some distinctly bad. The great experiment of Italian unity is in process
of trial and the world is already forming its opinion upon the results.
Society, heedless as it necessarily is of contemporary history, could
not remain indifferent to the transformation of its accustomed
surroundings; and here, before entering upon an account of individual
doings, the chronicler may be allowed to say a few words upon a matter
little understood by foreigners, even when they have spent several
seasons in Rome and have made acquaintance with each other for the
purpose of criticising the Romans.

Immediately after the taking of the city in 1870, three distinct
parties declared themselves, to wit, the Clericals or Blacks, the
Monarchists or Whites, and the Republicans or Beds. All three had
doubtless existed for a considerable time, but the wine of revolution
favoured the expression of the truth, and society awoke one morning to
find itself divided into camps holding very different opinions.

At first the mass of the greater nobles stood together for the lost
temporal power of the Pope, while a great number of the less important
families followed two or three great houses in siding with the
Royalists. The Republican idea, as was natural, found but few
sympathisers in the highest class, and these were, I believe, in all
cases young men whose fathers were Blacks or Whites, and most of whom
have since thought fit to modify their opinions in one direction or the
other. Nevertheless the Red interest was, and still is, tolerably strong
and has been destined to play that powerful part in parliamentary life,
which generally falls to the lot of a compact third party, where a
fourth does not yet exist, or has no political influence, as is the case
in Rome.