In other words, 3,463 Jews--more than a quarter of the Jewish population--had withdrawn from the paternal action of the Holy Father.
Either this people is very ungrateful, or we don't know the whole state of the case.
While I was at Rome, I had secret inquiries on the subject made of two notables of the Ghetto.

When the poor people heard the object I had in view in my inquiries, they expressed great alarm.

"For Heaven's sake don't pity us!" they cried.
"Let not the outer world learn through your book that we are unfortunate--that the Pope shows by his acts how bitterly he regrets the benefits conferred upon us in 1847--that the Ghetto is closed by doors invisible, but impassable--and that our condition is worse than ever! All you say in our favour will turn against us, and that which you intend for our good will do us infinite harm." This is all the information I could obtain as to the treatment of this persecuted people.

It is little enough, but it is something.

I found that their Ghetto, in which some hidden power keeps them shut up just as in past times, was the foulest and most neglected quarter of the city, whence I concluded that nothing was done for them by the municipality.