Alpha Book

The least of the new Government's mistakes
has been a squandering of the public money, which, when considered with
reference to the country's resources, has perhaps no parallel in the
history of nations.
Yet the first idea was large, patriotic, even grand. The men who first
steered the ship of the state were honourable, disinterested,
devoted--men like Minghetti, who will not soon be forgotten--loyal,
conservative monarchists, whose thoughts were free from exaggeration,
save that they believed almost too blindly in the power of a
constitution to build up a kingdom, and credited their fellows almost
too readily with a purpose as pure and blameless as their own. Can more
be said for these? I think not. They rest in honourable graves, their
doings live in honoured remembrance--would that there had been such
another generation to succeed them.
And having said thus much, let us return to the individuals who have
played a part in the history of the Saracinesca. They have grown older,
some gracefully, some under protest, some most unbecomingly.


Pages:
5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29