They practise generally the virtue of charity, in a somewhat indiscriminate manner, from the love of patronage, from pride, habit, and weakness, because they are ashamed to refuse.  They are by no means badly disposed, they are good—­I stop at this word, lest I should go too far.

They are not wanting in sense or intelligence.  Prince Massimo is quoted for his good sense, and the two Caetani for their puns.  Santa-Croce, though a little cracked, is no ordinary man.  But what a wretched education the Government gives them!  When they are not the children, they are the pupils of priests, whose system principally consists in teaching them nothing.  Get hold of a student of St. Sulpice, wash him tolerably clean, have him dressed by Alfred or Poole, and bejewelled by Castellani or Hunt and Roskel, let him learn to thrum a guitar, and sit upon a horse, and you’ll have a Roman prince as good as the best of them.

You probably think it natural that people brought up at Rome, in the midst of the finest works of art in the world, should take a little interest in art, and know something about it.  Pray be undeceived.  This man has never entered the Vatican except to pay visits; that one knows nothing of his own gallery, but through the report of his house-steward.  Another had never visited the Catacombs till he became Pope.  They profess an elegant ignorance, which they think in good taste, and which will always be fashionable in a Catholic country.

I have said enough about the heart, mind, and education of the Roman nobility.  A few words as to the fortunes of which they dispose.

I have before me a list which I believe to be authentic, as I copied it myself in a sure quarter.  It comprises the net available incomes of the principal Roman families.  I extract the most important:—­

Corsini .......  L20,000
Borghese.......  18,000
Ludovisi.......  14,000
Grazioli.......  14,000
Doria..........  13,000
Rospigliosi....  10,000
Colonna........   8,000
Odescalchi.....   8,000
Massimo........   8,000
Patrizi........   6,000
Orsini.........   4,000
Strozzi........   4,000
Torlonia.......    Unlimited. 
Antonelli.......   Ditto.

It is not to be supposed that Grazioli, for instance, has himself alone nearly as large a gross income as Prince Borghese and his 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.