of the territory is said not to exceed 6,000 or 7,000 souls.
Its whole income is derived from a moderate duty on tobacco; and its
standing army (for it possesses this indispensable incident to political
independence) is chiefly employed in vain attempts to prevent the evasion
of that duty.

Among the greatest and most highly esteemed curiosities of the place, is a
statue of Christ on the cross, with a head of real hair, which is cut twice
a year, and always grows again! This faculty of reproduction is as
profitable as it is wonderful; for, besides the resort of pious visitors,
drawn by the capillary attractions of such a miraculous piece of sculpture,
the locks that are cut off are stated, by the ecclesiastical functionaries
in charge of the statue, to be a sure preservative against all harm to the
wearer, and are of course in request as an article of commerce. My object
in communicating to you these notes, is to introduce to you a copy, which I
transcribed myself, of one of the state papers preserved in the archives of
the republic. It appears to be a letter of encouragement, addressed by the
Priors and Gonfaloniere of the republic of Florence to that of S. Marino,
during a siege that the latter was undergoing. Perhaps some of your readers
may be able to point out the precise occasion that called for the letter.

SYDNEY SMIRKE.

"Magnifici viri amici nri car^{mi}, Habbiamo vedato la lettera vi
scrive il Governatore, et habbiamo inteso la volunta dello exercito
della Chiesa. Dovete essere di buono animo et stare constanti et fermi:
et perdere la vita insieme con la liberta che e meglo allo huomo uso a
essere libero, essere morto che essere servo. Iddio a chi piace la
liberta vi aiutera difenderai: et noi et la nra lega non vi manchera:
havete inteso le provisioni facte et di denari et di gente ad Arimino;
et faremo delle altre tante che saranno abastanza. Valete. Ex palatio
nro die viij. Junij, M.CCCCLXVIIIj.

"Priores libertatis et }
Vexillifer Justitiae } Populi Florentinj.

"Barth. Scala.

"Magnificis Viris hominibus terrae S[=a] Marini amicis nris car^{mis}."

* * * * *

ST. FRANCIS.

I think Mrs. Jameson, in her _Legends of the Monastic Orders_, has left
unnoticed the very remarkable book of the _Conformity of St. Francis's Life
with that of Jesus Christ_, a work, the blasphemy of which is only equalled
by its absurdi