ures of
Rome on one like themselves.

THE COLISEUM.

_Evening._

I spent the forenoon wandering through the endless halls of the Vatican,
so far as they were accessible to the public, the more important
galleries being only open on Monday, and two or three of the very finest
not at all. I fear this restriction will deprive me of a sight of the
Apollo Belvedere, the Sistine Chapel, and one or two others of the
world's marvels. I know how ungracious it is to "look a gift horse in
the mouth," and yet, since these works exist mainly to be seen, and as
Rome derives so large a share of her income from the strangers whom
these works attract to her, I must think it unwise to send any away
regretting that they were denied a sight of the Apollo or of some of
Raphael's master-pieces contained in the Vatican. I know at what vast
expense these works have been produced or purchased, and, though all who
visit Rome are made to pay a great deal indirectly for the privileges
they enjoy here, yet I wish the Papal Government would frankly exact, as
I for one should most cheerfully pay, a fair price for admission to the
most admirable and unrivaled collections which are its property. If, for
instance, it would abolish all Passport vexations, encourage the opening
of Railroads, and stimulate the establishment of better lines of
Diligences, &c., so that traveling in the Papal States would cease to be
twice as dear and infinitely slower than elsewhere in Italy, in France
or Germany, and would then charge each stranger visiting Rome on errands
other than religious something like five dollars for all that is to be
seen here, taking care to let him see it, and to cut off all private
importunities for services rendered in showing them, the system would be
a great improvement on the present, and the number of strangers in Rome
would be rapidly doubled and quadrupled. There might be some calumny
and misrepresentation, but these would very soon be dispelled, and the
world would understand that the Papacy did not seek to make money out of
its priceless treasures, but simply to provide equitably and properly
for their preservation and due increase. Here, as we all see, have
immense sums been already spent by this Government in excavating,
preserving, and in some cases partially restoring such decayed but
inimitable structures as the Coliseum, the Capitol, the various
Triumphal Arches, the Baths of Titus, Caracalla, &c., all of which
labors a