On the other hand, the persons who are best qualified to judge of Rome, the ordinary residents of long standing, who care little about Italy and less about the Pope, are, I fancy, unduly influenced by the advantages of their exceptional position.

There are few places in the world where a stranger, especially an English stranger, is better off than in Rome.

As a rule, he has perfect liberty to do and say and write what he likes, and almost inevitably he gets to think that a government which is so lenient a one for him cannot be a very bad one for its own subjects.

The cause, however, of this exceptional lenity is not hard to discover.

Much as we laugh at home about the _Civis Romanus_ doctrine, abroad it is a very powerful reality.