February 7.
Srvc Rome has been called the Eternal City it follows that all men irrespective of nationality may claim to be concerned in her preservation. Even without the personal acquaintance of a city which leaves a deeper mark on memory than, perhaps, any other, it is impossible not to feel alarm and resentment at the vandalism of the Roman Municipal Coancil in tampering with the City's ancient fortifications. For those walls were designed and begun by Aurelian in the year 271 to defend Rome against the northern barbarians they were the constant care of successive Emperors and Popes, to be restored again and again wherever the passing tide of invasion had swept them down; and though that portion of the original wall which protects the quarters of Rome across the Tiber, Janiculam and the Vatican with its gardens, has wholly disappeared, its place being taken by the wall of Urban val by far the greater part of lion, or restored ty Honorius, has what was actually built by Aure-
hitherto remained untouched, the third and fifth century fortification. finest specimen in existence of
Now, as " The Times'" Rome correspondent well expresses it, " the wall which so stoutly repelled the Goths from without has fallen before the Goths within". In the best part of the walls, which lies between the Porta Pinciana and the Porta Salaria, on the north side of the city and a little to the west of the Porta Pia at which Garibaldi and his troops effected their entragge in 1870, the Manicipal Count has announced its intention of cutting seven large breaches from the top to the bottom of the wall; nominally for the convenience of those who live without the barrier; in reali it cannot be doubted, wit a more sinister design the execntion of which would involve the destruction of the whole wall. Of the seven breaches four have been cut so far. The work of the remaining three has been delayed temporarily in face of the storm of opposition which the previous destraction had aroused. But it is yet doubtful what power will be able to check the remainder of the Council's fell design.
To appreciate the Council's motives, and their unworthiness, it is necessary to examine briefly the geography of the site in question. Rome, in eral, is distinguish m other cities by the sharp division which is made between town and country. The Campagna comes close up to the walls with very little suburban transition, and a mile or two from most of the gates it is possible to arrive at a rural solitude so profound that the traveller would scarcely believe that a large city could lie so near him. Outside the Porta Salaria, however, and stretching for some three quarters of a mile slong the Via Nomentana, there are some huddled suburbs where house rent is low because the quarter is unfashionable and life is cheap because there are no octroi. taxes, such as block the passage of comestibles through the barrier, to be paid. But inside the Porta Salaria and the Porta Pinciana lies the new Ludovisi quarter, built over the old gardens of that' name, which has gained rapidly of late years in popularity with the fashionable world. Clearly the ultimate design of the Roman Municipal Council is to merge these two quarters into one, the world without and the world within, in order to enhance the value of the external districts. In other words the Council is gambling in real estate on the probabilities of the movements of society; and this, may be remarked, time when the cost of living in Rome has swollen to more than double what it was four or five years ago. It is 0 open question how much convenience and the real object of its work are amply evidenced by the fact that two of the new breaches are but twenty yards apart, that they do not correspond with the ends of the streets they p-ofos to open up, and finally, that if more es were really needed, 'a series of arches would have been equally as useful as wholesale de-volition and would have entailed less disfigurement. The " Messaggero," which alone of the Italian Press attempts to defend the Council, asserts that the bricks obtained from the wall can be used for the a of workmen's dwellings. On a parity of reasoning, the Colosseum nia cles be come demned. But the excuse does not bear consideration when we remember that Aurelian's wall is almost entirely com; of crete with a facing only of bricks.
Mach of the Municipal Council's activity is to be attributed to its youth and the character of its composition. It has but nowly come to office with a programme of pretentious reform; and the bulk of its constituents are radicals and socialists, the Catholics who have controlled the Municipal Council for many years in Rome having abstained from voting at the last election rather than risk a contest with the new party. It is only fair to the men of advanced opinions in other parts of Italy to say that the notably progressive Milanese have expressed strong disapproval of the destruction of the Aurelian wall. But party feeling runs high in Rome and radicals are impelled into an excess of what may be their real conviction by the proximity of the headship jof that body which rightly or wrongly they profess to identify with all reaction. In the mean time it will be the anxious thought of all who love Rome for herself or Took up to her as the monument of history, how the influence of van-more accom! lation the northerly dalism is to be averted.
Tt is a traffic of Rome demands to-day bitter thought that while ull edu-than it has at any time since the cated Italians agree in condemning time of the Papal Monarchy. But those who pulled down the palaces the futility of the plea that the of the Caesars to build the palaces Council is only studying pulilie of Cardinals, 2 modben assembly
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.