Surely nobody will charge the Head of the Church with neglecting his duty.
I have told you how the Pope defends and will continue to defend his crown, and I have no fear of your charging him with weakness.

If Europe ventured to allege that he suffers the throne on which it has placed him to be shaken, the answer would be a list of the political exiles and the prisoners of state, present and past--the living and the dead.
But the crimes and offences of which the natives are guilty towards one another affect the Pope and his Cardinals very remotely.

What matters it to the successors of the Apostles that a few workmen and peasants should cut one another's throats after Sunday Vespers?
There will always be enough of them left to pay the taxes.
The people of Rome have long contracted some very bad habits.

They frequent taverns and wine-shops, and they quarrel over their liquor; the word and the blow of other people is with them the word and the knife.

The rural population are as bad as the townspeople.