of travel in Central Italy have been suffered to remain
so long unknown to the English reader. Yet their interest is not a little heightened by the lapse of time. Herr Gregorovins wrote these papers in the years 1856-61, a very critical period in Italian history. He had the privilege of observing the old order passing away, the new beginning, and all from the stand- point of one who had studied profoundly the past of the country and the people. When he began these Wanderjahre there were still States of the Church and a Kingdom of Naples; when he ended them Italian unity was practically accomplished, though Rome yet remained in the hands of the French. The States of the Church were not, it is supposed, very admirably governed ; yet our author is struck by the change for the worse when he crosses the border into Naples. Ho leaves what he calls a "beneficent republican atmosphere" for a disreputable tyranny ; "soldiers, police, spies, custom-house officials, swarm—a knavish, suspicious, unreliable crew." Later on he saw the last detach- ment of the Papal Guards and the first of the Piedmontese troops. Apart from history and politics, we have the observa- tions of a well-informed and learned traveller. He is enter- tained by monks, syndics. and other hosts, and always finds something pleasant to say. It is a most agreeable book, and we are glad to have it, though it has been long in coming. The Latin quotations and inscriptions are deplorably full of errors, not certainly to be laid to the charge of the learned Prussian.
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