money accepted; though in as ungracious a
manner as possible.  The present Pope has
relieved the Jews both from the impost and
the humiliation.  There is, however, an ancient
custom which still exists.  This requires the
Jews on the accession of a Pope to range
themselves in a line near the arch of Titus.
The Pope asks them what they are doing
there?  To which they respond by saying:

"We solicit the favour of offering for the
acceptance of your Holiness a copy of our
law!"

At the same time offering him a copy of
the Old Testament, which he accepts with
the observation—

"Excellent law!  Detestable race!"

At the entrance to the Ghetto there stands
a small church where, at one time, a preacher
used to hold forth every Saturday afternoon,
after dinner, to a select congregation
consisting of a hundred and fifty Jews.
The congregation never exceeded this number,
and never fell below it, for the reason
that the community were fined a crown for
each individual wanting to complete that
number.  The text of the preacher had
invariable reference to the obstinate disbelief
of the Jews; but The People are a stiff-necked
race, and no instance occurred of a conversion
to the Roman Catholic faith during all the
years they were compelled to listen to
sermons which were made at their expense,
though not to their profit.  Since the accession
of Pius the Ninth, this compulsory
attendance has been put an end to.

The condition of the Jews at the present
day in Rome is therefore such as to give them
little cause of complaint.  They are allowed
to govern themselves; and, if a Jew has the
misfortune to be sent to the galleys, he has
at least the consolation of knowing that he is
sent there at the request of the head of his
tribe.  The only impost to which the race is
subjected amounts to but four hundred and
fifty crowns; which, divided among four thousand
five hundred persons, gives only about
fivepence a-head; and, ever since eighteen
hundred and forty-eight, they have declined
to pay it.

The origin of this impost deserves to be
related. Some two or three hundred years ago
a Jew embraced the Christian religion, entered
a convent, and employed his leisure hours in
writing a pamphlet against his former co-
religionists, in which, among other enormities,
he charged them with eating little children.
So much zeal was thought to deserve a
recompense, and consequently an order was
made on the Jews of the Ghetto, directing
the payment of four hundred and fifty crowns
annually to the writer who had so well
described their customs.  The sum was duly
paid to the convent of which the writer was a
member, and, after his death, the same convent
insisted on a continuance of the payment, on the
ground that it inherited the rights of the
deceased; besides they added, "The Jews are
accustomed to pay four hundred and fifty
crowns a-year, and Rome is a city of custom."
Subsequently to eighteen hundred and forty-eight,
the Jews have declined to pay it;
because, not having paid it that year, they
cannot be induced to see the advisability of
renewing so expensive a custom.  The matter
has been referred to the Pope; who
suggested a compromise, but this is little to
the taste of the inhabitants of the Ghetto,
who prefer to pay nothing.

Jews are tolerated in two other cities of
the Papal States, Ancona and Sinigaglia,
but it is in Rome that they enjoy the greatest
amount of liberty.  Little more than a
year ago, the city of Ancona caused the
revival of an ancient law, which forbids
Christians to converse in public with the
Jews.

A singular instance of a Jew benefiting by
his religion is thus related.  "He had
committed a crime almost unknown among
the Hebrews of our days: that of murder,
and the victim was his brother-in-
law. The case was clear, and completely
proved.  Here is the substance of the argument
urged in his defence by his advocate:
Gentlemen,—Whence comes it that the law
punishes murderers so severely, even
sometimes to the extent of putting them to death?
It is because, in assassinating a Christian a
soul and body is slain at the same time.  An
unprepared being is hurried into the presence
of the Sovereign Judge, who has not confessed
his sins, who has not received absolution,
and who falls directly into hell, or at all
events into purgatory.  Therefore, murder—
I mean the murder of a Christian—cannot
be too severely punished.  But we, what
have we killed?  Nothing, gentlemen, but a
miserable Jew, damned, according to your
creed, beforehand.  If he had had a hundred
years to prepare for death—you know the
obstinacy of his race—he would still have
died without confession.  Let me beseech
your indulgence for a venial error, and reserve
your severity for those who attack the life
and salvation of a Christian."

This plea was actually successful, and the
culprit escaped with a few months'
imprisonment.

LONG AGO.

         O, THE glens of long ago!
          The willowy glens of long ago!
The mossy, rushy, fairy-hauuted, misty glens of long
ago!

          O, the fields of long ago
          The velvet fields of long ago!
The verdant, flowery, rainbow-circled, scented fields of
long ago!

           O, the streams of long ago
           The crystal streams of long ago!
The tinkling, dancing, joyous-hearted, laughing streams
of long ago!