Such, then, is the condition of Italy at this day. Were we to find a state of things like this in the centre of Africa, or in some barbarous region thousands and thousands of miles away from European literature, arts, and influences, where the plough and the loom had yet to be invented, it would by no means surprise us. But to find a state of matters like this in the centre of Europe,--in Italy, once the head of civilization and influence, the birthplace of modern art and letters,--is certainly wonderful. But the wonder is completed when we reflect that this state of things obtains under a Government claiming to be guided by a higher than mortal sagacity,--a Government which says that it never did, and never can, err,--a Government that is supernatural and infallible. Supernatural and infallible! Why, I say, go out into the street,--stop the first old woman you meet,--carry her to Rome,--put a three-storied cap on her head,--enthrone her on the high altar in St Peter's,--burn incense before her, and call her infallible,--I say that old woman will be a more enlightened ruler that Pio Nono. The old Scotch woman or English woman would beat the old Roman woman hollow.
The facts I have stated are sad enough; but the more harrowing picture of the working of the papal system has yet to be shown.
Justice the Pillar of the State--Claim implied in being God's Vicar, namely, that the Pope governs the World as God would govern it, were He personally present in it--No Civil Code in the Papal States--Citizens have no Rights save as Church Members--No Lay Judges--The Pontifical Government simply the Embodiment of the Papacy--Courts of Justice visited--Papal Tribunals--The Rota--Signatura--Cassation--Exceptional Tribunals--Apostolical Chamber--House of Peter--Justice bought and sold at Rome--POLITICAL JUSTICE--Gregorian Code--Case of Pietro Leoni--Accession of Pius IX.--His Popularity at first--Re-action--Case of Colonel Calendrelli--The Three Citizens of Macarata--The Hundred Young Men of Faenza--Butchery at Sinigaglia--Horrible Executions at Ancona--Estimated Number of Political Prisoners 30,000--Pope's Prisons described--Horrible Treatment of Prisoners--The Sbirri--The Spies--Domiciliary Restraint--Expulsions from Rome--Imprisonment without reason assigned--Manner in which Apprehensions are made--Condemnations without Evidence or Trial--Misery of Rome--The Pope's Jubilee.