ter of perfect
indifference to him that his subjects brawl, rob, or murder one
another, so long as they don't attack either his Church or his
government.

If we examine the question of the distribution of punishments in the
Papal States from this point of view, we shall see that papal justice
never strikes at random.

The most unpardonable crimes in the eyes of the clergy are those which
are offensive to Heaven. Rome punishes sins. The tribunal of the
Vicariate sends a blasphemer to the galleys, and claps into goal the
silly fellow who refuses to take the Communion at Easter. Surely
nobody will charge the Head of the Church with neglecting his duty.

I have told you how the Pope defends and will continue to defend his
crown, and I have no fear of your charging him with weakness. If
Europe ventured to allege that he suffers the throne on which it has
placed him to be shaken, the answer would be a list of the political
exiles and the prisoners of state, present and past--the living and
the dead.

But the crimes and offences of which the natives are guilty towards
one another affect the Pope and his Cardinals very remotely. What
matters it to the successors of the Apostles that a few workmen and
peasants should cut one another's throats after Sunday Vespers? There
will always be enough of them left to pay the taxes.

The people of Rome have long contracted some very bad habits. They
frequent taverns and wine-shops, and they quarrel over their liquor;
the word and the blow of other people is with them the word and the
knife. The rural population are as bad as the townspeople. Quarrels
between neighbours and relatives are submitted to the adjudication of
cold steel. Of course they would do better to go before the nearest
magistrate; but justice is slow in the States of the Church; lawsuits
cost money, and bribery is the order of the day; the judges are either
fools or knaves. So out with the knife! its decisions are swift and
sure. Giacomo is down: 'tis clear he was in the wrong. Nicolo is
unmolested: he must have been in the right. This little drama is
performed more than four times a day in the Papal States, as is proved
by the Government statistics of 1853. It is a great misfortune for the
country, and a serious danger for Europe. The school of the knife,
founded at Rome, establishes branches in foreign lands. We have seen
the holiest interests of civilization placed under the knife, and all
the honest people in th