Volume I Part 34 (1/2)

We returned through the Porta di San Giovanni, and by the Scala Santa There are three flights of steps; those in the middle are covered ood (that the marble may not be worn out), and these are the holy steps; the other two are for the pious to walk down I had no idea anybody ever went up on their knees, though I are they were not allowed to go up on their feet, and with no small surprise saw several devout females in the performance of this ceremony They walk up the vestibule, drop upon their knees, rise and walk over the landing-place, carefully tuck up their gowns, drop again, and then up they toil in the inable

Weak in their li, On their bare hands and feet they crawl along

DRYDEN, _Juv_ 6

I suppose there is soe derivable from the action, but I don't knohat Why, however, I should be surprised I can't tell, after all I have seen here Mada came to my recollection, and San Gennaro; she had owned todispute about it, though I have since thought that I aard her credulity with such pity and conteh not that which she ht in what they do, but without knohy; so both ways, but she had been brought up in principles of strong religious belief, and she belongs to a church which teaches that miracles have never ceased from the days of the Apostles till now Those who believe that a miracle ever was performed cannot doubt that another _may_ be performed now; the only question is as to the fact _We_ believe that miracles ceased with the Apostles, and we pronounce all that are alleged to have happened since to be fictitious Believing as she does that miracles have continually occurred, it is more reasonable to believe in the reality of one she sees herself than in those which are reported by others She sees this done; it is, then, a miracle or it is an imposture; but it is declared to be a miracle by a whole body of men, who must knohether it be so or not, and to whom she has been accustomed to look up with respect and confidence, and who have always been deemed worthy of belief

What is it, then, she believes? The evidence of her own senses, and the testimony of a number of men, and a succession of them, who are competent witnesses, and whose characters are for the most part unblemished, in her opinion certainly The objection that it is ined for its performance, is quite inadmissible, as all considerations of reason are in matters of revelation

And when the event only is revealed, it is not for matise about the mode or means of its accomplishhts as our thoughts, and His purposes ht out in aof which we are so continually ree of the reasonableness and fitness of the Divine dispensations, and there h we cannot fathoiven it up, one wonders at the orthodox fehose belief lingers on There are other bloods that liquefy in various places besides San Gennaro's

_12th_--Walked to Santa Agnese, in the Piazza Navona, a pretty church, but hardly anybody in it; to Santa Maria sopra Minerva, erand perfors, which are too thick; he has one golden foot for the devotees, earing out the marble toe, and would soon have had it as smooth as that of Jupiter's in St Peter's; _ci-devant_ Jupiter, now St Peter

I went again to the Pantheon, and walked round and round, and looked, and aded wretches who came in seemed struck with adh the roof; it passes eneral wreck of Rome Then to St Peter's, and went up to the roof and to the ball, through the aperture of which I could just squeeze, though there is plenty of room when once in it The ball holds above thirty people, stuffed close of course Three otherup at the saarlicky effluvia It is irandeur of St Peter's without going over the roof, and exaalleries The ascent is very easy; there are slabs at the bottoates, as they were successively opened and closed by the different Popes at the Jubilees[4] At the top were recorded the ascents of various kings and princes and princesses, who had clambered up; there was also an inscription in Latin and Italian, the very counterpart of that which is still seen on the wall in titus's Baths, only instead of 'Jovem omnipotentem atque omnes Deos iratos habeat,'

&c &c, it runs, 'Iratos habeat Deuh I don't see why Paul should care about it Went afterwards and walked on the Pincian

[4] The Jubilee was established by Boniface VIII in 1300, and was originally a centenary commemoration, but reduced to fifty years, and afterwards to twenty-five, as it still continues Hallam remarks that the Court of Roh the description of that of 1300 'The Pope received an incalculable suht at the altar of St Peter, with rakes in their hands, raking up the heaps ofith the Lovaines and Monsignore Spada to see the library of the Vatican, which was to have been shown us by Monsignore Maii, the librarian, but he was engaged elsewhere and did not conificent, and the painting of the old part interesting and curious, but that which was done by Pius VI and Pius VII has deformed the walls with such trash as I never beheld; they present various scenes of the es in their lives The principal o di Felto, Duke of Urbino, and nephew of Julius II, beautifully illuminated by Julio Clovio, a scholar of Giulio Ros Ast the most curious of the literary treasuresare a ustine's works, written upon a paliht to light by Maii; the old Latin was as nearly erased as possible, but by the application of gall it has been brought out faintly, but enough to be made out, and completely read: Henry VIII's love-letters to Anne Boleyn, in French and English: Henry's reply to Luther, the presentation copy to the Pope (Clelish at the end of the book, in Latin at the dedication, which is also written by his own hand, only a line; the pictures representing St Peter's in different stages of the work are very curious In the print roolobe painted by Julio Roe Head: A RACING VOW]

Just before I went to the Vatican I read in 'Galignani' the agreeable intelligence that my mare Lady Emily had beat Clotilde at Newmarket, which I attribute entirely to my _ex voto_ of a silver horse-shoe, which I vowed, before I went to Naples, to the Virgin of the Pantheon in case I won the ood as my word, I have ordered the horse-shoe, which is to be sent on Monday, and as soon as it arrives it shall be suspended as, and heads, and silver hearts, and locks of hair

Everybody here is in great alare IV), who I have no doubt is very ill I aet home, and I should like to be in at the death and see all the proceedings of a new reign; but, now I am here, I must stay out my tiain, and 'according to the law of probability, so true in general, so false in particular,' I have a good chance of seeing at least oneleave us

May 15th, 1830 {p368}

I rode with Lord Haddington to the Villa Mellini last evening on a confounded high-going old hunter of Lord Lynedoch's, which he gave to William Russell Onbeen stopped at Aquapendente and Viterbo for want of a _lascia passare_

Thishim about the town till he was half dead The three last days have been the hottest to which Rome is subject--not much sun, no wind, but an air like an oven

The only cool place is St Peter's, that is delicious It is the coolest place in summer and the warallery of the Vatican, Villa Albani, and Villa Borghese The Villa Albani I had not seen before; it is a good specis (the finest of which is the Antinous), but very ill kept up The Cardinal has not set his foot in it for a year and a half; there is one walk of ilexes perfectly shady, but all the rest is exposed to the sun The post brought very bad accounts of the King, who is certainly dying I have no notion that he will live till I get hoarin told overnor to the Emperor of Russia's eldest son, that for the present he will retain the title of Ae d'Affaires in London

[Page Head: APPROACHING COUP D'ETAT IN FRANCE]

May 18th, 1830 {p368}

Again dragging Henry de Ros about, who likes to see sights, but is not strong enough to undergo fatigue Yesterday I called on M

de la Ferronays, and had a long conversation about French politics; he is greatly alarmed at the state of affairs in France, and toldto dissuade hi a _coup d'etat_, that the King has always been in his heart averse to a Constitution, and has now got it into his head that there is a settled design to subvert the royal authority, in which idea he is confire' He anticipates nothing but disaster to the King and disorder in the country fro in prosperity, averse to change, satisfied with its Government and Constitution, and only desirous of certain ameliorations in the internal ad inviolate the institutions it had obtained He thinks the success of the expedition to Algiers, if it should succeed, will have no effect in strengthening the hands of Polignac; says they co the Cha that violent Address in answer to the Speech, that they should immediately have proceeded to propose the enactment of those laws of which the country stands in need, when if the Chareed to them the Ministry would have appeared to have a th; and if they had been rejected, the King would have had a fine opportunity of appealing to the nation, and saying that as long as they had attacked him personally he had passed it by, but as they opposed all those ameliorations which the state of France required, his people e between hiiven hiht many moderate people to his side He added that he had also said the sanac, but without success, that he is totally ignorant of France and will listen to nobody I told him that Henry de Ros had been at Lyons when the Dauphin came, and how ill he was received by the townspeople and the troops, at which he did not seeh sorry

Went to Santa Maria in Trastevere to-day, the Farnese Palace, the Farnesina and Spada, Portico d'Ottavia and Mausoleo d'Augusto; this last not worth seeing at all The last time I was at the Spada I did not see the pictures, soood, particularly a Judith by Guido, and a Dido by Guercino, which is daiore and St John Lateran, and a ride over the Cana to the Claudian aqueduct and Torlonia's _scavo_

May 20th, 1830 {p370}