They presume to be grand in their ideas. One of them, in
1848, under the reign of Mazzini, when the public works were suspended
for want of money, finished the bridge of Lariccia, one of the finest
constructions of our time, at his own expense. He certainly knew not
whether the Pope would ever return to Rome to repay him. He acted like
a real prince; but his audacity in assuming a part which was not
intended for his caste, merited something more than contempt.
I, who have not the honour to be a prince, have no reason to despise
the _mercanti di campagna_. Quite the contrary. I have solid ones for
esteeming them highly. I have found them full of intelligence,
kindness, and cordiality: middle-class men in the best sense of the
term. My sole regret is that their numbers are so few, and that their
scope of action is so limited.
If there were but two thousand of them, and the Government allowed
them to follow their own course, the Roman Campagna would soon assume
another aspect, and fever and ague take themselves off.
The foreigners who have inhabited Rome for any length of time, speak
of the middle-class as contemptuously as the princes. I once made the
same mistake as they do, so my testimony on the subject is the more
worthy of acceptation.
Perhaps the foreigners in question have lived in furnished lodgings,
and have found the landlady a little less than cruel. No doubt
adventures of this kind are of daily occurrence elsewhere than in
Rome; but is the middle-class to be held responsible for the light
conduct of some few poor and uneducated women?
Or they may have had to do with the trade of Rome, and have found it
extremely limited.
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