beadles, and whole tribes of clerical attendants, there were probably not far short of forty thousand persons, who in some form or other lived upon and by the church, that is, in plainer words, doing no labour themselves, lived on the labour of others, he, I think, would answer then, that a city so priest-infested, priest-ruled and priest-ridden, would be much such a city as he had seen with me; such a city as Rome is now.

CHAPTER II.  THE COST OF THE PAPACY.

In foreign discussions on the Papal question it is always assumed, as an undisputed fact, that the maintenance of the Papal court at Rome is, in a material point of view, an immense advantage to the city, whatever it may be in a moral one.  Now my own observations have led me to doubt the correctness of this assumption, which, if true, forms an important item in the whole matter under consideration.  It is no good saying, as my “Papalini” friends are wont to do, Rome gains everything and indeed only exists by the Papacy.  The real questions are, What class at Rome gain by it, and what is it that they gain?  There are four classes at Rome:  the priests, the nobles, the bourgeoisie, and the poor.  Of course if anybody gains it is the priesthood.  If the Pope were removed from Rome, or if a lay government were established (the two hypotheses are practically identical), the number of the Clergy would undoubtedly be much diminished.  A large portion of the convents and clerical endowments would be suppressed, and the present generation of priests would be heavy sufferers.  This result is inevitable.  Under no free government would or could a city of 170,000 inhabitants support 10,000 unproductive persons out of the common funds; for this is substantially the case at Rome in the present day.  Every sixteen lay citizens, men, women, and children, support out of their labour a priest between them.  The Papal question with the Roman priesthood is thus a question of daily bread, and it is surely no want of charity to suppose that the material aspect influences their minds quite as much as the spiritual.  Still even with regard to the priests there are two sides to the question.  The system of political and social government inseparable from the Papacy, which closes up almost every trade and profession, drives vast numbers into the priesthood for want of any other occupation.  The supply of priests is, in consequence, far greater than the demand, and, as the laws of political economy hold good even in the Papal States, priest labour is miserably underpaid.  It is a Protestant delusion that the priests in Rome live upon the fat of the land.  What fat there is is certainly theirs, but then there are too many mouths to eat it.  The Roman priests are relatively poorer than those in any other part of Italy.  It is one of the great mysteries in Rome how all the priests who swarm about the streets manage to live.  The clue to the mystery is to