134

LIFE OF COBDEN. oma?

1847. years of legal and moral exertion. He professed hime
Br. 43. to be favourable to Free Trade, and said all he could 4°
should be done to forward it, but modestly added that he
could do but little. I pointed to Tuscany, his next neigh”
bour, as a good example to follow, and said thas England
had not been ashamed to take a lesson from that country’
and I added that Tuscany was an inconvenient neighbo®®
owing to the smuggling which would be carried on wat]
his tariff was put upon the same moderate scale. He spoke
of the wide frontier of his territories as being favourable
to the contraband trade, and alluded to the desirablenes®
of a custom-house union in Italy. In parting, I called hus
attention to the practice in Spain of having pull fights 12
honour of the saints and virgins on the féte days, and gave
him an extract from a Madrid paper, giving an account of 8
bull-fight there in honour of its patroness the Virgin. After
a little conversation upon the cruelty and demoralizatio
of these spectacles, he thanked me for having drawn Ju
attention to it, and promised to give instructions upon the
subject to an envoy whom he was about to send to Spa™
He concluded by another complimentary phrase or two, and
we left. I was impressed with the notion that he is sincer®
kind-hearted, and good, and that he is possessed of sgron8
common sense and sound understanding. He did not strike
me as a man of commanding genius.”
“ Feb. 23rd.—Dined with Count Rossi, the French A%
oassador. A splendid banquet, at which the foreign ambas®”
dors in Rome, including the Turkish envoy going to Viens?
were present. Looking round the table I saw represented
Italy, France, Germany, Russia, England, Turkey, and
Syria, the latter by a bishop of the Maronites.”
“ Feb. 24th.—We have been in Rome a month, have 56°"
some of the wonders of the ancients, and have been over
whelmed with the kindness of friends, but I long for 8 quiet