Passing into Tuscany, I found the liberty of the press just established, and a superior preparation to make use of it.  The Alba, the Patria, were begun, and have been continued with equal judgment and spirit.  Their aim is to educate the youth, to educate the lower people; they see that this is to be done by promoting thought fearlessly, yet urge temperance in action, while the time is yet so difficult, and many of its signs dubious.  They aim at breaking down those barriers between the different states of Italy, relics of a barbarous state of polity, artificially kept up by the craft of her foes.  While anxious not to break down what is really native to the Italian character,—­defences and differences that give individual genius a chance to grow and the fruits of each region to ripen in their natural way,—­they aim at a harmony of spirit as to measures of education and for the affairs of business, without which Italy can never, as one nation, present a front strong enough to resist foreign robbery, and for want of which so much time and talent are wasted here, and internal development almost wholly checked.

There is in Tuscany a large corps of enlightened minds, well prepared to be the instructors, the elder brothers and guardians, of the lower people, and whose hearts burn to fulfil that noble office.  Before, it had been almost impossible to them, for the reasons I have named in speaking of Lombardy; but during these last four months that the way has been opened by the freedom of the press, and establishment of the National Guard,—­so valuable, first of all, as giving occasion for public meetings and free interchange of thought between the different classes,—­it is surprising how much light they have been able to diffuse.

A Bolognese, to whom I observed, “How can you be so full of trust when all your hopes depend, not on the recognition of principles and wants throughout the people, but on the life of one mortal man?” replied:  “Ah! but you don’t consider that his life gives us a chance to effect that recognition.  If Pius IX. be spared to us five years, it will be impossible for his successors ever to take a backward course.  Our nation is of a genius so vivacious,—­we are unhappy, but not stupid, we Italians,—­we can learn as much in two months as other nations in twenty years.”  This seemed to me no brag when I returned to Tuscany and saw the great development and diffusion of thought that had taken place during my brief absence.  The Grand Duke, a well-intentioned, though dull man, had dared, to declare himself “an ITALIAN prince” and the heart of Tuscany had bounded with hope.  It is now deeply as justly felt that the curse of Italy is foreign intrusion; that if she could dispense with foreign aid, and be free from foreign aggression, she would find the elements of salvation within herself.  All her efforts tend that way, to re-establish the natural position of things; may Heaven grant them success!  For