is, in short, to propagate their superstition, and rivet the fetters of
the priesthood upon the population. The bishops and priests manage the
upper classes; and for the lower grades of Romans there are friars and
monks of every order and of every colour. The city swarms with these
men. The frogs and lice of Egypt were not more numerous, and certainly
not more filthy. Unwashed and uncombed, they enter, with their sandalled
feet and shaven crowns, every dwelling, and penetrate into every bosom.
You see them in the wine-shops; you see them mixing with the populace on
the street; while others, with wallets on their backs, may be seen
climbing the stairs of the houses, for the double purpose of begging for
the poor, but in reality for their own paunch, and of retailing the
latest miracle, or some thousand times told legend. Thus the darkness is
carried down to the very bottom of society; and while the Pope and his
cardinals sit at the summit in gilded glory, the monk, in robe of serge
and girdle of rope, is busied at the bottom; and, to support their
individual and united action, the priests have two powerful institutions
at Rome, like foot soldiers advancing under cover of artillery,--the
Confessional and the Inquisition.

But emphatically _the_ order at Rome is the Jesuits. They are the prime
movers in all that is done there, as well as the keenest supporters of
the Papacy in all parts of the world. They are the most indefatigable
confessors, as well as the most eloquent preachers. Their regularity is
like that of nature itself. Every hour of the day has its duty; and
their motions are as punctual as that of the heavenly bodies. Duly every
morning as the clock strikes five, they are at the altar or in the
confessional. Their head-quarters are at the Gesu. I shall suppose that
the reader is passing through the long corridor of that magnificent
church. Every three or four paces is a door, leading to a small
apartment, which is occupied by a father. Outside each door hangs a
sheet of paper, on which the father puts a list of the employments for
the day. When he goes out, he sticks a pin opposite the piece of
business which has called him away, so that, should any one call and
find him not within, he can know at once, by consulting the card, how
the father is occupied, and whether he is accessible at that particular
time. Among the items of business which usually appear on the card,
"conference" is now one of very frequent oc