LETTER XXX.

ROME,

Indolence of the Roman Nobility-Its causes.-Malaria.Education of the Noblemen.-Their want of dignity.Morals of the Women.-Cavalieri Serventi.-Education of the Girls. They go more to foreign society than formerly.British Ladies do not associate much with the Italian Ladies.-Duke of B-'s Routes.-Dress of the Italian Ladies.Their Manners contrasted with those of Women of other Nations. Conversation Room.-Gaming Room.-Music Room English Lounging Parties.

THERE is no peculiarity in Roman manners, which is more apt to excite the surprise and the contempt of strangers, particularly Britons, than the indolence of the nobility and principal gentlemen. Yet there are circumstances in their political condition, which, when duly considered, convert our surprise into compassion, and transfer our indignant contempt from these degraded orders themselves, to the unwise and oppressive government by which they are held enthralled.

To proprietors of land, the country can present but few attractions, when industry is repressed by limitations which rob the agriculturist of the pro

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INDOLENCE OF THE ROMAN NOBILITY.

fits of his labour, and thus diminish to the landlords the value of their estates. A Roman nobleman, were he to reside among his tenantry, would find himself in the midst of wretchedness which he could not relieve,—of poverty, by which, without the pleasure of being generous, he was himself impoverished. He would see his lands lying waste, because there was no inducement to culti vate them, when the produce, without meliorating the condition of the cultivator, was only to enrich the coffers of a rapacious government; and would be solicited by a penurious peasantry for a reduction of rents, already too scanty to maintain an establishment suitable to his rank.

It is not to be wondered, therefore, that they should have no pleasure in field sports, in rural amusements, in planting, gardening, or improving their estates. Renovation must here begin with the court. When the oppressive hand of power is removed from the husbandman, and he is encouraged to labour, by the liberty of carrying his produce to the most advantageous market, and the security of enjoying, at least, the principal share of his profits, Italy will assume a new aspect; the lands which are now left uncultivated, engendering in their neglected marshes the dreaded malaria, will soon be drained, and become salubrious and productive; and the nobility, finding their seats the centre of improvement and comfort, will learn to take plea

THEIR IMPERFECT EDUCATION.

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sure in occupations which are exalting them, by the increase of their revenues, in the scale of society.*

It is truly deplorable to see the Campagna Romana, a tract containing nearly a million of acres, left, not only a useless waste, but the neglected abode of that subtile enemy, which is perpetually extending its baneful influence, and has now advanced to the very walls of Rome. What can rouse a government to a sense of its own interest, which looks, with apparent indifference, on the spread of a pestilence, that is rapidly depopu lating its territories, and involves high and low in one common danger?

The imperfect manner in which the nobility of Rome are educated, is likewise to be ascribed to the state of depression, in which they are kept by the policy of the court. Rigidly excluded from all offices of honour and emolument, which are entirely engrossed by the priests, they have no inducement to cultivate those branches of literature and science, which would enable them to distinguish themselves among their countrymen, and qualify them for becoming able statesmen and politicians. To pass away life in the gayest, easiest manner,

* Besides many other restrictions on the corn market, a tax of eighteen per cent. is imposed by government on all agricultural produce, exported from the Roman territory, except to the province of Bologna.

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LAXITY OF MORALS.

seems the grand object, to which they believe that all their education ought to be directed. Gallantry, intriguing, gaming, and fiddling, are, therefore, their favourite accomplishments; and their character is marked by all the frivolity and meanness, which are the natural result of such an education, and such circumstances.

From their number, many of them are miserably poor; yet, too proud to engage in any honourable pursuit, they become indolent dependents and sycophants. They will let their palaces and houses, and generally endeavour to take advantage of a stranger, if they are not bound by a written agreement; it would be folly to trust to their honour. I speak of the mass; no doubt, there are many upright and virtuous individuals among them, but almost none who have that dignity of character, which we find in the same class in England.

Their whole system of morals, both with the men and women, is well known to be highly reprehensible, and greatly at variance with our views of correct conduct: one would think they made scarcely any distinction between virtue and vice. Domestic comfort there can be little, and, I should think, as little affection. The husband must be uncertain, whether the children that his wife presents to him, be his own. She is never without her cavaliere servente at her toilette, or in

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her airings in the Corso, * attending to all her capricious whims. The husband, a cavaliere servente himself, performs the same offices to other women. Is it not disgraceful, that men of rank should be thus employed, instead of attending to the general good of their country?

Ladies of the higher class seldom nurse their own children, nor do they occupy themselves with their education. The boys are educated by the priests, and the education of the girls is left to the nuns of a convent, who, from their situation in life, cannot be well informed; they read no books but those of their religion. Prejudice and superstition form part of their creed, and are enjoined as indispensable to the true Catholic. But what must the girls think of those rules of self-denial which they are taught, or even of religion itself, when they perceive the conduct of their parents? Must they not suppose them fetters assumed merely for a time, which they are at liberty to cast away at the moment of freedom, the happy period of marriage and cicisbeism?

The girls did not formerly mix in society; but, in consequence of the number of strangers with their families who go to the semi-Italian society, the Duchess of F-'s, the Duke of B-'s, (Torlonia the banker,) R-'s, &c. they occasionally appear; but

* The Corso is the principal street.