-shackled, uneducated Nations are ever
to be liberated under the guidance of Peace Societies and their World's
Conventions; and, horrible as all War is and ever must be, I deem a few
battles a lesser evil than the perpetuity of such mental and physical
bondage as is now endured by Twenty Millions of Italians. When the Peace
Society shall have persuaded the Emperor Nicholas or Francis-Joseph to
disband his armies and rely for the support of his government on its
intrinsic justice and inherent moral force, I shall be ready to enter
its ranks; but while Despotism, Fraud and Wrong are triumphantly upheld
by Force, I do not see how Freedom, Justice and Progress can safely
disclaim and repudiate the only weapons that tyrants fear--the only
arguments they regard.

LEAVING ITALY.

I have not been long in Italy, yet I have gone over a good share of its
surface, and seen nearly all that I much desired to see, except Naples
and its vicinity, with the Papal territory on the Perugia route from
Rome to Florence. I should have liked more time in Genoa, Rome, Florence
and Venice; but sight-seeing was never a passion with me, and I soon
tire of wandering from ruin to ruin, church to church, and gallery to
gallery. Yet when I stop gazing the next impulse is to move on; for if I
have time to rest anywhere, why not at home? Hotel life among total
strangers was never agreeable to me--(was it to any one?)--and I do not
like that of Italy so well as I at first thought I should. The
attendance is well enough, and as to food, I make a point of never
quarreling with that I have; though meals far simpler than those served
at the regular hotel dinners here would suit me much better. The charges
in general are quite reasonable, though I have paid one or two absurd
bills. It was at first right pleasant to lodge in what was once a
palace, and I still deem a large, high, airy sleeping-room, such as we
seldom have in American hotels, but are common here, a genuine luxury.
But when with such rooms you have doors that don't shut so as to stay,
windows that won't open, locks that won't hold, bolts that won't slide
and fleas that won't--ah! _won't_ they bite!--the case is somewhat
altered. I should not like to end my days in Italy.

As to the People, if I shall seem to have spoken of them disparagingly,
it has not been unkindly. I cherish an earnest desire for their
well-being. They do not need flattery, and do not, as a body, deserve
praise. Of what