48, although there had
been no change for the better in the law, a very considerable degree of
practical liberty was enjoyed by the subjects of Tuscany. The Tuscans
are naturally a quiet, well-behaved people; the Grand Duke was an easy,
kind-hearted man; his Government was exceedingly mild; and, as he
conducted himself towards his people like a father, he was greatly
beloved by them. Tuscany at that period was universally acknowledged to
be the happiest province of Italy.

The priesthood of those days were a good-natured, easy set of men also.
They had never known opposition. They could not imagine the possibility
of anything occurring to endanger their power, and therefore were
exceedingly tolerant in the exercise of it. They were an illiterate and
ill-informed race. An Abbatte of their own number assured Dr Stewart, so
far back as 1845, that there was not one amongst them, from the
Archbishop downwards, who could read Hebrew, nor half-a-dozen who could
be found among the upper orders who could read Greek. They were masters
of as much Latin as enabled them to get through the mass; but they were
wholly unskilled in the modern tongues of Europe, and entire strangers
to modern European literature. Though poorly paid, they durst not eke
out their means of subsistence by entering into any trade. Many of them
were fain to become major domos in rich families, and might be seen
chaffering in the markets in the public piazza, and weighing out flour,
coffee, and oil to the servants at home. No priest can say more than one
mass a-day; and for that he is paid one lira, or eightpence sterling.

Such being the state of matters, little notice was taken of what foreign
Protestants might be doing. The priests were secure in their ignorance,
and deemed it impossible that any attempt would be made to introduce the
diabolical heresies of Luther among their orthodox flocks. Indeed,
these flocks were removed almost beyond the reach of contamination, not
so much by the vigilance of the priests, as by their own ignorance and
bigotry. The degree of popular enlightenment may be judged of from the
following circumstance which happened to Dr Stewart, and of which the
Doctor himself assured me Soon after his first coming into Tuscany in
1845, he came into contact with a countryman, who, on being told that he
was a Protestant minister, began instantly to scrutinize his lower
extremities, to ascertain whether he had cloven hoofs. The priests had
to