nies and saintly examples, but with the sword, the halter and the bayonet; the

against the age of extending a military polic

"The world for sale !-Hang out the sign; Call every traveller here to me; Who'll buy this brave estate of mine,

And set me from earth's bondage free! 'Tis going!-yes, I mean to fling

The bauble from my soul away; I'll sell it, whatsoe'er it bring ;The World at auction here to-day!

"It is a glorious thing to see,

Ah, it has cheated me so sore! It is not what it seems to be:

For sale! It shall be mine no more. Come, turn it o'er and view it well;

I would not have you purchase dear; 'Tis going-going! I must sell !

Who bids! who'll buy the splendid tear!

"Here's Wealth in glittering heaps of gold, Who bids! but let me tell you fair, A baser lot was never sold!

Who'll buy the heavy heaps of care! And here, spread out in broad domain, A goodly landscape all may trace;

'Tis going! Love and I must part! Must part! What can I more with Love! All over the enchanter's reign! Who'll buy the plumeless, dying dove, An hour of bliss,-an age of pain!

"And Friendship,-rarest gem of earth, (Whoe'er hath found the jewel his ?) Frail, fickle, false and little worth,

Who bids for Friendship-as it is! 'Tis going-going!-Hear the call; Once, twice, and thrice!-'Tis very low! 'Twas once my hope, my stay, my all,

But now the broken staff must go!

"Fame! hold the brilliant meteor high; How dazzling every gilded name! Ye millions, now's the time to buy!

How much for Fame!-How much for

Fame!

Hear how it thunders !-Would you stand
On high Olympus, far renowned,
Now purchase, and a world command!-
And be with a world's curses crown'd!"

bloodhounds of the Revolution struggled with the wolves of despotism; the wolves triumphed, and this was their alliance, to be consecrated with the blood of myriads of freemen.

This league of the great powers against the liberties of mankind carried on, from the instant of its establishmeut, a plan for reducing all Europe to an absolute slavery they meant, at all risks, and, if necessary, by the violation of every precedent of right, to tread out the fires of revolution, and extinguish forever the life of freedom in the old world.

Usurping the name and symbols of religion, like Belshazzar, they profaned the sacred things at their banquets; with ceremonies and pious talk preparing war against the image of God in man. By extending a military police, aided by a

system of espionage, they hoped to keep down the first risings of rebellion, and prevent the organization of the people.

The first to rise against the universal despotism was the Greek nation, which had been made over by the allies to the government of the Sultan. Then follow ed the Polish revolution, with its consequences; and now, in order, we have the revolution in Italy.

The Italian peninsula, formed by nature to sustain an independent people; separated by seas and mountains from her neighbors, with a fruitful soil, a serene and healthful climate; inhabited by a people whose ancestors gave laws and civilization to the world, and, in later ages, religion, literature and sacred art; a people themselves the most intelligent of Europeans-distinguished for ingenuity and capability; this country and nation, numbering twenty-two millions fit for freedom, were divided between Austria and her dependent princes. A series of conspiracies and partial revolutions had failed to rescue them from the domination of their masters; they had realized none of the rights and privileges of freemen until their annexation to the empire of Napoleon, who gave them their first taste of a just and salutary government.

The fall of Napoleon brought them under the power of Austria. The free institutions introduced by the French Emperor were abolished. Secret trials, arbitrary taxation, suppression of free literature and instruction, and a body of law derived immediately from the will of the prince, reduced them once more to a hopeless servitude. Their Pope, Gregory XVI., instituted no new forms in the government, but rather confirmed and aggravated the old oppressions; it became impossible to obtain justice in any cause or at any price. The feudal abuses continued to increase the poverty of the people; Austrian influence operated everywhere, and increased steadily; the people despaired of freedom, and, though they continued to cherish a rebellious spirit, made no efforts to liberate themselves, when, by the unexpected election of Pope Pius IX., a new turn was given to their affairs, and the liberal spirits suddenly discovered in their pontiff a leader and an organizer, a sovereign and a statesman, fitted to be the reformer and regenerator of Italy.

Gregory XVI., the preceding Pope, a man well fitted to be the head of a religious order, but unequal to affairs of state and ignorant of the spirit and demands of his age and nation, suffered his government to rest in the hands of a ministry of the most retrograde and despotical character. He allowed the influence of Austria to predominate in his councils, and in every part of his government. Surrounded by a servile and tyrannical crowd of officials, his executive acts consisted chiefly in exiling, condemning, and oppressing his exhausted and irritated subjects.

Since the revolution of 1831, the Papal dominions were continually dis turbed with conspiracies and partial insurrections, excited by the oppressions of the government. Secret political societies were always active, though frequent discoveries of their designs brought great numbers of their leaders, often nobles and men of influence, to the scaffold. A violent revolution seemed the only hope of deliverance from the persecutions of the religious oligarchy that wielded the Papal power. The taxes and public debts paralyzed the energies of the people; while the government continued to contract new loans and anticipate more taxes, to support the armaments and police which it used to keep down the ris ings of popular hatred. Freedom of opinion in an Italian was punished with death, and religious intolerance, especially against the Jews, carried to its height as in the worst days of superstition. Political leaders were seized, without lawful reason given, and judged with closed doors, their witnesses being spies and their counsel attornies of the government. From the judge they were silently handed over to the executioner or the jailor, without liberty of reply or of self-defence. The punishment of death was frequently inflicted without the forms of trial or writ of condemation, and under obsolete laws, raked out of records as old as the Popery itself. The judicial department had become a mere anarchy, and every ecclesiastic in power might inflict ruin or death under the lightest pretences.

The police, especially, illustrated the real nature and designs of the government. The commissioners and agents were generally men taken from among banditti, or from the prisons; and the inferior officers mostly men abandoned

to the worst of vices and addicted to the commission of every crime.

The Papal army, recruited by men with out country or family, formed a body of mercenaries ready to execute every command of the vilest of rulers: nor was the Pope himself ever without his guard, composed of the dregs of the populace, excluded by their vices from all situations of industry. In every department and function of government appeared an odious mixture of superstition and tyranny. The sacred office of the confessional was converted into an office of information for political purposes, and under the garb of the priest, the spy of Austria or of the ministry, was concealed. The religious orders triumphed over the people and lived sumptuously, while the laboring classes wandered about unemployed and starving. Everywhere prevailed the spirit of despotism and retrogradation. Every novelty was suspected, and every advance in art or knowledge suppressed. Economical enterprises were even absolutely prohibited.

The head and organ of this system was the Cardinal Lambruschini, who ruled the pontiff and the nation, and carried all affairs as it pleased him. The Pope himself, though often disposed, through the kindness of his temper, to grant reforms to the repeated solicitations and sorrow ful petitions of his subjects, would do nothing in opposition to the Cardinal, who had acquired over him the mastery that a strong and unscrupulous, easily acquires over an easy and irresolute char

acter.

Gregory XVI. belonged properly to the scholastic ages of the church. His education, his weak health, and his yielding temper fitted him to be the recipient of the narrowest prejudices, and deprived him of all real power: so dependent had he become, the Cardinal, his minister, had but to threaten a resignation of his office, to bring the Pope over to any measure that he chose to favor. Had Lambruschini been elected Pope, a general insurrection and revolution seemed inevitable, so great was the hatred with which he in spired all classes, excepting those who immediately sought his favor. There was a general understanding among the people that his election should be the signal for a change, and that they would have carried the revolution to an extremity, is almost certain, so intense and universal was the desire for freedom.

The guns of St. Angelo and the funeral

bell, announcing the death of Gregory XVI., struck with no sorrowful tone upon the hearts of the people. They could not lament the death of one who had been the weak and miserable instrument of their oppression. But the sounds awakened fears, lest his successor might be the tyrant who had employed him, and roused the bold spirits of Rome to prepare for one more effort for liberty, were it even their last. They knew that Austria, their hated enemy, had already prepared herself for intervention, and would seize the pretext of revolution to enslave them; that she eagerly awaited an opportunity to annex the Roman States to her dominions, and by that blow to extinguish forever the hopes of truth and freedom in Italy.

La Tudesca rabbia, the cruel, the eager Teuton, the enemy of Rome, who had watched her through centuries, eager for her blood, was at that moment listening for the first sounds of rebellion, to march in and silence her forever.

When the death of Gregory XVI. was at length announced to the people, a terrible silence reigned throughout the city. Fear and revenge sat upon every countenance. The party of the Gregorians hoped for a successor who should resemble their master. The liberals were eager to rise and proclaim a new government, even before the election of a new Pope, and the secret societies believed that the time had now come for throwing off the mask.

Secret political societies, it is thought, would be more injurious than useful to the Italian cause, and perhaps only check and discourage the efforts of gov ernment for reform. What generous Italian would not readily sacrifice his political connections, to a government really paternal and judicious? The societies were for the establishment of such a government. At its approach they must dissolve and cease to exist. The only so. ciety, now must be the society of the nation, and the only party the party of its great and liberal head. Not that any person familiar with the modern history of Italy, and an advocate of freedom, would blame these societies, or fail to acknowledge the good which they have accomplished. Among their members were the best and wisest men of Italy; and the secrecy which they practiced was a dictate of necessity-a policy to deceive a wakeful and remorseless enemy. Their former leaders are now the strongest sup