His opinions he takes out of his till, his political
economy is hazily associated with the English
customer, and he believes generally in the bank.

As to political convictions, he is a sad tergiversator,
and plays Bifrons Janus, the old god of his city,
to a melancholy degree. One—a notable
curiosity-monger, with the most astounding
likeness to that accomplished artist, Signor
Tagliafico — will chatter whole newspaper
columns as you turn over his rococo wares.
My friend W— , who is ecclesiastically
Conservative and staunchest Ultra Mountaineer,
often falls to a delving among these treasures,
while Signer Tagliafico's double maunders out
good Tory port wine sentiments, breathing
intensest devotion to Church and State: "These
are days of civil dudgeon, critical days,"chants
the Tagliafico's double. "Such as are not with
us, are against us. The Lord is chastening the
Santo Padre for his own ends, for is it not well
known whom He loveth he chasteneth? Good
men are timorous and weak; did they but know
their own strength and hold together, they need
not fear any of these brigands." But return
another day when your face has passed from
his memory, and, disguising yourself in a liberal
capote, talk loudly concerning annexations, and
"il Rè galantuomo," and of Cavour the Bespectacled,
and our Tory Tagliafico becomes obsequiously
Republican; mutters gutturally the word, "Preti,"
conveys depreciation of the Government of
the Keys, annexation to the new kingdom,
general subversion of things that be, in
one meaning shrug; would go into details,
but that he looks over his shoulder at spectral
sbirro or police agent. Still the noble stranger will
understand that he is for liberty and liberal
ideas all the world over. He would now show
the signor one of the most exquisite little ivory
carvings, found only the other day in the Casa
Bella — and so forth.

Still it must, not be concealed that this year
the noble Englishman has fallen into disfavour.
The glorious British Constitution is taken to be
on its trial, and the decadence of Albion the
perfidious to have at last set in, because her
children have been slack in flocking to the city
called Eternal. The costly golden wares of
Conductor-street are unsold; the yellow Etruscan
necklaces lie in the windows of Achille Rey, glittering
unprofitably. The monster photographs of the corroded
pillars of the Forum are hung out idly, or fade
away in stock. The scarfs gaudy, yet not glaring,
refreshing the eye with their Eastern eccentricity,
have their flashing colours dulled, all because
the timorous Britisher has stayed at home
panic-stricken, like a perfidious Albionite as he is.
Burgher's judgment has been deceived, he has
been taken in. How different was it with you, O
Tagliafico! during that last year of grace, that
perfect jubilee ol 'fifty-nine, when the Saxon,
demented almost, came crowding tumultuously
in—was it thirty thousand of these Norsemen?
—and flooded hostelries and lodgings to overflow,
accepting even garret accommodation with
gratitude! Then flourished the English" Cercle,"
or "Clob" choked with members; then came
Lord Tom Salamander, with his brethren by the
score. Then the noble Englishman brought his
carriages and horses, and his four hunters, with
Bowles, his English groom. Then spotless
Christina, ex-queen, held revels, masked balls,
and what not, where motley was the only
wear. Then was the fox imported, and
astonished peasants of the Campagna held up
their hands with amazement as the scarlet rout
swept by them. "Gran Dio!" the question is
reported to have been, "whom do they fear;
whom fly from?" with utter contempt and
disbelief when it was expounded that these flying
men in scarlet, whipping and spurring with such
fury over the field in such force and numbers,
were pursuing with fierce animosity the little
unsavoury brown four-footed thing which flew
past panting but a few seconds before. Those
Campagna folk are wondering to this hour—
explain it as you will, they cannot comprehend—
and some have sagaciously set it down as a
religious rite of the English heretics. The yellow
jewellery was sold abundantly to the unbeliever:
and the tabernacle of Achille Rey was entered
burglariously and most ingeniously from below
the shop shutter, and every Etruscan and
Byzantine ornament swept away, without a trace
having ever been discovered of the thief. Still
the harvest poured in so plentifully that the loss
fell upon him lightly.

But this present year it is all changed — from
Pandemonium to a desert — from abundance to
the abomination of desolation. One thousand
Saxons instead of thirty, make but a poor show.
No winters, no balls, no riot, no unspotted
Christina. In Ossianic language, Desolate is the
dwelling of Morna; lonely thy halls, "Clob!"
There is no strength in thy spear, Restorer
Spillman; thy business must be, to all appearance,
slack. You should have come in thy beauty,
Bull, Son of the Morning. You should have
come—for fallen, fallen is the price of
lodgings. Can I not name a lady, now enjoying
a second piano (not a semi-grand instrument,
but a second story), with drawing-room, parlour,
and some half a dozen rooms, for the ridiculous
figure of twenty-four pennies per day! And the
notice of stolen jewellery, a few lines up, brings
to my mind what I have seen posted up in the
Italian tongue at the corner of Spanish Place,
touching some lost trinkets, rendered also into
English, for the benefit of the ignorant of that
nation. "Lost," says the little notice, "beween
the Piale's Library and the Corso, a small
box, containing Jewellers! Any one bringing,"
&c. Such, as Mr. Ruskin says, "are very precious,
"and we would not willingly let them die.

Returning to Burgher Tagliahco, and keeping still
within the vilified middle order or Mezzo
Ceto, I find that the whole wealth of the city is
centred in this order. They are very rich, and do
not hoard their gains. It is not the most noble noble
duca or princesse who buys, but simple,
despised Mezzo Ceto. And now I discover the
secret of that shabby dressing of those fine l
adies— it is Mezzo Ceto who is the milliner's
best customer, and recklessly purchases all her