420 SUNDRY JOURNEYS AND EXPERIENCES -III 



is an utter impossibility; that even if revolution or an 

 archy came, the people would never again take refuge 

 under the papacy. 



Very interesting were sundry gatherings at the rooms 

 of Story, the sculptor. Meeting there the Brazilian min 

 ister at the papal court, I was amazed by his statements 

 regarding the rules restricting intercourse between diplo 

 matists accredited to the Vatican and those accredited 

 to the Quirinal; he said that although the minister 

 from his country to the Quirinal was one of his best 

 friends, he was not allowed to accept an invitation from 

 him. 



The American minister, Judge Stallo of Cincinnati, 

 seemed to me an admirable man, in spite of the stories 

 circulated by various hostile cliques. At the house of the 

 British ambassador Stallo spoke in a very interesting way 

 of Cardinal Hohenlohe as far above his fellows and ca 

 pable of making a great pope. The political difficulties 

 in Italy, he said, were very great, and, greatest of all, in 

 Naples and Sicily. Dining with him, I met my old friend 

 Hoffmann, rector of the University of Berlin, and a num 

 ber of eminent Italian men of science, senators, and 

 others. 



At the house of Dr. Nevin, rector of the American 

 Episcopal church, I met the Dutch minister, who corrobo 

 rated my opinion that the British parliamentary system 

 generally works badly in the Continental countries, since 

 it causes constantly recurring changes in ministers, and 

 prevents any proper continuity of state action, and he 

 naturally alluded to the condition of things in France 

 as an example. 



Among other interesting people, I met the abbot of St. 

 Paul Outside the Walls, to whom Lord Acton, in re 

 sponse to my question as to whether there was such a 

 thing as a &quot;learned Benedictine&quot; extant, had given me 

 a letter of introduction. The good abbot turned out to 

 be an Irishman with some of the more interesting pecu 

 liarities of his race ; but his conversation was more vivid 



