wardly decorous than it is at present.

This then is the fair side of the picture. What is the aspect of the
reverse? In the first place, the system requires for its working an
amount of constant clerical interference in all private affairs, which,
to say the least, is a great positive evil. Confession is the great
weapon by means of which morality is enforced. Servants are instructed
to report about their employers, wives about their husbands, children
about their parents, and girls about their lovers. Every act of your
life is thus known to, and interfered with, by the priests. I might
quote a hundred instances of petty interference: let me quote the first
few that come to my memory. No bookseller can have a sale of books
without submitting each volume to clerical supervision. An Italian
gentleman, resident here, had to my own knowledge to obtain a special
permission in order to retain a copy of Rousseau's works in his private
library. The Roman nobles are not allowed to hunt because the Pope
considers the amusement dangerous. Profane swearing is a criminal
offence. Every Lent all restaurateurs are warned by a solemn edict not
to supply meat on fast days, and then told that "whenever on the
forbidden days they are obliged to supply rich meats, they must do so in
a separate room, in order that scandal may be avoided, and that all may
know they are in the capital of the catholic world." Forced marriages
are matters of constant occurrence, and even strangers against whom a
charge of affiliation is brought are obliged either to marry their
accuser, or make provision for the illegitimate offspring. In the
provinces the system of interference is naturally carried to yet greater
lengths. Nine years ago certain Christians at Bologna, who had opened
shops in the Jewish quarter of the town, were ordered to leave at once,
because such a practice was in "open opposition to the Apostolic laws and
institutions." Again, Cardinal Cagiano, Bishop of Senigaglia, published
a decree in the year 1844, which has never been repealed, to promote
morality in his diocese. In that decree the following articles occur:

"All young men and women are strictly forbidden, under any pretext
whatever, to give or receive presents from each other before marriage.
All persons who have received such presents before the publication of
this decree, are required to make restitution of them within three
months, or to become betro