ir during certain specified hours. At the expiry of
this time they must withdraw to their houses: Ave Maria is in many cases
the retiring hour.

Another tyrannical proceeding on the part of the Government, which was
productive of wide-spread misery, was the compelling hundreds of people,
from the labourer to the man in business, to leave Rome for their place
of birth. These measures, which would have been oppressive under any
circumstances, were rendered still more oppressive by the shortness of
the notice given to those on whom this sentence of expulsion fell. Some
had twenty-four hours, and others thirty-six, to prepare for their
departure. The labourer might plead that he had no money, and must beg
his way with wife and children. The man in business might justly
represent that to eject him in this summary fashion was just to ruin
him; for his business could not be properly wound up; it must be
sacrificed. But no appeal was sustained; no remonstrance was listened
to. The stern mandate must be obeyed, though the poor man should die on
the road. Go he must, or be conveyed in irons. And, as regards those who
were fortunate enough to reach their native villages, alas! their
sufferings did then but begin. These villages, in most cases, did not
need them, and could afford no opening in the line of business or of
labour in which they had been trained. They were houseless and workless
in their native place; and, if they did not die of a broken heart, which
many of them did, they went "into the country," as they say in
Italy,--that is, they became brigands, or are at this hour dragging out
the remainder of their lives in poverty and wretchedness.

How atrociously, too, have many of the Romans been carried from their
business to prison. Against these men neither proof nor witness existed;
but a spy had denounced them, or they had fallen under the suspicions of
the Government, and there they are in the dungeon. Their families might
starve, their business might go to the dogs, but the vengeance of the
Government must be satiated. Such persons are confined for a longer or
shorter period, according to the view taken of their character or
associates; and if nothing be elicited by the secret ordeal of
examination, the prison-door is opened, and the prisoner is requested to
go home. No apology is offered; no redress is obtained.

Such cases, I was told, were numerous. One such came to my knowledge
through Mr Stewart. An acquaintance