Galley halfpence, and the money of the Counts
of Luxembourg, which we call Lussheburgs, are
not held to belong to our currency. The utterance
of several spurious coins, as crocards,
pollards, rosaries, staldings, cocodones, eagles,
leonines, mitres, steepings, and black mail, is
prohibited by express statutes.

The values of ordinary articles of commerce
vary greatly within short periods of time, and
you must be guided by the Assize—generally an
equitable estimate—which is periodically
published for every trade. You will find, as a rule,
that owing to the difference between our country
and yours with respect to the importation
of bullion, and the supply of commodities, the
command over the latter represented by our
money is fifteen, if not twenty, times as great
as that which you can obtain. Wheat fluctuates
extremely in price, a few years ago having
reached twenty shillings per quarter (of eight
bushels); whereas now it is cheap, and will not
fetch more than four or five shillings per quarter
in the country, and five or six shillings in
London. Its average price is held to be six
shillings and eightpence per quarter. Bread, at
the present price of wheat, is sold at the rate of
a halfpenny for a two-pound loaf. A fat ox may
fetch from twelve to sixteen shillings—a fat
sheep about eighteenpence—a hen twopence
—eggs a penny a score. Fish is sold in various
ways, according to its kind. If in large
quantities, it may be bought by the basket, each to
contain as much as a bushel of oats. Nothing
varies more in price, as every one knows.
Salmon, from Christmas to Easter, costs half as
much again as after Easter. Mackerel doubles
its price in Lent, when it is much eaten. Oysters
are sold by the gallon, twopence being a fair
price; eels by the strike of twenty-five, at the
same cost; pickled herrings by the score, for one
penny.

Spices and groceries we, like you, sell by the
pound. Sugar may cost from a sliilling to two
shillings per pound, rice three halfpence to
twopence, almonds twopence halfpenny to threepence
halfpenny, pepper eightpence to a shilling.
Cloves and saffron, though much used for
flavouring wine and meats, are high-priced, costing
sometimes as much as ten shillings a pound.
Apples sell at a shilling a hundred; pears,
according to the sort, from threepence to three
shillings a hundred; coynes (quinces), fourpence
a hundred.

The average price of Malvesie wine is about
sixteenpence per gallon (of four quarts); of
Rhenish, eightpence. The sextary, by which
wine is also sold, contains four gallons. The
pottle, which is a common measure, holds two
quarts. Ale is generally assessed at a penny
to three halfpence per gallon for the best, and
at three farthings to a penny for the second
quality. The fluctuations of the Assize, as
respects all these articles, arc of course owing to
a variety of causes, of which war and weather
are the most influential. To fully understand
their operation, you must know the condition of
our agriculture and the extent of our commerce.

For the present you have probably had as much
information as you will be able to digest at one
time.

A ROMAN SOLDIER.

I should say—whatever significance lies
below the fact—that an Eternal city must be the
very happy hunting-grounds of the guild of
billstickers. They are the free lances of their
profession. No scowling "Post no bills" or " Défense
d'afficher" warns them off jealously kept premises;
no niggard proprietor shall extend the provisions
of the game laws to his tenements and hereditaments,
and strictly " preserve" a tempting bit
of wall or virgin corner. They roam hither and
thither wheresoever they list, and coming to a
likely angle (they have a nice eye, and a taste
almost artistic in these matters) or a piece of
unsullied brickwork enjoying a suitable
publicity, the artist of the beautiful sets up his
scaling ladder, and spreading his adhesive
mixture, affixes his little proclamations deftly. I
am sorry to see that he affects no distinction
between premises sacred and profane, decorating
the walls alike of church and palace with the
strictest impartiality. With a little attention
to the choice of subject, there might be a
certain discrimination in the distribution of the
notices, for it does not harmonise with the
fitness of things that lost dogs should be
proclaimed from beside the church door, though
it may be whispered that invitations for lost
sheep to return might suit such a situation with
more appropriateness. It must be said,
however, that they are shut out from the usufruct
of scaffoldings, hoardings, and such enclosures,
and are thus thrown back upon more solid
surfaces; but it must be said also, that this is to
be placed to the account of the well-known
impediment which once interfered with the
discharge of a certain famous salute. Hoarding
—at least not of this harmless timber nature—is
unfamiliar to Roman street economy.

However this may be, the labours of these
gentlemen seem to be altogether absorbed in
the promulgation of controversial matter. There
seems, at this crisis, to have fallen a perfect
shower of pamphlet hail; dead walls are
galvanised into a certain liveliness and theological
briskness. I come to-day by this palace corner
and find it overlaid with a myriad of these
proclamations, all glistening in their new print and
shining paste. Stolid faces collect and read,
and a black-robed priest with a hat broad and
flat as an Indian bowl, leans on his ancient
green umbrella, and reads thoughtfully. I see
one take out his book and pencil and make a
note of the price and address, then go his way
briskly. There is surely a " mort" of titles to
pick from, and the most fastidious taste can
satisfy itself. There is "II Papa," "II Rè e
l'ltalia," besides which shines out in broad black
letters " II sovrantà temporale del Papa." Not
far off is "Lo spirituale e il temporale nella
Chiese," and a little to the right, in suggestive
proximity, is "La Francia, l'Impero, et il