What mattered it that the fleet rotted in the unfinished ports of Charles III .-- that Spanish America asserted its independence--that Italy bent beneath the yoke of Austria--that the house of Bourbon combated in vain in France the progress of a new system--that the Inquisition and the monks cast a gloom over and devoured the whole of the peninsula,--all this was nothing to the court, provided the queen were but loved and Godoy great.

The palace of Aranjuez was like the walled tomb of Spain, into which the active spirit that now agitated Europe could no longer penetrate.
VI.
The state of Italy was yet worse; for it was severed into pieces that, unlike the snake, were unable to reunite.

Naples was under the severe sway of Spain, and the yoke of Austria pressed on Milan and Lombardy.
Rome was nought but the capital of an idea--her people had disappeared, and she had now become the modern Ephesus, at which each cabinet sought an oracle favourable to its own cause, and paid for this purpose the members of the sacred college.

Although the centre of all diplomatic intrigue, and the spot where all worldly ambition humbled itself but to increase its power,--although this court could shake Europe to its foundations, it was yet unable to govern it.

The elective aristocracy, cardinals chosen by powers at variance with each other; the elective monarchy, a pope whose qualifications were old age and feebleness, and who was only crowned on condition of a speedy decease: such was the _temporal_ government of the Roman States.