two
brothers Aldobrandini and Salviati together. But the fact is that all
the more ancient families are burdened with heavy hereditary charges,
which enormously reduce their incomes. They are obliged to keep up
chapels, churches, hospitals, and whole chapters of fat canons, while
the nobles of yesterday are not called upon to pay for either the fame
or the sins of their ancestors.

At all events the foregoing list proves the mediocrity as to wealth,
as in everything else, of the Roman nobility. Not only are they unable
to compete with the hard-working middle classes of London, Bale, or
Amsterdam, but they are infinitely less wealthy than the nobility of
Russia or of England.

Is this because, as with us in France, an equitable law is constantly
subdividing large properties? No. The law of primogeniture is in full
vigour in the kingdom of the Pope, like every other abuse of the good
old times. They provide for their younger sons as they can, and for
their daughters as they please. It is not parental justice that ruins
families. I have even heard it said that the elder brother is not
obliged to put on mourning when the younger dies; which is a clear
saving of so much black cloth.

This being the case, why are not the Roman princes richer than they
are? It is to be accounted for by two excellent reasons,--the love of
show, and bad management.

Ostentation, the Roman disease, requires that every nobleman should
have a palace in the city, and a palace in the country: carriages,
horses, lacqueys and liveries. They can do without mattresses, linen,
and armchairs, but a gallery of pictures is indispensable. It is not
thought necessary to have a decent dinner every Sunday, but it is to
have a terraced garden for the admiration of foreigners. These
imaginary wants swallow up the income, and not unfrequently eat into
the capital.

And yet I could point out half-a-dozen estates which could suffice for
the prodigalities of a sovereign, if they were managed in the English,
or even in the French fashion,--if the owner were to interfere
personally, and see with his own eyes, instead of allowing a host of
middlemen to come between him and his property, who of course enrich
themselves at his expense.

Not that the Roman princes knowingly allow their affairs to go to
ruin. They must by no means be confounded with the _grands seigneurs_
of old France, who laughed over the wreck of their fortunes, and
avenged themselves upon a stew