possible. There still exists amongst the Romans a sort of debased,
imperial pride, a belief that a Roman is _per se_ superior to all other
Italians. For manual work, or labour under others, they have an equal
contempt and dislike. All the semi-independent trades, like those of cab-
drivers, street-vendors, petty shopkeepers, &c. are eagerly sought after
and monopolized by Romans. The extent to which small trades are carried
on by persons utterly without capital and inevitably embarrassed with
debt, is one of the chief evils in the social system which prevails here.
If the Romans also, like the unjust steward, are too proud to dig, unlike
that worthy, to beg they are _not_ ashamed. Begging is a recognized and
a respected profession, and if other trades fail there is always this
left. The cardinal principle of Papal rule is to teach its subjects to
rely on charity rather than industry. In order to relieve in some
measure the fearful distress that existed among the poor of Rome in the
early spring, the Government took some thousand persons into their
employment, and set them to work on excavating the Forum. The sight of
these men working, or, more correctly speaking, idling at work, used to
be reckoned one of the stock jokes of the season. Six men were regularly
employed in conveying a wheelbarrow filled with two spadefuls of soil.
There was one man to each handle, two in front to pull when the road
rose, and one on each side to give a helping hand 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