eless I cherish the memory of the moments wickedly stolen
at their expense, for it is only the first time seeing such a thing
that you enjoy a peculiar delight. But since, I love to see and study
it much.

The Pope, in receiving the Councillors, made a speech,--such as the
king of Prussia intrenched himself in on a similar occasion, only much
better and shorter,--implying that he meant only to improve, not to
_reform_, and should keep things _in statu quo_, safe locked with
the keys of St. Peter. This little speech was made, no doubt, more to
reassure czars, emperors, and kings, than from the promptings of the
spirit. But the fact of its necessity, as well as the inferior freedom
and spirit of the Roman journals to those of Tuscany, seems to say
that the pontifical government, though from the accident of this one
man's accession it has taken the initiative to better times, yet
may not, after a while, from its very nature, be able to keep in the
vanguard.

A sad contrast to the feast of this day was presented by the same
persons, a fortnight after, following the body of Silvani, one of
the Councillors, who died suddenly. The Councillors, the different
societies of Rome, a corps _frati_ bearing tapers, the Civic Guard
with drums slowly beating, the same state carriages with their
liveried attendants all slowly, sadly moving, with torches and
banners, drooped along the Corso in the dark night. A single horseman,
with his long white plume and torch reversed, governed the procession;
it was the Prince Aldobrandini. The whole had that grand effect so
easily given by this artist people, who seize instantly the natural
poetry of an occasion, and with unanimous tact hasten to represent it.
More and much anon.

LETTER XX.

ROME.--BAD WEATHER.--ST. CECILIA.--THE PEOPLE'S PROCESSIONS.--TAKING
THE VEIL.--FESTIVITIES.--POLITICAL AGITATION.--NOBLES.--MARIA
LOUISA.--GUICCIOLI.--PARMA.--ADDRESS TO THE NEW SOVEREIGN.--THE NEW
YORK MEETING FOR ITALY.--ADDRESS TO THE POPE.

Rome, December 30, 1847.

I could not, in my last, content myself with praising the glorious
weather. I wrote in the last day of it. Since, we have had a fortnight
of rain falling incessantly, and whole days and nights of torrents
such as are peculiar to the "clearing-up" shower in our country.

Under these circumstances, I have found my lodging in the Corso not
only has its dark side, but is all dark, and that one in the Piazza di
Spagne would have be