to operate gradually, but not less surely, in the following years, it became in 1805 still further reduced to 135,000, being a decrease of about 30,000, or nearly one-fifth, in the course of ten years, from 1795 to 1805. At the latter period the Papal court had returned; Pius VII. filled the Pontifical throne; but the country was impoverished, the Papal state deprived of its northern provinces, the wounds inflicted in the preceding years were too deep to be healed, and confidence in the future was not restored. Then came the second French invasion in 1808, and another violent removal of the Papal court and clergy in 1809, when a number of families were deprived of their means of support; the public establishments and charities then became bankrupt, and thirty thousand persons were placed on the poor lists by their respective curates, and reported to the French consulta or provisional government as requiring immediate assistance! No wonder if the population continued to decrease; and we find it in 1810 stated at 123,000, being a further falling off of 12,000 in five years, since 1805. This was the true malaria that afflicted Rome! During the four years of the French administration, the population remained nearly stationary, owing to the especial care of the local authorities in providing employment and new resources for the lower classes, and the exertions of benevolent and enlightened men like Tournon, Degerando, and others, who, assisted by the native nobility, mitigated as much as they could the calamities and distress in which the ambition and violence of their ruler had involved an unoffending country, whilst they reformed abuses and effected improvements in the old institutions. But the restoration of Pius VII. and of the central government in 1814 soon produced its wonted effect on the population, which rose next year to above 128,000; it increased to 135,000 in 1820; and in 1830 it amounted to 147,385. See Tournou's Statistical Tables, vol. i. p. 238-42. The census of last year, 1831, gives a further increase, the numbers being 150,666. The above authentic statements, we conceive, will set at rest the question about the pretended progressive decrease of the Roman population, and its causes. The populousness and comparative prosperity of modern Rome have been ever closely dependent on the residence and independence of its government. Misery and the despondency resulting from it are fearful auxilia • Tournon, vol. ii. p. 136. By a severe scrutiny the list of real paupers was reduced one-half, or 15000; still an alarming amount in a population of 123,000. Tournon, as an honourable man, does not conceal the origin of the distresses of Rome; he speaks plainly of the effects of foreign invasion, and especially of that of 1798, which was the most lawless and most fatal to the country. ries to the malaria fever. A doubt here arises, whether in the event of the permanent removal or suppression of the papal government, which we do not foresee imminent, but which may take place at some future time, the population of Rome would not go on decreasing, until being in its enfeebled state acted upon more and more powerfully by the malaria, it would at last dwindle into nothing, and future travellers, who came to visit the remains of Rome, would find the "Eternal City" as solitary and as desolate as the sites of Babylon or Persepolis. We cannot fairly judge of the effect of a permanent removal of the papal government on the population of the city by the experiment made under Napoleon. It was of too short a duration. The hope of an improvement, or of another change, sustained the drooping spirits of many a family, who contrived to live upon the savings of their former fortune. But in the course of years these hopes would have become fainter, and at last have vanished altogether. Future administrators also would not perhaps have proceeded with the same charitable zeal in propping up the resources and means of subsistence of the population. In short, we think that had Rome continued till now in the condition of a provincial town, its numbers would have been reduced lower than they were in 1814. Still we believe, that with a wise and orderly local administration it would not have fallen below a certain mark, say 70 or 80,000, being the population of several second rate Italian cities, not seats of government, such as Bologna, and Turin and Florence under the French. Rome is the centre of a large agricultural country, extending from the frontiers of Tuscany to those of Naples, and from the sea to the mountains of Umbria, in all which there is not a town that could for a moment dispute its precedence. The condition of the country is very different now from what it was when the popes left Rome for Avignon six centuries ago. The great landed proprietors, including a numerous patrician class and the wealthy farmers, would still reside at Rome, as the unhealthy state of the Campagna must necessarily prevent them from living in the country. The Roman nobility would not all desert their splendid palaces, and galleries, and villas, especially if they should derive an increased importance from the absence of an ecclesiastical government. The markets of Rome would still regulate the prices of the whole province. If cultivation were to improve, colonists and speculators would produce an increase. Several manufactures are established at Rome for the supply of the population of the town and country, and have considerably improved of late years.* Rome is the centre of a M. Tournon has dedicated the third book of his work to the commerce and manufactures of Rome. He observes at the beginning, that most travellers, including considerable commerce, both of exportation and importation, through the ports of Fiumicino, Civita Vecchia and Porto d'Anzio, and with the interior of the country as far as the Adriatic. Its numerous churches and collegiate establishments would maintain a proportionate secular clergy. It would still be the University, the centre of professional studies, for the whole portion of its territory between the Apennines and the Mediterraneau. It would be the resort of artists and amateurs from all parts of the world. It stands on the high road to Naples, the great and only channel of land communication with the rich kingdom of the two Sicilies. Unless, therefore, the removal of the papal court were attended by foreign oppression, violence and spoliation, we think that even if deprived of the seat of government, it might maintain itself as a city of considerable importance. But we confess, that we can hardly conceive any future political arrangements taking place in Italy by which Rome would be left a mere provincial town. The tables of births and deaths give occasion to some interesting remarks by our author. The births keep pace with the increase or decrease of the population, whilst there is an extraordinary fluctuation in the number of deaths. Again, the sum total of deaths in a given number of years is much greater than that of the births, and yet the population, instead of decreasing, is found to have increased at the end. Several causes account for these anomalies. The population of Rome is recruited every year by provincials and other strangers, who come either to study or seek for employment. Again, a number of ecclesiastics, both secular and regular, resort thither from different parts of Italy, when the papal government resides at Rome. The fluctuations in the deaths are accounted for, partly by the extraordinary mortality occasioned in some years by epidemics, aggravated by peculiar distress in consequence of war and revolution, and partly by the fact that many workmen from the whole province who are taken ill with the summer fever, whilst reaping in the Campagna, come to die in the hospitals of Rome.* Births are to the population M. Bonstetten, have limited the industry of the Romans to the manufacture of beads, rosaries, and agnus dei, relics and indulgences. The wit of all this has become stale now. Manufactures of common linen cloth, of woollens which employ 2000 workmen, of silk, leather, paper, iron founderies and forges, common potteries, &c. exist at Rome and in the country round. There were, in 1813, 682 factories and workshops at Rome. The manufactures, says M. Tournon, were much indebted to the Cardinals Lante and Ruffo, while they were treasurers. The arts of engraving, mosaic, scagliola, besides sculpture and painting, form a very essential branch of Roman industry. *In 1795 there were 6,378 deaths, in 1800 they had increased to 8,457, in 1803 to 9,269, and in 1804 to 11,792. We now understand the mistake we noticed in Simond's Travels, No. III. of this Review. The last figure in the last number was left out, and thus the deaths of 1804 appeared to be only 1,179. Again, Simond stated on an average as 1 to 30, whilst deaths fluctuate between 1 to 30 and I to 20. It ought to be observed, however, that in years of peace and of regular seasons the disproportion is by no means so great, although there is generally an excess of deaths over births. In 1831 the births were 4,725 or as 1 to 32, while the deaths were 5,100 or as I to 29. M. Tournon's second book is entirely devoted to Roman agriculture, of which he gives an ample and interesting description. The ground had been already trodden by M. Lullin de Chateauvieux in his "Lettres ecrites d'Italie en 1812 et 1813;"* but our author enters into greater details, having had the advantage of a much longer residence and of the means of information afforded by his official situation. He confirms, however, M. Chateauvieux's views on the subject: "the four years I spent in perambulating the country in every direction have enabled me to confirm his judgment. The system of cultivation practised in the plains is necessarily dependent on two conditions, the nature of the soil itself, and the number and sanitary state of the cultivators." In the 1,400 square miles, of which the unhealthy plains consist, there is a permanent population of 15,000 persons only! The following is the cadastro or survey of the different soils capable of production in the province of Rome, as taken by the able engineer Marini, Marquis of Vacone. Arable land, susceptible of producing corn Orchards and gardens. Forests, chesnut plantations, copses 242,000 rubbj+ 162,000 14,600 1,400 170,000 590,000 rubbj Of the 242,000 rubbj of arable land, 82,000 are in the healthy districts, and 160,000 in the lowlands. The latter are sown for crops every fourth or fifth year, except a few superior soils where the grain returns from 12 to 15, and which are laid alternately in crops and fallows. During the three or four years intervening, the ground is left to spontaneous vegetation, and after the au that in 1808 only 243 were admitted into the hospitals, and in 1818, 2,992. But the mistake originated in confounding the number of fever patients within the hospitals at the same time, with the total number admitted successively during the season. The former in common years fluctuates between 200 and 600; but rises at times to 1000, and even 2,000, whilst the total number of fever patients admitted even in the most favourable summer is seldom so low as 3000. This is another instance of the almost unavoidable inadvertencies of travel writers. About one fourth of the patients die in the hospitals, and another fourth become invalids for life. The Edinburgh Review, No. LV., March, 1817, noticed Chateau vieux's work at full length, and an English translation of it, by Dr. Rigby, appeared subsequently. A Roman rubbio is about four English acres. tumnal rains it becomes covered with grass of the most luxuriant growth, which affords a rich pasture to the numerous herds of cattle that constitute the principal wealth of the country. In fact, corn crops are only considered as an accessory, and pasture is the main produce of the fields. There are about 100,000 head of cattle, 4,000 buffaloes, and 700,000 sheep grazing in these plains. M. Tournon gives a detailed calculation of the expenses and risks attending tillage and the rearing of crops, which serves to explain the preference given by the farmers to the pastorizia or grazing system, which, assisted as it is by the facility of migration of the cattle to the neighbouring mountains during the dry season, affords surer though lower profits, with hardly any trouble or risk. The farmers who rent these vast estates are called mercanti di campagna; they are farmers, merchants, and bankers at once; they live in large hotels at Rome, where they have their counting-houses, and employ numerous agents, clerks, messengers, &c. The smallest of these farms requires an advance of 50,000 francs, and the largest from five to six hundred thousand. The whole of the Roman lowlands from Bolsena to Terracina are in the hands of about 150 of these farmers, of whom one-third, and these the richest, reside at Rome. We shall not follow M. Tournon in his animated description of the farm of Campomorto, the same that M. Chateauvieux visited in his travels. But the following brief statistics of that estate are worth inserting, as they differ materially from those given by the latter. It consists of 4,309 rubbj, 1000 of which is arable land, 1,100 permanent pasture or meadows, and 2,200 forest. The arable land is divided into four lots, which are subject each to a different rotation of crops and fallows, according to the respective nature of the soil. One wheat crop is succeeded by two or three years fallows; or the wheat crop is followed by oats and beans; or lastly, after the oats harvest in the second year, the ground is sown with Indian corn or beans, after which it is left fallow for one year, and then sown with wheat again. The wheat crop returns in general nine for one, the other grains and beans about fifteen. The cultivation of the farm requires 65 ploughs and 320 oxen, 250 bullocks are kept fattening for the market, besides about 800 cows and calves, and about 100 buffaloes. 100 horses are required for the cattle drivers and servants of the farm, who are always mounted, as well as for the carts, &c., and 250 mares and colts to keep up that number. 2000 sheep graze on the farm. The agents and servants permanently employed, either on the farm or at Rome, amount to 180. About 400 labourers are engaged from October to June, and about 800 in harvest time. The former are paid from one franc |