pulation; a new city rapidly
rising on the site of the ancient "Queen of the world," with all the
conveniences, appliances, and luxuries of a modern European city.
Magnificent new streets and boulevards, lined with buildings equal to
any in Paris or London--streets traversed by tramways, and brilliantly
lighted by gas; with shops and magazines, as in other great continental
capitals. An energetic Government and municipality have planned and are
carrying out vast improvements, that bid fair in a few years to render
modern Rome not only equal to the Rome of the Caesars in beauty and
magnificence, but as desirable a residence from a sanitary point of view
as any other city of its size.

It is proposed to embank the famous old Tiber; and already the squalid
quarter of the Ghetto has been invaded by the workmen, who are levelling
the wretched dwellings that have for so many ages rendered its name a
byword throughout the world, preparatory to the erection of new
buildings. So greatly has Rome already improved, that instead of
travellers paying it a hurried visit merely for the sake of its art
treasures, and hastening away as from a plague-stricken city, great
numbers of English and Americans make it their head-quarters for many
months. Both countries have now their own churches, a fact above all
others proving the vast change that has taken place since Italy has been
free from foreign and papal yokes. King Humbert observed, that no
greater proof of the faith England and America had in the stability of
Italian constitution could be given, than the building of these
churches. Not only have the Anglo-Saxons their churches in Rome, but
their newspaper also; and the _Italian Times_, a weekly paper printed in
English and published in Rome, is another evidence of what Italian
freedom now is. This paper, which is a staunch advocate of all
improvements, especially to those relating to sanitation, boldly takes
for its motto--"Independent in all things, neutral in none."

When all the contemplated improvements are carried out, there will be
no more delightful or healthy residence for six or eight months in the
year than this poor unfortunate city of Rome, that has been for the last
dozen years deprived of the blessings(?) of Pontifical and Cardinalite
government.

Happy indeed would be the condition of our own poor unhappy Ireland
could she also cast off the bondage and evil influences of the Papacy;
for then her gifted people would