and Tuscany, spontaneously melted into one,
like kindred drops, in spite of diplomatic
mountains interposed, that had been artificially
raised at Villafranca and Zurich. It was a
decisive experiment, which there was no
gainsaying. No Talicotian junction of parts, no
horticultural cleft-grafting, or cunning inarching,
ever effected an union like this. The example
spread; the size of the pontifical vacuole was
considerably diminished; its outskirts melted
away to join the rest; every cupful of surplus
water took one direction towards the river. The
contracting vesicle, maintained in existence by
the great practitioner's perseverance, and also
by his purse, pulsated and palpitated, as it
palpitates still, to little (temporarily) except
mischievous purposes.

When once a powerful action has set in, no
practitioner can say where it will end. As
electrical disturbances of the atmosphere will display
their freaks of repulsion and attraction, so will
agitations of the ether or fluid which pervades
the whole popular body of a nation. Insulated
Sicily shot forth sparks which manifested not
merely its sympathetic adhesion to Italy, but
which set light to and kindled a pervading fire
throughout the whole Neapolitan continent.
Naples would no longer remain a portion of a
non-existent theoretical Italy; it would be one
with it actually, for weal or woe, for war or peace,
for commercial prosperity or necessary taxation.
Naples, after incomprehensible difficulties, raised
by the policy of the friendly experimentalist, at
last got rid of the wretched Bourbon who wanted
the Two Sicilies for himself alone.

For Naples at least there seemed to be hope.
Immediately on leaving the Papal States a
difference is visible in the face of the country, and
in the appearance and habits of the people. The
land is drained and cultivated, producing corn
and wine. The inhabitants are industrious, and
all employed in some little handiwork : in making
mats or coarse pottery, in spinning and weaving.
Even children and old folk are brought into play;
nor are their faces discoloured by malaria, like
that which broods over the Pontine Marshes, over
the patrimony of the Piuses, Innocents, and
Benedicts. The titles of the pontiffs promise well, for
when a new pope chooses a name after his election
he may as well choose a good one. A Pope Maledict
may be an acknowledged fact, but a foreign
garrison prevents its being a public title.

Poor Naples! On regarding her closely, one
pities her as one would pity a beautiful human
form from which some magician had stolen the
soul for his own egotistical purposes. What the
few may be, is of little import; the people, the
great bulk of the nation, have been practically
taught, both by their priests and rulers, that
moral and intellectual qualities are of little value.
"Eat and drink, for to-morrow you die. Steal
and lie; be immoral, and trade in immorality;
but taste no meat (except otter and wild-fowl,
which are not meat, but only coagulated water)
on Fridays and fast days; and doubt not the
liquefaction of dead St. Januarius's blood, nor the
miraculous effects of saintly relics. The former
peccadilloes may be wiped away by the sponge of
absolution and plenary indulgence; the latter
sins you shall expiate in the fire of Vesuvius ten
times heated during a purgatory of a thousand
years. Do you doubt it? Look at the pictures
of souls in torment painted on the walls of your
village. Lead as pleasant a life as you can; in
other respects, if you are obedient to us, we
undertake to conduct you to heaven. But dare to
think and reason, and use your own judgment,
and you see there depicted, what punishment
awaits you."

The rulers of the vacuole and their friends the
former rulers of Naples would keep all men's
minds empty of all lay and mundane knowledge,
filling them instead with superstitions, animal
appetences, and outward devotional forms. The
lights which direct fishermen to steer home by
night, must be suspended from a cross, and not
from a vulgar pillar or post. It is a good work,
during Lent, to dress up little dolls of the Virgin
in mourning, and hang them about the streets.
In one village, you will see, painted on every
house, a little tablet containing the words " Viva
il Sangue di Gesù Cristo." Any individual who
should neglect or refuse to affix this talisman to
his habitation, would be expelled the community
as an atheist ripe for volcanic fires.

Of course, to a populace so misinstructed,
money is the greatest earthly good. The
propensity to grasp, is manifested in a way calculated
to give the traveller a very unfavourable impression
of the national honour and integrity. A
French peasant may be avaricious, but he is not
offensively grasping and greedy; he pinches
himself, and saves and hoards. The great majority
of French beggars beg to get bread and nothing
else. There is a proverb, "No money, no Swiss,"
which is just as true of the Swiss, and no more,
as it is of any other European nation; and
for your money, you have the service of your
Swiss, honestly and pleasantly rendered. True;
a Swiss loves money, but not dishonourably,
inordinately, nor offensively; he will fulfil his
bargain thoroughly and cheerfully, and receive the
payment agreed upon, with contented
acknowledgments. He is frugal of his own indulgences,
and economises against a rainy day, or to found a
little capital which will help him to establish
himself in life. The Italian of the humbler class is often
spendthrift and self-indulgent, while, at the same
time, he begs open-mouthed and open-handed for
every little coin he can get. Certainly, he is
often very poor; but it is a great defect (to be
cured only by increasing his self-respect and the
sense of his own dignity as a man) that, in his
intercourse with strangers, he is apt to be
never satisfied. Give him his just due, he will
entreat for more; pay him more than his due,
treat him with generosity, he will still assume
an air of discontent and ask for more. " Why
more? You are handsomely remunerated as it
is." "Just a little more, eccellenza —only per