded zealots, in their endeavours
to strengthen the rale of papal despotism, con
fine their flock by every possible subterfuge
within the bounds of a literary quarantine,
which precludes them from interchanging those
feelings of mutual fraternity and sympathy so
necessary towards allaying the spirit of religious
intolerance. Among the many peculiarities which dis-

THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY. 237
tinguish the Neapolitans from their brethren in
the other states of the beautiful peninsula, they
are celebrated for their talent in the art of
pantomimic gesture. This method of com
munication has become more general and sys
tematic since the Revolution of 1848, no doubt
because it affords them a medium of express
ing their thoughts without fear of being over
heard by the numerous spies and secret police,
whose duty it is to mingle as much as possible
with all classes of society; and here, be it
remembered, a man's dearest friend, even his
wife or child, may be a paid agent of the state.
What a novel feature would it not form in the
history of state trials, if one of these figurantes
were brought up before a court of justice, and
examined by a prosecutor who possessed the
key to the meaning of his gestures ! we doubt
that all the ingenuity, even of a Neapolitan
judge, could find sufficient evidence to convict a
man of pantomimic treason.

238 TOUR OF INQUIRY

CHAPTER X.
Neapolitan patois — Story-tellers and street preachers —
The modern San Martino — His celestial vision and
sermon — 'Singular superstition respecting the Pope's
shirt — Tomasso of the Evil Eye — His history —
Superstitious belief of the Neapolitans in the Evil
Eye — Characteristics of Naples — General observa
tions. Every state in Italy has its own peculiar
dialect, principally used by the lower classes of
society. The Neapolitan patois, spoken as it is
by the whole population, from the lazzaroni to
the inmates of a palace, may be termed the
language of the country ; it is by no means
inharmonious to the ear, and is distinguished

THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY. 239
from the other dialects of the Italian by the
substitution of soft for hard consonants, so as to
render the words more euphonious. This imparts
a pleasing sound to some ; but the abbreviations
employed are so numerous, as to give a stranger
the impression he is living among a people
so busily occupied they are obliged to save time
by contracting their words.
To form a correct opinion of the richness of
the Neapolitan dialect, and the facility with
which it expresses ludicrous ideas, or an eloquent
appeal, we must listen to the improvisatori, or
the street-preacher. The first is always some
hare-headed, bare-legged, bare-footed member of
the lowest class of society, who wandering from
town to town, from village to village, subsists on
the few pence or food his stories or drollery
win from his miserable audience. The other will
probably be an abbe', or brother of a religious
order, sometimes a missionary paid by the
government; but more frequently a fanatic
enthusiast who fancies he has received a mission
direct from the Virgin, or some holy saint.

240 TOUR OF INQUIRY

Our eood-fortune conducted us to the
market-place of Pausilippo^ at the moment when
the modern San Martino, a great favourite with
the people, was preparing to address them.
His oration was so full of wit and humour, and
so characteristic of the extravagant exaggera
tions of the preacher, and the love of the
marvellous in his hearers, that we cannot do
better than give an epitome of it to our readers ;
and though by no means well-educated, he
showed himself better acquainted with the
manners, customs, and religion of foreign
countries than might have been expected.
After giving away a considerable number of
coloured engravings of the Virgin, saints, and
angels, to the most devout among his followers,
he mounted the top of a wine-cask and com
menced. " Cara Fratelli," said he, " I must relate, the
particulars of a vision vouchsafed to me a short
time since, on the summit of Mount Cilento in
Calabria. Exhausted by long fasting and
prayer, I threw myself on the earth to enjoy a

THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY. 241
few minutes' repose, when lo ! I suddenly found
myself elevated in the air, I know not by whom,
and carried in a few seconds to heaven. ' Corpo
di Christo !' said I to myself, ' since thou art in
Paradise, San Martino, why not go at once, and
salute her Santissima Majesty, the ever-blessed
Madonna ?' But how was I to find out- her
special abode? Ay, that was the question.
After wandering for some time through the
Elysian fields — the air, oh ! how balmy — there
was no sun, yet all was bright and shining ;
rivers of milk and honey flowed in every
direction, the trees were loaded with the most
delicious fruit; and, oh! wonderful to relate
many of the blessed saints were eating macca-
roni, white as the snow, and ten yards in length !
Attend to that, ye scum of the earth, and
repent !"
On hearing this astounding revelation, the
multitude, for the most part, looked grave, some
fell on their knees and devoutly crossed them
selves, while not a few turned their backs on the
vol. i. R

242 TOUR OF INQUIRY
preacher, smiling apparently with contempt and
derision. " Holo !" cried the saint, with a stentorian
voice, calling by name Pietro, Giovanni, Giu
seppe, and many others of his recreant flock.
" Come back, ye infidels, ye carbonari, and hear
the glad tidings I have to tell, else I will bear
witness against ye as rebels, and have ye con
demned to eternal perdition !"
This awful warning arrested the steps of his
retreating hearers, and the preacher having
wiped with his dark woollen soutane the per
spiration with which anger had moistened his
sun-burnt face, fixed his eye on some of the
principal recusants, as he again commenced his
harangue. " I told you," said he, " I wandered over the
Elysian fields, when at length I heard the most
divine heavenly music that can be conceived,
caused by the fluttering of an angel's wings
above my head. And behold there stood befor e
me a being having a countenance so beautiful

THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY. 243
and lustrous that no mortal could gaze
on its brightness without falling to the
ground : and there I lay like a poor reptile of the
earth, as I am. ' Arise, my well-beloved
San Martino, and follow me,' said the mes
senger of glory, ' and mark well what thou
seest.' The angel, while he was thus speaking,
stretched out his pinions, and carried me forth
to the brink of an awful abyss that no man
could fathom ; where, in the gloomy depths
beneath, I saw myriads of the souls of the
damned. Oh! it was an appalling sight! the
bare remembrance chills my blood with horror.
There I beheld the infidel French, the heretic
English, that arch-fiend Napoleon Bonaparte,
that demon of demons Joachim Murat, with
thousands and tens of thousands of those
impious rebels who dared to raise their hands
against our sovereign lord the King and his
Santissimo Holiness the Pope. Oh ! they were
uttering such waitings, such lamentations, that
the terrible sound still rings in my ears !
R 2

244 TOUR OF INQUIRY
"At length, my angelic guide, pitying my
tears and heart-broken sorrow, bore me away
from the contemplation of such a scene of woe
and despair, to the summit of a lofty mountain.
But how shall I find words to describe the abode
of the blessed, now disclosed to my admiring
vision ! There I beheld not only mighty kings,
popes, princes, noble prelates, and priests of
every degree, but many that I knew when on
earth to be the poorest of the poor ; still they
all were dressed alike in the richest raiment,
and wore on their heads jewelled crowns.
" ' Ah !' said I, addressing my celestial guide,
' might I not. venture to enter Paradise, if only
for a moment, and adore the Santissima
Madonna, Queen of Heaven !' (for remember,
my friends, I stood reverently on the threshold.)
' Impossible, San Martino,' replied the inhabitant
of Heaven ; ' thou art not yet purified by death
from the dross of earth.' I next besought him
to allow me to exchange a word or two with
our great apostles, San Pietro and San Paolo ;

THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY. 245
this petition was also refused me. I then be
thought me, ungrateful mortal as I am, of our
own glorious patron and Saint, the ever-blessed
San Gennaro."
The preacher had now struck the chord that
was certain to vibrate in the heart of a
Neapolitan. " Viva San Gennaro ! Viva San
Martino !" burst forth from the excited mul
titude. " Alas !" continued the preacher, " woe is
me ! woe ! woe ! I found our glorious saint on
the other side of the heavenly kingdom — in
purgatory ! Hear that, ye rebellious, ungodly
crew ! San Gennaro, the patron saint of Naples,
in purgatory !" And now the preacher raised
his hands to heaven ; while tears, genuine tears,
rolled down his swarthy cheeks, as he exclaimed
a third time, " San Gennaro in purgatory ! Yes,
there he lay, clothed in sackcloth and ashes, his
blessed head bowed to the ground. ' Eccellentis-
simo ! santissimo ! illustrissimo ! saint and patron,
what has brought you here in purgatory ?' cried I,

246 TOUR OF INQUIRY
struck with horror and amazement. ' Ah ! San
Martino,' he answered, ' is that you ?' and then
he sobbed as if his heart would break. ' Why
do you ask what has brought me here, you who
are just come from among the rebellious crew,
that inhabit my own kingdom of Naples, and
though sinful and sinning, are still my children,
notwithstanding their evil ways have chased me
from heaven, and here I must remain till they
repent. " 'Ah ! the impious, rebellious crew !' cried a
voice sounding through the heavenly mansions
as if it were the trumpet that summoned the
dead at the dread hour of judgment. ' The
heretics ! the brigands ! the rebels !' exclaimed
another and another of the- heavenly host.
Then I heard the sweet-sounding, musical voice
of our most gracious mother, the Queen of
Heaven, gently, but earnestly, pleading. ' Save
them ! oh, save them ! merciful Father, eternal
Judge !' ' Save them ! save them !' was echoed
and re-echoed by a host of celestial beings.

THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY. 247
' Save them ! save them !' exclaimed our own
heart-broken patron, San Gennaro. ' Save
them ! save them !' feebly murmured the poor
mortal who now addresses you."
Here the preacher was again interrupted with
shouts of applause and repeated cries of " Bravo !
bravo, San Martino," from the assembled
multitude. " Alas ! my heart bleeds while I say it, the
stern Judge of the universe would not relent,
and our glorious saint and patron, who loves
you all so well, is now suffering for your sins,
and cannot leave the dark abode of purgatory
till ye repent. Repent then, and swear that ye
will never again raise your impious hands
against the Lord's anointed ; and, imitating the
example of your forefathers in the good olden
time, become faithful subjects, devout Christians,
docile to your clergy, and regular in your
attendance at mass and confession. Resolve and
swear to do all this, ye godless ungrateful
reprobates, and open the gates of Paradise to

248 TOUR OF INQUIRY
your own saint and patron, the ever-glorious
San Gennaro.
" Do you hear me, sneering Nicola ? and you
Paolo with the devil's tongue ? and you Tomasso
of the evil eye? and all the rest, ye blood of
Beelzebub !" exclaimed the preacher with frantic
vehemence, as with uplifted hands he denounced
those among his hearers who derided his
oratory. " Heed them not, my children," he
continued, addressing those who attended more
devoutly to his discourse, " heed them not,
those unbelieving profligates ! they have been
corrupted by their intercourse with those
heretical, sight-seeing foreigners, by hearing their
hellish gabble — those monsters of heresy ! those
children of Satan who would hurl you headlong
into the pit of perdition !" Then looking with a
most ominous frown at the party of English and
American gentlemen with whom I was standing,
he elevated his voice still higher, as he pointed
towards us and cried : " There they are ! there
they are !"

THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY. 249
Happily the times are changed at Naples;
otherwise I doubt that the revolvers of my
American friends, and my own pistols, would
have been sufficient to defend us from the
knives of an excited crowd of fanatics. As it
was, we remained quietly standing with our
cicerone till the oration was finished, when the
preacher, like Policinello, or any other suc
cessful actor, descended from his primitive
stage, amidst the deafening applause of his
audience. Even those who at first ridiculed
him acknowledged the force of his eloquence
and ingenuity, and all concurred in according to
him the title of the most popular preacher and
story-teller of his class at Naples ; but how far
the influence of his spiritual exhortations ex
tends over the minds of a people, who have at
length began to think for themselves, may well
be doubted.
It may be supposed by those unacquainted
with the manners and customs of the Neapoli
tans, that we have exaggerated the style of our

250 TOUR OF INQUIRY
street preacher's oratory ; quite the reverse, we
have even suppressed a great deal of what
would be regarded in England, or any other
truly pious, moral country, as highly offensive
language — nay, blasphemy, when applied to
religion, but which may be heard any day either
in the churches or streets of Naples. In short,
we might fill a volume with accounts of various
miracles related to us, and even then we should
not find space for the whole ; but we cannot
refrain from noticing one marvel which may
serve as a specimen of the remainder. Relics
of saints, their shrines and garments, have in
all ages exercised a powerful agency in per
forming miracles ; but we were not aware till
we came to Naples of the healing virtues attri
buted to the shirt of a Pope, the smallest shred
of which, if boiled in milk or soup, is said to be
an effectual remedy for the cholera, and other
diseases of a similar description ! We cannot,
therefore, feel surprised that these wonder
working garments form a source of great

THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY. 251
profit to the itinerant friars, who sell them to
the pious and the believing.
The epithet "jettator," evil-eyed, bestowed by
the preacher on our guide Tomasso, is one of
the most degrading and opprobrious that can be
applied by one Neapolitan to another. A
superstitious belief in the agency of the evil
eye is still entertained, as we learned from
Tomasso, not only very generally by the ig
norant, but by the higher classes of society,
who, as a protection against its malign power,
adorn their houses with gilded bulls' horns, to
which we have before alluded ; and when they
leave home, carry with them a trinket in the
form of a horn, intended as an antidote. This
must be pointed towards any ill-starred being
they happen to meet with, whose eyes are
supposed to possess the property of blighting
the good fortune of every man on whom he
looks !
According to the statement of our guide
Tomasso, the superstition of his countrymen

252 TOUR OF INQUIRY
had affixed this terrible stigma of jettator to
himself and his family. It appears that his
father formerly kept a flourishing inn at Resina,
where he was accustomed to supply refresh
ments, mules and donkeys to travellers on
their ascent to Mount Vesuvius. Now it
happened on an unlucky day, while the elder
Tomasso was attending to a Neapolitan noble
man, who had just alighted from his carriage,
the braying of a donkey frightened the horses,
when, dashing forward, they rushed headlong
down a precipice, and the carriage was shattered
to pieces. As if this were not enough to brand
the ill-starred innkeeper with the fatal gift of
jettator, it so chanced shortly after, while he
was standing at his door, a gentleman galloped
past him on horseback, when the animal,
slipping on the lava pavement, threw his rider,
who, falling upon his head, was killed almost
instantaneously. From this time the little inn of Tomasso, the
jettator, was shunned by every human being,

THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY. 253
as if a pestilence had been raging in it ; and to
add to the disgrace and desperation of the un
happy man, whenever he was seen in the
streets he had the horns of the whole popu
lation pointed at him. At length, threatened
with approaching ruin, he terminated his
earthly troubles by suicide, leaving a wife
with a son and daughter in the deepest
misery. In the meantime, Tomasso the younger had
the good fortune to attract the notice of an
English gentleman residing 'in the neighbour
hood, who took him into his service, where he
remained several years, till his master, while
bathing in the sea, was seized with the cramp,
and drowned. Hence it was impossible to
dispute the fact, that the fatal gift of jet-
tatura was in the family, and as such our poor
cicerone was denounced, and avoided by all
who knew him. Experience and intercourse
with the enlightened mind of his English master,
however, taught him philosophy, and contempt

254 TOUR OF INQUIRY
for the opinions of his superstitious country
men ; and having acquired some knowledge of
the English language, he contrives to obtain a
decent maintenance by acting as guide to the
English and American travellers who visit
Naples. He was our constant attendant while
we remained here ; and we cannot too highly
recommend Tomasso the jettator as one of the
most civil and intelligent men of his class.
Principally for the pleasure of accompanying
my English and American travelling compa
nions, I once again visited most of the lions of
Naples and its delightful environs; and first
ascended Mount Vesuvius which has undergone
a very great change since the eruption of 1850.
The former crater, having become choked with
ashes and scoria, gave birth to two craters on
the summit of the cone. That on the Pompeii
side is the largest, and may be estimated at one
thousand feet in depth. At present there is
no appearance of activity in either, except a con
tinuous emission of sulphureous vapour, which

THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY. 255
the inhabitants of Naples consider as a presage
of evil ; and we certainly experienced two or
three slight shocks of an earthquake during our
short residence in that city.
At the time of the late eruption the lava
found vent at the base of the cone, and ran in a
glowing torrent towards the old crater; and
then turning in the direction of Pompeii, over
whelmed an entire village, together with its
vineyards and orchards, although several miles
distant. In consequence of the uninter
rupted exhalations of sulphureous vapour, we
did not attempt to descend into either of the
craters. In fact their thin, sharp edges ren
dered this not only dangerous but impracticable,
while the space around them is so contracted
as scarcely to leave sufficient room for two
persons to pass abreast without peril.
Under the guidance of our jettator, we also
entered the gloomy depths of Herculaneum,
wandered through the streets of Pompeii, now
in the same state as they were nearly two
thousand years ago, and even penetrated into-

256 TOUR OF INQUIRY
the secret chambers of the goddess Isis, in
defiance of the superstitious belief still enter
tained that the impious mortal who dares
to violate her privacy will suffer from fever
during the remainder of his days. We like
wise day after day visited together every spot
immortalized by Homer and Virgil, passed
through the gloomy cavern of Posilipo, on our
way to pay a morning visit to the Sybil in her
grotto, without being robbed by brigands, and
from thence to the Lago d'Averno, a feat which
many a brave Roman of the olden time would
not have done, from the fear of being carried
away by the sprites and genii who then peopled
its romantic banks !
Neither did we forget to visit the baths of
Nero, where we were not quite baked with the
heat, although we ate an egg that was cooked
by the same heat during the time we remained
there, and witnessed at the Grotta del Cane
the disagreeable spectacle of a poor terrier
becoming lifeless in a few seconds because my
friends wished to see the influence of the

THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY. 257
noxious gas. We also passed whole days
together in wandering about the shores of the
Bay of Baia, that luxurious winter retreat of
the degenerate Romans ; moralized over the
folly of man and the infantile occupations
to which he will descend, when we saw the
Piscinai (fish-ponds) of Hortensius, who, history
records, clothed himself in mourning on the
death of a beloved trout ! and having, it would
appear, an insane attachment for his finny
favourites, decked them with jewelled necklaces,
and gave to each a name, which they responded
to when called upon by raising their heads
out of the water ! In the same manner the
devout piscatory tribes listened to St. Anthony,
when, commiserating their spiritual wants, he
preached them a sermon ; and whoever doubts
the truth of the miracle, has only to journey
to Padua, where he will see the fact immortal
ized in a beautiful painting over the high altar
in the cathedral church.
After seeing the various interesting objects
VOL. I. S

258 TOUR OF INQUIRY
in Naples and its delightful environs, we pre
pared, though not without some regret, to bid
adieu to this charming city. And if the
lazzaroni stole a pocket - handkerchief, or
cheated me of a few grani, I blamed my own
stupidity, and forgave them, for I knew they
were nearly starving. Beyond this propensity,
and now and then displaying their genius as
first-rate actors in counterfeiting death from
starvation, and similar able performances, with the
object of extracting a few pence from the
pocket of a compassionate traveller, they are
the same lively, singular people now as they
have ever been; and notwithstanding their
priests tell them we are heretics, they are far
more attached to the English than to the tra
vellers of any other nation. Perhaps it may
be that they are found to be more generous ;
at all events, we know that many a wretched
pauper, when he returns at night to his starving
family, in the fulness of his gratitude blesses
the English Milord who has given him the
means of procuring them food.

THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY. 259

CHAPTER XI.
Preparations for leaving Naples — Railroad to Capua —
Neapolitan officers — A female Jesuit — An embar
rassing position — Sketches of a tour from Capua to
Gaeta — Account of Gaeta — Miraculous efficacy
attributed to the chair of Pio Nono at Gaeta — Visit
to the Monastery of St. Benedict — The birth-place
of Cicero — Interesting ruins at Arpino— Tomb of
Cicero — Itri and its supper of thrushes — Fondi —
Arrival in the Papal States — Passports and Custom
house officers — American firmness opposed to Papal
police — Sketch of Terracina and its environs — Cha
racteristics of the mountaineers — Insalubrity of the
marshes. We now proposed leaving Naples for Rome,
but the preparations for departure are not the
work of a moment, for in these days of the
s 2

260 TOUR OF INQUIRY
reign of terror on the continent of Europe
a traveller proposes but a prince disposes ; first
I had to give up my carte de se'jour, and
obtain my passport from the police, then
take it to the British Ambassador, and get
his signature, back again to the police-office,
now to the palace of his Excellency the Minister
of Foreign Affairs, and then I could not enter
the Patrimony of St. Peter without permission
from the representative of his Holiness the
Pope. The cost of all these signatures
amounted to upwards of four Neapolitan
ducats, without mentioning the loss of time
and the hire of sundry cabriolets. A most
ingenious contrivance this of the despotic
princes of Europe to make travellers contribute
to the expense of maintaining their numerous
spies and police-agents.
Two of my American friends, true Anglo-
Norman-Saxons, were fortunately like myself
bound for the Eternal City ; and as our road
lay through the territories of the renowned Fra

THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY. 261
Diavolo, they armed themselves with cutlasses
and revolvers, resolved to fight their way to
Rome in defiance of brigands. To perform
our journey in the most expeditious and com
fortable manner, we engaged a first-rate vettu-
rino, Signor Carini, and four capital horses,
paying him four louis-d'ors a day for the use
of his carriage, including breakfast, dinner, and
beds. On leaving Naples, we travelled by the rail
road, short as it is, to Capua. A railroad !
This looks like progress in the dominions of
his Majesty the King of Naples ; and wherever
steam penetrates, that great instrument of civi
lization, it is certain to be followed by the
regeneration of mankind, and the downfall of
despotism, ignorance, and superstition.
We found Capua, where we remained the
greatest part of the day and a night, filled with
Neapolitan soldiers, which afforded us an
opportunity of becoming acquainted with a
party of officers, fine gentlemanly men, who

262 TOUR OF INQUIRY
took every possible means to make our short
stay among them agreeable. The next morn
ing, while breakfasting with our gallant friends,
the waiter announced a French lady, the
Countess de L  e, an elegant, ladylike
woman, who, although somewhat past the age
of love and romance, might still be termed
pretty. She stated that the object of her visit
was to petition for a place in our carriage as
far as Rome, and another on the outside for
her servant, offering to pay her share of the
expenses. She apologised in the politest
manner for the intrusion, by saying, that being
unprotected, she trusted the unsettled state of
the country might be pleaded as an excuse
for the liberty she had taken ; adding that she
knew by placing herself under the protection of
Englishmen, a name synonymous with all that
was' brave and honourable, her safety was
ensured. Who could resist such a flattering speech?
My friend, whom we termed the philosopher

THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY. 263
of Boston, looked at his companion, the poet
of New York, and both cast a searching glance
on their English brother ; and presuming their
feelings agreed with mine, and that denial was
impossible, we made our wishes and convenience
submit, though with shame I confess it, very
reluctantly, to our gallantry.
The circumstance would have been too trifling
to record, were it not illustrative of the social
character of the country, and the protecting care
with which a traveller is watched on every side
by the secret agents of this most suspicious
government. Before we quitted the hotel, a
kind friend placed in my hand a slip of paper,
in which he cautioned me to beware of the
lady, as he knew her to be one of the most
dangerous women in Italy — a perfect Jesuit in
petticoats — a spy of the police, and that her
servant was, in all probability, a priest !
In addition to her personal charms, and
great amiability of manners, our fair Jesuit
as a linguist was admirably qualified to carry

264 TOUR OF INQUIRY
on any political intrigue with success. She
spoke the Italian language almost with the
fluency of a native ; she also knew the English,
German and Spanish, sufficiently well to converse
As may be supposed, it required a great deal
of acting on my part to mystify so clever a
woman ; I succeeded, however, in drawing from
her an admission that she was engaged with
other pious French ladies of high rank in
endeavouring to convert the English aristocracy,
while travelling on the continent, to the Roman
Catholic faith. If her representations might
be relied on, and I have no reason to doubt
them, she was on terms of intimacy, and cor
responded with several of our great Roman
Catholic families in England and Ireland. She
spoke most affectionately of her dear Lord and
Lady Fleming, of those shining lights who had
seen the error of their ways, and embraced the
true faith — Messrs. Newman, Wilberforce, and
Manning, and stated how instrumental she had
been in their conversion. This, with her

THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY. 265
allusions to many other persons of distinguished
rank in England, suspected to be wavering in
their belief in the doctrines of the Reformed
Church, afforded additional confirmation to the
opinion I had long entertained, that a widely-
spread organized conspiracy exists, the object of
which is to undermine the Protestant faith of
England. What the object of our fair Countess could
have been in thus unceremoniously introducing
herself to our society, I could not discover.
The two American gentlemen I travelled with
spoke no other language than their own, except
a little French, she could not therefore suppose
them to be political emissaries. Perhaps in the
first instance, she concluded from my name, that
I was that great apostle of modern Romanism,
Father Ignatius, on a pilgrimage to Rome ! Or
it may be that, as French imagination often
sees more than the reality, her suspicions invested
me with some character to which I was a
stranger — a revolutionary agent travelling under

266 TOUR OF INQUIRY
a false name, or I know not what. However
this may be, our amiable fellow-traveller must
have been speedily convinced that neither his
Majesty the King of the Two Sicilies, nor his
Holiness the Pope, had anything to fear from
the propagandizing propensities of her fellow
travellers ; and if she were really desirous of
reaching Rome in any reasonable time, the
distance we travelled each day must have been
too short to meet her wishes; there were a
hundred objects of antiquity to be visited in
a country where every inch of the ground is inter
esting. Consequently, after two days' journey,
she bade us adieu at St. Agatha, with many
expressions of gratitude on her side, and of
regret on ours ; and we once more expressed
our thoughts, and gave vent to our feelings, as
if we were breathing the free air of dear Old
England. While visiting the villages, churches, and
monasteries in the environs of Capua, it was
highly interesting to find their names in nearly

THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY. 267
every instance indicate their ancient origin.
At Casa-pulla once stood the temple of Apollo ;
at Ercole the temple of Hercules ; at Mar-
cianisi the temple of Mars ; at Curtis the Curia
and the monastery of St. Angelo evidently
takes its name from a temple that stood there,
dedicated to Diana Luciferra, while the chain
of mountains that surround Capua and Caserta,
are still called Monti Tifatini, a word derived
from the volcano Tifata now extinct. We
also found considerable remains of the ancient
Capua at the little town of Santa Maria, the
amphitheatre with its galleries and seats of the
spectators are tolerably well preserved, and the
two arcades we found on the road to Caserta,
are presumed to have been one of the gates of
the city.
Strabo and Floras tell us that Capua, after
Rome and Carthage, was the most populous
city of the Old World.
" Capua quondam inter tres maximas numerata."
We need not wonder that the fertility and

268 TOUR OF INQUIRY
beauty of a district called by Cicero the finest
domain in the Roman empire, should have been
colonized at a very early epoch in the history of
the world, nor that Annibal, instead of pushing
on to the conquest of Rome, allowed himself
to be seduced by the fascinations of a ciy
blessed with so delightful a climate. Poor
Capua first suffered from a siege of the Romans,
those implacable masters that never forgave a
revolt ; and when captured, all its senators were
decapitated without exception, and its principal
inhabitants sold as slaves. In the third century
it was taken and plundered by Genseric, King
of the Vandals ; other devastations followed
from the inroad of the barbarians, till at length
it was totally destroyed, and the new town,
which now bears the name of Capua, rose
towards the end of the seventh century, and
was principally built from its ruins.
On leaving Santa Agatha, we passed through
Sesse, the ancient Suessa-Auruncorum, one of
the principal towns of the Arunci, and the

THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY. 269
birth-place of Lucilius, the famous satirical
poet of Rome. We now saw before us the
marshes formed by the Garigliano, recalling to
the mind of the traveller the vicissitudes of
fortune connected with the history of Marius,
the hero of many battles, and seven times a
consul, but who was at length obliged to take
refuge in this poisonous swamp to escape the
pursuit of his vengeful enemy, Sylla. After
passing the Garigliano on our road to Mola,
we visited the site of the ancient city Minturnse,
where considerable vestiges of an amphitheatre,
aqueducts, and other interesting ruins still
exist. At Mola we passed the night at one of the
most comfortable inns on the road between
Naples and Rome; our rooms were carpeted,
the service was excellent, and our dinner, or
rather supper, of the very best description,
all furnished at the expense of our vetturino,
an excellent fellow, who endeavoured by every
means in his power to render the tour of his

270 TOUR OF INQUIRY
padroni agreeable in every respect. A beau
tiful garden behind the house, laid out in
walks and filled with orange-trees in full bear
ing, added much to our enjoyment, as we had
permission from the landlord to pluck the
tempting fruit, now in the highest perfec
tion. At Castellone, between Mola and Gaeta, we
visited a ruin supposed to have been the
Formianum of Cicero. Gaeta, immortalized
by Horace and Cicero for the beauty of its
situation, and the delicious flavour of its wines,
needs no description from the pen of a modern
traveller; and notwithstanding its great antiquity,
said to have been founded by iEneas, in
memory of his nurse Cajeta, —
" Tu quoque littoribus notris ^Eneia nutrix
iEternam moriens famam, Cajeta, dedisti."
still maintains its character of being a town,
while so many great and powerful cities have
crumbled to dust.
That Gaeta was a favourite retreat of the

THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY. 271
wealthy Romans we have abundant evidence
in the number of ruins seen in the environs,
some of which are still visible in the sea as
at Baia. The most remarkable monument of
the place is the Torre d'Orlando, appearing
from the inscription to have been the mauso
leum of Lucius Munatius Plancus, the founder
of Lyons. The column forming part of this
monument contains an interesting engraving,
the rhumbs of wind in Latin and Greek. In
the suburb of the town is another tower, called
Latratina, from Latrando, supposed to have
formed a part of the temple of Mercury,
where oracles were delivered to the people
through the mouth of a dog ! a singular relic
of the superstition of the ancients. But, per
haps what is still more interesting to a pious
Romanist, he may see the identical rock that
split into three equal parts in honour of the
Holy Trinity at the instant of the Saviour's
death ! and to commemorate the event, the
Church of the Holy Trinity was erected on

272 TOUR OF INQUIRY
one of its fragments. No doubt some future
Pope will discover a fourth fragment to verify
the truth of Pio Nono's quadrinity !
Gaeta has gained considerably in wealth and
importance since it has been hallowed by the
residence of an exiled Pope, when it was
crowded with illustrious strangers from every
part of Europe. Even now it continues to
draw a considerable revenue from the piety of
the numerous pilgrims who flock here and pay
their pauls for the honour of being allowed
to sit in the chair formerly occupied by his
Holiness Pio Nono, especially as this is reported
to be a remedy for some diseases ! Gaeta will
also be celebrated by the future historian, when
he records the various schemes and projects
of the most astute politicians of our day, who
assembled here in council to undermine and
circumvent the plans which the oppressed
portion of the European population had formed
for their deliverance from the the thraldom
of the sword and the crozier.

THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY. 273
The development of mind and intelligence
that occasionally bursts forth in the ideas and
feelings of nations, must ever be a subject of
deep interest to every man who desires in the
welfare of his species — a development which
has its periods, and seems to fly like an
epidemic, and strike simultaneously people the
most remote from each other with the same
thoughts and opinions, even where they could
not be supposed to have had any communi
cation. One of those extraordinary phases
in the history of our race, when it pleases the
Almighty to manifest Himself in the great
work of creation, by elevating His creatures
to a still higher sphere of existence, showing
Himself in the gradual workings of some
particular tribe or race to attain a higher degree
of perfection in the scale of human happiness ;
and although they may fail in the attempt, the
work never ceases ; it is transferred to another,
each phase becoming more perfect than its
predecessor, thus proving the benign care of
a merciful Providence over His creatures, and
vol. I. t

274 TOUR OF INQUIRY
that man, the most excellent of all His works,
is destined to attain a perfection such as our
finite understanding cannot conceive.
All the popular movements that have lately
taken place are nothing more than so many
attempts and struggles of the inhabitants of
continental Europe to assimilate their civil and
religious institutions to those that have found
a home in England, and rendered her so pros
perous and powerful ; and although they have
been worsted from time to time, and their
rights and privileges trampled upon with in
creased tyranny, yet such is the perseverance
of civilized man when he has once embraced
an idea, that neither worldly interest nor fear of
death can turn him aside from the path he has
chosen, ever renewing the contest when an
opportunity presents itself that offers a chance
of success. We may, therefore, feel assured
that the movement which now agitates the
mind of civilized Europe must eventually suc
ceed, and that it will tend to introduce a new
phase in the existence of man, more prosperous

THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY. 275
and happy, and more in unison with the in
telligence of the age, this no one can doubt who
has studied the history of mankind in former
ages, and compares it with the degree of in
telligence and civilization the world has attained
in the great epoch in which we now live ; and
although there is now an interval of profound
calm, which, in the history of nations as well
as in the material world, always precedes a
tempest, the day is not far distant which is
to decide the contest.
On leaving Mola di Gaeta we took the San
Germano road, on a visit to the Abbey of
Montecassino, founded in the sixth century, by
St. Benedict, on his return from a pilgrimage
to the Holy Land, and who first introduced the
establishment of monasteries and nunneries into
the western world. However much the enlight
enment of the age may condemn these institu
tions, the lovers of literature are much indebted
to this abbey for the preservation of many
interesting works of the old Greek and Roman
authors. The library of the convent still con-
T 2

276 TOUR OF INQUIRY
tains about eighteen thousand volumes, many
of them rare editions, together with nearly a
thousand original diplomas, decrees, charts, and
bulls of emperors, kings, dukes, and popes.
The environs of this celebrated monastery are
equally attractive to the lover of beautiful
scenery, interesting to the antiquarian. At
Arpino, the birth-place of Cicero, we were shown
a ruin, said by tradition to be the remains of
the house in which that great orator was born.
That here was situated a town of great magni
tude there cannot be a doubt, if we may judge
from the vestiges of theatres, aqueducts, amphi
theatres and other remains that lie scattered
in various directions ; but the country here,
filled as it is with political delinquents, is far
too dangerous in the present day for a traveller
to pursue his researches, and there were so
many idlers roving about, apparently of very
doubtful respectability, that we were glad to
take to the saddle with our guides, and gallop
back again to our inn at Mola.
Cicero must have been a great favourite with

THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY. 277
the Roman people. Between Mola and Itri we
were shown an ancient tower, said to be his
tomb, and to have been raised by his freedmen
on the spot where he was killed ; and tradition
still points out the lane leading to the sea, to
which he was hastening to get on board of a
bark that was ready to convey him from the
pursuit of his enemies.
We passed a night at the village of Itri,
the Urbs Mamurnana of the ancient Romans,
where Horace and his friend Heliodorus enjoyed
their repast of roasted thrushes. Mighty
empires, magnificent cities, pass away, leaving
scarcely a vestige behind, save in the records of
history or the voice of tradition, but the natural
productions of a country or locality remain the
same. The only dish we could procure for
supper was the identical thrushes, and they are
said to abound in the forests of myrtle and
laurels that cover the summits of the encircling
hiUs. The next town we came to was Fondi, where
Horace tells us the judge, dressed in his purple

278 TOUR OF INQUIRY
robes, received him with great pomp and
ceremony. It is now a miserable place, and
only interesting as the theatre of the romantic
tale of Julia di Gonzago, Countess of Fondi,
whose beauty having reached the ears of the
Sultan of Turkey, the amorous monarch dis
patched a detachment of Turkish soldiers,
under the command of the pirate Barbarossa,
to carry her off by force ; the beauty escaped,
but the town was pillaged by the freebooters and
then set in flames.
After passing the Torre di Confini, we came
to Terracina, so well described by Horace,
" Impositum late saxis candentibus Anxur."
Having now entered the Patrimony of St.
Peter, our passports underwent the strictest in
vestigation. Half a dollar saved the contents of
our trunks from being examined ; but when the
officials of his Holiness requested us to surrender
our weapons of defence, pistols, cutlasses, and
revolvers, all without exception, the indignation
of my American travelling companions rose to
fever heat. The officer pleaded the strict orders

THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY. 279
he had received not to permit any description
of offensive weapon, either in the possession of
natives or foreigners, to enter the Papal
dominions, adding that he would be responsible
for sending them on to Rome, when they would
be returned to their owners on leaving the
country. My friends, however, placing but
little faith in the honesty of the official, and
rather believing that the demand was made
with a view of delivering them defenceless into
the hands of the brigands, would hear of no
surrender. He now threatened to call out the
guard and compel obedience ; this was answered
with a daring defiance, and, suiting the action
to the word, with a sword in one hand and a
revolver in the other they stood on the de
fensive. The affair now assumed a serious aspect ; all
expostulation was useless with men who could
not understand the reason or justice of depriving
a traveller of weapons which he carried solely
for his own defence, and in a country where the
executive was unable to maintain social order.

280 TOUR OF INQUIRY
Happily the officer, finding that he could not
compel submission without having recourse to
force, after a great deal of vociferation and
sundry maledictions on all English and American
travellers, resigned the contest, perhaps some
what influenced by the determination visible in
the bearing of my companions, and the dread
of the fearful havoc their murderous-looking
revolvers would make among his soldiers.
Notwithstanding we made Terracina our
head- quarters for a couple of days, we heard
nothing more of the demand to surrender the
obnoxious weapons. The greater part of this
time was passed in wandering through the little
mountain villages in the vicinity ; and though
the character of the inhabitants is not so good
as it might be, and they are reported not to be
over scrupulous when the contents of a traveller's
portmanteau can be appropriated with impunity,
we were invariably treated with the utmost
civility — nay, it seemed as if they were highly
gratified with the frank confidence we placed in
their good faith. It is true we were accom-

THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY. 281
panied by our vetturino, who seemed to possess
the charm of making himself beloved by his
countrymen wherever he went; and, according
to his own account, he could travel through
any part of Italy, even the most lawless, scathe
less of danger to himself or his padroni.
The general appearance of the inhabitants of
these villages, the descendants of the ancient
Volsci, in districts free from the malaria of the
marshes, is at once robust, classical, and graceful,
with a great deal of fire and energy displaying
itself even in their wretchedness ; an indepen
dence of manner which showed how irksome
they felt it, to be compelled to ask bread from
the stranger, pleaded very much in their favour
when contrasted with the degraded spirit of the
Neapolitan beggar, which leads us to believe
that if they were under the rule of any other
power than the imbecile conclave of priests and
monks to whom their destiny is confided, they
would rapidly improve in all that contributes to
man's social advancement.
Terracina, the Anxur of the Volsci and the

282 TOUR OF INQUIRY
Trachina of the Greeks, a city that flourished
centuries before the foundation of Rome, and
which seems placed by nature in a position to
become the metropolis of Southern Italy, has
not at any period of history been remarkable
either for the deeds of arms of its inhabitants,
or their prosperity in time of peace. A singular
fatality has also attended this unlucky town,
that not one of its numerous public buildings
has ever been completely finished, neither the
palaces of emperors nor the villas of the wealthy
patricians who selected this charming spot as
their residence, a fact which may be verified,
had we no other information, by examining
their ruins. Even the gigantic works of Anto
ninus Pius, who endeavoured to make Terra
cina a commodious and safe harbour, were never
completed, an interregnum taking place when
the works were inundated with sand, then the sea
retired, and last of all came the malaria, which
ruined the town by driving from its vicinity
every human being that could afford to live
elsewhere.

THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY. 283
In a climate where winter is unknown and
the soil teems with fertility, the land in the
vicinity of Terracina is unfortunately of little or
no value to the proprietor, owing to the noisome
exhalations emitted by the swamps. In some
districts partially exempt from their deleterious
influence, cotton, indigo, and other productions
of a hot climate, arrive to great perfection ;
these, with groves of orange and lemon trees,
the graceful palm, the tall cypress, and every
species of flowering shrub, in all their rich
luxuriance, impart to the landscape the aspect
of an earthly Eden. But alas ! all these trea
sures of nature, their rich perfumes and shady
foliage, avail nothing ; the miserable husband
man becomes the victim of the poisonous
vapours which prevail here without intermission
for at least nine months in the year, and insen
sibly penetrate every fibre of the human frame,
till all chance of recovery is hopeless. Nor can
it be otherwise, when it is remarked that Terra
cina is placed in the centre of two of the most
insalubrious districts in Europe. The one is

284 TOUR OF INQUIRY
the infectious lagune that extends from the
Bedino Canal to the base of Mount Circo ; the
other the vast prairie, so fertile and luxuriant,
known as the Pontine Marshes, whose miasma
is felt in a greater or less degree as far as the
walls of the Eternal City. The effects, however,
are more fatal between Terracina and the Torre
tre Ponti, on the road to Rome, on one side,
and on the other to Itri, in the kingdom of
Naples.

THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY. 285

CHAPTER XII.
Journey to Rome — The Pontine Marshes — Causes which
led to the insalubrity of this district — Some account
of its ancient inhabitants, the Volsci — Defeat of the
Neapolitan army at Velletri by the Roman insur
gents — Sketches of the country between Velletri
and Albano — Ascent of Monte Cavo — Rocca di Papa
— Doubtful character of the inhabitants — Visit to
Frascati and Palestrina — Desolate character of the
country — Monasteries and nunneries — Their influence
in destroying the industry and morality of the people
— Observations on Papal misgovemment.
On entering the vast domain termed the
Pontine Marshes, the first object that interests
the traveller is the fountain of the nymph
Feronia, where Horace tells us he laved his
face and hands, and which still preserves its

286 TOUR OF INQUIRY
freshness and purity in defiance of time and the
contagious influence of the putrid marsh into
which it empties itself. Here we stopped our
carriage, and ascending the summit of a rock,
obtained an extensive view of the vast district
beneath, more resembling a prairie, green and
luxuriant as any in England, than a fetid marsh.
The dreary landscape was somewhat improved
by seeing here and there a group of half-wild
buffaloes, oxen, and horses, with the little straw
huts of their shepherds ; for winter having now
commenced, mild as it is in this southern clime,
man could brave with comparative impunity
the exhalations from the marshes. We could
also distinctly trace the various half-finished
canals, begun by the emperors and pontiffs of
Pagan and Christian Rome, which they hoped
would again render these fertile fields salu
brious. This vast district once formed the home of
the intrepid Volsci, powerful tribes that long
and for a time successfully battled against the
might of warlike Rome, for their country, their

THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY. 287
freedom, and their independence. The ancient
Greeks, who traded with this people before and
after the foundation of Rome, have left us
records of their commercial, industrious, and
civilized character. Pliny tells us that the
name of these marshes, Pomptino, is derived
from Suessa-Pometia, the metropolis of the
Volsci, which was built here, together with
from twenty to thirty towns and cities, indepen
dently of those on the surrounding hills, and
although in the present day their site is occupied
by villages and hamlets, they still bear their
ancient Volsci names.
What a sad reverse of fortune awaited these
miserable tribes, and what a melancholy picture
of the devouring ambition of the chiefs of
ancient Rome, who, after driving them from
their fertile plains and destroying their rich
cities and towns, pursued them to their moun
tains, where they were entirely subdued and
dispersed by Coriolanus.
The Romans could not have found their new
territory a valuable acquisition, the majority of

288 TOUR OF INQUIRY
the population being engaged in war ; and the
small band left to retain possession of the new
conquest, no doubt constantly harassed by the
remnant of the Volscians who had taken refuge
in the fastnesses of the neighbouring mountains,
were unable to devote much of their time to
agricultural pursuits ; hence the streams which
flowed from the hills over the plain, so valuable
to an industrious population when applied to
the purposes of irrigation, becoming neglected,
and no longer finding an outlet to their natural
reservoir, the sea, overflowed their banks, and
in process of time converted the entire district
into a fetid marsh, producing those exhalations
which were considered during the time of Pliny
as the cause of the bad air from which Rome
even then suffered.
" Oh, putridas exhalationes harum paludum
ventum syrophoenicum Romae summopere
noxium volunt nonnulli."
Thus the Volscians were amply revenged for
the destruction of their commonwealth; a
calamity was entailing upon their conquerors

THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY. 289
to the latest generation, a malaria that spares
neither rich nor poor, and for which no human
ingenuity down to the present day has been
able to provide a remedy.
We learn from history that the ancient
Romans were unremitting in their endeavours
to make channels for these waters so as to pre
vent their overflow. Appius Claudius carried
his road through this district from Rome to
Brundusium, made canals and bridges, the
remains of which still exist. Julius Caesar
conceived the most gigantic projects for the
improvement of these lands. His intention
was to turn the mouth of the Tiber in the
direction of Terracina, and by a constant current
of water running through the centre, effectually
drain the country. The execution of this plan
was prevented by his death. His successor,
Augustus, pursued the old system of digging
canals in different directions, which Trajan and
other Roman emperors continued down to
Theodore King of Italy, and from an inscrip
tion to be seen at Mesa, near the cathedral
vol. I. u

290 TOUR OF INQUIRY
at Terracina, it appears that the operation
was in some measure successful.
In after ages, during the reign of so many
pontiffs of Papal Rome, when these and similar
works of public utility were suspended, for
the more princely occupation of building
palaces and churches, the inundations re-com
menced with greater violence than ever, and
might have continued increasing had not the
pestiferous exhalations arising from these
marshes threatened to render Rome and the
surrounding country a desert. To remedy
the evil, Boniface VIII. caused the canals of
Appius, Augustus, and Trajan to be opened ;
but the dykes not being constructed sufficiently
strong to resist the force of the water, soon
broke down, and his labours were rendered
nearly useless.
Some of his successors continued the works,
but beyond opening the great canal of Au
gustus, and clearing some of the minor ones
of the rank vegetation, the accumulation of
centuries, nothing effectual was done till the

THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY. 291
advent of Pius VI., who for his enlightened
project of draining this pestiferous marsh,
well deserved the honour of the tiara.
Adopting the plan of drainage presented by
Signor Rapini, and regardless of expense
in carrying out a work of such great public
utility, the Via Appia, which had remained
for centuries under water, was once more,
under the guidance of this able engineer,
made available for traffic, and many thousand
acres of valuable land restored to cultivation.
Unhappily, the successors of this energetic
Pope have done little or nothing towards
ameliorating the evil ; and the insecure tenure
by which the Patrimony of St. Peter is now
held, together with the exhausted state of the
exchequer, forbid any hope of seeing, at least
in our day, the Pontine Marshes rendered habit
able for man.
The Emperor Napoleon, if he had continued
a few years longer in possession of Italy, would,
it is said, have carried into execution the vast
projects entertained by Julius Csesar for effec-
u 2

292 TOUR OF INQUIRY
tually draining these marshes. Of this no one
can doubt who has read M. Prony's " Descrip
tion hydrographique et historique des Marais
Pontins," who, it appears, was charged with
the execution of this gigantic work ; and know
ing the vast ambition and energy of the great
Corsican, it would have been completed, were
it for nothing else than that he might have
the glory of eclipsing the fame of the most
illustrious of all the Romans.
In this age of enterprise, a lucrative specu
lation is here open to a company, the draining
of the Pontine Marshes, by adopting the plan
of the great Roman — that is, to divert the Tiber
into a new channel. The priceless treasures
which lie concealed in its bed would alone be
sufficient to repay a thousand-fold the expenses
which might be incurred, and leave a hand
some surplus to enrich the empty exchequer
of Pio Nono, besides bringing into cultivation
many thousand acres of the finest and most
fertile lands in Italy.
We passed rapidly over the monotonous

THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY. 293
road that traverses the Pontine Marshes to
Cisterna, the Tres Tabernse (Three Inns)
mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles, whither
it is said the Christians of Rome repaired to
meet St. Paul. On leaving Cisterna we bade
adieu to the marshes. Every step we now
made in advance exhibited those never-failing
indications in the soil which told us that we
had entered the region of an extinct vol
cano. We remained a short time at Cora, formerly
a large and populous city of the Volsci, now
reduced to a miserable village, and only remark
able for its walls, composed of immense blocks
of stone, and the remains of the temples of
Hercules, Castor and Pollux. Nine miles
further, and we arrived at the city of Velletri,
another of those old cities of Latium founded
by the Volsci, only interesting as having given
birth to Augustus Csesar, and to the repub
licans of modern Rome as the theatre of one
of their most glorious feats of arms.
At the commencement of the siege of Rome

294 TOUR OF INQUIRY
the Neapolitan army, commanded by the King
in person, occupied the towns of Albano, Pales-
trina, and Velletri, which enabled him to form
a connecting line of operations with his allies,
the French and the Spaniards. In the mean
time the republicans of young Rome having
completely beaten the republicans of young
France, forced them to retire on Castel Guido
and Civita Vecchia ; this led to a truce, which
enabled General Garribaldi to leave Rome, and
seek the King of Naples, who, on learning the
defeat of the French on the 30th of April,
hastily withdrew his detachments from Albano
and Palestrina, and concentrated his entire force,
amounting to about fifteen thousand men, in
the strong town of Velletri. But whether the
suspicious monarch distrusted the fidelity of his
Neapolitan troops, or feared that the citizens
of Velletri would make common cause with
their brethren of Rome, certain it is that after
trying the mettle of Garribaldi and his repub
licans, who did not number a third of his men,
he took to horse, and never slackened rein till

THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY. 295
he found himself within his own territories,
followed by the whole of his army, " helter
skelter." Our guide, the landlord of the Albergo della
Pace, pointed out the different positions of the
contending armies, dwelt with all the pride of
an ancient Roman on the extraordinary bravery
of his hero Garribaldi, and confirmed the truth
of the information we had already received, that
the King himself must have been made a pri
soner, if the republican army had taken the
precaution of posting a troop or two of cavalry
to intercept his retreat. With all due allowance
for the exaggerated reports we heard, of the
bravery of the republicans, and the cowardice of
the King of Naples, the defeat of the Neapoli
tans at Velletri must have been sufficiently
decisive to have warranted such a very preci
pitate retreat. During our stay at Naples, we
repeatedly heard that the war against republican
Rome was highly unpopular with the Neapolitan
army ; and that when led out against Garribaldi,
several of the regiments refused to do battle.

296 TOUR OF INQUIRY
Be this as it may, the holy crusade of the King
of Naples, for the purpose of reinstating his
illustrious guest by the force of arms in the
pontifical chair, terminated at Velletri.
We passed a night at Genzano, and it was a
real pleasure, after wandering for several days in
the half-deserted countries that mark the boun
daries of the kingdom of Naples and the Patri
mony of St. Peter, to find ourselves in one of
the most beautiful and picturesque domains of
Southern Italy, peopled by as robust, courteous,
and healthy looking a peasantry as any in
Europe. This district has also the advantage
of being everywhere embellished by the villas,
parks, and pleasure-grounds of the Roman nobi
lity and grandees of the Church ; and perhaps
not the least interesting among its natural
beauties is the romantic Lake of Nemi — the
Speculum Dianse of the ancient Romans, im
mortalized in the song of the poet, and by the
historian. A charming drive through a lovely fertile
country, which only wants the creative hand of

THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY. 297
an industrious people to render it an Eden,
took us to Riccia, where Horace, with his friend
honest Heliodorus, passed the first night on
their journey to Brandusium.
"First at Aricia we alight,
And there refresh and pass the night ;
Our entertainment rather coarse
Than sumptuous, but I've met with worse."
Before arriving at Albano, our vetturino
pointed out the place where the famous oak
grew, under whose flourishing shade tradition
says Virgil sat while he wrote his great national
poem. The mouldering remains may certainly
still be traced of some enormous tree, that died
of age; and there are hundreds of old people
yet living in Rome and the neighbouring towns,
who will tell you that they were accustomed to
make a pilgrimage to it in honour of Virgil, so
long as it continued to show any signs of life.
The spot was undoubtedly well chosen by the
poet ; and as if he had the memory of the im
mortal author of " Iliad" in his mind's eye, the

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place was sufficiently elevated to catch a glimpse
of the Mediterranean ; and he might fancy he
beheld in Mount Albano, that rose above him
to a height of two thousand feet, a not un
worthy substitute for Mount Ida, as a residence
of the gods, to witness the combats of his
heroes. It is impossible to wander far in this classic
land of heroes and demigods, and now of priests,
saints, and madonnas, without having the atten
tion attracted by some interesting object. We
had no sooner left the haunt of the beautiful
Diana and the poet Virgil, than we came to an
elegant church and convent, dedicated to the
Queen of Heaven, and a little further, to the
ancient monastery of St. Benedict. This was
succeeded by a very singular monument, com
posed of a mass of bricks and cement, forming
together five irregular cones, which, according
to the belief of many, is the tomb of the Curiatii
and the Horatii ; and if the legend is true of the
triple duel, which gave the empire of the world
to Rome, this must be the spot where the six

THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY. 299
champions fought, and five of them fell, in
defiance of those who maintain it to be the
tomb of Pompey.
Albano is now, as it ever has been, the sum
mer residence of the wealthy citizens of Rome.
On the charming sides of its ever luxuriant
hills, where the stately palaces of Pompey, Clau
dius, and Domitian rose up in rich magnificence,
we now find those of the rich patricians of
modern Rome — the Doria, the Corsini, and the
Barbarini. We may trace in the structure of
the churches that they were formerly Pagan
temples, and in the massive walls of the palaces,
that they were erected by some emperor or
mighty lord of ancient Rome, perpetuating the
genius of a people who, if they wanted the grace
and elegance of the Greeks, surpassed them in
solidity. Again, who can tell if the enormous
oaks, which now impart so much life and ma
jesty to the landscape, were not planted at the
command of some Roman emperor, and conse
crated to the god Jupiter.
Taken altogether, Albano is one of the most

300 TOUR OF INQUIRY
agreeable towns in the Papal States, and none
more healthy as a residence. The environs, at
once picturesque and romantic, present every
species of landscape scenery, enlivened by pa
laces, villas, monasteries and churches, scattered
about in every direction on the adjoining hills,
the whole crowned by the snow-clad summit of
Monte Cavo.
A beautiful avenue, of a mile in length, lined
with splendid trees, conducted us to Castel
Gandolfo, the summer residence of the Pope,
more remarkable for the picturesque beauty of
the situation, rising above the Lake Albano,
than the classic architecture of the building.
Here we left our carriage, and made the ascent
on the back of sturdy mules to the Rocca di
Papa, a large mountain village, seated on the
summit of a volcanic rock, famous for the rustic
beauty of the women, and the robust appearance
of the men, worthy types of the descendants of
those heroes of Alba Lunga, who had so long
battled for home and freedom against their dan
gerous neighbours, the followers of Romulus

THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY. 301
and Remus. In the immediate vicinity of the
village is the plateau, still called the Campo di
Annibali, and truly the Carthaginian chief could
not have selected a better position for conduct
ing the operations of a siege, which laid before
him the immense city, with its seven hills, walls,
towers and fortifications, as if he were looking
on a map.
It is an old saying, and frequently a true one,
" the nearer the church the further from God ;"
and if rumour speaks true, the character of
these mountaineers — the immediate neighbours
of his Holiness the Pope — does not stand very
high in public estimation, since they occasionally
send forth, in times of scarcity and privation,
parties of gigantic brigands more dreaded than
any others in the papal dominions ; and to add
to the disgrace, they are said to be always secure
of a retreat in some poor fraternity of monks,
of which there are several in their immediate
neighbourhood. Our mountaineers have, how
ever, the plea of extreme poverty to offer in
extenuation of their pilfering practices : their

302 TOUR OF INQUIRY
contracted domain is of little value, with the
exception of a forest of chestnuts, and a few
spots capable of cultivation. Their best hope
of subsistence depends chiefly on the height of
the thermometer during the summer months ;
when the citizens of Rome, suffering from heat
and fever, require an unusual quantity of ice,
of which a never-failing supply can be procured
in the ridges and caverns of the mountains.
On our descent, we visited the romantic Lake
of Albano and its famous Emissario, by means
of which the water is carried to the Tiber, in
order to prevent any sudden inundation, which
might convert the plains of Rome into another
Pontine Marsh. This colossal work has been
so well executed that no repairs appear to have
been necessary since its first construction in the
year of Rome 300, by a Roman engineer of the
name of Camilla, to whom tradition assigns the
honour. However this may be, it bears the
stamp of the heroic ages, and belongs to the
same style of architecture as the Cloaca Maxima
and the Curia Hostilia.

THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY. 303
On our way to Frascati, we passed through
the little town of Marino, so well known for
the fine quality of its wines and the immense
sarcophagus, now converted into a fountain.
The said fountain is the resort of the pretty
damsels of the town now as it was in the days
of Raphael and Michael Angelo, who may be
seen in crowds at any hour in the day, still
unsurpassed for beauty and grace by any in the
Patrimony of St. Peter. Their regular expres
sive features, light symmetric forms, improved
by a most picturesque costume, the red bodice,
blue petticoat, and snow-white kerchief, jauntily
thrown over the head, present so attractive a
tout ensemble, that we might imagine they
resembled those irresistible beauties who turned
the heads of the Romans and led to the rape of
the Sabines. In the same manner they are
known to captivate many a poor artist in the
present day, when he comes here in search of
some fair form with which to adorn his canvas.
According to the doubtful testimony of tra
dition, every old town and city in Italy has had

304 TOUR OF INQUIRY
the honour of being founded by some hero of
Troy or god of Greek mythology ; while every
church, convent, or monastery claims spe
cial sanctity for its peculiar locality. Here
we have the lordly abbey of the Greek saints,
Basil, Nil, and Bartholomew, near the Grotto
Ferrata ; and a little further, on the summit of
a hill, the ruins of the ancient Tusculum, which
also has the honour of having for its founder a
demi-god of ancient Greece, whereas the name
indicates its origin, that it was built by that
great civilized people of antiquity, the Tuscans,
who reigned here in the first ages of the world,
but of whom we know little. It is much to
be regretted that the excavations commenced
here by Lucien Bonaparte have not been carried
on with more spirit and liberality, as they would
probably unfold a more interesting page of the
customs and manners of the ancients than even
Pompeii. It appears the destruction of Tusculum, by
its vengeful enemy, Rome, was so complete,
that the inhabitants were obliged for shelter to

THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY. 305
form an encampment of huts, composed of
poles, and covered with leaves of trees, which
they termed " Frasche," thus giving the name
and the site to the town of Frascati ; in the
present day one of the most delightful summer
retreats in the environs of Rome.
In every part of the Roman soil, of volcanic
origin, trees arrive to the highest perfection ;
their rich foliage adding not a little to the
beauty of the landscape, and throwing a charm
around so many of the old towns. But in no
place are their sylvan beauties more attractive
than in the neighbourhood of Frascati. Still,
however fertile and picturesque the country may
be, and possessing as it does so many spots
hallowed by the pen of the poet and the philo
sopher, a melancholy feeling is excited when
viewing the wide desolation wrought here by
the destructive hand of man. Even now, while
commerce, industry, and agriculture, stimulated
by railroads and steam navigation, have so won
derfully changed the face of society within the
last few years, and led to the progress of know-
VOL. I. x

306 TOUR OF INQUIRY
ledge, national regeneration, and the increase of
wealth and population, even in the worst
governed states in Europe, misrule seems to
have laid its devouring hand on every town,
city and village the traveller visits in this long-
neglected land.
The palace of the nobleman, or the hut of
the peasant, the monastery, the convent, or the
church, all bear upon them the stamp of decay,
as if this classic land was again fast approaching
another wide-spread ruin. In the present day
the traveller may find in the mass of ruins
before him traces of the heroic age, the grandeur
of mighty Rome and its decline ; and perhaps
some future wanderer, before many ages pass
over, may have to record in the wreck before
him the great power and magnificence that
marked the reign of a long succession of sove
reign Pontiffs, who, like their predecessors, the
conquerors of the world, having lost the power
of influencing the destinies of man, seem also
doomed to pass away and make room for other
rulers, whose laws and mode of government

THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY. 307
shall be more in unison with the improved spirit
of the age.
On leaving Frascati for Tivoli, we passed
through Palestrina, from the summit of whose
crumbling citadel we obtained one of the most
extensive and picturesque views in this part of
the Papal States. It was here that Pyrrhus the
great Epirote chieftain, a warrior equal to
Annibal the Carthaginian, and an enemy not
less formidable, stood, surrounded by his
allies, when, jealous of the growing power of
the young republic, he meditated the conquest
of Rome ; but the good genius of the Romans
still watched over the destinies of the race of
Romulus; their hour was not yet come. It
was here also, during the short-lived republic of
modern Rome, that another hero of a different
stamp, the King of Naples, surrounded by his
legions, unfurled the sacred banner of Pio
Nono ; but that prudent monarch, probably
doubtful of its efficacy to ensure victory, and
placing but little confidence in the support of
an ally so slippery as the French, seems to have
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308 TOUR OF INQUIRY
followed the example of the great Epirote king
in retiring from the contest.
On approaching the ancient Prsenesti, we are
occasionally reminded by the deep ridges worn
into the stone, that we are travelling over a
paved road, perhaps laid down before the foun
dation of Rome. We also found an entire
change in the character of the soil and its pro
ductions, everywhere perceptible in the scanty
crops and general sterility of the grey barren
rock, broken and split into glens and defiles,
informing us that we had left the luxuriant
vegetation of the volcanic region, and entered
that of the Apennines.
Before cannon replaced the arrow and the
battering ram, Palestrina, from its elevated
position, must have been a town of great
strength, and easily defended ; and that it con
tained a numerous population we have abundant
reason to believe in the history of this unfor
tunate city, when its conqueror Marius is said
to have slain twelve thousand of its warlike
citizens in one engagement. The most inter-

THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY. 309
esting monument is that portion of the walls
erected by its earliest inhabitants, sufficient of
which still remains to mark the exact boundary
of the city with its Acropolis. We can also
trace in these broken and battered walls the
first effort of man in the art of building, the
gigantic Cyclopean, then the Roman, and finally
that of the middle ages, when this town was
successively taken and retaken during the civil
wars of the great patrician families of modern
Rome, the Colonna and Barbarini.
Augustus Caesar had a palace here, and
among its ruins, and those of the famous temple
of Fortune, which once adorned the Acropolis,
several statues were found of great merit,
especially the far-famed Antinous; and here
may be seen in the Barbarini palace, the largest
and most beautiful mosaic yet found of ancient
workmanship. It is said there are curious
remains of temples, theatres, and amphitheatres
existing in this town ; but as they are enclosed
in the gardens and houses of private indivi
duals, or in the dwelling of some fraternity of

310 TOUR OF INQUIRY
monks, the generality of tourists are ignorant
of them, and they are sometimes difficult of
access. Like every other town we visited under the
depopulating sway of the successor of St. Peter,
Palestrina may now be considered little better
than a large straggling village ; and if we might
judge from the incessant demands for alms
made upon us by its poor inhabitants, they are
indeed miserable. Yet, in spite of their
wretchedness, there is an elastic vigour about
them, which even the misrule of centuries has
not been able to destroy ; and when not suffer
ing from want and privation, they are handsome
and animated, and in form, character, and
manners, a fine specimen of that noble melange
of hostile tribes which, becoming amalgamated
with the followers of Romulus and Remus,
formed a people who filled the world with their
renown. The man who has travelled over many lands,
when he sees monasteries with their lazy monks
thickly scattered over a country, feels assured

THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY. 31 I
he will find the inhabitants more than usually
poor and demoralized. The truth of this is
strikingly exemplified in the Papal States, where
nearly every second man we meet with is a
pauper, a mendicant friar, or a priest belonging
to some monastic order ; and where abbeys,
convents and churches rise up in all their
lordly magnificence, as if in contrast to
decaying towns and miserable villages with
their poverty-stricken inhabitants. In addition
to this, we have fields bearing thistles and
thorns, and every noisome weed ; no appearance
of industry, life, or animation, as if the entire
country was smitten with a moral leprosy.
In our strictures upon the discipline and
institutions of the Roman Catholic Church,
let it be distinctly understood we do not in
the slightest degree wish to intrench upon
liberty of conscience; every man has a right
to worship God in the manner he deems con
sonant with truth. We would leave our
Roman Catholic brethren what they term the
poetry of religion, its pageantry, madonnas,

3 1 2 TOUR OF INQUIRY
saints and angels, their miracles, and every
other stimulant they may require to devotion ;
but we would sweep away from every country
in which they exist all monastic institutions.
We except none, whether monks, friars, or
nuns ; independently of the loss to a country of
such a large number of its citizens, who add
nothing to its prosperity by their industry and
talents, they would demoralize in process of
time the most virtuous race in the world. Be
sides, as they acknowledge no other chief or
master than the Roman Pontiff, their existence
as independent institutions is not only dan
gerous to the liberties of mankind, but the
stability of every government that does not
bend to the jurisdiction of the same power.
A very little reflection also must convince
every man who has studied human nature, and
the effect of these ordinances upon the morality
of a people, that the power of absolution and
the confessional require the wisdom and virtue,
not of men, but of angels, for their adminis
tration. As for the celibacy of this immense

THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY. 313
army of monks, priests and friars, every man
who has resided for any length of time in
Roman Catholic countries must be perfectly
cognisant of the frightful abuses to which it
tends ; neither can he have failed to observe the
inordinate desire of this class to obtain wealth,
not. for their individual benefit, but to advance
the interests of the Church ; and for the same
purpose they seek to acquire the most despotic
mastery, politically and morally, over the mind
of man. All this might have been submitted
to in the dark ages, and some parts of the system
had then a beneficial tendency ; but to attempt
its continuance in the present day is absurd,
and must terminate, unless there is a complete
reform, in the utter annihilation of the spiritual
power of the Roman Pontiff among every
people possessed of common sense.
In making these observations, we repeat we
have no intention of wounding any man's
feelings on the subject of his religious convic
tions ; on the contrary, we merely express the
opinions of many sincere and pious men who

314 TOUR OF INQUIRY
adorn the Roman Church, but who ardently
desire a complete reformation of all those
abuses which have made the name of Popery
odious to every enlightened mind, by associat
ing it so long and so justly with the memory
of the most awful enormities that ever disgraced
and degraded the human race. Unhappily,
these excesses have led to that religious indif
ference and anarchy now so rampant, not only
here, but in every Roman Catholic country in
enlightened Europe; and which, after having
gradually undermined the rock on which lay
the foundation of papal power, sent its chief
by the popular voice of his own subjects into
exile ; and would do so again to-morrow, was
he not supported on his tottering throne by
foreign bayonets. A striking example this
of Divine Justice, which never fails to strike
when the hour of vengeance is come.
And how marvellous are the ways of Provi
dence ! the spirit of free inquiry, opened to the
world by a poor German monk and an English
priest, first paved the way to the ruin of a system

THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY. 315
of religious despotism, so admirably built up by
priestcraft, as if it was destined to live for ever.
But, as the poet truly says :
" When nations are to perish in their sins,
Tis in the Church the leprosy begins."
And how striking has been the judgment that
laid in the mire the pomp and lustre of a
hierarchy which outshone in might and splen
dour the most powerful empires of the world,
and reduced its once haughty Pontiff to the
condition in which he now is — a mere automaton
to be played with, and shifted about by every
adventurer in search of a throne, or monarch
whose object is to tyrannize over the liberties of
mankind; thus heaping a still heavier weight
of odium upon the Church of Rome, and its
feeble Pope.

316 TOUR OF INQUIRY

CHAPTER XIII.
Visit to the ruins of Adrian's Villa — Remains of the
country-house of Horace — The Emperor and the
Poet — Insalubrity of the country — The Villa d'Este
— Tivoli — Inquiry as to the origin of the first in
habitants of Rome — Arrival in the Eternal City —
Table-d'h6te — French Revolution — Dangerous excite
ment at Rome — Tranquillity re-established — Jubilee
of the Papal Church — Grand procession.
The earth builds on the earth magnificent
palaces, cities and towns ; the earth says to
the earth, all shall be mine ! How forcibly
are we reminded of the truth of this beautiful
proverb of the Eastern sage on our route from
Palestrina to Tivoli and Rome ; a district
perhaps above every other in the vicinity of

THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY. 317
the Eternal City, that abounds with vestiges
of the magnificence of a mighty people, whose
buildings were chiefly characterised by solidity,
as if they were intended to last till the end of
time. In some places, towns and cities, with
their temples and public edifices, have totally
disappeared beneath the ploughshare of the
husbandman. Even of the Villa Adriano, that
once filled the world with the renown of its
splendour, we no longer find the ruins, but the
ruins of ruins.
Time, the ruthless destroyer, having made
desolate all that the hand of the barbarian hath
spared, earth has again asserted her supremacy,
by bringing forth vegetation, so rich and luxuri
ant, that we might fancy we beheld a new-born
world. Intermingled with every species of
green herb, shrub, and creeping plant, in all
their verdant tints and shades, we see the ever
green oak, the wild fig, the sycamore, the plane,
and the olive, overshadowing here, and embrac
ing there, in a thousand folds, the mutilated
remains of what once adorned the sumptuous

318 TOUR OF INQUIRY
palace of a man, who in his day bore the
title of monarch of the world. Familiar with
the effects of nature's every-day progress, we
too often slight the cause, and forget Him who
feeds the secret fire of life by which the mighty
process is maintained, reading to doubting man
the heavenly truth — that there lives and works,
a soul in all things — and that soul is God !
At no great distance from the Villa Adriano,
among other vestiges of the villas of the illus
trious Romans, tradition points out the spot
where once stood the country-house of Horace,
equally forlorn and desolate, the abode of the
solitary owl, the bat, and the hissing serpent.
And as if nature would not be disturbed during
her process of converting ruins into fertile fields,
the whole of this district emits exhalations most
malignant to the health of any bold intruder
who should have the hardihood here to take up
his abode.
The Emperor and the Poet. What a sub
ject for a poem ! An emperor, in the pride of
his dominion and power, the enlightened friend

THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY. 319
and protector of literature and the fine arts,
conceived and executed the magnificent design
of building a palace deserving to be the resi
dence of a monarch whose empire knew no
bounds, and which was to be at the same time
a museum of all that was wondrous in art and
useful to man ; and that nothing should be
wanting to render the abode worthy of the
Muses and their imperial protector, the sur
rounding grounds were to be laid out so as
to give a microscopic view of all those won
ders of nature and art the illustrious traveller
himself had seen in the most distant quarters
of the globe.
To assist this great Emperor in carrying out
and perfecting a project so vast and difficult,
every man of taste and genius, of whatever
country or nation, was invited to his court.
Thus, with the genius of the world and bound
less wealth at his command, and at the same
time gifted himself with a mind far superior
to that of the generality of men, Alps and
mountains, rocks and caverns, seas and lakes

320 TOUR OF INQUIRY
and rivers, with specimens of their inhabitants,
natural productions and foliage, seemed to rise
out of the earth as if called into existence by
the wand of the enchanter. There was Italy,
Gaul, Germany, and Britain with their natural
curiosities and specimens of their inhabitants ;
Egypt, with its pyramids and Nile; Asia, its seas
and ruined cities ; Greece, with its temples,
statues, and gods, intermingled and adorned
with triumphal arches and trophies of Roman
valour ; the theatre and the amphitheatre, the
circus and the bath, and all the other mysteries
of nature and art that could please the eye
and gratify the senses. The whole being in
cluded within the circuit of a few miles, was
justly considered, even in that great age of
imperial pomp and architectural excellence,
to be the greatest triumph of its kind that
the labour and ingenuity of man had ever
achieved. But alas ! ages have passed by, the
lofty palace has been reduced to dust,
the beautiful creations of genius and art
availed not to arrest the progress of the

THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY. 321
destroyer : they were of the earth — earthy,
whereas the imperishable lines of the poor
poet, into which the undying soul of genius
had been breathed, remain bright and pure
as the stars of heaven, a light to guide suc
cessive generations, and to furnish one more
evidence of the immortal origin of mind.
On our route to Tivoli we visited the Villa
d'Este, more remarkable as a monument of the
taste which reigned in Italy during the middle
ages than for any pretensions to elegance and
beauty. There is an ample display of terraces,
fountains, and water-works, and other artistic
contrivances to vary the form and effect of the
grounds, all bearing the stamp of decay. We
believe that this villa is still the private pro
perty of the Emperors of Austria ; if so, it is
not an inappropriate type of the House of
Austria, to whom their great predecessor
Totilla seems to have transmitted his right
of being at once the oppressor and destroyer
of everything that is Italian.
Tivoli, the ancient Tibur, with its cascades
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322 TOUR OF INQUIRY
and rains of temples and villas, is too well
known to require description. The antiquity
of a place which, according to the testimony of
all the authors and poets of ancient Rome,
was founded four hundred and sixty-two years
before the erection of that city, must, however,
always interest the traveller. As to the legend
of a colony of Theban Greeks under their chief
Tybur having settled here, we believe it to be
nothing more than an absurd invention of
Greek philosophers, who, in the degenerate
days of their servitude, sought to establish
as a fact that the ancient Latium was first
peopled with colonies of their race.
It did not require the sagacity of a Greek
mind to discover the natural advantages of
Tivoli. With abundance of the finest water,
and a climate remarkable for its salubrity, this
charming spot must have appeared to the wan
dering shepherds of Italy at a very early epoch
a most desirable residence; and as they ad
vanced in intelligence, and their flocks increased,
the tents gave way to huts, and in process of

THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY. 323
time to more substantial dwellings, temples,
and public edifices, till at length the inhabitants
became one of the most civilized of ancient
Latium ; and thus they were found by the
hordes of Romulus and Remus, when they
were allowed to settle on the swampy marshes
now called the Campagna di Roma.
Perhaps it may be expedient here to say a
few words respecting the probable origin of
this horde of warriors, who were destined in
after days to give laws to the world.
Placing little or no faith in the doubtful tales
and traditions of a semi-barbarous people, so
prone to ascribe their origin to the illustrious
heroes and heathen deities of antiquity, we
shall dismiss to the nursery the history of
the she-wolf and all the other tales and marvels
recorded by the romantic chroniclers of ancient
Rome. The question then is, of what nation
were the chief Romulus and his followers. We
believe them to have been a Scythian tribe, and
to have originally come from some of those
countries of eastern Europe bordering on the
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324 TOUR OF INQUIRY
Dardanelles, perhaps the ancient Thracia, whose
inhabitants being in all probability allies of their
neighbours the Trojans in Asia Minor, fell
with that heroic people, and wandering from
place to place, from country to country, even
tually settled in Italy. Be this as it may, there
is a great similarity even in the present day
between the Illyrian-Slavon dialect and the
Latin ; and whoever chooses to wander over
European Turkey as we have done, and makes
himself acquainted with the various dialects of
the Slavon-IUyrian tribes, their warlike habits,
customs, manners, and republican tendencies,
will acknowledge that we have some grounds
for our theory.
That the first settlers on the banks of the
Tibur came from some distant country there
cannot be a doubt, and it is equally undeniable
that they were feared and shunned by the
natives, who would form no alliances with them,
which led to the rape of the Sabines. Again,
they spoke a language which was not under
stood by the native tribes, and experienced

THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY. 325
during the commencement of their career great
difficulties. They had to fight numerous
battles with their neighbours, who they suc
cessively overpowered, by opposing military
skill to their undisciplined bravery, which
proves they had learned the art of war on
the battle-field.
We shall not now enter more at large into
this interesting inquiry, but should any of our
readers doubt the truth of what we have ad
vanced, we can furnish him with a vocabulary,
proving the affinity between the language of
the ancient Romans and the Illyrian-Slavon
spoken in certain districts of European
Turkey up to the present time.
After entering the Campagna di Roma, we
found nothing to induce us to pause on our
journey, except that great natural curiosity the
Aqua-zola, a small sulphureous lake of the
most surprising transparency, to which we paid
a passing visit. Singular enough, the nearer
the traveller approaches the Eternal City, the
more dreary he finds the country, till at length

326 TOUR OF INQUIRY
he enters a desert of mouldering ruins, with
nothing but clouds of carrion crows, or some
solitary bird of prey to relieve the monotony of
a district cursed with the pestilential exhalations
of the malaria, during the greater part of the
year. A brilliant moon, such as is only seen in a
warm climate, rose up in bright effulgence to
guide us as we entered Rome, disclosing the
magnificent domes, spires, palaces, and rains,
that adorn a city which still maintains its rank
among the capitals of Europe, in spite of the
malaria and the cannon of republican France.
Heartily felicitating ourselves on being allowed
the privilege of once more making our home in
this metropolis of art, we drew up at the
Albergo Tedesco in the Via Condotti, conducted
by an honest German, Franz Roesler; and
although it does not rank among hotels of the
first class, there is none better in Rome.
We had scarcely seated ourselves at the table-
d'h4te, among a company of between thirty and
forty strangers, English, Americans, French, Ger-

THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY. 327
mans, and Spaniards, when a gentleman entered,
and announced that he had that moment heard of
the arrival of an estafette, bringing the intel
ligence of the outbreak of another revolution in
France. In free England, with her stable in
stitutions, accustomed as we are to hear of the
erratic political deeds of our volatile neighbours,
a revolution in France creates no greater sensa
tion than any other passing novelty of the day.
But the case is very different in every country
within the pale of despotism, and nowhere
perhaps did it cause greater excitement than in
this little state, where the progressistas assert
the grand battle must be fought and won,
before mankind can hope for a complete and
lasting emancipation from the thraldom of
arbitrary rale and priestly bondage.
The citizens of Rome could scarcely have
been in a more excited state during the bom
bardment of their city by republican France;
each party being aware of the hostility of their
opponents, regarded each other as mortal ene-

328 TOUR OF INQUIRY
mies. The sbirri seemed powerless ; the
dictatorship of General Gemeau appeared sud
denly terminated ; the liberals met in the streets,
on the promenade, in the coffee-houses, restau
rants, hotels, and private houses, and discussed
politics with as much boldness and acrimony as
if they were the subjects of the freest country in
the world. On the other hand, the news pro
duced an absolute panic among the parti pretre :
scarcely a soutane was to be seen in the streets,
and it was generally reported and believed that
the Holy Father had all his valuables packed and
was ready to start at a moment's warning for
Bologna, to place himself under the protection
of Austrian bayonets. In the meantime,
estafette followed estafette in quick succession,
until it became known to all men that the
nephew of mon oncle was the ally of the
Jesuits, and the French people not yet suffi
ciently educated to appreciate the value of
constitutional freedom.
The spell of French liberalism, French pro-

THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY. 329
gress, was now completely broken ; and those
who had been seduced to look to France as the
stronghold of democracy, and civil and religious
freedom, as if awaking from a feverish dream,
quickly relapsed into the same listless apathy
which had previously characterized them, appear
ing as if they looked forward to death as their
only chance of deliverance from the misery of
foreign bondage and priestly despotism. The
reaction was entirely in favour of papal ascend
ancy. Now that the political horizon appeared
brighter than it had done for many a day,
and feeling secure in the fidelity of so worthy
a son of the Church as Louis Napoleon, his
Holiness, in the fulness of his paternal love
for his disobedient children, and in his sacred
character as successor of St. Peter, proclaimed
a universal jubilee ; erring, and ever-sinful man
was to be absolved from the penalties of his
former misdeeds. Still the benevolence of
the pious Pope was confined to the souls of his

330 TOUR OF INQUIRY
subjects, the prison doors still remained tightly
closed for the victims of priestly misrule. For
them there was to be no pardon in this world or
the next, they must remain in the life-destroying
dungeon till death mercifully terminated then-
misery. What a mockery of religion in a man
who arrogates to himself the title of Vicar of
Christ, of that Merciful Being whose last words
were a prayer for His murderers !
The favourable change in the aspect of poli
tical affairs was attended at least with one
advantage to the visitors of Rome, since it
afforded them an opportunity of witnessing one
of those grand processions which the Church
of Rome knows how to get up with such im
posing splendour. A day was therefore set
apart for offering up public thanksgiving in one
of the churches of Rome, dedicated to the
Virgin, in presence of the Pope and the whole
of the ecclesiastical dignitaries. We shall
therefore transport our readers to the Piazza
San Pietro, and show them the pageantry and

THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY. 331
ceremony observed by the Romish Church,
when it seeks to impress mankind with the
majesty of its devotion and regal splen
dour.

END OF VOL. I.

LONDON:
Printed by Schulze and Co., 13, Poland Street.