we were favoured with some superior
Neapolitan Billingsgate. Our luggage was next
to be cleared, shirts were to be tumbled, coat-
pockets to be groped, and a thousand other
delicate manipulations to be performed, unless
another botteglia was forthcoming. But where
was the superior who conducted all these
operations? He sat in a dirty room
upstairs, smoking his cigar over a brazier, waiting
until it might please him to descend and
fulfil his important duties. A signal at length
was made, and the great man made his
appearance. As a general rule in travelling,
I should say that if the employé has a good
elastic glovelike conscience, or a quick and
strong digestion, or if his dinner be smoking
on his table, one may get off easily enough;
but if he be scrupulous, or bilious, or vexed,
then you may expect the utmost rigor of
the law. Our official was not a decided
character; he had just conscience enough
to swear by, and was very sleepy. So,
after lifting two or three layers of well
squeezed linen, he was about to dismiss us,
when a book met his eye—the Vicar of
Wakefield. "Ah! it is against the church, then,
this Vicar of Wakefield!" was his exclamation,
as he threw upon us a suspicious glance;
but on our assuring him that it was only the
history of a fine old English gentleman, whose
wife made excellent pickles and roba dolce;—
in short, that it was a species of cookery-book,
he threw it in and locked up our traps, and
retiring into a corner waited for his botteglia.
The superior in these cases never presents
himself; noble-minded as he is, he affects to
be incapable of receiving a present or a bribe.
Some underling rolls or swaggers up to you,
suggests that a regalo should be given for all
the facilities accorded, and intimates that he
will be happy to be the medium of conveying
it. Thus it happened to us, and I gave the
expectant a dollar, by way of being generous.
"But it is very little, Signore—here have we
been detained from our beds" (a flat board or
two, in the corner, covered with a dusky-
looking blanket, whereon another Impiegato
was snoring) " till this late hour, and all for
this very small trifle." " Give him another
dollar, and have done with it," said my
friend.

Once more, we were on our road to
Naples, by the blue sea, over roads which
are bounded on either side by orange groves
or vines trained aloft on trees, until we arrived
at the city barrier, where the city-toll is
levied, and where, dusty and tired, the traveller
may be detained another hour, while dirty
facchini are tossing his linen about, and prying
into everything he carries with him. The
driver, however, mindful of his own convenience,
had provided against this contingency;
for, as soon as the horses had stopped, he
went from window to window and collected
a piastre to be offered as a sop to Cerberus. If
you are an Englishman it will be inevitably
refused as not enough, as in our case; if you
are a German, it will be taken without demur.
All demands at length were satisfied, and in
due time we were deposited in the centre of
beautiful Naples.

From this slight sketch of what is offered to
the observation of most men on entering the
kingdom of beautiful Naples, the traveller
may learn at a glance the system which prevails
in almost every public office. Money is
the one thing needful. With money you may
do anything; for money the public officers
and clerks will do anything; without money
neither the one nor the other can or will do
anything. One great reason of this is, that
Neapolitan public functionaries, like servants
in a thriving hotel, are paid nothing, or are
paid a starvation price for their services.
The consequence is, they must pay
themselves; and they often pay themselves so well,
that they much prefer this freebooting salary
to a just and regular remuneration.

To describe this state of things, a word
eminently Neapolitan has sprung into common
use; the word lucro is in the mouth of every
Impiegato. A friend meets you and tells you
that his son has lately been appointed
Chancellor to the Commune of Batta. You
congratulate him, and trust that he may keep it
for a hundred years. "What is it worth?"
"Oh, forty ducats a month, and perhaps fifty
ducats more for the lucri." The custom house
officer has his lucri, and the military
commandant has his, and all officers, civil and
military, have theirs, up to the ministers of
State; so that the word lucri represents a
state of things universally existing.

A friend of mine lately landed with his
portmanteaus from England and submitted
himself to all the rigors of the law. "If,"
said one of these functionaries, " we had
known of it in time, we might have passed
all his property for a regalo of sixteen piastres.
We should have been the better for it, and
the Signor too; but as the Signor did not
know it, he had to pay a hundred and fifty
piastres." So, these worthy gentlemen for the
lucro of sixteen piastres, would have been
ready to defraud the government of a
hundred and thirty-four piastres; yet the
Neapolitan Government thinks it saves money
by giving its officers starvation salaries.
Ascending higher in the scale, we find the
same system prevailing even in the ante-
camera of the Minister of State; the highest
bidder for an office is sure to be the
successful applicant. "I should like to get
Giuseppe promoted," said a man to me last
week, whose son has been working for nothing
in a government office for ten years, " but,
diavolo! I have not the money wherewith to
bribe!" Indeed, to such an extent has this
been carried within the last few years, that
men have been denounced for the anticipated
Iucri, and pardon has been purchased and
liberty has been bartered, for piastres.

On our arrival in Naples, the heat was
insufferable. With other summer birds,