the originals of many a saint and Madonna in some sacred pictures,
talking and laughing, or basking with half-shut eyes in the full glare
of the sun. These models come usually from Cervaro and Saracinesco;
the latter an extraordinary Moorish town situated at a great height
among the Sabine hills, whose inhabitants have preserved intact since
the middle ages their Arabic names and Oriental features and customs.

On this staircase used to congregate the largest number of the beggars
of Rome, whose hideous deformities were made the excuse for extorting
money from the soft-hearted forestieri. Happily this plague has now
greatly abated, and one may ascend or descend the magnificent stair
without being revolted by the sight of human degradation, or
persecuted by the importunate outcries of those who are lost to shame.
The Government has done a good thing in diminishing this frightful
mendicancy. But it is to be feared that whilst there are many who beg
without any necessity, sturdy knaves who are up to all kinds of petty
larceny, there are not a few who have no other means of livelihood,
and without the alms of the charitable would die of starvation. The
visitor sees only the gay side of such a place as Rome; but there are
many tragedies behind the scenes. Centuries of misrule under the papal
government had pauperised the people; and the sudden transition to the
new state of things has deprived many of the old employments, without
furnishing any substitutes, while there is no longer the dole at the
convent door to provide for their wants. The whole social organisation
of Italy, with its frequent saints' days, during which no work is
done, and its numerous holy fraternities living on alms, and its
sanctification of mendicancy in the name of religion, has tended to
pauperise the nation, and give it those unthrifty improvident habits
which have destroyed independence and self-respect. Although,
therefore, the Government has publicly forbidden begging throughout