her faith spoken of throughout the world. But my belief as an outsider is that the Pope would be more thought of if not mixed up with politics. At the present you, as well as others whom I met, are ready too often to say-"C'est la faute du Pape," when the dirty state of even a back street is referred to. This should not be, and perhaps the unhealthy state of Rome had better in future be laid at the door of the King than at the door of the Pope. Hormisdas, the Persian, had too much reason to say that men died at Rome as well as elsewhere.

I am off for Florence and then to Venice, which our Milton said was "neither sea nor good dry land."

LETTER XXXIX.

FLORENCE A T LAST.

APRIL 16th. This morning we were snugly got into a reserve compartment by the care of Mr. Wood, and came here in much comfort and safety, passing the Tiber again and again, yellow with the earth it carries down to the sea. And now I am at Firenze la bella-Florence the beautiful, but whose inhabitants a late writer says are "inconceivably lazy, slovenly, and filthy." Like many other travellers' tales we hope to have no reason to believe them. At present I can but speak of Florence off-hand. It has its history bound up with the greatest men the world has seen. I have seen the home of the immortal Dante, over the doorway of which is a tablet to tell the tale. To-morrow I shall visit the residence of Galileo, and the handsome memorial temple raised to his memory. Everything around me tells of Michael Angelo, and of Raphael, who "hailed" from Florence, though born outside its walls. Here, at Florence, was the dogma of Purgatory promulgated in 1434, 200 years after the Confessional had received the same recognition at the Church of the Lateran. Here, too, Petrarch lived, and not far off have wagon loads of fossil bones been found, the supposed remains of one of Hannibal's armies.

I confess I like the town amazingly. The Arno is a placid stream; the hills around are covered with villas, reminding one of the days when Michael Angelo as engineer of the Florentine Republic, ordered the villas of his time to be pulled down, that the invaders might have no shelter for the winter. And they were pulled down, and Florentine nobles bel:aved like patriots. Yet, these Florentines were then, like all ancient Republicans, a busy, plotting race. At Florence Lord Houghton's lines would not have been in place

"There the calm of life comparing,

With his Europe's busy fate,
Let him gladly homeward faring

Learn to labour and to wait."

Four Cæsars for Rome in twelve months was nothing to Florentine changes. The fact was, Florence and Venice and Genoa were too small to be ruled independently. As well may we expect towns of their size in England to produce statesmen and rulers as they. Of necessity many of us, to use the language of Burns, must be men "wha grow wise prigging (bargaining) owre hops and raisins," and to whom the how to govern must be the deep unknown. In some circumstances we grow up to look with contempt even upon the lilies because they do not spin. But I have begun to homilise, which is a sure sign that I should sayGood-night.

LETTER XL.

FLORENCE IN GENERAL.

FLORENCE, April 17th.-On our arrival here last night, at the New York Hotel, we had the usual washings, &c., and were at once off for a walk up the banks of the Arno, a river flowing through the town about 60 miles from the sea, very much like the Clyde at Glasgow, walled in, and adorned with a promenade on both sides. It is called the Lungo Arno. By gaslight and moonlight the view was extremely pleasant, and an hour's drive made us fall in love with Florence, of which we had heard so much. The streets are much like those of Paris, wide and with footpaths, and caffé indoor life abounds. It seemed so strange to be all but at once dropped from the beautiful railway ride of twelve hours from Rome, surrounded as we had been by mountains, lakes, rivers, and vineyards into Dante's own city, where the Lungo Arno at once. would suggest paradise, and many of the crowded caffés the various circles into which the great Florentine placed the ungodly. Caffé life may be very lively, but it must be very deteriorating. We met a band of fine-looking fellows singing under an hotel window, on the river bank, and their music sounded really grand. I suppose Italian alone can give the human

voice scope for the display of its inherent and best cultivated powers. At the Italian Protestant services at Naples and in Rome we felt an indescribable feeling as the plaintive melodies of these lands were sung with a sweetness, a pathos, and a power to which we were strangers. Especially was this the case in Rome, where the audience was one composed almost entirely of working men-fine noble Roman-looking fellows. In returning to our inn we met two funereal processions, each preceded by a torchbearer. In one case the bearers, perhaps 15 in number, were masked and dressed in black; in the other, they were in white. Both went at a running pace. We were informed that the black bearers were part of a society formed 300 years ago, during the Florence plague, and that the members were masked on purpose, being men of position in the city.

Six o'clock.-A beautiful morning is now dawning, and I must away for a walk. We have returned from an early walk along the river, and over a bridge covered chiefly with jewellers' shops. There were many curiosities in them and various antique articles, which, if money permitted, I should like to buy. At breakfast we had near us a family of three, who told us all their travels, the lady expatiating on the beauties of Venice. The breakfast and dinner parties at Naples were always interesting. At Rome we had some 200 at dinner, and so talked chiefly to ourselves.

We are now off to the Cathedral and to the Picture Gallery-the most wonderful for paintings in the world. But these require special letters. I only add that I go with fear and trembling. I am going to see the "Venus di Medici"-the most famed statue in