d and keep the barrow
steady. You could see any day long files of such barrows, so escorted,
creeping to and from the Forum. It is hardly necessary to say that
little progress was ever made in the excavations, or, for that matter,
intended to be made. Yet the majority of these workmen were able-bodied
fellows, who received tenpence a day for doing nothing. Much less injury
would have been inflicted on their self-respect by giving them the money
outright than in return for this mockery of labour. Moreover the poor in
Rome, as I have mentioned elsewhere, are not afraid of actual starvation.
"Well-disposed" persons, with a good word from the priests, can obtain
food at the convents of the mendicant friars. I am not saying there is
no good in this custom; in fact, it is almost the one good feature I know
of connected with the priestly system of government; but still, on an
indolent and demoralised population like that of Rome, the benefit of
this sort of charity, which destroys the last and the strongest motive
for exertion, is by no means an unmixed one.

The amusements of the people are much what might be expected from their
occupations. To do them justice, they drink but moderately; but whenever
they can spare the time and money, they crowd out into the roadside
"Osterias," and spend hours, smoking and sipping the red wine lazily.
Walking is especially distasteful to them; and on a Sunday and festa-day
you will see hundreds of carriages filled with working people, though the
fares are by no means cheap. Whole families will starve themselves for
weeks before the Carnival, and leave themselves penniless at the end, to
get costumes and carriages to drive down the "Corso" with on the gala
days. The Romans, too, are a nation of gamblers. Their chief amusement,
not to say their chief occupation, is gambling. In the middle of the
day, at street-corners and in sunny spots, you see groups of working-men
playing at pitch halfpenny, or gesticulating wildly over the mysterious
game of "Moro." Skittles and stone-throwing are the only popular
amusements which require any bodily exertion; and both of these, as
played here, are as much chance as skill. The lottery, too, is the great
national pastime.

This picture of the Roman people may not seem a very favourable or a very
promising one. I quite admit, that many persons, who have come much into
contact with them, speak highly of their general good humour, their
affection