vita Castellana, in the valley of
Ceprano, on the hills extending round the _Castelli_ of Rome, where
they would breathe an air as wholesome as that of their own mountains;
for fever does not always spare them even there. In course of time,
the colonizing system, advancing slowly and gradually, might realize
the dream of Pius VII., and would inevitably drive before it pauperism
and disease.

I dare not hope that such a miracle will ever be wrought by a Pope.
The resistance to be encountered is too great, and the power is too
inert. But if it should ever please Heaven, which has given them ten
centuries of clerical government, to accord them, by way of
compensation, ten blessed years of lay administration, we should
perhaps see the Church property placed in more active and abler hands.

Then, too, we should see the law of primogeniture and the system of
entails abolished, large estates divided, and their owners reduced, by
the force of circumstances, to the necessity of cultivating their
properties. Good laws on exportation, well enforced, would enable
spirited farmers to cultivate corn on a large scale. A network of
country roads, and main lines of railway, would convey agricultural
produce from one end of the country to the other. A national fleet
would carry it all over the world. Public works, institutions of
credit, police--But why plunge into such a sea of hopes?

Suffice it to say, that the subjects of the Pope will be as prosperous
and as happy as any people in Europe--as soon as they cease to be
governed by a Pope!

CHAPTER XX.

FINANCES.

"The subjects of the Pope are necessarily poor--but then they pay
hardly any taxes. The one condition is a compensation for the other!"

This is what both you and I have often heard said. Now and then, too,
it is put forth upon the faith of some statistical return or another
of the Golden Age, that they are governed at the rate of 7s. 6d. per
head.

This calculation is a mere fable, as I can easily prove. But supposing
it to be correct, the Romans would not be the less deserving of pity.
It is a miserable consolation to people who have nothing, to be told
that their taxes are low. For my part, I would much rather have heavy
taxes to pay, and a good deal to pay them with, like the English. What
would be thought of the Queen's government, if after having ruined
trade, manufactures, and agriculture, and exhausted all the sources of
public prosperity, it were to