On Sunday last, placards affixed in the high places summoned the city to invest Giuseppe Mazzini with the rights of a Roman citizen.  I have not yet heard the result.  The Pope made Rossi a Roman citizen; he was suffered to retain that title only one day.  It was given him on the 14th of November, he died the 15th.  Mazzini enters Rome at any rate, for the first time in his life, as deputy to the Constitutional Assembly; it would be a noble poetic justice, if he could enter also as a Roman citizen.

February 24.

The Austrians have invaded Ferrara, taken $200,000 and six hostages, and retired.  This step is, no doubt, intended to determine whether France will resent the insult, or whether she will betray Italy.  It shows also the assurance of the Austrian that the Pope will approve of an armed intervention.  Probably before I write again these matters will reach some decided crisis.

LETTER XXIX.

THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.—­CHARLES ALBERT A TRAITOR.—­FALL OF
GIOBERTI.—­MAZZINI.—­HIS CHARACTER.—­HIS ADDRESS TO THE PEOPLE.—­HIS
ORATORY.—­AMERICAN ARTISTS.—­BROWN, TERRY, AND FREEMAN.—­HICKS AND
HIS PICTURES.—­CROPSEY AND CRANCH CONTRASTED.—­AMERICAN
LANDSCAPE PAINTINGS.—­SCULPTORS.—­STORY’S “FISHER BOY.”—­MOZIER’S
“POCAHONTAS.”—­GREENOUGH’S GROUP.—­POWERS’S “SLAVE.”—­THE
EQUESTRIAN STATUE OF WASHINGTON.—­CRAWFORD’S DESIGN.—­TRIALS OF THE
ARTIST.—­AMERICAN PATRONS OF ART.—­EXPENSES OF ARTIST LIFE.—­A GERMAN
SCULPTOR.—­OVERBECK AND HIS PAINTINGS.—­FESTIVAL OF FRIED RICE.—­AN
AVE MARIA.

Rome, March 20, 1849.

The Roman Republic moves on better than could have been expected.  There are great difficulties about money, necessarily, as the government, so beset with trials and dangers, cannot command confidence in that respect.  The solid coin has crept out of the country or lies hid, and in the use of paper there are the corresponding inconveniences.  But the poor, always the chief sufferers from such a state of things, are wonderfully patient, and I doubt not that the new form, if Italy could be left to itself, would be settled for the advantage of all.  Tuscany would soon be united with Rome, and to the Republic of Central Italy, no longer broken asunder by petty restrictions and sacrificed to the interests of a few persons, would come that prosperity natural to a region so favored by nature.

Could Italy be left alone!  But treacherous, selfish men at home strive to betray, and foes threaten her from without on every side.  Even France, her natural ally, promises to prove foolishly and basely faithless.  The dereliction from principle of her government seems certain, and thus far the nation, despite the remonstrance of a few worthy men, gives no sign of effective protest.  There would be little hope for Italy, were not the thrones of her foes in a tottering state, their action liable at every moment