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19 travel Letter no.11: italy andthe Church October 20, 1856 Paris, France In this, her last letter from abroad, Rose gives her impressions of Italy, especially instances of poverty and misery, which she attributes to the power and wealth of the Catholic Church. She takes the opportunity to compare a church-dominated country with the happy state she described in more secular France, to which she had returned. Her letter appeared in the Boston Investigator on December 10, 1856. n Paris, October 20, 1856 Mr. Editor:—Here we are once more, in the city of the gay, the emporium of elegance and politeness. But, methinks I hear you say you have already spoken to us of Paris, but not one word of any other place. Where have you been? What have you done since you left Paris? Is there no other place in your whole journey worth mentioning. . . . After leaving Paris, we went to Lyons, Geneva, and Chamberry in Switzerland, where we ascended a very high mountain near Mont Blanc;—thence we went to Basle, Strasborg, Badenbaden, (a terrible gambling place,) Heidelberg, Frankfort, and then on the Rhine to Coblentz, Cologne, Berlin, Dresden, Prague, Vienna, Trieste, Venice, Milan, Turin, Genoa, Leghorn, Florence, Rome, and Naples. Though our limited time prevented us from remaining long in any of these places, we saw the principal objects of interest and curiosity. The most interesting places we have visited were Venice, Rome, and Naples. These cities are replete with interest and instruction; every stone speaks to you in an unmistakable language of the past, present, and future. But, alas! poor degraded Rome, it lives only on the decay of the past. So despicable is its condition, that the glory visible even through the ruins of its past greatness, proclaims louder and places in still bolder relief its present shame. The space once occupied by 500,000 inhabitants, evidently possessed of the highest culture, the arts, sciences, refinement, and also abundance , is now inhabited by 150,000, who with the exception of a small portion of the population, consist of priests, soldiers, and beggars. The first two classes of beggars are impudent, well dressed, and well fed; but 0 ernestIne l.rose the last unhappy class of beggars, equally large but not being licensed by church nor State to beg, rob and plunder, having no authority on their side except their own misery, are in such abject degradation, that were it not that the cause of it is but too visibly written in the bloated figures of the thousands of priests, in the churches filled with incalculable wealth, and the dark superstition which weighs the people down, one would almost despair of the race, and blush to belong to it. But as it is, humanity pleads more earnestly for aid, and calls for greater efforts, energy, and perseverance, to utterly destroy root and branch that cursed superstition that could sink a once noble people into so debased a condition as Rome, as Italy now is. The roads from Florence to Rome, and from Rome to Naples, are infested by beggars, brigands, and priests. The priests are necessary to the other two classes; for the beggars, to direct them to some other life, otherwise they might not so willingly submit to their miserable condition in this; and for the brigands, to give them absolution (with a free license for their trade). While we were in Rome, a diligence [a public stagecoach] from Naples to Rome was attacked; eight balls were fired into it; fortunately, no one was injured, except a horse; the other horses from fright ran away with the wagon, and so saved it from being plundered. This took place in the morning, and only twenty miles from Rome, within hearing of the soldiers. The diligence had three thousand dollars in it, and the brigands seem to be well informed when much money is carried; but who can wonder at all this? A religion of falsehood , force, and fraud, can produce no other characters but just such as we there beheld. Naples, though a large commercial city, surrounded by a country gifted with all the advantages of climate, fruitfulness, and scenery unequalled in the world, presents just as miserable an aspect of idleness, beggary, cruelty, and priests. Thousands of lazzaroni [idlers, beggars, or persons who subsist on odd jobs] are in the daily pay of a miserable pittance from the King, to be ready at his bidding to massacre and plunder the better portion...

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