recognize measures that are good for
them. A few weeks' schooling at some popular meetings, the clubs, the
conversations of the National Guards in their quarters or on patrol,
were sufficient to concert measures so well, that the people voted in
larger proportion than at contested elections in our country, and made
a very good choice.

The opening of the Constitutional Assembly gave occasion for a fine
procession. All the troops in Rome defiled from the Campidoglio;
among them many bear the marks of suffering from the Lombard war. The
banners of Sicily, Venice, and Bologna waved proudly; that of Naples
was veiled with crape. I was in a balcony in the Piazza di Venezia;
the Palazzo di Venezia, that sternest feudal pile, so long the
head-quarters of Austrian machinations, seemed to frown, as the bands
each in passing struck up the _Marseillaise_. The nephew of Napoleon
and Garibaldi, the hero of Montevideo, walked together, as deputies.
The deputies, a grave band, mostly advocates or other professional
men, walked without other badge of distinction than the tricolored
scarf. I remembered the entrance of the deputies to the Council only
fourteen months ago, in the magnificent carriages lent by the princes
for the occasion; they too were mostly nobles, and their liveried
attendants followed, carrying their scutcheons. Princes and
councillors have both fled or sunk into nothingness; in those
councillors was no counsel. Will it be found in the present? Let us
hope so! What we see to-day has much more the air of reality than all
that parade of scutcheons, or the pomp of dress and retinue with which
the Ecclesiastical Court was wont to amuse the people.

A few days after followed the proclamation of a Republic. An immense
crowd of people surrounded the Palazzo della Cancelleria, within whose
court-yard Rossi fell, while the debate was going on within. At one
o'clock in the morning of the 9th of February, a Republic was resolved
upon, and the crowd rushed away to ring all the bells.

Early next morning I rose and went forth to observe the Republic.
Over the Quirinal I went, through the Forum, to the Capitol. There was
nothing to be seen except the magnificent calm emperor, the tamers
of horses, the fountain, the trophies, the lions, as usual; among the
marbles, for living figures, a few dirty, bold women, and Murillo boys
in the sun just as usual. I passed into the Corso; there were men in
the liberty cap,--of course the lowe