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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Untitled Article
falj , £ short way below , is extremely fine . The water dashes down from a tremgn / Jpus height in the midst of the most beautiful accompaniments of rock and wood , and part is thrown back again into the air in the form of ipist , which rises as high as the fall itself . The elegant little temple of
Vesta stands on the opposite rock , and the spot is altogether very picturesque . But with the rest of the scenery at Tivoli I was disappointed . It is spoiled by that most miserable of all trees , the olive , with its stiff contour and its pale green leaf ; and when the eye is diverted from the mountain it finds nothing but the solitary dome of St . Peter ' s to interest it in the immense tract of flat laud which stretches out to the southward and westward .
The spot where Horace ' s villa stood is still pointed out , and opposite to it , on the other § ide of the valley , was that of Mecaenas , of which enough remains to she ^ r what a magnificent man he was . 26 tb . I employed the greater part of this day in visiting palaces , in company with a fellowrtraveller ; and if any who read this shall ever happen to be at Rome in hot weather , I cannot wish them a greater treat than to gain admittance , as I did , into the Cafe of the Villa Albani a or to wander in the ( Jeep embosomed alleys and impenetrable shades of the Borghese Park .
* ** * # * * * * * * This day , as I was searching for the manufacture of mosaics in the place where it was marked on my map , just to the south of St . Peter ' s , I entered the gateway of a large building , with a court in the centre , and was not a litfje startled when the door-keeper told me that that was the Inquisition . There was no guard stationed there , and the lower windows only were barricadoed with iron ; * but the very name of the place was sufficient to rouse
all my feelings of compassion for the poor wrenches confined in its dungeons , few of whom ever come out when they once get in . I am told , that when a ma * i has incurred the censures of this court , he is fetched away from his \} ome in a carriage , in which there is an officer of justice and two friars , and tjb ^ t they carry him off to prison without saying a word . I asked a man , " How many prisoners there were in the Inquisition / ' He replied , with a significant smile , "No one knows that , Sir . " The number , probably , is not
very great , foF the terrors of this court are now much softened ; but the existence of so dangerous an instrument of tyranny as this is always to be deprecated , especially during such a pontificate as the present . Leo XII . is certainly not famed for his liberality of sentimeat—^ witness his conduct towards the Jews , whom he has strictly corifined to one quarter of the city ; his bull against the Bible Society ; and the displeasure which lie has expressed at the number of English who come to Rome , and whom he dreads on account of the influx of liberal ideas wfokia they necessarily occasion . His
tlolincss is tubt popular with apy party . The licentious hate him on account of the strictness of his police , which takes cognizance of the actions even of pr ivate life ; they who elected him , because , perhaps , tliey were over-persuaded , and he was a sickly man who ( as they thought ) would soon die off and make room for a successor , are disappointed that he has lived so long ; and they , again , who chose him because they expected him to do good , are equally disappointed that he has done so little . So that the poor Pope has no mercy from any one , and all regret the good days of his predecessor , Pius VII .
* I was afterwards told that the apartments for the prison / ers are not towards the street , but to the back . The manufacture of mosaics upas foriuej ^ y here , t ? ut it is upw renjpved to a suite of rooms on the ground floor of the Vatican .
Untitled Article
86 Journal of a Tvw on the Comment .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1829, page 86, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2569/page/14/
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