and men-a retrospective glance of dynasties in their infancy, in their manhood, in their decrepitude, and tumbling into ruins! It tells of the crash of tyrants' rods-of the progressive tide of civilization, liberty, refinement, the fine arts, and the triumphs of religion and the extension of the kingdom of Christ! It tells of the discovery of whole worlds once a blank on the geographer's chart! It narrates stories of Christian chivalry! It unfolds title. deeds to everlasting inheritances! Rome! it strikes a chord to which every fibre of the heart vibrates!

"O Rome! my country, city of the soul!
The orphans of the heart must turn to thee,
Lone mother of dead empires! and control
In their shut breasts their petty misery.

What are our woes and sufferance? come and see
The cypress, hear the owl, and plod your way
O'er steps of broken thrones and temples! ye
Whose agonies are evils of a day!-
A world is at our feet as fragile as your clay".

Modern Rome.

HE following statistics were taken some years since, during my sojourn in Rome, at the period of the celebration of the eighteenth centenary of the martyrdom of SS. Peter and Paul, in the

year 1867, and were taken from the most authentic official sources accessible to me, and will, I consider, prove accurate. Amongst the sources of information at my command, and of which I availed myself, were the "Annuario Pontificio", the report of the "Camera Apostolica", the "Stato delle Anime dell' Alma Cita di Roma, per l'anno 1867"; the statistics here given are also

derived from other well-informed, though non-official

sources.

Rome, being a great centre of ecclesiastical affairs, the seat of a numerous court, and a place much frequented by strangers, is essentially a consuming country, and must provide from abroad for the wants and comforts of life. It is difficult to obtain official returns of imports and exports, but it appears from publications that the annual importations amount to about 1,600,000l., and the exportations to only 360,000l., a great part of the latter representing works of fine art. According to the returns published by the Ministry of Commerce and Fine Arts, the ancient pictures exported in 1868 were valued by the Government appraisers at 3,8157., and the modern at 30,755.; ancient sculpture at 2381., and modern at 71,9857.; but these official valuations are far below the real produce of the articles. The production of corn is calculated as providing for nine months' consumption out of the twelve, the rest having to be imported by order of the municipality. The cattle are far below the wants of the capital. Hay, on the contrary, exceeds the home demand, and supplies some 600,000 kilogrammes for exportation. At Easter of every year a census of the population of Rome is made by means of the parish priests, who keep the registers of souls. At Easter, 1869, the population of Rome was 220,532. Excluding the 10,207 soldiers, 328 prisoners, 637" heterodox", and 4,682 Jews, the population is reduced to 204,678-viz., 105,569 men, and 99,109 women; 7,480 clergy and "religious", and 127,198 belonging to the Civil State. The births are stated as 5,276, or 23.9 per 1,000 of population; the deaths show a higher number-viz., 5,874, or 26.6 per 1000; the marriages, 1,564, or 7.1 per 1,000. The returns show 22 seminaries

ROME IS, BECAUSE THE POPES ARE.

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and ecclesiastical colleges, containing 841 persons; 61 religious institutions for men, containing 2,959, and 72 for women, containing 2,256 persons; nine lay colleges, containing 298; 68 conservatories, nunneries, etc., containing 1,738 persons; seven charitable institutions for men, containing 878, and 12 for women, containing 1,216 persons. The University, colleges, etc., giving superior or scientific instruction for males are declared to contain 3,829 persons. Elementary instruction is given to 7,908 males and 12,168 females; gratuitously to 6431 males, and 9,444 females, and with paid admission, to 1,567 males and 2,742 females. The Easter census showed 31,608 men and 31,608 women married; 5,637 widowers and 10,188 widows; 36,258 bachelors and 30,345 spinsters; children, 47,338—viz., 24,403 boys and 22,935 girls. Wages have increased. The peasants who come in for the harvest now ask 5 or even 6 scudi (20s. to 25s.) for the 11 days' work, besides their food. In Rome an ordinary workman, a mason or carpenter, can earn 2 to 3 lire a day, or 1s. 7d. to 2s. 4d.; a goldsmith or engraver, 3s. 6d. to 6s. 4d. The hours of labour are 12 in the hot season, and 10 in winter. The savings bank received in the year 1868 sums amounting to £104,561, but the withdrawals reached £157,364; the interest accrued on deposits is stated at £29,397.

Rome is indebted to the Popes, not merely for the remnants of her ancient glories, which still remain, but even for her very existence. Without the Popes, Rome, ages ago, would have been reduced to the dimensions of a petty village, or every vestige totally obliterated off the surface of what would have been a dreary waste. To preserve in their integrity for thousands of years after her decline and fall, all the relics of Ancient Rome, was not in the nature of things, under their ordinary vicissitudes.

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ROME, THE ETERNAL CITY.

The vast moles of masonry, which compose the antiquities of Rome, are gigantic in size, and extensive in area, and their preservation for thousands of years, required inexhaustible pecuniary resources. An idea of the required extent of such resources may be deduced from the fact, that to build one buttress, or mere prop of masonry, to support a tottering section of the Coliseum, and effect some other repairs, required from Pope Pius VII., and Leo XII., an outlay of 50,000 crowns! The revenues of the Popes were comparatively very limited, and unable to compete with and entirely obstruct the devastating influences of time: yet to their zealous efforts is attributable the preservation of the antiquities which still remain, and the many treasures of art which enrich the museums of Rome. Pius VI. alone, at great expense, collected and added to the works of ancient art in the Vatican, no less a number than 3,000 statues! Pope Gregory XVI., and our present Holy Father, have been equally liberal, and indefatigable in augmenting the specimens of ancient art, in inscriptions, monuments, paintings, statuary, and vases. If Rome merit the title of the "eternal city", she is indebted for it to the Popes. In many ages, and more especially in the middle ages, there was in other kingdoms no taste for antiquities or for the arts, and the most precious relics of both fell into dissolution. If there were no Popes, it might be said of Rome also,

"Nunc civis est, ubi Roma fuit".

"Now ashes alone mark the site of Rome".

In Rome, with the exception of short intervals, there was, and ever has been a Pope, and Rome is the "eternal city".

When Attila, like a voracious vulture, and followed by his savage hordes, threatened the devastation and annihila

tion of Rome, and the Holy Pontiff himself, St. Leo, aided by the heavenly hosts, scared the barbarian from the walls!

Not merely Rome alone, but all western Europe, according to the unsuspected evidence of Southey and Sismondi, supported by Forsyth, Valery, and Marangoni, were preserved from the devastating hordes, of the Huns, Vandals, Goths, and Mussulmans by the knights of Malta, the knights Templars, the Hospitallers, and the countless battalions of Crusaders, organized and stimulated to action by the Popes. The irresistible warriors of the cross rolled back the inundating tide. The Cæsars fell, but the Popes reigned, and Rome lived! Carthage once flourished; but in Carthage there was no Pope, and "delenda est Carthago !"—and so it is, every vestige of Carthage is now obliterated! Thebes, Palmyra, and Babylon were once the famed cities of the world, but there was no Peter there. Go now and see what remains of them! Troy was: nothing but its historic and heroic reminiscences remain! Troy had no Pope! and

"Fuit Ilium".

"Troy is no more, and Ilium was a town!"

The proud and wealthy London is now the mistress of the world one of her eloquent children predicts, that a New Zealander will one day sit upon her dilapidated bridge to sketch her ruins, whilst Rome still is, and shall be, the "eternal city", her religion and her saving doctrine, the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever!

Rome under the Popes, is replete with the deepest interest for the scholar and the amateur. It is the centre of the world, towards which people from the most distant regions converge, and there constitute the most erudite, refined, and elegant society. It is the recognized seat