I will add in conclusion, that the Italians are not enervated by the climate to such a degree as to dislike work.  A traveller who may happen to have seen some street porters asleep in the middle of the day, returns home and informs Europe that these lazy people snore from morning till night; that they have few wants, and work just enough to keep themselves from one day to another.  I shall presently show you that the labourers of the rural districts are as industrious as our own peasants (and that, too, in a very different temperature), as economical, provident, and orderly, though more hospitable and more charitable.  If the lower orders in the towns have become addicted to extravagance, idleness, and mendicity, it is because they have discovered the impossibility, even by the most heroic efforts and the most rigid economy, of gaining either capital or independence or position.  Let us not confound discouragement with want of courage, nor tax a poor fellow with idleness, merely because he has had the misfortune to be knocked down and run over by a carriage.

The Pope reigns over 3,124,668 souls, as I have already observed more than once.  This population is unequally distributed over the surface of the country.  The population in the provinces of the Adriatic is nearly double that in the Mediterranean provinces, and more immediately under the Sovereign’s eyes.

Those pious economists who insist upon it that all is for the best under the most sacred of governments, will not scruple to tell you:—­

“Our State is one of the most populous in Europe:  therefore it must be one of the best governed.  The average population of France is 67 1/2 inhabitants to the square kilometre; that of the States of the Church 75 7/10.  It follows from this that if the Emperor of the French were to adopt our mode of administration, he would have 8 2/10 inhabitants more on each square kilometre!

“The province of Ancona, which is occupied by the Austrians, and governed by priests, has 155 inhabitants to the square kilometre.  The Bas-Rhin, which is the fourth department of France, has but 129, consequently it is evident that the Bas-Rhin will continue to be relatively inferior, so long as it is not governed by priests, and occupied by the Austrians.

“The population of our happy country became increased by one-third between the years 1816 and 1853, a space of thirty-seven years.  Such a grand result can only be attributed to the excellent administration of the Holy Father, and the preaching of 38,320 priests and monks, who protect youth from the destructive influence of the passions.[1]

“You will observe that the English have a passion for moving about the country.  Even in the interior they change their residence and their county with an incredible mobility; no doubt this is because their country is unhealthy and badly administered.  In the El Dorado which we govern,