which relies for its preservation on its Divine origin, can never be involved in the ruin of any ecclesiastical system whatever. Still it must be conceded there is a great deal of scepticism to be found here and there among the people, the effects of the long rule of the French, as if that fatal nation were destined to be the destroyer of the Church of Rome, formerly as enemies, now as friends.

Happily for the well-being of society and the advancement of true religion, there is now in Italy an under-current influence, guided and directed by her own intelligent sons, which neither the intolerance of priests, nor the shallow philosophy of a giddy Frenchman, can arrest— a desire to establish a church on pure evangelical principles; and though a general manifestation of this is retarded through political influence, and the dread of that fatal combination of Jesuitism and despotism now the order of the day, for the suppression of thought, it is more than ever silently making way. The majority may publicly profess their faith by attending mass and going to confession, through fear of

being sent to answer for their heresy at the footstool of the Sacra Consulta, but Popery, as a creed, we may rest assured has lost for ever its influence over the minds of the people of Italy.

Even in the absence of conviction, the obstinacy with which the intolerant rule of Popes and Jesuits is being continually forced on an outraged people-a rule to which they ascribe the misery of their country and their own slavery-would be sufficient to awaken that fierce spirit of hostility which we now see manifested by Young Italy to everything connected with or that savours of Popery. We may also be assured this spirit will never rest till it has removed the cumbrous ruin that so long stood in the way of all social progressnational independence; and the noblest pledge the Italians could give of their being ripe for more generous institutions, is the tolerant conciliatory spirit that reigned among them at a time when all the fiercest passions of man's nature might be said to be allowed a free scope.

What a sad contrast with the awful calamities

that ensued, when, overcome by the Austrians in one direction, and betrayed by the French in another, they fell victims to the vengeance of their cruel rulers, showing to the world that the Italians were capable of governing themselves, gained a great moral victory over the coalesced powers of bigoted Europe, and laid the foundation of a future Italy, destined to be ruled by its own Italian Church, Italian institutions, and Italian government.

VOL. II.

I

CHAPTER VI.

The prisons of Rome-Sufferings of the prisoners for political offences-Their severe confinement-Their insufficient food-Frequent occurrence of death or insanity in the prisons-Pretended inspection of the prisoners Administration of justice in the Papal States Political and religious persecution in the Papal States-Insecurity of Papal power-Opinions of the ultramontane writers respecting EnglandThreat of a general crusade against the stronghold of Protestantism-The great influence of England acknowledged by despotic powers.

WE have said that on the re-establishment of the machinery for the administration of Papal power, persecution had again become the order of the day in the Papal States. Without depending altogether on our own gleanings to

prove the truth of our assertion, the statements of a people highly incensed against their rulers being often highly coloured and exaggerated, we shall refer to the work of another Italian author, "Le Prigioni di Roma," by Ernesto Burdelli, Avvocato alla Corte d'Appello, a gentleman whose profession as barrister afforded him many opportunities of acquiring a correct knowledge of facts, which could not possibly have fallen under the observations of a stranger. We regret that our limits will not permit us to give more than a faint outline of his work, which was published in 1851, by Demaria and Co., Torino.

In this publication, the reader will find every statement confirmed by the name of the individual sufferer, together with a clear exposition of the judicial system exercised by the Sacra Consulta at Rome-its sudden, mysterious, and arbitrary measures carried into execution by priests, Jesuits, and police agents, terminating with a harrowing picture of the unhappy prisoner whose hard fate has consigned him to ncarceration in a dungeon of Papal Rome. The