A GARDEN IN VENICE 



it. And after passing through the vasca grande 

 I allowed it to be carried into the neighbouring 

 prison, whether to strengthen the prisoners in 

 their reformation or to wash them and their 

 work I do not know. 



The Italian Government is more economic 

 than artisans' opinions and votes allow ours to be. 

 The prisoners here, instead of living on the 

 rates, are taught to earn their polenta ; and 

 hundreds of mats and carpets, of chairs and boots 

 and shoes, are made amongst other things at our 

 next door. More economic, certainly in the 

 present and possibly in the future, for the detenuti 

 not only pay the expense of their keep and 

 keeping, but when, their sentence served, they 

 are again free men, they may have acquired a 

 habit of work and a trade that will enable them 

 to live for instead of on their neighbours. 



We are, let us say it to ourselves, justly proud 

 of British laws and institutions ; but sometimes 

 we may perhaps learn something from the polity 

 of others, and surely it is better for society at 

 large, working men included, that the man who 



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