Rome is threatened with an act of official vandalism,— nothing
less than the." Haussmannising " of the Appian Way. This desecration is all the more to be deplored since it seemed to have been successfully evaded by the scheme, growing out of the creation of the Zone Manumentale, which would have safeguarded the memorials of the past and provided for further excavations of buried treasures. By this scheme a road would have been made on the old lines and at the old level of the Appian Way, but without modern gardens, fountains, and busts. In place of this scheme it is now proposed to create a modern boulevard or an embankment a hundred metres wide and twelve feet above the ancient level. The ringleader of this project is Signor Baccelli, President of the Commission of the Zona, and his rest- less energy inspires the gravest fears that the indignant protests of men like Commendatore Both and Prince Teano may prove powerless to stay his hand. That the new scheme is unnecessary is strongly maintained in the very interesting article from the Rome correspondent of the Times, appro- priately headed by Carducci's denunciation of such improve- ments. But as the Times points out, however keenly we may sympathise with the opponents of this scheme, all semblance of dictation must be avoided. "The privilege of foreigners does not go beyond suggestion, advice, recommendation, aud, in the last resort, remonstrance and protest."
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