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TIOKEIGX CORRESPONDENCE.
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paragraph , a . simile , ' can suffice to introduce such men as St . Francois die Sales , B . vLSAO . andM . de Lamaetine , there will be no reason for condemning 1 any a propos dehbites that may suggest itself to ¦ another-. discursive ' writer . Everybody , nevertheless , will read Port J ? oya £ —everybody will admire that clear and brilliant style which is daily becoming more and more inimitable , and that critical acumen which is so peculiar to M . Saixte-Beuyje . Amongst the recent publications of note , the seventeenth volume of . M . TuiElts ' s Hisioire du Oonsiilat et de 1 'JEmpire * is
unquestionably the most important . But its very importance prevents us from doing more than alluding to it here . Let us only quote the following curious passage , which the present Emperor of the French would do well to consider attentively : — " Napoleon" etait dans lc droit international ce que les Jacobins avaient . ete dans le droit social . Us avaient voulu refaire la societe , il avait voulu refaire l'Europe . Us y avaient employe la guillotine , il y employait le canon . Le . iiioyen etaifc infininient morns odieux et ento . ure d'ailleurs du prestige de la gloire . II n ' etait guere plus sense . " translation of nix
We do not know whether the idea of a new Sc .-lek ' s works was suggested to M- HACHETTE f by the centenary festival , but it was high time that such an undertaking should be attempted . 21 . Regnieij lias performed most creditably a task for which no one was better qualified , and the volumes already issued leave no room for the closest criticism . In conclusion , we shall notice an amusing duodecimo , J in which the Marquis de IMoges relates his Souvenirs of the late embassy sent to China by the French and English Governments . If the French attache \ & more sparing of details than Mr . Ohmiant , his narrative is still worth reading , and contains a lively account of the expedition .
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. Rome , 14 th April , 1 SGO . "A COUNTRY FAIR . " : 1 7 AR away amongst the Sabine hills—right up the valley of the Teverone , as the Romans now-a-days call the stream which once bore the name of Anio—hard by the mountain frontier land of Naples—^ lies the little town of Subiaco . I am not aware that of itself this out-of-the-world nook possesses much claim to notice . Antiquarians , indeed , visited it to search after the traces of a palace where Nero may or may not have dwelt . Students of ecclesiastical lore niake pilgrimages thereto to behold the famous convent of the Santo Speco , the home of the Benedictine order . In summer time , the Roman- artists wander out here to take shelter from the burning
heals of the Hat Campngna land , and to sketch the wild Sai / vatok Rosa scenery which hems in the town on every side . I cannot say , however ! , that it was love of antiquities , or divinity , or scenery > which led my steps Subiaco-wards . The motive of my journey was of a less [ romantic and more matter-of-fact character . Some few days ago , a yellow play-bill-looking placard caught my eye ' as I strolled down the Corso * A perusal of its contents informed me that , on the approaching feast day of St . Benedict , there . was to be held at Subiaco the annual festa e Jiera . Many and various were the attractions offered . There was to be ahorse race , a tombola , or open lottery , an illumination , display of fireworks , high mass , and , more than ail , a public procession , in which the sacred image of St . Benedict was to be carried from the convent to the town .
Such u bill of fare was irresistible , even had there not been added to it the desire to escape from the close , muggy climate of-Rome into the fresh mountain air , a desire whoso intensity nothing but a long residence here can enable one to appreciate . Subiaco is some forty odd miles from Rome , and , amongst the petty towns of-the Papal States , is a place of small importance . The means of communication , however , with the metropolis are of the senntiest , Two or three times a week , a sort of Italian JEilwagen , a funereal and tunible-down , flea-ridden coach , with windows boarded up so high that you cannot , seated , see out of them , and closed hermetically , after Italian fnahion , shambles along at a jogtrot pace between the two towns , and takes a livelong clay , from early dawn till late at night , to perform the journey . Other public mode of transit there ib none ; rind therefore , not having pntieneo
for , tho diligence , I had to travel in a private conveyance , and if there had boon any one else going to tho fair from Rome , which there was not , they must perforce have done tho same . As to tho details of tho journey , and the scenei'y through which you pa ^ s , aro they not written in tho book of Murray , wherein whoso likea may rend ? It is enough for me to note one or two facts , whic h tell their own story .. Throughout tho forty and odd miles of the rond I traversed , I nover passed through a single village 1 or town , with the exception of Ti ' voli j and between that town and Rome , a distance of twenty miles , never even caught sight of ono . After Tivoli , when tho rond enters the mountaiins , there are a dozen small towns or so , all porchod on the summits of high \\\\ h , under whieji the rond winds and passes , Detached houses or cottages there nro , ns a rule ,, none—^ certainly not half-a « dozen in all tho whole way along 1 . There waB little appearance pf traffic anywhere . A few rough enrts , loaded with ohnrcoal or stone for tho Roman markotB- —strings of nnilos , almost buried beneath high piles of brushwood , which wero
swung panier-wise [ across them , and a score of peasants mounted on rough country horses ,. and jogging towards the fair , constituted the waybill of the road . The mountain slopes were apparently altogether barren , or at any rate uncultivated . < In the plain of the valley , bearing traces of recent inundation from the torrent brook which ' ran alongside the road in strange zigzag windings , were a number of poorly-tilled fields , half covered with stones . I could see no traces of any thing but hard labour ; and the peasants , -who were working listlessly , seemed unequal to the labour of cultivating such thankless lands . Personally , the men are a fine race enough ; but the traces of the malaria fever , the sunken features and livid complexion , were painfully " common ; their dress , too , was worn , ragged and dirty , while the boys constantly left their work to beg as 2 passed by , a fact which , considering how little frequented this district is by strangers , struck me unpleasantly . With my English recollections of what " going to the fair " used to be , I looked , but in vain , for farmers' carts or holiday-dressed pedestrians going towards . Sub'iiico ' . I did not meet one carriage of any description , except the dilnrence without apassenger , and could not have guessed , from the few knots of peasants I passed , that there was anything going on in what I suppose 1 may call the county town of the district . By the time I readied Siibiaco , the iirsfc day . of the / . fair was at its height . The topography of the place is of the simplest description , —r ' a narrow street running up a steep hill , with a small murket-place , on which stands a church at the summit , half-a-dozen ciil-de-sac alleys on the right , terminated by ' the wall that hems in the torrent . at their feet , a long- series of nights of broken steps on the left , leading to a dilapidated castle where the Cardinal Legate ousyht to reside— -such are the main features-of the town . In fact , if you fancy Skinner ' s Street , Holborn Hill , shrunk to about a . quarter of its width , all its houses reduced to the condition " of that gaunt corner house which has excited my ungratined curiosity for years past , Newgate Gaol replaced by the faSade of a dingy Italian church , the dimensions of the localeconsiderably decayed , and a small section of the dark . alleys between Parring-doii Street and tlie prison cut off ' by the Fleet ditch , uncovered , you will have a very fair impression of the town of Subiaco . The fair , such as it was , was confined to this High ^ tveet , and to the little , square at its head . The street was filled with people , chiefly men , bartering at the doors of the unwindowed shops . A very small crowd would fill sq small a place , but I think there could hardly have been less than a thousandpersons . Cutlery and hosiery of the rudest kind . seemed to be the-great articles ot' commerce . There were , of course , an office for the Papal Lottery , which did a good trade , an itinerant vendor of quack medicines , and a few scattered stalls ( not a single bobth , by the way ) , where shoes and caps and pots and pans were sold by hucksters of Jewish physiognomy ; Lean , black-bristled pigs ran at every s-tep between your legs , and . young kids , slung across their owners ' , shoulders , with their heads " downwards , blent oil piteously . The only-sights of a private description were a series of deformed beggars , drawn m go-carts , and wriggling with the most hideous contortions ; but the i ' at woman , and the infant with two heads , and the learned dog , were nowhere visible . There was not even ah . organ -boy ur a hurdy-gurdy . Music , alas ! like prophecy , has no honour in its own country . The crowd was of a vcry hurnble description ; the number of bonnets or hats visible wight be counted on one ' s tingors , nml the fancy peasant costjumes , of which Snbiaco fair is said to be ihu great rendezvous , were Scarcely more in number . There was very lit 11 o animation apparent of any kind , very little of gesticulation , or still less of shout-ing * . Indeed , tho crowd , to do t ' hem justice , wore perfectly quiet and well behaved . The party to which I belonged , and which consisted of several Englishmen , all more , or less . attired iu those out limdish costumes which none but Englishmen ever wear , and up . Englishman ever thinks of woiiriug in his own country , excited no qonunent whatever , and scarcely attracted u passing * glance . Fancy what the effect would be of ibur blousud and bearded Frenchmen strolling- arm in arm through a village wake ! By tho time I had passed through the i ' uir , tho guns , or rather , two most debilitated old fowling-pieces , wero firing as a signal lor the race . The horses wero the same as thosi q run at tlio Carnival races in Rome ; ami as tho only difference was that tho course , besides being over hnril slippery stones , was nlcsoupft very steep lnlJ , and the race therefore somewhat more cruel ,. I did not wait to see it , but wandorpd up the hill to hoar the vespor service at tho convent of tho Sunto Speeor I should have been sorry to have miused tlio service . Through i \ number of winding ptisBngey , up flights ol mu > i * ow steps , and by terrace ledyes cut from the rook on whidi wo stood , and overhanging tho river sido , wo came to a vault-liKO chapel , with low Sumeonio arches and quaint old dark recesses , imcl a dim , shndowy air of mystery . Round tho candlo ^ ig . lUcd altar , standing brightly from out the darkness , knelt , iu uvory posture , some seventy monks ; nncl over and anon tlio dreary nasal chaining ooased , and a strain of real nuitfip came from out tho hidilon i'l >< J » r , rising and dying fitfully . Tho whole souno was buautiftil ohouct ; but—what a pity that in everything there should 1 ) 0 iv but !—wlion yo \ i came to look on ib in t ; he light of a service , the charm VaB * fa awny . There werp plenty of performore , but no . nudk'iico . y qongrogatiou coiiHisted of four peasant women , two jno « . '«" " ohild in arms . Tlio town below was , crowded . Tho service wns one of tho chief ones in the your , but sbmohow or other the poopio stopped away . , Whon tho musio was ovor , I was shown through tho convont . There wore , of ooiirso , the stock nmrvels a holo through wmou you looked nnd , behold n—almll I cnll it snorgcl P—picture of » ata > with horns nnd hoofs oomplotoj a email nipt of ground whoro " se ( l
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i . ¦ . ¦ _ . ... " - '"• ¦¦ " ¦' . ¦ . ¦ 382 The Leader and Saturday Anal yst , [ April 21 , I 860 .
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IJ . Intoit'o dn Gopsniat et do Vflmpive , l ' ar M . A . Tiuers . 8 vo . Yol J \ V XXt m t aSuerod <(« Stftiilar , Frnduotlon N ~ oui'a ( lc . Pur A a . llKcmiun , ! Sfom . bro < Io rinstltut . flnris Qfc Londroa . Mftohotto . 8 vp . Vols . I . to VI . p fiauvenirs 'd ' vno 4 nil ? a 8 McU en Qhhio et an Japan en 1057 et , 3 S 58 Vwv le JMimiuIs » w Mooes . P (\ ris ot Londres . Hoohotto . 12 mo .
Tiokeigx Correspondence.
TIOKEIGX COIIRESPONDENCE .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), April 21, 1860, page 382, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2344/page/18/
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