h journal. The type is delightfully large, and
the spaces between the lines are really pleasant to look at; next to a
Roman editor, the position of a Roman compositor must be one of the
easiest berths in the newspaper-world. Things are taken very easily
here, and the _Giornale_ never appears till six o'clock at night, so that
writers and printers can take their pleasure and be in bed betimes. There
is no issue on Sundays and Feast-days, which occur with delightful
frequency. This ideal journal, too, has no fixed price. The case of any
one being impatient enough about news to buy a single number seems hardly
to be contemplated. The yearly subscription is seven scudi, which comes
to between a penny and five farthings a number; but for a single copy you
are asked half a paul, or twopence halfpenny. This however must be
regarded as a fancy price, as single copies are not an article on demand;
they can only be obtained, by the way, at the office of the Gazette in
the Via della Stamperia, and this office is closed from noon, I think, to
sunset.

Suppose, for the sake of argument, there was an English newspaper at
Rome. Let us consider what would be its summary of contents, this day on
which I write. Putting aside foreign topics altogether, what might one
naturally suppose would be the Roman news? There is the revolution in
the Romagna; if private reports are not altogether false, there have been
disturbances in the Marches; there is the question of the Congress, the
rumoured departure of the French troops, the state of the adjoining
kingdoms, the movements of the Pontifical army, and the promised Papal
reforms. Add to all this, there is the recent mysterious attempt at
murder in the Minerva hotel, about which all kinds of strange rumours are
in circulation. Suppose too, which heaven forbid, that I was a Roman
citizen, and had no means of catching sight of foreign newspapers, which
is extremely probable, or understood no foreign language, which is more
probable still; what in this case should I learn from my sole source of
information, my _Giornale di Roma_, about my own city and my own country,
on this 19th of January, in the year of grace 1860?

The first fact brought before my eager gaze on taking up the paper, would
be that yesterday was the feast of St Peter's chair. Solemn mass was, I
learn, performed in the cathedral, in the presence of "our Lord's
Holiness," and a Latin oration pronounced in honour of the