Burlington free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1827-1865, 1857-06-19
Correspondence Or tho Free Press,
Letters From Europe.
NO. xxi.

oil considerable length, determined to take but
ono-that to Tivoli-tho Thur of the ancients.--
One of the first things for hurried traveller to
learn is that at all the resting places of travel,
the ingenuity and interested industry of courers,
Wallets, hotel-keopcrs and livery stable men have
hunted up all places and things that can even
seem to interest any one by what they or what
| they have BEEN and unless he is quite careful his
time will be wasted on things which of the
most trihing importance, really of none at all in
comparison with many others quito sufficient to
occupy his whole time proftably-(theso gentry
wisely considering that if the traveller can be
persuaded to while away time in unimportant
sights, the greater importance and interest of the
real sights will compel him to stay to see thcm.)
In this respect found my man Mariana of the
greatest service His great knowledge Of all the
details of Roman sightseeing and his honest de-
sire and determination to render the most yalua-
bic service in his power with economy Of time,
labor and money, after few words from as to
the general character of my wishes, enabled him
| to consult my tastes and anticipate my wishes in
a most remarkable degree, and to give us as much
of Rome-ancicnt and modern, secular and re-
igous-in her most interesting aspects, as our
time would permit lie said that Tivoli and its
Accomplishments was worth all the rest of these
excursions, and so we started for Tivoli. am not
| ashamed to say that had not the slightest idea
what was before me, not having looked at my
| guide book / should have done, l knew of the
Falls of Tivoli from pictures and poems and
really supposed, with exceeding ignorance and
simplicity, that was about all we were driving off
: iloe 10 As I
over tho sketch of my guide book, but soon laid it
down and trusted to Mariana, and scrubbed notes
with my pencil.
We left Rome by the gate st. Lawrence
| Porta San Lorcnzo-taking a second look as we
passed at the ancient and interesting basilica of
San Lorenzo, where repose the remains Of st. Ste
phcn, proto-martyr, and St. Lawrence. We soon
struck the ancient Via Tburtina, and over
its ancient pavement of lava pursued our course
almost due East, through charming landscapes.
We soon passed the Neian hill, three miles
from the city, subsequently, and more usually
called the Mons Sacer. from the oath the peo-
pie there took never to revolt against the Tribunes
TWAS to this hill 500 years before the Christian Era
that the populace of Rome (the PITCHES rebians)
| deyoured by the enormous usuries of the richer
class and born down with hopeless debts rushed in
unorganized crowds of multitudinous thousands
and with the rage of an infuriate mob. The SOL
diefs sympathizcd with the people but their oaths,
| for which the Roman soldier had a never failing
revcrencc-preyented their taking arms against
the ConsulsThe people proposed to assassinate the
Consuls,to cancel the OATH but the soldiers refused
to permit land finally concluded if they could not
attack the Consuls and the Senate they could at
cast desert them, and they raise their standards
changed their officers and under Plebian lead
or encamped the Velian hill by the banks
| Of the Tcvcrone-tler5 to repudiate their debts,
and found Pleban city and democratic work
! ing mems nation of their own. After long and
interesting diplomatic negotiations between them
and the Senate the debts were all cancelled by
| law-perhaps the first general and summary bank
| rupt law of which we have any account-and the
venerable Menenius Agriprn m,de tho adroit and
touching speech, given by Livy, and closing with
the famous apologize of the body and the mem
bers, so finely used by St. Paul to the Corinthians
500 years later to illustrate the oneness and har-
mony Of the Offices and gifts in the church, and
introduced and buntly paraphrascd by Shakes
peare 500 years still later in Coriolanus. 1t is
/ IL
it will bear writing down again here.
There was time when all the body's members
Rebelled against tho belly-thus accused it
! That only like gulf it did remain
In the midst of the body, idle and inactive.
Still cupbuarding the viands, never bearing
| Like labor with the rest-when the other instru-
ments
Did see and hear devise, instruct walk, feel,
And mutually particpate-dd minister
Unto the appetite and affection common
Of the whole body" The belly answered.
"Truc it is, my incorporate friends
That receive the general food at first
| Which you do live upon, and fit it is,
Because l am the store-house and the shop
Of the whole body But if you do remember
| send it through the rivers Of your blood
Even to the court the heart-to the seat Of the
| brain
And through the ranks and'offccs of man.
| The strongest nerves, and small inferior veins,
From me receive that natural competency
Whereby they live Though all at once cannot
See what deliver out to each
| Yet can make make my audit up that all
From do back receive the flour of all
| Aud leave me but the bran"
The Senators of Rome this good belly
| And you the mutinous members.
This Modified the resentment of the people. now
that the debts were cancelled, but urity for
the future their leaders demanded that proper
magistrates of their own-Tribunes of the people
should be created, to which office the Sem
ators and all but Plebeians should be'inelgible
! nd har bn TO
chosen tho first Tribunes of the People, and under
| them and the committee of the Senate, in
orderly and rejoicing columns the successful rcb-
| els marched in triumph back to the city-and the
Nelian hill ever after called the sacred hill
and was considered as the rallying spot of the
friends of liberty-to which the people and the
army Gas an ultimate threaO often threatened to
retire and thence to dictate terms to the aristoc-
racy,-that arisocracy that in ancient Rome was
always in conspiracy against the people-always
combined to Cypress them with unequal laws-al.
ways ready to plumber them of their property and
oyerwhelm them with enormous debts by the most
remorseless usury- (usury, the greatest crime in
free state) and to drive them to desp pair by hold
ing or selling as slaves those who were unable to
pay their debts. 1t was really only the convulsive
spasmodic remedies so frequent and eaectual
in Roman history that entities even the Roman
republic to be cassed among free states. The SO
called Constitution of the Roman Republic was an
ingenious and delusiye conspiracy against the
freedom Of the people.
As it was the oppression and slavery of credit.
ors that first drove the army AMI the people to the
Sacred Hill and that resulted in a thorough bank
rupt law-so it was the attempt to enforce the fu-
gtiye slave law Of an lent Rome that a second
time brought to that consecrated spot the soldiers
in open rebellion against the Deccmyirs,
The beautiful daughter of Plcbcian Centurion