a traveller's journal. 297 



And thus Rome has preferved to us, among its nu- 

 merous remains* this old method, though more incom- 

 plete ; and even though every one mall not be pleafed 

 with it, yet the man of reflection will find in it an op- 

 portunity of bringing back to his imagination the man- 

 ners of thofe antient times, and is more difpofed to 

 credit the teftimonies of the old writers ; who affure 

 us, in different places, that there were actors who 

 carried their art to fuch a pitch, as, even in female 

 habits, to charm a nation of tafte. 



V, NAPLES. 

 LAZARONI. 



IN Naples there are between thirty and forty thou- 

 fand idle people, who have no ftated bufinefs to 

 follow, and likewife require none. They need only a 

 few ells of linen for all their cloathing, and about fix- 

 pence a day for their fupport. For want of beds, they 

 fleep every night upon benches ; and are thence called, 

 in derilion, Banchieri or Lazarom. With a froical in- 

 difference they defpife the conveniences of life. Such 

 a number of vagrants muff always be a great nuifance 

 in a ftate ; but at the fame time it is very difficult to 

 alter the genius and temper of a nation, and to givd a 

 fpirit of induftry to people who have fo ftrong a pro- 

 penalty to idlenefs. It requires time and unwearied 

 application, in order firft to roufe them to a kind of 

 emulation, and a king who refides in the country, who 

 is loved and feared by his fubjects, and is capable of 

 boldly profecuting a prudent and judicious plan to that 



effect. 



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