not gone into all these mistakes, nor explained every point we could have desired to explain. But we cannot allow ourselves to conclude without expressing the earnest prayer of our heart, that the truth in all its divine beauty may one day, and that day an early one, shine in its fulness upon a heart so calculated to appreciate it, and to expand still more largely under the influences of its beams of heavenly love. Such is the best parting-wish we can offer to one who, if it were only as the poor negro's friend, must ever command our earnest sympathy.

ART. VIII-1. Essays, Political, Historical, and Miscellaneous, by Archibald Alison, L.L.D., Author of the "History of Europe,' &c. Blackwood and Sons, Edinburgh and London, 1850.

2. Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography. Edited by William Smith, L.L.D., 2 vols. London: Walton and Maberly, 1856 7.

3. L' Italia avanti il Dominio dei Romani. Da G. Micali, 4 vols. 8vo. Ferenze, 1849.

4. Die unter Italischen Dialekte, von Theodor Mommsen, Svo. Leipzig, 1850.

THE

HE condition of the Roman Campagna has been frequently dwelt upon during the discussion of the Italian question, as an illustration and a proof of the incompetence of the Papal Government. An administration, it is urged, which for so many centuries has been content to see the very seat of government, once the mighty capital of the world, surrounded even to the walls by a vast, dreary, desolate waste, must be regarded as radically and incurably unequal to the proper discharge of its high functions. What other government but that of the Popes would have suffered the Campagna to become a desert? What other government, we hear asked, would have so long neglected to reclaim it? What statesman, except in the robe of a priest, would have failed to re-people its solitudes, and make a new Gabii, and the streets of a new Fidena arise from its cheerless marshes?

It was not with the inauguration of the present rebellious movement in Italy that the state of the Campagna became a subject of deep interest and repeated inquiry. It had long engaged a large share of attention. With unreflecting bigots, and those who, if not bigots themselves, yet find it profitable to pander to bigotry, it served from time immemorial as a common-place, and of course unanswerable argument to prove that the Pope is unfit to hold temporal sovereignty. Even minds of a more elevated order viewed in it a problem worthy of solution on its own account, though the solution did not necessarily involve anything to the prejudice of the Sovereign Pontiff. And, indeed, it is impossible that the Roman Campagna should fail to arrest, and almost rivet attention. Situated in the midst of a country proverbial for its genial climate and the richness of its soil, it is, altogether irrespective of historical reminiscences, well entitled to careful study and investigation. But its chief source of interest is found in the past, and in its connection with eternal Rome. From almost the centre of the solitude rises the mighty city-lux orbis terrarum, et arx omnium nationum; still, indeed, the light of the world in a far higher sense than that contemplated by the great orator, being the focus from which the rays of divine faith are communicated to the ends of the earth; still, too, the citadel of all nations, where, at the hands of Christ's vicar, justice and truth will ever find an asylum and protectiou.

There is no district in Europe, says Alison, which is more remarkable, or has more strongly impressed the minds of men in modern times, than the Roman Campagna. Independent of the indelible associations with which it is connected, and the glorious deeds of which it has been the theatre, its appearance produces an extraordinary impression on the mind of the beholder. All is silent; the earth seems struck with sterility; desolation reigns in every direction. A space extending from Otricoli to Terracina, above sixty miles in length, and on an average twenty in breadth, between the Apennines and the sea, maintains scarcely a single peasant. A few tombs lining the great roads which issue from the forum of

Essays, vol. ii. p. 500.

Rome, to penetrate to the remotest parts of her immense empire; the gigantic remains of aqueducts striding across the plain, which once brought, and some of which still bring, the pellucid fountains of the Apennines to the Eternal City, alone attest the former presence of man. Nothing bespeaks his present existence. Not a field is ploughed, not a blade of corn grows, hardly a house is to be seen in this immense and dreary expanse. On entering it you feel as if you were suddenly transported from the garden of Europe to the wilds of Tartary. Shepherds, armed with long lances, as on the steppes of the Don, and mounted on small and hardy horses, alone are occasionally seen, following or searching in the wilds for the herds of savage buffaloes and cattle which pasture the district. Yet vegetation yearly revives in this solitude with undiminished vigour. It is undecayed since the days of Cincinnatus and the Sabine farm. Every spring the expanse is covered with a carpet of flowers which enamel the turf, and conceal the earth with a profusion of varied beauty. So rich is the herbage which springs up with the alternate rains and heats of summer, that it becomes in most places rank, and the enormous herds which wander over the expanse are unable to keep it down. In autumn this rich grass becomes russet brown; and a melancholy hue clothes the slopes which environ the Eternal City. The Alban Mount, when seen from a distance, clothed as it is with forests, vineyards, and villas, resembles a green island rising out of a sombre waste of waters. In the Pontine Marshes, the prolific powers of nature are still more remarkable. Vegetation there springs up with the rapidity and flourishes with the luxuriance of tropical climates. Tall reeds, in which the buffaloes are hid, in which a rhinoceros might be concealed, spring up in the numerous pools or deep ditches with which the dreary flat surface is sprinkled.

Such is the present appearance of the Roman Campagna. In contrast with the mournful desolation which now characterises it, we are assured that it was once the happy abode of a hardy, active, warlike population, whose toil it repaid with abundant fruitfulness. It was the scene of the first struggles and the earliest triumphs of the great Populus Romanus. Its fertility tempted their avarice; and its inhabitants continued for centuries to be their rivals. At the foundation of Rome Veii was a great and

populous city; and for more than three hundred and fifty years was engaged in unceasing hostilities with the future mistress of the world. Fourteen wars are said to have taken place between the Romans and the Veiitans. The immortal page of Livy has recorded the history of the incorporation of the Romans and Sabines under the general name of Quirites. Indeed, whatever is most interesting in connection with the story of Latium and the Rome of Romulus, recals some portion of the Campagna as the theatre on which it took place. Now, however, desolation broods over every inch of the land, which of old so resounded to the hum and stir of warlike men; and the contrast between the Campagna of the present and of the past is as mournful as the passage from life to death.

And what has been the cause of this fearful change? The Pope, to be sure, and the Papal Government. All the evils that have befallen Italy since the dismemberment of the Roman empire-whether they be physical, moral, or social-of whatever kind, must have necessarily come from the recesses of the Vatican-and it is well for mankind if there be not still reserved there, like winds imprisoned in the cave of Eolus, unnumbered evils to sweep over the world. We propose to examine briefly how far the Popes are amenable to the often-repeated charge of having caused the desolation of the Campagna.

The present, as well, indeed, as almost every other subject, even remotely connected with the temporal sovereignty of the Roman Pontiff, has recently excited so much attention, and been discussed with so much zeal and ability, that the theme would seem almost exhausted. From the most diligent student we should scarcely expect any new facts or fresh arguments to illustrate it. The Pope's enemies on the one side displaying a rancour more deep-seated, more intense, more virulent than ever, have said all they could say or plausibly invent, against the rule of the illustrious sovereign whom they so vehemently detest. Nor on the other side have there been wanting devoted sons of the Church who have eloquently proclaimed the services of the Holy See, and the vast obligations under which it has placed, not only the cause of morality, but of civilisation.

In dealing, then, with the question of the Campagna, we make no pretension whatever to advancing anything new on the subject. At best we can but repeat that

which has been already said, and in such a manner, perhaps, as not often to strengthen its force by the repetition.

To make the Papal Government justly responsible for the condition of the Campagna, it is necessary that the assailants of that government should establish one of two things. It is necessary to prove either that the alleged desolation of the Campagna was first superinduced, and, as it were, created under the rule of the Pontiffs; or if from the origin of their temporal sovereignty, they had found the Campagna a desert, that they have at least been culpably negligent in not striving to reclaim it. When an evil-be it of greater or lesser magnitude-is found already pressing upon a state, we naturally ask how it was brought about, and how far those entrusted with power are answerable for its continuance. And if, upon examination, we are satisfied that it arose, in the first instance, not from wickedness or incompetenee, or imbecility on the part of the administration, but from causes entirely independent of their control, nay, that it had long preceded their very existence; if, moreover, we perceive them availing themselves of all the resources within their reach to abate the calamity, we may sympathize with such a government, because of the difficulties with which it is beset;-but surely we have no reason to censure it for an abandonment of duty. Let us, if we are not insisting upon too clear a point, take from contemporary history one or two obvious examples to illustrate the principle we would enforce. The waste lands of Ireland have not been reduced to their present worthless state by any positive act of the British Parliament; but, at the same time,. who will acquit the British Government of all blame in allowing four millions of acres of arable land to continue so long waste? With all the infinite resources of the mightiest empire in the world at their command-with so many uncultivated, now absolutely useless tracts, spread before them inviting the ploughshare, and only awaiting its touch to smile like a garden-with the cries of evicted tenants smiting night and day upon their ears-in presence of the dismal exodus that has borne, and with each returning tide continues to bear away to a strange shore so many brave hearts and strong hands-the English Government has remained utterly supine and utterly insensible to the requirements of the country.

Here is a case in which government, though not the