Ambassador, who wrote, not only under a sense of official responsibility, but from a personal knowledge, derived alike from his long residence in Rome, and the facilities which his position afforded him of arriving at the real state of things. To this dispatch I would direct the attention of every reader who desires to ascertain the truth with respect to the Papal Government.
I direct attention to the Appendix for this second reason, — namely, that the reader may learn, from sources of unquestionable authority, that we ourselves have very many and very important reforms to effect, both at home and in our government abroad, before we venture to become the self-appointed censor of other nations;-that, in a word, we should cast the beam out of our own eye, before we cast the mote out of our brother's eye.
In the chapters on the public institutions of Rome, I have been indebted, in some measure, to the able and philosophic work of the late Cardinal Morichini; which obligation I have acknowledged in more than one place. This valuable work was given to me in Rome, as containing the best and fullest information on the subjects with which I desired to become acquainted; but my letters merely contained descriptions of what I saw, as I had no time, while in that city, to devote to reading. But for a fuller account, such as I now pretend to give,