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are -wont to preface great changes and revolutions . We have often wished that the prophecy had been as explicit as it was correct . We should much like to know what those , symptoms were on which that cynic Solomon founded his diagnosis . We presume , however , that , mutatis mutandis , the symptoms of a nationV dissolution must be much the same as that of an individual s bankrup tcy . When customers begin to fall off and bankers to look coldly—when clerks' wages are over due and the office rent is in arrears— - when creditors call and are put off from day to clav ^—when cheques are returned and no
business is done , and the books are no longer posted , you may conclude , without much danger of error , that the end of that house or business is at hand . From the ' moment . we entered the Papal State to the hour we left it , this sort of premonitory foretaste of bankruptcy weig hed upon us . There was bankruptcy in the half-cultivated fieldbankruptcy in the tumble-down towns—bankruptcy in the ragged garbs and careworn faces of the people—bankruptcy in the very air you breathe . The road from . Siena to Rome is , at the best of times , a dismal one ! It is one of the chief , if not the most important , of the Papal post routes ,
traversed yearly by thousands of wealthy travellers . There is every inducement for that moderate amount of enterprise and speculation which the presence of travellers produces elsewhere , even in the most stationary countries ; but the dull * stagnant oppression of Roman niisgovernnient overpowers all symptoms of life and energy . The road , which , like all the highways of Italy , owes its existence to the rule of the first Napoleon , is good enough in an engineering point of view , but falling into decay from long neglect , and want of repair . The inns are a sort of cross-breed between a hovel and a barrack , nombinino- the native dirt of an Italian Alberto
with the discomfort of a German Wirth's Haus and the exorbitant charges of a Germain-street hotel . The whole country is bare and dreary . The peasants , whom you meet at rare intervals , have a sort of bandit look ; and all alike beg , with a sort of scowl by no means exhilarating to a nervous traveller . Ever and anon you pass by some roadside heap of stones , -where the wooden cross on the summit of the pile warns you that on the spot you are treading , some scene of murder and bloodshed occurred , not too long ago for the cross to have fallen into pieces . From time to time , too , a patrol of mounted dragoons conies by and inspires unpleasant recollections of Adelf phi melodramas , which are by no means , so cheerful on a barren aud desolate moor as in
the shrine sacred to Wrig ht and Bedford . We know not , however , whether the towns themselves are not more depressing than the open country . We looked in vain along- the whole route for any trace of a house having been built , or even repaired , since the last time— -more than ten years before—that we had travelled over the same road . The streets seemed , if possible , dirtier , the houses more dilapidated , and the inhabitants more
squalid than of old . Indeed , throughout the whole Roman States , we should think the race of masons and carpenters must be extinct . The only trade that flourishes , or , rather keeps in existence , is the priesthood . Every man in ei g ht , so statistical authorities inform us , is a priest . For our own part , we should be q _ uito ready to believe that there were more priests than laymen .
It was at Homo especially that this mystery of the priosthood pressed most heavily _ on our enquiring minds . How can so many priosts find means of livelihood ? and how can , they find any conceivable occupation ? were questions to which wo could , never obtain a satisfactory reply . To ouv latter query , the only approximate solution we could obtain from one well informed on those matters , was that in the small convents and churches surrounding tho Eternal City each day was certain
to bo tho " Festa " of some saint or martyr , or other , and that tho priests walk out in troops to this ^ particular shrino , whichever it , may bo , and having said a fow prayers , return homo again , managing in this way to kill a little timo , to gain a small amount of appetite , and to contribute somewhat to Jiheir future welfare , killing thus , in faot , threo birds with one stone—two temporal and one spiritual . Move dull , listless , and unintelleotual faoes ( than those of nine-tenths of the Roman priesthood , it is impossible to conceive .
You can tell at once the young . English proselytes , whom , you meet now and then in the streets , by the brightness of their looks , and , let us add , the cleanness of their hands . Any man may become a Roman Catholic , but if . takes three generations at least to acquire the proper pecu-r liar Papal dirt which distinguishes the true believers . We were told a story , on good authority , which , whether it be true or not , illustrates that state of bondage to ceremonial rules and clerical etiquette , which forms one of the especial banes of priestcraft in Rome . A cardinal
is never to be seen on foot , Bike the Queen of Spain , he is not supposed to possess legs- The other day , one of the youngest of the Roman cardinals had to perform early morning service at a church not a minute's walk from , his house . The annoyance of having to ascend and descend and wait for his carriage was so great , that he at last resolved on the startling innovation of walking to the church in question . Before many days he was summonsed by the Pope himself , and
rebuked for his breach of decorum . On remonstrating , he was informed by the Holy Father that , there was nothing , either in this world or the next , he could not grant to his prayer , but that to allow a cardinal to walk on foot , was a power not conceded even to the successor of St . Peter . After all , perhaps the Pope was right . Who knows but the old riddle of Majesty , stripped of its externals , might . not apply to a cardinal without his purple stockings ?
The most striking sight , however , in all Rome , to our eyes , was the presence of the French troops . You came on them at every turn , in knots of two or three together—seldom alonenever by any chance in company with Italians . Every -hour almost you heard the sharp rattatat of the French drums , and the sound of their quick brisk march . In the Forum , by the Arch of Titus , beneath the Colosseum itself , they were always being exercised and drilled , and as you looked at them , however unclassical your mind miffht be , you could hardly help recalling the old
days when Kome was invaded by the barbarian Gauls . The French army is an anomaly in that dead , silent city . They can hardly , we think , have a pleasant time of it there . The Romans , to do them justice , have manliness enough to show their dislike of the foreign occupation . The French , socially speaking , are tabooed . At the public balls , no Italian lad y dances with the French officers . With the exception of the houses of a few of the Roman princes , who have married
foreigners and become de-nationalised , they are said to be admitted to no native society at all . What , however , struck us most was the extent to which this feeling was shared by the common people . During ^ the Carnival the Corso was crowded with French soldiers . Everywhere there was the greatest good humour and merriment , but the presence of the French was obviously ignored . Nobody insulted them—nobody pelted them . There were no ; nosegays thrown at them . They were simply passed over with a silence m ore expressive than tho most
vehement vituperation . Indeed , the traces of Fronoh violence are too fresh for tho Romans to forget , Tho miserable saplings which replace the fine old trees of the VOla 13 orghcse , toll where the invading forces were stationod . The now gateway hard by " San Pietro in Montorio , " reminds one of tho old gapo , that was battered down by tho French guns , when tho breach was effected . In the walls of tho city itself you can still sob thp imbedded cannon balls .
However , to do tho French justice , tho outward aspect of Rome has improved beneath their rule—tho streets are brighter and cleaner , tho shops moro luxurious , and tho roads near tho town better kept . Not having tho feelings of an Italian , it is impossible not to feel some satisfaction at the security given to order and . tranquility by their prosoncc . It will bo an evil day for the shopkeepers and houseowncrs of Rome when the Iwporial legions march out of tho city . NTevertholesa , the very fact that wo observed some hundreds of iro&u troops enter the city at the very timo when , Louis Napoleon was boasting of his desire to withdraw his armies , confirmed us in tho belief , which we hold from other reasons , that tho evacuation of Rome is likely to bo contemporaneous with tho Greek Calends .
question of the future * " There is no political in which it is not involved , " and "the new conditions " in which " it now presents itself , " especially the growing demands of the democracy , make it peculiarly ; interesting to all the aristocratic and Conservative part of . society . By it , and in its presumed interest , and not by the democracy which only seeks to share the political power already organised , without elaborately inquiring into its origin , is the discussion begun . Now , b y this party it is painfully perceived that the majority can be unjustly tyrannical . Till now it was usually , though silently , assumed that the select few , which has been neither be
act MILL ON POLITICAL LIBERTY . The public is much indebted to Mr . Mill for having opened a discussion on " the nature and limits ° of . the power which can be legitimately exercised by society , " whether organised into a state or a mere aggregation " over the individual . " His purpose is ° nothing less than tp investigate the principles of all corporate authority , the very basis of political society . This subject , he correctly says , " is hardly ever discussed in general terms ; " " but it profoundly influences the practical controversies of the age by its latent presence , and is likely soon to make itself recognised as tile vital
called the upper ten thousand , could unjust nor tyrannical , and to all its commands , embodied into laws , the majority was required to pay implicit obedience . Now , amis are required to defeat the claims of the multitude to political power , and they are sought in the prmcijples on which the authority of the mass can be legitimately exercised over the individual . The change ; in the direction of general thought makes the subject onwhich Mr . Mill provokes discussion , which is at all times important , embracing all our social duties , now peculiarly interesting . > In the present confused condition of parties and ordinary political principles , when society is actually without leaders , we find another strong reason for now going back with Mr . Mil to the
natural source of all political organisation—trie power of society over the individual . First principles must at some time be discussed—nay , they ought at all times to be so much discussed as to be recognised and followed as the only safe guides whenever a multiplicity of details , and many new and conflicting opinions makes an old policy no longer i ^ racticable , and the new policy required is . neither defined nor known . We propose , there- ' fore , in one or two articles to adyert in some detail to Mr . Mill ' s book , and the great subject he treats of , trusting that while we do our duty to the public by speaking fearlessly , and with all our knowledge , on this great and exclusively secular Subject , we shall treat him with tlie deference due to liis great works and his great reputation .
Those who are familiar with his writings will be aware that the work on liberty only continues and completes a train of thought expressed at the close of his work on Political Economy . On this subject , therefore , he is justly considered as an authority . He is continually referred to , and 'is said to have hazarded a great reputation b y ¦ condescending at the same timo to instruct the public in the practical question of Parliamentary Reform . For this attempt we honour , liim much ; for it is the duty of those who * like him , have acquired influence by their writings , to help in guiding the public right in a time of doubt and difhculty . By Conservative writers ho is quoted as an authority against the claim of every man to an equal
share of representation , and his double mliuenceas an abstract thinker and a practical politician increases the necessity for subjecting his work to a rigid scrutiny . Before following him , Liberals ana Conservatives should be convinced that ho is worthy to lead . Wo propose , in the first instance , therefore , to lay before our readers one or two examples of tho eccentricity , at least , if not tho error ot Ins conclusions , and shall afterward * examine more closely tho abstract princip les from winch the conclusions are deducecf . ' Ifwc worondt well nware that the most profound speculative thinkers of modom times , when they have directed their attention to society from tWFrcnch economists to Mr . Mill , have naturally , and almost necessarily been much interested , not to sav onffroseod , by some one grout and important , siiouia do
thou gh temporary circumstance , wo surprised that Mr . Mill , like tho gentlemen who con-Ki-offato at clubs and impart their fears and errors to ono another , should bo in the least alarmed at t ) i © growing ascendancy of society , by reason ot Ate
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-KTo . 471 , April 2 , 16359 , ] THE LEADER . 435
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), April 2, 1859, page 435, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2288/page/19/
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