their most honoured dames, enjoyed the most exquisite pleasure in witnessing the bloody and frequently fatal combats of gladiators, their excruciating pain, and their convulsive agonies, when we are told, that even emperors, (when assured of the savage victory) would degrade themselves by entering the lists to display their muscular strength, and catch the mean pleasure of popular applause. When beside we are informed, that human beings although culprits, were let loose to the ferocious rage of a lion, or a tiger, we cannot refrain from a comparison, that brings the moderns to a nearer commerce with the skies; and I know not to what the moderns owe their superior degree of humanity, at least in this instance, unless it is to the benign influence of Christianity. Because, admitting that we have made great progress beyond them, in the useful arts of life, yet it must be remembered that the Romans in many of the most refined arts, had at that period, nearly reached perfection. Therefore, I conclude, that there is no necessary connection between the polished state of the arts and the morals of society, and wish to refer to a more pure and unfailing source for the little advancement that we have made.

Near the theatre, are patches of several buildings famed in ancient story, and two triumphal arches raised in honour of Titus and Constantinus, upon occasions of signal victories. In some instances, on the side of the capitol, several very antique reliques of colonnades or porticoes, are half buried by the earth that has crumbled away from the Monte Capitilono, which would by this time be scarcely distinguished as a hill, were it not for the lofty buildings elevated upon it artificially. On the other side of the capitol, we were shown the celebrated Tarpeian rock, less formidable now than formerly as a man might almost leap down without injury.

In the evening, we were introduced by our Palermo friend to a pleasant private party. I shall describe the entertainment, because it was perfectly in the Italian style. The company sat in a kind of saloon, with the doors thrown open to the garden. Around the semi-circular walls of the room, were antique busts in niches, the ceilings were painted with figures of different virtues, and to substitute a cornice were rows of old family portraits. The ladies of the house, both, played the guitar, and sang several little airs, "con affezione.” They very politely showed us the garden, and described a small collection of exotic plants, which they had on a stage. We observed that the gallantries of the gentlemen were less delicate than are permissible in England. Indeed you may talk to an Italian lady on the darling theme of love, in very plain terms, without offending sensibility.

On our return, several other ladies and gentlemen were ushered in, and we had the pleasure of hearing several songs from an improvisatore, which were chiefly composed of pleasant railleries on the company, uttered with a natural facility. The readiness of rhyming, I conceive to arise from the similarity of termination in many of the Italian words. It produces a most happy effect, but to excel in the art, requires ingenuity and eloquence.

In the Corso, the principal street in Rome, the family of Doria, degraded from the respectable characters of spirited and enterprising merchants, and now dwindled into cardinals and princes, is in possession of one of the many proud palaces of this city. It is at all times open to the artist or amateur, and deserves his particular attention. The forbearance of the French spoilers

pared the property of private families, and left in this place, a collection of pictures by the first masters, unequalled, I should supppose, by any private gallery in Europe. There are many landscapes, by Claude Lorrain, and Domenicheno, some historical pieces by all the Italian masters, and some portraits by Holbein, Rembrandt, and Vandyke.

The Borghese is another grand palace with an excellent collection of paintings, which belongs to the most powerful family in modern Rome. The present prince is a young unmarried man, of weak understanding, and remarkable for his violent attachment to the French cause. His influeuce facilitated their introduction into Rome, and much contributes to maintain the democratic spirit which strongly prevails here in spite of the influence of the government, and the dishonourable conduct of the French. About a mile from the city this prince has another palace, called the Villa Borghese, built with superlative elegance. The interior is entirely of marble, and the statues are so numerous that the prince has published three volumes of sketches, which our banker procured from him, for he suffers none to be circulated but those which he gives away. Amongst the antique pieces of sculpture, Berninis, David, and Apollo, and Daphne make no mean figure. There is great taste in the arrangement of the garden, and many expensive ornaments. They are always open, and furnish the Romans with their most general and pleasant promenade.

The Holy Week was now arrived, and the rites and ceremonies of the Roman Catholic Church commenced with all their splendour. On three of the most particular occasions, we attended at St. Peter's, and the forms may be worth while to describe, since they serve to show the means by which the Roman Catholic religion retains its hold on the vulgar mind. On the Thursday afternoon, in the chapel of the Vatican, the Pope himself performed the service of the mass, in the presence of the cardinals and all the dignitaries of the church, attired in their splendid silken dresses, after having heard in other sacred chambers, the Miserere, set to music by the most celebrated composers, and exquisitely sung. After a repetition of the same ceremonies on Good Friday, his Holiness gave his general benediction from a gallery in the front of St. Peter's, to the people collected in immense crowds, on the grand flight of steps, and in the area below. In the evening a magnificent cross was brilliantly illuminated, and suspended in the centre of St. Peter's produced a grand effect. Mass was again performed, and from a gallery near the altar, several relics, a part of the cross, the crown of St. Thomas, and the napkin, were exhibited in a very solemn manner. On Saturday evening the church was again illuminated, and we observed several artists, who probably had particular permission, sketching views of the perspective views, which from the nature of the subject, the grandeur of the edifice, and its proportionate ornaments, defy the skill of the most accomplished artists. I have no conception that any painting can give an adequate idea of the interior of St. Peter's.

Fortunately, on these evenings, the splendour of the lamps was beautifully contrasted in other parts of the cathedral, by the clear delicate light of a full moon. The whole of Sunday was employed in ceremonials. The morning began with the Miserere and mass in the Vatican chapel, obscuring daylight by the blaze of tapers. This service finished, his Holiness, blessing the

crowds he passed, and was carried thence on the shoulders of men, in solemn procession, under a canopy, with all the emblems of his function around him, preceded by the cardinals and dignitaries in due order, to another chapel. Here the twelve apostles were personated by bishops in white robes, and sat arranged, whilst the pope separately washed the feet of each. The apostles then withdrew in regular form to another chamber of the Vatican, where a supper of the most simple food, was served by the subordinate clergymen, whilst the Pope himself, in all humility waited on them. In conclusion the Pope, from the facade of St. Peter's, breathed a second benediction. The concourse of people, on this occasion was still greater than before. There were probably one hundred thousand assembled. Yet it was evident to several gentleman who had witnessed the same ceremonies some years ago, that the reverence, and awe with which they were formerly received, was much diminished.

Foreigners were treated with great politeness upon all these occasions, having distinct places appropriated to them. The English officers from Egypt, and French, were more than commonly numerous, and absolutely inconvenienced some of the churchmen. The Pope seems about sixty years of age, and has a meekness and benignity of features, that well becomes the representative of Jesus. His whole demeanour during these long and fatiguing ceremonies, was patient, grave, and decorous.

At another converzatione, to which we were introduced by the prince of Santa Marina, and frequently visited, we had an opportunity of observing the nature of a Cicisbeo. It was at the house of an old gentleman and lady with a large family, one of the daughters was married and lived still with her parents; she was a beautiful woman, and held her gallant in chains, whilst she treated her husband with the most cool indifference; we met her at another private house, we met her at the parade, at St. Peter's, she had always her Cicisbeo by her side, and what is still more extraordinary in this part of Italian matrimony, the husband seems in company like a discarded lover, whilst the other sits by her side, and amorously toys with her in his presence. This we several times witnessed. Enquiring into so lax and mysterious a system of matrimony, we were informed that the Cicisbeo practice was not unfrequent with the young Italian women, and that it was founded on a tacit admission of mutual license. The husband keeps his mistress, and they often share between them one of the painful inconveniences of promiscuous intercourse. On such a picture of their manners, I need make no comment, yet I must remark that their gross licentiousness, so strongty taints their conversation, that an English woman would be frequently shocked at the indelicacy of the subject, on which an Italian fair talks with familiarity and pleasure.

The woman are generally beautiful, clear complexion, black bright eyes and a countenance full of expression. The honeyed sweetness of the language gives a fascination to their converse, that would be irrisistible, were it united with that dignified reserve, which characterises the British fair, and is perhaps their brightest ornament. A selection of the best qualities of each, and an union of the two characters, would almost form the perfeet woman.

I am happy to say, that from all we could learn or observe, as you descend in society, the people become less and less licentious. The lower classes are

the main deposits of uncorrupt habits, if any yet remain among these degenerate Romans. Yet it is impossible to suppose any class undepraved, where the examples of the great are so evidently vicious. A want of employment, for which the rulers and the rich are mainly responsible, to man in a state of ignorance, necessarily must, I fear, be a fruitful source of vicious habits, and that want of employment evinces itself on every inch of the Papa! territory.

We visited several places in the vicinity of Rome, as soon as a relief from the ceremonies of the Holy Week gave us an opportunity. Pamphilia is a villa two miles from the city, belonging to the Doria family, and stands like many others of the superb palaces in this neighbourhood, a monument of the emptiness and insufficiency of worldly grandeur. This seat, built and finished in a magnificent style, surrounded by extensive grounds of great natural beauty and variety, and laid out and ornamented with exquisite taste, seems at present totally neglected by the possessor, and generally stands empty. Such a spectacle in a country where the poor are well employed and maintained, is offensive; but here, where the aged, sick, and poor, daily starve in the streets, it appears too gross a misapplication of the Superabundance of wealth, not to draw down the deprecation of even the slightest observer. In another pedestrian excursion on the side of ancient Rome, we saw the Church of St. Paul, built by the emperor Constantine, one of the earliest Christian Churches that was built in Rome. Over a magnificent colonnade, it is decorated with the Papal portraits, from St. Peter to the present Pope. The body of St. Paul lies interred in this church. At some distance farther is a monastery founded, and two lesser churches on the precise spots, where Paul was beheaded and imprisoned. The friars here, who seem to believe them, show you and tell you of various miracles too absurd to be repeated. On returning, we passed the pyramidal monument of Caius Cestus, which seems likely to outlive any other of the Roman ruins. Near it, in a common field, without the walls of the city, is the ground appropriated to the burial of the heretics. The monuments are plain and few, of three or four English one recorded the memory of Mr. James Six, of Canterbury. It was thrown down, and a part of the epitaph was erased. We placed it in its proper position, and copied the inscription, on each side, in Latin and English. It appeared to us, as if some pious Catholic had scratched out the words, good, and

Christian."

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On the following day, we engaged a vetturino to take us to Tivolo, a town nearly twenty miles from Rome, under the chain of mountains that forms the eastern horizon. We alighted to survey several ruins and curiosities on the road, the tomb of the Plausian family, Adrian's villa, a most superb and extensive ruin, and the stream of sky-blue sulphurous water, the strong exhalation from which constantly informs the traveller of his approach. Behind the town of Tivoli, on the declivity of the mountain, are the celebrated cascades of the Teverone, (ancient Ancena). The whole of the river is about equal to the Medway, at Maidstone, in the spring of the year, but it is divided in its falls.

Our conductor first led us to the temple of the Sybil, which bears marks of great antiquity, and stands on the point of a rock over the grotto, into which the Anciene pours its first torrent with tremendous roar, from an aperture in a most picturesque rock, about an hundred and fifty perpendicular feet.

Rushing with precipitate force from the mouth of the aperture, it falls in white flakes of inconceivable variety and beauty, descending into a rocky standing place in the grotto beneath; we found another branch of the river, gushing from amidst vast rocks on the side we stood, and falling into the same deep cavity with the other. Their clashing fall, spread as it were, a street of snow beneath, whilst the finer particles encircled the spectator with sparkling rainbows.

The whole mass of rock on the lofty side, rugged and unequal, is covered with verdure; on the summit with the rich foliage of Italian shrubs, flourishing in such a situation, with more than common luxuriance; on the sides, with pendant aquatic plants in graceful waving lines ever in motion, and blooming with many colours. On our left hand the course of the torrent is marked with peculiar beauties. It rushes headlong over opposing masses of rock, through a Gothic arch formed by nature from two overhanging pieces of rock adorned with verdant festoons. Indeed the hollow of the rock from which we contemplated this romantic picture, is the only point in view, that is not clothed with vegetation. So rich a scenery, with a cascade unequalled in Europe, gives to this little spot, an unimaginable interest. The Cicerone, impatient of our delay, dragged us from these enchanting scenes, and conducted us by another fall into the town, which at any other place would have long detained the eye of curiosity, led us round the declivity of the mountain to the side opposite the Sybil's temple.

Winding theuce with the amphitheatre of the hills, we were suddenly surprised with the view of another fall from the elbow of the hill on the other side. This cascade is formed by another portion of the river, and falls in two divisions of about eighty feet each, directly into the torrent below. Still veering farther round, without losing sight of the grand cascade, and nearly facing the last I have described, the eye embraces, what are here called the Cascatelle, or little cascades, issuing from under the elegant ruins of the palace of Mæcenas, and abruptly rolling over a rocky surface into the depths of the vale.

On this identical point Horace had his favorite villa. To elevate imagination by picturesque natural beauties, an elegant and poetical taste could not have selected a more inspiring situation. If one might be permitted to pronounce on the birth of his poetical effusions, I should say, that his cheerful, sweet and simple odes were composed in the delightful vale of the Ancene, and that his satires were engendered in the city. Catullus had a cottage not far distant, and many respectable ruins are in the neighbourhood. When we recollect, the hospitable table of Mæcenas,-all that was learned, lively, and polished under his roof,-what a contrast does it offer to the present state of society in Tivoli. Now, allis monastic lethargy, or starving poverty. One overgrown but empty palace, stands as it were, to insult the inhabitants, by its apparent superiority; for the rest, a few whining monks are seen creeping about the town, and persuading the unlettered natives that their misery and oppression are the meekness and contrition which heaven is pleased with.

(To be Continued.)

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