or Chauvin is therefore known to within a Louis or two; so that a foreigner, frequenting the society of the Romans, might purchase at a fair price any picture he took a fancy to from the painters themselves. But these artists, disgusted with the dialogues they had to sustain with English would-be-connoisseurs, an example of which I have given above, refuse at present to treat personally for the sale of their productions, but send them to regular picture-dealers. I have heard Englishmen boasting at the Duke Torlonia's (their banker) of the bargains of pictures they had got for sixty or eighty Louis, which pictures were known, to all the Romans present to be worth, at the utmost, fifteen or twenty Louis. Every one laughed in his sleeve at these pretended connoisseurs; and, owing to their habitual haughtiness and reserve, no one felt inclined to point out to them the imposition practised by the picture-dealers.-It may be supposed from the foregoing remarks that I hate the English-far from it. English and French civilization has no warmer admirer than myself. Great Britain and France are for me, the two first countries in the world. But I cannot patiently witness their undisguised contempt for Italy, which, if Napoleon had reigned over it twenty years longer, would have been at least on a par with them. Englishmen, if they wished to take advantage of it, might find peculiar facilities for entering into Roman society. The handsomest woman in Rome has married an Englishman, the learned Mr. Dodwell. But the Italian, the most nervous and sensative of beings, is immediately repulsed by that expression of hauteur and mistrust so generally sculptured upon the British countenance. My motive in telling these harsh truths is, that those young Englishmen, under whose obsrevation they may happen to fall before setting out for Italy, should divest themselves of this appearance of disdain and distrust; and above all, that they should avoid giving way there to those excesses of temper, which even in their own country could not be indulged in with impunity. They should recollect that force is every thing at Rome. Respect for the aristocracy not being backed there, as in England by a rigid code of laws, is hollow and of little avail. In Germany or France, if a peasant is insulted by his neighbour he gives him a blow with his fist; in Rome the blow is given with a knife. During Pius the Sixth's reign of twenty-four years there were committed sixteen thousand assassinations, which make nearly two each day. This excited no astonishment, nor did any one seek to prevent its recurrence. Assassination at Rome does not produce the same moral effect or profound horror which accompanies it in the more civilized countries of the North of Europe. However, the wise administration of General Miollis and the French Gendarmerie had nearly succeeded in extripating the custom. The foreigners who flock to this great city, seem either to be ignorant of, or to neglect, the means of amusing themselves. This they might easily find, by cultivating the society of the principal inhabitants, whose conversation is full of fire, genius, passion, and enjouement. The English and Russians, on arriving at Rome, find themselves deprived of their accustomed society, and surrounded by new habitudes; and the only recreation they seek for is in the exercises of their admiration, by exploring the ruins of antiquity, and visiting the galleries of sculpture and painting. This regime, however, soon palls upon them, and after a few weeks they fall into a state of profound ennui. Scarcely one of them seeks to avoid the dreadful visitation by forming an intimacy with the good society of Rome. And yet this is not a matter of very difficult achievement. Almost every evening the ambassadors of France and Austria, the Prince de Montfort (Jerome Bonaparte), the Princess Borghese, the Duke Torlonia (banker), &c. receive company. It is in these assemblies that foreigners perceive the good company of Rome; I say perceive, for it can scarcely be said that there is any intercourse between them. If a foreigner address a Roman, he seldom fails, though in very polite terms, to communicate to him all that has struck him as ridiculous or odious in Rome: so that a Roman, to escape the humiliation attendant upon such unpleasant truths, avoids as much as possible the conversation of foreigners. Owing to the strictness of Roman etiquette, it is only the families of the high noblesse-the Altieri, Gabrielli, Falconieri, &c. that are met with in the circles above ailuded to. What is called the Cetto di Mezzo, the wealthy bourgeoisie, is not admitted into them. This is unfortunate for foreigners, for the Cetto di Mezzo is the class which has most profited by the sojourn of the French. Most of the young men belonging to this class have received a tolerable education. They are, for instance, enthusiastic admirers of Lord Byron : the news of his death was received by them with profound regret. I should therefore recommend Englishmen who visit Rome, to seek the acquaintance of the young men of the Mezzo Cetto. The high English society, with the exception of the late Duchess of Devonshire, and a very few others, kept aloof from the Roman nobility, though meeting them almost every evening at one or other of the assemblies already mentioned. The most agreeable of these conversaziones was at the hotel of the French ambassador, the Duke de Laval, a very affable person, who had been the intimate friend of Madame de Stael, Madame Recamier, and of Ferdinand VII. of Spain. In his magnificent saloons there assembled, between eight and nine o'clock, three hundred persons of the first distinction, Roman and foreign, amongst whom might be counted the fifty handsomest women in Rome. It was rather a curious spectacle to see a number of old cardinals, many of whom had in their time been men of gallantry, gliding about through this galaxy of fine women, whose costume, be it said en passant, was extremely favourable to the display of their beautiful shoulders. At many of these parties the illfated Miss Bathurst was an object of great attraction; some pronounced her the most beautiful woman in Rome, while others gave the palm to Madame Dodwell. There were even not wanting knights to break a lance in support of the supremacy of the beauty of Mesdames Bonacarsi, Martinetti, Sorlofia, &c. More than once I have seen Miss Bathurst surrounded by three or four admiring cardinals, the most ardent of whom appeared to be Cardinal de Gregorio, natural son of the King of Spain, Charles III. This demi-royal cardinal pays assiduous court to the ambassadors, in order to secure their interest in his favour, when the death of Leo XII. shall afford him a chance of the papal chair. "The Holy Alliance," he says to them, "wishes for a pope who shall be wholly devoted to them, and where can they find one fitter for that purpose than me? I am a true Bourbon-let people talk as they will." The Countess Appony, wife to the Austrian ambassador, is looked up to with much respect here, because she has made her con fessor an archbishop,-for the Romans are willing enough to prostrate themselves before power; but be it understood, real and efficient power, and not the mere éclat of title or ostentation of wealth. Such is the effect of pure despotism. If the Pope's valet de chambre is known to have any influence over his master, the people look upon him with more respect than upon the prince Borghese, the richest of Roman princes, he having an income of twelve hundred thousand francs. The consequence to be drawn from the sketch of Roman manners here attempted, is that a rich Englishman who should wish to make his sojourn in Rome both pleasant and instructive, ought to get introduced to some of the principal families. He should lay aside his arrogance for home use, and, if possible, put off the coldness of his demeanour, and treat with politeness all classes of the Romans. He should get acquainted with some of the Roman artists, treat them with consideration, and spend twenty or thirty pounds from time to time in the purchase of their pictures. He should place the bust of Lord Byron in his drawing-room, and once a week give a dinner, to which he should invite seven or eight Romans. After a few months perseverance in this plan he would become quite popular, and find all the delights of Roman society within his reach,-a society, in my opinion at least, the most desirable in Italy, but of which the English residents of Rome know about as much as they do of that of Constantinople. The last conclave which elected Leo XII. and which lasted but twentyseven days, gave rise to upwards of eight hundred quarto pages of satirical productions in prose and verse. In this collection, which I have purchased for a good round sum, there are numberless traits of the finest and most poignant wit. Nothing could have been more animated and amusing than the manner in which many of these were read in the Roman circles, and particularly so when they wished to explain the point of them to a foreigner. It is scarcely necessary to add that the foreigner thus favoured, must have been fortunate enough to have gained their implicit confidence. M. Demidoff, the very wealthy and very affable Russian, who resided here for some years, had in his pay a tolerable company of French comedians. The principal actress was his mistress. The last year of his sojourn here, the palace Ruspoli, where he lived, was open every Thursday evening to all his acquaintance; a comedy was first represented, and afterwards a ball took place. These soirees were extremely interesting, for M. Demidoff had the good sense not to confine his invitations to the higher classes of the nobility alone, but also received the principal families of the Mezzo Cetto (the rich bourgeoisie.) In one of the French Vaudevilles that M. Denidoff wished to have represented, one of the characters was named Saint Leon, which circumstance, unimportant as it may appear, caused considerable chagrin and alarm to the first minister of the Pope, the old Cardinal della Somiglia, who, amongst other qualifications for his high office, has entirely lost the use of his memory. After various negotiations with M. Demidoff, whom the government was unwilling to disoblige, lest he might quit Rome, where he expended sixty thousand francs a month, the old and imbecile Cardinal della Somiglia at length formally forbade the performance of the Vaudeville, because one of the dramatis persona was called Saint Leon. The actors were also expressly prohibited from making use of the exclamation Oh, mon Dieu! which is of such frequent occurrence in French comedy. This is a worthy pedant to the scrupulosity of your English Deputy Chamberlain, whose pious and impious vagaries have been heard of and heartily laughed at here. The reign of Leo XII. is already marked with bigotry and ultraism. He has instituted an asylum for assassins in Ostia and three other unhealthy towns. The papal edict states, that it is for the purpose of re-peopling these places. Every assassin who flies for refuge to one of these towns, which are about ten leagues from the spot where the greatest number of travellers are murdered, is to be free from further pursuit! Cardinal Gonsalvi was extremely jealous of the absolute power which he had had the pleasure of exercising for nine years, from 1814 to 1823. In order to put it out of the power of his master Pius VII. to replace him, he took special care to people the college of Cardinals with men remarkable, not for talent, but the want of it. There are four situations at the court of Rome, the possessors of which, on quitting them, become of right, members of the Sacred College- such as the Pope's treasurer, the Governor of Rome, the Minister of Police, and another. Four other functionaries have in some measure usurped the same privilege; for instance, the Dean of the Rota (a superior Court of Justice) on retiring from the bench becomes a Cardinal. With the exception of those Cardinals who have become so in virtue of their offices, such as the Cardinal Cavalchini, Paletta, &c., all the other members of the Sacred College created by the late Pope under the absolute ministry of Gonsalvi, are men whose capacities, or rather incapacities, would not serve them to discharge the ordinary functions of a justice of peace. If the wishes of the people were to have any weight, the successor of his present Holiness would certainly be Cardinal Spina, who reigns at Bologna, where he is so much beloved, that the principal motive which prevented the Bolognese from revolting when the attempt at a constitution was made in Piedmont, was the unwillingness they had to give pain to this excellent ecclesiastical Prince. Cardinal Spina is a man of first-rate talents, and in some respects, probably superior to Gonsalvi, but, unfortunately, he is now in his seventieth year. Of his election to the Holy See there is but a slender chance, as France would, no doubt, seek to exclude him as a partizan of the house of Austria, just as the latter power did at the last conclave with regard to Cardinal Severoli. Cardinal Severoli being Legate at Vienna when Napoleon's marriage with Maria Louisa was on the tapis, formally declared to the Emperor Francis that he could not, without incurring the guilt of mortal sin, give his daughter in marriage to a man whose first wife was still living. THE HUMMING BIRD. THE desert is the place for love. There are (first for her sweet song) Neither may we e'er forget Her to whom we owe such debt, Caroll'd in the eastern air, And i' the sun's bright chambers heard, Hail! thou gentlest, tiniest thing, And dowried with a thousand dyes? Look!--with coat of Iris hue, |