of public works is devoted to the
repair of churches, and the building of basilicas. Nearly
half-a-million sterling has already been sunk in the erection of a
very grey and very ugly edifice on the Ostia road.[15] As much more
will be required to finish it, and the commerce of the country will be
none the better.

Half a million sterling! Why the entire capital of the bank of Rome is
but L400,000; and when merchants go there to have their bills
discounted, they can get no money. They are obliged to apply to
usurers and monopolists, and the governor of the bank is one. Rome has
an Exchange. I discovered its existence by mere chance, in turning
over a Roman almanack. This public establishment opens _once a week_,
a fact which gives some idea of the amount of business transacted
there.

If trade and manufactures offer but small resources to the subjects of
his Holiness, they fortunately find some compensation in agriculture.
The natural fertility of the soil, and the stubborn industry of those
who cultivate it, will always suffice to keep the nation from
starvation. While it pays away a million sterling annually for foreign
manufactures, the surplus of its agricultural produce brings back some
L800,000. Hemp and corn, oil and wool, wine, silk, and cattle, form
its substantial wealth.

How do we find the Government acting in this respect? Its duties are
very simple, and may be summed up in three words,--protection,
assistance, and encouragement.

The budget is not heavily burdened under the head of encouragement.
Some proprietors and land stewards, residing in Rome, ask permission
to found an Agricultural Society. The authorities refuse. In order to
attain their object, they steal furtively into a Horticultural
Society, already established by authority. They organize themselves,
raise subscriptions, exhibit to the Romans a good collection of cattle
and distribute some gold and silver medals offered by Prince Cesarini.
Is it not curious that an exhibition of cattle, in order to be
tolerated, is obliged to smuggle itself in under the shelter of
camellias and geraniums?

Lay sovereigns not only openly favour agriculture, but they encourage
it at a heavy cost, and do not consider their money thrown away. They
are well aware that to give a couple of hundred pounds to the inventor
of a good plough, is to place a small capital out at a heavy interest.
The investment will render their kingdom more prosperous, and their
chi