er is counterbalanced by
the extra risk to which the labourer is exposed. The ravages created by
the malaria fevers amongst the ill-bred, ill-clothed, and ill-cared-for
labourers, are really fearful. Indeed it is hardly an exaggeration to
say, that the whole working population of Rome is eaten up with malaria.
I feel myself convinced that the misery and degradation of the Papal
States are to be attributed to two causes, the enormous burden of the
priesthood, and the ravages of the malaria. How far these two causes are
in any way connected with each other, I have never been able to
determine. It is one of the rhetorical exaggerations which have impaired
the utility of the _Question Romaine_, that M. About, in his remarkable
work, always treats the malaria as if it was solely due to the
inefficiency of the Papal Government, and would disappear with the
deposition of the Pope. This unphilosophical view is generally adopted
by liberal opponents of the Papacy, who lay the malaria to its doors,
while Papal advocates, on the contrary, always treat the malaria as a
mysterious scourge which can never be removed or even palliated; a view
almost as unphilosophical as the other. For my own part, I have only
been able to arrive at three isolated conclusions on the subject. First,
that mere cultivation of the Campagna, as shown by Prince Borghese's
unsuccessful experiments, does not at any rate immediately affect the
virulence of the miasma, or whatever the malaria may be. Secondly, that
the malaria can actually be built out, or, in other words, if the
Campagna was covered with a stone pavement, the disease would disappear--a
remedy obviously impracticable; and lastly, that though the existence of
the malaria cannot be removed, as far I can see, yet that its evil
effects might be immensely lessened by warm clothing, good food, and
prompt medical aid at the commencement of the malady. Whatever tends to
improve the general condition of the Roman peasantry will put these
remedies more and more within their reach, and will therefore tend to
check the ravages of the malaria. Thus, the inefficient and obstructive
Government of the Vatican, which checks all material as well as all moral
progress, increases indirectly the virulence of the fever-plague; but
this, I think, is the most that can fairly be stated.

I trust that, considering the importance of the subject, this digression,
unsatisfactory as it is, may be pardoned; and I no