considerable reason, that it is better to pay nine
hundred shillings a head, and to be able to earn
nine thousand. Rome levies taxes on the most
necessary articles of life; such as flour,
vegetables, rice, and bread, more heavily than any
other great city of Europe. Meat pays the same
entrance-fee (octroi) at Bologna, as at Paris.
Straw, hay, and firewood pay dearer. By way
of comparison, the inhabitants of Lille, in
France, pay twelve francs per head for the
benefit of the octroi—a vexatious and troublesome
mode of taxation which is happily unknown
in England; the inhabitants of Florence, twelve
francs; the inhabitants of Lyons, fifteen francs;
the inhabitants of Bologna, seventeen francs.
We are already a considerable distance from the
nine francs of the Golden Age!

To be just, it ought to be avowed that the
nation has not always been treated so harshly.
The public charges did not become insupportable
until the reign of Pius IX. The budget of
Bologna has more than doubled, from 'forty-six to
'fifty-eight. If only the money disbursed by the
nation were employed for the benefit of the
nation! But one third of the taxes remains in
the hands of the officials who collect them. The
fact is incredible, but nevertheless exact. The
expense of tax-gathering amounts, in England
to eight per cent., in France to fourteen per
cent., in Piedmont to sixteen, and in the happy
Roman States to thirty-one per cent.!

If you are astonished at the wasteful
mismanagement which compels the people to pay a
hundred francs in order that the treasury may
receive sixty-nine, here is a fact which will serve
to explain it. Very lately, the place of receiver
was put up to competition in the city of
Bologna. An honourable and solvent candidate
offered to get in the taxes, for a reduction of
one and a half per cent. The government gave
the preference to the Count Cesar Mattei, secret
chamberlain to the Pope, who demanded a
deduction of two per cent. This favour granted
to a faithful servant of authority, increases the
charges on the nation by twenty thousand francs.

What remains of the taxes, after the levy of
a third by the collectors, goes into the hands of
the Pope. This is what he does with it: the
sums are given in francs. Twenty-five millions
serve to pay the interest of an ever-increasing
debt contracted by the priesthood for the
interest of the priesthood, and annually augmented
by the bad administration of the priesthood.
Ten millions are devoured by a useless army,
whose only occupation, up to the present day,
has been to present arms to the cardinals, and
to escort the Holy Sacrament when it goes in
procession. Three millions are devoted to the
maintenance, the repairs, and the overseeing of
establishments, which are indispensable to
unpopular power—namely, the prisons. Two millions
are applied to the administration of "justice."
The tribunals of the capital absorb the half of it
because they have the honour to be composed in
great part of prelates. Two millions and a half,
a very modest sum, compose the budget of
public works. It is mainly expended on the
embellishment of Rome and the reparation of
churches. A million and a half are employed
for the encouragement of laziness in the city of
Rome. A Commission of Benevolence, presided
over by a cardinal, distributes this sum among
several thousand idlers, without giving an
account of it to any one. Mendicity is only the
more flourishing, as every one may easily
convince himself. Between 'twenty-seven and
'fifty-eight, the subjects of the Holy Father have paid
forty millions of francs in mischievous almsgiving,
whose principal effect has been to deprive
manufactures and agriculture of the labour of
which both stand greatly in need. The cardinal
president of the commission, takes sixty thousand
francs a year for his own private charities.

Four hundred thousand francs scantily pay
the expense of public education, which, moreover,
is in the hands of the clergy. Add this
modest sum to the two millions for justice, and
to a portion of the budget for public works, and
you will have the total of the money laid out on
anything of real utility to the nation. The rest
only serves for government purposes—that is, the
interest of certain ecclesiastical dignitaries.

The Pope and his asssociate in power must be
very moderate masters of finance if, having so
little to spend for the nation, they close all their
accounts with a deficit. The accounts for eighteen
hundred and fifty-eight closed with a deficit of
nearly twelve millions; which does not prevent
the government from promising a surplus in the
budget for 'fifty-nine. To stop these gaps, they
borrow, either openly of M. de Rothschild, or in
an underhand way by an emission of Consols.
In 'fifty-seven, the pontifical government
contracted its eleventh loan with M. de Rothschild:
a trifle of a little more than seventeen millions.
It has, all the same, issued more than thirty-
three millions of Consols, between 'fifty-one and
'fifty-eight, without saying a word to anybody.
The capital which it owes, and which its subjects
are destined to pay, amounts at present to very
nearly four hundred and sixty millions of francs.
If you divide this by the number of the population,
you will see that every baby born in the
states of the Pope, inherits a debt of a hundred
and thirteen francs, for the parental blessings
that have been rained upon himself or his
ancestors, and a few of which have now been
described.

OUR DEAD.

NOTHING is our own: we hold our pleasures
Just a little while, ere they are fled:
One by one life robs us of our treasures;
Nothing is our own except our dead.

They are ours, and hold in faithful keeping
Safe for ever, all they took away.
Cruel life can never stir that sleeping,
Cruel time can never seize that prey.

Justice pales; truth fades; stars fall from Heaven;
Human are the great whom we revere:
No true crown of honour can be given,
Till the wreath lies upon a funeral bier.