Severn's Roman Journals

JOSEPH SEVERN, the artist and the friend of artists and poets, during his long service as English consul at Rome kept a record of his observations and reflections in a leisurely diary. I have selected a number of passages from it, choosing especially those which relate to the momentous period of the last years of the papal temporal dominion (1861 to 1870), but at the same time have not attempted any sequent narrative, or even aimed at any manner of consistency in selection. Words written at the time when great events are happening have a freshness of appeal which no historical essay can so adequately afford ; and often they gain by isolation. In a word, I have given here a varied series of excerpts from Severn’s Roman journals, taken, in a sense, haphazard, but calculated to interest all readers. To those who love Italy, his devotion to that country and his belief in her high destinies will alone win for him respectful heed.

The consular diaries begin with a quotation of the letter of recommendation from Baron Bunsen to Lord John Russell, which was one, at least, of the most potent pleas for the bestowal of the Roman consulship upon Joseph Severn. To the last moment the latter had not ventured to believe in his success, for there were in all about a hundred and twenty candidates for the post, and he feared that his sixteen testimonials would be of little service among the host of recommendations. In later life, he was always wont to maintain that Baron Bunsen’s letter, dictated by that statesman on his deathbed, secured for him the coveted office. “ I begged Lord John Russell to permit me to have it,” Severn writes, “ as a memorial of a friendship of thirty-five years.” The close of Baron Bunsen’s letter consists of the following notable words (written, it must be remembered. in the early autumn of 1860) : “ I cannot let this opportunity pass without expressing my sense of gratitude, as a statesman, a Christian, and a man, to you and Lord Palmerston for not only having proclaimed, but also enforced the principle of non-intervention in Italy. I am sure you agree with me that Venetia cannot, in the long run, be withheld from Italy, but at the same time that it would be a disgrace to Europe if the question could not be solved without the aid of arms and the danger of a general European conflagration. I believe that not only the enlightened public all over Europe, but also a large proportion of public opinion in Austria, which is even represented in the council of the Emperor, would hail such a solution with the greatest satisfaction, supposing that the financial interests of Austria and the honor of the imperial house were insured.”

Severn’s consular troubles began with the escapade of certain enthusiastic but foolish countrymen.

March 7, 1861. “Cavaliere Severi came to me from the Bureau of the Roman Police to complain of three ‘ mad Englishmen.’ They were not so mad as foolish. It was a time of great anxiety in Rome, and to the satisfaction of all, nationalists and adherents of the papal régime alike, there was a temporary truce to outward enmities. Every one was hoping that the match would not fall near the gunpowder for some time to come. Suddenly these three Englishmen were possessed by the idea of going to and fro in Rome clad in Garibaldian costume, and conducted themselves altogether in a manner singularly offensive to the populace. Even the Garibaldians were angry ; for Italians, and Romans in particular, are the last people to appreciate foreign interference. Cav. Severi conveyed to me the request of Monsignore Mateucci, the governor of Rome, that I should at once persuade them to desist from their dangerous folly. Without delay I sought them to this end, and obtained their promise to offend no more. Too much ill feeling had been aroused, however, and Monsignore Mateucci insisted that they should leave Rome. The governor was anxious to treat the matter as a mere indiscretion, and his communication was couched most courteously : he begged the favor of me that I would try and persuade them to quit Rome. This I also did; for their conduct was very offensive to the Romans, who were conducting themselves with gravity and decorum.”

A short time after, Severn had an interview with the famous Cardinal Antonelii. ' “ At ten o’clock [March 20] I was received very graciously. The cardinal is, to all appearance, the reverse of the scheming, unscrupulous prelate he is so often depicted by his political and other enemies. He impressed me as simple and easy in his manners, and with a quick and sympathetic apprehension in conversation. He has a fine countenance, of the strong and yet refined old Italian type ; dark, with speculative black eyes, sometimes inscrutable and profound, but oftener lit as by a playful vivacity. He complimented me on my appointment, with some pleasant words about my earlier sojourn in Rome, and assured me that the former was very acceptable to the government authorities. Possibly there was some arrière-pensée in this courtesy ; certainly Antonelli has the reputation of never losing an opportunity of gaining a friend or of discrediting an enemy. He is a remarkable man, and will become an even greater power than he is, in all probability. He is generally either the prelate, or the courtier, or the diplomatist, but every now and then one may recognize in him, for a fugitive moment, the man of the iron hand in the velvet glove. He asked me if I had seen his recent letter to the nuncio in Paris, explaining and defending the present papal position. Fortunately I had read it with close attention, and thought the logic of it admirable. I told Cardinal Antonelli so, but added that sound logic and a potent plea were sometimes of no avail, as in the case of Columbus and his mariners, where everything pointed to the rightness of the seamen’s standpoint, and yet where their attitude seemed ignorant folly to the superior wisdom of the great discoverer. ' Ah, but then Columbus was certain of his New World,’ remarked the cardinal, with a smile. ‘ And his mariners,’ I ventured to add, ‘ were not aware of it even when they were really there. It was simply a new country to them, — not a new world.’ ‘ Ma ! ’ exclaimed his Eminence, with that penetrating, half-mocking look that so often came into his eyes, ‘ we have no Americas here — before us — in the Old World!' ‘That is just where the serious and indeed fatal omission of your nuncio letter is, monsignor,’I urged earnestly. He gave a peculiar, almost a startled glance at me, and with a characteristic gesture signed to me to be more explicit. ‘The omission,’I went on, ‘is simply the lack of recognition of the fact that we, here, all of us, the civilized world, are in very truth living in the New World.' Antonelli seemed strangely struck by my remark ; for he knew at once what I meant. After a little he confessed that I was right so far, but added that such a statement could not have been incorporated by him in his letter. He then went on to lament the utilitarian tendency of things (no doubt a clever move on his part to evade a perilous subject), and asked me if in this respect I did not find Rome very much changed. Improved, I said, in the many public buildings erected by the Pope; but that the shops alarmed me with their showiness in common with those of other capitals, whereas I would rather see the old Roman style. Before I left I told him an anecdote which much amused him. The other day I heard of an American from Chicago who made a novel remark about St. Peter’s, of which 't is thought impossible to say anything new. On entering the church, and after looking about him in silence awhile, the visitor exclaimed, ‘ Good God ! what a quantity of capital is here all lying waste! , Cardinal Antonelli, in bidding me good-by, mischievously alluded to the great advantages to accrue to us all from the New World ! ”

It was in May of this year that, for the first time for over forty years, he again saw Keats’s sister Fanny, Madame de Llanos.

June 27, 1861. “Went to Leopold Brockman, the engineer of the Roman states railways, to ask for an appointment for Francesco Franz, who has studied for this profession, and I hope for success. This Leopold is the son-inlaw of a dear English lady, who, in affection and associations of loving friendship, is to me like a new-found sister. At the beginning of May, a Spanish gentleman called and asked if I were ‘Joseph Severn, the friend of Keats.’ ‘Yes,’ I answered. Then said he, with some agitation, ‘ My wife is the poet’s sister, and she is now here in Rome and longing to see you.’ This seemed to me most marvelous, that we should meet, after more than forty years, in the very place where her illustrious brother died in my arms. I had seen her when she was a girl of fifteen, and when her brothers were all well; now all were dead except herself, — the sole surviving member, indeed, of the Keats family. Our meeting was very touching. We could not speak for some minutes, for many poignant memories overcame us. For a long time we sat thus, hand in hand, shedding silent tears. Her two Spanish daughters joined in this pathetic silence. They met me reverently, as an elder relation ; for my devotion to Keats, their famous and, in a sense, deeply loved uncle, had been their favorite speculation [sic] in coming to Rome. To meet me here and thus, they afterwards told me, seemed a romantic felicity. After a time I unclasped my hand from that of Madame de Llanos, and made several attempts to introduce some indifferent subject to break the deep agitation of all four of us. But it was impossible, and after nearly an hour had elapsed I had to return to a house full of people. Madame Keats Llanos greatly resembles both her youngest and eldest brothers (John and Tom) ; and there is in particular the same sweet vivacity which characterized the dear poet. Although married to a Spaniard and living in Spain, and with all her Spanish interests and associations, she yet preserves her native language in great purity, — the gift of her family, so striking in her brother John.”

(In a home letter.) “They are all charming, and Rosa is a beautiful girl. I see a likeness of my ever dear Keats in his nephew, Madame de Llanos’ only son. I cannot tell you the happiness it is to me to have these friends here, and in close communion. I went the other day with my dear friend to Monte Testaccio, where Keats lies, to help her to plant two bay - trees at her brother’s head. . . . Then, too, I have many old Roman friends about me. Overbeck, the famous German painter, has been fifty-one years in Rome; Gibson, the sculptor, forty-three. Health and longevity are, in truth, characteristic of life in Rome.”

October 23, 1861. “ To-day I made the acquaintance of the celebrated American actress, Miss Cushman, who has been living in Rome for some time. I was much pleased with her. She is a woman of great mental accomplishments and of singular charm, and, from all I hear and can so far directly perceive, must be an actress of consummate ability. What a pity she cannot act in Italian ! She might electrify the Romans. Even Cardinal Antonelli would more readily admit the inevitable change in things if all Rome flocked to the theatre to see a great American actor ! I noted that her apartment, was filled with the most beautiful collection of old carvedwood furniture of every kind I have ever seen, —bookcases, sofas, beds, cabinets, chairs, cupboards, and tables. When I left her, I told her with truth that I was filled with envy of her good taste and good fortune in obtaining possession of so many beautiful things, and that there can be nothing left in Rome to find. It was with singular pleasure, too, that I met Miss Hosmer, the American sculptor, who is living with Miss Cushman. She too is a woman of native charm, and, if I am not mistaken, of very unusual power in her noble art. I am to dine with them to-morrow. . . . Rome is certainly the place for old people to seem young. No one would believe that John Gibson has been here for half a century, and Frederick Overbeck even longer; Macdonald, the sculptor, not far behind; while as for myself, ’t is forty years since I first came here with my beloved Keats, so I, too, may fairly stand among the Roman antiquities, though one in good preservation, and, as they say of old pictures, ‘ not retouched.’ I ought to be complimented, for Miss Cushman took me for my son, and was anxious to hear about my father, to whom, she said, in common with all Americans who revered the genius of Keats, she owed a debt of gratitude. I was dull enough to be taken in at first.”

With 1862 came rumors of perilous excitement and menacing movements. Throughout Italy the yeast of revolution was working towards a coming mighty change, and scarcely less ferment was there in Europe, particularly in Austria, Prussia, and France. On the 21st of March the Carnival began, but might as well not have been held, for the citizens of Rome abstained almost en masse. The day before, an address from the mysterious secret committee invited all patriotic Romans to attend at the ancient Roman Forum instead. As both the papal party and the nationalists claimed to be patriotic Romans, there was some doubt as to whether much practical notice of the announcement would be taken by the cautious Romans ; and in any case it was too late for the papal government to interfere, even if it could have ventured to do so. The meeting at the Forum was a great manifestation ; all the more impressive, perhaps, from the fact that it was a silent and dignified assertion of the rights of the citizens to judge for themselves, as in olden times. There were over twenty thousand Romans assembled, and a double row of carriages lined the whole length of the Forum. It was, says Severn, the gathering of the first thunderclouds around the grave of the papal dominion. In the afternoon there was sheet lightning, for at three o’clock the Corso was suddenly taken possession of by the French troops, and all entrance to this chief thoroughfare of Rome was forbidden. All the sbirri and other papal soldiery were also assembled in or near the Corso, for the Pope had become seriously alarmed. Already there had been an ominous disturbance with the sbirri, and, moreover, the temper of the French troops was, to say the least of it, mercurial. Fortunately, General Goyon had the good sense to order the supplementary soldiery to their barracks, and so caused as little resentment to the populace as practicable. The French general again made a clever bid for popularity when he countermanded the spiteful order of the government suspending the great Carnival ball at midnight.

Naturally, too, the great war in America stirred even the most parochial communities of the Old World. Joseph Severn was as blind as were most of his countrymen to the vast and momentous interests of that titanic struggle, and indeed shared the even more extreme Continental view that it was nothing but a gigantic, cruel, and needless fratricidal strife. In one of his entries, referring to the fact that he had been to see the performances of Rarey, the famous American horse-tamer, and had encountered there Miss Hosmer, herself an enthusiastic horsewoman, and, as a sculptor, professionally interested in noting the novel and picturesque groups, he puts on record how he was corrected by those stanch Americans, Miss Hosmer and Miss Cushman. “ I told Miss Hosmer that the wonderful horse-taming was all very well, but that I hoped a Rarey might be found in time to subdue human creatures in the same way. Miss Cushman interjected the remark that she had ' never met with wild men or women in her whole career; ’ to which I replied, ' Then you have been so fortunate as to have lived among more civilized people than I have.' Mrs. Perkins, another American lady, then asked me ' where I should seek for people to tame ; ’ to which I answered, on the spur of the moment, ' In America, at this moment; for look at the civil war, and tell me if a Rarey would not have much to do among Americans.’ This assertion they denied, and eagerly combated my view of the conflict. Miss Hosmer and Miss Cushman were like Amazons in defense of their native land, and ardently urged that the war of North and South was the most heroic, the most generous, the most humane, even, that could be conceived, and that they would not allow me to denounce it as barbarous and savage. They may be right, but all Europe thinks with me.” ¹

The 7 th of May was an exciting day in Rome, “for throughout the city the rumor spreads that the troops of Victor Emmanuel are coming to share Rome with the French ; that the king of Italy will return from Naples by Rome ; and that the several stipulations have at last been agreed to by both sides. It may be true, but these same things have been so often said that I for one will believe only when I see an Italian soldier in Rome, or mayhap not till I see the king himself.”

May 8. " Odo Russell assures me that the French army of occupation here is to be increased by two thousand, chiefly of the artillery. Of this he is certain. Alas, poor Rome ! ”

May 14. " Everywhere ’t is said that the king of Italy is at Naples simply preparing to come to Rome, and that he is to be accompanied by Prince Napoleon, that there is to be a joint Franco-Italian occupation of the city, and that Victor Emmanuel is to be proclaimed at the Capitol. Again I say, I shall believe this when I see the Sardinian standard floating in at the Porta Pia, and hear the trumpets of the royal heralds awaking the sleeping echoes of the Capitoline.”

But the end of the month came, and Pius IX. was still a temporal sovereign. Yet there were ominous disturbances. On the 28th Severn writes : “ The accounts of the French troops taking the brigands and acting against the Pope’s troops are very suggestive, and in a sense alarming. It seems that Sora and Frosinone are in a state of siege. The brigands are flocking to Rome, where they become desperate, as the Pope cannot receive them. So they infest the neighborhood, and rob and plunder. Everything tends to a crisis. Even the projected canonization of twenty - seven saints of Japan is a dangerous folly if a merely religious matter, and a perilous enterprise for both Church and State if one of Antonelli’s schemes ; for the Pope, I am told, has, for this precious canonization, three hundred cardinals, archbishops, and bishops, really to defend him at the last as regards his temporal power. Yet the fall of the papacy from its temporal sovereignty is soon or late inevitable. If it were nothing else than the wicked means the Pope adopts to sustain his government, ’t would be enough to show how certain is the end. But it may come slowly. And what is to happen before the writing of Ichabod upon the walls of the Vatican ? ”

June 11. “ The political world here is still in hopeless confusion and contradiction, and every one speculates wildly. I, too, may prognosticate, though I do not share the common belief that France and Austria and Spain will combine to maintain the temporal sovereignty of the Pope. It is my belief that each of these countries— France and Austria, at any rate — is thankful that the Pope is restricted to Rome. He would be a firebrand in the side of France; he would be the fire itself in Austria. The day may come when he or his successors will erect the chief sanctuary in the United States of America, — the country, according to Cardinal Antonelli, where Roman Catholicism has such a magnificent future awaiting it. Perhaps my sons may live to witness a Pope Jonathan I. delivering, with a strong Yankee accent, his pontifical blessing urbi et orbi from the balcony of a new St. Peter’s in New York!”

June 16. “ Nearly half the French army has been ordered back to France, and departed yesterday. There was much excited speculation in Rome. Can it be that this is the beginning of the end ? ”

June 17. “The number and energy of the French priests here is one of the great difficulties the French Emperor has to encounter, and would alone justify him in urging the suspension of the temporal power. ... In the midst of all this hopeless wrong and folly, the Pope can see nothing but his own righteousness, and the wickedness of all his adversaries, and of Italians in particular. His recent allocution has nothing but abuse of the Italians, charging them with all kinds of criminal violence, whereas there is no place in the world so given over to this madness as his own sacred city. Can it be that his Holiness believes his own monstrous falsehoods, like one who, by loving an untruth and telling it oft, makes such a sinner of his memory as to credit his own lies, as Shakespeare says ?

“ Old General Stratton told me that he had just heard from the Duc de Grammont that the first intimation for England to arm both in navy and army came from Louis Napoleon, and that he even [encouraged ?] the volunteer movement. His real reason for this is his growing uneasiness on account of the unstable state of the French nation. He knew that he might be forced by public opinion to attack Great Britain at any time a capricious change in her fortunes offered the opportunity. He felt that by warning England, and that country being in readiness for war, he would be safe from having to attack it, and at the same time be assured of a useful curb for his own nation.”

Exciting weeks passed, wherein the French garrison of Rome was displayed and withdrawn with puzzling alternations, and when wild Garibaldian rumors flew from mouth to mouth. On the 30th of July Severn writes : " Great news, — marvelous events approaching. Garibaldi at Marsala projects an immediate descent upon Rome ! The French troops garrisoning all the smaller towns have been ordered to concentrate here at once, for the safeguarding of the Eternal City. All Garibaldians are wildly enthusiastic, and their cry is said to be ‘ Rome or Death ! ’ . . . I find it is the impression of the papal ministers that Napoleon is betraying them, and perhaps into Garibaldi’s own hands. It may well be so. The Emperor has done all he could to induce the Pope to settle the question, but, on account of his Holiness’s unyielding obstinacy, perhaps he thinks that the best way out of the difficulty will be to let Garibaldi enter Rome as victor and popular champion. It would be a clever move, I think; for Louis Napoleon could adopt a rôle which would enable him to pose just as convenient to his ends. He could, under nominal protest (so as to convince the papal party and the French clericals at home), permit Garibaldi to free Rome, and then, to pacify Europe (and the Catholic powers in particular) and to make good conditions with Victor Emmanuel, he could soon send the revolutionary general about his business, though in the most outwardly flattering and courteous way. This encouragement of Garibaldi, moreover, is a game which would be useful to him in Paris, where Garibaldi is popular, and indeed likely to become an idol. The Pope, meanwhile, is alarmed lest the seven war-ships at Civita Vecchia are there for another purpose than represented, and are really waiting for the transshipment of the French troops the moment the first Garibaldian shot is fired outside the walls of Rome. And now, since Garibaldi’s approach is certain, all the talk is, will an encounter take place, and if so, where ? It is the greatest mistake to suppose that the papal troops are at heart disloyal, or even indifferent; and, moreover, they are quite able to meet, and probably vanquish, any army Garibaldi is able to bring hither at present.”

August 10. “Momentous things are imminent. Garibaldi defies the king’s proclamation, though he assumes to do all in the king’s name. What will be the consequence if he really does advance in the face of this proclamation ? The Italian troops will certainly not act or even stand against him. Naples will be up to a man for him ; the provinces, too ; and even Rome is on tiptoe already. The governmentists swear that Victor Emmanuel is all the time in league with this ‘sacrilegious brigand;’ though, so far as I can make out, he is much more a dangerous friend, a thorn in the flesh, than an ally.”

August 12. “Garibaldi seems to be considered mad by all the northern papers, but from all the Italian accounts to-day I cannot but think that he is to ‘ loose the Roman question ; ’ and it may be that the Turin ministers, not being able to move either the Pope or Emperor, have secretly decided to let Garibaldi be the firebrand. No doubt, if so, they hope that these rebellious movements of the general will frighten both parties into more accommodating ways. The Emperor is always alarmed at signs of revolution and rebellion, and the Pope lives on putting them down by bits. If General Red - Shirt advances, he will collect an army like Wallenstein. All Naples will now join him, and he seems to have ample money at his command. There has been another maddening countermove on the part of Napoleon, for a new supply of fifteen hundred French troops has dashed the hopes of Romans for a peaceful solution of the problem. ’T is too much of the Turin government to expect that the people of Italy, and Romans in particular, can bear it any longer.”

August 27. “ There seems almost no doubt now that Garibaldi is acting in accord with both Napoleon and Victor Emmanuel : if not, it is extraordinary why such shilly-shally can go on. The general has just landed on terra firma, in Calabria, and the Italian fleet must surely have connived at his escape, or he could not have accomplished it. ’T is now believed that he will proceed hither by slow stages, and endeavor to gain a great moral force behind him for the emancipation of Rome. Here many of the ministers believe that he will make his way to Ceprano, and that there the king, with the Italian army, will join him, and both will come on and occupy Rome. The state of the government is desperate.”

August, 30. “ Startling news ; sad to many, welcome to others. A telegram announces that Garibaldi has been taken prisoner in Calabria, has been wounded, and is on his way as a prisoner to Turin. Fourteen of his volunteers were shot. The papal party is jubilant. Is the whole liberal and generous movement at an end ? Perhaps, if the Emperor is determined to bring about a civil war, this finale is best; but I am certain that either civil war, or the people driven to out-and-out republicanism, will be the result. How strange that the jealous diplomatic world would not let the Italian people go and establish their unity ! The Italians had done so well that they excited the jealousy of the despotic sovereigns, who could not bear that so much should be done by so little aid except from the nation itself. The means by which Italy is becoming a great kingdom cannot be pardoned or permitted, and at the worst not without having the papal finger in the pie. Yet the great wave of civilization will bear Italy on, for she is with the advancing waters, and not in the eddy of the ebb. I am proud that I belong to a government and people favoring liberty and loving the cause. No doubt the multitude of Italians now in London are beginning to see the right side of our muchabused religio - politico system. The Church, sword in hand, and standing at the door of a dungeon, can no longer inspire religion as in the Middle Ages.”

Apropos of the trans-Italian railway then being constructed to unite the Mediterranean and the Adriatic, from Civita Vecchia to Ancona, Severn recounts two amusing stories. The first gives the explanation of a phrase one often hears used in Rome concerning a person of doubtful rank or boorish manners : “ Ma, c’é un’ conte di Civita Vecchia! ” The anecdote is of Gregory XVI., and the incident happened in the latter years of Severn’s first Italian sojourn (circa 1834).

“ His Holiness’s objection to the transItalian railway was really because it would unite his faithful subjects of Civita Vecchia and the downright and incorrigible rebels of Ancona. Soon after this the good Pope thought it his duty to visit his loyal people, and on approaching Civita Vecchia his horses were taken out of the carriage, and the people dragged his Holiness, crying out, ‘ Noi siamo vostri cavalli, Santo Padre ! ’ ² The Pope, with true Italian politeness, answered, ‘ No, you are my cavalieri.’ As this was repeated again and again, the whole mob of ragamuffins in the end claimed to be cavalieri, and this included about eighty persons of the lowest class. The matter had afterwards to be judged at Rome, and the Pope could only get off by making thirty cavalieri; so that Civita Vecchia is famed for its superabundance of ready-made knights.

“ As regards the Ancona rebels, they grew worse and worse, until the Pope was obliged to excommunicate them. I remember the notice being sent off by courier with great formality, so that the Ancona people should be well prepared for their awful fate. They were well prepared ; for when the papal bull reached them, some ten days after, it was received in the Piazza in full public. The rebels had prepared a fire balloon, bearing the text ‘ Render unto God the things that are God’s ; ’ they popped the papal bull into the balloon, and up it went to its rebel destiny. I was assured by Baron Bunsen that this excommunication was never taken off ; for, though the Pope made a gracious visit to Ancona, he was afraid to stir up this delicate matter.

“ Then another amusing papal anecdote was related to me by Mr. Gladstone, now Chancellor of the Exchequer. When he was presented to the Pope, in 1834, the conversation turned on railways, and the Pope told him ‘ that he would never permit railways in his dominions, as they would injure the health of his subjects.’ Mr. Gladstone, thinking the Pope was not serious, pressed him more closely, and the Pope then said seriously that he was ‘ sure the English people were subject to consumption from passing through the air so rapidly in railways.’ This Mr. Gladstone told me himself.”

Severn has much to say, in his 1864 journals, concerning robberies and brigandage outside Rome, and, within, the effort to create a National Guard ; upon the signs of war, and the excitement in Rome on account of certain “ inspired” articles, of a vehement nature, in the Morning Post of London ; upon the significant desertion of a papal troop to the king of Italy; and upon a presumed accord between Lord Palmerston and Mazzini and Garibaldi. “ There is even a rumor that an Anglo-American legion is to be raised by Garibaldi or his emissaries, and that this will be encouraged, if not actually aided, by Lord Palmerston. But to what end such madness ? England can interfere if she will, but she must not play hot and play cold at the same time.”

Of the many deaths which Severn chronicles, by far the most momentous, of course, was that of Lord Palmerston, which was greeted in Italy “with something akin to consternation on the one part, and to jubilation on the other.” That of Massimo d’Azeglio was a loss to Italy, and in a sense to Severn; but what affected him more than any death since that of Keats was the decease of his friend of near half a century, John Gibson, the sculptor.

January 21, 1866. “ Gibson died yesterday morning at half past seven. Queen Victoria had sent a telegram to Mr. Odo Russell to learn about him, as the home papers had reported his death some days ago. The poor fellow held this telegram firmly in his left hand for hours, yet unable to express a word, He expired tranquilly and without pain, and resigned in death as he had always been in life. So ends his beautiful career of half a century, wherein he was always producing works of his own choice, uninfluenced by changes of fashion ; rather, indeed, sometimes directing taste. In his native land, somehow, his fame had vicissitudes, but at Rome he was unaffected by these changes, and always devoted to and inspired by his ideals, which he found in Greek art. His Greek feeling in his sculpture was born with him. He scorned the public meretricious taste, and would never bow to it. He was working to the last, and has left an unfinished group of Theseus killing the robber, — a composition he had, from his first year in Rome, 1817, studied. His works, although numerous, show no sign of want of thought or completeness; for his genius had all the principles of completeness, familiarity with Greek art and even literature, skill in anatomy, great knowledge of proportions, natural grace, and withal a power of finish which will give to his works, when they are arranged in the Royal Academy of London, the appearance of a museum collection, inasmuch as each statue and group has its characteristic style and complete finish. Perhaps he may be regarded by the side of Flaxman and Chantrey as the most perfect sculptor England has ever produced ; for he had the imagination, taste, and design of the first, and the finish and nature of the last; so that it may be said he combined the genius of each of these great sculptors, and thus advanced the art beyond the limit where they had left it. As a man, he was an honor to society in the simple, unaffected honesty of his character, and in the rigid truthfulness with which he acted ; then his benevolence was also a prominent mark in all doings, for he would leave his work on any occasion wherein he could aid any young artists, either by taking patrons to them or by giving his excellent advice, — excellent inasmuch as it seemed to reduce everything to rule, so that he was ready with the most valuable suggestions founded on the finest art, and given in simple and earnest language such as never could be mistaken. In this way it may be said that he indirectly ruled the world of AngloRoman art; for not only were his dictates supported by his own noble works, but also his success in a worldly sense gave stable force to his remarks. He was an admirable draughtsman in pen and ink and chalks. A striking trait of mind, and one which never forsook him, was that he would never allow himself to think or judge of anything that seemed out of his way as regards Greek art and literature ; he would not even answer a question that in this respect seemed inapplicable to him ; and no doubt he was thus enabled to carry the powers of his mind and heart onward, concentrated on one sole point; and this was so strong in him that his friends did not think of troubling him on certain matters that they had for other people. He was singularly amiable in his nature, and nothing had the power of ruffling him. I remember Captain Baynes tried a joke upon him, by meeting him in the street with the false news that his work people, in his absence, had knocked off the head of his Psyche. ‘ Well, well,’ he said, ‘ we must go and see what can be done ; ’ but he was unmoved. And again, some working lad threw down a clay bust, which he had just finished, right on its face ; and on my asking him what he did, he answered, ‘ Nothing, for the poor boy was as pale as death.’

“ That fine benevolence of Gibson’s character, I can well remember, first charmed me with Rome and made me decide to make it my artistic sojourn. On my first visit to him, when I was a young unknown student, at the end of 1820, he was receiving a very great man, Lord Colchester, who had been speaker of the Commons, and so, according to London artistic custom, I was for retiring ; but he would not allow this, and literally dragged me into his studio, wherein he showed me equal, if not even greater attention than he showed to my lord. I was so struck with admiration at this conduct that I came away reflecting that if a man like Gibson could afford to do such a thing as this, then Rome was the place for me ; and in this I was not mistaken, for it was and is the characteristic of Rome, and perhaps Gibson himself may have made it so. A charm, also, in his manner was that he would sit down and think over one’s work just as though it had been his own, suggest and even draw distinctly what he felt; and I have no doubt that, during half a century of his life, scarce a work which he may have seen had not in some way profited by his excellent and ready advice.

“ He was ever a warm and active friend of Wyatt, whose studio was opposite to him, and whose sculpture was of the same nature. Gibson was so proud of him that he was accustomed to take all his patrons and intelligent visitors over to see the works of his friend ; and at Wyatt’s death Gibson made a monument to him and sculptured the portrait medallion with his own hand, and paid the whole expense.

“ He was so simple, plain, and sometimes even shabby in his attire that, on one occasion, when he was wearing a ragged waistcoat, several of his friends made a conspiracy against the said waistcoat, and begged me to make a party for the purpose of destroying it, which we did ; for after tea we all attacked, not him, but his waistcoat, and he bore it like another Caesar. As we tore away the waistcoat in strips, he laughed and enjoyed it as a first-rate joke, but he insisted on my providing another waistcoat for him to go home in. I cannot say that he so much had fun as he had good nature, for he was always rigidly the true artist, and only as the art allowed itself to unbend in mirthful enjoyment, so much was he formed to be a good fellow as regards conviviality ; yet his good nature made him always a pleasant companion. But his conversation invariably turned on art, with which he was so thoroughly acquainted, and could refer to every period and every example, contrasting judiciously the good with the bad. He had a horror of all art wherein rule and order were not apparent, and he shuddered if you asked him about the many unfinished blocks of sculpture by Michael Angelo. He could not endure anything like vulgarity in art, and evidently regarded the ancient Greeks with nothing in common in their nature with the modern world. No doubt, like Keats, he was born with the classic gift of ancient Greece, but it is interesting to observe in what the two geniuses differed. Gibson was always striving to abstract his mind and art from all the commonplaces of nature, in order to raise a structure of ancient Greece with nothing like the common world. Keats, on the contrary, was able to familiarize his mind with all that seemed in common between the ancient and modern works ; and he loved to dwell upon this, and some of his finest poems are formed upon it. Gibson would have been unable to introduce ‘ milking - pails,’ and yet Keats, in his Endymion, does it consistently. But they both exulted in the essence of beauty which characterized the Greeks: Gibson, as though nature had altogether differed and was more bounteous ; Keats, as though she were the same and ever unchanged to us, and that we might will another Greek world if such were our feeling, but yet he did not touch those points wherein the difference was apparent, whereas Gibson did and was proud of them.”

February 1. “ On Monday, the 29th ult., the funeral of Gibson took place at Monte Testaccio. All the company met there, and an unusual pomp attended the funeral, as the illustrious artist was a member of the Legion of Honor, and so a guard of honor was present, lining the procession, and after the funeral service was read each soldier fired into the grave. The director of the French Academy. M. Schertz, was present; and there was no religious distinction of parties, for the pall was borne by six friends, both Protestants and Catholics, — M. Schertz, Wolff, Santine, Desoulavy, Chief Mourner T. Webster, R. A., and myself. Mr. Watts read the service, and was responded to. There were about four hundred persons present, of whom at least fifty were ladies. No attempt was made at an oration over the grave, and if the request had been made to me I should have been unequal to it, as I felt unable to speak to any one in this loss of a friend of forty-six years. It was pleasant to find that Gibson was universally beloved by all classes and nations, and on the day of his funeral an order of decoration arrived from the king of Prussia.”

In November of 1869 Severn lost another intimate friend in the person of Frederick Overbeck, the famous German painter. His remarks will be of interest to many.

November 16. “To-morrow is the requiem for Frederick Overbeck. . . . He was a man of genius in the same sense as the Cinquecento poets who preferred Latin to their native language. Overbeck considered that painting should be produced like poetry, — that is, without any direct reference to nature; in other words, that the painter should be so thoroughly familiar with nature as to render every form and aspect readily without models. In this he always seemed to me to forget that painting is addressed to the sight, and therefore that direct imitation (or imitative interpretation) is essential to it. Otherwise it may be unintelligible in its language. In this way Overbeck excelled in his simple outlines and simplest drawings, but always seemed to me to fail when painting them on the canvas, where they seemed to me merely like bad copies without the charm of fine painting in rendering the freshness of nature. Petrarch wrote his epic poem in Latin, and we know nothing of it; but his Italian poems are the warrant of his immortality, written spontaneously as they were. If Shakespeare or Milton had written their works in Latin, we would know nothing of them, either. Even Dante would have perished in Latin. Overbeck strove to design wholly in the manner of early art, and so, instead of being the child of nature, he became the grandchild. Yet he had a fine imagination and noble taste in composition, and but for this false bias might have been a fine painter. Personally he was a man of fine character and mind, and a true friend.”

July 18, 1870. “I believe that marvelous things are about to happen for Italy, whichever way the Fates decide. France has just declared war against Prussia. What will he the end of it? Here, as elsewhere, it is thought that France will not only gain the Rhine as a frontier, and perhaps more, but will do her utmost to crush Prussia. No doubt the war was bound to come. France could no more endure to see the growing dominance of Prussia than the Southern States of America could bear the overwhelming trend to supremacy of the Northern States. Will England intervene? If so, it will be in favor of Prussia; and yet Mr. Gladstone would never consent to this, nor, perhaps, the new political power in Great Britain. Will Italy throw in her lot with one or the other ? It seems to me she will fall between two stools if she does. If France wins, she may buy Italy’s future help ; if she loses, then Italy must make a bold stroke for freedom before Prussia can inherit France’s tutelage. I mistrust the Prussian minister, Bismarck. I hear him spoken of as no match for Louis Napoleon, but it seems to me that Napoleon is as a puppet compared to him. There is something more than a Franco-Prussian war in this man Bismarck’s brain. The French here speak of him as a brutally successful savage; but from all I hear he is a man of profound insight and infinite patience. It may be that this war is a duel between Napoleon and Bismarck, with the domination of Europe as prize.”

July 20. " The war was declared most ostentatiously and arrogantly on the 16th. On the same day the incredible and incredibly foolish dogma of infallibility was proclaimed. The world is going mad, and all the dreams of civilization are coming to an end. . . . Will the Prussians beat the French ? I think they will, though that is not the general view. I also believe that the war will be of comparatively short duration, and be, I fear, one of the most frightful and destructive in history. . . . Napoleon seems false in saying that all the courts of Europe approve big monstrous war, when it is evident not one approves it or the manner of it. Perhaps England may yet bring Europe through this awful peril. I remember the remarkable words of Cardinal Antonelli : ‘ The British principle of justice will always exist, whatever party be in power ; indeed, England is always governing Europe by the sole force of her moral power.’ ”

On the 3d of August the French troops in Italy left for the north. Metz followed erelong. The drama drew to a close more rapidly than even Severn had anticipated. Pasquin’s riddle in Rome, one morning, gave the disastrous result to the Napoleonic dynasty in a few words ; " What will this war cost France ? ” “ Why, two ‘ Napoleons ’ ! ” In rapid succession came the declaration of the French republic, the barricading of Rome, and the wild excitement of expectation. The Pope refused to disband his mercenaries, almost his last act of mistaken sovereignty. On the 18th of September Rome was attacked. On the 16th Severn wrote: —

“All mediation is at an end. Rome will now probably be surrounded and attacked at various points at the same moment. The Pope seems blind to the possibility that he may lose the Leonine City as well as larger Rome and his sovereignty. He and his counselors believe that one or other of the powers will intervene at the last moment, — a mad hope. They hope much from England, even, but I know that Mr. Gladstone is as opposed to the fatal decree of infallibility as anyone could be, and that this and the papal blindness to facts put all intervention out of the question, even if it were now practicable, which it is not. The impression of the populace is in every way favorable to the invasion, and they will rejoice in the change if for nothing else than the much-needed revival of trade and commerce. But still there are thousands of the more ignorant sort who believe that God himself will interfere at this sacrilegious assault upon his vicar, and that in some way the Pope’s position will be saved and his enemies be confounded. The priests encourage this, though they add the wise rider that God may possibly wait and punish the ‘ royal robbers and assassins ’ in some other way, perhaps by another visitation of the cholera. The poor people believe and tremble.³ Yet. as the Italian army is said to be at least sixty thousand strong, and the Pope has but twelve thousand at most, I fear that might will carry the day. Still, the Zouaves will fight. The Popolo gate is being strongly fortified, though no doubt the king’s artillery will smash it in five minutes. ... I hear that the attack will be at eleven A. M. I am selfishly glad that my home is in such a position that it is unlikely to suffer damage from the cannon-balls. There is a rumor that the Pope will leave the city at the first firing of the guns, but I doubt if he will now be allowed to depart; and in any case he could be captured at once. Besides, his strength now is to sit still and be ‘ usurped.’ He can do this with dignity and pose as a martyr, whereas if he left Rome he would simply be a dethroned refugee. The wisest of his advisers now urge sole reliance upon his spiritual authority. I hear that some of the cardinals want his Holiness to go forth in full pontificals, and, all alone, confront the army of the king, and, under ban of excommunication, forbid any to enter Rome. But the day for such a threat has gone by, and even a decree of infallibility cannot make the papal condemnation an effective curse. What folly to run the risk of bartering his unique and splendid spiritual headship of Christendom for the preservation of his trumpery temporal dominion, especially as he is so unfitted for the exercise of the temporal rights ! ”

Twelve o’clock. “ An awful pause. The streets almost empty, and scarce a sound. There is anticipation of an attack at every moment. It is as though Rome were one throbbing nerve, and strained to the uttermost..”

September 18. “ Eight o’clock. I hear the first and second cannons, so now the attack has begun. God grant there be not much slaughter! ... It is expected that an attack will be made at all the gates at once. If brought to bay, the Zouaves will fight with desperation. The populace has gone to extremes, and now hopes mad things from the king’s almost certain victory. But they do not foresee the doubling of the taxes, the advance in the price of all necessaries, and even the immediate loss involved; for now the vintage will be spoiled, and no end of misery in the coming winter caused. This is a strange Sunday. Tt must be a day of terrible import for the poor old Pope. All Europe looks on ; and here the guns fire like distant thunder, and we eat and move about as though the destinies of Christianity were not at this moment, perhaps, being vitally affected forever.”

September 19. “ Yesterday ’t was but a spurt. Perhaps the king hoped the Pope would give in at the first word of the cannon. But now there is a double fear of slaughter. This evening, in the Piazza Colonna, every Roman seemed to have a spy or soldier at his elbow; and now a massacre is feared, if the siege does not take place ! ”

September 20. “ The siege began at dawn, at five o’clock. The cannonade may be heard all round the city. ’T is difficult to guess how long Rome will hold out. Twenty years back it held out a month, but ’t was ably defended by Garibaldi. The walls are strong and the Zouaves indomitable. I have just seen the first ambulance go by with wounded soldiers.”

September 21. “ In four hours Rome fell — and rose, the capital of Italy. Before twelve the Italian troops entered through a breach in the wall at the Porta Pia, where the two statues were demolished and the Villa Paulina burnt. The Romans received their countrymen with utmost enthusiasm. The thirty thousand troops entered well and in great order. The standard of the king of Italy was soon raised on the tower of the Capitol. Thereafter, ten thousand Zouaves were disarmed and made prisoners.”

September 22. “The unbounded joy of the Romans has to be seen to be believed. The whole city is illuminated, and the crowds in the Corso are exulting with banners, torches, and music. It is like a glorious carnival. May no new horror fall upon this suffering people ! I am aghast and bewildered at the great number of exiles now returning, nobles and commoners. Verily the Pope has destroyed himself, and may now set up again as the vicar of Antichrist. ... So the papal dominion is down forever, at last; and now Rome is part and capital of the great kingdom of Italy ! . . . The essential things will improve, — the essential in a commercial sense. No more temples, alas, like S. Paolo fuori del Muro, and yet perhaps more awful things.”

September 30. “ I have known Rome for fifty years. I have seen five Popes. And now in my old age the Rome I have known is passing away like a dream. Shall I live to see Italy great and powerful, or is the doom that has so long haunted this sovereign but dispossessed land not yet removed? Shall Rome again be the shuttlecock of wild ambitions, of contending powers ? Is the Pope survivor of the papacy, or is he to be a greater and more potent monarch in the history of the world than ever before ? I believe in Italy. And I believe in God.”

William Sharp.