Of course, if you can shut your eyes to facts,
all this is very pretty and sentimental. If the Romans could be happy
enough to possess the constitution of Thibet, and have a spiritual and a
temporal Grand Llama, they could not have fixed on a more efficient
candidate for the former post than the present Pope; but the crowds of
French soldiers which lined the streets to coerce the chosen people,
formed a strange comment on the value of pontifical piety. It is too
true that the better the Pope the worse the ruler. Probably the
thousands of Romans who thronged the Corso knew more about the blessings
of the Papal sway than the few score strangers, who volunteered to pay
the homage to the Sovereign of Rome which the Romans refuse to render.
To-day the demonstration was repeated on the Porta Pia; and the Vatican,
indignant at its powerlessness to suppress these symptoms of
disaffection, is anxious to stir up the crowd to some overt act of
insurrection, which may justify or, at any rate, palliate the employment
of violent measures. So in order to incense the crowd, the public
executioner was sent out in a cart guarded by gendarmes to excite some
active expression of anger on the part of the mob. It is hard for us to
understand the feeling with which the Italians, and especially the
Romans, regard the _carnefice_.
Pages:
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158