costs an immense sum of money to effect the whole, in some cases
as much as 100,000 piastres. The process begins by an application
to the Pope, on the part of the relatives of the candidate, or on
that of the confraternity, if they belong to a religious order.
The Pope refers the question to a tribunal, and the claimants are
obliged to appear with their proofs, which are severely
scrutinised, and the miracles are only admitted upon the
production of the most satisfactory evidence. Individuals
continually subscribe for this purpose, particularly for members
of religious orders, in order to increase the honour or glory of
the society. These trials last many years, sometimes for
centuries. There is a Princess of Sardinia, sister of the late
King, who died lately, and they want to make a saint of her. The
money (estimated at 100,000 piastres) is ready, but they cannot
rout out a miracle by any means, so that they are at a dead
stand-still before the second step. Nobody can be sanctified till
two hundred years after their death, but they may arrive at the
previous grades before that, and the proofs may be adduced and
registered.

June 1st, 1830 {p.386}

Yesterday news came of the change in the French Ministry,[9] of
which La Ferronays knew nothing the night before, and from which
Dalberg anticipates an increase of desperate measures on the part
of the Court. Went in the morning to Gibson's; in the evening to
the Orti Sallustiani, one of the many objects here not worth
seeing, though they show two great holes in a wall, which they
call the Campo Scelerato, and they say it is the place where the
frail vestals were buried. Coming back we met the Pope taking a
drive--two coaches-and-four, with guards and outriders. We got
out of the carriage and took off our hats, and our _laquais de
place_ dropped on his knees. The Pope was in white, two people
sitting opposite to him, and as he passed he scattered a
blessing. All persons kneel when he appears--that is, all
Catholics. The equipage was not brilliant. To the Corsini Villa,
the gardens of which are some of the shadiest and most agreeable
in Rome, but nobody inhabits the palace. The Corsinis live at
Florence, and when they come here they lodge elsewhere, for the
malaria, they say, occupies their domain. Thus it is that between
poverty and malaria Rome is deserted by its great men. But the
population ought to be increasing, for almost every woman one
meets is with child. Gel