urope. The mode
of procedure followed in it is excellent, and might serve as a model in
every country where people would not have the administration of justice
reduced to the art of simply terminating lawsuits."

Another author, whose remarks are deserving of attention, Monsignor Fevre,
says that law expenses are very moderate, the proceedings very rapid, and
the rules of the Judiciary among the very best of the kind. Besides, the
poor are never taxed by the courts, while they are always supplied with
counsel. In Rome itself the pious confraternity of St. Yeo (the patron
saint of lawyers) takes on itself, gratuitously, the cases of all poor
people, when they appear to have right on their side. The
arch-confraternity of San Girolamo Della Carita, also undertakes the
defence of prisoners and poor persons, especially widows. "It has the
administration of a legacy left by Felice Amadori, a noble Florentine, who
died in the year 1639. The principal objects of their solicitude are
persons confined in prison. These they visit, comfort, clothe, and
frequently liberate, either by paying the fine imposed on them as the
penalty of their offence, or by arranging matters with their creditors.
With a wise charity they endeavor to simplify and shorten causes; and they
employ a solicitor, who assists in settling disputes, and thus putting an
end to litigation. This confraternity embraces the flower of the Roman
prelacy, the patrician order and the priesthood."

One is naturally inclined to ask how it came to pass that a people,
possessing such wise institutions, such an admirable system of
legislation, and a sovereign who constantly studied to enlarge and improve
their inherited benefits, were never satisfied? It would be hard to say
that the Romans, the real subjects of the Pope, were not satisfied. But
there were not wanting those who succeeded in making it appear that they
were not, and who also contrived to induce many of the Romans themselves
to believe that they had cause to be discontented. It was the fashion in
Piedmont to rail against everything clerical, and to such an extent did
this mania proceed, that they began to persecute the clergy. Through the
agency of the secret societies, whose chief was Mazzini, this
anti-clerical prejudice spread through all Italy, and even extended to
Rome, the government of which, as a matter of course, was bad, for no
other reason than that, being conducted by the Chief of the clergy, it was