ption
inflicted by it upon their country. I fear, however, from the extent to
which lotteries are still encouraged by the Tuscan Government, that such
is not the case. The reason of the movement is, indeed, a very simple
and material one. From the lotteries and the tobacco monopoly the
government derives a very large part of its revenues, and a part, too,
which does not excite unpopularity in the same way as direct taxation.
Any extinction, therefore, or indeed any serious diminution of these
sources of revenue, would place the Holy See in great difficulties. The
profits on the lottery go directly into the pockets of the Government,
who are also supplied with very extensive and important patronage by the
vast number of petty posts which the system employed for collecting
tickets places at their disposal. The tobacco monopoly is farmed out to
a company, on whom any loss would fall in the first instance; but if the
abstention from tobacco were continued long, the Government would soon
feel the effects, through the inability of the company to keep up their
present rate of payment.

Whether rightly or wrongly, an attempt to cut off the funds of the Papal
exchequer in this manner is certainly being made. Strangers, of course,
are not interfered with; but Italians are warned at the doors of the
cigar-shops and the lottery-offices not to enter and buy. The sudden
diminution in the number of people you meet smoking in the streets is
quite remarkable, and, I am sure, would strike any observer who had never
heard of the movement. There have been already several disturbances
between smokers and non-smokers. The story goes, that in a quarrel
arising out of this subject, a man was stabbed in the street the night
before last; but in Rome it is almost impossible to make out the truth in
a matter of this kind. At several lottery-offices gendarmes have been
placed to hinder purchasers of tickets from being molested; and a bitter
feeling seems growing up on every side. How long the Romans may have
strength of mind enough to abstain from their favourite amusements of
smoking and gambling, it is impossible to say; but since I witnessed
their resolute abstention from the delights of the Carnival, I think
better of their courage than I did before.

On Sunday evening, when the great promenade takes place along the Corso,
where, a week ago, there was hardly a male mouth without a cigar or
cheroot or cigarette inserted in it, I only