when he looks at the long and honorable array. In the first room are six busts of eminent foreigners, whose genius was considered naturalized by their long residence in Rome; and among them, if his future progress be commensurate with the rank which he has already attained, may hereafter be found the bust of our own sculptor, Crawford.” '

2

1

In another place he furnishes us with an extract from a Roman paper, in which Crawford is highly eulogized, as well as the country which gave him birth, as follows:

We hope very soon to learn that the country of this valorous sculptor, which raises so many monuments worthy of her power, has made use of the chisel of this young man to honor some of his fellowcitizens, and at the same time herself; and that she has thus shown herself successful above every other nation, while it is given to her to exalt with honors and rewards the living who render her glorious, and at the same time to procure by the arts immortality for the dead."""

He gives us a very graphic and beautiful sketch of another illustrious foreigner, the German Overbeck, supposed by many to be the first painter in the world, at least since the death of Baron Camuccini:

"First among the painters is Overbeck, the German Raphael, or rather Perugino; for he condemns the later manner of the prince of painters, and says, 'when Raphael forsook Perugino, God forsook Raphael.' Another apothegm attributed to him, is that no one can be a good painter who is not also a good man.' His own practice realizes his theory. He is a most devout Catholic, and consecrates all his genius to religious subjects, which he treats with the utmost purity and elevation of style, and with a simplicity and freshness which appeal directly to the heart. His studio (in the old Cenci palace) is open to visitors on Sundays for an hour in the afternoon, and each of his pictures preaches an eloquent sermon. He receives you with extreme courtesy, but you feel hushed into reverence by his gracious, introspective, and saint-like countenance. Himself the great original he draws,' he looks into his heart,' and paints. Upon his easel, at my first visit, stood a pencil cartoon of Christ reproving the Pharisees,' and the ideal propriety of expression was faultlessly perfect. As I examined the picture, Overbeck stood beside me, gazing earnestly on it, with clasped hands and parted lips, as if he was wholly absorbed in the subject."

He admits the utility of paintings in churches in the following passage, in which he is speaking of the gallery of the Capitol :

"Many of the pictures are specimens of the early schools of art, hard and formal, yet possessing much simple sweetness. Most of this class are taken from old churches, in which they served as altar-pieces, or as decorations, preserving there the semblances of the saints, and telling on the walls the stories of sacred history for the benefit of the pious unlearned, who could read them only when thus narrated in this universal danguage."

Of the beauty and splendid decorations of the Italian churches he bears the following honorable testimony:

"The readers of travels in Italy become heartily tired of the churches, which are so often commended to their admiration, but they should

1 Page 38.

3 Il Tiberino; Giornale Artistico. 17 Feb, 1810.

4 Page 179-80.

2 Page 191.

5 Page 40.

charitably call to mind that these edifices constitute a very large proportion of the intellectual food of the traveler. Little would need be said of them, if they were such bare and tasteless barns as are too many of the houses of worship in America, but in Italy the highest genius of the best architects, sculptors, and painters, has lavished on them centuries of its poetic labors. Kings have left their own palaces unfinished, and devoted their revenues to adorn the abode of the King of kings. The finest minds of the nation have left their impress on these shrines of magnificence; the noblest conceptions of the architect- that poet in stone-have been here imbodied; the painter has summoned his highest skill when called upon to represent some touching event in sacred history for the instruction and improvement of the unlearned devout; the sculptor has here left his masterpieces in the statues of the great men, heroes, divines, and poets who lie beneath the marble pavement; and every church thus becomes an interesting volume in the history of the past, recording the great deeds of mind as well as of body. The churches of all Catholic countries are generally in the form of a cross.' At the extreme end is the high altar, and along the sides are arranged smaller ones (dedicated to various saints), over each of which hangs a sacred picture, oftentimes a masterpiece of art. No pews or benches cumber the marble pavement, but a few chairs are clustered before the altars. THE CHURCHES ARE NEVER CLOSED AGAINST WORSHIPERS, AND ENTER THEM AT WHAT HOUR YOU MAY, YOU WILL ALWAYS FIND SOME DEVOTEES KNEELING BEFORE THEIR FAVORITE ALTARS, AND SEEMINGLY

ABSORBED IN THEIR PRAYERS. They are generally old women of the poorer for those who find little enjoyment in this world naturally class seek for it in another; (!) but at high mass ladies of the highest wealth and birth kneel on the pavement beside the beggar; and at other times a fierce looking man is often seen prostrating himself on the altar steps, and apparently repenting most sincerely of some great crime." 2

This is saying a great deal for the vital piety and religion of the Romans; much more, we venture to say, than could be said even by a Protestant in favor of the piety of any Protestant country in the world, our own not excepted. And we can testify, from our own observation during a residence of more than four years in Rome, that the above statement far from being exaggerated, falls very much short of the truth. Daily devotion in the churches is not confined to pious old ladies and fierce looking men; it pervades all classes and grades of society.

The Romans are as charitable as they are pious, as the following extract shows:

"But even admitting the faults of the Roman people to be as great and as numerous as their worst detractors charge, they would be made pardonable by their warm-hearted charity, which covereth a multitude of sins.' Their practical benevolence surpasses that of any other nation. The many poor among them share their mite with the poorer; the very beggar who has been fortunate in his alm-seeking, divides his gain with his less lucky comrade; the rich bestow bounteous and systematic charity; and the number and magnificence of charitable establishments for the relief of suffering humanity are unapproached in any other country of Europe. Hospitals for every form of disease, and for all

1 Rather doubtful; - the existence of lateral chapels does not always prove this.

2 Pages 45, 46.

classes of the wretched, abound in every city, and their inmates are zealously and kindly tended by self-sacrificing sisters of charity, who devote themselves to these painful duties, in the just belief that they are thus rendering the most acceptable religious service. Other charitable offices are performed by various confraternities, similar to the misericordia of Florence. Of these, one secretly sends relief to needy but respectable families; another pays off oppressive debts, contracted by the honest poor in times of sickness and accident; another relieves friendless prisoners; another seeks out the sick poor; and another still, when all other benevolent exertions have proved faithless, carries the dead with decent ceremony to the grave. When we find the feelings which prompt these manifold acts of kindness, extending through every class, we can pardon them their transgressions of some other points of the moral law."`

Most travelers in Italy complain of the annoyance occasioned by beggars; but had they as much charity as the Italians would seem to possess from the above testimony, they would not be so much annoyed at being asked for an alms in the usual humble and religious manner of the Italian beggars, who always approach you asking a pittance "per l'amor di Dio - for the love of God." There is this difference between the Italians and some other more enlightened nations, that whereas the former allow the poor to enjoy their personal freedom, and to seek, if they choose, relief from the well known and exhaustless charity of the public, the latter immure them in poor-houses, as if poverty were a crime! Our New Yorker joins in the general outcry against mendicants; but we were almost gratified to find that he was annoyed by English and American, as well as by Roman beggars, and this in Rome itself!? It seems that English and American adventurers in Italy not unfrequently attempt to levy contributions on their countrymen in this way, and sometimes under false pretexts. We knew of one such case ourselves, in which the mendicant was a New Yorker. Our author did not, it seems, chance to fall in with the merry Roman beggar, who, on being refused an alms under the usual form 66 - non c'è, caro mio I have nothing my dear sir," exclaimed, laughing, "I wish I had been born in one of your pockets!" But in the following passage we recognize another old acquaintance, pretty faithfully drawn, with the exception, perhaps, of the decorations borrowed from dame rumor:

"Many of them have regular stations, and the grand flight of steps leading up to the Trinità dei monti is occupied by a jolly old fellow, who runs about the landing places on his hands and knees, to which are strapped pieces of wood. He bids a cheerful good morning to every one who comes down or up the scala, and clatters up to them on his wooden shod extremities, expressing his pleasure that they are going to have such a fine day to see the beautiful city, and finishing his gossip with the laughing inquiry, and how much is your generous excellency going to give me this morning?" Half a cent makes him very contented, and he will readily change a whole one, returning a half cent with profuse thanks. He is said to have become quite rich at this business, and to have lately given his daughter a wedding portion of five hundred dollars."4

1 Pages 200, 201.

8 Another grammatical error..

2 Page 159-60.

4 Page 158--9.

Speaking of the Italian wines, our author makes a very judicious remark, which has often struck us with great force, as to the influence of their general use on the great cause of temperance. Drunkenness is a vice almost unknown in France, Spain, Italy, and other wine countries; and we have no doubt that this circumstance, together with the greater cheerfulness and sociability of the people, is owing in a great measure to the general use of wine, not so much as a beverage as an article of diet. He says:

"The great cause of temperance among us would receive extensive and permanent benefit from the cheap manufacture, from our native grapes, of similar beverages, as harmless, if not beneficial, in their effects, as they are agreeable in their flavor."

He admits also though we really cannot award him much credit for the admission that "the monasteries were the asylums of learning during the dark ages;" and adds: "Nothing has been made in vain — not even monks and few bodies of laymen have left behind them more titles to the gratitude of posterty than the much abused wearers of the monastic robe and cowl." Of the mendicant friars he does not entertain so high an opinion, though he admits that "they conduct themselves with extreme outward propriety, and are seldom seen in the streets after dark, or in any place of public amusement;" and that "though much is said of their immorality, nothing is proven." One would think that Christians, and especially charitable Christians, should not charge on others crimes of a grievous nature, without sufficient proof, and on mere suspicion; yet the contrary practice prevails to a deplorable extent, and this is precisely the reason why most of our fashionable books of travels paint Catholic countries in colors so dark and hideous.

Our New Yorker devotes a chapter to the Vatican, of which he furnishes us with perhaps as good an account as could have been given in so contracted a space :

"By the side of St. Peter's stands the Vatican palace; and it is a worthy companion of the great cathedral, not so much for its architecture, or its extent, . . . . as for its unparalleled collections of sculpture and -painting. The statues from Greece and ancient Rome, the antique sarcophagi, vases, candelabra, altars, and inscriptions, the paintings of the divine Raphael,' and the like, here fill galleries, saloons, halls, and temples, worthy of the priceless treasures, and have all been collected into this focus of splendor by the liberality and taste of successive Popes, who have thus made the Vatican even more famous as a metropolis of art, than it was in former days of the spiritual forge from which were fulminated the terrible bulls against heresies and insubordination, which 'with fear of change perplexed monarchs.'"''

Were all these invaluable treasures to be found in England or America, no one would probably be admitted to see them, unless on condition of paying a good round sum for admittance. Thanks to the liberality of the papal government, and to the fact that it has not advanced so rapidly as

1 Page 129.

2 Page 154-5.

3 Page 67.

its neighbors in the golden career of enlightenment, this is not the case at Rome, nor in any other Catholic country with which we are acquainted. The curious traveler may visit all the churches, palaces, villas, libraries and museums of Rome, without paying one dollar. Thus the Vatican museum, decidedly the richest in the world, is thrown open to the public on the evenings of two days in each week, Mondays and Thursdays. In the magnificent villa Borghese there is a Latin inscription, of which the following is a translation:

"The guardian of the villa Borghese makes this proclamation: Whoever thou art, if free, do not here fear the shackles of the law. Go where thou wilt, seek what thou wishest, depart when thou pleasest. These things are prepared for strangers rather than the master. He forbids me to impose severe restrictions on a well-mannered guest. Let good intents here be the only laws for a friend. But if any one willfully, knowingly, maliciously, should break the golden laws of urbanity, let him beware lest the provoked keeper should in turn break his tessera of friendship."'

If one of the haughty English aristocracy, or even if one of our own nobility of wealth and rank should issue any such proclamation as this, how we would all stare, and how unmeasured the strains in which his praises would be sounded by every mouth! It would, indeed, be a moral phenomenon; a refreshing exception to the iron-hearted mammonism which freezes the sympathies, withers the feelings, and crushes the very heart of our enlightened age.

Our author says that, with the exception of theological study and its cognate branches, "every other species of knowledge is not merely neglected, but positively discouraged; " yet, in almost the same breath, he admits that "instruction in the mere elements of knowledge-reading, writing, arithmetic— and religion is indeed bestowed on the people with great copiousness, since in Rome, with a population of one hundred and fifty thousand, (nearer one hundred and sixty thousand,) there are three hundred and eighty primary schools, which employ four hundred and eighty teachers, and receive fourteen thousand scholars ;" and he might have added that Rome has, moreover, twenty-four colleges, one university, and many excellent schools of the fine arts. He attempts to explain away this palpable contradiction between his theory and his facts, by the assertion that those schools are "under the direction of the priesthood," who take this singular means to discourage learning and keep the people in ignorance! Of the late Pope he says:

"His Holiness, Gregory XVI, is an old man of seventy-eight, with very white hair, and a rubicund face, from which projects a long and red truly Roman nose. His benevolence, learning, and honesty of purpose, have secured to him the love and respect of the people in an unusual degree, but he is too feeble and infirm to hope to enjoy it much longer. As he entered he blessed us all, making the sign of the cross in the air with his finger, kneeled a moment before the altar, and was then assisted to mount his episcopal throne. Each of the cardinals in turn, with their

1 Page 167.

2 Page 195.

4 We believe his nose is neither peculiarly red nor Roman.

3 Page 196.