me. The actual rent of which the owner is in the receipt for the
part left off is about L280 a year: his taxes are L18 a year. The
small house adjoining is valued at L200. The rent derived from it is
L10 a year, and the taxes paid on it are L3. 7s. 6d. Thus we find the
palace paying something like 5s. 6d. per cent. on its income, and the
small house L1 7s.

The Lombards justly excite our compassion. But the proprietors of the
province of Bologna are taxed to the annual amount of L1,400 more than
those of the province of Milan.

To this crushing taxation are added heavy duties on articles of
consumption. All the necessaries of life are liable to these taxes,
such as flour, vegetables, rice, bread, etc. They are heavier than in
almost any other European city. Meat is charged at the same rate as in
Paris. Hay, straw, and wood, at still higher rates.

The town dues of Lille amount to 10s. per head on the population;
those of Florence, about the same; and those of Lyons 12s. 6d. At
Bologna they are 14s. 2d. Observe, town dues alone. We are already a
long way from the 7s. 6d. of the Golden Age!

I am bound in justice to admit that the nation has not always been so
hardly dealt with. It was not till the reign of Pius IX. that the
taxation became insupportable. The budget of Bologna was more than
doubled between 1846 and 1858.

Something might be said, if at least the money taken from the nation
were spent for the good of the nation!

But one-third of the amount raised in taxation remains in the hands of
the officials who collect it. This is incredible, but true. The cost
of collecting the revenue amounts, if I mistake not, in England, to 8
per cent.; in France, to 14 per cent.; in Piedmont, to 16 per cent.;
and in the States of the Church, to 31 per cent.

If you marvel at a system of extravagance which obliges the people to
pay L4 for every L2. 15s. 10d. required for their mis-government, here
is a fact which will enlighten you on the subject.

Last year the place of municipal receiver was put up to auction in the
city of Bologna. An offer was made by an honourable and responsible
man to collect the dues for a commission of 1-1/2 per cent. The
Government gave the preference to Count Cesare Mattei, one of the
Pope's Chamberlains, who asked two per cent. So this piece of
favouritism costs the city L800 a year.

The following is the mode in which the revenue (after the abstraction
of one-third in the course of collect