MODERN SOCIETY IN ROME. * MANY years ago Mr. Beste published

some sketches of English manners and society ; last year he gave an account in The Wa- bash of his expedition to the United States in search of a series of family estates ; in the work before us he has presented the world in the form of a novel with the substance of his knowledge of Roman character and manners acquired during many years residence in the Eternal City. His leading subject, however, is political or historical ; beginning with the appointment of the-lay ministry of Pius the Ninth, and ending-with the surrender of the City to the French. Mr. Beste has several of the qualities useful to the novelist. He possesses a keen sense of the real, and a felicity in describing it without sinking into the literal. He has enough dramatic power distinctly to embody his conception of persons, and to mark their traits in common discourse' if he cannot rise to the exhibition of action and passion. He has the first of requisites, a knowledge of the people and manners he would paint. -A Man with a strong bias, the " innatus amor" for novel-writing, does not, however, wait till advanced life before he begins ;- and, be- sides being somewhat deficient in the higher dramatic pcilVer, Mr. Beste lacks the conception of his story as a whole' with the conse- quent coherence and unity of its parts, as well as the general bite= rest such unity excites. All that literary judgment and a certain perception of means to an end can effect is cleverly accomplished; but the tale is not a narrative of the fortunes of particu.lar indi- viduals, the manners and opinions of the society around them • Modern Society in Rome: a Novel. By Richard Bette, Rag., Author of helretbash." In three volumes. Published by Hurst and Blackett.

being merely the necessary medium in which they move, and public events of no further importance than as they influence their fate. The story is a vehicle for the display of "modern so- ciety in Rome," of the public events that took place in the city from January 1848 to the surrender in August 1849, and perhaps for promulgating some idea of the writer's own views of Italian politics and religion. The views are those of a constitutional Liberal, rejecting ecclesiastical rule in temporal matters, but up- holding all the spiritual powers of the Popedom.

For the particular objects of the writer the framework is a good one, and not bad even as a story, had it been more naturally carried out. An English Catholic family, consisting of a father, mother, daughter, and niece' arrive at Rome for the winter. As the heads have often visited Rome and are well known, they at once take their place in the highest society. As the young ladies are beauties of the Saxon order, they excite much attention for themselves. As one is an heiress, a good deal of attention is at- tracted towards the fortune ; and some very light and clever scenes are introduced to exhibit the Reman modes of courtship, which also serve to explain customs and even legal practice in a lively way. There are graver loves. Caroline, the niece, heiress, and Protestant, is ambitious, heartless, bent upon becoming a Roman princess, and quite willing to change her religion to for- ward her projects,—for, be it observed, Mr. Beste's liberality in- duces him to imply., indirectly or directly, that Protestants are indifferent in religion, or prompted by worldly motives. The love of Mary Agelthorpe, the ltomanist, is of a truer and holier kind. She is sought by two lovers ; one, an Englishman of her own creed, an enthusiast in the cause of Italy, who has long. re- sided there ; the other a Pieclmontese noble an equal enthusiast. Between these rivals there is not the usual Italian jealousy, at least not sufficient to make them enemies, or to prevent them from de- voting themselves heart and soul to the cause of Italian freedom. This devotion enables the author to introduce slightly the cam- paigns between Piedmont and Lombardy and Austria ; much more fully the defence of Rothe. It is in these things, and in some of the political pictures, that the want of wholeness of con- ception already alluded to is felt. The reader passes from a young lady's correspondence descriptive of entertainments, or flirtation, or love-making at Rome, or from the author's narrative touching upon the fortunes of his dramatis personte, to public events which only accidentally affect them, or to chapters that are purely his- torical. • Friendly as Mr. Bests is to Italy, he draws a sad picture of the Roman nobility ; not as to their morals, which he thinks have im- proved, but as to their courage and capacity for the conduct of public affairs. If the Roman nobility were worthy to help in the regeneration of their country, they had the opportunity when Piushis reforms. They could have taken a leading part in the public aassemblies; they could have filled office, and at once guided the public and the Pope. But they were unequal to the oc- casion: the few who were put forward were worthy, well-meaning men, but quite unfit to help to govern. The consequence was that the Pope was left to himself, or to ecclesiastics who did mischief, or to laymen whom he mistrusted ; while affairs were pushed on by mob leaders and clubs. The following is a more contemptuous pic- ture. On the day when Pius refused to yield to the people, which led to the assault of the Papal palace, the diplomatists had as- sembled round the Pope ; some of his nobles had also assembled in one of their palaces, and went to a postern-door of the garden to look through the chinks at what was going on. Mr. Beate pro- bases to relate facts.

"The gentlefolks hurried past the blasted pine, and up the steep ascent to the outer wall of the garden. Here was a ruined postern-door, which opened upon the square of the Quirinal. It was full of wide chinks between the shrunken boards ; and in one or tWo places a little of the wood had been absolutely broken away. Here the nobles had stationed themselves, and, unseen by those without, were eagerly looking through the chinks and the great key-hole to see the procession advance to the palace. : "With clang and with shouts, and with music and with triumph, as it

advanced up the hill, it soon made its vicinity known to those within the en. One noble prince, who was looking through the key-hole, ex- claimed, Corpo di Bocce! they have met Galetti on his road downwards,

and are bearing him back again to be their spokesmen.' This was even so ;

and Galetti, who had been a member of several of the late Cabinets because he was in favour with the Popular Club, now advanced, haranguing and gesticulating, at their head. The gates of the palace were shut : the usual awiss sentinel, in his striped and puffed and slashed uniform, and with his halberd on his shoulder, alone paraded in front.

" If the Pope does not yield,' cried a fellow in the advancing crowd, every accent of whose voice came clear through the chinks in the door to the nobles in the garden, if the Pope does not yield, he is a dead man ! We would cut his throat were he in the arms of the Almighty ! ' "'Could not any of you help your Sovereign ? ' exclaimed Mary Agel- thorpe earnestly to two or three of the Roman princes around her, but whose names we purposely conceal. They shrugged their shoulders, and Were silent."

The Pope refuses the popular demands ; the firing begins on both sides ; faggots are piled against the gates ; the assault is about to commence ; and another conversation is heard by the garden-watchers.

"'Ha must give in!' exclaimed the voice of one whom the party at the postern of the Colonna garden heard passing on the other aide of the door.

"'And then,' replied another voice he will come out to give his bless- ing to the people from the balcony. I shall place myself to wait behind the statue of Pollux and we will see what my good rifle will say to him' : and he slapped the breech as he spoke, and passed on.

"'For the love of Heaven, Signori, will you permit this crime ? ' ex- claimed Mary, wildly turning and addressing herself to the Romans around her. Duke Augustinian'', if you be a man, go and save your prince from an assassin !'

"The Roman nobles were, indeed, horror-stricken by what they had

heard. They it in their countenances. But no one moved or spoke. " ' Let me out,' said Middleton Agelthorpe ; I at least will endeavour to put him oath guard !' Not by this door!' cried one of the Roman ladies. The people might rush in. There is another door lower down the hill.'

"The Englishman wrung the hand of his wife and daughter, and sped away."

This incident is by no means the only place in which Mr. Bests professes to follow facts. All he states is true in effect, though it may be artistically altered ; and is the result of actual observation or of good information. Here is a picture of a celebrated man, which will look as strange to most readers as it did to one of the lovers of the novel.

"The Austrian general had taken up his quarters in a village at no great distance from Novara ; and within an hour, the Piemontese deputation was admitted to him. Horace Enderby had never before seen Marshal Radetz- sky; and the description he had ever heard of the old soldier little prepared him for the presence into which he was introduced. Some generals of divi- sion and one or two officers of his staff were sitting round a table that had evidently been hastily covered with such refreshments as were at hand. The old Marshal stood behind their chairs. He was rather short than other- wise. His shrunken, puny legs, cased in large jack-boots, seemed scarcely .able to support his square and large-shouldered body., which, spare and bony, was also bent with age. His light hair was now silver-white, and fell re- verently around his rather handsome German features. But there was a kindness, a benevolence in the whole appearance of the old man and in the expression of his mild blue eye, well suited, indeed, to the ideal presence of a man of eighty years of age, but little according with the character of Mar- shal Radetzsky, and with the stern and tyrannical deeds he had done. He was now walking round behind the chairs of his officers, carrying a coffee- pot, and pouring out coffee to each one as he circled round the table ; while he tapped them on the shoulder, or addressed them in turn as 'mon enfant,' in a voice of patriarchal mildness and good-nature. "For one week, we have been the guest of Marshal Radetzsky in the plains of Verona ; and thus have we ever seen him comport himself with his officers.

"But the countenance of the old man changed as he turned to receive the Piemontese envoys.

"'A truce ? ' he repeated, sternly. 'You ask a truce now, that your King's ambition is properly punished, and that the rebels of every country, from Italy to Poland, are unable to help you. Yes : I will grant a truce; but on condition that you immediately expel from Piemont and Sardinia every Italian refugee from other countries, and give up the citadel of Alex- andria to be governed by my troops.'

" 'We dare not take back such proposals to our Sovereign,' replied the Piemontese envoy. "'Very well ; you will get no others,' answered Radetzsky, turning away, and continuing to pour out the coffee to his friends ; and the deputation was obliged to return to the King of Sardinia, and to repeat the terms offered by the victor."

Other things thin Roman society, Italian wars, and celebrated persons, will be found in the work ; including a glimpse of Pro- testant converts in Italy. It would seem that they share the usual fate of apostates, and are looked upon coldly by both sides.