Foppa, and Proccaccino. At Genoa, thanks to the French Revolutionaries, the magnificent Church of San Domenico was demolished, as well as that of San Francesco, which contained the tombs of the Doges, not one of which was spared. Moreover, the sudden suppression of the law of primogeniture ruined half the Italian nobility, and obliged them to sell at low prices the accumulated art treasures of their ancestors. To this day Italy is covered with churches and chapels ruined during the French occupation--which was effected on the pretext of “liberating” that country from superstition. Every subsequent Revolution which has taken place in France since 1793--in 1838, 1848, and 1870--has originated in the continuance of the Jacobin traditions, the main object of which is to substitute free-thought for Christianity. In each case the Revolution has ended in disorder and bloodshed, and has been succeeded by a more or less modified form of autocracy; yet the dawn of the twentieth century is witnessing what may be termed the most powerful combat between the Revolutionary traditions and those of the _ancien régime_ which has taken place since the execution of Louis XVI. Europe is to-day watching with anxiety the result of the abrogation of that very Concordat in honour of the signing of which a _Te Deum_ was sung in Notre Dame amidst the utmost ecclesiastical, civil, and military pomp, and attended by Napoleon and his Court, a function described by Redhead in a letter which is especially interesting at the present time. It is not by religious persecution that a lasting Republic can be established. France, so generous in her impulses, so artistic, and, above all, so literary, has not yet learned that a true democracy can only be founded upon a more practical interpretation of the motto, “Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity,” than the one that is now in vogue amongst the majority of Frenchmen in both camps. At the end of this volume will be found a very interesting series of biographies, compiled by Lady Sykes, of the persons connected with the Revolution mentioned in Redhead Yorke’s “Letters,” many of whom are little known even to close students of Revolutionary history. I ARRIVAL AT CALAIS I will endeavour in these letters to give some details of the present moral and political condition of France. Twelve years of unceasing revolution have changed the face of a country highly favoured by nature. Amidst the dilapidations of civil discord, and the ravages of foreign armies, France has become doubly formidable to Europe, and after the bloodshed, the misery, and the upheaval of the Revolution, the nation has resumed all the habits of her ancient system, and seeks internal repose in the arms of a military despotism. We embarked at Dover, on board the _Venus_ for Calais.