n well-to-do Romans never
think of lighting a fire; and then, in this climate, the actual quantity
of victuals required by an able-bodied labourer is far smaller than in
our northern countries, while, from the same cause, the use of strong
liquors is almost unknown. Tobacco too, which is all made up in the
Papal factories and chiefly grown in the country, is reasonable in price,
though poor in quality. In the country and the poorer parts of the city,
the dearest cigar you can buy is only a baioccho, or under one halfpenny;
and from this fact you may conclude what the price of the common cheap
cigars is to a native. From all these causes, I feel no doubt that the
cost of living for the poor is comparatively small, though of course the
rate of wages is small in proportion. For ordinary unskilled labour, the
day-wages, at the winter season, are about three pauls to three pauls and
a half; in summer about five pauls; and in the height of the vintage as
much as six or seven pauls, though this is only for a very few weeks. I
should suppose, therefore, that from 1_s_. 6_d_. to 1_s_. 9_d_. a day,
taking the paul at 5_d_., were the average wages of a good workman at
Rome. From these wages, small as they are, there are several deductions
to be made.

In the first place, the immense number of "festas" tells heavily on the
workman's receipts. On the more solemn feast-days all work is strictly
forbidden by the priests; and either employer or labourer, who was
detected in an infraction of the law, would be subject to heavy fines.
Even on the minor festivals, about the observance of which the Church is
not so strict, labour is almost equally out of the question. The people
have got so used to holiday keeping, that nothing but absolute necessity
can induce them to work, except on working days. All over Italy this is
too much the case. I was told by a large manufacturer in Florence, that
having a great number of orders on hand, and knowing extreme distress to
prevail among his workmen's families, he offered double wages to any one
who came to work on a "festa" day, but that only two out of a hundred
responded to his offer. I merely mention this fact, as one out of many
such I have heard, to show how this abuse must prevail in Rome, where
every moral influence is exerted in favour of idleness against industry,
and where the observance of holy days is practised most religiously.

Then, too, the higher rate of wages paid in summ