New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1851-07-26
CHANCES AT EUROPE. No. XIII.
FIRST DAY IN THE PAPAL STATES.
Editorial CorresPondence of The Tribuns
RoME, Thursday, June 26th, 1851.

| LEFT Leghorn night before last in the
French steamer Languedoc, which could not
obtain passengers in America bat Is accounted
one of the best boats on the Mediterranean. The
fare to Civita Vecchia (l25 mlles) was 40 francs,
but added for dinner (wIthout saying By your
leave y made 1t IS Is. There were perhaps
twenty-five passengers, mainly for Naples, but
eight or ten for Civita Veccha and Rome, al
though it is every where said that Nobody goes
to Rome at this season. meaning nobody that IS
any body-none who can afford to go where they
would choose. The night was fair; the sea
calm we left Leghorn at 6 (nomlnally - and
reached Civita Vecchla about next morning
but were kept on board waiting the pleasure OF
the Police until about Z, when we were gracious.
" permitted TO land our Passports having been
previously sent on shore for inspection. No
steamboat in these waters is allowed to come
along side of the wharf we paid franc each
for being rowed ashore; then as much to the
porters who carried our baggage on their backs
to the custom-house, where a weary hour was
spent in oyerhaulng and sealing it, so that it need
not be overhauled again IN entering the gate OF
Rome For this service a trihe only was exacted
from each. Meantime a cOmmlssonalre had
gone after our Passports, for which we paid first
the charge of the Papal Police, which | think
was about three francs then for the Uise of our
several Consuls, we Americans a dollar each,
which Though but halt what is charged by our
COnsuls at other Italian pOrts) is more than Is
charged by those of any other nation. Then
came the charge of our cOmmsslonaire for his
services We took breakfast but that, though
a severe, was not a proiracted infection; hired
places in the Diligence Q3 francs III the COUPE, 10
in the body of the sage,) and at halfpast 10 were
to have been on our way ITO Rome. But the start
was rather late, and on reaching the gates of
that wretched village which seems to subslst
mainly on such petty swindes as | have hastily
described, our Passports, which had been thrice
scrutinized that morning within sixty rods, had
to run the gauntlet again. | do not remember
paying for this, but while detained by It the
ostlers from the stables OF our Diligence were
all upon US, clamoring for money. think they
got little But we changed horses thrice on the
way to Rome, and each postillion was down upon
us for money, and out of all patience with those
passengers who attempted to put him of with
copper
Aside from those engaged in fleeing us as
aforesaid, | saw but three sorts OF men IN Clvita
Necchia-or rather, men pursuing three several
avocations-those of Priests, Soldiers and Beg
CARS Some united two of these callngs. A
number OF brown, bareheaded, wretched-looking
women were washing clothes III the hot sun OF
the seaside, but | saw no trace OF masculine in
dustry other than what | have described. The
place is SAID to contain 1000 inhabitants, but
think there is scarcely garden outside its walls
Half the way thence TO Rome, the road runs
along the shore Of the Mediterranean, through
naturally fertile and beautiful champaign coun
try, once densely peopled and covered with ele
CANT structures, the homes OF intelligence, re-
fnement and luxury. Now there is not gar
den, scarcely tree, and not above ten barns
and thirty human habtatlons in sight throughout
the whole twenty five miles. Such utter desola-
ton and waste, III a region so eliglbly situated
can with difficulty be realized without seeing it.
| should say 1t can hardly here be unhealthy,
with the pure Mediterranean directly on one
side, the rugged hills but two to five miles dis
tant on the other, and the plain between very
much less marshy than the corresponding district
OF New-Jersey stretching along the coast from
New-York to Perth Amboy few large herds
OF neat cattle are fed on these plains, consider
able grass is cut and some summer grain, but
stables for posthorses at intervals Of five or SIX
miles with perhaps as many diapldated stone
dwellings and few wretched herdsmen's nuts
of straw or rubbish, are all the structures IN
sight, save the bridges of the noble Via Aurelia'
which we traverse, the ruins Of some of the stately
edifices once so abundant here, and the mile
stones. There Is not even one tavern OF the hall
dozen pretenders to the name between Clvlta Vec-
CHA and Rome which would be considered tolera-
bic in the least civilized portion of Arkansas or
Texas.
Half way to Rome, the road strikes OFF from
the sea, and there Is henceforth more cultivation
more grain, better crops, (though all this land
produces excellently both of Wheat and Barley,
and Of Indian Com also where the cultivation Is
not utterly suicida J but still there are very few
houses and those generally poor the wretchedest
caricatures Of tayems on one Of the great high
wavs ofthe world no gardens nor other evidences
Of aspiration for comfort and natural beauty, few
and ragged trees, and the very few inhabitants
are SO squaid so ab ect, so beggary, that It seems
A pIty they were not fewer. And this state CON
tinues, except that the grain-crops grow larger
and better, up TO within mile or two of the gates
Of Rome, which thus seems another Palmyra IN
the Desert, only that this is desert Of mans
making | presume the twenty-five or thirty
miles at this end is unhealthy, even for natives,
but II surely need not be so. All this Campagna'
with the more pesiilent Pontine Marshes on the
south, which are now scourgins Rome with their
deadly malaria and threaten to renderi. ultimate
II uninhabitable, were once salubrious and de-
hghtful. and might readily be made SO again. Ii
thew were in England, Old or New, near a city