Even now, as far as I could see and learn, the desire for Italian unity does not penetrate very low down.

It is the desire, I freely grant, of all the best and wisest Italians, but scarcely, I suspect, the wish of the Italian people.

In truth, Italy at this moment is very much what Great Britain would be, if Scotland, Ireland, Wales and the States of the Saxon Heptarchy had remained to this day separate petty kingdoms, ruled by governments who fostered and developed every local and sectional jealousy.

The broad fact, that for some weeks at Rome we were in utter ignorance whether there had been a revolution or not in the capital of the frontier kingdom, not thirty miles away, and should have been quite surprised if we had learnt anything about the matter, is a sufficient commentary on our state of isolation.
This artificial isolation too is increased by a sort of general apathy and almost universal ignorance, which are characteristic of all classes in Rome.

How far this intellectual apathy is caused by, or causes, the material isolation of the city, would be a curious question to determine.
The existence, however, of this fact, which none acquainted with Rome will question, constitutes one of the chief difficulties in ascertaining accurate information about facts.