1805.J 
of paper-money took place about the 
fame time, are denominated fcffe demo- 
netate. ‘The motive for their abolition 
was, on account of the increafed price of 
all the neceffaries of life, to afford the 
labouring clafles a greater number of 
days toearna fubfiftence. Notwithftand- 
ing, this, all the fhops are fhut on thofe 
days, as before; and if any one works, he 
is confidered by his neighbour as a bad 
Chriftian, or, according to the prefent 
mode of expreflion, as a Giacobino. 
If this attachment to the obfervance of 
exterior forms, and the belief in the 
fables of the priefts, can be called a love 
of religion, then indeed the mafs of the 
people of Rome are in a high degree reli- 
gious. Butif that term be underftood to 
imply a powerful impulfe of the foul to 
occupy itfelf with religious ideas and fen- 
timents, and a pious life, conformable to 
that impulfe, thefe qualities, notwith- 
ftanding all their religious exercifes, will 
in vain be fought in their character. As 
the Romifh prieft regards his office as a 
trade, fo the laity confider the fervice of 
God as a daily duty, which they muf 
not omit, but of which they have no oc-_ 
cafion to think any farther when it is once 
performed. They imagine themfelves 
good Chriftians if they attend mafs every 
day, mutter a certain number of prayers 
to their beads, give alms, abftain from 
animal food on, falt-days, confefs, and 
communicate, at the appointed times.— 
How little this {pecies of religion 1s con- 
ducive to morality, the manners of the 
Roman people fufficiently evince. In no 
place is humanity funk into deeper degra- 
dation and more fordid {fenfuality than 
here, where education is in the higheft 
degree neglected, where indolence and 
begging are confecrated by religion, where 
juttice is dependent on protections, where 
the murderer, efcaping from the officers 
of a drowfy police, finds a fecure afylum 
at the altars, or inthe palaces of the great, 
and fancies himfelf relieved from the guilt 
of his crime if a prieft gives him abfolu- 
tion. If it were poffible entirely to era- 
dicate the moral feeling from the minds 
of men in focial communities, it muft long 
azo have been banifhed from Rome. In 
fact, the Roman has no idea of true mora- 
lity—of the difinterefted practice of virtue 
for its own fake. With him, jufticeis a 
mere legal compulfion ; honefty a pruden- 
tial duty, which he performs for his pri- 
vate intereft, and violates without helita- 
tion, whenever he expecis deceit to pro- 
duce greater advantage ; and works of 
benevolence are a loan to be repaid with 
mess 
Prefent State of Society and Manners at Rome. 457 
the eternal joys of paradife. Neverthe- 
Jefs, the Roman people would not be 
worfe than thofe of other countries ; for 
moral education is every where too much 
neglected. The innate civilization, 
which, amid the deep corruption of their 
morals, is diftinguifhed as the bafis of 
their charaéter, and their lively, fympa- 
thetic fenfibility, would probably make 
amends for the want of a better moial 
and religious education, were they but 
fubje&t to a better government. To the 
papal government alone, to its wretched 
adminiftration of jultice, to its encourage- 
ment of indolence, its neglect of every 
fpecies of indultry, its laxity, its flownefs, 
its felf-interelted fyftem of oppreflion, 
grounded on the infirmity and depravity 
of human nature, mutt be afcribed all the 
vices of the Roman people, their love of 
idlenefs, their averfion to labour, their 
want of induftry, their propenfity to chi- 
cane, their fanguinary difpofition, their 
poverty, ina werd, their degradation as 
well phyfical as moral. 
Domeftic Mode of Life. 
The domeftic economy and mode of 
life of the common Roman is very diffe- 
rent from that of more northern regions. 
The mild climate of Italy, which confi- 
derably diminifhes the number of the ne- 
ceffaries of life, is the principal caufe of 
this diverfity, and their houfes are con- 
ftruéted accordingly. Thus, for infance, 
the habitations of the common people have, 
in general, no pafiage, but you enter imme- 
diately from the ftreet into the room in. 
which they live. The ground-floor, com- 
monly inhabited by people of the loweft 
clafs, or occupied as fhops by artifans, 
has, in general, no windows, but the 
light enters through the open door, and an 
Open iron grating aboveit. As fevere cold 
is Very rarein winter, and even then feldom 
reaches the freezing-point, all thofe con- 
trivances which northern nations employ 
againft the cold, are here unneceflary.— 
The mildnefs of the weather permits the 
Roman to live during almoft the whole 
year in the open air ; he is therefore ex- 
tremely inattentive to domeltic convenie 
ence, or to the internal neatnefs ard em- 
bellithment of his dwelling ; fo that the 
lodging of the common Roman is far in- 
ferior to that of the common man among 
us. A large bed without curtains, com- 
pofed of a few bundles of ftraw and a 
mattrafs, and in which commonly the 
whole family fleep together, a cheft, a 
table, a few chairs, and a {mall quantity 
of culinary utenfils, all old, and purchafed | 
at {fgcond hand, conftitute the whole of 
his . 
