ouring, by wholesome administrative measures, the farm,
the workshop, and the counting-house. Wherever the nation and its
rulers are united, trade and manufactures will be found clinging round
the government, and increasing even to excess the population of the
capital cities; while agriculture works her greatest miracles in the
circuit which is the most immediately subject to the influence of
authority.

Borne is the least industrious and commercial city in the Pontifical
States, and its suburbs resemble a desert. You must travel very far to
find any industrial experiment, or any attempt at trade.

Whose fault is this? Industrial pursuits require, above all things,
liberty. Now in the States of the Church all the manufactures of any
importance constitute privileges bestowed by the government upon its
friends. Not only tobacco and salt, but sugar, glass, wax, and
stearine, are objects of privilege. Privilege here--privilege
there--privilege everywhere. An Insurance Company is established, of
course by special privilege. The very baskets used by the
cherry-vendors are the monopoly of a privileged basket-maker. The
Inspector of the Piazza Navona[14] would seize any refractory basket
which had failed to pay its tribute to monopoly. The grocers of
Tivoli, the butchers of Frascati, all the retail dealers in the
suburbs of Rome, are privileged. The system of privileges and
monopolies is universal, and of course commerce shares the common lot.

Commerce cannot flourish without capital, facilities of credit, easy
communication, and, above all, personal safety. I have shown you what
the roads are as to safety. I have not yet shown you how wretchedly
bad and insufficient they are. Now for a few facts.

In June, 1858, I travelled through the Mediterranean provinces, taking
notes as I went along. I established the fact that in one township the
bread cost nearly three-halfpence a pound, while in another, some
twelve miles off, it was to be had for a penny. It follows that the
carriage of goods along twelve miles of road cost a farthing a pound.
At Sonnino bad wine was sold for sevenpence the _litre_, while the
same quantity of passable wine might be had at Pagliano, thirty miles
off, for twopence halfpenny; so the cost of carrying an article
weighing some two pounds for thirty miles was fourpence halfpenny.
Wherever governments make roads, prices naturally find their level.

I may be told that I explored remote and out-of-the-wa